Odds and ends! : )

Our weekend was pretty awesome. Yet again spent at home. We had a small family BBQ, just for our little family on Saturday. Just the regular basics we usually make. We had yakiniku (Korean BBQ meats), beef and chicken. Veggies and just the usual. We made a Tsutaya run on Saturday evening, after dinner and our showers, as well. Rented just one movie this time. We rented, "My Super ex-girlfriend", with Uma Thurman. Oh man! So hilarious! Granted certainly not an academy winning movie here. And no, I wouldn't exactly wanna buy this DVD either. But still really funny and a great way to end Saturday! Sunday, we watched the boys splash in their paddling pool and slide down their slide. And in the evening. I made yakisoba. A few other things I made this week were chicken and pork cutlet (pork for Noboru and chicken for the boys and I). Sara udon/chicken chow mein for you from North America. And a few other meals of course as well, oh yeah I also made ginger pork as well.

At my husbands work, they share DVD's a lot. One person buys something and the rest, who ever wants a copy, they burn it for them. We personally have shared heaps of our DVD's for my hubby's coworkers to burn. So, anyway a guy who just came back from the US a bit ago, bought the Billy's Blanks exercise DVD. He asked if anyone wanted a copy. A few did, but some didn't because it's in English. However, the fact it was in English sounded pretty good to me. He he. It's the newest one that's out in the US, right now. He said this one isn't even being sold in Japan yet. I see the infomerical for the Billy's Bootcamp in Japan right now, and this one is newer. So I guess the guy was right. Anyway, Noboru asked me, if I wanted a copy. I said sure. And so the guy made me a copy right away. I have been using it for 3 days so far. What do I think? Ha! It's hard. The guys at NWA, all say, as of yet, nobody can last longer then 20 minutes! I so far have finished the first DVD. Branden did it with me, yup, I have an exercise partner, not that he needs it, he's as skinny as a noodle lol. But anyway, yes it's hard. The last 10 minutes were so hard, I thought "I hate this thing", ha ha ha. But the first 40 minutes is fun. I am not sure if I will be able to keep it up, who knows. : )

Other good news. Noah is now taking poops, unchi's (Japanese for poop) craps or whatever you want to call them, in the toilet now. I was actually going to share a pic of said, first pooh, but my husband won't let me share that! Can't say I blame him though, pee is one thing, pooh is totally another. But yes, he is peeing and pooping in the toilet. All day long. He did pee on the floor once downstairs a few days ago. But, since there's no carpeting downstairs and in fact I rolled up the small rectangular rug under our coffee table and put it away for the time being. He can't possibly ruin anything. He still uses a diaper for sleeping though. But yeah, we are pretty proud of our little Noah-chan! I'd say he is about 90-95% potty trained. I know, many of you are sharing what's going on with our life through this blog, for that I say, thank you. So, I thought you guys would be happy to hear some good news and share in this milestone, we are about to cross! Now, we are leaving next week for a few days. not sure how that will affect his potty training, Hmm. We shall see! : )

Noah in his Dragon Tales underwear! Ha ha ha! : )

Branden's Kumon bag finally came in. They give you 2 choices. One is plain navy blue. And then they also had this one, that is navy too, but it also has some color to it, like a nice bright happy yellow color. Plus the fact the plain navy is smaller and wouldn't hold his 3 ring binder. So, we went with the yellow and navy one. When he started Kumon, she had a few plain navy ones. But the yellow one, she had to order, since it was out of stock, so we waited a few weeks and now it's here. By the way, the bags were free. It just the parents choice which ever one they want for their child, is all. Anyway not earth shattering news, I suppose, but his bag came in, that's all.

Kids in Japan have so many school bags, don't they? Yochien bags, school back packs, swimming back packs and now Kumon bags as well. Sheesh, I am going to write a whole post devoted to school bags really soon! : )

Really didn't want to order online. But, I needed a navy blue pair of Crocs is the size bigger then B has now. I went to the Crocs stores near me. Both of them. Funny they had every other color for the kids in Branden's size. But they didn't have his size in the color we needed. Grrr, sometimes things are just like this aren't they? Ha ha ha. So, I went to the Crocs Japan site and ordered them, no problem. And today they came.

No real excitement here, geeze he had them already, he just needed the larger size. I also had to switch all B's jibbitz to these shoes. Grumble, grumble, ha ha ha! Good to have them all switched over now though. And the Crocs B outgrew will hide in the shoe closet until either Noah can fill those shoes, or until they go outta style, whichever comes first. Ha ha ha!

Any other news to share? Hmm. This week is going to be another quiet, uneventful week at home. Branden has all his classes this week. I also have to inform the swim school, starting in September, that he will once again, cut his swimming down to once a week, versus the twice a week he goes in the summer.

PS, My mil received the video. She apparently really liked it. She even mailed me back a 2 page letter, thanking me and telling me, she is glad, I am her sons' wife. I was so shocked, happy but shocked, I nearly fell right off my chair. Ha ha ha. Not saying we are best friends or anything now. But, I do hope we have an improved relationship and we can actually stay this way, this time, who knows. Knocking on wood because I really do want to like her. And I want her to like me, because I am married to her son. So, anyway just keeping an open mind with all this.

And PSS, we are going to Osaka next week sometime for a couple nights. We have done the short flight to Guam thing at the beginning of July. And now we wanted to take a small trip in Japan. Enjoy some of Japan. So, we will be driving through a great deal of Japan and seeing all it has to offer. Making many pit stops along the way, to take pictures, to eat and whatever. We also will be taking the boys to Universal Studios, Japan in Osaka while we are there, as well. So, anyway that is what we will be doing next week. But for now, this week we will be doing the usual staying home stuff, and a few classes here and there. I think Branden's school resumes September 3rd, (again I think). So basically we are just trying to make the most of our summer and especially what's left of it, just really trying to enjoy ourselves basically. Same ol' ,same ol', but there you have it! : )

A karaoke afternoon and a night full of DVD's! : )

Today Noboru didn't have to work. We wanted to do something, but we didn't know what. We thought "hmm, haven't gone singing in a while" "yeah, let's go to karaoke". At our karaoke place, there is a free unlimited drink bar for as long as you stay, just as long as you start singing before 6:00 pm. Otherwise you have to pay for the drink bar, but the price isn't too bad either. But we got there way before then, so our drinks were free for all four of us. This pic is of the drink bar, they have all sorts of sodas, like coke and melon, orange soda, calpis, etc. They have hot drinks which is nice in the winter. Hot coffee, hot soup, hot cocoa, etc. They also have teas and 2 frozen slurpee type drinks. They have orange or melon slurpee. Between you and me, I always pick my first drink to be the orange slurpee. And often switch to other things. Both the boys had melon slurpees.

Branden sang a few songs. He sang, 2 Ultraman songs. He sang, "It's a small world" after all and a few more.

This is the song Branden sang! Noah cheered and clapped! Ha ha ha! We all did actually! : )

There's Branden singing yet another song. We sang for 3 long hours! Things is, we had so much fun, it didn't even seem like 3 hours though, seemed shorter. Geeze, we sang a bunch of songs! A very nice way to spend an afternoon though.

Noboru had curry and rice! The boys had a large order of french fries to munch on, as we waited for our 2 small pizzas to be made as well. Plus the drink bar and we were all set to enjoy our afternoon! : )

Noboru was singing a few Godiego songs, and so Branden had time to play a a quick game on his DS game, while he waited for his song to show up. Noah on the other hand was unsure if he should cheer with the chop sticks or cheer with the maracas (sp?), he ended up opting for the tambourine. Ha ha ha! : )

Noboru singing another song. He sang so many songs! I sang a bunch myself. I sang a lot of Madonna, a lot of the Beatles. Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive. One song by Lily Allen, which I sang that pretty good actually, I surprised myself on that one. I also sang a lot of the Beach Boys. And Boz Skagg's "We're all Alone". Much more but you get the idea! Ha ha ha. Whoops, one more, I also sang, 2 songs by Supertramp! Ha ha ha! : )

Here are our 2 small pizzas, errr, or what's left of them anyway, ha ha ha. All in all, we had a really amazing afternoon. Just singing away, munching on some food and drinking countless amounts of slurpees and sodas. All while singing many many songs! A very fun afternoon! So we left the karaoke and got into the car at 6:30 pm. We still wanted to do something else. So we thought why not, head to Tsutaya and rent some movies. So we did. : )

And then we came home. We obviously neglected going to Tsutaya for quite some time, because there were about 5 movies at least, I had been wanting to see and I didn't even know they were out. Wow, has it been a month since we last rented some DVD's? Yikes, I guess so. So anyway we just rented ourselves 3 DVD's. 2 for us and 1 Ultraman DVD for the boys. They watched the Ultraman on their mini DVD player with headphones. And we watched our 2 movies. We rented The Pursuit of Happyness (seriously no, it's not happiness, it's spelled happyness in the movie), this movie is with Will Smith and it's based on a true story. This movie was really good! It's about a guy, he has no college education but he's seriously smart. Good with numbers. However, he is very poor, financially speaking. Like 3 month's late on the rent. Wife and him are fighting all the time. She is working double shifts, she is miserable and exhausted. He is trying to sell these machines that nobody really wants to buy. Wife leaves him. He wants the son. She gives him the son. And he gets evicted. Then they move to a motel. They get evicted from there as well. They sleep in the bathroom at the subways station. He cries, sitting on the floor while his son (his real life son btw with Jada) was sleeping. It's heart wrenching. He goes for an intern position and gets it. He ends up with a job. But it shows such hardship. They stay at the shelter sometimes. It's just a really good movie. I really wanna buy this movie the next time I go back to the US. It's good. The other movie we rented was a light hearted movie. A comedy. It's called Date Movie. It's with the red head girl from Buffy, Willow, you know the girl who was also in the American Pie movies, the "band geek", ha ha ha. Alyson Hannigan is her name. Anyway this movie spoofs like 6 or so real date movies. Like for example, Meet the Focker's , How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, or Brig Jones Diary and other movies like that as well. It's really funny! : )

We also got the boys 2 happy meals on the way home from Tsutaya. It was Noboru's idea. He said the kids might get hungry later and since tonight was a non cooking night for us (and we usually always cook at home, so this was a nice non cooking night), so anyway they could eat that if they got hungry. We also got some ice-cream from Mc D's on the way home. I got the Oreo and caramel Mc Flurry. Noboru got a cherry sundae. We all took quick 5 minute or so showers and shampooed up real quick. Changed into our jammies. And then the boys watched their movie and munched on Mc Donald's. Meanwhile Noboru and I started in with the first movie and munched on a bowl of popcorn and some Reece's Pieces. Have a good night everyone.

PS, Branden has swimming tomorrow, the swimming school opened up on Thursday (today) since it's been closed for o-bon (sp?), but Thursday isn't B's swimming day and with us at karaoke and our night home with DVD's obviously we are busy. But tomorrow is one of his regular swimming days and with it being open, he gets to go there tomorrow. He's been working on his diving lately!

PSS, I sent my mil a DVD of the boys this morning as well. I had started taping it last week. Nothing major, but I don't do it too often. And I thought how my family gets to read this blog and they are so up to date on the kids. However my in-laws, have only a vague idea B takes swimming, they have no idea how good he is. They have no idea he is in Kumon etc. So, I thought I am once again going to extend that olive branch out and so I sent them a video of the boys. I felt like a real nerd dragging my camcorder with me everywhere, but I did it for my in laws. I whipped it out at the swimming school last week. I spoke in Japanese while taping, and described the best I could, what swimming move he was doing. I zoomed in and I zoomed out. Boy was my face red. ha ha ha. I then took it to Kumon and caught B on camera and waved as he went into the building. I even taped Branden doing a study session with, Noboru. I brought out the camcorder for the BBQ we had last week when our friends were here, I only taped for a few minutes and I guess, I just hope it shows to the in-laws, that our boys are keeping busy and they do have oodles of friends. I then had both the boys tell grandma anything they wanted. Branden talked into the camcorder and told her some stuff like, he likes Ultraman and Spongebob, he also told her he has some kabuto mushi and he showed her on video his bugs. Noah, on the other hand, playfully told grandma he was being a doggy at that moment and then proceeded to get around on all 4 fours and barked in Japanese, "wan wan". LOL, kids huh? I sent it off and I wrote a very nice letter in there as well. I wonder if they got the video yet? I hope they like it. Hmmm. Crossing fingers they appreciate it! Oh well, I tried and that's all I can do, right? : )

The Transformers, Ratatouille and Shrek 3! : )

Our family has been dying to see a few new movies recently. The Transformers and Ratatouille and Shrek 3. So, I downloaded/borrowed them off the Internet. Usually, I burn them onto DVD's so we can watch them on the our TV. I also keep them on the computer as well. Shrek 3 was awesome, so funny, that Noboru and the kids and I laughed our butts off so much! I downloaded that one about 3 weeks ago. And last week, I got the Transformers. So today after playing out in the backyard for a while. The boys came inside. Noah took a nap on the couch. And Branden, wanted to watch a movie, since he didn't have any classes to run to today, but since Noah was sleeping, he watched it quietly on the computer. Here he is watching the Transformers, munching on some popcorn and drinking a Kool-Aid drink pouch.

After the Transformers was done. I said, do you wanna take a break from watching movies? He asked if he could watch one more. So since it's summer and he does get lot's of study time, and play time outside I figured why the heck not. So I said, sure go ahead honey. This movie is so funny you guys! I'll give you a brief idea what the movie is about. But don't worry I won't ruin the ending or anything. LOL. It's basically about a rat named Remy, he dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of him being a rat, ha ha ha. This movie is so good you guys!

This little guy on the right is the bad guy! Ha ha ha. And just because I download from the internet doesn't mean I won't buy them. I will totally be buying Shrek 3 and the Transformers and *especially*, Ratatouille. In my opinion, the best kids movie I saw in a long time was Finding Nemo. I often compare them to that. Such as, when I we saw and bought the DVD Cars, for the boys. I thought, is it good? Yes of course it's a good movie. But is it "Finding Nemo type good"? Not really. Chicken Little good film, but again not equal to Finding Nemo. See what I mean? That's what I secretly measure my kids movies to, since I thought Nemo was such a fantastic film. I must say, I think Ratatouille is actually, as good and as funny as Nemo. It's right on the same level. And of course the Shrek movies are also the best too! So, yeah I ask myself is it Shrek or Nemo type good? Ha ha ha. : )

This is the good guy in the film. The red haired guy. He's the friend of Remy the rat. So anyway, just downloading a few movies in my spare time here and there. I hope to download/borrow the new Harry Potter movie next. : )

My FBC order arrived! : )

Remember last week, I mentioned that I wanted a few things that they didn't have at Costco in Makuhari. You know, sometimes a person who lives overseas really can miss those things from home.So, I placed my small little order and waited every day and checked my mail box with a great big cheesy grin. Today when I heard a large truck pull up and stop, I knew what it was. I slipped my shoes on and the poor delivery guy never even had a chance to ring the bell, ha ha ha. I was really ready! I signed and he drove away and left me to my boxes. Good thing the kids were still asleep, because it gave me time alone to open the boxes all to myself. Talk about utter glee and happiness here. Ha ha ha. *Happy sigh* One box was frozen stuff and the other was obviously non frozen stuff, ha ha ha. : )

Comfort food. I tell ya, doesn't really matter if you are, Irish American. Or, Italian American or African American, or so on. If you grew up in the US, chances are pretty high, you grew up liking Taco bell or other fast food Mexican type stuff.

And with me being in Japan, and obviously there's not a Taco Bell here. I do miss, fast food type treats like this. Costco, or at least my Costco doesn't sell any frozen stuff like this. But thankfully the FBC does. I haven't had anything like this in a long time. I missed it and thought what the heck. So, here they are. 4 bean and cheese, burritos and 2 packs of those nacho things (they look more like those pizza pocket things). All, I can say is yumm. The price is a bit high. But heck, this is the only choice we have here in Japan, so I will take it. I will totally be ordering these again. Maybe like every 2 months or so, for a little treat to myself! : )

And here is the rest of the goodies. I ordered a Foreign Buyers Club brown bag, for grocery shopping or carrying other stuff, from maybe swim school and what not. A bottle of Soft Scrub because it was on sale and I could really use it. A Parents magazine. Sure I could have my folks send me one, but I certainly don't mind buying by own either and since I was ordering from FBC anyway, I figured, why not. Skippy peanut butter, I didn't need that gigantic sized one from Costco. And this one is from Japan, however it's not sold around where I live, and I need it for my celery and other things. Ha ha ha. I also ordered some study things for B. He likes to study and I thought he might enjoy getting a few new things to study with. : )

I'm sorry to say it but, I really disliked the Dr. Maggie books with CD that we had to buy separately. I won't be buying the Dr. Maggie books again. To be fair, I am sure someone in the world likes them. But I don't. The CD, was really hard to understand. She started with the cover and said, who wrote the book super fast, who illustrated the book super fast again, blah blah blah, yada yada. This CD just said stuff that didn't really capture the interest of my child or even myself. My child wanted to know about all the wonders of the story, not who illustrated the book. I found it quite boring. The CD went way too fast. We were flipping the pages so darn fast, that neither of us could remember what the story was about even. We felt frustrated and although we went through it again. It was just not our cup of tea at all. I was going to buy the phonics book and CD about Clifford the Big Red Dog, but went back and forth trying to decide between the Dr. Maggie books or the Clifford. Now I regret it and I wish I woulda went with my gut and got the Clifford ones! I will be buying Branden the Clifford phonics books next week or so. That said. The phonics cards are exceptionally nice. I love them and the price of only 500 yen, is a really great value! Plus they show real pictures of a real dog versus a cartoon or just drawing. I noticed Branden was really interested in these cards. The words they chose are great. He loves going through the cards with me, just 15 minutes each day. The picture word cards are also fantastic. I love the flash cards they sell at FBC. I felt bad I ordered the book and CD, I did and regret buying that. Wish I coulda got the Clifford phonics one, like I mentioned. But all in all, I was really happy with my order. And I will be ordering B that Clifford book this week or next week sometime.

Anyway, comforts from home are truly a blessing and a very good way, to help maintain the happiness of expats like myself! Ha ha ha. Have a good night every one! : )

Sunday! : )

Today, we headed to the grocery store around 3:00 pm. Since we live way off in the country side. If I shop locally, I go myself. No need for the hubby to tag along. But when we do a larger type shopping, and we have to drive a bit farther away. It's usually better for Noboru to come, that way we can just have dinner someplace. So that's what we did today. Here's Noah, in the mini van right before we left the house today.

Noboru and Noah at the Joyful Honda, in Tomisato, just after finishing our grocery shopping! Boy did we buy a lot of food! : )

Branden right after doing the grocery shopping, holding daddy's hand! : )

We went to have Chinese food for dinner afterwards near the grocery store! Here's my meal! I had the special. Ha ha ha! Egg drop soup. Karaage, fried rice, gyoza and a cabbage salad! Boy, was I stuffed afterwards! : )

Branden getting some help from his ever helpful pappa! Ha ha ha! : ) Noboru's food came out next, and Noah was eating already! Dinner was great. We came home, put the groceries away. Took showers and hung out for the rest of the night.

PS, this coming week is a holiday in Japan, I think. It seems many people are off this week. For o-bon (sp?), I think is what it's called. Anyway most families are returning to visit their parents home or grandparents home. In any case, for us, Noboru didn't want to drive to Osaka this week because he thought the roads would be too congested (but we will be going to Osaka in the coming months). But in any case we are staying home this week. Geeze, are we homebodies or what? Ha ha ha! Anyway, Branden has no swimming lessons this week or Kumon this week either! So, we will be having yet another lazy, fun week at home! Yay! : )

Got nachos? Ha ha ha! : )

The day after the BBQ. I felt sorta lazy. Not really like doing much. Noboru worked in the morning, got off by 2:00 pm. We needed to head to the store to get a weeks worth of food. But I knew we weren't going Saturday. So, I dug through the fridge and food pantry. Had a look around. I knew whatever we would be eating for dinner, would be coming from whatever I could fish out. So, I made nachos! Ha ha ha. Good thing, I have plenty of cans of plain chili beans. And I fried up some diced chicken breasts and used some taco seasoning on that. Thank goodness we had some leftover salad. I got the lettuce out from that (oh how embarrassing but true, lol). Left over guacamole dip and salsa. Left over chips. melted cheddar cheese. And voila, dinner was done within 15 minutes. I was glad, because I didn't really feel like cooking today. I made *2* of these great big plates of nachos actually. We all just dug in, with fingers and forks. And sat around watching TV. We had a pretty nice dinner actually. Not bad for not coming up with something at first, huh? Ha ha ha! : )

A BBQ with friends! : )

Sorry you guys, the day of the BBQ, it was all so fun! So many people. So much to do. People to talk to. Plus the hubby and I took turns flipping the stuff on the grill, though he did most of it. Plus watching our two boys. And being a proper little hostess, meant I didn't have much time to take actual good pictures from that day! Ha ha ha! Although I did take some. So anyway, let me give you the run down of how our day went. The BBQ, was set to start at 1:00 pm. At 11:00 am, is when I started prepping all the food. Chopping the chicken, marinating it with the yakiniku sauce. Washing off the potatoes, and other various veggies. Slice bell peppers. Rinsing the corn off and flipping their husks back on, to protect them from the grill. I was busy. At noon, is when I went upstairs, took myself a quick shower, threw my face on and got changed and continued with cooking right up until they came. In this picture is the chicken that got a pretty nice marinating in the fridge for a few hours. The veggies stood in the sheet until they were thrown onto the grill.

Now I like sweet potatoes. Japanese people as a whole,are also quite fond on them. My husband on the other hand likes them, but he isn't necessarily in love with them either. It was against his better judgement to use them for today. But I insisted. Turns out, I was right. They were a hit! They were gone in no time. He was shocked! Ha ha ha! : )

With all of us living so close to Narita airport. And with many people working at Narita airport, or for an airline. One of our friends, she works at Narita airport. And her husband, who also joined us today. he is a big wig, high, high up manager for the customs in Japan. He is able to get so much stuff. They brought us this case of mangoes from Taiwan. We cut up about half of the case at the BBQ. But oh man where they good! So sweet, so delicious. He also told Noboru, if we ever want to bring anything to Japan, he will do the paper work on it. And push it through, no problem. Very nice family! : )

There were 10 kids in total. And immediately we had all 10 kids playing in the pool. Then bit by bit some got pooped out. So they changed clothes and swang on the swings. Or ate! Ha ha ha! Even Noah swam, but even he switched clothes after a while too. Branden and Aoi-kun and his sister Itsuki-chan were the last 3 kids playing in the water. If you see the 2 little girls way in the background. They are the little twins that also came to our Easter party. They are so cute! Their names are Mio-chan and Mao-chan. There mom is a pretty good friend of mine. And her husband is a pediatrician. They are an awesome family! I love when they come over!

We had so much food. It was nuts! And our BBQ grill is pretty big to begin with. But we actually had to grill this stuff and then the cheeseburgers and chicken went on afterwards. Boy were these ribs a hit! Ha ha ha! : )

Cheeseburgers, galore! Salad! They loved the chips and salsa. I didn't know if they would like it or not. But they loved the chips and salsa! Ha ha ha! : )

The corns, were done, now I buttered and salted and peppered mine. My friend was shocked. She had never buttered and salted corn. Not a common way to eat corn in Japan, I guess. But, she said it was so good. They all started buttering their corns and salting their corns, it was funny! They loved the corn that way! : )

Group photo of who showed up. But, I accidentally didn't take a picture of the other lady that was there, as well. There was 1 more lady there. Whoops! Here we have the pic of the husband and wife wearing the white tank tops. They are so cool and nice (they both work at Narita airport)! We found out that that couple and Noboru and I are all exactly the same age, lol. Then Asako-san, in the blue shirt (the twins mom, she went to uni in Hawaii). Rie-san in the hat and black jeans and hat (she used to be a flight attendant for ANA)! Phew, I hope I mentioned everybody, ha ha ha! : )

So many cars, they had to take up space in the street. I worried the neighbors would bitch about it, but none of them were home and the ones that were home didn't mind in the least! Phew! : )

Branden brought out his kabuto mushis. Many of these kids have their own, especially since we live in the country side. But nonetheless, they all liked looking at them.

Rie-san holding a kabuto mushi.

Even Noah got in on the action and looked! Ha ha ha! : )

This was some of the things they brought for the BBQ. Of course the giant case of mangoes as well. But one lady, brought homemade cookies, and homemade berry tarts. Another mom brought some really nice teas. And another brought some Blueberry juice from Canada. I think that also came from the family whose husband is a customs head at Narita. All in all, it wasn't about who brought yummy goodies or not, although everybody did. It was about having a good day. A delicious BBQ, and spending it with friends. Good friends. Real friends. Now I hope that doesn't sound hokey, if so, so be it! But, just having a good relaxing day at home, kicking back with some friends, and enjoying some good eats! It was a pretty right on day! We will totally be having more BBQ's and more get togethers in the future! The feeling is just so awesome! Be around such good people, and funny as hell to hang with! : )

PS and this awesome day made me reflect on something. ( now,I think back on high school fondly.) I have heaps of friends from that time, but I also remember how trivial some people could be. Some people enjoyed being hateful. Being cruel to others seemed to be the only thing that could make them happy or give them a since of worth, by taking someone else down a notch or two. Talking trash about people they would be jealous of in school. So much back stabbing. Two faced people. I hated people like that. I always have. I swear those people grew up and must be the same exact way, but as adults. I've never been into getting into that whole. "okay let's every body all, hate X-girl or such and such girl" type attitude (usually stems from jealousy.) I can certainly make up my own mind, if I want to be a friend with someone or not. Although women can be meaner/crueler then men. I just thought today after the BBQ, how nice it is to meet, nice normal adults. Nice wonderful people, who could give a shit less, about that petty stupid stuff. I guess I must just be in a really good place in my life. I have good friends! Down right wonderful friends actually! Having real "true blue" friends, really is something I place a high value on! Anyway I could be babbling, who cares. But I am glad I have a good circle of friends to enjoy my life with and family as well! And I think after knowing one or two hateful spiteful two-faced people in my life, gives me a greater appreciation for the wonderful true friendships, I have now! Okay I better stop babbling. He he! But the BBQ, was awesome, you guys! : )

Costco with friends! Getting ready for this Friday's BBQ! : )

So, today was the day we all hit Costco in Makuhari! Rieko and her 2 kids, and another friend of ours, whose child also attends the same yochien as Branden and who will also be showing up for Friday's BBQ. Her name is Mayumi! And me! This was sadly the only picture I snapped yesterday during our trip. I think just so much going on. And add the fact, I hadn't been to Costco in month's. So I had so much to see. And they had never been to this place, so they had so much to look at as well. We went up and down every single aisle. Upstairs, I didn't buy much except for some toilet paper and some Cascade dish washing detergent. But the food floor, the first floor was a different story because I had so much to get. But then, in my defense (not that I really need to defend myself but, he he) we hadn't been there in ages! : )

Most of this stuff is for our family to consume, not for the BBQ. Avocados, are for guacamole dip, and they are cheap as chips to buy them at Costco, versus buying them at my local Japanese store. Celery, cheaper for me to buy here and great for making peanut butter celery sticks for snacks for the boys. Zucchini, we all love this at our house and it's cheap to buy at Costco. The potatoes, we bought here for the BBQ. We will be having baked potatoes for the BBQ.

The eggs were free because I had to renew our membership and we did it early which is why we got free eggs. With this many eggs, not quite sure what we can do with these many? Maybe eggs for breakfasts this week, over easy, omelets. Some hard boiled for snacks and maybe even egg salad, who knows. but I will have to finish up all these eggs soon. And no way, would I pass up free eggs. It's the cheapskate in me, ha haha. So we will just have to figure out how to consume all of them. Ha ha ha. : )

Snack things. Not too many. Three bags of tortilla chips. Two of these are for the BBQ on Friday. And the other one is for our regular family use. Goldfish cheese crackers. Well over 2 pounds of these things! Our Costco just started carrying these and I like that they are a healthy snack for the kids. Better then eating candy. So I didn't mind so much getting the goldfish crackers for my boys. Plus they will last a long time. And Reese's Pieces is now at Costco Makuhari now! They weren't there, all these years I shopped there and they sure as heck weren't there a few month's ago, when I was there either! So, when I saw them on the Flying Pig website last week. I knew if I saw them at my Costco, I would be buying a bag, 100% sure! I purposely strolled the candy aisle, quietly thinking, *please oh please* have my fav candy, Reese's Pieces!!! And sure as heck they did! I grabbed a bag and it's well over 2 pounds worth of my favorite little treat! I think they were like 900 some odd yen. But definitely affordable enough for me to always buy myself a bag whenever I head to Makuhari from now on! Triple score for the Reese's Pieces! And if you count the celery sticks which we bought for making celery sticks with peanut butter, pictured somewhere up above, you will know we are peanut butter crazy at our house, ha ha ha : )

Bakery and fresh stuff: I brought home a baked peperoni pizza for dinner for my family for last nights dinner! A very cheap dinner! Those delicious yeasty dinner rolls. I, as usual split them in thirds and put 2 of the bags into the freezer already! And choco croissants, yumm!

Frozen waffles, Branden eats these when school is in session. Not sure if I will be back before September 1st, *probably not*, so I bought them now. 2 packs of American bacon. So good, and if it was cheaper, I'd buy more, but 2 is good enough. And 2 packs of flour tortillas, great for quesadillas or sandwich wraps. And from the deli area, I picked up some chicken enchiladas! I will be eating those enchiladas for lunch shortly. Ha ha! : )

Now this right here, is all for the BBQ! We bought 4 slabs of pork ribs! I picked the 4 cheapest ones, they were pretty affordable. They ranged from 1210 yen to, I think a whopping, 1330 yen. For you in the US, that's about $12.00 US per slab. We bought 2 KG (about 4 pounds I think or somewhere about that) of chicken breasts. And a big amount of lean ground beef. We will be cooking up about, sheesh about 30 or so cheeseburgers come Friday, 4 slabs of BBQ ribs, and marinated yakiniku type chicken. So we have a lot of meat! When I left Costco Makuhari, I think there was only 1 slab of ribs still there, as we left, but the rest we took! Ha ha ha! Sorry, anyone else who goes looking for the ribs this week at Costco Makuhari. Gomen nasai! (bows head apologetically)

Pace picante sauce for dipping into our tortilla chips come Friday. And goma dressing for the BBQ, but also frankly, we use so much goma ourselves with salads for our own family dinners. I figured it would be just cheaper for me to buy this giant bottle of it. That way, we can stop running to the store every week to buy another little one, little Mc Cormick one is nearly 300 yen and this big giant Kewpie one was under 600 yen or so, so it was cheaper to just buy this giant one. Now we are set for goma all summer long, no doubt, ha ha ha!

Toilet paper, I need unscented. Not really sure why, nearly every roll I can buy at the regular grocery store in Japan are always scented with something (grapes, peach, roses, mint etc). I'm quite sensitive down there. And I don't want to rub perfume down there, sorry if it's TMI. But sheesh. I need unscented. Meanwhile Japanese like scented TP. So it's just easier for me to buy the kind at Costco, it's unscented, enough said. Ha ha ha, hangs her head in shame for saying all that! : ) And paper plates for the BBQ.

For those of you not in Japan. The price of a can of coke, is normally 120 yen. Think about $1.20 for one can of soda! So it's not surprising that I buy a case of generic Costco brand coke whenever I head to Costco. This time I bought 2 cases. The cases are around 525 yen a case. Could be 565 a case, forgive me for not memorizing or knowing the price down to the yen, but it's about that. : )

All in all, we all had a blast going and shopping together! They *loved* Costco! My friend, Rie-san bought, a really cute long hug pillow for her daughter. It's pink and has the Disney princesses stitched on it. Air fresheners or something like that from upstairs, I forget. A bottle of wine, those mini boxes of Kellogg's cereal, a big bottle of oil, sunflower oil from Italy, and a few other things. The other one didn't buy anything, I don't think.

Most of the stuff I bought was for our own family's usage. And I felt sorta embarrassed buying so much. I found myself wincing at myself. And cringing! Ha ha ha! I worried, oh my god! I hope they don't think we are eating maniacs or anything! Or I worried if they thought, we buy this same amount every month or something. Which we don't, heck we don't even get to Costco too much as most of you friends who read this, know. Oh man was I embarrassed. I told them, I only come here every 3 month's. Still cringing at myself. Hoping they wouldn't think, sheesh that American bought *so* much food!!! Ha ha ha. How embarrassing! But then on the other hand, I did have to buy it, it was my only chance to be there this summer, so I had to take it. Catch 22 here. They didn't seem to mind so much though. Phew! : ) They were actually pretty cool about it!

But anyway, the meat is for the BBQ, and it's nice to know we are getting ready for it, this coming Friday! : ) Anyway sorry for the completely mundane post. What could possibly be more boring then grocery shopping right? But oh well. That is what I really did yesterday. So I thought I better post it anyways! : )

And if you are a fellow expat like me and you live far from Costco, and you ignore the meat bought for the BBQ because that doesn't count, I really didn't buy so much really. Just comforts from home is all. Comforts from home, make living in Japan, so much easier don't they? : )

I am also placing an order from the FBC this evening as well. Because I want to buy 1 pack of phonics flash cards for Branden. A phonics CD with book. And Costco sells some phonics stuff but not like FBC has at all, FBC has more. And I want a few other comforts from home, type food that Costco simply doesn't sell, so I will be buying these tonight. FBC does sell stuff that Costco doesn't and vice versus and to be fair they also sell some stuff that is the same. For instance though, at FBC they sell Italian sausage (I buy this a lot and I looked for it yesterday at Costco and they don't sell it) Anyway you all, I am starting to babble here! So I better cut this thing off!

Have a wonderful night everyone! : )