There may be a limit to how air-headed I can be; I just haven't found it yet.
There was one time I pulled up to our house to see that I had left my purse sitting in the middle of the driveway.
Another time my husband asked me to leave the security latch unlocked on the front door so he could get in when he returned from a trip in the middle of the night, which I did. But I also accidentally left my keys in the lock on the outside.
Quite frequently I will have the phone up to my ear wondering why it is taking so long to ring only to remember that I have hit send on a text -not dialed a phone number.
I got into the bath at the hotel last night, and after shampooing my hair, I reached up to where I knew the soap was. With my eyes still closed, I lathered my hands with the soap and proceeded to wash my face. The soap didn't feel like it was doing a very good job. After lathering my hands once more on the bar, I tried again. My face still didn't feel like it was getting much cleaner and the soap didn't seem to lather very well either. In frustration, I finally just rubbed the bar of soap directly on my face. The texture felt odd. What is wrong with this soap? I opened my eyes, looked down, and the realization that I should probably not be in charge of myself, let alone my children, hits me. The shiny, smooth wrapper of the hotel soap...was still on.
Like I said, I don't know if there is a limit to how air-headed I can be, but I do seem to be in search of it.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Thankful Thursday: Home
Today I am thankful.
I am thankful that a place that I didn't want to go,
turned out to be one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I am thankful for all the amazing memories my family made there.
I am thankful for all of the truly wonderful friends I made there too.
I am thankful that when I left Korea, Korea left me a better person.
But even still, I am thankful to be back home.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Top Ten Tuesday: Korea
We have been stationed at Osan Air Base in the Republic of Korea for a year now. In two nights time we will fly back to the states and make our way to our new station in Alabama. I did not want to be sent here, but it has been such a great experience living here.
The top 10 things I have enjoyed while living at Osan Air Base in Korea:
1. The view from our 10th floor apt. In the early morning hours, the kids and I loved to snuggle out on the patio wrapped in blankets, drinking hot coco and coffee and watch the sun rise. At night, the lights of two different cities that twinkled in our view was stunning. Though I often tried, I could never get pictures that adequately captured how beautiful those two times of day were.
2. Being within walking distance to everything on base. The chapel? 5 min. The school? The grocery store? The indoor pool? 8 min! The gym was 15 min. but the walk added to our exercise! Don't feel like walking? Call the base taxi. $2.30 will get you almost anywhere you need to go on base.
3. Taking groceries from the car to the kitchen in shopping carts. So convenient! The carts are also convenient for anything else you need to take up or down. And for playing in too...
4. Having a trash chute. Its not that I mind taking the trash out to a trash bin, its that I can never remember to take the bin to the curb on trash day until I hear the garbage truck pulling away! Not looking forward to that again.
5. The restaurants. The main strip full of stores and restaurants right outside the main gate has just about any cuisine you could ask for, and we enjoyed them all. Ok, the Mexican wasn't that great because they never had limes, but the Italian was fantastic. The Meat restaurant was a family favorite for Korean food because they cooked it right on your table. The Indian/Pakistani restaurant that opened not too long ago was really goo, and the Turkish one was our favorite of all. Yum! There was also Brazilian dining, Japanese sushi, Thai, Chinese...and those are just the restaurants off base. On base there was Chili's, Oriental House, Flying M Steak House (where kids eat free on Tuesdays!), Checkertails, Popeye's, Pizza Hut ,and various other fast foods, and almost all of them delivered. What will we eat now?
6. Speaking of good food, we loved to hop in the car and head to E-mart or Home Plus. Kind of like a cross between a Super Walmart and a department store. We would always stop at the food court first and decide what to order from the display. Most of the time, we didn't really know what we were ordering, we just hoped that it was something that we would enjoy. They had the coolest stuff too. And the best produce!
7. The mountains. Most of our favorite memories here involve mountains. They are beautiful and we have enjoyed seeing them and hiking them throughout the various seasons.
8. The rest stops. The rest stops here are fantastic! They are master-planned with restrooms, food court and convenient store. There is usually a playground for the kids too.
9. Safety. The kids got a lot of attention from locals here. Everyone wants to give them candy or take a picture with them. The youngest has started to say 'Cheese!' anytime anyone even looks at him. It's very safe to allow that here but they are in for a big surprise when we get back to the states.
10. Experiencing Korean culture.
The top 10 things I have enjoyed while living at Osan Air Base in Korea:
1. The view from our 10th floor apt. In the early morning hours, the kids and I loved to snuggle out on the patio wrapped in blankets, drinking hot coco and coffee and watch the sun rise. At night, the lights of two different cities that twinkled in our view was stunning. Though I often tried, I could never get pictures that adequately captured how beautiful those two times of day were.
2. Being within walking distance to everything on base. The chapel? 5 min. The school? The grocery store? The indoor pool? 8 min! The gym was 15 min. but the walk added to our exercise! Don't feel like walking? Call the base taxi. $2.30 will get you almost anywhere you need to go on base.
3. Taking groceries from the car to the kitchen in shopping carts. So convenient! The carts are also convenient for anything else you need to take up or down. And for playing in too...
4. Having a trash chute. Its not that I mind taking the trash out to a trash bin, its that I can never remember to take the bin to the curb on trash day until I hear the garbage truck pulling away! Not looking forward to that again.
5. The restaurants. The main strip full of stores and restaurants right outside the main gate has just about any cuisine you could ask for, and we enjoyed them all. Ok, the Mexican wasn't that great because they never had limes, but the Italian was fantastic. The Meat restaurant was a family favorite for Korean food because they cooked it right on your table. The Indian/Pakistani restaurant that opened not too long ago was really goo, and the Turkish one was our favorite of all. Yum! There was also Brazilian dining, Japanese sushi, Thai, Chinese...and those are just the restaurants off base. On base there was Chili's, Oriental House, Flying M Steak House (where kids eat free on Tuesdays!), Checkertails, Popeye's, Pizza Hut ,and various other fast foods, and almost all of them delivered. What will we eat now?
6. Speaking of good food, we loved to hop in the car and head to E-mart or Home Plus. Kind of like a cross between a Super Walmart and a department store. We would always stop at the food court first and decide what to order from the display. Most of the time, we didn't really know what we were ordering, we just hoped that it was something that we would enjoy. They had the coolest stuff too. And the best produce!
7. The mountains. Most of our favorite memories here involve mountains. They are beautiful and we have enjoyed seeing them and hiking them throughout the various seasons.
8. The rest stops. The rest stops here are fantastic! They are master-planned with restrooms, food court and convenient store. There is usually a playground for the kids too.
9. Safety. The kids got a lot of attention from locals here. Everyone wants to give them candy or take a picture with them. The youngest has started to say 'Cheese!' anytime anyone even looks at him. It's very safe to allow that here but they are in for a big surprise when we get back to the states.
10. Experiencing Korean culture.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Little gifts from God
Reposted blog entry from October 5, 2007
On Friday I was telling a friend that the one thing I had wanted to do here in California that we hadn't done was go to the San Diego Zoo.
My husband was scheduled to work overnight shifts this past weekend but at the last minute was given the weekend off. So we hopped in the car and took off for San Diego.
On the way there I was telling my husband about another friend's story. She wanted something that was out of her price range but was there at just the right time when it was clearance and then 50% off. She said she felt like it was a little gift from God.
When we got to the zoo on Monday, we were surprised at the amount of people that were there. Turns out, it happened to be Founder's Day and admission for the zoo was free for the day! We saw the pandas and had a lot of fun. When we were done we took a break at the hotel and then headed over to Sea World. It was the season that they honor those serving in the military making our admission free! We got there just in time for a pet show (trained animals doing tricks) that the kids loved and then got to see the last Shamu show of the day. My husband won a giant dragon at the ring toss too.
It was such a wonderful trip. I told my husband that I felt blessed by it. Like we too had gotten little gifts from God.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A Father's Day Post
When I met my husband in college, he was already teaching music in a little private school. He continued to teach in various public and private schools until he joined the Air Force 7 years later. He taught different grades at the different schools, and all grades at some of the schools. He was good at working with kids of all ages and the kids loved him. He was nominated for Who's Who Among American Teachers by a few different students during those years, and 11 years later many students still track him down to tell him how much they learned from him and how much he impacted their lives.
Obviously he was experienced working with kids. He was not, however, experienced working with babies. In the hospital after our first child was born, he was quite nervous about how to handle the seemingly fragile little bundle. After I finished feeding the baby for the first time, I sat him up on my lap, put my hand firmly under his chin and leaned him forward to pat his back for a burp. If you've had any experience with new babies, you know that their muscle tone is not well developed yet and his cheeks sagged over my hands. If you haven't had any experience with babies, you might think what my husband gushed, "Oh my goodness!! What are you doing?? You're choking him!!" I laughed. I did have experience with babies and tried to assure him that this was just one of many ways to burp a baby. He was not buying it. He only knew of one way, and if there were more ways, certainly they didn't involve my hand around the baby's neck. A nurse came in to check our vitals. My husband quickly pointed out to her what I was doing, sure that she would rush over and show me the proper way. He was quite surprised when she assured him that it was a perfectly fine way to do the job.
I smile when I think about those first few days. His protective nature as a father was evident right from the very start. On the way home from the hospital, he kept making me check 'just to make sure' that the baby was breathing because he wasn't crying. (He was sleeping!) It was just a glimpse of what a great father he would be.
Obviously he was experienced working with kids. He was not, however, experienced working with babies. In the hospital after our first child was born, he was quite nervous about how to handle the seemingly fragile little bundle. After I finished feeding the baby for the first time, I sat him up on my lap, put my hand firmly under his chin and leaned him forward to pat his back for a burp. If you've had any experience with new babies, you know that their muscle tone is not well developed yet and his cheeks sagged over my hands. If you haven't had any experience with babies, you might think what my husband gushed, "Oh my goodness!! What are you doing?? You're choking him!!" I laughed. I did have experience with babies and tried to assure him that this was just one of many ways to burp a baby. He was not buying it. He only knew of one way, and if there were more ways, certainly they didn't involve my hand around the baby's neck. A nurse came in to check our vitals. My husband quickly pointed out to her what I was doing, sure that she would rush over and show me the proper way. He was quite surprised when she assured him that it was a perfectly fine way to do the job.
I smile when I think about those first few days. His protective nature as a father was evident right from the very start. On the way home from the hospital, he kept making me check 'just to make sure' that the baby was breathing because he wasn't crying. (He was sleeping!) It was just a glimpse of what a great father he would be.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Blueberry picking
Reposted blog entry from August 20, 2007
We went blueberry picking on Friday. It was sooo much fun! They gave us little buckets for the berries and straw hats for our heads.
Asha loved getting to pick berries and put them in a bucket. Of course she also loved putting handfuls of dirt and twigs in the bucket too. Daniel picked about one berry from each bush while going from row to row calling us Farmer Mommy and Farmer Daddy. My husband enjoyed sampling all the different flavors -some tart, some sweet- and I loved the hunt for the biggest and bluest. It was a very memorable family day and we got some nice photos to remember it by. I can't wait to go again!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
In Motion (Part 2)
In 4 weeks we are set to fly out of Osan Air Base, South Korea on a military flight (The Patriot Express) which will stop in Okinawa before arriving in Seattle. From Seattle we were supposed to take a commercial flight through St. Louis and then Atlanta before arriving at our final destination in Montgomery, Alabama. The 5 leg trip with 30 or so hours in flight + 3 high-energy, jet-lagged kids makes me stressed just thinking about it! Since we were last stationed in Hawaii and only one vehicle is authorized here at Osan, our second car is still on Oahu. The plan was to have it shipped to Alabama in time to be waiting for us when we got there; we would keep using our van here and ship it just before flying back.
About 3 weeks ago, I had what will probably turn out to be the worst idea I have ever had. Why not have the van shipped to Seattle and drive from there to Alabama? This is why not. But I'm a glutton for punishment so we scrambled around frantically trying to get our van shipped ASAP. We had to get a move on because it can take up to 55 days to go from Seoul, Korea to Seattle, WA and we were only 50 days out. My poor husband. For a man who always has a back up plan for his back up plan, trying to change plans that he had already made months ago for our flight and make new plans for driving and then back up plans for in case the van was delayed... If ever there was proof he loved me, this concession is it. :)
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