You ever have a week that's so busy, that it seems everyday you have a million things to do, that need to get done. And you frankly wonder, "will I survive this week?" That pretty much describes the week I just had last week. : ) On Monday, last Monday, after sending both Branden and Noah to school, one with an obento. I came home, hung laundry, cleaned the house for an hour. Then I went over my 2 lessons that I'd be teaching the next day. I went over them and over them saying them in the kitchen. After that, I had prepped dinner, set the timer on the rice, etc. And then went and did my afternoon pick ups. Dropped of both the boys at Kumon. Ran home started dinner, when my cell rang, it was the boys, they were done. I said, I'd be there in 5 minutes, they know not to leave the building until they see my tiny red car. Which is what they did. Ran back home, they got unpacked and I served dinner. After dinner Branden started in on his school homework. I meanwhile opened my lessons for the next day again. Went through them one more time. I sent the boys to shower, and pj's. And then they rested and watched TV. Noah has been watching TV upside down lately. : ) Noboru came home. Ate. Showered. Tuesday, I woke up, got dressed, put my makeup on. Flat ironed my hair. And put my work clothes on. Fixed breakfast, made obento. Noboru was to drop the both of them off, he was more then willing to. In fact he wanted to make Noah's obento, but Noah was worried about daddy's obento. : ) Poor Noboru. I did dress Noah in his gym uniform and packed him an extra shirt since it's undokai practice. And I left. I drove 1 hour to the hoikuen I teach at. Met my teaching partner in the parking lot, we went over the lesson. This particular school, we leave out the role play. Good morning-ed everyone as we walked in. The kids saw me...Gina sensei....Gina sensei! I waved and got all smiley. Went upstairs and we waited for the kids. They came in. Taught the younger class first. I pretty much rocked it! Went through vocabulary. Sang songs. Went through, the ol' "may I have your name please" which city do you live in?....do you have any brothers..do you have any sisters. Just the little things I go through which each kid, so they are comfortable answering and stuff. They left, I high fived everyone as they left the gymnasium where we teach at. Good bye..bye..see you...buh bye...bye, see you. I must say that 100 times a day at least. : ) Got ready for the next class. This went so well too. They're the older class, they're all very similiar to Noah's age. Half this class is 5 years old and half this class are 6 years old, so same as Noah's age. About 50 kids again. Went through the whole thing. At 11:15, it was over, high fived everyone all over again. Went downstairs, chit chatted with the principal as we usually do, my teaching partner and I. This particular principal. He LOVES America. I mean like really. He says he has tons of books on American culture you name it. And if it's American he has a book on it. He always wears an English T-shirt and this time his shirt read...Converse an American original. He loves the fact that he has an American teacher teaching there. This time, he wanted to talk about....the musical Wicked. We then spoke about the Wizard of OZ. Then the subject turned to Halloween. To Star Wars @_@ not sure how we ended up on that. Then to vampires. I have to be a jack of all trades chit chatting with the principals. Especially this guy. Last time he wanted to chat about...because of obon about to happen that time, he asked about how often I visit my family grave in the US. @_@ When I lived in Denver, how often did I visit. This guy is so interesting to talk to. Around 11:50am we left. I took off my sneakers slipped on my ballet shoes, waved to the principal. My teaching partner and I left, we walked to our cars. She drives a Prius. I hopped into my tiny red car and left. Went to the store. I picked up the miso pork. 60% of the time, I make my own miso pork, but if I'm busy like I was that day, I don't mind buying the kind at the store already marinated. Just makes my life easier. : ) Which I did. Picked up Noah. Noah, myself and the miso pork went into the house. I put the pork into the fridge. No laundry hung that day, so I did 1 load and used the dryer. Switched clothes. Put my hair into a pony tail. Vacuumed and that was it for that day. For dinner, we had miso pork, rice, veggie and the boys had miso soup. Noboru had a swing shift so he couldn't eat with us.
Every evening on the Foodies channel. How it's called here. Not to be confused with the Food Network in the US. Anyway, every night I have been watching.."Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." Or something like that. They go all over the US. Find comfort food. Not fancy restaurants but good simple American home cooking type places. I love this show. And Mon-Fri, I always check at 8:30pm to see if it's on. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. This was Rosie O'Donnell. She was eating there the morning this show was taping there.
The turkey, mashed potato and stuffing dinner.
They said, they roast 2 turkeys every day at this particular place. Yumm. The seasoning on the turkey looked so good.
Another restaurant, American style southern fried chicken. Yumm.
All the country side dishes. Homemade mac and cheese.
Wednesday, was the day we would run to Costco and do a few other errands in the Makuhari area. I was on a time crunch since I had to pick up both Branden and Noah. So, first thing that morning, I quickly made onigiri for Noah since it was onigiri day. Our Catholic yochien has onigiri day every other Wednesday, the lemon tea coin bank collects money and gives it to the less fortunate. They really do send money to different countries because they send letters to our yochien. I read the letters because they're in English and they do post them in the genkan at the school.
Ran to all the spots we had to beforehand. And at 12:30pm, we arrived at Costco. Noah gets out of school at 2pm. Thank goodness, we signed him up for Kagai that day. And he had a set play date to play with his best friend. So, he would play there until 3pm with his best friend. Noah does kagai about once every other week and plays with his buddy's. We still knew we had barely zero time to be at Costco. So, we looked ridiculous because we basically ran into the store, ran through the upstairs, took the escalator with huge cart downstairs and ran all over down in the basement level at Costco. Within 30 minutes or way less we left. Felt like in 5 minutes. : ) 1 Halloween pumpkin. The pumpkins never really look all that fresh to me. I know it's the best they can do, they are brought all the way from America. But many at the store had moldy tops. I usually buy 2, but the looks of these, I bought just 1.
1 box of waffles.
Pasta sauce and dinner rolls.
Popcorn.
And a pizza for dinner.
We picked up Noah at 3pm. Barely barely made it. We just live too far and that's even with the highway and the expensive toll fee. Branden got out at 3:45pm, so we went directly from yochien to the Plaza with food still in the car. It was raining buckets. After all that running around we were exhausted. However Noah had swimming. We quickly put everything away. And after swimming we came home whacked this pizza in the big oven and had dinner. Quick dinner that night. After showers. I let the boys take the first bath of the Fall season. They soaked and I heard them playing upstairs in the tub, singing and splashing. I meanwhile was going through all the things I had to do the following day. I was asleep by 10pm every night last week.
Also can't leave out Noah. Noah passed a test in English reading and writing at Kumon. He is now a level D. Which is quite high.
We work quite hard on their studies. I work on the English with them here at home all the time. I read to them nightly. They each have an English workbook. That is made by teachers and it's a full years curriculum. It does science in English, American history in English...math... verbs, adjectives. homophones. You name it, Branden's learned it. And Noah is learning it. Plus the English Kumon, and I love it because they get to study English and see others study it too. It's all self study so at each persons pace. But seeing others do English is positive for them. And just because I'm an American doesn't automatically mean they'll be English natives like me. But they are....they are 100% bilingual. Speaking, reading, writing. Little American accents the whole shebang. So, I must be doing something right. : )
And he didn't just pass, like barely. He passed 100% out of 100!!! Right on Noah, and yes we are proud of you! Rightfully so!
These are the bath powders I picked. From different famous onsens. The boys enjoyed the hot bath Wednesday. But, I waited until after getting through Thursday. I knew Thursday would be my most busy day. So a hotbath here at home was my reward to myself for Thursday.
Thursday morning. Made breakfast times 2. Made obento for one. Got myself ready. Flat ironed my hair, makeup, got dressed. And ready for working/helping out at Noah's yochien. The oldest class is the sakura-gumi/class. Then we have bara and yuri-gumi.
The kids giving speeches to start off the undokai this year. 1 red hat/1 white hat from the oldest class this year and Noah was picked!!! : ) He's been practicing his speech for 2 weeks now. Bless his heart. I was so proud.
He's also the one leading the entire school in the taiso/exercise. One white hat, that's Noah and 1 red hat will lead the entire school. Yes, Noah is really in the undokai a lot this year as a lead role! Which means he is definitely a good kid! Again, I was so proud.
I saw the entire undokai rehearsal. @_@ I saw the teeny tiny class do their dance number and clapped. Saw the middle class do theirs, clapped cheered. Saw the oldest class, the Sakura class do theirs and I also cheered and clapped. I talked to many mothers. 
Then the final race of the year. The one everyone looks forward to all year long!!!! The entire school relay. From youngest to gradually the oldest class. Who is closing this year? Well, if you see the white sash Noah is wearing you'll know he is the anchor for the entire school's white team. Yeah talk about pressure right? Wink wink. : ) At 11:05am, the undokai rehearsal was finished, but they were lingering talking. They all knew I had to get to my town for Branden's observation day. So, I threw on my necklace name tag for our town. Ran to Noah, he knew beforehand though...I said, "mommy has to go to Branden's school now" told a few mom's good bye. And I hopped in my car and quickly got myself to my tiny town. I keep a pair of slippers in my car at all times. So, I grabbed my slippers, with name badge around my neck, parked my car, ran up the hill to Branden's elementary school. Signed my name and ran up 2 flights of stairs.
The boy next door in the red long sleeve top. And Branden in the navy top in front. Branden's favorite subject is math, so he asked me to show up for that particular class.
I watched the math class for the entire class from start to when the bell rang. Branden smiled at me twice, I smiled at the boy next door, a fast wave at Daisuke, and A-chan. I was there. I made it! I went to work that week. I ran to Costco that week. I took the kids to Kumon, Noah to swim club. I managed to make obento daily. Make breakfast daily, and dinner every evening. I showed up for the undokai rehearsal, and I even showed up for Branden's observation day. I did everything I was supposed to do last week. Granted I did not clean the house as much as I usually do during a usual week. I also didn't work out but twice last week either. : ( *But*...I survived the week and that's the silver lining. I did not let anyone down, not my kids, not the yochien, nor my kids I teach. Seriously, I should have high fived myself. : ) After leaving Branden's school. I went home, prepped for dinner. Then swung back to the city to pick up Noah, then went all the way back to pick up Branden. Back and forth, back and forth. : ) Then dropped the both of them off at Kumon. At this point, I was beat/tired, flat out pooped. Brought them home. emailed my dad....I said, "I survived...I have seriously bloodshot eyes, but I made it. : ) Now I am going to make dinner." I made dinner. They ate, Branden did homework. They showered. And you know while they sat watching TV relaxing. I went upstairs. Tied my hair up. Quickly showed, washed my makeup off, soaped my body and rinsed. I then set the bath. The thing I had been longing for. Looking forward to. A long hot soak with some bath powder. Bliss. In other news. Noah's randoseru, has been bought. Randoseu are the Japanese backpacks that kids in elementary school use and carry. They are quite expensive. You can pick, leather or something that looks like leather. The one thing most people worry about is, the weight of the backpack. Real leather can be very heavy for kids especially when you also add the books. The ones that look like leather, always show how heavy the backpack is when you buy. Because the weight of it, is a concern. Also if you choose real leather you will have to take care of the leather, conditon the leather etc. Which if you don't mind. That's fine. The ones that look like leather are, waterproof and with living in a typhoon prone country and moldy country, we picked nonleather for Branden. It was handmade, just as pricy as real leather but we've loved it. Branden's we bought in October or November of his last year of yochien. When the school sent out the catalog. Now this time around, the yochien gave us 4 yochien backpack catalogs at the end of July. Took me off guard wasn't expecting the catalogs that soon. Noboru's coworkers, , 2 of his coworkers have kids Noah's age. They both said they bought their randoseu in August??? @_@ It was a cheaper time of year, they said. Yadayada. I did not buy in August. Noboru suggested we do. But I wondered would I buy last years model? Not that it matters but.... Hmm. I held out. Though I was looking. I knew the particular color I wanted for Noah. And the style. I looked for month's. I found 3. 1 was real leather. Noboru said, please don't pick real leather it's going to be a real pain if we get that, you'll see. I sort of agree. So, that one was out. I kept debating the last 2. And finally we picked. We picked Noah's randoseru mid September, it is the 2012 model, the new ones came out in September. It is SO cute! It is handmade, being made in Osaka. Will be shipped here to our home at the end of October. We've been getting weekly emails from the company making it. On the progress of Noah's backpack.
So, all in all, we've just been so busy. Especially all of last week. Superly busy. The mini hot bath at home, was so appreciated by me last Thursday night. : ) Another thing that kept me going, was the thought of our trip to Hakone. And the Disneyland trip. Work hard... play equally hard, right? I kept thinking...you'll pull through and next week you can soak and not have a care in the world. That very thought kept me going strong. : )
I have 2 big posts, I hope to get posted before our family leaves to Hakone this coming week. I'll try to get this one posted now. All these things happened 2 weeks ago. One morning, Noboru was home and so he ran Noah to yochien for me. Whenever he's home and available he always does try to jump in and help me, which is appreciated. I was home busy cleaning the house like crazy. Swooshing toilets, vacuuming floors, dusting blinds, making beds, doing laundry etc. When he came home, he brought me home some breakfast. I didn't ask for McD's, he just brought it anyway. Was so busy honestly, that breakfast for myself really wasn't on my mind. He bought 2 sausage muffins for himself. And he bought me the English muffin combo with iced coffee. He said, enjoy your breakfast. Anyway...it's the small things like this that really are important. It's the small thoughtful things he does throughout a week, that might not seem huge or significant but really...they are. And I do....I do the same. If I'm running around at the Cainz, I'll pick him an obento I know he'll love for lunch if he's home for lunch that day. Or even just buying his favorite strawberry kakigori, because I know how much he loves it. That way...he knows. I'm thinking of him too. This back and forth thing, we've just always had. It works. : ) Great now I feel really dorky saying that. But it is true.
I made a real wonker of a meal last week. : ( I have so many meals, that I make well. Can make in no time at all. And I know they come out great. However, with the colder weather coming, and one pot meals about to start happening here. I was at the store last week, slowly going up the aisles, because you know last week, was a calm week nothing major happening last week. So, I was looking for a good nabe to get. I grabbed our regular one we usually have. And then, I saw this. Tandoori chicken nabe. It sort of stopped me in my tracks. Our family loves Indian food. It's so good. My yochien mom friends and I are constantly having lunch at the closest Indian restaurant near us. I love Indian curry, And yumm, tandooori too, is also a favorite. This sounded interesting. We love Indian food, we also love nabe. I thought, either we'll love this, or we'll hate it. I picked all the ingredients and brought that home with the rest of the weekly groceries. I sure hope my family likes this I thought.
I had prepped the meat, the veggies, made the rice. When everyone was finally home, I started boiling. The boys were upstairs playing. Noboru was in the shower, when it was ready, and I said...."dinner. " Everyone came and they said.."what's THAT smell?" @_@ : ( It was not a, yumm what's that smell. Type sound. I think I was in the kitchen so long, I was used to it. When Noboru came in, he also said..."Ewww/ohhh what's in that?" Now I started to slightly worry. I even tried to give them a family pep talk. We love Indian food right? We should love this. You'll see. So, I placed the pot in the middle of the table, had already served everyone rice. Noboru said, it has a strong smell of something...couldn't put his finger on it, what it was. He grabbed the bag from the trash, and read the ingredients. He said, it is cumin. I don't think most Japanese are big on cumin he said. I thought. :( At this point what can you do. The foods already been made. There's no dinner plan B. So, we ate it. Noboru, Branden and Noah usually eat like it's going out of style. They eat, eat, ask for seconds and possibly thirds. : ) However the tandoori chicken nabe night. They ate so slowly, you'd think they were going to the gas chamber. I tried to like it also but, I just didn't. It just wasn't for us, I guess. Anyway moving on...
The weekend after I made the last apple crisp, I baked this yellow cake, chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I've been baking/making something for dessert every weekend since it started to get cooler weather wise.
Fishing in play clothes and rain boots. To protect feet from possible water, snakes, etc. Yep, they've been going fishing once a week with their dad. Total rough and tumble boys. : ) They told me a story that made me queasy. Don't read this paragraph if you get easily queasy. They told me, the day this pic was taken. Daddy caught a fish, and when he reeled him in, daddy tried to take the hook out but the hook was hooked in the fish's eyeball and so when daddy took the hook out, the eyeball came out with it. The look on my face. @_@ Ewwww ewww eww, I did not want to hear that. But they're my son's and they are boys afterall. So, I said...ohhh wow, what did dad do with the fish? Well they said, dad tossed the eye back into the canal and the fish too minus the eye and he swam away with only one 1 eyeball. @_@ Gulp, what a story. Being a mother of boys, I get used to hearing gross details like fish eyeballs and such. : )
I baked 2 roasted chickens 2 Sunday's ago. I tried that roast chicken seasoning for the first time. It was really good. Not salty in the least. Just flavorful, crispy, flavor all the way in. So good. Made the whole meat flavorful. Noboru kept commenting on it, how good it was. Branden and Noah kept saying...mommy this is the best chicken you've ever made. : )
Not a fancy dinner, just a simple one. Homemade mashed potatoes, corn, and roasted chicken.
This was Branden's portion from another night. 2 fried pork chops, rice a roni and broccoli. Noah had the same except he eats only 1 pork chop. Branden also went back for seconds on the rice a roni.
There are so many chicken farms around here and 2 dairy farms. So many road stands to buy farm fresh eggs. Anyway, my friend, who lives in our town, but not in our housing community. She lives in the farming area. Anyway she has chickens, she rang my bell last weekend. Carrying. a bag, she handed me, 22 eggs and fresh baked mini cakes. I've brought her many baked things I've made before. So, she brought these to us. I thought that was really thoughtful.
Why are these not in the egg area in my fridge you ask..... I had just bought 2 cartons of eggs that very day. 10 eggs per carton, would you believe our family had to eat 42 eggs last week? Oh yeah. : ) If I had known she would have brought them, I wouldn't have bought mine obviously. But you know, I didn't know. I made egg salad twice last week. I made the boys, over easy eggs, scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, veggie omelets, you name it they had it for breakfast last week...If it had eggs in it, I made it last week. We finally got rid of those 42 eggs. : ) Anyway that was very thoughtful and it is good to have such amazing kind generous friends like that. I'm thinking I'll bake her a pizza in return now. : )
We pulled the tomato plant last week also. We travelled so much and kept so busy this Summer, we didn't have time to plant a garden. However the tomato plant from last year, though we did yank it from the yard. It grew back. @_@. We had teeny tiny mini tomatoes all Summer and the ones used in the obento from Branden's undokai were also used from the garden. But we pulled this plant. He was just growing too big.
We also pulled and harvested the sweet potatoes. Branden brought a plant home from school last Spring and it was ready for harvest. We had just finished the ones from Noah's sweet potato dig and now we have these to get through. : )
Picked up a few random things from my weekly shopping. Scrubbing bubbles for the bath/shower area. Generic lime dish soap, rarely use it since we have a dishwasher but it's nice to keep on hand for the odd pot or pan here or there. And hand soap for the upstairs.
Laundry soap, color safe bleach and bleach for just white colored clothes. With boys, they often get grass stains, crayon smudges at yochien, you name it. I try somehow to keep things clean. I also have Oxy clean, Tide stick pens, you name it, I have it in the laundry room. @_@. : )
I buy this much yogurt (at least) a week. I often will go back and buy 2 extra of the big containers of it. Both Branden and Noah love yogurt, I like the calcium they get from it. So, as long as they eat it, I keep buying it. I also love yogurt as well. The boys also drink so much milk on a weekly basis, you wouldn't believe it. : ) And chocolate milk too.
Ran to the 100 yen last week. Picked up the Mickey leisure sheet. Coffee candy for me. Erasers for both boys. And onigiri wrappers for Noah's onigiri day at the yochien. And obento cups.
Also picked up this Mario leisure sheet for Noah for next year.
I found this at some little shop, I happened to be passing by and saw this and knew Noah would love it.Put this in his bag of stuff for next year.
Picked up 2 bags of Halloween treats for the boys. Pumpkin cheesecake yumm.
This is obviously not Branden's bike. : ) It's the Jinbei boy's bike. He comes to play every weekend. Other kids come too, but the Jinbei boy is one of Branden's closest friends. : )
Remember, I ordered Noah's yellow winter coat from Gap a week or so ago right? I ordered this top for myself along with it. My dad has it now and will give the package over to Noboru when he's there in about 10-12 days.
The big bag of 10 apples from Hanamasa. They turned into a very nice apple crisp/crumble. So yumm. So far this year, 2 apple crisps this season. And 1 yellow cake with choco frosting so far.
What's in here? Well, something Noboru bought. He bought something electrical. It's for the Slingbox and also the Slingcatcher we have waiting at my dad's condo already. I'm sure most of you know what a slingbox is. I first heard of one when we lived in our old house rental. A lady I knew had bought one. Sounded interesting. However, I was and am pretty satisfied with the cable (at the time we had cable) and the satellite we have now. I lived in Japan without cable or satellite for 6 month's when we first moved here. And that was hard because I really dislike Japanese TV. The sense of humor is just very different for mine. So we got cable at our old house rental. And it honestly satisfied me. I didn't feel deprived. We got many many shows. Also, I didn't want to watch my slingbox on my computer. That was another downpoint for me personally. At the end of a hard day for me. I like vegging on the couch relaxing with a pillow and a blankie. Not sitting upright at a computer table. Then we moved to this house. Got satellite. And again Japanese satellite has a lot to offer in my opinion. I have never felt I was missing out. I wasn't anti-slingbox by any means. It was just, I didn't want to sit at a computer to watch after a long hard day. I'm sure if I had a lap top, it might be okay though I could then relax on the couch and enjoy it. But since our main computer is in one set spot. I think that's why. And like I said, Japanese satellite isn't bad really. Not at all. Anyway I was talking to my very good friend Cheryl in Osaka. She's older then me, has more experience living in Japan then I do and I've just known her forever, I think the world of her. Though I didn't just move here either though. : ) Anyway, she was telling me about her sling catcher. She said, Gina you can watch it on your TV. Now that sort of intrigued me. I mentioned to Noboru what she said. And she was right. The ball went rolling after that. Noboru has been researching every aspect like mad for a month and a half now. How to set it up, what upload speed does Guam have? Which slingbox should we pick, so many. And also the sling catcher isn't for sale in the US anymore at all, can we find one? And at what cost? Noboru ordered the slingbox he thought best for us. And with Ebay, he won the hard to find Sling catcher. He had them sent to my dad's. I asked my dad of course way before... if it would be okay. He said, of course yes. So, shortly, Noboru will be flying to Guam, he will arrive at 11:30pm and fly back to Japan at 10am. So he will be there just to set it up. And with the sling catcher we'll have a remote control and everything. And then we will have over 200 channels. We will have basic cable and the digital channels. And get to see everything my dad gets to. Of course we can change the channel from our end. Anyway so that is in the works. I have since asked 2 more of my girlfriends who have slingboxes with questions and asked how they liked it. They say they're great. One had her husband hook her sligbox up with another computer near her TV apparantly, so she doesn't need the catcher at all. Which is cool. I've never had one. So, we will see. If it works, I'll have all the same channels they have in California since Guam gets the same exact things California gets.
The one thing about Fall coming is the laundry is starting to take longer and longer to dry outside. Hmm. I am still giving it the old college try. But, I think soon, I'll have to just start using the dryer here at home.
I made buta kimchee recently. I made teriyaki chicken bowls for the boys. Meanwhile Noboru and I were on fire eating the buta kimchee.
Same as every year. I was given 2 bunches of yellow plastic and with instructions to cut in 1cm widths and make pompoms. Each mother makes her own child's pompoms for the undokai. I made these last Sunday. : )
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