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| We're back, here's everything our family did while on Guam. On Thursday May 11th, Noboru, Noah and I flew to Guam. We had asked Branden to go with us, and now that he's in high school he can miss a day or two of school, no big deal/no problem. However he didn't want to miss any school, not even 1. Fair enough. So the 3 of us flew to Guam, Thursday May 11th. Here's my meal on the flight to Guam. In first class you get the choice of 3 different meals for dinner. Fish. Penne pasta. Or the herb crusted chicken breast, couscous, garden salad with mozzarella, and cheesecake. Oh and the basil sauce for dipping your chicken in, was really delicious, the dinner roll with so soft and yum too. Noah and I both picked the chicken, Noboru picked the fish. |
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| We had just arrived and Noah sent his brother a LINE message letting him know we arrived. They're so close. Noah was messaging him, when I snapped this pic. : ) I sent B, a message too. : ) |
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| Guam is just so sunny, so gorgeous and tropical. It's truly an *amazing* place. And the weather was stunning the entire time we were there. We still have 8 free nights to stay at this hotel, that we *must* use before August. So we will be going back and bringing Branden with us too. So we can just relax by the pool most days. Or head to the beach and maybe take in a movie or two. However this trip...was a short one and one... really that consisted of bringing back essential goodies back to Japan. Because with me being an American living in Japan, there are tons of things that are sadly not available in Japan. And I can either be sad and do nothing about it, which isn't very helpful is it or I can be productive about it and proactive about it. And I can zip myself to the nearest United States Territory. And since we fly for free, it's easy and painless for our family. So living overseas isn't so tough with flight benefits. And little weekend getaways are so nice anyways right? Regardless of the reason you decided to travel. Whether it be to grocery shop or to get some rest and relaxation. Traveling is always nice. : ) |
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| Bacon egg and cheese biscuits are the bomb at McDonald's. |
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| The 3 of us filling up. |
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| Noah walking among the bright red hibiscus flowers! We had just shopped at 3 grocery stores and headed back to the hotel to drop things off. And now we were on our way back, to do a little last minute shopping and some lunch. We are fast shoppers, so it didn't take more than a couple hours. |
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| Lunch break. We were going to dinner in a few short hours, so we each had a small lunch. Noah had just 1 taco supreme. |
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| I had just 1 bean and cheese burrito and Noboru had 2 nachos and cheese. Our final store was Kmart and then we called it done! And we were now ready for dinner. Good thing we had a light lunch. : ) |
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| Beautiful tropical bright red flowering trees. |
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| Dinner for 4. My dad and Noboru shared a large pizza, their pizza was a pan crust with 4 toppings, and their toppings they picked were, pepperoni, Italian sausage, jalapeno and mushroom. Noah and I had 4 toppings too, and also a large pan crust pizza too.... but we had double pepperoni and double mushroom. We each had drinks and they're free refills. It was so nice to spend about 80 minutes at Pizza Hut just chatting and talking away with my dad and him with us. After Pizza Hut, my dad went back to his condo and we went to our hotel. And we packed all our stuff. And then we just chillaxed the rest of the night at the hotel. There's a conbini/convenience store inside this hotel so we strolled around there and bought some drinks for the room for the night. And we went back to our room, watched a little TV and we crashed. We were all tired. And our flight the next day was a super early one. |
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| Saturday March 13th, our flight took off at 6:15am. We would be landing back to Japan at 9:15am. Our free hotel shuttle from the hotel to the airport was set to pick up us and take us back to the airport at 3:30am. Remember for international travel... you must check in by 2 hours of your flight. So checking in by 4am was crucial for us. I woke up at 1:30am Saturday morning, because I showered, blow dried my hair. I wore foundation, powder and I did my eyebrows. I wore no concealer, and no other makeup. Just foundation and my eyebrows. At that early time...who cares really anyways. We had 2 choices for breakfast in first class. The choice was breakfast burrito or fried rice. It's a no brainer that I would choose the breakfast burrito and it was huge. It had meat in it, which duh...the menu said so...and no...I am not a vegetarian. It's just, I knew I was going to take the meat out of the burrito anyways and yes I did. : ) I had a hot coffee. A delicious breakfast burrito that was so good, skillet fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, cheese and salsa. Some fresh fruit, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and a half a strawberry. And a croissant. |
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| And then...as they were filling my 2nd cup of coffee, they brought out fresh and hot strawberry muffins. And yep, see all the meat in the background (ham and sausage) that I took out of my burrito. lol. No worries but....told ya... I took it out and yes I did. : ) But...I must say that was the most delicious strawberry muffin, I have ever eaten!!! It was so good. So hot and so fresh. : ) |
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| After I ate my breakfast, I crashed for the rest of our flight. Noah was sitting next to me and Noboru was sitting across the aisle from us. Next thing you know the pilot was making the announcement that we would be landing in Narita, Japan, within 20 minutes. I must have fallen into a deep sleep because I know for a fact, I totally snoozed for a good solid 2 hours. Hahaha. I looked out the window and saw Japan was raining Saturday morning. But I looked outside the window and I smiled. I smiled because *that* is the view, that I *love* so much. Rural Japan from the airplane window. Do I know the name of that river? Yes I do. Rice fields a plenty. Countryside views. |
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| Beautiful Japan!!! |
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| The towns surrounding Narita City and Narita airport are quite rural. Very rural in fact. And where we call home. : ) Don't laugh but I thought 2 things looking out this window. "I'm home Branden" And I thought..."I'm home inaka" (rural Japan) We landed and we exited the airport. And we went home. Branden was super happy to see us, but he said he was on the phone talking to his classmates most of the night. Since we were not home. LOL. Total teenager!!! We unpacked the groceries/suitcases. And I snapped pics. Around 11am, I went to sleep. I slept until 3pm. Noah slept too, so did Noboru and since Bran was on his late night Friday phone call, he slept too. LOL. When we woke up, we 4 went to dinner. A simple but good curry dinner at Coco Ichi Curry. : ) |
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| The hand breaded chicken tenderloin is so good and will be sold until the end of May. Bran picked this, Noah picked this, just realized Noboru picked this one too. We 4 all had the same thing. We also ordered 2 small orders of fries for 105 yen. And we enjoyed dinner. Bran's former JHS classmate and her family was in there too. They had eaten already, so they left about 3 minutes after we arrived, but they greeted us and we them. Nice nice family. Our nearest Coco Ichi is in the small city nearest us. Since our town's too rural for a Coco Ichi, lol. But they told us in Japanese..."oh first time seeing your family outside of our town." LOL, that made me smile. Come to think of it, we have never seen them outside of our town either. Hahaha. Dinner was fantastic. And then we made the trek back to our tiny town. And Noah jumped in the shower first. He got soapy clean. And he got into his jammies. Branden showered second. I asked Noboru to shower but he said, I could go first. Although yes I did just shower that morning. So, I just put my hair in a messy bun and a head band. And washed my face, my body. I didn't feel like washing my hair twice in 1 day. But I was glad to wash my body and face again. And I got into my sleep shirt. And Noboru got in the shower. And we all sorta just relaxed watching TV Saturday night in the living room. : ) |
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| Goodies that we brought back. |
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| Ricotta stuffed ravioli. These are so good. |
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| Beans. |
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| Irish cream, coffee creamer. Store brand, because I like saving money and it tastes excellent. If it tasted like crap, I wouldn't buy it. But, I really like this. |
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| American cakes are so nom nom good. Carrot cake, strawberry cake, devils food and red velvet. |
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| Two cream cheese frosting's, 1 is for the carrot cake and 1 is for the red velvet. Crisco for greasing cake pans. |
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| Coconut cream pie is coming for the upcoming summer weather. And restful weekends are perfect for some good pie. And, coconut cream pie at that. And the shredded coconut will be lightly toasted to top off the pies. Maybe 1 in June and 1 in July? The graham cracker crust and shredded coconut are both store brand, because it's cheaper and just as good. : ) |
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| Both my kids take a lunch from home on the daily, and it's of course made and packed by me... 5 days a week, their lunch they eat at school is from home. Noah's in elementary school and chips aren't allowed, but they're allowed in high school. But...either way, I can't leave either kiddo out. So, I just bought a pack of Funyons and a pack of Cheetos each for the boys. Noah can eat his at home, Bran will take his to school. I picked the Fritos for myself. |
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| One for Bran, one for Noah and one for me. Bran will take his pack to school, as his dessert inside his lunch, Noah can meanwhile munch his at home. |
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| Cheese and garlic croutons and salad dressing. |
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| Cereal for the kids. |
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| No high fructose in the cereals now days. |
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| What I use to make my meatballs and my chicken parmesan. |
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| Chocolate pudding. Some of these, Branden will be taking as his dessert in his school lunch. |
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| Homestyle popcorn, this is so good. |
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| Baby back ribs are coming soon. Especially with our new BBQ grill. And I buy the store brand of bbq sauce because...why not... it's just as good and it saves money by buying store brand. |
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| Hostess desserts. Branden took a pack of Sno Balls today inside his lunch. Noah ate his pack yesterday and I still have my pack. I also must point out...being American these desserts are normal for me. I grew up with them and they're truly yum. My kids...having an American mama. They always ate what mom (me) made or prepared or bought, so these are normal for my kids. But these types of snacks are not really Noboru's thing. And that's okay. : ) So, if he actually liked these snacks... we'd buy him some too. But he just doesn't care for these types of things. And that's totally cool. |
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| Miracle Whip. For sandwiches. Or shall I say... for sammiches. LOL. |
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| A 4 month supply of tamps. But they're the Pearl and so comfortable. |
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| Toothpaste. |
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| Toilet fresheners. You hang them. |
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| Noah has extremely fine western people hair. And extremely dry skin. Add that up and he is prone to dandruff. However he hasn't had dandruff in years. Like 4 years. Because he uses green apple Head and Shoulders every single time. It smells fantastic and he's not had 1 dot of dandruff ever since. And the gel is also Noah's. Bran uses pomade and prefers that. |
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| Deodorant. 2 top left are Noboru's. 2 top right are mine. And bottom 2 are Bran's. Noah doesn't "need" deodorant on the daily...he only uses it for gym class days or undokai season. And he still has 2 brand new unopened ones and 1 more that's 90% full. So Noah didn't need any this time. |
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| Advil. I do *not* buy store brand ibuprofen. I just don't and won't. I know...ibuprofen should all be created equal. However 1 time I bought Target brand ibuprofen. It was cheaper. And well...I do like to save money. Anyways...3 months or so later, I had a killer headache, like a throbbing pounding booming headache. And I opened the Target brand ibuprofen and usually Advil takes about 20-30 minutes to start working and squash the pain. But 1 hour later after taking the Target one...my headache was still pounding away. I think that was back in 2012 or something. But ever since that year. I have not **ever** bought store brand pain reliever again! If I get killer cramps...or a pounding headache, I'd like to know I can actually *depend* on the pill to actually kick in and work. So no...I do like to save money. But not when it comes to pain relief. Advil and only Advil in my house. And these 24 tablets were just $4 US anyways. Plus I think I counted about 20 pills in my Advil bottle at home. We wanted to buy the giant value pack/bottle in Guam of Advil. But they were completely sold out. They only had this small size. Which was weird, but oh well. We rarely get headaches in our house, I think I get maybe 2 a year. Branden gets about 3 headaches a year. I think Noboru has had 2 headaches in 15 years, LMAO!!! And Noah gets about 4-5 headaches a year. And OMG....at the high school sports day for Bran a few weeks back...Branden had gotten the worst throbbing/pounding headache of his entire life. I could see his face. He's my son and I could tell he was in major headache pain. He told me.."mom I have a pounding headache" I actually asked him..."do you want to go home...I'll go find myself a teacher right now and we'll be outta here in 5 minutes. You just say the word nerd." But he said..."naw...I want to stay." He asked..."do you have your travel Advil with you?" I said..."of course...obvs!!!" And I said do you want 1 or 2? He said I need 2. And in 25 minutes he ran back to me and said...it's working. It's going away. And in 40 minutes time, he said it was 100% gone. So, yeah...I may buy store brand or generic coffee creamer or store brand cereal or store brand Zip Lock freezer bags. But I will not be cheap when it comes to ibuprofen. We're a total Advil house. And I always carry a travel tube of Advil in my purse at all times and there's always like 10 tablets in there. So we're covered no matter where we go. Just peace of mind. But...if I get a headache, I want it squashed immediately! : ) |
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| Purchased 4 magazines at the Guam airport before we caught our flight back to Japan. Heath Ledger, gone too soon. So incredibly talented. I find him so fascinating so I bought that magazine to read the new details. Kelly Osbourne, liked her on the MTV show The Osbourne's. |
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| Lamar's spilling secrets? I hope they're not about Khloe or the Kardashian's. I love that show and like that family, so I am curious, what he has to say... so I wanted to read that story too. And finally Barry Manilow comes out of the closet. I mean we all knew, right? But you know what...none of us cared or minded. Besides what he chooses to do with an another adult in the privacy of his bedroom or privacy in house... isn't really any of our business anyways. The fact is...he's very talented, he's made a lot of good music. He's a genuinely nice guy. Kind soul. So...I'm glad he feels comfortable enough that he can share whatever he feels comfortable sharing. And I look forward to reading his story. It seems he's been in a very long term relationship with 1 man for years. So good for him! And I saw Mama June from Not to Hot on there and I watched that show, so I want to see what the article says too. Anyway, that's the long and short of our Guam trip. Just a little Thursday to Saturday trip, but it was so wonderful. : ) |
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