Sunflower Season

November 25, 2011

From My Father and Mother

For my easy delivery, my father gave me Kantsuuseki (貫通石), and my mother gave me four-leaf clover.

貫通石 is a stone obtained where a tunnel was completed. It is also known as a stone for praying easy delivery. (安産石)

My mother told me my father's story like this. When he completed to construct a tunnel, he grabbed one of the stones (more like rocks) faster than anyone else for me. It is kinda funny because it was the time when I was still a little baby! But at the same time, I felt how considerate he is and I am thankful to him.

As for the four-leaf clover, my mother was collecting four-leaf clovers while she was expecting me. She pressed and kept them.

Now they seem to be worried about me and also excited to see their grandbabies.

Thank you for praying my easy delivery.

Labels: Pregnancy

November 24, 2011

Close To The Due Date

I have been staying in the hospital for nearly two months. I am finally in the 33th weeks of my pregnancy. (almost 34th weeks)

About two months ago, I bled slightly when I was taking a rest in our house, so I headed to the hospital by taxi. Our babies were ok, but I was having uterine contraction at that time. (It was weak but short cycle.) Then I needed to be admitted to hospital.

I have been having medicine (tocolysis) intravenously for 24 hours to prevent premature births. I really want to get out from the hospital to breathe fresh air, but I need to be patient and to stay here a little more for our babies.

My due date is Jan 7th, but I will give birth within a month because of twinning according to my doctor.

Intravenous drip (tocolysis) will be taken off next week, so IF I have labor pains right after taking off the medicine, our babies might be born at the beginning of Dec!

I managed to get throughout gestation. I had heavy morning sickness, and then my kidney got damaged as the babies had grown and stayed in the hospital for a week in summer, then this time, I am hospitalized for long periods.

The things I experienced during my pregnancy were not so easy. So now I feel the due date is FINALLY coming.

My husband and I will be dad and mom soon. I am getting excited to see our babies.

Labels: Pregnancy

July 20, 2011

Change

This year, I got married in Feb and I knew I got pregnant at the beginning of May. What's more, we are having twin babies!

Now I am in the 15th week of my pregnancy, and I've been having really heavy morning sickness since I found I'm pregnant. I cannot eat or drink anything at times and get intravenous fluids in some cases.

One day, I was almost in dehydration from vomiting. I felt really weak and dizzy when I headed to the hospital by taxi. I got intravenous fluids as always. My husband also came to the hospital and I felt relieved when I saw his face. I knew he came here although he was having busy job.. then I said "I'm sorry." But he said to me like "It's okay...Because we are family." I was moved and almost cried.

Even though I've been suffering from the morning sickness, when I imagine ourselves (me and my husband) raising our kids, I get excited to have our babies. So I want to get over this bad morning sickness.

In 2011, my life is changing a lot. I look forward to our future.

January 05, 2011

Couple Dice!?

When I went shopping with my fiancé, he called me and said, “Look at these funny dice!”

It’s dice for determining housework.

I do most of our housework, and we have never quarrelled with it. But we got interested in those dice, and he bought three of them.

【COOK】 I COOK / YOU COOK / TOGETHER / ONE MORE
【WASH】 I WASH / YOU WASH / TOGETHER / ONCE MORE
【CLEAN】 I CLEAN / YOU CLEAN / TOGETHER / ONCE MORE

On the day we bought them, he asked me like “Let’s roll for it!” after the dinner. We took “WASH” version, and he played it first and got “ONCE MORE”. Then I did and got “YOU WASH”. I was like “Yeah~”. After he washed all dishes, he asked me to brew coffee. Then we took “COOK” version. He played it and got “I COOK”. I got another “Yeah~~~” ;-)

It’s just dice but kinda exciting. The dice determine our role for housework, so we just follow it.

No more fight for housework for any couples!? Maybe!

January 04, 2011

Becoming a Bride

My wedding is coming in about a month. We’ve been preparing for it.

At the end of last year, I went back to my hometown and spend my time with my family. But I came back to Tokyo on New Year eve to be with my fiancé and visited his family on New Year.

It was my first time not to be with my family on New Year. My mother said, "You are becoming a bride…" she seemed to somewhat missy. So did I, although I’m happy to have my own family.

On our marriage registration paper, his father and my father also signed it for authentication.

I’m getting married.

December 11, 2010

Christmas Tree

My fiance asked me out like, “Let’s go to buy a Christmas tree.”

We live kinda tiny apartment, so I imagined we would buy a little tree (30cm or so), but he said, “I want a big one like 150cm." Wow, I was dreaming to get such a big tree when I was a little!!

One problem is where to set it in our tiny room??? Well, who cares! It’s gonna be fun!

There were several Christmas trees in shops, and we found the one we would imagined.

We decorated it with many ornaments by listening to Christmas songs. We also hanged a bear of Swarovski which we received as a gift, and a small Santa boot! Isn't is good idea?

Christmas is coming soon...

August 09, 2010

Engagement

When we were holding hands and watching fireworks (Edogawa-ku Hanabi), he put an engagement ring on my finger and said, “Will you marry me?”

Although we were planning our wedding and finding our new apartment, I got surprised when he said that. But of course I said “Yes”.

That was my birthday.

June 09, 2010

Nice Morning Greetings

When I was exchanging morning greetings with a Canadian client over the phone, he said like this, “I’m very GENKI. Very GENKI because I’m now talking with you.”

How nice to be told by the regular client. Even though I need to take care of complicated works for him, that words make me work harder for him and even for others.

Why don’t we start a day with nice morning greetings?

May 29, 2010

Wedding Harmony

My friend Shirabe had a wedding party today.

Since her father is a Christian minister, she grew up with music. And now, she is a Jazz singer. The groom is also a big fun of music, especially funk and Afro-American music.

They are so much alike. I mean, their interests, and each of their face, and life style. And music made them become a couple.

At the wedding, instead of reading "The Wedding Vow", she sang it with her own arrangement for him as surprise. That was so touching...

---------------------------------------------

I take you to be my constant friend,
my faithful partner and my love
from this day forward.
In the presence of God,
our family and friends,
I offer you my solemn vow
to be your faithful partner
in sickness and in health,
in good times and in bad,
and in joy as well as in sorrow.
I promise to love you,
to support you in your goals,
to honor and respect you,
to laugh with you and cry with you,
and to cherish you
for as long as we both shall live.

--------------------------------------------

Congratlations, Shirabe!!!

May 28, 2010

Wedding in Hawaii

My ex-coworker Maiko had a wedding ceremony in Hawaii on May 22. 8 of her coworkers attended it! We are not only coworkers, but also we are really close friends :-)

On the first day of our arrival in Hawaii, we went shopping to buy a wedding gift, Hawaiian dresses Muumuu for ourselves, and also a birthday present for Mari who would be having her birthday at the end of May. (Luckily, the May birthday girl Mari would arrive next day, so we could buy it and plan the birthday party as surprise!)

Oh, when I saw the green signs and listened to car radio after arriving in Hawaii, I thought back to the American life when I was in Seattle in 2004…

Anyway, choosing Muumuu was really fun! All of us were excited a lot. We tried to wear several kinds of Muumuu and also asked each of us to wear some Muumuu. It was like real dress-up doll!!

But Mari and I are petit, so all American size Muumuu (of the shop) were too big and too long… I asked a clerk to bring a smallest size of any colors, but any dresses did not fit me unfortunately. Oh no… we went to another shop to buy two below-knee Hawaiian dresses (not Muumuu) for Mari and me. It was cute, so it was Okay. But I wished I would be taller like others :(

We also went to a restaurant Mariposa for lunch. It was open air, and we could eat at the terrace. The view was awesome. We could see Alamoana Park and blue ocean from the terrace. We felt fresh air and enjoyed a feeling of freedom. The food was also great.

On May 22, all we dressed up with Muumuu to attend Maiko’s wedding. We were planning to go to the chapel, Diamond Head Anela Garden Chapel, with 2 Taxies, but the hotel we stayed arranged one limousine for us! Oh my god, so gorgeous to take the limo!! We were kinda worried about the fare, but it was cheap enough than we expected. (Total is USD25 for about 20 mins or so.)

Why not take the limo!!! You can imagine how much we got excited ;-) We were shooting to take the pictures in the limo.

It was perfect day for wedding. Bright sunshine and blue sky. When Maiko showed up wearing white dress, we got more excited. She was so beautiful. When they were exchanging wedding vows, she got tears, and we got also moved to tears.

After that, we went to a private house where all Maiko’s family was staying to have a home wedding party.

It was big enough and beach was in front of the house! Nice view and so relaxing. Being outside was really refreshing. Feel the wind seeing blue ocean with good food and Hawaiian music… We enjoyed the moment and conversation with all together till night. It was such a homey party.

Speaking of homey atmosphere, the groom changed his tuxedo to T-shirt, and he was even taking a nap on the sofa during the party! haha…he should have been tired to prepare food (He is a chef.) or some things for the party and for their wedding.

Next day, before going to Waikiki beach, we went to a famous shop for pancake

“Egg ‘n Things”. There were so many people waiting as I heard, and we could go in after one hour waiting. Very rich cream was on it, but all we were starving and liked it :-)

On the beach, we thought we would take a dip in the sea a little bit, but actually we got soaked catching sea waives! It was really salty and I felt hurt in my nose and eyes. But it was a lot of fun!!

At the night, we dressed up a little bit and had a birthday party for Mari at cheesecake factory. She did not know anything about our plans like birthday present and birthday cake. Wasn’t it great to have a birthday party in Hawaii?

When we almost finished our dinner, one lady just came to our table and said, “Happy birthday” to Mari. It was so nice of her.

We also went to Diamond Head. It was sunny day and very hot in Diamond Head. The view from the top was beautiful.

It was my first time to go to Hawaii and I really enjoyed it. Now I know why many people are going there :-)