Well, Is It Greener, Huh?

One of the differences between me and Joe, is that Joe tends to be an "It's greener on the other side" type of person, and I'm an "It's green everywhere, la, la, la" kind of person.  Joe is always looking ahead to the next thing, planning for the future, getting excited about what's to come.  I am more about living in the moment, enjoying where I am, and trying to make the most of it.  That's not to say that I never look to the future, and that Joe never lives in the moment - we do - but we lean different ways.

When we got our assignment to move from Seoul to Monterrey, Joe immediately started talking about how much better it was going to be here.  He had a really hard schedule in Seoul, and it wasn't the greatest job, or the best people to work with.  He was excited about picking up a new language, and just ready to move on to the next thing.

Now, I know my husband.  I know how stressed out he gets when he's in school.  So I tried to tell him that he needed to be prepared for that when we got to Monterey - that he was going to have some really hard days, and there was going to be a lot of hard work, and there might even be some days where he questioned whether he did the right thing or not.  He said he knew all that, but that he still thought it would be better.  He'd said that before.  It wasn't always better.  But like I said, he's an "It's greener on the other side" kind of person.

Me?  Well, I was just trying to enjoy every last day I had in Korea.  I still had places to go, and things to see.  I didn't want to leave anything undone, or have any regrets when we left Korea.  And I wasn't worried about moving to Monterey, because I knew it was going to be great.  I always say that you can be happy anywhere, you just have to look for the good.  There was plenty good about Monterey, so how could it be anything BUT great?  Right?

So we moved here.  And in an ironic twist of fate, the world turned upsidedown.

For himself, Joe was right - it is greener over here.  Yes, school is hard, and he gets stressed, but he is REALLY enjoying learning Iraqi, he has great teachers that he gets along with, and he's just, overall, in a really good place.  He is living in the moment, enjoying our time here, and it's green everywhere.  I'm very happy for him.

Me?  Well, I have found myself looking forward, to a time and place where my life doesn't seem so stressed out, and chaotic, and just plain hard.....'cause right now I'm not there.....and I need a little green in my life.  I know that Joe has been a little bit worried about me, and I love him for it.  Actually, the one thing I really look forward to each week is our dates together - everything looks greener then;)  He's my rock.

And it's not like anything catastrophic has happened, nothing devestating.  I almost feel like I have no room to complain.  But it's just been a build-up of things, one right after another.

1. Moving here meant losing money on our paycheck, so we've had to get used to that.
2. Our new house is a little more than half the size of our old apartment, so we've had to get used to that.
3. Half of our stuff had been in storage for 3 years, and we accumulated stuff in Korea, so I've never had a move where I had to unpack and organize sooooo much stuff.  A much bigger job than I anticipated.
4. Because we had twice the stuff and half the room, we had to get rid of a LOT of stuff.  I didn't care about not having the stuff, but the process of getting rid of everything - all the trips to the dump and Goodwill - were exhausting.
5. Homeschooling Cora was a big decision, and though it's not hard, it is time consuming.
6. Getting a puppy was definitely more work than I anticipated, and some days I question whether that was the right decision for my mental health.
7. I left a large group of friends in Korea - well, some of them left first - and starting all over again is never easy.
8. Then we got lice.  You've heard all about that.
9.  Then we had a series of house problems like the shower stopped working, the fridge stopped working, the cupboard door broke off, and the real kicker, we had something alive get stuck inside our wall (they say it was probably a rat, and it either got out or died - who knows).
10. And finally, Alex got REALLY sick last night.  Let's just say that Alex is my least-favorite kid when it comes to throwing up.  He doesn't run for the bathroom or grab a bowl like the other kids, he just throws up.  So unless I'm right there with him, with a bowl in hand, there is vomit to be cleaned up.  I cleaned up a LOT of vomit (Joe did too, before I told him he needed to go to bed).  He basically threw up every 15-20 minutes until about 3:00 this morning.....plus he had diarrhea.  I'm exhausted today, and I think I might be getting sick now, because my stomach is not feeling so great at the moment.

When it rains, it pours - in more ways than one.  Somewhere in the midst of #8, I completely lost it one day, and cried my eyes out.  That helped quite a bit, and actually, I've been more optomistic since then.  But it's hard to look on the bright side of life when you're cleaning up vomit;)

Wow, what a pity-party I'm having;) 

This too shall pass.  And it certainly isn't hard, when you look around, to see people who have it worse off than you do.  It makes you feel guilty for complaining at all.  But sometimes you just need to unburden yourself by talking/writing it all out.  Then it's easier to let go. 

Am I okay?  Yes, I am.  Things are looking greener.  The house is almost all the way unpacked.  Things are organized enough that chores for the kids are back into play.  The lice is gone (can I get a hallelujah), I'm making friends, and stomach bugs don't last forever.  Plus, I've got places to go and things to see here.  I don't want to leave anything undone, or have any regrets when we leave California.  La, la, la;)

BOO!

Kids in cool costumes - Check!

 Parents in....costumes? -  Check

 Neighborhood full of spooky trees, with creepy moss hanging off them - Check!

Happy Halloween!!!

I've Been Spoiled

I grew up in Utah, and I LOVE the fall there.  The weather can be unpredictable, but you still get a lot of perfectly sunny and cool days.  The Fall colors are everywhere, and there's nothing better than a drive up the mountains in the Fall.  Plus Utah has a lot of fun things like corn mazes, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, etc.  Always something to do.

The Fall in Korea is spectacular.  The weather is PERFECT and the leaves are breathtaking.  You want to be outside all the time, and you are, because you just went through a muggy summer, and a freezing winter is right around the corner....which just makes you appreciate the fall even more. 

I've been spoiled to live in places with perfect Falls.

Fall here is....different.  Granted, it's not like San Angelo, where Fall is non-existent.  The weather here is mild all year long, which is nice, I guess, sort of, but there are no beautiful Fall colors here.  That's sad.

What they DO have here are lots of farms, and lots of pumpkin patches.  Most of the school classes take field trips to different farms around the area during the Fall, so I chaperoned a couple, and then we also went as a family to get some more pumpkins for ourselves.

First up was Madelyn's class.  This was a great field trip because the farmer and his grandson took us around, and taught the kids a lot of things about farming.  Made me want to be a farmer;) Very educational, as well as fun.  They also got to pet different farm animals, go on a hayride, and pick their own pumpkins.  The had a little market there, and they also had fresh, homemade pies that looked soooooo good.  I should have bought one.

Next up was our family adventure.  The farm we went to had a miniature corn maze, a rock labrynth, lots of different gardens, and was in a really beautiful location in the Carmel Valley.  Everyone got to pick their own pumpkins - 3 of the 4 kids went with multiple mini-pumpkins instead of one big pumpkin.  They ventured into different colored pumpkins too, instead of just sticking with the classic orange;)

 Last up was Alex's class.  This place also had a lot of animals, which the kids loved.  But what I didn't love was that there was no structure.  We all just wandered around aimlessly in our groups.  But, it was still fun, and it was actually right next to the farm our family went to, so we ended up going over there and doing the corn maze too.  And each of the kids got a mini-pumpkin.

 One more thing this place had was a "spooky" hay tunnel.  The kids wanted to go through this again and again, but I had to limit it to just two times.

 It's a REALLY good thing nobody was allergic to hay.  I came out coughing as it was.  Here we are inside the tunnel.

 This is what it actually looks like inside though, without the flash from my camera.

Oh, I almost forgot - this place sells the BEST, fresh, homemade guacamole!  We bought some and some chips, and we couldn't get enough.  Overall, all good experiences, and they helped to make our Fall a little more Fallish;)  But I'm still super jealous anytime someone posts pictures of the beautiful Fall leaves.  Now for Halloween.

Sisters

I'm so very behind on blogging (see post on lice). 

So, when my week from hell started, I was trying to enjoy a nice visit with my sister Marie, who had come to stay with her husband Antione, and their two beatiful girls, Ava and Jada.  Despite the chaos that ensued, we were able to have a great time with them, and hope they come back soon?

Among other things, we went to Fisherman's Wharf and sampled clam chowder at EVERY restaraunt, and then went back to the first one and got some big sourdough bread bowels full of the delicious stuff - a MUST-DO if you ever come to visit us.

We also had other good seafood, Mexican food, turtle-brownie sundaes.....so much good food, so little time....and we've been trying to work off those calories ever since;)

We went and collected sea-glass at the beach. 

We found a pretty sweet spot, where it was easy for the kids to find plenty of it, and we challenged ourselves by trying to find the blue pieces. 

We also went to the Carmel beach, and the kids played in the sand, while the adults enjoyed the sunshine and admired Pebble Beach.

 

 

 The beaches here have some of the funkiest things wash up on them.  I remember the first time we lived her, and the first time we saw this stuff - Joe chased me around the beach with one of these things.

 Nothing funnier than a pregnant woman realizing that she's about to be washed away.  I was mean, and didn't tell her that it was coming.  She noticed just in time to run away, but not in time for it to soak the bottom of her pants.  Hehehehehe;)

  Love ya sis!

We went to Cannery row and saw the sea lions sprawled out on the rocks, soaking up the sun.

We went to the Butterfly grove in Pacific Grove, but only saw a few butterflies - next month should be better.

We drove around the coast, and we went to the park, and....well, basically we tried to keep things cheap, because, hey, we all just went to Disneyland.  We wanted to do a lot of things that we couldn't afford right now, but we'll have to save those for their next visit.  Lots to do here people.  And we're lice-free now:)

The Week I Wished All My Kids Were Dogs (a.k.a. The Week From Hell)

Getting a new puppy has been challenging.  I love the little stinker to death, but somedays I feel a little buyer's remorse.  This week however, our dog has been the easiest thing I've had to deal with.  Why?  Because dogs don't get lice.

I always imagined that my kids getting lice would be absolutely horrible.  And guess what?  IT IS!!!  It is a nightmare.

Alex had been scratching his head a lot, and the first thing we thought of was lice.  But after examining his head several times, we attributed it to dry scalp or something like that.  However, when Madelyn started scratching a couple of  days later, we found lice on her head right away.

It was gross.  Lice is gross.

Upon further inspection, Alex DID have lice too, and so did Cora.  I ran to Walmart and bought a couple of lice removal kits.  First the special shampoo.  That's the easy part.  Everyone in the house got shampooed, whether they had any signs of lice or not. 

Then the combing, to get out all the eggs.  That ONLY took 8 hrs.  EIGHT HOURS!!! 

Let me tell you something about lice eggs.  They are not ON the hair, they are AROUND the hair shaft.  That stupid little comb they give you does NOT do the whole job, especially on very fine hair.  Those stupid eggs do not want to come off, and I had to take my fingernail and scrape each one down to the end of the hair shaft before they would come off.

The cherry on top was that we discovered the lice at night.  We were up way past midnight that first night, and it was torture.

Besides the hair, we had to wash all the bedding and clothes, and spray down mattresses, furniture and carpet with a special spray.  Hours and hours and hours.  Then comes the re-checking over and over and over again, every day for the next week to make sure that the lice don't come back. 

By the end of the week I was thinking we were in the clear.....and then Joseph told me his head was itching.

Can I just tell you how much I need a good cry?  I haven't yet....probably because I haven't had time....but I am a ticking time-bomb, let me tell ya.

So Joseph had lice.  And upon further inspection, so did Alex again, and Joe thought he saw one in Cora's hair too.  So back to Walmart we went.

I must say, getting rid of lice is not cheap.  Especially if you have a large family.  Especially if it is the second time you have found it, and you are out for vengence, so you buy about 50 cans of the spray stuff so that you can spray every surface of, well, everything.  Not cheap.

This time we buzzed both of the boys' heads, and I cut the girls' hair - they were sad, but I was beyond caring.  Everyone got shampooed again, with twice as much shampoo as I'd used before.  More long hours of combing through hair. I lost track of how many hours - I just know I'm really tired.  This time we are literally washing EVERY piece of clothing and bedding in the house, even if it hasn't been used in the past couple of months.  Everything is getting sprayed, and wiped down, and soaked in hot water, and, and, and, and.....I'm losing my mind.

Joe has had his own week from hell, because he's trying to prepare for a big test coming up, and right now he feels like he's at the bottom of the class.  He has had to do extra tutoring every night, on top of the tons of homework they give him every day, so he really has not been able to help me as much as he wishes he could.

Not to mention, our house is still not completely unpacked.  Not to mention, Joe and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday (afterwhich Joe was  set apart as the Teacher Development Course Instructor, and I was set apart as the 3rd Counselor in the RS Presidency. I don't know why, but I was expecting cubscout leaders;)).  Not to mention, our fridge stopped working, and we had to have somebody come out for that.  Not to mention, we had family come to visit us, so we felt huge guilt about the possibility of contaminating them with our grossness.

Yep, it's been quite the week.  Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.....not that I have any enemies.....that I know of.

I bet your head has been itching while you've been reading this post.  I know.  My head has been itching so bad this whole week, that I've nearly scratched it raw, and I DON'T have lice.  It is a psychological phenomenon - you think about lice, and your head itches.  I'm sorry to do this to you, but this is my outlet.  This is my way of getting it off my chest so that I don't end up in the looney bin.  Of course, that could still happen - if I find more lice in a week from now.....or ever again.....I'm checking myself in.

End of story.

And the Award Goes to......

Welcome to the first and only "Picking up your car (that was shipped from Korea) in Los Angeles, and using it as an excuse to go to Disneyland Awards"!!!

*Award for making us laugh so hard/had to be there moment:
We had dinner at McDonald's, and I ordered WAY too many fries.  We divided the fries onto two different trays, and by the end of the meal, Joseph had eaten almost a whole tray by himself, plus his chicken nuggets.  Madelyn, on the other hand, had hardly eaten any fries, and when I opened up her nugget box, she had only taken one little nibble out of one nugget.  Joseph, who is usally the first to volunteer to eat anyone's leftovers, took one look at her box and exclaimed, "Whoa!  I can NOT eat that!"

*Award for proudest parent/geek moment:
Joe was wearing a Batman shirt, and when Cora first noticed it she said, "Hey, that's DC - traitor!"

*Award for the gayest moment (did I mention it was gay pride week at Disneyland?):
When I realized that all the people at the park for gay pride were wearing red shirts, and I was wearing a red shirt, I said to Joe, "Hey, did you notice what color of shirt I'm wearing?"  Joe answered with, "If your gay, then I'm a lesbian."

*Award for most commented on T-shirt:
Joe's BYU T-shirt.  But we got all kinds of comments on all of our T-shirts.  We like T-shirts;)

*Award for the most popular ride:
Radiator Springs Racers in the new Cars Land.  How popular is this ride you ask?  It is so popular that you have to get there before the park even opens, wait in line, then as soon as they let you in, race to the line that is quickly forming for the fast passes, then wait in that line, get your fast pass, wait for the time on your fast pass, then by-pass the 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hour line (yes, 2 1/2 HOURS!), and enjoy the ride!  Oh, and by that time ALL of the fast passes are gone.

*Award for the most magical ride:
The Haunted Mansion, decked out for Halloween/Christmas with the "Nightmare Before Christmas", which happens to be one of our family's favorite holiday movies!

*Award for the ride that should never be closed down when we're there, but was:
Indiana Jones Adventure, booooohoooooo:(

*Award for coolest display:
Costumes from "Once Upon a Time", which happens to be one of our family's favorite new shows!

*Award for "We make these look good!":

*Award for best photo-op:
Mickey's house, always Mickey's house.

*Award for worst picture taker:
The worker at Mickey's house:(

 Wah, wah, wah - well, the second one was a little better, but still not great.  But seriously people, what the crap is Mickey wearing?!!!

*Award for making "best" friends the fastest:
Alex - every line we were in with a kid near us.

*Award for the most excited at the parade:
Madelyn - VERY excited:)

*Award for the most wet on a ride:
Our brother-in-law Antione and our niece Ava both looked like they had taken a shower with their clothes on after they got off Grizzly River Run.

*Award for best end of the day quote:
We were riding the shuttle back to our hotel, and Alex's eyes were closed. Joe said, "You're not tired, are you Alex?" Alex's sleepy response was, "No, I'm just blinking."

*Award for best scared look caught on a kid's face:
Alex on Splash Mountain!   Sorry kid;)

*Award for old people:
Joe and I are getting OLD, so we got sore and tired much quicker than in days of yore.  We still had fun though.

 *Award for best memorabilia:
A picture of Walt himself with an original Mickey doll, and that doll next to it:)

 *Award for best place to put your kids:

 *Award for the best monster:
Check out Madelyn - she wins over Sully;)

And that concludes the awards.  Thanks for coming.