Black Friday...

Did any of you catch any good Black Friday Deals? I did. I placed a small order of DVDs on Amazon.com/USA. Both Branden and Noah love the original Kingsman movie. They've seen it at least 10 times. It's on cable TV a lot. I too, love the original Kingsman movie. It's so funny. They came out with a 2nd Kingsman movie. And both my boys have been dying to see this movie. I made sure to have this DVD in my cart, the week before Black Friday. And then as soon as Black Friday hit and all the good deals and free shipping etc happened. I placed my order immediately. 

I also purchased this DVD for the entire family. But especially for my kids because they loved the new IT movie. I too loved, It. And this is something, I can see us watching a lot. It won't be released until January, but I already pre-ordered us a DVD. I also purchased 2 more movies. So 4 in total. But It... of course won't be coming until January. But the other 3 will be coming here before Christmas. I know my kids will love unwrapping the Kingsman 2. Because I know they really *really* wanted to see it. : )

Also, I placed an order on Sephora.com also on Black Friday too. I had picked out some Sephora travel brushes. And a travel bag for toiletries. And also an eye shadow palette from Tarte. It's not the newest one... because I personally don't care for the new colors on the new palette the whole middle row is pure orangey-brown which I dislike a lot on me personally. I instead picked a palette that I have been wanting for quite some time and it's just basic nude brown shades. But I am really happy because those are the eye shadow colors that I prefer and tend to use.

My Sephora order has already been shipped. And the Amazon order hasn't shipped yet but, they will be shipping soon. I think the 3 movies haven't shipped yet, because they're gonna wait until the Kingsman 2 is released December 12th. Good thing I picked the fast shipping. : )  Anyways, we're not done with our Christmas shopping by a long shot. But, we have started though.

Last week's Costco cart pic. Some new movies from Amazon.com. And The Gong Show reboot...

Last Friday, June 23rd Noboru and I made a Costco Chiba New Town run. And also a Besia (regular grocery store run) and also we hit the meat store in Inzai/Chiba New Town too, which is of course Joyful Honda. But only this pic from Costco is what I am sharing today. No other cart pics from that day. : ) What's in my Costco cart from last Friday? Let's see. 3 big jars of Ragu pasta sauce. 4 Kirkland frozen cheese pizzas. Tortilla chips (nachos are coming up for us, this coming Thursday night according to the weekly menu that I make) 2 types of grated cheese (mozzarella and a blend they call a Mexican blend.) Tortillas, dinner rolls and a rotisserie chicken that we had a delicious quick dinner from last Friday night. So an easy dinner last Friday was very nice. : ) 

We did stop and have lunch before we left Costco and went on our way to a few other grocery stores that morning. : )

My Amazon.com order arrived too. 

Split...we watched it yesterday and it's really good. We also enjoyed Get Out. This movie was *so* excellent. And it's funny because... one of the guys who was in Hawaii for the couple years of training when we were there. He's a good friend of Noboru's. Anyways he was telling Noboru...he had seen Get Out and he loved it and he told Noboru. "You have got to see that movie" That it was so good. And 2 days after his friend told him that. My fellow American friend in Yokohama emailed me and she's so super nice. Anyways we were emailing about fun stuff. You know movies and food and good stuff like that. : ) Anyways...she told me...."Gina, you should totally watch Get Out." I told my husband..."now my friend, also told me to see the same movie your friend mentioned too." @_@. So, I went and checked the trailer on YouTube and was like...wow this looks so good. So, I ordered it. And I won't spoil anything for any of you, except to say...everyone is totally right!!! This movie is so good! No wonder there is a buzz about Get Out. Because it's totally a good movie. I am so glad I have this... because I will be watching it again...probably this week. Beauty and the Beast. I remember being in middle school and watching an old black and white version of Beauty and the Beast all in French in my French class. Thank gawd for subtitles. LOL. And yep...wish I woulda took Spanish instead. But anyways. The story though...I fell in love with the story of this. And I have loved Beauty and the Beast since my French class in middle school. I guess I love the story of the Beast... how he was tested and turned that old poor beggar woman away... when she was seeking a place to stay for the night. And no wonder he was cursed because she was not truly an old beggar woman at all. As we all know. I think it just makes me always think...don't judge a book by it's cover. And...always be kind. Kindness *always* wins. And perhaps the Beast should have been kinder in the beginning. No wonder he was cursed! And then the Disney cartoon version came and I loved that one too. And I frankly know some folks like this new version and some don't. But...I know for me personally...the story I love. And I wanted this in my collection. I'll let ya'll know how I liked it. And the other movie...looks like Groundhogs Day but modern. And I have not seen it yet...but I have seen the previews and I will let you know how I like it. But...we are saving that for this coming weekend, same for Beauty and the Beast for...family movie night. : )  And as for Star Wars...we are the biggest Star Wars loving family and same with Terminator. You guys know that. One DVD is not shipping to my house until first weak of August, it's still too new and not released yet. : )  

Is it just me or is *everything* being rebooted. The TV show Roseanne is being rebooted too. With Roseanne Barr and the whole cast. Anyways...anyone remember the original Gong Show??? It was a popular American TV show in America. It ran from 1976-1980. I was like too little for preschool, then preschool aged... then kindergarten aged when this show ran. I might have even gotten to the first grade or 2nd grade during the run of this show. I was a little kid when this was on. But I do remember how popular this show was. If you performed good, you finished your act. If you were horrible they would gong you!!! I remember when I was little...Kids would ask other kids..."hey did you see the Gong Show last night?" Everyone did! It was just that popular. Anyway it's been rebooted and it just started in America again. I decided to catch the first show. And I read online that in America they're once again saying it's going to be the funnest thing all summer. So, I did make sure to tune in. And it's hilarious. I watched it Friday evening with my family. We were laughing so hard. This lady here. Dressed like Little Bo Peep. She had a tarantula. And put it into her mouth. Grossed out the audience. The host. Grossed us out over here too. @_@

They had 3 famous/actors as guest judges. 2 were from The Hangover. Ken Jeong the funny guy who played Mr. Chow. He's so sharp and so funny.

Putting it in her mouth. Bleh! Yikes. @_@

Yep the audience was totally grossed out. By the way...sorry the spider just reminded me.. speaking of rebooting shows. Fear Factor was also rebooted on MTV. Ludacris is the host. And my kids love Fear Factor!!! Bran and Noah watch every single week. And I watch with them. And Noboru watches it with us too when he's home and not working.

And of course went a warning on the screen. Please do not put spiders in your mouth. Ummm duh! : )

More audience members too. Again everyone was totally grossed out with the whole spider in the mouth thing. Us too.

Will Arnett.

Zach Galifianakas. He's always so funny. My whole family really likes him. Same for Ken Jeong, my kids crack up whenever they see Mr. Chow. : )

Anyway, Noboru did get his vacation days off. So we will be going on vacation at the end of July for sure 100%.  We can't wait!!! I'll give more details a bit later. : ) But...if my blog does go a bit quiet, between now and then. It's just because...I'm starting to watch a bunch of YouTube videos lately. You guys know...I always get caught up with everything new in the U.S. before I get there. I'd like to know...what's new. What's good. And so...I have started a small list so far. And just...you know slowly getting a list gathered up of what I'd like to bring back to Japan with me. : ) So if my blog doesn't get updated in 4 days. I am either just enjoying my family time. Or watching many makeup...what's new at Sephora or what's new at the drugstore videos. But, I am here. Anything else to add? : )

Noah has observation day July 4th at school. Holy smokes....didn't Noah just have observation day...not too long ago too? I could swear he *just* had observation day about 3 weeks ago...pretty recently/not too long ago. Hmm.

I'd like to get my hair straightened again. Before Japanese summer and humidity hits. I'm thinking either this week or next. Maybe this week. Hmm. Decisions decisions. : )

How has the weather been? Outside it's been warm to almost hot in the days and cooler at night still, but the humidity is really starting to rise outside though. Last week it started to get really humid. It's quite dry in our home, so we don't feel or notice a change inside our home. Thank goodness for central air conditioning. But it's really noticeable the second you leave the house.

My last 2 Amazon.com orders arrived with my DVDs. And some TV talk, good stuff I've been watching lately...

Okay where did I leave off? This was the last Amazon order I received that I mentioned on here already, so this pic you've seen before. The nearest weekend to when we received this batch. We popped popcorn, bought chocolate bars and treats from the grocery store in town. And we 4 watched Rogue One. Granted we 4 went to see it at the movie theater when it first came out, but this was so awesome to see this at home. After we all finished dinner and took showers and were in our comfy PJ's and stuff we enjoyed watching Rogue One. It is such an excellent movie. We love Rogue One. This past Sunday, the kids and I watched Fools Rush In, while Noboru was at work. I enjoyed this when it first came out and the kids enjoyed it too. We watched with movie with some homemade pizza I made. My book, I still have not started on it yet, but I will, however I am half finished with the Barry Manilow story right now that's in my magazine and as soon as I finish that.. I will start this book. : ) 

Fifty Shades Darker. I watched this by myself in the daytime. Kids at school, husband at work. And I bought a chocomint ice-cream and sat in the living room and watched this. My thoughts? I *really* enjoyed this movie a lot. Sometimes part 2's suck, if ykwim. But this didn't suck at all. Many good mini stories all happening in this 1 movie. I enjoyed this one movie very much. Think Noboru and I will have to watch this one together... when we have time this week. 

A Dog's Purpose. I heard this movie was good. And they're so right, it's excellent. My kids LOVED this movie. Noah cried and I cried too. Noboru really liked this too. I loved it too. We 4 also watched the movie Silence together. And Noboru straight up *loved* this movie... so much that he talked about it for 2 days straight!!! Our whole family enjoyed Silence. Very deep. Makes you think. And a true story. So educational too. 

Downward Dog is a new TV show on the ABC channel. The dog is narrating this show and it's so funny. This show is truly so well written. It's light funny not heavy or deep at all, but perfect for unwinding from a busy day!

The Blacklist is as good as always. Some serious stuff went down last week. 

Don't read ahead...possible spoiler. Although it ended last week and we still know absolutely nothing. But just in case... if you're worried... don't read any further. The one thing I love about this show is...this show is like a set of those Russian nesting dolls. With one doll inside the other doll and another inside that one. This show is about this lady she wants and needs to know many secrets. About who she is. Who her parents are. Yadayadayada, And each season you *think* you will finally find out who she is. And who her parents are/were. And *every* time you think..."ahh well we solved that mystery" You find out...there's more secrets and more lies inside. And we are back at square one and don't know jack squat! That happened again last week. Last season we thought she was Russian and had Russian spy parents? @_@ Or does she? Dundundun!!! And last week. Her boss took a DNA. Of Raymond and her and he said Raymond is her dad. @_@ And this pic shows she is all happy...she is hugging him warmly. Saying..."I don't mind if you are my dad, I'm just relieved knowing." And we think...yet again...well gee mystery solved. #notevenclose

And then the last scene is this one...where Raymond is talking with his #1 right hand man and he says..."Elizabeth *thinks* she's my daughter." @_@ Ummm....so was that just another lie on top of a lie on top of another lie? To infinity? I think so!!! Sounds like he's not her pops at all!!! That's why this show is so wildly popular. It's well written. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. You always wind..... right back at square 1..yet we really don't mind starting from square 1 every week. That's just how enjoyable this show is. Who is she? We still don't know. Who are her parents? Yep, we don't know that answer either! Again...I didn't give anything away... because even I don't know. They will probably string us along for a few more seasons and we'll enjoy every second of it. : ) Love this show! : ) 

Anyways...anything new to add? I am baking homemade peanut butter cookies today from scratch. I made the mixture about an hour ago and put it in the fridge for baking a bit later today. As soon as I came home from dropping off Noah from school, is when I made my cookie dough. Bran was dropped off much earlier. I had yogurt for breakfast (cherry flavor) I'm thinking about having an amazing filling salad for lunch today. And we had karaage for dinner last night. So I'm thinking of making baked ravioli for supper tonight. And we have those Costco dinner rolls, so I'll probably make some garlic rolls from those. Yummo! Alrighty, I have a walk to take. A house to clean. And a load of laundry ready to be tossed into my dryer. Talk to ya'll later. : ) 

Bits and pieces...

Hey ya'll. Noah gets out of school early today according to the school schedule, he gets out at 2:15pm today.  And I have to run to the cheap meat store and the regular grocery store, so I have definite places to motor to, before he gets out of school. So, if I am going to post today, I better do it quick! Super quick. : ) I just had 10 minutes yesterday to type that little blurb about the Broncos before I hit Inzai/Chiba New Town yesterday and went to Costco, Joyful Honda, Cainz, etc. But today I have a tad more time... but honestly not much. So what's up? How are things? Things here are great! Umm, last week...all last week and the week before, I had been thinking about moving the living room furniture around. And so last week in the evening after everyone was home, right after supper, but before showers, everyone helped me move/pick up the furniture and get things moved around. TV had to be set up, the computer spot didn't really move. But heavy things like the couch, my treadmill, the TV and TV stand etc had to be moved. This was a quick pic from that evening last week. 

The day after the furniture had been moved, I cleaned the living room. Just basic regular stuff, like dusting, cleaning the windows, again just regular stuff that gets done weekly anyway. Hi little silver mini minivan, Noboru's vehicle. : ) It's AWD/4WD, so perfect in snow, but while other parts of Japan have been in a winter wonderland, we haven't had a single flake in our town yet. Hahaha. : ) 

My dad's laptop has been slowly dying since July. But this past week, he called me and said, it was *really* for surely dying this time. It was now taking ions to let him check emails. Ions for his Skype to get up and running. He flat out told me..."Gina my computers nearly brain dead" We had talked about it over Thanksgiving and I told my dad, whenever he feels he needs a new one, since he's not very comfortable picking out a computer himself or ordering online. Which is understandable. I just said, that when the time comes, I would be happy to order him one. So when he called he said..."it's time to order it", so I went to Amazon.com and as you can see this is the #1 best seller for all laptops. It's a 15.6 inch screen, which is what he has now. And I felt for the price, plus considering the high reviews, I felt this was a good one for my dad. So, it's been ordered and should be there any day now. Noboru meanwhile...will be flying there as soon as possible, to set up my dad's new lap top for him and install Skype and stuff for my dad. Awww. : ) So we're making sure he's well taken care of. : ) So hopefully it gets there fast (I did pick expedited shipping) and Noboru can get everything set up for my dad. What else is up lately...

Noah needed new school socks. Which are just regular socks. : ) Pasceos has cheap prices for socks and stuff. The Adidas pair was 780yen and the other pair 580 yen for a 4 pack of socks.

4 new pair of underwear for Noah. 

The french sport brand we liked a lot...meanwhile the other pair/pack we were more so...meh on that 2 pack... but they were best of the slim selection.

Bran could not be left out either. : ) So 3 new underwear for B and a pack of JHS socks for him too. School socks for both the boys. And those are jean looking undies, Edwin jean looking undies, but soft. Hahaha. 

Saturday, last Saturday snow was expected for our town, but of course it didn't snow. : ) All Saturday, Bran and I studied. And in the afternoon Noah and I baked some cornbread. That is some melted butter on top. It was an absolutely freezing cold day here outside...but lucky for us with central heating and floor heating, it was toasty warm inside our house, but man...all weekend in fact... it was bone chilling cold outside. : ) But not a dot of snow for us. 

Branden needed to bring his inside shoes home on Friday, because he had the Eiken written test in Narita on Sunday. And that high school has no inside shoes to offer. His inside shoes he rarely brings home. So, I rarely get a chance to see how they look like. Meaning are they in good condition, these shoes? Bad condition? They looked trashed, big time! Like on their last legs, those shoes! So, a quick trip to the uniform shop in town and a new pair of inside shoes for Branden. Inside shoes for elementary kids in Japan, like Noah's inside school shoes are just like 200 yen to 500 yen a pair ($2-5US), near our area of Japan. So cheap. JHS inside shoes on the other hand are 3,000 yen, about $30 US, give or take a dollar depending on the exchange rate. However, I don't want my kid looking like Raggedy Ann or Raggedy Andy either! I told him, if anything starts looking bad...please bring it home and we'll replace it right away. Geeze Louise. : )  So done and done. : ) 

Our bottle...pump bottle has been the Biore body wash pump forever. However we have been using the refills of the Dove Shea and vanilla since...December or November? I forget. Doesn't matter really which month but we'll just say...for a while. : ) I was at the store yesterday. At Besia/Cainz in Inzai yesterday. And I saw this on sale and I said to myself..since we switched for sures this time. I'm gonna switch the bottle too. It's on sale, what the heck. So done and done. Ohhh, I also ordered the Dove Moisture oil shampoo and conditioner on Amazon.jp. It's 750 yen each bottle at the stores around here... but only 500 yen at Amazon and they also had a set for both bottles for 715yen or something but they're sold out, that set, so I didn't get the 2 for 715yen deal for both. But the bright side is...at least I bought the shampoo and conditioner cheaper via Amazon.jp for 500 yen each. And the free shipping was great too. : )  

Picked these up at Joyful Honda yesterday...I have been quite disappointed in the selection of stuff at Joyful Honda in Inzai lately. They had no Dove Moisture +Oxygen or oil shampoos at all. And they didn't have the Dove shea butter body wash either. A lot of the products they didn't have...that I was looking for. Hmm. Still like Joyful Honda... but they don't always have the newest items. recently released type products. This picture is, 2 air fresheners for our restroom, the scent is soap and it's light and we have one always in the downstairs toilet and one in the upstairs toilet. Biore hand soap, you can refill it 4 times. Dish soap. And kitchen cleaner, this is in an 800ml bottle and it goes into a spray bottle and I use the spray bottle. Anyway...it is always interesting to see what other products us mom's are using, I think. : )

Sunday, 9:30am was the check in time. 10am was the starting time for the test. We were there at 8am. We were second in line. And a ton of people were after us. This school has no parking lot. So you must find your own parking. And since Narita City is way more city-ish then our teeny tiny town of 5000 people. Finding parking is hard. Granted not like..Tokyo hard. But hard still. So getting there early is best. You must have an ID with a face on it. Since my son is only 14 and obviously has no drivers license or state ID like we'd have in the US (state ID). We take his USA passport. You must also have the little post card type thing they mailed to your house and have glued a tiny picture onto that. We did all that. For the 9:30am check in. There were kids taking the Eiken level 4, pre2 and pre1. This test was 2 hours. I said a few posts back...that it was a 3 hour test, I was wrong and I'm sorry. I'm human and it was 2 hours not 3 hours. It's quiet in the school. Everyone has an Eiken study book they bought at Tsutaya or something. : ) A bookstore. So you can see, where it says Eiken 4. The mom and daughter in front of us had a booklet that said pre2. : ) And the 2 people behind us had books that said pre1, same as Bran. Everyone brought their own inside shoes. And at precisely 9:30am check in started. Bran handed him his passport and little postcard sized paper with his pic on it. He stamped the postcard. After checking in.... the semi grouchy ladies at the end of the hall. Told everyone if you're taking the pre2 stand here!!! If you're taking the pre1 stand here!!! If you're taking the 4 stand here!!!" And then they later shouted to everyone stand in sets of 3's. @_@ Maybe they don't care for the Eiken folks testing at their school or I don't know what. But you can just sorta sense the whole vibe. I saw how they talked to everyone. They were nice to me. But, I did sorta not care for how they talked to everyone as a whole. They're the ones who don't want....any of the Eiken people to use their inside shoes. Fair enough. None of us go to that school. But eh. We were the first to stand in the Eiken pre1 line. An extremely nervous girl was next to Branden. And I do mean...an *extremely* nervous high school girl. Like taking huge deep breaths type nervous. And the 3rd person lined up in Branden's row was an older lady, mid 50's. She was taking the test too. Many adults were in line taking the pre1. This surprised me! I thought...you go lady! Good luck! Rock that test! So there were 3 people per line all near each other. I'd say 98-99% of everyone was 100% Japanese. I did see one...Indian looking high school boy (just trying to give you a visual) get in the line of the Eiken 4 though. He was very thin but tall, wearing a high school uniform. And I did see a white papa with a hafu child. A son. About 6th grade maybe. : ) He didn't dress like an American papa would. So, maybe he was British or something. : ) He saw me later and smiled at me and I smiled at him.  

Branden did say though, that he went to the restroom before the test started while he was in the line, he left his shoe bag there to save his spot, smart kid! : ) Anyway while in the bathroom, some western kid. I asked him hafu kid? He said nope a totally western one. Was in the bathroom and he had walked leaving something behind. Branden called to him.."hey you left this here" he went back and got it. And he said...thank you! and the kid was happy and said what's your name and he said my name is Branden. He said, where are you from? Branden apparently told him, My mom's American and my dad's Japanese, I'm hafu but I was born in Hawaii and I live here in Japan. The boy was like, I'm Irish! Branden said he ended up going in line with Branden and they chatted for the entire time until they went upstairs to take their tests. So very cool Bran met a nice kid to talk to. We did leave after making sure Bran was signed in and in the right lane/line. We walked to McDonald's near the Narita train station. Because sitting in the holding area/waiting area for 2 long hours. Meh. Oh we did go to the closer McD before arriving near the eiken testing spot and Bran ate a sausage McMuffin along the way in the car. And he did have a donut and milk at home before we left. So Bran ate, but we didn't. And Noboru had never went to the Eiken test before, like we did last year. After he saw how difficult it was....about the parking situation. he said...yeah we can't leave and risk not having a parking space. So that's why we walked to McD's. Sunday about 9:40am.

It was literally -1C, like 31 degrees F. It was a very cold walk. And the wind just cuts right through your clothes. Your cheeks are like frozen solid. We ordered our food and went upstairs. 

I had the pancakes and a hot coffee. Noah had a sausage Mcmuffin with egg, sides you have a choice now... so he picked chicken nuggets instead of has browns. Noboru sat next to Noah and my bag sat next to me. : ) And Noboru's coat sat next to me too. : )

This says you are a parent of someone taking the Eiken. Clearly Noah's not a parent, lol. But he's a brother. We all had to wear these, nobody is allowed in the building without a registered family member tetsing. The sticky power on the Eiken stickers like on Noah's coat in this pic... is not so great. So Noah and I just left ours on during our walk to breakfast and at breakfast. Noah's fell off last year so we already knew. Noboru took his off and it never stuck back onto his coat again. Hahaha. : )  We walked back to the high school. And went into the waiting room. It's a classroom and they have an old gas heater set up for us parents. Oh...the people at the Eiken said. "today 100 people will be taking the Eiken pre1." So lots of people today... so go into rows of 3. That's why I remember they said 100 people were taking the pre1. Hahaha. The test ended at 12 sharp. Bran knows to go to the waiting area after.... and he went in and gave us all a smile and we left. He was a real chatter box afterwards. He said how he met that nice English speaking kid. While everything was still fresh in his mind...I asked him...what was the email? He said it was a lady emailing saying she was thinking about having her son take a cooking class and what were his thoughts on that? Hahaha. Okay, I said. And he said one of the big paragraphs was about Bonnie and Clyde. As we were exiting the building. The next set of kids were in line to check in for their test. Eiken 5 and Eiken something else, I forget and Eiken 1. The actual Eiken 1. It said that only 24 people were taking the Eiken 1 that day. Wow only 24 is quite a low number. As we were leaving the building Branden and Noah whispered quickly... that kid up ahead is from our town. Bran said fastly... he's a 7th grader Noah chimed in...a very short 7th grader... Branden said I know right (to be fair he was like a 5th grader type tall so he was very short, didn't look like a JHS kid at all). I had zero idea who that kid or mom was. But they made eye contact with us. I didn't *really* know them... type know them. So, I didn't wanna wave and be all too smiley, ykwim. But I did give her eye contact and gave ...like an itty bitty head nod type a thing. More like a...I acknowledge you and I am not totally blowing you off... type of a nod. Not a...we're best friends in the whole universe type greeting because duh...we're not. But...an acknowledgement, at least. And she did the same as we passed. That way...at least she knows I'm not a jerk... who blew her off. Thank god the kids mentioned them... otherwise I would have walked right passed. When people wear face masks or scarves covering half their faces...and you barely know them... to begin with. I mean...geeze. But yeah..I am glad I at very least...I basically gave a conservative Japanese version of a...hey or howdy. Just a tiny head nod at least. We went to ramen afterwards. Our favorite ramen shop. I was really in the mood for ramen and we seldom have it and Bran mentioned wanting to eat some on Friday. So, since he just finished the Eiken, we asked him what he'd like for lunch...and he said ramen. I was relaly thinking ramen too We all wanted ramen for lunch that day. : ) So anyways...long story short., The Eiken pre 1 is over. When will we find out how he did? 2-3 weeks. as soon as I know...I'll let you all know. 

This is what I brought back form Costco yesterday. Pancakes for breakfast this morning. Minestrone soup, 12 cans of that. A rotisserie chicken for last nights dinner. Finely milled black pepper. Laundry soap and tortillas. We had rotisserie type fajitas or soft tacos last night. Type a meal. We had it with salsa, sour cream, grated cheese pictured here. Spanish rice. It was very filling last night. And quick and easy. Anyway, I have to run... to do some shopping before Noah gets out at 2:15pm today. 

Edited to add: I didn't post this earlier this morning as planned. I instead kept is as a draft and ran to the store. I am home now. And since I will be leaving to the plaza at 1:45pm to get Noah, I better just real quick...post this now. I picked up so much meat. 2 small lean beef loins for beef stew. Nice medium/thick sliced pork for ginger pork for tonight and for their lunch tomorrow for school. Tons of chicken breast (karaage happening and tandoori chicken happening too). Curry seasoned chicken, cheese and herb seasoned chicken already with spices on it. And some sliced beef for yakiniku for their lunch box for lunch Friday. Tonight we'll have ginger pork. And I'm thinking tomorrow a nice hearty beef stew. 

The Fault In Our Stars. A Million Ways to Die in the West and Divergent...

I forget when exactly, last week of May I think. Anyway when I placed that order on Amazon.com for some birthday goodies for Noah and considering I was already paying shipping anyway, I decided it would be a perfect time to order a few DVDs I had been wanting too. If I were living in the US, I am sure I would have seen these at the movies already. But since they're not out yet here and no idea when they'll even get to Japan, just better for me personally to order them when I did. Divergent was out in movie theaters in the US in March. It's a trilogy, these books were pretty hot last year or so ago. As far as trilogy's go, I really liked Twilight (even though movie wise they were broken into 4, book wise they were 3 and same for the Hunger Games too, love those movies too) Divergent looked like my type of movie. So that's why I ordered that. It won't even be released on DVD in the US until August 5th but that's okay as long as I know a copy is being shipped to me here, I don't mind the wait. : ) A Million Ways to Die in the West. From the creator of Family Guy and the movie Ted. This type of humor isn't for everybody but honestly it's my type of humor! I really get Seth McFarlane's stuff, it cracks Noboru and I up to no end and so I know this will be a movie we both are really into. The Fault in Our Stars. Having American TV here at my house, means I saw the commercials for this like crazy before it was released in the US, I knew it would be a good story/movie... a real tear jerker (this was originally a book too of course). Same lead actress in this, as in Divergent for what it's worth. So yeah, I am really looking forward to watching The Fault in our Stars, I might really need a box of tissues for this movie, I think. : ) When will they get to me? Divergent in August sometime, and for the other 2, gosh could even be the Fall. Again this way...I know my copies have been ordered and this way it saved me the shipping, I think we paid $12-15 US for shipping for all of Noah's stuff including these 3 DVDs. It was just a dollar or two more if I included these in that shipment versus paying a whole other $12-15 or so for shipping if waited until August. I wish Amazon.com would lower their shipping rates for international customers, shipping rates/prices used to be much cheaper a few years back. I know, I for one would shop from them more often, then the 3-4 times a year I do now. 

Frozen was available to ship immediately so we received this when we received Noah's birthday goodies.  Anyway, am looking forward to those 3 DVDs in the pic up above, to be released on DVD so ours can be sent to us. : ) I really do enjoy a good movie. : ) And Maleficent like I said, as soon as it's released on DVD, I'll be purchasing that one on DVD as well. : ) But given the shipping, I'll probably wait until I place a Christmas order in the Fall or maybe on Black Friday. : )

ETA: Talk about a weird coincidence, I just got an updated email from Amazon.com (since I posted this) regarding The Fault in Our Stars ship dates just now, as of today it says I should be getting this DVD mid September-October. Cool, nice to know. : )