i didn't forget to update yesterday, i just ran out of time.

nothing exciting to report. we did go to mr. donut and then to the game center in sun live. *sigh* what a mistake. but not too bad. hiro and sasha did run off and i couldn't find them! finally there was an announcement over the intercom and we were reunited. then it was definitely time to go home

the sun came out for a little bit in the afternoon as well. i made them go out in the back garden! LOL good thing they like to go outside.

my kids understand the concept of 'possession is nine-tenths of the law'. if tommy has something sasha wants, she will tell him to drop or throw it ('tommy, can you throw it?' *compelling voice*). then she'll grab it up. but tommy is no fool and will no longer throw or drop anything. this frustrates sasha so then the screaming begins. i think it's cute, though, aren't my kids clever? ;) (sorry for the smiley there, i think they're silly in blog posts so i try to avoid them but i do want to let you know that i'm being half facetious.)

we're coming to the end of 'chicken pox watch', which will be next monday. today is hiro's school's summer festival and i (and i alone) will be taking them so i guess i better be careful about whom and what they touch. this is probably very careless of me but hiro has been looking forward to this and i don't want to disappoint him. i'm also not sure that my kids were directly exposed to CP so....anyway, no spots, no fever and generally genki kids make me ok with taking them today. the festival is from four until 6:30 which is basically dinner (or dinner prep) time so i guess i'll do dinner at lunch and let them have lots of popcorn at the festival (unless it's icky over-salty microwave popcorn) and then light snacks after we get home. better go prepare some rice!

here’s how the Honest Scrap Award works:
i must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it.
i must list 10 honest things about myself.
i must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog.
i must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers & list their links.
i must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above requirements.

thanks to chelle (who, btw, designed my blog template!) for this award!

1. i complain too much. i know this. but i don't seem to be able to stop. i think it's a sign of mild depression. *sigh* i do try to complain less, but i'm not always successful.

2. i love cats and despise dogs. i know, i know, but it's who i am. i'm usually ok with dogs as long as they don't jump, lick, bark or generally smell. pretty much any doggy thing.

3. i love my children very much, but honestly: they drive me crazy. i think it's the age(s). we have a lot of fun together, which only gets better as they get older, but they do bicker and fight a lot, which really just drives me up the wall. they are really cute, though.

4. i want to have another baby. big surprise there. but still not planning on it. the urge to have another baby is definitely dwindling. and thinking of labor really puts me off (LOL) but i do miss breastfeeding and cuddling a little tiny newborn. *sigh* that probably will never wear off. at this time in my life i'm pretty sure that our family couldn't afford another addition, and we would probably never go back to the states. i do plan on working soon, and perhaps full-time within two years. but who knows what the future holds and as much love another baby would bring to our family, we still need to think about those who are here and how we could raise everyone healthy and happy.

5. i am happy with my life in japan. this is a bit hard to explain, because it's hard being basically illiterate and sometimes barely about to communicate and sooooo far away from family, but it's safe, it's comfortable (if a bit wet at the moment) and i don't have to worry about war or poverty (of course, i don't have to worry about those things in the US) so life in japan is not bad. sure, sometimes i'm lonely but hey! i've got three children, a loving husband and quite a few friends (even if some of them live hundreds of miles away) so loneliness is easy enough to banish. wish i could get a good hotdog (outside of costco that is). and greek food. yum.

6. i am uncomfortable with my weight at this time. i am trying to adjust my eating and exercise, but still find myself hampered by the kids (and the freakin' weather). but i have less and less to wear and as summer progresses (*snort*) i feel i need to reduce my weight but i don't want to be obsessed with it or drive myself crazy about it, because i'm never going to be slim. i'm not, and i don't want to destroy my peace of mind trying to be something i'm not. but i could probably stand to lose ten to twenty kilos.

7. i wish i had more patience. and was calmer. i tend to fly off the handle more often than i care to admit to. *sigh* i have gained a lot of patience, either from age or from living in japan, but i could do with a lot more!

8. i love to swim. i wish i could swim more. something else to wait for until the children are older.

9. i don't blog as truthfully as i wish i could, mainly because yoshi reads this blog. OTOH, i am trying to complain less so if i complained about my husband, then i wouldn't be improving!

10. blogging every day last year saved this blog. i'm pretty sure i had mild PPD last year and if i hadn't set the goal for myself, i would have stopped writing and probably had not gone back to it. last summer was pretty bad. just check out the archives from july and august 2008. pathetic. i am happy i did it, glad i stuck with it and i think i can learn from it. i also feel so different this year than last. i feel better. i think my blog posts can reflect that.

ok, tagging. i think i would like to know more from:
1. nay
2. gaijin wife
3. shinshu life
4. hyotenka
5. simple things
6. rachel
7. wandering the world

ok, off to let them all know...

alternative title: it's like spaghetti but with lots of cheese. that means lasagna for dinner.

this morning we had planned on going to mr. donut, but for some reason feelings were running toward the high-strung, mainly sasha screaming for no freakin' reason. so, we didn't go. hiro really understood this time, that the behavior of others affects him. poor guy. :( and tommy was asking to mr. donut and had a melt-down when i had to tell him no. poor us. :(

the weather is crap so we can't even go to a park. this summer sucks hard. i'm curious, those who are in japan: are they bemoaning the slow beer sales (assuming slow beer sales, though i am unaware of how the rest of japan is doing weather-wise. everyone else have fricken rain?) like they did four years ago (or so)? so funny, with the weather forecast there would be a beer mug and so much discussion on how little beer was being sold that year. priorities, right?! anyway, cabin fever central around here. time to break out the costumes, i think...

another fairly uneventful day here. always a blessing (except for the screaming. for the love of all that's holy, let's cut back on the screaming!)

today was a pretty boring, ordinary day. we woke up, had breakfast, played in the morning. then it was off to the coin laundry to dry two loads, have lunch, nap time (oh, glorious nap time) and then entertain the kids (it was raining again by late afternoon. *le sigh*) make dinner, take a shower and shove everyone off to bed. you can see that no one fell out of windows or broke bones.

i did have to remind myself today that after the day is done, it is gone forever. only the memory remains. so, do i want it to be a bad memory, or a good one? it is up to me how i react to 'naughty' behavior. and since naughty is defined by me, i need to ease up a bit (especially in an abnormally long rainy season. what the FUCK is up with the weather? el nino?) so hopefully we'll get off to a shopping center tomorrow, perhaps even in spite of shouting/fighting/hitting/biting...

today sucked. but not nearly as bad as it could have sucked (no one fell out of windows or broke a bone, after all) so there's that. *sigh* can it just be september already? i'm ok with skipping august (especially if august is going to be as rainy as july....)

i wanted to go out but the bickering! the fighting! the crying! i think i just need a vacation from the kids. and it's only day five.

i had some 'deep thoughts' i wanted to share with you but i think they leaked out of my head with the bath water. maybe tomorrow, if i regain my sanity.

special shout out to sara, who's having possibly the worst labor experience of anyone i have known. please keep her in your thoughts, and if you have any words of encouragement, i'm sure she'll appreciate it.

not having a great morning (but no one has fallen out of windows so far...) so here's a silly video of sasha. probably only interesting to me, but, hey, it's my blog!!

well, this is going to be interesting. i think they turned the water off at around three this afternoon. there was a vehicle driving around the neighborhood announcing something, though i couldn't understand the words (what is it with loudspeakers??) except for three in the afternoon. i guess my japanese really is crap.

anyway, there was a note in the mailbox as well and it looks as though they're worried about the safety of the water as there was so much dumped here yesterday and last night. seriously, it rained hard all night. i don't think it stopped raining until eight this morning. we haven't had any rain since then, but it's seriously dark and broody down south (toward fukuoka city) so it's probably raining there. this year isn't rainy season, it's monsoon season! fingers crossed it's just a fluke and we won't have the same thing next year.

we prepared rice just after seeing the notice but now i have no water in my brita pitcher and nothing is coming out of the taps. and the water in the tub is nasty bath salty water (you know, those disk thingys that fizz and add color/scent to the water). the hot water heater is filled but the hot tap in the kitchen didn't produce any water, so i'm not sure we can get any of it out (via the bath).

anyway, we seem to be doing ok otherwise. today yoshi had to go to the airport to pick something up for work, and he took the gaia to two different places for shaken mitsumori ('road tax'(??) estimate) and at the moment i'm home alone with tommy. such a sweet boy, i love spending one-on-one time with him!! hope everyone else in kyushu is doing well and that next week is sunny summer!

a better day than yesterday. i forgot to tell you: tommy fell out the sliding door downstairs. the screen door is pretty much broken (we use that door the most) and he pushed on it and it fell and boom! he fell right on his head. poor little guy. guess that means someone fell out of a window yesterday.

anyway, today. what is up with the rain?!? yoshi just called and said he'd be even later than expected because there's so much water and a nearby river flooded! not exactly sure where, maybe not right where he is but hell, fukuoka city has a flood! yikes! times like these when i wish we had TV. hm, might fire up the keitai TV after hiro and sasha are asleep.

this morning i wanted to take them to a shopping center, one with covered parking but they were in such bickering moods that i didn't want to risk taking them out in public! so, we pretty much stayed home today. i did go to coin laundry to dry some things, but other than that we stayed in. and it just poured outside. freakishly poured. i can't get over it! well, i guess i *can*, but it's just crazy! and it's still raining pretty steadily. i hope no one gets hurt!

so, i broke out the wii fit. i haven't done it in such a long time! the last time i got it out the board wouldn't work for me. this time it wouldn't even turn on! luckily it just needed new batteries so i could use it. would hate to have to replace it! doing some of the balance games showed me how flabby my midsection really is. i don't mean fat, i mean the muscles are so loose. from giving birth to three children, i am sure. next, billy's boot camp....

well, sasha and hiro have tucked themselves into the futon so i better go in there and send them off to dreamland.

today was not so good as yesterday, since i lost my cool and shouted. but still, not so bad. i had promised the kids a trip to the slides but since they threw toys and kicked balls in the house, that was canceled. we did take a drive in the morning, though, and i made pizza, so my kids are still fairly spoiled. everyone except hiro took naps so it's been one hell of an afternoon....

(check out the large size if you have dial-up, you may want to skip that link)

today wasn't so bad, either. in the morning the kids splashed around in the bath (yoshi had taken one in the morning, but when the kids went in there to splash around in it, it was empty! *sigh* but since they were looking forward to it, i let them use fresh water and enjoy themselves.) i went out to look at the weather, and there was blue sky, but then there wasn't, then there was, ad nauseum. i took a picture of the SW sky just to have a reference point, but i needn't have bothered. *sigh* yeah, you could hardly tell here that there was total solar eclipse (to the south, obviously). i think the percentage of the sun covered was probably 85%. it seemed to be a bit darker, but then, it could have just been the clouds. i think it was also extra-sandy today so light was being refracted every which way.

at any rate, we went to mr. donut. yeah, me not losing weight, what a joke!! well, you only live once and you might as well enjoy your time here on earth. or something like that. the kids were happy (yay mommy time) and i picked up a few things at the supermarket.

then it was back home for lunch (holes and corn on the cob), then nap (ah, glorious three hours or so) then out in the garden to hack at weeds (what a joke!), pick tomatoes, cucumber and eggplant and count the pumpkins, then gather up all the recycling we can get our hands on, then drive to the recycle place (with a stop at lawson for coolish, moutain dew (!), sparkling water (umeshu tonight!!) and the 'healthy fat-burning drink' (btw, the coolish was for the kids since they have to wait in the car while i take the trash to the different stations. although, there is a lemon-lime sherbert version out right now that's about 97 calories) phew, what a run-on sentence. but wait, there's more! make curry rice for dinner (rice prepared before hand and button pushed just before rushing out the door for recycling) and will wonders never cease! yoshi home before seven p.m.!

now offspring and husband are out driving around (to return library books and play on the slides. slides are not at library) so i am enjoying my curry and 'healthy fat-burning drink that tastes like ass' alone. mmmmm....

have some pics but i think they'll have to wait until later. until tomorrow, day three of six weeks alone with three small children. will our adventurous heroine take them to the aquarium? we'll have to see....

today went fairly well, all things considered. no one broke bones or fell out a window, and that's always a good thing. the kids only watched two videos, one time each (my kids know how to push the play button on the DVD player(s) and will watch the same thing over and over and over). the videos were mainly background noise anyway, and since they're in english i don't mind much. lots of paper play today, involving origami paper, drawing paper and breaking of crayons. is that universal? do all small children break their crayons into little pieces and take off the paper? or are my kids weird? haha

yes folks, it's still rainy season here. i'm beginning to suspect it's never going to end. before you know it, it's going to be september and the autumnal rains will move in. great. just like i never left western washington! the heat is different, i will give you that. but the rain? *sigh*

i just hope it's clear tomorrow morning. as a person whose first major (choice) was astronomy, i am looking forward to the total eclipse tomorrow (only about 80 or 90% here in fukuoka, but still! how cool!!) i don't have any special lenses or filters for my camera, and to be honest i'm not sure if i should let the kids witness it, as they might look up at it and damage their eyes. i can't fully remember if a partial eclipse is as dangerous as a total. ah well, i've never witnessed a solar eclipse before so even just a darkening sky will be interesting to me!! hope it won't be too cloudy so i can see something...

on saturday morning another butterfly 'hatched'. that one was very pretty with black and white on it. it was also much more shy than the previous butterfly and we had a hard time getting it to come out of the box. eventually it did, though, and somehow hiro got it on his back...







(sorry most of the photos look blue. it was early morning. i think it's a white balance issue, but i didn't notice at the time.)

a few weeks ago yoshi called me from work (where he was having a stressful time) and asked if i wanted to go to the yufuin youth hostel during the holiday weekend in july. of course i said yes (but, since i'm an asshole, i forgot that kuri had mentioned the pinglet's birthday party would be that weekend...thankfully she's a kind and gracious friend and happily told us to enjoy our weekend. i'm sure she didn't want three more rambunctious children at the pinglet's party!), and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time! this is (i think) the third time we've visited the youth hostel so it's not like we have any touristy things to do around there, so i was really hoping to have an opportunity to meet a couple of bloggy friends!

yoshi had a drinking party on friday night, so the plan was to leave on saturday. the navigation tells us it takes between four-and-a-half and six hours to get to the youth hostel from our house, but it usually only takes about four (for some reason an hour disappears from the arrival time somewhere around usa). of course, we left our house at ten, had to go back for the bottles of sparkling wine and actually left at 10:30 and arrived at about 5:30. well, you know, stop for lunch, stop for changing diapers, stop at usa shrine (but change your mind because you don't want to pay for parking, especially since two thirds of the children are sleeping), stop for potty breaks and stop for drinks. phew! it's quite a trip just to get there (and a beautiful drive, although half of it is through cities) so the plan is to just get there.

we arrived before dinner (which is at seven) and they set up the men's bath (yay, onsen!!) for a family bath and so we had the chance to freshen up before dinner. very good in the summer season where just sitting makes me feel grubby! dinner the first night was a bit of a disappointment, the chicken was under-seasoned and the soup was too salty! a surprise because the food there is usually excellent! after dinner there was a group walk but the kids were exhausted so i tried to get them to sleep. the family is not used to tommy sleeping with everyone so after a few frustrating minutes ("i don't WANT tommy sleeping HERE!!!") yoshi took tommy on the walk and i got hiro and sasha asleep. when yoshi got back he was having some kind of allergic reaction and wanted to take a bath so i got the lovely task of trying to get tommy to sleep. wasn't happening. tommy was nearly asleep, too, when yoshi got back! argh! i think tommy didn't go to sleep before midnight...in fact, i think it was after one!

and then...everyone was awake before six! this does NOT happen at home, oh what torture! yoshi and i were quite tired on sunday. after breakfast i could tell yoshi was being overwhelmed so i took the kids for a short drive around town (and if you've been to yufuin, then you know that's a short drive!) there are only lawson conbinis in yufuin, too. LOL anyway, we got back to the youth hostel at nine, picked up yoshi and were on our way to play with gaijin wife and her family! the owner of the youth hostel told us it would take about four hours to get there, and navigation (a bit wishy washy if you ask me) predicted between two-and-a-half and three hours (and a bit) but it only took us about two hours, through the mountains.

you may have already seen pics on GW's blog but i have a few of my own and i'm sure you won't object to me sharing. hee hee i would also like to take a moment to say that it's times like these that i wish i had photoshop or something so i can make cute little smiley faces or anime characters to cover nakkid kid bits....LOL


happy water babies


hiro and shou had a great time 'shooting' babies in the pool....


and GW may have done a good job making sasha look sweet and innocent, but what the hell sasha?!


DON'T PUT THE BROOM IN THE POOL!! (btw, cute smile on shou up there!!)

GW puts out quite a lunch, it was so yummy! the kids scarfed most of it down (except maybe sasha? and marina was only just awake and didn't eat right away, so of course tommy came by later and ate half of her plate!!). the guys got on alright i think, yoshi had a great time chatting in japanese (for a change! ha!) and of course i enjoyed speaking english in full sentences and at normal speed (and on topics not involving 'do you have to go potty?' questions--GW probably would have given me a slap upside the head if i asked her that! LOL)

after a few hours it was time for us to head back to the youth hostel. dinner was much better on sunday night, though the kids hardly ate any. then we took baths separately (me and sasha only, woo hoo!) and got the kids to sleep fairly early. tommy had slept during the morning drive, and on the way back to the YH, hiro had slept on the way to GW's house, and sasha also fell asleep on the way back to the YH, but luckily they all slept early, and well, on sunday night. after hiro and sasha had fallen asleep (yoshi had taken tommy for a walk) i went downstairs with my knitting. the owner of the YH brought out the wine (and i should definitely apologize to GW because one of the bottles was meant to come to your house on sunday, but airheaded me forgot!!) and opened them up, told everyone it was for my ten year anniversary in japan, and was nearly about to compai when he said, 'i don't know where her husband is...oh! just in time, there he is!' and so we all got to toast together. after a few (small, i swear!) glasses of wine i took tommy up to bed, where he fell asleep quickly and slept until seven, as did hiro and sasha!

our drive home was pretty uneventful, though we did drive to hiraodai in kitakyushu city to look at a cave (recommended by the owner of the YH), but the walk up to the cave was too wet and muddy for small children, so we took them to a nearby park and had fun splashing around and playing on roller slides. finally we got home, unloaded, took a bath and kids should be asleep in bed (fingers crossed) and i need to go to bed, too!

as an aside, the son (and maybe daughter) of the owners of the youth hostel, who is about six months older than tommy, had chicken pox. when we first arrived they told us about it, apologizing that their kids couldn't play with ours, but this morning as we were about to leave, the boy was downstairs with a pokemon toy, which he handed over to tommy. sasha gave it back to the boy, but then he handed right over to tommy who put it in his mouth! i think i might be on chicken pox watch out, and won't be able to spend time with anyone for a while! *sob*

...after an afternoon playing with gaijinwife’s kids！

so, the other morning yoshi says, 'did you know the butterfly came out?' so we all rushed to the genkan to look. yep, sure enough, there's a butterfly. and, just as i suspected, it's a boring orange and black. but pretty cool nonetheless. i got it to come out and stay on my finger.



then hiro was brave enough to get it to cling to his hand.









he really enjoyed holding the butterfly and it was difficult to get him back inside to prepare for school. later on, when we left to go to the bus stop the butterfly had gone across the street. hiro ran over to it to look, then waved goodbye when we walked down the street....

tuesday was a scorcher! it was so hot. thank goodness for the air conditioner. yesterday, however, was cool and rainy. seriously, i think it was about 31 C on tuesday and 21 C yesterday! nice. the summer can do that until september, thank you very much!

...except the kids were quite testy yesterday. testing my patience that is. we need to go out and play every day. i had also promised them a trip to costco but had to cancel. poor kids. they really like pizza!

today was cloudy and humid. kind of blah. but we could go to costco, and so we did. tommy and sasha fell asleep in the car (on the way home), but hiro did not. so now, i think it's nearly time for bed, except hiro and sasha are *quietly* playing with stuffed animals. they were 'putting them to bed' but now i think they're working on a tower of stuffies. cute.

ok, now about me. for some reason, since the weekend, i've been really really hungry. if i eat my breakfast at seven, i'm starving by nine. we may or may not have a snack. around noon, i eat lunch. then am just ravenous thirty minutes later. it's really weird. isn't summer supposed to suppress your appetite? it's a lot like a breastfeeding hunger (but tommy weaned six months ago...) i have been drinking loads of water, as i usually do. it's so weird feeling hungry all the time....

and finally, another tangent. one of the butterflies broke out of its chrysalis. i took some pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. hopefully tomorrow. uh-oh, sasha is starting to melt down. time for bed!

finished dress for sasha. just another simple A line dress. i got the fabric (nearly four yards of it!) last year on sale. i made a size three so hopefully she can wear it next summer, too.



this is one of two remnant pieces i got. when i bought them i thought i'd make the A line dress, but neither one was quite wide enough for a full dress. (they were cut 50 cm wide--fabric length is 110 cm.) so, plan B is the A line dress with a contrasting fabric.



i got the contrast fabric yesterday (solid white) and plan on finishing it this afternoon. i am really pleased with the sides of the dress because they match up perfectly, with very little effort on my part!





i can hardly wait to finish the dress!

next, the local fabric store was having a special sale and i got a couple of bundles of fabric. first i got a black one, and found a beautiful floral print to match.





my original idea was to do a simple four patch quilt and then cut out the pink and black flowers and applique them here and there. but...i don't really like one of the prints (the jigsaw puzzle one, to be honest) so i think i'll do a strip of the pink and black flowers and use it for blocks, as well as use the flowers for some applique. not a lot, because i think it will be a waste of fabric.

the ends of a couple of the fabrics also have borders so that will make for a random square here and there.





i got another bundle of fabric, a green one, because i thought it was so pretty.

i was able to put the futons out yesterday!! they were getting pretty manky, it was gross! possibly the worst thing about rainy season: can't hang out the bedding. *sigh* yoshi even beat them and then brought them downstairs for me. what a man. *swoon* (i'm serious!)

it was sunny this morning so i put out the wash, too. then it started to rain so i brought it back in. a few minutes later it was sunny again. *sigh* the worst part about the end of rainy season is that it can't make up it's mind whether to finish or not! we need a nice (not too strong nor destructive) typhoon. that usually sends rainy season out. i put the laundry out again and it didn't rain again (as far as i know).

saturday i found a huge caterpillar and using the previous caterpillar page, i found out it becomes a moth. yes, i captured it, and bought a new bug box for it. i think i'm turning japanese! ha! it has already made a cocoon, which is something new and different for the kids to see. too bad it becomes a boring white moth and not a beautiful big colorful thing.

i made another dress for sasha today. well, almost. i got a couple of remnants and neither one was quite big enough for the dress. it's in two pieces so two remnants are fine--if they were wide enough. but no fear! going for version two they work (actually, one remnant would work) and i just needed to get a contrasting fabric. which i did today (and hey! i forgot my wallet and had to go back home to get it, that was fun) and will hopefully finish it tomorrow. pictures tomorrow, too (i hope!)

i recently got some fabric for making a quilt and hope to share that with you tomorrow, too. until then, i have two small ones waiting for me to brush their teeth.

i am so sick of rainy season. it just bucketed here today. nasty. it's never going to end. *sigh*

i made a dress for sasha today. i did a little bit of tracing last night, tried to do more this morning (but yeah, that doesn't work) and actually got most of it done while tommy and sasha were napping. i did have to go to the store to get some buttons (after hiro got home) but i got it done! woo hoo! but i'm not so sure i'm going on a sewing jag. it takes up so much space!

well, time for me to head upstairs and get some relax time before sleep. aunt flo should be arriving any minute....

so, this afternoon while checking the pumpkin plants and the cucumbers, i came across a really big bug. so, i decided to take a picture of it. then i took pictures of tomatoes...then pests. ew. so, the bug that started it all:



some tomatoes:


momotaro flowers


fruit tomatoes. i am beginning to wonder if they'll ever turn red. are they a green tomato??


tomatoes which sasha picked. and ate.


fruit tomatoes which are getting damaged by the wind.


cherry tomatoes which are turning red.

now, pests. basically caterpillars. ew. the green ones eat the tomatoes and they (the tomatoes) stay green. but the orangey-yellow one made the tomato black and gross.











lastly...the potato pests (orange with black spots, not ladybugs) moved to the eggplants



and are starting in on the tomatoes:



i've been squishing them and didn't find any while out photographing. that's a good thing, right?

and a last photo, a successfully pollinated kabocha (done between downpours):