well, looks like i won't be in the running for a prize this year! that's ok. i have a couple of good excuses....

on sunday i wasn't feeling well. i had pretty bad lower back pain all day. i could get around (barely) so i could go out and do things, plus little around the house things (and dinner was leftovers from the day before. yay for thanksgiving!) but i was not feeling at all well. so that's why i didn't post on sunday.

yesterday i went to the hospital in the morning and found out that my kidney stone is still there, pretty much in the same place and about the same size. lovely, huh? tommy is having such a hard time with the hospital. he's good for about the first hour but then he just wants to be out of there. which, of course, we can't do. *sigh* he was ok during the CT scan, though, so that was a blessing.

after the hospital we had lunch, and then went home. i had to buy diapers but before i went to Direx!, i decided to stop at a 100 yen shop and in the parking lot i hit a parked car! ugh, not fun. luckily no one was hurt, i was going pretty slow (was trying to park my car) so there wasn't a lot of damage, but i'm kinda embarrassed. what a pain. so, i was kinda dwelling on that yesterday so i didn't post.

well, this counts for today, and i will definitely make an effort for the rest of the month!

haha! nothing to say here, but just posting for nablopomo. the point is (or, can be) to write something every day, just to get it out there. it doesn't have to monumental. or at least, when it comes to this blog, it doesn't have to be!

tommy and i pretty much stayed at home today. i did have to go out and get a few things for dinner, but in the end it was the spaghetti i had to go and get at 7-11. ah well, we can't win them all!

yoshi had a drinking party tonight so spaghetti turned out to be a great dinner. we even had some garlic bread which i got at trial. now hiro and sasha are sleeping in their beds (WAH-HOO!) and tommy is downstairs tormenting yoshi. i should get some sleep myself, and see if i can coax my lazy butt out of bed tomorrow morning for some much needed exercise....

tomorrow is open school day at the yochien. perhaps i should take some pictures and give a virtual tour!

today is day one of nablopomo (oh, and that reminds me, i gotta sign up!), so here i am making an attempt to write every day. i should write about the birthday party, but i don't have photos uploaded (and i'm not sure they're any good anyway, but let's get that sorted out before blogging about the party! maybe tomorrow), so i will write about my hospital visit from today.

today was day one of two for tests for when i have surgery. i'm not sure what it was supposed to be for, but i got a drip for an hour. if i had to guess, it was to put something in me to help the echo and CT scans i had afterward. tommy is seriously starting to hate the hospital (who can blame him?), but he was pretty good when we first got to the geika and when i got my blood pressure taken, but during the iv, he started running around and arranging chairs. at the hospital, they have a room just for tenteki (ivs) with a lot of beds and chairs (for family members, i suppose). we had brought a book for tommy, and i had got him some candy, but once the candy was gone and the book had lost its charm, tommy was a lost cause. but he wasn't too bad (though it was obvious he was getting tired) until we got to the scans.

the first scan was some kind of echo. i really don't know what it was, but i got onto this platform that moved around (so i went from a standing position with my hands over my head to a lying position on my stomach! and then back again). tommy was in the changing room because he refused to leave, so a technician stayed with him while i got the scans. when i finished tommy wsn't in the changing room, he was in the hallway throwing a massive tantrum! but we weren't done, because i also had to have a CT scan, and tommy was pretty pissed off! finally i was done, though, and i took him to the snack shop and got some candy (mint mentos, of course he hated them) for him, and juice and crackers for me (i wasn't to eat beforehand). luckily i didn't need medicine because the candy and juice barely kept tommy together before we could leave!

i have to go back tomorrow for the stomach camera. i wonder if i should just get a massive box of chocolate for tommy!

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!

ok, figured out why i may have been a little bit more under the weather than usual: vitamins. i haven't been taking my vitamins lately and i need to be better about that. especially B vitamins and vitamin D. get it together kristin!

last weekend we did some 7-5-3, with photos in the studio and going to munakata taisha. but i didn't have a chance to take many photos myself, so we'll (hopefully) be going out this weekend to take more. yay.

finally got it all together! in the end, i used this method to join the squares. (warning, awesome crochet site there!!) seventy roses, look at that! i am very happy with it, i think it's going to be a great sofa afghan. phew, one more big project finished!



i also found something yesterday that makes me want to sew again. i haven't sewn in months, mainly because i don't want to deal with the kids and the sewing machine. i'm afraid they're going to touch it and break something. anyway, look at this:



it's a fabric book, that you sew together yourself! i am so excited to have found this, it's the first one i have seen in japan. my mom sent me some last year, they were so easy to make! this one, however, is rudolph the red nosed reindeer. how cool is that? maybe if i get my sewing out and get this together, i will regain the christmas mood i somehow lost this week....

i also got some cute fat quarters:



and a few weeks ago i found some great fabric on sale. one was perfect for christmas (though i have no projects in mind) and the others were pretty:









that last one amused me because of this:



i used to work at jo-ann's!

this time around, PMS has really got me feeling down. i don't know why. maybe the cold weather, i hate the cold. and the holidays are coming up, that's pretty depressing. and i've been homesick for quite some time, i haven't been home in four years. also, all three of the kids are going through stages (all different stages, of course, but essentially independence (from mommy and daddy)) which seems to require screaming. very grating. i'm feeling really tied down at the moment, that sucks. it sucks to want to get away from your kids just to have a quiet moment. *sigh*

this will pass, as all things do. just wish it were a bit warmer.

i have always had a difficult time getting to sleep. i always had to go to bed early, because i needed at least an hour to relax and get to sleep. nothing has changed now that i'm an adult. well, except for a few years there when i was so exhausted from taking care of the children. these days i rarely fall into bed exhausted and asleep within minutes. as i have done all my life, i have to daydream myself to sleep.

sometimes, though, i am not ready to dream. at the end of the day i am tired, sleepy, ready for sleep, but my brain needs to relax into it. so i think about stuff. sometimes i think about what happened that day. sometimes i think about what i need to do the next day. but sometimes i think about stupid things, like all the embarrassing things i have done in my life. i really hate that. why think about stupid things that you cannot change? it may have been embarrassing at the time, but thinking about it and getting embarrassed all over again doesn't help. it doesn't even help getting me to sleep most of the time. *sometimes* i start daydreaming about what i might have done differently, or, if i remember someone i used to know, i wonder about how that person is doing and if they remember me. but mostly i am embarrassed and stressed out of sleep mode. i think my brain works too hard.

i do not have the energy to blog today. i will blame PMS, and will not write much more than this to keep from whining about my very existence and how depressing the shrieking is. we did meet up with kuri and her daughter today (and she can tell you about the screaming monster whose name starts with T), pretty much the only bright spot on this dark, rainy day.

ok, gotta stop there or this is going to get depressing....

the halloween party we went to last weekend.

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!

oops, missed two days of blogging. looks like i really was distracted! actually, i meant to post on saturday morning but thought, 'nah, i 'll do it when we get home.' but then was too tired (from dealing with four whiny butts) and just went to bed with the kids. then i thought about posting yesterday morning but though, 'nah, i have plenty of time today.' but was so tired in the evening (i think waking up at 4am will do that to a person....)

so, on saturday we went to a friend's house for a halloween party. yes, it's a week late, but her family was ill on halloween. i didn't think we could go because hiro had a school activity on saturday, but it was canceled because of the flu. we made the long drive out there, had a fun time, had dinner at youme town and then came back home. it was a long day!

yesterday i spent the day with hiro. first i had two loads of laundry to dry (and yes, there was another load hanging outside) and then we went to the AEON in nogata. they were having some kind of health fair so i got tested for diabetes (don't have!) and an alcohol test (this one i didn't understand well, but some kind of liquid patch was stuck to your lower arm near your elbow, then you waited seven minutes, and if your skin changed color, then you shouldn't drink alcohol. i passed, but that's ok because i don't really drink a lot, anyway.) there was a dentist station, too, and i got tested for 'baikin' (bacteria--that is, cavity causing bacteria) and i don't have much, then had a breath test to see if i had bad breath. i didn't, so i don't really know what having bad breath would have signified (i do know that bad breath can mean ill health.)

there were a couple of other booths, one for body fat, but i didn't do that one, it was very popular, crowded with skinny japanese ladies wanting to measure their body fat. i already know i'm fat! LOL then, there was a doctor consulting booth, but i didn't have any health questions (i don't have diabetes! that's what's been worrying me lately) and why bother some bored-looking doctor with my horrible japanese? there were displays on good foods and recipes to eat, but i wasn't very intrested in that.

anyway, in spite of dragging hiro all over the mall (and we didn't even to the metabo- quiz, which was all over the mall. i guess the idea was to make people walk all over--EXERCISE, FATTIES!--and answer questions. who knows what the prize was at the end...) we had a great time, first we checked the movie theater (no kids' movies at the moment) then we had lunch. hiro actually got a lot of loot yesterday, what with the free balloons, mascot plastic thingys and the lunch toy, we had to get him a bag just to carry it all! after lunch we checked out the fabric store and got some buttons for his school smock. next we went to kaldi coffee to get some flour (for bread making, yum!) and a couple of odds and ends, then to the car to drop off some of our stuff. after that i did my first test for diabetes (but it was too soon after lunch so decided to wait a little longer and go back), then the game center, which was fun. somewhere in there hiro had an ice cream...lucky him! after my second test, we went to starbucks where i nearly ordered the dark chocolate cherry mocha thing, because i thought it said 'truffle', not 'cherry' (man, time to break out the japanese study books, methinks!) but had the gingerbread one instead. yum. also ordered the raspberry christmas tree cake, it was so yummy! after starbucks, we went to the grocery store and got supplies for kimchee nabe, then finally got to our car and went home. hiro was such a trouper, walking so much and not complaining, even when we were doing boring health things. i think the balloon(s) helped, and he had a lot of fun stepping on large tiles and avoiding the little ones. such a boy!

after we got home we all did a little garden work. we planted a lemon tree and a mikan tree, i hope they grow well, especially the lemon tree because i want to make things that use lemon zest! so, looking forward to that!

as for waking up at 4 yesterday morning, i usually get up a few times at night to go to the bathroom, and yesterday i started thinking about stupid little things that i have no control over and shouldn't think about, so after not going back to sleep, i got up at 4:20 and started cleaning house. i got a lot done, even though hiro was up at 4:30 moaning about his halloween candy being in the car. i got him back to sleep and then ten minutes later, sasha was up and wanted to go to bed with mommy. after screaming at me for an hour, she finally went back to bed, and i could clean in peace! even though i woke up early, i still can't do the housework!

i admit, i am often distracted by my children. not in a, 'oh, they're so cute! i'm the best mother in the world!!1!eleventy!' way, just a...i'm pretty much an airhead so it doesn't take much to side-track me kind of way. i've always been pretty absent-minded (ask my mom!) but now i seem to be late all the time. this is A Bad Thing. i don't like being late. but it seems like no matter what, however early i try to start, no matter how organized i try to be, i am nearly always late (the only time i manage to be on time is when i go to the store. i put tommy and sasha into the car nearly as soon as hiro gets on the bus, which is about 8:30. since most stores open at ten, i am nearly guaranteed to be on time....) i wasn't always late. not that i prided myself on being punctual, but i usually had a few minutes to kill before meeting up with people. not anymore. the worst is the school bus. it arrives at a really crappy time (for our family). some mornings tommy is still asleep when the bus gets here! i really can't leave the house (the bus stop is around the corner from our house) when he's sleeping and it's about time he wakes up. and in the afternoon, sasha and tommy are on at least an hour of sleeping when the bus arrives. sometimes nearly two (i try to get them to sleep at one, the bus gets here at 2:49 give or take a few minutes). it sucks. i'm not sure what to do!

next year sasha will also be taking the bus, and i suspect tommy won't be napping any more. i apologize all the time, and the teachers are really nice about it (i wonder about the bus driver, though...) most of all, though, i want to teach my children about being punctual and not making others wait. hiro needs some work on this, actually, because he is *still* fighting going to school, although he's not crying any more. he still occasionally clutches the door frame or something. ugh. but, more often than not, the bus will arrive and i'm still telling (or shouting at) him to put his shoes on. everyone's waiting. ugh.

i've tried to cut out things that distract, like videos or wii (oh man, learned the wii one quickly. do not let hiro play wii in the morning!) he'll even linger over breakfast, though, just to make us late. guess i'm still going to have to ride this out, and hope it passes quickly, and we'll all be on time again.

and yes, that is the most exciting thing we did today. i actually let tommy and sasha carry some things for me (usually i make them wait in the car, although in fact, i rarely take them to the recycling place). the people who 'manage' (that is, police) the recycling station are older folks, mainly men, who can be extremely...austere...about upholding the rules, and yoshi and i have been 'scolded' more than once. although, i think yoshi was really torn a new one once, and he refuses to go anymore. he thinks my gaijin-ness protects me somewhat. so, i thought...how about a couple of adorable kids to help out? surely the old guys would be enchanted. i was right! LOL nothing like a cute little two-year-old and a shy three-year-old to bring out the grandfather in anyone!

if only they could see them now. sasha is running the length of the downstairs, naked, shouting 'butt! butt! butt!'. i guess she wants us to see her butt. and tommy is taking off his clothes, too. next thing you know, hiro will want to join in. it's cold! we don't even have the heater on yet! i better go and jump in the shower with them!


* * *

well, hiro did take off his clothes before i managed to get anyone into the shower. they were jumping all over the couch. eww. better wipe it down after they go to bed....

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.