Bits and pieces.

                                          This is just a silly video, of Noboru and Branden. : )

After we got back from Denver. Although we were badly jet lagged....... for us, life kept going on here at the house. The boys both had school, they both swim twice a week. Anyway, here's a little update on what we've been up to. There's more stuff too, but that will be in another post. : ) One thing, I did after we got home, was I baked these cupcakes with Noah one afternoon.  Branden had homework but he hung out with us in the kitchen while Noah and I baked these. Noah read all the instructions and directions and pulled out, all the measuring cups, out of the dish cabinet.

Cocoa Puffs muffins and Reese's Puffs muffins. They were both good, but our family favorite of the two were the Reese's muffins. : )  

What else, oh yes we have been to Costco, like 3 times, since we've been back from Denver. This was the 1st of the 3 trips, pictured here. We went to the town festival earlier that morning for about 45 minutes and then we hit Costco afterwards. We did have lunch there. 

Chips were for the leftover turkey sandwiches for after Thanksgiving, yep we were preparing for that. : ) 

Hi Noah! : )

My lunch. : )

Christmas wrapping paper, waffles, shoyu, chicken for supper that night, we had those quick tacos made from the rotisserie chicken. Dinner rolls, gyoza, potatoes, tortillas, I like these tortillas. : )

Lotion for the whole family, we're all so dry in winter. And kids shampoo.

We went to Joyful Honda after Costco and bought 1kg of fries (they last a long time, few months), a gallon or whatever of Biore body wash, and face wash for Noboru, pictured bottom left hand corner. Just daily living type stuff. Nothing too major.

We also bought these at Costco, 4 Christmas hanging baskets for the front porch. I will show pics on another post. 

We said goodbye to the Fall wreath and...

Made the switcheroo, to Mr and Mrs. Claus. Oh yes and can't forget you either, snowman. : )

Bought 2 chocolate advents calendars at Kaldi, like I do every year. : ) 

The boys loved putting the stickers on different spots then the other one did.  And they have been enjoying 1 small chocolate, each evening before shower and bath time. : ) Bones spoiler in the next 2 pics, so, if you're worried, skip the rest of this post. : ) 

They finally got married. : ) Her dad walked her down the aisle. Aww. : )

Just really nice. : ) 

Yes, I did do some light shopping on Black Friday. Old Navy had 50% on many many things.

I ordered these black and gold ballet flats for 50% off. 

I ordered this too.

First time ever ordering from Walmart online before, but since they do ship to Guam, I placed the tiniest order. I ordered this black and white polka dot fleece sleep shirt for $7.96 US. 

I am a Gap and Old Navy shopper, I have never owned any clothing from Walmart before, except for pjs. But these were being advertised and, they're jeggings. What got me was the reviews from customers. People saying they were the best skinny jeans, they have ever owned. I was like....from Walmart? Really? : ) But you know, I'm open minded....so after I read page after page of the reviews. This lady/girl from Australia, left a review, saying she bought a pair or two of these pants when she was on vacation in the states and she's now back home... anyway she wished she had bought more of the pants. So she has been ordering them online, her friends and family are now ordering them online too. How did she order them? I don't know. : ) Meaning do they ship internationally? Or is she using a mail forwarding service? Again, I don't know. However, I did pause and think...hmm, seems everyone loves these pants, for $13.44 US, you know, maybe....I should try them. And so I ordered 2 pair, had them shipped to my dad's condo along with the black and white polka dot sleep T. 

I can't wait to try them. Also I think they'll go well with Uggs or boots in winter, too. Or my black low top converse sneakers. Anyway we'll see. The boys also got a nice little Amazon order for Black Friday also. 

A new flavor Fanta, yay! We love this one! : )

The boys play outside literally, every single chance they get! : ) I think you can see Noah's legs and his green jump rope. He and the neighbor boy were playing jump rope, while the others were huddled up with R/C cars. : )  90% of the time though, they're off playing soccer at the park, 50 seconds away from our house. 

I have not started my New Year's cleaning yet, too early still.... but I am sort of doing the prep for it already though. One afternoon, I took everything out of my food pantry wiped down all my shelves. Yes, I know my sponge has bit the dust here! : ) And yes I have a replacement already waiting in the wings. : )  I also dried each shelf and unrolled plastic liners bought from Ikea a few months ago. 

Checked dates on everything, anything outdated went to the trash. So the food pantry done and complete. I will recheck it and wipe things down again though for the.... before New year's big clean up. But this way, at least my job will be a little easier now. 

Yogurt, story of our life! : ) Yogurt and bread are probably the 2 things we run out of, most in this house. This time, I bought chocolate strawberry. 

Two packs of chocolate chip stick breads on the left. 2 packs of bananas (2 packs for 89 yen that day) 1 bag of super sweet mikan and 2 packs of snacks for when the boys play outside. Their friends usually bring their own snacks and so this way my kids, will also have a snack or two, if need be. 

One bunch of bananas has 3 and the other bunch has 4, but that's okay, 7 bananas for 89 yen, isn't so bad. And they go quickly in our house, with 2 growing boys. : )

Made gratin last week. Chicken, mushrooms, broccoli and pasta. 

At the dentist! Branden and Noah had their dental check up, cleaning and their last sealants put on. Zero cavities yet again and the dentist said everything looked pretty great! We took them on December 6th for that. We went from school to the dentist right away that day. Also, the week we got back from Denver, the boys both had their final and second flu shot. So dental cleaning and check up, done....last flu shot also complete...so glad to be done! Right on.. for getting both those things knocked off the list! : )

One white T for each of the boys. Goes perfectly under a sweatshirt. : )

Scarf from Old Navy, for me.

Third and final bling sweatshirt. This one is so pretty and probably my favorite. Though I like them all. : )

I was talking with one of my friends in Japan, who just started blogging a couple months back. Anyway she was asking me about stats and if I pay attention to that stuff (my answer is/was no). So this is more so for her really, to get a visual. Anyway, like I said, I rarely read my stats that type of stuff ...it just doesn't interest me at all, again everyone's different but...for me personally, if I have time to blog, great, but have extra attention to pay attention to stats, nope no time and not interested anyway. But, I did look for her and here's some info on what I found and again I hope this helps. The average post I write, gets about 2074 views.  Branden and Noah's undokai this year for example, got about 3,000 views.  Umm, what else, when we go on vacation, those type posts get about 3,000 -3,500 views as well. But the average just basic...nothing really important or major to say type of post does, usually get about 2000-2100 views. The posts when I shop and share pics, like "stuff brought back from Guam or Hawaii or Denver...ykwim, those usually get around 3,500-4000 views. : ) So, like I was saying on skype..it does vary for me. 

Now for the lowest for me.....a low, for a post is 980. That's pretty low for me... for views for a single post. But....consider I don't advertise my blog at all, those numbers are actually pretty decent. So low for me is 980-1000 views per post. And average for me, is the 2,000 views mark and then the vacation posts or undokai posts can go higher and usually do. : ) Anyway, hope that answered your question my friend : ) And really, like I said, don't be concerned about that stuff. No worries now. : )  Hope this helps. : )  

December 6th after the dentist we went to Costco, to get a chicken for obento for the next day and cookies. December 7th was the school marathon. I made those rotisserie chicken wraps with white rice and mozzarella cheese and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. They also took grapes and a few other things. : ) The Father's Club made soup for the kids as well. : ) 

Noboru picked up these 2 big cans of clam chowder also from Costco that night. We had pizza from Costco for supper that night. : )

And niku jaga, I made this 2 nights ago. It was pretty good. Anyway that's just a hodge podge of things that we've been up to recently. Dental cleaning, last flu shot. Making dinner, baking muffins, you know just regular life type stuff. : )  

Bits and Pieces

Fruit is pretty affordable where we live! Great for us, because we eat tons of fresh fruit all Summer long. We also have a freakishly good cheap meat store also. I think groceries are cheap in our area because we live way off in the countryside. Or maybe a lot of fresh farm produce comes from Ibaraki and we live literally teeter tottering along the border between Chiba and Ibaraki. Or I don't know really...but I do know our veggies, fruit and monthly grocery bill in general is quite low. 500 yen for 3 cantaloupe. It says the name for cantaloupe in Japanese and in parenthesis it says where it came from, it says in parenthesis Ibaraki. Remember the cantaloupe ice cream we had during Golden Week. Well melons in particular are dirt cheap around where we live, since Ibaraki and melons go hand in hand : ) Anyway.... 

Three farm fresh large sized cantaloupe, for 500 yen. We buy this a lot. And a few days after this, they had small watermelons 3 for 500 yen also. And of course they have 1/4 of a big watremelon always for dirt cheap also. The 3 mini watermelons fit in this box type size. : ) They were *so* sweet. They have honey dew and all sorts of yummy melons. : )  Anyway moving on....

I buy a head of lettuce twice a week. And wash it real good, rinse it and throw it through the salad spinner to dry it. Ykwim. Chop of a cucumber and green pepper and then place the mix into a ziplock. And when anyone wants salad it's there already basically (I make salad twice a week). I have been having salad for lunch off and on the whole past week. The 2 zucchini in this pic are from the garden. Oh and this avocado had a few bruises so that's why this avocado was not diced up cute like. Hahaha. : )

Lunch one day for me.

With us about to leave on vacation, I am trying really hard to get the house in order before we leave. And with the rainy season here and some days are rainy and some days aren't. I try to take advantage of the nice days. So one day after the laundry was brought in from outside. I decided to use some sunshine and so I threw the couch cushions outside to get sun. Meanwhile I vacuumed under the couch cushions. Boy did they need it! : )

After these 3 were done and fluffy, I tossed out the rest. And just rotated them out.

Diced fresh pineapple is so cheap and really in season. So we've been eating lots of fresh pineapple, many types of melons. Just lots of fruit basically. : )

Fanta Ume. remember the jam Noah and his class made the other week? Now there is, plum flavored soda. : )

When Old Navy and Gap had a sale, I bought a few things and didn't get a chance to post them until now. Kool Aid T for both Branden and Noah.

These short sleeve T shirts from Gap, I really liked.

This color is my favorite for the boys.

I meanwhile picked up a Rolling Stone T, 1 pair of jean shorts and 1 pair of olive green shorts. That's all.

All these are just from 1 zucchini. These were so good. All of us loved these.

1 navy blue rash guard for Noah. Swimming at the shogakko/elementary school starts this week. And I had the boys try on their swim stuff from last year. Noah could wear his swim trunks from last year, he's just that skinny. Too skinny. @.@ Branden meanwhile needed a new pair of swimming trunks for school. So between getting ready for our trip, I also have to make sure, the boys are ready to start swimming at the school. And all the little bits and pieces in between. Which isn't bad. Piece of cake actually, it's just I need to write myself lists, notes. And it all manages to get done. Knock on wood. : )

I made homemade pizza from scratch. We had that before movie night.

About once or twice a week, we'll make an evening trip to 7-11 or Mini Stop and pick up some ice cream. What do we have here.....minty choco chip Crunky (for Branden), Kiwi Garigari (Noboru), says Black Thunder but it's like a triple chocolate ice cream clearly Noah the chocolate lover of the family had picked that one on the top. : ) And I had the choco banana ice cream. Very good. : )

Okay, not the most good looking picture of breakfast. Granted. Just a simple bacon, egg and skillet fried potato breakfast. The reason I'm sharing the pic, is because those potatoes came from? Yep, our own potatoes. : ) I tell ya, we've been eating them so many different ways. We had french fries, added in curry...baked...steamed (jaga butta)....we're indeed using them. : )

Usually I just vacuum the binds with a vacuum attachment and it's easy peasy. But last week, I just manually wiped all the blinds down with a hot wash rag (and it wasn't so hard either). And kept ringing it out and rinsing it again. Again...just trying to make sure the house is in order before we leave on vacation.

Two Wii games arrived via Amazon.com. Just Dance 4 and The Hip Hop Dance Experience. We've been having fun with this, this past weekend, since the weather was rainy and the boys couldn't play outside with friends, in the day time. They're so fun! : )

We watched this movie and loved it. The only other DVD, that's on it's way to our house right now, is Oz the Great and Powerful.

Any other tid bits to throw out here. Hmmm. Oh yes! I do. My feet started peeling like crazy last night. My feet look like brand new feet underneath the parts that have peeled. So, I really am happy with that foot treatment.

Also, Noboru, took the boys for their haircut on Sunday. I mentioned to Noboru the boys have to get their haircut before we leave on vacation, their hair was getting way too long. And so I asked what day was best for him, he said Sunday, so he took them Sunday morning. They look much better now. Phew. : )

Also, I am really iffy on that Innisfree face cleanser right now. I have now used it for a week. Maybe 5 days. I am worried that it could be too gentle on my skin. And what I mean to say is.... I like a face cleanser that makes my face feel squeaky clean. Granted not too overly stripped and tight. But yeah a nice squeaky clean face is what I personally prefer. And point blank, my face can tend to be a grease pit in Summer. Otherwise, Fall, Winter and Spring I'm combination skin, but Summer I'm grease pit central. So, anyway....I wash my face with the Innisfree apple face wash. And no it doesn't feel squeaky clean, but it feels so so. But this is the kicker, about 30 minutes to an hour afterwards, my face feels moist...sticky, dare I say greasy? So the past 5 days or so. I rub my pointy finger near my nose area, creases around my nose to feel for grease. Let's put it that way. So yeah....5 days later and I don't want to say...straight up.... I love this cleanser and I don't want to say I hate it. Blech blech, but I am saying....I'm not convinced of a match as of yet. And I am starting to think I will use this up.... but replace it with something else. The cleansing oil and makeup remover are fine though.....and yep, I'm still testing them and deciding still too. But...the cleanser....nah. Not crazy about it (I need something stronger, I think). An considering what my face will feel like mid Summer. Hmm. yeah not 100% convinced on this one yet. I'm thinking about replacing it with Etude House Happy Fresh Foaming in Witch Hazel. For Summer since like I said, I'm a grease pit in Summer, face wise. lol. And also am considering Etude House Melgem Fresh oil control toner, since again we all know how my face is in Summer. ;P Again nothing life threatening to report or say granted. But, yeah I think I need a stronger face wash and I might switch to the brand Etude House. Because 2  women who have combo to oily skin in Summer (like me) both swear by Etude House. And 1 guy on Youtube also says the same. So....again I don't want to jump the gun here. But, not 100% sold on the apple face wash. Plus throw in the whole going to be near a Face Shop and Tony Moly etc. gah, so I hope I don't get too side tracked. With all the choices. And I'm also really worried about making a wrong purchase also, if that makes sense too. Gah!!! But then I know...I am human and it happens : ) Anyway, just thought I should update that.