USA vs Japan 10-0

What can I say, big up to the US for being so a head in their gluten-free game. Something that was so tricky a few weeks ago is now the easiest thing in the world. There are “gluten-free” stickers on the shelves here, and I can read the ingredient lists! This is awesome!!

You can eat and not feel like you have to miss out on anything here, as for in Japan, all you do is cut stuff out.

Even Sprinkles (the best cupcakes ever) makes gluten-free and vegan cupcakes every day. That literally made me shed a tear out of happiness.

And the tons of gluten-free breads to choose from! Hamburger buns, hotdog buns..I can have toast and coffee for breakfast, just like the good old days..

My favorite bread after trying a few so far, is the “7 Grain” from “Canyon Bakehouse” . Anyone have any other suggestions on yummy brands to try?

Together with my gluten intolerant and fellow expat wife, we’ll try to bring in some gluten-free products to Japan for next season, and map out where to find the few they already have. Fingers crossed that we’ll be able to work something out..

And I’m taking the kids to Sweden later this summer so I’m looking forward to seeing what type of spread they have to offer as well.

Oh you lucky people of the US of A….

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!

 

Boxes after boxes…

The tedious thing about living in two places is all the packing. Since we live here in Japan most part of the year we always ship about 10 boxes with shoes, clothes and toys and what ever we might need from our home in California. Then all of it of course have to come back with us home again, plus the stuff we accumulated during our 9 months here. Everything in the boxes have to be counted and listed in invoices for customs.

We’ve lived in the same apartment in Tokyo for the past 8 years and we leave tons of stuff behind every time we leave for the summer, but I’m gonna have to sort a lot of stuff out this year, it’s just getting to be too much and too cramped. Do some serious spring cleaning before we leave.

 

 

 

My trim

Seriously, not much needed to feel like you got a whole new set of hair. I went to my regular place if I do color. Samson&Delila in Chofu. They’re so sweet, and I can still afford food for my kids after I leave the place. No color today though, I just had my guy there trim the ends and shave the sides.

like new...

My friend came with me, she had made an appointment too, to get her roots done, and some high and lowlights. She showed them a picture of Carrie Underwood and they gave her the thumbs up, no problem! She still had bleach in her hair when I left and she was slightly nervous that it wouldn’t turn out the way she wanted. So was I.

I don’t think they get to work on blond hair too often at this place. I told her to call me once she got home. Which she did. Aaand she wasn’t happy. She sent me a picture of her now, ash brown/hint of carrot color hair. It was definitely no Carrie Underwood, still not bad, I liked the color but I understand, that if you’re a blondie and want to continue to be a blondie, you’d be very disappointed.

She told them she wasn’t happy, it was way too dark so they told her to come back at 7pm to do the highlights. To a mother of three, this just is perfect, since you have so much free time to spare…anyways..

she did go back. They gave her some highlights but it’s still no where close to what she asked for. I feel so bad for her. They gave me a 20% discount for coming with a friend, but they charged her more than I’ve ever paid there for cut and color together. I don’t get it! And my friend paid, I wouldn’t have paid. I would have said something. I think…or actually when I think about it, I paid after being butchered by the racist narcissist hairdresser in O.C a couple of years ago.  I didn’t say shit, I even gave a tip! Oh gosh…I’m a sucker too…

Have you ever been really disappointed leaving a hair saloon? Did you say something or are you a sucker like us?

 

gobble, grub, stuffed..

Happy thanksgiving everyone! I’m liking this, for me rather new holiday. Well, anything based around food and family is my kind of holiday. But since we’re always in Japan for thanksgiving, we never really have that traditional spread of yummies. I can barely fit a whole chicken in our depressing microwave/oven here.

This year however me and the other foreign wives on the team, decided to treat our guys with a real American thanksgiving fiest. I mean we wanted to roast a turkey and we were gonna find an oven to fit it in. My friends are Americans so I let them take the lead and I’d chip in where ever I could.

We told the guys they should check with the rest of the team if they wanted to come too, but you know, (men) our husbands thought maybe not that many were gonna be interested and bla bla, we tried to get a head count for a bout a week so we could plan accordingly, are we cooking for 10 or 30 kind of…

The day before the dinner, we find out, yeah sure almost everyone is coming. Alriiight!

We were busting our asses the whole Thursday and luckily the team gym had let us use their kitchen, it was perfect! I was baking cornbread, for the first time in my life. And yeah I know it’s about 4 ingredients, but that is no guarantee it will come out the way it should, if I’m the one putting it together. I was gonna try to make the recipe I found healthier, use Agave instead of sugar, switch the wheat for something else and I started looking at conversion charts for flours and sweeteners and I just felt that I was being sucked in to a ginormous black pie hole and was not gonna come out with anything close to corn or bread. Fuck it, I just made it as buttery and sugary as it was. I baked apple pie and made Swedish meatballs (very traditional on the Thanksgiving table I’m sure)

When all was set up, we knew we had outdone ourselves. There was a lot of happy guys there that evening.

in the works...

…and about being thankful..

I try to remember to be thankful everyday, even the days my family drive me crazy I am thankful, that I have a family that can do so. I’m thankful for so many things and I try to tell the people who I love and care about as often as I can, without being creepy, how much I appreciate them. Like my guy, my awesome hubby and baby daddy, that I’m so proud of And I’m so thankful for the bustin’ hiphop club in Roppongi, where our drunken eyes met for the first time 7 years ago. I’m thankful that it turned out we both are just as crazy, perfect fit. Me+you=two kick a** kids, thankful thankful!  Hope everyone celebrating had a good one too!

Heart

 

 

Anticlimax

Today has been the second most stressful day this year I think. Nr 1 was the 3/11, earthquake. And then today, my green card interview. 6 years our case has been in process, 6 long years. Tons of documents and signings and picture takings and now last, medical exams for me and my daughter and then today finally the interview. I’ve been so nervous, mostly about not being on time or getting there and there would be some paper or document missing. Our appointment was at 9.30 and I asked my husband to drive us so we wouldn’t have to get on the train in morning rush hour. Rush hour is insane in Tokyo.

So off we went, on schedule and the traffic wasn’t too bad. But then Micah decides to poop while we’re on the highway so we had to pull over and change him. Almost at the Embassy Hanna whose been watching the iPad in the back, gets car sick and vomits all over the back seat. The real sour disgusting vomit that makes you wanna throw up yourself. So we had to speed clean the backseat, all while Micah is screaming in his seat, strip Hanna of her vomited sweater and t-shirt, wipe what ever vomit I can off her jeans, and put Micah’s t-shirt on Hanna, cuz he was going back home again with my husband.

So, great great start! My daughter was feeling much better but was reeking. But we were there and there was nothing we could do but to make our appointment. I thought the interview was gonna be held in a small room, with just us and some embassy employee  but it was tons of people just sitting in a big waiting area with number tickets. And you just got called up to different counters. One to drop off your documents, then wait, then next counter for finger printing, then wait again, then the infamous “interview”. A real nice man behind the counter, just asking me a couple of questions about my husband, and then stamp stamp. That was it. We were legal.

What…? Where was my interrogation I’d been waiting and preparing for, for so long!? Hey dude, ask me something! Anything, what type of underwear my husband wears or what his childhood favorite pet fish’s name was! Something! Pretend you think it’s a sham marriage, cuz I can prove to you it’s not! …..

oh well.. Finally we don’t have to worry about flying here and there just cuz I have to leave the country every 3 months. We can just enjoy being at home!

So after spending all morning at the embassy, with my stinky but happy super trooper Hanna. We treated ourselves to some Starbucks and then headed home. I was so excited and I told my husband first thing, “yay baby! All we have to do is be back home till April 17th!! “(That’s when the medical report expires) 

April 17th?! The season isn’t over till the 24th!

What?! (A long fuuuuuuuuuuuck went through my head) I’d totally miscalculated the 6 months and now me and the kids would have to leave for the states before the season was over! We’d miss the final games and I’d have to fly with two kids by myself. (cry cry panic, sweat, crap!)My husband’s team is doing so good this season, they have a great shot at winning the championship. I wouldn’t wanna miss that and the kids would be so disappointed!

No way! I threw myself on the train again and went all the way back to the embassy, although the Visa section was closed they had me waiting and then I got to speak to a nice woman. She told me I had two options, do a new medical (means a new fee of $$$$) or go to Guam for a couple of days and get my stamp there. Guam is 4 hours from Japan. So tomorrow I’m making some phone calls to see, will it be medical or will it be Guam.

So what ever it ends up being, two things are for sure. This summer I will get my license and then I will enroll in preschool summer class, so that I can get my basic counting skills in check. Other than that, Thank you America, I won’t disappoint you….

yes sir!

Weekend fun

Go go go!!

It’s a very tired mom here…

My husband’s team played at home this weekend, so of course I had to take the kids. Friday game was at 7pm though, not to prefer cuz everybody is super tired even before the game starts. But it just gotta work, we have to go cheer on our love! And my mother in law have been here for a few days as well so I got some great back up Barely see my daughter when grandma is here actually, she doesn’t even want me in her room. “Mom, I want you to go!”

Ok, ok, I’m leaving I’m leaving….

Great games for the guys this weekend as well, won both big so they’re undefeated so far. Keep it up keep it up!

Sunday was off day and supposed to be “fun day”, I woke up in a great mood but my hands were really bothering me in the morning and brought great frustration, topped off with a nice screaming match between the kids, too early in the morning, and that just got the ball rolling. I turned in to “Sourpuss mom” and was stomping around, sighing, cussing at the mess everywhere that no one seems to see but me. I took a short crying break in the laundry room, feeling extremely sorry for myself and was hoping that someone would come give me an encouraging hug.

But since no one came……yea….. I just sucked it up and folded the rest of the laundry…

I eventually felt a little better, but I’m still so tired after this weekend. I feel bloated, tired, sensitive, irritable and if I didn’t know better, I’d think I was pregnant with 30 babies. But my kids are doing a great job on reminding me that I do not want to have more. Ever.

Then today me and my daughter had to go do a medical exam for the US green card. It took most part of the day, x-rays, eye tests, 6 shots between me Hanna and made a pretty good dent on the credit card. Long story this green card thing, 6 years to be exact, but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the immigration tunnel. The US of A need to get their effin’ shyte together so it’s worth living there after all the years signing papers, proving this and that, paying this and that.

All I wanna do now is, get it moving, and getting my license will be nr 1. Watch out Californians!

Nothing funny about this joke…

I’m fuming, the health care system in the US is such bull crap! They are so behind, it’s ridiculous! We pay huge fees every month for our health insurance, and still today when I went to the pharmacy to pick up my new birth control, they wanted to charge me $76! This is for one month. ONE month! Yeah cuz here too, you can only get one month at a time, why?! It’s retarded!

Who can seriously defend a system like this?!

They need to learn from countries like Japan and Sweden.  I take the kids to the doctor in Japan, and it costs NOTHING! Cuz in Japan health insurance actually mean something. When our daughter was in the hospital for 10 days and had surgery and x-rays, we only paid for the upgraded private room we requested. Surgery, FREE, everything, FREE!

When you’re sick or need help, the only thing you should have to worry about is getting better. Period.

 

 

Not quite the trip i planned

We got back home a few days ago. Back to beautiful sunny southern Cali. We spent about 3 weeks in Stockholm, staying with my mom and stepdad and brother. It was great and it was cold. I do not miss the Swedish winter that’s for sure.

I had so many plans for this trip, to see all my family and all my friends that I haven’t seen is so long. Dinners, drinks, playdates…..

But I think after the stressful week we’d just had, my heart had been beating twice as fast since the quake and it took me days after coming to my mom’s house for me to calm down. I was drained, the kids were drained, jet lagged and emotional. My son who is usually always this happy chummy little guy, turned in to the biggest mama’s boy. He was like a band-aid on me and wouldn’t let anyone else hold him. I couldn’t even take a shower or go to the restroom without him screaming his lungs out, crying hysterically. It was kind of cute the first day but it got old pretty fast. He wouldn’t even sit in the high chair next to me at the dinner table, he had to sit on my lap or he’s scream.

Some days I just broke down, I missed my husband, I felt like everything just got so rushed through. We didn’t leave Japan on a good note I feel and everything just felt weird, I was out of orbit.

However, I did manage to meet up with 2 of my oldest friends, my sisters, my grandmas and cousins. Even though it was just for a quick coffee with some but at least we got to hug…

So, first week it’s all about getting over the jet lag. My kids both took a day each to have the vomits. Then of course the second week I got sick. It’s all about timing, and it sucked! Green snot, ear aches and a swollen throat. AND add that screaming adhesive of a son. I just wanted to crawl under a rock.

But you know, some days were better than others and we got small stuff done here and there and before we knew it, it was time to go home. On a flight leaving at 6.30am. Meaning we had to get up at 3 and leave at 4am. At 10pm the night before I start throwing up like it was going out of style…all night, till an hour before it’s time to wake up. All I’m thinking to myself is that I have to make this 14h trip with 2 kids, feeling like I did. I mean common!!

But, I did it. I got us all back safe. We almost missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam and our luggage was delayed by 2 days and 17 hours (don’t fly DELTA), but who cares now, we’re home. I’m so so grateful to be home.

 

back with papa in sunny California

 

 

I keep in touch with my friends over in Japan, they’re doing good but all theses aftershocks is really starting to wear on people. I feel for them, I can only imagine how stressful it must be…I miss the old Japan, like I used to know it.

 

Wreck

My attempt to avoid stressing about flying twice in a week, completely back fired on me. Instead I’ve been more stressed than ever, now worrying about my daughter and husband flying home by them selves.  This fear of flying have reached new heights and add a serious dose of separation anxiety to that, that would be me. My pulse has gradually gone up this past week.

Anxiety on the verge to fullblown panic attacks. Last night we were even looking at tickets so that me and our son could get on the same flight, and I felt ready to go, but then we remembered my son didn’t have his Japanese passport, only the American one. So going home for the week would have been fine, but then entering back in to Japan, he would have had to go as American and then only get a 3 month visa. And having to deal with issuing a temporary Japanese passport for him again during this week home….no. So, that was that, me and the son stayed.

After having mental breakdowns all day, I’ve tried my best to keep a brave face in front my daughter, but as soon as they left in the cab my meltdown was unavoidable. I was walking my sleeping son in the stroller, with the aim on the store to get him diapers, but since I could not stop crying I had to walk the back streets of our neighborhood, back and forth trying to calm my self down.

I was whispering to myself “Great week, mama..we’re gonna have a greeeat week, you and me lil’ man….your sister and papa are going to California, they gonna have so much fun”…..

(5 minutes of sobbing)

“Great week…we’re gonna have such a nice and relaxing week lil’man. While your papa and sister are living it up at home…….

(tears tears tears)

It’s now 8.45pm, my son is sleeping and I’m still holding calming monologues.

I need to seek some sort of help for this I think. We have to fly so much I can’t be stressing about it every time. I’m already dreading the fligt to sweden this summer!

Hypnos or needles, what ever man. Xanax. Hit me.

I have a head ache, my face is red and my eyes are puffy and hurt….great start on my “relaxing week”…