Still here

I haven't posted in nearly a week. Not that I haven't wanted to, but for some reason I have been totally and utterly exhausted at the end of every day, and could not possibly even think about turning on the computer, let alone blogging. That has not kept me from reading everyone else's blogs via my iPod Touch though. (I swear iPod Touch is the BEST invention EVER!! If you're wondering what you want for your birthday...you want an iPod Touch, and no, unfortunately Apple is not paying me to promote their products.) Although I have wanted to comment on several blogs I haven't had the energy to do that either. Apologies all around.

So let's see. There was Valentine's day on Sunday which was basically just another excuse for us to order Domino's pizza. Doesn't take much for us to find an excuse to order Domino's though. I asked Akinori if he wanted the heart-shaped pizza they had, and he said no, not enough volume, so not really anything Valentine-y about ordering Domino's at all, is there. I did make him brownies though in order to fulfill my chocolate giving obligation. And this time, they were actually successful! Screw Betty Crocker, I used a Japanese mix I found at the local supermarket, and although they were not as moist as Betty Crocker, they were still yummy! I think the moistness factor may be because I baked them too long. Which just means I now have an excuse to make brownies again in an effort to perfect my baking method. Anyway, here's a before and after photo of the brownies, as in before and after hopeless decoration attempt.
I really do not bake, let alone cook, so I was actually pretty chuffed with the outcome. Perhaps there is hope for me yet as a semi-decent housewife and mother.

I also taught the trial lesson at the dance studio on Sunday. It went well I thought, but I have a feeling there will only be 3 or 4 people in the class of the 8 that came to check it out. I did meet one really cool girl there though who is a friend of my BIL's ex-girlfriend (who's British and went back to England about a year before I moved to Nagano, gutted about that since I really, really like her!) She's married to a Canadian guy and really nice, and an ex-party girl pre-marriage herself, so we had lots to talk about as we walked home together. I'm looking forward to hooking up with her again.

After the lesson I came home and FIL, SIL and her 2 kids came over. I hadn't seen them since New Year's, so it was nice to catch up. They brought shitloads of chocolate and sweets though. We're getting close, but are still trying to finish off the St. Valentine's Day chocolate massacre this house has suffered. Nice to feel loved, but really, didn't need nearly that much chocolate. SIL #2 sent over a box of chocolate, and MIL sent over a box via courier with a truly ridiculous amount of chocolate in it. I laughed when I opened the box there was so much chocolate inside. And despite this, we are nearly finished with it all. I am going to suffer serious chocolate withdrawl when it's all gone since I refuse to buy sweets. Maybe I'll try the brownies again when all the chocolate is gone...

Baby making week has come and gone so now we are in the "wait for what seems like FOREVER" stage. I hate this part of the month the most. Hopefully there will good news in a few weeks. I have since found out that 2 more good friends of mine are currently pregnant with their 2nd children, so that means I personally know 10 women who are pregnant right now, and those are only the women I know IRL. I can think of at least 5 more that I have either never met in person, or are friends of friends. That is what makes this more difficult. On the other hand, I was just thinking yesterday about how I really absolutely love spending time with Sara, 1-on-1, and that will all end when we have another child, and we can never get that back again, nor will any of our future children be able to experience what Sara and I have this past year. It's a really special time, and I need to treasure the fact that it is just me and my gorgeous little girl right now (and Akinori, but you know what I mean). So although I really do want to be pregnant, part of me wonders how much of that is feeling pressured by everyone else I know being pregnant and some sort of competitive feeling about having a 2nd child first, or giving birth first or something stupid like that. Either way, I'm definitely in a better place about the situation than I was a few weeks ago. Whatever will be, will be, and I am okay with that. Just call me Zen master, if you like.

Oh my gosh! I can't believe I nearly forgot! I got a call today from the company in Osaka that throws me lots of juicy translating bones, and apparently there might be a big project coming up in March that they want me to do a part of. So yeah for income, but even better...it's a convoluted project and they want to explain the process in person, so they will pay for me to travel to and from Osaka!! I'm thinking that I will try and work it so I can spend a few days there. Hopefully I can find someone to babysit Sara while I'm in my meeting with the company, and then we can hang out in Osaka for a few days. That would be so awesome!! Otherwise, I'll have to leave Sara in Nagano and at the most just go for one night, if not just for the day, which would not be so nice, but I'm not looking any gift horses in the mouth. You want to pay for me to go to Osaka? I'll take it!

And with that, I am going to clean up the cat puke that my cat has just left next to me on the sofa, and go to bed. Sweet dreams world!