Branden and Noah’s winter observation day! Yakiniku bbq in the backyard! And the Denver Broncos vs. Raiders game and my thermal hair straightening

 Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 was our elementary school's winter observation day. We have them in Fall, Spring, Summer and Winter, hahaha : )  I really enjoy going to observation day personally because I like to see what the kids are doing and learning. Who their friends are. etc. And it gives me a chance to talk to the other mom's and dad's. And interact with the teachers. I often say on here that my favorite observation days are the type where you can go anytime of the day. This is perfect for most of us. I have a few mom friends who work for example and one works at the local mall which opens at 10am. And this type of go anytime visiting day is perfect because even she for example can go and watch her child before work and she feels happy she got to partake in the observation day too.  This also works perfect for parents with multiple kids in the shogakko, like me who have a 5th grader *and* a first grader. This way I can go to see one son and then next class visit the next son. And they both get my full 100% attention. So yeah my favorite type of observation day is the "you can go anytime of day" observation day. My least favorite observation day is the "you go to the last class only" observation day! I really dislike this type of observation day a lot. Because Branden and Noah only get half of our attention before we are zooming off to the next child. Noboru and I take turns, I watch one son first half, meanwhile he watches the other son and we switch. This is okay-ish....but I feel often I am entering someones class where I am only understanding half of what's going on.... because the instructions were given out at the first/ start of the class. So....having said all that. December 4th was a go to the "last class only" observation day.  Noboru's and my plan was originally, I go to Noah's class first half, he go to Branden's class first half and we switch in the middle of class. However now add in this wrench into the mix. Noah's class was called "play a game with your parents" So, was I to play half a game with Noah and then Noboru enter the last half and not know what was going on at all? Do you know what I mean? Also...Branden was having English and he wanted me there for the whole thing also. After lots and lots of debate. We decided what was best was for this time....I would attend Branden's observation day only. Because he was doing English and that's clearly my strong suit out of the other mom's. Hahaha. So, yeah I was most needed for that. Noah meanwhile was fine with having daddy/Noboru being with him the whole class because it was just a bunch of active games and Noboru is perfect for that.  However, I only have 1 camera and so, since I was going to be with Branden the entire time. Noboru took my camera and took pics of Noah and his observation day. So long story short. I have no pictures of Branden's observation day because I was actually with him and Noboru took my camera to take pics of him since I couldn't be there.  Here's a pic of Noah playing with his guy friends. Best buds!

Noah taking a turn here.

I wish I could have been there and watched Noah. But, I know he had a blast with Noboru.

See, this super cute girl with the purple pony tail ball thing. That's Lily-chan. She and Noah are really good friends. Out of all the boys, Noah is her favorite boy that's a friend. And out of all the girls, Noah's favorite is most definitely her......Lily-chan. : ) She goes up to my tiny red car at the plaza everyday and waves at me or Noboru depending on who's picking him up and also waves at Noah. She's such a cutie pie. And she lives in our same housing community. According to Noboru his mom approached Noboru on observation day, when this picture was taken and said, I am so glad Noah and Lily are such good friends and please let Noah come to our house anytime to play. Noboru said same goes for Lily that she's welcome anytime. : )

Meanwhile, Branden's English class was so fun! All us mom's were there..... all us 5th grade mom's. We all watched. They did English greetings, they played Bingo. They sang songs. It was pretty funny. Us mom's were cracking up, because one of my mom friend she's just so funny The teachers said a "what's this game" and they had a picture of a shoe...we all had to scream out what it was as fast as the word came into your mind, both parents and kids....so I screamed shoe and many screamed shoe, the funny mom screamed out....slipper! Everyone turned around and laughed and just in fun they told her..."are you kidding?.... that's a shoe not a slipper." And she is so funny she said and no she wasn't mad at all....everyone was just having a ball but she said..."well I don't have my glasses on, so do I get half points for that?" hahaha! I said yes she should. And some were saying yes but some mom's were laughing some said no points! Teachers were laughing. We were all laughing. Honestly English class was so fun that day. I laughed so hard that afternoon. Especially funny mom, man she can crack up anyone! She's so funny! Literally before you knew it, class was over. The bell rang and I was glad I got to enjoy Branden's class 100%. And gee those mom's are a hoot! I had my keys to the MPV, Noboru had his keys to the MPV.  And whoever gets there first we said depending on who gets out of their meeting first. I somehow got to the MPV first. Then Noboru about 3 minutes after me. Not too far behind me. And then the boys came out and down the hill and met us at the MPV about 5 minutes after that. And we were done. Winter observation day done for 2012.

We had yakiniku that same night as observation day if my memory serves me.  It was marinated all day. It was white meat chicken breast and Noboru had beef or pork. We also had mushrooms also that were well marinated.  So cold outside. But we ate inside so it didn't matter too much. We just ran outside every couple minutes, hahaha. : )

It was a simple but delicious yakiniku dinner that Tuesday. We wrapped out marinated meat with a little rice in lettuce leaves and some kimchi.

Did any of you take the "Gangnam style" poll on Yahoo, last week? Like this says, "thanks for voting", I took the poll. I voted for, "I'm over it" It was all the rage, end of Summer and maybe start of Fall. Believe me, Branden and Noah were all doing the horse dance around the house, as was I. But late Fall and up until now. Meh~ I'm over it.  Was totally good while it lasted though and fun! It was on heavy rotation on the Honolulu radio station and Guam radio station I listen to via my itouch when it first came out. Now I rarely hear it, as often anymore.  Less and less air time for sure now. But when it was hot...it sure was a hot song! : )

December 6th was the Denver Broncos vs the Oakland Raiders game. It was on Friday morning for us in Japan, December 7th though.  We were all set to watch it. Also, what was so funny is our friend. One of the guys who lived in Honolulu when we did, who was also sent there for the same amount of years as Noboru and we all lived in the same condo complex. Anyway, T, was an exchange student in California and so he was/is as hard core a Raiders fan as Noboru is about the Broncos. Anyway, one thing they have in common and they are great friends is they both like football a lot.  And working for Delta, how each employee uses or chooses to use their travel passes is always as different as the person. For example, Noboru has 1 coworker and he and his wife *love* Hawaii. They love it! He was one of the Honolulu guys too. Anyway so every chance they get, they fly to Honolulu. Not to Guam, Not to the mainland US. Nope, they go to Honolulu about 3-4 times a year. Yep but that's okay that's their hobby and #1 destination. Then there is another of Noboru's coworkers and his hobby or travel choice is he is in love with taking those ocean liner cruises, ykwim. Like the Love Boat type cruise. Except he's married he's got kids and their favorite cruise is the Disney cruise. They use their travel flight benefits and fly to Florida mostly or LA (they did that once, last time, if I remember correctly) and take the cruise out of there. They go about twice a year, for a full week at a time. And we often see the pics and those are always super cool to see. They love those Disney cruises and that's their thing. And more power to them. He also has a married coworker and he and his wife go to Europe a lot and I do mean about twice a year could be even 3 times a year, he has so much knowledge about it.  Now back to the story...T's thing is...since he's a Raiders fan, that's his thing is the Raiders and sports. He often will take his vacation days and he will fly to California and watch a football game. He also btw went to the World Cup in South Africa. So that's his hobby or thing. Sports and the Raiders. Ykwim. Noboru's and my thing. Hmm, not sure we have a particular place. We sorta go to Guam a lot or to Honolulu sometimes and Denver every once in a while but no....we don't seem to have a specific particular 1 point. Anyway...T took his days off and he was set to fly to California and watch the Broncos and Raiders game. Lots of teasing from Noboru to T back and forth. Whose team would win. T told Noboru he thought the Raiders would lose since they have lost the last 4 games in a row or something like that, so he wasn't so hopeful. But yeah so we watched the game here at home. Meanwhile we knew T was in the stands somewhere when we watched the game live.

When it was pretty much in the bag for Denver, Noboru emailed T's keitai and said..."we're watching from here. Go broncos" he wrote back right away and said bummer and all that stuff. They both laughed and stuff via their messages.... however he did send this picture to Noboru live from the stadium...down below!

He said..."Raiders always and forever!" See how they kid eachother. Noboru lol'ed to that. Anyway, T's wife is preggers right now she should be giving birth in June some time, we're all very excited. But yeah...it was funny. He sent us this picture!

My hair straightening went great. December 6th. My appointment was set for 10am, the first appointment of the day since they open at 10am. I was waiting in the parking lot since 9:45am-ish. with the car heater on. Left at 1pm! OMG it's such a long appointment and long time to be sitting in a seat. I brought a stack of American magazines and read them, every last paragraph. So the mags I bought November 1st when we got back from that Guam trip were read 100%. They washed my hair, conditioned it first thing blow dried it. Then they put solution on my hair for 10 minutes or so, wasn't really paying attention could even have been longer. Then they washed it again. Blow dried it, flat ironed it. Every last piece this took forever, them flat ironing it....took 2 ladies to flat iron my hair... then they put warm solution over the freshly flat ironed hair and let it sit like that.... for another set time. then they washed it all over again gave me another conditioning treatment. Massaged my head and shoulders which felt really fantastic btw. Especially after sitting there for what felt like forever! Then they blow dried my hair and cut it, just the tiniest trim, I did mention please do not cut my hair ,unless it's dead ends, because I am growing it out. So she cut only like the tiniest amount. A mm, lol.  Then she blow dried it on cool to take any hair bits off and then she flat ironed it for real this time and I left. On one hand, hate getting it done, because it's so time consuming. But on the other hand, love getting it done because then my hair is so easy to do at home for the next 4 months. Until it gets regrowth at the root area. So it's really a...love/hate feeling getting myself to the salon for me. But as always glad it's now done and won't have to think about it now : ) Met Noboru at Saizeriya (same mall as the hair salon) for lunch (he had went fishing earlier) left an email for me and said he was at the same mall at the bookstore and if I had time let's go to lunch, so I called him after I was out and we had a fast lunch since we had to pick up Noah at 2:30pm.  Noboru said, "wow your hair got longer, didn't it?" I said, I know right? When wave is uncurled it does get longer. It's now definitely below my shoulders. About 1-2cm below my shoulders but below my shoulders it is. My hair appointment was Thursday December 6th. This was the only time I could fit it in. Because  we were set to head to Guam Saturday evening December 8th. And considering this was a "relax swimming by the pool" type holiday coming up for us, and considering you can't wash your hair for 24 hours after getting a hair straightening. So I had to either get it done on Thursday or....wait until after we got back from Guam. Friday was the football game and I wasn't available Friday, lol. Plus I wanted freshly clean hair for the marathon also, didn't want to show up all grease pit looking, kwim. Also consider when the boys start winter break, they won't be in school and there for me getting to the salon when the boys are home isn't so good either. Though I guess I could do it on Noboru's day off but...sometimes we like to have a family outing.  Plus the other day I had open/available I was busy at observation day. So yeah...this was really one of the few days that worked for me. So this was the day...the best day for me to head to the salon. that way, I wouldn't wash my hair Thursday night. I waited until Friday night to wash it. First time since my thermal hair straightening. And then next time I washed it was in Guam Saturday night after we arrived. So yeah...this was the only day that perfectly fit for my hair appointment.  So glad the ol' hair is done. it's sleek and straight, below my shoulders a pinch already and growing. It's actually a very fun length for my hair right now.  I had us all packed and ready to leave to Guam since Thursday night. And Friday, I had the football game in the morning and prepping for the boys obento for Saturday's marathon. They each needed to bring onigiri. And an empty bowl for the soup that Noboru and the Father's Club would be serving to the entire kid population at school Saturday.  So any nori or sprinkles, I needed to pick up at the store, I had to make sure I had what I needed. Friday night we all went to sleep super super early. Noboru needed to be at the school by 7am. And I needed to have the boys at the school by 7:20am, and from there I was heading to the marathon area/rice field area they were running at. I had to be awake by 5:30am Saturday make the boys breakfast. Pack their thermos. Onigiri. I only wore MAC under eye concealer and MAC Studio Fix (powder foundation) and nothing else makeup wise. It was way too early Saturday morning to wear anything else. I had on a black long sleeve top, a pair of boot cut jeans and my fleece peacoat and a pair of New Balance sneakers. I dropped off the boys and I went directly to park my car along a tanbo/rice field, where Noboru suggested I park the day before. Which was the perfect spot. But more on the marathon in the next post. I got some excellent pictures from that day. : )

In the news.  A Justin Bieber murder plot? OMG! Did anyone hear that, I saw that on Entertainment Tonight last night! I was shocked. I was like...seriously? @_@  Yikes!  And then there's the whole.... DJ's calling the hospital and the nurse who committed suicide after that. All very sad news. I heard the DJ's have since been fired/let go. Just so much going on in the world now days. And this morning, I wake up read yahoo news and....a deadly shooting in Conn. At an elementary school : ( Hold your loved ones close, you guys. Take care all of you. Please. And plus wasn't there a shooting at the mall earlier this week also. Wow. Just be careful everyone. Please.  Our plans this weekend? Staying home. Christmas shopping's all done. We're finished with everything, now we're just in relax and enjoy the holidays type mode. : )

Cold Stone Creamery ice cream spotted at 7-11 in Japan. And we’re back

 I live way out in the country side/inaka, so finding this was kind of a surprise, nice surprise but a surprise nonetheless. ; ) However, yesterday when I ran into the 7-11 to pick up a carton of yuzu water. I was surprised to see Cold Stone being sold at my local 7-11 in my tiny town here in Japan. So, just wanted to share this info anyway. Not sure if any of you have spotted it yet. If so then this info will be old news for you then. However this info could hopefully help someone. My particular 7-11 had this chocolate one and a strawberry one. Not sure if they will eventually come out with the specialty flavors or not. Would love to find the flavor/combo, "This Is How I Roll" the cinnamon roll flavor one.  But anyway, hope this info can be of help to someone. : )

Size wise, it's about the same type of sizing as those teeny tiny Haagen Dazs ones, if you know what I mean, if you live in Japan, you'll for surely kwim. Cost 270 yen or around there. So a tad expensive/high. I'd probably never buy one again, unless they came out with the signature flavors like the cinnamon roll one. But anyway, just thought I'd pass this info on at least. : )

Other then that, we are home. We arrived back home Tuesday evening. We arrived around 7:20pm-ish. And by the time we got out of the plane, walked through all those immigrations etc type things. And plus we went through the quarantine area for the Christmas ham we brought back and the rice, so that took extra time. And then we went home so by the time we got home it was nearing 9pm-ish. The boys took fast 5 minute showers and went straight to sleep since they had school the next day, Wednesday/yesterday. I unpacked yesterday and did 3 loads of laundry. Load 1, swim suits. Load 2, Guam clothes minus the swimsuit load done first and Load 3.... load of socks of everyone's and underwear of everyone's and any misc t-shirts or polo type tops. I also ran to the bakery for fresh bread and to 7-11 for yuzu water (where I found the Cold Stone.)

All this week the boys have a shortened school schedule so they get off at 2:20pm all this week. Next week is their last week of school and then they begin Winter break. I also have that Christmas cake baking with Noah next week at school for cooking class for the ichinensei. I have about 2-3 posts pre Guam to get up. Hopefully I can get up the observation post next. Then the marathon one will hopefully follow. The actual Guam trip post maybe Monday? Gee, not sure. But, I better get started on the pre Guam posts now. But...yep we are home. We did get here December 11th, Tuesday evening/night.

Heading to Guam tonight

We leave to Guam this evening. Should be heading to the airport in about 30 minutes actually.

So much to update about. Observation day. The hair salon, the freezing cold bbq we did outside. Though it was eaten inside, obviously and really yumm. : )

And the marathon stuff to update about that happened today. Noah came in 3rd and got a very nice bronze medal and an award!!! The medal is really nice and super heavy!!! It’s really nice you guys. Noah is really happy. Branden did pretty good also, he came in 20th, so even 2 better then last week. So he did pretty great too.

I had spent all Thursday at the hair salon getting that thermal hair straightening and Friday I spent the day packing for Guam...so that was yesterday. Which is why my blog got quiet these past few days.

Anyway, didn’t want to leave everyone in the dark. So even if it’s just a super fast 2 minute blog post....at least I tried to get everyone updated real quick. I’ll catch up with you all, when we get back. And then I’ll get all those posts up.....Observation day post, Marathon post etc etc blah blah blah up. : )

Alrighty, catch up with you all, when we get back. : )

Last weekend. Pumpkin spice bread. Cheap meat shopping specials. More Christmas movie watching, Elf and The Grinch

Saturday was super cold in our neck of the woods.  The weather has been so on and off rainy these days. The boys played Wii and in the afternoon we 3 baked some pumpkin spice bread. Noah was in charge of reading the directions. And Branden was the egg cracker and measuring cup filler. And they both mixed the bowl.  We listened to Christmas music from Denver and it was just really nice.

It smelled really good.  We saved it though and had it for dessert Saturday evening.

Just a little whip cream and it was pretty good.

Sunday morning I left the house on a mission. A yuzu mikan mission that is!  : ) My regular grocery store is totally out of these. I blame me, I think I've slowly bought all they had the past couple weeks. Hmm, hope they restock them. Then I ran to store #2. They had only 16 bottles, so I asked the man working the drink aisle, he was stocking canned sweet bean drink at the time. I said, "Hi, holding up one of the yuzu drinks, do you happen to have a case of this?" Let me go check. So he ran to the back and came back a couple minutes later. He said "no we don't I'm sorry, however it's a new drink and so we might be getting some more in soon." Okay, good to know, thanks. And I left, threw all 16 in my cart and checked out. A very heavy thing to lift into the car but I managed okay and went home.  Meanwhile.....

Noboru has this male coworker who loves turkey sandwich. he mentioned it years ago. Anyway I've been making this guy the best turkey sandwich every single year. Good bread, nice lettuce delicious cheese. I wrap it nicely and I send Noboru with 2, knowing in advance this guy will be so happy to receive one. Anyway just never thought too much about it.  Anyway, Noboru brought this home, he said, this is for you, from the "turkey sandwich guy"  For me? : ) Okay, thank him for me. : )

In the plaid bag was this blue bag on the right in this picture and inside that was a gold paper bag and something wrapped really well on the left.

One huge bottle of wine and 2 cans of something exactly like Spam.  Okay, I admit, I don't drink. And it's not because I'm an angel or anything. I don't drink because I just have never liked the taste or flavor of alcohol.  Seriously, not to get too off topic but I was watching the lead singer of Kiss, his reality show, sorry the name escapes me now. Anyway when he finally got married. The mother of his children and who he married tried to find alcohol that he could drink. Seriously it made me laugh because he said, admitted "I don't drink because it tastes like poison." He told his wife Shannon if you can find something that doesn't taste like poison you can get me drunk! So she tried at the wedding after party, they gave him long island iced teas., he took a sip and said "blech tastes like tea with cough syrup!" Anyway, made me laugh because that's me exactly. I can't stand the taste at all. Anyway...I think I suffer from whatever Gene Simmons has. So yeah anyways.... that's why I don't drink. That's one of my main #1 reasons.  But that said....I thought that was a really sweet  and thoughtful gift. And I know it's just me...I know I'm weird that I don't drink. And that's okay. But yeah....I still did appreciate the wine gesture and the meat gesture too. I thought that was totally cool.

I thought the label was really pretty. What a really cool guy to give these gifts.  And I really was never expecting anything at all. So it was a surprise.  A thoughtful surprise.

Have you ever been involved in a shopping frenzy? I have many times. Having grown up with Black Friday, obviously it's something I've experienced before.  I recall a story years ago where a woman was trampled after the Walmart store opened in Florida for Black Friday. I think she later died. You know, it's interesting....you bring out a sign that says cheap or half off and people come unglued! They can't help themselves.  Human nature maybe, I don't know. Anyway, when we first moved to Japan. Where we originally lived in Chiba someplace else. There was a very cheap supermarket. And it happened to me twice. Once was. How many mikans you can stuff into a little clear bag you would get for 100 yen. It was for a limited time. The man working there had a microphone and when he shouted "start" it was on. There I was meekly putting my mikans in there, 1 potato, 2 potato...3 potato 4. Etc etc. Meanwhile other peoples mikan bags... they were packed to the gills the plastic was bulging at the seams.  The second time was the same shop. And they had bags out again but in the meat department. However many chicken wings you could throw in a bag you would get for the said price. Women went nuts! I tried again, a little faster this time. An I got a great deal. Then we moved to the inaka.  Anyway there is a really good meat store fair prices and there's 2 butchers back there always cutting meat freshly every day. I shop there about twice a month for meat deals. And I have seen this sign. It says, every Saturday and Sunday, between 3 and 5pm the meat will be on sale, cheaper then usual. Now I have gotten those deals before. No frenzy for that. However the sign also says, from 5pm for 10 minutes *only* they will pass out 20% off stickers for all meat and all frozen foods.  So basically, it's cheaper on Saturdays and Sundays anyway. But for those 10 minute it's even cheaper with that additional 20% off. So even cheaper. Last Sunday since Noboru mentioned yakiniku.  The 4 of us all went to the meat shop. We arrived at 4:30pm.  No frenzy at all happening in there in fact I could have been the only person in the meat area at that time. I slowly picked my meats. Just what we'd eat for the next 2 weeks meat wise. And after I picked my meats, we waited until 5pm.  In this pic is, 9 super thick pork chops, 20% off 1000 yen. 1 pack of miso pork, this place makes the best flavor around our area of miso pork. Noboru had that for obento one day. And the other 2 packs were chicken breast but packs of 3 breasts each pack.

Here is, 1 beef loin, roast beef type meat perfect to become beef curry. 2 pork loins, 1 could be niku jaga easily. And 2 packs of chicken breast with 2 breasts in each package and 1 pack of frozen broccoli also 20% off since it was in the freezer section.

1 pack of mince cutlets breaded, Noboru loves these and 2 packs of chicken tenderloins breaded. These were all breaded with the big fluffy breading versus the drier panko I usually use at home. Hahaha. : ) And again these were already on sale since it was a weekend but even cheaper with it being 20% off on top of that. But I had to wait until 5pm.

The meat for yakiniku, Noboru got pork and we got some extra chicken breasts.  we stocked one area of our freezer super well. And we have a ton of freezer space so have even more spots open. But yeah we bought a great deal of meat.

I also bought mikans but these were not 20% off. But they were cheap though. : ) Anyway, 4:50pm rolled around and people came in droves. Seriously we thought where did all these people come from? @_@  They weren't there before. Time was close so they shopped quick and fast with their carts. I'd say about 50 folks/people were in there. All briskly combing the meat aisles. Boy was I glad I had my stuff in my cart already, I thought. Two people wanted to look at the same thing. It was an awkward moment for them. I was done so I was just taking this all in. Then the 2 butchers came out from the back with microphones. Causing more hysteria. They shouted, "ohh it's coming close! Time is almost here!" People walked even more aggressively with their carts being more serious about what they put into their carts. I did ask the cashier, "how does this work, because this is a first for me?" She said, the butchers will give out the stickers but they stand in different spots throughout the store and you have only 10 minutes to find them and get your stickers.  Okay, that helped. basically we need to shadow the butcher then. One lady put her cart right in line near the cashier as to say, I will be first.  Personally between you and I, as long as I get a sticker, I don't care if I'm 1st or 80th as long as I still get the savings.  The butcher approached me, the one I often "good morning" or 'sure is cold out today" often with. Anyway he approached me and he said, please stand right here! @_@ Noboru whispered to me, I think he wants to give you stickers first! Okay. Thank you I said. Now lady who was vying for the #1 spot near the check out was making a disgruntled look at me. @_@ Seriously lady! What did I do,I thought! Yikes! I didn't pay her any mind. I just smiled and thought wow is this insane or what...I mean seriously!  Still they speak on their microphones....1 more minute until sticker time. People are lining up here and there. Shadowing the 2 butchers. And then they said...sticker time! Ahhhhhhhh! The 1 butcher ran to me and started going through my cart super quickly putting stickers on every item. I have never seen someone sticker things so fast in my life. @_@. As fast as lightning....he was done with me, Thank you very much! I said and I went to the cashier first. It wasn't my plan, it honestly wasn't but wow. I checked out. And was done. The butchers gave more stickers and I hope everyone got their stickers in enough time. My total was 4000 yen or 4180 yen so I'll just say 4200 yen to be fair. And that's for meat for 2 weeks worth. For a family of 4. Would I do it again? Honestly yes I would. Because if I can save our family money, sure why not. I am glad though that we told the boys to stay with Noboru and a bit back. Because again people were really aggressive with their carts and I don't want them hurt. But yeah, I'd definitely do this again.  And fwiw, the mikans in a bag for 100 yen happens at 2 stores near me here in the inaka quite often in winter. And I can now shove them in a bag with the best of them. Hahaha. I am getting quite fast with my mikan shoving in a bag moves/skills these days. I'm learning. : )



Elf was on TV the other night. We watched this. With some popcorn and a handful of Reese's peanut butter cups.

Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) pouring something to drink for her father in law (Papa)

Also, we made jello a few days ago. Cherry Jello.



And we also watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Every one's feeling the Christmas spirit, just enjoying the season. And just enjoying December so far. Such a nice time of year. Today the weather is sunny. And we're checking the weather each day because we have that Saturday marathon on our minds. : )

Proud of you Noah! A new level in swimming and a new level in English Kumon

Last Friday evening November 30th, 2012, our family took Noah to swim club. All of us went. It turned out to be a test day. Noah looks so small and tiny compared to the others in his swim lane. But he tested and he passed! So Noah is now a level 4! And you know this kid swims every single week, Winter, Summer, Spring and Fall. He has certainly put in all the hours. And so yeah, he deserves it! And I just want to say well done kiddo! You are our little fish and we're so proud of you! Sera's mom was there and H's mom was there (Noah old best friend from his yochien days, his mom) and they all congratulated Noah a lot downstairs. And he was pretty excited. And stuff. So that was really good news for our family last Friday. : )

You know again, certificate of achievements and advancement are something I should be putting on here. because again he worked hard for it. It didn't just come easily, it was hard earned.  Anyway Noah advanced another level in English, reading and writing at Kumon. He is now a level F.  Starting from A-1. All the way down the alphabet. That's a lot of hard work he's put into his English study. Noah is currently reading and writing at the same level as his American peers/same age in the US. And he has been putting in the hard work since age 3 when he started Kumon. Plus all the nightly readings I do with both of the boys. And English workbooks we do together at home too.  And the boys are going to a Japanese elementary school.  Not an international school. So for them to get up to this level. I am just really proud.  So enough said but....well done Noah. And I'm sorry I took so long to put this up, this says October 11th, shame on me for waiting so long to put this up. : ) I'm sorry. : )

And like I mentioned, the boys run at the school track every morning and for gym. Since it's marathon season at many elementary schools here in Japan. However last Wednesday was a practice marathon on the same roads, country roads they'll be running on this coming Saturday. For our real shogakko marathon day. Anyway, Noah loves to run. He loves all sports.  He's 100% jock all the way. Loves soccer, loves football, loves swimming. And he loves running. He loves it! Always has. Anyway he had been telling me and also his brother Branden had also been telling me, Noah's been running and coming in #1 and some days #2 and #3 most days at the school. However, Noah injured his leg last Monday. So we were uncertain if Noah should run last week? And if he should run in the "practice" marathon at all, last Wednesday. He's not hugely injured just a pulled muscle type and the nurse did recommend he stay off the leg. So last Wednesday, I asked Noah.  "Do you wanna run, if not I'll call the school and also not sign/stamp your running card" But Noah insisted....he wanted to run. @_@ Anyway so with injured leg and all he came in #4. I think he did pretty well. And personally like I always say and I really mean it. I wouldn't care if he was #4 or #54. But yeah anyway, Noah will be having his first marathon this coming Saturday. He is 1 thousand percent looking forward to it. So we will see what happens this coming Saturday. Also, any nervousness? None, while I tend to get nervous or butterflies before something big like this. Both boys don't get nervous at all. Not nervous with speaking in front of groups, zero nervousness about swimming in a swim meet like Branden did this Summer. No, neither of them get butterflies or nervous at all. Which is a good thing. : )

Branden came in 22nd. Branden did pretty good. He's racing with the 6th grade boys and his fellow 5th grade boys.  I think about 48 total boys both grades both classes.  So not the fastest but still, definitely not the slowest either. Branden loves sports and is a jock too. But he hates running. Absolutely hates it. : ) Branden loves swimming and could swim forever if you let him. He also *loves* soccer.  He could go outside and play soccer for hours running back and forth.  But running. He's very....meh~ About the whole running thing. @_@  he however loves walking and could walk forever too. I also love walking and hate running.  And running and coming in 22 isn't so bad. So what will Saturday marathon day look like? How will each of the boys do? Hmm, not sure yet. We will see. However, we are hoping for no rain. Because then it would be delayed another day and yadayadayada and that's crazy. So hopefully we can just get it over and done with this Saturday. : )

So nothing too major to say except, Noah's doing well in swimming, and his English studies are going well too. And he's so totally eager and can't wait for Saturday! He's so ready!

Branden is doing awesome in school. And we're considering letting Branden start swimming again or perhaps another sport in the Spring but it all depends on time.  Do we have the time to commit? That type of thing.

Anyway, I better go upstairs to my closet and see what I'm going to wear today for observation day today, And it's not a "come any time during the day" type observation day. It's instead a come the last 50 minutes and then stay for 2-3 meetings after that.  It's raining today, it's cold and the sky is gray. Tonight we are bbq'ing outside. Crazy right, hahaha.  This last weekend, Noboru said, you know what we haven't had in a long time? I said what? yakiniku.  So, we will cook outside today rain or shine and then just bring it in the house immediately afterwards. : )  Noboru will go to one class and I'll go to the other and then we'll switch mid class. : )

Can you just imagine us this Saturday? Noboru serving hot miso soup with his Father's Club guys. Meanwhile, me standing with the other bunch and crowd of parents all shivering in the freezing cold. Hope the street isn't frozen with black ice like how it was last Wednesday. Those kids could get really hurt, you know. : (  Running over that stuff. : (  The mornings here are real cold. yesterday morning was 31 F, which is below freezing, since freezing is 32F. So yeah it will be a cold morning watching the race, this coming Saturday. Hope my pictures don't come out all blurry since my hands will be shivering so much. : ) Ha ha ha.  Have a good race, Branden and Noah, and I hope nobody gets injured running over any possible black ice. Stay safe is all I ask and hope for.

Friday's lunch date and some Christmas shopping at Narita mall

Okay so last Thursday as you know, Branden and Noah received their final flu shot, so that is done. And then Thursday *after* the shots, I cleaned house, did laundry, prepped for dinner. And I also, colored my hair. Same color, same brand and color of hair dye for the past year, I like it. : ) Showered quickly to get the hair color out and then blew dry it and, went and picked up the boys from school and then took them home for a quick bite to eat and then to Kumon.  Meanwhile, Friday was set that Noboru and I would be going to the Narita mall. Because I wanted to get some of the Christmas only, special edition body butters and whatnots for part of my Christmas gift. Boy am I glad I didn't buy online though....though you can from The Body Shop Japan now online. But the scent, I thought I wanted most, didn't smell even remotely how I had imagined. @_@ So I picked something else. I saw online the cute body butter with cutest gingerbread man pic on the front. Oh how cute, I thought. I must have that! I have to. So, I had my heart set on it. And when I smelled it. Didn't smell like gingerbread cookie at all to me. Not a cookie at all in fact. : (  Instead to me it smelled very spicy gingery type smell and zero cookie or gingerbread man cookie smell at all. So, I admit I was a bit disappointed because the cute gingerbread man on the packaging was really cute. But yeah, the scent just wasn't what I was hoping for at all. : ( Bummer. However good thing is.....I ended up really liking the Vanilla Bliss and Cranberry Joy special edition Christmas ones though a lot. So, yeah I guess I am glad we did go to the shop and smell them first in person versus just buying online without smelling them first. Glad, glad glad about that. : )  We did some more shopping in the mall. And also, the Narita Mall has been totally revamped the downstairs part near Aeon, new shops and everything. However, if you live closer to Lalaport, stick to there. they still have better shops there of course. but for country folks like us, we are *really* happy they revamped these shops. Subway sandwich shop is now there. However Hard Rock Cafe is gone. Kaldi is gone however a bigger (meaning space wise/store shop wise then what the Kadi we used to have at Narita mall) in the mall opened a huge International market up to take Kaldi's place. What I mean is, the Kaldi at Narita mall used to be a small shop, smaller in scale but this new international shop is about triple the size of our former Kaldi. So a good thing for any of us living near here. Plus we do have a Kaldi near us at another mall anyways. So having 2 different shops now to choose from is just a bonus. This info is only helpful if you live near here, so sorry not very helpful in the long run for most reading sorry, but still worth writing it all out at least. : ) That's where I bought the boys Advent calenders from.  Anyway many shops have changed. But it's all for the better. Upgrade...not a downgrade, Narita mall. Oh they also have the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory now too. Anyway so we did our shopping and left and headed to our neck of the woods and went to lunch.

We went and had lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. Favorite waiter was there too. He's always really nice and we chit chat with him, he's so awesome. Anyway, we enjoyed our lunch. Picked up some bread from the bakery and headed home. To hide another stocking stuffer. And then we went and picked up the boys from school.

Yes, Branden has this same exact obento box/lunch box on the left that is right/correct. However, in all fairness, I have I have to tell you guys this story.... we have 1 shelf for obento stuff. And although I did throw about 60% of the unused obento stuff we had away in Summer. Such as the winter metal obento things etc that I knew we'd never use again. But I did keep Noah's 1 regular obento and Branden of course has the long hamburger one. Anyway, one day about the start of October, Noboru was pulling something out of the dish cabinet, his obento box and he accidentally his elbow must have caught it by accident Noboru nudged Noah's obento out and off the shelf and it fell to the floor breaking the open and close piece on one side of the obento box. @_@ It was an accident so we just threw it away and called it a loss (couldn't be fixed). I did remind Noboru though, the next time Noah has an ensoku/field trip or needs a lunch we will need to buy Noah a new lunch box. But other then that, no worries. "For sure" he said. And that was that. Well...with the marathon coming up this Saturday and lunch being needed...clearly Noah needed a new obento box. So, while we were there at the mall, we picked up Noah the exact same one as Branden. Because #1 it's cute. #2 the price is really affordable on it. and #3 the space, this has a lot of space for lunch. fruit, dessert. It has a lot of space. Meanwhile they had the round obento hamburger too. And Noboru said, let's get both, that way he can switch between the 2 if he wants. I think he still felt really bad about breaking Noah's obento although he shouldn't have. Sometimes accidents just happen, you know.

If you have ever bought a character obento, you know how expensive they are. We've bought Thomas, Pokemon, Spongebob and they can be 1500yen and up. So 504 yen type prices for these hamburger ones was honestly a pretty good deal. The bigger hamburger one was 605 yen but still a great price.

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory hails from Colorado. Durango Colorado  to be exact.  So, I was a little surprised to see this shop open up at Narita mall. At first I was thinking...."eyes are you deceiving me?" Hahaha. Turns out, I was seeing clearly after all.  : )Next I looked into the glass looking for chocolate haystacks. And sure enough they had 3 milk chocolate ones left.

Growing up, I have clear as a bell memories. Of my mom walking me into this old mom and pop chocolate shop (not the Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory), they made everything by hand.  She'd walk me in there once every other week just a special treat for her and I. And what I remember is the sound of the bells against the glass door making a jingle sound when we'd walk in....every time. Ohh that sound. Love that sound. And the other thing I remember is the smell of the chocolate hitting you as soon as you walk in. My mom always picked 4 milk chocolate haystacks. 1 for each of us for the car ride home, for her and I and 1 each for us at home. I am sure she bought some for my dad but I always remember what she bought for us, it was our special time together. The smell of the chocolate haystacks and the texture of all the coconut you could feel in your mouth. Yumm. I also remember when I was in college, I would sometimes walk into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Denver and buy a haystack or two for old times sake. And I think I bought some haystacks in Honolulu from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (these are everywhere now days ; ) or another chocolate shop. I told Branden and Noah my important to me, story of when I was a little girl and how my mom/their grandma would buy these for me as a special treat. So yeah, when I saw the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, I just had to look for them. I just had to. And so when they had the 3 left, we bought them.  I even asked the lady behind the counter...do you have any more? She said, ahhh sorry we don't. : (

Friday after dinner, I gave one to Branden and 1 to Noah, I split mine with Noboru., Wish they had more haystacks but they didn't. : (  Just as good as I remember. I won't buy them often. But maybe once every 3 months or so. A little treat for the boys. : )

The Body Shop.

The prices of these is a little high imo. But I do really like them. But, I picked only 1 body butter, considering the price. 2,625 yen. It was a real debate between the cranberry one and the Vanilla Bliss one. But I picked Vanilla Bliss. Smells like vanilla custard to me. It smells really good. And light not too overpowering.

It has snowflakes and a vanilla bean on the design on it and stuff.

In Winter in Japan, I seem to really need hand cream. My hands get so dry. They don't get dry in Summer or Spring. But come Winter they're super dry. I picked both hand creams.  Cranberry Joy and Vanilla Bliss. 945 yen each for such a tiny tube (30ml/1oz). They only come in small sizes, they have no bigger sizes. But, I was happy to get these for Christmas. I love these and Noboru will wrap these things up for me this coming week.  And again, I did also get other things, clothes  a couple DVDs etc. That's why I didn't want everything from just the Body Shop only. Otherwise I would have picked more stuff. but, I only wanted a handful of things from here because I am already getting things from other places as well. : )

I cannot use these or even touch these until after Christmas. Hahaha. : )  Oh well, bright side is.....something to look forward to. : )  So that was Friday day. The next post will be Friday evening. Sorry, I know I am really behind. But I'm trying. : )

Little blurb thrown in here real quick.  Tomorrow is observation day for both the boys. I am going to that. So that's Tuesday. And Thursday is my salon appointment for my thermal hair straightening. I made my appointment for that yesterday.  I am not planning on getting any length cut off, I will let them know they can snip off any dead ends if I have any, which is fine, but I really don't want any length gone at all. : ) So that's what's sorta going on here.  Also we are heading to Guam this month.  But we will be spending Christmas here in Japan. So, I really do have lots to say and update about....it's just trying to find the time to sit down in front of this computer and get everything up and on here. But I am trying my best. : )