Preparing for the swimming competition tomorrow, My dad’s arrival to Denver complete, and a few other bits and pieces mixed in there for good measure...

Thursday, June 12th Noboru and I had a lunch date at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. I had my favorite kabocha curry, with naan and salad and a piece of tandoori chicken. It also comes with a drink, we both picked iced coffee. Noboru had the same set that I did, except he picked keema curry.  Thursday was a nice day, because the house was 98% clean/finished for the week. I did some light dusting and laundry the next day and scrubbed the sink room down real quick and then it was done done. We knew my dad's flight was set for the next day. The kids were safely at school and it was just a nice lunch date Thursday. 

Friday at 10:30am, we went to look again at the cake options while at Costco. I had thought Noboru had ordered Noah's cake already, but when I asked him about it a few days ago, he said he forgot, which is fine, believe me...it happens. So... but now we are thinking about ordering Noah a Costco cake. Here's the thing. We usually order delicious ice cream cakes from this amazing lady in Nagano and the price is comparable to the cost of Baskin Robbins cakes here in Japan too. Except hers are tastier. The only thing is, the size is always just enough with a family of 4 for each of us to get 1 normal slice of cake and then 1 super teeny tiny slice the next day. It's fine and all. And the cost is like $42 US 4200 yen or something like that. Here at Costco though...the cakes are $27 US/2700 yen... around that price and they are huge normal American cake size. So there would be enough for days! So now we are deeply swaying towards this. You can get like a Boston cream type cream inside or a chocolate whip cream inside. We are also, now thinking if we should get the balloon or soccer design. Also one more thing, it says 48 hours advance notice requested. Which is fine but we would prefer order like 2 weeks in advance if possible, is that okay too though. @.@ Again we will be back at Costco again a few more times, so we will ask the bakery folks about it on our next trip there. 

After sending the kids to school yesterday/Friday. Well Branden rode his bike first time of the week only because it was raining buckets all week except yesterday, first clear day was yesterday, so he rode his bike to school. Anyway, with the swimming meet/competition in mind and whatnot. Noboru and I ran together to Costco. Just picked up some essentials. 2 packs of pancakes which are now in the freezer. Dinner rolls. Sandwich rolls (for the swim meet). Tortillas. Big hunk of colby cheese (can be used for tostadas, enchiladas or gratin potatoes, anything really). Shredded Mozzarella cheese (we are having baked ravioli tonight). Skippy Peanut Butter. Margarine. Eggs, salad, case of yogurt (we eat tons of yogurt), provolone, sliced ham for sammy's for the swim competition and a roasted chicken for last nights supper. 

Yep you can see a hint of the yogurt hiding under the provolone cheese, but it is indeed there. : )

Lunch yesterday we had at Costco. 1 chicken provolone sandwich for me and 1 big cesar salad for Noboru. 

Aha...the peanut butter is now visible, 4lb jar of Skippy, far back left. Noah got out of school at 2:20pm, so just enough time for us to drive home to our Mayberry type town, put the food away and then I went and swung around to the plaza to pick up Noah and we went home. Branden rode home later. We had a roasted chicken, cheesy baked potatoes, steamed veggie and a simple salad. : ) 

I know Sunday/tomorrow we will be gone at the swimming competition *all day*. From at least 7am,-3pm. So laundry is out for me tomorrow. So it *has* to get done today or it just isn't gonna happen for us. So, I went upstairs early this morning and with that shoe cleanser and brush I quickly brushed 1 pair of shoes for Branden clean and 3 pair for Noah clean, tossed in the washer on the fast/quick wash and tossed outside to dry in the sun, in fact they are outside even now. I also tossed out my black ballet shoes with gold beads from Old Navy.  

Noboru's favorite gray house shorts with orange stripe from Uniqlo, Noah's jean shorts many of his are outside hanging today, Branden's green bandana he wore on Friday at school is drying out right now, their gym shirts and gym shorts are also out there now and Noah's lunch serving outfit is hanging out there too. This way, they can go back to school Monday with fresh everything and start the week that way. :  )

Potato plants are big and bushy and flowers were on top last week.  The zucchini plants are on the left, they are babies still though. : ) They need to get bigger still.

My dad has already arrived in Denver. He arrived Friday afternoon for you in America....for us in Japan, he arrived today around 11am-ish. He is now at my aunties and happy. : ) He called me at Narita airport, funny the good luck we have, just as he called, I was walking through the door with Costco goodies. I ran and picked up the phone, while he was leaving a message and we spoke for a few minutes. I wished him a lovely flight. : ) My dad called me in Minnesota for 2 minutes, just asking about the flight, I said you will have no trouble, enjoy the flight. : ) And amazing is that... the airport DIA, where I'm from (Colorado), has a complimentary 10 minute international call on their courtesy phones, so he called me to say he arrived. : ) I had been tracking my dad's flight the whole way, so I knew, but I admit, I was so happy when he called.  We are really close my dad and I, he sounded very tired, but happy. I said basically. "I love you dad, have a wonderful time and I'll talk to you in a couple days" So yep, my dad is back in Denver for his 2 week vacation now. : )

Meanwhile on the swimming news, Noah brought home a booklet... a thick one! Lists of who is swimming against who this coming Sunday/tomorrow, holy goodness so many people. I explained to my dad, "it's a half an inch thick this booklet!" hahaha. 4 swimming schools competing! 3 different swimming schools coming to our swim school for the battle. A swim school as far away as Funabashi is coming all the way here for it! 196 kids total will be competing! All our friends will be there. Noah's best friend from his yochien years H will be there. All my mama friends will be there. The only thing I am worried about is seating!??? @.@ I know our swim school only has 6 benches upstairs and well... how are 196 worth of parents going to fit upstairs on 6 benches? So seating is semi worrying for me. Lunch wise it's just gonna be simple ham and cheese with lettuce sammy's. Some fruit. Drinks. I'm not packing a 5 course meal or anything. Just as simple as possible. So today we are just sorta chilling here at home, relaxing because tomorrow, we could be upstairs with hundreds of parents. Hahaha. I'll fill you all in on that later. Noah knows we just want him to have fun and learn from this. That's it. : )

Meanwhile...Branden was given his syllabus/study guide for his final... he received it on Thursday, June 12th, his final is June 26th. He has 2 weeks to study his ever lovin' brains out, poor kid, good luck for that Branden, I know you can do it. : ) Between the midterm and the final for the semester... it seems as soon as you catch your breath from the midterm blammo, here comes the final for this semester! Yikes! Hahaha. : )

June 2014, means I haven't had many 2 day weekends during June. First week of June, I was working the kids club event. Which is fine. So I only had a 1 day weekend last weekend. And this weekend, I will spend Sunday at swimming school, for a swimming competition for Noah tomorrow. Again though no complaints, anything for my kids.... but this month, I will not get many 2 day weekends. : ) Next weekend, I have a yakuin meeting. So I think it is fair to say the final week of June, we will be *so* needing that overnight getaway near Mt. Fuji. Hahaha. It will be much needed for us all.

Swimming, both Branden and Noah start swimming at the local elementary school (for Noah) and the local JHS (for Branden) this coming week. So, I needed to pack them a swimming set, flip flops (we picked up at Old Navy both pair for 500 yen), the goggles they have them already and swim caps and stuff they already have and swimming towels they have a few each anyway, since they are swimmers anyway.

Anyway that's enough for now. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. : )

Summer vacation plans starting to take shape...

Are you going on a vacation this summer? Do you have anything fun planned?  Camping or backyard bbq maybe or perhaps a trip a little farther? : ) As for us and our family, we always like to take 1 big family vacation together in summer. This years original options were, Los Angeles, Hawaii, South Korea or Europe. After a lot of deciding and talking we managed to get it widdled down to Los Angeles or Hawaii. As of right now we are strongly leaning towards Los Angeles. I'd say it's a 90% chance we will be going to Los Angeles and a 10% chance we head to Hawaii. We love Hawaii, a lot, Branden was born there, we used to live there. And we seem to go there every summer for vacation, however we'd really like to take the boys to Universal Studios while they are at this age, and what a perfect age to go! Age 12 and 8 (well Noah will be a newly minted 9 year old by then : ) And yes we know  the Harry Potter ride is opening at USJ, same for in Florida too, I believe (won't open in the one in Hollywood until 2016, I think). However we'd like to to go the original Universal Studios, and just check it out. I haven't been to Universal Studios Hollywood since I was a child, so I'm excited. : ) Noah is so into the Transformers, so I know he'll be over the moon to ride this!

The Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride just opened and it looks super cool! We all can't wait for this ride. 

The Simpsons ride looks cool too!

Branden will dig this ride, I'm sure. : )

Jurassic Park-The Ride, we loved this ride at USJ. So it'll be nice to try this again. 

King Kong 360.

It's just gonna be a very cool/fun day for us. Riding and seeing so many fun things and okay some scary things too. Hahaha. : )

It will be nice to catch the shows in English, not that I mind having to catch them in Japanese most of the time here, but yes it will be nice to catch all the shows in English. : )

We have been in serious research mode...anytime I have free time where I'm not at a kids club thing or meeting or here at home spending time with my family. If we have free time, say while the kids are at school, we both are heavily researching. Best, cleanest, highest Trip Advisor reviews for hotels and affordable. Location, is it safe. Food, what's to eat nearby. Like right here, one day I was, researching what sort of food is available on the day we head to Universal Studios. They have Gru's Cafe.  El Macho Nachos (this cracks me up, because the names of foods are characters from Despicable Me.) Dr. Nefarios Lab salad. Banana Chocolate shakes (omg, I like choco banana flavored anything)...and the other place to eat... Despicable Delights, lol. 

At the mall walk. Which should be either right near Universal Studios or inside. I'm not sure, again we'll find out when we get there because I haven't been in a zillion years. And our kids have never been to Universal Studios Hollywood before, they've just been to USJ (Branden twice and Noah once). Pizza Hut Express, KFC Express....

Handmade pretzel shop, Yogurtland, and Subway...lots of choices... so eating at Universal Studios seems to be zero problem at all. Could be...too many good choice options... but that's not really a problem at all. : ) 

Again either in Universal Studios or at the mall walk near Universal...Tommy Hamburgers (famous place in California, as in a landmark type restaurant) and Taco Bell...

Panda express and Pinks Hot Dogs! Yeah... zero trouble food wise at all.

Louie's Pizza (yumm) and the Flintstone's Bar-B-Q.  LOL, the Flintstone's! 

Mel's Diner. And the shops to buy gifts from Universal Studios, they have the Kwik E Mart (from the Simpsons) probably can buy lots of Simpsons souvenirs there. And they also have a Transformers place to buy stuff from too. I imagine we will have to buy a few things from the Transformers shop. Hahaha. : )  Again, do we have summer vacation plans? You betcha! We're just keepin' things on the down low for right now. But yep...lots of online researching. When we go to Hawaii, we really don't have to research stuff because we know already. : ) Same for when we go to Denver. But, we are a bit unfamiliar with Los Angeles, so...that is why we are researching like crazy now...so by the time, we do get there, we at least have a general idea. A notebook of restaurants to try...I am already making sure are written down or a list of movie theaters to check out nearest us...or a list of closets Targets or Walmarts or outlet malls from our hotel, type information, you know what I mean, I hope. :  ) 

For example, one of my most favorite things to eat in the entire world, is a chili relleno burrito. So, I searched with keywords "best chili relleno burrito in Los Angeles" and a whole list on Yelp popped out. Yelp is a place that does reviews in the US, real reviews written by real people with real pics they take at the restaurant or whatever. Whenever we head to a city we are unfamiliar with, I always hit up Trip Advisor and Yelp! I just always do. : )  Turns out lots of people also *love* chili relleno burritios as much as I do. The highest ranked place is...La Azteca. Over 102 people say...they make the best! Well...okay then! I believe you! So, I'll try 'em! : )

It says..."but especially the chili relleno burrito, it was the best."  And in 2nd place is another restaurant which I also wrote down too. 

An Asian American guy named Tai, says La Azteca is the best for chili relleno burritos. Again in states like Colorado, California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, it really doesn't matter if you are Asian American, African American or Italian American, chances are, if you grew up in one of those types a states you are a Mexican food expert! 

This is Tai's review and that is his pic down below. Okay technically, I took a pic of his pic, so Tai gets all the credit, so glad he and the others shared pics because I was curious what it looked like. Thank goodness for sites like Yelp and the people who take the time to leave a review and share pics! We are coming all the way from Japan to try this place now! So thanks! : )

I must have looked at this pic and read the caption lots of times. That is so totally a handmade tortilla. *drools* hahaha. 

Another pic, courtesy of Yelp. But OMG, doesn't that look delicious. To me it does! So anyway...not trying to make a super hugely long post. But yep we are researching Los Angles like crazy insane right now. Restaurants. Best Italian, best this best that. We also plan to go to a few movies also. Oh when will we be going? We are shooting for immediately after the Summer Festival. Because I am a yakuin head, I *have* to be here for that. I can't get out of it. So, we are planning the very next day after that... is when we will leave. So right now the plan is at the end of July to head out on vacation. : ) Of course with us... the dates can always be changed and stuff depending on when they actually give Noboru his vacation days off and stuff. But at least it gives you a general idea of when. Either last week of July or first week of August at the latest. Type dates.  So 90% chance of Los Angles and 10% chance of Hawaii. Either way we will be looking forward to it. : )

Also, our family is taking a small weekend get away type trip to a hotel someplace near Mt Fuji last weekend in June. We have had a hotel reservation for that for over a month and it's just something we will be looking forward to. Especially since it will be right after Branden takes his finals. So some R&R will be surely needed for us all. : )

Also...sorry, one more thing. My dad is taking his summer vacation starting tomorrow. He will be flying to Denver for 2 weeks and will be staying with his sister, my auntie. : ) So my dad is really looking forward to that. And since he's flying non-rev/stand by. I will be monitoring his flight and connections off and on tomorrow, making sure he makes every connection. Guam to Narita (no time to visit, he's just connecting),  Narita directly to MN and then on to Denver. : )  If he should get bumped we will relist him immediately, but tomorrow's flight looks *really* good which is why I listed him on that flight in the first place. : )  So yep, plans are starting to form and take shape for sure! : )

Pics from our weekend...

Let's see, Friday morning, I had got the house cleaned and finished by 9:45am-ish (kids are gone by 7:20am at school already). So, I had the whole day to do whatever basically. So, since I usually, use a face mask and paint my nails on Sundays to be ready for a whole other week. *However* since I knew I'd be busy at the kids club thing on Sunday, I decided to do my personal care/just take care of myself then on Friday instead. I usually color my hair at home once a month, and it was time. It's just a basic brown color, I have been using for over a year. When I buy hair color in Japan, this is always the one I buy, in color "earl grey." I also put the Tony Moly plastic booties and liquid on my feet for 90 minutes because even though it's rainy season right now, sandal season could be any day, as long as it's not raining. So, my feet need to look nice, so I like to use these every few months. Your feet peel super crazy after about 5 days and then they are smooth and soft like a brand new foot. : ) I did this on Friday because I knew it wouldn't be peeling on Sunday. : ) I also painted my nails and gave myself a weekly face mask, Good thing the doorbell did not ring on Friday, because I would have looked quite scary with hair dye/color, face mask, feet in bags, lol. : )

The Sally Hansen one, I bought at Target last year, I like this color in Summer. Very feminine. And the sparkly pink in the middle, I put on top of the Sally Hansen one and then I layer it with a clear top coat, far right to prevent chipping. The sparkly one and top coat I bought at the 100 yen. I did my toe nails and my finger nails, so I'd be ready for the thing on Sunday, because I knew I'd basically see the entire town population there, and sure I did, hahaha. And also I do believe in taking good care of yourself. : )

Kept this on for 20 minutes. It really brightens the face. : )

This was our finished dinner Friday. We did have green beans with this. I like to make a nice big filling breakfast for the boys every morning, as you know, scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage, pankcakes, Yakult, yogurt, the whole bit. And I also know how hungry they come home from school, so I like to make a nice great big filling dinner every night too. I want to know they're well fed and that it's pretty much ready when they come through the door. : )

We did have movie night on Friday after dinner and showers were done. And everyone had some popcorn and it was just a nice way to enjoy the start of the weekend. 

Monday morning, we had bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast. For lunch we had leftover cheesy gratin potatoes and leftover pork chops. And after lunch, I made a pack of cinnamon rolls. I also made my pizza dough immediately after breakfast so it was resting in the kitchen all day. : ) 

Just rolled the 2 pizzas out and just about to put our toppings on the pizza. Saturday was fun and just spent here at home, same with Friday. I knew I had that kids club event though on Sunday (the following day), so we all went to sleep Saturday around 9:30pm. 

Sunday morning, we all woke up and had some cinnamon toast crunch type cereal and also some toast with butter. Noboru and I also had a hot coffee, the kids had apple juice. We all immediately got dressed after that, so we could head to the plaza. Our housing community (us 3 yakuin) also worked in this gym also. We did however like this game across from us, they made a "bowling game" with 1.5 liter plastic bottles, they filled them half way, made the water colored and they rolled down basketballs or dodgeballs. The prez and my fellow vp, and I, took notice and we'd like to use this game this year on one of our "housing community's" events. This was a great idea! : )

We did this....the ring toss! : )  We will borrow this game from our town and use this in our Christmas party as one of our games. We already talked about it. Hahaha. : ) 

There were 3 ring toss games right next to each other. Us 3, were handling 2 of the ring toss games and another housing community was handling the one way in the back. That is the prez's Converse in the pic. : ) 

Look at the crowds! The crowds came in waves, we got slammed throughout the morning too. Many times we'd have 10 people or more waiting a turn, all 3 ring toss games had tons of people and then at other times we were so dead...no crowds at all. We would joke and have fun with the kids! Can you get a ring on every number? OMG, try to get #9. We'd clap when they'd get a ring. When little babies 2-3 year olds came, we'd help them toss each ring. They'd get all excited and happy. Their mom's were very happy we took the time, crouched/squat down and helped their child. And we also got groups of JHS boys, like 8th and 9th graders. They are competitive against their friends, JHS boys. Okay the prez would say to the JHS boys..."he's got 27 points...are you gonna let his score tops yours", ...The Jinbei boys mom would add jokingly..."yes you can't let his score get higher than yours." I'd chime right in and add..."ask for a rematch!" The JHS kid would say shaking his head in agreement..."You 3 are right! Rematch!" Hahaha. Those JHS boys played a few rounds battling each other back and forth. Again we would play with all kids, toddlers to 9th graders, didn't matter. We made sure you left our game with a smile on your face and having had a good time. 1 little girl (2nd grader if I were to take a guess or maybe 3rd grader from the other school), liked playing with me, especially. She couldn't get many rings on there and she'd watch my face for a reaction and I would tell her.. "you are doing fantastic kiddo"...you will get 1...and I sat there patiently with her and when she got a couple I'd high 5 her and she was *very* happy. She came back throughout the day 3 different times to play ring toss with me. : ) Also, I did get many kids say..."hello" and I'd then switch and say "hello, how are YOU?" hehehehe, they'd say while smiling. Just have fun. Be able to anticipate ...do they need extra cheers, some support or.... Also, these JHS kids are still kids and they liked being clapped and cheered for, as much as the toddlers. They really did. Make it fun though #1! And we did. 

Across from where I was "working"...I see Noah. Everyone knows my kids and they know I'm working right across the gym. But she crouches/squats down and chats with Noah and stuff, everyone is so nice to our kids, all kids actually. : ) And this "bowling" game rocked.

Noah and his very good friend, who is a twin, in the blue and white stripe shirt. His twin, is his sister, she was playing with her friend somewhere else. They live right near us and his mom is the super nice, but shy one. : ) 

Of course Noah came to play ring toss with me. Us 3, yakuin helped and cheered him on too, they said "come on Noah!" We clapped, we cheered, he blushed, hahaha. : )

Here comes Branden. he had to play too. Branden told me, "did you just play with 3 JHS boys, older grade than me?" I said "surely, yes I did". : ) Branden said "they just said, we just played the ring toss with your mom and she rocks!" @.@ : ) Wow...I got an... I rock comment from some older JHS boys. Very good to know. Lol. On the bright side, at least they know Branden has a friendly mom, who helped them on the ring toss : ) I tell ya, everybody knows everybody in our town. : )

This event ended at 12. At 11:30am though many people started to leave. We still had to stay. So the boys played basketball sans the basketball net. : ) 

I'm glad that they still enjoy playing together. They're still super close, even though they go to different schools. To always have one another, to always have that playmate or person who understands you best. : )

And I'm glad Noboru is a hands on dad and the way he is. He loves the boys so much. : ) We went home at noon and rested for an hour and then we left for the rest of the day.  We knew we were going to go to yakiniku for supper (Noboru said, he saw me working hard all morning at the plaza/kids club thing and so he wanted to give me a night off cooking, so he took us to yakiniku), but we decided to go bumming around before that. We went to Don Quixote (didn't buy anything, just looked around, spent over an hour in there). We took the scenic route too. We just wanted to end the weekend fun and on a great note. 

We went and had yakiniku Sunday evening (yesterday) and you can cook your own marinated meat at the grill on the table. 

We then went to charge the car for free at Shisui outlet mall and also walked around window shopping for about 45 minutes and we also spent an additional hour at Starbucks just relaxing the 4 of us. The kids each had an iced cocoa. Noboru and I each had a nice iced coffee drink (Noboru had an iced caramel machiaato, and I had a very big iced American coffee.) We just sat inside Starbucks sipping our drinks, people watching, chatting, talking, just enjoying the end of our amazing and low key weekend. : ) 

A very blurry picture of Noah. We took a nice scenic drive back home, as soon as everyone got home, we all took turns taking showers and ready to start a whole other week of school. 

At Franc Franc, Noboru bought me an apron. And that is only because, as you know I am a yakuin leader/head this year and on many kids club events, I will need to wear an apron. And while I do have 1 nice one, bought from Laura Ashley over 6 years ago at least, having another and finding one at a great price was a nice find. I also have a denim Old Navy one, that we use at home if needed, but I really don't use them at home (Noboru has used the jean Old Navy one twice for making soup with the Father's Club.) It's usually for events, where it might come in handy. 

Nice aprons can run/cost about $40-$50 US, maybe because many people use them here, or I don't know. But this was just 1300 yen $13 US. So, it was a good deal. 

I wish they would have had this in black and white. But this isn't bad either, it's pretty. Noboru did joke with me and said it did vaguely remind him of Minnie Mouse and Branden did say it reminded him a tad of a mushroom from Mario Kart. But, I like it and the price was too good to pass on, granted black with white dots would have been best, but this is really pretty too though.  : )  Anyway that was our weekend in a nut shell. : )