Bits and Pieces...

How has everyone been doing? Things have been excellent over here. Both Branden and Noah returned to school today from Winter break. Yesterday was a holiday for us in Japan. Coming of Age Day. I decided to not blog for the past week and just enjoy my time with my family. What is this picture of? Otoshidama. New Year's money given to kids from family members. Branden and Noah each received 15,000 yen each. Considering we didn't go all the way to Osaka to visit Noboru's family, it wasn't so bad of an amount. Lucky boys. : ) 

Branden and his best friend since yochien wanted to meet up at Narita shopping mall. Since G moved away from our town. They picked a spot to meet up between where he lives and where we live. So January 4th, is when Branden met up him G at the Narita train station around 9:30am or so. They bummed around all day. They went to lunch. A hamburg restaurant. They had Baskin and Robbins. And even each had a small serving of udon some place too? @_@ Teenage boys! Ha! : ) Noah and I meanwhile made pizza dough in the morning, after I dropped off Bran at the train station and we had breakfast. And we hung out here, but we decided to go to Narita mall too and also to Don Quijote. I did LINE message Bran and said...Noah and I happen to be in Narita too. Noah went with me to look at some skincare and cosmetics. I didn't buy anything... but I did want to have a good look. And so for being such an amazing 12 year old and helping me and looking around with me and keeping me company, I treated Noah to some icecream at Baskin Robbins after I grabbed myself a caramel machiaato first at Starbucks downstairs. Before taking the escalator upstairs to get Noah some ice cream. So I did message Bran and told him like I said..."we happen to be in Narita too. And if you would like a ride home, totally fine. I'm here, we're leaving the mall at 3:30pm and going back to our town. If you would like a ride cool...but also I do respect you're a teen so....so if not, you can take the train back home too." It was getting bitter cold. Bran replied and said he would take the ride. I did offer to give G a ride to the train station.. but he said, it was okay...he would hop on the free shuttle directly to the train station. So I waved G good bye. And Bran walked to my car with Noah and I. 

By now Noboru was home. And I rolled out 3 pizzas. 1 extremely large pepperoni pizza for the kids. And a smaller hand-tossed each for Noboru and I. 

We each had a pepperoni, mushroom and diced up jalapeno pizza each, we each only ate half and the rest we had for lunch the next day. Such crispy crust. 

I have somehow managed to acquire 12 foundations. And if they all worked for me 100% perfectly then that would be fantastic. But, they don't... so I decided to cut that number in half. So I went through them and the top row don't work for me at all and were tossed. 

These were all tossed. 4 drugstore foundations. And 2 high end foundations had to get the boot. The Revlon color is just too pink. The Loreal True Match is in the yellow range *but* I find the regular True Match super pink too. And the Lumi is super duper pink and unnatural. The makeup For Ever face and Body that was discontinued. I bought it because Youtuber KathleeenLights said it was her holy grail. And I hate it. It smells like paint thinner or paint or something super strong. And the color on this Ultra HD was too dark and wrong. None of these worked. And yeah I did spend money to buy them... but there's no use of wasting up space in my house if they either break me out or are overly pink tinted. Then they gotta go. I wish American drugstores had testers like we have in Japan. 

These are the ones I am keeping. And I am seriously thinking about getting rid of the It Cosmetics CC+ and the Urban Decay Naked Skin. Why? The CC+ smells like lemon scented toilet deodorizer that hangs in American toilets. I'm sorry but the It Cosmetics smell.... revolts the crap out of me so bad. It dies down after it's applied. Granted. It does give a nice finish on your face, but the smell. So, I am on the fence about that. And the Urban Decay one is pink tinted or something is off on the color for me. Pink or orange cast. It does not blend seamlessly in my neck or on my face. And it cakes up on me too. What is staying? What am I keeping? I love the Koh Gen Do aqua foundation. This is an exact match for my skin it is a fair olive color. Nars Fiji is an okay color match. It is yellow enough. Absolutely no pink tint to it at all. But it isn't an 100% dead ringer like the Koh Gen Do is. I also like the Make Up Forever Ultra HD in this bottom shade. It looks really nice on. I also really like the way the Neutrogena looks on me. Drugstore. It has no scent it has never made me break out and it is not pink. It isn't an 100% color match. But every time I wear The Neutrogena Healthy Skin...I look in the mirror during the day and think...this is such a nice shade.And nice formula. I do not think I want to own more than 5 foundations this year. So 6 are remaining and I may end up tossing the It Cosmetics one and the Urban Decay one too. Because if it doesn't work...it won't work no matter how long you hold onto it. All you can do when you buy the wrong one is you learn from it...and move on. And I do not want to be a hoarder. 

Yep that Urban Decay 3.0 is supposed to be yellow because the point 0's are yellow and the point 5's/ .5's are the pink ones. But I find this does oxidize on me and does turn pinky orange after about an hour. Meaning 2.0...3.0 etc is yellow. But 2.5 and 3.5 is the pink tinted ones. The ones that end in .5 are pink and the ones that end in 0 are yellow. But it still didn't work.

On Monday, yesterday, Coming of Age Day I took the boys to McDonald's. We also bought a few groceries. And stopped by the drugstore in the little city nearest us. 

I think recently I mentioned I am currently on a makeup remover kick lately. I purchased 2 yesterday. I have been looking high and low for this cleansing oil by Pharmaact. I read online that this drugstore cleansing oil doesn't advertise or market their product. But it's just as thick as the DHC one and the Shu Uemura one. And it smells like green apples. I checked at the Narita Aeon mall and couldn't find it. I searched the super mega Don Quijote in Narita and could not find it either. I emailed their headquarters. And they replied. Hahaha. They said, they used to be carried at Yacs drugstores all over Chiba. And so...while in the small city nearest our tiny town. I popped in there and sure enough. It was there. And it is as thick as the Shu Uemura cleansing oil because I have the purple one and compared. And this Phamaact oil does smell like green apple too. It smells amazing. I also heard fantastic things about Biore Cleansing oil. And I too... read on Amazon.com from a Japanese woman who now lives in the US and has used this for like decades. She said this smells like green apples and I read it on a blog by a lady in NY and she too said it smells of green apples. Oddly enough...both my cleansing oils smell like green apples. Totally unintentional.

I love how Japanese skincare with pumps always have stoppers to stop it from pumping out. Typical collar on the left but so useful and the Biore stopper on the right. Both work beautifully. 

Also purchased a lip balm. A YLBB tinted lip balm and a chocolate chip cookie lip balm. In the scent of the regular/original Country Ma'am Cookie. 

New Year’s Eve fun and New Year’s shenanigans. Plenty of good eats. Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (super easy). Homemade cinnamon rolls. And New Year’s get together with our extended family, otoshidama, lots of laughs, delicious food and good times...

I hope you all had an amazing New Year's eve and New Year's so far! : ) Let me catch up real quick with you all right now. Our one and only grocery store in town sells some amazingly yummy and super cheap 100% real ice cream from NZ. The price is 298 for the tub so it's a super great deal. And I always buy that there, because most places sell tubs of ice milk versus cream. Or some weird lighter version of ice cream but our store in town actually sells real ice cream and it's pretty cheap in price. So, I bought a tub of that in advance. And added just 1 tablespoon of Skippy creamy peanut butter mixed in, real quick in this bowl. And after it mixed really well, I added some chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups. And then put it back into the vanilla ice cream tub and stuck in the freezer until after dinner. And it was solid and frozen but...delicious Reese's peanut butter ice cream. So super easy to make. For us in Japan, getting the good and wide variety of flavors of ice creams, we are used to getting in the US is impossible here...but this shortcut of just buying vanilla and adding your own flavors is perfect for those of us living in Japan and still wanting the FUN flavors of ice cream.  So info share on that. : ) 

We had baked chicken parmesan on top of a bed of pasta. This is so good, so simple to make. We had this for our last dinner of 2015. We had garlic bread and a side salad with this.

I did make the cinnamon roll dough December 31st real quick, while the chicken parmesan was baking in the oven. I used the recipe from allrecipes.com or whatever that website is called. I love that recipe website and am there often. I used the recipe for the "Clone of a Cinnabon" and they were so delicious. The cream cheese frosting was so good too. Also, for us in Japan, powdered sugar is so expensive and only available in teeny tiny amounts. However as you know...powder sugar is really just regular granulated sugar...just ground finer. So, I used regular granulated sugar and threw it in my blender and blended it to the finest powdered sugar... you ever did see. : ) So..if you already know that...no worries... disregard but...this info could hopefully help someone. : ) Fresh hot cinnamon rolls with a delicious homemade cream cheese frosting...the perfect breakfast for January 1st! : ) We had enough cinnamon rolls for 2 breakfasts. hahaha. : ) This recipe made a lot. : ) 

January 1st dinner was homemade from scratch pizza. Noboru told me as it was baking..."omg does our house smell so good." : ) He wanted to eat that pizza! And we all did. We munched homemade pizza, I baked 2 large pizzas (enough for lunch the next day) and we each had a Dr. Pepper with ice. It was just a very restful New years eve and January 1st. I was talking with my good friend, an American papa who has a Japanese wife, who lives nearish us, he was saying how he spent hours at the Narita, shrine/temple area there and how there were about a billion people there, I totally understood, I have seen pics of that crazy crowd. I told him, he sure toughs out the crowds and how brave they are. So, I was glad to message him and wish him and his family a nice new year. But, we just stay home, we don't want to face any huge crowds. We just stayed in the house where... it's toasty warm and we already had the food, I had planned at home to make... and on whatever day it was, I made that. I was meanwhile in Twilight Zone heaven. Noah wanted to watch the scary movie Annabelle during the first 3 days and so we watched Noah's request and Bran wanted to watch, Unbroken so we watched that together as a family too. Noboru likes the Twilight Zone too. : )  Those first couple nights from New years eve on, we munched our chips we bought earlier during our movies or during the Twilight Zone, one of those nights, I also popped some homemade popcorn on the stove. We basically just hung out and had fun here at home with peanut butter cup icecream and cinnamon rolls. 

Mascara attempt #2. Three things purchased from the drugstore Jan 2nd Kate brand mascara (from the drugstore in Japan) this was for long length. And 2 hand creams. In summer my hands are normal, not dry at all. But in winter, my hands are so dry. We're talking painfully dry hands. As in, I am constantly rubbing hand cream, on my hands all winter long. In Japan most shops have testers, love that about Japan. So, I had been squeezing a squeeze... each time I am at some drugstore. After squeezing about 20 different ones all December, I finally was ready to buy 2. The purple Q10, I tried a few weeks back at the tester in Inzai/Chiba New Town. And the Neutrogena one, I have used it before...sometimes I think it has a texture I dislike, however I was swayed by the limited edition holiday packaging. My thoughts? I am liking this Kate long lash mascara. It gives me super long lashes and no thickness/volume, tarantula lashes. So, it is something, I would be into. Do, I love it? No. Is it holy grail status? No, still testing it, so verdicts still out. But, do I hate it? No. Do, I think there is better? Probably. But for now, I will use this happily and whenever this is gone, I will purchase a new one...in March or end of February. Mascaras need to be thrown out every 3 months or so, so by mid march, I am sure I will have another one to try, but for now, this is footing the bill. I do dislike... that it has fibers in it. But then...maybe that's just the wave of the future? I dunno...I do know I really loved that Cat's Wink mascara though. But for now.. Kate's mascara is doing the job and it does give me insanely long lashes. As for the purple hand cream. I love this. There are 4 of these Q10 by Kose hand creams at the drugstore, different types in different color tubes. The price is like 350 yen a tube. And yes, I can most definitely see it clearly says in English...night handcream. However, the other Q10's had words of whitening on them. And I really don't need to whiten my hands. And then it got me thinking... perhaps too much thinking/over thinking...and I thought/worried, I hope it doesn't have a bleaching factor on those other 3 and then I bleach my bedding or winter coat or clothes. So, I knew I didn't want the other 3 Q10's. Again it might not be a powerful whitening at all, but...ehh. I just wasn't all too keen on the other tubes marked whitening. This was the only Q10 that didn't say whitening. Also, the smell was light and tolerable to me. A very light scent. Noboru said peaches. But if it was strong, I know me...I couldn't have picked it. It is almost not noticeable. Also it has some moisturizing beads in there and I sorta liked those. Also the purple tube hand cream... didn't make my hands sticky. Just soft, moisturized but not sticky. So, I am really loving this purple tube hand cream. Is it holy grail status? I don't know, but maybe......I will see. Still testing it out. 

The cute limited edition design, it even says that towards the cap in English. And my old regular tube of it. Like, I said, I am always on the fence about this one. Do, I love it? No. Do, I hate it? Sometimes yes. And sometimes not. However the winter edition design got to me...and why I purchased a new tube of this. This was 498 yen... so pricier then the purple one. I have been using this, the old one trying to use it up. And it does leave a very thick almost sticky heavy feel... on my hands. Last night after my shower, I was in my night gown on the couch and this took forever to soak into my hands. I didn't want to place my sticky Neutrogena hands on the fuzzy couch blanket...didn't want to touch my freshly washed and blow dried hair. Until this sucker soaked into my hands, I was like...unable to do anything until the sticky thick feeling went away...until they soaked in or whatever. So, I am very meh on this hand cream. I tell ya what...live and learn I won't get sucked into buying this one again...even if they get cute packaging. It just takes a billion years to get that thick heavy sticky feeling to go away. I actually prefer the purple tube of hand cream. I get no sticky feeling at all from that one. And it is deeply nourishing too... just without the tacky/sticky feel like the Neutrogena one has. 

A blurry picture of the restaurant we went to in Narita City. We went and met up at an Italian restaurant called Mamma Pasta. Wood fired pizzas, yummy pastas. A dessert cart that wheels around to tempt you. We had a reservation at 6:30pm. January 3rd. 

We already know who these 2 super cool guys on the right are! : ) My only 2 nieces, I have, but that's okay... it's the quality... not quantity that counts, right hahaha. Since I am an only child, these are my 2 cherished nieces. : ) Look at these 2 cutie pies! I also have a nephew (half American/half Japanese) but he is living in America, but he's oldest and he's a 9th grader. Bran is an 8th grader (also half American/ half Japanese, hafu/hapa). 3rd oldest is my lovely niece J, right in this picture a 7th grader, first year in JHS. She is also hafu/hapa (half American and half Japanese), 4th oldest is Noah, also half American/ half Japanese. And 5th oldest is my amazing and cute niece M, she's totally Japanese and adorable. And her little brother was at the opposite end of the table and he's going to be 2 this year. Noah is a 4th grader, my niece M is a 3rd grader.  I'm sure, I could have skipped mentioning J is also half American/half Japanese. But, I think that fact... is quite important and something not to just glaze over because in Japan. Maybe in the big cities like Tokyo there could be 5 hafu or multicultural kids in 1 class. However, for many hafu, they only see themselves and go to class with 100% Japanese classmates and the only "different" one is themselves. Noboru is Japanese, so he can't really share or have the same experience say Noah would have. I am just American, so, my experiences of living in Japan are experiences as a westerner/foreigner...Long term resident yes. But, if I walk into a store I am treated as a foreign person immediately, an American female. I too can't share the experience..say Noah would or Branden would. When Branden sees J or when my niece J sees Noah, they uniquely have experiences that they 3 together share... and have. So when my nephew K and my niece J sees and spends time with Branny McB and Noah, there is like....this huge understanding of each other. They "get" each other. Her mom and dad have been divorced since she was a wee baby. And her brother moved to America in the 3rd grade. Not because he doesn't love his mom. But because he wanted to try giving living in America a chance too. My niece J goes to the US every summer to spend the summer with her daddy and brother. So, yeah...these cousins love and adore seeing each other. Because they uniquely understand each other. At the restaurant we could hear them talk......"oh yeah...don't you hate when people assume this. or assume that." and they laugh. They're lucky to have one another. My niece J loves One Direction. So it was nice to have a talk about that. Seeing the kids get together and eat and talk facing each other. Heck, they didn't talk much to us adults, mostly with each other. But my MIL stared at the boys a lot and interrupted the kids conversation every once in a while...to ask Noah  questions or Bran a questions. She was staying with my brother in law, so this was her one chance to talk to our boys. So she did want to get a word in here and there too. : ) Hahaha.  But yes all of the cousins are very close and have lots of love for each other, as they should. However, the 4 cousins who are half American/ half Japanese have that...special little bond. And it's nice knowing they have each other. : )

My amazing...her style is *always* on point... mother in law. Noboru's mom. : ) Oh and this is sort of funny. But she was staring at me for about 1 whole minute. That 1 minute... seemed to feel like hours. She was like 1cm from me. Anyway I could feel she was about to say something. And she said. "You know what is so weird....Gina has seriously not aged 1 single bit, she looks the exact same as the day I first met her." I suddenly felt really hot/warm and very flushed. She was still staring at my face like 1cm away from my face by the way. And now the entire table is facing me/staring at me. Hoping I don' faint straight away... out of sheer embarrassment. She said "her/my skin... it looks so glowy...so smooth, not 1 wrinkle in sight." She's now even closer to my face. I can now hear my heart beating in my ears... that's how nervous I am at this moment. "I can't get over it" she said. She then asked me..."what sort of products are you using, Shiseido?" I can now see everyone is waiting for me to say something. I swear to you... I must have been beet red by that point. I just quietly said... after I cleared my throat. "I am using Korean Skincare with a few American things mixed in." Korean skincare @_@ everyone said. My mother in law... is known for speaking her mind...being totally brutally and bluntly honest. And so yes, with someone staring that closely. I was nervous...about to have myself a heart attack type nervous. But yeah...I couldn't believe what she said. I was *really* taken aback. very pleasantly surprised. Noboru told me on the way home in the car....he said.."you know what my mom said about your skin?" I said yes. He said, "she's actually right, you haven't aged at all, it is sorta really weird." : ) So yeah...just an interesting little observation from my MIL.  

The awesome amazing Fantastic Four! Best cousins. Wish cousin K in America, could have been here too. But, at least these kiddos could get together and spend an evening together.  

Sorta makes me think of Sister Sledge, the song... We are family! Side note, You know how different parts of Japan speak different dialects. Many having flat out different words/vocabulary completely. Anyway, my MIL and niece J come from Osaka. Out of all of Japan, Osaka-ben is probably the most famous dialect. Most people especially folks form Tokyo/Kanto are usually a bit scared hearing Osaka-ben. Think along the lines of Goodfellas or My Cousin Vinny. Osaka people are also famous for their comedians too. When people from Kanto hear it they immediately know exactly where they are from. They are blunt speakers and direct and depending where you are from...the accent could shiver your timbers. : ) Noboru and my bil Jun are also from Osaka. So my niece M and my 2 kids they are used to hearing Osaka-ben since their papa's come from there. So from our table...you hear Osaka-ben and English. Other tables around us and the restaurant was so packed. People were like staring. And it's sorta a given...that they would. But yeah...so funny. Anyway that's what we did January 3rd, 2016. 

We all had dessert. Noboru and I shared this, trio of desserts. Bran and Noah shared 3 too and same for the rest of us. And our waitress was amazing, she was such a trooper. : ) 

Otoshidama. New Years money given to kids in Japan at the new year. Each of the boys, received a packet from their grandma, uncle Jun and family, auntie K my niece J's mom, my other SIL who could not be here (Jun and Noboru's sister) and from Noboru. Each of the kids wound up with 20,000 yen each, about $200 US each.  Noah has nothing he wants or needs so he's saving his. We also gave otoshidama to my niece J, niece M and her little brother too. : ) 

Branden on the other hand, had something in mind.

Bought directly from Amazon.jp so if anythings wrong... they would take it back, no problem. Everything's fine though. : )

A new pair of beats headphones, for Bran.

What else have we been up to? January 4th, I went for a hair cut, same all one length bob/lob. And had it colored 1 shade darker. And now we're just gearing up for school to restart and we're also gearing up for one of the Disney's. And we will be staying at the hotel for 2 nights when we do that.

I don't really want to talk too much about it now.... for this post. But, I will talk about it more to you all later. But, my BIL is going to training in Jan, Noboru in Feb. And so we have been quietly preparing for that, we discussed this a lot at dinner the other night at the restaurant while we were together. It's not like he's gonna be gone for a couple days. It's going to be for an extended period of time. And I can't say which part of the US they will be. But, we are all sorta gearing up for it. Am, I nervous to be alone in Japan with just the kids... sans husband and best friend. Yeah, honestly I am. So, just...a lot going on. But for now...no use worrying about something that's not even this month yet. : ) So for now...let's just focus on the happy and present and focus on the Disney trip. We'll get to the US trip. Just no need to stress about it... before it's time. 

New Year's, otoshidama, enjoying our final week of winter break to it's fullest. TV talk, laser hair removal and no more training wheels!

Sorry, I didn't blog this past week. It's just this was our last and final week and tomorrow both Branden and Noah head back to school, January 10th. So, we decided to keep, January 1st, to now...just our time. : ) But with this being the last and final day, I thought it would be okay to get this up and posted now. The pic of Noah riding without training wheels! Here's the story on that.....I have to get this posted before my memory fades on this and I forget. In fact, I wish I would have posted this sooner. Sorry Noah. The last week Branden had school. The week after Noah let out for Winter holidays. Is when Noah officially no longer needed his training wheels. If you recall, two years ago, when he was 4, Noah had asked for his training wheels to be taken off. It was way too early we thought, but if he felt ready we took them off and Noah did okay. And then, well...he had a little crash, on our quiet rode, he dropped his bike, but wasn't injured and after that Noah asked for his training wheels to be put back on (I was relieved ; ). We obliged right away of course. So last year Noah's tanabata wish that Noah tied at the school was for him to ride without training wheels. The school knew of his great wish. Mom friends of mine would ask. Nope still not yet I'd say. : )And finally this last year. Once again...same wish as last year, bless his heart. When the Yayoi sensei asked Noah to write his wish, he once again said..I wish to be able to ride without my training wheels. By July of 2011, about 70% of his classmates could now ride without their training wheels. We would tell Noah, if you feel you're ready, by all means, we'll be outside with you forever if need be. But he said..I'm not ready. This kid was a fast/early crawler, early walker, talked early. Swam early. Learned to read early. So, if Noah felt, he wasn't ready for his training wheels to be off...then so be it. We patiently waited. We were in no rush. Meanwhile Sera, learned how to ride without training wheels. But for us...nope still not ready, which was and is totally fine. And then one day....Kouki came over to play in December, Branden's classmate Kouki not Noah's classmate Kouki. Anyway, you know little brother Kaito will be Noah's classmate this coming April. Anyway, Kouki told Noah while outside. My brother just learned to ride without his training wheels (he didn't say it in a mean way). Next day....Noah told us. I'd like my training wheels taken off please. @_@ A little surprised. But we said...alright. Branden went to school. Since it was his last week of school and Noah was home with us on Christmas holiday already. Noboru took them off, for the 2nd time. In Noah's life. I was a bit worried, still. : ) But, I stood quiet about my worry or fear. And I cheered. Noah went back and forth, for an hour. It was indeed cold outside. But standing out there to support Noah we did! It was just Noah's time. He was ready. No hesitation or wobbliness like when he first tried this 2 years ago. He was just ready. Go figure.
Noboru even put some work/garden gloves down to see if he could weave between them and he did really really well with it.
Yep, it was just his time. : )
Do you see our neighbor on the right? The boy next doors mom. You see, even everyone who lives near us...knew of Noah's wish to learn to ride without his training wheels, the yochien knows too. So, yeah The boy next doors mom had to come outside and say..."wow Noah you did it...well done" In Japanese of course. But yeah everyone on our street knows now. Noah cannot wait to go back to yochien and tell his best friend H and the Yayoi sensei what he learned while on Christmas break. : )
New Years eve, was spent watching Noboru's favorite Japanese TV programs. And he watched them for a few hours and then he had, had enough, so then we watched Crazy Stupid Love. New Years morning, we woke up, and decided to start our New Year at home, and have our first family breakfast of the year. It was a nice quiet New years breakfast. We had crispy bacon, fresh bakery bread which we toasted, and I made eggs to order, Noboru had over easy, The boys had cheese omelets and I had a veggie and cheese omelet. Branden and Noah had chocolate milk and Noboru and I had hot coffee. We lazed in the kitchen enjoying the view outside.
January 1st plans. Stay home and relax. No pressure, no place to be, house was clean so nothing really to be done. There was a Jaws marathon on TV. All Jaws movies played on one channel.
Twilight Zone marathon was also on, and I watched quite a few episodes of this. In the US, we have a lot of marathons on TV for New Years.
The E channel is always interesting too. Fascinating celebrity weddings. And not to forget those crazy Kardashian's. : )
Crime shows, like Body of Evidence. Nick channel has all the good ones. Plus the Cartoon Network, etc and Nick Jr, Disney. etc. There is always something good to watch. So we did enjoy the first day of January just relaxing here at home.
Love Phineas and Ferb. Noah's absolute fave. And I enjoy the Food network. Paula's Best (Paula Deen) It felt nice honestly to just enjoy the first day of the new year at home with family. Watching good shows.
This was the last treadmill I did for December 2011 84 minutes is honestly great for 1 good walk! All last year I managed to stay on track and keep myself fit, and this year...I am going to stay with my same goal and keep fit too.
December 31st when we went for ramen after finishing our year end clean up. We bought all white meat, skinless breast meat mini chicken cutlets, these are great for sandwiches. 190 yen a pack, so we bought 2, this was for our quiet New Years lunch here at home. With 8 slices of bakery bread, lettuce and Miracle Whip. So chicken cutlet sandwiches and chips, is what we had for our New Years lunch. And I did warm them and they got crisp all over again in the toaster oven that day for lunch, yumm.
New Years dinner, was Cocoichi curry nabe. Noboru's pick. It was easy, chicken, chicken balls and tons of veggies and udon noodles. Our family sat around the dinner table, happily eating from the big family pot. It was an awesome dinner. Simple dinner but awesome nonetheless. What is this picture of? Branden, Noah and Noboru skyping with Great grandma, grandma Mitsuko, auntie Kaori. Various aunties and uncles of Noboru's. Noboru only got 1 day off for the New Year holiday so sadly he could not go to see his family for New Years. : ( Jun was also sadly working. I hear my SIL S and my niece went to Osaka. Which is awesome they went.
Otoshidama. Not only do we celebrate Christmas and get presents for that holiday. The boys also celebrate New Years Japanese style. With the cleaning and whatnots. And the kids get otoshidama. Some years the family in Osaka sends all the otoshidama in a big envelop. And sometimes they wire it, they give it to grandma Mitsuko first and she will wire. This year it was wired to Noboru's post account. They always get quite a bit of cash, this year about 30,000 yen each. Noboru has a very generous family and also a very large extended family so the sheer amount of the extended family is why the boys end up with what they end up with.
Their envelops, the boys did have to skype their family in Osaka. Thank each and every one of them and wish everyone a Happy New Year. I also wished everyone a Happy New Year as well. Manner wise it just has to be done. Plus I enjoy doing it anyway.
January 2nd. We drove to another prefecture, it's just closer to us is why. And us and about a ton of other Japanese families with parents in tow went looking for things to buy with their otoshidama money.
Stapled and taped. See the shiny stuff on top of each bag...yeah that's tape. No peeking. The boys bags were long gone. These said girls on them.
And some not so mysterious mystery bags. : )
We walked every single aisle. And with that large crowd, and pushing that empty blue cart down the skinny aisles.
And then Noah found exactly what he wanted. This remote control Ford right here. : ) Could barely fit in the cart. Not to mention their other toys. @_@
Screen covers so your 3DS doesn't get scratches. @_@
And then to another shop January 2nd and we picked up...some fresh made taiyaki.
The boys and I picked custard taiyaki and Noboru picked just a regular one.
Their New Year haul.
Noah's picks. A huge remote control truck. A pretend policeman kit. Noah loves pretend play. Upstairs he's always playing with his cash register. And Noah and Branden together like to play "grocery store" except they modernized it...and call it "extreme couponing" LOL @_@ They make coupons and everything. Noah also picked a 3DS screen cover and some extra Nerf bullets. Noah has most of his money and is saving it, same with Branden.
Branden picked binoculars, a Mario 7, cheat/help book. 3DS screen cover.
A remote control desert racer...looks more like a dune buggy if you ask me and a new Nerf gun. For when they play this zombie type game with all the boys in the neighborhood. Boy next door has fake bows and arrows. Rin-kun has a few play guns. All the kids play this game on our street. Go figure.
Every single day since January 1st, I have walked about 30 minutes each day. I also do my core exercises still 3 times a week. Working on my abs. I love working out now. It's something I find very relaxing. Which is funny because 2 years ago, I greatly disliked working out but did it anyway. But now...it's a great part of who I am.
All this past week, the boys have enjoyed playing with their new toys.
All this past week, they have enjoyed playing and I have enjoyed sitting outside with a hot cup of coffee watching them and talking with them.
This week, we ate curry nabe Jan 1st night. We also had yakiniku fried on a skillet on the stove. But it was nicely marinated, and we enjoy it at the dinner table, eating with with rice and wrapping with lettuce leaves. We also had chicken enchiladas. Lasagna (a bit of a cheat, frozen but so good and with salad and garlic bread). Miso pork. Chicken cutlet and last night we had yakisoba. Also this past week, we baked gingerbread cake. Branden made this 99% himself. Noah and I went in the kitchen and observed. Branden read the box, preheated the oven measured out the ingredients. Greased the pan. he really did it all. He did so good.
Gingerbread cake with a dollop of whip cream, so delicious. This cake only lasted the 1 night. It was fantastic.
All sorta of weird/unusual sales during the New Years holidays. At one of the local DIY's. The ads said, this regular 18,0000 yen gas weed whacker is on sale for the first 3 days only..for ichiman yen. 10,000. Noboru has an electric one but doesn't own the ever popular gas weed whacker. So, he went and bought one. This Spring and Summer he'll put it to good use.
And on yet another day. Both boys playing with their RC cars.
A very quiet week here. We got to spend it the way we wanted. : )

In January we started a new season of the Biggest Loser. I'm enjoying this new season. We're only in 1 episode so far. But it was a good one.

Anyone watch Trading Spouses? I know many of you are in the US. I enjoy this show a lot. where a mom moves in with a different family for 2 weeks. They always seem to be a completely different family from hers. And vice versa.
And yet another night we made a tin of cinnamon rolls in the oven They were great...fast and great. And this night, we had baked blueberry muffins. Noah did 50% of the helping with these. He helped stir, Branden did all the measuring. And Noah also put the cupcake papers in each of the tins. We all enjoyed the chit chat while whipping these up quickly.
Yet another night this week. From a box yes, but fresh and hot and oh so delicious. These didn't last the night either.
November 30th is when we mailed back our tuner for the satellite we used to have. We had the Japanese satellite and the American cable for the entire months of Novemer and half of October and we didn't watch the Japanese satellite anymore at all. Don't get me wrong it helped us for many years. And we'll always be grateful. But with regular American cable, with all the tons of channels we have and no 1 -2 years behind stuff depending on the show, I think American Idol was only off 3 weeks though so the delay did vary per show. However we just didn't need it anymore. No more delays at all, and we now get literally everything. Watching Glee here in this pic.
Singing the Go-go's in the cafeteria.
Possibly spoiler on this Glee pic so maybe avoid this part if you're worried. This new girl meanwhile audtioned and her singing was horrible. However her dad is like a diplomat or something so..not sure if they'll take her or not.
You see, outside is 31 F and dropping since the arrow is going down. That means it is dropping. Freezing is 32 degrees F. At leastyou know...it was indeed below freezing here at our place outside. Inside meanwhile is a nice and constant 71-73 F, and with central heatng that temp is for every single room, bathrooms, shower rooms, bedrooms, closets everywhere. And with the floor heating our feet are toasty warm to the touch.
Jinbei blue in the light blue jacket. Branden in navy blue and Noah in red and Ako-chan (Jinbei's boys 3rd grade sister in the pink.) All playing soccer. He comes to play almost every single day. Which is fine. Branden and him are such good friends. And they cheer Noah on all the time. It's like Noah has 2 extra siblings. @_@ They were very proud in December when they saw Noah ride without his training wheels. The Jinbei boy carried Noah all over the front yard. Hugging him. LOL. Ako-chan too. Her name is really Akiko but we all call her Ako-chan for short. : )
Also anyone watching Bones in the US? Isn't it getting good! For those of you in Japan this could definitely be a Bones spoiler so please don't read ahead on this one if you are worried about spoilers at all. Bones is now preggers by Booth. She's like mid preganancy right now. They're looking for a house to move into together at the moment and they're having a baby girl!!!!! Very exciting stuff lately. : )
Also the first week of January also meant the new season of the Jersey Shore, possibly spoilers, though I don't think anyone watches this. Noboru is just not crazy about the cast or this TV show at all. As for me. I like this show, I like the cast. Granted I am very diferent from them. For starters I don't fist pump. ; P And I do not tan. Actually, Noah has extremely pasty white colored skin. And I'm actually fairer then Noah or about the same color as Noah. So he got that trait from me, for sure. I'm also very conservative personality wise. And I dress very conservative. I do not drink at all. Meanwhile they're always at a bar getting quite drunk and being involved in brawls. However that being said. I do like Vinny a lot he's quite close with his family and so am I. I like they do have that respect for Sunday dinners which is very important. That's something quite important and I respect they keep that up. And I guess they just grew on me, go figure. Also all the girls use a flat iron and so do I. : )
Sammi's my favorite of all the girls. I also think she's the prettiest of all the girls.
They landed back in the US, that's how the season started with them leaving Italy. Which that's how the last season ended too. And they flew back. They were cheering.
Overjoyed in the car being driven back to their place at the Jersey Shore.
Deena is still after Pauly but you can tell he thinks she's a grenade. Anyway...she was so happy to be back.
Boy did they have a ton of suitcases. @_@
First stop for the boys...a tan and a hair cut. Pauly D got a fade. And the rest got their own hair cuts they wanted.
These were on sale and that's the only reason we ended up with so many @_@, a huge sale! These are usually 298 yen a box of laundry detregent. These were on that New Years sale though, 198 yen a box however if you bought 5 or more, you got an even deeper discount, 25% off 198 yen. So, detergent isn't something I worry about goung bad too quickly. And it won't last over 6 month's anyway with all the wash we have weekly anyway. Plus it really was a fantastic deal. The total amount paid was shockinly low.
Downy detergent always smells so good. And no, I would not have bought that many under normal circumstances it was just a freakishly good deal and will save us money for the long run.
The hair laser I've been wanting, originally $395. But there was a before Christmas $50 off coupon which I used online. And I bought a laser. It's quite popular now days in the US. It has great reviews. And considering I bought this myself with my own income from teaching and again, considering I make yen and the yen is so strong right now. The day I paid for this, it was only 28,000 yen. So for me, I got a really great deal on this.
The Tria laser. The only FDA approved laser for at home use.

Created by the people who made the laser for dermatologist offices. It is permanent. And considering how much getting it done in a doctors office would cost. Thousands and thousands of dollars no doubt. Versus just 28,000 yen for me. And yes I'd like to never have to shave my legs again. And I am not an overly hairy person, but yeah I'd like to laser a bit of peach fuzz here or there in the privacy of my own home. This may not be a purchase for everyone but it was for me. So, yeah I'm really happy with this purcase. They do sell Tria in Japan, at Triabeauty.jp, or something like that. But it's like twice the price. Forget that. And Trianbeauty.com won't accept a foreign credit card. However Amazon.com sells it from Tria directly and they do accept foreign credit card, but I did have it sent to my dad's since they won't ship this to Japan. I slight pain to get here but a worth it pain for me. : )
It's easy to carry, like a small travel blow dryer. Anyway. so besides working out this past week. Spending time with my husband and my lovely sons. And watching good things on TV. Well, I've also been lasering my legs. Quietly here this week. Noboru when talking about my laser. Puts air quotes...you know like on Austin Powers. he says, aha mommy's (insert air quotes) "laser" arrived today. @_@ It's all in fun and I laugh it off too.
So far for January I am in the #3 spot. I am working so hard on my fitness still. Over a year later and I'm still at it.

Basically, what have we been doing since January 1st? Staying home. A small trip to Toys r us but that's it really. Watching TV, having family movie night quite a few times this past week also. Enjoying family life. Cooking, baking. Same stuff really. I have been working out, treadmill Wii exercises, but it doesn't take much of my time away really.

What are my resolutions for 2012? I don't know if I have any hard core resolutions. But I have some things I will aim for this coming year.

Keep at my fitness.

Go to the salon, at least 4 times this year. This was a brilliant idea last year by an online friend. And I asked to be able to use this last year. She said I could and it was something I really tried and aimed for last year. I only went to the salon 3 times last year granted, but it was 1 time more then the previous year. So, I am going to try this same goal this year as well.

That's it really. I don't want to make a list with 100 resolutions and just fail miserably at them, know what I mean? : ( This way, I keep my goals short, that way it's easier for me to keep track of. Anyway I sure hope everyone had a nice New Year. And nice Winter break/vacation.

Oh sorry one more thing. Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z had their baby! A little girl! Named Blue Ivy! So happy for them! And also, Noboru and I watched the Denver Broncos game this morning versus the Steelers, here on TV! It was amazing! It went into overtime. QB, Tim Tebow threw that ball. And all I can say is an 80 yard TD (touch down) was made! It was freakin' awesome! We were happily cheering in our house this morning! And I already talked to my dad about the Denver Bronco game already today. : )