Last weeks bits and pieces.

I am still no matter how hard I try, about a week behind with regards to my blogging and I have about 3 posts *at least* to get posted. I am never without a lack of content or things on my mind to say or blog about. My problem always seem to be lack of time. However today, is a free day for me. Hubby's off fishing about 5 minutes from our house. And I have a clean house, have no laundry and so am getting my posts updated today. Should get 3 up today. And 1 if I can, for tomorrow. ; ) So let me quickly get them up. See, where was I? Oh yes, the obento up above pic. Well, last Sunday was supposed to be our town undokai. Fortunately for us it was canceled. You know my 2 weeks ago crazy insane Thursday right? Well a few days after that, our town undokai was supposed to take place. I was a bit burnt out. And could use the weekend to recharge. But with town undokai looming, it didn't look like we'd get to relax much. Which was fine. Friday, the day after the crazy busy Thursday. When B came home from school. He mentioned his friend in his class. Mentioned his mom was "hoping" for a typhoon for the day of the town undokai. That sort of made me smile hearing that. Because I thought.....I'm not the only exhausted mom. Fwiw, she also has 2 sons, 1 same age as Branden and 1 same age as Noah. And was balancing 3 undokai's same as me. So, I totally had to smile when Branden told me...his friend said...his mom was hoping for a typhoon. LOL. I sorta was hoping for a cancelation myself. It rained Saturday quite a bit. I was thinking the undokai field was probably mud. And as it continued to rain into the evening, we got emailed from the school. The automated ones, that said....town undokai was canceled. Our town undokai's are never postponed, luckily for us. If it rains they're just canceled. Now the elementary ones would be postponed no doubt. So, round 7pm Saturday, we knew the next day was free. And the Monday that followed was a holiday. So we finally relaxed and enjoyed. However meals are provided by the town for town undokai, so Sunday around lunch time, the free obentos were delivered to our house along with everyone else. Noboru requested 3, he was going to just eat one and save 2 for himself for later. I was going to make obento for the kids and I. But since it was canceled. Noboru had his 3 obento brought to the house. He munched on them all day 2 Sunday's ago. : )

Monday, a holiday for us in Japan 2 weeks ago. The day after the canceled town undokai. We went to Narita Mall. Branden needed his 2 new jeans to be altered length wise a bit. It's usually an hour wait, but that day it was a 2 hour wait. So we had 2 hours of time to kill at Narita mall.

A Proactiv machine. I think this is sort of good because that way if people don't wanna call and order from TV, they can just buy from the Proactiv vending machine. That's nice. I know in the US, we sell this stuff in kiosks at malls now days. And it was nice to see it available like this as well here in Japan.

Branden just got new sneakers at the end of June. They are still like new and plenty of room to grow. But Noah needed new ones. We liked this pair But our luck, they didn't have his size. : ( What to do....what to do. No matter I thought of something.

They had his size in these other colors. And so, we got his size from these other colors. And then bought online the orange ones we wanted in the size we needed. Free shipping and 1000 yen cheaper then the Sports Authority had them anyways, so a win win.

We still had more time to kill waiting for the alternations on the jeans. They had a great sale on fleece in the men's department at Aeon. Lots of great colors. But Noboru is pretty conservative so he went with a conservative color. : )

A navy blue fleece for Noboru, nicely altered jeans for Branden and the lady for free sewed a pair of madras shorts of Branden's, that had a tiny part that was coming undone, that we got at the Children's Place outlet last year. She fixed them good as new.

Doggy next door. He's jumped into our yard, during the last 3 weeks about 8 different times. He just honestly really likes us. He sees me, and his tail waggles like crazy, I don't know why, we don't feed him or egg him on at all. If he's chained up, he won't go anywhere, but the second the granny next door, my good friend. As soon as she lets him off the leash, jump. Once while I was gone with friends a few weeks back. Noboru was dead asleep and she rang the doorbell. Noboru woke up and helped her get the dog. Twice the day before they went to their Hokkaido trip. And a few other times and last week he did it twice. Grandma and grandpa next door get so upset with the pup when he jumps the fence. And I just tell them, we seriously do not mind. I mean, Noboru grew up always having a dog and so did I. We seriously in all honestly don't mind. And having been there with my own dogs I know how it feels when your dog goes on the loose. So, we totally don't mind/care. Meanwhile granny next door is not too pleased with doggy next door. He's been in the dog house lately with regards to the grandma and grandpa. They said they will try to put up a blockade, so we'll see what they do next. Who will win, the grandparents next door or the dog. Hmm. I don't know. : )

An order of stuff for myself came last week. Just warmer more wintery yoga pants, 2 fleece zippy tops. And a winter vest.

I picked this fleece, and a plain black one. So 2. I really liked the peace sign one so much. Think it'll be cute running the kids to school in, as it gets colder.

And I also really loved the vest, with the fleece lining inside and that fleece lining was why I wanted this.

Noah's shoes got here. Right size, right color. Phew! : )

Anyway that was nice to have a quiet week in there.

Anything else? Well, I went to the Indian restaurant with my 2 girlfriends. We really had a great time. Noriko-san and Jogo-san, I can tell, we will be life long friends for sure. Something that will withstand our yochien years. In fact Noriko-san's daughter doesn't go to yochien anymore. She has a 4th grader and an ichinensei. But it doesn't matter, because our friendship bond goes beyond our kids going to the same school. We 3 will be going to see the new Harry Potter when it comes out.

One funny thing....Noriko-san and Jogo-san ordered mild curry. And I order hot. I like my food with kick. Anyway, our food came. And the whole time I was eating, I kept thinking, "what bland tasting curry" perhaps they changed the recipe? Went under new management? I mean they did change the seating and tables around, it could have been possible. Jogo-san ate normally. Meanwhile Noriko-san wasn't eating so fast. And then she said..."my curry is so hot" and I meanwhile said, my curry was totally *not* hot at all. So, she tried mine and I meanwhile tried hers. Goodness hers was hot. Yep, the waiter must have mixed our curry's up. @_@ I was 90% done with mine. And hers was 90% full, so it was unfair to switch, because I ate mine. Anyway, we got a chuckle out of that one. : )

Last week. Branden's observation day and swimming school. Noah's undokai rehearsal and dashi pull!

I'm getting a touch behind blogging and I don't want it to snowball. So, this post is everything from last week. Last Monday late night we got back from Guam. And this pic is from Tuesday. After the kids got home from school Tuesday. And Noah got back from swim school. Yep, he's been switched now to Tuesdays. Anyway we bbq'ed after swim school. While we barbecued, the boys played soccer.

As you can see, this was a 2 ball soccer match, they had going! ; ) Oh the games they come up with!

Some country style baked beans.

And done. We had 4 slabs total. 1 rack per person. Baked potatoes and baked beans. A simple meal Tuesday. Tuesday was nice, not too busy.

This was my serving but everyone else had the same. Noah devoured his slab. As did Branden and the hubby as well.

Wednesday morning. I hung out a whole load of wash as usual, this time everything orange. The day before I did another full load of everything green. I usually don't do laundry in colors like that. But we had enough for a full load just one color. And I wanted all the Fall/Winter stuff washed up and placed in the boys closets. Branden's gym uniform on the right. And Noah's uniforms, behind B's. Last Wednesday, productive, not stressful though. Itw as a great day.

Wednesday evening after school the boys friends came over. Man these kids are popular! They hung out in the back for a while. Then they hung out in the front for a while and then they all went playing at the park in our housing community. A 1 minute walk along the walk/pathways. Meanwhile I made dinner.

Thursday, looked somewhat busy, by the looks of my calendar. But I had no idea how absolutely exhausted I'd feel by the night. I started with making obento for Noah that morning. Our yochien you can have school lunch and bring home obento twice a week only. Or you can bring homemade obento every.single.day. With Branden, I had only 1 school aged kiddo, Noah was still a babe. So, making Branden obento everyday was doable. When it was Noah's time to start yochien. Noboru suggested I let Noah have school lunch for the most of the week to relieve me of making it daily. However, Noah watches everything and sees everything and remembers when his brother was in yochien. Noah's first semester as a yellow badge, he had school lunch and also home obento twice a week. Noah often told me, I wish I could bring home lunch everyday. And I'd listen and say yes, yes I know honey. And then....this was last year by the way. Noah said to me in the kitchen in a very sad voice. "How come, you could make Branden a homemade obento everyday when he was in yochien and you don't do that for me?" OMG! I was stunned and left speechless. And I didn't really realize how it had hurt my son. And though I could not change it until the end of that semester. I did switch it. And so, when Noah was a yellow badge for the first semester he had school lunch/home lunch combo. And since then, red badge and now as a pink badge. I do make Noah's obento every.single day. Now matter how busy I am. Because I don't ever want him to feel short changed for being youngest. @_@ So yes, I do make obento everyday. And no, it's not because I'm supermom. ; ) And it's not because our yochien doesn't have the option of a school lunch. It's because it matters to my son and if it matters to Noah, then it matters to me. : ) So anyway..... where was I?

Oh yes, it was last Thursday morning. I had just made Noah's quick obento that morning. And I also had the pork in the crock pot for niku jaga that night. Got Branden sent to school that morning... came back and got Noah dressed. And then while he watched Tom and Jerry and the Pink Panther on the Cartoon Network, I got myself dressed. I had to be at Noah's yochien for a sports day rehearsal that morning. Meanwhile Noboru was meeting Branden at school for his first and second class. Branden had observation day (and yes I would be showing up later in the day too). And Noah had undokai rehearsal, SAME DAY! Too bad there isn't 2 of me. ; ) I am lucky that Noboru could be there for Branden's first 2 classes. Noboru watched Branden's math class and PE/gym class. Meanwhile Noah and I arrived to the yochien by 9am. I made sure he got into his class with his little obento that morning. And right away us mother's were busy. First of all, field day in the US and how it's done here is really different. So let me try to explain. 2 weeks ago, we were all given a note, "can you help at the yochien sports day?" For the most part the only ones who say no are the ones who have younger kids and no extended family there to help watch the young ones. So no one expects them to help, it's very understandable. Now for the rest, it's pretty much expected/hoped to help. Even if every mom takes just 1 event, you can pretty much enjoy the rest. And they try to get you an event your child isn't in, so that helps. Such as the red badges mom's will do the pink badge races and vice versa. That way we can all enjoy the events our kids are actually in. Last year for example, I helped in the grandma/grandpa ball toss. And the blue badges ball toss. That was perfect because I wasn't missing anything. Noriko-san arranged that last year and she did a beautiful job how she arranged that. This year it seems every thing's all messed up. For starters last Thursday, they had all the mother's who are actually helping stand to the right. And all the mom's not helping stand way on the left. And no it wasn't to front them off or anything like that, lol. We were having a meeting is why. And had thick papers of the order of events to deal with etc. Anyway it seems like 20 or so mom's aren't helping this year (and this bunch didn't have any younger siblings or baby brothers or sisters nor did they have full time jobs, those would have been good valid reasons of course). So, the ones of us actually helping are now having to work 2 and 3 freaking events. And for many of us, first time ever.... we are now going to miss events our kids are in. I am working 3 events this year, thank you very much! And I will now be missing my own child do the ball toss! I am also going to be helping hand out the medals this year at the end. Therefore I will also miss seeing my son get that sweet medal placed around his neck! Honestly? To be frank about it.....I think this sucks! If more mothers lent a hand, we wouldn't be having this problem. And now because of this.....I doubt I will agree to help next year for undokai. What a cycle, I know, but hey I'm human. I may change my mind in 12 month's time. But I tell you. fair is fair and unfair is unfair. And yes I am steamed. And yes I want to see my sweet lovely Noah run and also get his medal etc. So as of right now...I will not be signing the yes box for next year. I also do not think I am the only one feeling steamed either. Because we were given a revision sheet of all the events because some mom wanted a change. Smart mom, whoever she is! So, anyway, us helping mom's, did the rehearsal. The non helping mom's watched and looked on. Watching their kids last Thursday. Jogo-san and I are doing all 3 events together basically. So, she is working just as hard as me and will be missing her daughter's events too. Anyway, last Thursday, we worked our butts off. We ran through the whole undokai. The blue badge class is doing a cool, 50's type rock and roll number! I saw Noah's dance as well, he is wearing an orange color. His best friend H is wearing green. They all did really good. 1 helping mother could not be there for the practice last Thursday, which is more then fine, hey at least she's helping.... so they needed a stand in and so I stood in for her, which was fine. And so, I stood crouched down as the blue badges raced. By the time we were done last Thursday, I was physically exhausted. Up down, up down, crouch crouch. The red balls go out of the white circle swoop them up, and I was moving all over like a dork collecting the red balls throwing them back inside the white lines. 11:45am is when we were done. We finished, they gave us a green tea for helping in a can. And I drove home. Arrived home around 12:10pm. Noboru was just about to leave but he told me about Branden's gym class etc. I meanwhile told Noboru an earful about the sports practice. Meanwhile I was chopping up the onion. The 2 pork loins were now fall apart tender since they were in the crock pot since the night before. I added the onion, potatoes. Set the rice cooker. Then I left and went to go pick up Noah from school. With Kumon bags and swim bags in hand. Picked up Noah, and we immediately drove to Branden's school. By now it's 2pm. I ran into the school. With pink badge safety pin....that says Noah such and such.... pinned to my khaki shorts (all helpers at the yochien needed to wear their child's name badge so we know who's who) and I didn't have time to take it off during the busy day, so I had a pink badge on my shorts and a name badge around my neck for B's school. I parked the car, Noah and I ran into the school. The secretary at Branden's school always speaks to me in English, I'm not sure why, but that's fine. She said, all the kids are in the gymnasium. I thanked her and ran down the hall getting to the gym. And sure enough the whole school was in there. It had just started so we quietly sat down Noah and I.

There was a clown performance for the final class. Not a whole bunch of kids by the picture but this is the whole school, all 6 grades. One little girl sitting near Branden spotted Noah and I, and she said..."hey your mom's here" and so Branden turned around and looked at me. And he knew I was there. ; )

I made it.....I was there for both kids, both schools, 1 day. It was a bit busy last Thursday, I was running around like a chicken with her head cut off, a few times that day. But at least my boys know.... I will always be there, no matter what. I personally enjoyed the clown performance. I found them quite funny and entertaining. Granted I was a bit tired, and if I would have closed my eyes I might have fallen asleep, but the clowns did keep me awake. ; ) Noah completely enjoyed this.

The clowns, walked on stilts, the girl clown, rode a unicycle and jump roped at the same time. The guy in the pic up above, stuffed himself inside a big yellow balloon. That was sorta wild and weird. It definitely kept me awake. ; ) And then school was over. And from school to Kumon. I meanwhile raced home. Got the tender pork, and onions and potatoes from the crock pot and transferred the stuff from crock pot to pan on the stove. Added some frozen green beans on top. The green beans steamed right away, since everything else was hot. And I covered it with a lid. Picked up the kids and we left swimming. Noah rested and played with his friend upstairs. Branden chatted with Kei-chan in the pool. And I chatted with some of my yochien mom friends. Both from B's era of yochien and the ones from Noah's time of yochien. A mother that was there at the sports rehearsal, "otskara-sama-ed me. And I did the same. I chatted briefly with Reiko-san and Taito-kun's mama. These are my mom friends from Branden's era of yochien. They said...wow did Noah get big!!! And it was nice catching up again.

Thank goodness dinner was made with help of my crock pot.

And by now, I sat and sat. And as the time says it was indeed 6:15pm. Kids were fine. It was me that was run completely ragged. I sat there and we arrived home at 7pm!

Branden's meanwhile refreshed, chatting with Keita in the white cap in front of B. By now I have a splitting headache. And just thinking about how I was up from 5:30am that morning, obento, 1 kid here, 1 kid with me there. The sports rehearsal. Cooking here and there. Branden's observation. Kumon and swim club, it's no wonder I felt frazzled. And no usually not everything piles up like that. But makeup swimming days had to be pinched in there somewhere. And it just happened to all pile up for me, on 1 day. How I didn't drop dead of a heart attack last Thursday I'll never know. At the end of swimming, Kei-chan could not find his DS game! He was frantic. In the genkan of the school. The secretary called him over....what did you lose? He didn't run to her for help, he ran to me for help instead! No I'm not kidding. Perhaps he knows me more. Perhaps he's always at our house that could be why. Perhaps he hurt himself 2 years ago and knocked on my door for a hug? Yes I'm not kidding a hug, yeah it surprised me too at first. But hug I did. LOL. So, anyway while I am waiting for B to get changed. He's all frantic. I can't find my DS. I said..just calm down, where was it? It was in my bag he said. Okay, let's go through your bag, one by one to see if we can find it. If we don't find it by the end, then you can get freaked out..how's that? deal? : ) He said yes deal. So, as the secretary looked on and a few mom's looked on, K-chan and I went through his swim bag. And sure enough at the bottom of the bag, there it was! Relief! See? I said. Not to worry. Oh thank you he said. And off he went. He takes the swim bus. So, he went to catch the swim bus. ; ) Branden came out and we went home. Though he usually takes the swim bus now too.

Branden swimming on video, just a random day at swim school. But this kid swims back and forth... back and forth. 50 meters. For an hour and a half. He gets good exercise and gets to socialize with his friends. We went home after swim school. Branden unloaded all his bags at home, both the boys did. And I warmed up the nikujaga. I was exhausted, pooped, spent. Whatever you wanna call it. The boys and I ate. They went up to shower. Got in their jammies. And they watched some TV before bed. I went up and read them a bed time story. And after that, I put the dishes into the dishwasher. And I went upstairs, pinned up my hair. And I took a shower and then I soaked in the hot bath. Japanese baths can stay hot/warm at the same temperature. So, I had my bath set at real hot. And I soaked in there for like an hour. By now, Noboru came home. He ate the dinner I left for him. I told him all about my day. And he told me all about his. We talked and then he went into the shower. I meanwhile, sat on the couch. Just vegging out. Boy did I deserve it too. I just laid there. Surfing the channels. I think I went to bed around 10pm-ish. Man what a day, what a day. Every once in a while, a person gets a crazy busy day like that right? Mine was last Thursday.

Last Friday. Sent Branden to school. Breakfast beforehand of course. And Friday for Noah would be a half day. Because the Fall festival was starting that day. So the pink and blue badge classes got to pull the dashi/rope in the morning just for fun. Noah was a red badge last year so this was his first time.

This is the dashi.

My amazing husband, he was able to go along, his schedule just fit. And I didn't ask him to go, but he went. And I really appreciated it.

The kids sat in between dashi pulls a few times to take breaks : )

So now it was 11am or so. And Noboru suggested we go to the food court at the "farmer's market" so we did. This sign says, if you say..."trick or treat" they'll give you something good to eat. ; )

We ordered a pizza from there, and Noah went up there and said..."trick or treat" and got this treat. ; )

Noah and I shared this pizza for lunch.

Noboru had udon.

Noah eating his lunch.

After lunch last Friday, the 3 of us went to do the weekly shopping. Bags of veggies, meats, drinks and whatnot. And some green apple popsicles, garigari and some strawberry shortcake icecream cups. For desserts for the week.

Noah brought home a bag of treats for participating in the dashi pull. I was so thankful for last Friday. I kept thinking...TGIF! I was really looking forward to the weekend. I greatly needed to recharge my batteries after all that. My week last week. Not bad, Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday, pretty great actually. Thursday was for the birds. ; ) Granted it's over with and I'm not nearly as upset about how the undokai, will go down. Sure, I'll be working 3 events. Sure not as many mother's pitched in to help as they should have. But, I can't change other people and I know that. Thank gawd, I know that. All I can do is change the way I react in a given situation. Last Thursday I might have been steamed about it. But this week, I'm over it. It is...what it is. I want Noah to have one of the most fantastic and fun undokai's. And so he is completely unaware of all the stuff behind the scenes. And I'm glad for that. I will do the 3 events I am supposed to do, and with a smile. A sincere smile because..this is for my son, so that's why I'm doing this! Type smile. And I know my kids will be proud. Anyway the undokai is this coming Oct 17th, Sunday. And yes my MIL will be here for it. : ) I am still unsure if I will sign up to help for next years undokai mind you. We'll see how I feel next year. ; )

Guam trip October 2010

So Sunday around 2pm, we arrived, my dad picked us up at the airport. He took me to check into my hotel right away. And from there we immediately left to Micronesia Mall. I got my eyebrow wax. And then we had a light lunch/fast lunch. We would be having dinner that evening....so we didn't wanna ruin the boys appetites. After lunch, we ran to Macy's. I bought both Noboru's jeans and Branden's jeans and jammies. And we left Micronesia Mall altogether.

Branden and Noah eating their 1 taco each. I ate a veggie and cheese 6 inch Subway sandwich. no chips. We shared a large 7up or Sprite, I forget which one. My dad had something from Taco Bell, I forget what it was, sorry dad. ; )

Like it says..50% off on all Carter's pj's. Then we went to both Cost u less stores, because frankly they both carry 95% same stuff, but 5% different stuff from one another. And going to both overlaps and increases my chance to get what I'm looking for. They both close at 7pm, so that's why we hit both of them first. I'm pretty good time management wise and I know Payless grocery and Kmart are 24 hours open, so you can shop in those anytime. But with Cost u less....it's crucial to make it before it closes. So, first day...jeans, Cost u less (both stores) and a trip to Blockbuster which only took me 20 minutes because I knew what I was looking for more or less. It was still early. I shopped with a list and just scratched things off the list and we had loads of time to spare. I didn't want to shop everything on one day as to stress the boys out. So, I left Payless and Kmart for the following last day.

We kept things light....but even still Noah fell asleep on the way to the restaurant. We debated Tony Romas or Vitales Italian. But the kids...wanted pizza. So we went to Vitales.

The boys are so comfortable with my dad....they've always known him obviously, they see him all the time. And Noah feels comfy enough to just crash on grandpas shoulder.: )

The boys had the medium pepperoni pizza, I had the lasagna as usual and my dad had the spaghetti.

Branden taking pics with his own digi camera. That silly kid. ; ) It was around 8pm by the time we left the restaurant. The pizza re-energized the boys. But we called it a night anyway. I bought a few bottles of bottle lemonade at the convenience store and we headed to the hotel. Said good night and see ya in the morning.

The boys watched TV had some lemonade with ice, I also had some lemonade with ice. The boys eventually crashed for the night. And I stood awake watching TV until around 11:30pm.

Both Branden and Noah enjoying TV before they crashed.

We woke up feeling refreshed. We all took fast morning showers though we took one the night before anyway. Checked out of the hotel. We went straight to Kmart, we were there by 8:30am. It was pretty dead in Kmart, not many customers at all. So, that was great for us, I got to shop in peace and scratch things off the list. We were oddly out of there by 9:10am. We shopped quickly.

The Halloween corner was huge as always.
Goofing around! ; ) This Halloween smiling looking zombie old guy was for sale. And my dad and the boys wanted their picture taken with him. So, I did. Ha ha ha. After that...we ran to Payless grocery at Micronesia Mall, I bought a quick basket of groceries. Some donuts at the Winchell's at the front of the store on my way out...and then we walked to the Cinnabon in the mall and picked up Noboru's cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon. By now it was.....about 10:45am. From there we went to Mc D's for lunch. I prefer American Mc D's so much more. So many healthier choices such as the grilled chicken options. Etc. I had the grilled chicken club sandwich, no fries and a drink. My dad had a Big Mac combo. And Noah had a regular happy meal chicken nuggets combo and Branden had the "mighty kids" meal with chicken nuggets just a bigger sized kids meal basically. We ate slowly and then walked along the beach, Ypao beach...then after a while we went back to my dad's for a while and then packed up the stuff from his fridge, such as the cheese. And at 1:45pm is when I got to the airport. Our plane took off at 4:15pm. And I wanted to be there 2 hours in advance. We got our seats right away. And we hugged and kissed and said good bye and see you real soon to my dad. And we went through the TSA security and relaxed. I bought the boys a large Sprite from Burger King, we had just eaten but they were thristy so they drank. Made sure they both made a toilet break. And then we went and sat near our gate. An American mom with 2 small children. I'd say, age 3 and age 2. Somewhere around there. Anyway she happens to be military (well her husband techinically : ) and was heading to the mainland. She was really nice. She was telling me, how hard it is to travel with 2 kids alone. And I was shaking my head in agreement. Saying...."boy do I get that... It really is hard." So we chit chatted until we boarded our flight. I think we were the only non Japanese on the flight that day. The rest were all Japanese tourists boarding. She was really nice. But we sat really far from each other, but I did tell her to have a safe flight, as I was deboarding in Narita. : )

The movies I saw on the airplane. On the way over there, I saw Date Night. And on the way back, I saw...The Joneses (with Demi Moore...man this movie makes you think ; ) Both were really excellent movies. Anyway that was our quick, but really great trip to Guam. : )