work, living expenses, and Halloween prep
another week at my daycare and everything's gone topsy turvy.. remember how we were working so hard on the open house thing that the director wanted? well, we had a "rehearsal" on Thursday, and well, everything started all right, but fell apart after an hour or so since the kids were a bit out of control. suffice to say, the director didn't like what she saw, and decided to chuck the whole thing out the window. ~_~;
so, back to square one.
now, the idea is to really turn it into what it was named in the first place: an "Autumn Festival". everything got changed in the program that we made before except the morning circle time that we do with the kids every day. instead of showing how we conduct our lessons with the kids, we will just have a bunch of "games" set up. my idea that i wanted to pitch to the director was that instead of just one teacher playing games with all the kids, we should have a festival like the Mother's Day Bazaar that Kay's old preschool in Taipei held way back in May with the game booths. i told the other staff about it, and they said that they would help me talk to the director about it. i'm a little worried that the director won't be able to envision what we as the teachers see, but i guess i should have a little faith in the staff to see if they can get my idea through to her. ah well, if all else fails, i'll just follow their lead, which i'm pretty good at anyway, and i'm also flexible enough to do what needs to be done at any given moment unlike some "volunteers" they have helping there... ~_~ sigh, i won't get into that since Aunt Flow decided to come early this time, and she always makes me rant more than i usually do... :P
anyway on a side note, our living expenses here have actually started to balance out now that we've settling into things. fortunately, things here aren't as expensive as we'd originally thought. of course, you can't compare prices here to prices in Taipei, but so far, we're spending less than 10,500 yen a week for groceries and our utilities bills this month aren't that bad (electricity: 4,391 yen; water: 2,255yen). the only thing that's gotten a bit expensive here is the natural gas (5,041 yen) we use to heat up our water. other than that, most of the expenses are under what we had anticipated, or that's what hubby says at least. :) with me working now and Kay at school for most of the day, we don't really have time to so much shopping or even to just have three meals at home now. hubs is the only one at home the most, but he eats like a bird some times, and doesn't really need a real meal to be happy. some of the lunches that he makes himself consist of a packet of nattou, a raw egg mixed together in a bowl of rice. although, he does like to snack throughout the day, so it's not like he's starving himself ^_^; hopefully, things will stay the same as far as groceries go, but with Fall and Winter coming along, i'm sure that our electricity bill will be a lot more expensive in the next few months... ^_^;;
Halloween is just around the corner, so naturally, the English school i'm working for is going to hold a party! the daycare has decided to skip Halloween this year for some odd reason, but i'm still gonna try and do something special with the kids come Monday. maybe something crafty... haven't decided yet.
tomorrow is the English school's Halloween party, and i'm taking Kay along just so i can get pics of her dressed up in her pumpkin costume again ^_^ also, nobody is celebrating Halloween at all around here! her preschool didn't have anything going on, so i was kind of disappointed since Kay and i had such a great Halloween last year with our playgroup. so, i was so thrilled to hear that the English school was going to have a party! :D the owner actually asked me to bring Kay along since he has a daughter around the same age as Kay and she'll be at the party as well. :) although, it's going to be in the afternoon and ends around 7-8:00ish, so don't know how Kay will handle that time frame... i'm hoping she will be able to take a nap tomorrow or something, because i probably won't be able to handle a tantrum without blowing a gasket myself since Aunt Flow is here and tomorrow will be my heaviest, most tiring day of the cycle.. ~_~;; *crosses fingers*
we got a whole bunch of sweet potatoes today when i picked up Kay. she and the whole preschool went on their annual sweet potato digs all this week. i don't think any moms went on the trip, so no pics of it from me since i had to work. :( although, next Saturday (the 5th) will be her school's Omochi Tsuki. they'll be making mochi the traditional way, and we get to take them home afterward :) it'll be a fun event although hubby won't be going, because it's the beginning of a new month and he's always way busy around then :( as fun as it sounds, i still have to be careful with my time because i have to teach right after the event, so really gotta plan my time wisely. we'll probably end up leaving a bit early.
okay, time to head off to bed. got a party to prep for tomorrow! ^_^
so, back to square one.
now, the idea is to really turn it into what it was named in the first place: an "Autumn Festival". everything got changed in the program that we made before except the morning circle time that we do with the kids every day. instead of showing how we conduct our lessons with the kids, we will just have a bunch of "games" set up. my idea that i wanted to pitch to the director was that instead of just one teacher playing games with all the kids, we should have a festival like the Mother's Day Bazaar that Kay's old preschool in Taipei held way back in May with the game booths. i told the other staff about it, and they said that they would help me talk to the director about it. i'm a little worried that the director won't be able to envision what we as the teachers see, but i guess i should have a little faith in the staff to see if they can get my idea through to her. ah well, if all else fails, i'll just follow their lead, which i'm pretty good at anyway, and i'm also flexible enough to do what needs to be done at any given moment unlike some "volunteers" they have helping there... ~_~ sigh, i won't get into that since Aunt Flow decided to come early this time, and she always makes me rant more than i usually do... :P
anyway on a side note, our living expenses here have actually started to balance out now that we've settling into things. fortunately, things here aren't as expensive as we'd originally thought. of course, you can't compare prices here to prices in Taipei, but so far, we're spending less than 10,500 yen a week for groceries and our utilities bills this month aren't that bad (electricity: 4,391 yen; water: 2,255yen). the only thing that's gotten a bit expensive here is the natural gas (5,041 yen) we use to heat up our water. other than that, most of the expenses are under what we had anticipated, or that's what hubby says at least. :) with me working now and Kay at school for most of the day, we don't really have time to so much shopping or even to just have three meals at home now. hubs is the only one at home the most, but he eats like a bird some times, and doesn't really need a real meal to be happy. some of the lunches that he makes himself consist of a packet of nattou, a raw egg mixed together in a bowl of rice. although, he does like to snack throughout the day, so it's not like he's starving himself ^_^; hopefully, things will stay the same as far as groceries go, but with Fall and Winter coming along, i'm sure that our electricity bill will be a lot more expensive in the next few months... ^_^;;
Halloween is just around the corner, so naturally, the English school i'm working for is going to hold a party! the daycare has decided to skip Halloween this year for some odd reason, but i'm still gonna try and do something special with the kids come Monday. maybe something crafty... haven't decided yet.
tomorrow is the English school's Halloween party, and i'm taking Kay along just so i can get pics of her dressed up in her pumpkin costume again ^_^ also, nobody is celebrating Halloween at all around here! her preschool didn't have anything going on, so i was kind of disappointed since Kay and i had such a great Halloween last year with our playgroup. so, i was so thrilled to hear that the English school was going to have a party! :D the owner actually asked me to bring Kay along since he has a daughter around the same age as Kay and she'll be at the party as well. :) although, it's going to be in the afternoon and ends around 7-8:00ish, so don't know how Kay will handle that time frame... i'm hoping she will be able to take a nap tomorrow or something, because i probably won't be able to handle a tantrum without blowing a gasket myself since Aunt Flow is here and tomorrow will be my heaviest, most tiring day of the cycle.. ~_~;; *crosses fingers*
we got a whole bunch of sweet potatoes today when i picked up Kay. she and the whole preschool went on their annual sweet potato digs all this week. i don't think any moms went on the trip, so no pics of it from me since i had to work. :( although, next Saturday (the 5th) will be her school's Omochi Tsuki. they'll be making mochi the traditional way, and we get to take them home afterward :) it'll be a fun event although hubby won't be going, because it's the beginning of a new month and he's always way busy around then :( as fun as it sounds, i still have to be careful with my time because i have to teach right after the event, so really gotta plan my time wisely. we'll probably end up leaving a bit early.
okay, time to head off to bed. got a party to prep for tomorrow! ^_^