Settling In

Unpacking takes a long time, and we're still not done, but I finally took some pictures of our new place and decided to post them. We LOVE our new apartment, and the "village" we live in. Even though we live off of the main base, we have almost everything we need right here. We have our own pool, playground, library, and gym - everything within a 1-2 minutes walk, if not closer:) The best part is that we have our own little commissary (grocery store) that delivers the groceries to my apartment!!! The main commissary on the main base does not do this, so we are spoiled. One of the baggers here looks through a bag of coupons that he has as you are unloading your shopping cart, and finds coupons for you - sometimes I want to kiss him;) I am so much happier about recycling here because I can take out my recyclables every day instead of once a week (when it's only once a week, you inevitably forget on that one day, and your recyclables build up, and then you're tempted not to recycle as much). We have yet to discover much of our surrounding neighborhood, but there is, OF COURSE, a 7-11 not far from the main gate to our housing complex. You just can't survive without a 7-11 here! (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm actually serious. For example, Cora had a field trip, and I forgot to buy some stuff for her for a sack lunch. The commissary isn't open until after they leave for school, so I went to the 7-11 and got everything I needed). The kids love being here because they have friends who live here, and it's much easier to have regular playdates. Most of all, we love all the extra space we have here. It is a 5 bedroom apartment - kind of a weird layout, but that's okay, because it's not like we bought the place. Here's our entryway.

straight across from the front door is the Dining Room - the boys bedroom and master bedroom are off to the right.

then the Living Room

along the opposite wall of the diningroom/livingroom is our very long Kitchen, with the Laundry area at the end.

this is looking back from the laundry area

across from the laundry, separated by a wall from the living room, is this room - it's a modge podge of computers/piano/exercise equipment.

a look down the hall from the modge-podge room. the 2nd door on the right is the girls' room, the 1st door on the right is for me:)

I am a lucky girl, because the guest room doubles as my sewing/craft room.

complete with plenty of closet space. the bed is leaning up against the wall, so I have plenty of floor space when we don't have guests......which we have yet to have;)

on the left side of the hall is the kids bathroom

and across from the bathroom is a big storage closet

and finally, at the end of the hall is the playroom - behind where I'm standing to take this picture is a wall of closets. Oh, and the playroom is RARELY this clean.

Yes, we could have let all the kids have their own room, and that was the intent of the military when giving us a 5-bedroom apartment, but where is the fun in that. Plus, the kids LOVE having a playroom....and so do I:) We are still getting things arranged and in order, but already we feel at home here - more so than our last apartment. It was a good move.

We're Moving.....Right?

We've moved! After being here for a year, we were offered an apartment on base housing - not actually ON base, but a base housing village about 10-15 minutes from base. We're actually further from base then we were before, but the selling point was that this apartment is so much bigger then our old one.

We had to be out of the apartment on Thursday. On Wednesday we had our first set of movers come to pick up all the government furniture we're borrowing (couches, chairs, tables, beds, etc.) For some reason, they couldn't just have one set of movers come and get everything and move it. Instead, in the wisdom that is the military, they had to get the government furniture, check it in at their warehouse, then re-check out different furniture for our new place, even though it's all the exact same kind of furniture. Okay, whatever.

Thursday our other movers were supposed to come to get the rest of our stuff. But by 10:00am, when they still hadn't shown up, we started to worry. Joe called the housing office, but our housing counselor wasn't there. I'm not exaggerating here when I say that Joe was on the phone for almost 2 hrs, getting the runaround from one office to the next, trying to figure out what was going on. They finally transferred him to the transportation office, where it was confirmed that we did NOT have movers scheduled for us that day. Aaaaahhhhhhh! Apparently, we were supposed to schedule those movers ourselves, even though we specifically asked our housing counselor if we were supposed to schedule them, and she said NO and that she would take care of it. Nope.

So the transportation office told us to get over there as fast as we could to fill out paperwork, and they would see what they could do, even though it was highly unlikely that we'd be able to get movers that day. We went straight to the transportation office, only to be told that everyone had just left for lunch, and to come back in 1 1/2 hrs. Seriously? So then Joe and I are frantically loading our van with as much stuff as we can, thinking we're going to have to move ourselves - although, really, how they heck are we going to move a piano and an entertainment center down 13 flights? But still, we didn't know what else to do. As we're doing this, a moving company calls us and asks if we had gotten over to the transportation office to fill out the paper work. We said we had an appointment at 1:30. They said they could come that afternoon. Apparently, someone had called them BEFORE they went to lunch, and BEFORE we had even filled out paperwork for it. I don't know who it was, but THANK YOU!!!

So, miraculously, we got movers that same day. They didn't get there until 4:30pm though, and we were there until midnight cleaning. The movers delivered our stuff to our new apartment the next morning, on Friday. They were supposed to be there at 8:00am, because we had an appointment with our realtor and landlord to check out of our old apartment at 10:00am. Of course, the movers were late, and we had to push back our meeting, but it all worked out in the end.

After that was all over, I had to go straight into getting ready for the District Primary activity, which was the next morning. Not exactly the best time for it, but I didn't know I was moving when I set the date for the activity. I was up until 3:00am making name tags that I had NO IDEA would take me that long to make. By the time I realized how long it was going to take me, it was too late at night to call my counselor for help. But the activity was a fabulous success, so all is well.

Now I'm spending my days upacking boxes, and boxes, and boxes, and boxes, and boxes......you get the idea. Next post, I will tell you all the wonderful things about our new apartment, and post pictures, of course.

Inclement Weather

inclement: lacking mildness



This has been an interested year for weather in Korea. You might remember this blog post about the major snow storm we had here. Well, this month Mother Nature has had all kinds of fun. At the beginning of the month we had Typhoon Kompasu hit us. A category 1 storm, with winds up to 91 mph. It was very early in the morning (maybe 5am) when it came across Seoul. It woke me up, and I couldn't go back to sleep because of the noise. The windows were rattling and shaking pretty hard, and I thought for sure that our satellite dish would fly off the side of the bldg. However, we never lost power (just internet for about 4 days), and there was no damage around our neighborhood, other than a whole bunch of leaves and small branches blown down. In fact, during the worst of the storm, I looked out our window and saw a couple of people walking around down on the street below. So my conclusion was that the typhoon wasn't that big of a deal....until we went on base. The base got hit pretty hard, I assume because it has so many trees, and it doesn't have a bunch of high rises to protect them. There were about 300 trees on base that were either uprooted or broken in half. There were power lines down all over, and some people didn't have power for over a week (some were moved into hotels). There were broken windows, and other damage. Elsewhere in Korea, there was also damage, and three people were killed. Here are some pictures from on-base (I did not take these pictures).

An uprooted tree also uprooted this concrete staircase that was next to it.

I thought this was funny - someone used some broken up curb to put a cross next to this uprooted tree.

This is a Black Angus restaurant that had some damage.

We saw several trees like this that had been whipped around in the wind. They weren't uprooted or broken, but they left big holes next to the trunks.

Next up was the crazy rain we got this week. On Tuesday we got 10 or 11 inches (different sources said different numbers) of rain in 6 hrs. - it was crazy! Right during the middle of it, I had to go down and pick up the kids from the bus stop. Luckily, Joe was home early, so I didn't have to bring Alex down with me. The bus was 1/2 hr. LATE! (I didn't know why at the time, but it was because of flooding on base). The rain was coming down sooooo hard. I was soaking wet from my thighs down. My umbrella held up for almost 20 minutes, but then it just couldn't take it anymore, and it started raining on me underneath the umbrella. When the kids finally got there, they were soaking wet on the bottom of their legs too, and begging me to play in the rain. I don't ever let them play in the rain here like I did in Texas, because the air is so dirty here. But I figured we were all wet anyway, so what the heck. They had a blast.

One of Madelyn's sandals almost floated away down the gutter.

Again, this freak rain storm did not affect us much, other than full gutters and the need for baths. It was a completely different story on base. There was major flooding on parts of base. Here are some pictures (again, I did not take these). This is a street, not a river:)

Here's the street in front of the middle school. The further you go down the street, the deeper the water is, which is in front of the elementary school. These roads were closed off, which made it interesting for parents picking up kids from school.

The sewers filled up fast and couldn't contain all the water. Manhole covers were lifted up and off.

This is the parking lot by the bus station. We are sooooooo glad that Joe did not drive the car to the bus station to go to work that day.

Here is that same parking lot a couple of hrs. later. You can just see the tops of those cars. Tragic.

There was flooding all around Seoul, but I don't know the full extent of the damage, other then that 12,000 people had to evacuate their houses, and a lot of people lost power, and 1 person died. The aftermath was a little ugly on base.

On the wall in front of this truck (below), you can see a sign in the background - it says "Flood Area".

Anybody need a raft?

Okay Mother Nature, what's next?

Can't Live Without Them

Cora loves to create things, ALL the time. The other day she had out her stamps and papers, and she made up a board game....and then she wanted me to play it with her. Playing a made-up board game, in which rules are kind of made up as you play along, is not really my cup of tea, and Cora knows that. However, I swallowed the instinct to run, and agreed to play with her. After we were done, Cora thanked me for playing with her and said, "Did you absolutely hate it?" I replied, with a smile, "Hate is a strong word." She quickly retorted, with a smirk of her own, "I know. It was a strong game!"

Our internet was out for a few days, and I had an appointment scheduled for someone to come out and fix it. He was late, and while I was waiting I snoozed off in our big recliner. The next thing I know, I wake up, and there's this guy sitting at our computer (I knew right away who it was because he'd fixed our internet before), and Madelyn and Alex are standing next to him just chatting away. Apparantly, I had not woken up to him knocking on the door, and Madelyn had graciously let him in herself. The best part was, I was wearing a skirt, and the way I was lounging in the recliner was not exactly lady-like. I had a good talk to Madelyn afterwards about how only Mommy and Daddy let people into the house, and next time she should wake me up. It was not my finest hour.

We'd had a problem for a while with JT's attitude towards Madleyn. He was always saying things like, "I don't want to sit by Madelyn", "I don't like Madelyn", and "Madelyn bugs me". We talked to him over and over again about how he needs to be nice and loving to his sister, that it hurts her feelings when he says things like that, and that he should think about how it would make him feel if someone said those things about him. Nothing worked. It was driving us crazy. Then, all of the sudden, things changed. He started playing with her at home, wanting to sit by her in the car, and I even caught him hugging her a few times. What made the difference? School started, and they all ride the bus together. I told Cora and JT that they needed to take care of Madelyn on the bus, because she was new to it. We agreed that Cora would sit by Madelyn on the way to school, and JT would sit by her on the way home. This SIMPLE act of service, the responsiblity of taking care of Madelyn, has made a HUGE difference in JT's attitude. It is a perfect example of how we really do learn to love those that we serve.

Here's a taste of Madelyn's imagination at work in Primary.

Teacher: What are some good things we can do?

Friend: I'm nice to my little sister.

Madelyn: I'm nice to my little brother and my little sister too.

(the teacher is my friend and knows Madelyn doesn't have a little sister - she was interested to see where this would go)

Teacher: You're nice to your little brother AND your little sister?

Madelyn: Yes.

Friend: I've been to her house, and I've never seen a little sister.

Teacher: Yes, I didn't think you had a little sister Madelyn.

Madelyn (with a completely serious face): I do. My mom hides her because we don't have room in our house for a crib.

The teacher/my friend informed me afterward that she was going to call CPS, hehehehe.

Labor Intensive

We went a little crazy on Labor Day weekend, crazy meaning we packed the weekend with spontaneous adventures. This was partly due to the fact that we haven't had a real vacation in a year, real meaning we haven't been home (the U.S.) because of Joe's school. Now that his school is over, we have really been looking forward to going home for a month over Christmas break. However, we just found out that isn't going to be possible because of Joe's work, so we played hard over Labor Day to make ourselves feel better, better meaning we tried not to be mopey.

First up, we went to the aquarium at the COEX mall. We went there when we first moved here a year ago (yes, it's been a year). I told Joe we should go once a year - he can't handle anything more than that, and in reality thinks that once a year is A LOT. But it was a good thing we went, because they had this new display.

Next we went to the zoo. There is a house for baby animals (just the babies) that were too cute for words, but I wish someone would tell me where the mommies are? Are these orphaned baby animals? Did their mommies dies? Did their mommies or daddies try to eat them? Do they get lots of love and attention during the day? I worry about them.

It was also very important to get a picture to show how BIG the rhinoceros poop was (pictured below). Kids know what's important.

Lastly, we went to Everland, which trumps Lotte World in every way. Our year passes to Lotte World finally came to an end, and this year it's al labout Everland. On Labor Day, a bunch of families from the branch all went to Everland. We didn't keep together the whole time, but we bumped into people often enough, and the kids got to go on a couple of rides with their friends.

Alex wasn't as excited about the rides as the older kids.

He opted to sit out on most.

We also saw turtles....

dragons....

and bears, oh my!

Labor Day = It's hard work having fun.

I'm Not Perfect

If you have time, read this blog post before you continue here, because that post is what I've been thinking about lately.

I consider myself a postitive person, and I admit that most of my blog posts are about happy, fun and positive things. I thoroughly enjoy my life, and my time with my family, so I want to keep a record of the fun things we do together, and keep those memories alive for my children. I also want to share as many of these moments as I can with our families and friends who are so far away, and can't see what we're up to otherwise.

However, that being said, my life is not not one big party or adventure. Inbetween all of those fun blog posts is our normal, everyday life. The life where I yell at my kids when I'm being impatient, or where I'm too "busy" to play with them because I'm doing something totally not important (like facebook), or where I can't seem to keep my house clean for longer than one day, or where I'm going a little insane because of all the things I have to do and all the things I'm not, not, not doing. My life is not perfect, and neither is anybody's else, no matter how they portray it on their blog. But happiness doesn't come from perfection - it comes from the process of working towards perfection - and that process is full of weaknesses, mistakes, messes, stupidity, ugliness, and a bunch of other imperfections - THAT'S HAPPINESS!

I don't think that I've ever presented myself as perfect on my blog - I try not to. Remember this post about my quirks? See, I'm not embarrassed to lay out my messes before you. Why try to put forth the appearance of perfection if we're not? I'm not talking about confessing our sins to everyone, but you know what I mean. I love this post from my friend Mary, LOVE it. We should all have posts like this sometimes. Let's get messy.

So, the other day my friend Naomi was nice enough to give me a Kreative Blogger Award.

Perhaps not coincidently, Naomi is also the one from whom I found the first blog post I mentioned. Anyway, I'm supposed to tell seven things about myself, and in the spirit of "Oh Quirky Me", that's what I'm going to do. Nothing here will resemble perfection - just my weird process of getting there. Don't judge me people;)

1) I have this thing with volume control on my car radio. When I adjust it, I only put it on numbers that end with 0, 2, 3, 5, or 8. Not 1, 4, 6, 7, or 9. Totally dumb, right? Not at all obsessive compulsive...because I'm not. I think Joe is rubbing off on me.

2) I never get the flu shot, or get it for my kids, unless we're already at the doctor, and they ask us about it and give it to us anyway. Why don't I? Because deep, deep inside me I think that if I get the flu shot, then I will DEFINITELY get the flu. Deep, deep, deeper inside of me, I know that this is completely irrational and not true. But still.

3) My family dentist when I was a kid ALWAYS used the gas when he worked on our teeth. Using gas does not seem to be a common procedure now days. I don't know if it was back then, or if he was just gas-happy. But now, as an adult, I HAVE to ask for the gas when I'm getting my teeth worked on, or I start to have a panic attack. I'm addicted, and I feel dumb having to ask for it, like I'm a druggie or something. And speaking of the gas at the dentist, it gives you this specific taste in your mouth. The aftertaste of Doctor Pepper is the exact same taste, and so is certain cherry-flavored candy. So I can't drink Doctor Pepper, or have cherry-flavored candy. Blah.

4) I have a Cindy Crawford-esk mole (only mine is below my lip instead of above). Am I trying to insinuate that I'm sexy like Cindy Crawford. Maybe. But does Cindy Crawford have a sinlge thick hair that grows out of her mole? Yep, I'm an old Chinese man....except that I keep plucking mine out. It might be good luck, or perhaps a sign of my intelligence, but I pluck it anyway - mostly so people won't be jealous.

5) I think I've mentioned this one before, but it's worth mentioning again - I avoid ironing at all costs. It should only be done in emergencies, and there are very few ironing emergencies. If Joe needs something ironed, he does it himself. I USED to iron when we first got married, trying to be the good and proper wife. It didn't last. Joe loves me anyway.

6) I don't like shopping for clothes. I hate it. I don't like picking them out, I don't like trying them on, I don't like paying for them, and I don't like realizing later on that I don't like them that much after all. I would be okay to wear jeans and a T-shirt every day, with a hoodie when it got too cold. I don't know why I don't do that anyway, except I can't wear jeans when it's humid and muggy.

7) When I was a teenager I would tweeze my own eyebrows, but I think I got carried away. Not to the point where I have to draw in my eyebrows, but I did get them uneven - one eyebrow is shorter than the other - and it has never grown back. I learned my lesson, and I haven't tweezed since my college days.....except for my legs.....and my mole;)

There, now it's your turn. I nominate ALL of you for the Kreative Blogger Award - ALL of you, do you hear me? I want to know weird and messy things about you. Come on, give it up.

P.S. Don't compare yourself to other bloggers and don't ever feel inferior to their creativity, beauty, talent, accomplishments, adventures, etc. Just be you. It's good.