i did a weekend post on monday, and didn't write about monday (dinosaur museum with kuri and pinglet). didn't write on tuesday, mainly because it was a shitty morning and i was in. a. mood. didn't write wednesday because i was pretty tired (met gaijin wife in fukuoka, then kuri and pinglet joined us, then lunch, then race home in time for hiro and deal with fallout over helium balloons. totally worth it.) not writing today, either, because i am not getting any sleep at night (four! nights! in! a! row! and i don't even have an infant in the house. cosleeping needs to end!! i also think tommy is having nightmares about dinosaurs. *sigh*)

that's pretty much my week so far. how you doin'?

well, here we are at the end of nablopomo, and for once, i didn't manage it. i'm ok with that, though, we were pretty busy this month!

over the weekend we were very busy on saturday, sort of overbooked. the last farm lecture of the year was on saturday, which also included a kind of potluck lunch afterward. however, hiro's school had a field trip to their 'sister school' which is in fukuoka city. yoshi took tommy and sasha with him to the farm lecture, and i took hiro to school. i didn't have to go with him, so i ended up with a free day to myself. i had a nice breakfast at joyfull, and worked on cross stitch. then i went to mr. donut. i had a lovely sit-down with a donut, cafe au lait and worked on more cross stitch for nearly three hours. it was heavenly. i got home at around noon, though it felt much later. in fact, the whole weekend felt long and drawn out, it was kinda strange!

i had to pick hiro up at four, and yoshi and the others didn't get home until nearly six. a nice, quiet saturday.

on sunday we all went to mr. donut together (100 yen donuts!), and then everyone but me walked around the shopping center. i worked on more cross stitch and enjoyed coffee. then we went home and vegged out, and then had a lovely nabe for dinner. again, a quiet sunday, which we all enjoyed!

i was going to post about an hour ago, when the kids had just fallen asleep, but then yoshi came home and reminded me that i couldn't find the keys to the car.

oh man, that feeling? sucks.

i had told him earlier in the evening, when i called him to see when he was coming home, that i couldn't find the keys and suspected that the kids had done something to them. i was really stressed, though, and couldn't even think about looking for them (though i did, a bit.) (neither sasha nor hiro took naps today, and tommy only got about 30 minutes in this morning. well, just at noon. anyway, that meant melt-down central here at our house, with each kid going off about every other minute or so. one reason i called yoshi in desperation....but that also meant that they were all asleep by 8:20. thank goodness!) we spent nearly an hour looking for those damn keys. i had taken them off sasha earlier in the day, and i put them in their regular spot (in a bowl, in the genkan) but (and i can only guess it was sasha) someone took them again, and they were gone. if you know me, then you know that i'm rather forgetful and i couldn't remember if i put them away, or if i had put them somewhere at the time i took them off sasha and then couldn't remember. after searching high and low downstairs, and starting to panic that the kids had lost them outside, i remembered that they had also been up and down the stairs and had played a bit in their room. so, i went up there and after a little search, i found them! HUGE sigh of relief, i can tell you.

so, anyway, yesterday i put on a turkey/thanksgiving dinner for friends. i am trying to start some teaching from home, and at the moment am concentrating on adult students. mainly a 'have a coffee and cake over casual conversation', as described by mee a bee. my best student, a close neighbor, has been so lovely these past few months that i offered to make a turkey for one of our 'lessons' and we both invited friends. in spite of all the work (seriously, cleaning my house is practically a marathon. cooking thanksgiving dinner is a breeze in comparison!!) it was so nice and so much fun with good friends and lively conversation! i am glad to say that i am thankful for friends this year! i invited kuri and pinglet, and our friend K and her daughter, and the kids got along really well. thank you so much for coming over and enjoying dinner with us! if you're interested, i made: roasted turkey with stuffing, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, steamed broccoli and pumpkin pie. already made foods were: bread rolls and cranberry jelly. it was all pretty good, though i say it myself. K brought a scrumptious hand made cake, and kuri brought little ice creams for the kids. fabulous!

i only took a couple of pictures of the turkey, and haven't uploaded them yet, so sadly, once again, no pictures of thanksgiving this year! sorry!

...all because of this song. talk about an earworm!! *sigh*

had thanksgiving dinner today, but am too exhausted to blog about it right now. worry!

yesterday morning i got up quite early so i could get hiro and sasha ready for taking pictures. sasha was all for getting dressed up, but hiro wasn't. instead of forcing the issue, i only got sasha all dolled up and took her to munakata taisha.







they were taking down the chrysanthemums, every year they have a 'kiku matsuri', kind of a showcase for the flowers. we did get a couple of pictures taken with them, though. then i got her a 'lottery' ticket, the shrine sells them for 500 yen, you get a prize and a fortune. we weren't very lucky (didn't get the flat screen TV) but did get a good luck charm/statue for the genkan.





(i'm not really satisfied with these photos, so i think we'll have to go out again and get more!)

then we went home, changed sasha and got everyone ready for thanksgiving at kuri's. it takes about an hour and a half to drive there, so we had to get the show on the road! we made it there in good time, and were actually the first to arrive (by about five minutes. LOL) lots of guests arrived, there was loads of food and the kids even got along with minimal fighting!! we had a lovely time, thank you very much, kuri, ping and the pinglet!!

i baked two pies today, i'm on a roll. of course, just getting ready for thanksgiving this week.

hopefully tomorrow, the weather will be nice so we can take pictures of the kids in their kimono. fingers crossed!

tomorrow is a holiday, and we've been invited to kuri's for an early thanksgiving dinner! i am really looking forward to it, and the kids are looking forward to seeing kuri and the pinglet!

but it sure is cold! i am ready for winter to end already. oops, it hasn't even started yet! well, i'm looking forward to thanksgiving this coming week. i already have a turkey thawing in the refrigerator.

sorry for such a short post, but seriously, we didn't do anything today. and that's a good thing!