Bits and pieces...

This morning around 9am, I got a phone call from Noah's teacher directly and also an automated email from the school sent to all grades, but it was just regarding the 6th graders, there's only 1 class of 6th graders. Noah's class has been closed from this morning... until further notice because 10 kids are out sick... half with the flu and half of the 10 with the norovirus. @_@ Double yikes!!! Noah is as healthy as a horse. Well skinny thin teeny tiny horse would better describe Noah. Perhaps as healthy as a pony? Ha! So Noah is fine. Last Friday... the one and only 5th grade class closed. This Tuesday, the 4th grade class closed in the morning and an email later in the afternoon said the 2nd grade class was closing as well. As of yesterday only 8 kids in Noah's class were down for the count/meaning sick. And today 2 more called in with either the flu or the norovirus. And since 10 were now sick, they decided it was best for the 6th graders to be sent home in case more kids were infected. So the healthy were sent home. The sick are already home. And that's that. Who is still standing grade-wise at our local elementary school? The 1 and only class of 1st graders and the 1 and only class of 3rd graders are still standing. And school is still running, but now... only for the 1st grade and the 3rd grade. All other grades and classes are closed. Noah has no school today or tomorrow that has already been decided. And not sure about Friday. I imagine Friday will be closed too. They usually will close a class for a 5 day school week...type week. So that's that. They did give the kids a boat load of homework. Tons of math and Japanese. Noah had page 13-18 in his math workbook (like 50 questions each page) and 4 kanji pages. I told Noah to pick a subject? He loves math, so said math. And I said work until 12 noon. And so he just completed page 13 all the way to finishing page 17. Tomorrow all he has to do is 1 page of math and 4 short pages of kanji. Noah's now resting on the couch. Watching TV. I'm not a total slave driver. I do want him to enjoy some relax time too. And because he worked fast. He now has the rest of the day to just chill, he's been chilling since 12 noon. So Noah...no school for today and tomorrow. And quite possibly Friday too. As for Bran. He's healthy and fine. But 8 of his classmates are also out with the flu. @_@ So...not sure if Branden's class will remain open or what. Hmmm. Oh this pic I snapped today. The email said to just pick up your child. Noah told his sensei. "I hope my mom reads the school email" Of course I would, but he's a worry wart afterall. : ) Being rural Japan and everyone knowing everybody else. The sensei asked Noah..."would you like me to call your mom, just in case?" Noah said, "oh yes please." I had a funny feeling it was Noah's school. Knowing yesterday how 8 were already out sick. I answered right away and he said,  "hi can you come down at the front of the school. All kids will be waiting for their parents to pick them up." I said, absolutely and I'm on my way! Not sure how I managed to drive to the school first. I quickly got there. I looked like complete crap, I might add. To be fair today is big house cleaning day for me. I just swooshed toilets with bleach before the call. I didn't comb my hair. Sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I was planning to jump in the shower as soon as I finished cleaning my house. So yep...totally taken off guard? Yes. Completely caught by surprise? Yep. I did wash my face this morning. And I did brush my teeth obviously. So it wasn't completely a disaster. But gee whiz. I waited for Noah to hop in my car. Always...the second he sees me... he gets this great big smile on his face and I get one too. As he jumped in my back seat. He said..."you're always the first mom to get here" I said...really? I did not know that. Not intentional at all. Anyways... 

Going on husband and wife dates. We have always gone on one every single week as you all know. One day our kids will be grown up and gone. And it'll be just us. We have never lost...the love of us being a couple. He's still my very best friend in the entire universe. And man...can we talk for days!!! This day...we had ramen. 

I baked a cinnamon crumb cake.

January 31st? Is when I took this pic. Pasta sauce. Tortillas. 2 hunks of cheese and a rotisserie chicken that I turned into taquitos. And Noboru went to a different check out lane and bought me my favorite chocolates for Valentine's Day. They have been in the pantry ever since.

Underwear for B.

5 pair. 2 pair reminded me kinda sorta of a bandana type design and the others are just stripey. I liked the lavender stripe with navy pair most. It's easier for me to buy Bran underwear in the weekday in the daytime. Versus us all get in the car on a weekend and let him pick his own. That would be a waste of a restful weekend. And since I am in the city anyways...in Inzai shopping for food. I can zip to Uniqlo. I zipped in the store picked the underwear and was back in my car in about 10 minutes. 

Aha, making use of that rotisserie chicken. Taquito night with sour cream lettuce and cheese. And a side of rice and beans. All homemade of course. 

Every time I see something new when I am out and about shopping, I will buy it for my kids. Within reason of course. Like a Peach Coke. Or these Mentos. Choco caramel Mentos. The kids loved these. 

My breakfasts and lunches really don't change at all. For breakfast I will eat the same exact thing. Of course unless the kids are here or it's a weekend. But for breakfast Monday through Friday I will typically have yogurt, 1 banana and 1 slice of toast. For lunch I will have either a sandwich (egg salad, ham, grilled cheese, ykwim) and maybe some celery sticks with peanut butter as my side. Or I'll have a salad. I love to add half a container of the crunky chicken from Mini Stop. My husband will usually have the other half of the container of the crunky chicken. It's a filling salad and I won't eat until dinner.  

I baked my family peanut butter cookies.

Yum. My kids loves homemade peanut butter cookies.

Branden and Noah and I played, Sorry! Sorry, as you can see it always comes with an exclamation mark. Anyway, we played 2 rounds of this. I lost both times...OMG! Hahaha. : )

It was a good hour spent with my kiddos on a Saturday. 

Friday night, ice cream run! I love the seasonal flavors of ice cream they sell at Mini Stop. Right now they're selling...green apple soft serve ice cream. Or a cup/sundae called...apple pie. I had planned to take the kids to get an ice cream after supper and dishes clean up. And so after everything was done. I told the kids, hop in mom's car and let's go and get that delicious looking apple pie sundae thing. : ) 

Noboru was at work so he couldn't have one unfortunately. However we loved these! The flavor was delicious. Like a cinnamon apple pie filling on top and some cookie that reminded us of pie crust. This was pretty good. I just...always want the kids to enjoy the little simple things like this. Like a little seasonal ice cream. Or you know what I mean. I want us to have fun though. 

Another weekly lunch date with my husband. We went and had curry at Coco Ichiban Curry House.

And last week we went to Komeda Coffee. If you buy a coffee you get a free half slice of toast with egg salad on the side. Their coffee is delicious and their hot butter toast was insanely good. I think our total was 900 yen or so for both of our coffees. Quite pricey. And we weren't full at all. We enjoyed our time there... but decided next time we'll go and have a regular lunch. 

This is a pretty big bag of cookies.

These cookies half dipped in chocolate. These are a household favorite of course. My kids absolutely love these. This bag was so cheap last week at Costco. I bought it for the family. 

Rice also at Costco. Sorry I forgot to take a cart pic. Carts pics are so much easier than taking a pic one by one. 

Also bought the family a variety pack of chips at Costco too. Again sorry no cart pic...in 1 fell swoop. This 1 by 1 each item way... drives me nuts. Sorry about that.

I bought a rotisserie chicken last week too. But this time we just had simple sandwiches. And potato salad on the side.

From Fukushima! I needed some flat lettuce (sanchu) last weekend because we were having a backyard BBQ. First BBQ for 2018. 

The farmers in Fukushima could really use our help and support. It's important to note that the banned areas, are not selling vegetables obviously so, please remember that. There are so many areas and parts of Fukushima that didn't get affected. That was largely farming areas. However now... not many will buy the safe veggies from the unaffected areas. These farmers are just trying to make a living...yet folks aren't buying their produce from them, because they came from Fukushima (the safe areas).  Which is so sad and so unfair. These poor farmers, they just can't catch a break you guys...and I think that sucks. So...because I know...obviously these veggies are not coming from the banned areas. These are coming from safe areas. I'm buying veggies from Fukushima every chance I get. I know just 1 family like mine... may not make a change or a difference. But I'm trying to help. Sincerely, ganbatte Fukushima!!! Be strong, and know my family is cheering for you! : )

I really wanted yakiniku but with chicken breast and veggies wrapped in sanchu (flat lettuce) Bran wanted steaks and the 2 N's....meaning Noboru and Noah wanted pork ribs. : )

We all ate different things at the BBQ. But it was a nice way to spend last Saturday. How was the weather during the BBQ? It was super cold. Brrr.

Anything new to add? I have a hair appointment next week. Next Friday February 23rd. I'm going to be there so long. My butt will be as flat as a pancake by the time I leave. @_@ I need the works.  This means my hair looks like crap, right now. Next week...I'm getting a hair cut, Japanese thermal hair straightening thing and a hair color. I have been going to this 1 amazing lady since Noah was in yochien. Same salon. But she went on maternity leave last year and I noticed when I was booking this appointment that her profile pic is gone on their website. So I assume she's not a hair stylist there anymore? OMG! How sad. Because she was amazing. I dug her personality so much, she made me feel so relaxed. And I felt so pampered and like I had a mini vacation every time I left the salon. But now...I guess I am stuck with the guy who has been filling in for her for the past year. He's more experienced than my fave lady...granted. She was a hair stylist and he's a master hair stylist. Does that matter? Not to me. But... Just food for thought. He's great...don't get me wrong. But he's not her. Does that make sense?  Anyways...I better go for now. 

Yes, we are moving back to the United States this coming April...

I lightly mentioned on my blog last March or April 2017 that we were *very* seriously thinking about moving back to the US.

Why do we want to move back to the states? In a nutshell, it’s simply just time. Branden is in the 10th grade right now. Which means in 2 short years, he will graduate high school and would be going off to university. If you do know us in real life. Then you will know, we have *always* said our kids will both be going to college/university in the U.S. And our kids have always wanted to go to university in the states too. We *never* wanted them to go to college in Japan. We always imagined our kids as adults...in the distant future... living in the US. Getting married in the US, raising family’s in the US. And we (Noboru and I would meanwhile be stuck in Japan) If you know how important family is to us. Then you will know the closer we got especially after Bran started high school here. We started thinking that time is growing closer. Our first thought was, we can send Branden to go to university in Guam. However, the career he wants. It’s best for him to be in the US mainland. Would we just see Branden once a year, if he were in the US mainland alone? Sure I could fly over there for free with our flight benefits. But with Noah in school here... time and school holidays matching up would be an issue. So we had a lot to think about. Many long discussions, important ones. Many extremely serious long talks. We thought why don’t...I move to the states with both kids. And Noboru remain in Japan working. But would that be... for all of eternity? How unbelievably sad for a family who... is as close as we are. However...we did have 3 years still to decide. And so we felt we had a few years to think about a plan more. But the more we thought about it...we really had not much time to decide which way we were to decide such a permanent thing. Meaning would we remain in Japan forever or make the move now, before it’s too late.

JHS uniforms cost about $1,200.00 US dollars. Depending on which type of uniform your JHS has. Some can be as cheap as $900.00 bucks. But our particular JHS uniform for our town... cost us about $1,200.00 US dollars. It was insanely expensive and yes the hope is that your child will use that uniform for all 3 years of JHS in Japan. So considering Noah is still an elementary school aged kiddo. He’s in his final year, final last month or so of elementary life right now. So considering the insane cost of JHS uniforms. And no...Noah’s way thinner and shorter than Branden was at the same age and so nope... they can NOT use the same uniform. Anyways...considering the cost of the uniform. We sort of decided. If we would make a move back to the United States of America...it would have to be *before* Noah started JHS...so we wouldn’t have to plunk down that heavy sum for a uniform that he wouldn’t get 3 years usage out of. Or we would stay in Japan for the  next 3 years ...so we could get the full usage out of the JHS uniform.  Also considering Branden would be ready for university in 2 years. That would mean no matter where Branden would go to university...I would be glued to Japan for 1 final year... because of Noah’s final year of JHS. And so that 1 odd misc. overlapping year....was a problem for us too. A huge one. Again though...it was just something we quietly talked about in our household. Which is the right route to take. What is the way we should go. And I firmly believe....only YOU and your loved ones...know the path *you* should be on.

And then things started to change at my husband's place of work. And it started to become extremely obvious to us... that it would be best and smartest for Noboru to transfer back to the US region, same company. I can say no more on that subject. But let’s just say....moving now became best for us all. Our entire family. So...after all was said and done. We decided it is best for all 4 of us. To move to the US mainland. And start a new life together. It’s best for Noboru and his career (thank god, Noboru has an American high school diploma, American university degrees, yes more than one, all of his many certifcates are issued from the FAA, because that means moving back to America for us, was *always* an option we had and thank goodness my husband fluently speaks English and has a career for an American company too, so our option of life in the US was always open for us). It’s totally best for Branden to have his parents there and brother.... when he’s in his final 2 years of high school and while he starts university, he can live at home because it’ll be cheaper, but he’ll have his own car, and get to go whenever he pleases when he’s university aged of course. It’s also completely best for Noah to have his family all intact and happily together. And it’s best for me to move back to my home country too. Remember when we originally moved to Japan... it was for a short 5 year contract. Granted we stayed for 15 long amazing years. And we had an unbelievably wonderful life in Japan. Built the home that we love very much and needed and we felt such comfort living in all these years. I have also had such an amazing good group of high quality real life friends in Japan too, meaning they cared deeply for my  family and I, we shared each others lives, when life got frustrating it was peace of mind to say...let’s go to lunch...I could really use it. Or even in the good times...to say...hey let’s go to lunch and chat for hours...and knowing they’d always be game for that.  And knowing they’d always be there and me for them too. But while I will miss my friends in Japan immensely.... I am beyond excited to say that I am going to love every minute of being able to move back to my home country for good.

Branden, Noah and I will be leaving Japan and moving to the US in April 2018. Noboru will be moving the second he gets his green card. I have already filed our petition for his USA immigrant visa (green card application) last April 2017. There are 3 steps. Step 1 is always the longest and hardest hurdle. Then step 2 and then step 3. We have completed and passed step 1. We got word the last week of January 2018. And are now onto step 2. Step 1 took about 10 full months to complete. And so when will Noboru join us in America? It could be as quickly as 6 months or as long as 1 year. As soon as he gets his green card he’s leaving to the US. But he *will* get approved and he *will* be moving to the U.S. for good. Permanently. We will rent a house at first the kids and I... but yes we will buy ourselves a new house or super nice 2 story type townhome with a fireplace and a garage for our vehicles....you know what I mean...it’s going to be so super nice, central heating and air of course, just like we have here, but we’ll wait until Noboru gets there for that.  But yes...for the small handful of you that already knew this and thank you for keeping quiet about this, until I was ready to let the rest of you all know. But we’re just so happy to be able to start this new adventure. Of relocating back to America. And it’s just going to be really lovely. Just  to have a totally cool new place for us all to call home in the US. What a dream... that has now turned to our new reality. Can we stay in Japan, if we want to? Short answer. Yes. But quite frankly... we don’t want to anymore. It’s the age of our kids. It’s time. It’s the best most perfect time...we are still young enough...to start anew. And you know how hard we work. Look at the home we created in Japan. Can’t you just imagine the type of place we’ll eventually end up with in the states? It’s going to be even better, than our home in Japan. I know us....and I know what we’re capable of.

I’m relieved and thankful that Noah doesn’t have to go to Japanese JHS. Branden went to the 1 and only local JHS in our tiny town. And he did wonderfully. However yes it is soul crushing. Yes you will be ranked. You will be told you are the 1st place in English or 5th place in math. Branden was and is a good student so he did amazingly good. But yes...being told continually all 3 years how you rank compared to your classmates. It’s hard mentally on kids. Anyone who says likewise is full of crap. Noah gets excellent grades. And I am sure he would ride high in a Japanese JHS too. But I’m just glad that he doesn’t have to endure that. I found Japanese yochien amazing. Japanese elementary school was *so* fun. I find Japanese high school the best...the absolute best. So fun! But yes...I have had a son and he did indeed go to all 3 years of Japanese JHS and I felt it was horrible. He studied all the time. Branden never complained. He handled it like a boss. Granted my son passed with flying colors. Thank you Kumon for that. But yep...*so* glad Noah will *never* have to attend 1 single day of a Japanese JHS.

Branden will go to an American high school for 2 years. And get his high school diploma from an American high school and then move onto an American university. Noah meanwhile will have done only half of his education in Japan. Grades 1-6. And he will do the other half...grades 7-12th grade in the United States. So Noah’s American education will be *quite* extensive. Plus Noah will also attend university in the US. 

Sorry not intending to make this longer than a book... but since it's pretty major news. It's only obvious there's a lot to say. I have been wanting to tell you all since August, but I kept super quiet about our news. Now I am relieved that I have finally said it out loud on here. If ever there was a time to keep reading this blog...it’s now. You will get to see us prepare to move. Pack up. Move. Enroll the kids in school in the Fall. Yes, I have spoken to the school district in America already about Bran and Noah already and we agreed it’s best for them to start in the Fall, though they will be tested and assessed and stuff before the kids in the US go on summer break. Anyway...now I can start writing more in detail about what’s really going on. I have held off for so long sharing this. But now it’s time. Definitely between now and the next year...you will really want to stay tuned with what’s happening here with us. It’s going to be a crazy wild fun ride. And I’m taking you all along....just virtually of course via this blog. : )

A snowy Friday...

TGIF! Happy Friday everyone! This was the view I had while driving Branden to the train station this morning. It does say 0 KM because since nobody was on the street... but Bran and I, I stopped snapped the pic and then drove off. First things first. The movie date with my 2 friends didn't happen and I think that was the best, smartest and safest idea. Last evening, one sent the 3 of us a Line message, saying the weather forecast is actually worse than originally expected and asked the rest of us, should we cancel? I thought the same thing. No need for any of us getting in a car accident... just to see a movie, kwim? Not worth it. Our safety should come first. And so we all messaged and all came to the conclusion... that yes we should cancel our Friday morning movie date. And that was a good idea... because it keeps us 3 mama's safe. : ) So we talked about 6pm-ish Thursday/last night and decided that last night. I woke up this morning and sure enough it was all white outside. Snow all over... once again and the roads looked like this. @_@ I packed up Branden's lunch and he got dressed and ready and I drove Branden to the train station. The roads were ugly. Really bad looking. They were this and you can see it was still snowing and it's snowing even right now as I type this. I can only imagine what the roads will look like tonight... when I get Bran around 5pm-ish because stuff starts freezing solid by that time and I hope the roads don't look like an ice skating rink outside with black ice. @_@

After I dropped off Bran, I stopped and snapped this pic of the rice field that surrounds the backside of our train station. And look at the snow on my side window. Branden even wiped it off. Anyway it's been a cold bitterly cold day here in my town. The sky is a pale gray color. And as for Noah. I got an email from Noah's school around 6:20am and it said they were on a "snow schedule" meaning school for our local elementary school starts at 10am. So Noah was home a lot longer than usual. Which was nice. I did get an email from Bran's school... but it said, school is still happening. But that the high schoolers... don't need to wear their fancy but dangerous slippery loafers that they usually wear....they could wear sneakers because of the slippery conditions. So Bran wore his Vans today with his high school uniform. 

Anyway, I finished all my house cleaning by yesterday afternoon. I did that because I was planning on the movie today and like to get my work knocked out of the way first. So, I do not have any house cleaning to do today at all... since I did it already. I am making chicken curry nabe tonight with lots of yummy healthy veggies and some udon noodles. Perfect for this cold weather. And I did run to the local grocery store in town at 10 am after dropping off Noah at school because tomorrow February 3rd is Setsubun. And I was looking for something for my kids for that. Just something cute and festive and yummy. I love these cakes anyways but was happy they decorated these up for Setsubun. I seem to buy these every year, lol for Setsubun. I like them because they're 95 yen each they are chocolate roll cakes quite long/good sized with delicious chocolate whipped cream and when they're nicely sliced the amount of just 2 of these... stuffs my family. So that will be dessert for tonight. Anyway, it's barely 1pm now. I just finished my salad for lunch. I finished all my house work yesterday like I said, so I am gonna just chill and rest on the couch now until I pick up the kids later this afternoon/evening. Noah 3:45pm and Bran 5pm-ish. I will chop up the veggies around 3pm real quick and preset the rice. But basically, I am totally free and will now go and watch Hoarders on TV.  Gosh these people on Hoarders are so weird. Anyways, have a great Friday and nice weekend. Stay warm. 

Family game night...

What have we been doing at our house? Well with Winter happening and snow still on the ground in our town. Yes there's still snow in the rice fields and in yards in my town, 10-11 days later or so, which is so unusual. @_@ We have been staying home and staying warm. We've also been having family game night as usual. We played three rounds of this Jenga-esque type of game last weekend. Sorry the name brand Jenga game is like 2800 yen (US $25!!!) Which is outrageous. And this knock off/"no name" brand one... was like 750 yen or 800 yen, 10 years or so when we bought it. My kids go through periods of when they want to play this a lot and times when they won't touch it at all. But they've been on a Jenga kick since Christmas/winter break and all January too. This pic was taken last weekend and we played 3 rounds of this. We also played 2 rounds of this the other night after homework. 

Also, important to note is sometimes... games change as kids get older too. However we still play Sorry! About once a month still... that's one of our favorite board games. This pic is of my 3 (2 sons and hubby) all playing a game together. But this game is a survival game and Branden and Noah have been playing this game since November 2017. Branden's classmates also got really into this game too. It's a multiplayer game. So a lot of times Branden and a handful of his classmates will have a private game going and they invite Noah to play with them too. Bran is such an amazing older brother. You can hear your teammates talking which is why they are wearing earphones. Then a month ago...Noboru was intrigued and asked the boys "what are you guys playing" they told him the name of the game and he said...I want to play too. So he downloaded it and Noboru has been playing it for a month now. Then Noboru told his 2 closest coworkers about this and they fell in love with this game so much. And now...they have this group and they all know each other and they all play this survival game. They're *really* into it! Noboru can't wait for the kids to get home from school to play with them. And as soon as Bran walks in the door after I bring him home from the train station after school...he tells his dad and Noah..."let's play after dinner" And so as a girl...I don't personally find this game interesting at all. Gomen-gomen. But I am so happy that they have this 1 thing that they're all reall super into. They want to play this. And so that's what my family has been doing. They laugh at the kitchen table and play this. Sometimes they're all over the living room sprawled out and playing this. It's family time. And they're having an absolutely amazing time together. Dad time is so important. Dad's spending time with their kids is very important and same for us mom's too... spending time with our kids, quality time so important. Heck..family time is important period. : )

I enjoyed watching the 20/20 a few weeks ago about Kim Jong Un's childhood. And his siblings childhood. How they were educated overseas. It was very interesting. 

A new game show in America. I am enjoying it a lot. It's called Child Support. Fred Savage is the host. I adored him on the Wonder Years. A contestant has to answer 10 questions and if they don't know the answer, a group of kids can try to help him or her answer it. The show was created by Ricky Gervais and he is the one who interviews the kids and it's so funny to watch him interact with the kids.

You go Fred Savage. He's a really mellow relatable host. 

Ricky asking the kids a question. Hopefully they know the answer.

One of the answers, one of the kids said...was so funny Ricky did this!!!

Child Support is a very funny game show. My kids love this game show and they watch it every time it's on. 

The Good Doctor is such a phenomenal show. I love this show. This pic was taken a week ago. But this week was a good episode too. It was about organ donors. A man had been in the hospital for ages hoping for a transplant. He was an alcoholic and ruined his own liver. And he was finally at the top of the organ donor list. He was weeks away from dying. And The Good Doctor (Dr. Murphy) and his coworker went to retrieve the organ from another hospital. Anyway it took the entire show for them to get back to their hospital. The guy on the top of the donor list had tested positive for alcohol in his system and they ran the test twice and asked him. Did you drink? And he finally admitted he had 1 glass of champagne because his daughter graduated law school. Yada yada yada. And he wanted to feel "normal" and so it was debated should they still give him the organ? Doctors debated it in private. They argued. One said...rules are rules. And someone said don't tell them he had a drink. And in the end... they did not give him the organ at all. With 30 minutes to spare...to get the liver into someone... they sent the liver to a 3rd hospital to the 2nd person on the top of the organ donor list. And the guy at the Good Doctors hospital was moved to the bottom of the transplant list. 

Last week, I picked up these things from Costco. Frozen pizzas to toss in the oven for a weekend lunch for the kids. Breakfast pastries. Cheese was for pizza and chips for the killer nachos I made last week, they were delicious. And a weeks worth of meat from Joyful Honda meat store. And veggies and regular food from Besia. 

I did buy my final makeup remover. I will not be buying anymore. I am now trying them all out and testing them and deciding which one I like the most. I also bought a Kanebo powder puff for my Becca powder. 

This is what it looks like. I like that it's in a  tube (travel friendly). I like the way it smells. It's light and clean. A scent of somewhere between soap and very light pinch of lemons. It smells clean. Anyway now for some current updates.....

Today is Thursday. Sorry no TBT for today. I went out to lunch this Monday with my 2 girl friends. We had an awesome lunch and whole afternoon chat session at Coco's restaurant. Lunch was delicious and the drink bar is amazing. I love their hot cocoa and so that was nice. Also we, my 2 friends and I are also going to the movies tomorrow morning/Friday. We are going to see, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In Japan it's just called Three Billboards. However...snow is expected in the area where we live...the snow is expected either tonight or tomorrow. And we have agreed if it snows...we will cancel our movie date. But if it doesn't snow, we will meet up at 9:10 am tomorrow.  Because of the upcoming snow. I went and did my weekly shopping yesterday. Went to Costco. Joyful Honda and Besia. Yet again. But it was necessary because if it does snow...you certainly don't want a house with no food in it. I want to make sure I have a house fully stocked with food. That way...if the snow hits us and hits us hard. We will have a good 6 days worth of food. So phew. Taken care of. I bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco yesterday and so I am making taquitos for supper tonight. Taquitos and refried beans and spanish rice. The beans I boiled and finished this morning. After Noah gets home I will refry the beans. And make the rice. The taquitos are easy to roll. I will roll them... but won't skillet fry them until Bran gets home tonight. Noboru is home from work today, so he will be happy about taquito night tonight. : ) Tomorrow night for supper we're having curry nabe because with me being out at the movies...maybe depending on the snow, I need an easy to make dinner. Anyway that's enough for now, just wanted to touch bases with everyone real quick. : ) 

Noboru's birthday...

Noboru turned 46 years old, on January 18th. I baked him a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and we had vanilla ice cream on the side after we got back from the restaurant for his birthday dinner. 

Luckily for us Noboru didn't have work that day. And Branden didn't have school that day either. The kids had a dentist appointment though... before the birthday dinner. Noah had school and so we could head straight to the dentist and then to dinner a lot earlier since Noah got off school that day at 3pm. The kids had zero cavities and all looked great at the dentist. They got their teeth cleaned. And off to dinner we went. Everyone had a pasta plus mini pizza and drink bar. Their food here is absolutely delicious and Noboru really enjoyed it. 

We ate and talked. And talked and ate. We had many refills of drinks. And had a pretty great meal. 

Branden's hand. He was sitting to my left so... super hard to get a pic. But yep dinner was nice and then we went home and had cake and ice cream. : )