Too far behind!

Out of sheer laziness I have got myself way behind in posting the daily "happenings" here. There have actually been some really interesting things happening lately and I have thought many times about how I was going to word the blog entry for each interesting happening.... only then I decide to sit and read just one more chapter of my book in the wonderful autumn sun, or treat myself to a movie after working in the "big city" and my fingers just never seem to connect with the keyboard! For today here are a few pictures from a friend's visit last weekend. They stayed the night and it was great to catch up with them and meet their boy for the first time. My children are getting better at playing with small children and although they enjoy their company they have finally stopped asking me to get them another younger brother or sister!
During their visit I was once again reminded of the common Japanese way of putting children to bed - let them run wild for as long as they like and make comments like "you have brushed your teeth so you can fall over out of exhaustion anytime now". Granted they were staying in a different house, but by 11pm the one and a half year old was still doing a grand job of staying wide awake... my children had already been in bed for well over 2 hours!
Tomorrow another group of junior high girls arrive for 2 nights - they are one of the groups that were postponed due to the swine flu outbreaks. Here's hoping the first outbreak doesn't happen at my children's school while they are here.... so far there have only been 2 children in the whole school who have caught it and that was well over a week ago so things are looking hopeful (which means I have probably jinxed the whole school and they will all be sick within a week!). Fingers crossed there are no more outbreaks and fingers crossed my fingers actually make it to the keyboard a little more this week.