it has been a crazy couple of weeks. two birthdays last week, two japanese class excursions, work, hard rock cafe, more work, birthday party and halloween. this week was spent just recovering from it all! not only that, but sasha and tommy had tuesday off from school (not sure why) and thursday was a holiday! the positive thing there: i didn't have to make a bento!!

this morning it rained and rained, and it got rather hot. and i thought the super-cool weather we've been having meant summer was over. tricked again!

i hope that the coming week isn't nearly as busy as the past two have been.

so, i didn't blog at all last week. with the flurry of posts before that, one may assume that i was all blogged out for a while. but that was not the case; i had a really bad week, starting on early monday morning and lasting until friday! there were some nice things along with the not-so-nice, but on the whole, it was a week to forget. i didn't want to write last week, not because it was crappy, but because i didn't want to dwell on the crappy. i tend to feel sorry for myself, so it wasn't like i didn't have anything to say! but as i was having a bad morning on monday, i started to tell myself to let it go, shake it off (as i usually do when i feel like my day is going to hell) because feeling like it's a bad day only makes it an even worse day. monday wasn't a total loss, i did manage to keep it from totally sucking, but it wasn't the best day ever, either.

this week has been rather quiet. i stayed home monday and tuesday, only venturing out to the supermarket a couple of times. the weather has been so lovely up until today, and i was glad to relax at home. wednesday was japanese class, which is good for me, because the friday class now sets homework! i get the homework done on wednesday, and i get to chat with some really nice people. i do like the class. we'll be doing a field trip, probably in october, to a place that is famous for iron teakettles (i think). thursday i met up with kuri and the littlest ping, for some hanging out and lunch (we tried a new bread restaurant, it was really great!) and then today, i had japanese class and then work. the battery died in the car, it's been on its last legs for the past two weeks or so, but today it finally gave up the ghost. luckily it was at the kindergarten (so, i didn't miss work and i didn't miss picking up the kids at kinder!) and got a jump from the principal's son (who is also a teacher there...or assistant assistant principal, or something). drove straight to autobacks to get a new battery. thankfully i got paid from the hyogo job...i had no idea batteries cost so much! nearly 2 man poorer, and fast approaching 6:30, i took the kids to joyfull for dinner. they were over the moon and got a cool toy with their dinner. awesome.

it's a three day weekend, with monday being respect for the aged day. hey, at least it doesn't fall on my birthday this year! we have no plans for the weekend, nor the next, which is also three days, but that's ok. hopefully i'll be able to go to the kyushu mini-con (though i'm starting to wonder if i'll have to do something that weekend. it's slipped my mind what it is but i bet you anything it will be that weekend. just wait...)

today was spent at home. i don't have a lot of energy these days. i haven't even vacuumed since i got back a week ago. ugh. we have been late for the bus (even though it comes right to our house) for the past couple of days. i'm just so out of it. ah well, i will see the doctor tomorrow and find out about my current state of health.

it's kind of weird to stay home all day. i usually have to get out because staying here all day drives me crazy. i'm still crazy (today) but too tired to do anything. thankfully i only have tommy for most of the day. he didn't take a nap today, which may have helped (you know, me taking a nap at the same time).

i can't find sasha's shorts for school. i must have left them at the onsen on monday. oops. she absolutely refuses to wear hiro's extra pair of shorts so she's been wearing funny shorts all week long. yesterday she didn't even have her shirt because she somehow managed to get all wet at school. i will go to the onsen again to day (oh, darn) and hopefully we'll find them there!

sorry for such a boring post, it's been a fairly slow week. tommy and i did see kuri on wednesday, probably the last time before her little one is born. other than that, just a quiet week for us.

don't forget, i have a give-away for some pretty cool straw cups. to enter, just leave a comment on this post. good luck!

welcome to august. many hot days to follow. boring obon to commence. ugh. we have no plans for obon, and i can't help but feel disappointed. i hate being stuck here with the kids, but then stuck here with the kids and yoshi? nightmare. how can i explain? i can't. don't get me wrong, i love them very much, but i am a person who needs time alone. and time away from the house. i want to have fun.

just a few more years, right?

i am american. i was born on a naval base in a foreign country, but i am still american. both my parents are american, and the land on which i was born was (still is) considered american soil (or so my mother told me ;)

my children are american and japanese. for the time being. they don't even know what that means, but that is what they are. i don't know what the future holds for them, whether they will be american, or japanese, or both, but when i read articles like this, i start to seethe. W.T.H. i know that people really get worked up over politics (i am not one of those people), but this is really desperate. and SILLY. you don't want a certain person as the leader of your country. fine. do something about it (like vote, right?). accept that the majority won, and it wasn't what you wanted. go out there and get your voice heard, remind people to vote, run for office yourself, but DON'T embarrass yourself trying to prove something that isn't true. president obama is american, whether you like it or not. move on, find something constructive to do to reach the outcome you want!

ahem.

this is not the first i've heard of 'birthers', but i am finding it so difficult to believe that people out there are still trying to deny obama is the president just because his mother married a foreigner and had a child with him. oh the horror.

well, i have enjoyed reading others' trips down memory lane, and wanted to try it for myself! here goes....

2000: my first year as a jet, i went home in march, came back totally in love with japan. traveled to nara, kobe, himeji and hiroshima in may, studied japanese in kyoto over the summer. didn't do much else for the rest of the year (you know, besides the usually playing in japan stuff.)

2001: went to kyoto in the summer again, for studying. went home in august with friend's ten-year-old son for english immersion. had a great time, came back to japan a few days before 9/11. still feels unreal to me. met yoshi at christmas.

2002: tried snowboarding for the first (and last) time in march, hurt my knee. yoshi told his parents we were dating, was made to 'break up'. instead, we continued dating in secret. yoshi got notified of transfer to shimane in june, we moved in together in august--in shimane (i finished jet in july). was very easy to have secret relationship further away from his parents. went home for thanksgiving. came back for very lonely new year holiday by myself.

2003: started an eikaiwa job, which was fine in itself but not a dream job. got engaged just before 30th birthday. yoshi told his dad about me the previous new year holiday, now had to get telling his mom out of the way. yoshi and i went to my parent's house for christmas, his parent's house for new year's.

2004: finally decided on a wedding date in june. got pregnant in february. got married in april, mainly because my boss at my eikaiwa job was thinking of changing my hours to part time, which wouldn't work for my visa. boss didn't change hours, but left job in june. started blogging (yay!). yoshi got transferred back to fukuoka, for various reasons but scariest was weirdo coworker threatening to burn down our house. love fukuoka, move to munakata at eight months pregnant. spend lots of time (and money) at costco. hiroyuki born in october.

2005: yoshi had to work in kagoshima for several months, so i was on my own with four month old hiro. wasn't nearly as bad as it might sound. my family came to visit in may. enjoyed time with hiro. worked part time at an eikaiwa. hiro and i went home for christmas and new year. got pregnant with sasha day before flying to the US. hee hee hee.

2006: a very low-key year, until sasha was born, two weeks before her due date! she was born with a hole (or two, or more) in her heart, so there was a bit of worry there for a month or so, but after a second check (ultrasound?) her heart was whole. oh, finished part time job in march. i got norovirus in december, and did some substitute work in kita-q.

2007: moved into our new house in january. got pregnant in february. got a 'new' car in april. pretty much felt blue all year...tommy born in october, five days before hiro's third birthday.

2008: no more pregnancies! LOL nothing really big happened this year. lovely, normal life...except for PPD. nothing serious, but definitely blue for most of the year. i did learn to knit and crochet in the fall.

2009: again, not pregnant! yay! love my children, enjoy them immensely, but definitely done having babies, no matter how strong the baby lust gets. i think my baby blues definitely started to lift in september, and that was a good thing. i was really homesick this year, too, and hopefully we'll be able to visit the US in 2010.

not an exciting life, but my life! i hope the next decade will be happy, healthy and full of love and laughter!

...except maybe, thank goodness the weekend is over! that may sound funny, especially since i get my 'free time' on the weekend. but i think there's a little more structure to our lives...or maybe it's just that yoshi isn't under my feet...during the week. actually this weekend was rather stressful because yoshi had to work all day saturday (although, even though he left the house very early (6ish), he came back around 5:30) and then his parents came over today (which meant i had to do a major cleaning. i never get to clean properly during the week, so we usually do tidying up on the weekend, but when yoshi's parents come we have a LOT to do. although, the house is still pretty decent from my brother's visit.) aunt flo is scheduled to visit any minute so i think i'm just crabbier than usual (and you know me, i can be pretty crabby. ;)

so we are well and hopefully we'll be able to recover tomorrow (after hiro has gone to school. hopefully without dramatics). hope you all have a good week!

today our new internet provider came over to set us up. the previous provider is coming tomorrow to cut us off. yay! (yes, we will have internet tomorrow, because we're already on the new one!) it's faster, which is a good thing, esp. with pages with lots of stuff on them (like mine, *ahem*)

that's pretty much it for an update, though. need to save up my 'writing' for nablopomo, which starts in a week! i've been thinking about donating a prize for this year's blogging. what do you think? any ideas?

my passport expires in a couple of weeks. i have been sitting on the paperwork for a while (i actually got it when we applied for tommy's passport) but i filled it out last week, got pictures taken on sunday, and dragged all our asses to the post office today to get it sent off. part of the process involves the 'expack500', which is a special envelope, like registered mail, that the consulate requires us to send so they can send our passport back safely.

i had to bribe my children just to get out the door this morning (well, not tommy. he's still in that perfect infant stage where he cannot talk.) i said to them, 'ok, mommy has to go to the post office, so let's go there and then go have lunch.' hiro and sasha: YAY! LUNCH! unfortunately, at the time they only had diapers on. it took a lot of cajoling and threatening of taking away lunch (out) before we got ready to go.

i have never taken all of them into the post office before. i rarely need to go these days. i can use the ATM to withdraw or deposit money, and i just don't send letters or postcards like i used to. plus, i can get stamps at any convenience store. i actually went to a discount place yesterday, to get an expack, but they were fresh out. i figured i needed to get the money order at the post office, and i would feel better about sending my passport application (including current passport) in an expack500, so i braved the main post office.

it wasn't so bad, considering the wait ('hiro needs lunch NOW!!!!') and the sink (WTH for? do you really get that dirty in the post office that you need to wash your hands??) lots of papers hanging off the counters (which makes a nice sound when you whack them) and display boards with ribbons hanging off them. there were plenty of obaa-sans who were perfectly delighted to go gaa-gaa over my babies, even if they couldn't understand.

you will be pleased to know that i got everything signed, stapled and sealed up and ready for delivery. thank god. i was actually quite worried that i would forget and let my passport expire. and who knows what that would have done to my visa!

then a quick stop at cosmos to get packaged baby food for tommy (the kind you add to cooked rice) and a bottle of water. then we went to west yakiniku. it's a chain restaurant, mainly in western japan (i think). they have a pretty good lunch deal, plus a salad bar, so the four (four!) of us can eat for less than $20, and that includes an AYCE salad/dessert bar. yakiniku is grilled at your table, so you may think i'm crazy for taking three small children there. maybe i am. we sit in the tatami section, at the table that's right next to the kid's room, so when hiro and sasha get bored, they just go in there and play. today was extra hectic because tommy eats now (not just sleep or gaze from his car seat/carrier) so i had to go between feeding him a scoop of rice and mix, giving hiro and/or sasha rice/salad/meat/kimchee plus grill the food, serve the rice and drink the miso soup before it goes cold. so, no pictures of lunch.

yakiniku seems to have declined in popularity recently, probably because of the BSE scare. for that reason, our local west is usually not busy. i even got a server to hold tommy while i went to the bathroom (hey, babies and grills DO NOT MIX!) another reason to take my savages there--they can run around and usually not bother anyone.

after he finished eating, i noticed tommy was really wet. hmmm, confusing. i set about to change his diaper when i realized that he was wearing the cloth diaper i had put on him before his morning nap! poor little baby! i got him changed up (thankfully i had a diaper--but only one!--and a spare romper in the diaper bag), then sasha spilled miso soup all over hiro's shorts, so i had him take them off. it's almost like a traveling circus some days...

i know i already posted about the weather this week, but that was a short post, right? it is so cool and delicious today, very lovely. apparently the rain front has stalled over kyushu. and a cold air mass from the north is making it rain. it rained so much for three days (not two!), and it was pretty rainy for days before that. i am happy in that it probably means less suzumebatchi! yay. but it is keeping me and the kids in the house. *sigh* yoshi has had to be at work a LOT since friday afternoon, some kind of problem. bleh. i am ready for a break! but instead, we stay at home and try not to kill each other! well, i mainly try to keep hiro and sasha from killing each other. and tommy from eating random things off the floor (like, he found a black bean this morning from last night's chili! cripes!)

i think rain is still forecast for the next few days. but at least it's not raining at the moment. i could probably enjoy the sound, though, because everyone is in bed at the moment! woo hoo!

sorry, ain't got much for you today. we went to the supermarket. big deal. we had lunch there (bought at the supermarket, not a restaurant). big deal. bought some diapers. woo hoo. alright, alright, i know, not an exciting life. at least it didn't rain much (it rained enough last night!)

ok, berry berry tired. am going to bed soon. hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting.

yoshi had to work all day today. i know that he told me before-hand, but i forgot. when he reminded me last night, i didn't realize it was going to be all day. i am tired. i have a headache. and yoshi has things to do tomorrow. *sigh*

the past weekend wasn't so great, if i'm being honest. we went to visit old friends, but i very definitely got the cold shoulder. the friends we stayed with were as friendly as always, and another with whom we had occasionally met was lovely. but two friends with whom i was once very close, now seem to freeze me out. they have become close friends themselves, and that's great, but now i feel so hurt. add to that losing a friend about a couple years ago, and not knowing why, and not having any friends here in munakata, makes me believe that i'm just not likable. that there's something about me that at first makes me a friend, but the subject of scorn later on. i don't wanna meet people now, i just wanna stay home and be a recluse. *sigh* what's wrong with me??

i suddenly realized this morning that it has been a very long time since i've written any thing down. i mean, put pen to paper. the last time was on tuesday, when i wrote down a couple of addresses on a package i sent off to the US. the time before that? i cannot remember. this surprises and saddens me. i used to write all the time. of course for school, but i also had many pen pals, as many as fifteen at one time, with whom i would exchange letters with. now, not so much. that is mostly my fault, i haven't been all that great at returning e-mails, let alone letters, these past few years.

i know that our lives have changed so much, so quickly in the past few years, but i wonder if i don't write much because i live in japan. maybe if i were working i'd be writing. and i wasted so much time during class in high school perfecting my handwriting. *sigh*

i am actually confused. is it actually sunday?? it seems like just yesterday we were watching sazae-san. where did the week go? gah!

i don't usually make new year's resolutions, mainly because i never keep them. but, i've decided to try to post every day in 2008 (check my new shiny badge on the right) and was thinking of what else i will try to accomplish this year. so:

1. post every day on my blog

2. finish my current cross stitch projects (with pictures!)

3. get in shape (notice i'm not saying, lose weight)

4. play with the kids more. i've been spending too much time on the computer...

5. study japanese. just ten minutes a day could make a difference. i think.


i think there were more, but i'll have to add them later.


how about you? anything you want to work on in 2008?

on tuesday, when we went out with yoshi's parents, we actually had several lucky experiences. the first was at the beach, where yoshi found a thousand yen in the sand. that was cool. the next was finding a car seat on sale for the next baby. it was a good price. and because yoshi was with me, i found out about a discount card for the baby section in jusco, so we saved another 2000 yen off the car seat. then, since it was tuesday, we turned in our 'pink' receipts (with the food yoshi bought and the car seat) and got 13 chances to turn the wheel (a japanese thing where you turn a wheel and release a colored marble.) maybe the 13 limited our luck a bit, but i still got one blue marble and received a 500 yen coupon for aeon! lucky us!