Grandma's here! : )

My mother in- law is here. She flew in this morning from Osaka. She came for two reasons. My brother in- law just bought a mansion/condo in Narita and she wanted to come check things out! The mansion will be ready this September. My brother in- law is really happy!

Meanwhile, she wanted to stay the night with our two boys. She is just nuts for her grandkids of course. So she is here right now. And has been here since this morning. She is leaving tomorrow. It's really nice, that she is here. It's good for the boys.

She brought us a bunch of food that she made for us. She made homemade potato salad, karaage. Homemade buta kimchee sauce. And homemade yakiniku sauce, her sauce is the best sauce ever!

Tonight she is making us dinner. We will have karaage, ebi furai, corn on the cob, potato salad and watermelon and ice-cream for dessert. And Noboru is having. something else, I'm not quite sure what she is making for him. : )


Washing the panko off his hands! : )








Grandma and Branden prepared this ebi furai together! And boy did they ever have a lot of fun! : )








My brother in- law went to Tahiti for his honeymoon and he brought us back these delicious chocolate chip and coconut cookies. I have had three of them already! Ha ha ha! : )









The homemade potato salad she brought for us and her homemade karaage she brought for us as well.









The sauces she brought for us. I will make either yakiniku this week or some buta kimchee now, thanks to her homemade sauces. : )



Some fish with chili, not really quite sure what this is but Noboru really likes it when his mom brings this.







This is some famous Kobe castella and also some type of sushi she seems to always bring for Noboru.

Our Friday at the immigration office in Chiba and also frog catching! : )

We went and renewed my visa. Gee, that's always just *so* much fun! Ha ha ha. Honestly it was a total snoozer. But yet it had to be done, right? I was # 110. And they on # 94 when I got there. Which roughly translates, that I spent a good hour and a half there! I made a big meal at home, right before we left and also brought the kids a bunch of snacks so they could munch on them during the long wait time.

We also spent most of our time outside while waiting for my number to be called. I figured It would be good so, I could let Branden run around outside and get all his extra energy out of his system out there . I went inside to check the numbers once in a while though. Time went by much more easily outside.








We went and ate at a Chinese restaurant on the way home. Oh it was so delicious! It was still bright and day time by the time we got home, so Noboru and Branden took advantage of us, living in the Japanese country side and did what typical father's and son's do and went frog catching together! Ha ha ha! I actually don't mind them frog catching anymore and sorta think it's cute now! And it's good that Noboru and Branden have a good father and son thing to do and look forward to every week! They go frog hunting about twice a week in the field's behind our house. They both changed their clothes into their comfy clothes. And threw on their rain boots, grabbed Branden's simple 100 yen net and his cheap 100 yen frog box. And went out back. They caught one frog and 1 tadpole. They released them the next day! : )

PS and yes, the big American import house pictured in the background of the frog catching pics, is my house. It's really quiet and peaceful where we live. The pace of life is slower and we appreciate that. The air is fresh and clean. It's a great place to let our kids grow up. And we have a big backyard the boys, can always play in. Plus the view of all the greenery is really quite breath taking, if I don't say so myself. : )

Taylor became the next American Idol?

Holy crap! I just saw on Yahoo news, that Taylor won? He beat Katherine Mc Phee then huh? In Japan we are like a week delayed, so I will be glued to the TV set next week, so I can catch this myself!

My opinion? I think they both were good. So I don't have a strong opinion either way. However, I will tell you, I really had a thing for Ace though! The man was hothothot! Did anybody see him in the audience with Kelly Pickler? Anyone, Anyone....Bueller? : )

Lunch at the yochien! : )

Okay so the lunch at the school went pretty good. However it rained so the picnic plans were changed and we ended up all having lunch at the school. All of us mom's and kids all went up stairs and we were told to square dance with our kids. Only thing is, no one knew how to square dance and so everyone danced with their kid in a big circle. I had a lot of fun! It also gave me a good opportunity to chat with a couple of the other kids mom's whom have become friends of mine. One in particular is Aoi-kun's mom. His mom's name is Rie and she has been a pretty good friend of mine, since we moved to this new city and we starting going to this new yochien. She used to be a flight attendant for ANA. Interesting because another mom at my son's last school used to be a flight attendant too. Hmmm.

After the dancing, we all were told we could go off and pair up however we wanted and go eat lunch *anywhere* in the school that we wanted. I paired up with Rie and Kumi and a few other mom's that I know. We all put out our little plastic sheet things that people usually picnic on. And we all had lunch indoors. I made ham sandwiches and we had chips and I also brought some watermelon and some oolong tea. Nothing fantastic for our lunch but it was pretty yummy though! I even made extra. I made an extra sandwich and cut it in a few slices and shared with the other mom's. They loved it!

Also, the the week before the school sent home a note to all the parents that they were allowed to bring candy or chocolates or any type of snacks that are usually not allowed at Japanese schools during the picnic. However, they said the candy and chocolates and stuff had to be under 300 yen! They really were quite strict in their writing too all parents about the 300 yen limit! So, last week, I took Branden to a candy store and gave him *only* 300 yen. And he put like those 5 yen candies in the basket or 10 yen gums etc. Whatever he chose. And he went up to the counter and it came to 310 yen! So, since Noboru was worried about going over the 300 yen limit (the school imposed rule lol). We made Branden put one of the candy's back until it truly came to 300 yen. We were glad we all obeyed all the rules. But wouldn't you just know it, that I noticed at the lunch, that many of the kids had treats (like seriously and this is no exaggerating here! Like bags and sacks full of treats!) they must have cost a whole lot more then the 300 yen limit. Hmmm. I didn't mention anything. But I did wonder. After a while, I was thinking..."hmmm maybe I shoulda let him have that one extra tiny piece of candy after all!" : )

Here's the snacks that didn't go over 300 yen! Ha ha ha. : )












Branden playing and hanging out with Rie's son, Aoi-kun.








Chit chatting with my good friend Rie-san!








Okay and this is obviously the hand jive off Grease! Good thing the other mom's were all Japanese and hopefully didn't see the movie, because I don't think they knew were I got my dance moves from! Gosh how embarassing! Oh well, I don't mind poking fun at myself!





Okay clearly, I was doing the ol' "I'll tumble for ya" dance move here. Lucky for me, I don't think anyone else knew!

Teething and not a wink of sleep for me! Ugh!

Noah has five teeth right now. He is in the process of cutting his sixth tooth. And I find it remarkable that only his first tooth gave him a tiny bit of pain and he got a bit fussy cutting the first tooth. But #2,3,4,5 didn't seem to phase him too much or bother him at all! However and I do stress, the however part! Ha ha! This sixth tooth of his, must be causing him great pain because he cried all night long last night! I swear I didn't get an ounce of sleep, all night long! I have been using baby orajel on him and it seems to be working, but when the numbing effect wears off! Holy crap! The tears are back with a vengeance!

Today all us parents, are going to the yochien today to have lunch with our children! I've already made our lunches already this morning. But as I don't got time to post about this, I will post about this later when I have more time! : )

Final thoughts on our trip to Honolulu! : )

This is how we spent 99% of our time while in Honolulu. Just a family hanging out with each other and kicking back at the beach! I swear we had the absolutely laziest days ever, ahhh but they were well spent and much needed lazy days! Ha ha ha!

And a side note, Noah hated that inflatable car raft thing! Yup, figures huh! Screamed bloody murder being in that thing! However, Branden loved it even though it clearly said on the package, no one over 3 years of age should be in that thing! Ha ha ha! Figures doesn't it? The kid who is supposed to use it, doesn't want anything to do with it, yet the kid who *shouldn't* be in it, absolutely loves it! Sigh! That's kids for ya!




The shopping part of our trip was so tiny and insignificant to our trip really! And it's always something I wonder about when I post. I have asked myself many times, should I completely omit the shopping parts of the trip. I flip flop on the subject many times! Going back and forth about it! Should I just pretend we didn't shop at all? LOL, I guess I coulda did that too! But, then I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion, why? Us stocking up on clothes, since we live in Japan is really such *not* a big deal! So, I guess I didn't see the problem with it either way. Plus I wanna be as for real as I can with my blog too. And I don't see how us buying clothes for our children whom we love and adore would hurt or harm someone reading this. And plus like I said, it's such a miniscule thing...One day outta seven! It's nothing! Our kids really could care less if they went shopping or not, they had fun with mommy and daddy and that's all they cared about on that day! So just please if you think of us on our trip in Hawaii, don't think of the shopping we did at all, think of the fun we had instead! That's way totally more important.







Here we are at the Red Lobster. We had just spent the entire day swimming and we were all a bit tired from swimming all day long and we were also starving! Ha ha ha. The pic is of my salad, Noboru and I had the same type of salad. And the meal was mine (his was larger he got three types of shrimp), I had the shrimp scampi and the fried shrimp. All in all, just know we all had a really good time while we were there! Spent time together as a family and had ourselves a blast doing so!

oh what the hell, why not!

Here's some of the stuff I got for myself. If you read the blog you'll know I very *very* rarely ever write or show what I buy for my actual self. I usually keep my own stuff I get, a secret. But today I am feeling like, ahhh why not! Who cares! LOL, so, here you go. I think everything is pretty much self explanitory. But I will try to explain anyways. Ummm, big sunglasses are super hot this season, we all know that, right? So, I got some huge Jackie O' type ones and I love them! Got another aloha type hibiscus backpack, this is like my fourth one, my others ones got all ratty and needed replacing throughout the years. So, this is my new one. Great for toting the kids stuff in it in a cool mom, type way (and I'm still using my Prada messenger bag as my main diaper bag at the moment as well in case you're wondering and I love it, money well spent). The Guava Berry soap smells absolutely divine and outta this world! Even now as I type this, I smell freakin' fantastic, I swear you guys should smell this! Flip flop cell phone charm! I already have one on my keitai, but mine is trashed and needs replacing! They only sold them in sets of three, go figure! Oh well, this way I can replace mine if it needs replacing. Crocs, love em'! Got them in black and have been wearing them everywhere! Blush, this is the blush color I use, and the name just cracks me up to no end! It supposed to mean, that your cheeks will have that healthy look, sorta like you just had the big "O", if you know what I mean! Errr, not sure about that! He he! But, it is a lovely color and I've been using this same shade and brand for years! Face wash, this face wash rocks! The smell is divine on this too! Eye cream, have been using this longer then my first born son's been alive! Ha ha ha, this creamy avocado eye cream is the best stuff! $24.00 a jar but so totally worth it, that I buy two whenever I get the chance or am back in America!