Gardening...potatoes, heads of lettuce, sanchu and flowers in my hanging baskets for the front porch, plus my morning walks

These pics were taken April 15th, wow a little over a whole month delayed. We planted potatoes at the end of March, but I went out and took a picture that day of just the plain brown mounds/dirt hills where the potatoes are underneath. The plants have broken through the dirt already, so this is a really old pic, but I'll update it with a newer picture soon.

Also taken April 15th, these 4 right here are to be, 4 round heads of lettuce. Again they are way bigger now, so I'll update with a newer, down below, but this was just what they looked like April 15th.

This is a different variety of lettuce in these pots, they are for wrapping your yakiniku with type lettuce, sanchu.

Japanese grass is pretty different than say "Kentucky blue grass" for example. We once grew an American variety of grass in our front yard, but it died in the sweltering heat, that is Japanese summer. Japanese grass however is perfect for the Japanese climate (duh, lol), and it stays a bright beautiful green in summer here. However, in winter it goes scarecrow/hay yellow. I took these next few pics, also April 15th showing how the majority of the grass in indeed as yellow as some dried out old hay. Yet if you look closely you can start to see a few slivers of green here and there. Just barely, but yes you can see them. 

Yep here too, I can see a few green pieces here and there. But again just barely.

I can see a few green pieces near the hose. Few and far between, when pictured, but they were there. Tiny signs the seasons are indeed changing.

First thing I do when I get up is, start my first load of the day and now that Branden is in JHS, it's usual his uniform stuff because it can't be discolored at all, it must stay white. So, I wash those around 5:45am and go wipe down my pole outside, then start breakfast, wake the kids, hang said dress shirts and his spare gym shirt and make sure the kids get sent to school, Branden by bike, Noah by car. Then I come home and start my second load of laundry, while it washes, I go for my morning walk around my housing community. It takes me 20 minutes, sometimes 22 minutes if I am walking it slow. I put my arm band on that holds and plays my music, also I can receive emails from the school or calls from the school in emergency (hasn't happened while on my walks luckily), Line messages or emails. And I go for my walk. 

We will be hitting the rainy season sometime in June. But we do get a few days a week that it rains now, with some days rainy and some days clear, I'd say I go for my morning walk around 3-4 days a week (I don't go on weekends). Just because a few times a week it is rainy now. But I do enjoy my morning walks, I like knowing my 2nd load of laundry is getting clean, while I am off getting my blood pumping, lungs breathing in deeply. While I walk, I do think...what I have to do that day. Do I have a Saturday meeting? Movie with friend during the week or trip to Costco planned? What needs doing basically. I also like it keeps me fit and healthy. And plus I get to "good morning" many nice smiley faces while people are out walking their dogs and whatnot and also see many flowers that folks plant. These are outside the community center. where we have our meetings at. 

Lovely flowers here. 

Nice little flower pots there. 

When I took this pic, there were tulips out, now there is a new flower in it's spot. But, yep I enjoyed walking passed these on the mornings the skies were clear and I could go for my walk. 

These sakura were so beautiful when they were in season. 

Also, I did plant my flowers in my hanging baskets that hang on the front porch. So, I did that another morning as well.

Aha! Look how much bigger the sanchu got! : ) It's even a tad bigger now and that means we should start picking some leaves off! : )

Aww, how cute! Look how adorable the little heads of lettuce are doing! They are indeed getting bigger! And I should update a newer pic, because they're getting even a tad bigger now even. I'd like to plant a few more things, so I will have to go to the home center and get a few more things planted! Such as zucchini! : )

And this pic was taken, hold on let me go and check the date stamp on this real quick. May 5th. It's even greener right now even! : ) You can see the rice has been planted behind our home. You can hear frogs a croaking every night. It's a lovely time of year. : )  Anyway just wanted to share, how the grass is getting a tad greener little by little, how we did plant the potatoes and lettuce. A couple pics of flowers on my morning walks. Anyway again, want to keep this post nice and as short as possible. That's it for now. : ) 

Getting ready for Fall part 1

I know I rarely talk about working out anymore. But I haven't stopped at all. Not in the least. Since January 2011, I have been going full steam and I haven't wanted to quit. I am always very cautious to say things until I know for sure but I really feel it was a life change. You can see my "fitness minutes" for August. I was 6th place in one of the groups I belong to. And 6th place isn't bad. And consider I worked out in 1 month...1,845 minutes. Honestly, I am VERY proud of myself. Considering I am also a busy mommy of 2. And take care of the household needs, do shopping and the boys extra curriculars to boot! And still find the extra time to work out and stay in shape and fit. I am very proud of myself. The month of September I only had about 1500 minutes to be honest. I wish I could have worked out more September, but I have been just busy with the yochien groups/committees I belong to, insanely busy plus still 1500 fitness minutes for September isn't bad at all either really. Anyway enough about that. But yeah...I'm really working hard. I do 300 stomach crunches for example, Tues..Thurs and Saturday. So 900 stomach crunches every week. Not counting the 5 days a week of either treadmill or Zumba, just getting some sort of cardio in there, plus my workouts focusing on my core so the stomach crunches. I transitioned from a Gap/ON large to a Gap/ON medium. Moving on....
Anyway the Fall and Winter gathering like I always do has begun. 1 vest for Noah, 1 lunch bag for the boys to share. 1 long sleeve black and white top for myself. 2 pair of trouser/wide leg jeans. Everyone's calling them trouser jeans this season. And something else pictured but I forget.
Another package got here, these were my 2 sweatshirts. And I even have 1 other Gap/ON package on it's way to me as I speak, errr type.
Gap, used to make super cute ladies Gap logo sweatshirts. I wore them in uni. Then they took them away. Didn't carry them for years. The guys sweatshirts never went away and they sell them every single year, lucky for Noboru but out of luck for me. I sort of gave up on the Gap logo hoodie for us ladies. Boy was I pleasantly surprised to see they started selling them this season. And given all the reviews they've gotten online....positive ones. I'm not the only one who's missed them. They said they run small and to order up a size. The reviews were right. They do run small. I bought a large versus a medium because of the fact all the reviews said they ran small. So glad I listened to them. It is a more feminine fitted type fit, so that's why it is cut a bit on the small size. But I love it. I ordered 1 in this navy blue color with purple writing.
And I also ordered the full zip fitted hoodie in navy. I bought these both and used a 30% off coupon.
Here, they are. I can't wait for Fall/Winter now. I feel fitter this year, leaner this year and happy to have my trusty Gap sweatshirts back.
Wide leg jeans are making a comeback. Thank goodness, have been sorta tired of the skinny jeans from last season. I got these ones with the squiggly lines on the back pockets.
And these are trouser jeans. They even have a button back pocket. I really love these.
Yep, they got here too. And the wide cuffs/legs.
Also picked up 2 pair of wide leg jeans from Nissen as well. You can see the wide cuff legs on these as well. They're really flattering.
Japanese size wise. I am an L. I usually try not to give out too much information, because it's just TMI. But just this once. Also, if you're wondering why an American M and an L Japanese size, well if you live in Japan, you already know the answer....it's because the cuts and sizing are totally smaller here. So consider a Japanese L is a lot tinier and smaller cut then a L in America. So a medium in the US and an L in Japan. Which I don't really mind being, though I'd like to be a bit more fit, so I keep exercising and I also now really enjoy exercising and I like the health benefits and looks to my body. Sometimes if it runs small or if I really want it and if it's not available in a size L...I can get an LL and shrink it in the dryer. When I flipped through the Nissen catalog and also the Smileland, because L's can shop on either catalog, lol. Now that's depressing or lucky however you look at it...twice the selection you know. : ) Anyway back to the pic of the leggings, I really liked these but the size said size LL-3L (bigger then the size I need). And there were no pants like these in the regular Nissen catalog, they had tights /nylons like this but not leggings/ type pants. No way can I wear a 3L no way, no how, I'd be swimming in it. LL is even seriously pushing it. But the reviews on Nissen in Japanese said these ran so small! That they had zero stretch and they all returned them. Great for me since I worried they'd be too big. So, I bought them, tried them on, too big for me but they were right no stretch at all which would be great for me, I liked them, I washed them and dried them and they shrunk to a perfect size for me. So, now they are perfect. They are now about a size Japanese size L. : ) I will wear these with jean mini skirts, and ballet shoes or Ugg type boots or low top converse. And a turtle neck or cute sweater or something.
Also bought 4 new basic long sleeve tops. Nissen Smileland had them in size L (lucky for me they had my size) and no, I really don't care which catalog it comes from, if it's cute, and it fits, so be it...990 yen for regular neck and 1290 yen for V neck. I bought 2 black ones, 1 regular/U neck and 1 black v neck....1 white regular neck and 1 pink v neck. I like the material. I think the weight is good quality, but the white is a little too thin for my liking but I'll be wearing it under my Gap sweatshirts so it's fine and I'll keep it. The weight thickness on the pink and black ones were better then the white long sleeve. I was glad I picked up a few basics like these long sleeve T's. Perfect for the turning cooler weather and the price I really loved.
1 piece denim dress size L, so cute with crazy Japanese leggings and a basic top and cardi. Very very cute. I love Nissen!
The long sleeve T from Old Navy, out of the package that was in the pic up above. I love this.