the weather has been really nice this week like spring (or kinda getting hot already) compared to last week's freezing weather. we've been going to the park a lot and enjoying the weather :)

今週はもう春っぽい良い天気で（もうちょっぴり暑い感じ）先週の寒い天気は嘘みたい！なので今週はカイと一緒に毎日のように公園に行って楽しんでいます。＾＾

he's been riding his trike like a pro now ;) these last few weeks, he really 'got it' and has been going fast and pedals endlessly all over the place.

最近いきなり三輪車の乗るのがプロになりました！この２週間くらいで、ずっーとペダルも上手にこげて、どんどん遠いところまで乗ってしまいます。

on the way home from grocery shopping...i think the sunset makes not so great scenery, beautiful ;)

買い物の帰りの信号待ち。夕日ってあんまり奇麗じゃない景色でもビューティフルにしてしまうのが凄い！笑

when the weather was nice, we went to the park with friends.

天気が良かった日にお友達と公園で遊んできました。

three of them got along well and had fun playing with each other.

3人みんなで仲良く遊んでくれました。＾＾

kai was checking out all the airplanes in the sky while he was on a swing for the longest time!

カイはブランコに乗りながら次々と飛んでくる飛行機を見つけてはじっくりと見ていました。息子君と娘さん、一緒にカイと遊んでくれてありがとう！また今度もよろしくね！＾＾

...and green grass.

...and lamp post+birds.

he loves mandarines and now he wants to peel them by himself.

やっぱり「みんみ」が大好き！ちゃんと自分でむいて食べてます。＾＾

bought 2 boxes of "cuties" on sale and he eats them everyday!

「キューティーズ」という名前のカリフォルニアみかんをセールで一箱$2.99（いつもは$9.99)でお買い得だったので二箱買っちゃいました！毎日食べてます。＾＾

we have been so bad about taking care of our backyard and now it's full of weeds! but he is having fun with playing soccer...

庭は雑草ですごい事になっちゃってますが、カイはサッカーをして楽しんでいます。私たちは毎週草むしり中　＾＾；

saw a pretty rainbows after the all-day rain. it's very subtle but there were 2 rainbows, you can kinda see it on the outer edge.

朝からずっーと雨、夕方にやんでくれて虹がみれました。見えにくいけど外側にうっすらとした虹がもう一つ。

we went on a walk around the neighborhood few days ago. now kai is in charge of koko and i'm in charge of dede + camera. doesn't it look like he's about to cause trouble? ;)

この間、近所を散歩してきました。どうやらカイはkoko係で私がdeedeeとカメラ係。＾＾ カイは一体何を企んでいるのやら、ちょっとあやしい表情。笑

i think koko was not too happy about getting dragged by kai every where. koko probably wanted to have a peaceful walk. poor koko...

ココはカイにあっちこっち引っ張られてかなりのありがた迷惑状態。＾＾；きっと穏やかな散歩に行きたかったんだと思うけど、ちょっと可哀想だったかな。

it's that time of the year and i see these yellow flowers around the neighborhood again.

また家の周りで可愛い黄色の菜の花が見える季節になってきた。

there are tons of sheep near by our house all of a sudden and it happens here and there. i heard that the city rents sheep from the local farmers "mow the lawn" in some empty fields. i'm not sure if it's really true but i guess that's a very green way of doing that and they look cute especially the little babies running around ;)

家のそばの空き地にたくさんの羊が突然現れました。噂によると市が農家から草を食べてもらうようにと羊をレンタルするみたいです。本当かどうかは詳しく分かりませんが、本当にそれならエコでいいですよね！羊は見るのも可愛いし（おまけに私は羊年　^_-）、ちいさな赤ちゃん羊達も可愛かったです。

daniel brought me home a bouquet of flowers from work the other day.

先日ダニエルが仕事で使わなくなった花のブーケも貰ってきてくれました。

this is the whole bouquet ;)

これが全体のブーケ。

it's been raining here and finally kai wore his rain boots for the first time!
(i used toycamera analogcolor app to make it like toycamera picture on this one)

最近天気が悪くて雨ばっかり...でもカイははじめて長靴を履きました！
(toycamera analogcolorというフリーのアプリを使ってトイカメラ風にしてみました）

we have the other "little" trouble maker in the house! when i saw this huge tp mess, i just gave up on cleaning right away 'cuz she already did the damage, so i decided to go get the camera instead ;)

家のもう一人（匹）の小さなトラブルメーカー。このトレペのいたずらを発見した時はやっぱりビックリ！でももうここまでやられたらしょうがないので、すぐ掃除するのは諦めてカメラを取りに行っちゃいました。＾＾；

looks like i got a very special package ;)

スペシャルパッケージが来たみたい...(^_-)

yes, this "package" make silly faces and...

でもこのパッケージは変な顔したり...

does a peek-a-boo too but he is too big to really "hide" in the box ;) as you can probably guess, he fell off after this on to the kitchen floor :P

「いない　いない　ばぁー」もやったりします。でも最近は大きくなりすぎて箱の中には隠れられないのですがね！多分、予想つくと思いますがことあと箱に入ったまま後ろに倒れて泣きました。＾＾；

↓it's so funny 'cuz it really happens daily ;)

↓これ見て超ウケちゃいました。だってほんとに毎日こんな感じです。(^_-)

kai's #1 favorite food is salmon flakes + rice lately.

カイの大好物はシャケフレークとご飯です。簡単な物が好きで助かってます。＾＾；

yum! yum!

おいしくモグモグ。

when he can't scoop the rice with spoon, he uses his fingers to pick them all up.

最後の方スプーンでご飯粒を上手くすくえなくなったら指で最後まで全部食べます。

when he is done, he says "bye bye rice!" he completed two bowls of salmon + rice this morning!

全部食べ終わったら「バイバイ　ライス！」っていいます。最近すごい食べっぷりで2杯食べました！

when i was driving, saw a light colored sunset sky and had to take a picture! i was very lucky that i had my camera with me ;)

運転していたら薄い色の奇麗な夕日と出会ったので思わず写真を撮ってしまいました。たまたまカメラ持ってて良かった〜　＾＾

*** i found flip clock screen saver for windows and mac os 10.5 leopard, you can download it free here.

*** ウィンドウズ用とマック OS 10.5 (leopard)用のフリップ　クロックを見つけました！もしよかったらここでダウンロードしてくださいね。

i got super excited to find out that there was a newer version (for mac 10.6 snow leopard) of my favorite screen saver, flip clock! i just love the simplicity and practicality of the design. you can get your free copy of flip clock here if you like :)

私の大好きなスクリーンセーバー、フリップ　クロックの新しいバージョンを発見！早速インストールしちゃいました。＾＾昔によくあった「パタン」と数字がかわる時計とシンプルなデザインが面白くて好きなんです。もし良かったら、フリーのフリップ　クロックここでダウンロードしてくださいね。

↓kinda related to the fireworks post... kotori-san sent me this awesome pika pika project (in japan) you tube link and it is just amazing!!! i guess they used pen lights to do this but i can't imagine how long they took to make this movie! wow.

↓花火のコメントでことりさんが素敵なpika pika projectというyou tubeのリンクを教えてくれました。これは凄いです！一体、ペンライトだけでどうやってこんな事ができたのか、どのくらいの時間と手間がかかって作ったのか？クエスチョンはいっぱいですが、凄いなぁ〜　カッコいいし！

he LOVES to play with the cars and like to put them in a straight line (very intersting isn't it?). he loves to watch the movie "cars" and of course, that's his favorite movie too!

カイはミニカーで遊ぶのが大好き！なぜが窓の横でストレートの線に並べるのが特に大好き。もちろんカーズの映画が今一番のお気に入りで真剣に見ちゃいます。＾＾

looks all good and done! but usually he drops them all on the floor and repeat this activity for hours!

よし！終わった〜　★＾＾でもこの後ぐちゃぐちゃにして全部フロアに落としてまた一人でやり直しています。よく飽きないで何回もやってます。＾＾；

sometimes, it gets really foggy outside in the morning and you can't really see a block away! it looks pretty + serene but it kinda dangerous to drive :P　it goes away by around 10 am.

この辺ではときどきやたら霧が多い日朝があります。玄関から外に出てをみるとこんな感じ。なんとなく空想的な雰囲気がしちゃうけど運転する時はすぐ先が見えないのでちょっと危ない　＾＾；　でも１０時くらいにはもう霧はなくなっちゃいます。

merry xmas to everyone! hope you have a great holiday season :)

i'm not a big fan of muti-colored decorations, so i just decided to do red + silver.

今年はシンプルに（って毎年かも...笑）レッドとシルバーのデコレーションにしました。このクリスマスツリーは安い所を探して＄２０ドル（DIYのお店で切って売ってあるやつ）で高さは約２m３０cmです。家の中はもみの木のいい匂いがしてクリスマスって感じが漂ってます。＾＾でも木のニードル（葉っぱ）が落ちるので掃除機かけるのは楽しくないんですけどね　^_-

he picked daikon radish for the first time in the veggie field. :)

カイは大根抜きにも挑戦しました！

being a such a little helper.

一応お手伝いがんばり中＾＾

the longest daikon radish!

一番長くて大きかった大根。

picked about 100 of them...so we washed, dried, and pickled them so they last longer.

１００本位収穫。サラダで食べたりしましたがあり過ぎなので洗って、干して、たくわんにしちゃいます。

explored veggie field around the second house.

セカンドハウスの畑の周りを探検、八ヶ岳がバックです。

rice field before harvest.

収穫前のお米。

this is after　(at the different field), they dry the stock afterword like a little hut.

違う畑ではもう刈ってあったりも。

we made kai ride the tractor...but of course when i started taking pictures, he cried! :P

トラクターに乗せてみました。もちろん写真を撮りはじめたら泣きはじめてくれたのでこんな写真です。＾＾；

the next day after breakfast, ellyssa + kai played together in the backyard with leaves.

次の日の朝食後、エリサちゃんとカイは庭で一緒に落ち葉で遊びました。＾＾

they went crazy!

もう落ち葉だらけで凄い事になっちゃいました。

↑click to enlarge pics / クリックで拡大

looks like they are little lewis + clark ;)

二人で探検、何を探しているのかな？

a little break with apple juice, they both are in same position and made me laugh!

遊び終わった後はリンゴジュースをで一杯, 同じ格好しながら飲んでる！＾＾

think they had a really good time with each other today! :)

今日はエリサちゃんと一緒に遊べてよかったね！　良い思いで作れたかな？　＾＾

i asked BabeEllycious family all of a sudden "do you wanna come over this weekend?" and they said " yes!" so they came over to second house after work from mie prefecture and arrived around 10 pm. we went to our favorite pub and had few pints of guiness to start! ;)

家の得意な突然プランでBabeEllyciousファミリーに「週末、来る？」と聞いたら「うん、行く！」という事になりました。＾＾ 仕事が終わってから四日市から着てくれたので到着したのは１０時頃。とりあえず行きつけのパブにギネスを一杯飲みにいってきました。

this is the irish pub called bull & bear near second house.

八ヶ岳にあるIrish Pub, Bull & Bear, 12時過ぎまで飲みながら話しちゃいました。＾＾

i happened to have my camera in the car on the way back home from errands. i got lucky and took some beautiful sunset pictures from the freeway.

たまたま買い物の帰りにカメラを持っていたので帰宅途中に夕焼けの写真をとりました。これは裏道のハイウェイからとった綺麗な色の景色...今日はラッキーな時間帯に帰りました。＾＾

loving the pretty colors...blues, greys, and yellow ( i think that what i'm gonna use for kai's 2nd b-day party color scheme :)

このブルー、グレーと黄色の組み合わせがすごく好き！　カイの２歳のバースデーパーティの色のテーマはこれでいこうと思っています。（この色の恐竜テーマかな？）

we have tons of windmills on the hills around the house to make electricity. they are prettier to look at during the sunset rather than during the day for sure!

家の周りにある丘には風力発電のための風車がすごーくたくさんあります。もちろん、夕焼けのなかでの風車のほうか昼間にみる風車よりもずっと綺麗です。

somebody left (or threw away) this old boat in the field in our neighborhood! it was very random and really happened over night. who would do such a thing! but i noticed today that it was gone so i think the city or sheriff took care of it. thank you!

誰かが近所のフィールドに古いボートを今週の始めに置いて（捨てて）いきました。いきなりボートが
捨ててあったので、はっきり言って見てびっくり！誰がこんな事するんだろうね〜とダニエルと話したりしていたら今朝なくなっていました。どうやら近所の人たちがいっぱいクレームをだしたので、市か警察の人達が方付けてくれたみたいです。

spotted this dragon fly in the garage, what pretty colors... terquioise and chocolate brown (like our wedding color scheme). i haven't seen this big of a dragon fly in a while and makes me really think that fall is coming soon (even tho it's super hot outside, 104 F!!!).

ガレ–ジのフロアでトンボを発見！　ターコイズとチョコレートブラウンの色がすごくキレー！（ちなにもこの組み合わせはウェディングのカラーコンビネーションでした＾＾）　普通のこの辺でよく飛んでいるトンボより、かなりサイズが大きいです。トンボを見ると秋がもうすぐそこなんだと思うけど、この熱さでは（今日は４０度）全然秋という感じがしません。ーー；　それにしても今日はあつー！

biked around the neighborhood (just a bit over 4 mile). it was pretty hot and towing kai adds extra like 50lbs does't help the situation :P but i should try to bike around 6 miles next time!

近所の回りを自転車でぐるっと... 今日は7km位でした。太陽はギラギラと暑いし、カイをバイクトレイラーで入れてひっぱるのもエキストラ約２５kg、長く乗るとだんだん重くなってくるような... でも次回は目指せ１０km！

i decided to clean the backyard today (tools, sprinkler pipes and such) and i brought my phone and a cup of coffee and sat down on a chair... wow, happens to be all yellow! LOL i really didn't mean to do that so i thought that was pretty silly...i had to take a picture ;)

right outside of where i live, there's this random trains "parked" on the railroad that does not move at all and goes for miles! and you know, the trains has tons of graffiti on them but this one of the 2 mice always catches my eyes when i drive by and i think they are cute ;) not sure what they are doing but it's a little different than usual random letters.

these trains looks kinda interesting...looks like they are to move livestock around? like chickens in cages or something? well, when i have more time, i wanna go take more pictures of the inside and around them more. i'll keep you posted on this one.

meet our new addition around the kitchen sink, simplehuman sensor soap pump. ok, it might not be 'that' exciting to most people but it is to me... this was one of those things i always thought it was cool and eyeing of it for a quite a while and i finally ran into it on clearance rack! so i knew it was my time to finally buy one ;)

i like simplehuman cuz their product has such an awesome clean line design (just my liking!), not to mention, love their trash cans and that's what we use mostly in our house. my fav. trash can for the bathroom is grocery bag can and for the kitchen is butterfly step can.

hopefully i didn't bored you with 'trash can' topic today!

it's been nice out so we've been going on a walk daily around the neighborhood. i like how kai thinks he is walking deedee by holding her leash ;)

flowers around the neighborhood. i do like both of the pink ones (especially the circular one) but i have no idea what they are called. anyone know the name??

our backyard has been just dirt (no landscaping yet :P) but with a little bit of rain and not taking care of it made it full of weeds! it's actually weird to see that it's green, almost feels like we have nice grass ;)

it was cloudy today so we decided do some work... pulled some big/tall weeds and spray the weed killer in the backyard, hopefully it does something...

* this is deedee roaming and sniffing around before we sprayed the weed killer.

i've been missing rain cuz obviously we don't get as much rain as in portland. so when it's raining, i would be "oh cool. it's raining!" i know i might be a wired person but totally makes me feel like i'm "back home."

but i guess living here for about 2.5 years, seems like i'm becoming one of those "california" person. when it's rainy out, i feel kind of a drag to go do errands, i think it's more that i have kai, i have to protect him from getting wet! and i totally feel that 44F outside is cold and i have to bundle up to go outside! i'm sure i would've been going crazy and super cold if there was 2 ft snow for about 2 weeks like just happened in portland. :P

*some rain drops i saw on a rosemary branch in the front yard.

we finally decided to buy the keuring coffee maker. my friend, trish bought it a while back and she's been recommending me ever since ;) i tried it at her house once and i loved it!

i was actually getting tired of wasting the coffee in a pot at the end of day or having to re-heat the coffee in the mid-afternoon (i guess i was a bit lazy). but no more of that now! i can get the fresh hot coffee at all times!

i do love those "k-cups" coffee/tea but i drink coffee a lot and i know that will add up $$$ in the the long run. so to avoid it, i've been experimenting to get my perfect cup by using the reusable filter that came with the set. after tons of grinding, packing, and brewing, think i finally got it, yay! would anyone like to join me for some afternoon coffee?

finally we got blinds installed throughout the whole house today. it's so much nicer to have blinds after 2 months of living with no privacy and proper shading. i swear, old towels on the windows weren't doing so much in this triple digit weather out here.

we've got few new things around the house. more to come later.

on the other hand, kai can go cute to scream in 60 seconds!

got keys today! yay, but now we get to seal the tile and granite ;(

we went our home orientation today to see how things are and did the walk through of the house. this is what they did for us, putting the "red carpet." it was cheesy but was thoughtful i guess. we are so excited now that we saw the house pretty much all finished inside and out. looks great besides this stupid purple front door and few things here and there, yes, we are very picky :P

we got curious so we drove by our new home this afternoon. it looks like they are working on the front landscape and the exterior paint was still blotchy, so not done. the only thing we both don't like about the house is the color of front door. it's like dark lavender-ish color and totally out of place! we totally wanna paint it, oh and i guess we don't like the fake shutters on the back of the house too. backyard is a decent size and we have to landscape it sometime...it'll probably be a while to finish that!

we bought this house today and it's a tax day so we'll never forget the day! i think it's a good "first home" and we're definitely excited but the idea of "home owner" haven't sunk in yet. i wish it's as cool as the modern home we looked at few weeks ago but they are a little too $$ for us right now... that's still our dream home and we'll live in one of those in the future tho! anyhoo, this our house is still being built and painted etc. so i'll post some pics later when it looks a bit better but til then, here is the floor plan.