Trying to catch up with you all, a little bit...

I'm sorry, it's been like 5 months since I have written here. Honestly, life here is just so good. Yep, I had an unexpected adjustment when we moved here last April. And we went back to Japan last June for the summer. But, when I came back to the US last August 2018. I made it a point to getting myself adjusted. And I did. You know, I first started this blog. Because I would have about 15 family and friends weekly email me... when I first moved to Japan. They'd all have the same questions for me. "Gina, how are you, what are you doing, how is the baby (because at that time Bran was a baby when we moved to Japan) so I found myself writing one email and then cutting and pasting the same *exact* mail to all of whoever asked...ykwim? That's why I started my blog in the first place. To let me family in the states stay updated with me. Sure I picked up mass amounts of new viewers and friendships along the way. But I am finding it. Honestly so hard now to get on my blog to update. Because now us in the USA...is so normal. It's so regular. We have this rhythm here. And it's just working. But, I do find myself getting emails from so many of my good friends in Japan now...asking me...."Gina...how are you...how are Branden and Noah?" "please update" LOL. And so, I am going to try my hardest to compress stuff, I didn't get a chance to tell you until now. What is this pic of? This is a random pic of some of the stocking stuffers, that I stuffed both Branden and Noah's stockings with for Christmas. The fantastic part of living in America is, as soon as the stocking stuffer stuff started coming out at Target and Walmart and stuff, I would grab 2 of whatever I knew the boys would like. Those gumballs were gigantic. 

Christmas was fantastic here and super low key. I baked a spiral sliced ham and gratin potatoes the night before. Baked 2 pumpkin pies and the morning of Christmas we all opened presents. Had breakfast. And then around 1pm we went to see the movie Bumblebee movie. We had movie snacks, a tub of popcorn. 2 large sodas. And after movie, we went home. I smartly cooked the day before. So we went home and had leftovers. There was no feelings of pressure of it having to be perfect. It was just chill...super laid back and it was a perfect Christmas.  

What the Christmas tree looked like inside the movie theater.  About 8-10 days after Christmas Noboru flew here to be with us the entire whole month of January.  

With Noboru here, in January we decided to take a small little overnight trip. 

At our hotel room that we just checked into in January. Noboru pictured on the right. 

We went to Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store in Oregon.This location of this store had much better stuff than the one in Seattle did. 

We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It is absolutely free. They also had an "all you can eat cheese" area too. 

Giant cheese above our heads as we entered the building.

Cow footprints going up the stairs, showing you the way. We found this hilarious.

Just follow the cow prints...

American farmers! Love them! But also love Japanese farmers too! Farmers in general are what make the world go round. : )

Noah got the chance to feed a baby calf. Fake calf but it let you know if you did it wrong. Good thing, he fed the calf correctly.

Branden practiced milking. First 2 times the machine said, nope! The 3rd time was right. 

Getting to watch the cheese go through all the stages.

All you can eat cheese. OMG! They had different varieties and flavors but, I stuck with like a basic cheddar. The entire time. I told my fam, next time if we should ever go there again... we should bring crackers. I was semi-joking. Another family laughed and joined our conversation and said...next time they might bring crackers too. Nice to meet another friendly family. At the ol' all you can eat cheese area.

That night we had Popeye's for dinners. 

The next day, we went to the mall. I bought a pair of Kate Spade reading glasses, omg they're gorgeous! Kids went into this huge candy and chocolates of the world shop and bought stuff. 

We went to Chick fil A after leaving the mall. Hmm, were we feeling really chicken-y? That trip? Or I dunno. The 4 of us being together as a family just clicks. And feels so perfectly right for all of us. 

The kids received otoshidama from uncle Jun and auntie S. My kids made a thank you message and sent it to them on Line. And I of course messaged my sister in law and stuff too. 

In Portland there is a lot of Japanese people and grocery stores and we found a Japanese bread store too. I really liked Portland a lot.

I thought the bread was good. Not as good as my bakery near my place in Japan but yeah it was good I thought. Noboru said it was no different than cheap Pasco of Daily Yamazaki bread. @_@ 

The 2nd week Noboru was here, he said he'd like to eat some honey baked ham. So, I baked him a ham and made some homemade from scratch gratin potatoes. Yes, we had that a few short weeks earlier. However, my husband loves my cooking and if he requests... whatever to eat...I will make it for him. Noah loves ham so much.... so he was thrilled.  

The 4 of us went to see Glass. This movie wasn't very good. We had high hopes. We loved the movie Split. But found this one rather...meh. 

Noboru loves Wendy's. 

Bran needed this book for his Leadership class. Noah has already requested to be in Leadership class for the Fall semester. I was always in student council growing up and it's important to be involved with your school. 

The boys have so many Vans. They both have these ones and their latest ones are the tie dye ones. 

Noboru's birthday is in January and it was so nice to be able to celebrate his special day with us here. I took him to the Outback Steakhouse. We started with some fried mushrooms.

We had a really nice dinner. It was so nice for Noboru to be here the entire month of January. He also came for 4 days in March and 4 days in April. The kids and I will be flying back to Japan as soon as school is out. By June 15th we'll already be in Japan.

Branden is a Junior this year. Noah is a 7th grader right now. And in the Fall, Branden will be a senior. He's the class of 2020!!!! Noah will be an 8th grader this coming Fall and also be graduating middle school next June too. The reason Noboru came here in April was because we did buy Branden a car. So he's got his own freedom... with having his first car!

We go to the movies a lot in our free time. We have seen the movie the Intruder. That movie was a great, thriller suspense. We saw John Wick 3. Such a great movie too, we loved it!!!! We also saw Pet Sematary, the remake. We saw Us, holy crap that was good. Wasn't expecting that ending though. We saw Greta while Noboru was here too. The movie Greta was creepy and excellent.  And we also saw Pokemon Detective Pikachu. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of the titles of others we've seen but we've seen so many. We go to the movies about twice a month.  Anyway that's enough for now. : )

Tickets for Aquaman already purchased and we'll be watching it tomorrow on opening day...

Tomorrow, December 21st. Besides being the kids last day of school and the start of the winter holidays in America. Tomorrow is also opening day for those of us in the USA. For the movie Aquaman! The kids and I have been eagerly waiting to see this since this summer. Seriously, we can barely wait. As, mentioned our nearest movie theater, you reserve seats too, same as Japan. I told the kids, as soon as the seats go on sale, I will go and buy them. Especially since we knew that opening day was also their last day of school too. Double celebration. I checked the website every morning and every night. Not sure if you can see this but, on the bottom it says when I bought the tickets. It says December 15th. I went to bed December 14th and checked and nope...Aquaman tickets were not for sale. I checked Saturday December 15th and yep! I already washed my face and had moisturizer on my face. I put on some foundation, a little concealer and powder. Anastasia brow wiz in medium (ash brown) and some Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker and in about 7 minutes, I left, went to get the tickets. And was on my way home. Tickets bought. Phew...relief. Seats saved. No worries. And yep. Cool! Everyone I know...is eagerly waiting for this movie to come out too. My friends, who are..the parents of my kids friends. I usually chit chat daily with a group when I pick up Noah in the afternoons. LOL. : ) 

Gray means the ticket was purchased. When I got to the movie theater. 4 tickets were bought by the time I got there. And this is the pic, I snapped as of this Monday. And, I just checked right now and even more tickets and seats are turned gray...meaning someone bought the ticket. We're sitting, last farthest row, far left. Those are our 3 seats, I picked. We love those seats...those are the seats that are our favorites. Bran is lucky in that nobody is sitting directly right next to him. There's that heavenly buffer seat. It's going to be in their premium theater which is like surround sound and the seats vibrate and stuff during action scenes. It's how those movie theaters are called here in the U.S. Which is why the tickets say PLF, short for premium large format. Technology is amazing is this type of movie theater....really enjoyable to see a movie like this.

I made a pot of beans this morning. They're done. I am making pork green chili tonight. It's 89% done right now and it's barely 2:53pm. And why am I mentioning this now? Because I made enough for 2 dinners. Smartly, I know that after school tomorrow. Kids will be excited and so will I. And so...dinner for tomorrow night is in the bag. Dinners done for tomorrow too. We'll have big warm bowls of homemade beans and green chili. Be super filled up, before heading to the movies. I also bought movie snacks at Target on Monday. Bran asked for Swedish Fish, Noah asked for Skittles and I picked a box of Raisinets for me. All were 90 cents a box. Which the price is appreciated. : ) I will be buying a large freshly popped popcorn tomorrow at the movie theater and 2 large sodas, which are free refills. And we'll be enjoying Aquaman as a family. And just happy that the winter holidays have started.

Noboru will be here next Month. Super soon actually. He arrives towards near the first week of January and will be here until the end of the month. So for about 3 full weeks. We're all super happy about that.  Happy holidays everyone.

Homecoming and school update...

Homecoming in the U.S. is always in the Fall. Homecoming is open for all grades in high school to attend, if you buy the tickets to attend. Where as prom is in the Spring and just for juniors and seniors. Unless you are asked by a junior or senior then you can be a freshman or any grade in high school. Anyways, Homecoming for B was in October. In my day, you either went with a group of friends and went that way. Or you were asked and went as a couple. Apparently now days, it's a great big thing here and you now need to make a sign/poster if you are a boy. And publicly ask her out. This is the sign that B had made. I thought, he did a fantastic job with his sign. She absolutely loved her poster. And apparently her dad even has a picture of this sign on his cell phone. Awww. How cute. What a proud dad. And I was pretty proud of this poster too. So, I totally can relate and I am keeping this pic of the sign too. 

Remember the ribbon I bought this summer to put on our suitcases? I had a bunch left and I tied up B's poster with it. He was happy, because he was hoping to find a ribbon and when I offered him this, he was happy, that I had some on hand. : )

His girlfriend happens to look *exactly* like Cameron Diaz. She's such an absolutely stunning girl. She's on the right if you're looking directly at this. Yes, I have permission to share this.

Yeah, she looked like Cameron Diaz's twin, when she was a little girl, for sure. 

He asked her, she said yes!

I made sure to take B, to order a corsage and boutonniere from our nearest flower shop, a week beforehand. And I showed this pic to Noboru. And Noboru said, "good thing Bran has an American mother, because this is stuff... you instinctually know. He's lucky." I laughed. But, yep, being here. Things like this...I do naturally know. The morning of Homecoming, we picked it up and placed it in the fridge until homecoming evening. 

What a gorgeous and happy couple. They danced all night long. Bran took a few videos and shared with our family Line group. They played new music like Bazzi, Arianna Grande. They also played oldies like Salt and Peppa. And the YMCA. The dance was from 8pm-11pm. After Homecoming they went to Dairy Queen, had some blizzards and then home. She drives and has a car. She knows B was in driving school, at the time. And she dropped him off. 

Update on Noah and middle school.  Noah on the other hand. Had a presentation in the gymnasium. This was for all 7th graders. You must interview 1 person. 99% of all the kids interviewed their mom or dad. Very few interviewed their grandparent. To be interviewed you had to have been born before the year 2000. Since B was born in 2001. He could not be interviewed. One evening from 5-6:30pm. All 7th graders and the 3 English teachers showed up and all the kids and parents of 7th graders and extended family's showed up. Many older siblings and younger siblings. Attended. This was Noah's poster. The teacher made name cards for each student. We all had to walk around and read other posters. Branden of course showed up to support his brother and so did I. We will absolutely *always* show up and support our family members. No doubt! Noah received an A for his poster. 

I snapped this pic of what some of the work, Noah has been doing in American science class. Symbiosis within communities. Cell theory. One day it was diffusion osmosis. Another day they went into the lab and had an osmosis lab. Another day... you can see, they went back in the lab and looked at microslides of a cells structure. He has an A in this class. And it's entirely in English obviously. Obvs. He loves his science class. Noah's learning so much. 

This is what a bit of what Noah's been doing in English class. Sorry..LA 7. Language arts for the 7th grade. CL means classwork. HW means homework. PROJ obviously means a project. Required. Etc. October 25th, Was a quick...write someone who influenced...you? This is great training for training young Americans to be able to spontaneously write. A page, right off the bat. Right off the cuff like that. November 21st, write a non-fiction narrative essay. Noah can go into class. Find out... what's today's task. And go for it. And nope not in an ESL class. In a class for natives who were born and raised here... their whole entire lives. And he's crushing it. I also notice that this teacher gives word searches weekly for her class to do. Because she wants to train her students to look for English words *everywhere*. I personally love word searches. I do them for fun. I have books of these in Japan. I always had my 2 kids do these. And I see how fast Noah is... at finding the words... that he's looking for. At first. I feel he was a tad slower. Still good mind you. But he is getting insanely fast with his word searches. They had a test on adjectives last week. She still has her class read quietly twice a week. She upped it from once a week. She wants to foster a love for reading. And I see both my kids reading a lot more now at home. Granted they have always read books. But now it seems... way more.

American jokes....American sense of humor. If you've ever watched Japanese TV. You will know what one country finds funny...another might not... think is funny at all. Noah brought home this paper airplane. It's close to Christmas break now and classes are starting to wind down some. About 8 boys in this one class made paper airplanes at the end of class with 10 minutes to spare before the bell rang. Their first plane was named Tabitha. And this is their second plane Jerome. Where do these kids come up with such names? @_@ You got me. In loving memory of their last airplane. LOL. 

Okay and so...in case you find this airplane...this belongs to Noah and Hadley. LOL. 

Every Sunday, I pack little snack bags for Noah to take to school. Snacks are allowed in 2 of his classes. Branden is always offered snacks too, but he rarely takes snacks. They both always take a bottle of tea though. Daily. 

Bran's girlfriend..a recent pic... taken from this past weekend.

Good friends hanging out at the yogurt shop last weekend. Branden can go out every weekend. As long as his classwork (homework and classwork) is an A...B...or C. And his overall class grade too. Since he's straight A's. He basically goes out every single weekend. But he only goes out once a week (his choice, because he's in sports and also has homework and he gets tired too). Last Friday, Bran and his girlfriend and 2 other couples met up at the local yogurt place. This pic was from the yogurt place. They went to Target after that... because apparently it's "cool" to walk through Target in the evening? @_@ After that... they went to this guys (male classmates and his gf is to his right) house and watched TV. The 6 of them watched a movie on Netflix. Yes, they Netflixed and chilled, lol. These are all honor roll kids and all super good kids. And his parents were there. And Bran was home at 10pm.

How is Branden doing? He's doing fantastic. He's straight A's. He has a girlfriend. A gorgeous and kind girlfriend. Kind is most important to me personally. What else. He went to homecoming. Winter Sports just started at the start of November. So, he's a little busy with his swimming season underway. But by no way... is it on the 24/7 365 days.... it is like... in a Japanese junior high school bukatsu. This is the sports light version....compared to that. Driving school ended. And Branden tested. He got a 100% on his written test and he scored a 98% on his driving portion of the test. The state we live in though... states you MUST keep a drivers permit for 6 months regardless. So...Branden has a state permit. Looks like a license. And he passed the official drivers license test written and driving. However...he can't get his official drivers license until April. So he does have a plastic state permit. He can drive with me. But driving alone and stuff can't happen until April. In April, all he has to do... is take his paperwork that he completed driving school, take his pass paper. And the school mailed it to the state drivers license people anyways. So in April, all B has to do is go down and take a picture for his new real license. And that will be it. We will be buying Branden a car of his own...sometime this coming summer 2019. And as soon... as he turns 18, he can apply for a international drivers permit and then from next October he can drive in Japan. And since he can prove he has spent over the set days outside of Japan. He can actually even go and take his drivers license in Japan if he wanted to. Meaning take the shorter driving test for foreigners, like I did. I took my drivers test in Japan as a foreigner who had spent over 150-200 or so days in America (they checked my passport and actually counted the days) and could by-pass the 100-200 or so test questions like many other gaijins do. And just take the 10 or 15 questions test in English instead...the shortened test, since I could prove I was living abroad so recently when I took my test.  But...that is only if he lives there...otherwise an IDP is easier for him... to use on the summers in Japan. So as for Branden, school is great. Girlfriend. Swim team. Passed his drivers license. In his free time he goes out every weekend. He has  a good set of amazing friends. I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but honestly everything's good and the same. Which is a blessing.

As for Noah, he's learning so much in an American middle school. He has such good friends. Also, last Friday, Noah attended his VERY first ever... school dance. It was $3 dollars to enter the gymnasium. You were given a wrist band. Inside they had tons of Papa Johns pizza. Cheese or Pepperoni. And you could buy a slice. Noah said he bought a slice of pepperoni. He said, that he danced to Drake. And all sorts of songs. I was in the parking lot to pick up Noah. And I see his friends waving him good bye and I hear lots of..."bye Noah!!!!" and kids waving! So, I know...he's having a blast at school here. It's just middle school, so the dance was from 1:30pm, to 2:30pm. He messaged me and said it ran a little over. He danced until 2:45pm, I was already in the parking lot, so just read a magazine and chilled. Last Friday. Awww. I was so happy for my Noah getting these school experiences. I told Noah as he got into my car. "When I was in middle school. My middle school was only for the 7th and 8th grade. But, I said...I went to my 7th grade dance and my 8th grade dance. I told Noah, I danced my brains out. I did the Smurf...The Cabbage Patch. The RoboCop. I told him...those were all dances back in the day. We were laughing. I told Noah....I am *so* happy that you are getting the same school experiences that I did growing up. And yes now I do the Floss, because my kids taught me this past summer, lol.

Update. This Friday at 1:25pm both Bran and Noah go on Christmas break. They won't return back to school until like January 5th or somewhere around then. Of course there is no such thing as Winter homework in the USA. So winter break truly means a break. Noah and his school has a winter assembly Friday from 12 noon until they get out of school. American assemblies are not like official closing ceremonies in Japan schools. Here, they just pump the kids up! Everybody ready for Christmas break? I imagine all kids will be cheering. Music will be playing. No performances or anything. This is just for the kids to enjoy. 

Winter time treats. Since Thanksgiving. Twice a week in Noah's LA 7 class, his teacher hands out popped microwaved popcorn. She hands it out in coffee filters to her kids. It's more economical for the teacher that way. So, Noah has been enjoying freshly popped popcorn daily in his LA class, since Thanksgiving. Plus he has 2 classes that always allow the kids to bring their own snacks to munch on while studying (his science class and history class allow snacks). And Noah brings like...Cheeze Its or Flaming Hot Cheetos. Flaming Hot Cheetos and Jalapeno Cheetos are *hugely* popular in American middle schools and high schools. Branden on the other hand... has been getting free hot chocolate to drink during class, every single day in his LA class in his high school. His teacher set up a hot cocoa station in the corner of her class. With mini marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. She bought a couple cases of Swiss Miss from Costco. And she had disposable cups, but when she ran out. She asked the kids to bring mugs from home. Branden has a nice hot cocoa mug we bought at Target that he picked out. And he's been enjoying this chill atmosphere in American schools. However they do learn a lot. And they do get a lot of homework. But the atmosphere in school... is just more chill and relaxed here. The kids really seem to enjoy it.  

I do know.. that I haven't posted in 2 weeks. And I'm sorry. But please understand that I haven't spent the winter holidays in America in forever. I will try to post more often. Even tiny short posts, will do. I'll try. 

Oh...Noah brought home an award 2 weeks ago or so. He made the honor roll. Awww. What a good kid. He's all A's except 1 B+ that he's trying hard to get turned into an A.

I'll blog more. And update more, I promise. Hope everyone reading is doing well. : )