Grateful - Week 3

1. On Thursday I was soooooooo grateful for payday.  Seriously.  I know we're rich compared to most of the world, but I had a hard time feeling that the week leading up to payday.  Cupboards.Were.Bare.  But, I was also super grateful to find the girls their Christmas stocking stuffers for this year, all 2nd hand and super cheap;) We're doing another charity Christmas this year - the kids will only get stockings from Santa, and instead of family presents, we will spend that money on helping others....'cause we're rich, remember?;)  Now I just need to figure out what the boys are getting in their stockings.....I mean, I help Santa, ya know? 

2. On Friday I was grateful to have a slice of the BEST pumpkin pie I've EVER had.  Alex's class had a little Thanksgiving Feast for lunch, and one of the parents brought this pumpkin pie, which was from Coco's Bakery.  I was wary of it at first, because on top of the pumpkin pie was a layer of pumpkin chiffon, and then whipped cream.  The chiffon looked to fancy (don't be fancy, just get dancy).....okay, really it just looked too moussey (not a fan of mousse).  But then I helped one of the kids get a piece of it, and then I licked it off my finger, and then I was hooked.  [Mary says you can be fancy and dancy at the same time;)]  Click on the picture to go to their website.  Dear Coco's, your welcome for the free advertising.  Can I have a free pie?

3. On Saturday I was grateful for a clean house.  Grateful when everyone does their part to keep it that way.  Grateful for the peaceful feeling it brings.  And grateful for chocolate fudge brownie icecream and peppermint icecream in the same bowl;)

4. On Sunday I was grateful for a variety of things - opportunities to serve my family, the temple, a healthy body, new family pictures (you'll have to wait to see those), and random things you find in the Relief Society closet (...or Primary closet, or Young Women's closet, depending on what calling you have.  Do the men have closets?)

5. On Monday I was grateful for all the time I have, and have had with Joe.  Right now we don't see a whole lot of each other, because he leaves for school in the morning before I wake up, comes home long enough to have dinner and say hi, then goes to tutoring, then comes home and does homework for a couple of hours before going to bed.  It's not the only time we've had a challenging schedule.  However, I feel like we've been VERY lucky in our military career, especially when compared to many of our friends.  First of all, Joe hasn't ever deployed to war, and he hasn't had a ton of TDYs (Temporary Duties, like training and unaccompanied assignments).  In 12 1/2 years we've only spent a total of about 1 1/2 years apart.  Second of all, although he's occassionally had challenging schedules, they've only been temporary, not constant.  Right now he has every weekend off and the holidays, and we get regular dates.  Again, I feel VERY lucky, and grateful.

6. On Tuesday I was grateful for my parents.  My mom is the strongest woman I know, though you wouldn't know it by looking at her;)  If you ever read her biography (which nobody has written yet), then I know you'd agree.  She is also a great example to me of faith, perseverance, forgiveness, and love.  My dad....well, I like to think that I inherited some of his genes;)  He is funny, he takes things as they come and adapts to every situation, he's not ambitious but he is a VERY hard worker, he likes to use his hands and make/build/create things, and it is obvious that his family comes first.  My parents were the perfect parents for me, no doubt about it, and I love them.  I hope to live my life in a way that honors them and all they taught me and sacrificed for me.

7.  On Wednesday I was grateful that all of my kids slept in.  All of them.  Even Madelyn.  I can't remember the last time Madelyn slept in past 6:30.  She has no concept of weekends or holidays;)

Grateful - Week 2

1.  On Thursday I was grateful that I'm homeschooling Cora.  We went on a little field trip to a frog pond/wetland in the area....only it was a seasonal pond/wetland....and it's not the rainy season yet.  BUT, there was still a nice trail there, and a surprising variety of vegetation.  Really beautiful.  Want to go back.

2.  On Friday I was grateful for date nights.

3.  On Saturday I was grateful for friends.  Old friends, new friends, my friends, my kids' friends, facebook "friends", be there for you no matter what friends, haven't seen you in years but it feels like yesterday friends....all of them.  Friends are good.  Love my friends:)

4.  On Sunday I was grateful for all veteran's.  Joe has been in the Air Force for over 12 years now, and I am proud of him every day.  My dad was in the Army National Guard.  He deployed to Bosnia, and to Iraq.  My mom was in the Navy, and still claims it's the best;)  Joe's grandpa served in the army during World War II.  Joe's younger brother Bert is in the Air Force, and has also done a tour over in Afghanistan.  I am grateful to be a part of a family that serves our country.  This is a picture of Joe and I when I went out to see him for his graduation from Basic Training.

5.  On Mondays I was grateful that I finally took down our Halloween decorations.  I would say that all of our neighbors were grateful for that too, except some of them still have theirs up, soooo......;)

6.  On Tuesday I was grateful for my kids' teachers.  We have good teachers this year.....well, 3 really good ones and 1 good enough one (no, I'm not including myself in these stats - Cora does have a real teacher assigned to her with her homeschooling program, and she is great).  Teachers can make or break a child (yes, we certainly have had experience with that).  I am grateful for all GOOD teachers out there, who love what they do, who work so hard, and who treat our children with kindess, patience, and understanding.

7.  On Wednesday I was grateful for a sun that was "just right" - not too hot and not too cold, and perfect for the park.....or Goldilocks;)

Grateful - Week 1

My goodness, my blog has turned into such doom and gloom lately - so that's gotta change;)  A lot of people use facebook to post one thing they're grateful for each day during the month of November.  Instead of that, I'm going to blog each week about what I'm grateful for.  Here's my first week.

1.  On Thursday I was grateful for a husband who went to the store and bought me Sprite and saltine crackers, who got dinner for the kids, and who made me feel appreciated and loved in the midst of feeling like I was going to die;)  I was also grateful for Cora, who took care of the kids before Joe got home from work, and after he had to leave for a tutoring session.  I was also super grateful that it was payday!;)

2.  On Friday I was grateful for our backyard.  I went outside for a little while during the day (I try to every day, even for just a few minutes), and just looked around.  We've got a fence, which the majority of the houses here don't have.  We've also got grass back there.  A lot of the backyards just have dirt or this lovely stuff. 

It's called icycle plant, and it grows like a weed here.  It's EVERYWHERE and really hard to get rid of.  This is right behind our back fence, looking down as far as you can see.

Anyway.  I love our backyard.  I love that I can just send my kids to play out there and know that they're safe and that they're having a good time.  So when I went out on Friday, it was making me happy, and I took a couple of pictures.

3.  On Saturday I was grateful for the ability to make the most of things.  Saturday was a beautiful day, and I wanted to get out and enjoy it.  Alex and I were over our sickness - Yay!  Madelyn had been sick the night before, but seemed to be okay that morning.  We went and got breakfast, and then headed to Pheiffer Big Sur State Park for some hiking - just an hour away from where we live.  We hadn't driven too far when Madelyn said that she was feeling sick.  We handed her back an empty cup, and she soon filled it.  We kept driving.  It was a really curvy road.  After a while, Joseph said he was feeling sick.  Was he just car sick, or was he coming down with what everyone else had?  We questioned whether we should keep going, but we only had another 15 minutes to go, so I said we should press on.  We got to the park, Joseph got out of the car, and emptied his stomach all over the ground.  Then we went to get Bo out of the car - we brought her along for the hike - and she had thrown up in her crate as well.  We finally got everyone cleaned up, drinks of water for everyone, stomachs feeling more settled, and everyone was excited to go see a waterfall.  That's when we discovered that dogs are NOT allowed on the trails - only on the campsites and picnic areas.  Aaaaahhhhhh!!!  Everyone was so disappointed.  I was sooooooo disappointed.  I was tempted to turn right back around, demand our $10 entrance fee, and just go home and be mopey.  But I didn't.  Instead, I looked on the map for a picnic sight, and we walked over to it.  It was right by the river.  It was not very well kept, and nobody was there, but it was a beautiful area.  So we walked up and down the river, with Bo:), and we enjoyed a snack, and took pictures, and threw rocks in the river, and marveled at the Redwood trees, and just enjoyed ourselves. 

4. On Sunday I was grateful for General Conference.  We didn't get to church on Sunday because we were still harboring too many germs, so we watch a few talks from the most recent General Conference instead.  I really enjoyed Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

"In our day it is easy to merely pretend to spend time with others. With the click of a mouse, we can “connect” with thousands of “friends” without ever having to face a single one of them. Technology can be a wonderful thing, and it is very useful when we cannot be near our loved ones....However, I believe that we are not headed in the right direction, individually and as a society, when we connect with family or friends mostly by reposting humorous pictures, forwarding trivial things, or linking our loved ones to sites on the Internet. I suppose there is a place for this kind of activity, but how much time are we willing to spend on it? If we fail to give our best personal self and undivided time to those who are truly important to us, one day we will regret it."

"...good intentions are not enough. We must do. Even more important, we must become what Heavenly Father wants us to be."

"...no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it." -  yep, I needed to be reminded of that one;)

5.  On Monday I was grateful for Daylight Savings...not sure I've ever been grateful for that before;)  But on Monday morning, my kids woke up an hour early.  While I lounged in bed, Madelyn got dressed, got her own breakfast, then took the dog outside, and fed the dog.  Cora made lunches for the other kids to take to school.  Nobody was tired or ornery.  The boys just watched TV, but whatever, it was still a great morning;)

6.  On Tuesday I was grateful for our country, and all that it offers.  I am proud to be an American!!!  Yep, I say that unapologetically.  I'm not saying that America is perfect, or that it's the only country that matters.  I'm not saying that other countries don't have claim to unique and wonderful qualities of their own.  I love learning about, and experiencing other histories and cultures from around the world - I think it makes me a better person.  I think EVERYONE should be proud of the country they are from.  I'm from America.  I'm proud that I'm part of a country where we have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from opression, the freedom to live and travel anywhere we want in the country, freedom to work at any job we want, freedom to marry who we want and raise our families like we want, freedom to get an education, and the freedom to vote for our political leaders.

7.  On Wednesday I was grateful for my eyesight.  I've worn contacts since I was 11 years old, but I had to stop wearing them 2 years ago because the pollution in Seoul was jus too hard on my eyes.  So for the past 2 years I have ONLY worn glasses....and I haven't liked it.  On Wednesday I ordered contacts, and I am so excited.  But I was also reminded that, even if I have to wear glasses, at least I can see!  And there is so much in this world that is beautiful.

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:)