sooooo so behind!  life is busy!!

so, of course, i took pictures of cosmos this year.  i think the pictures pretty much do all the talking!





























and, you can see more here. newer pictures at the end.

so, i have a pumpkin pie baking in the oven, and another waiting to be baked, for the thanksgiving party we're going to (at kuri's house) tomorrow. i have been looking forward to it all week! so, i will take this time to finally write about undokais!

hiro's undokai was in september. i had a bit of a panic attack and had yoshi take the kids while i stayed at home and finished the bento. i don't know why i was freaking out, only that i didn't want to be there and be the obvious gaijin, standing out.

so, i finished the bento and walked to the school. it was a lovely day, and it was a lovely walk. i listened to my iphone, and i think it all did me good.

i didn't get many pictures from the undokai, mainly because yoshi was taking pictures with *his* iphone, but i did get a couple. one is of yoshi in the relay, and one is of sasha, who will be a first grader next year.





for the kindy undokai, i was much more relaxed. i also couldn't walk to the school, so we all had to go together. we were on the undokai committee, so that meant yoshi had to help out. i was on potty duty, which meant i had to take kids to the bathroom if they needed to go. again, the weather was lovely, and he had a great time.

first there was a parade, that's why sasha was wearing red, and tommy blue.



i really don't have a whole lot else to say. this is our fourth undokai at the kindy! but, if you're interested, i have an album of this year's undokai here.

cosmos time!!

















and the sunflowers were on their last bout, but i did get this shot.




more cosmos in my set on flickr. photos dating back to 2005. wow!

i think tommy and sasha are coming down with colds. please, no, we're supposed to meet kuri and the pinglet on friday! but...they have been so cranky today, and fairly cranky yesterday. and, they're both snotty (since yesterday). hiro was snotty a couple of weeks ago, but never had a fever. so far, neither sasha nor tommy have had fevers, either. so, knock on wood it's nothing more than that.

today, all we did was go to the laundromat for drying clothes. i dried three loads. there's still one in my washing machine, too. i should dry it tonight. the rain is a pain, but still welcome all the same. since we planted a couple of trees on the weekend, i guess it's better if it rains (then i don't have to worry about going out there and watering them). still stinky, though, because we can't go and play outside.

it was pretty warm earlier this week, too (and over the weekend) but today is quite cool. now that i can knit and crochet, i actually am kinda excited about the cold. i can use my handmade stuff! yay.

well, gotta go read books and get the little monsters off to sleep. good night!

we can definitely feel it, it's colder. especially at night. yesterday i got the kids' fleece sleepers out (to see which ones fit) and since they love these pajamas, they insisted on wearing them last night. no one complained about being too hot! i remember it snowed in november last year (but not much more, though i guess it snowed a lot at new year, while we were at my in-laws' house, where it didn't snow much) but i don't remember it being this cold this early. in some ways i am enjoying this autumn, a season i like the least. cooler days, but sunny, and lots of mikan already!

i think i have a little head cold, but hopefully it won't develop into anything more serious. i'm also doing wii fit most days (but, not every day. but i try to walk first thing in the morning). the problem is my foot, i think i hurt it somehow, but it doesn't hurt enough to justify going to the doctor. it's been nearly two weeks, though, so i should probably start thinking about where i should go to have it checked out.

well, hope everyone is enjoying the weather, wherever they are.

...turn on the toilet seat.
...get out the kotatsu futons.
...cut back the summer flowers.
...air out the winter futons, and put away the summer blankets.
...wish i could hibernate like a bear.


hope the typhoon isn't too bad.

this morning tommy started crying at 4 am. i guess that means me. *sigh* i am sleeping downstairs recently because these days hiro and/or sasha get up, come upstairs and get in bed with me. which is fine, except they sleep so close to me and there's no room for me. at least on the futon i can easily move them over. but if i sleep with them downstairs, they don't wake up and everyone gets a good night's sleep.

except...i was sleeping upstairs just in case tommy ever cried at night. which he rarely did, but just in case...and so, this morning, he cried. i took him to the bed, where yoshi was sleeping (and didn't hear tommy crying, i might add) and nursed him. when he was almost asleep, and not drinking, i took him off the breast. but that did not please prince tommy and he got mad. and awake. *sigh* so, i decided to go to the coin laundry to dry the stuff that was in the washing machine for two days. hey, at 4 am, it's less likely to be busy!

except...i couldn't find the keys to the gaia, where the car seats were. i searched and searched. meanwhile, prince tommy started crying harder and harder. this is actually unusual because he loves his daddy and usually prefers him to me (little traitor!) i couldn't find yoshi's spare key, either, and so everyone was getting frustrated (except hiro and sasha who thankfully slept through the whole ordeal). i finally remembered that i put the damn keys in my purse when i paid for pizza the night before, so i got prince tommy and the laundry in the car and off we went.

except...tommy pretty much cried in the car the whole time we were in it. i was hoping the driving would put him to sleep. instead, he crawled all around the coin laundry. oh well, at least we were the only ones there.

he did fall asleep on the drive home. which is good, i guess, except it was starting to get light outside. i took everything and one into the house and started to surf the net, but then hiro and sasha woke up. *sigh*

i did go to munakata shrine this morning and got pictures of the flowers in the chrysanthemum festival. pretty flowers. and we did go to an onsen this evening, very relaxing. but now i am dead tired and ready for bed!

i downloaded a football game and am now playing it. it's kind of nice to have it playing as background noise. reminds me of home. i like football, though i don't have a favorite team. it's also really getting cold here, though i can still go around without a sweatshirt. i worry more about the kids, especially hiro, since he doesn't seem to have any extra fat at all. not that that's a bad thing, exactly, but he's so skinny so i need to make sure he's wearing a sweater or coat or something.

sasha is walking now. we went from a few tentative steps when my mom arrived to trying to run just before mom left. she crawls faster, and occasionally does so, but in general, she walks everywhere. except when we go out. i don't have any proper shoes for her yet. poor thing. i guess i should pull out some of hiro's old shoes.

i've been feeling pretty depressed lately. part of it has to do with my birthday last week. it wasn't special at all. i did nothing. well, i did go to diamond city, but that just tires me out and makes me angry at hiroyuki. medea sent me an e-mail message with a cake! and my mom called me. midori also left me a comment here, but that's it. not even my husband wished me a happy birthday until he came home from work that night and found me crying. and then, he got all mad because he thought it was about him and that my crying made the children hate him. *sigh* whatever.

i was crying because i was feeling sorry for myself. i was trying to remember a worse birthday, and then i couldn't remember a good one. that sucked. i know that i did have nice birthdays, fun birthdays when i was a kid. cake and ice cream with friends at my house. i even vaguely remember a pin the tail on the donkey game somewhere (in florida??) but since we moved when i was ten, just before my eleventh birthday, things weren't quite as nice. not as many friends. jerky teenage years (oh yeah, i was such an asshole when i was a teenager). having surgery on my foot just before my 21st birthday. i guess no one really noticing your birthday, because you have so few friends, really isn't that big a deal. there are people out there with bigger problems, but i was so sad.

another cause is homesickness. i wanna go home. (but i don't. weird, i know.) and what causes this homesickness? believe it or not, autumn. stinkin' autumn. i HATE autumn. it's my least favorite season. it gets cold. the days get shorter. winter is coming *sob* and everything dies. i hate that. i was reading blue lotus' blog and realized that this is the season of good food, but that's it, the only positive thing i can think of for fall. but....the cooler weather is making me remember home. going back to school. getting excited about halloween, which is quickly followed by thanksgiving and then, before you know it, it's christmas! i wanna go home and feel the cooler weather, drive in the rain, play soccer. and well, yes, i probably just want to be a child again. let's start over, shall we?

i am enjoying my pregnancy, but i have to admit i'm about ready to be finished. especially when he starts to kick and squirm. it's starting to hurt.