House, Car, and the Baby

Moving, military transferring, new place, start from zero... It's been a month since we moved out the house in Hawaii, which means we've been living in hotels for a month. It could have been worse, I mean, at least it's kids' summer break. But still, we didn't expect this much to do.

We found the house we want, n finally moving to our new house next Monday. Then yet, so many things to get... Like, I totally forgot that most housings in Japan don't have enough cabinets for dishes. Obviously we have to get a china cabinet(n that's not cheap!). We can borrow all the big appliances from base, that's good. But still need to get all little little stuffs, like cleaning supplies, pans n pots(we tossed most of ours), all the spices, e.t.c... It's nice to start with all the new stuff, but not so nice in our wallet.lol

We bought a van(a station wagon, they say), of course used, about 2 weeks ago, but A/C broke so brought back to the dealer, they fixed, got it back, 30mins later it broke again, brought it back, they were working on it, but not so good n ending up to trade to another vehicle. We are getting that one on Friday. This one is a wagon, n it's nice n dark purple(not a funky one!), we know Michele would love it, n I hope this is it. (I don't wanna say no more n jinx it!)

OK, the baby... According to the doctor, it can be anytime already. I am exactly 36weeks today(not counting out the time difference tho), so just in case, I bought some newborn onesies. All the baby stuff will arrive to the new house next Tuesday too. Since I can stay in the hospital up to a week if I want to, now all I need to bring to the hospital with me is just baby clothes... I think. I have my OB appt. on Friday, so I hope we'll find out a lil more, but I was thinking maybe she'll be born on John's birthday?lol That would be cool!

There's still a lot of things to do, n honestly we are stressed about it too. But we are also trying to relax n enjoy this new place. We visited a few tourist spots too. I feel bad for kids that they have to be stuck in the hotel room with me while their daddy's working, but they are also enjoying to see new places n a new culture.





Moving to new place is not an easy thing, but all depends on how we think, it can be a little fun, like an adventure to our new life!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sasebo City,Japan

Hmmm... Awake again...

Just past 3am here... I woke up for going to the bathroom like 30mins ago, n now I'm awake n can't go back to sleep. Oh well, I'm almost 35wks pregnant now, so no wonder it's like that. The doctor said I will probably have this baby girl earlier than due date, possibly in a couple of weeks? I hope, at least after we move to the house!

Yep, we found "the" house! We went to see this house yesterday, we knew we were gonna like it. It's a lil over budget, but couldn't give it up. It has 5.5 bedrooms(.5 is for storage? It's big enough for a nursery but no A/C), 1 full Japanese bath(toilet is separated from the actual bathroom. N only 1 toilet... That's the only negative point.), all rooms are smaller than what we had in the states, but bigger than what we saw in the other houses here, there are 2 nice size storage downstairs(besides that .5 room), has a big built-in book shelf in the master bedroom, also a nice big built-in shelf in a hallway downstairs, I guess we can use that for dried/can food storage. These all storage future is very rare in Japan. We have so much craps, so we really need it. The house was built in 2004, so only 6yrs old, which is pretty new, all floors are wood floor too. I wish I could take a picture, but no lights inside yet n was heavy raining outside. Now we are gonna just wait for the contract between base n the realtor, I hope everything will go smooth...

Back to the baby subject... I will not be able to get epidural this time... Epidural is not popular in Japan, most of women here have birth without it. There is only 1 doctor who do epidural in this area n he(she?) is overbooked till November. Oh well, I should be okay... I am pretty sure that I won't have a long labor. I will probably just break Chris's arm, that's all.

Damn, I am not sleepy at all... I couldn't sleep well last night either, as long as I keep myself busy in daytime, I won't get sleepy later. But I think I need to get a lil more sleep... Gotta try going back to sleep now!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sasebo City,Japan

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day!!

We had a wonderful day today. We went to Saikai Pearl Sea Resort, which is 10mins from base by taxi. First we enjoyed 50mins cruise on the pirate ship "Kaiou", then we had a great lunch. After that we went to the aquarium which we really loved it! They have 3 young dolphins, they love to play, even between the shows. They just throw balls out of the pool n play catch ball with us. Kids had a great time there!

After we left there, it was time for dinner. So I asked "Daddy"(Chris) what he wants to eat. He's been craving for clams... Well, he always loves clams. So we tried this Japanese "Izakaya"(like bar & grill type) restaurant by Sasebo station. OMG, this place was awsome! Not so expensive but everything was delicious! He had 2 and a half bowls of clams! Yep, he was happy.;))

I hope all fathers are having great Father's day with their family!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Japan

I'm baaaaack!

Yep, I am back to Japan, well it's already been a week since we got here... But most importantly we finally got us cellphones, which means I am back to my mobile life! Yay! We had those rental cellphones but it was just for receiving calls(incoming calls are free, but they charge us about $1 per minute for making calls!) n txt messages which we were having hard time typing.lol

First, we were gonna wait for iPhone4, then we couldn't even get a reservation... N I was told that we may not get it for a while... So... I am not happy about this at all but... Couldn't wait any longer, no choice... We bought iPhone3Gs... Yes, right around the time iPhone4 comes out... I need to close my eyes n get over this!!lol

But I am happy that I am back to my mobile life.:)) It makes my life so much easier n functional. Couldn't live without this another day!lol I hope I will be able to blog n show some Japan here on Rollin' MAMA!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Japan

iPad

A lil late mother's day gift... Yes! I got iPad!!!





Well, mainly it's mine, but we thought it would be great for the long flight for kids. They can watch movies(which I did download a HD movie on my PC this morning, yea, it took only 4hrs...:((), the good thing is the battery lasts 10 hours, it's very light, no DVDs to carry, n we found headphone splitter so both kids can connect their headphones. Oh, btw, watching movies or videos on iPad is great! I've seen some negative reviews about the quality, but to me, it's better than those portable DVD players. Even not HD movies.

OK, I'm still playing with this, my new toy, n I had to find a way to blog on iPad, of course.:)) I downloaded this app called 'Blog Cast' n trying right now, the problem was there's no connection to digital cameras(I think). It seems that the one of way is using sync via iTunes from PC, which would be no meaning blogging on iPad. Or I can take pics on my phone n e-mail it, save it on iPad, then blog. That's what I did now. But then, why don't I just moblog from my phone? I hope they will have some kinda way to upload pics directly from digital cameras... Or is there??? But anyway, it's easy to type compare to those touch phones, just because touch pad is much bigger, I guess.

Other than those... Still checking other apps, tried one game, it's fun, well we don't use iPhone so we are like "WOW!!".lol I like those apps for kids too. N they have some interactive kids books using iBooks too, which look great.

Overall so far, I really like it.:))

- Posted from my iPad;))

Movie Night: Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

When we saw this movie’s preview at the movie theater, I mean just watching the preview made me almost cry…lol Well, it’s probably just me, I’m very weak for ‘monsters with good heart’ kinda story.lol Of course I didn’t know this was based on the famous children book til my friend told me, so we got this book(with the plushy doll of one of the monsters for John) right away…lol

Then we couldn’t go to see this movie at the theater, n same time I heard not-so-good reviews about this movie. What I heard was, it’s not a very fun movie for kids to watch. Hmmm… But John loves the book already, so he wanted to watch. I was kind of worried if he would finish watching this movie without getting bored…

Actually we really liked it. It was definitely way too difficult(boring?) for Michele. She didn’t fall asleep though. The story was a lil difference than the original story from the book. I would say… more deep? I didn’t think John really understood the story, though he said he understood the movie n enjoyed it when I asked him. Oh well, if he enjoyed, that’s good.

I really enjoyed it too. It reminded me of my childhood, ‘imaginary-world’ like most of us should have. And same time, it reminds me that we should not forget how we used to feel, how our kids feel.

When I was a lil girl, I was… probably 7 or 8 yrs old… One day I was staying at my cousin’s house. I have twins girls cousins who are just a year older than me. We didn’t live so far either, so we are very close. Anyway, that day, my aunt was mad at us about something… I don’t remember what we did, but it made us feel that “adults would never understand us, kids!” So this three girls thought that we should go somewhere else all by ourselves. Well, it’s not dynamic as ‘run-away’, we probably thought, just a lil adventure. First we went to the train station(which is just a local train), bought cheapest tickets, n hop on a train! Of course we didn’t go that far…lol I guess we got scared? We called our parents from the next stop(which is probably 3 minutes train ride). Oh yea, we got in a big trouble, but we thought we made the point. The point was “We(kids) can do anything if we really want to!” that was, I think.

Of course I was in Japan, n it’s almost 30yrs ago, so it was a lot safer than now, but now I’m a mother, if my kids did that because I didn’t explain to them good enough? I’m not blaming on my aunt for what we did. Yes, we were wrong. Now I know. But would kids understand that? Because I had this little experience, I would say it’s all up to us, parents. We are the one who have to think how they feel. It’s easy to forget especially when we are frustrated. But even just once, we show them that we are not trying to understand them, they might feel left out, they might do something stupid. When we have to teach kids something, we have to make sure that kids understand why we are telling them so.

That’s how I felt, I was reminded by watching this movie. Well… I almost cried the last ‘monsters’ scene too, but that was just because I’m weak for those ‘monsters with good hearts’.lol

Movie Night: The Princess and the Frog

 

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

It was a very fun movie that we will probably watch again and again.

The story sure was original, I mean, it was not the story known as “The Princess and the Frog”. It’s more fun! The main characters were frogs in most of time, not in ‘the princess’ and ‘the prince’, so if lil girls expected this as one of those princess movies, this would be a lil difference?lol More like ‘the adventure of the frogs’ kind? So not only girls, but boys can enjoy it too. John loved it, Michele loved it, we liked it too.

OK, so if I was still young… or even a lil girl… would I kiss the frog????? NO!!!lol It’s cute if they are cartoon characters, but it’s really slimy n gross!!! I used to afraid of frogs. Like if I see one on the street, I would turn around n change the route. UGH! So, it’s impossible for me to imagine that, even the original story of ‘The Princess and the Frog’. If it was ‘The Princess and the DOG’, I would love it though.lol I know, I know, then it would be nothing! The point must be ‘kiss something ugly’, right? Haha.

Actually this movie was about more than that. So it’s very good movie to watch with kids, just as all other Disney movies.:))