So much to say. So much to catch up with you all about and fill in the blanks. Like who are both the boys teachers this year? How was their first week of school? Just all of it. Anyway let me back track a bit. The smock, it indeed got here for Branden way before his first day of school.
150cm. It said to order up 1 size on the website, so we did.
And a perfect fit. Made sure I got Branden's name all nicely on there. And even washed it before he took it to school on his first day.
Silly cheesy grin! Happy kid!!! ; )
So, back to the smock. That ink that stains had been really on my mind. Worried about any possibly future clothes staining incidents. And I finally decided to (hopefully) avoid all that. I sent Branden with an oversized black Hanes tee shirt (an old one of Noboru's). Plus the smock. This way, on the days they do actually do Japanese calligraphy, he can just slip on the black tee and then the smock afterwards and that should avoid any possible future stains. We will see. And I'll let you know how that all goes whenever they start with it, but they haven't started it yet. : )
You all know I'm a natural brunette. With very fair skin. However, I have gone red at times. And then gone back to my natural at other times. Anyway. I did buy another box of red hair color when I went to Guam, which I have not used btw. Anyway, I have not gone to the hair salon since October, right before Noah's undokai. And I usually go in February for a hair straightening. Only go to the salon twice a year, so not too bad. ; ) But I purposely did not go back in Feb. I think, I have been just trying to decide what to do with my hair. Keep it pin straight? Go back to being a brunette or keep the red. And yet I was NOT using that box of red hair dye. I think in my heart I knew I wanted to go back to being a brunette. At least for a while, maybe until the end of Summer. Anyway, I thought quite hard about it last week. Wavy and red or pin straight and chocolaty brown. Sigh. So, while buying my weekly groceries last week, I bought the ol' "go back to your natural brown" kit. And last weekend, I did just that. Talk about going back to your roots. ; ) Also, I called my hair salon and made an appointment for a hair straightening for this past Monday, (just a couple days ago) so on Monday after dropping off the boys at school. I went to my 9:30am appointment and had my hair straightened. That heavy duty thermal straightening. Where they blow it dry, chemical process, wash/dry and then flat iron it, then chemicals again then wash dry yet again and then blow dry, then a trim of my ends and flat iron yet again, phew! Sleek, straight Pantene commerical type hair yet again. And brown. I got a trim, just the dead ends and it's long. Long and straight. Anyway, my "hair do" for Spring and Summer is set now. And I'm glad I got the 3 plus hours of sitting in the chair over with. That LONG sitting time is why I dislike going to the salon so much, come on...3 hours is overkill.
Okay going back to last week. Before hitting my regular Cainz grocery. I stopped along the way to the local veggie store. This is not in my town but it's convenient for me. I needed flat lettuce for yakiniku.
All local eggs.
All local veggies.
Think along the lines of going to a Farmer's market type place. It's only open in the mornings much like farmers market are. Etc.
Then I headed to Cainz. Bought my weekly snacks for the boys. Chips and cookies and Popsicles in the tube. They also eat healthy snacks too, like celery peanut butters sticks, carrots dipped in ranch. But having some snacks like this for the boys available during the week and weekend is okay. On one hand I don't wanna over do it, but on the other hand I don't want my kids to ever grow up and say, gee we never got to have anything fun to eat.
Since I make a 6-7 day menu. And believe you me. I go through it back and forth. I make sure I have every bread I might need. Raisin English muffins for mornings. I love those. The French bread was for spaghetti the night we had that. Hamburger buns and hot dog buns for our BBQ. And etc. And I do go and rebuy bread and milk mid week, because we always seem to run out, go figure.
Meat for the week from Cainz. I also bought lean ground beef from the tiny mom and pop shop type butcher for the BBQ along the way home last Friday before I picked up the boys from school. But we always buy chicken, dark and white. Pork, beef. Shrimp, we don't just buy 1 kind of meat, we always are mixing it up. Variety.
I also always keep like a half of chicken breast in the freezer, in a "freezer safe" ziplock. That way in case we had something not really suitable for obento the next day, I can defrost the night before and make karaage with this or teriyaki, anything. There's always at least one sitting in the fridge. For Noah's obento. Right now I have these two.
I just ran out of green apple dish soap, though we have a big GE dishwasher, I find I will wash the odd pan here and there, or like Noah's school clay stuff from last week for example too. And needed some new dish soap, found this new kind. It's moisturizing and it smells divine. The neck holder for the kid alarm. Branden needed a new one. I was happy to find the strap one for only 95 yen. A school toothbrush for Branden, he needed a replacement. What needs replacing is always endless, isn't it? ; ) Ha ha ha.
A box of water. For lemonade, fruit punch. And for just plain water. : )
Veggies for the week. Big baking potatoes for the upcoming BBQ (we had Sunday). Tiny potatoes because they're cheaper for the curry we had. Avocado for the guacamole dip we ate while watching American Idol. Croutons for the salad this week. Cheaper karaage powder for an obento. Just knocked everything off my weekly list basically.
The lettuce for the yakiniku we'd be having, that I picked up at the farmer's market only 50 yen about 50 cents US per pack. Which is a fabuslous deal really. I also got a whole bunch of other groceries from Cainz. Making a list and checking it twice. Anyway I do this every week. And will be running to the grocery store to get my weekly stuff this coming Friday too. So, I will be tweaking my shopping list all this evening in bits when I find the time.
This pic was taken on Sunday. Branden, Keita-kun and Noah. They had chocolates, a bag of plain (salted) chips. And a few Popsicles. To be fair though, whenever Branden goes to his house, he always gets a good amount of snacks too.
At 5pm, after K-kun went home. We started the BBQ. Potatoes on the top level and yakiniku on the bottom level.
It was still light outside, I think you can see outside the window in this picture. It was a nice meal. A great Sunday family meal together!
Marinated meat and mushrooms and peppers. Lemonade and fruit punch to drink. The lettuce for wrapping your meat and rice with.
My meal from Sunday. veggies, rice, chicken, sauce for dunking and lettuce for wrapping. Also can't forget the hot buttery baked potato and lemonade. Plenty of chatter and as always lots of laughter. The boys took hot soapy showers and a soak in the tub with the hubster. Both Branden and Noah, watched a bit of TV and turned in early for school the next day. Noboru and I watched American Idol together.
Monday's obento for Noah. Leftovers rock! ; ) Noah brought, chargrilled yakiniku, rice and a steamed broccoli. 2 jellys and a banana. And can't forget the pokemon sprinkles for his rice. ; )
Monday afternoon the DVD's we rented got here. For April, we rented "Yes Man" with Jim Carey. And "The Rebound" With Catherine Zeta-Jones. We haven't seen either yet, we're saving them for this coming weekend. We have 2 others to pick for April.
Monday, we had planned to BBQ yet again. Which if you recall the grocery shopping run I took last Friday, we picked up the buns for that. Monday was an American BBQ night. With roasted hot dogs and chargrilled burgers. All the fixings chopped up.
And it rained some, Monday! However a plan is a plan! And we kept it. Hubby wore the same sweater because he didn't wanna get BBQ smell on another sweater. ; )
Such a great BBQ Monday night as well. Hmm, a BBQ two days in a row. So good. And to be fair, the meals were both so totally different, yakiniku one night and burgers the next. Didn't seem the same at all. We are BBQ crazy around here. : )
A very tasty Monday nights dinner My hot dog had everything. Ketchup, mustard, pickles sliced up tomato, onion, lettuce, this hot dog had everything. Same with the cheeseburgers. So...what have we been doing since last I blogged? Just a whole lot of family stuff as usual. Having fun around here.
Tuesday morning, fed both the boys breakfast. Sent B to school. And now it was time for obento. Went to the fridge and pulled out the leftovers. Pulled out a Costco dinner roll from the freezer. And got the Black Eyed Peas on my ipod....currently liking..."imma be" ; )
Warmd up the bread and burger.
And got to making the lunch. I know the sensei's are big on... is there enough veggie in the lunch. etc, etc. And I usually add it, but today, I didn't. He eats plenty of veggies anyway. One meal without wouldn't be the end of the world. ; ) So what was Noah's lunch for Tuesday? 1 chargrilled cheeseburger, smelled amazing btw. Fries. Peaches and 2 jelly's. Update shmupdate time ; )
Branden's update: The Yuka-sensei is now the 5th grade teacher in the #2 class. : ( Branden's a third grader in the #1 class. His new teacher is the Keiko-sensei. He says, she is very old and very short. @_@ at his description. We will be going to Branden's "observation day" this coming Saturday. So we'll see then and I'll try to take a picture, if I can. Saya-chan, Nozomi-chan and Genki are NOT in Branden's class this year. : ( Which is a bummer. But then the whole school is so small and the 3rd graders combine for recess together anyway, so they still get to play. Keita-kun is in the 3rd grade #2 class and he still comes and hang out at our house, so doubt the kids being in 2 different classes is going to matter too much anyways. However, who is in Branden's class. Kouki-kun is in Branden's class. "The boy next door" is in Branden's class. Actually a whole bunch of other people as well. Plus B knew all those kids already and they him. Again with a school population as small as ours, they all know each other. Now us parents on the other hand. We sorta don't know the other class of parents, so we'll be seeing eachother this coming Saturday. I'll let you all know how that goes. ; )
Noah's update: Noah was in the yurigumi class last year, and he is in the yurigumi class this year as well. So he didn't have to move anyplace this year for school, not even down the hall, lol. Ha ha ha. His main teacher last year was Yayaoi-sensei (sp?) and she's his main teacher this year as well. LOL. The 2nd teacher or I gather the "helper teacher", was Noah's same "helper teacher" back when he was a yellow badge. So, everything is basically the same for Noah. Chi-chan is in the blue badge class. The last year of students are moved to a private classroom, of only blue badges. Because they do more studies and prep for the 1st grade. However, Noah's been hanging with a little boy. His name escapes me now. But he's a little boy Noah swims with. Not the same level granted.... but they do play at swim school and are now in the same classroom. So Noah's been hanging with him, plus he has plenty of friends anyway, so he's fine. What else...oh yeah you won't believe this other bit of news! You know how I mentioned a while back that Noah's maxed out level wise for swimming and can't really progress with a flower since he's reached the highest level he can go, right? Anyway, I thought...couldn't hurt to ask. Worst they can say...is no. Right? So, last week, I asked the secretary during the day time when nobody else was there. Anyway, I went to the school. explained our situation. Slowly, nicely, politely in Japanese and basically said..... Noah is maxed out. He can't take a test. And A course and B course kids test every month. So, my question was...so for May, while everyone tests, Noah is not supposd to test. Because what level can he get? When he's already maxed out. And in June. Same thing. Same for April. I said, I'm worried he's just like paused. And I asked her....can he be switched to the B course. Her answer to me was polite. She's known our family for literally years. However she said....the rules are nobody under age 5 can be in the B course. If you've ever watched the Wizard of OZ and the guy at the gate...tells them that they can't see the Wiz, he says something like..."Not nobody not no how!" About letting them into Oz. : ) Anyway, that was basically it. However she did sympathize with me totally she "got it" but a rule's a rule. Most kids don't cruise the levels as fast as he did though. So that's the tough part. Anyway...a week had passed and I am back at the swim club, because I sorta live there with 2 boys going there. ; ) Anyway, the secretary told me..."Please wait, Mrs. XXX-san, Noah's coach wants to talk to you" Sure. I said and she came out in a swimsuit. She said, they are not supposed to do it. But they are going to make a special exception. Because honestly what I said nicely and politely to the secretary was indeed correct. It's like paying 6000 yen for the next few months, each month for a kid to basically not test or go forward until July. So Noah will be the only 4 year old in the B course, the ONLY one. This is a first for them and probably a last. The rule is still in effect.... nobody under age 5 in the B course (well except Noah because of the circumstances) I'm really thankful they made this exception for our family. Noah will no longer be swimming with his fellow red and pink badges anymore. : ( He'll be swimming with the blue badges basically and ichinensei's. @_@ I'm sure when he switches he'll look like a shrimp compared to the rest but that's just because he'll be the only 4 year old swimming with them. Anyway that's the good news. Noah will be testing the first day he is in the B course. To determine his #. I'll have to go back this coming week to fill out some paperwork.
Updates from me: So, this is sorta funny. You know I've been going to the same hair salon for 4 years. The same hair stylist. Last October my favorite shampoo girl was gone. Anyway I went to the salon this passed Monday and would you believe, my hair stylist is gone now too. In fact all new people in there. It was really weird being in there. I liked the familairity before. The same friendly lady. She knew, me, and I knew her. These were totally new people. Nice people, but it wasn't the same. Sigh. I think next time I go to the salon, I'll go to a different place. : ( However they did do a great job on my hair though. What else. I've been treadmilling like a fiend lately. 4-5 days a week. What else. I have a mother's luncheon coming up on April 22nd. At 11am. I have the observation thing for B to go to this Saturday. Meeting so many new people I think that's why I stepped up my workouts a notch. What else. Jogo-san and Noriko-san and I will be going to see Alice in Wonderland April 27th. We will be getting the morning ladies rate of 1000 yen. Woohoo for catching a cheap movie. ; ) My dad's seen it a long time ago. But I have been eagerly waiting to see it. I'm sort of counting the days to see it. Really looking forward to it. ; )
TV Talk, have been watching some good shows, like Cold Case repeats, Dexter season 4 starts for us in Japan tonight. The Cold Case Files on Friday or Saturday night, I forget the night exactly either Fri. or Sat., an actual real hour long program (not a drama) about solving 2 cold cases. The boys watched Happy Feet on Disney Channel a few weeks ago and Nanny McPhee. They're still watching Wizards of Waverly Place. Courage The Cowardly Dog and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy on the Cartoon Network. I'm still watching some fluff reality TV. The Teen Mom show, watched it last night, oh man! It is getting SO good. And have also started watching "The Jersey Shore" Also on MTV.Can't wait for the final season of the Hills to start. And did anybody see Janet Jackson on Oprah? Her talking about how her brother's death affected her. Pretty powerful stuff. I like Janet, a great deal, so enjoyed watching that. American Idol is still cruising right along and we're loving it this year as well.
In the news. Did anyone hear about the unauthorized biography about Oprah? Apparently she and John Tesh had a relationship? He walked out in the middle of the night one night and left her. Because according to this book....because of the pressure of their interracial romance. How incredibly sad. : ( They apparently lived together for a time. I'm considering buying the book. As you know, I like to read fluff in my free time. And It sounds interesting. The whole Sandra Bullock and her husband cheating on her was big news a few weeks back but with the kids getting ready to start school, I had no time to chat my thoughts on it...all I'll say is. Sad, very sad. I think of Sandra Bullock as a down to earth normal type gal and I really like her and her movies. I have felt so sad and sorry she is having to deal with this sort of stuff. : ( And the pics of the tattoo faced lady. No judgements, no judgements, but....did anyone see those pics? Holy smokes! All, I will say is.... poor Sandra. : ( Anyone keeping up with Tiger Woods emerging back into golf? I have been keeping my eye on that as well. Interesting stuff.
Weather: Today it's raining and the sky is gray. This week has been crazy, one day it's nice, then the next day it's raining. Like Sunday it was nice, then Monday it rained. Then no rain and then today rain again. I'm waiting for the beautiful nice warm Spring weather to come back.
One packet of the waterproof bigger stickers. These are my favorite because they are so waterproof that they do not come off in the dishwasher or anything and believe you me, we wash that obento daily all year long and those waterproof stickers *still* will not budge!!! They're THAT good. And the one pack which makes 2-3 sheets lasts the entire years of yochien. And I make them at home on my own computer. The smaller ones are for stuff like crayons and such. And they're not waterproof. Which is okay, don't think he ever got water on a crayon. ; ) So, a few different sizes are what I bought last year and they'll carry us until we run out. And we still have plenty. Each pack of stickers costs about 400-500 yen or about that. I also bought the cloth type stickers and those are perfect for sewing his name on his red/white hat and undershirts etc.
A place to put the names on the base of the crayons. I can't even imagine handwriting those on there. That would take forever plus I would guess I'd end up with an aching hand. ; ) The stickers are easy peasy! And take almost no amount of work at all.
Sticking the name on there. And I gather you could stop right here. But I have seen some kids on visiting/observation day that actually pulled some of their own stickers off. So, what I do is put a single piece of tape around the name label and they stay put!
And here is with a tape around the name sticker. Those name labels stay on!
The top of the box of crayons needs a name label and so does the bottom of the box of the crayons. Just everything you can imagine. Needs a name sticker.
The base of the new glue needed a name sticker. And don't forget the......
Cap of the glue either. Believe you me. After sending one to yochien and finishing yochien and now with Noah at yochien. I have learned every trick, every tip. I've got it all down by now. As I should. ; )
Clay mat, that needed replacing. And 2 name stickers as well. If you recall, our school said they needed a flexible clay mat back when B started yochien here and after driving to Toys r us, 1 mall, and 2 homecenters I realized they don't sell flexible claymats (grrrrr!) and I sent/send B and now Noah with a square of a kids plastic table cover. That's what the mothers of the yochien send as well. I wonder how many new mom's of our yochien this year went on a quest looking for a flexible clay mat. ; ) If anyone asks me, I'll surely help out and info share. Anyway I sent Noah with a new "clay mat" to start of the new school year with. And I still have about 3 mats worth of extra material to make a few more.
Every kid has this same weird colored blue/teal box that holds all their yochien stuff at school. Look at how absolutely filthy it is!!! It was spic and span last April and though they bring back a ton of stuff before the Christmas holidays they did not bring this home. Look what a year of non-cleaning looks like. Blech!
Close up of the filth! What is that, a smooshed piece of clay? And bits of fuzz and whatnot in the corners of the box. Yuck.
Piece of clay that got stuck into his shaped clay board. I see bits of clay in the boat shape and a bit of clay in the snail as well. All Noah's clay instruments had dried up bits of clay as well.
So, I poured some green apple dish soap in there.
Hot soapy sudsy water and gave it a good soaking and then a good scrubbing.
The hard clay shape thingy as well. Yup, what fun, I had last Monday! ; ) But honestly it had to be done.
And spic and span once again! Dried it all off, Put another waterproof sticker on it and put it into the bag of stuff, we'd be sending Noah with on Wednesday morning.
Noah's scissors needed a good wipe down. They can't be plunged in water, I do worry about rust, but a good thorough wipe down was definitely had.
All Noah's darks went out to hand dry. His 2 navy blue vests, his 2 navy blue shorts, his smock that used to belong to B. And his navy blue jacket. I washed them on the gentle cycle here at home and then dried them up outside. I'm lucky his uniforms are not dry clean only. Good thing last Monday was a sunshiny day. Meanwhile I did a load of lights as well.
All Noah's yochien bags, his seat cover, long sleeved white dress shirts. Red/white hat. It all got nicely dried. And then I brought it all inside and got Noah all nicely packed up.
Around noon last Monday, Branden had a half day (was off at 11am) since it was his first day of school, so with both the boys in the car, I drove to Nishimatsuya and picked up a new pack of long socks for Noah. A pack of 5. Threw out any old looking socks Noah had. And that was it. As much effort as I put into getting Branden ready with Nike pencil *bag* and soda smelling erasers, new smock etc etc. Is the same effort and time I put into getting Noah ready as well. Tuesday, we just relaxed and enjoy our last day together.
Wednesday morning, Noah's first day as a pink badge. Noah is now a nenchu! ; ) Meaning the middle grade for yochien life. In Japan, yochiens, commonly have 3 grades. First year for our school that is the red badge, but it is also called the, nensho (first year), then there are the pink badges at our school which is the middle year where they are called, nenchu, and then at our school they also have the final year of kids, we call them the blue badges at our school, but they are also referred to as, nencho (the final year of yochien) And at our school we had a training period where Noah was a yellow badge, for a few month's. Anyway, Noah is now a pink badge. A nenchu. He's got this whole year and a whole other year, he still has 2 long years of yochien life. 
Have a wonderful day at school my dearest Noah! We are so unbelievably proud of you! Absolutely everyone is so proud of you and you are so *so* loved!!! So, I dropped him off with his great big bag of stuff. Kissed and then waved him good bye. What did I do after that? I went to Mc D's, got myself a egg mcmuffin combo. And went, turned on CNN, watched some of that while I ate and after about 10-15 minutes. Quickly opened a box of brownie mix and made my boys a batch of "first day of school fudgy brownies." First days of school are special in this household! ; ) Then I spent an hour on my treadmill and listened to my ipod. Noah had a half day the first 2 days of school, so I swung back around and made sure to pick him up at 11am.
First day of school fudgy brownies!!!! With chopped walnuts inside, so yummy! The boys loved coming home to these Wednesday! And fwiw, on Branden's actual Monday first day, I bought him an ice-cream parfait at the local conbini which he absolutely loved eating on the way home.; )
A cute little lamb! And if you notice what color bow tie the lamb is wearing. Last year it was red, and this year it's pink. The bow tie depends on what badge you are. Yup, Noah's a pink badge alright. Congraulations baby, we sure do love you!!! : )
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