Bits and pieces...

Did everyone have a nice weekend? We had a fantastic weekend here. Stayed home Friday and Saturday ate delicious food and watched amazing new release movies at home and good TV. Yesterday, we all went to Tsukuba City and went to the Gap and to LOFT. I bought Noboru's Valentine's gift at LOFT, while they were preoccupied looking for stuff. Anyway, I have a little bit of misc pics that I have about 30 minutes of free time to get them up right now. What have I been up to? Honestly.. same stuff I am always up to. Cleaning the house like a crazy maniac 4 times a week and I do mean thorough super hardcore type stuff. Plus the light picking up daily and wiping down type stuff daily ykwim. : ) And cooking nightly etc. : ) I also have still been logging in my daily 10,000 steps or 4 miles for us Americans. Back in November I was logging half in the mornings and then logging the final half at night...for a nightly walk. But now my walking time...it's switched again and I have been kicking out my walks first thing every morning on my treadmill here at home as soon as I drop the kids at school. I come home... throw a load in the wash and slap on my headphones and music on my phone and jump on my treadmill and walk for about 42 minutes or however long the washer runs for. And then I get off. Run upstairs and throw the load in my dryer. Run downstairs and clean the downstairs. Swoosh toilets... wipe the kitchen counters down with bleach and clean-up from breakfast and obento making. Vacuum. Then jump back on my treadmill to knock out the final whatever... how long I have to finish up. After that... I go and have some breakfast. Croissant or toast with peanut butter and banana with a side of yogurt and 1 cup of coffee. And then. I clean my house for about 2 solid hours hard core. Fold up my laundry. Jump in the shower. Scrub the shower first though... before I scrub my sweaty ol' self. And then I come out, blow dry my hair. Do my eyebrows with eyebrow mascara. Wear no other makeup most days. And I will have an hour break. I will rest or blog. And then I will prep for dinner. Do I have veggies or meat to marinate? Do I have to preset the rice cooker? And then I swing and pick up the kids. And that's honestly 4 days of my week. One of my days is devoted to doing my weekly grocery haul. And that's also my 1 day a week I'll eat lunch outside of the home. And that's 1 day of the week I won't treadmill. But frankly speaking... walking all over Costco and my various grocery stores I do get quite the workout anyways. : ) So this pic just means...4 days a week I focus on maintaining my healthy body. Being fit. Still respecting my body and making damn sure it's in good health. 

During one of my Costco runs, I have a Gap right in Inzai. And I pop in there from time to time. And they *always* seem to have a 30% off deal. And I like saving money, that makes me so happy. But I also like my kids looking cute too. So 30% off sales work for me. : )

February is still hella cold around our part of Japan and even March too. So bought Noah 2 new sweatshirts while Noah was at school on a random weekday. At Gap in Inzai. I thought this green sweatshirt was super cute. And I like the striped wrist and waist area. Nice detailing and love the American USA one too. : )

Noah's barely 11, so a size 12 is perfect. 

Loved the back detailing on this even more. These were only 1900 yen each. Quite the bargain for a good quality... name brand sweatshirt. : ) 

Shrimp happened. Cutlet for Noah. The Costco shrimp is a very good sized. And the flavor is really good. : )

I love the seasonal soft serve ice cream they sell at MiniStop, it's a convenience store here in Japan. They sold roasted sweet potato flavor last time and we tried that. A few weeks ago... they were selling banana with a chocolate sauce and the chocolate sauce hardened like a hard shell. Like DQ. With the hard chocolate shell dipped cones. Anyway, of course we had to try. I'm fun like that... with the family. I always let them try all the seasonal flavors. : ) And we're fond of banana ice-cream. This was so delicious!!! It's not being sold anymore, at least not at the one in my town. : ( But it was so good while they were available. Choco banana soft serve...delicious. : ) 

While I was doing my weekly shopping and at Besia/Cainz store... I saw these, little square tissue boxes and they reminded me of those Puffs tissue boxes in the US. These were only 99 yen. And while I buy our Kleenex tissue at Costco because of price.The cheap price. I saw these and the Batman ones. And I thought...you know what. I think I will buy both of my kids one, I will make the splurge. And so I did. They are identical and have cute Superman different patterns on the boxes. All around the box. I put one in Bran's bedroom and one in Noah's bedroom and they both noticed them as soon as they got home from school and they *love* these! I am so happy I bought these for them. 200 yen well spent. : )

Now that high school is in the bag. What has Bran been doing? He's back to being a kid again. Thank goodness. And he and his brother have been playing badminton and also tennis like crazy at the tennis courts up the street. However on this day... they just played badminton in our backyard. It's so nice to see them play together again. And now that Branden doesn't have to study his brains to death anymore...he's free to be a kid and I really think that's important. : )

The kids and I baked peanut butter cookies together from scratch last week. Me and Bran and Noah had such a great time baking these together. 

Setsubun happened in Japan too. And I bought 2 of these chocolate roll cakes with a bunny wearing an oni/demon mask. : )  The bunny is their regular mascot of these cakes and they're always 98 yen at my nearest store and they're so delicious. and inside is chocolate whipped cream.

TV talk and movie talk. The Blacklist is getting so good. And so is Emerald City. What movies have we seen lately? Storks was awesome, we saw that recently here at home. We also saw, "A Monster Calls" That's a good movie too! Storks is funny and I actually would buy the DVD for that one. A Monster Calls is a little more serious. And I don't think I would buy the DVD. But it's an excellent movie. And definitely worth watching. What were we watching on this night? We were watching the movie Passengers. I would not read ahead because there will probably be some spoilers. But I will not tell you the ending, I promise. But I do definitely...want to talk about the movie. And I don't want to possibly spoil anything for anyone either. So will just put this here. 1 ship full of people (like thousands) from earth on a ship planning on moving to another planet like 100 years away from earth or something like that. They're all asleep in sleep chambers Anyway 1 person accidentally wakes up. He wakes up because a huge asteroid hit their ship. And it jolts him awake. This is the guy from Guardians of the Galaxy. Anna Faris' husband. Chris Pratt.

He spent 1 full year awake all alone. He was so lonely. Like Castaway with Tom Hanks in a way. He did have a funny android bartender to talk to though. But he was seriously thinking of suicide until he saw another sleeping passenger and watched her video and felt like she was his soul mate or whatever and he contemplated should I wake her up... to keep me company or not? He chose to wake her up. Keep in mind if he wakes her up. She will basically die of old age before ever reaching the planet. So he essentially gives her a death sentence. Yet he chose to wake her.

Played by Jennifer Lawrence. 

She's sad she woke up. Very sad... but she accepts it, she thinks she is awake because of a malfunctioning sleep pod. She actually falls for Chris Pratt's character. BTW, Chris Pratt's character Jim. Confides in the bartender not to tell her...that he purposely woke her up. And he honors that and does not tell. And then one night. He foolishly tells the bartender....he and Jennifer Lawrence's character have *no* secrets between each other. And the android bartender asks him..."is that so?" And so while Jim goes to the bathroom... the bartender tells Jennifer Lawrence how Jim purposely woke her up. The bartender didn't do it out of meanness or with evil intent... he did it because he is an android and didn't say it... to cause trouble. Anyway...as you can imagine Jennifer Lawrence flips out. And she should! She should be pissed. 

In fact here she is... telling him off right now. And seriously...she has every right to be mad. 

The amazing nice bartender. Who truly meant no harm. 

Jim planted her a tree. 

Another crew member woke up but he died super soon. And turns out... the ship was jacked up with the asteroid hit. And do they fix the ship? Do they all die? I can't and won't ruin the ending at all. You just got to see it for yourself. Is it a fantastic movie? Yes it is. Am I glad I saw it? Yes. Would I watch it on a long haul flight for a second time? Probably. Would I buy the DVD? Probably not. But it's a really good movie though. This coming weekend we're going to watch the movie Split and the movie Jackie. And most definitely Doctor Strange too. It's nice to just sit at home and watch a good movie and relax. : )

Bits and pieces from the week.

Alrighty, everything in this post has happened within the last week (7 days) The last Broncos game of the season for us. We lost. It was a very close game. Very very close game. So close that for most of the game we were ahead. It finally came to a head when we tied. And we went into over time twice. Yes, 2 overtimes! Because the first overtime nobody could score either team. So it was a real nail biter of a game. Edge of your seat type game. We had a lot of hopes. We would have loved to advance further in the playoffs! But not going to happen for us this year unfortunately. However and I want to say, The Denver Broncos had an incredible season 13 wins and 3 losses this year, so yeah we did play pretty great this year though unfortunately we didn't play good enough to go further. : (  I look forward to watching the superbowl. Wish we were in it of course! Haha. But love football to my core anyway. : )

In other news see this package sent to Branden...

Remember the 25,000 yen each of the boys received for otoshidama this year. Well, Branden loves Noboru's. And Noboru managed to convince me to let Branden buy one. 19,000 yen or so for it. And the rest of his money went into savings for him, he has a good amount in there. Noah meanwhile the miser hasn't spent even 1 yen of it yet. hahaha. : )  Little random story here about this. Branden accidentally left one of his dictionary's at school when he needed it at home this week. Instead of turning on his computer in his room, he just turned on his tablet and looked up the 1 kanji he was looking for and he found it in a snap. : ) I did tell him though don't forget your dictionary tomorrow! And he hasn't the rest of the week.

Let's see what else have I been doing this past week?  The new season of The Biggest Loser started and look who's back! Jillian Michaels!!! The contestants were surprised! Hahaha. I have her DVDs and I really like her so it was nice for me that she's back.  If you're somehow worried about a possible spoiler about the BL show, please skip these paragraphs.

This season looks like it's going to be a wild season! Jackson here, walked on the treadmill about 30 seconds and fell right off! They had to run and go help him. Poor Jackson! : (

This guy too! Like 2 seconds after Jackson fell, this guy fell right off too. The 3 coaches were like! @_@ What the heck?!!! The part that grossed me out to the bone was some person was vomiting in the gym/work out room. Bleh just thinking about the sight or smell of vomit. I felt sorry for everyone in that room.  So yeah it looks like it's going to be a very interesting season.

You already know about the snow we were hit with. This isn't even the end of the snow we got. We ended up with more then this. Not Colorado amounts of snow. But a big amount for this area. But yeah it's been so cold around here all week.

Tuesday night of this week immediately after the boys got out of school, we went directly to Costco Makuhari. Lucky for us it was as dead as a doornail. We skipped the top floor and went straight for the basement where the food is. We bought this pizza for dinner that night. Since the drive takes us so long, cooking dinner that night wasn't an option.

Rotisserie chicken for dinner for the next night. Perfect for us since Noah swims Wednesdays.

Big bag of potatoes so cheap. We use potatoes a lot in our household. Mashed potatoes, gratin potatoes from scratch, baked potatoes. Breakfast type potatoes. You name it, we need them. : )  We are actually thinking about growing potatoes this year.

Misc pic of stuff. Pasta sauce. Bug hunk of cheese. Fine ground black pepper and mixed nuts.

Frozen waffles for quick mornings Monday through Friday. And dinner rolls (half are frozen in the freezer)

1 pack of shrimp and 2 packs of lean ground beef. I split each pack of beef into thirds and put them in freezer bags and threw them in the freezer. So 6 packs of ground beef in the freezer now. I was disappointed that they were out of 2 things. I was wanting/wishing/hoping to buy the tiramisu (we love this) and I walked around the bakery looking but, didn't see it. I mean I walked by good. And I could tell it wasn't there but still hoping against hope it was somehow there so I asked a bakery lady. And she said we don't have them in today come back tomorrow! @_@ We live so far away that's pretty much impossible.But again not her fault. So, I smiled and said thank you. And walked away. Man, what a bummer. What are the odds really. Anyway then went to the next aisle to get corn tortillas. Nope didn't have them either. I really need them we really use them. Enchiladas and tostadas. Again, I made sure to walk the aisles very good, Noboru was looking too. However no worries because I ordered them online from the same place I buy tortillas. So, since we ordered anyway we bought 3 dozen flour tortillas and 2 packs of corn (each pack has 24 corn tortillas) Anyway we quickly checked out, ordered the pizza and before you know it we were in the MPV heading home. From the time we arrived at Costco in the parking lot and were leaving the parking lot of Costco only 50 minutes, so we really are quite fast in there, hahaha but we also know of the long drive so that's why we hurry. Time was short for us, so we paid the toll ways both ways so we could get home as fast as possible. Still took the whole evening though. But it was faster taking the highway. I know, I keep saying it, but I can't wait until Costco opens in Inzai/Chiba New Town. We will probably go to Costco Makuhari 1-2 more times and then after that Costco in Inzai opens in August 2013. So hopefully we can hold off on going as much as possible until our closer one opens.

Picture taken from Thursday/yesterday. Says 4:09pm or something.  The boys just got home from Kumon. They get off school at 2:45-3pm Thursdays. They called me at Kumon around 3:45pm and I hopped in the car to get them. They came home, switched into sweatpants and house clothes and had a snack at the table and then did their homework. They were done in like 5-10 minutes and were off playing with friends outside until 5pm. I meanwhile snapped this pic at 4:09pm and started cooking dinner.

Chicken chow mein/sara udon. Lots of veggies, some chicken.

The sauce packets in here and the crunchy noodles and we had it all with white rice. It was a good dinner. The boys and I sat and ate, we talked about their day, my day. Noboru was meanwhile at work. But, I packed him 2 sandwiches I made for him as a snack and stuffed him before he left too and he had dinner waiting for him at home when he got home. He also had sara udon. We had 2 packs of this sara udon, I'm only showing one though in the pic. : )

I'm still treadmilling like a maniac. And I did so many crunches yesterday, my tummy is a little sore today.

Anything else to say? Hmm. American Idol comes on for our family tonight and for the folks in Guam. So, I can't wait! I love all the music Nicki Minaj makes and I wonder how she and Mariah are going to get along. So, I can't wait for that tonight. Today is Noboru's birthday, he's 41 this year. I bought him a new motorcycle helmet which he picked out and he loves it! He's going to be using it today for the first time. He's working a swing shift today so going out to dinner isn't something we can do time wise. But I told him, whatever you'd like me to make, I'll cook it for your birthday dinner. He said "your spaghetti and meatballs" and I said consider it done! So he'll get home in enough time to quickly shower, and come and sit down eat his dinner and watch American Idol with us. : ) Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread and salad for us here tonight. : )  TGIF everyone, we all made it. Enjoy your weekend. We will be enjoying here too. Plans for us for this weekend? Nothing, just staying home and relaxing. : )

First week back to school for Branden and Noah. Getting in the swing of things and finding our groove with it

 How has every one's first week back to school (for your kids) and for some of you back into the work routine. For us here, it was tough getting back into the swing of things, meaning, Branden and Noah's school schedule, plus Kumon and on top of that Noah's swimming school schedule. Especially when the past 16 or so days before was just rest rest, watch TV. With a pre new year's oosoji mixed in there, but yeah it felt great to just take a break from the same ol same ol routine stuff.  ; ) They only had Kumon a few times during Winter break but it was closed a good while too. Same with swim school.  So Sunday, January 6th morning, I got started on the boys school washing. I washed their school gym uniforms/PE uniforms. red and white hats, some misc handkerchiefs and lunch mats and their seat covers.

Noah's green seat cover in green elephant print far left on the pole, Branden's zoo seat cover next to it. Shorts, pants in the middle pole and shirts.

Actual seat cushion/earthquake cover/safety cover. I set out in the sun for the entire morning and afternoon. This sat out longest. And I whacked it with the futon stick. And dust came out of it. Every hour on the hour I'd whack it again. Branden's blue seat cushion, when I whacked it at first looked like a giant dust cloud around it. @_@ Yikes! By the end of the day though, safe to say, it was dust free and fat from the sun. They're skinny and flat as pancakes in this picture.

Came back out to check. Hmm safety cover/cushion is getting pinch fatter in this pic.

I washed this, but yep it's scary lookin'! : ) This is Branden's shuji/calligraphy outfit. When he was in the 2nd grade and they started shuji. They said to bring an old pair of grungy old clothes that you wouldn't mind ruined. Since the boys share clothes, so I wouldn't want anything really ruined. We bought the cheapest pair of long shorts we could find. 980 yen or something like that. In a baggy size and then this denim smock for like 800 yen or so I forgot the price now but it was affordable. We also gave Branden one of Noboru's old plain black T shirts and so whenever the kids do shuji. Branden switches his clothes and if he gets that paint or whatever on this outfit we really don't care/mind. When Noah starts shuji in the 2nd grade, we'll be doing the same also. That ink is so freaking beyond permanent. It's like a nightmare to get out of clothes. And after talking to my Japanese mom friends they say there's a washable kind of ink but it turns green or something so it's not as nice after it dries so we all just use the jet black regular kind. But anyway this outfit? Still stains and stuff. But at least it smells freshly clean. : )

Gym clothes and lunch mats and handkerchiefs all gone. Only thing left standing was the seat cushion/safety cover and cover for the cushion and the shuji outfit. Sunday, made sure both the boys were all packed up. All Winter homework all packed away. Seat cushions ready to go. Pencils all sharpened. Just everything ready and done for the next day.

Still Sunday, January 6th the day before they started school. The boys and I baked a gingerbread cake together.

It smelled great while baking. We just sort of stayed home all Sunday. Made sure we were ready for school. Baked an easy dessert and had dinner.

With a little dollop of whip cream. Sunday was good.

There's a new show on the OWN channel. It's called the Golden Sisters. It's about 3 elderly in age sisters but they are so funny, hip and the way they talk, they shoot straight from the hip! They're sharp and hilarious these 3. The one pictured here with glasses, gets a bit bullied by 1 sister.

This is Mary, she's the oldest of the 3. She bullies the sister up above. The other 2 sisters are identical twin sisters. They shared pics of them when they were young, totally identical but they don't look at all alike now. Mary says it's because the sister up above got fatter then the other sister. : ( See what I mean about her bullying that one sister. 

Anyway it's very funny, I kept seeing the commercials for it. It's a new show. I was wondering if I'd like it. And I checked it out and my gosh. These ladies are a riot. They're so funny.

Monday night we went to Capricciosa for dinner with our family of 4 and Jun and his wife and daughter, so 7 of us total. It was a nice dinner. nice seeing them again. My niece starts the first grade this April. And they bought her randoseru already. And they of course saw Noah's outfit and randoseru via the New year's card we sent them so we spoke a lot about elementary school prep. How it went for Noah last year. She's in the midst of shaon kai stuff, my sil right now. I've been there before myself twice, so we could talk about that stuff and laugh. It was a nice meal. And a nice catch up with them. Tuesday, we had chicken teriyaki bowls. Though I didn't technically use teriyaki, this time so. I used yakitori sauce this time since it's a a tad sweeter (the one we buy) and it's so delicious. We use fresh mushrooms in here too and some steamed broccoli and a side. So yakitori bowl maybe, hmm.  This is always my "go to" meal when I'm tired or whatever.  And Monday left us all a bit tired with having to wake up so early, plus Kumon after and dinner and the drive to Narita City we were exhausted by the time we got home but we did have a great time with the family. Tuesday also. I felt pretty tired all day. Even though I did manage to vacuum upstairs and downstairs and do laundry and swoosh toilets. Other then that I just rested.  So this was a good choice for Tuesday. Easy for me to make and the family loves this bowl type meal.

Wednesday was still a tad hard for me to wake up in the morning. And I still didn't feel 100% back to my routine. I did however go to the grocery store. Plus the cheap meat store. Picked up a beef roast and pork roast and chicken and nabe stuff.  We had nabe Wednesday. And Noah also swam Wednesday after school also.

I am still working out. I am treadmilling 4 times a week. And doing a few tummy crunches here and there. I'm currently ranked 4th place for the team I'm on. My minutes are actually closer to 500 now.

Thursday afternoon, I made a batch of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies with pecans. I didn't bake them, I kept the cookie dough mixture in a bowl with plastic wrap on it. And after the boys came back from school and Kumon and after we ate supper. We baked 2 trays of them. We still have over half the cookie mixture in the fridge and we will bake the rest Saturday afternoon.  That way they will be freshly baked Saturday the last half batch.

First batch Thursday. 

I have been lusting after that polka dot swimsuit from Modcloth for the past year. The black and white polka dot one and also the red and white polka dot one. The only reason I haven't taken the plunge is because someone said the red one in the comments when you see the swimsuit online there are comments below the suit from people who purchased it...anyway they said "something Minnie Mouse". And I am not sure why but that comment someone made is what has been holding me off so far. And the black and white one on Modcloth I love, a few people said it's light beige instead of white dots. And that sort of is holding me off too. Because I really want black and straight bright white. Plus the price is also a little high for a swimsuit for buying online when I am not sure if this company usually runs small or large with compared to ON/Gap etc etc, those types of concerns, I'd basically what I'm saying is...I'd hate to buy a swimsuit that ran 2 sizes too big or two sizes too small iykwim. Those types of worries/concerns are a bit of a deterrent for me too. Don't get me wrong I could most certainly order it if I wanted it badly enough, it's just the beige versus white comment. Etc. Anyway I had been so flippy floppy on that Modcloth swimsuit. Like forever flippy floppy and I know it. And I do still love those. Anyway to cut a long story short. I saw this one. This is a lot more conservative, smaller dots. It's still in that Marilyn Monroe-esque old style glam style of suit. You know what I mean, I hope. And it's pure black and white not beige or cream. Plus the dots are small so more conservative, like I already said. Plus the price is like half. And on top of that...the fact I order from Old Navy and Gap all the time and know my size without even trying on or batting an eyelash. And it's easy to know why, I picked this suit. A pair of black flip flops on the beach or pools.... here I come. : ) I also would like to buy another swimsuit this year maybe I'll get that red white one from Modcloth or maybe if Gap/ON comes out with another new style in a month I'll grab another style. I'd also like to buy myself a tankini if I can find a super cute one. I can't wait for Summer or playing at the pools.

I also picked up this cover up because for example when we go from hotel room to swimming pool we take the elevators and walk right through the lobby in swimsuit and that's it, is fine for kiddos but not for an adult lady. : ) So, a stylish cover up is very much appreciated. That way I can zip through the lobby and still feel covered. I have 3 here at the house, a white one, a bright blue one and a black and white stripe one. I like this red one. My other ones are 3-6 years old so could use a replacing. : )

What was for dinner tonight? Buffalo wings with ranch on the side. Cheesy baked potatoes, and broccoli. I also made 2 cups of rice in case Noboru prefers rice. : ) He's at work still. But Branden and Noah and I didn't have any rice because the potatoes were plenty. Anyway, so how was the first week back to school? For me it was pretty hard. Easier on the kids actually. I had gotten used to staying up much too late during the winter holidays. I think I was staying up to midnight most nights. Sleeping in also. So it was a shock to my system at first to start hearing my alarm at 5:30am. Even though I'd whack the alarm and snooze it until 6:20am Monday through Wednesday this week. I think Thursday I started getting out of bed at 6am and Friday/this morning I actually got out of bed at 5:50am. That's as early as I care to go and I appreciate the 20 minutes of hitting the snooze button, gives me time to actually wake up fully before stepping out of bed. So a step in the right direction. All today, I kept thinking to myself. TGIF! I can't believe I made it. : ) I will stay up this weekend and enjoy it still, but not past 11pm.

Anything else to add? We have a 3 day weekend, this weekend, Monday is a holiday. Yay! ; ) Anything else to say? We're booking our Hakone trip for February this evening after Noboru gets home. We will just be staying 1 night.  But we'll enjoy it to the fullest. Wine onsen, green tea and coffee onsen, etc, plus hotel onsen and rotenburo here we come. Plus we have those free night stay coupons and that's a smart and affordable way for us to go. Hmm, I wonder if my new swimsuit will get here in enough time. I hope so. : )  Alrighty, have a nice weekend everyone. Time for me to take a shower and jump in the tub.  That goodness for the weekends.