Enjoying our summer and some of the things we’ve been up to. Plus the trip we’re taking next week

I think once I can get this post up, I luckily won't be behind with blogging anymore. I'll be caught up pretty much. So, I hope I can get this post up today. : ) This was dinner the day after we went to the wave pool in the post down below. This was August 8th. We had bought the baby back ribs before the swimming competition and we threw them in the freezer until we could enjoy them. So, August 8th, we had a backyard BBQ and we made these ribs. We had Bush's Country style beans to go with. We also had rice to go with also. Noboru requested some rice that night, so that's what I made that evening for him, the beans and ribs were plenty for me though. And yep we still have a ton of those plastic cups leftover from the summer festival stand we had, so we've been trying to use them up all summer. : )

Just enjoying our family dinner together. : )

This was taken August 9th. Noah made a cake all by himself, he read the directions in English, read the measurements went and got the correct measuring cups from the cabinet and I think he really did a pretty good job on this cake. He also rinsed and tore a lettuce head into nice little pieces for a simple salad. We didn't even have tomatoes for the salad that day. Which was fine. But again Noah did a pretty good job cleaning and getting the salads ready. Meanwhile, Branden made his first curry form beginning to end, he diced up the veggies (onion, carrot, potatoes and mushrooms) He also diced up some chicken breast and fried it up in a pan and then boiled it up. It boiled for the right amount of time, then I watched him dissolve the roux. He did great.

What every one's curry dinner looked like that night. Curry and rice, salad and corn.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, Noah also frosted the cake.

Our dessert that night. : )

Meanwhile, we have received 2 omiyage this August. Grandma next door and her family went away for 2 nights. Not only do we keep an eye on the 2 houses (grandma next door's house and her daughter's house across the street from us, where boy next door lives) we also keep an eye on her 2 dogs. They are very nice dogs. They are quiet unless someone comes to our street who the dogs aren't familiar with/they don't know, then they bark which they are supposed to. :  ) And also the 5pm bell music that plays, makes them howl and that makes me laugh! It just does! It's cute. : ) Every time I go hang the laundry, they wag their tails. Sometimes I speak to the dog-aloos in English, sometimes in Japanese. : )  So we keep an eye on them. Anyway, they went to Izu and she said it was pretty awesome. : )

Ayumi-chan's dad, went to America. He lives across the street also, but next to the "boy next door's" house. Anyway it was his first trip ever to America in his life according to him. He went there because his niece got married. He said, I didn't realize America was so beautiful.: ) Hearing that made me smile. He went to Oregon and also to Washington.

What else...oh yes fishing!

Noboru took both Branden and Noah fishing one day.

You know, that whole guy bonding stuff. That whole father and son time stuff. : ) Branden caught a fish, Noah caught a fish, Noboru caught 2. They also said they saw a rotten dead fish thrown along the river bed apparently this was super gross smelling, they figured he was there a week by the smell of it, because they talked about the smell of it a whole lot after they came back. @.@ Yikes! Hahaha. But they had fun together and that's nice. Noboru and the boys release the fish they catch though alive back into the river. : )

What else have we been doing. Oh yes we also went back to our Costco. Just for bottled water and a few things. We ended up drinking this whole 35 pack. It's great water. The boys love it too. We 4 have all been drinking this.

We also bought potatoes.

Red seedless grapes.

And dinner for that night. Noboru picked up take out sushi at a restaurant along the way. The boys and I had pizza and also shared this sandwich.

One morning I made pancakes. I ended up combining 2 packs (banana and coconut), so we had banana coconut pancakes that morning.

I think you can see Noboru leg in this pic, he was enjoying his pancakes. The boys enjoyed them too.

Let's see some of our meals I've been making during Summer break. Chicken strips and homemade mashed potatoes with gravy. You need a little extra gravy on top then usual, so you can dunk your strip into the gravy. You need that extra bit for dunking each strip. : ) We also had corn on the cob. This is probably one of the boy's favorite things I make for supper. The kids are always super happy when I make this. : )

I also made chicken parmesan.

Let's see what else. I love watching cooking shows. I enjoy shows like Triple D (Diners Drive-Ins and Dives) another one of my favorites is The Pioneer Woman. I love watching her ranch life in Oklahoma. Her name is Ree Drummond, and I just really enjoy her show a lot. I also like her website online. Her recipes are amazing.

She was making fried chicken and potato salad that particular episode.

We've also been making ice cream runs to the local conbini about once a week this summer. : )  Noah's was the chocolate Garigari. : ) I had the cheesecake Coldstone. Branden picked the brownie one. Noboru picked the other one. : )

Another night we had tostada night.

They were pretty good. I forgot to take a pic of the sweet and sour chicken I made another night. So some nights it's Chinese, Italian (chicken paremesan), American (chicken strips) it just depends. And I like that it varies and we mix it up. : )

Final dinner pic. This night I made chicken teriyaki bowls. This is more so something you'd find at a food court in the US type chicken teriyaki bowl. So not so authentic maybe... but it's good. Really good actually. : ) 

Chicken breast meat and whole mushrooms. Lightly salted and peppered and finally added some teriyaki sauce.

Just a simple chicken teriyaki bowl and added a few shakes of the chili pepper on top. This is pretty good and fast and we usually eat this about once a month. : )

The grandma next door's apple tree is ready. So she brought us apples. : )

We've also been enjoying homemade kakigori/shave ice. A nice treat for after dinner.

Snack for Branden and Noah. They eat breakfast, have lunch at noon and we usually eat dinner between 4 and 5pm. However they usually get a little hungry somewhere between lunch and dinner. So they usually eat a light snack. Cheese and crackers and some fresh apples from the grandma next door. Just a little something to tide them over until dinner time. : )

I caught that Lindsey Lohan interview with Oprah the other night.

I did like that sample of the Innis Free sunblock and I ended up buying a full size. It keeps my face  matte and gives me really good sun protection for my face every day and the price was good. Also bought a skin toner from Etude House. I love this! : )

School is starting this week and also next week for a few of my friends kids in Colorado. Though school won't start for Branden and Noah until September 2nd or so. However, since back to school sales have been going on this month in the US, I decided to take advantage of the super savings and get a few things. Gap was 40% off as you can see from this pic and Old Navy was 30% off. The purchases I made were from Gap though.

This shirt is really cool. And so I ordered one for Branden and also one for Noah. And considering the 40% off it was a great buy.

Branden and Noah also each will get one of these. In fact they should be on their way to grandpa's house as we speak. Again at 40% off.

And this was the final thing. But again, both the boys, Branden and Noah, will be getting this one also. And again at 40% off, is a really good savings.  Anyway, we are still enjoying our summer, but we're also slowly starting to get ready for Fall slowly, little by little. That way, by the time it finally gets here we'll be ready a bit, at least.: )

Today our family is heading to the wave pool again. Last time for the summer season for us. And we’re taking a picnic lunch again too (same yummy sandwiches). : ) Noboru is actually loading up the car as I type. So I better hurry and publish this. : )

 

And we’re taking a family over night trip to a mountain resort next week in Japan, as a...”last trip of summer”..so we’re still going to try our best to squeeze every dot of fun out of our summer, as we possibly can. : ) Anyway, now you’re all caught up with us here. : )

TGIF! My hair appointment today, our bbq ribs tonight, and DVD later tonight, Idenity Thief

My hair straightening and cut went really well today. OMG! It took forever, like 3 hours! @_@ But on the bright side, my hair is as straight as a pin and so freaking shiny. I asked my stylist to barely barely cut any length off. I said less then a trim, type of trim and she "got me" exactly (she has long hair, so she knows).  And she took literally the tiniest dot off my hair. She said I didn’t have many split ends at all this time anyway. Plus she knows I’m growing it out. Anyway, as usual I now can’t wash or wet my hair for 24 hours. So, I will wash it tomorrow night. I usually wash it every night. Aw well, I have a couple shower caps from past hotel stays, so I' guess I’ll just throw on a shower cap tonight when I shower. Hahaha. : )

Right now we are bbq’ing the ribs out in the backyard. It is lightly sprinkling rain right now, not a down pour, but a light mist. It’s fine anyway because we eat inside anyway. We will have baked potatoes from the potatoes we grew and also some veggie, some zucchini (we grew) and corn.

Tonight we will be watching Identity Thief after the kiddos go to sleep. With Jason Batemen and Melissa McCartney (she is so hilarious!) I ordered this from Amazon.com and it arrived this week. : ) Am not sure which movie the boys picked for the family movie tonight, we will watch after supper and showers of course first though. : )

Foot peeling pack/treatment update: Today marks, day 2 on the feet and I see no peeling but I have read and heard it’s normal and that I shouldn’t see any peeling until day 3 or 4. So, I’m being patient.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Our weekend. Going to the movies to see Oblivion, stocking up on meat and baby back ribs, hanging with good friends and potato and zucchini update

June 1st, 2013 our family went to the movies to see Oblivion. The first day of the month is 1,000 yen all day long and evening for anyone. So that's *the day* to go if you want to see a movie around here where we live. : )  I had went and purchased the tickets and picked our seats, oh geeze what day did I do that? The day the boys had observation day. That was Wednesday, I think. In America seats are first come first serve. But for the most part, in Japan you get to pick your seat. However, when we went to Narita to see that movie last month. Iron Man 3 with my friends the first show was free seating/meaning no reserving seats. So that was new to me, as far as going to a movie in Japan with no seat reserving. I'm fine either way though. Both ways are normal to me now. : )

Stadium seating. The movies are very clean. The screen rolls back when the movie starts making the screen even bigger. The movie was pretty packed. Well, about 30 people, so packed for Japan. When we went to see Iron Man 3, for Mother's Day in Guam, about 98% full movie theater about 150 people in there. But then again for $5 a lot of people will come. A lot of people did come for the 1,000 yen movie day also too though. 30 is a good amount here. : )

A happy Noah, waiting for the movie to begin.

A smiling happy Branden too. : )  About the movie. It was a good movie, I'd say a 7 out of 10. Would I go out and buy the DVD? No. Would I watch this again in an airplane? Umm, no. But it wasn't bad at all though either. It was enjoyable. Our type of movie. Kept all of our attention. We all talked about it afterwards. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon as a family.

We caught the 12:25pm showing. And after we got out of the movie, it was near 2:30pm Meanwhile, the sale starts at 3pm at the cheap meat store. And the cheap meat store is right across from the movie theater. So we had the plan to go and get some meat after the movie and that's what we did. We got in the car, left the movie theater parking lot and parked across the street, closer to the store. And went inside and grabbed a cart. People were buying and picking meat already, but they have to wait to get the 20% off sticker at 3pm. So, we grabbed our cart and hit the meat aisle. We picked marinated miso pork this is absolutely delicious here. That's what the boys and I had Saturday night for supper. Noboru wanted that pork stir fry thing, he loves from here. Noboru had that Saturday night for dinner. We also picked 2 pork roasts, 1 pack of chicken tenders/chicken tenderloins. 2 packs of chicken breasts, 1 pack of thigh meat, and 3 racks of pork ribs. We love baby backs anyway, but plus 20% off. Heck yeah! So we quickly put the 3 racks of ribs into the basket. We now made a line and waited until 3pm on the nose. At 3pm, those who were in line were given 20% off stickers and then we checked out. And it does make our weekly meat bill much cheaper. It's all fresh meat, delicious meat we'd buy anyways, just 20% off though. So a great deal for us. : )

Potato update yet again. The potato plants are starting to look all wilty this week. As you know they did not look like this last week. However it says online, they are supposed to look like this. So, I am remaining calm. Also the rainy season has supposedly started. So we know we will pull them but we want them to have their proper growing time also. So, we just don't want to pull them prematurely, likewise we don't want to wait too late either though. But we are watching and checking them daily though.

Zucchini are growing by leaps and bounds. : )

I'm thinking we'll have zucchini ready this week some time. : ) Yay. Also at the back of my mind, I am thinking what we should plant in the place/space of the potatoes, after they get pulled.  Anyway that's also on my mind too.

Sunday, I baked a cake. Made chili concarne. You know Texas style chili beans. : )  I also did laundry, both Branden and Noah's gym clothes, red and white hat, just a regular full load.  Meanwhile Sunday the boys played.

If you are a kid,and you live in this housing community, this is the house to be! : ) I'm seriously not pulling your leg. We had a full load of kiddos out there, Sunday! They love hanging here. And it's not because we have a huge playground outside. We don't even let the kids from the neighborhood in the backyard much anymore. They just love being here plain and simple. I'm nice, the kids all know me, they all like me. They all love playing with Branden and Noah. And they're all good kids and good friends. So yeah place to have their kid meetings and hang? Our house. Hahaha. : )  Two girls and the rest all boys. Tons of boys! : )

They had the biggest game of kori oni yesterday. This was like a kori oni marathon yesterday. They were running all over, the safe spot, where you want to touch and be safe! That was our front porch! ha! : )

A-chan in the pink in this pic. She is the Jinbei boy's sister, 5th grade sister. She is so pretty. She's so nice. She always chats with me. Always. She also likes to play tennis, her and her brother playing with Branden and Noah during the week also, but Sunday they didn't play tennis.  Since it was their kori oni marathon day.: ) For those of you not in Japan, kori oni is sorta like tag. There is 1 person who is "it" and there is a base to be safe. So sorta like tag. : )

And today, Monday, it was traffic safety and the day to greet the kids walking to school. So the bright side is now I'm done for the year with that. Hahaha. : )  Phew. : ) Anyway that's what we we were up to around here this weekend. : )

Anything else to add? Branden and all the 6th graders are cleaning the school pool today. Also, Branden is making dessert sandwiches this Wednesday. So he needs to bring chocolate sauce and bread, the thin sliced bread with no crusts. I bought the chocolate sauce already and will buy the bread tomorrow. : )  Alrighty, that's all for now. : )