Off to Costco tomorrow!

Yay for ETC and cheap highway travel as we can make it down to Fukuoka and Costco a lot more. We only used to visit a couple of times a year before big events such as Christmas or L's birthday but recently we have been going every couple of months. I was trying to hold off until before Christmas but I need a few staples like pasta, cheese and canned stuff. We are going to head to the You Me Town in Hakata first. They have a tiny kid's NEXT store so I like to check it out and I also wouldn't mind looking at a few clothes for me. I am not a fan of the maternity clothes here so am trying to stay in normal clothes for as long as possible. I bought a couple of knit dresses that are big and flowy so will work well over leggings and hopefully I will wear again when I'm not pregnant. Being a bigger city though there might be some semi decent maternity stuff so I will check it out. It's supposed to rain tomorrow but hopefully it's not too bad. Loading a load of Costco stuff in the car will not be fun otherwise.

Planning to leave at 8 tomorrow morning which will be a bit harsh. I am so not a morning person but if I have something to look forward I can usually handle it. We will skip breakfast and get something on the way so at least we will just have to get up, get dressed and get out the door. Fun fun! I am such a shopaholic that even grocery shopping is exciting for me.

So is everyone getting ready for the cold snap coming up? I am guessing it will be all over Japan but it looks like it will be majorly chilly from Monday. I finally changed our doona from the thin summer type to a big thick one today. We have to drag the heaters out and buy some kero tomorrow though. I still am not a fan of winter in Japan. I lived in Hokkaido for 10 months when I was a uni student but I don't know how I survived as the winters in Yamaguchi even kill me.

After thinking about my over spending on groceries this week I decided I would make dinner with what was in the fridge even though there wasn't much. I found 2 small packs of mince and chicken in the freezer so decided to make a pasta sauce for the boys. We had some eggplant, capsicum, spinach and a yellow zucchini so it actually ended up being quite nutritious. I had sweet potato with yogurt and salad and sweet chili sauce. Might sound strange but it actually tastes really good.

Better do my chores so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. I took advantage of the lovely sunny day and did about 4 loads of washing. Shit that reminds me I washed some jumpers and forgot to take them out of the washing machine. I must be suffering from pregnancy brain already. I hope they aren't smelling too rank.

Edited to add:

We just had our first ever kids come here trick or treating. We only had rice crackers and a few random lollies to give them. I wanted to say I was Australian so we don't celebrate Halloween but hubby is kinder than me :-)

Two nightmare days over for another week!

I seriously hate my Wednesdays and Thursdays at the moment. I teach about 24 classes a week but 14 of them are on Wednesday and Thursday. I have no idea how I got myself into it but it's here to stay for the moment. On Wednesdays, I teach at L's daycare in the morn, three classes at the high school, two primary school boys and then two court clerks. I don't finish until 6:30 so L stays until daycare until late which he is not very impressed about. Then Thursday, I have a private class with two older ladies in the morning, three classes at the school and then four classes at home in the arvo. My mother in law works part time at a nursing home but fortunately she organises to have Thursday off so she can take care of L while I do my afternoon classes here. I got myself in the silly situation of letting the parent's of my students wait in the living room while I teach. There are some siblings that have classes after each other so it seemed like an okay idea at the start but it's really not good at all. I have to make sure the living room is in a reasonable state and then the mothers seem to think it's gossip time for them so they don't really watch their kids and let them run riot in and outside of the house. I know I really should say something but the money I get for these Thursday classes is a fair chunk and I really can't afford to lose it.

Anyway, enough of my bitching, tomorrow is Friday and I only have two classes. Yay! I am looking forward to a sleep in on Saturday. I don't have classes until 10 at the earliest so we don't have to get up too early usually but 8 o'clock has been a struggle for me this week.

I am still getting used to this whole blogging thing. I can't seem to change the language to English on my main page and I am unsure about the whole comment thing. If someone leaves a comment on one of your posts and you respond to it, how often do they actually see it? Sorry for the silly questions :-)

Enjoy your Fridays!!!!!

Tired....

I have been lucky enough to have no real morning sickness this pregnancy or my last one but this time I am really feeling the tiredness. I don't know if it's because I am busier at work or because I have a 4 year old to look after. Maybe both!

Today was a relatively easy day work wise with only 2 classes at the high school. I did some banking when I was done and then picked L up from daycare to go to swimming class. He seemed to be asleep when I walked in the door but then was suddenly crying for some reason. He has been going to daycare since he was one but lately we are having some major issues about going. He hasn't been a daytime sleeper since he was quite little so the enforced nap thing doesn't help but as he has been going for so long he was pretty much used to it. I don't know if it has something to do with the baby but he cries most mornings about going. As he only goes when I have work on there are some days when I can pick him up before nap time and if I tell him that is going to happen he is fine. If he knows it will be later he puts on a performance.

Anyway, had swimming class which was crazy as usual. Ten 4 to 5 year olds jumping around in the water. L is getting better but is half the time too busy mucking around with other boys to do what he is supposed to do. After swimming we hit the supermarket to get stuff for the week. I usually do a big shop on Monday but still end up getting stuff at various times throughout the week. We spend way too much on groceries. Usually over 60,000 for just the three of us but I love my fresh fruit and vege and that's what seems to kill us.

Dinner was leftover pumpkin and sweet potato soup. Hub won't be home until after 9 but of course soup won't do as a dinner for him so I have made him an assortment of stuff including slightly burnt spare ribs. Oops! I have a good excuse though as I was on the exercise bike when they were cooking and couldn't check.

Shower and bed are calling. I bought a region free DVD player for our bedroom which was a great buy.

First post

After being an avid reader of various foreign wives in Japan's blogs for the last few years I decided to bite the bullet and start my own. I like writing but have never been much of a diary writer even so we'll see how I go. After living in Japan for so long my written English is rather dodgy too so hopefully blog writing will help it a bit. I especially look forward to getting to know some of the writers of the blogs I love to read!

We are having a quiet Sunday here! Hubby R is outside painting our house. He is doing it himself as it is so expensive to get it done professionally but it's a never ending job! He was really into it for a while but for the last couple of weeks has been slacking off big time. Probably the 15 hour days he has been working aren't helping either! The yard is a huge mess with scaffolding and paint supplies all over the place so really hope he finishes soon. At least it's an excuse for me not to do the weeding though. Son L doesn't like the fact that daddy is too busy to play with him so we have some huge meltdowns which I would like to see the end of too. He is quietly watching Animalia at the moment so hopefully that will keep him distracted for a while. I have lots of things I should be doing but of course procrastinating on here is much more enjoyable.

I'm not looking forward to work this week as I have classes everyday except for Sunday. I thought less people wanted to study English with the economy the way it is but I seem to be getting more and more students. Usually I wouldn't keep accepting them but I keep thinking about how poor we will be after the baby is born in April so will somehow keep at it. I will have to take some time off of course and don't know when and what classes I will be able to resume anyway. If I have superbaby who sleeps all the time it might be easy enough but as 4 year old L doesn't even sleep through the night all the time now I am not so hopeful.

L has just announced he is going to make daddy lunch by mixing egg, sugar and tomato sauce in a bowl so I had better go and check it out!