Comments on: Goals for 2010…

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:14:32 +0000

As a mom now, I am sure you can appreciate that it is harder than ever to find time for yourself. Especially until you get into the swing of things! We had been traveling over the holidays too, so I am just getting myself back into blogging and READING! Your blog was the very first one I checked! I am so happy to hear about your beautiful little Noah James! I absolutely love the name! And you sound like you are doing wonderfully as a new mommy. I am very, very happy for you and your beautiful family. Hopefully I will get better at keeping up with things, but I just wanted to share my congratulations. My best to you all!

By: Nay

Nay — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:04:30 +0000

Wow, you did really well with your goals for 2009!! I bet with your motivation you will get through all the goals you have for this year as well. I’m not very good with new years resolutions – I normally make them but never end up sticking to them. This year I decided to make them fairly simple:
1) give birth to a healthy little girl in April (I can’t really control the healthy part but I can hope!)
2) get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and then lose an extra 5 kgs on top of that.

I love that you are making a scrapbook of Noah’s first year. I think I might do something similiar for Baby N as well. I have ‘start scrapbooking’ down as one of my goals for the 101 things so I will be killing two birds with one stone if I do

By: Melanie

Melanie — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:59:57 +0000

I think I would just work part time unless a really good job offer was available. I definitely wasn`t terribly happy working so many hours before especially with travel time added on top of it.

Yeah, it would be really nice to actually be able to buy a place, especially considering how much we pay in rent every month.

I`ll have to take a peek online about baby books to see if I can find one I like

By: Lulu

Lulu — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:15:34 +0000

Sara: Hopefully I will be able to achieve them all. I know you have goals for this year as well and I hope you can acheive them!

Amanda: Thanks for the comment! I hope you have fun in TOkyo next month- pack your thermals! Feb is the coldest month for us here!!!

Kelly: Sorry I meant the baby bonus in Japan- I guess it is not really a bonus since pregnancy isnt really covered by insurance but we paid everything up front for our clinic before I was 20 weeks and then get 420,000yen back next month some time. We do not qualify for the Aussie baby bonus though!

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:54:07 +0000

You can still get the baby bonus from Japan? Lucky.
Can you get anything like that from the Japanese gov too?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:44:05 +0000

Thats good that you managed to accomplish virtually all your goals for 2009 – and your ones for this year all sound realistic and achieveable also, so good luck! And ha, i’m visiting tokyo next month lol.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:23:21 +0000

Sounds like 2009 was a very productive for you!!!!

Your goals for this year seem do-able and good!!! I am already behind on my resolutions… wahhhhh (eats chocolate)

This is going to be an awesome year for you I can just feel it.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:49:08 +0000

You’re definitely right! I guess my parents didn’t have much of a choice since when we were little, blogs weren’t around But since you’re planning to print out stuff too he’ll have something tangible to look at as well. Good luck with your projects!

I feel like it’s a little bit complicated right now, lol. I’m still kind of hemming and hawing about what kind of job I want because I’m still not sure how much time/how many years I want to dedicate to building a career. over the last couple years i’ve wanted to work for the embassy–not really a diplomat, but at least a government worker who is part of the process. but then i’ve also considered working for a company… but in that case my japanese would have to get a lot better first. So I’m thinking about studying Japanese for another year or two after graduation, but in the meantime I at least want to have a job that’s paying the bills… even if it’s just typical gaijin part-time work at an eikaiwa or something. So I guess that’s what I wanted to ask you about, since I know you did private English tutoring and stuff like that. And yes, internships are good too! Sigh, I just hope I’m not starting all this stuff too late, I feel like I should’ve been on the ball as soon as I arrived here

Thanks for the good luck.

By: Lulu

Lulu — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:34:34 +0000

Melanie- I bought my baby book in Australia but perhaps you could find something online (and in English) that you like! The scrapbook, is one I was given from a friend as a gift when Noah was born- she gave me some scrapbooking paper and stickers things also but the book itself is very plain, which I like. It is navy blue with white spots- nothing too “frilly” about it. The actual baby book though I have been filing in since before Noah was born- with pregnancy stats and other things. Eventually I will go through my blog and print some things for him too I think since I record a lot on here as well.

WIll you return to full-time work do you think? I am not sure what I am going to do yet but by the end of the year I at least hope to have some regular part-time jobs even if it is just a couple private lessons a week or an all day Saturday job (while Shun watches Noah)…Ideally though something I could mainly do from home would be great. Not sure there is much option for that though.

And buying a place?! WOW! I wish that could be on my resolutions list. Maybe in a couple of years.

Elizabeth- The blog is a great way to document Noah`s life and milestones too- so even if I am not diligent about filling in the book as soon as he does something I am sure it will be in emails to my mum or on here- so I can go back and fill in things later. So far I have done a pretty good job recording things in it though. I am really looking forward to starting on the scrapbook as a creative outlet- I need to get a couple more supplies first though (namely, glue!)- I have some photos printed out and ready to go though.

Your goals sound great! What sort of industry do you want to be in when you graduate? If you have some kind of an idea I might have some suggestions- we can chat about it next time we see each other. Internships are a great way to get your foot in the door as well.

Good luck with your finals.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:23:18 +0000

Those are some good resolutions! My parents were very diligent in filling out my baby book, and to this day it’s something I like to flip through once in a while. It’s one of my treasures (I even brought it with me to Japan!) so surely Noah will appreciate his in the future. He’s the first-born, so I don’t think you’ll have much trouble finding the motivation to document every second of his life, don’t you think? haha!

This year is a big year for me (kind of like the year you had last year!) so definitely I have some resolutions too. I think after finals are over I’ll take the time to write them on my own blog, but for now they are:

- graduate from college!
- get married!
- get a PUPPY!
- start applying for some jobs (i’m still not exactly sure what I want to do… any advice, lulu? what did you do here after you finished school?)
- start up a new hobby i decided i can commit to: sewing
- try to be more diligent in updating my blog/filling out my schedule book
- eat healthier/cook at home more often (both Tatsuya and I are getting chubby from 7 eleven food)

that’s it, I think!