Cherry Blossom Adventures

Time for another edition of Things I Love Thursday- Idea courtesy of Gala Darling.

• Hot coffee- even the instant kind although I would much prefer a starbucks but sadly haven`t had one in awhile.
• Getting closer to my due date- I seem to be in pain a lot when I try to move around and I figure the closer I get to my due date then the closer I get to meeting my little boy (and then after he is born I won`t be in pain so much!)
• Sleep-ins
• My purple dressing gown with white spots- I have never had a dressing gown before but my mum sent it to me a couple of months ago when she sent some wintery feeding friendly PJs- she figured I might need it when I get up in the night after bub arrives since Japanese apartments/houses do not have very good insulation and certainly don`t have central heating. I use it a lot at the moment even during the day (when I am home) as a blanket to cover my feet. It is nice and snuggly! (I am still refusing to use the heat since it is only November!)
• Skype chats with Nay & Sarah.
• Nice sunny weather we had yesterday- bit of a shame the cold wintery rainy weather had to come back today.
• Blistex- not sure why my lips are so dry but luckily I have blistex! It is a lip conditioner/balm and it is my savior!
• Mixed Berry Bio yogurt. YUM!
• Long phone chat with my dad last night- he seemed well. Mum rang a couple hours later and it was nice to chat with her too- I think they are worried that if I have the baby they will be the last ones to know but Shun knows he is supposed to call them after the baby is born even if he can only say “baby arrived” in English…hehe. Luckily we don`t really have to worry about time difference!!!
• Finding out that one of my best friend James (was best man at our wedding!) and his girlfriend Shizuka have found an apartment to move into next month together and it is in Funabashi- just a 20 minute walk from where we live!!!! Now I just have to find out how they feel about babysitting- hehe!
• Having weekend plans- going to in-laws for dinner on Saturday night and having Cat come over on Sunday with some movies for a girly night in! I get so bored during the week that it is nice to have plans to do something on the weekends- just wish my cough (and the rain!) would go away so I could get out more…

What things are you loving this Thursday?

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Basically I am blogging to get rid of the belly shot that was sitting at the top of my blog. HAHA.

I still have a cough from the chest infection- it is getting better but I had to go and get more medicine from the chemist yesterday. I am not sure if it is reaction from the medicine but since last Friday I have been itchy all over my arms, legs, back and stomach. There is no rash of any kind and we didn`t start using different detergent or anything so I have no idea why. It is very annoying though.

Shun has been working really late these last couple of weeks so I am home alone for a lot longer- he leaves here at about 8:45am (starts work at 10am in Tokyo) and hasn`t been coming home til about 11pm. It wouldn`t be so bad if I wasn`t home pretty much EVERY day alone….I am so bored. He wants to work late now on the project so that when the baby comes he doesn`t have to work as late and also so that he could take a couple days off without getting worried about getting called into work.

There are actually heaps of things I could be doing at home but I don`t have the energy/motivation but here is a list anyway (cos who doesn`t love a good list!)

- Writing

-Sewing

-Knitting

-Cleaning

-Baking

- Studying

Oh and there is heaps more. Instead I sleep, watch TV, spend time on the internet, cook dinner and then go back to watching TV. Sometimes I have skype chats with friends! I either want the baby to arrive OR I want some motivation to fall from the sky!

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36 weeks pregnant today- hard to believe that I am one week away from been considered full-term.

The bump, is still growing (and yoga pants are my friend!)

Doctor`s appointment yesterday went well and I no longer need to take the medicine that was stopping pre-term labour. I have had a lot of braxton hicks contractions again and yesterday I even questioned if I was in the early stages of labour since the pain was coming in waves but after a nap it went away so must have just been braxton hicks (otherwise I would have a baby by now!)

Doctor said the baby was a good size (about 2.5kg), in a good position (head down and facing backwards) and semi-engaged. I gained 800g in the 2 weeks since my last appointment and luckily there was no more mention of weight gain at my appointment. I have now gained 10kg since getting pregnant and some of you may remember that when I went back to Australia I lost quite a bit of weight and I am now back to the weight I was when I left Japan 18 months ago- hard to believe I weighed this much when I went back. It obviously was not all in my belly like it is now!! My blood pressure was slightly more elevated than normal but still well within normal range (128/75 or something like that) - my BP is usually quite low naturally but obviously pregnancy is making it a little elevated. No swelling of the ankles or hands though (and my wedding rings still fit!) which is nice. Belly button started popping out almost 6 weeks ago and is now fully out- I think it looks kind of gross!

I have 3 stretchmarks that have appeared in the last couple of weeks- hoping I don`t get anymore- not sure if I will get my wish with that one though.

Hospital bag is packed but feel free to throw out any ideas of what I should pack because I plan to go through it again sometime this week and make sure I haven`t forgotten anything. There is a list on top of it of things I need to throw in at the last minute as well. We also have everything we need for the baby bought and packed away in his room…

Walking is getting more difficult since the baby is pressing on my bladder CONSTANTLY and walking also tends to bring on the BH contractions and/or pain so I am pretty much house bound most of the time. I think I walk like a duck but Shun has informed me it is more like a penguin (Isn`t he sweet?!)- I am uncomfortable a lot of the time BUT on the plus side I never really had too many issues with baby squashing my lungs since he is pretty low most of the time. Also due to that I rarely get heartburn anymore and when I do get it, one mylanta clears it right up.

Since I am home a lot I downloaded the first couple of seasons of ER. Probably not the best thing to be watching so close to giving birth though because every second or third episode there is someone giving birth- but maybe it is helping me mentally prepare for the “HORRORS” of childbirth. Haha, I doubt it though. Would be quite happy for Goma-chan to make his way into the world anytime soon especially since it seems I will just continue to get braxton hicks contractions everyday until I give birth and they are getting more and more uncomfortable/painful…

No ultrasound video this week- as exciting as it is (for us anyway!), you can`t really see much anymore since the baby is quite big and facing away from the ultrasound meaning we get a lot of good shots of the back of his head and his spine. It looks like a lovely spine though! Doctor told me if I go to 40 weeks then baby is likely to be about 3.5kg which is not even 8 pounds but he keeps telling me “big baby” - I didn`t think 8 pounds was that big? I was 7 pound 6 and Shun was about the same so I guess Goma-chan is taking after us both (which I don`t mind- dont want him taking after my brother or dad who were 10 pounds 10 and 13 pound respectively)

Next appointment is in 8 days since they were fully booked next Saturday and Monday is a public holiday- apparently everytime I go from now on they will do an internal (FUN!) and strap me to a monitor for 20-30 minutes to monitor baby`s heart rate and see if there are any contractions. My FIL or MIL will drive me from now on (to and from the appointments)  as well (he drove us yesterday too because it was raining- which was nice!) so it will be nice not to have to catch the train.

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MIL rang me at 10:30am this morning to see if she could stop by our apartment to drop off some pants for Shun (that my mum sent- but I wasn`t sure I could take them up myself so she got someone to do it for us) and some other things that she forgot on the weekend.

I said not a problem.

She rang again when she arrived at Funabashi station saying that she had come by train (I thought she would of driven) and could she stop and get anything for us from the supermarket. I had plans to go out today and pick up a couple of things and update our bank book and pick up the drycleaning but it looked freezing outside so I gave her a couple of things to pick up for me (veggies and OJ)- I figured the dry cleaning and bank book can wait another day!

When she arrived I invited her in (of course!) but she said she was not going to stay long- she had the groceries, some mail, the pants and some smoked cheese that she bought somewhere recently (I guess she went on a day trip? Somewhere famous for smoked cheese?)…we were still chatting 5 minutes later so I invited her in for a drink but she said no it was fine. We continued chatting about my family and SILs pregnancy and other things and must have talked for almost 20 minutes standing in the entrance to our apartment before she said she needed to go because she had to do her own shopping before she went for her afternoon shift at the hoikuen (she works early mornings and then afternoons at a local hoikuen/daycare centre)- she told me to tell Shun that she would ring him on the weekend to discuss having dinner together sometime soon with BIL & SIL as well and that I should wear lots of warm clothes because it was cold!

I feel bad that she came all this way and still didn`t want to come inside. I was still in bed when she had called at 10:30am (I didn`t get to sleep last night til 4:30am but that is a whole different story!) and so I jumped up did a quick tidy up and cleaned the dishes and got changed into something OTHER than my PJs.

She has never been to our place before when Shun hasn`t been home- I wonder if that is why she didn`t want to come in? Usually even if she comes to pick us up (or FIL does) to take us back to their place usually they will not come in. I find it a bit strange… I was thinking maybe it is because she invited herself but perhaps if I invited her around then she would be more comfortable? I don`t know…

My MIL is quite a shy person but we get on quite well- sometimes we clash over things but I learnt very early on to nod and smile instead of causing waves and she does the same with me (I can tell! hehe!)- as usually any difference of opinion we have is more to do with age and or cultural differences. She has said she would like to come over and help when the baby arrives and I have told her of course and that she is welcome anytime….I hope she knows that I am not just saying that and that if she wants to come over and bring groceries to help me out or what not, especially before my mum arrives from Australia, then she should. Hopefully she won`t just want to stand in the genkan though (entrance) because it is freezing there…

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That time again,  idea courtesy of Gala Darling.

• The news that my SIL is pregnant!!! Hoping everything goes well for Aneki & Kazumi!
• The news that Ichihashi, accused of killing Lindsay Ann Hawker a british English teacher more than 2.5 years ago, was caught. He had been on the run that entire time and he is now behind bars.
• Strawberries- got some at the market the other day! Yum, I love strawberries!
• Yoga pants. So comfty!
• New recipes like the risotto one I shared on the weekend. Plus getting new recipes to try from friends!
• Email from my cousin Allannah in NZ- Allannah sometimes reads my blog so I hope she reads this! Was lovely to get an email from you!
• My husband deserves a special mention because over the weekend when I was really sick he cleaned up the house and organized dinner and cleaning up! Plus he made a special trip to my maternity clinic to get me some medicine!
• Crossing the final things off our list of things we needed before Goma-chan arrived- Finally got another pair of PJs for the hospital and bought some disposable diapers for newborns. Everything else was crossed off!
• The drama “The Good Wife” - really enjoying it!
• Old episodes of ER- watched the pilot today. I had forgotten how hot George Clooney was/is.
• Finally, finishing off the quilt for Goma-chan- here is the finished product

I am not the best sewer in the world and this is far from a professional looking quilt but I am so proud of myself for completing it and I am sure Goma-chan won`t notice that the stitching isn`t straight everywhere now will he?!

What things are you loving this Thursday?

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Boring day today due to the rain. I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee at Funabashi station since she would be passing through (she lives way out past Chiba station) but I decided going out in the rain would not be a great idea since I am still coughing a little with the chest infection- bit disappointed really because I have no other plans now for awhile meaning I will be stuck at home.

Shun has been working later and later these last couple of weeks with things getting busier on the project he is working on. He has come home around 11pm the last 2 nights. I did ring him at work yesterday to tell him to keep his phone on him though because I was having regular braxton hicks with some pain from 2pm onwards- they didn`t stop until I went to sleep last night but the pain didn`t intensify at all so didn`t think too much of it. Today they haven`t really returned so am guessing all is okay! I have a doctor`s appointment on Saturday anyway so I am sure they will check to see if the baby is on his way or not. I rang Shun again about 9pm to tell him something else and he was like “akachan kiteiru? daijyoubu” (Is the baby coming? Are you okay) and I was like “oh no sorry to scare you, I am ringing about something else now…” hahaha. I guess he is starting to get worried.

Me, I am not so worried yet about giving birth. In fact my biggest fear is actually having my water break in public and looking like I peed myself. I know the chances of this are slim but still I am scared. Plus Shun said Japanese people will just ignore me if this happens which I think is worse and scaring me more!!!

I should of done the washing yesterday because now it looks as if the rain is sticking around til the weekend meaning I will need to wash tomorrow but hang everything up inside the house which is just not as nice. Plus it takes so much longer for things to dry. Melanie talked about how she had to go buy some disposable diapers for her new bub because of the weather and no access to a dryer down at her in-laws place- I have some cloth diapers to use with Goma-chan but haven`t bought that many yet because I want to make sure I will use them before investing too much money in them and we have a pack and a half of newborn disposable diapers ready to go as well (the half pack came from a friend, her little boy grew out of them before she used the whole pack). Not sure how I will do with cloth diapers since we do not have a dryer either yet I know drying them in sunlight is the best thing for them. Anyone else use cloth diapers? I have bumgenius ones but debating whether I should buy more before baby comes or not- thinking it will be best to hold off for now! I have no idea why I said diapers throughout that whole paragraph considering I am Australian and we say nappies….

I did work on Goma-chan`s quilt today. I did the actual quilting so now all of the parts are sewn together and it has turned out okay I think (ie, the backing, quilting inside part and the front patchwork part are now all sewn together). I have pinned the binding on but just need to sew it all on tomorrow or Friday and will then be done- I cheated and ended up buying ready made binding because the thought of having to cut it all up was enough to give me a headache. I like the idea of doing it myself but knew I lacked patience!!! Might need to go back to working on the knitted hat for the baby after that since I have no other craft projects on the go at the moment apart from the baby hat and the quilt.

Spent the rest of the day surfing the net, watching American dramas (The Good Wife, NCIS, CSI Miami, Gossip Girl) and reading. Quite dull actually! Attempting to blog everyday leaves me with not much to say when I do blog I guess.

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• The medicine that Shun went and got from my maternity clinic on Saturday afternoon is finally kicking in and my cough is not as bad as it was. Hopefully I will continue to improve- I felt so much better today. Better than I have felt in over a week…Hopefully the medicine is clearing up the chest infection! Thanks to everyone for advice on the post “feeling sicker…” - Shun rang my clinic and they said he could just come in and pick up the medicine and that he should just leave me at home so that is what he did.
• On Saturday we also got some GREAT news. My SIL (married to Shun`s older brother) has just found out she is pregnant with her first baby. I am under the impression they have been trying for awhile so it was great to hear this news- still early days yet for them but fingers crossed that all goes well. I am so happy that Goma-chan will have a cousin close in age because there is no way my brother is going to be having kids any time soon.
• I went and had lunch with my friend Zoe and her little boy Hunter today- we just met in Funabashi and had lunch at Tobu department store before enjoying a very yummy dessert on a cafe also in the Tobu department store. We only catch up about once a month but we always have a lot of fun- this might be the last time I see her and Hunter though before Goma-chan arrives. I told Hunter (2.5 years) that next time the baby will be out of my tummy and that he can give it a real hug. He likes to pat my belly and say “baby, baby, baby”…
• Last week I pieced together the quilt I am making for Goma-chan- tomorrow or Wednesday I hope to add the backing and middle part and quilt it all together on the machine- it is not the best quilt ever made but I am proud of my efforts so far (even if some patches are out of line!)…The quality of the photo is not great since I took it with my phone.

• I had a long chat with my brother yesterday and also spoke with my mum a couple of times over the weekend and my dad once. My brother has finished his degree now after handing in his thesis a couple of weeks back and completing his last exam on Tuesday- he will have his graduation ceremony in December but he is technically a fully qualified civil engineer now. He has been working for a major construction company already for over a year though and is set to stay with them for awhile yet but was happy to tell me he now earns the wage of a graduate so that was nice to hear.
• There will be a password protected post coming up on my blog soon- It has been ages since I did one (not since I was in Australia maybe?) so if you have lost the password and/or think you should have it then you can contact me via my “contact me” section of my blog. Reminder to those that have it- please do not share it with others, instead direct them to contact me if necessary. I don`t password protect posts very often but I would still like to limit who has access when I do.
• Now that the weather is cooling down I want to make some soup- I am thinking of making a potato and leek soup sometime in the next week but always looking for other recipes. I have never actually made a soup before I don`t think but hopefully it will be a success. It is a little hard since Shun doesn`t like pumpkin much (and I do not like pumpkin soup that much anyway) and I don`t like carrot so a lot of the more popular soups are out. I am thinking of trying a mushroom and spinach soup but would have to hunt down a recipe or alter an existing one that I can find. Does anyone know the rule of thumb for freezing soups? Is their certain soups you can`t freeze? I thought if I made big enough batches then maybe I could freeze the extra for when after the bub arrives. I am also thinking I should make a lasagne and/or casserole that can be frozen so that I don`t have to worry too much about cooking when I leave the hospital. It will be fine if Goma-chan arrives on time or a little late because my mum will be coming soon after (and will be happy to prepare food I am sure!) I leave the hospital but if he does arrive early then I will still have to make dinners for us…(MIL will bring around some food and groceries though- she has already said she would and has told me that if bub comes early and I want to go stay with them after I leave the hospital it is fine but I am probably going to stay at home in Funabashi)
• I have a English conversation lesson tomorrow. One that I do monthly with a lady living a couple of stations away- It might be the last one I do before the baby comes- I wish I had more students. I am really going to have to get stuck into finding more private students when Goma-chan is about 3 months old or so. I would not mind if they come to our house or if I went to them (as long as they don`t mind me bringing the baby if it is during the week). I miss working. Even if I only had 4-5 students a week I would be happy with that (and financially it would help us save more each month!) and I actually like teaching privately, especially English free conversation or to children (teaching adults who have very basic English though can be a bit hard/frustrating sometimes but I would do that as well!). When I did relief teaching in August for a company that deals in private lessons for children I really enjoyed planning the lessons and meeting with the kids even though I was only seeing them a couple of times before their regular teachers came back- I would work for this company again too probably but I could only work weekends for them since I doubt I could take Goma-chan along with me to the lessons. HAHA. I was even thinking that the city hall might know of a place looking for someone to do community lessons once a week or lessons at a local yochien or hoikuen. Hopefully I will be able to find something.
• Now that I am nearing the end of my pregnancy it is finally okay to drink herbal tea again and it is great that it is getting cooler around the same time. Shun has been asking me for a couple of weeks to buy a “tea pot” - A Japanese style one that you put the tea leaves in the metal netted case thing (what is this called?) and add hot water and let sit for a bit. I finally bought one today so now he can make hot green tea when he wants it since I stopped by the supermarket as well to get some green tea leaves. Me, I quite like to have apple tea or raspberry leaf tea!
• November is national blog posting month (Nablopomo) and I am trying my best to post every day for the month of November but I not sure I will be able to continue for the whole month but I had forgotten how addictive it can get.

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I made risotto for dinner tonight for the first time in ages- in fact I don`t think I have made risotto in the last two years so it was a long time coming but when Achan mentioned that she had made pumpkin risotto a couple of weeks back it got me thinking about making it again for us. Luckily, Shun will eat risotto (unlike Achan`s husband- I guess mine doesn`t mind “wet rice”)- Shun wouldn`t eat pumpkin risotto though as he is not a huge fan of Japanese pumpkin because it is sweet (he liked Aussie ones though, go figure) so I had to think up something else.

So I made a bacon, asparagus and sun dried tomato risotto. I did take a photo BUT it is hard to make risotto look good in a photo so I am not going to post it because it doesn`t do it justice.

I made the recipe up, just based it off a normal risotto recipe. The cup sizes I used are Japanese cup sizes meaning 200ml.

Ingredients

2 bunches of asparagus

1 brown onion

1 handful of chopped up sun-dried tomatoes. I bought the kind not in oil but either would be okay.

4 garlic root shoots (this is an extra, if you are not in Japan/China it might be hard to find garlic root/にんにくのめ）

2 cloves of garlic (I used 2 teaspoons of pre-grated garlic from a jar but I guess that is about 2 cloves)

6 rashes of bacon

1600ml of water

4 chicken stock cubes

3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

30g butter

1 tablespoon of oil

1/2 cup of dry white wine (if you don`t have it, leave it out or a bit of Japanese sake might work)

2 tablespoons of parsley. Fresh is best but I just used the one from the spice rack!

2 cups of rice (I just used our everyday Japanese rice, and because it is starchy it works fine)

Method

1. Cut Asparagus and garlic root up and put in a microwave proof bowl with an inch of water- steam in microwave for 3 minutes
2. Bring water to boil on stove and add the chicken stock cubes- continue to boil for 5 minutes then turn off and keep covered.
3. Melt butter and add oil in a separate pan- fry the bacon, garlic and onion until soft
4. Add rice to pan and coat with the oil/bacon mixture
5. Add one cup of the stock and continue to stir until water is gone. Continue to add cups in batches until you have approximately one cup of stock left to add. Half way through this process I added the wine as well. Keep the heat fairly high and stir continuously.
6. Add the asparagus, garlic root and sundried tomatoes to the mixture and stir through. Then add the final cup of stock mixture and continue stirring until all water is gone. Turn down the heat to low. From start to finish this took me about 35 minutes but it is fine to do it for less or more as long as the rice is done and no longer hard.
7. Stir through the cheese, parsley and salt and pepper to taste and serve!

This made enough for us both (with Shun going back for seconds) and enough for his bento tomorrow and one other lunch. So basically 4 serves. If you are doing it for 2 people then just half the recipe!

Shun`s thoughts : Looks like baby food but tasted good. He went back for seconds!

My thoughts: So yummy for a change but I had forgotten how tiring standing and stirring the stock mixture through for 35 minutes or so can be.

Shun has asked if I can make a mushroom risotto next week so I might have to do that!

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It is that time again! Time for another 101 things in 1001 days update.

This month I crossed nothing off completely but I managed to cross off some parts of the list…

93. Go to the cinema 20 times (8/20)

This is now 9 times because I went to see My Sister`s Keeper with Nay in Shizuoka. I had hoped to go see a move with Shun last Sunday (1000yen on the 1st of the month!) but I was sick so we couldn`t go. I still want to try and get to the cinema once more before Goma-chan arrives!

100. Make a budget and stick to it for six months (1/6)

We stuck to it last month as well! So now 2 months- YAY! Plus we are well on our way to sticking to it this month also (our month for money starts on the 25th, pay day!) and have cleared our credit card debt and now working on trying to save a little each month. So far so good.

Things I probably could of done in the month of October that I didn`t (maybe November?! haha)

- Continue to work on photoshop and learn to use it

- Sell something I have made (actually did pretty much no crafting in October and since I am working on quilt now, definitely won`t be selling that. If anything wants something custom made though let me know )

- Get paid to write something - I submitted some stuff the month before and one of the places that would of been for a paid piece rejected the article so I should really rework it and submit it somewhere else)

- Watch the rest of Heroes with Shun- this is a really easy one that I know I should of crossed off by now but we have started watching another drama together putting this one on the back burner. I suppose I should con him into sitting down with me and watching the last 6 or so episodes we have to watch.

- The week long detox- I should of really done this sometime while pregnant and still haven`t done it. It would mean giving up meat for a week which I could totally do (and obviously not drinking right now and limit myself to no more than one coffee a day already) but I know Shun would kick up a big stink if I cooked vegetarian food all week. Maybe I should tell the hospital I am a vegetarian and have vegetarian meals cooked for me the entire time I am there? I wonder if that means I would get tofu? If so then I would have to pass. I hate tofu.

- Complete exercises in my level 1 JLPT study books. Yeah. I keep avoiding this one like the plague.

Really the above things I should be able to do and cross off but I just keep avoiding them. Plus once baby comes I will have even less time meaning they are less likely to get done…I need to get motivated!

The things remaining on my list are getting harder and harder to cross off, although they shouldn`t be really. I just need to set mini goals and stick to them I think. And while I would love to complete everything on my list, anything I do not complete will mean an extra $10 to a charity of my choice.

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