Pink Ribbon Day

Monday Oct 25th is internationally known as Pink Ribbon Day.

Show your support here, and help click to fund free mamograms. It only takes a couple of seconds and is free. Please spread the word about breast cancer awareness and tell your friends to "click daily" too.




My grandmother had a double masectomy.

My brother's partner found a lump (early detection) a few years ago and had radiation treatment for several months.

J's good friend from high school found a lump while breastfeeding her now 6year old son as an infant.

I had a scare last year - turned out only to be a pregnancy related lump.

And not a week goes by that I don't remember blogger Kathy Sugio, who passed away earlier this year after fighting cancer for several years.

Tomorrow (as with every day this month) I will be thinking PINK.

what to do?

hmmmm,

vacuum and clean the living room now in the few spare minutes before I have to get dinner ready


OR

leave it and faff around on the computer instead (after all, the living room will just have be done again tomorrow night anyway as PIL coming over early Fri morning, as I go out gathering preschool applications,)
...
....
.....
.......
........

and here I am on the computer ;)

half-here

I am here (as in - back in Japan, and back in the land of faffing off all day in front of the computer, as opposed to shopping, long coffee dates with friends, sunday roasrs with the family and simply enjoying the great Aussie lifestyle) BUT I am not really here (as in - am in the middle of youchien hunting. Application forms come out on the 15th, and I need to visit schools before then to see what they are like. Case in point - went to one yesterday which was high on my list, only to "see for myself" and realise that it is not what we are looking for. sigh. So back to square one, and researching schools further afield, making times to visit and getting the sproglets out and about to actually visit the schools. Going to one this morning.)

Still not even sure if we will be putting K into 3-year or 2-year program.....

I feel a bit like the John Marsden novel we read at high school ("So much to tell you") but cant see myself blogging for a bit longer yet.

Attempting to blog from my iPhone

At 1:44am.
New suitcase has been purchased but is already 3/4full and am yet to put any clothes in......aaaaargh. And I have to fit 3 peoples clothes in there (albeit 2 small people and 1 flummy mummy who still can't fit in half her clothes which, on the bright side, does put a limit on what I can take,at least )

Guess I am too excited to sleep. But I am betting that this time tomorrow night I will have wished I did go to sleep earlier.

Ok Nuff of the babble. Is actually quite easy to type with one finger on an iPhone - I may get used to this

Sooooooo ittekimasu, for our return to ozd(^_^o)

summer of 2010

This summer has been super fun, despite being the hottest in 131 years or something like that. I think I may even be looking forward to next year's summer, if it can live up to all the fun we had in the summer of 2010!

Lots of fun playdates with friends at the pool, beach, (even a man-made tourist attraction "beach" that was made from real Aussie super fine white sand, yay!), birthday parties, family camping trips, day out at amusement park ..... it has been one of the busiest months I think we have ever had, and bloody hot, but just heaps of fun!

And to top it all off, I can now also sing *that* song (have been singing it for days, actually) after our extended-family (adjoining rooms with the PILs - wasn't as bad as it sounds, lol!) holiday in Bali (26-31Aug). I may be the last Aussie on the planet to get there, but now I can happily say that "I've been to Bali too"



Now have a quick turn-around before the kids and I head back to Aus for the rest of Sept. Am looking forward to it all - seeing friends and family, eating meatpies, shopping.....can't wait!!!

done

WELL DONE

K finished her summer swimming classes on Wednesday, and graduated from the turtle class, to the "medaka" (I was thinking it is like a minnow, but a google check came up with "Japanese rice-fish" or "Japanese killifish", but kinda the same idea tho, right?. AND it seems that the medaka have "gone into space aboard the space shuttle. It carries the distinction of having been the first vertebrate to mate in orbit. The result of the mating was a brood of healthy fry, hatched on the space shuttle Columbia in 1994." Wow!! thanks mr. wikipedia.

So anyway, I think K did really well with her swimming lessons, after crying it out big time the first lesson, she really latched on to one of the sensei and lapped up their words and praise. By the last lesson, she was happily being thrown up into the air and splashing down under the water.

Her favourite parts of the swimming lessons were the ばたばた (leg kicking)　and かにかに (holding on to the edge of the pool with your hands and moving around the edge) as well as the slide. ;)

Am thinking of putting her in for regular weekly lessons, once we get back from Oz, so it wont be until October. I think it is good for her to get used to the water AND learn how to interact in Japanese, AND to learn how to wait for her turn etc, AND to listen to instructions - yep, all good!!


UN-DONE

Well, the morning scales are showing X8.5kg. I think I might have moved from the teetering line of X9~Y0kg. Must have sweated it all off with the recent heat, but that is ok! Slowly but surely the baby flum is coming off, yay!


OVER DONE

We have had a very busy week - from our weekend away camping, to a trip to the amusement park on Monday (J had taken the Monday off planning to go for a long weekend camp trip, but I think he got OVER the whole 4 people sleeping in an 2-man hiking tent in the middle of summer after the first night. I was ok to stay another night, but he wussed out on us,) So we decided to fulfil K's wish to ride on a merry-go-round, and even threw in a family Ferris wheel ride while we were at it. Couldn't have picked a hotter day (37deg) to do it, but it was fun! Then Tues we had friends over, Wed we had swimming and then had to go pick up R from the PIL, which is never a simple task - we meet them for lunch at sushi-ro, then went back to their house for some play, then went to see J's uncle to say hello....finally got released around 4pm, then had to hot-tail it back home (with screaming baby in a Tokyo afternoon traffic jam ;( not fun! altho, to his credit, after a few verses of the name song he did go to sleep, little angel boy!!)) to get something worked to for dinner, then I had a quick trip to the pool before coming home and crashing with K at 8:30pm!! Yesterday was a trip out to Tokyo, which is always gonna tire me out, and well, just being on the go the whole time I feel over-done. Today was supposed to meet friends, but got cancelled, so a day at home to fold up the 27 loads of washing that have been dried and thrown onto the bed waiting to be folded and put away. happy happy, joy, joy.


TO BE DONE

The list is endless - days out of the house means a pile of housework, not to mention getting ready for our upcoming holidays.....
I don't hold out much hope of getting a lot done today tho.....


DONE SOMETHING

To my back. In the usual morning tizz b4 leaving the house yesterday, I was coming down the stairs in a hurry and felt something happen to my lower back, right side. Have been in some serious pain ever since. It makes difficult for baby carrying/toddler carrying/doing anything really except lying on the sofa (oh well, so be it, I guess, a Friday of laziness to look forward to perhaps - as if I could get away with THAT, lol) Feel very ぼろぼろ

camp

the orange bedroom, taken from inside the spacious(at least twice as big as the sleep tent) living room.

am guessing Illahee and GW are used to decifining 3y old talk =D

L is being a champ sleeping thru most of his first camping trip (and happily sitting in his bumbo the rest of the time- yep brought all the modcons with us!)
and K actually prefered to do a "のぐそ" than use the drop loos... cant really say I blame her.
freezing cold river to swim in; watermelon; chicken, iberico pork, yakiniku, fresh corn on cob on the barbie; a couple of beers (happy with my kirin free); a frisbee (thrown by J that almost knocked K out)......

gotta love camping!!!

can you guess what we are doing this weekend?

mummy to K: "let get everything cleaned up and packed so we can go ****** when Daddy comes home"

K to mummy: "oh, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"

mummy to K: "are you excited"

K to mummy:"Yes"

Mummy to K:"Why"

K to mummy: "because you and daddy are going to get the candy, and I am going to school"

mummy to self: wtf? lol

So can you guess where we are going this weekend (hint: it has NOTHING WHAT SO EVER to do with candy or school ;)

motivational self-talk

I thought I was on top of it this time, with L.

I FEEL a lot less stressed than when K was a baby, I have actually been making meals (albeit boring ones, but that also may be related to it being too hot to care) which is more than I ever did the first few months with K (thank you "sukiya" for your support") and the night time wakenings don't faze me. Or so I thought.

The last few weeks, really I have just felt down-right worn out. Sore muscles (possibly also related to the minimal amount of excercise?), serious lack in concentration, not wanting to go out (actually dreading the thought of leaving the house and getting everyone ready), total disregard for budget planning/reporting for the last 3 months, recent addiction to iced coffee....and trouble waking up in the morning.

Last night L woke up every 2 hours to nurse, all night. When things like this happen, I have FLASHBACKS to what it was like with K for her first year. I get scared it is starting again with L. Last night I think it stemmed from the fact that J was loud and woke L up when HE went to bed at about 11:30pm, just 2 hours after L went down for the night. He *has* been sleeping from about 9pm through to 2am, so I thought we had reached our nirvana...obviously not!!

So anyway, this morning I was "up" with L from about 6am. We came downstairs, I put him in his crib in the playroom, and I lay on the floor beside him for some more zzzzs (so much for my "get up at 5am and have a whole day of work done before the rest of the family gets up" stint several weeks ago, lol). I was still there when J went to work, and until K called out to me at 8:15am to say she was awake. L had been awake the whole time too.

Somehow managed to get us out of the house and to the Post Office by 9:30am, where we repayed a loan with money that had been sitting around the house for the last 3 months as I forgot about it. Now have an extra couple of "man" in interest we have to pull out from somewhere coz it was overdue. Doh. Luckily L fell asleep just as we arrived at the PO, so I thought I might try to get myself a pair of togs, in the hope that they might be on sale by now, and of course as soon as we got in the elevator at the shop, little L's eyes pop open and he stayed that way until just a few minutes ago when I put him down for his afternoon nap......lets just say it was fun, fun, fun trying on togs with a pre-schooler and a baby, lol. Did get an average pair though, which I might be able to use this weekend if we go away near the water somewhere.

I also think I have beeen kinda down for the last few weeks too - what with the sore body and severe lack of motivation...... I sort of feel like I got a kick start this week (something just clicked and I decided to do some stuff that I had been procrastinating for far too long and trying to stay focussed, positive and calm - not to much to ask for is it, lol) and even now I feel semi-motivated to get the housework and small tasks done. I hope this motivation sticks with me. Also gotta get the budget planning back on track before I send the household broke ;((

I think my new motto for the rest of the week should be: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

boring rant

Got to the pool tonight, but it was a letdown.

J specifically told me in the afternoon that he had a late meeting, so would be home lateish and I should eat early and get ready so we could do the baton touch and I could get to the pool when he got home. I know I should be greateful that he thinks of me and tries to make it easier for me to get to the pool, but it had the opposite effect, and made me try to think of ways to get out having to go lol. Anyway, had the kids bathed, fed, J's dinner ready and even the house a bit clean by the time he got home, so off to the pool it was

realised I shouldn't have eaten salmon on a night I was going to the pool. Not as offensive as mackeral in a bento at lunch time, but driving to the pool I started to imagine the salmon repeating on myself as I swam laps....getting less motivated....

signed in and found out that they are closing a day early for obon. A day earlier than they originally advertised. Actually, not a whole day earlier, just a few hours earlier which means no evening session, so I can't go to the pool this Sat evening. Feeling a bit ripped off....

started swimming laps and the pool instructor (teaching aqua-aerobics in the lane beside me) stopped me at the end of a lap, and told me that I need to take my earings out bcoz, quote : "if they come off in the pool you wont be able to find them" end quote.

I have NEVER lost a pair of earings in the pool b4. And as it turned out, I had no where safe to put them in my bag anyway and probably had more chance of losing them after taking them off..

I know this is gonna seem really petty and pathetic, but this just really pissed me off, and got me upset. I had to get out of the pool,and back to the locker room to put my earings away.

THEN I got told off (not to my face) from the old bitties in the locker room bcoz I had dripped on the floor. I turned around and said something pathetic like "she told me while I was swimming to take them off" but thinking about it now they wouldnt have had ANY idea what I was on about (><)

came back to the pool and the lady apologies to me (again in front of her whole aqua aerobics class) while I say "yeh, well, I just got told off in the locker room too now"

jump back in the pool but now totally lost any motivation to swim

swallow some water half way down a lap and get the sneezes

regain a bit of motivation, enough to swim 40laps, then I call it a day. sneeze all the way home, and now got a headache.

I know that the stupid little things that happened as soooooooooooo pathetic, and can't even understand why I am still whining about it.

I just wish I HAD stopped off at the conbini on the way home to buy some oreos or something to take my mind off it =)

Oh, and that sneaky kg that came off last week - managed to firmly plant itself back almost within the blink of an eye. dammit.