Flying bullets

And we made it home, back to beautiful OC. Such a great vacation!

The resort checkout time was 10am, but we had made the decision to stick around the whole day and get on the night flight, in hope of that the kids would sleep (especially our son)the whole 5 hours.

And I really, really do not like flying. It goes against my slightly controlling nature to go sit in something where I have zero chance of survival if it goes down. So when I saw that the window on our row of seats was slightly crooked with the shade stuck all the way up in there, and old glue peeling from the side like someones already tried to fix it, I got.. ehrrr…a little uncomfortable you could say. So of course I start looking around and notice that there’s stuff looking a little off and crooked and worn all over. To the point I had to tell the flight attendant that “eh excuse me…that window is a bit..off? Is that..like eh..safe?!”

She insured me it was only “cosmetic”…oookey I said and pictured myself being sucked out of the same window after it fell out at 10.000feet.

I wanted a glass of wine but apparently the flight was full of boozers, since the wine was sold out, already 20 minutes after take off, and I was offered 3 kinds of soda instead, but that doesn’t have the same effect on shaky nerves so I asked if they had Valium..I was joking but at the same time I was hoping she’d slip me one. She didn’t.

But we landed safe and the kids slept, a perfect flight.

We had parked our car in one of those long-term parking lots close to the airport and when picking it up it took a while, so we were just hanging around waiting. One of the girls working there came driving down in a beat up white car and she parked it right in front of us. Not just that it was falling apart it had about 20 bullet holes on its right side. I said to my husband “…wow..I wanna see who’s picking this car up…” 

I chitchatted a little with the girl, all while I’m snapping pictures of the bullet holes like I was working a crime scene. Turns out, she was getting off her shift, she said bye, got her jacket then got back in to the bullet ridden car and drove off…..

Ooohh…

#suburbanhousewifemoment

 

 

 

 

We’re on a island…

We’re in Hawaii, on the “Garden Island”, Kauai. This is the first real vacation since we had kids so it feels special.

You could say, the last vacation me and my husband went on, indirectly led us to the one we are on now. You see, we went on a second honeymoon to Mexico in 2007 and we had just found out I was 6 weeks pregnant with our first baby, needless to say I’m one of the few that have experienced spring break in Cancun completely sober.

Our plan was to see as much as possible of the historic places so we wanted to rent a car. And at the front desk of our hotel we got informed that we could get a car, free of charge for a week, all we had to do was go to a different hotel and have breakfast and attend this “information” meeting. We knew the deal, they wanted to sell us something, but what the heck, we’ll go, listen, eat and get the car..not get suckered in to anything.

2 hours and 3 breakfast burritos later we walk out of a restaurant with a bottle of champagne and a 40 year deal on vacation rentals. Suckeeers!! I hate sales people!

What sounded like a “grrrreat” deal then, have kind of felt like “damit, we have to figure out where to go so we can use those points we’re paying for every month..”(and which fee they also keep raising every year)

So finally last year we started planning for Hawaii, together with my mother in law and her husband, that have their own sucker vacation pack for life. And now we’re here, on this beautiful island together, I can’t complain. The Bali Hai Villas where were staying are great, fresh and kid friendly. And Kauai is so lush and green…

We also realized that this is the island where parts of Jurassic park was filmed..

No sight of and dinosaurs yet, just a shit load of wild chickens. And I’ve learned that I actually really enjoy waking up to the roosters “cock-a-doodles” at sunrise…

A Swedish saying, roughly translated..“nothing bad that doesn’t bring something good”..

Home sweet dusty home

Our life in the week that has passed..

In two days we packed 17 moving boxes and bags, filled with clothes, toys and every nick back we might want or need during our summer at home. 17 is insane! and record for us, I don’t know how it ended up being so much…but oh well.

I cleaned and mopped the apartment, put all spices in the refrigerator, cleaned all the bed sheets and put them and all duvets and pillows in sealed bags. When we get back to Tokyo in August it’s gonna be crazy hot and humid and I have learned through the years that you really don’t want to leave anything out for that long.

It’s nice, the flight from Japan to LAX is a straight shot, no layovers with long waiting and the fact that I really don’t like flying, the less take offs and landings, the better. With lives on two continents and my family in Sweden, we do quite a lot of traveling so our daughter is a pro, no craziness or meltdowns. Our son on the other hand….it THAT child. He threw fits and wanted to go to the bathroom every five minutes throughout the flight, he’s the type that would be better off sedated while flying. Either that or sedate the rest of the passengers, for their own comfort..

Coming home on the other hand is great as always, the house was insanely dusty but I was so happy to be home again after 9 months!  I plowed through it the same day we got back, with mop in hand, and now it’s back to its normal state of everyday mess. And the joy of sleeping in my own bed! Now I just wish that my kids could get over this jet lag…it’s 2.20am and I’ve been up with the kids for an hour already..

….I’m….so…tired!

 

I think I might have vacuumed up the devil…

We just had a holiday on February 3d, called “Setsubun”, it’s when you do a bit of “spring cleaning” spirit wise.  Evil spirits and bad luck from the past year is “driven” from your house to make room for good luck, kind of. The ritual to perform this day  is called “mamemaki” (throwing of beans) where you throw roasted soybeans out your windows or door and say Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out! Luck in!) and the demons are supposed to follow your beans out.

We’ve never actively participated in this tradition, but this year, the kids wanted to throw beans so I went and got them a bag and they got a “Oni” (demon/ogre) mask each from one of the ladies at the supermarket.

They both ran around the house in their masks screaming “boo” and thought it was great…then they threw the whole bag of roasted soybeans in the living room and started walking all over them, crushing them….aaaallll over the floor.

So after about 15 seconds of intense bean throwing fun, I had to bring out the vacuum….which at just this moment decides had to start fucking with me. It kept going on and off and if I held the cord with both hands the vacuum would work but then I couldn’t vacuum cuz my hands were tied. So I ended up sitting on the floor holding the cord together while my husband was vacuuming, with me being the “backseat vacuumer” yelling out orders of where to go.

And now the vacuum is stuffed in a trash bag in our kitchen, waiting to go on its last trip. What I also realized a few days later was that we didn’t actually throw any beans out the door or windows….so that means our deamons never left, we probably vacuumed them up….and now they’re also in that trash bag in the kitchen…right?! Just like Ghostbusters!

The place to be

It was a gorgeous day in Tokyo today. My friend suggested we go to Kichijoji and Inokashira park. This is probably one of my favorite spots, year around. Cute shops and then to let the kids roam free in the park. We kind of expanded our walk round the station today, my kids were napping in the stroller so there was some undisturbed window-shopping time. We realized we had seen absolutely nothing of Kichijoji before today. We walked around for a good hour with hour heads spinning trying to take in all the shopping possibilities we’d missed our previous trips. I love this place even more now! It was pretty crowded today, so we decided we have to come back on a day when everyone else is back to work, enough with these holidays already ….and leave the kids at home with papa-san of course..

posing with the mandatory Starbucks soy latte...

And unfairness noted, Kichijoji have about 15 Starbucks it seems like, our town have none….what’s the deal sorta….?

Once the kids woke up we strolled down to Inokashira park to walk around the lake. This is perfect, the kids get to do their thing too.

Always beautiful

 

Micah checking out the koi fish

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It was such a perfect day, can’t wait to go back!

 

Good morning 2012!

How was your new year? Fun? Are paying for it today?

Last night I feel asleep in my daughter’s bed, watching Team Umizoomi with her. Woke up at 11.50pm only to relocate to my own bed, where i found my two guys snoring in synch. And then up at 7am. A new day and a new year, that I started off like I do any day, with a cup of coffee and some soy milk.

My husband who was off from work today, likes to “be funny” and made a comment,  hinting that I should get on with the cleaning…he thinks this is hilarious, as he himself is planted on the sofa with the computer on his chest. Stuff like that tics me off, cuz I do nothing but pick up everybody elses shit. Yeah you know, how many times have I said this before…

Anyway, I started angry cleaning, pretty effective actually. And I was almost about to get unpleasant, but as my couch potato put it. “Happy new year!”…I snapped out of it, and my daughter took over. Holy hell, she was in such a horrible mood all day! It made me look like a daisy in comparison..

And we had a 7.0 earthquake close to Tokyo. I didn’t feel a thing, I think I was vacuuming at the time. My friend and neighbor said her whole apartment was shaking and me and my husband was just looking at each other wondering how we could have missed it. I’m not complaining though…

What I’m wondering is, is this just a taste of what is to come? Please no…

We took the kids to the park for a bit and it just turned in to a cry and scream fest! If you have kids, you know when they start crying over everything, they don’t make any sense and it doesn’t matter what you say. That kind of mood. And it kept going till they went to bed. I’m sitting at the kitchen table over looking the living room…the house was clean for a minute, my better half is back in horizontal position on the sofa, snoring. Gosh I love that big lazy man of mine…

and yeah, I’m sitting here wondering how concerned I should be about the Mayan calendar only goes to 2012….

Thanks and good bye

Good bye 2011 and Happy new 2012! I gotta say it now cuz I know neither me or the hubby will last till midnight…haven’t for the past 4 years. Yes, we’re an exciting couple me and my husband.

My husband asked me if I had any new year resolutions, absolutely not. I’ve only made one new year promise ever in my life, when I was 11 or 12 and promised to not eat any candy for a whole year, and my mom would give me $200. A moth in to the new year I cheated and had 2 salty licorice candies, I felt horrible for the reminder of the year and by the next new year when my mom told me how proud she was of me, for keeping my resolution, I broke down and confessed. I couldn’t take the money, cuz I indeed had eaten 2 candies 11 months earlier. My mom said it made her even more proud that I was so honest and I she gave me the money anyway.

This past year has even an emotional one. I lost my grandma, and the 3/11 earthquake was a lot to handle, that alone was emotionally draining.

But also a lot of love and laughter, watching my children develop and grow in to such crazy little buggers.

I just want to stay healthy and happy, for my family and friends to stay healthy and happy. And everyone else too of course… And please, less natural disasters…I can’t handle it…

So what ever you’re doing tonight, ringing in the new year, I wish you the best!

….21.50…watching my husband walk towards the bedroom….over and out…

 

Christmas insults

I’m surprised to see that the FamilyMart tried to revive their cheerful Christmas decor this year again…

Doesn’t it just bring out the……depression in you…

enchanted...

they didn't even bother to plug it in...wich is good..it would have been a waste of electricity...

Next year, how about not bring it out at all….

over and out

Christmas was a success, good food, good company and spoiled children.

And I’m now officially a very tired….momy….

Me and the kids got hubby a gift certificate for a foot massage, yay I’d say. But my husband isn’t so sure he’ll be comfortable with letting a stranger massage his feet (I kind of already had a feeling he’s say that…), so he said he’ll gift it back to me, I can go get my back taken care of. I’m wondering…would they let me just crash  there for an hour…? I’d be grateful!

wake me up...next year...

Merry 24th!

I started off Christmas with a banging headache, damn that glass of wine, and thank God for Advil! I should start binge drinking maybe, so then I can handle a glass of wine now and then…

Other than my brain trying to break its way out of my skull, the morning was great, just snuggling with my precious two. Chocolate milk and sandwiches and getting the last piece of chocolate out of the calendar. (Last piece, 24th….) By 9am I had finished vacuuming and mopping the floors, folded the laundry and the house was shining. By 09.10am my son had staged another break in. Oh well…

Tomorrow I’m roasting a chicken, making a sweet potato casserole, macaronies and cheese, salad and some other bits and pieces. Nothing crazy. And we’re having a guest, the kids babysitter Nancy is coming to eat with us. Her brother is having a house party and kicked her out of the house, Oh Christmas spirit! Hanna and Micah could not be happier, they love her.

I miss spending Christmas with my family though. I know what they’re doing in a few hours. It’s pitch black in Sweden at 8am, and my mom is a candle light freak, so the kitchen will be lit up like a cathedral at mass. Big breakfast set up, Christmas music on the radio, my stepdad walking around humming along to the music, coffee. Warm and cozy. Then in the afternoon they’ll have late lunch with friends and family. Glögg, ham, meatballs, sausage, purple cabbage, potatoes, cured salmon, pickled herring……I’m not jealous…

One of these years, we will be there, all of us together.