so, i've been asked to blog more often (and since the request was made yesterday, i guess it's time for me to write....) so let me go over what has happened since my last post (not really that exciting, though.)

on friday...um, shoot, can't hardly remember that. let's see....oh yeah, it was 'christmas night school' for hiro, and he didn't have to go until the afternoon. the bus came to get him, but i had to go pick him up. this was done in staggered pick ups, so it wasn't too terrible getting out of there. it helped that i was a few minutes late. in the morning we went out together, the four of us, something we haven't done for a while. oh man, sasha and tommy in the back seat together, that sucks. after picking up hiro, we went around looking for houses/businesses that have christmas lights on display. many shrieks of 'pretty lights!!'

on saturday, all of us went to the city and we bought some bunk beds (only two) for the kids. pretty big beds and if i'm lucky, i'll be able to get two of them to sleep together on the bottom bunk. for a while, anyway, until we find a bed for sasha (although i saw a couple of pretty day beds at nitori the other day). then we had lunch (although it was bery bery difficult getting the kids away from the game center!) and ended up at an indian restaurant which was very good, although spicy (so the kids drank lots of water and didn't eat much. *sigh* yoshi and i ordered a course and although we got the '0' spice curry, the tandori chicken and the kabobs were quite spicy and turned them off. and my kids LOVE kimchee, so....) then we took yoshi to work and i drove home. it sucked. i was on the 'wrong' side of tenjin and the traffic was terrible. both sasha and hiro had to pee so finally i let them get out of their seats, get diapers and put them on. first chance i got to pull over, i got them all buckled in again but man, that sucked!

sunday yoshi had to work all day. he was going to leave at his usual time (usually twenty to seven in the morning) and get home early (you know, like three or four in the afternoon, as opposed to nine in the evening.) however, he wanted to return some library books and couldn't find one, so didn't leave until nearly nine. (eventually found the book under the kotatsu, *under* the futon.) that was a fairly long hard day for me, trying to entertain the kids and keep the fighting to a minimum. i had to take trash to the recycling spot, hiro and sasha helped me with that (but tommy had to stay in the car because he took his shoes and socks off. then i was going to take them to lunch somewhere, but both sasha and hiro got to shouting at me (hiro wanted curry rice, sasha wanted onigiri (o-bento-san) and i was having none of the shouting!!) so we went home and i can't even remember what we had for lunch, but i was sure mad at them! yoshi didn't get home early enough, that's all i have to say!

then yesterday...it was so cold yesterday morning! actual frost on the ground. i hate the cold. but that should be well known by now. hiro went to school fairly easily (although i don't think we made it to the bus stop.) in the morning i took tommy and sasha for a drive (i needed to get cash) and we got a few things, but then i had to go to the school for something (sizing hiro for a dance recital in february) and found out we were having a meeting about giving something to the teachers in march (when the school year ends) and then we cleaned the classroom (although i didn't, i really didn't know what to do and ended up chasing tommy and sasha and tried to prevent them from freeing the crabs and fish that the school has), then we finally got around to the costume thing. the boys are going to do a dance to an enka song, dressed in hakama, and the girls are doing a 'china' thing. all the boys' mothers oohed and aahed in jealous-type voices over the girls' costumes. whatever. ;)

today i had a english conversation over coffee thing, and when hiro found out, he didn't want to go to school! to make sasha and tommy comfortable about having someone (or more than one) come over, i tell them that 'friends' are coming to visit. well, hiro wants to see 'friends', too! *le sigh* poor hiro. i made sugar cookies, because i ran out of time to do anything else. next week i plan on doing christmas cookies (gah! cookies two weeks in a row. but i'm good at cookies!!) so i will probably start baking later this week. sasha wanted to do dress up today, in fact, she put on her 7-5-3 kimono while our friend was here, then we went out (together!) to take photos, then ended up taking a walk around the block. thank goodness the student loves kids and was totally into it. *phew* in the afternoon sasha was princess after princess, she eventually figured out how to dress herself (much to my relief!)

as for me, i am NOT getting enough sleep lately. i remember friday morning the kids slept late because i slept in the same room with them all night. i cannot do this, however, because i need a lot of room to sleep (i turn a lot, and i'm fat so i need the room) so i don't sleep too well (but it's nice that they sleep a lot!) saturday was probably a musical bed night, i end up with two or three kids in the bed upstairs. sunday night sasha coughed in my face all night long. i finally had to get up and get her a dose of medicine just to stop the coughing in my face. watch this space for when i get a cold....last night i couldn't get tommy to sleep with the other kids so i took him upstairs with me. but then sasha had itchy leg issues so i went downstairs with her and lathered her with medicine, then went to bed with her. then, early in the morning tommy comes screaming down the stairs because mommy wasn't there. i just can't get any sleep! i really hope having beds will help, i hope the excitement will encourage them to sleep by themselves (well, together but not with me...) i need the sleep. and with that, i am going to bed!