Monsoon Season

I am wholly missing Japan lately.

I got up this morning with the intent to make a bento for A to take to school and I just could not figure out how best to put it together.  Incredibly frustrating, and I know totally irrational, but I couldn't help thinking to myself that perhaps I'd left my bento muse back in Okinawa.

Really, the issue was most likely that I woke up with a killer sore throat on this, the morning of my Pampered Chef independent consultant launch event and I basically just feel completely overwhelmed in general.  But still, I miss Japan.  I miss the people, I miss the shops, I miss the FOOD - GOD, do I miss the food!!  I have this really awesome friend that is still in Okinawa and she has been wonderful - shopping and shipping things for me that I can't get anywhere else.  She even sent me a few Chu His in the last package.  Chu Hi is essentially a fruit flavored Japanese "soda" beer.  She reminded me recently that it's currently monsoon season in Okinawa.

Pretty sure I bring the monsoon with me where ever we go.  It's been raining for about 3 weeks solid here in England.  I get that this is a rainy country, but even the weather reports agree that this has been extreme for April/May.  A told me yesterday that she only likes BLUE skies, and why is the sky here always GRAY??  She has completely forgotten how frequently it rained in Okinawa.  A has also made it very clear that instead of living here in England, she would like nothing more than to move to California where she can be with grandma.  I don't blame her, grandma is basically the most awesome person in the world.

I just really need to get my act together.  The school year is almost over at this point, but it's never too late to quit being a slacker, right?

Little by Little

We finally got our internet functional last night, so as far as my nerdy self is concerned, we are back in business.  I might never browse the web and check my email from my iPhone again.  Good grief!

Really though, thank goodness for small favors - without the iPhone I'd have been even more disconnected from the world.

I've been reading (and listening to audiobooks) a lot lately to fill my time.  So I've got some book review updating to do.  The biggest reading news for me is that I met my goal of 25 books last year.  It's not a lot, but I'm so excited about it.  This year I've resolved to try and hit 30.  We'll see how it goes, I hit 25 on the nose last year and basically by the skin of my teeth.  I just joined a book club, though, so that'll help.  I am pretty sure it's going to lean towards "the classics", which sadly really aren't my most favorite, but I am open to it anyway for the experience of finally being in an actual book club and having some geeked out camaraderie.

A is settled in at her new school and thriving.  She's also getting involved with her new girl scout troop and we have cookies out the wazoo here at home.  M is settling in at work.  We added a puppy and a kitten to the family (insert sound of exasperation here), and we got our first snow this past weekend.  Things have been good - mostly.  We are still waiting on two of our four household shipments to arrive.  By this, I basically mean we have yet to receive any of our furniture.  Fortunately the government offers temporary furniture so we haven't been forced to sit on the floor so far.  And we bought new mattresses since we left our mattresses behind in Okinawa (we wanted to err on the side of caution where all that mold and humidity was concerned...) so we've been sleeping comfortably.  Still doing much of our living out of suitcases and boxes, though, until our proper things arrive.  Hopefully it'll be soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

C just had her third birthday (sniff!) and is doing well.  She's such a monkey.  She's just like me - super suspicious and cautious of new people.  A is just like her daddy - the social butterfly.  C is the opposite.  It makes me laugh.  We went to a play group and she got completely overwhelmed and asked to come home.  She'd prefer to sit on the couch with me and color and have Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV over playing with other similar-aged children.

Haven't taken any grand European adventures just yet, but we are certainly adjusting.  Missing certain aspects of Okinawa and of course aspects of America - we talk about missing grandma on a daily basis - but we're optimistic.  Book reviews coming up.

Holy hiatus, Batman!

The bad news: I am typing this out from my iPhone because we don't have Internet till 3 February or so.

The good news: I finally have an iPhone! Hehe. And I have arrived (a month ago) in the UK! We are waiting on our personal property to arrive but have settled as much as possible in housing.

So much to update on but so little keyboard to type with, so for now just accept my belated holiday wishes. We'll be back to normal soon.

Kindergarten!

Holy moly, these past few weeks have been chaos.  I really am starting to feel like this move will never finally be behind us, and it is driving me crazy!  There has been some confusion regarding our passports and the move is being delayed as a result, much to my dismay.  I love Okinawa but I'm so ready for something new.

On the Tokyo Tower's Main Observation Deck

Let's see, where did I leave off?  Aha!  With my Before I Fall book review - it's funny, I finished reading that one and reviewed it and I didn't post my exciting news!  We went to Tokyo for a week - just me, the kids, and a couple of friends.  It was a blast.  We went to Sanrio Puroland (AKA Hello Kitty Land), Tokyo Disney, Roppongi and Hard Rock Café, Tokyo Tower (absolutely fantastic!), Ueno park and science/natural history museum, Build-a-Bear Workshop, and a few other sights.  We rode (and LOVED) the trains, we flew Space-A (military charter - basically free flights!), and walked all over the place.  It was a really awesome experience for the kids and me and I'm so glad we finally got to do it.  Unfortunately M couldn't take leave so he was super jealous.  He's been to Tokyo but not for sightseeing - he went directly after the 3/11 disaster and stayed at Yokota AB helping with relief efforts.  Needless to say, he didn't have a lot of time to spare.

At Puroland

So anyways, it's been hectic.  Tokyo, move processing, and A's first week of Kindergarten, two Labor-Day-weekend barbecues, A's first ever Girl Scout function (she's a Daisy - eeeeeek!), and a super crappy head-cold - all within about 21 days.  It's a wonder I've managed to even fit in reading.  I'm about halfway through my current book, too - The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which I'm enjoying.

Last week I sent my sugarpie off to Kindergarten.  It was bittersweet.  She is loving it but I find myself swirling around throughout the day trying to figure out why she isn't following me around any more.  I got so used to her being home in between pulling her from Yochien and this new school year, I don't know what to do with myself while she isn't around.  Luckily things haven't really calmed down consistently at all so my nest isn't too terribly empty, and now M is starting on two weeks of leave so he'll be home with me too.  Of course, we'll be busy.  I anticipate nothing but headaches for the next two months or so.  It's looking like our move won't be happening till December, now.

On the bright side, A's LOVING Kindergarten.  She's crazy about her teachers and she loves riding the school bus and that important sort of feeling that only comes with being a Kindergartner.  So I'm really excited that she'll have a few extra weeks in her current class.  We'll get almost to Christmas break before we have to transfer her, so I think that'll be really good for her.  She's got all sorts of things going on all of the sudden and it's so exciting and so intimidating.  I am not used to being the mother of an elementary school student!  It has been nerve-wracking but it's the sort of thing I think I might be content getting used to.  I love getting up and packing her lunch (miraculously) and making breakfast.  I love picking out her outfits for school, I love packing her backpack and buying school supplies.  I love that she has brought home green dots (good behavior) each day so far (knock on wood!), I love the book orders we shopped through this weekend, and the 100 book club tally sheet and the "shoe tying club" at school...  What can I say?  I'm a nerd.  I'm embracing it.

Anyways I figure one day she may very well be less enthusiastic about school so I may as well soak these times up while I still can.

And I've been bento-ing again, and loving it (for the most part ;) hehehe).

A's first day of Kindergarten bento!

She really loved this lunch - it was so sad though when I picked her up from school she announced to me that she hadn't had enough time to eat her whole lunch and she was SO HUNGRY!  Apparently, her school's policy allows for a 15 minute lunch session for Kindergarten students.  Not hardly enough, if you ask me - my kids are the slowest eaters EVER!  But she is adjusting to the art of speed-eating, and getting better every day.  The first day, she scarfed down her lunch in the car on the way home.  It was too funny.

ABC grilled cheese sammies, star-shaped carrot slices, a google-eyed strawberry and underneath it all she had some edamame.

Dessert, which I'd intended to fit in the same box, but had to use a sidecar because I had to free-hand cut the sandwiches and they turned out way bigger than I'd hoped.  Anyways it's an apple decorated mini-cupcake and some Cinnamon Toast Crunch (her favorite).

Second day bento - mini corn dogs with a Hello Kitty pick, apples and edamame.

Third day bento - macaroni and cheese with deli ham, Hello Kitty carrots, strawberries, and "cherry" tomatoes.

A's fourth day - Friday - was a half day.  So while I'd actually had something pretty neat planned for her lunch, I didn't end up packing her anything and she got home before noon.  So, she and C ate lunch together, which was nice too.  C had been missing her all week.

We're just about in a routine - we read two books each night and we get up early so that we have spare time in the morning which works out really well for us.  She is definitely excited to start her new school week tomorrow and I'm contemplating her lunch tonight.

Will try to update more regularly, but no guarantees!

Itemizing, help me use this stuff!!

Somehow we're only about two months out from our move really taking control of everything.  I decided it's probably a good time to approach the problem of utilizing our excess so as not to waste anything too devastating on our way out.

My pantry is horrible.  It's just an oversized cabinet and I've always had a larger, walk-in style food storage area in the past.  This has been a tricky adjustment for me.  I tend to get caught up cooking and make a total disaster out of the thing because I can't ever find what I need.  And then because it's a disaster, I just can't find anything at all.  So I buy more than I need to - at one point I had four bottles of soy sauce and two jars of mayonnaise.  Excessive.  I still have issues like this from time to time.  Today I went through it for what seems like the millionth time and got rid of everything expiring in the next month, everything that had been opened for longer than 3 days (I'm a bug-o-phobe and living in a high-rise tower where your neighbors and their filth are all always within arms reach...  uhh, well, it just freaks me out.), and organized and itemized the rest.  Yes.  I made a list of the contents of my pantry.  I am THAT weird.  I have two and a half pages worth of pantry items to use up in the next two months.  I had thought originally that I'd share the list and see if maybe anybody would have suggestions on good recipes that would utilize these things, but really, it's a VERY long list.  Like, obnoxious.  I'm a little bit embarrassed.

And then there's my freezer.  Which I discovered today has entirely too much junk in it, too.  Aside from my faithful tub of vanilla ice cream (we have a love/hate relationship - love having it around, hate how much space it takes up in my pathetic freezer), I have three packages of pork chops, two pounds of ground turkey, a pound of ground beef, and at least three bags of frozen chicken (breasts and thighs).  Oh, and then I have some frozen tilapia, salmon, and shrimp.  And a pound of sweet Italian sausage.  What the heck is my problem??  I can't ever come up with a decent plan for dinner, but how is that possible with all this food staring me down each time I open up any of the doors in my kitchen??

So, I'm resolving that this food has got to GO.  I refuse to make an international move and leave behind THAT much stuff.  It just seems so wrong.  Plus, how is it possible that I keep complaining about being broke when I really could probably manage to get by without groceries for a month?!  There really must be something wrong with me!

I got rid of a whole garbage bag full of pantry items, repackaged a bunch of baking supplies (mostly baking chips and nuts), and I've got my faithful list glaring at me accusingly.  I'm ready.  Bring it on!  When we moved to Okinawa we only had about 30 days advanced notice, so we wound up wasting a LOT of household goods.  This time around I at least feel like I should be able to avoid that.

That's what I've been up to.

The Hungry Little Bento... and other stories.

I have been trying to get back into my bento groove, honest I have!  It has not been working out though.  With my kids both home all day and no car while my husband is at work, there isn't enough structure to my days most of the time.  So we usually end up doing something super simple for lunch.  Plus, of course, I've been caught up thinking about the upcoming move and I spend a lot of my spare time these days researching our next adventure.  (Well, when I'm not reading, that is.)

A couldn't stop asking me about WHEN we were heading to Germany, so I made her a paper chain.  This was it a couple of weeks ago - it's even shorter now.  The anticipation is certainly building!  I've been house-hunting, outing-planning, and travel-arranging from afar.  I still don't have specific dates yet but with conditions in our apartment building becoming ever-worse, I have to hold on to something.  So I've been occupying myself with the fact that there IS, in fact, an end in sight.

I did go bento shopping last week for the first time in a long time (the ¥/$ rate these days is REALLY not in our favor, unfortunately!  I've been trying to limit my out-in-town excursions as a result) so I was inspired.  I made the girls teddy bear bentos for lunch the next day, and that went over really well.  Poor photo quality, when I made these my camera's memory card was full so I had to take iPod photos.

A's lunch

C's lunch

These were really simple - a quick little salad with olives and heart shaped carrot slices, slider patties with hot dog, pepperoni and nori details to make them "beary" cute, a couple of fresh strawberries, a fruit jelly, and some pink star puffs.  My kids were really excited to have a bento for lunch so I think it could have been liver and onions and they'd have eaten it.

Then we had a sushi party.  Be jealous.  This was fantastic and I think we're planning to do these sushi nights at least twice a month from now on.

But what I am most excited to post is a bento I made with my friend the other night for her son's lunch.  We were experimenting with hot dog "sculptures" and I had the bright idea to do a hot dog caterpillar.  And then it came to me - her son's most favorite book in the world is Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  He talks about this book like crazy and it was the first book he read aloud to his class.  Whenever he comes over, he volunteers to read it to my girls.  It's adorable.  So why not make a Very Hungry bento lunch?  Hello inspiration!!

So my friend and I put together his lunch box and had a freaking blast doing it.  It was the most fun bento-ing I think I've ever had.  And the finished product was nothing short of awesome!

The very hungry hot dog caterpillar with spaghetti antennae and legs was sooo hungry on his bed of rice that he ate through two slices of pepperoni, one slice of "swiss cheese", and one (soy sauce filled) apple.

This side of the box is a little bit of a jumble, but he had a salad, two pickles, two strawberries (both snacked on by the caterpillar), a leaf with a caterpillar egg, and a butterfly.

This lunch was a total hit with him.  He was quite excited about it.

Of course we had to make my friend's daughter a super girly fun lunch too, so we did that - it's not nearly as awesome as the caterpillar lunch but it's still pretty cute.

She got a Hello Kitty onigiri with hot dogs, a salad and some grapes.  All decked out with hearts and cuteness.  :) You can't ever go wrong with Hello Kitty rice balls.  And when you have a Hello Kitty onigiri mold, it couldn't be easier!  Seriously, this is like a favorite tool.

So there is an update on the food happenings here.  Nobody has starved just yet.  ;)  OH!  And as a side note, did anybody happen to watch the Season finale of House?  I was a little miffed with it.  And VERY miffed to learn that Lisa Edelstein will not be returning for season 8.  I can understand the series ending after next year, but I can't imagine a whole season without Dr. Cuddy.  Hmpf!

Oh well.  I still think that Hugh Laurie is like the coolest guy ever, so I'll just try my hardest to savor the fact that there is going to be a season 8 at all.  And in the meanwhile I can just busy myself with Army Wives, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and the fact that hopefully soon Dexter season 5 should be coming available on iTunes.  See?  I do have things to keep me occupied.

This Jumble!

It seems like lately I have just been completely overwhelmed with everything!  It's already nearly halfway through February and while part of me is certainly willing the year away so that we can move on to the next chapter, the other part of me is reeling at how quickly the time is actually passing.  The fact of the matter is that this is our final year in Okinawa.  I am extremely excited to embark on our new adventure (which should be around September...  Is it really only seven months away?) but I am also in shock and denial that it is actually going to happen.  I have thoroughly enjoyed Okinawa but I am so ready to be out of this tower apartment of ours.  With the military dictating our lives the way it does, it seems like I have grown addicted to the constant moving and changing and we've been in this apartment (which has had the worst living conditions of anywhere we've ever lived) for longer than we have lived anywhere else since we moved out of my mom's house in 2004.  I am going stir-crazy, to say the least.

We have made a lot of [big] decisions regarding our final half-year here on island, perhaps the biggest of which is that we are only going to keep A enrolled in Yochien through the end of the current Japanese school year, which ends in mid-March.  My little girl will bid "sayonara" to her beloved senseis and tomodachitachi early and will have essentially an extended summer break before our big move and her beginning American Kindergarten at our next duty station.  This breaks my heart but I feel like it's the most reasonable solution.  She would not be able to finish out her "B-san" year at Yochien and much of the remaining five months would be spent on holiday anyhow - what with the built in spring and summer breaks approaching.  Not to mention the Yen rate is out of control and doesn't show any signs of turning around.  This decision will save us a decent amount of money each month until we leave.

I have been and plan to continue preparing A's bento lunches, but I have not taken photos of them recently - mostly because they haven't been anything remarkable.  Today's bento contained a hot dog, pasta, boiled broccoli, a mikan, a quarter of a Fuji apple, edamame, a couple of carrot hearts, cherry tomatoes, and fruit jellies.  A miniature feast!  Looking back, I should have photographed it as well as the fresh produce loaded bento she had last Friday, which she loved.

If you're military, I'm sure you understand how we have been on pins and needles awaiting new orders.  I am a "planner".  The military does not like people like me.  I can go with the flow, but I don't prefer it.  I like to have some sort of estimation of where I will be a year from now.  Up until here recently, I did not have any and it was driving me insane.  I have not yet held our new orders in my hands as my husband is in Korea doing training currently but the rumor is that our next duty station will be in Germany.  This is extremely exciting news as going to Europe on the Marine Corps' dime has always been sort of a pipe dream for us.

I have been Googling like mad trying to find as much information as possible on this new location, and I have been shopping like crazy to get us ready for the trip.  It will be C's first traveling, and probably the first traveling that A will really truly remember as an adult.  It's been a very exciting time.

Hoping that all is well in blog-land.  I have been keeping up with my "frequently visited" blogs and am loving all of the Valentine's silliness floating around.  M will not be home for V-Day this year but I plan on sharing the holiday with a few friends, and of course my kids.