My dad and Noah around 2:20pm, we had just gotten home after being out all day. My dad and I, had went to lunch, we had tantanmen and deep fried gyoza. Then after that, we went to the Daiso and spent a good hour there. And then we even picked the boys up a donut pack (those mini donut ball kind) before heading to pick up Noah from yochien.
The Lightning McQueen bag Noah used for swimming at the yochien. A beach ball to take on vacation, next week. Mini sodas because my dad said the boys "needed" them, lol. @_@ A ball for dodgeball and for bouncing and 2 flashlights. Because on Skype the boys have told my dad how they now like to sleep with flashlight now. : ) Kids. : ) An origami book. And a whole bunch of other things that my dad picked and said he thought both Branden and Noah absolutely "needed". Life or death situation right? ; ) Ehhh my dad and the boys are really close. And it made him happy picking things for his only 2 grandchildren.
What my dad picked for himself or for his friends in Guam. Yep, he apparently thought one of his friends would get a kick out of toe socks, lol. : ) Also he says he keeps leaving his costlier sunglasses at home on accident. And many times needs a pair, so he bought these cheap pair to keep in his car all the time. He also bought a writing paper set....paper and envelops because he actually enjoys writing his friends real letters as well as email.
2 of those mini donut ball packs for both Branden and Noah. And 1 donut each for the rest of us too.
While my dad and I were watching Noah swim, we phoned Branden on my cell, my dad told him...there's a pack of donuts for you on the green counter. Branden asked my dad...grandpa whose stuff in on the kitchen table. While it's yours...yours and Noah's. meanwhile, Noah ate his donuts before swim class. : ) Noah starts swimming at 3:15pm, so we must be there by 3pm. Branden meanwhile got out at 3:30pm that day so Noboru picked up Branden and was home with Branden while we were able to handle swim class. And then headed back afterwards. : )
So there we were. Everyone in the world has been telling my dad to buy a digital camera, meanwhile he's still not sure : ) Anyway he took about 5 pictures of Noah down in the pool. I took some too. : ) He's so incredibly proud of both Branden and Noah, typical grandparent. : ) He sat there dazzled for the entire class.
It sure takes a lot of dedication to come here week after week. Month after month, year after year. But they love it. And I like them learning a life skill like swimming, it is pretty important. And Branden loved getting that trophy last year so much for mastering every technique and all levels, so he felt really accomplished. And Noah now wants that trophy as well. : )
It turned out to be a test day, go figure. My dad's been to swim club many times before, but he's never seen them actually come out with the "pass" paper. My dad was happily surprised. Noah gave the secretary 105 yen. And she in turn congratulated him and gave him his award paper with new badge on it. : )
When we got home Branden was so totally waiting. He did not want grandpa to go.: ( And neither did Noah. I didn't want them to be sad, so I switched it and made it a positive thing versus a negative one. I said...look how lucky you are, that you got to see grandpa in March and plus we are planning to see him in August when we head to Guam. But look at it this way...you got 1 great day with grandpa. Am I right. Plus also consider a lot of kids who can't see their loving grandparents as often as you. : ( So please consider that too. And you will realize how lucky you are. So no time to be sad now..... Alright? Be happy. Glass half full or glass half empty.....it's not an...I *only* got to see grandpa for 1 day. Instead think...wow how lucky you got to see grandpa for 1 special day. Right. And that seemed to do the trick. Their frowns turned upside down. Back to smiling boys. : ) It's not always what life gives you...it's how you take or handle the situation. How you see things. Anyway... I'm glad they can learn from what I'm saying. : )
My dad asked about Branden's day. And Branden told him every little detail. And then before you know it, we had to take my dad back to Narita airport.
Sky priority is the business class/first class. Noboru went with my dad to check in. Noboru is protective of my dad too and wanted to make sure my dad eased right through the check in process. Because this was not a trip trip...It was a bumped trip. So now my dad was about to head through the TSA part... but there was a line. Branden and Noah were hugging him and telling him how much they love him. I hugged my dad really tightly and then... we all said like we always do...."it's not goodbye okay...it's see you later" And we all felt better and said...see you . : )
Noboru said...I don't want to leave the airport until your dad's flight leaves. This surprised me a little bit. He didn't mention it before, but I totally understood why. : ) He was worried about my dad being bumped again, which he wasn't. Anyway so we had an hour to kill at Narita airport. Noboru wanted to head to Uniqlo. He bought himself a pair of house shorts. Gray with an orange and white stripe. Cute ones. We loved this Ohsho tee. : ) But Noboru just needed the shorts. Under 1000 yen.
When we realized that yes, my dad got on the plane. About 5 minutes to departure. We went on the view area..on the deck area.
Noah had a full day. A day at yochien, an hour of swimming and getting to spend time with grandpa. We knew we'd be at a restaurant that evening because with us....being at the airport that long. No worries though. Noboru took us all to Saizeriya after we left the airport. : )
Many Delta planes. Since this is the terminal/area where they are.
Noboru called Branden and Noah over and gave them each 100 yen. Noboru said to me..."you know....when I was growing up, I always wanted to look through those pay binocular type things but my parents never let me. And I never forgot that. So....I don't want to be like that." My heart broke hearing that...though his parents are nice generous people, they were somewhat strict from what I heard from Noboru. I understand, I told him. : ) And so, he unzipped his change area on his wallet and gave both Branden and Noah 100 yen to enjoy the view. : )
And boy did they enjoy it!
Branden saw a few planes take off!
Noah enjoyed himself too.
Delta! : )
Noboru's house shorts in the Unqilo bag. And my eyebrow mascara in the smaller bag. : ) Anyway that was my dad's fast 1 day with us. We went to Saizeriya after leaving the airport, for dinner like I said. And then we drove home. Everyone took showers. A little unwind time and then off to bed. It was a full day but a worth it full day. : )
Noah the newest #9! Congratulations Noah, we are so proud of you! : )
Goodness, where did the Summer go? Don't get me wrong, it was such a fun Summer this year. With Disneyland for Noah's birthday. A visit from grandpa, the local "old school pool", Toy Story 3. The Guam trip, "Twilight Eclipse" for me and "Despicable Me" for the boys. The big pool with wave pool etc., that we recently went to. Not to mention the countless bbq's we enjoyed here at home over the Summer, plus the gardening the kids got to enjoy. And many dvd rentals and family movie nights with big bowls of popcorn and the family time. We also played a round of Sorry! (family board game) last week. So we did really enjoy our Summer quite a bit. Just sorta sad to see it go....sniff sniff. : ( And I guess a bit sad to get back to the school year once again. But, I know it is unavoidable...so I will do my best to prepare us to go back to school. : ) So what have we been doing since last I blogged? Honestly.....just enjoying every last bit and second of Summer we can. School doesn't start for us here until this coming Wednesday for B. And Noah starts this coming Thursday. So Sept 1st for Branden and Sept. 2nd for Noah. Noah will have half days for the Sept 2nd and 3rd. But yep, the running here and running there will start for me once again this coming Wednesday. ; ) The pic above is of when we were in Saitama last week sometime. We were hanging about enjoying the bits of Summer left and since we were in the area...and it was lunch time, Noboru suggested we have lunch at Costco. I agreed so we went.
This is the Costco, I blogged about once before, it's near an Ikea and a lalaport. I think it's in Shin-Misato? Don't quote me on that though...I am not from that area, so I could be a bit off on city/area names. ; )
It was so crowded in there and all we wanted was lunch and a pizza to take home for dinner that night.
There was no place to sit, so we walked around and around and around for a spot. Finally some nice people left and we got a spot. We sat and ate and then I saw a man and his wife looking for a spot too as we were just about done with our lunch, there he was holding his food and drink just waiting. Boy did I know *that* feeling of wanting a spot to eat while the food is still actually hot...we just had that same feeling 30 minutes earlier. ; ) So, I waved him over and gave them our spot (we were done anyway), boy was he happy! : ) So, the 4 of us got up and gave our spot to the guy and his wife, meanwhile then Noboru took the boys to the boys bathroom to go pee before we drove all the way home, I was standing holding the huge box of pizza and the lady/wife we just gave the seats too, went to get toppings on her hot dog and she gave me the biggest smile and head nod/bow. I smiled and head nodded back. Right on, I thought.
Cold by the time we brought it home...but when it was dinner time we just reheated in the oven. 
I washed Branden's shuji clothes yesterday. Just black basic shorts, an old black tee that used to be Noboru's and a cheap smock that we don't mind if it gets black ink on it or not. And it has. Ha ha ha. Better these clothes then his regular clothes I'd say. I washed them, they dried in the sun and are now folded away until school starts. His gym uniform, actually both the boys gym uniform I will wash this coming Monday that way it's still fresh and clean for when they start this coming Wednesday and Thursday. Oh dear I already sound like I am going into school year mode, let me gong myself real quick. ; ) Side note, those tomatoes are going out of control. We don't even know what to do with them anymore. We are officially tomato-ed out!
With school starting soon, I checked my calendar for September and had a few things written on it already, which surprised me. I have Noah's sweet potato dig written down and Branden's undokai/sports day coming up. So, I started to write a list last week, of what I needed to get from the 100 yen/Daiso. Because sometimes I go in there and get my 2-3 items and then at home go d'oh! And realize I forgot this or that. So not wanting to do that again, I started with my list. And yesterday/Thursday the boys and I headed to the Daiso. For the sweet potato dig, I needed a pair of kids sized gardening gloves for Noah and because we have 2 kids and Branden comes with on sweet potato dig day, I bought 2 sets of kids gardening gloves. So, there I was yesterday with my list with my 2 boys and looking at the huge selection of gloves. Found what I liked and started knocking things off the list while we were in the Daiso. Went and paid and we left. Then we headed to do the weekly shopping.
I chose these because I liked that they had non slip stuff on them. I recalled seeing some kid using something similar last year. Sorta made a mental note of it and remembered it this year.
New inside shoes for Branden, with Kumon and regular school he needs 2 pair. And Noah got a new pair, before Summer started so he only needed 1 new pair for Kumon.
The bag from Daiso.
The shoe inserts are for up to a size 17cm, and Noah's size is 18cm white shoes. I think I can get away with this size of shoe insert this one last time and then I will start buying the bigger size and just cut them down with scissors around Christmas time. But these will work fine for this semester. 2 new washing the school rags for Branden. A nylon body wash scrubby for Noah (Lightning Mcqueen, B just got a new one recently) and kitty for myself, because I have sensitive skin and the adult ones are a little too rough for my skin. A potato peeler because mine broke last week. And this is sort of funny but, the potato peeler selection was so huge since last i bought one, so many new ones to choose from. New cool ones and yet would you believe I picked the one I had bought 5 years ago? Yep, just too many new styles and I couldn't make up my mind on them and I finally decided to just get the familiar and yep, I picked the same potato peeler and the exact same color as last time. @_@ Speaking of which. The new camera? I hate it. Okay maybe hates too strong of word. But...I just didn't like it at all. I took it for the Guam trip and it just drove me bonkers. It was not even remotely like my old camera. My old camera may have less pixels or whatever. But it was a camera I was used to, am comfortable with. And the new camera lacked the "take a pic through a glass setting" and the "swimming pool setting" Thing is, at the swim school I do often take pics through the glass window and we do swim at a pool a lot and I did love that pool setting. So, when I got back from Guam, I traded cameras with Noboru. He now has the brand new camera and I now have my old was broken and now isn't camera. The camera Noah "fixed". ; ) And I couldn't be happier. Hmm, I really do sometimes stick with things familiar don't I? Oh dear.
What's here...one car (looks sorta like a VW beetle to me) band for the metal winter obento. Our measuring tape needed replacing (why do you ask? Well because My darling husband took it to fishing with him to measure how big his fish he caught were and the tape measure came back smelling all eau de fishette. So, I said he could just keep it) and so that's why I needed to replace our home measuring tape. @_@ Yep, husbands, gotta love em'. ; ) Straws, the bendy kind. Cotton swabs for ear cleaning. The 2 pair of kids gardening gloves and 1 mini hand rake thing for the upcoming sweet potato dig. Man am I on top of the getting ready for school stuff or what? I'm trying...I am certainly giving it the old college try here. : ) Fruit picks/sticks for obento and some obento cups, the mini small ones for veggies.
These I loved. Because usually obento cups are cartoony or colored. Arty. Hmm, horrible description but I think you know what I mean. Hopefully. You know like pink ones, green ones, Or you can get ones with bunnies or frogs and stuff on them and I do like those too, I do. But these ones are real pics of tomatoes. I've never seen them before and I do go to the Daiso at least once a month for something or other. Anyway, I liked them and so I bought them for Noah's obento stuff. They had them in the different sizes too.
See the different colors? I wonder what the other pictures will look like.
Since it was Summer, I let the kids eat the jelly's that were in the pantry for Noah's obento's long ago. And so, I luckily remembered to buy another pack of them to actually prepare myself a bit for obento making. I'm slowly getting the boys ready for the return of school.
Yesterday while buying the weekly groceries. I also bought the weekly popsicles/ice-cream. I bring my calculator with me to the store every week (not that I really need to, I just like to). I've always done that. And I try to get the best deals, save the most money I can. I enjoy doing that. But I always buy 1000 yen of snacks for the fmaily every week. $10 dollars. It isn't so much when you count all 4 of us share. I usually get some popsicles/ice cream. Some cookies (those butter and/or the chocolate chip 100 yen ones are great.) A few bags of chips or senbei and that's usually about it. This week, we got the generic cider popsicle ones (98 or 99 yen), the generic/store brand fruit ones and some cookies and cream icecream. Not bad treats for the week. We also got a few bags of chips (88 and 98 yen each bag), curry senbei (88 or 99 yen) and 1 box of butter cookies (100 yen) and 1 box of choco chip cookies. Thrifty but still enjoying snacks. : )
These are the last 2 DVDs for August, The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. Love Sandra Bullock and saw this movie in the airplane but I picked it so Noboru and the kids could see it, it's a good heart warming true story we'll watch it this coming week sometime. And the other one is...good grief the title for this is long it's....Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief . A good action movie and we saw that one already the other night, the whole family enjoyed it. 
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