yay for J

Must give J a big thumbs up. He rang on his way home from work, asking if I was going to the pool tonight (he remembered!!!) and that I should get ready to go once he gets home. Very nice!

So despite my not really being that excited(really feeling the natsu-bate and lack of motivation , etc etc), I did head off to the pool and swam:

45* freestyle (900m)
20* breastroke (400m)
5* kickboard for some kick-a*se leg workout

Met a lovely lady in the change room afterwards who spoke very good english- had lived in the US for 5 years, and visited Aus 5+times. The people are the y are really so friendly! Wonder if she would have been so friendly if she realised I was going commando, thanks to forgetting to take a pair of undies with me (yikes!!) I put my togs on before I go, bcoz seriously, I have quite enough trouble jumping my way into them, and I really dont want to do that before an audience.

also K had her 2nd swim lesson today - she did crack the sh*ts a bit in the morning, saying she didnt want to go (*sigh*) but she was perfectly fine once we got there. I was very proud of her!

time for karma to bite me on the bum

I know I shouldnt gloat, BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT:

I managed to get to the pool again tonight - went at 6:30pm and got home at 8:15pm (had quick stop at uniclo on way home too).

I had thought the pool was only 15m long (which made my 20laps breastroke & 20laps freestyle on Wed seem a bit pathetic) but tonight I actually asked how long the pool was: 20m!! what an idiotic length!! Anyway, tonight I ganbarued and did 6*breastroke to warm up, 40*freestyle and 14* breastroke to cool down, plus a couple of laps in the walking lane.
i.e.
freestyle 800m
breastroke 400m

time: 35mins

Now, the goal is to extend the length in about the same time. I have never been fast, but when I was doing triathlons and the like (oh, the glory days!!!) I did swim 1.5km in the ocean in about 33mins I think. Hope to get to be able to swim at least 1.5km (wonder how long it will take me....hmmm?)

And the gloating - well, when I got home after my swim, the house looked like a BOMB had hit it, L was screaming (he stopped the instant I held him) and no one had eaten dinner at 8:15pm! (altho we did have hotdogs and icecream at IKEA at 4:30pm, but still.....) Hope J got a bit of a taste of why the house and I am always frazzled when he comes home at night :=)

on an bender

An exercise bender, that is (well, kinda).

Anyway, today I just went down to sign up for summer session at the ymca pool - I can go along weeknights and Saturday night from 6:15pm-9pm. Even bought myself one of those baba swim suits (the ones that mean you dont have to bother about shaving anywhere as you are basically covered head to toe - at least there is one less excuse not to go to the pool...) Hoping to make it at least once a week, but if possible, try to go 2 times a week from now until end of Aug. Wish me luck!!

I just realised that my big run last night was a maximum of 2 (two, duos, 二）km. Yikes. How embarrasing. Well. gotta start somewhere, right?

I dont know what it is about the hot weather, but it kinds spurs me on to exercise. lets see if I can keep it up for more than 3 days tho, THAT is the challenge.

a bit pathetic, but at least a start....,

I RAN tonight.
Ok, it was only down the hill to the lights by the local "mine mart", but going down the hill also meant I had to come back up it, right?!!

I took R, but *she* was actually dragging behind (she wanted to do her business, peeing and pooping and smelling the flowers and shit everywhere, while I just wanted to get there and back, lol)

I don't know why, but for some reason today I just felt like I could do it, run, I mean. In all this heat too.....

But I did realise that trying to go for a run on a night when J goes to the gym is just NOT going to work - got home and had to do the shower/bath routine with K, then L started balling just as J was about to head off for the gym, so I ended up hotter after my shower than before it. And everyone was so out of sorts (due to me skipping out for half an hour hence putting back the pre-bed-time routine) that both K and L have really only just got to sleep, affter 10pm! So now I have had 10mins to myself, before J gets home (can hear the car now) and I just realised I still have to iron his freakin' shirts for work. yikes.

Anyway, - bring on tomorrow and Thurs, when J doesnt go to the gym. If my body hasn't "broken" by then, I might try jog again ;-)

a novel way to cool down

Just as we were about to get off the train today after a big day out (playgroup and shopping ;D) I felt what could only be described as a feeling like my waters broke! (yes, I *do* realise I am no longer pregnant...). I looked down and there was a puddle on the floor on the train beneath me. And a big wet streak down my left leg.

I don't know HOW he did it, but L had managed to piddle all over me WHILE IN THE BABY BJORN!! Talk about crazy stuff. And it is not even the first time - about a month ago, while in the baby bjorn again, I had a similar sensation while hanging out the washing. Bloody boys and their projectile piddling (both times he was in disposables, too, so it wasn't even a cloth nappy problem).

But how funny..... and embarrasing.

And he actually was doing me a favour, evening out the stains on my right side after his morning projectile perk, all down my leg, lol!

warming up for Hawaii

The hotel we stayed at on the weekend was quite good - it was very family orientated (kid seats in restaurant, baby bath chairs, kids yukata, rice for the kids at dinner, even tho we didn't pay a CENT for either K or L), and of course the kids pool and regular pool were great fun! It was kinda cool in the water (ok, the kids pool was pretty darn cold, but the regular pool was ok). But K had an absolute ball, so it was worth it.

We arrived at the hotel around 2pm, they let us check in an hour early, and we hit the pool (good timing as the rain had just stopped) for about an hour. Then back inside for a bath (onsen water, too, which is a plus) before dinner.

Dinner was ok, nothing to really write home about. A bit lacking in volume (I ended up eating L's rice too!!)

Breakfast was all-you-can-eat and I did! Another quick swim from 9am (too cold for me in the morning, so J had the honours) before another quick bath before 11am checkout. Had a quick look at the waves around the surf-spot at Chikura, but flat, so we just had a bit of a play at the 道の駅　before making our way slowly home.

For less than 15,000yen for all 4 of us to stay (thanks Japan's version of lastminute.com) it was a cheapie but fun weekend away.*


So yeh, it was a kinda prelude for the possible hawaii trip (GW - totally sponsered by MIL, of course!! as if we can afford a week long vacay in the land of the rising sun, long cloud......umm, what is Hawaii the land of? Loco Moco perhaps?




* except for the altercation that occured after dinner, back in the room when I asked J to brush K's teeth before bed. He was almost passed out after 1 (yes, ONE) beer with dinner, and wouldn't get up to brush her teeth. I asked about 10times, but he refused (seriously) so I lost it, brushed her teeth,, turned the lights off and we all went to bed at something like 8pm!!(well, except for me of course, coz little L had other plans), but man I was pissed - for goodness sakes man, pull your weight!! end rant.

another impromptu

weekend away. off to chiba@白浜 for a swim:D (if the weather cooperates)
and there are whispers of a summer vacay in Hawaii!!!!!(with pil)

at least i have until the end of august to attempt to de-flum b4 then. unfortunately there is nothing i can do abt this weekend :( so def. NO bikini shots! lol

dotty

* recently when I look at the clock it seems to be spooky times, like "11:11" this morning.

* L turned 2m.o. yesterday - TOO fast!! Am loving every minute of him, and so now trully understand when other mummy friends say things like "I want another BABY". Me too...already, lol! I can't believe he is growing so fast.

* am feeling very blessed having found such great friends here in japan - this week I managed to catch up with several mummies from playgroup I used to go to. It has been ages since I had seen them, since we moved, and I now realise how much I miss them, but it is great to be able to meet again after 6months or so, and still have a great time.

* niku-jaga for dinner. With lots of hoku-hoku potatoes in there. YUMMO

* 2months after giving birth. I really need to stop on the excuses and start getting myself BACK. Unfortunately, not only do I have flummy to deal with, I have some serious flighs, and flarms that need blasting! I know you should never say "I will start tomorrow" but I am going to. Actually, am gonna say I am starting from July 1 - that means NO MORE COOKIES (well, not as many as I am eating now at least ;D and being serious about drinking water.) In general, we are eating ok, I think, trying to keep the vege intake up. It is really just the sweets and snacking that need to be dealt with. And I also need to start to get serious about some excercise.

* did several loads of washing today. Lots of early morning starts this week has meant that I couldn't get the washing hang out (the balcony is off the room where K and J are sleeping, so I wait until they are up to hang it out.) But with rainy days and then yesterday we left the same time as J, the laundry has been building up.

* now I just gotta fold up several loads of washing (ok, I dont mind doing this)

* then I gotta put it all away.AAAARRRRGGGGH. not my favourite at all.

* been looking at pre-schools, scouring for information. Am going to the closest pre-school for I guess what equates to a trial day/open day. Also signing up for lots of classes for K, like "リトミック”and a swimming class next week. I am not sure if we will be putting K into pre-school from next year or not. 3years of pre-school kinda sounds like a lot to me, and I am keen to keep her English language ability up as much as possible, so would prefer her to stay out of the all-Japanese schooling environment at this stage...... Anyone gone down the non-3 years pre-schooling route? Any comments?? I know she needs some kind of stimulation other that just playing with me, so I would like to find something that we could do instead of regular Japanese pre-school (maybe not every day, but 1-2 times a week). Although sometimes when she is giving me the shits with some temper tantrum or disobedience, I feel like I wanna put her into boarding school, let alone pre-school every day.

* K watching Dora, L asleep on my lap. Thurs afternoons are great!

no car, no tv and no husband

Well, the no-car and no-husband thing go hand in hand - J has gone surfing for the weekend in Chiba, staying at a friend's house, with several mates. I couldnt be arsed going, dragging the kids there only to sit in someone else's house. As it turns out, I wasn't even invited (by J that is, the other friends were asking where I am...)

AND as it turns out, I am stuck at home without a car - obvious, but it only hit me on Fri evening before J was leaving that he would be driving, so I would be carless. And I had planned a big weekend of hitting the shops (trying to get presents for some parties this week). Had also waited until Sat to do the grocery shop, as the supermarket has 5times the points on Sat, until 3pm. We needed rice, so a big buy like that is worth waiting to get the extra points (which you get cash-back vouchers for). Unfortunately, I ended up having to lug a 5kg bag of rice home in the stroller...together with a 14kg kid in it, while carrying a 5 kg kid on self, as well as the 8L of milk and juices I ついにbought, since am so used to always shopping by car, and kinda forgot that I still had to get them home. We walked down to the shops this morning, but with all that load, I caught the train back - even that was hard enough in itself trying to manouver the overloaded stroller on and off the train. Kinda shows me how much I have become used to the big weekly shop (as opposed to daily or every other day "picking" like I used to do when we lived less than 5mins from the supermarket....)

And the no-tv...well, of course everything happens at once, and when J is away. With the wind and rain last night, I got woken to a big thud about 3am - the bloody antenna had come clean off the roof!!! It was only supported with a single pole screwed in with 4 measly screws into the side of the wall near the roof, actually, and it all came crashing down last night. I was out there in PORING RAIN at 3am trying to somehow tie it up to the clothes line on the balcony to stop it from bashing into the wall with the wind (the antenna cord was still attached, so the antenna was seriously just dangling there). What fun. Rang the co that installed it for us last year, but they wont come out before Monday, so we are tv-less over the weekend. Not such a biggie as dont really watch J-TV that much any more, but it does mean that I will miss the Japan-Holland game tonight, boo-hoo.

But it also means that we have had 3 big walks today - r got a walk this morning, before we headed out to the next station to do some shopping (and window shopping, more miles) then we even took R out for an afternoon walk, after K woke up from her nap to take advantage of the non-rainy day while we can.

And I am keeping myself entertained with tv-shows online (current show in favour is "Being Erica"), although I really should just go to bed and try to do some catch^up sleeping while I can...but I have always been more of a night person, and find it hard to get to bed much before midnight most nights. Unfortunately L usually wakes for another feed about 1am, (then 3am, then 5am, then up for the day at 6:48am, or so he has been the last few days, seriously, can almost set my clock to the morning wake up) so not much catch up can happen unless I go down when he does after his 9pm-ish feed....

And tomorrow is (self-appointed) clean-up day, so an early night would be a good idea. Maybe after just another episode....

day 2 of the 5am challege

and I totally flaked it.

Just went straight back to sleep (sitting up in bed with L in my arms!! lol)
Looks like I am with you, Nay and Lulu and the "not before 7am biz" haha.

I don't feel bad though - I must have been on some spring cleaning high yesterday, and actually got more cleaning and househould stuff done in the afternoon too, so today I kinda feel ok to just vege. This is always my problem but - try to do it all one day, then crash and burn and then spend the next week veging, then have to do a mammoth clean the next week. Oh well. Baby steps.

Today we are heading to the local ymca for a free kids concert ("with all your favourites from Okasan-to-issho", or so they say on the flier), which starts at 10:30am. It is a bit overcast though, so not sure if we should ditch the idea of walking and drive instead. Hmmm. Anyway, gonna make some onigiri to take with us.