Lunch date with the hubster and trying to get our summer vacation plans sorted out...

Yesterday, Noboru and I had a lunch date. We went and had Indian food for lunch, at our favorite restaurant, in the small city, nearest our town. I had the kobocha curry (of course, my fave) it was a combo/set. Noboru picked the pork keema curry set. It was a very nice lunch. And we got to chit chat, enjoy each others company. And try to figure... this vacation stuff out. : )

What else have I done this week, went for my walks....cleaned the shower/tub area. Scrubbed the toilets, vacuumed upstairs, and dusted upstairs. Washed the kids bedding. Just regular ol' boring things. : ) I also went and picked up a weeks worth of groceries. Let me grab my menu real quick and fill you all in, brb (be right back) Tonight/Thursday, we are having, ginger pork, yep we had it last Saturday, was it Saturday?...I know it was within the last week though, but we love it and so we will have it tonight, with salad and veggies and stuff and rice of course too, Friday/tomorrow, we will be having yakisoba (already have the cabbage and bean sprouts). Saturday....will be comfort food city for us....we're having southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and broccoli on the side (yumm) And the last 3 meals we are having and which I already have the meat and ingredients for....is chicken teriyaki, chicken paremsan and that chicken fettuccine alfredo dish with broccoli, do you know which one I mean...I use those packets I brought back from Guam, it's really super good and fairly easy to make. The last 3 meals I am unsure which days or order we will have those.

Vacation. Where to go, what to decide. Here's the nitty gritty. And again..I often wonder. Should I keep this stuff private or should I share this. But in any case, here you go. Of course only read this if you're interested or curious if not, no worries.

If I lived in my home country. Our vacations would...I would hope they would be...of us going to far off places. Exotic countries. Having new experiences. And whatnot. You know what I mean, I hope. However...since I am living in a foreign country. And I live in a far off land. And while I am busy all year long doing...mommy stuff...life stuff. I do get homesick every once in a while. I do miss being in my home country. I miss walking in a Target or shopping mall. And hear English everywhere. To walk into a Chik-fil-A and appreciate how good those are. Or go to a movie without wondering...is this movie available in English. It is those tiny minute details. That I miss. For example...When you are standing in line at a Target and can have a conversation no matter how brief with the person checking out in front of you or the cashier. In your native language. So...while I do pretty good in Japan. Often it's just easier for us to go to the US during our summer vacation. It's familiar. It's comfortable. I "get" the people. They get me.  It's just like a huge exhale type of..... Phew! So...in that respect... we don't venture to too many far off places. Because it's that 1 time of year we can just all let our hair down to speak. And not worry. Omg... did they understand me fully and completely. We are also water people and beach people. So for us it seems Hawaii is most comfortable. and we go there for the most part... every single summer. In fact we can go this year if we decide in the end too. However...here's the new updated thoughts, we have been debating.

We have been wanting to go to California since last year. Do you remember how we originally last year... wanted to go to Universal Studios Hollywood. That was our #1 goal of last years summer vacation but...since I was a VP of the yakuin last year... I had ZERO flexibility in my schedule so...the only available days for me...was a very small window of days and so we tried for those days and we didn't get on the flight and the long drive back from Haneda airport. The huge disappointment and last minute hotel booking and the very next day we zipped off to Hawaii. Hawaii has never let us down. Hahaha. Oahu is the best. : ) However...we want to try getting to Universal Studios in California again this year.  that is one of our hopeful places. But let me tell you all the positives for us going and all the negatives. #1, I have gone to Universal Studios when I was a child. Younger than Branden is now, but I think a year older than Noah is right now. I was maybe in the 5th or 6th grade maybe. @_@ So, I went to Universal Studios about a billion years ago, I know it has changed a ton. Hello...I saw KITT from Knight Rider there, lol. Noboru meanwhile went once about a million years ago too. Noboru and I have never been to Universal Studios Hollywood together before. We have gone to USJ twice, once with only Branden (pre-Noah being born) and once when Noah was super duper little. Neither son has any memory of USJ at all. But, both have seen pictures. : ) If we go to California. The positive is we go to my home country. Noboru lived there for 12-13 years so he's comfortable in America too. We 4 are all very comfortable in California. We have In N Out Burger. We have El Pollo Loco. Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits. They have China Town, Olvera Street (I blogged about that street before)...Target, Walmart. Shopping malls. Factory Outlet malls. Beaches are sorta ugly compared to Hawaii, so am not sure if we'd go. We could go to movies. On top of that, we'd hit Universal Studios. So, we'd have a very fantastic vacation in California. Another plus is the 9 hour or so flight...do you know how many free movies we can watch on the airplane, in that amount of time back and forth, to and from, tons. Plus that hot fudge or strawberry sundae dessert cart they roll around. Amazing. Okay get ready for the cons.

Will the lines be super long at Universal Studios? It will be summer in America too. And if the lines are super long... we might have to spring for those expensive front of the line passes which pretty much doubles your entrance fee. Which we really do not want to pay double. So the long lines are a huge worry. Also crime. Noboru feels Japan is very safe. He feels pretty safe-ish in Hawaii too. He also feels totally safe in Guam. However...don't ask me why. Whenever we go to California Noboru is on super extreme high alert. He feels or worries... we will be robbed...killed. Shot in a drive by. @_@ Lock the doors, lock the doors. I mean this guy...though wonderful... is on super level red... level 10 out of 10...type alert when we go to California (he doesn't worry in Denver and didn't worry when we went to Oregon either). When in California...he is constantly telling me to keep my bag in the front of my body, lol. Another thing...the US dollar and Japanese yen exchange rate at the moment, is terrible. Not good! Perfect time for Americans to come to Japan. Horrendous time for us from Japan, to go to the US. Granted, we can most definitely go, we wait all year for this trip, we're ready. It's just not the best time for the yen. Exchange rate wise. However, we would be staying at a crew hotel in a very nice suburb area. So that would probably ease Noboru's worry of crime. OMG, lol. @_@ : )  We'd fly Delta, so it's obviously for us...going to be a pretty much free flight for us 4, round trip. And since we'd be staying at an amazing hotel...meaning high rating via Trip Advisor and Expedia, the regular rate is $100 US a night... but with our airline discount it would be like $60 a night. Very affordable for us. And we like affordable! : ) So flight and hotel costs... for us would be super cheap even considering the exchange rate. So this trip is still very easily doable. And with us taking our own airline versus taking an OA (other airline) it means we can find out if the flight is full, switch flights and whatnot. Plus there's like 2 flights via Narita and 1 flight via Haneda. So us getting there... would be easy with so many flights daily and with me not being yakuin this year... we are super flexible schedule wise.

So would the kids love Universal Studios...heck yes. However will we be in huge hours upon hours long lines, per each ride. Biggest worry for me. Gosh, I really hope not. And that's 1 thing, the lines...wait times for each ride... that's really worrying us. So we have been watching videos of families on vacation there in July. We look for on videos...are they in long crowds??? Is it like a huge long wait time??? So those are some of our thoughts on California.

2nd destination thought. South Korea. #1 you have to know how HUGELY popular Korea is right now. If you are in the US, Just a walk into your closest Neiman Marcus or Nordies and you'll notice the famous brand....Sulwhasoo being sold there. For those of you who do not know. Think of Sulwhasoo as Korea's Chanel for skincare and cosmetics. It's owned by Amore Pacific. They sell many many brands. From high end brands, like Amore and Sulwhasoo and Hera (those are Amore Pacific's top 3 high end brands). The mid brands like Laneige (you may recognize that brand being sold in the US at Target.) They also sell Aritaum, mid range brand Innisfree too.... all the way down to the more affordable Etude House which yes..is also owned by Amorepacific. They own Iope (the first brand to come out with the cushion foundation. Anyway...what I want to say is Korea is huge right now. Hella huge! Popular. Walk into a Sephora and spot all the Korean brands now being sold there. Anyway here's the pros for us going to Korea. Noboru and I, took the kids to Korea when Noah was about 1 or under 1. I know it was in like November. I know I blogged about it. Noah was super tiny. Branden was like 3 or 4 years old. Neither of the kids obviously have any memory of going there. Also at the time I went, I was not into skincare or cosmetics really at all. Doh me!!! I walked right passed all those great shops that now...I can just kick myself for not going into. Hahaha. : ) The biggest pro..for me is...remember how that 1 time we went to Bangkok Thailand? The kids clearly remember going there.. for what it's worth hahaha. However, I'm not from Bangkok neither is Noboru, obviously...and for us going to a 3rd country (neither of our home country's)...was so exciting and fun for us as a family. A country none of us speak the language. Were... we daring enough to go and order this or that? I tell ya...our trip was very fun going to Bangkok. We couldn't read the signs. At the supermarket while most stuff was clear what it was...some stuff was a guess and that was fun! If we went to Korea...we would have that same excitement....the whole...neither of us speaks Korean or is from Korea. But it's so exciting...who is going to order our breakfast today...should I try? Should we send Noboru to go and order some food? Should we put Branden to the test and let him try ordering in Korea? I do have a Korean phrase book from our last trip. Which we left the phrasebook at home. LOL. But it is that whole...going to a 3rd country (neither his nor mine)...that excitement and fun, vibe you get. Where you REALLY REALLY feel like...wow... we are so totally on vacation here. Also South Korea is very safe. It's about as safe as Japan. So again...no fear of being robbed or shot in a drive by there. @_@ You know what I mean. Of course as always, we will always...be careful. Also the exchange rate between Korea and Japan is pretty much... dollar for dollar. Yen for won. So we wouldn't lose 20 cents to each dollar. That sort of thing. Also...they have amusement parks. We would like very much to go to Everland. They also have the world's biggest indoor amusement park called Lotte World. However we would like to go to Everland. Also I think the lines would probably be less than...Universal Studios hahaha. though, I could be wrong about the lines. All those fabulous skincare and cosmetic shops. Innisfree, Nature Republic, Aritaum, Skinfood, Missha, The Saem, Banila Co, Sulwhasoo, Clio, It's Skin. Plus...all those one of a kind shops that sell cool purses and bags. And accessories and whatnot. Plus, since this is vacation...we could walk all over the food markets. We could ride the subways and trains and sight see. And eat street food (vendors selling food at stalls all over)...the whole buzz and vibe of being in a 3rd country, is very cool. Having absolute zero familiarity there. Making mistakes. Did we...just order the wrong thing? What a laugh we'd get! It would flat out feel like...a very fun vacation. We'd be there for a full week. I'd probably only use 1 day to shop for cool skincare and cosmetics...I shop quick... so the rest of our days would be...just really cool. Just bumming around and eating new foods...taking tons of pics. Going to a new to us, amusement park.

The cons for going to Korea. We would not be using Delta. However we would use our miles and we'd use the mileage and on top of that...we would only pay around 10,000 yen ($100 US...that would be the extra cash our mileage would not cover, so again cheap for us) however they would be confirmed seats. Granted crappy economy seats, but at least we'd get there, so no worries. And...the flight is very short. So that would be fine. No time for tons of movies in flight, bummer. Hotels are slightly higher in cost in Korea because...in Asia...most hotel rooms have twin beds. In America it is common to get a room with 2 double beds or sometimes even 2 queen beds. But in Korea and even Japan too. It is common to see rooms with only 2 twin beds,  You can't fit Noboru, me, Bran and Noah in 2 tiny twin beds you want to move around in bed and stretch too, ykwim. And so we have to get a larger room with an extra bed and so the cost is about 10,000-12,000 yen a night. So higher yes...but nothing you can do... really about it... since rooms with 2 double beds are uncommon. Also...we worry..what if Everland is a lame amusement park. Though it doesn't look too terribly lame by the videos we've seen. So again...we crank up YouTube.....any videos. And we look and see. No real cons really about going to Korea. Except bed issues... so the hotels are slightly more expensive. And again we want a clean place/hotel with great reviews off Trip Advisor and Expedia, and we have so far 2 hotels we'd like to pick from. And they have 3 twin beds in each room and the kids would share 1 twin bed, which would be acceptable. Wish we could fly Delta. But other than that... no real huge...blinking reason not to go. Again we went to Bangkok and didn't go to *any* amusement park and we didn't care...we also didn't hit the beach but you know what...we had a BLAST being in Bangkok, and I sorta think no matter what...we'd have a blast in Korea too.

So...do we stick with familiar and go to California. Or do we spice things up and take a leap of faith and head to South Korea. Both places have many pros and many cons. Also, you may not enter Korea without having at least 6 months left on your passport (expiration), meaning if your passport expires within 6 months while entering Korea, you may not enter. So...we know the boys do not have 6 months left on their passports, which is why we need to run to the US Embassy. Going to America, on the other hand, with an American passport, that will expire at the end of summer, would not matter for the boys, because they are American citizens, and are most welcome anytime, regardless, when their passport expires, whether it be, in 1 month, 1 week. And same for them entering Japan, because they are citizens of both. However...the kids entering Korea with less than 6 months on their passports, since they are just visitors, would cause major problems. So...the passports have to get done. Even though we are unsure of which country right now...it's best either way... to get their passports done now.  Sigh. This is a really hard decision you guys. Some days we go...we're going to California. All the delicious food, the familiarity, Universal Studios, movies etc. And then 2 days later we'll be like...screw it...let's go to Korea and see what we think...I mean...we haven't been there in like 10 years. And what do the kids think? Noah wants to go to Korea. Branden prefers California. But both really honestly don't care...one way or the other...they're just glad to be going someplace. Before we went to Bangkok 2 years ago, the kids were like..."meh Bangkok." Not to make them sound ungrateful or anything, because they're not. They appreciate how lucky they are. But the reason I mention it is... after leaving Bangkok, they were like..."Bangkok is so cool!!!" They learned *so* much from that trip and saw so much. Even now 2 years later, they still sometimes will bring up Bangkok. So...I imagine...they'd learn new stuff....too, if we went to Korea. Well... as for right now...we have not decided which place to go. When would we be going...First, 2nd or at the latest the 3rd week of July. We will go before school lets out in Japan. Because...all Noboru's coworkers battle it out...for those vacation weeks when school is on break here in Japan. but nobody requests days off... before school lets out. This way....if we can avoid...battling and vying for vacation days with his coworkers... fantastic and all the better for us.  Last year...I was only available after the summer festival was over and after school was on summer break. Which really boxed in our days. Now we can go any day. Huge difference since last year. : )  Should we go to California and hit Universal Studios. The Transformers ride, Despicable Me ride, The Simpsons ride, etc, hit Sephora and Target, etc etc. Or go to a new and exciting country. And see many many new things, have many new experiences, try many new and delicious foods. Noboru and I have never taken this long to decide before...like ever. We're always really good at deciding and moving on. The problem this time...both places sound so freaking good, we can't really decide which place to try. There's also always plan C....and we can say forget both places and just go to Honolulu. LOL. Anyways...we are having 1 heck of a hard time trying to get this all figured out, you guys.

Anything else left to add...I have an appointment next Thursday, for a haircut and color. : ) 

Lunch date with my husband

April 15th, Noboru and I went out for a lunch date. We went to the Shisui Premium Outlets. Not to shop! : ) We went because it's a fairly new outlet mall near Narita, they have Cold Stone, California Pizza Kitchen and some popular caramel popcorn type shop called, Garrett. So with the boys at school, we went for our date. 

They have 2 regular EV chargers and 1 quick charger! We used the quick charger that morning. 

Yep, you've seen that card before, we have that card and I posted a pic a few weeks back.

She has 2 chargers, the one on the left is for a quick charge and the one on the right is for a regular/normal charge.

So we plugged her up and she was ready to have herself a free lunch... while we went to check out the food court! : )

California Pizza Kitchen, glad we have one near us now, but the prices were a bit high. 1200-1500 yen for a personal sized pizza and the drinks were almost 400 yen, 380 yen or something like that. $30 bucks (US) for the both of us, for lunch is a bit high in my opinion, for dinner $30 would be fine once in a while, but for lunch? So we ended up not having lunch at the mall at all. Hahaha. But the bright side is...we at least got to look around. 

The Cold Stone lacked a lot of the signature combinations like the one in America has...no "That's How We Roll" (the cinnamon roll one which is my fave...no Birthday Cake either. Pretty disappointed with the options Cold Stone in Japan has.

The bright side is, we did get to walk around, so we got some good exercise that morning and the car got to charge for free. So not a total waste. 

Inside the food court, it is pretty though.

Yep, Narita! : )

Cold Stone.

Such a small menu, versus the one we're used to seeing in Guam.

A lady checking out the prices at California Pizza Kitchen, we did the same thing too.

Look at this line and it's barely 10:30am-ish, hahaha. According to Noboru there are only 3 Garrett Popcorn shops in all of Japan. We are lucky that 1 is near us. However, I must say the prices are absurd so I am glad, we tried it once at least, however we probably would never buy it again, because the small amount you get for the price is just not such a great deal. Just too expensive for the little amount you get.

We ended up going to the Ohsho for lunch and we had very nice affordable lunch sets. I picked this. Fried rice, karaage (Japanese style chicken nuggets), egg drop soup and salad for 679 yen ( about $6.79 US).

The chicken is all white meat and so good. : ) All in all, a nice day, a very nice walk around an outlet shopping mall. We did buy 1 medium bag of popcorn, plus we had lunch at the Ohsho and had a nice time with one another all morning and afternoon. : )

Look how small this bag of popcorn is you guys and would you believe this is a size medium!!! @.@ This was close to 1000 yen ($10 US) Never ever ever again. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious... but not $10 delicious, let's put it that way! Hahaha. : )

Noboru told me...the popcorn at Tokyo Disneyland's actually cheaper, and we both laughed! And it is...especially if you have a refill bucket like we do! lol. Oh well, bright side is, we had ourselves a lovely date. : )

Lunch date with the hubster. Pizza Hut and enjoying the weekend. Potato and zucchini update. Upcoming...Observation Day, Big health exam and Oblivion at the movies, this coming Saturday

Last Thursday, May 23rd, 2013. Noboru and I went on a lunch date.  We went to Cocoichi curry. It was great. I had the basic pork curry (you can have a choice of pork or beef) and I had veggies. So pork and vegetable curry for me. And Noboru had tonkatsu curry. And fries were 100 yen and so we munched some while we waited. It was a nice lunch last Thursday. : )

The new Dexter seventh season was just released on DVD mid May and it was shipped to me as soon as possible. Quite happy to catch up with these. : )

Last Friday was trash day and so I decided to also clean the heck out of the trash can. : )

Rinsed the trash can, then I filled it up with about a half cup of Gain scented Mr. Clean and a whole lotta water, let it soak and then I rinsed it twice. I Clorox wiped the lid, Orange Cleaned the lid and then Clorox wiped the lid one more time for good measure. ; )

Let it dry on the back patio, then ran upstairs to wash my hands and get the laundry out of the washing machine.

First load from last Friday. Swimming towels and bath towels of Branden and Noah's. 1 pair of shorts each and 1 shirt/top each, basically what they wore from the day before.  The trash can was on the patio also at this time. After the trash can dried though, I brought it back into the kitchen.

Second and last load of last Friday. Every body's pillow case in the entire house, including the 2 pillows we keep on the couch. Noboru's bath towel (yellow stripe) my bath towel (blue stripe) and both Branden and Noah's swimming cap and swimming trunks (swim school uniform). And Noboru's gray house shorts with orange stripe on the bottom pole. House was cleaned and ready for the weekend.

Friday night, Noboru went to his Father's Club gathering. And the boys and I had the frozen lasagna, a simple salad and 1 baguette from the bakery, which I made into garlic bread. Meanwhile, Saturday, Noboru wanted to relax at home with us and have movie night, and we did too. So we decided what the heck. : ) And we ordered some Pizza Hut for dinner Saturday evening. Weekends are for relaxing, and I couldn't agree more. Monday through Friday I'll go back to the ol' grind and cooking regular meals and cleaning up. But yeah, a weekend for enjoying some pizza and whatnot. For sure. : )

We had a large order of baked fries.

We had 2 large pepperoni and mushroom pan pizzas. Japanese size large/ American size medium. And we even bought a couple bags of curry potatoes chips and we also had a nice sized bowl of fresh crunchy sweet grapes for movie night also, after everyone took turns showering and stuff of course. Saturday night was awesome. Very relaxing, very fun.

Sunday was a bit of a time crunch. From 9am-10am we did community street cleaning. Yet at 9:30am to 12 noon the boys had the kodomo kai (like a kids party for the kids that attend our town/local elementary school) at the plaza. So, I went out and pulled weeds in the empty lot next to us and swept the street, chatted with my neighbors etc from 8:50am. And then at 9:17, I left, went and dropped off Branden and Noah at the kodomo kai. And then I came back home. By now it was 9:45am-ish. And it was ending as I was pulling the car back into the drive way. The boy next door and his brother are quite shy in real life and so they prefer stay home inside most days, so their mom told us, her sons weren't going to the Kodomo kai, which is fine every kid is different and that's okay. And Rin's dad was dropping off their 2 boys, they're pretty out going. Branden and Noah wanted to go too. And you had to check it off on the kairanban weeks in advance, about the kodomo kai.  Meanwhile. Noboru being the hancho (block leader) and Fuku kaicho (community VP) he was busy so I was the only ride for Branden and Noah, so yeah I did have a 20 minute absence but all my neighbors understood. I was actually talking to my girlfriend on the next block last week and we both were both wondering about these 2 things, community cleanup and kodomo kai all happening on the same day virtually similar times, maybe someone didn't realize it until it was too late. I know many mom's could not street clean at all which is because they were working the kodomo kai. Anyway, not really a big deal really.... when you think about it, but yeah....it was just unusual both things fell on the same day. I'm lucky all my neighbors are cool and the grandma next door knew about the kodomo kai and they all said, "no we understand you go ahead and go, we'll take care of the rest" : ) So....I cruised there and back.  Anyway....this is Noah's stuff he brought back from the kodomo kai. Each child gets a card it has many spots to stamp, 1 is for  a free soda, when you get it they stamp your card. Free hot dog. Free balloon... fishing game and if you use it, they stamp your card. That type of thing. And at the end... everyone gets a bag of snacks. So this is Noah's. Corn and lemon eraser. There was also popped popcorn and everything for the kids to enjoy for free. The mom's handling this event always do a great job.

These were Branden's things he brought back. And his 2 erasers were a chocolate ice cream and grape eraser. Anyway the boys had themselves a blast. I went and picked them up, when it was over. And brought them home. : ) The Jinbei boy was at the kodomo kai event too. And around 12:30pm. After everyone ate lunch. he rang our doorbell. Jinbei boy and his little (5th grade) sister wanted to play tennis with Branden and Noah. They came with rackets. The boys were like, right on! They grabbed their hats and their tennis rackets also and cell phone and went to the tennis court area in our housing community. They played for the afternoon. I meanwhile watched a few episodes of Dexter. : )

The weekly potato progress report. hahaha. Update. ; ) They are pretty big. They flowered already. Their leaves look healthy and green.

Really tall.

Did the zucchini not double in size, since last week? I'm right, right? lol. I looked at that pic from last week and yeah it totally looks twice the size. And also look at the plant to the left, see a small yellow flower? : )  Yay.

Many teeny tiny zucchini on here already.

Anything else to add, hold on, let me rack my brain here for a second. : ) Ah!

I have my great big health check up this coming Thursday morning. Barium anyone? Blech. : ) Necessary of course, but still. Yuck. : ) Will be glad when it's done and won't have to think about the taste for another year. : )

Branden and Noah have observation day this coming Wednesday. And it's also disaster drill practice. Where all parents show up and walk the kiddos home. I will be there. : )

Our family is going to the movies this coming Saturday. We're going to see Oblivion with Tom Cruise. It looks good and like our cup of tea, as far as movies go. Anyway, that's what's up around here. : )

 

An update of sorts

Noah is at his ensoku/field trip today. He will be dropped off at the entrance of our housing community along with, the other kiddos who live in this housing community, so I will be walking down the ped path around 1:55pm today, his arrival time is at 2pm. But I know it takes me a couple minutes to walk the ped path and around and past the tennis courts etc. What else, their observation day on Saturday was awesome. So, expect an "observation post" coming next and then an ensoku post coming after that. : )  This is another "bits and pieces" post. Anyway, this pic is of lunch last Friday. Last Friday, Noboru and I went out, on our weekly lunch date. We went to our favorite ramen shop. Noboru had ramen and I had ramen also, I had the tantanmen, without meat. We shared gyoza and fries. And we both had melon sodas.  Anyway that was our lunch last Friday afternoon.

What else have I been up to lately? This pic is 2 fold really. ; )  All the Brat Pack movies have been on TV a lot lately and I love all these movies. All the John Hughes movies are great. So, the other night, I watched 16 candles (not pictured). Hilarious movie! And Jake Ryan!!!! I think many of us Gen X'ers had a huge crush on the character Jake Ryan. ; )  Anyway, flipped through the channels again another night and as luck would have it, Breakfast Club was playing with 16 Candles playing right behind it again. Didn't watch 16 Candles that night again granted, but I watched The Breakfast Club.  The jock/Sporto, the dweeb, Molly/Claire and her sushi obento, lol. : ) and Ally Sheedy and her dandruff hair, she put and shook onto her picture. : )And Judd Nelson. Oh yeah and I changed the furniture in the living room. You can tell a pinch by this pic, I think. So, I am kicking butt on the Spring cleaning so far too. ; )

The Yuka-sensei had brought gifts to her former students. Meaning Noah's class. She's teaching at a different school now.

A notebook and an eraser. And a good bye letter.

She had given everyone in her former class this letter with class picture and at the bottom right, a personal note to each child. The bigger bolder words above the picture says "thank you and I love you!" Awwww! : ) I think her giving this note to each of her former students was amazing. Noah for one, read the entire note and especially her words and special message to him. He asked me to put this in his school scrapbook and I did. : )

It basically says, she knows he will be a big help to the new ichinensei. And she asks him if he will play dodge ball with them? : ) And she says to Noah, that he is so good at sports. But, anyway, her message meant the absolute world to him. Our school will miss her and on a personal note, Branden and Noah will miss her. : )

I am always cooking something around here. It can be Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Italian, American, etc, I mean seriously you never know what you'll find if you show up for dinner at our house! Hahaha.  I had been dying to make pork carnitas for like...forever! Having eaten carnitas in many yummy restaurants in Colorado and California. I have been really wanting to eat some. However, I have never made them before in my entire life. Do I know what good ones taste like? Yes, for sure. But it doesn't mean I know how to cook them though. lol. ; ) So, I started a month ago, reading all over online. All recipes. Other websites. But basically the highest rated recipes I bookmarked and then I started to notice similarities in cooking the pork. Just similarities in the recipes. So, I finally decided I'm going to make them. And if they're great, they're great and if they suck, they'll suck! Hahaha. But they turned out amazing! I actually even surprised myself with how well they turned out. In this pic is seasoned pork. I just cut a good amount of fresh cilantro to add into the salsa. Grated some cheese.

I also boiled a little batch of beans and refried them easily. And dinner was pretty easy.

Bean, seasoned pork, lettuce, cheese, salsa with fresh cilantro. They were great. And Noboru ate about 5 of these. Branden had 4 and Noah had 3. I had 4 too. Very filling and I will definitely make these again for sure.

A common meal we often have here at our house is chicken parmesan. However I haven't made it in a while. Month and a half maybe. So, Noboru finally asked, can you make that again. : ) So, I did. I made this just a couple days ago. I had my Italian breadcrumbs. Dipped the chicken in egg then the Italian seasonings and breadcrumbs and then fried in a skillet of olive oil.  Then I baked them in the oven.

We are a family of 4 but I made 6 chicken parmesan. So Noboru could take obento the next day with salad and garlic bread. I also had 1 for lunch the next day also.

On top of a bed of pasta. It's filling, very filling. We had this with garlic bread and a simple salad with some vinaigrette.

Towels drying outside on another day. And also the thing on the front pole is the table cloth for the kitchen table. That day, I mopped the heck out of the kitchen floors and dusted and cleaned the windows in the kitchen and figured, might as well wash the table cloth. : )  So my Spring cleaning is indeed slowly but surely getting there.

My boys love to read! I made it a point to read to them at bed time each night, their entire lives and even now, I go into each of their rooms and let them read to me every night. Or sometimes we take turns reading pages. So needless to say, Branden and Noah needed some new reading material. : ) Nothing an order to Amazon.com can't help fix. : )

Two Shark books. I specifically picked the book on the left for Noah and the book on the right for Branden. But they can switch and share no doubt.

This is Noah's book. Slightly simpler reading since he's younger, but for his age group though, no doubt. And very big close up pictures which I know they both enjoy.

This one has a lot of fantastic pictures, but has a lot more text also because it is a book for an older aged child. And it answers a lot of questions Branden might have. And explain things a bit better for his age bracket.

For each shark it gives a "danger rating" and it's fun for Noah to read and to read to me. Noah will tell me, "mama this shark, right here, the Tiger shark, he's very dangerous" Hahaha, that type of thing. : )

Snake is for the both of them to share.

Excellent pictures and it shows where on the globe, each snake lives. What part of the world they come from, basically. And both of the boys ohhh and ahh over this one.

I am interested in the Titanic. I have a book for myself on it. And the boys enjoy looking at my Titanic book.  And they also enjoy watching the movie Titanic and watching Discovery stuff on the real Titanic too. And they often ask me a ton of questions. So, I went to Amazon.com and I checked in the kids and young adult section what Titanic books they offered. I would say out of these 2 books, though they are both great, the one on the right is way better. It answers a ton of questions and has so many facts.

Why are there 882 1/2 answers? Well because the boat was that length. ; ) Now if the boys ever end up on Jeopardy and the question ever comes up, of how long was Titanic they'll surely know! Hahaha. ; )

Random facts about the 2nd class accommodations. What they ate. What they did for fun.

Steerage, a peek inside. What their cups looked like right bottom of this picture.

Their beds had blankets and pillows but no sheets if you can read this. Again, just an interesting fact.

What did they eat in 3rd class? Well now Branden and Noah know. And sorta cool facts to learn. : )

Little tidbits about the rescue. Amazing facts actually. Yep the 882 1/2 Amazing Answers book is awesome!

What did a 1st class passenger do for fun, 2nd class, and 3rd class. I enjoy going upstairs to check on the boys and find Branden reading this book in bed, with his lamp on, even after I have tucked them in bed and said good night....hahaha...Branden will be in there with book in hand. And he says, "come here mama, did you know....." And I will lay down next to Branden and let him tell me all his new facts he's just read. Or listening at the dinner table, Branden and Noah giving new random facts to each other back and forth. They're excited. Excited about reading, excited about learning and I like talking to them about it too. So yeah this past week or two, we've been in random fact mode about Titanic here. : )

Did Titanic have their own newspaper? As you can see in this pic, yes, yes they did! : )

Was there anything to eat or drink on the lifeboats? I thought that was an excellent question and yes there was! However if you read this, most didn't know these were on the lifeboats. @_@ Oh my! But yeah again....this information the boys have gobbled up. They want to watch Titanic this coming weekend, so I think we'll do that now. : )

I also picked this picture book on Japan 1945.  Pictures from a Marine photographer. Branden is a 6th grader now and he's learning about WW2 at school. Our school is approaching the subject very carefully and I appreciate that.  I also picked up this book so he can see the pictures of the devastation. This particular picture it's a picture of a boy holding his dead brother on his back, he was walking him to a cremation place.

Just very sad.

Twice a week, I make a yogurt run and a run to the bakery.

The boys like to put the squeeze yogurt in the freezer. Anyway, it is now 3:25pm and Noah is now home from his ensoku/field trip, Noah says he had a blast. : ) And Branden gets off school today at 3:45pm. It's still raining here, so I better motor and get myself and Noah to the plaza to pick Branden up. Dinner tonight is curry. And fresh pineapple for dessert. : )