Summer Fun: Going to the movies to see Wonder Woman...

Tuesday, August 29th, all 4 of us went to the movies to go and watch Wonder Woman. It may have been out since July or so in the US. But it just was released for us in Japan, August 25th or so? So it's newly released for us here. We went and saw the one in English. How did we like the movie? We absolutely loved it. All 4 of us loved it!

Everyone got a soda and we shared a popcorn. And I also snuck in a snack for everyone. We went to the grocery store before the movies and I told everyone to pick out 1 snack/treat to take in the movies. : )

Did any of you reading, also wear Wonder Woman Underoos in the early 80's? I had 2 pair of Wonder Woman Underoos when I was a very little girl. And would pretend I was bouncing bullets off my golden wrist bands (my golden wrist cuffs I would make out of a thick strip of paper towel roll.) I was also Wonder Woman for Halloween one year. And my mom bought me a lot of the dress-up/play stuff for Wonder Woman too. So, I then had "real" gold cuffs, a golden lasso (that would force you to tell the truth) and the headband and stuff. LOL.  And I'd go around the house..."dundundundundun Wonder Woman...Wonder Woman!!!! All the World is waiting for you" I used to love that theme song to Wonder Woman! It only ran from 1975-1979 but they had that show on repeat all early 80's for us American girls and wow did we love that show growing up. Part of the theme song from the TV show. "All the World is waiting for you and the power you possess. In your satin tights. Fighting for your rights. And the old red, white and blue" You know they're talking about...the American flag. Such a lovely song for little American girls growing up. Especially since little American boys had a bazillion heroes to choose from. Like Spiderman. Batman. Superman. Captain America, etc etc. And us girls *finally* had someone who could be *our* hero. And wasn't Lynda Carter just so gorgeous and such a classy act. I also really love the new actress playing Wonder Woman too. She's gorgeous. And I was iffy about her when I first saw a glimpse of her in the movie Batman vs Superman. But after seeing this movie. I am 100% completely on board. I also loved that Lynda Carter showed up for the release of the new Wonder Woman movie. Some older/original actors can get jealous and throw shade at the new people remaking their roles. But Lynda Carter is *so* cool that she went and fully supported Gal Gadot. Which just made me respect Lynda Carter even more!

Flower update...

So how's everyone been doing? If you're in Japan and have kids, I bet you are like me and enjoying the final week with the kids at home. I know, I sure am. If you're in the U.S. I am sure your kids have already returned to school a week or two ago. As for me and my family. We have 7 days exactly, until the boys start school. They don't start school until next Friday, September 1st. Why kids start school on a Friday, versus a Monday is beyond me. But that's the way it is here. : )

Here is a quick pic of my front yard. And all our gorgeous flowers. The grass is as green and vibrant in the front yard, as the backyard. And we have the 4 hanging baskets with flowers hanging on our front porch. And the beautiful bright red "Million Bell" are standing right out front too. As always, I always have seasonal wreaths from America, that hang on my front door. My front yard is very cheerful.: )

Anything new to add? I am going to be taking the boys to the movies soon. Before school starts.

Anything else to add? We bought a brand new washing machine a few days ago. This is rather huge news. Because I have been using my last one for 15 years. It's not broken. It's just getting super old. It has slowly begun breaking down. Nothing major. But things like a screw inside the washing machine actually unscrews itself in the rougher wash cycle. And it needs to be screwed back in about twice a week. Doable. But just slightly annoying. 

We're all packed and ready to go today...

Our suitcases are all packed up and we're ready to go and enjoy our family vacation. I'll catch up with you all, when we get back! Bye you guys. : )

Last bits and pieces from our summer, like our BBQ of ribs and getting another JHS uniform for Branden and a whole bunch of other things mixed in there too...

Hi you guys! I am *so* happy to have finished the Denver posts! Phew! That was a load off my mind to get that done. I do have this post. It's the last of the summer 2016 summer posts, I promise! It's just...boy, we had a whole heck of a lot that we were doing in August. And I just never had the chance to post everything. There just wasn't enough time for it. However the silver lining is...that it can be totally wrapped up...consolidated in this 1 post. That way we can move forward. And close the chapter of summer 2016 officially as soon as I post this one. Branden was offered in the beginning of June from Noboru that if he wanted to make some extra pocket money over the summer, he could mow our lawn when it needed it. For mowing the front and backyard he would earn 1,000 yen (US$10 dollars) Branden thought that was a fantastic deal. And so all summer long whenever the grass looked like it needed a mowing, Branden would get out there and mow the lawn. He earned a good chunk of cash by the end of summer. Good kid, good kid! : )  

Chili's were too genki beyond words! They grew like the dickens! We harvested this amount pictured here every single week! @_@ Roasting them, was a real pain in the butt, but it was worth it.

The Olympics happened this summer too! And of course we watched the opening ceremony! I love seeing all the different countries come out and share and bond over sports! And I cheered so loudly when the United States came out. I swear my neighbors must think I suffer from tourettes every 4 years! Hahaha. I am quiet the other times. But...when watching the American team walk out into the stadium I go nuts! USA...USA...USA! I think it's no big secret... how much I love my country. And our American outfits this year? Absolutely gorgeous and stunning! Our household watched swimming. I have 2 boy swimmers here at the house as you know... so they love watching swimming and they cheer so loudly for the USA! And we always watch gymnastics too. America did so well this Olympics. Sadly...Ryan Lochte and the whole...destroying the gas station. Lying about the robbery thing? Totally disappointed to hear that!  As of right now for this season...he's on Dancing with the Stars. And apparently 2 guys wearing anti- Lochte shirts booed and called him a liar after his first dance! @_@ People still seem pretty upset about the whole thing. @_@ But yep, team USA did wonderful as a whole this summer at the Olympics. 

Also in August, I had to replace my liquid eyeliner because mine ran out. I am now using this one. I used this of course during my whole trip in Denver and on days here in Japan when I have to wear makeup. I really like this one. It's better than the Dolly Wink one that I was using before this one and it is rated #1 by looking at this sticker on the package. Great liquid eyeliner. 

What else happened this summer? Oh yes, that's right. Have you heard in the news about Samsung tablets exploding? It's been all over the news recently. Noah had a Samsung tablet which he got for his 2015 birthday. Luckily it wasn't the type that explodes. @_@ However it too... had a funky weird glitch or defect. And the screen would turn yellow then back to a normal white screen then go to a funky yellow and back and forth. At the end of June we got a hold of Expansy's which is who we bought it from. And they turned out to be a very good company! First they asked us to send Noah's tablet back, which we did. And they were so honest. They told us it had a much more serious problem. Even though we were still under warranty. They gave us every last dollar/yen back. So Noah got a completely 100% full refund. I thought that was such an honorable thing for that company to do. So...Noah ended up getting a tablet from Amazon Japan. The same tablet Branden has exactly. Because after all July 2016 of us researching a new tablet for Noah, this was the one with the best reviews. So pictured here is Noah's new tablet, screen protector and case. All paid for by the refund Expansy's gave us. That was very nice and lucky the way things turned out. 

Same model Branden has. Now they both have twin tablets. Good thing Noah got his new tablet before we left to Denver. 

We had a nice backyard BBQ pretty much right before we left to Denver. We had ribs, pulled pork and baked potatoes (grilled potatoes)...

Bush's baked beans too...

Just a random picture from our family BBQ that night. Again we BBQ all the time in summer, so it's impossible to share pics from each BBQ. But yep, we enjoyed our ribs that night. : )

Cart pics with the 3 ribs stacked on top of each other on the left. Tissues and laundry soap. This pic was taken August 12th.

Also from August 12th. Our 2nd cart. Kirkland cheese pizzas. Again with it being summer the kids had lunch at home all summer. So things like frozen pizzas etc... needed to be here at the house for the boys. Chicken breasts, jaga butter these are just steamed potatoes with butter and again...a quick thing for the kids to get if they are hungry during summer lunches here at home. : ) Dinner rolls and a rotisserie chicken, we had rotisserie chicken sandwiches that night. And pasta sauce. Perfect to have on hand for a quick spaghetti and meatball dinner or chicken parmesan. : ) Just so many random little moments happened here. That were nice or fun. And this post just helps give a better idea of our summer. And this post will at least help finish up summer 2016, like I said. : ) 

JHS uniform... take 2! : )

A new blazer. And now we don't have to wonder if Branden will burst out of his old one...like the Hulk. : ) And you can see a glimpse/tiny smidgen of his new school pants on the left of this picture. 

180cm. And he's not plus size, otherwise it would say 180B. He's a 180A...a regular size. On the bright side. And there is always a bright side of everything, I think. The bright side is...Noah will end up with 3 blazers! Which is unheard of considering the cost of these. But 2 will be from his brother. But...nice to have extras, right. : ) He will also get 3 pair of JHS pants from his big brother too. Lucky Noah! So yes there is always a bright side to everything. : )

Omiyage (a souvenir from the Boy Next Door's family) Rice crackers! Such nice neighbors! Alrighty, I think this pretty much wraps up summer 2016. We did as you know go to the beach this summer, wave pool place too, and 1 summer festival plus, we had many backyard BBQ's and we went and enjoyed kakigori (shave ice) too. Plus the Denver trip, so all in all a pretty fantastic summer was had here, in our little neck of the woods. : )

Summer break family fun! Going to the movies to see Finding Dory and Kua'Aina for dinner...

Wednesday, July 20th! The last day of school for both Branden and Noah. And only a half day at that. July 20th was the day we had our family plan to go and see Finding Dory. It may have come out in the USA a month ago. However it barely opened for us in Japan, July 16th. So 4 days after it opened we went and saw it. We went and saw this at the only movie theater in Chiba prefecture that offers it in English (sound) the original...way it was made. Versus being dubbed in Japanese. We caught the 6:30pm showing. We arrived at Ikspiari at 4:30pm-ish. We bought our tickets right as we got there and then we just walked around the mall a bit, to kill some time. 

Japanese subtitles. I really love this movie theater. I love the people working here. I love the delicious popcorn and drink combos they sell here and their prices are wonderful. Just the whole vibe of this place is so nice. 

The kids got a large caramel popcorn and 2 sodas (1 each)

Noboru and I got a large half and half (half salt half caramel) and 2 sodas too (1 each)

I saw these seats when we saw Zootopia. Knew these would be best for us for next time. Noah and Bran sat in front. And Noboru and I sat behind them. We had no other people sitting next to us and that was so perfect for us! And that way, if the kids needed to go to the restroom before the movie started there wouldn't be a whole bunch of people in our same row or aisle. Best seats for our family, hands down. 

This movie theater was filled to the gills. So many people, it was seriously packed! Glad we picked the seats we picked. What did we think about Finding Dory? We loved it! During the movie during many scenes the whole movie theater was laughing hard! And laughing loud! It's so nice to be around people who enjoyed the movie too. Would I buy it on DVD? Yes, I would. I'd love to have Finding Dory in my collection. 

I completely forgot to take a picture of our meals until they were half over/eaten! I'm so sorry. But, we went to Kua'Aina for dinner after the movie.I had a chicken teriyaki chargrilled sandwich on whole wheat and onion rings and a large guava juice. The food is so good here!

Noboru, Bran and Noah each picked a chargrilled cheeseburger and fries combo with soda. We ate, enjoyed our meal. And drove back home! It's very far from where we live. While we rode the toll highways to Ikspiari (we needed to get there as soon as possible). We drove the regular roads back home. Just cheaper that way. And we got home at 11:30pm. It was indeed super late. But considering...it was the last day of school. We were just starting our summer break. And wanting a fun way to celebrate and this was perfect. And heck...it doesn't matter if we got home late that night. We could sleep in the next day. And we did. We slept in until 8am the next day! Finding Dory? Amazing and such a fun movie! Kua'Aina? Delicious as always! A fun way to kick start summer? Done! : )

September bits & pieces...

This is going to be a semi medium in length to long-ish "jack of all trades", bits & pieces, hodge podge type a post, if you know what I mean. Basically, what our family has been up to. The last full week that the boys were on summer break. We really didn't have any major plans. So I thought it was a perfect time, to do some deeper cleaning and/ or decluttering of the house. So, I said 2 hours each day, for 5 days, we will kick butt and pick an area of the house and give it a major over haul basically. So that's what we did. Right after I made the boys breakfast and I ate my yogurt and had my morning coffee. We got crack-a lackin' on the kitchen this day. We first took everything out of the food pantry. Put everything on the kitchen table and we checked for expiration dates. Anything expired got tossed. And then we wiped off each shelf with a hot soapy and sudsy wash rag, dried each shelf. and put things back into the pantry. 

I think we have 6 or 8 shelves in the pantry total. I'd have to check to be sure. But here's 3. All coffee creamers in 1 area, followed by those chocolate milk straw things, a few packs of hot cocoa/Swiss Miss. Pasta mixes and noodles soup mixes, then we have Japanese Cook-Do's, Beef stew roux, Cream stew Curry roux, yeast for pizza, a few misc things. Next shelf is basically baking stuff, easier for me to find and cookies or chocolate. Next shelf is grains, dressings and chili powder and gravy mix etc. 

Three brownie boxes, 3 yellow cake mixes and 4 chocolate frostings. Huge Costco size of Nutella. American chocolate, like Reese's peanut butter cups, etc. 

Dressing, croutons, huge gravy mix, chili bean mix, soup packets (geeze louise we have a whole lotta soup packets) My favorite garlic bread spread, wow that rhymes. : )

A pinch from another shelf, we have popcorn oil on the left and 2 more dressings here, we have a huge Cost u less size of vinaigrette and another Thousand Island dressing. Clearly we will not be running out of salad dressing anytime soon. @_@ Hahaha. : ) But again, when you get that, chance to stock up, you do. : ) So the whole pantry was cleaned out, nothing expired. And we moved onto the fridge. 

New and fresh Bologna for school lunches for Bran and Noah, in the fridge of course. And we again just looked for anything old or expired. We wiped down the inside fridge shelves. I bleached the green counters because they just need to be cleaned. Rinsed them down, twice afterwards. Vacuumed the blinds in the kitchen. Dustiest blinds ever! Yikes! : ) 

Noah, vacuuming the kitchen floor like a boss! : ) Again I have mentioned it on my blog like a billion times, since they were itty bitty toddlers. But, I always had the kids help out with, chores around the house. Whether they were 3 years old and fixed the shoes in the entry way. Or helping fold towels, or ball up some socks while I did the more difficult laundry folding and hanging (now they help with it all, if asked). But yes kids do like helping. And I will go and buy them a 60 yen ice cream from the grocery store in town afterwards as a treat for helping. Or take them to Mc D's at the end of our cleaning week as a treat, that type a thing. And now that they're bigger, they totally help me. It's no big deal for them to help clean the house. And it's their house too and they should know how to clean, because #1 it's a life skill, and #2 someday when they're off in college, they will have to clean up after themselves. And by that time...it'll be second nature for them. 

This day Noah vacuumed the entire downstairs. Plus helped with the pantry and fridge.He moves the shoes all to one side, then moves them to the opposite side. Then afterwards he nicely puts the shoes down, in a nice order.  Noah is such a sweetheart, he vacuumed under the couches, the downstairs toilet room, he vacuumed  too. And then Bran took over. 

Branden vacuumed each and every stair and then the hallway upstairs. I meanwhile lightly tidied up the living room and swooshed the downstairs toilet. And we called it a day. And the kids had the rest of the day to themselves. : ) We finished around 9:30am, so we really had most of the day free. And I did take the boys for an ice cream after lunch. : ) This day, I took them to Mini Stop for the German chocolate soft cream. We 3 each, picked one. : ) Another day we hit the living room hard! And another day, we hit the sink area upstairs superly hard too. We cleaned a bunch for those 5 days. : )  And the last 2 days, we didn't do any cleaning at all. We just relaxed. 

Branden also thought it would be a nice thing to do and mow the lawn, because he knew his dad mentioned the lawn needing to be mowed and so he took it upon himself and did it while Noboru was at work. : )  You know what...I did something right, they're good kids! Real good kids. : ) And look at one of the chili plants. They're big huh. : ) 

In many towns and cities across Japan right now. You can buy tickets to purchase things. This is a way to increase "buying local" For example, if you live in Inzai (where my nearest Costco is) if you are a resident of Inzai, and you can show proof with a drivers licence etc. You can go to your appointed place and give them say ichiman yen (around $100 US) and they'll give you 11,000 yen for every 10,000 yen you give them. They will give you... Inzai tickets (they're long and rectangular in shape, like a check type shape) and you can use them at Costco in Inzai only, Besia in Inzai, but all places in Inzai. There is a banner outside of all places accepting the tickets. I do not live in Inzai, but I have seen the Inzai banners outside establishments accepting them and even a sign inside Costco says, we will accept Inzai tickets here. Also many of Noboru's coworkers live in Inzai. And it's good for residents, because they can get an extra 1000 yen if they live in Inzai, around $10US. Inzai residents don't get too much extra, but still $10 bucks extra, is still $10 bucks extra. Inzai has a lot of people. Now Narita, has a little less people than Inzai and they are giving 12,000 yen, for every 10,000 yen you give them. And again you will get coupons, not coupons, it's not a discount it's a flat out ticket worth 1000 yen each ticket. And you must show residency for Narita again by either a drivers license or whatever. And then there is my town. My town is super teeny tiny and only 5,000 residents in the town we live in. Which we love living in such a rural place. But get this, for every 10,000 yen we give them (think for every $100US) we give them, they give us back in tickets 13,000 yen so (about $130 US) that's basically a free $30 US. But again our tickets have the name of our town stamped on them, our town mascot is on them too. Hahaha. And you must use them in our town only. Because again...they want to increase the whole buying local. They really want my town residents, to buy and spend their money in our town. And to sort of...inspire us towns people to do so...they came up with this ticket idea. And how much extra can you get... depends on how big a town or city, you live in. Last week of July, we bought 50,000 yen worth of our town tickets. Our family ended up with a free or extra 15,000 yen that we did not pay for. Out of those 5 sets we bought, 1 of those sets was for me. I will use 10,000 yen at our local grocery store. And Noboru has meanwhile tucked his 12,000 yen, he got for free, meaning he did not pay for, away in an envelop and that will be paying for our floor heating all winter long. So we will be getting super hot floor heating, our floors downstairs are heated and feel like a pancake griddle in winter and now our floor heating....will be compliments of our town. It will totally cover the 200 liter tank, it takes to fill up our floor heaters. As for the rest of the tickets. Noboru will use them, But yep, super smart to jump on the tickets. Our town tickets are now sold out. And this pic, I had earned a spare 3,000 yen. I ran out of my liquid dark brown eyeliner, Noboru was going to buy me another one and then I mentioned I have that extra 3,000 yen on my tickets and he said you should go for it and use those. And he was with me and so, I was trying to get my total to be 3,000 yen or over. And since I use sunscreen daily I bought a spare Anessa smaller size one and a body spray. This spray is in my bag right now and it smells really really good and was only 480 yen. So, yep, these 3 things were not purchased by Noboru or myself, these 3 things were courtesy of our town. : ) Yep, yep nice to know our floor heating is, already paid for, no problem and already ear marked, courtesy of our town. Oh and Noboru's coworkers in Inzai also bought tickets. But Noboru's 1 coworker who lives in Narita bought, $2,000 or $2,500 US worth of tickets and with the extra 2,000 ($20)  of each set, they paid a year of swimming school for their son! Can you imagine they paid a whole year of their sons swimming, courtesy of Narita city and the buying local tickets were accepted at their kids swim school, the tickets are accepted just about everywhere, they're even accepted at Mini Stop and 7-11. Basically his swimming will be paid for, from now until August 2016 by Narita city. Again...that type of stuff is just plain smart. Same with our floor heating. And even on a smaller scale, when I chipped in 10,000 yen of my grocery budget to buy my own pack of tickets....so that the eyeliner doesn't have to come out of any body's pocket. Just...every little bit helps. If you're living in Japan, does your town or city offer, the "buy local tickets" Have you bought any? Many cities around our town are all sold out now. Even Noboru wanted to go and buy a few extra sets, but he called and our town has sold out of all the tickets too. Oh well. At least we have a free 200 liters of floor heating. That's actually really awesome savings, if you think about it. : ) Anyways...

A few random lunch pics from last week. Fried bologna and cheese sandwich. Skillet fried bologna, so yum. : )

Noah took a half a sandwich and some mac & cheese and Bran took 1 full sandwich in the green container and a half sandwich and mac & cheese. They also took sliced apples this day and a thermos with iced tea. 

This day, they took Chef Boyardee, ravioli. That's some parmesan sprinkled on top. They also took a half a slice of garlic bread with that delicious garlic bread spread. : ) And some sliced apple as well. I bought 2 apples last week. : ) 

These short fat thermoses are perfect for ravioli or soups. And these stay as hot, as the second you poured your stuff. Growing up in America, I don't recall my thermos ever kept my soups hot enough. But, I majorly tested this out, when we first got these. And I tested them at home and filled it with some hot water and I filled it at 7am and checked at noon and that water was as boiling hot at 12 noon as it was at 7am. Go figure. Call it Japanese technology or what. But these are amazing! I wish I had something this good when I was growing up! And these were free gifts from Nissen. So, we didn't even buy/purchase these. But they're awesome. What I do, is I fill up the kids thermos here with hot water from the hot water pot. And heat up the inside of this short thermos. Meanwhile I heat the ravioli on the stove. In the 5 minutes it takes to heat the ravioli up, the inside of this thermos is as hot as burning lava. I then dump the water out and fill with the ravioli. This thermos keeps things hot anyways. But by me, preheating the metal inside the thermos with boiling hot water from the hot water pot, it is steaming by the time the boys have lunch at 12 noon. And I feel really good about knowing the boys get a very nice hot lunch. A very filling lunch. : )

Another harvest from our plants outside. 

A small basket full of jalapeno and the bigger bowl had green chili in it, with a few jalapeno mixed in too. 

I roasted them and put a damp paper towel on them and then peeled them, and put another bag full in the freezer. I will be getting a new harvest this week too. : ) 

2 new Fall school books for Noah. Everyone in the 4th grade received these 2 new books.

Last week, I did go to the hair salon, I got my hair cut and colored. I am glad it's done. And I'll be all ready for undokai. After the salon, I swung home and Noboru was ready and waiting. We had a lunch date. We went to Coco Ichiban curry. We shared the 100 yen bowl of fries, while we were waiting for our curry. I had the pork vegetable curry. 

Friday, while the boys were at school, Noboru and I went to Costco Inzai/Chiba New Town. Here's what's our Costco Chiba New Town, is looking like right now. I am friends with an *amazing* lady who lives in Japan and she's unfortunately not been to a Costco in Japan yet. She's American and she's been to the Costco in America. But I think last week, was it last week? Anyway, she was talking about Costco and of course... I'm always talking about Costco and so then I was mentioning, how similar the Costco's in Japan and the ones in America are. So, this will probably make her smile these pics. She's amazing with the best personality in the whole world, and I am sure she will love these pics,  I am sure... she might be even thinking..."holy moly, the Costco's in Japan and America are pretty darned similar." Anyway, I hope she gets a kick out of these pics. : ) Also this is for any of you too...who haven't been to Costco in Japan yet and are curious what's there. : )  Halloween costumes galore! Most of them are for toddlers but they also had  Spiderman and Batman adult costumes too. : ) Can you see a giant spider above the girls costumes.

Prices. 

I have a Fall wreath already, but I am really tempted to get this Fall wreath!

Considering the exchange rate, dollars to yen and it's pretty much about the same price. Also there's already Christmas stuff out as well. 

These are new. Costco Japan now has a few more new cheeses to choose from.

The price was right up my alley and so I put one in my cart Friday morning. 

Two types of cheese, Mexican style cheese. And mozzarella cheese. A rotisserie chicken, ham for lunches for the boys and hamburger buns that went right in the freezer and mouth wash. 

A quick lunch for the both of us, Noboru picked a hot dog, I picked a slice of cheese pizza. 

We split the mango soft serve. This was so good. A little too pricey though, to buy all the time though. It would have been half the price, if we would have picked it with no mango. But, eh a nice treat. 

I also hit Joyful Honda in Inzai too, Friday. Wheat bread and the parmesan cheese was super cheap and a big size of body wash. 

Fries.

This Saturday that has just passed we cleaned Noah's bedroom for an hour. Good grief these blinds were dusty! But now they're not. : ) 

Vacuuming the window sil and realizing, holy smokes... the farmer was plowing the rice fields. 

See, he's in the back fields, in his rice farmer truck cutter thingy. Oh yes, I am so technical. LOL.

Red flowers in bloom near the shed.

Saturday, I also baked 2 loaves of banana bread. Reason, the store was selling 2 old bunches of giraffe bananas (it's what my kids and I call the spotty older bananas) 2 bags for 100 yen. While everyone turned their noses up at these old bananas, I thought, what a great deal and yum, I can make banana bread for cheap! : ) 

Mashed bananas.

Okay, we will get 2 good loaves out of you. : )

Okay, the kids attacked the first loaf Saturday afternoon. And when Noboru got home he further attacked the banana bread. Noboru loves banana bread. So, I am sorry I could not get a picture of 2 loaves. But, you get the idea. It disappeared completely by Sunday at 3pm. : ) 

Saturday's dinner. I reheated the rotisserie chicken, in the oven and then I sliced up all the white meat and put it on one plate and sliced up the dark meat and put it on another plate. The kids prefer white meat, and so do I. But Noboru prefers dark meat and so I make his special just for him. : ) 

Saturday, I tell ya what, not only did I clean Noah's room for 1 hour and Noah helped all the way. I baked 2 loaves of banana bread. Reheated the chicken and sliced it up. You'll find out what I made very soon. : ) And also boiled beans and refried them and made a pan of spanish rice too. I tell ya, Saturday, I was a busy little bee. : ) Sunday, I lazed around most of the day but I did make supper so, I did enjoy Sunday. : ) But...back to Saturday....

Do you know what taquitos are? Taquitos are corn tortillas skillet fried with something inside, like chicken or beef. And flautas are the exact same thing, except with flour tortillas. I like using rotisserie chicken because a rotisserie chicken, has so much delicious flavor and is so good all on it's own. Some people just boil chicken, but that just sounds a little unappetizing to me. I really love making mine with a rotisserie chicken, plus it's way easier this way too. About to wrap up this one, with all white meat and use 2 toothpicks to keep it shut, while frying. : ) 

And 3 cheers for Costco Japan carrying Mexican style cheese now. I make Mexican food about 3 times a month, it must be because I am from Denver, because they had so many good restaurants and I got used to eating good Mexican food. This was Noah's serving Saturday evening. A side of rice and beans and 1 taquito with sour cream and lettuce and cheese and I left his other one without any toppings because I know, he likes to dunk it in the beans. : ) 

These are so super easy to make. Corn tortillas can be bought easily at Kaldi, here in Japan. Kaldi sells import food. The rotisserie chicken came from Costco Japan, the toothpicks came from Daiso.  

I buy my beans when in Hawaii or Guam but beans can be bought on Amazon.jp. Sour cream can be purchased at a regular Japanese grocery store. My store in my town, doesn't carry sour cream, but every other store around me, does carry it. The lettuce, I just bought a bag of lettuce for 89 yen and chopped it a bit finer/smaller. I really do love baking and cooking though. I realize not everyone enjoys cooking. But, I really find it relaxing. And it's rewarding to me, seeing how much my family enjoys our dinners every night here at home.  I love when my boys come home from school and start sniffing for smells from the kitchen, as soon as they're taking off their shoes in the entry way, and start asking..."what's for dinner?" 

Close up of that gorgeous taquito covered with sour cream and lettuce and cheese and the rice and beans in the background. Noboru ate 4 taquitos and so did Bran. I had only 2. And Noah surprised me that he could polish off 2, plus his rice and beans. The next day/yesterday, Sunday I made spicy fried chicken sandwiches with fries (which is why I bought the fries for 240 yen at Joyful Honda.  Which is why I bought the hamburger buns at Costco. And today, Monday the boys took spicy chicken sandwiches to school, with fries and fresh cut pineapple for their fruit. I fried them up some fresh sandwiches this morning. Their lunches looked on point, this morning and smelled so good. : )  Anyway, that's about it from me. What have we been doing here? Not too much. Just keeping the house in order. The boys started school. Packing their lunches, Monday through Friday, which I do not mind at all. Making supper every night. The boys are both getting ready for undokai/sports day. Bran's is this Saturday Sept 12th and Noah's is Sept 19th. I watched the season finale of Scream and it ended really good. It should be raining all this week, but should be dry and sunny this Saturday, for Bran's undokai. Tonight for dinner, I'm making Japanese, I'm making niku jaga. Anyway that's about all for now. It's raining like crazy here right now and has been all morning. : )