Bits and Pieces...

Holy smokes! I haven't posted in about 5-6 days. I know that I haven't had the chance to blog about Branden's birthday yet. I will be doing that soon. I haven't posted about Halloween. Or when we went to Ikspiari or anything. My sister in law in Narita had her 3rd baby. Very exciting. I went out to lunch with my besties last Friday. And I have been getting Noah ready for his 6th grade class trip. It's a 1 over night trip. Noah's actually on that *right* now. And so sorry for the quiet...it's just...regular life happening. As you all know...I'm just a regular mom. Doing mom type things. And sometimes life gets busy. I have a free hour right now. And so, I figured better go for it. I know today is November 1st. However...I didn't do a Costco cart pics post for October. I know I was there 3 times in October. So will post pics of those times now. The 3rd trip was when I just bought toilet paper so I won't post a pic of that. I showed that already. Anyway this was taken October 9th. A rotisserie chicken. Simple healthy roasted chicken. Can turn this into anything. Sandwiches. Or anything. I often bring back a rotisserie. A big pack of eggs. Weekend breakfasts. Baking season now too. So I need eggs. Tortillas. 2 types of cheese... Mexican and mozzarella. A huge honkin thing of 100% ground beef. We have had tacos. Cheeseburgers. Beef enchiladas. I like buying ground beef in bulk because I can get 3-4 different meals from it. And a huge tub of American cinnamon rolls. Holy crap are these *so* good. I know there's super so much buzz and hype right now about the hot ooey gooey Cinna- melt thing at Mickey D's. Right now and that's so hot and delicious and good. But these are good too.

Two layers of these. For many a quick breakfasts with a cup of coffee for adults or with milks for my 2 kiddos. Oh yes. 

And if they taste *really* American to you...#comfortfood...it's because they were baked in California. They're so delicious. My kids love these. 

This pic you've seen before....let's see tortillas again. Cheese again. I make chicken parmesan from scratch, hence need the cheese. Homemade pizza from scratch too, again need more cheese for that too. I make enchiladas, cheese. Tacos, so cheese is necessary and it's frankly tons cheaper at Costco than anywhere else in Japan.  I also make homemade cheese gratin potatoes. Homemade mac and cheese too. 

There are 2 huge tubs of ice cream inside this big one. And we have a half of one and 1 tub that's not even opened yet. It's in our freezer.

All October...I have loved that my morning walks now sound like crunch crunch crunch as I walk over all the Fall leaves...crispy leaves of different shades of red, orange and gold.

Noboru's brother. My brother in law Jun and his amazing wife welcomed their 3rd baby into the world. We went to the hospital to visit them October 10th. She's very small and so lovely. And we all loved getting a turn to hold cuddle and love on her. Branden held her. Noah held and cuddled her. I hugged and cuddled my newest niece and Noboru did too. We also chatted and talked with my sister in law. My brother in law was there too and so were their other 2 kiddos. My niece, who is their oldest daughter is 1 year younger than Noah. And then my nephew is just 3 years old and then the new baby too. 

I don't think it's a big secret but I flat out...love my nephew! He's fantastic. I love him. I adore him. And he used to be the youngest child. and he is now the middle child. I could see he noticed all the focus was on his newest adorable sister. And I could understand his sweet feelings. And again he's only 3. Everyone so focused on the new baby. Branden clicking pics of the new baby. And all of us too. And so I spent a good 7 minutes just focusing on my nephew. I turned to my nephew. And I said..."since everyone is taking pictures of your very beautiful new sister. Can I take some pictures of your cool cars?" And boy did he light up! Immediately. Oh yes! He said. And so auntie Gina clicked. And clicked some more. I took a picture of his red truck and then I showed him the pic. And my nephew said, "that's pretty good." I asked him...should I take a pic of your monster truck too? "Oh yes auntie!" And so I clicked and I clicked. And I asked him. Which of these cars is your #1 most favorite and #2 second favorite and so on? And after he answered. He was on cloud nine answering all this by the way. I answered too. I told my nephew K... this one is aunties #1 favorite, I said...oh and this red one is aunties #2 favorite. He loved this so he asked..."And which one is your 3rd favorite auntie?" It may seem like nothing. But believe me...if you have more than 1 kid...you will understand...how older kids don't want to feel left out either. Granted I was an only child growing up, but I can see and tell. And I am a mom of 2 kids. So, I do know. And so while I did love all the newborn baby cuddles. And snuggles, with my sweetest newest niece. I made sure to give equal attention to my nephew. And my older niece...she's amazing too but she's going through a shy phase. And that's okay. She would listen to me and her brother talking and shyly smile a few times. And that's okay. We only stayed for 15 minutes. We did give them 30,000 yen. Which is standard in Japan to give to a sibling who has just had a baby. So we visited. Gave the appropriate gift money. And we headed home. It was a school night. And Branden tried to come home as quickly as he could via the trains from the city. He changed clothes ASAP. And ate so fast...he barely tasted it. Haha. Then we raced from our town to Narita as fast as we could get there to make it in time. And at the same time...visiting time at that maternity clinic was quite limited in the evenings. We heard over the loud speaker...visiting hours were coming to a close. So...that's why we couldn't stay too long. But it was very important for our family to go. Which is why we made it a priority in going... even if it was a school night. Gotta always take the time to celebrate with family. Especially on such a happy occasion. 

I met up with my 2 favorite friends, last Friday. Friends I have been friends with for about 9-12 years. One I met during Bran's yochien years and one I met through Noah's yochien years. So we 3 have been friends for ages. We met up for lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. And after that we went to Starbucks. It was from 11:30am until 2:50pm-ish. It is so important to have a really good solid set of friends in your real life. Friends you can laugh with and have a good time with, but also...talk seriously at times with too. Their oldest daughters are in their final years of high school and are now thinking about university, such smart girls. So happy to have such good friends.

Also, yes my husband and I have been going on our weekly dates as usual.This week Noboru and I went to Saizeriya. It's so super nice to talk and chit chat and enjoy each others company. This is something we both look forward to a lot.  

I went and replaced the kids and my body scrubbing towels for taking a shower with. Noboru never wants to replace his ever. I know that. So what I do is...a lot of the times...for Noboru I buy the identical one he was last using and replace his a week before I replace ours. And that way he won't really notice. And then the kids and I...I just picked out different ones. Branden prefers using a coarse scrubby towel. These scrub and clean your body really well and also make a lot of foam and you just feel really exfoliated and super clean. But Branden prefers a harsher scrubby feeling, so I picked Bran the longer length coarse shower towel on the right in this pic. And I prefer a normal/average scrub...I don't want to feel like I grated my skin personally...so I also pick normal scrubby levels for myself. And so I picked the middle one for myself and Noah suffers *extremely* dry skin. He legit goes to the dermatologist every winter for his severe dry skin and gets special ointments and creams and the doctor flat out said...do NOT use a body scrubby towel every day...only twice a week in winter, however the doctor says he can use one daily in summer though. And even last year the doctor said for Noah to use a child's strength of scrubby power...because of his severe dry skin. I do let Noah use this 3 times a week in winter, he uses it everyday in summer though, the rest of the week he just washes his body with his hands in winter because his skin is so dry and that's what the doctor recommends for Noah. So...given the fact he's a 6th grader....Pooh may not be cool...according to Noah...but Pooh it is...it's just because his skin is already getting drier by the second now that it's Fall. Noah needs a gentle scrubby in Fall and winter.

Any last minute thoughts? Noah's on his over night trip right now as I already said. Noboru will not be home until 9pm tonight. Bran will be home somewhere between 5 and 5:30pm. And we're having chicken fettucini tonight and garlic bread, just Bran and I. I have a Ginger Ale in the freezer getting cold for supper. Hmm, I should take that out of the freezer soon. Anyways, that's it for now.

I baked a banana bread yesterday. Also, no school for kids this Friday. So no school for Branden and no school for Noah this Friday. And since Wednesday and Thursday...today and tomorrow is Noah's over night 6th grade trip.... Noah gets back tomorrow evening from his over night trip. Noah won't have school until next Monday. And Bran's last day of school is tomorrow. 3 day weekend yet again. So right on!!! : )

Throwback Thursday...

Today is TBT day and it also happens to be October 26th, which is of course Branny McB's birthday today. So I thought... what a fitting day to do a TBT dedicated to my first born! Branden you were regular size at birth, but as you grew month after month...you became a chubby baby. But that's good. That means you were healthy and a good eater. You were born in Honolulu, Hawaii. You lived your first year in the states and so when my pediatrician said you could be started on solids one at a time. You loved the idea. Your first food was Gerber rice cereal. That was a favorite. You loved Gerber baby peas. Those were also one of your faves. The first 3 times I gave you Gerber baby peaches you hated them and wouldn't eat them. You do like peaches now though and did from around age 2. However you really liked Gerber spiced apples. You loved KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, if your dad and I were out during the day with you and you needed something warm and quick to eat on the go, we liked that we could pick up a teeny tiny one of those for you in a pinch. : ) You loved original Cheerios, the no sugar kind that was your #1 baby snack, Noah's too. I would always have some in my diaper bag with me. And also I always had some Gerber baby wagon wheels with me too. Which is what you were munching on in this pic and what's on your table. As soon as you got teeth and didn't need to gum things anymore. You could eat and enjoy everything. Fresh fruit. Baked or roasted meat cut up in tiny little bite size pieces. 

This is you in Japan somewhere near Osaka. We went from Chiba to Osaka to meet up with your dad's family and we all went for a weekend to an onsen there. We were living in Chiba by now. 

This is you Branden and uncle Jun behind you. He went with you to make sure no deer bit or gobbled you up. HA! You and uncle Jun went to feed some deer. We were still on that family trip near Osaka at some beach onsen resort type place. Uncle Jun was not married yet during this time. Though Noboru/daddy was and my SIL/auntie K was. 2 of the 3 kids were married at this time. You have always loved animals. Dogs, cats, deer, birds. All animals.  

You were always building blanket forts in the house when you were little! You thought they were so cool and fun! Here you were watching your mini DVD player inside your top secret hide-out. : ) I always let you build forts and hoped you would get bored with them the next day, so the house wouldn't look cray-cray. But...I also wanted you to be a kid. And do kid things. And so, if I had to see forts in your room and a few forts in the living room. That was okay. : ) You also got your brother into this blanket fort stuff too! : )

You have always loved the water. 

You've always been kind and nice and had lots of friends. Love that dimple! 

You at the summer festival at your yochien.

You getting ready to go to yochien. It was raining. Good thing you had your ultra cool duckie umbrella. And yes, I made sure to buy a new duckie umbrella by the time Noah enrolled in the same yochien. : )  Because kids are kids for such a short amount of time. They're so amazingly innocent at that age. And they most definitely would not want to use a duckie umbrella when they're in high school. LOL. You wouldn't be caught dead with one right now. But when you were little...you loved it. 

You snuggling in your bedroom. Bottom line kiddo. We love you Bran. I can't even wrap my brain around the fact that you turned 16 years old today!!! I have loved every baby stage, every toddler stage...every child stage...every baby tooth that you lost, I kept and gently placed money under your pillow. Every knee that you skinned I washed it, antibacterial-ed it and put a bandaid on it. Wiped your tears. I have done monster checks in your bedroom when you were little, checked under your bed and inside your closet. Let you sleep with a flashlight...you know...just in case any monster should come during the night....and I have truly loved watching you grow right before my eyes!!! Now you're 16 years old! You're in high school. You're so much taller and bigger than me and daddy now. And while I respect that you're getting older. I love that you're also in many ways still the same too. You still love spending time with me. You still talk...truly talk and tell me stuff. I always listen. You still love coming down to family movie night on a Saturday night. Yet, I know when to give you your space too. So, I hope you look at the pics on here and smile. I already know what you're going to say... you're not going to mind but you will say..."mom those pics are so cringey!!!" And that's okay. Because someday...in the distant future you will think...what a thoughtful thing my mom did. And so no... not cringey at all. I love you kid! : ) 

Our weekend. Flu shots taken. The outlet mall yet again. Typhoon Lan with pics. Lots of good meals at home. And a Costco run...

So last Wednesday, as I was at the plaza picking up Noah from school. As you know Branden came home early because of his 3 days of high school tests. So Bran was home and it was now the end of school day at the local elementary school. Wednesday October 18th and as I was standing outside my car and chit chatting with 2 of my mom friends. They were saying, a typhoon is heading our way. It might hit Chiba prefecture hard this time. And the other one was like...say what? When? And so she said it's coming this weekend sometime. Either Saturday, Sunday or next Monday. And so us 3 sat there. Wondering would it actually hit Chiba prefecture or lose it's steam as usual by the time is goes all the way through other parts of Japan first. Like it usually does. So we wondered. But we all said, we would prepare a little anyway, just in case and thanks for the heads up. So, Noah came down the hill that day and said. Our school said a typhoon is expected this coming weekend sometime. I thanked my kiddo for the heads up too and I said...so and so's mama just told me and.... so and so-kun's mom about this too. So...I think we had 8 rolls of toilet paper left last Wednesday. And we had enough food to last our home until Monday October 23rd. So food, I wasn't worried about and drinks...I had 2 cases of mugicha. 5 bottles of jasmine tea. A brand new carton and a half of milk. About 15 eggs left. And tons of veggies and whatnot. But just thinking about it. So Thursday, I ran to Costco in the morning after both my kids went to school. I went for just a case of toilet paper. And another pack of eggs (there's 20 in the Costco egg packs) and that's it. 

I also went into the Matsumoto Kiyoshi near Costco in Inzai and bought a new tin of shea bath powder. I figured what a cozy way to ride out a typhoon. Or a weekend of rain. I made sure I was back in my town by the time Bran got home on Thursday. On Friday, Branden got home super early and he told me. "my teachers all told us that school will most likely be canceled on Monday because of the typhoon, because most of us use trains to get to school and trains are expected to either be delayed or cancelled all together, that day." And sure enough by 9am Saturday, Branden's school emailed and said they decided to cancel school Monday for everyone. Branden was thrilled. 

I baked a yellow cake with chocolate frosting on Friday on Friday morning, sliced 2 rows and as soon as Bran got home, he had a slice immediately. And I made some delicious tacos for supper after everyone came home. For us to really enjoy the weekend about to start. And with a typhoon expected to hit sometime. We were all set. With plenty of food. And we had DVDs and plus we have excellent American cable TV. So we were set. Here at our house. And well prepared for Typhoon Lan/Typhoon 21. I picked up Noah on Friday after school and Noah also said his school might be canceled on Monday because of the typhoon and sure enough by 10am Saturday for Noah's school...they emailed all of us and also said, school was canceled for Monday. So, both my kids now officially had a 3 day weekend. Woohoo.

Homemade shells. I buy the soft corn tortillas from Kaldi and fry them up my own, so super easy. Branden said...store bought shells are good, but nothing beats homemade shells. We had chicken breast tacos and also I made lean ground beef ones too. And we all had yellow cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. Even though the kids had some cake as soon as they each got home from school. : )

The Amazon DVDs got here Thursday night around 7pm. Via DHL. 

We had movie night both Saturday and Sunday night. We watched Spiderman Homecoming on Saturday night. And Transformers The Last Knight on Sunday. The kids picked which movies we'd watch. And I still haven't had my chance to watch The Big Sick or Everything, Everything. : ( But, I will get my chance, I know. So I am just being chill. And I know I'll get my chance this weekend. : ) So it's cool. So Friday was low key. We all were well prepared for the typhoon. Noboru in the day time Friday....went around the yard and put anything that could tumble during the typhoon away. And I put the Fall wreath that usually hangs on my front door and scarecrow in the shed for the weekend. From Friday, until Monday afternoon after the typhoon had left. So we had the house all free of anything that could possibly take a tumble and go flying through the neighborhood. All hanging baskets on the front porch were put safely inside our shed. And we basically did our typhoon prep Friday afternoon. So by the time Friday evening happened. We enjoyed dinner. Cake. And we were all hunkered down and ready for Typhoon Lan!

Saturday morning. We all quickly woke up and got dressed and quickly ready for the day. We all had a quick fast bakery bread toasted with butter and yogurts. We left the house at 9:30am and went to the Ami Premium outlet mall. Gosh are we getting sick of that place! Hahaha. Our nearest outlet mall to our home. We went into the Gap. With the intention to get Noah 2 sweatshirts and 2 long sleeves. And we bought just that. Also wanted to mention everything was at 30% off sale already for that weekend. However there was a "morning additional sale" And for a limited time until 11am, everything in the store was an additional 20% off and they were handing out white plastic Gap shopping bags and they said when they give the last one the sale will be finished. Only the people with the white bags, they were handing out would get 50% off. So whoever was lucky enough to have grabbed a white plastic Gap shopping bag, they got everything that morning for 50% off. A 1 hour only sale. And we caught that. Wow. Right on! Dressing our sons cute plus while still saving tons of cash...so super happy about that!!! Nothing wrong with grabbing a great deal.

One bright green Gap zip up sweatshirt and 1 bright happy yellow pullover Gap sweatshirt. 

Noah is in the largest size for Gap kids. He's not in the largest size for kids at Old Navy however though. 

And 2 adorable long sleeve tops from Gap too. And for 50% off. We got everything for half off. 

I could tell by Noah's face last weekend that he too wanted to be included and get the same sweatpants as Branden and I picked last week. But, I was unsure if they had a size XXS. And Noah's never worn adults sizes yet for clothes. But, I had Noah try on the XXS and XS sizes this weekend. The XS were enormous. And the XXS were perfect. I asked Noah...would you like to be twinsies with Bran and I? Technically triplets... but when peeps dress the same doesn't matter... they call it being twinsies regardless of how many there are. He smiled and said...sure! I always want both my kids to always feel included. 

So 3 of us are twinsies. We did ask Noboru if he wanted to get a pair too? He was like..thanks but I like my Uniqlo pair. LOL. By 11am, we were heading back to our tiny town. With 35 eggs at home. I boiled 10 and made a batch of egg salad. I rinsed some lettuce. And we all had egg salad sandwiches for lunch Saturday. Our flu shot appointment wasn't until 3pm. Although we left the house around 1:45pm. Arrived by 2pm. And we were out of the doctors office by 2:35pm. 

Before we left to the doctors for all our flu shots. I quickly chopped up curry nabe veggies. I peeled and diced up 2 potatoes. A whole small cabbage. A pack of mushrooms. From 11:30am to 1:45pm. I made lunch and did dinner prep. I knew working hard right then, would lead to a restful night later.

I diced up a pack of chicken tenderloins that I had in my freezer since the week before. I buy these from Japan Meat in Inzai. Less than $4 feeds a family of 4, yes. And I also add in 12 chicken meatballs for Noboru since he loves those. The kids and I prefer sliced up chicken sesami though. I put the diced up chicken in a ceramic bowl and wrapped it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until we came back from the doctors from our flu shot appointment. I washed my hands twice. And we left to the doctors office. Flu shots here we come!!!

It's been all over the news but there's a big shortage of flu shot vaccinations in Japan this year. And so whoever waits until the last second will most likely not be able to get one. There are over a million less than less year. Again though, I was glad that I always make our appointment right away for our shots. And so I knew, ours were reserved and waiting for us. It's peace of mind knowing our kids and Noboru and I now have our flu shots. And ours are paid for 100% by Noboru's job. So for us they're totally free. Branden getting his shot Saturday around 2:10pm. And yes, I always have my kids wear short sleeve shirts underneath a sweatshirt. Those poor nurses and doctors always have the darndest time when folks wear long sleeves...yet they need to give you the shot in your upper arm. So...to make things easier for everyone... I always have my kids wear short sleeves. You have no idea how much our nurses appreciate that we all do that, every year!!! : )

Noah getting his flu shot, Saturday about 2-3 minutes after Branden did. I went after Noah and Noboru went last. Flu shots 2017 are done for our family now! Woohoo!

Branden gets about 3 haircuts a month. He loves getting his haircut. He likes his hair looking clean and tidy looking. And plus his hair grows like a weed. He actually needs haircuts that often. Noah's hair on the other hand grows slower than you could ever imagine and he hates going to the barber and he only goes about once a month. But they both go to the 1000 yen barber in the small city nearest our town. Anyways...while at the doctors office, Branden asked. Since we were in the small city anyways...for the flu shots...could he gets a haircut? Honestly...he needed one. And dinner was prepped. The rice was in the rice cooker already set with the timer on. And so...yeah sure. You can go and get a haircut. So, there was no parking space at the barbers because the bakery and whatnot people were parking there, so we parked across the street. However the barber was deader than a doornail. Meaning Branden zipped right in...and got his hair cut. Noboru went with him and waited, Noah and I meanwhile sat in the car and watched TV in the car while we waited. In 10 minutes there they stood together in this pic... about to cross the street and get in our car and go home. Branden was happy with his spiffy new hair cut. And I was happy and relieved we had all gotten our flu shots and Noah now has 4 sweatshirts total. And so...we're getting closer to done regarding our winter clothes shopping. Plus dinner was prepped. And we were already hunkered down at home...all flower planters and whatnot removed and put away. So we were now ready. Saturday around 3:30pm and we were now heading home. 

Sent Branden to take a quick shower since he had just got his hair cut. And sent Noah in after Bran. Meanwhile I threw all the meat and veggies in and things started to boil up quickly and nicely. Before you know it, we 4 were sitting at the kitchen table. Pulling yummy udon noodles out and chicken sesami/tenderloin, potatoes, bean sprouts, cabbage. Noboru was pulling out meatballs and whatever he wanted too. And we sat and just enjoyed the end of Saturday. Sundays plan was to stay home, stay safe. We enjoyed our curry nabe Saturday night. With bowls of rice. We drank mugicha/jasmine tea or straight tea, your choice. I jumped in the shower real quick after dinner clean up. And Noboru went after wards. I popped some popcorn. And when all of us were ready we threw on Spiderman Homecoming. We loved it. A nice way to end Saturday. Sunday. Was raining. And we watched how it was hitting various parts of Japan on the news. It seemed to hit according to 2 of my very close friends who live in Osaka. It seems Osaka got slammed hard by the typhoon. It also seemed to hit Shizuoka quite hard too. I am glad that it did lose steam by the time it got to my particular area of Chiba, near Ibaraki. We got tons of rain. We did. It rained and rained and rained. But, I see no structural damage in my town at all. And on Monday we drove to Inzai to pick up Bran's birthday cake and again...we saw lots of flooded with water areas. But no structural damage like there was in Osaka. So our part of Japan did get tons and tons of water. But...on the news... seems train tracks were broken in Osaka. That was on the news. I hope they got those fixed. Again one of my friends who lives in Osaka saw a shed collapsed. And some roofs torn up. I just didn't see any signs of tangible physical damage here in our area other than gobs of rain. Already harvested rice fields drowned in rain. Smart farmers! But other than that. Nothing really noteworthy around where we live. And that's a good thing!!! Everyone took turns soaking in a hot shea bath at home after showers Sunday evening. I made baked chicken parmesan on top of pasta Sunday night for supper. Comfort food to ride out the typhoon. I also made a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast Sunday morning too. 

We didn't leave our house until Monday. These pics are from Monday. See this picture? Looks like 2 rivers right? Wrong. The water farthest back IS the actual real river. And the 1 closer river is not a river at all. That's flooding. That's usually a grassy weedy area to park your car to go and enjoy the river. And the closest thing to us is a sidewalk.The water should go back down in a day or two. But yep tons of rain in my area.

See the white ripples? That's how windy it was Monday. Monday was super hot weather-wise after the typhoon. I assumed it would be a cool day. I wore a sweatshirt. Needless to say I melted the whole time I was at Costco Inzai. I was not expecting it to feel like summer time outside. @_@  That's Mt. Tsukuba in the background. Yes, I am close to Tsukuba in Ibaraki. In fact the other side of this river is Ibaraki. That's HOW close I live to Ibaraki. I seriously live so super close to Ibaraki. LOL. 

This is sad. Because nobody works harder than farmers in my opinion. Look at the rice fields?!!! Totally submerged. It looks like a lake. It's not. And it looked like that all over my town and all the way to Inzai too. The bright side or silver lining is...farmers are much too smart and they frankly harvested their rice in early September. So their rice fields were flooded yes, but there was nothing the rain could damage. Farmers are too smart. Farmers 1 point Typhoon 0.  The rice had already been cut.  So while other areas of Japan got lots of wind damage and structural damage. We didn't get that. It did lose steam by the time it reached our town. Sorry. However...we did face the wrath of huge rainfall. Flooding types of amounts of rain. Whoever's crazy enough to have built their house at rice field/ lower land level. Perhaps their homes might have got flooded too? I do not know. I honestly do not know. Our housing community is built on a naturally elevated higher part of town. You can see when you see my backyard how much lower and down below the rice fields are. So we're not at flood level/rice field level at all, not even remotely. And our house is not in a mudslide area either. Noboru was really smart when he picked the spot to build our house. The original parts of town/older parts of town are at rice field level. So...hopefully my kids classmates who live near there...their houses are okay. Though I am sure they're old school enough to know to toss sandbags and stuff to prepare by Friday. They're smart folks.So yep...just wanted to share a few pics of flooding. And as for our house in particular. Our house got zero damage. 

Noboru will be working on Bran's birthday October 26th. And Bran wanted a Costco cake versus an ice cream cake. So, I ordered it last week. And 2 weeks ago, I brought home 2 papers and let Bran read his choices and he picked American football. I filled the form out last week and we picked the pick up date to fall on Monday October 23rd. We figured we could take Branden out to dinner at the restaurant of his choice Monday. And we would have cake and ice cream on Monday October 23rd. And considering the cake is ginormous we will be eating cake until the weekend I'm sure. However with the typhoon approaching. Either Sunday or Monday. And not knowing if we would be able to pick up the cake or not. We were relieved that...it did lose steam in our area/part of Japan. Because by Monday 9am it was long gone. Slightly windy Monday and super hot. But other than that not even a drop of rain. Nothing. Our area just got huge amounts of rain Sunday night to Monday early morning ended around 6:30am. And that was it. We were lucky to be able to cruise right to Inzai. Roads were totally fine. And we did grab a weeks worth of meat beforehand at Japan Meat. And then hit Costco. Grabbed what was needed and went back to our town ASAP. : ) My kids took rotisserie chicken sandwiches today to school. With those dinner rolls. You see Mexican style cheese. Mozzarella cheese. Tortillas. Dinner rolls, a rotisserie chicken, a birthday cake. 

Yeah provolone stop trying to hide...we see you!!! ; )

Ice cream. One big container will go for the birthday cake and the other container will be turned into peanut butter ice cream. We went home. Unloaded the car. Brought lunch for the kids. And we relaxed for a few hours. It was a restful Monday. And about 5pm, we went to dinner for Branden's early birthday dinner. celebration. He wanted to go to Jolly Pasta. And we're lucky now that there are 2 Jolly Pasta's in Ibaraki now. There used to be just the 1 in Mito. Which is way too far for us. But now there's one way closer to us. This one just opened September 27th this year. It's a 30 minute drive from our home. Where as the other one in Chiba was an hours long drive. So this ones much closer. And the one in Chiba City has traffic for days. Where this one is all inaka back roads and no stop lights. So we zipped there in no time. 

The most beautiful sunset the 4 of us saw on Monday October 23rd long after the typhoon had passed. On our way to dinner. 

Throwback Thursday...

October 15, 2008. I had made curry and rice for supper. I had also according to my pics with dates. I baked a batch of homemade from scratch oatmeal raisin cookies that morning too. So the kids had already eaten supper, had some cookies and taken nice hot soapy sudsy showers and were in their PJ's. As you know all October long we watch Halloween movies. And since they were just wee little kiddos. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Sally is very mad that she wasted her whole night in the pumpkin patch with Linus versus going out trick or treating and getting candy!!!

Everyone got candy except for Charlie Brown. He received rocks!!! Poor Charlie Brown.

Noah enjoying, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Wearing his green dinosaur long johns from Target. And he has a nice cozy fleece blanket he can cuddle with too. 

Branden also enjoying the movie. Wearing his Spiderman PJ's from Target too. And just a disclaimer, our house is centrally heated, so every room and everywhere in our home is super hot all winter long and we also have heated floors downstairs and it feels like you're walking on a pancake griddle. So our kids don't need super thick fleecy PJ's. In our house they'd be overheated wearing those. Thinner PJ's in winter... but still long sleeve and stuff is enough for our home. Americans you will understand since all your homes are also centrally heated. But most homes in Japan are not centrally heated. And so they wear super thick winter clothes. Sleep with hot water bottles and the whole shebang. So I am sure people living in houses without central heating probably thought wow...her kids must be cold by looking at these 2 pics. And so just thought I would nip that thought right in the bud real quick..."no, our house is not cold and neither are my kids." It's actually super hot all Winter long. So if you saw this pic of my kiddo in just long johns or just Spiderman PJ's. Rest assured...it's perfect for our home with central heating plus heated flooring, any thicker PJ's and they'd overheat and melt.  

The batch of cookies I baked from that day. Good thing, I took pics of almost everything. : )

Anyway so anything to add? Yes! Branden has mid-terms this week. In high school they break it up in days rather than lumping all subjects in one day. So Wednesday, Thursday (today) and Friday (tomorrow) Branden is taking 2 tests each day! He took 2 tests yesterday and then came home. Today he will take 2 tests and come home too. And same for tomorrow. Yesterday, Branden was at our train station at 1pm! I went and picked him up! So, I imagine today he will also be arriving back in our town at 1pm too. Why do they get off early? The kids are getting off early, so they can go home and study for the next days tests. Branden left this morning feeling very comfortable for today's 2 tests. He studied and prepared a lot yesterday and frankly since last week he's been studying in his spare time.

Our entire family has a flu shot appointment for this Saturday. I made the appointment the last week of September. Seems every weekend we had something. Undokai. Town undokai. Culture Day. A movie. So, I made sure this weekend was just reserved for flu shots. Which shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes for us all. And we also have to do some Winter clothes shopping this weekend too. And hopefully relax, especially for Branden... with all his tests being finished... heck rest and relaxation for the weekend for all of us sounds super excellent. And watch a movie at home Saturday night. Oh, I swapped dinner nights. Instead of making curry soup last night how I was supposed to according to the menu I write for myself. I made tacos last night. And I am making American style fried pork chops tonight with either Rice a Roni or buttered noodles and a side of broccoli. And Saturday we will be having curry soup. I did that because if we go out shopping Saturday in the day...a nice easy curry nabe is super easy to do after a full day of winter clothes for the kids shopping. So that's why I switched/swapped a few of the meals set for certain nights. We might go clothes shopping Sunday though, so it depends. And it's nice that I have ingredients for all meals, but can swap or switch nights though. : )

Anything else? This morning, I washed Noboru's and my bedding. It's in the dryer right now as I type. I have been washing the kids bedding on Saturday's like I said. But ours I wash on the weekday whenever I don't have a load of regular laundry in there. And today, I don't have enough laundry for a full load, so I decided it would be a good time to throw our blankets in the washer as soon as I dropped Noah off at school. And as for the dry time at home...they only take 30 minutes to dry. My dryer is amazing! Dries up stuff in no time.

How's the weather in our part of Japan? It's raining quite hard today. My windshield wiper blades were on the fastest setting all day whenever I was driving my car. It's very gray and just an ugly looking day outside. So glad I am home inside all toasty warm. Have a house full of groceries. My house smells like Gain dryer sheets, since the bedding is in the dryer, lol! Anyway have a great day ya'll. Stay warm. : )

Oh also sorry one more thing. The last 3 DVDs were shipped from Amazon.com already. I think the hold up was because of Spiderman Homecoming not being released until a few days ago on DVD. Anyways...3 DVDs coming to my house. And the DVD, I am most excited about is...The Big Sick. I can hardly wait. And the delivery time said it should be arriving on Friday/tomorrow. I hope that...delivery date is accurate. Would love to watch that this weekend. Although we only watch 1 movie a weekend. So that would mean Everything, Everything would have to be put on the back burner. Hmm. Decisions decisions. And if we watched everything in one weekend...that would mean we have no other movies for the rest of Fall to look forward to...but if I space them out...1 a weekend. We will have plenty of movies to last us...until Thanksgiving at least. : ) Anything else to add? I'll be having leftovers for lunch today, so that means I will be having tacos for lunch. Also the Blacklist comes on tonight. American Horror Story Cult was on last night and omg it's getting so good. Anyways...I'm gonna go. Have a great Thursday. And a nice weekend. And stay warm!!!  : )