Hannah's Birthday

The other week we celebrated Hannah\s birthday! It is hard to believe that my little preemie, who had less than a 30% chance of living is now 16!
Her birthday bought back so many memories of her birth!  Dashing to the hospital, the doctor trying to stop labour, giving birth to this tiny baby and her being taken to one of the best NICUs in this area!  The hours of waiting to see if she survived the first night!  Then the months of daily hospital visits!  Added to my stress was Mikey's fifth grade teacher.  The school was holding its annual sports day at the end of May.  Mikey didn't want to do it and I was fine with that!  We talked to the teacher but she insisted on constantly calling my husbands cell phone.  He asked her not call during hospital visits as we had to talk to the doctor.  She called, my husband got so angry!  She never called again. Looking back on that time I really don't know how I coped.  I know that I drew strength from my husband.  He was really my hero at that time!

Now 16 years later she is driving me crazy!  She loves musicals. Which, in one way, is great, much better than the J-Pop idols, most of whom can't sing.  But it is an expensive hobby!  She wants to see live musicals as much as possible.  I must admit that I enjoy watching them as well but at $80 plus dollars for one ticket it does add up.  Plus DVDs, fan club membership, books!  But she understands when I say I can't afford certain tickets.  There is a musical she wants to watch but the tickets are $150 each, there are cheaper tickets but if I am going to pay I would rather get the best!  When I told her I couldn't afford it, she just accepted it and asked if she could get the DVD for Christmas!  No hysterics, no sulking, no screaming at me for being unfair, just okay can I get a DVD!  I think she had to grow up fast and knows that hysterics is not going to help!

In other news we have been adopted by a cat! This cat kept sitting outside the living room window, crying pitifully. I felt so sorry for her, she is a skinny little thing.  So I bought cat food.  Mikey moaned at me for that.  But then he sits outside playing with the cat.  When ever we open the door she runs in!  When we have students coming and going its a case of chasing the cat out.  Can be rather fun! And the dog is jealous!

Hello

Been a while!  Just so busy the past few months!  When I had time to update I had no
energy!
So a quick review.
Christopher graduated from college.  He is still looking for work.  He has been to
a number of interviews but it is the same problem.  Everybody wants someone with
experience, but how to get experience if nobody hires him!
Hannah graduated from junior high school and managed to get into high school.
So far she is doing okay!  She is attending a commercial high school so besides the
basic subjects she is learning bookkeeping and business studies.
The other week she had a 3 day camp.  I think the purpose is to give the kids chance
to get one another in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Christopher and Hannah graduated on the same day!

Hannah saying goodbye to her homeroom teacher.

After graduation Christopher and I had a few days trip to Kyoto.  The original plan was for Hannah to go but the high school she was trying for had the test results and uniform fitting and ordering the same time.  It was not optional, if she didn't attend she would loose her place.  I think things worked out well, once Christopher joins the work force he won't have many holidays, except the public holidays, which are crazy here!  The main tourist spots are very busy at those times.  Just trying to get to a toilet can mean an half hour wait!

We went by Shinkansen, the bullet train to Kyoto!  Very nice ride, smooth and rather quiet!
We spent 4 days there, but there is so much to see that I would love to go again!

On the bullet train

The Golden Temple

The Phoenix on top of the temple

Pagoda

View from Kyoto Tower

This trip should of been for Hannah so I had tickets to watch "The Phantom of the Opera".  We watched it.  The performance was really good.  I 'm sorry that Hannah missed out on it!

When I got back we spent time preparing for Hannah to start high school. So many forms and visits to banks and the city hall.  Plus buying uniform, shoes and textbooks!

There is a lot more to write and I hope I can update more often!

End of January

So the first month of 2018 is finished!
It has been a cold, hard month!
I know it's winter but the temperatures this month have been lower than normal.
Here it usually gets down to between 0 to 5C.  This month has seen lows of
-2C. Very cold.
One thing to do when it is cold is bake and David has been baking like crazy!

Cakes and apple pie made by David,  very nice.

MIL gets out of hospital tomorrow!  And I have no idea what she is thinking!  She is not mobile, needing two walking canes to get around.  She can have home help three or four times a week to help out with shopping, cleaning, laundry etc.  She has refused this service and it can't be forced on her!  She thinks that her younger sister will take her shopping, but her sister said no.  MIL then decided that we would drive almost an hour, take her shopping, take care of her and drive an hour back!  Sorry but we are working 6 days a week! There isn't enough hours in the day to do what I have to do now and having that extra responsibility would be too much!  The next few months are going to be interesting!

Snow

We've had a few flurries of snow the past couple of days!
I love how the news plays up 5cms of snow! The news headlines keep saying that there will be heavy snow over the next couple of days!  So I got up expecting 15 to 20cms but it was just a dusting! By lunchtime most of it had melted!  But it looked nice while it lasted!

We has a visitor

This week was Mikey's birthday.  David made a lovely beef stew and a chocolate cake!

Cake for Mikey's birthday!

Happy New Year

So 2018 is here!
December was a tough month for me, as always!
This time it wasn't just the memories of my husband but also dealing with my mother-in-law and with my kids no longer being kids!

First the fun things. I love Christmas so of course go all out to celebrate it!
The beginning of December Mikey, Christopher and I took of for Costco! The problem was the only time we had to go was on a Sunday. It was packed, couldn't move packed!  But I got the meat I wanted.  Kids asked for roast lamb for their Christmas dinner.  I have never seen lamb in the local supermarkets here so it is a real treat!  After shopping we went to the malls food court for lunch and had an Indian curry, very nice and different!
We got our tree up with less difficulty than last year, looked nice!

A strange visitor on the tree!!

The rest of the month passed in a flurry of activities. Our students got treated to lots of cookies and fun games on the last week of teaching. It was great fun, if a bit noisy at times!

The other thing that has taken up so much time is dealing with my mother-in-law.  She wants to return home and I understand that. If I felt  she could take care of herself I would support her, but even before the accident she had a hard time taking care of herself, so now I think it is impossible.  My biggest worry is her driving.  The doctor told her she is not to drive. When she was asked about this acted all innocent, saying that she hadn't heard such a thing!  So I told the social worker that I was not happy about her going back if the car was still there! If she has a car she will drive!  I have until the end of January to figure out what to do!

New Years was nice and quiet!  Just hanging out with the kids, watching too much TV.  I caved in and paid for Netflix, so much to watch.  I'm happy!
This week we have two birthdays!   Christopher turned twenty and Mikey will be 26.  I still can't believe they are so grown up!
A few photos to finish with!

My old sofa

New sofa

Mikey in a bucket

A new friend

Christopher looking handsome

I Did It!!!

Nothing really big.  Not a life changing thing for most people!
I finally bought a sofa!
Two years of thinking about it, 6 months of searching for the right one!  I found one that is about 95% perfect.  I went to so many shops, looking, measuring, imagining but I couldn't find one that made my heart really sing!  The one that I loved was too big for my room, perfect colour, perfect material but it would of jammed the door!  One big problem is the back of the sofas seem very low in Japan. Only up to the bottom of my shoulder blades on most models. I am not very tall so they are very low. I wanted something that I can lean back on!  So my new sofa arrives tomorrow!  Good!
But my old sofa is going and that makes me sad.  Twenty years I have had that sofa, 4 different houses it has sat in!  I've laughed, cried, nursed babies, had serious talks with the kids and watched hours of TV and DVDs on that sofa!  My kids have lain on it when they were sick but wanted to be near me. My husband died leaning on it.  I've received good and bad news sitting there, I watched the Twin Towers in New York come down and the opening of Olympic Games.  I know it is just a piece of furniture but it has so many memories tied up with it!  I am wandering what the new sofa will witness as a part of this household!  More memories to be made

BUSY

Since my last post I have been so busy!
The days have just sped past!  Sometimes it gets to Friday and I wonder what happened to the rest of the week!  And Saturdays have become crazy for teaching, up 8 lessons!

MIL:s house is still in the process of being cleaned, it is hard to feel motivated to go and clean! But we try at least once a week to go there!  Last time we went we tried to clean out the storage area that I have used for the past 26 years!   There was so much stuff, stuff that I don't need anymore.  I found a box that had clothes from about 30 years ago! Why do  still have these things?

Here are a few photos of MILs house, if you are eating you might want to pass!

The one room she didn't use. This is okay but covered in thick dust!

The kitchen, the carpet was went and moldy!

This should be the living room but was filled with empty boxes, the black bag was one of many filled with trash!

You can't really see but these are jars of pickles she was making, the top of the pickles was covered in flies!

The other thing that has made me busy is the Eiken Test, an English proficiency test that we do!
To help our students we give extra lessons before the test. most of the students are okay but the extra lessons give them a bit more confidence!
Also Hannah has been doing a load of tests this past month!  She had her mid term tests, then a prefecture wide test that all 3rd grade students do! I am not sure the purpose of this test as they still have to do entrance test for which ever high school they choose!

Besides cleaning MILs house I am trying to clean out here! I need a new sofa but haven't seen one that I really like. I have seen one that I feel in love with but it would be to big for our room. Still looking!

Also because the weather is cooler I have been cooking and baking.  At the moment I am doing cookies for the kiddie classes tomorrow. Halloween parties this week!

Shepperd's Pie

Apple Pie

I hope that things will get to be a bit easier but I can see that my yard needs a good clean and the bedrooms need to be done!  One day things will be finished!