Last Sunday night, I had 2 very lean beef tenderloins, diced them fried them in a pan and then transferred the beef to the crock pot. Monday's dinner? Beef curry.
It cooked all night long.
Very unappetizing picture, but there ya go. ; ) Skimmed the top, and after sending both Branden and Noah to school last Monday, I added the onion around 9am-ish. And the mushrooms around 10-ish. The potatoes and carrots went last. Around 11am or so. And at noon just put the roux in and when it dissolved, I just switched it to the warm setting.
Very tender since the morning.
Added the onions first.
Meanwhile I steamed a batch of Noah's sweet potatoes, lightly salted them and they were gone by Monday night. Everyone just ate them up. I steamed another batch during the week as well.
Nearly done...about to add the curry roux.
And done, on warm. Made the rice. And didn't have to think about dinner Monday. Folded some laundry, swung around and picked up the kids. Took them to Kumon and then everyone sat down and ate and enjoyed dinner.
Tuesday, we decided to go to have yakiniku for dinner. We ate a lot, talked and chatted a lot, enjoyed the drink bar, so we drank a lot of Qoo, melon soda, coke, tea, etc and other various drinks. ; )
Noah eating up a storm. It was a good Tuesday.
Lots of beef, chicken, veggies, rice bowls. Garlic, kimchi. We had a good time for dinner Tuesday.
This is the 2nd order I have placed from Nissen for stuff for myself for the upcoming Fall/Winter weather. Which is interesting because this time last year the nights were getting cooler. In fact Branden's first day back to school last year in September he wore a long sleeved shirt because it was a bit chilly that morning. A year later it's still steaming hot. ; ) However, I know the cooler weather will get here eventually. And this way, I won't be too caught off guard when it finally does.
Have been getting the boys ready for Fall too. Although frankly the weather still seems like Summer. I am doing things like I do every year. A little by little. A bit each month. And by the time it's freezing cold and November, I'll be nearly done or done. ; )
Nothing for myself from Gap or Old Navy. Just for Branden and Noah.
Gap rugby striped shirts and Old Navy, thank goodness they're the same company and ship together.
1 pair of sweatpants for Branden, 1 rugby shirt for Branden.
1 long sleeved shirt for Branden and 1 striped zip sweatshirt for Branden.
Gap striped shirts for Noah, love the colors.
Such soft fleecy lounge pants for Noah. Wish they sold them this way for older boys about Branden's age. : (
2 very soft pair of "around the house" pants for Noah. For when the weather turns cold. Closeup was above.
Same sweatshirt for Noah that Branden got.
A pair of PJ's. ; ) For Noah, that way I can tuck him in bed and say...night night. ; )
Orange robots. LOL. I also placed 1 more fairly large order from Gap/ON and it should be shipped to me by next week. 2 more pair of sweatpants for B. Lots of long sleeve tops. A pair of pj's for B. Just trying to get the boys ready for the cooler month's is all. : ) 
Umbrellas at Cainz. When I went and did my weekly shopping last week. Our elementary school asks for you to have your child keep an umbrella at school for if it rains unexpectedly. Which we have done since the ichinensei years ago. And then the regular umbrella bit the dust and we replaced it last year finally. Though they're just a few dollars. Anyway, a few times Branden would leave it at swim school, leave it at Kumon. And we'd be really out of luck and have no umbrella. Once he borrowed Noah's. Then when I walked Noah into yochien we used/shared mine. Anyway, long story short, thought it finally would be better to get a spare one for Branden for home. Cost 298 yen, so cheap and now we won't be umbrella-less in the future hopefully. Also, I have needed to replace my umbrella since last year. It broke during a typhoon or huge rain storm, we had last year when the boys were getting their flu shots. I was running the boys from my car covering their heads with my umbrella (I was soaked btw) anyway the wind blew my umbrella and it went inside out. It broke basically, but I being somewhat either stubborn or cheap, lol. I used it since last October. Yep. Half broke umbrella, that was okay, I used it even last week. My husband has reminded me throughout the last 10-11 month's..."do you know your umbrella's broken?" Yep. Any plans to just rebuy? Nope. My rationale was as long as it opened and covered my head, why replace. ; ) Anyway last week, everyone at the yochien had cutecutecute umbrellas and then..... I realized mine started leaking. Now just a small tiny leak. But...I had to admit, it was time to call it done for. And buy a new one. So....I bought the store brand Cainz brown and white polka dot one. It's sitting in my car now.
Cainz replaced my step counter thankfully and I am once again counting my steps.
Cocoa popsicles and last weeks snacks (spicy chips, sour cream and onion chips, senbei). And yes we do eat also very healthy snacks, but these are the yummy ones for during the week. Noah picked those Pizza-la chips, and those were so good, this week Noboru and Branden have requested the same Pizza-La chips.
I bought a lot of veggies for salad, 2 packs of croutons and salad dressing, we've had salad every single night last week with our meal and weekend. That olive oil dressing is so good. So good.
One night we had chicken teriyaki bowl with mushrooms and broccoli.
Received some package from my dad. Good grief what could it be. I wondered....
A Hollywood gossip magazine. ; ) Thanks dad. That front cover scared me a little at first. Yikes. @_@ Anyway....took it with me to the yochien and read half of it in my car, while I was waiting for Noah to get out of yochien.
Finally we reached Friday. Yay. The dvd's got here. Now we would not be dvd-less this weekend. ; ) "I love you Beth Cooper" And "Old Dogs" I have also rented for the upcoming dvd's. "I love You Phillip Morris. The Women. And Shutter Island. I think Shutter Island and The Women are the next 2 coming.
I made the pizza dough Friday morning as soon as I got home from taking both the boys to school. The dough rested all day. Did laundry, got the house cleaned up for the weekend. Swung back around picked up the kids. And when they got home, the smell of rising pizza dough hit them as they entered the house...they said...pizza! yep, pizza I said.
2 very large sized pizzas. And we enjoyed them with some salad.
One half pepperoni only, the other half, pepperoni, mushroom and bell pepper. Sodas with ice, pizza and salad. I emailed my dad, told him good night. And shut the computer down. We watched TV, took showers, then a movie.
Saturday Noboru and Branden went and had a father and son bonding fishing trip. Sometimes he takes Noah and sometimes he takes Branden. This time was Branden's turn. They fish really close to our house. And Branden always comes back beeming from ear to ear. : ) Saturday for Noah and I was very laid back. I did 2 loads of laundry in which he followed me and helped me hang the laundry out.; ) And then I spent the rest of the day on the couch with some shorts and a tee shirt and a pony tail. I think I got up once to have a choco pie. Then I went back to the couch to enjoy my choco pie. Noah joined me and so he enjoyed a choco pie too. We watched cartoons, Kid vs. Kat and Kick Buttowski!!! Those cartoons cracked Noah and I up so much. With the weekday being busy and run here and run there. It's honestly sort of nice to cool my jets on the weekend and do nothing. Sometimes doing nothing can be good for the soul. ; ) I did make dinner and folded the laundry. But wow, Saturday...good day. And when Branden and Noboru got home, they were so happy. They had a lot of fun fishing. And Noah and I had fun just chilling at home together. Here's 2 movies Noboru took with his keitei of their fishing trip. ; )This coming Saturday is Branden's sports day/field day/undokai. That's the only thing coming up this week. Branden is looking forward to this a lot. ; ) Between now and the next 4 weeks, we will have 3 undokai's. Branden's, then the town undokai (where kids at the elemntary have to attend or they're marked as absent.@_@) And then finally Noah's in October.
Anything else? Yesterday, I started feeling like I was at the starting stages of a bladder infection. I get about one a year. A few times I've gotten them twice in a year. The urologist has checked me out thoroughly (here in Japan) and has said I must be just prone to them. Because it's nothing else. I'm glad that there's a specialist near where we live. Especially since I'm usually as healthy as a horse. Except for these once in a while bladder infections. Sorry tmi. : ) So, I feel blessed that a urologist is so close by. Anyway this morning after I sent the boys to school (both schools and also made obento btw) I went to the urologist. I gave the lady my card. Sat down with my book, when called, took a urine test where they checked it and sure enough. Bladder infection. I'm glad I came in early enough so that it's hopefully back to normal by the time Branden's sport's day is this coming Saturday. I do have to go back next Monday anyway. The doctor, likes his patients to go back a week later and check again. And sometimes he even says...no your urine is still a little not up to 100% (even though I am feeling fine) and he'll give me some more meds, so I trust him. Anyway, I am taking it easy today. Just resting. I've been taking my meds since this morning. Anyway, have a great week everyone. : )
On Friday, after both Branden and Noah got home from school, the 4 of us all enjoyed dinner. Fajitas are what we had. They were pretty good. After dinner and showers, we watched TV. Oh, I did get around and rented the dvd's from Tsutaya discas like I wanted to, but they weren't anywhere near being sent or shipped since I just ordered them that day, so we just watched satellite all weekend (when we were home or inside the house, that is ; )
After fajitas but before every one's shower. We all had dessert. Cookies and cream ice cream. So the boys were crushing some Oreo cookies so we could have them with some vanilla ice cream.
A pretty simple dessert.
But so yummy.
Saturday morning, we as you know, went to the sweet potato dig that Noah's yochien was having. We came home, had leftover fajitas for lunch. And then we switched clothes. Branden and Noah switched to their swim suits and they slid down the slip and slide all afternoon long. See the blue inflatable stopper guard at the end of the slip and slide? Somehow it broke/tore/ripped and so in the videos down below, it is indeed flat as a pancake. : ( Oh well, didn't slow down their play at all.
And what did I do during all of this, sat down, talked to the hubby. Talked to the kids. We cracked a few jokes with one another, had a few laughs. As usual, somebody's always making somebody laugh around here. Listened to some music but mostly just hung out...in the backyard....at home. ; )
In this pic, you can sort of see Noah's air born, that was a fast slide that time.
Then they broke out the water guns and then Noboru jumped in to have a water war with the boys, which was perfect since Japan's been having record high temps. I watched, and watched. had a few more laughs. And then Noboru shot me...with said water gun, in the leg. After 5 minutes from there...I had to pull my own water gun from the shed and it was on. The 4 of us all running around the backyard. I should have worn my swimsuit because my house clothes were soaked by the end of it all. Anyway there you have it. ; ) And it's hard to see what I'm talking about by just looking at a picture sometimes. Sometimes with a video you get the feel of things so much better and easier. So, these 4 super short home movies from Saturday's water gun battle will give you a teeny tiny idea of what we did Saturday afternoon.
Here's the yurigumi class 2010! ; ) On Saturday, our yochien met up at the appointed farm that we go to every year. The kids got to dig and pull sweet potatoes and pick grapes. The weather was blazing hot, but it was really fun! From 9:30am to about 11:30am, so 2 hours was a great amount spent there on Saturday.
A Noah close-up! ; )
If you can see, the grape orchard is right next to where the sweet potato field is. One class picked sweet potatoes first. Meanwhile the yuri class went and picked grapes first. And then we switched. And we went digging for sweet potatoes.
The farmer had told us all that the grape batches were tinier then last year, because of the heatwave Japan has had this Summer. Noah found a fairly big batch. Which was nice because I was looking too and I only found tiny bags full, no big huge bags like last year. : (
Noah cut his batch of grapes. Noboru held the bag to make sure it didn't fall.
And of course we had to let both the boys get a pack. Don't ever want one feeling left out. And with 2 kids you always have to watch out for that, as you know of course. And we do. I recall even when it was Branden in yochien, we would always let Noah cut a bag too. ; ) Anyway, Branden looked and looked and found this bag. I thought he picked a very good bag of grapes.
As usual, we get to have the sweet potatoes whatever is between the 2 chalk lines. It adds up to a whole lot of sweet potatoes. Way more then enough.
Both Branden and Noah dug, dug and dug some more. Hmm, they had that tiny rake yet they preferred dig with their fingers instead. Go figure.
Noah pulling some right out of the earth. Boy the kids enjoyed this so much.
And then we all went and sat down and as usual, we were all given grapes and steamed sweet potatoes to eat. They came around a few times with even more sweet potatoes for us to eat. All of the kids brought themselves drinks, us parents did too. Noboru brought his thermos filled with iced water. Noah brought his Pokemon thermos filled with jasmine tea and Branden brought his thermos filled with jasmine tea with ice. After everyone ate and ate some more, all the kids went and did a prayer and a song, they also thanked the farmer and bowed. And we all said our good-byes. We went home and had leftover fajitas for lunch. ; ) And then we went in the backyard for some slip and slide play. We had to....it was just such a hot day, plus all 4 of us were home and it was just a good way to finish out the day.
Grapes and a whole lot of sweet potatoes. I see, steamed, baked and tempura battered sweet potatoes in our future. Oh dear...by the end of this week we will definitely be sweet potatoed out. Good thing we like sweet potatoes. ; )
Look how small a batch. And this is 2 different batches, Noah's and Branden's. More effects of the sizzling Summer we've all had here in Japan. Oh well, we still had fun letting the kids pick and cut their own grapes. And they are still so so sweet. So that's a positive.
Here's a few pics, I took of Noah last week while Branden was at swimming school with his pals. Noah was playing in the backyard like regular and I was sitting on the bench seat under the parasol and chatting with him while he played. Then I thought, why not take a few pics of Noah playing. So up the stairs he went. And then he slid on down the slide.
And then he went up again and slid down the slide yet again.
A few clicks in between slides here and there.
And of course had to capture the sliding part too. ; )
Then when it was time, we went around the front and walked up the walkway to our side of the park where the swim bus drops off Branden, we waited for him to come back and we three walked home and had dinner. : ) Okay okay....not too terribly exciting in the grand scheme of things. But there ya go. ; )
On Monday, I had it planned. I'd wash all the kids school stuff and so I did. Seat cushions/fire cover things, seat cushion covers. Red and white hats for both Branden and Noah. Gym uniforms for both the boys. Tons of short and long sleeved uniform shirts/dress shirts for Noah, and his uniform Summer shorts. Obento bags, you name it, I washed it if it had anything remotely related to school.
Branden's sneakers/trainers. B got new inside shoes so obviously he didn't need those washed. Noah's school shoes and inside shoes. Talked to granny next door (boys next door's grandma) throughout the day, a good morning here...and "it's so hot today" there. And a "you're getting the boys ready for school, I see" there from her. We also talked tomatoes and that was about it for us that day. ; )
Brought the washed shoes inside the house and new shoe inserts for Noah. Branden requests no inserts. ; ) He didn't mind them in yochien but in elementary he's said...no thanks. And that's okay. I don't want to cramp anyone's style or anything. ; )
All the school bags went on after the rest dried up. Branden's gym bag backpack, Noah's froggy bags. Just all of them. Brought them in when dried and packed both Branden and Noah on Monday. That way...in case I was running late on either first day of school, I wouldn't forget something important. Phew. Wasn't so hard but glad I got it done Monday.
I bought Branden a new thermos. And my foot step counter thingy, I have been using since last year broke. It started erasing my step count mid day. Which sucked big time. I'd look at my steps, it would say something like 7,000 steps (I'd feel happy because I can see the progress by looking at the steps I'm making). So a few hours later when I was sure I'd had way over 10,000 steps, it would say, 120 steps!!! Very frustrating. So, I bought this new step counter. And guess what, this one is horrible..... it doesn't count all my steps. I showed it to Noboru and so he says we should take it back to Cainz and exchange it. So next week, I'm going to do that...thank goodness I still have my receipt. And for what it's worth, we started the counter on zero, I walked 10 steps, for a test that hubby and I did....making sure if it was broke or not. And even counted my steps and it said I had walked 2 steps. @_@ So yeah, a bit of a bummer but it has to go back to be exchanged for one that's not defective. Anyway it'll get sorted out, I am sure. That's the positive side.
We had American style fried pork chops one night, with rice a roni and some veggie. It was good, basic but good.
See these? Know what they are? I don't either, so don't worry. : ) They're some Pokemon character. We took the boys to the movies on Wednesday like we promised. And I ended up deciding to go in the end anyway. I wasn't going to go. And Noboru kept telling me...you should go. It's no fun just being at home all alone. Come with us. I was like ehhh. Maybe. And so Tuesday I was sort of wavering towards going and Wednesday, he said I should go again and I said....yeah why the heck not. So, I ended up going.
The kids know exactly who this is and so do their friends (we ended up with 4 of these character charms, each ticket received one free). Anyway Branden's first day back to school. Our school, says to bring like 2 things each day. Paints and recorder one day for example. Shuji set and clothes the next. This can take a week to actually bring everything back from home. They do that for the kids who walk, it makes it easier for them and lighter to carry (very understandable). I always just have Branden take everything in one fell swoop the first day. As you know, I don't really like procrastination all that much and better to just get it over with. And I drive both kids anyway, so it's not so hard for B anyway. So first day back to school, on Wednesday, he brought it all to school. It was a half day, he got out at 11am. And 11am, Noah and I picked him up from school, we ran home. Picked up Noboru. And we all headed to the movies first to buy our tickets and pick our seat. Then we went to Mc D's for lunch. The movie didn't start until 1:50pm, so we ate slowly and then the boys had shakes afterward lunch and Noboru and I each had a strawberry blizzard/Mc Flurry (sorry must have had DQ on my mind, I said blizzard at first, lol). We walked across the street from MC D's to the movies (where our car was parked anyway) and enjoyed the movie.
I had to share this picture before I end this post. So, while I was doing my weekly shopping this week. I went and bought 2 packs of instant coffee for myself since I drink that every week. And I usually drink the caramel machiatto one, but was really really surprised to see Oreo coffee. I saw it. @_@ Looked again. And thought...hmmmm. Wonder what that tastes like? And then I said....as usual....why the heck not. I'll give it a shot. Just to see. ; ) 
Posts
