My new least favorite thing...

... fleas.  Yes, fleas.  The kind that Fido or Milo brings home.  We have them in our apartment.  "But you have no Fido and Milo is living in CA?" you may ask.  Yes.  We know.  Needless to say, we don't think we brought them in here.  

In case you didn't know, fleas are really, really, really hard to get rid of.  And they bite.  And the bites hurt and scratch!  And they seem to have a taste for N's blood, poor kid looks like he has the chicken pox!  So, we decided either the fleas had to go, or we had to go.  After two treatments from the exterminator, it became apparent that the fleas had no intention of leaving, so we're moving.  The management company is being really accommodating and moving us into a different apartment complex... one with a playground!  

So I now have a new question for God when I get to heaven. "Why the flea, Lord?  Why?"

Our trip to Savannah

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a good old-fashioned American road trip.  (Even with gas at $4 a gallon, yikes!)  Hey, we're only in the states for three months, better take advantage, right?  Anyway, our trip was to visit our good friends, the Z family, who we followed pretty much everywhere we have lived.  Since they decided to jump ship, and we can't follow them anymore, (at least for the next five years) we decided to stop in for a visit. 

It was a six (I mean seven and a half) hour drive with two small children (one of whom is potty training, read lots of stops).  Let me tell you, I have a new appreciation for portable DVD players and drive-thrus.  But we made it to their beautiful home in the middle of nowhere, Georgia late Friday night.  Saturday morning we got up and headed to downtown Savannah for a carriage ride.  It was really neat!  The boys were happy just watching the horses, and the clippty-clop put e right to sleep!

This is a good example of the beautiful architecture we passed as we moved through the city, I'm sure my English house will look just like that, don't you think?

Here is the group of us after the carriage ride, and all hungry for lunch!

Their girls just loved on little e (don't worry Adeline, they're too old for him...)  Here they are giving him his post-nap cuddle.  What you don't see is that in a couple of seconds he freaked out and wanted Mommy.  It's nice to be loved!

That night we got a babysitter for all four children (bless her, I'm not sure I could do it!) and went out to a grown up dinner.  No milk spills, no endless cutting up of food, no crayons... no one to steal all my ice cream, it was great!

Sunday afternoon, we just had a great time playing around the house.  This is N driving the Barbi Jeep, (it's a house full of girls... what can we say, N found the one thing with wheels!)  I was assuming that N would only be a passenger in the Jeep... but Daddy actually let him drive it.  Probably not the best move... I think we may owe the Z family some new plants to make up for the ones N ran over!  Look out world, here he comes!

Meanwhile, little e found the sidewalk chalks.  He was content drawing on the driveway for a really long time, who knew chalk could be so entertaining?  (And messy, he was covered in chalk... it was definitely bath night!)

Since all the children had managed to cover themselves head to toe with chalk, we decided eating outside was in order.  N sat at the kids' picnic table with the girls, but I thought e needed a bit more supervision.  Look how proud he is to be sitting at the grown-up table!

Monday morning we headed to the neighborhood playground before hitting the road for the six (I mean seven and a half) hour drive back.  N was trying to figure out the teeter-totter.

EK, their oldest, was trying to show him how it was done...

Meanwhile, e was lovin' life on the swings.  Have I mentioned he's a pretty happy kid?

Then they found the merry-go-round.  N didn't know what to think of it at first, but the girls were all about it!

I love this picture of EG.  A black tu-tu on a merry-go-round, now that's joy!  What is missing from her outfit in this photo are the tap shoes and pink stroller with the baby lion that she pushes around.  Ah to have a girl!

Here is a great shot of EK.  It was such a fun place.  Their neighborhood is great.  Tons of area to walk, a playground (or two), a pool, and even quack quacks for e.  It's like a real town, imagine that!

Anyway, thanks guys for being such great hosts.  We had a ton of fun, and can't wait for our next visit... maybe in England (hint, hint!) 

Where we goin'?

I think all 3-year olds have a question they ask repeatedly... this is N's.  "Where we goin?" is the first thing I hear in the morning, meaning "where are we going today?"  It's the last thing I hear at night, meaning "where are we going tomorrow" and if we are actually going somewhere it is the question I will hear all the way to our destination, even if he clearly knows the answer.  

I think he asks this because we do seem to always be going somewhere... here are some great N conversations!

Last week we were headed to get our passport paperwork done to go to England, then we were going to the beach afterward.  We told N we had to go do some paperwork to get our passports so we could go to England.  He seemed OK with this, but in the waiting room he said rather thoughtfully, "Someone else live in our Florida home now."  I said no, it is still our Florida home, and it took me a while to realize that he thought we were getting our passports and heading straight to England!  (Mind you, he has no idea that is really far away, so it cracked us up.) We told him were going to live in our Florida home for a while and that we were going to the beach after we were done doing paperwork.  After the beach we decided to stop for ice cream (pretty rough, huh?) and we told N so.  He thought for a while and said, "We go to England after ice cream store!"  

A couple of days later we passed the same building where we did our passport paperwork.  N piped up from the back seat, "We get passporps there!"  Ah yes, our passporps, I love a good passporp.

He has lots of other funny phrases that I wanted to get written down.  He uses the words "also" and "maybe" a lot.  Like "maybe we go England 'morrow?"  or "E-i go England also."  Oh good, we wouldn't want to leave him behind.  Better get his passporp.

He likes to build stuff, and one of his favorites to build is a "skyscrape."  

If he his telling you something is his, he says "That's my's."  Like "that's my's place map."  (Place mat.)

He's really into Thomas the Tank Engine, but he doesn't quite have all the names down.  Instead of Henry we have "Henwy" and my favorite, "Bordon" instead of Gordon.  

We are borrowing a friend's truck while we are here, and N refers to it as "big truck."  Like "we take big truck and go beach!"  Yup, this is the life!

Beach boys

So we headed off to the beach today, but before we went the boys had to check out the ducks that live at our apartment complex.  This is little e saying, "quack, quack" at them.  It's quite cute.  Whenever we walk around here, N is always holding on to e's hand.  We're not sure if he thinks we're going to lose him or what!

Then it was off to the beach.  They love the sand... and N at least loves the water.  OK, I may be a little biased, but those are some seriously cute kids!

Mmmm... cold stone!

The other night N had a major potty training milestone, so we rewarded him with a trip to Cold Stone... OK, so that might have been a reward for Mommy & Daddy too.  Anyway, they were already in their PJs so off we went... pajamas and all!  (It made for some especially good photos...)

His encampment

You will notice a new addition to my sidebar.  I came across this scripture while doing my Bible study today, and the visual God gave me was unmistakable.  I saw my family in the middle of God's camp, and when I moved, God's camp moved too.  He surrounded us in Korea, he is surrounding us here, and he will be with us in the UK, encamping around us, protecting us.  I also felt God tugging at me to share this with some of my fellow frequent movers, many of you who read this.  So at the risk of you all thinking I'm crazy, I decided to share (or maybe overshare... you decide!)

How to say goodbye to Korea...

1)  Go to Everland one last time with friends...
... and ride this roller coaster!  Check out that drop.  One of the steepest in the world, and I did it!  It was so much fun, one of the best ever!
2)  Go to pizza night one last time at the O'Club.  This was one of our favorite activities throughout our year.  Check out little e's pizza eating technique, upside down and sideways.   He always eats it that way!  N loves the bouncy castle... if he's in the right mood!

3)  Eat breakfast on the floor of the Q room.  Mmmmm, germs.

4)  Invite yourselves over to dinner at friends' houses and hang out.  Can you believe we actually got them all sitting still?!


5)  Go out to Chili's one last time and let the babies say goodbye while N ponders the upcoming 14 hour flight!

6)  Let your friend the ER doc listen to your wheezy baby outside Chili's just a few hours before you are supposed to get onto said 14 hour plane flight.  I believe her exact words were, "Yeah, he's wheezing all over the place!"  Great... He got some drugs and was fine, and Christie is a very handy friend to have!  Thanks so much!

7)  Let those same friends help you fold your last minute laundry in the coffee shop inside the Qs before saying our final goodbyes... sniff, sniff.

OK, I think that wraps up all my Korea photos.  Girls, I miss you so much, and I can't thank you all enough for your friendships this past year.  See you all in Europe, right?

Our Korean home

OK, so now that we've moved away, I thought I would post these pictures of our Korean apartment and neighborhood for those of you who didn't get to see it.  A lot of Koreans live in high rise buildings (like 10 or 11 floors!) in town, however, we found this little complex out in the country.  There are six apartments in the building.  Ours is the second story on the right, and yes, it was much nicer on the inside than the outside!

So, I like to tell people that we lived out in the Korean boonies.  The disadvantage of that was it was a longer drive to base, and there was pretty much nothing within walking distance.  The advantage was that we got a pretty big apartment for our money, and it was really quite out there!  (Well except for the roosters and cows that lived next door - literally!)

This was our view out the back of the building.  Yep, we had it all.  Fields, rice paddies, grave sites, and farm animals!  Looking at these pictures actually makes me really sad that our time there is over.  I was hoping to see the rice go in the fields before we left.  It really is a beautiful sight, the rice plants are the most beautiful shade of green!  (Yes, I'm from Iowa - and I do find beauty in fields, be it corn or rice!)
Here is a picture of our van in the parking lot.  We bought it for $1000 and sold it four months later for $750!  It was an awesome find and made our time there much easier than sharing one car.  
Here are some sights we passed on our way home from base.  The big green net in the back is a driving range that was right across the street from our apartment.  I think I said earlier that there are no street names, so we just gave directions by landmark.  This was one of the keys to finding our apartment, when in doubt, turn towards the golf net!  The fields in the foreground are the unplanted rice paddies.
This was another key landmark on our drive.  The "Up Mart" is a little convenience shop on the corner, out in the middle of nowhere!  They love these little shops in Korea, they are everywhere!  

We also drove past several dairy farms and N and I always discussed what the cows were doing.  "Maybe cows napping mommy!"  Maybe they are...  

Such big boys!

I just downloaded all the pictures from my camera and realized I still have a lot from Korea that I wanted to post... so you'll have to bear with me as these trickle in out of order!

This picture is of N's first homework assignment.  Yup, you heard me.  He just recently moved up into the preschool class at the CDC, and his last week there they were talking about their names.  So he had to find pictures out of magazines to correspond with each letter in his name.  Let's just say his had an aviation theme!  We are fine parents so that is E, helping him with it during breakfast before he went... not sure if that's the best time to do homework, we'll have to break that habit before say... high school!

This is N playing his first board game, chutes and ladders.  He loved all the counting and we had a great time.  Unfortunately, that went on the moving truck, so it will be a while before we play again!  I can't believe how big he's getting.  He's moving mommy's piece here... in fact, he moved all of our pieces!
And here is little e on that rocking horse that I told you about in an earlier post, $55, what a deal!  He loves it, N is a little more tentative.  Again though, on the moving truck.  Won't they be happy to see all those toys!  Forgive the mess in the background, that's the "do not pack" pile!

Little ladies' man!

My friend Lynn posted this video of little e and her daughter Adeline, back in Korea.  She is e's bestest little friend, and he even says her name "Ah-ine", it's super cute.  Anyway click here to link to her blog and see them in action.  We were all laughing so hard we were crying!  Be patient, the video gets better as you go along.

We made it!

So after approximately 24 hours of traveling by bus, airplanes, and truck, we made it to our apartment in Panama City... jet lagged and a little under the weather but we're here.  However, after my journey, I have some things I've noticed about international travel with two small children and reentry into US culture...

1)  If you are traveling across many time changes while trying to give your kids medicine every four hours... it takes a lot of brain cells to figure out when they are due for their next dose... I was thinking on Korea time or Atlanta time... and E was insisting that it would be easier if I just dealt in zulu time... let's just say that didn't work so well for me!  (Don't worry, we eventually figured it out... not in zulu.)

2)  Eating an airplane meal with a 19 month-old on your lap is nearly impossible.

3)  After Incheon, the Atlanta airport feels really, really dirty and dingy.

4)  Compared to Koreans, Americans are really sloppy dressers.

5)  Parking spots in the U.S. are huge!  I mean, truly gianormous!  The streets are also really wide.  Amazing!

6)  You do not have to show your ID and ration card to get into Target... not that I tried and looked like an idiot or anything.  OK, so jet lag has won a couple of battles!

Top 10 things I will miss about Korea!

I totally stole this idea from my friend Jenna's blog, she did a similar list when she left Korea.  To see her lists you can go here or here.

There are a lot of wonderful things about Korea, so this was hard to narrow down... but here goes!

10)  The family time.  E works a really bizarre schedule that has allowed for more family time than we have ever had, or probably ever will have!  It's really been nice.

9)  Everland.  The Disney like amusement park about an hour drive away that we had season passes to and we all loved.  I mean loved.  It is one of my happy places, and I think E and the boys would agree.

8)  Koreans' attitudes towards children.  First of all, so many places have facilities for kids.  Lower sinks, kid sized potties (not that we're needing those yet... alas), great kids meals.  Secondly, most Koreans will spend time talking to my kids or entertain them while I'm shopping or looking around.  But also, they don't think anything of it if kids are acting, well, like kids!  They don't expect little kids to sit still at a restaurant, and don't think anything of it if they are up and running around.  It's so nice, because my boys don't love to sit still!  (Imagine that!)

7)  The CDC (Child Development Center) on base.  They have awesome hourly care here.  I've never used a child care facility before, but N actually went twice a week here.  His teachers were great, he knew a ton of kids from his class, and he would even come home singing songs he had learned there.  It was a nice break for all of us, and I'm really going to miss them!

6)  The pediatrician here.  She has totally improved N's quality of life by putting him on some asthma drugs and making him feel much better.  e too!

5)  The shopping!  There are fantastic deals to be found here in Korea, I mean fantastic... like I'm already regretting not buying more.  Purses, clothes, furniture, fabric, purses, antiques, jewelry, and did I mention the purses?  Two of my favorite finds include a step cabinet, which looks like a stair case filled with drawers and cubbies, and a carved rocking horse that I got the boys for $55!  And some purses... and some fabric...

4)  The food.  I know many of my friends here will not agree with me on this one, but Korean food is quite good!  I still haven't found a love for the traditional cabbage kimche, but the cucumber variety is one of my favorites.  The bulgogi (BBQ beef cooked over a grill in front of you) is incredible.  Bibimbop (a bowl of rice and veggies topped with a fried egg and lots of chili paste) has become a family favorite, especially little e who loves chili paste on his rice!  And speaking of rice, the Koreans definitely have the best rice around.  It brings a whole new meaning to sticky rice.  Awesome.  I could go on for some time, the yogurt, the Pepperos (biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate), the strawberries, the oranges... OK, so I really like food.  But you all already know this.  

3)  The travel opportunities.  We have been truly blessed to do quite a bit of traveling while we were here.  We went to Okinawa, Japan (during a typhoon... but that's another story), China, and Hawaii.  Not to mention a trip to Busan on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, the DMZ, and many, many day trips to Seoul.  

2)  Our apartment.  There is something freeing about only having 1000 lbs of stuff to deal with.  Cleaning is minimal (it probably shouldn't be so minimal... oh well), and the toys have completely taken over the living room, and I just don't care!  I mean instead of a coffee table I have a choo choo table.  What could be better?  I also really like the layout of this place.  I can pretty much keep track of the boys from anywhere inside.  I'm really going to miss that.  Our view out the back is some woods and rice paddies.  It's really peaceful out here.  We have cow farms that we drive past on a daily basis and studying the progress of the rice has become a daily fascination.  

And the number one thing I will miss about our life in Korea...

1)  Our awesome friends that we have made here.  This is true of every assignment we've ever had.  The friends really make the assignment.  I didn't think I would get so involved or make so many friends in such a short time, but God is good, and he gave me some awesome ladies to hand out with.  Thanks so much!