Letters on My Mind and Up My Sleeve

Dear California residents, We spent last Saturday morning cleaning your beach because it was Coastal Cleanup Day. Your welcome.  Were you there?

Dear kids, one of these days I'm going to come pick you up from school, and I'm going to have a garbage sack with me, and we're going to pick up trash on the way home, and maybe people will see us, and maybe they'll learn something, and you better learn something too, because I don't want to raise people who litter.

Dear adults who use public restrooms, every time I enter a public restroom and see a toilet that hasn't been flushed, I WANT to assume that it was a child, but I suspect that some of you adults are guilty too.  As my old mission companion used to say, "What the heck of that thing?!"

Dear Madelyn, FLUSH THE TOILET!!! (Nobody tell her I put this on here!  And while I'm at it, nobody mention that I posted on fb about her being grounded from skirts and dresses - she would kill me)

Dear Civil War Days at Tres Pinos, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much.  I apologize.  I was actually quite impressed, and Cora and I learned a lot on our field trip there.

Dear people who travel around doing Civil War reenactments, I admire your dedication and your knowledge.........and some of you are a little nuts;)

Dear 21st century, I'm glad I live here.  I know "times were simpler back then", but I don't want to wear a corset, and I don't want to sleep on boards or ropes, and I don't want it to take 4 days to do laundry.....I'm pretty sure that it will take 4 days to do laundry in hell.

Dear Joe, date-night at Auto Zone?  Sure, why not;)

Dear Mr. Rogers, there will never be anyone like you again for kids to learn from and imagine with.

Dear kids, I hope you never stop dancing.......except for when it's bedtime.

Dear everyone who likes Gangnam style, PSY is not just an American fad.  He is an extremely talented artist, and that song/video is an ingeniously crafted message to Korean society.  If you were a TRUE K-pop fan, you would understand this.  Remember this post where I introduced my friends to K-pop?  Yep, there's a link to another one of PSY's songs right there.  I'm proud to say that I was already a fan before he hit it big-time in the U.S.;)  (sometimes a fan has to just pat themselves on the back, ya know)

Dear Museum of Art in Monterey, thank you for having Family Day.  Thanks for the free admission.  Thanks for the free activities, including the sculpture project.  Who knew that newspaper and masking tape could be so much fun?

Dear Cora, smile so that people will think you had fun;)

Dear Art World, the line between artistic nudity and pornogrophy is a lot further back for me than it is for you....and you just keep moving it forward.  Slow it down people, I've got kids here who want to be artists.

Dear Bo (our dog), ever day you remind me more and more of Alex as a toddler.  Those were scary days.  Scary.

Dear Alex, thanks for growing up a little.  I like you a lot:)  Sorry you fell out of a tree the other day.  I'm a good mom, I swear.

Dear Joseph, your birthday is coming up next month.  I promise to not forget it because of Halloween this year.  Lego birthday party BEFORE Halloween - check.

Dear Halloween, you are so close I can taste you.  Why don't I have my costume yet?

Dear Halloween stores, I'll take one of everything.....is what I would say if I was rich.

Dear self, don't forget the Lego birthday party.

Dear Cora's science project on wind erosion, I definitely didn't already have enough sand on my floors from kids and a dog tracking it in from outside, so thanks for fixing that.

Dear Cora, I think it was awesome that you were able to point out the different forms of erosion at the beach when we went to clean it up for Coastal Cleanup Day.  I think this homeschooling thing is working out pretty good;)

Eating Humble Pie

I wanted to write this while it's still fresh in my mind.....and I still feel humble;)

Joe is a better person than me.

Maybe that doesn't surprise anyone, but it's true.  Sure, I have to put up with him when it comes to his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, but I can handle it.....plus he's gotten way better over the years.  But he has to put up with my meaness and impatience.  I'm not saying that I'm mean and impatient all the time, but it gets the better of me sometimes, and Joe has to deal with it.  I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that 90% of all the arguments we've ever had have been due to my impatience and meaness.  That doesn't seem like a fair trade-off.  I definitely have the better end of the deal.  I don't think he'd agree, but I think he's too much in love with me (and too nice) to look at this objectively;)

So, tonight I needed to take Joseph and Cora to the church for Cub Scouts and Activitiy Days at 6:30.  I told Joe that I'd take Alex and and Madelyn along with me so that he could go on a bike ride.  He left somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00.  At 6:15 I told everyone to go out to the car.....and then I discovered that I didn't have the keys to the car - Joe did!  AND, he hadn't taken his phone with him, so I couldn't call him.

I was mad.

In my head I kept telling myself not to be mad AT JOE, because it's not like he did it on purpose.  It was an honest mistake that I could have easily made myself.  Plus, he might get back soon, and then we'd only be a little late.  And even if he did, it wasn't the end of the world, right?

But I was still mad.

Part of the reason I was mad was because I felt embarrased.  We had forgotten about Cub Scouts last week, and WE were supposed to bring the treats for it.  I felt dumb that we were going to miss it a second time in a row, and leave the boys without a treat 2 times in a row, and we're new here, and I didn't want people to think that I'm THAT kind of person (totally unreliable).  Whatever.

Anyway, Joe got home at 6:10.  It takes about 6 or 7 minutes to get to the church, so we weren't going to be THAT late.  But what do I do?  I let my frustrations take over, and as soon as Joe walks in the door I say, "Did you forget something?!"  He starts saying sorry, I say something about him not having his phone either, and I brush him aside.  He says he wants to come with me to take them, and I say, "What for?" kind of rudely.  He says, "To spend time with you....but never mind."  And I head out the door.

Let's just say, karma is a....well, you know.

So I'm HURRYING Cora and Joseph out the door and into the car (I left Madelyn and Alex behind with Joe), and  I've started the car, and I feel like Joseph is being slow getting into the car, and I'm telling him to HURRY, and he's in now but the door isn't shut, and I'm telling him to HURRY and shut the door, and I start to back out of the carport, 'cause I'm in a HURRY apparantly, and Joseph hasn't shut the door yet, and then it hits the post on the carport.......

I put a small dent in the door of Joe's brand new car.

Now, if roles were reversed (and remember here, I'M the mean and impatient one), I'm sure I would have said something like, "How could you.....?"  "Why didn't you.....?"  "You should have......" - you know, something along those lines.

But Joe didn't.

Joe didn't say any of those things.  He didn't really say anything at all except, "It's okay", when I was apologizing again and again.  He didn't yell at me.  He didn't make me feel bad.  I know he was upset about the situation, but he didn't take it out on me.  Because that's Joe.  Because he's nicer than me, and more patient than me. 

Putting a dent in your husband's car door is WAY worse than accidently taking the car keys that your wife needs.  Seriously.  I'm a big turd.

Moral of the story - when I grow up, I want to be like Joe.

Dear Joe, I want you to know how much I love you, and how grateful I am that you put up with me, and how grateful I am for the kind and loving person that you are.  I do not deserve you (especially today), and you certainly do not deserve my mean and impatient ways.  I'm sorry about that.  I'm so, so, so very sorry.  I'll keep working on it.  In the mean time, hang in there, and know that I would wither up and die without you.  [insert appropriate movie quote or song of your choice, hehehe;)]

Didn't That Just Happen?

Lately, it's been Groundhogs Day around here.  I feel like I spend every day doing three things.

1) Unpacking boxes/organizing and cleaning.  Saturday was GORGOEOUS, and would have been the perfect day to explore.  We were sooooo tempted, but we just had too much to do.  We've made huge progress, but most of the time I feel like we're still living in chaos.  The best part (read: worst part) of this is that we will probably get done just in time to receive our other big shipment of household goods, and then we get to start all over again.  yay.

2) Helping Cora with schoolwork.  I am home homeschooling Cora this year, and I really think it is working out for us.  She can do most of it on her own, but my roll as her "learning coach" is a constant and all-day thing - answering questions, discussing subjects, helping with experiments, etc.  In some ways, it is much less demanding than I thought it would be, but it does limit what I can do during the day.

3) House-training a dog.  Aaaaahhhhhh!!!  You may recall how I rejoiced when I was done potty training my youngest kid.  You may recall how much I LOATH potty training.  And yet, here I am doing it again.  It takes constant vigilance, repetition, and a strict schedule......so, pretty much the same as a kid.  I feel like the older person who is so excited that they finally get to retire, and then a few months later they have to get a job as a greeter at Walmart to get by.  Okay, so that's a bit melodramatic, but seriously.....

Despite the monotony of most days (which, let's face it, is the same no matter where you live), we do love it here and are feeling at home here, and we've got some fun things planned in the near future.  Plus, unpacking and house-training the dog won't last forever.  Then I'll actually have time to read again, and bike, and maybe finish some scrapbooking.  Sure, that might happen.

I do miss Korea though.  It was inevitable;)  Some things that I miss are rather strange.  Like my fridge, for example.  Yep, my fridge in Korea was apparently the best fridge I've ever had, and the one I have here is maybe the worst.  That's a hard transition to make people!  On the plus side, I have a garbage disposal here.  Oh Blessed Garbage Disposal!

We miss the fantastic teachers that all the kids had last year, but it's not like they were going to get the same teachers this year anyway, right?

We miss the FOOD!  There are actually quite a few Korean restaraunts around here, although we have yet to find one that we feel is worthy to call itself a "Korean" restaraunt.  Even though the owners are Korean, they have Americanized their menus too much.  Ordering Bulgogi is akin to ordering a Beef Teriaky rice bowl.  Come on people!  The day we flew out of Korea, we had our last meal at a Korean restaurant right there in the airport.  I ordered Bulgogi Bibimbap, and Joe ordered the Kimchi rice.  It was soooooooo good, and we thought it was quite the send off - thanks for that Korea. We'll still be trying out more places here, but it's a dang good thing I learned how to make some of our favorite dishes.  Unfortunately, I can't make things like Odang, or Pizza School's Sweet Potato Pizza.  Total bummer.

I miss our neighborhood in Korea.  So much more interesting than a suburb......of course, we didn't have deer, turkeys, raccoons, and other such wild life running around our neighborhood in Korea, so I guess our suburb isn't too boring;)  Not to mention, I can see the ocean from my back yard!

And is it weird that I miss Alpha, when I have a Michael's here?  Alpha is like a office/craft store, but very small.  That was my little go-to store in Korea - we had a special relationship. 

And the fabric market:(  I haven't been to a fabric store here yet, because I don't have my sewing stuff yet, but I am not looking forward to it.  Talk about a down-grade.  I might have to get counseling for that.

Of course, we miss our friends most of all, as is the case with any place we move away from.  Thank you social media.  You are way too addictive, but you keep me connected to those I love.  Aaahhhh, the memories;)

There's other things I miss that I can't think of right now.  I don't LONG for Korea though, and it's highly likely that we'll actually move back there in a few years, so there's that. 

Right now it's time to see new things, and go new places, and make new friends and new memories, so that we'll have lots of things to miss when we move away from here.......just as soon as I finish unpacking;)

Lame Update

I've been having blogger's block lately.....that's a real thing, right?  But I figure I'd better give everyone a quick update, since I haven't really posted anything about our new place. 

Speaking of our new place, here it is.

 Those are wild turkeys out front - there's a large group of them that wander around our neighborhood.  We've also seen gophers, lizards, squirrels, lots of birds, and tonz of deer.  In addition to the wildlife, we have a lot of nice ammenities (all of the housing is privatized now, so they've fixed up the neighborhood a lot).  We've got a gym/indoor pool, and a large park that includes a dog park, volleyball court, basketball court, raquetball court, tennis court, horseshoe (court?), etc.  My kids just like the 3-story slide.

Things I still need to do:
1) Go to the gym
2) Unpack boxes
3) Make my lawn green

 Speaking of my lawn,  the kids have all been working on the yard.  Cora, especially, is a little bit obssessed, and is determined to have a green lawn, and a nice backyard - fine by me;)

 

The house itself is fine enough, and we have settled in quickly.  Our house now looks EXACTLY like the house we lived in the first time we were here, except it isn't a duplex, which is nice now that we have 4 noisy kids;)  My only complaint is that the shower head comes to my eye level, which means I have to squat a little to wash my hair.....of course, it's worse for Joe. 

Things that I've observed:
1) It's chilly here, which we like, but I only packed one jacket and a few pairs of long pants for each person.  We're surviving.....and acclimatizing.
2) The highways here are very littered.  It's sad, because this is such a beautiful state......well, most of it anyway.
3) This place is extremely bike friendly and dog/pet friendly.

Speaking of dogs, the other new addition in our lives, besides the house, is a dog.  I'm not really sure how it happened, to be honest.  The kids have been asking for years, to no avail.  I wanted a dog too, but had kind of been talking myself out of it for the past little while.  And then, BOOM, Joe (who had been the avid opposer) says, "Let's go to the shelter and look at dogs."  Huh?!!!  So off we went, and before we knew it, we had come back home with this.

She's super cute;)  A 3 1/2 month old miniature schnauzer mix.  We named her Bo.  The kids adore her.  I adore her.  JOE ADORES HER;)  She's just a baby, and I have been reminded again and again why I was supposed to be done after 4 kids.  But did I mention she's cute?  It's barely saving her right now, and I know that once she's been trained, she's going to make a really nice addition to our family. 

Things that are driving me crazy:
1) Trying to train a dog
2) Dropped calls, which are non-existent in Korea....plus, the pictures I take with my phone are even worse than the pictures I took with my old phone.
3) Sand everywhere - I am constantly sweeping up piles of sand in my house


Speaking of sand, we took the kids to the beach, and their first time playing in sand dunes.

Sand gets in so many places when you do that, but the kids LOVED it.

Things that are making me happy:
1) Two of our favorite hole-in-the-wall eating establishments are STILL HERE - Baldamero'ss Taco Shop and Jim's Chinese Restaurant.  So yummy:)
2) We have a fenced backyard - this is handy for children AND dogs
3)  This guy

Speaking of Joe, he starts his first Iraqi class today.  Send good thoughts his way:)