First backyard BBQ of the year and the Superbowl

Sunday February 5th, we had our first backyard BBQ of the year. Weather outside, that day? Absolutely bone chilling freezing cold, just about sums it up! : ) I had sliced up the meat that morning after breakfast and let it marinate all morning and afternoon. By the time 4pm rolled around, Noboru started the grill. Noah went outside to "help" daddy.
Just about done! Good thing because it was just way too cold to be outside. But boy oh boy did it smell yum!
And into the house. A very super simple dinner. Nothing fancy shmancy but oh man, was it fantastic! We sat, chatted and enjoyed our Sunday dinner together as a family.

Super Bowl Sunday happened for us last Monday morning, it was live! Sent Branden to school. Quickly made Noah's obento, the pregame stuff was going on then. Ran him to school and came back just in time. It was a great game! Both teams played well. The NY Giants won it though. Anyone hear about the whole supermodel Gisele Bundchen tidbit that happened after the Superbowl though? She's married to quarterback Tom Brady by the way. Some heckler was talking crap to her and her husband, saying "Eli Manning rules! Eli Manning owns your husband" She being a protective wife, backed up her husband. Granted being married to the quarterback, she should've just ignored the rude comments and known better. But she's human like us all. And she shot back! To defend her husband and in the end it basically sounded like she took a swipe at her husbands teammates. I bet they weren't thrilled with that. @_@
The half time was freaking awesome! I knew it was going to be Madonna. As did all of us. But wow, when the first start of the music, it gave me goosebumps! It was such a great half time show! It was like a mini concert. She played so many songs! LMFAO was with her for a bit, Nicki Minaj who I really like, also performed with her. MIA performed with her and flipped off the camera and it was a huge hoopla, the comments on yahoo over that! @_@ People were fuming. However honestly, I didn't catch her gesture because my eyes were on Madonna. And I read a few comments saying the same thing. Didn't catch it....was too busy watching Madonna. Same here. I thought it was tacky MIA did that though. And apparently Madonna's quite angry with MIA over the whole thing as well.

Anything else to add. My dad's heading to Saipan this weekend. He's going to be staying at the same resort we stayed at, last time we went. I bet he'll enjoy himself a lot and relax. And enjoy more of his retirement days. We're quietly working on our March plan. Noboru requested his days off. He wants to head to Osaka, to visit his family. We're not sure if we're going to go to USJ while there. Or if we should head to Guam before going to Osaka or head to Guam first and fly to Osaka directly afterwards. Not really sure how it's all going to happen in the end. But things are starting to form and take shape lately.

Music I'm currently listening to, in no particular order:
Rihanna, You Da One, love this song, I have the clean version my my ipod, have been listening to this one a lot.

Avril Lavigne, What the hell. This song is good.

Hot Chelle Rae, Tonight Tonight (Noboru loves this song.) He drove me nuts listening to this over and over in November and December, bless his heart! It happened to play while we were in Guam, he started singing all the words the first 2 paragraphs, as we pulled into the Micronesia mall. I was like......holy smokes! @_@ However it is a great song and I do have it on my ipod as well. Also the boys know all the words to this, so this seems to be a family favorite.

Love you Like a Love Song, Selena Gomez! She's such a pretty girl. And I like this song though I could have heard it too much because I'm listening to this one a bit less now. But I still like it for now.

Kanye West Through the Wire, the version without the annoying DJ screaming at the beginning. I like the lyrics. And I liked the old Chaka Khan song in the background. though this seems like a back up singer and not really Chaka Khan singing back up, also Chaka sang, through the fire, not through the wire, like the person in the background is singing. But I still like this song. And I know his mouth was wired shut, hence the name change to the song.

Love all Katy Perry's songs. I like her songs. Her personality. I have many of her songs on my ipod.

Also, downloaded Madonna's new song after seeing her sing it during the half time. Give me All Your Luvin'.

Sad to hear Whitney Houston passed away. I watched her on Oprah years ago telling of her battle with drugs. It's always sad to see someone so talented go.

Did anyone catch that horrible dog biting the news caster on the internet? That sadly happened in my home state/city. The first couple seconds of watching the video, I caught my old area code, 303. That's the Denver area code. I had that same exact area code my whole life. I recognized it immediately. And then I took a closer look and said to myself, OMG, that's Kyle Dyer. I "know" that lady. I have watched her for years. Couldn't believe it! Anyway my heart goes out to her and to her family. I read her surgery went well. From a Denver native who now calls Japan home. All the best, you are in my prayers.

Tsukuba Wanwan Land

February 4th, the day after Setsubun, our family headed to Wanwanland in Tsukuba Japan. It's a place where you can pet many many dogs and spend time with them. There's tables where you can even bring a picnic lunch and have lunch here. We didn't do that this time. But it is a nice place where people who don't have a dog, but who love dogs, can go and spend a day and pet and visit with many dogs. Our family has been here a couple times before and it's always fun for our family to be here.
Noah and this black lab really hit it off. He was as fond of Noah as Noah was of him. There were 2 black labs here but this one, without the sweatshirt that day was his buddy for the day.
Branden smiling looking at all the dogs.
There's Noah and his buddy again. ; )
Branden and this red haired dog really hit it off. She was a big one and Branden petted her for a nice long while. The dog stretched out and had the face of..give me more...come on pet me some more! Branden obliged her!
This dog took a shine to me! I was just sitting there enjoying watching both the boys have a good time. And I was kind of enjoying watching Branden and Noah have all the fun. So to me, that was fun. And all of a sudden this dog jumped right up next to me and cuddled. I talked to her gently, massaged her a bit before she fell asleep next to my thigh.
This dog jumped up with Branden. And Branden cuddled her. The dogs here are very nice and very used to getting many cuddles from us who visit here.
Noah and another very nice dog.
This dog also liked Noah a lot and he had 1 blue eye and 1 brown eye. Beautiful dog!
Taking a snooze.
They have one large area for the big dogs.
And 1 large area for small dogs or very old big dogs. : ) And they heat the areas and give the dogs with thinner coats a sweatshirt etc. They do try their best to take very good care of the dogs here.
The lady who works here covered this other dogs ears with a cover, she said, this particular dog gets cold ears. : ) Nice that they know their personalities this well.
Noah cuddling my good friend who had been sitting nicely near my leg. But she also took a shine to Noah. So they had a nice visit.
After a fun afternoon spent at the dog park. We now were going to head home. The boys were starting to get hungry. Though we were to have dinner at home. It was half prepped before we left. But we stopped at Mc D's for lunch. Noboru had the Big Mac combo. Branden 2 shakashaka chickens and a cheeseburger and fries. Noah 1 happy meal. And I had a small fry and a salad cup with goma (sesame) dressing. The boys also shared a hot pie for dessert. We headed home and had dinner. And then everyone had showers, jammies and we enjoyed Saturday family movie night. The next paragraph is about Glee. So, spoiler alert ahead.
A couple weeks back, 3 weeks? They had a Michael Jackson tribute on Glee. It was amazing. I mean seriously amazing! Then the following week Ricky Martin was on Glee as the substitute Spanish teacher. This week looks amazing too! Here they were spoofing the video Scream, Artie and Mike.

Blaine, wearing an eye patch because someone threw a slushy into his face and it contained rock salt or something. It hurt his eye pretty bad. Many are being accepted into college. Kurt and Quinn were accepted. Rachel still hasn't received her acceptance letter. Finn proposed to Rachel. Anyway so much is going on.

I've also been watching The Voice. I LOVE this show. I love the blind auditions and everything. American Idol meanwhile is doing the cuts in California. Hell week, or whatever it's called.

Setsubun 2012

Last Friday, February 3rd was Setsubun for us in Japan. You can read more about it here if you like. Here is Noah and the oni mask he made for it this year, his last year in yochien 2012. Noah as a nencho.
And Noah wearing his mask!
The day of Setsubun, right before I picked up Noah at yochien. I ran to my favorite bakery. I knew they'd be making something special for the kids. And sure enough they did. Oni cream pans! I picked up 2, one for Noah and one for Branden. I put them nicely in the front seat, ran and picked up Noah, we came home. Unpacked all his yochien things. Then we went and picked up Branden. And the boys were really happy eating these oni cream pans for dessert after we had dinner that night! : ) Anyway there you have it...our family's quiet little Setsubun 2012.
Here is a look back at Noah's Setsubun of the years before. I thought that would be an excellent idea especially since Noah's graduating this year. This was last year, when he was a pink badge. Noah as a nenchu.

And this is when Noah was a little red badge. Noah as a nensho!
Aha, and what do we have here? When Noah was a pre yochien student. When he was a yellow badge. : ) Noah as a man-sansai-ji (pre-nensho)

I love how you colored your mask Noah! : )

Bits and pieces

Went and picked up another Winter uniform for Branden for elementary school. The sweatshirt and pants.
In 1 size bigger since they do shrink up some in the dryer and they sure have. Funny thing though, I wash Branden's gym uniforms all the time. He has a few sets of the short sleeve and short sets and a few sets of the long sleeved set pictured here. But he does bring his gym bag and switch with a fresh set daily. Anyway you know how in Japanese elementary schools the kids clean the school before heading home. Anyway while Branden was sweeping yesterday, Branden said, 2 of his 6th grade male friends were cleaning in the same hall and they said.... Branden-kun, your gym uniform smells fantastic! @_@ You smell like green apple. In Japanese they say blue apple. But it means green apple. Anyway Branden told me this story when I picked him up from the Plaza yesterday. He said...mommy, I guess my clothes smell good since they mentioned them. : ) I said,baby it's better for people to think you are clean and smell nice and like laundry soap. Then to be dirty and never change your uniform, right? Yes, that's right he said. LOL. But yeah....how funny. I mentioned to Noboru that this morning, he said yeah my coworker mentioned I smelled good a few weeks ago too. I said, Downy laundry detergent. That's what it is. : ) Anyway, yeah I thought that was a funny story thought I'd share. And nope I only use the amount I am supposed to, no more, no less. Go figure. : ) But yeah it does smell awesome though.
3 weeks to a month ago, this was the episode we watched of American Idol. If you haven't caught this episode then you might wanna skip this part of the post. I've just always talked about, what I'm currently watching and I will continue to do so. It's harder for me now that I am not on beat with the what's on Japanese cable or sattelite. But now I can relate or have something to talk to with those of you in the US at least. Sorry I am a bit ahead of you with Japanese cable. And I will try to put a spoiler alert warning when I update what I'm watching.
Jim Carrey's daughter tried out for our American Idol.
A pic of her with her dad.
A more recent pic. She sort of reminded me of Miley Cyrus in this picture. But not on the audition of AI though.
She made it, and she phoned her dad like many contestants often do. : ) Then AI went to my home state but instead of Denver they went to Aspen, and we've now went to 2 different other locations as well after that. This season has been great so far!
In other news, Noboru's mole traps have been delivered and he's set them up but so far he hasn't caught 1 single mole yet. He covers the traps area with upside down buckets, planters etc. And Noah's not allowed in the backyard while the traps are out there. I hope this mole war, Noboru seems to have going ends soon. Even last night he was on his lap top researching more ways to get rid of them. @_@ Anyway hopefully the moles will relocate for Noboru's sake. It's like an all out war right now between Noboru and the moles.
I made chicken parmesan recently, this is one of my family's favorite things I make. I coated the chicken and fried in a shallow skillet with olive oil. Then I drained all the excess oil from the cutlets. And baked them in the oven.
Five cutlets baked in the oven nicely and ready to put over a plate of pasta.
Yumm.
Another night recently, a simple fried pork chop, rice a roni and green beans.
And last week sometime, we had fajitas again. These were perfect in the colder weather. Good for the boys to come home and have a nice warm meal. Very filling.

Noah's final observation day at the yochien and my last mother's luncheon

January 25th, was Noah's final observation day at the yochien. I'm 99% sure of this, now I'm human and if one more should slip by before mid March then forgive me and I'll correct this one. But I seriously do not think so and I do think this is the final one. I know we have a "shopping day" coming up this month and the medal presentation in March. But I do think this is the final observation day. So we'll just go with this title for now. : ) This was the very next day after Branden's observation day and the snow and black ice day. What was on my "to do list" this day? Just 1 observation day and that's it. Noah and I went into the school. Noboru did come in with me for an hour before heading home and getting prepped for his work that day. But he knew this was indeed one of Noah's "lasts" and he wanted to come and I was glad he went. He left in the MPV after a while. This was the classes attempt at drawing their own faces. Noah's is the 2nd from the left at the top.
He made himself smiling. Noah's a very happy kiddo so, I think he did just great.
On the other side of the wall they all apparently did shuji with the Yayoi sensei. Here's Noah's. Says Noah. : )
I thought they all looked really good.
The first 2 yochien class years (for our school when Noah was a red badge and pink badge) was play, play and more play with little bits of learning mixed in. This final year of yochien has a lot of play still. But they are also really very focused on reading, writing, as you can see all the pencils, papers, pencil sharpener, globe for geography. The final year yochien kids are really getting prepped for entering the first grade (ichinensei) And Noah's been in Kumon since age 3 and a half so he's very ready for all that awaits him at elementary school. We watched the kids sing many songs. And then we went upstairs and that's when Noboru left.

We (mother's and about 4-5 dad's) all did an art project/game with our kids. Think along the lines as the game Candyland. Our kids made a game piece, 1 side was their face and the other side was their mom or dad's face. And we made a huge human sized game and we also wrote questions. Such as skip 2 spaces. Another question was for the mommy's, "which actor do you think is cute?" Another question for the kids, "what vegetable do you dislike?" "what's your favorite character?" It was fun. Noah won the first round we all played and he came in last place the 2nd time we played. But we all had so much fun. Us mom's chit chatted our brains out. The Jogo-san and I were chatting the entire time. And with Toma-kun's mom and the other mom's in our game. We had 4 huge games going at once upstairs. Next thing you know....the half day was done. It was 11am already and the kids half day was over. So, Noah and I waved good bye to all our friends, got into my tiny red car. We went to the store to get 2 more days of food since the weather was just so cold last week. And we went home. And had lunch.

2 days later, last Friday. Was my mother's luncheon. And that is for surely our last one. The Jogo-san and I road up in leggings mom's car. We chatted the whole way there. We had our final luncheon at the ANA (All Nippon Airways) hotel in Narita. We were like the last mom's to arrive. We had a room in the back/side reserved for us. When we walked in, the "yearbook mom's" (remember there's the yearbook mom's or the shaon kai mom's. I'm in the shaon kai team. So, the yearbook mom's handed us these huge sheets of yearbook pics. They had about 8 sheets of these papers. Noah had 6 pics, and they wanted me to pick which photo from those 6 that I liked best that would ultimately be in the yearbook. The Jogo-san was meanwhile choosing her daughter's. The Jogo-san finished first and came to see Noah's. I was debating between 2, but decided which one. I had kindly told the yearbook mom, "this one please" in Japanese, so she wrote the number down and that will be the picture I see of Noah in the yearbook. Everything done, decided pretso change-o just like that. I think the yearbook mom's are doing a fab job. And we appreciate it. I know us shaon kai mom's are also doing an equally fab job, and I know they'll love what we're doing when they see.

So, the Jogo-san and leggings mom and I sat down. We chatted. She told me...I skipped breakfast, so she was ready for this buffet. I laughed, because she's so funny. : ) And we went and got our first serving. We all ate so much. I started with a big salad, plate of fresh fruit (honey dew, pineapple etc) , then I had some pasta, the guy you could order 3 types of pasta and he'd make it for you. I picked fresh tomato and basil. This was great. I had fresh bread with that. After that I went back for a smaller fruit plate. I had a few iced teas. And then I had 1 crepe. They had ice cream here and a whole bunch of things, but I was done, my tummy was full. Many mom's still munched. 8 mother's did not show up for the final luncheon. Anyway the mother's that were going to pick up their kids at the regular time left. And so they left and that left only 9 of us, who let our kids do kagai until 3pm. Around 2pm, we left the restaurant and headed to the Jogo-san's house where I parked my car. Then we all headed to the yochien. Like a gang we went all cars following other cars. : ) And arrived at the school. The Yayoi sensei knew we had the luncheon. We were all sorta dressed up when we picked up our kids. Noah was having a blast, he was running all over the school grounds with his friends. we quickly went home. And then I switched clothes and we swung and picked up Branden. We had a nice quick dinner and enjoyed Friday and the weekend to have started. Anyway...that's what happened last week.