Trying to catch up with you all, a little bit...

I'm sorry, it's been like 5 months since I have written here. Honestly, life here is just so good. Yep, I had an unexpected adjustment when we moved here last April. And we went back to Japan last June for the summer. But, when I came back to the US last August 2018. I made it a point to getting myself adjusted. And I did. You know, I first started this blog. Because I would have about 15 family and friends weekly email me... when I first moved to Japan. They'd all have the same questions for me. "Gina, how are you, what are you doing, how is the baby (because at that time Bran was a baby when we moved to Japan) so I found myself writing one email and then cutting and pasting the same *exact* mail to all of whoever asked...ykwim? That's why I started my blog in the first place. To let me family in the states stay updated with me. Sure I picked up mass amounts of new viewers and friendships along the way. But I am finding it. Honestly so hard now to get on my blog to update. Because now us in the USA...is so normal. It's so regular. We have this rhythm here. And it's just working. But, I do find myself getting emails from so many of my good friends in Japan now...asking me...."Gina...how are you...how are Branden and Noah?" "please update" LOL. And so, I am going to try my hardest to compress stuff, I didn't get a chance to tell you until now. What is this pic of? This is a random pic of some of the stocking stuffers, that I stuffed both Branden and Noah's stockings with for Christmas. The fantastic part of living in America is, as soon as the stocking stuffer stuff started coming out at Target and Walmart and stuff, I would grab 2 of whatever I knew the boys would like. Those gumballs were gigantic. 

Christmas was fantastic here and super low key. I baked a spiral sliced ham and gratin potatoes the night before. Baked 2 pumpkin pies and the morning of Christmas we all opened presents. Had breakfast. And then around 1pm we went to see the movie Bumblebee movie. We had movie snacks, a tub of popcorn. 2 large sodas. And after movie, we went home. I smartly cooked the day before. So we went home and had leftovers. There was no feelings of pressure of it having to be perfect. It was just chill...super laid back and it was a perfect Christmas.  

What the Christmas tree looked like inside the movie theater.  About 8-10 days after Christmas Noboru flew here to be with us the entire whole month of January.  

With Noboru here, in January we decided to take a small little overnight trip. 

At our hotel room that we just checked into in January. Noboru pictured on the right. 

We went to Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store in Oregon.This location of this store had much better stuff than the one in Seattle did. 

We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It is absolutely free. They also had an "all you can eat cheese" area too. 

Giant cheese above our heads as we entered the building.

Cow footprints going up the stairs, showing you the way. We found this hilarious.

Just follow the cow prints...

American farmers! Love them! But also love Japanese farmers too! Farmers in general are what make the world go round. : )

Noah got the chance to feed a baby calf. Fake calf but it let you know if you did it wrong. Good thing, he fed the calf correctly.

Branden practiced milking. First 2 times the machine said, nope! The 3rd time was right. 

Getting to watch the cheese go through all the stages.

All you can eat cheese. OMG! They had different varieties and flavors but, I stuck with like a basic cheddar. The entire time. I told my fam, next time if we should ever go there again... we should bring crackers. I was semi-joking. Another family laughed and joined our conversation and said...next time they might bring crackers too. Nice to meet another friendly family. At the ol' all you can eat cheese area.

That night we had Popeye's for dinners. 

The next day, we went to the mall. I bought a pair of Kate Spade reading glasses, omg they're gorgeous! Kids went into this huge candy and chocolates of the world shop and bought stuff. 

We went to Chick fil A after leaving the mall. Hmm, were we feeling really chicken-y? That trip? Or I dunno. The 4 of us being together as a family just clicks. And feels so perfectly right for all of us. 

The kids received otoshidama from uncle Jun and auntie S. My kids made a thank you message and sent it to them on Line. And I of course messaged my sister in law and stuff too. 

In Portland there is a lot of Japanese people and grocery stores and we found a Japanese bread store too. I really liked Portland a lot.

I thought the bread was good. Not as good as my bakery near my place in Japan but yeah it was good I thought. Noboru said it was no different than cheap Pasco of Daily Yamazaki bread. @_@ 

The 2nd week Noboru was here, he said he'd like to eat some honey baked ham. So, I baked him a ham and made some homemade from scratch gratin potatoes. Yes, we had that a few short weeks earlier. However, my husband loves my cooking and if he requests... whatever to eat...I will make it for him. Noah loves ham so much.... so he was thrilled.  

The 4 of us went to see Glass. This movie wasn't very good. We had high hopes. We loved the movie Split. But found this one rather...meh. 

Noboru loves Wendy's. 

Bran needed this book for his Leadership class. Noah has already requested to be in Leadership class for the Fall semester. I was always in student council growing up and it's important to be involved with your school. 

The boys have so many Vans. They both have these ones and their latest ones are the tie dye ones. 

Noboru's birthday is in January and it was so nice to be able to celebrate his special day with us here. I took him to the Outback Steakhouse. We started with some fried mushrooms.

We had a really nice dinner. It was so nice for Noboru to be here the entire month of January. He also came for 4 days in March and 4 days in April. The kids and I will be flying back to Japan as soon as school is out. By June 15th we'll already be in Japan.

Branden is a Junior this year. Noah is a 7th grader right now. And in the Fall, Branden will be a senior. He's the class of 2020!!!! Noah will be an 8th grader this coming Fall and also be graduating middle school next June too. The reason Noboru came here in April was because we did buy Branden a car. So he's got his own freedom... with having his first car!

We go to the movies a lot in our free time. We have seen the movie the Intruder. That movie was a great, thriller suspense. We saw John Wick 3. Such a great movie too, we loved it!!!! We also saw Pet Sematary, the remake. We saw Us, holy crap that was good. Wasn't expecting that ending though. We saw Greta while Noboru was here too. The movie Greta was creepy and excellent.  And we also saw Pokemon Detective Pikachu. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of the titles of others we've seen but we've seen so many. We go to the movies about twice a month.  Anyway that's enough for now. : )

Homecoming and school update...

Homecoming in the U.S. is always in the Fall. Homecoming is open for all grades in high school to attend, if you buy the tickets to attend. Where as prom is in the Spring and just for juniors and seniors. Unless you are asked by a junior or senior then you can be a freshman or any grade in high school. Anyways, Homecoming for B was in October. In my day, you either went with a group of friends and went that way. Or you were asked and went as a couple. Apparently now days, it's a great big thing here and you now need to make a sign/poster if you are a boy. And publicly ask her out. This is the sign that B had made. I thought, he did a fantastic job with his sign. She absolutely loved her poster. And apparently her dad even has a picture of this sign on his cell phone. Awww. How cute. What a proud dad. And I was pretty proud of this poster too. So, I totally can relate and I am keeping this pic of the sign too. 

Remember the ribbon I bought this summer to put on our suitcases? I had a bunch left and I tied up B's poster with it. He was happy, because he was hoping to find a ribbon and when I offered him this, he was happy, that I had some on hand. : )

His girlfriend happens to look *exactly* like Cameron Diaz. She's such an absolutely stunning girl. She's on the right if you're looking directly at this. Yes, I have permission to share this.

Yeah, she looked like Cameron Diaz's twin, when she was a little girl, for sure. 

He asked her, she said yes!

I made sure to take B, to order a corsage and boutonniere from our nearest flower shop, a week beforehand. And I showed this pic to Noboru. And Noboru said, "good thing Bran has an American mother, because this is stuff... you instinctually know. He's lucky." I laughed. But, yep, being here. Things like this...I do naturally know. The morning of Homecoming, we picked it up and placed it in the fridge until homecoming evening. 

What a gorgeous and happy couple. They danced all night long. Bran took a few videos and shared with our family Line group. They played new music like Bazzi, Arianna Grande. They also played oldies like Salt and Peppa. And the YMCA. The dance was from 8pm-11pm. After Homecoming they went to Dairy Queen, had some blizzards and then home. She drives and has a car. She knows B was in driving school, at the time. And she dropped him off. 

Update on Noah and middle school.  Noah on the other hand. Had a presentation in the gymnasium. This was for all 7th graders. You must interview 1 person. 99% of all the kids interviewed their mom or dad. Very few interviewed their grandparent. To be interviewed you had to have been born before the year 2000. Since B was born in 2001. He could not be interviewed. One evening from 5-6:30pm. All 7th graders and the 3 English teachers showed up and all the kids and parents of 7th graders and extended family's showed up. Many older siblings and younger siblings. Attended. This was Noah's poster. The teacher made name cards for each student. We all had to walk around and read other posters. Branden of course showed up to support his brother and so did I. We will absolutely *always* show up and support our family members. No doubt! Noah received an A for his poster. 

I snapped this pic of what some of the work, Noah has been doing in American science class. Symbiosis within communities. Cell theory. One day it was diffusion osmosis. Another day they went into the lab and had an osmosis lab. Another day... you can see, they went back in the lab and looked at microslides of a cells structure. He has an A in this class. And it's entirely in English obviously. Obvs. He loves his science class. Noah's learning so much. 

This is what a bit of what Noah's been doing in English class. Sorry..LA 7. Language arts for the 7th grade. CL means classwork. HW means homework. PROJ obviously means a project. Required. Etc. October 25th, Was a quick...write someone who influenced...you? This is great training for training young Americans to be able to spontaneously write. A page, right off the bat. Right off the cuff like that. November 21st, write a non-fiction narrative essay. Noah can go into class. Find out... what's today's task. And go for it. And nope not in an ESL class. In a class for natives who were born and raised here... their whole entire lives. And he's crushing it. I also notice that this teacher gives word searches weekly for her class to do. Because she wants to train her students to look for English words *everywhere*. I personally love word searches. I do them for fun. I have books of these in Japan. I always had my 2 kids do these. And I see how fast Noah is... at finding the words... that he's looking for. At first. I feel he was a tad slower. Still good mind you. But he is getting insanely fast with his word searches. They had a test on adjectives last week. She still has her class read quietly twice a week. She upped it from once a week. She wants to foster a love for reading. And I see both my kids reading a lot more now at home. Granted they have always read books. But now it seems... way more.

American jokes....American sense of humor. If you've ever watched Japanese TV. You will know what one country finds funny...another might not... think is funny at all. Noah brought home this paper airplane. It's close to Christmas break now and classes are starting to wind down some. About 8 boys in this one class made paper airplanes at the end of class with 10 minutes to spare before the bell rang. Their first plane was named Tabitha. And this is their second plane Jerome. Where do these kids come up with such names? @_@ You got me. In loving memory of their last airplane. LOL. 

Okay and so...in case you find this airplane...this belongs to Noah and Hadley. LOL. 

Every Sunday, I pack little snack bags for Noah to take to school. Snacks are allowed in 2 of his classes. Branden is always offered snacks too, but he rarely takes snacks. They both always take a bottle of tea though. Daily. 

Bran's girlfriend..a recent pic... taken from this past weekend.

Good friends hanging out at the yogurt shop last weekend. Branden can go out every weekend. As long as his classwork (homework and classwork) is an A...B...or C. And his overall class grade too. Since he's straight A's. He basically goes out every single weekend. But he only goes out once a week (his choice, because he's in sports and also has homework and he gets tired too). Last Friday, Bran and his girlfriend and 2 other couples met up at the local yogurt place. This pic was from the yogurt place. They went to Target after that... because apparently it's "cool" to walk through Target in the evening? @_@ After that... they went to this guys (male classmates and his gf is to his right) house and watched TV. The 6 of them watched a movie on Netflix. Yes, they Netflixed and chilled, lol. These are all honor roll kids and all super good kids. And his parents were there. And Bran was home at 10pm.

How is Branden doing? He's doing fantastic. He's straight A's. He has a girlfriend. A gorgeous and kind girlfriend. Kind is most important to me personally. What else. He went to homecoming. Winter Sports just started at the start of November. So, he's a little busy with his swimming season underway. But by no way... is it on the 24/7 365 days.... it is like... in a Japanese junior high school bukatsu. This is the sports light version....compared to that. Driving school ended. And Branden tested. He got a 100% on his written test and he scored a 98% on his driving portion of the test. The state we live in though... states you MUST keep a drivers permit for 6 months regardless. So...Branden has a state permit. Looks like a license. And he passed the official drivers license test written and driving. However...he can't get his official drivers license until April. So he does have a plastic state permit. He can drive with me. But driving alone and stuff can't happen until April. In April, all he has to do... is take his paperwork that he completed driving school, take his pass paper. And the school mailed it to the state drivers license people anyways. So in April, all B has to do is go down and take a picture for his new real license. And that will be it. We will be buying Branden a car of his own...sometime this coming summer 2019. And as soon... as he turns 18, he can apply for a international drivers permit and then from next October he can drive in Japan. And since he can prove he has spent over the set days outside of Japan. He can actually even go and take his drivers license in Japan if he wanted to. Meaning take the shorter driving test for foreigners, like I did. I took my drivers test in Japan as a foreigner who had spent over 150-200 or so days in America (they checked my passport and actually counted the days) and could by-pass the 100-200 or so test questions like many other gaijins do. And just take the 10 or 15 questions test in English instead...the shortened test, since I could prove I was living abroad so recently when I took my test.  But...that is only if he lives there...otherwise an IDP is easier for him... to use on the summers in Japan. So as for Branden, school is great. Girlfriend. Swim team. Passed his drivers license. In his free time he goes out every weekend. He has  a good set of amazing friends. I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but honestly everything's good and the same. Which is a blessing.

As for Noah, he's learning so much in an American middle school. He has such good friends. Also, last Friday, Noah attended his VERY first ever... school dance. It was $3 dollars to enter the gymnasium. You were given a wrist band. Inside they had tons of Papa Johns pizza. Cheese or Pepperoni. And you could buy a slice. Noah said he bought a slice of pepperoni. He said, that he danced to Drake. And all sorts of songs. I was in the parking lot to pick up Noah. And I see his friends waving him good bye and I hear lots of..."bye Noah!!!!" and kids waving! So, I know...he's having a blast at school here. It's just middle school, so the dance was from 1:30pm, to 2:30pm. He messaged me and said it ran a little over. He danced until 2:45pm, I was already in the parking lot, so just read a magazine and chilled. Last Friday. Awww. I was so happy for my Noah getting these school experiences. I told Noah as he got into my car. "When I was in middle school. My middle school was only for the 7th and 8th grade. But, I said...I went to my 7th grade dance and my 8th grade dance. I told Noah, I danced my brains out. I did the Smurf...The Cabbage Patch. The RoboCop. I told him...those were all dances back in the day. We were laughing. I told Noah....I am *so* happy that you are getting the same school experiences that I did growing up. And yes now I do the Floss, because my kids taught me this past summer, lol.

Update. This Friday at 1:25pm both Bran and Noah go on Christmas break. They won't return back to school until like January 5th or somewhere around then. Of course there is no such thing as Winter homework in the USA. So winter break truly means a break. Noah and his school has a winter assembly Friday from 12 noon until they get out of school. American assemblies are not like official closing ceremonies in Japan schools. Here, they just pump the kids up! Everybody ready for Christmas break? I imagine all kids will be cheering. Music will be playing. No performances or anything. This is just for the kids to enjoy. 

Winter time treats. Since Thanksgiving. Twice a week in Noah's LA 7 class, his teacher hands out popped microwaved popcorn. She hands it out in coffee filters to her kids. It's more economical for the teacher that way. So, Noah has been enjoying freshly popped popcorn daily in his LA class, since Thanksgiving. Plus he has 2 classes that always allow the kids to bring their own snacks to munch on while studying (his science class and history class allow snacks). And Noah brings like...Cheeze Its or Flaming Hot Cheetos. Flaming Hot Cheetos and Jalapeno Cheetos are *hugely* popular in American middle schools and high schools. Branden on the other hand... has been getting free hot chocolate to drink during class, every single day in his LA class in his high school. His teacher set up a hot cocoa station in the corner of her class. With mini marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. She bought a couple cases of Swiss Miss from Costco. And she had disposable cups, but when she ran out. She asked the kids to bring mugs from home. Branden has a nice hot cocoa mug we bought at Target that he picked out. And he's been enjoying this chill atmosphere in American schools. However they do learn a lot. And they do get a lot of homework. But the atmosphere in school... is just more chill and relaxed here. The kids really seem to enjoy it.  

I do know.. that I haven't posted in 2 weeks. And I'm sorry. But please understand that I haven't spent the winter holidays in America in forever. I will try to post more often. Even tiny short posts, will do. I'll try. 

Oh...Noah brought home an award 2 weeks ago or so. He made the honor roll. Awww. What a good kid. He's all A's except 1 B+ that he's trying hard to get turned into an A.

I'll blog more. And update more, I promise. Hope everyone reading is doing well. : ) 

Noah's Fun Run at his middle school...

The first week of October, Noah brought home a note from school about the upcoming "Fun Run." Since this is America afterall, and we respect everyone's individuality. You do have a choice if you would like to join the Fun Run or not. It's not mandatory (a must!) if you would *not* like to participate in the Fun Run, you can go to study hall and just read quietly. Get a jump start on your homework. Again it's entirely up to you... if you would like to participate or not. I asked Noah, "would you like to join?" And he said, "absolutely!" Second question on the note was. Since the Fun Run will be so close to Halloween, everyone is invited or encouraged to wear a costume during the Fun Run. Again, you are free to wear a costume or not. It's entirely up to you. Nothing is mandatory. I asked Noah, if he wanted to dress up? He said, he thinks it sounds fun to dress up and wear something fun. I couldn't agree more. And since Target was having a sale, buy 1 costume, get one 50% off last week. And considering for Halloween too, both kids schools...encourage wearing Halloween costumes. So, I asked the boys who were with me at Target. To each pick out a costume if they wanted one and they both picked the same exact thing. They both wanted to be hot dogs. With bun, mustard and relish. The whole bit! So if that's what they both wanted to be this year? So be it. Done and done. Got such a great deal on their costumes. Noah will be getting to wear his 3 times. For the Fun Run, for Halloween at school on Wednesday and for trick or treating. Bran will wear his to school on Halloween day. And he'll wear his when we walk Noah around to do trick or treating. Bran's too old to get candy this year. So, we'll both take Noah. So last Friday was Noah's Fun Run. It was also the last/final day of the schools first quarter. So his first period teacher brought 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, a huge fruit platter. Chocolate milk and juice. Noah apparently thought a class party... just for ending the first quarter was pretty cool! Again, he never got to experience anything like this in Japan. 

I'm just sharing a few pics. The Fun Run was held during the final class. So, if you participated in the Fun Run, you could be excused for your last class. That means Noah was excused from History class, last Friday. Nearly the entire school participated in the Fun Run. On the left of the School Bus Parking only sign. You see one fast running hot dog! That's Noah! Aww, go Noah go!!! I was sitting in my car. I was the first car/parent to arrive. And I saw the kids exiting the building in costume. Keep in mind, I lived in Japan for the last 16 years, so I was so excited seeing the kids in costume. I immediately without even thinking... left my car to watch. It was exciting for me. Seeing Noah get "American school" life experiences like this. Makes me just realize even more so... living here is so worth it and so right for us. When I see first hand. Wow...he's getting these experiences that he would *never* have gotten in Japan. As an American mother, yeah...it makes me so thrilled getting to see my kids get these types of experiences.

There were also 4 American girls and 1 American boy right on Noah's heels too. But again...if you want to run okay. If you prefer walk. I'd say, 90% of the kids walked. And hey... that's okay too. Because they still walked their field for the entire final hour anyway. On the intercom it said, if you run 4 laps you get a free Powerade drink. After Noah got a Powerade drink, he walked slowly the rest of the Fun Run with his friends and just "kicked it" and enjoyed. I saw him talking a mile a minute, with 3 friends of his. Watching them all interact. And laugh as they walked around the field. At least twice a week, Noboru tells me on the phone when we talk on LINE (although we talk daily)..."he is so glad they are getting the chance to go to school in the U.S. Nothing can compare to the education level they're receiving and the friendships that are forming and the experiences, they're experiencing." I agree too. 

There were some Sully's from Monster's Inc. There was an *udderly* magnificent cow. LOL. The principal...he was Mr. Incredible from the movie The Incredibles. 

Just walking, relaxing all the kids. And funny...because I got out of my car. Another mom got out of her white truck. She started talking to me. Her daughter's a 6th grader, she was worried the mom said.. that her daughter was wearing a costume in the morning and nobody else was. I mentioned that, Noah told me.. that his friends were taking their costumes to school... but weren't going to change until right before last period. So we were chatting about that. She said, she'll have her do that next year. And we both enjoyed some friendly chit chat. But, not wanting to sound like a "know it all" I told her...I honestly wouldn't have known about that either. So we had a nice chit chat. And then another mom came. And another. Just about 4 of us... were enjoying watching together. 

Most kids wore "easy to move around in" costumes. Ykwim? This adorable dinosaur, stole my heart. Number one... it was so incredibly hard for this adorable dinosaur to move around. But, I must tell ya, he gets an A+++ for effort. You couldn't do much beside waddle in this costume because of it's shape. It was a very fit kid, just the design of the costume. But I loved the costume though. Also... you know how when you fall facing forward. Common knee jerk reaction is to... stick your arms out to brace your fall, right? This dinosaur had the little itty bitty arms that dinosaurs have (the costume, his arms were normal obviously, but inside the costume). It couldn't be helped really. I worried about this adorable dinosaur as he went around the field the entire time. I kept thinking..."Ganbatte!!!" You can do it! Whatever you do...please don't trip. Be safe. This dino was my favorite of the day. So adorable. I am thankful he did not fall, his arms wouldn't have been able to brace his fall. He was safe. I was relieved. But...I was just charmed by this cutest dinosaur costume.  And also some kids opted to wear no costume and that was fine too.

How did I feel about the Fun Run? Noah loved it. I loved it too. I appreciated that as luck would have it, I just happened to get to school a tad early...granted I was hoping to see the tail end of it. But was glad I could see it completely.

Having experienced... 2 kids worth of shogakko/elementary school "marathons" in Japan.Which for us Americans, means Cross Country marathons. Shogakko marathons were not optional. There was no choice. You did the marathon. You don't like it? Tough! Suck it up! Gaman! The kids at our elementary in Japan... also had a full month at our elementary school of "marathon practice" every single morning.. before school started. Also, our school did give out medals, so there were winners and there were losers. And the day of the actual marathon. Our town always held it in December. Weather was like 32 degrees F which is freezing. Kids must wear a short sleeve gym shirt and shorts. Regardless if the empty rice fields had ice. Or the little canals in town had a thin covering of ice on them. Kids had to tough it out. And run. Regardless if they were so cold...that their muscles and joints were getting frozen solid.. like the Tin Man, without his oil can. Sure they would do warm ups... before the run. But after a month of stressful marathon PRACTICE daily. My kids honestly started to hate it after a while. B was also a slow runner, but a fish in the pool and top speeds. Noah is fast with running and swimming. But by the time he got to the 4th grade...and the month long "practice daily" for marathons... he started to dread the marathons. I could relate because... I would have hated the marathons too. Talk about sucking every drop of fun out of everything.

Now my thoughts on the Fun Run. The kids had fun. Actual real heartfelt fun. There was no practice fun runs... the days beforehand. No month long Fun Run mandatory practice. They ran the day of...and that's it. There was no... 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place. There were no winners. They all were winners because they all got an hours worth of exercise. They got to wear costumes which I noticed made the kids have even more fun. The teachers and staff wore costumes too. The whole school had just... a fun....run. Noah did not dread this Fun Run. He was actually looking forward to it all week. And when he got into my car after the Fun Run. He was beaming. He was telling me a mile a minute...."mom, I had so much fun" Did you see my friend blank? He was a cow. Did, you see my friend such and such...he was a....

I mean no disrespect to the Japanese marathon at all. I have had 2 kids who experienced Japanese marathons all 6 years for each of them. I noticed most kids and not just my own either...but seriously for a lot of them...they didn't really dig it at all. But hey. That's the way it is in Japan. And I accepted that. I know many of my friends' kids didn't enjoy the marathons either. And I "get it." Noah's lucky in the fact that he got to experience 6 years of Japanese elementary school marathons. And on the other hand... also get to experience an "all American" Fun Run too. For many people they only get to experience 1 way of living. Either just a Japan way. Or just an American way of schooling. But for Noah to be able to draw on living in both countries. Being schooled in both school systems. It's very cool.

Anyways, today is actual Halloween here in America. We will be going out trick or treating this evening. The 3 of us.