Gobble gobble gobble the Thanksgiving dinner we had. My dad's and also Jun's visit, etc! : )

Here's a picture of our family on Thanksgiving day. We were having a prayer before we ate, my dad was the one giving grace as I quickly snapped this picture and then joined in prayer before starting in our dinner.

The lights by now have already been hung and everything is all nicely set up, the timer goes off at 4:50pm every single night! : ) But wait a minute...I think I am getting ahead of myself. : ) I better back up a minute and catch up with you all first. Swine flu wise... oh dear so much has happened since my last post.

Okay this is where I left you all last post. Branden was diagnosed with the swine flu last Friday. And the day after that, the following Saturday Noah came down with a 40 C fever, I also wasn't feeling well either! @_@

See these adult capsules of Tamiflu? Yup, these little suckers were mine. Noah had swine flu and so did I. Everyone came down with swine flu in our family but Noboru. So last Saturday and last Sunday, the 3 of us were as sick as dogs! : ( My throat, my stomach, it was horrible. I even thought about canceling Thanksgiving dinner. Because I was having trouble even putting socks on my feet or slapping a pony tail into my hair or shuffling myself to the kitchen to make myself a cup of hot tea much less imagine how I was gonna whip up a pie...from scratch nonetheless! The good thing is the Tamiflu works fast. I hear Relenza works just as fast too. By last Monday, I was feeling much better not 100% granted, but I could at least clean house like mad on Monday and I was feeling way better by Tuesday when my dad had come. Branden was 100% back to normal by Sunday morning and Noah was back to normal by Sunday night. But of course they finished all their meds and stuff though. We did get ahold of Jun and would you believe they were recovering from it too. So, it all sorta worked out for us all in the end. Kids were done with their meds by Thanksgiving anyway. And I was done with my meds by Friday morning. The day after Thanksgiving day.

Sunday morning the turkey came. I was aware it was coming beforehand. Geeze I even picked the time for that. :P But I think with the swine flu kicking my butt last Sunday morning, when the doorbell rang I was thinking at first..."who is ringing the bell, who could it be?" Looked at the security monitor and saw and then went "duh" to myself and opened it and collected the turkey. Boy did I feel like a dork! : ) We order our turkey from Gourmet Meat World, they're the cheapest we found on the internet.

19.55lbs. He had come all the way to Japan from America.

Monday is when the hubby started on the lights. We keep our lights in an old suitcase in the shed.

Stretching out the icicle lights. Noboru hung the lights while I cleaned the house. We were both busy busy busy last Monday. Oh yeah, last Sunday the day the turkey came. We had got an email from Branden's school saying the whole second grade #2 class was closed for the whole week due to the swine flu. Oh yeah I better back up even more regarding that. Last Friday evening, the day before Noah and I were diagnosed. Yuka-sensei called our house and told Noboru that 4 kids in B's class have swine flu. Some girl (hubby forgot her name), Kouki-kun but not the one who lives in our housing community another Kouiki. Branden and Genki-kun! Branden's best bud Genki, since yochien. Yup the one and the same. : ( So anyway the Yuka-sensei said that info to us on Friday and said if 1 more kid in the class gets it, the whole class will be shut down for a week! The rest of the school will remain open but just B's class would be out. And then Saturday, boy next doors grandma was out in her backyard and we had just confirmed mine and Noah as swine flu. And she meanwhile said she thinks "boy next door" also had it and his little brother and his mother, so they were on their way to the clinic. So that was LAST Saturday. And then the next day, the day I was looking and feeling like crap and the day the turkey came, that's when we got the email that said the whole entire ninensei #2 class was closed for a week. So if you recall the yochien said, Noah may return when Branden returns, so that meant no school for either boy all last week. In a way I sorta liked it. I didn't have to wake up at 5:30am every morning. I didn't have obento to make. I didn't have to race from school to school daily. So, although I shouldn't admit this. Being off for a week sorta suited me just fine. Ha ha ha. Oh brother sorry for admitting that. : )

My dad's flight left Guam at 6am Tuesday morning. My dad arrived at my train station at 10am, 10:15 am maybe. Our original plan was since both boys would be in school and hubby would be at work my dad and I would go to Coco's for coffee and conversation for an hour and catch up. However with the swine flu and the kids being off a whole week, we sorta had to change plans. And that was okay. Branden had been quarantined (by me) at home for 6 days, since Thursday. He badly wanted to leave the house. Noah had been homebound for 4 days. Since they were both feeling better. I let them go in the car with me to the train station, they just stood in the car as did I, but they liked going for a car ride. Branden said, finally some wind on my face. As he walked from the house to the inside of the car. : ) We came straight home and my dad and I just had coffee at home. My dad didn't bring a whole lot this time because well, I'll be there next month, so no real reason for him to drag so much here this time. A case of beef ravioli, this is for the kids for fast lunches and also now that Noah has to switch to the winter metal obento now, he can take this now since their lunches stay in a hot warmer type thing. , Frozen bean and cheese burritos, some chargrilled (chicken breast) quesadilla type fast snack type food. A pack of frozen waffles for the boys, fast breakfast stuff for the weekday. String cheese for the boys to snack on. Hmm, he sure brought a lot of stuff for the boys. But I don't feel left out though, ha ha ha. :P Microwave popcorn the extra butter or movie theater kind. Whole cranberries. Black olives. Cheese for sandwiches.
My dad brought all this sliced cheese for the leftover turkey sandwiches. The BelGioioso is some delicious Italian American provolone cheese as you can tell by the flags on the wrapper. : ) . Every turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving that I had this week, has been made with that. With some soft bread, some miracle whip, crunchy lettuce a nice slice of tomato with a dash of pepper and salt on said tomato, some really good quality provolone and some turkey. Some chips along the side. Dear holy goodness. I have been enjoying leftover turkey sandwiches quite a bit since Thursday. : )

He brought the kids some corn nuts and some airplane lollies. And the turkey pan.

Tuesday my dad had managed to talk me into letting the boys go outside but just in our backyard. Since the whole boy next door family were swine flu victims as well as us. And given we have absolutely no neighbors behind us or to the right of us, sorta figured we had nobody to infect anyway... unless we are talking the mantis or the grasshoppers. :P And with B being stuck in the house for 6 whole days, he sorta could use the break. So, they ran outside a bit in the back with grandpa. We were all wearing our house clothes, sweatpants and stuff, you know...the stuff you would never show you wear but you really really do, when you just wanna be nice and comfortable. : ) : ) We dress for complete comfort when we are home. No fashion show going on at our house when we're home. : )

Wednesday morning, it was raining. Noboru and my dad went out front to finish up the Christmas lights. Now we always have a tradition to set the lights up the day after Thanksgiving even if we do it a few days before we never ever flick the switch until the day after Thanksgiving. So Black Friday is usually the day we turn on our Christmas lights, even as a child growing up, we always turned our Christmas lights on, Black Friday. However with Jun and my sil and niece coming, we decided to break with tradition and light them on Thanksgiving instead. Just a day ahead of usual. So not too bad. : )

The boys helped me make the homemade butter crust for the pies. Branden did the measuring, Noah put the stuff from the measuring cups into the bowl. And then Branden mixed and mixed first. I looked on.

Then Noah had a turn, he really got in there and kneaded and worked that crust really well.

The crusts have to be chilled in the fridge for some time, to hurry things along, I whack them into the freezer. Both of the boys wrapped their crusts into the plastic wrap and I thought they did a really good job.

With both crusts now chilling in the freezer for about 10 minutes. I went out onto the front porch to check on my dad and Noboru. My dad, laid the lighting along the walkway. Noboru meanwhile working hard as well. I brought them their lunch outside, so they worked and ate and worked some more. Meanwhile I got back on track with my pies.

I rolled out the dough and made 2 crusts. Placed them onto the other counter and meanwhile whipped up the pie filling with help of my Libby's pumpkin pie filling. Yay Libby's really does make the best pumpkin pie filling. I do add some extra pumpkin pie spice and whatnots but yumm.

The guys were done with the lights. The pies were now cooking for 75 minutes in the oven. Grandpa/my dad,and Branden worked on his workbook. I had told B, do as many pages as YOU want, the second you get bored and aren't into it anymore, please stop. He did about 9 pages with my dad and when he was ready to stop, he stopped.

Now the pies were done. And considering we had the swine flu that weekend, I could not believe by Wednesday evening, we were right on schedule and the pies were done and everything.

After dinner and baths on Wednesday night. The five of us watched a Thanksgiving DVD. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It teaches all about American Thanksgiving, we all enjoyed watching this DVD.

Thursday, Thanksgiving day. My dad was able to play with the boys in the backyard while I cooked. But my dad was kind enough to peel a whole bunch of potatoes for me before I boiled them and made mashed potatoes out of them. : )

Branden going across the monkey bars.

My dad chasing the boys with a net. Oh the boys ran fast! Ha ha ha. : )

Run Branden, grandpa came so close to catching you with a net! : )

Who's keeping who on their toes here? : )

Noah caught a mantis that morning, by now it was noon. He was nice enough to feed the mantis some lunch, 2 grasshoppers. Blech. : P

The mantis walked on Noboru's arm.

Then grandpa put the mantis on Noah's hat! He loved it!

Side profile of the mantis! : )

By now it was 1:30pm and we were expecting Jun and family over between 2-3pm. So, we had Noah put the mantis back to the wild. So my dad carefully took the mantis off his hat and placed him in the field next door. : )

There he goes.

Good boy! : )

Starting to set up the table. Meanwhile, I had my jeans on, and my face on and my hair done. Old black tee. Was waiting for right before they came so I could run upstairs and slip on one of my argyle sweaters. But that was last minute type stuff. Jun called us as they left their condo. I knew they'd arrive in about 25 minutes so about 7 minutes before they arrived is when I switched from old ratty tee to sweater. Shhhh. : ) A little extra lip gloss on the lips and a mist of CK One and I was waiting on the front porch waving to them right as they were driving in! Phew! : )

That pile of coats in the corner are my bil and sil and niece's. : ) They brought, Costco dinner rolls, dessert (tiramisu from Costco) drinks galore, Qoo (apple) , a really nice bottle of orange juice from Costco, a 2 liter of Coke, Noboru said, he hadn't seen a 2L of coke in Japan only the 1 liters. So that was sorta funny, he noticed that. The boys and my niece played outside at first. Also we did not have enough seats at the big table. So, as it's usual/normal, to have a kids table and an adults table for things like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We made the coffee table in the living room a make shift kids table. So that is where Branden, Noah and my nice Mia sat for their meal. Okay what's in this picture? Our dinner consisted of a turkey, mashed potatos, stuffing, gravy, salad, croutons, dinner rolls, black olives, whole cranberries. Not counting desserts.

My serving. Thanksgiving and the days after Thanksgiving, I wasn't really concerned about watching what I ate so much. I have been doing really good lately. And I did wanna enjoy my holiday and not behave like a total nazi about what I ate, so I didn't restrict myself during Thanksgiving or the few days after. I just enjoyed our holiday as it should be enjoyed. That is Fanta grape soda in the glass. My serving was pretty good. I was so hungry by the time we ate.

Everyone served what they wanted. We had our Thanksgiving prayer before we ate. It was pretty traditional.

We had a nice leisurely meal. The kids all ate really well. I quickly got the tabled cleared off. Noboru helped clear the table as well. I meanwhile started the hot water pot, so I could get some coffee going. We all had coffee and dessert. Everyone had tiramisu and pumpkin pie side by side. The pie had a big serving of whipped cream on top. My bil and sil ohhed and ahhed over the pie and I equally oohed and ahhed over the tiramisu. Sorry no pictures of Noah eating or Branden eating or of my niece eating. : ( We were just all so busy talking, chatting and laughing that I honestly didn't have much time for pictures. My bil brought his camcorder and taped what the table looked like and what it all looked like before we ate. So, I think he was excited and happy being here with us and we were equally excited being with them. Over dessert, they told me how Mia-chan loves Dora the explorer. Which was funny because I had given her, her serving of Thanksgiving on Dora The Explorer plate, lol. My kids also love that show so. Good to know I'm in the know. : ) They said she loved the songs of the show. So, when my niece came into the kitchen I told her..."swiper no swiping, swiper no swiping...OH MAN!!!!!" And I sang her the backback backpack song. And the "I'm the map" song too. I think she thinks auntie Gina is pretty cool because she knows all these songs. I told my bil how smart I think Mia is, yes I do, I do. How much she speaks now, wow! She's a regular little chatterbox! When the 3 kids went outside, Mia followed Noah and Branden and when they played chase, she joined them and chased with them. When the 2 boys went upstairs of the jungle gym, Branden lend her a hand and helped her up so she could join them. She's very social. Both of the boys stood near the base of the slide so when she slid down, she had her back up team waiting right there, to help her and lend a hand if needed. And I did tell the boys, please look out for your cousin, and they said, okay! And they did really well. They're both good bigger/older cousins. : ) Mia calls my boys, Branden oni-chan and Noah oni-chan. It means older brother, but can also be used on close older cousins. Awww. They're going away in December too. Noboru has a week off, Jun has 2 weeks off. We told them our plans and he said he might be going there too. So, we're not sure if they will go or be there at the same time. But he knows the days we'll be there, so we'll see.

Half of the turkey was consumed during our Thanksgiving meal and that left half for leftovers. A perfect amount for leftovers, I'd say. : ) Lots of turkey sandwiches. : )

Friday morning, after I woke up, I had a nice hot cup of caramel machiatto and a nice slice of pumpkin pie!

Friday's plan? Go to karaaoke for 2 hours and then head to swim school and watch Noah swim! So that's what we did! And it's 50% off during the day so it was very cheap! Plus the free drink bar! Good deal, good deal. : ) My dad sang a lot of songs, so did Noboru and so did I. My dad and I even sang a duet. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee. LOL, we laughed so hard during this one. My dad sang lots of Beatles. I sang, Luka by Suzzane Vega (gee the words to that are sad but a good song though) And I sang Nobody by Sylvia. 2 Madonna Songs. Hotel California by the Eagles. And I also sang Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles too.

Noboru sang UB40's Red red wine. And a whole bunch of songs in English and also many Japanese songs.

The boys sang Ponyo together!

Yup, Ponyo. :P

And then we went to swim club. Some random lady and child sat next to my dad and B. And that was sorta cool. That means they aren't shy around foreigners. : ) I saw 2 of my fellow yochien mom's at the swim club Friday afternoon. And they greeted my dad and he greeted them back. Ha ha ha. But basically we just watched through the window of the swim class down below.

Noah's on the back stroke as you can tell in this picture. : )

One of the younger coaches and Noah meanwhile laughing. He sure does have a blast at swim school. He really really enjoys it a lot. : )

We all came home and had leftovers on Friday evening right after swim club. No worries about serving size during the holiday. We all munched and munched some more. Had some leftover tiramisu and pumpkin pie for dessert, all of us.

And then Saturday, the day my dad would leave, but his flight wasn't until 7pm and our plan was to head to the airport around 4:45pm. So he'd get there in plenty of time and go through immigration and sit near his gate with plenty of time to spare. So with that plan in motion we really had a full day with no plan. So, we thought why not take Noah to swim club 1 more day and that way my dad could enjoy watching him once more. Noah being in the A course could go any day but Branden being in the C course can't switch days so easily so that's why we took Noah once more.

This coach is the Goto-coach. He is my favorite coach of the whole swimming school. He's firm, he doesn't like any mischeif going on in class but if you listen and pay attention you will get some crazy mad skills from this coach. He's so good. The photos on my front page of my blog, the side with Branden's pictures, the swimming pic of Branden and the coach, that is also Goto coach. He taught Branden for many many years and still does and Branden really likes him a whole lot. And now he's teaching Noah too.

A facing down in the water Noah. Some of the kids were crowding and not standing in line properly so the Goto coach pulled out the hula hoops and had everyone stand in a hoop, so everyone stood in a straight line and didn't crowd. Smart smart coach. I think you can see the hula hoops and the kids standing in a good line in this picture. : )

Noah kicking.

And getting out of the water about to go stand in a hula hoop line. : P

Goto coach giving Noah instruction.

More instruction even.

Noah was told he is bending his legs too much when he does the backstroke, Goto coach has been working with Noah to correct this for the past 2 weeks. And I think he's getting it about right now. He is also reminding Noah to look at the ceiling, that keeps his face more afloat if he does that. He's getting really good thanks to the Goto coach.

After swimming school, we headed straight to the airport. When we left to swim school, is when we put my dad's suitcase in the MPV. So, we had some time to kill, so we stopped to watch some airplanes landing at Narita airport.

Happy smiles.

Look at this airplane Noah! And grandpa pointed it out. : )

And look at this one too.

Watching more land. My dad is just so close to the boys, the both of them.

All four of them looking on. What a good view of the airplane.

Both kids needed sweatshirts at this point. Man these kids will miss grandpa when he's gone. : (

And by now it was about time to head to the actual airport and say our goodbyes.

My dad showing them his ticket that he was indeed in the correct line. He did have a business/first class ticket. Non rev of course, but by goodness that works!

Yup she confirmed his itenerary and waved her hand as in this picture and welcomed him to check in.

Saying our final good byes before he left. I try not to be too sad, because I'll see my dad in just 3-4 weeks from now. But yeah, when he used to live in Denver and it would be like a long time from the next time I could see him, it was always a very tearful goodbye of course. Now it's more like, "see you later" versus a good bye. At least I try to tell myself that. Sniff sniff. : ) My dad hugged the kids, shook Noboru's hand and then he hugged me last, a very long hug. And then he was gone. : (

I watched him walk away and I thought of all the fun we had and then I smiled. I kept wondering, will he turn back and look one last time or won't he? And then he did....just this one last time and I snapped him waving us good bye. I clicked this and waved and waved and waved again. It was a good trip with my dad... a very good time. : )

Since we were in Narita city, we figured why not have 1 meal that didn't include turkey for a change and have some ramen. This really really cheap ramen place. But very good. I had this spicy ramen with lots of cabbage and veggies. Kids had shoyu ramen and Noboru had something else, I forget. We ate our ramen and then headed to our tiny country town. That was Saturday November 28th.

We arrived home, parked the car. Noboru and the boys took a fast shower. Noah smelled like a swimming pool still. Ha ha ha. So after they got soapy clean, I showered and then we all watched TV in our jammies.

Anyway sorry such a delay. I just don't have the time to blog when I have family visiting, gomen ne. And Sunday (yesterday, I sorta just washed all the kids school stuff so they'd be all ready for the week back at school.) And I also rested some. Today ws my actual first day to actually get the time to post this. Anyway sorry so late. : (

What are my plans this week?

This Tuesday, tomorrow, Noboru and I are going to the movies at 10am, the first show of the day, to watch Twilight New Moon. The movies are only 1000 yen during the day on Tuesdays, so we're going to that. And I honestly can't wait. I have seen the trailer online at the Yahoo movie trailer site so many times I lost count. I seriously can't wait until tomorrow to see Twilight New Moon. We orginally wanted to see it the day it opened in Japan, but that was the same day my dad was leaving back to Guam, so a change of plans and that's okay. : )

Wednesday I have a plan to meet up with some yochien friends for lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. So looks like a good week for me so far, movie on Tuesday and lunch with friends the following day (Wednesday).

TV Talk, I am really getting into Hell's Kitchen at the moment. And the "So You Think You Can Dance" show just started a new season for us in Japan. Still watching Bones and Cold Case too. The kids are still watching Wizards of Waverly Place and I like watching that with them, as well as Hannah Montana.

Okie dokie, I don't think I have a single thing else to say. :P So I am going to post this now. I have a house that needs some cleaning. And a full load of jeans about ready to be done and folded from the dryer. Have an excellent week you guys! : )

Let's catch up some! : ) Who's coming for Thanksgiving and we're dreaming of a tropical Christmas, also Branden has the swine flu!!!

Last week, our yochien had a ceremony for Shichigo-san. These are what were given to each of the kids at our yochien. And yes this is Noah's artwork he did on the bag, at school. : )

Cute necklaces. Since the school Noah attends is a private Catholic yochien, they give out religious medals/necklaces. I have all of Branden's saved from his yochien days and I already tucked this away for Noah and also his undokai medal, he got last month, so far as well. : )

Chitose ame is the name of the candy given out.

Last week, I decided to try to make my own buta kimchi sauce. I did not use sesame oil as in the picture, now I was gonna, just being honest. :P I really was. But Noboru walked into the kitchen and said, no way, no way. : ) Ha ha ha. So, I used everything in this pic, but the sesame oil. : ) Oh I also used some garlic as well. : )

This sauce came out so good. Which is good because whenever I try something new, I always think to myself, "okay this is either going to turn out really good or super horrible." : ) : ). But it actually turned out really really good. : )

My husband got real buta kimchi, meaning with the buta/pork. : ) And I made myself chicken kimchi. Kids had some from both.

Also the same day as I prepped for buta kimchi and made the sauce, well sorta semi made the sauce. : ) I decided to bake a cake. I baked a coconut cake mix that I had, no frosting, no anything. Just kept it a simple, coconut cake, no more no less. And I shouldn't say this but, man it was fantastic.

Kimchi isn't so expensive and I love it, but it sorta can get to be expensive when you make buta kimchi, especially just to use it/throw it in a meal. I mean I don't wanna waste a whole big jar of that delicious stuff. So, to cut cost, I use regular hakusai and then use my own hot buta kimchi sauce. My mil usually sends us buta kimchi sauce from one of her restaurants and karaage and potato salad, but this past year she's been so busy, I haven't had the heart to call her and ask. Anyway using plain hakusai and then adding the sauce sorta makes this meal even cheaper for our family and I like that. : )

Oh goodness was this good. After I served the kids, I added extra chili flakes to make it even spicier for myself. I am going to be making this one all winter long, I can see that now.

My serving along with a Matsuya cider with ice. : )

The sweaters came last week.

I tried them both and all I can say is the reviews were 100% right.

And yup, last week, after the kids were sent to school, there I went driving in the cold weather to FedEx to ship the 2 freakishly enormous sized sweaters back. And boy they were not whistling Dixie about ordering a size down. I sorta took it with a grain of salt, at first. But wow, completely true! The arms alone were so long it went passed my finger nails, it was like stepping into an adults sweater, yet being a kid. That big, type big. @_@

The Christmas things I ordered online came. Boy Amazon ships stuff from the US so quickly it always amazes me.

They broke my shipment into 2 separate shipments which was weird because I requested to have everything shipped in 1 lump order, because it's cheaper but ah well. That's how they did it and it was at no extra cost to me, so I don't really mind. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. This book is a popular book and a great book at that. And it's been made into a movie. The DVDs I ordered, I only ordered 3 for the boys. UP, is a new one, we haven't seen this one. This looks so good. The new Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, we haven't seen either and Monsters vs. Aliens. We saw that movie at the theater but the kids liked it, so I think/hope they'll enjoy these 3 movies for Christmas. And I hope they'll enjoy getting the book as well.

Two days later came the 2nd shipment.

Brain Quest workbooks for the kids, these are educational workbooks for the kids. These are imo some of the best workbooks around. Honestly they are. We have the ones from Costco and they're okay, don't get me wrong. But these ones are like a full year of school wrapped up in a workbook. They're that good. Anyway, Branden is getting Diary of a Wimpy Kid, this book was/is a best seller. And according to Amazon the reading level is for a native speaking 9-12 year old. And Branden is about that level in his reading. His Wizard of Oz book was of the same reading level and he had no trouble with that at all. So, I know he'll enjoy this book a lot. He loves to read for pleasure a lot, I notice. And for the record, no I don't only buy Branden books for a 9-12 yo, I usually get him books from 2 different catergories for 7-8 range and yes also the books for 9-12 are okay too. They don't have books ONLY and specifically for 8 year olds, the range usually varies. So, that's why, and as long as the books are between the 7-8 and 9-12 range he is fine. And Noah, I chose him "The Giving Tree" This book is a classic. After I finish reading this book I always get a little sad or think about how truly giving that tree was. Sigh. Anyway I think he'll enjoy the book. I also got them the thin book called, "The Night Before Thanksgiving" because I want them to know about American traditions (as well as Japanese ones) and appreciate how cool the holidays are. And they love the holidays anyways but this book when I read it to them, they said, wow they eat turkey like we do, wow they have family coming to dinner like we do. And they put olives on their fingers like we do. : ) If we were living in the US, they'd know everyone does the same thing for Thanksgiving obviously. They'd probably be making Thanksgiving art projects at school already. But with living in Japan, I can understand that yes it does feel sometimes like we are the only ones celebrating it. : ( So the book is good for them to see yes, other people really do celebrate it too. : ) So, anyway, we've been reading this Thanksgiving book together every single night. :)

I like how all subjects in this are covered. Social studies, cursive writing (yup that's usually taught in the 2nd grade in the US), time and money he knows and math. But this book is going to be great and the reading and writing (read a paragraph about the sun for example in the science section and be able to answer the questions below in actual sentences type stuff about the sun) is now at a level challenging enough for him. Also it's not just English, it's social studies, like I said, science, cursive writing, etc etc. Yet, all in English so that's good.

The consultants for these books are teachers of the year. Same for the other books, but teacher's of the year for different years, so they are really well written books.

Noah's book is for a 4-5 year old. He turned 4 in July so this is perfect for him. I also have 2 Costco workbooks for Noah that he has been using for the past year. So he's been getting lots of home help from me on that end. And Noah starts Kumon next year for Japanese (reading and writing prep). More then likely at the end of Summer 2010, still thinking on the month to start him. So he's gonna get about 18-20 months of Japanese writing/reading prep before he starts ichinensei. He won't start English at Kumon until he becomes an actual ichinensei, even though he fluently speaks English natively already, but yeah regarding his writing and reading he has been practicing with me this whole past year with letters and with practice writing (upper case, lower case) and stuff but I can't wait for him to get the benefits from English at Kumon like Branden did. And the math is awesome enough at the Japanese elementary that I am more then happy with it, so no Kumon help needed for our family for that. What they learn at regular elementary regarding math is so thorough and so complete. The whole first grade was spent on addition and subtraction. It goes very slow and not all fast fast zoom zoom like how my class ran through it at my school in the US. By the end of first grade last year, the Yuka-sensei wanted all kids to be able to calculate 1-9 (add or subtract) without using their fingers to count and Branden could more then do that by the end of ichinensei. Now in ninensei, they are working on addition/subtraction still (2 and 3 rows of addition now so it is progressing slowly this way everyone gets it, understands it). And after Branden's undokai this year and after Summer break is when the Yuka-sensei started with multiplication. Every yochien mom friend I know had told me ahead of time, that multiplication at shogako is started the 2nd semester of the 2nd grade, so it seems things go nice and slow and everyone gets a very good base/foundation down regarding math and that is very important. Branden's one of the top 3 students of his class regarding his math. So, we are very happy with the math being taught at regular elementary school. It definitely works for our family, and I can only speak for my own family. But yeah the math at the elemetary school's in Japan, rock!

I made some beef stew 4 days ago or 5 days ago? Something like that. : ) I had bought the beef and froze it until the day we had it. I cubed the beef, fried it in a bit of oil and then boiled the heck out of it. It was tender tender by the time it was done.

I have a scale I use for measuring packages for things that I sell on yahoo auctions.jp It's just a scale I bought at the 100 yen a while back. That way I can figure out how much to charge strangers/customers for shipping, lol. Anyway.....I have begun measuring my rice on it. This Daiso cheap scale is so useful. I am trying to stay at 200 grams for rice. This night it was 199 grams. Nothing major but it helps me sort of keep track and be mindful of my serving size. And I do need to remind myself at times. But hey, an A for effort at least. :P

Beef stew, 199 grams of rice for me. :P I just gotta laugh at myself for that. ) And some jasmine tea. And I've been measuring my rice so far for 6 days or so now and I really don't mind and it's actually quite helpful for me.

My dinner from another night this week. Cutlet, 200 grams of rice, lol at myself again. : ) : ) and string beans/green beans and a salad. And a jasmine tea. Again nothing wrong for effort, right? : )
And another night, some stir fry. Just chicken, mushrooms and broccoli on a bed of white rice. Yup, measured this rice too. @_@ And again, at least I'm trying. And jasmine tea.

Beyblades are the name in English. Anyway Beyblade have gotten really popular in our area lately. All the kids in the area have been playing these for month's now. After much persuasion, we finally caved and picked some up for the boys.

Last Saturday, since we were going to the country city (same one Noah goes to yochien in) we were going there to get the beyblades anyway and so we picked up a dozen donuts. I usually bake a treat once a week for the family, but last week, with cramps and all. It was just more practical/easier for us to buy donuts last weekend. Because I just felt sorta yuck with the cramps and stuff. Sometimes the cramps aren't so bad, it's like nothing but some month's ha, the cramps seem like blech. This month was the latter for sure. : )

Saturday night, we had supper, hubby made it and I am thankful because I had cramps and it was raining so no laundry hanging out last weekend. After dinner they went and the 3 of them showered and I showered after them (after that I had a nice Advil : ). And we then popped 3 bags of microwave popcorn. 1 bowl for the kids, 1 bowl for Noboru and 1 bowl for me. We turned out the lights in the living room. Noah is really on this kick lately about turning off the lights during movie night because he wants it to be like 'at the movies" @_@ Ha ha ha Anyway we watched Star Trek. Such a good movie. I don't think I'd go run out and buy the dvd or anything, but yeah it was really really good. How Kirk became a captain? How Spock's childhood was for him being half human and how he got the job he had. Just all of it. Noboru had never seen an episode of Star Trek, I know.... shocking, right? : ) And I had already said I was quite limited myself with Star Trek, but we enjoyed the heck out of that movie. So, it's not like you needed to know every last detail to enjoy it. Because we enjoyed it quite a bit. : )

Borudo (Bold) laundry detergent now comes with Downy. Anyone else see this at the store? I already have a favorite different Japanese laundry soap, but when I saw this at the store, it caught my eye right away. I didn't like that the size of this box is actually smaller then the brand I usually use. But I bought it anyway and wanted to give it a try. The Snuggle laundry detergent I tried a few years back in Japan, I really disliked the way that one smelled. However this Downy one, smells so good! I am now wondering if I should switch laundry detergents or stick with my regular Japanese laundry soap I usually use. Hmm, tough tough. Decisions decisions. :P Our laundry all this week has smelled absolutely fantastic though. Really reminds me of home. : )

What else, what else?

Thanksgiving: The turkey has been ordered, we ordered a 20lb one. It gets here this coming Sunday/ November 22nd, in the morning is when I selected the delivery time. My dad will be flying in from Guam on Tuesday November 24th to share Thanksgiving with us and I am thankful for that. He will be here from Tuesday until Saturday evening. So that means he'll get to watch Branden's swim class on Wednesday, enjoy Thanksgiving and Saturday in the day is a thing at Branden's school, so Noboru, my dad and Noah and I will all be going to that for Branden. That ought to be fun. I also invited my bil and my sil and my niece to Thanksgiving. So uncle Jun and Satoe and Mia-chan are coming for Thanksgiving as well. They said they're running to Costco and if we need anything to let them know, so I am sorta racking my brain right now. Ha ha ha. : ) And I love my bil and sil very much so I can't wait to see them for Thanksgiving. So, looking forward to Thanksgiving. : )

Christmas: We're going to Guam for Christmas! We were going to Denver originally but will save that for next time, hopefully. Having a tropical Christmas, swimming along the beach or at the pool of our hotel. I can't wait! We'll be there for 5 nights, so it'll be a good little get away for sure. Lots of time to relax and unwind. And plus I can see my dad and we can have some more family time too. But my dad is doing a lot of stuff with the church and is singing in a choir and we really wanted to go on a vacation and get some r and r. So while I'll be seeing my dad, we will still be on a vacation and unwinding. We were gonna stay at my dad's and he has an amazing place. But we get only about 3-4 trips a year, I know, I know I shouldn't complain. But we sorta wanted a real vacation type vacation, this time. So and we do get cheap discount so we don't feel too wasteful. And besides, as much work as I do with running here and running there and this and that. By gosh, we all sorta need a good vacation, and I know Noboru could really use one. A nice eyebrow wax, some snorkeling with the kids. Maybe some lomi lomi massage at the spa of my hotel. And yeah, I am looking forward to it. We're counting the days already! : ) I also want to take the kids to see the movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. : ) And take advantage of the yen being so strong and look for some good sales at Macy's and also check out the book store and dvd's at Blockbusters and whatnot. The room has been booked, the car rental has been booked and hubby's been given off all his days he asked for already for our Christmas vacation. They also gave him American Thanksgiving off too. Bless their hearts. : )

So, basically right now I'm sorta being a bit quiet because I have been busy trying to get ready for Thanksgiving. From this Sunday until Tuesday I will be cleaning here like mad. Going to wash up the bedding in the bedroom my dad uses, just to refreshen the bedding is all. : ) I want to scrub down the 2 big toy boxes upstairs and to make sure all the toys are clean and ready for when my niece comes to play Thanksgiving day. I cannot wait to see her, she's starting yochien this coming April 2010 you know. And she'll be three this coming February! : )

I'm also making a small list of stuff for my dad to bring for me when he gets here on Tuesday. He's already picked up some stuff for me already this week. Cranberries, black olives, disposable turkey pan etc etc. :P So my brain is sorta everywhere right now. Deep deep thoughts about Thanksgiving at the moment. And getting ready to spend time with my family quite soon. So, I'm sorta happily occupied these days. : ) The 2 dvd's we rented came in the mail. We always wait until the weekend to watch them, so we haven't seen them yet. I picked Slumdog Millionare and Noboru picked Hotel Rwanda. So that's what we'll be watching this weekend. : )

Update: This post was written and finished Wednesday in the day, and I was going to publish it Thursday morning, however so much has happened since then, so bare with me.....after school let out on Wednesday, Branden came home from elementary school. He said 2 third graders and 2 sixth graders have the swine flu at his school. Okay, that was sorta semi shocking, but figured it would eventually reach our town sooner or later. And I even said in one of my last couple posts, by my saying that it didn't get our town yet, probably now I've doomed the whole town and now everyone will get it. Remember that? Well, Thursday morning, Branden was very ill. High temperature and so first thought we had was.... "omg he has the swine flu" So, we took him to the hospital he tested negative. No swine flu but they said the test is often wrong if the kid has a fever which he did. That Branden might still have it. So they sent us home, they offered us fever reducer but nothing else. So, we went home. He was sick all Thursday night. I gave him fever reducer every 4-6 hours. But as soon as it wore off, his fever went straight up. He was 39.4 last night. And that's after he was given fever reducer!!! @_@ I made a little chicken noodle soup last night out of 1 small chicken breast and some vegetables and pasta, just enough for B, we had something else for supper. This morning his fever was back with a vengence and Noboru took him to the doctor yet again. He was tested again this Friday morning and he is positive! He does indeed have the swine flu. You know, it just proves to show.....sometimes things just happen without a reason in life. I try to keep the kids healthy of course, like all of us parents do, nothing different there. They do wash their hands frequently since the swine flu came about, they do eat citrus and blow their noses and everything else we heard about keeping the swine flu hopefully at bay. And we even signed up to be on the waiting list for the darned swine flu vaccination. So yeah, sometimes a person can do all the right things or have all the best intentions n the world, cross all their T's and dot all their i's. But when it comes down to it. We are all vulnerable to catching it, I guess. Well, I do always try to look for a silver lining...so give me a second here to think of one......okay I got one! We can now get our names off the swine flu vaccination waiting list now. Ha ha ha. : ) : ) Oh goodness. Noboru said they prescribed Branden, Tamiflu. I've heard of it, but all my friends from the yochien (whose older kids who had it), all their kids were give relenza. But we do live in a smaller different town so I am not sure. All well, that's where we are right now. You now know about as much as me. : )

Noboru had told me yesterday that if Branden has the swine flu, he will not let Jun and his family come to Thanksgiving but only out of worry, because we do worry about Mia-chan of course. But I was really hoping to see them. Oh goodness. My dad is still coming no matter what. Hmm, but I really wanna spend time with my bil and sil and my niece. She's such a little sweetheart my niece is. Anyway, they say 5 days, so Branden will be quarantined for 5 days. Noah we are going to watch for any signs of anything. The yochien we just spoke with this Friday morning and they said, when Branden is safe to go back to his school is when Noah will be allowed to go back to the yochien. So, Noah is not allowed at school either. Which he's fine. But I do understand totally. And Branden's elemetary said, before he comes back to school he needs a doctors note saying he is healthy again. So, this coming Wednesday besides going crazy baking pies for Thanksgiving (for the following day) I imagine I will be at the hospital with my dad trying to get that note from the doctor. : ) : )

Also, grandma Mitsuko is coming to Noah's Christmas recital in December, I called and invited her, I think she'll also be spending the night even, very cool.

PSS, Branden took 1 tamiflu this morning and he seems to be doing better so far. His fever has broken, his temp is normal. Yesterday he was irritable and crying and quite ill (which is really out of character for Branden). So, I think he could be coming out of it. Oh goodness, I hope so. I don't need any other wrenches thrown my way, this week. I am busy enough trying to get ready for Thanksgiving and company coming over. And for my dad's visit. Anyway sorry if this is a long post. Forgive me. I just have so much going on, so much is coming up and this was my only chance to jot it all down. I hope there is no huge spelling mistakes or errors, I usually like to read it through once before hitting the publish button, but I don't really have the time for it today, I'll try to read it over tommorow morning if I get the time. I have to start dinner right now. I'm making a big pot of chicken noodle soup for everyone tonight. Figure we could all use it and B likes it anyways so I think he won't mind eating it a 2nd night. And I bought another big bag of mikans this afternoon. : ) Anyway have a wonderful weekend everyone. I've got to get a hot cup of tea into Branden right now. And get started on that soup. And we have a dvd to watch this evening. Okay, I better get going before this things gets even longer! @_@ Ha ha ha. Okay sorry have a wonderful weekend. : )

Wanwan land in Tsukuba, Japan! : )

Last Saturday, November 7th, our family went to the Wanwan Land in Tsukuba, Japan.

This place is a bit hard to describe, so bare with me here, okay try to imagine somewhat like a petting zoo type place (meaning you can be hands on), except there is no zoo. And it just has dogs. This is basically a place where a person can pet and be around dogs all day long. Perfect for people who live in apartments that maybe don't allow pets. Do you know what I mean? Or people in general who love dogs, but for various reasons don't have them, themselves. Like us for example, we love dogs. I grew up always having a dog. Noboru grew up always having a dog as well. We're both dog lovers. But because we do travel quite a bit, for us personally a dog wouldn't be a good fit, because dogs need love and attention and time and it wouldn't be fair for the dog, especially as much as we travel and we do know that and so that's why we are petless because if we couldn't give 100% to an animal, we would feel badly, very badly, so I think we made the right choice. And even though we at times ache to have a pet, we know we made the best decision for us and for our family. Sigh. : ( But we sure do still have that great love for dogs. So for us, spending the day here, last Saturday was perfect!

The boys really love dogs too. All the dogs are very nice, used to being loved and petted by people all day long.

They had a Dalmatian, we used to have 2 Dalmatian's long ago, so I was surprised to see this one and I petted this one a good long time.

This Beagle really took to our family of 4. Not quite sure why, but she licked the tops of my feet, I was wearing ballet shoes is why so the tops were out a bit. @_@ And it made me smile. And I petted her ears in return. : ) She licked the boys quite a bit and even licked Noboru's hands. She wasn't really as affectionate with other people as she was with us, on the day we were there but she really warmed up to us.

So many dogs to love on! They just laid there waiting to get petted. The ones with shorter coats wore sweaters, so they really did take good care of these dogs.

Yup that beagle came back for some more lovin' ha ha ha! : )

They had heaters in the center. Noah was now petting this dog with what looks like a doggy mustache? I sorta think this dog had a dog mustache! : )

They had a show, I watched some of it but wanted to go back to the dogs so I could pet them some more.

You can see the mountains in the background Tsukuba is a really beautiful city I think.

Hmm do you think all these dogs sorta look the same? Not only are they all the same breed. But they are all sisters and brothers. Ha ha ha. They ran around the dog arena part.

Not a race as in racing dogs, this was more like a little obstacle course. Ha ha ha. They jumped up and got the ball in this picture. They actually had another dog at this place where they rescued him from a real race track type place and guess what he does for his life now? He's a rental dog, who people rent for 20 minutes or more and pet and slowly walk around the dog park. We saw him get a walk, he looked all happy and chipper with his second lease on life spending it here at the Wanwan land. : )

I think of course living with 1 family and being loved is best but this isn't really so bad either. They're loved, kept warm. Showered with affection. The people working there we could tell, do it because they love the dogs. The way they spoke to the dogs was with great love, when the dogs tails started wagging when they saw a worker come on duty it was obvious they were and are being treated well here.

Branden loves dogs! He had just the best time here last Saturday! : )

This cute little cocker spaniel.

These dogs just came up and jumped on the boys laps. I think because they, meaning the dogs are used to getting love and that affection daily like that. Oh this is sorta cute there was 1 couple, who brought their own seat cushions, we were sorta thinking maybe they live close and come weekly but that couple had about 8 dogs all snoozing on their laps and near them. The man was actually asleep taking a nap with the dogs on his lap and near him. And the lady was awake but quite relaxed with all the dogs. Branden and Noah were with these dogs and they wanted to be rubbed, petted and some lovin' : )

Dogs are honest creatures I think, they can tell a good egg from a bad egg for sure. Branden gave them affection and pet after pet after pet. He didn't mind in fact he loved it.

And even more dogs! Good grief B! : )

See how the dogs were broken up? One side was big dogs only and the other side was small dogs only. Except one senior citizen golden retriever was allowed on the small dog side.

Dog observation tower, lol, you could actually climb up and look through the dog! Ha ha ha.

They had tables for lunch and sold ice cream and stuff. We didn't eat here, we had a plan to head to Wendy's afterwards. But yeah we spent the whole day at the dog petting park.

And then it was time to leave. They have hand sinks in the place with soap, so we all washed up before leaving the park. Man it was an awesome way to spend a Saturday! I definitely plan to go back to Wanwan land! : )

We went to Wendy's. I had a spicy chicken sandwich and fries and a straight tea. Noboru had a double cheeseburger, fries, chili and a Pepsi. Kids had cheeseburger kids meals.

Noah eating his chocolate Frostie. And we went and ordered B another cheeseburger because well, he's growing up! Needs more food. : )

It was an excellent weekend. Wanwan land and Wendy's, not bad. We drove home. Took showers. We all got into our jammies. And watched TV and enjoyed the night.

Noah's school field trip, a new swim level achieved for each of the boys and some homemade chocolate chip pecan cookies! : )

On the Friday that was, October 30th, Noah's school had an ensoku/field trip, this one was without us parents. This wasn't just his class, it was for the entire school. Every Fall, the kids of this yochien,take the same trip, to the same destination too, lol. Branden took this same trip every year way back when, he was in yochien. And when B was a blue badge, I thought and reflected upon, "wow this will be his last unaccompanied trip with our yochien." And here I am a couple years later, meeting up at 8:30am same meeting spot, lol. Except now I'm with my youngest and last kiddo. Meanwhile, Noah that morning, was so excited it was his very first field trip unaccompanied by us parents. Yes he had 2 before (the picnic lunch in May and the grape and sweet potato harvest) but those were with us parents and stuff, so this was his very first one unaccompanied. Two of the sensei's were in this pic, and they were taking attendance.

All the older classes were hand holders of the younger classes. Blue badges and pink badges helped the red and yellow badges.

That Thomas thermos used to belong to Branden. : ) Sure I gather I coulda bought him a new thermos. But I think it is smarter to reuse if we can. One of my good friends, told me, her (red badge) daughter was using her 3rd grade daughters backpack she used to use. And I then pointed to Noah's school bus backpack and unzipped the zipper and showed her the name written on the inside "Branden last name" And she smiled and I smiled. No need to show boast or need the newest thing. Just being practical. And that was the way with a lot of the kids at the field trip. A lot of the kids I know their older siblings since when B used to go there, I recalled such and suches backpack and saw their younger sibling using the same one. Smart I thought. And I knew they knew that was B's old backpack too. I did however put a new name sticker on the thermos though. But ehhh, Branden is still written in marker at the bottom of said thermos. And it's okay. : ) No need to put on airs. : )

After the kids went to their field trip that Friday. The hubster and I went and had breakfast at Coco's. However our Coco's is still on that (not very good) breakfast buffet thing. And no longer serving regular breakfast? So, we left and went to Jonathon's instead. See their Halloween decorations near the drink bar? : )

Noboru had the breakfast sandwich and I had the hot cakes, both our meals came with the drink bar. They didn't have hot cocoa like Coco's does but it was okay. : ) Sometimes we just gotta go with the flow and roll with the punches.

My pancakes and hot coffee. Cute coffee cups right. I really thought they had cute coffee cups they had all sorts of designs.

Friday, I ran to the grocery store got a weeks worth of food. And then I ran to the Daiso/100 yen store. I picked up some very unexciting stuff, lol just extra laundry clips, some shoe hangers, some chisai towels for the kids. For which I had to lug the sewing machine out a few days later and sew name labels on the kids small towels. Branden needed a new nylon towel for the shower. And just a few odds and ends. It's amazing how a person can go into the Daiso and then buy another thing then another. I try to limit myself to spending 1000 yen in there at a time or less, but this time I think it was 1200 yen. Curses on that amazing store! :P

So, I finally got around to buying real shoe hangers, well wonders never cease. However I must say, these were a real beast to slip onto each shoe, and once while trying to get the shoe on the shoe hanger the plastic piece slipped off and I had to redo it and it just seemed to be more of a pain this way with using the proper shoe hangers, how did that happen? : ) I sorta think my make shift "extra hanger and clips works way way better" and is more useful. Grumble grumble. I'll give it 3 more weeks with this, either I'll get the hang of these or I won't..... we'll see. : )

This is a story ummm not about washing, but more of a story about a bird and some poop. Bare with me here.... to tell the whole story real quick, this happened the day of Halloween, Oct 31st. So, my towels were outside drying along the fence, as always nothing new there. However and this is the good part. So, Saturday it was a very windy day. Good weather for towel drying. Everything was extra clipped nothing was gonna knock those babies down! So, anyway after my son looked outside Branden said, "mommy there's a bird on your towel" I said could you guys go outside and shoo him away. They said sure and so both my sons went and shooed the bird away. The kids came back inside and so the bird flew right back to my towel. He didn't land on any other towel mind you. Wasn't interested in any other towel, he only wanted to sit on my blue and white striped towel. So he sat once again. Now the other towels were completely bird free and I can tell you, in the 3 or 4 years we've lived here, this was the first time a bird ever landed on anything of ours that we washed. Anyway, a few hours pass. And I go outside and get all the towels. All are fresh and dry. And then there was my towel. It had bird poop on it not once it had bird poop on it *3* different places!!!! What kind of freak bird was this? I had briefly mentioned the bird that morning to Noboru. By afternoon when I come in with the towels and I have all clean towels on my right shoulder hanging and my striped towel folded in my hand and the look on my face. He said "what is it" I said, "remember that bird from this morning. He crapped all over my towel, also why only my towel?" Not quite sure what it was, but my husband burst into hysterical laughter in the kitchen. He thought that was just the funniest thing he had ever heard. Clearly I wasn't amused by it (at the time), so I went upstairs, put my towel in the washer, spray and washed the ahem poop areas and ran it into the washer all by itself, because I didn't have anything else to wash and I didn't want the stain to set in. By now it was too late to dry outside, but also I was semi afraid that bird would come back for my towel again, that dirty rotten scoundrel. So, I threw my towel into the dryer. Gee, I did need my towel for my bath that night you know (and yes we each have 2 towels each but that one is my favorite). : ) Luckily for me, it was dried hours before bath time. But yeah....wasn't that just weird? Ha ha ha. Now days later, of course. I can see the humor in it, but Saturday, I was definitely not feeling the love for that bird. I haven't seen him this week so far and I've hung towels out quite a few times since.

In other news. Good news. Branden tested last Wednesday and passed and he is now a level 5. And Noah tested Saturday (the day of the bird incident) and he also passed and is now a Sakura/cherry blossom. They were both so excited to pass. This week both, Branden and Noah will be in a new swim lane and doing different training.

Sunday, I baked some homemade Nestle Toll house cookies with the boys.

The cookies we made. : ) I've had about 4 cookies total so far but my hubby and the kids have been enjoying them all week long like crazy. Which makes me happy.

One of our simple but yummy meals we had lately. Ginger pork, some rice and some steam veggie. And some jasmine tea.

What else...what else.

The weather in the part/area of Chiba, Japan we live has really grown so freezing cold this past week and a half. We have now turned the heat on for the season in the house. And turned on our floor heating, so the house will remain toasty warm all Winter now. Also in my home state, I saw on the news about the major snow Colorado had 2 weeks ago. Boy did they get slammed with some major snow. No snow for us here, but man has it grown bitterly cold though. Definitely no longer shorts weather anymore. : ) When the kids go play outside now, they go wearing sweatshirts, gloves. It's definitely been chilly willy lately.

This is our floor heating, we keep it on 35c-40c all winter long. That's 95 degrees F to 104 degrees F for you Americans. That is honestly really toasty warm for a floor, the whole downstairs flooring is that toasty warm, kitchen floor, living room, bathroom floor, genkan floor, everywhere downstairs. There's really no need to wear slippers or even socks in our house (not rubbing it in) just explaining how winter is like in our home is all. And the upstairs is carpeted and central as well obviously, so we just don't feel any cold at all. A couple years ago, I took a picture of Noah when he was about a year old or so actually snoozing on the floor one time and blogged it. The reason he was laying on the floor was because the floor is so hot and feels so good. Between the floor heating and the central heating, the huge amounts of insulation and the solidly built house we had built, the bitter cold in Japan never seems to bother us/affect us. And for that we are grateful. Our old house rental in Japan on the other hand, it was the typical one room was kept warm the rest of the house was freezing cold. Even the bathrooms were freezing cold. Every morning the kitchen floor felt like a sheet of ice, I think the experience of living in our old house rental gives us great appreciation for living in our home now, does that make sense/dykwim? Meaning we know how cold Japan gets, we know how tough it was living the other way, so in a way, we stay appreciative and the experience of our other house, keeps us humble, as it should, I think. We don't take it for granted I guess would be an easier way to put it. Anyway thought this might be interesting for some of you reading this in the US.

Wednesday of this week I went to lunch with 3 yochien friends, so including me, it was 4 of us. We had lunch at Coco's. I had the spaghetti set. We chatted about typical mom type stuff, I guess....flu vaccinations, the swine flu, Costco, some American holidays that are coming up. Very very nice and friendly ladies. Oh, we also have a school bazaar coming up in November and many of us will sell baked goods. When B went there I baked cupcakes. This is my first time for doing this for Noah and I will be baking cupcakes again for that. The picture above is of the teeny tiny order from Costco/Flying pig that came for us, this week. Just 2 items no biggie. We go through cheese like you wouldn't believe, that huge 1kg bag we bought a while back is sadly long gone. This block of cheese was a good price, and we need it for cheese and crackers, grilled cheese, in omelets, geeze we eat cheese with so much. And the tortillas are always nice for sandwich making, they make yummy wraps.

Though the boys closets and clothes sorting was done eons ago, I did get around to doing my closet a week or two ago. All my winter stuff is now all out, my Summer stuff is now all packed away except for a few outfits I always keep in a drawer for trips to Guam and such. I didn't do much winter buying for myself this season. Hubby bought me, a really gorgeous pair of Bobson jeans. And I ordered online 2 Gap argyle sweaters at Gap.com. They make some really cute ladies argyle sweaters every single year. I bought 2 of them last week, the gray and green and the 2nd one is the navy blue with pink argyle print. I wear a medium at Gap normally which is why I order from Gap and Old Navy more then any other store, because I know my sizing at those 2 stores like the back of my hand and I know how they fit on me, however Gap online has reviews from customers now and the reviews for this particular sweater is said to run freakishly big??? This worried me a lot and ordering from overseas in the first place is a huge pain in the butt to begin with. However the " running freakishly big in size comments" freaked me out and I'll admit worried me. So, I ordered a small and a medium, in each. Anyway pardon my grumble grumble, whatever size ends up fitting is the 2 I'll keep and I obviously plan to ship the ones that don't fit straight back to Gap. I've done this once before a few years ago. Anyway I'll be happy when they get here. They should be here any day now.

Exercise: I haven't spoken of exercise on my blog in forever....seriously the longest longest time. I think I just fizzled out with it sometime this Summer. Now what does that mean exactly. Does that mean I've been totally unmoving. Absolutely untrue. In truth, I ride my bike with Noah about twice a week. Running after my kids in general keeps me on my toes, anyways. And I do use my treadmill about once a week. I know...once a week is not great, but hey just being honest! So, while I am healthy, I still have that desire to be fitter (don't we all?), to know I can do more. Yet being as busy as always. It's gone on the back burner. Well until now. I am going to make a bigger effort to do my exercise DVD for right now, I'm shooting for at least 1-2 times a week and to do treadmill more and hopefully try to fit in riding my bike more too and maybe an actual few walks in my neighborhood too. We will see. At least though, I am trying to stay fit, so that is a plus and that is a positive. I figure if I can do something exercise wise 5 days a week, then that would be cool. Maybe a bike ride one day, a nice country walk the next, a workout dvd the next day and you get what I mean. So, anyway still at it. Still giving it that old college try. : ) : )

What else: I placed a really good size order from Amazon.com for the boys. Stuff for Christmas, some books, some DVD's, and some educational workbooks as well. I plan to hide them away in the attic and when I get some Christmas wrapping paper, I'll wrap them up. I get so excited around the holidays. : ) And I am happy that I started with my Christmas shopping.

TV Talk:

These are 2 of the DVD's we rented for November, we will pick 2 more as soon as we get around to seeing Star Trek. The Strangers on the other hand, we watched Saturday after the kids went to sleep. I do like scary movies, so does the hubster. This isn't really scary in the sense of ghosts or anything like that. It is supposedly based on a true story, about a home invasion, a very disturbing home invasion. I won't go into great detail (but don't read ahead if you are worried of any spoilers) someone knocks at the door at 4am, and it's a girl asking " is Tamara there?" They answered the door. And said "no Tamara lives here, you must have the wrong house." My husband and I kept yelling at the TV "don't answer the door, don't answer the door!!!!" I am not really a screaming type girl during horror movies or in any other type situations. I can handle it for mostly any movie. But this movie had me screaming quite a few times. Haven't seen a good scary movie like this in a long time. It will have you at the edge of your seat. Screaming a few times. And if you're expecting a nice little cute ending with warm and fuzzies and rainbows at the end. Skip this one. The end is horrific. But since it's a scary movie to begin with, it does it's job. 2 thumbs up for this scary movie for sure.

Star Trek, we haven't seen it yet, and I would definitely not consider myself a trekkie at all. I know who Spock and Kirk are for sure, but I think I might have seen a few of the old episodes but never really got into them at all. I did however like Star Trek the Next Generation with Data and Jean Luc, lol. And have never seen the other series from this really maybe one or two episodes at the most. But, I did want to see this movie. Hopefully we can see this one, sometime this week.

Hell's Kitchen just started for us in Japan and it's on the Fox Life Channel. I caught the first episode last night, it was so good. I have seen newer seasons online but it's nice to be able to see this on satellite now.

What else have we been up to? Well, Branden has a teeny tiny field trip but technically not a real field trip, it's another one of those "exploring what's in our town" type field trips. He has that on Tuesday, so tomorrow.Besides B's upcoming mini country field trip tomorrow. November 10th. And the yochien bazaar November 20th which I will be baking for that. I am also getting ready for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving and look forward to that every year. : ) Anyway these are a few of the goings ons that's been happening in our neck of the woods. : )

Swine flu: It seems the swine flu is all over the place these days. So, I should update what's happening swine flu wise where we live. Oddly enough, our town is basically not affected. The elementary Branden goes to is fine. Now, there was rumor that one of the kids at our local junior high possibly had it? And that is why the town undokai last month was canceled because our town worried if the elementary kids are near the junior high kids, yada yada.... could a wide spread epidemic happen? I think they worried greatly about it, which I can understand why of course and canceled it. So that is why B's town undokai was canceled and plus the typhoon that happened the Thursday before the town undokai which didn't really do much but the huge amounts of rain really did a number on the field. But yeah even now our town is still pretty much swine flu free. Ughhhh and I hate saying that, because it's almost like tempting fate and now the whole town will get it now that I said that. : ) : ) But yes our town seems unaffected by the swine flu. Knocks on wood. Now for the small country type city Noah goes to yochien in. Swine flu seems to be semi wide spread in the local elementary for that city. The whole 3rd grade classes were canceled for more then half of the month of October!!! Which lots of those 3rd graders are the mom's I am friends with and their younger siblings go to yochien with Noah. So while the swine flu is happening in the city nearest us. Noah's yochien has not had 1 single case of the swine flu yet (knocks on wood). Again, it doesn't mean they won't get it. I am just saying for right now. Our town has not had any major outbreaks. And no one has had it at our yochien. Again though I do worry. Just like all of us mother's/parents do. Sigh. I do have my kids on the swine flu vaccination waitlist though. They are 2nd priority, first priorty is for kids with asthma, pregnant ladies, etc etc.

Anyway, I have a house to clean and an exercise dvd to do. Have a wonderful week! : )

Happy Halloween from our family here in Chiba, Japan!!! : )

To all of you that celebrate it! I hope for you all to have a wonderful Halloween. This picture was taken this evening however my flash was on and so it looks actually earlier in the day then it was. It was pitch black outside. : ) You can see our carved Jack o' lantern all nicely cut, trying to bring some Halloween cheer to our neighborhood! : )

A couple days ago, the boy's and I carved the pumpkin together. Usually Noboru joins in the fun with the carving but his schedule this week was so, that we cut it without the hubby. However he saw it and thought we did a pretty okay job! : ) In this pic, Noah was pointing to the carving he wished for us to do. I said...."I don't think I have the skill to do that one" : ) A little too elaborate for my carving skills, now Noboru could have done that one no problem. : )

Yup, he wants to cut....that one? Ha ha ha.

Time to scoop out some pumpkin guts! Go kids go, get the seeds out.

Boy did these need a good and thorough washing. :P

Fresh out of the oven, all nicely roasted and salted and placed into this little dish and we munched these Wednesday night.

While munching our pumpkin seeds, the kids and I watched Hocus Pocus. A Halloween movie on the Disney channel. We have been watching kids Halloween movies all week. The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc etc.

Aha, a bit blurry but this pic is really how dark it was tonight when we took the picture. Anyway, I hope everyone has a spook-tacular Halloween!
Kids have had their shower and bath and the popcorn has just been popped, a few Halloween treats to be munched and we will be popping in "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" for the kids, as soon as I publish this. Same as every year! : ) Happy Halloween everyone! : )