if you have 45 minutes to spare...

I would like to recommend for your viewing pleasure Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.

Start here.

Star Trek

Chikara and I have been wanting to go and watch Star Trek ever since we heard about it. I watched Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG when I was younger. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, but I enjoyed the shows and know most of the character's names. Chikara has also watched enough to be interested in seeing the movie.

Problem: I have never been able to get a babysitter. You know, a teenager who will come and watch your kids so you can go out with your husband and then you pay them. I've never seen it done here in Japan. Usually what we do is trade babysitting with our friends but they're all going through various difficult things right now so we didn't want to ask them. Our only option left was to ask Chikara's parents. This isn't necessarily a horrible option but they are busy on Sundays and Chikara's mom can get tired easily because of her kidney problems so this is usually a last option. But Chikara called his mom and she could come so we were really excited.

We bought our tickets online and I put the kids to bed while Chikara picked up his mom. I showed his mom where all the good snacks are and off we went.

The movie was awesome. We talked about it all the way home.

When we arrived home, I went into the living room and no one was there. We had seen Dad's car down the street so we knew both of them were at our house. I called out hello and mom came tiptoeing down the stairs. I turns out that Natsuki had called for me about 10 minutes after we left for the movie and when my MIL went in to see what she wanted, Natsuki freaked out. They tried everything to calm her down. They let her watch videos, gave her popsicles and juice, moved Misaki into another bed so Natsuki could be with Emi (her "other" mommy) but nothing had worked until about 10 minutes before we got home and she finally went to sleep. It was 11:30 at night and Emi was still awake, sitting beside Natsuki who was a knot of sweat and blankets.

I sighed and then moved everybody back to their own beds and laid beside Natsuki until she was asleep. It took only 10 minutes to put everything back the way it should be.

After the high of watching the best movie we've seen in awhile, coming home to the chaos brought us back to reality real fast. I can't decide if we should feel bad for my MIL or not. We rarely ask her to do this for us and she is their grandmother but basically she spent two and a half hours trying to figure out what to do for a crying and screaming Natsuki.

Next time we'll just ask our friends to watch the girls.

recent pics

April 2009




Emi's 8th Birthday




Misaki's 7th Birthday




Sakura's Preschool Entrance Ceremony




Natsuki being cute at home!

Emi

A conversation with Emi:


Emi: Can I help you with dinner?

Me: Not right now, I'm trying to get this done quickly.

Emi: Please, can I help you?

Me: Thanks for offering but not today, OK?

Emi: Please?

Me: No.

Emi: (exasperated) But, Mommy, I was *born* to help!!!


later that evening...


Me: Emi, can you get a diaper for me from the closet.

Emi: No.

Me: I thought you were "born to help"?

Emi: ... I'll get it.

thought provoking article

As a mother with young children I know exactly what the author was thinking when she wrote this article about the passing of Natasha Richardson.

that's also true

Yesterday Natsuki brought this DVD cover to me. I think she was trying to help clean up.



The Incredibles (or Mr. Incredible, as it's known in Japan) is easily our family's favorite movie. I pointed to Dash and asked...

Me: Who's this?

Natsuki: Dash.

Impressive since I didn't know she knew the names of any of the characters.

Me: Who's this? (pointing to Mr. Incredible)

Natsuki: Bob!

It took us a second to remember that Mr. Incredible's undercover name is Bob Parr. She was unexpectedly right! We are really enjoying the fact that she is talking more.

cooking inspiration needed!

It's nice to be back to blogging again. I think I missed the connection the most. It was lovely to have comments to read again!

I'm not much of a cook (mom, Hannah, stop laughing!) but I have more time now so for the last year or so I have tried to discover one new recipe each season that I can make my own. I've learned how to make a lovely Parmesean-crusted baked chicken, Shepherd's Pie and okonomiyaki to add to the list of standard meals that I make each week (yakisoba, spaghetti, burritos, curry rice etc.). My husband and the girls love each new addition and look forward to when I make each one which is awesome but lately I'm lacking inspiration. I've searched for a new recipe to try out this Winter but nothing stands out. I see a lot of slow-cooker recipes but I don't own a slow cooker so that doesn't help me!

Can you help me out? Please share your favorite wintertime recipe with me! I am in desperate need of inspiration.

Thank you.

2009

Happy New Year!

I feel like 2009 is just finally beginning even though January is almost gone. We've been either busy or sick, but mostly sick. Emi and Misaki's classes were cancelled for two days (gakyuhesai) because too many kids in their classes stayed home sick (15 out of 30 in Emi's class and 11 out of 30 in Misaki's class). Fortunately it was not the dreaded influenza. So they were home for two days which meant that Sakura and Natsuki caught the cold. Natsuki's fever spike and she had a febrile seizure. She was having a hard time breathing near the end so we called the ambulance and they took us to the hospital. I knew as soon as we boarded the ambulance and Natsuki took one look around and started screaming that she was fine but I wanted to have her checked by a doctor anyways. The doctor that we saw was very concerned that she might have influenza and not concerned enough (for me) about her seizure. Turned out that she just had a regular cold (which I knew) so he gave us some medicine (two different types of suppositories!) and sent us home. The next day Natsuki got a little dizzy sometimes and while trying to walk straight would drift off to the side or actually fall down. I finally had to make her sit down so she wouldn't hurt herself. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we are all healthy again.

But I did not intend to start blogging in 2009 by complaining. I am very excited about this year and all it holds for us. As the year progresses I will share more about our plans (if I can ever get around to starting any of them!). In the meantime I will show you the girl's Christmas pictures.

Even though it's belated, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I look forward to reading (or hearing for the blog-less) about all the wonderful things that will happen this year.

what do you think?

We got sick again this weekend with stomach flu (Natsuki, Sakura, Emi and I). Not fun. But in spite of everything I still taught English on Tuesday even though *really* I wanted to stay home.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma about the students in my classes. In every class I have at least one student who is awesome. They remember everything, even new stuff, they improve each week and I totally love teaching them. This would be great except that the other kids in the class are totally awful. I mean really horrible at everything. There are two students (in different classes) who are confrontational.

I wish I could ask these kids to quit. I have been preparing the mothers for that possibility by having the kids take a series of tests (once every three months) so that the mothers can see that there has been no improvement (AT ALL!).

But I'm starting to wonder if maybe I teach to a certain "learning type" of child. Maybe the awesome kids are awesome because they think like me. This idea occurred to me before the summer so I have been trying some different teaching styles but I'm still not reaching these kids.

So this is my question. Should I just teach all of the kids anyways (for the money) or is it OK to ask them to quit so I can concentrate on the kids that are doing really well? Is that too snobby?

Another complication is that because of the downturn in the economy Chikara's company may be in a difficult situation six months from now. My ability to make money could be really important next year especially since we will need to pay tuition for Sakura to go to preschool.

I'm usually really good at making decisions but I'd like some advice this time.

all the songs run together

While I was gone Natsuki's English vocabulary expanded. I have been surprised everyday by how much she can say that I actually understand. I think that when she's with me I already know what she's going to do or want so she doesn't bother trying to speak for herself. I'm going to be more careful from now on.

She also is singing more songs but they are starting to run together. My favorite mish-mash is "Running Over" mixed with "I Love You, You Love Me" from Barney. Here's how it goes.

Running over, running over
My cup is full and running over
Since the Lord saved me
I'm as happy as can be...
...With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you
Won't you say you love me, too.

I'm trying to get it on video because there's actions, too! I even get a kiss at the end.