My February Resolution

Last December I thought and thought about my New Year's Resolution. It didn't seem right to just skip it, as much as I hated the idea of it. I've never gotten much out of my resolutions but a sense of failure so, why keep doing that to myself? But I knew there were things that I just needed to work on. So, after a lot of prayer and thought, I came up with my master plan. I was so excited for ages to finally get to do it. The idea was this: Rather than having one big goal (which is always something like, read scriptures every day, or loose 100 pounds, or something equally unreasonable in such a big chunk) I broke things down into 12 mini goals. Each month I work on one thing that I know I need to work on. January was out of the question, as I knew we'd be packing, living at other people's houses, moving and getting settled. So my first month's goal started in February. The goal for the month of February was to make a menu and a grocery list for every week of the month. I'm proud to say, I did it!

Here were some problems I ran into:

1)I didn't have any of my own dishes, pots and pans, or measuring cups. Most of the food I made had to be easy enough to throw together or not be completely reliant on exact measurements.

2)After a month of cooking every single night I just got worn out of cooking.

3) I don't have a good 'arsenal' of recipes and when you throw issue 1 into that mix, we realized if I didn't find new recipes to try, we'd be eating pizza (homemade :) every night.

4) I don't have any idea how much money I 'should' be spending on food- Lottie is starting to eat table food and Matt is home and we are in an entirely different part of the world. I don't know when prices are high or low yet...and that worries me.

Here are some things I discovered:

1) I actually really enjoy cooking. I love the 'puzzle' of it- figuring out when to put each dish on the stove, the presentation of the food on the plates (not that I get fancy or anything...) and I get satisfaction out of knowing I'm making something my family will really appreciate.

2) The time I cook is a really good time for Matt to bond with the girls and give me some 'alone time'. Matt was able to take the girls for the 30-60 minutes that I was cooking nearly every night and it was lovely to listen to them laughing together while I had that chance to do something that wasn't even remotely close to kid level:)

3) Its wonderful to go to the grocery store, load up the cart with tons of food, get the bill and feel completely satisfied that the money isn't being wasted (like when I'd just wander around and throw things in the cart that looked good).

For those of you who are interested, here are the meals I made this month. Some of these we repeated so I didn't actually make 28 separate meals:

Baked Potatoes, Caesar Salad, rolls

Top Raman Salad, yams

Meatloaf, acorn squash, rolls

Talapia, Asparagus, diced Red potatoes

Burritos, Spinach Salad

Spaghetti, fruit, french bread

Chicken Pot Pie

Stir fry on rice,rolls

Chicken Chip Enchiladas, green beans

Shrimp Alfredo, Caesar salad, crescent rolls

Hot wings, Spinach Salad, bread sticks

Quiche, fried rice

Ham and Cheese Crepes, fruit salad (one of the one's Matt raved about)

Easy Chicken and Stuffing, broccoli

Dumplings and salad

Chicken Alfredo, carrots and crescent rolls

Pizza, Caesar salad

Chicken Sandwiches, grapes, cookies (a meal we took to the beach!)

Chicken Spinach Salad, biscuits

Hamburgers, Seasoned Fries, mango

Pork and Stuffing, corn

Teriyaki Shredded Pork on Rice, and peas

We had leftovers scheduled once and we went out to eat once as well. So total, I planned 24 different meals for the month of February.

I'm going to keep this up for the next month. Hopefully I've started a good habit (that's the idea!) that will keep going for the year. I'm excited I actually got something out of this more than just a full belly!

Perfection

Yesterday was perfect in every way. Part of me wishes I had pictures to express how amazing the day was but the other part of me realizes that even with the most perfect pictures, there is no way they could adequately convey my day. My family and I went to the beach together. For about 2 hours I was able to be completely free. There was no worry about money, a dirty house, work, not having our stuff, family issues, or any of the million other things that bother me during the day. As a teenager, if you asked me where I'd love to spend all my life, I would have said I wanted to be tucked up in a cabin on a mountain side where you can hear the wind in the trees and the birds chirping and be lulled to sleep by crickets and bull frogs. I think I wanted that because I could hide myself. I've changed my mind. Right now, the beach is the most perfect place for me to be. Wide open spaces, the perfectly blue sky that I can gaze into, the waves beating against the sand and rocks. Yesterday I relaxed on the beach towels and stared into the sky and I felt like I could loose myself in it. It was so BLUE and there was so much depth in it. While I did that I could hear Lottie breathing softly next to me, asleep in her carseat, and Emmaline was giggling up a storm while playing with the sand, throwing it in the air and squishing it between her toes. Matt and I stood in the ocean, holding our daughters, getting pushed and pulled by the waves. We would watch the water break agains the reef in the distance and then wait until the waves reached us. Matt would backfloat and laugh at how far the current took him away from me and Emmaline called the waves 'bumps'. The strangest thing is that for about two hours, I didn't worry about being in a swimsuit. How much sense does that make? Had we gone to the pool I would have kept myself wrapped up tight. But for some reason, being out in nature, enjoying my family, enjoying the water and the sand, I couldn't care less what my body looked like or felt like. I just enjoyed life. One more thing- as we were packing up to go home, Matt noticed a pile of shells. I'd seen them earlier and thought they were collected by some kids. But it turns out it was a pile of hermit crabs! We started poking at them and pointing them out to Emmaline. We ended up counting 8 hermit crabs who had been hunkered down for an afternoon nap, right next to our towels. I don't know how it happened that I am in one of the most beautiful places on earth with the most wonderful family on earth. I don't know how I got to be so blessed. But I hope we can have days like yesterday many more times in my life. It was just...so...perfect.

Our New House

I tried to upload videos but I think my camera doesn't like the blogger system or something. So you get pictures instead. This is the living room view from the dining room:

This is the dining room, partial kitchen from the living room:

This is the entry view. The diagonal wall separates the kitchen from the dining/living rooms. The wall to the right blocks the view of the living room.

This is the kitchen from the entry way. Tons of cupboards! There is a walk-in pantry to the left of the picture.

This is a veiw of the entry way from the dining room. I love the little window next to the front door. We'll have to think of something really cute to do right there. Matt suggested putting the fish tank there, and although that would be Really cute, I don't think its practical :(

This is our laundry room. I think this is the room I'm most excited about. There is tons of room for laundry baskets, cleaning supplies, etc. Oh, and look how big that water heater is! I don't think we'll ever run out of hot water! I'm really excited to get all our stuff so I can start decorating. I didn't include pics of the bedrooms or bathrooms because they look the same as just about every bedroom/bathroom. But when I actually get decorations up (especially in the playroom!) I'll post pictures. But you'll have to wait a little while on that one. It'll take a bit to actually get things decorated.

The Beach!

I love that we are Beaches, and we go to the beach. I even have my girls wear clothes that say 'beach girl' and 'beach fun' and stuff. Its corny, but I think all you out there are just really jealous :)

Lottie loves the wind blowing in her face, didn't really care about the water, and hated the sand.

Emmaline loved the sand (she kept licking her hands...), was okay with the water, and didn't really pay attention to the wind.

Mom and Lottie! Matt said my hair looks even better in the sunlight :)

Dad and Emmaline! There are a lot of pieces of coral washed up on the beaches here. Technically we aren't allowed to collect coral off the beaches so we left it there. That doesn't mean that in the future I'll be able to resist such temptation!

Off to Guam!

The night before we were to fly off to Guam, the first of many huge snow-storms blew in. It was bad enough that our 2 car caravan turned into one car. We had to put some of our bags in a car-top carrier and say good-bye to my mom at home rather than at the airport. It snowed about a foot over night:

It took us a little longer to get to the airport but we got there in plenty of time. We even boarded the airplane on time! The problem came with the hour+ it took to de-ice the airplane. We ended up landing in Housten about 10 minutes before our plane was supposed to take off. We were lucky enough that they actually held the plane for us. So after a sprint through the entire airport (it took 15 minutes to run to the other end of the airport, including getting on a tram...), we boarded the plane.

I sat next to the girls and Matt sat two rows ahead of us. I felt slightly jipped not being able to sit next to Matt but it worked out well enough.

We had about an hour layover in Hawaii- gorgeous!

There ended up being a man on the flight from Hawaii to Guam who had a health problem. We ended up turning the plane around after taxiing all the way to the other side of the flight line. That put us back about an hour but the guy ended up getting the medical help he needed.

We landed in Guam after the sun had set, which was disappointing. I'd have loved to see the entire island from the air. The next morning Matt and I were able to get up and sit on the patio to watch the sunrise.

I'm so glad to be here with my family all together. Its been a wonderful few weeks and I know it'll be an amazing few years!

Family Time

We took our girls to the Children's Museum while we were home. It was fun to see Matt get a chance to play after so long!

Inside the Bubble...the trick is to pull the rope as fast as you can!

Hugs!Lottie loved the Ball Pit Water Time!

Matt arrives home!

Matt came home January 14 at 830pm. We were all so excited to see him again and we arrived at the airport quite a bit earlier than necessary.

So, you know how they have the hallways at the airport that you aren't allowed to go into because it says "DO NOT ENTER"? Well, Emmaline took off down that hallway when she saw Matt coming. Do you know what happens when you run down that hallway? Sirens and flashing lights go off. I felt bad for the security guard (who really should have been at the entrance to that hallway in order to stop people before they go running down the hallway) but I joked that the people at the airport was so excited for us that they pulled out all the stops and set off the alarms ;)

We made a lady cry who was watching our family reunion. I think that was the best part. :)

Halloween

This was Lottie's first Halloween. We dressed her up as a little pink leopard. The costume had these cute little gloves that looked like paws, but I couldn't get her to keep them on.

While in Korea we purchased this cute little traditional costume for Emmaline. So for Halloween we dressed her up. I think she could have won first prize at any costume contest!

The cousins all together! Carolyn was a little shepherdess, Lottie, Julia was a Cheerleader, Andrew was a football player, Emmaline.

Coex Acquarium

For one of our outings we went to the Coex Acquarium. It wasn't at all what I expected, but it was so cool. I was expecting big tanks of flashy, exotic fish. But instead, their venue was in creative fish tanks.

Outside the Acquarium

A tank that was always 'leaking' into the grass under it:

This was a tank full of those 'pedicure' fish. They are attracted to the dead skin on your fingers when you put your hand in and will eat your fingers. Emmaline was brave enough to put her hand in but got worried when the fish actually swam toward her. It was pretty cute. (That tank was inside of a bathtub...)

A 'gold fish' tank... get it? Lol!

This was one of the more interesting. They actually had fish inside the traffic light! You can see the little guys swimming toward the bottom of the tanks.

Some other interesting tank ideas: There was a fish tank made out of a fire extinguisher, a vending machine, a clock, a lamp post, and a headboard. Every tank was so unique and really fun to look at!

They also had section of the acquarium for turtles, crocadiles, etc. This turtle had two heads! The sign said something about it being lucky to see a two headed turtle (more Korean superstution!) There were some really cool starfish all over this tank and you could reach in and touch them. I thought that Emmaline would be very anti-touching but she went right up and felt those star fish! THAT was cool to see.

The Orphanage

Orphanages in SKorea aren't exactly what you'd think of them being here in the states. They are all state funded and kids do live there. But for the most part, its more of a state-run day-care system. It was also common for children to live at the orphanage but have full families who just couldn't care for them on a daily basis because everyone worked. So they would live at the orphanage five days a week and then go home on the weekends. Sort of like a boarding school... We took the girls one night to the orphanage to play. These kids were Crazy! They always looked forward to the military coming to visit. American candy is much different than Korean candy so a sure fire way to become popular fast is to pull out bags of candy. You'll get mobbed. It turns out that little red-headed children who suck their thumbs are pretty dang popular too. Actually, they are popular with...get this...the boys!

This was, no joke, pretty much Emmaline's entire evening with these kids. They mobbed her constantly! We discovered that Emmaline really isn't that big into people who want to poke her cheeks and who don't speak her language... lol.

The girls enjoyed Emmaline but they stayed back a lot more. They LOVED taking pictures and kept asking for the camera. When I asked if I could take their pictures, they said no. So I had to sneak the pictures while they weren't paying attention.This was the beginning of a candy mob:

And for some reason, every time the kids posed for a picture, they had to do the peace sign... Emmaline picked up on that.

Peace.

Eunpa Park Pics

The Koreans are very traditional, almost superstitious people. At Eunpa Park, there was this amazing lake witha bridge spanning it. At various places on the bridges were plaques that suggested you do something in the name of someone you love. For instance, there was a pillar in the center of the bridge and you were urged to walk around it thinking of your parents. Or there was another one where you were urged to carry your loved one on your back over a section of the path. We thought this was pretty cool and did a few of them.

The pillar:

You can see the arched sections in the background of this picture. This is where you were supposed to carry your loved one:

Everyone wanted to see Lottie and got a kick out of her being in the sling. I finally covered up her face so that she could sleep in peace!

Matt was pretty sure this fountain was meant to be a minature of the one in Las Vegas. If you look closely, you can see that Matt caught a rainbow in this picture!

I think Eunpa park was one of the most perfect places in all of South Korea. It may be because Matt and I did most of our courting while at a park (he proposed to me on a playground, did you know that?) or maybe it was just that our entire family was able to spend time together without any sort of constraints. But it would definately be on my list of places to go back and see again.

Swan Boat

One day, while exploring Eunpa Park in Gunsan, Matt and I saw Swan Boats out on the lake. In a fit of adventurousness, I insisted that we figure out how to take one of those boats out: Matt got to drive With Emmaline's help...

While Lottie and I enjoyed the ride from the back seat!

It turns out that I get a little boat sick and I was quite afraid that Emmaline would topple over the side of the boat. I think it makes a better story than activity :)