TGMF and manuka

There Goes My Friday (night)...
J usually goes to the gym Fri nights. And sometimes Tues nights. I kinda expect to have to do the kids bath-bed routine myself, and when I don't fall asleep with them, enjoy an hour or so of English sitcoms or tv-dramas. Currently just limited to NCIS LA (since Glee finished on nhk, and I haven't been faffed to turn the computer on to stream Mad Men, and am pretty current with Downton & Good Wife) .
But still, I enjoy my English tv time.
Not tonight though. It's been HOURS of bloody baseball. In general, I actually enjoy watching most sports on tv, but think baseball is more boring than watching toenails grow. I kept on expecting it to end, but it is still going!!!

So I have up on my tv time, and spent the night researching New Zealandish Manuka honey -- its a welcome present for the PIL (my folks will be here in April) and J also wants some for a business colleague. But gee it's confusing!!! All the UMFs and MGOs and I still can't make a decision about which is the best buy. They now also have Australian Manuka honey too!! plus we saw it at costcos today for about 3000yen (500g jar of 10+; same brand selling at an online Aus store for just over $20.) so am wondering if we don't just buy it here and be done with it!
And anyway--I can't even touch the stuff as it gives me an allergic/asthmatic reaction so I'm happy if my parents keep that luggage space for more important items. Like easter eggs, and dedicated coconut, and decaf tea bags, and tinned spaghetti and baked beans;)

Having troubles commenting on my own blog;(

From the iPhone. Boo-hoo! Will try to fix it. In the meantime, thanks to Gaijinwife and Kyushukel for the recent comments-- you must have inspired me to at least try blogging again;)

Have just uploaded the blogger app for iPhone, trying to find my way around that for now.

L won a giraffe!!

Seriously;)
We never win anything. Most recently, we tried to win tickets for Disneyland by collecting the points off the bread (only bought yamazaki bread for two or three months, and must have sent in at least a dozen forms)...but nada.
I think the last thing I actually won was a Paula Abdul LP, or was it the Bobby Brown LP - cant remember which came last, since I was in about 7th or 8th grade!!

So after we went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, answered the sticker quiz and put our entry in the box we all forgot about the competition...until the doorbell rang at 7:50pm last night and the postie delivered L his very own plastic giraffe model toy. He was totally taken with it-it slept with him, ate breakfast with him, rode in the car with him to drop K off at school...not sure what happened to it after that, though;)

K was kinda pisses she didn't win anything, but we put her entry into the draw for the main prize, so I guess that was out fault for aiming high. I still think its a rort that most competitions in Japan make you choose which prize you are going for. No such thing as runners-up when you've only got one chance;(

So yeah, don't know if I am "back" blogging or not(can only access my blog thru iPhone as forgotten my password, and blogging from an iPhone is kinda painful!!) but for some reason (for the first time in a long time) I felt like posting--all thanks to a little plastic giraffe.
How Random;)

David Bowie And Nike

"ch-ch-ch-changes♪"
The months of April and May have brought us many!
* k turned 5. No longer a baby at five years old;( you can see the difference in her too -- my little baby girl all grown up(;;)
* k started pre-school. She is nen-chu. She LOVES it, wants to leave the house before 8:30 most mornings to get there early;)
* L turned 2! My, how those two years have flown. And he has FINALLY started sleeping through the night - by which I mean 7:30pm until 4:30am! We stopped nursing overnight, but still had a sesh at 4:30am, then 5am, then 5:30am ...(You get the picture:) until I got sick of it and either gave him the iPhone or got out of bed myself!!
* and then come May, and we finally stopped that morning nursing session too, after we came back from GW holidays. Weird (bittersweet) to think my boobies are done, packed away for good now.
* L started day-care. He cried for the first 5 days when dropped off (had to come home the first day before lunch he was inconsolable) but by day 6 he goes off without any tears, and seems to enjoy playing with the other kids, and even gave his teacher a big kiss when leaving yesterday.
* and me? Well, I got a job. Yep, a real job. In-house translating. Is it weird that I love hearing the click click of my high heels as I walk? Lol.

Yep, lots of changes and still trying to work out our daily rhythm, but to tell you the truth, it was easier to make the change than I thought - For all the worry about is it the right decision to go back to work, put L into daycare etc etc, it all seems to be working out. I guess Nike does give right advice - "just do it!"

82

I get a mention on gaijin wife's blog (http://gaijinwife.wordpress.com/) And I get 82 hits here today!! That's enough to get anyone back blogging:) lol.

Some days I should just stay out of the kitchen

today I

* made my favorite almond cookies, was hoping to shape them into hina-sama shapes. K and L helped cut out pig shapes, hearts and flowers and I made just two (prince and princess) Hina samas. So glad I didn't waste my time shaping them -- all the biscuits Mergd together to form one big flat mess on the trays in the oven ;( not sure what went wrong, as it was kinda my fail-safe recipe....not anymore,right??,

* made mini quiche (since had the oven going anyway making failed biscuits) with broccoli and tuna, in wanton wrappers for cases. shouldn't have strayed from my normal quiche fillings.....K didn't like it, as I expected;( And the quiches all stuck in the muffin tray and came out looking like a big mess.

So it was a kinda epic fail day in the kitchen.

In other random news:

**Cleaned the kids room, living room, kitchen only to have them messed up even more than when we started about 5 mins later:( sigh. But I guess that is a daily thing, right? )

**Got halfway through the mountain of clothes waiting to be folded and put away. was gonnna do the rest once the kids were asleep, but after an EPIC three hour nap from BOTH kids, bedtime was pushed back til close to 9pm... So I am now sitting under the kotatsu watching dead boring Japanese tv instead of folding.

**I've gone caffeine free! Decided last week to try it - was drinking cups of tea all day long, and the cookies that go with the drink of tea got out of hand, so that my clothes are now all too tight - a problem in winter, unless I can find some potato sacks;(
am actually feeling a bit better without the caffeine/all-day-long drinking, and enjoying my camomile, rosehip and decaf teas. I have drunk coke, and eaten chocolate though, so not fully de-caffeinated yet, but it is a process, right?!
actually, it IS a process, as I am hoping to go sugar-free -- starting March, I am gonna attempt my no junk food/chocolate diet, and try to cut out sugars from my diet. I think this will be challenging. But hoping that I can do it!

**and I haven't forgotten my 101 things....although I think I still have about, uh, 101 things to complete. (sigh) if only the kotatsu wasn't so cozy...........

Honey, honey

As if a full day of headaches, cramps and listlessness was not enough...I am now having an allergic reaction to porridge!
Ok, it was actually the manuka honey (bloody kiwis!!) that I mixed in with it.
Am having a cup of tea trying to calm down and breath through it.
I have had this once before, after drinking an energy drink that had royal jelly in it. While in Korea, on holidays with my parents. I couldn't stand up, and it took a couple of hours to get over it. It was really bad.
This time seems mild- my heart is not racing as fast as a horse in the Melbourne cup anymore, so it looks like I'll get through it ;)
And i wont be touching the $15-a-jar manuka honey again - all the more for J, I guess.

Where in the world?

* possibly the coldest day yet this winter, and we walked 30 mins from house, through a shopping arcade to go to an indoor kids play area (L has never been let loose in such a place so he wanted to look at everything but we were rushed so that they could go to a paying play area-- he was happy outside where it was free, haha)
* oh and DH (D= dumbass) said not to worry bout taking the stroller so I got to carry 14kg boy on my shoulders most of the way there AND back! (D(umbass)H put him down after, oh, 2 seconds?!!) So glad I wore a dress and boots;(
* the kids learned about road safety - after they were dragged across the road two times on a red light :(
* DH was given an extra blanket (ie, total of 2 blankets and a futon) bcoz he looked cold, meanwhile me and two kids had one blanket between us, and two futons apparently made of lead- couldn't move under the f*ckers!)
* two over tired kids that didn't get to sleep til after 10pm;(
* one sleepless mummy
*snacks, snacks and snacks galore - followed by comments anout the kids not eating meals properly.
* snacks offered NOT LESS than 2 mins after brushed kids teeth
*DH chose a restaurant for dinner - only to be given a sermon the morning after about choosing a place on B1 level, where we were sat at the back of the restaurant -- we should have chosen a place that has better emergency escape routes!!
* I was graciously offered an old cardigan circa 1994 - the sleeves were droopy enough to look like bloody furi-sode on a kimono!!) And D(umbass)H told me it looked nice!!!!! Wtf! For once I refused and was listened to so I didn't have to bring it home to sit with the other hand-me-downs and XLs I get bought (when will realization that I am actually a size smaller than MIL hit home??)

Where in the world? At PILs for the weekend, of course!!
(Why does it all sound petty when I write it?? haha.)

What we are all about at the moment

A quick catch-up in no particular order:

Am loving L and his quirky way of repeating everything we say at the moment. since being in Aus over Xmas his language skills have really taken off! He now "counts" to ten (before jumping off the sofa), says "ohayo" in the morning when he wakes up, asks "why" (this is a new one' he likes to say why why why),

Am, on the other hand, wanting to wean him. We no longer nurse during the day most days ( although if home, we might have a pre-nap session) and he doesn't nurse TO SLEEP at night, but when he wakes up during the night, I nurse him back to sleep. SO OVER IT. I wonder if his last teeth are coming through though, as he has been a bit grumpy/ clingy again lately? Hmmm.

K starts Pre-school in April, going into nenchu. Just realised I have shitloads of stuff to get ready. And it will be bento everyday, so have started doing trial runs- to see how she will eat a cold packed lunch, and just what size bento box she needs.

I want to do a 101 things update took although it seems that all I manage to cross off is a pedicure or three!

I am wondering how long I can continue eating a choc muffin a day before I need a whole new wardrobe (pants are getting a bit きつ~い)

And that is all I have to blog about right now....

Just noticed...

Day three of a head cold - runny nose, snffles, sneezes, headache and, I admit, an all-round grumpy mummy.

J just rings at lunch time today and asks me how I am feeling!!??

Apparently he just noticed this morning that I might have a cold.
*Apparently* he thought that my grumpiness last night, was just normal me!!

Don't know whether to laugh, feel embarrassed or just pull out the fry-pan...hmmmm,
Watch your head, J!!