I'm so excited!! Not only is my mom coming to visit at the end of this month, but now my aunt is coming too!! I can't wait! It will be so much fun!

Tonight my MIL (mother-in-law) called. The phone rang and I hesitated to answer it (cuz it is never for me) but decided to grab it. Hiroshi is working tonight so I was stuck! Not that I dislike MIL, but she doesn't speak English. And, my Japanese is extremely limited. Conversations with her are aweful experiences for me because I can't say anything and don't have the vocabulary to fit into the simple structures that I do know. Well tonight I talked to her for half an hour! I'm amazed! And there was actual communication.

Hiroshi always gets a kick out of this - his mom thinks I understand everything she says, when in reality it is like 30%. Today, I'm pretty sure it was 90%. Of course, Hiroshi doesn't believe me (I mailed him on his cell phone). But it is true! He'll call her tomorrow and check. I had to give him a full report about what we talked about.

I told her we were going to go there for New Year's and help her do the spring cleaning (Japanese do it before Jan 1st). I asked her to teach me how to make the special dishes Japanese people eat over the New Year holiday. We talked about FIL's health and SIL's overwork. Apparently she is also studying in addition to horrible Japanese work hours,... and this is the part I'm not sure about, but I think she's studying to be an optometrist. I also told her about aunt Donnie coming over with mom and what we were going to go and see. So I'm very proud of myself. This is like a momentous occassion!

Anyway, I'm super excited about Donnie coming (and mom too of course). I am going to haul my butt to bed now... I'm trying really hard to get more sleep. Doesn't always work that way, but at least I'll be off the net by midnight tonight. Whether or not I can sleep will be another matter (I'm rather hyper).