Living Lavallee

Shut In and Stretched Out

2012-02-10T23:06:00.001+09:00

It's cold here in the winter. Probably not any colder than Ramah, NM, but this is what Cambria wears outside. She has started crawling now. She's not racing around yet, but moseys her way along.

It sure is fun having a little girl to dress up for church. Her hair is getting long enough that I'm not sure what to do with it, as it sticks out of the little bands now kinda funny.

Sometimes it's easier to haul her upstairs with the laundry. I long to not have to go up and down stairs.

She eats lots of cheerios. The trick is to keep the boys out of them.

Criselda, our weekly angel, loves Cambria.

I've made a few pillow cases of late. A fun, simple project, especially with the fabric available here in Korea.

Kyler found a use for his grabber toy when the ball stuck to the ceiling.

Tristan and Cambria do entertain each other much of the day.

2/3 of us have been sick of late. The only one diagnosed is Cambria, who has the flu. Not sure which was worse for her in diagnosing that - shoving the q-tip up to her brain to get a sample, or having to hold her arms straight up for chest x-rays. She was not amused. Tristan is rather ill as well, though I didn't take him in. The doctor said it's probably the same thing. And, sure enough, I started feeling achy and unwell around the same time as Cambria. Kyler stayed home from school about 1.2 days this week - also not feeling good and croupy coughing over one night.

You know these guys aren't up to par if they are willingly lounging around.

In Hunter news - apparently he hasn't been around for pictures much - he has decided he wants to have glasses, so is up to about two weeks now of putting his shoes on the shelf. Hallelujah! Maybe there is hope. Also, the pills came and he has been taking them for a week. It's probably too soon to tell if he is improving, but we're hopeful. He doesn't want to lose his fidgety-ness - not sure why. His second quarter report card came out (right about the time the pills came - so not because of the pills) and there was an A on it, and no Ds, which is much improved from straight Cs and Ds the first quarter.

Are You Daring and Brave?

2012-01-28T21:07:00.001+09:00

Today I took Hunter on some errands on the main army base here. I took the route through Itaewon, the tourist-y shopping area between here and there, and being a Saturday it was slow going. There is a McDonalds at nearly the end of it, so I asked Hunter if he was daring and brave. He laughed and said he was, so I instructed him to hop out, cross the street, and take 1,000 won (equivalent of a US Dollar, though the exchange rate is about 10% in our favor) to McDonalds and buy two cones, then find me outside. He did it! I had to drive a bit and do a u-turn to come back and find him. Drive thrus are a rarity here, and I have been craving some soft serve ice cream. I love the price, which is about 45 cents per cone. Good job Hunter!

In other Hunter news, I've decided that he has ADHD. He isn't one of those kids you see bouncing off the walls at school, but he has every one of these characteristics at least mildly. ADHD would explain a lot. I had him read through the info, and he agreed that perhaps he does have it. I'm not sure that it is worth getting a medical diagnosis at this point. I looked around online and found a product that I've ordered from Amazon.com, to see if it will help him. I really don't like pharmaceuticals and all their ill effects, so will try this route for now. Of course adequate sleep and good nutrition are the starting points.

As soon as she could roll over, she declared that she must sleep on her tummy. Yes, she's asleep here.

Little Cambria has been more fussy and clingy of late. She has no interest in being held by strangers, either, all of a sudden. She's been screaming her head off when she wants Dean or me to hold her. She is really insulted if we walk by without picking her up. She knows all about the boys, and doesn't much care for them to hold her if she's cranky at all. It is flattering to be the object of her desire, but I can't hold her every second. Her sleep pattern has been changing a bit and maybe that's part of the problem. I'm getting awfully weary of her wanting to nurse several times in the night, and have started giving her more food or a bottle of formula before bed. Formula sure costs a lot! My word! Now I know why I really nurse my babies, besides all the other reasons! She is still an angel and we're getting her all figured out. We've also been putting her to bed in Tristan's room, and she only wakes once in the night to feed, so maybe she smells me when she's in our room, ha ha.

Bath buddies

Finders Keepers

2012-01-18T16:37:00.001+09:00

I lost my wallet AGAIN, on New Year's Eve. Dean and I and Cambria were out on a date and rode the bus to get to a particular all-you-can-eat beef and leaf (lettuce and beef and pork with a few sides). We found it, but when we were ready to leave I realized my wallet wasn't in my purse. Ugh. I either left it on the bus or it fell out of my purse, or maybe I set it down when I was taking my boots off before we entered the restaurant (a must at the sit-on-the-floor places). I was wearing Baby in carrier, so it's easy to lose track of it while I'm tending to her... We actually found the same bus we had ridden, but it was not there. We went to three police stations nearby and filed a report. We went through all the rig a ma role of canceling all the cards and checks in it, then had to wait until a business day after the holiday to get my ID and ration cards replaced so I could get HOME and on base without having to go to the guard shacks and give my SSN and finger print, AND so that I could go inside the commissary and PX (can't even enter the stores without the ID and ration cards). Dean's office got a call from the US Embassy on Friday saying that someone had turned the wallet in there, so a counselor in our branch presidency (at church) who works there was able to bring it home. Yay! I could say that of course the cash was taken, but I won't. It didn't have to be stolen. I'm extremely grateful that someone turned it in, but that doesn't cancel the stealing out. It is just as much stealing as pick pocketing or burglary or shoplifting - in case anyone doesn't know that. I don't know how much cash was in it, but definitely both won and dollars. Everything else was intact, so I was able to attend the temple today with my temple recommend (yay!) A lovely lady in the ward with grown children offered to watch kids so that interested people could go. What a gift of service! The session was totally full, too, and extra chairs had to be brought in.

On Saturday a "photographer" here was doing portraits, and we haven't had a family one since we've been here. I paid our $15 and got a contender for Awkward Family Photos. Dean always says "You get what you pay for", and sure enough we did.


What's wrong with this picture?

All the boys acted like they were on a scavenger hunt the whole time we were there for our "session", so I finally had enough and gave Hunter Pants a little pinch. You'd have thought I took a chunk - my boys are all drama queens. The "photographer" didn't give him even a moment to compose himself. I wonder if she'll use this in her portfolio.

I Have a Dream

2012-01-13T20:50:00.002+09:00

Dean has never thought much of new year resolutions. He feels that goals can be set at any time. I do like the idea of starting anew, and always seem to have the same "goals". We had a family council to discuss family goals, namely to get to church on time. Dean can get himself and all the kids to church when I'm not around. Hmmm.

Couples often wear matching clothing in Korea. Now they can match everything!

Our big accomplishments for 2011 were to: finally decide on Dean's career path, pay off the student loans, and have a baby girl!

Man muffin anyone?

It has been a huge struggle for years to determine what Dean should "do with his life". It is funny how when we have so many options, it can actually be harder than having no options. I often ponder some of our trials in life, and contrast them with the trials of merely trying to survive that so many people in the world have. I marvel at the humility of the little elderly people here in Seoul who scratch out a living by pushing big carts loaded with cardboard on busy streets - with no sidewalks. Or the security guards who work here on the base for (rumor has it) about $700 a month. I don't know how they can begin to support their families on that in such an expensive city. Or the folks who sit, squat or stand outside all day long in this bitter cold trying to sell fruit or socks... I really can't imagine that being my life, and I feel so blessed.

The symbol is actually a Buddhist good luck symbol, and is different from a Swastika, for your information.

The Army was the right move for us when Dean joined, for a number of reasons. One of which is that his student loans were paid off. There was still a big chunk of interest left for us ($22,000), but being here in Korea allowed us to save up and pay it all off last year. We are totally debt free. Of course, we have no house... but until we do, it feels really good to have no payments of any kind.

From a modeling shoot. Her fourth is next week.

And then there is my Lady Cambria. I absolutely love having babies. Pregnancy is hard. Labor is atrocious. But then the reward is a sweet little angel who I get to take care of. I've adored all my babies. The Korean birth rate is about 1.1, meaning their population will be shrinking if they don't step it up. They often marvel at all the kids we have, and tell us how blessed we are, or how they admire me for it. They LOVE seeing (grabbing, taking) babies, and are instantly attracted to ours.

Sexual harassment is alive and well in Korea, apparently.

It melts my heart every time I watch Cambria sleeping, or when she lights up, smiles, and jumps up and down when she sees me, and when I feed, hold, and love on her. I love all the baby stages, and am sad as they pass through them, but then it is so fun to see them hone new skills and enjoy life. I've been blessed with good-natured babies, though Kryler didn't pick up his nickname for nothing. My babies have been an absolute joy, and I certainly want more. I ran across this essay, which spoke my heart. I can't count how many times "old ladies" have stopped me in public to admonish me to enjoy my little ones (generally the toddlers who are trying to single-handedly knock down the store and all its contents), because they grow up so fast. Apparently they didn't take the time to enjoy their own, so they feel the need to harass me?

It changes on a weekly basis what we may do when we leave here, literally. Truly there are so many options and opportunities. Things could get exciting! On a different note, did you know that veterinarians are up there in suicide rates with dentists? Tragic. This offers some explanation.

No Treats for you!

2012-01-09T22:40:00.002+09:00

So it is catch up time... and I might as well start with a gratuitous shot of our little angel. This is a couple of months old. I'm not sure if the dress fits any more.

We did have a nice Halloween, which started with the wonderful Degn Family hosting a party before trick-or-treating. Dean was Captain Love once again! Such a versatile shirt this has been, and a versatile "Sweet Pea" costume, used by both Tristan and Cambria.

I got Kyler the coolest chicken costume ever! He wore it to school for costume day, but then he thought it would be cooler to go trick or treating as Spiderman and I couldn't talk him out of it. I saw all kinds of Spidermen, but not a single chicken!

Sadly, Hunter had much classwork to make up (from all that reading in class instead of doing his assignments). He chose to not make it up, and therefore didn't get to trick or treat.

It took Tristan a while to warm up to the idea of wearing a costume, but he finally relented. He'd been potty training for some time, and we had even been taking him out of the house in big-boy underwear for some time with nary an accident, but alas, at a post trick or treat party at the Lieutenant Colonel's house, he dropped a mother load right on their floor. The Lt. Col's wife nearly threw up, as she is pregnant. We cleaned it up thoroughly then promptly left. Those are the memories our lives are made of...

Stub the Toe then Throw the Sock

2012-01-07T23:10:00.002+09:00

When Kyler styles hair

Poor little Tristan had a rough Friday morning. He had been whining since Thursday, then suddenly whined louder and longer as he puttered around in the kitchen with me. He somehow simultaneously stubbed his toe and raised a knot on his shin. He actually let me put a bag of frozen vegies on it while he convalesced on the sofa, then fell asleep before 10am, for about an hour. Noteworthy. So once he awoke and still wouldn't walk on it, I took him to the ER, where they did a number of x-rays, but saw no breaks, which is great! Have I mentioned that we still haven't ever had any broken bones? I'm knocking on wood right now. And we have only had stitches twice - remarkable!! considering all the nonsense around here. After the ER we were off to the hemophilia clinic for a dose of factor. They even remember Cambria's name there. I can't remember most Korean names. They also don't have any commentary about how unusual it is. An African American soldier at Dean's work has said more than once "I thought only black people gave their kids weird names!"

We sure miss our home teaching group. All the originals are gone, sniff.

Hunter has been begging for glasses for some time, and squints at things far away, like the clock. We have gotten a notice or two from the school nurse as well, that his vision appears to be 20/60 (my dad's was more like 20/600, so I am not all that concerned). The problem is that if we get glasses for the boy, he will lose them before we arrive home with said glasses. He lost his new backpack before school started, and his new lunch bag soon after it started. Someone stole his backpack at the school on the meet-your-teacher day, actually (he set it down on the playground). I saw it listed for sale later on the flea market page here, and even sent a message to the seller, but got nothing. It was full of his new school supplies as well.

She is up to 8 teeth now, at 6 months.

Being the benevolent dictator that I am, however, I told him the other day that as soon as he can take care of his socks and shoes for 30 consecutive days, I will be happy to get him glasses, because then I'll know that he is responsible enough for them. There. Easy. That puts the monkey on his back. So far he has put his shoes on the shoe shelf next to the door once, and I still find his dirty socks strewn and stuffed all over the house. It will likely be years before he gets glasses. I suspect his vision has deteriorated from all the reading he does. He's nearly through the entire Harry Potter series, which he started a month or so ago. I know, I know. Everyone tells me how wonderful it is that he reads so much. So much so that he didn't get his classwork done much last quarter, and got straight Cs and Ds, as well as kicked out of the gifted program at school. Yeah, that's what reading so much does for him. Anyway, we've been watching the H.P. movies as a family, and are up to about number 6 now. The movies would be easier to follow if we had read the books; Hunter knows exactly what is going on. But I just can't bring myself to read them, much like the Twilight series.

When the subject is this sweet, I can't resist!

I am eons behind in blogging, but alas seem to have less time and energy by the day. We spoke in church last week and I said to the whole congregation that one of my resolutions for the new year would be to go to bed earlier so I can get up and face the day earlier. It has yet to happen this week. Off I go... more to come!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-14T14:03:00.001+09:00

December 2011

Here we are at the end of another year, wondering where it went and hoping that you are doing well and enjoying this holiday season. We are on the downhill slope of our time in Korea, and will be leaving this coming June. We have decided to leave the Army at that time as well, and will likely return to New Mexico - but you never do know with us!

Hunter is in the fourth grade and loves to challenge us and his teacher. He is a stellar reader and a big help around the house and with the little ones when he wants to be. He started reading the Harry Potter books about a month ago and is sailing right through them. He loves to play board games, swim, and wrestle with all the boys. He and Kyler had 8 weeks of swim lessons in the summer. We have had a few “bleeds” with him and Tristan while here, due to their mild hemophilia.

Kyler finally got to start Kindergarten and has a male teacher who must be the most structured person on earth, which is great for Kyler. He has enjoyed being in Tae kwon do for the last year. He is very loving and enthusiastic about life. He always wants to save any treats he has to share with his brothers and dad. He makes friends where ever he goes.

Tristan is a sweet little imp. He is almost two and a half, and says new words every day. He is now potty trained. He has been able to model a bit here (clothing, head wear, etc.), which is fattening up the Lavallee Mission Fund (Kyler and Cambria have each done it once as well). He loves to play, hang with his dad and brothers, cut paper with scissors, go anywhere and eat treats.

We have had the amazing blessing of welcoming little Cambria Rose into our family this year, on June 14. She is a pure delight and full of smiles. She already has six teeth, and is an accomplished sitter. The Koreans especially enjoy her, as she smiles and engages with them. We hope she will have a calming influence on her brothers. Kyler particularly loves to hold her, and Tristan has been more interested in her of late as she is able to interact with him. My mom was able to be here for two weeks when she was born, which was a huge relief! We only wish she had stayed longer.

We go sight seeing when Dean has time off. We recently went to Jeju Island, Korea’s version of Hawaii. Traveling with all these children feels much like trying to move a military division. It is awkward being swarmed and stared at by Koreans, as they give the kids lots of treats and touch them. “Normal” here is for the Koreans to come take Baby Cambria from us. They bring her right back when she spits up all over them.

I continually lower my personal expectations, as it leads to less disappointment over how much I am actually capable of doing these days. I do try to get a little sewing and crafting in, and am slowly learning about quilting and photography. Dean is kept busy by the Army, and has one more trip to the U.S. for continuing education before we move back. He is a district (stake) clerk at church (dealing with finances, primarily), and I was released from primary recently and put in relief society, which was a welcome change.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Dean, Becky, Hunter, Kyler, Tristan and Cambria Lavallee

Let's go to Sokcho

2011-12-10T23:10:00.002+09:00

Still trying to catch up! The week after all the fun in Jeju-do, we went along with Dean to Sokcho, where his unit was having a commander's conference. Families were welcome, and they provided a bus to travel on (not everyone did the bus), and he already had a room, so we just had to buy our own food. With no car, we mostly stuck close to the hotel, except for an outing with the Owens, who did drive separately. Dean finally got some stuffed squid, which he had been wanting since we were there more than a year ago. It was actually pretty good! I didn't care for the whole fried shrimp, though. I didn't realize it still had the head and shell on. Yuck! Apparently you just eat it like that. I gave it the thumbs down.

The boys shared a twin bed and sadly,
the Trist-man fell out a few times.

It was overcast and lovely at the beach.

Tristan has been modeling quite a bit lately, and Cambria even had her first gig a week ago.

Hunter and Kyler,

plus the Owens kids.

We all went up to Mt. Seorak. Our kids are a hit throughout Asia. Dean thought this guy was from Taiwan; he was eager for pictures with the kids. Tristan "just said no" to that, but Kyler is always game.

Tristan believes in being carried, and since we didn't bring his green car along, we couldn't do much about it. (I love that man in the picture, by the way).

Hunter and Kyler hiked up this mountain pretty far. Hunter's in there somewhere.

The Taiwanese dude gave Tristan treats, some of which were wasabi flavored. Yes, I was prepared with the camera waiting for the perfect shot.

Not good enough for Tristan, but grrrrrrreat for Daddy!

Yes, Cambria and I were there as well. This reminds me - I still have some baby weight to lose x 2.

Then we returned home to recover! And prepare for a second Thanksgiving feast. The first was with Uncle Louis and Aunt Louise when they came from Russia about a week before. Then we got to host four missionaries (much like last year), and Dr. Kim (a civilian vet at work) was able to come as well. Fun times!

And, we finally learned on Friday that Dean made the promotions list, meaning he is now "promotable" to major. We'll see if it happens before he's outta the army.

Jeju Doh?

2011-12-05T21:44:00.001+09:00

I can scarcely believe how long it's been since I've blogged. Life seems to get busier by the day, though I seem to have less and less to show for it. We took a trip over the Veteran's Day weekend to Jeju-do, Korea's version of Hawaii. It's a beautiful island only an hour's flight from Seoul. We rented a car and tried to see all that we could in three days.

Guardians, as pictured behind us, are everywhere on the island.

I would rather see natural wonders than amusements any day, so we saw a few waterfalls.

Here is one fancy trash can.

People left their rocks in piles on trails, presumably to let Buddha know they were thinking about him. I wondered what we are doing to let our Lord know we are thinking about Him?

There are tot-sized potties all over Korea, which is handy for the trainee. He was pretty good at Jeju about using the potty. I must say that he has been the most difficult one so far to train, just because of his defiance.

Here is a Buddhist visitor center of sorts.

The weather was just beautiful most of our trip, and there were smaller "islands" out yonder. I love the new camera!

A beach of black sand. Sadly, Kyler tossed his beloved wallet along some rocks for "safe keeping", then forgot to retrieve it when we left. We went back later in the day and it was long gone. Fortunately, at my mom's behest, I had removed most of his money from it some time before.

Tristan was down to his skivvies in no time.

There is no shortage of great signage.

You can tell what is on the menu by the animals pictured. I bet that horse and pig wouldn't be grinning if they knew their purpose. No, I had no intention of eating RAW horse.

But I was all about kimbap since I made a valiant effort (once again) to go gluten free. I easily passed up many a wheatish delight on the trip. I've since fallen off the wagon with so many Christmas treats abounding at tree lighting ceremonies and Christmas concerts, and home baking.

and

This would be Jeju Pork Bulgogi. Not nearly the same as the typical Bulgogi on the peninsula.

Kyler got to watch Dean and Hunter ride a go-cart, since he just couldn't muster much of any good behavior.

We've come to realize that "Family Vacation" is the worst of oxymorons. It's not any sort of a vacation with the family along. But Tristan's good looks help to redeem him.

This rock looks like a dragon's head.

Columnar joints - really neat to look at!

Mandarin oranges were in season, and we saw millions and millions of them on the trees. The hotel had a few trees, so I sent the boys right out to harvest them :) I must have eaten 20 a day or more.

The hotel was really nice - too nice for us. Of course, the nicer the hotel, the less you get (internet was $20 a day, so we declined, for instance). But they had a lovely pool area, and much more to see. We forgot Cambria's pacifier which was a disaster the first night. We quickly bought one the second day, which much improved the situation. They provided a "crib" for her in the hotel, which was more of an old fashioned (but new) play pen. Kyler and Tristan slept together in it, and Cambria slept in her carseat. Hunter got a whole bed to himself, and a sofa went unused. If we had stayed in a less expensive hotel, they would have required us to use two rooms.

We actually hiked part of the way up a volcano. Tristan was the hindrance, but did surprisingly well once we realized that he would walk if we threatened to take away his beloved "green car", which he is holding here. Otherwise he thought Dean should carry him up.

I just can't get over the horse eating.

Need the potty?

Ever had mackeral? It's one yummy fish. It was all spiced out here, but it's best in its more natural state.

It was really nice to get away for a few days, especially since we really haven't done that here with the kids. Dean has decided for sure to get out of the army, so if we move close to "home", we'll do more real vacations (sans children!) I'll post more soon, hopefully - the adventures never end!

Train Me Now

2011-10-24T23:40:00.001+09:00

Daddy-O is away for the week playing Army, so up late I stay. I have found a book that will hopefully revolutionize our lives. Today after school we spent an hour training how to come through the door, where to put backpacks and shoes, what doesn't belong in the entry, how to clean the bathroom, etc. Nothing new... If we actually develop all these good habits, what will Griselda, our Wednesday Angel do? I still struggle mentally with paying someone to clean my home, but she is a blessing to us, and it blesses her life to earn money here to send to her family in the Philippines. It breaks my heart that she had to leave her husband and four children behind. I wonder why I was born into better circumstances? She adores our little people. We have a long way to go, so maybe in eight short months when we leave here, we won't need a housekeeper any more.

Cambria sits at four months with just a bit of back support. Saturday we felt her first tooth, and today I felt the next - both on the bottom. These pictures are with the new camera!!! I have so much to learn. I brightened these up a bit with the computer. On Saturday we went to an air show at another base here in Seoul (pictures will come when Dean returns with his iPhone). Tristan enjoyed it the most of the boys, as he is enthralled with "ha-panes" and "dot-ters" right now (airplanes and helicopters). There were as many as 8 fighter planes at a time to watch, and it was a thrill. Hunter won a 50,000 won (~$42) gift certificate to the Nike store in Itaewon, by charming the announcer calling out raffle ticket numbers.

Tristan is my love bug and has been reclaiming my lap of late. There's plenty of room for them both. He has developed eczema, so we try not to bathe him as much. I suspect it is due to milk or wheat, but it is soooo hard to change our whole food life to figure it out, especially when he demands a "gink" from me with those big hazel eyes, and since he tries to live on PBJs and cereal. He has been in big boy underwear exclusively for a month, and has yet to have an accident away from home or at night, but nearly every day he drops a load at home.

Yesterday was our Primary Program at church, where the kids sing the songs they have been learning all year and each child has a small part. It was delightful, and we could hear Kyler singing from where we sat in the back. He has taken that over from Hunter. Afterward we had a Primary Activity during the normal primary time, with stations about scripture heroes. Hunter did a station about David, of David and Goliath fame, to fulfill a Faith in God requirement. While I didn't have enormous responsibilities (as a counselor in the presidency) it is still a load off my mind to have it all behind us now. I have been filling in as a den leader as well to Hunter's bear den until we can find a real replacement. I feel like I'm doing a mediocre job (at best) of everything right now.

Hot Date

2011-10-16T22:23:00.001+09:00

This little lady is the delight of our lives right now. She is beloved by all.

Recently, Tristan was menacing Cambria on our bed in the morning, so I told him to get down. He did, but took a tumble on the way and ended up with a pretty good gash on his forehead near the scalp, that ended up needing stitches. We haven't needed those since Hunter was a baby and bitten by Pancho. Tristan was pretty good while they stitched him up in the ER, though he clearly didn't like it, and certainly felt each stitch. We had planned a lunch date for that day, since Dean had just gotten back from the U.S., so it consisted of Dean picking up some grilled ham n' cheeses from the cafeteria. The staff at the hemophilia clinic were happy to see us again (after the ER), especially Cambria.

We visited the zoo on Columbus day. It was surprisingly busy for a Korean work day. The weather couldn't have been more lovely.

The highlight for me had to be riding the tram. It was perfectly peaceful, and they were able accommodate us all, including Cambria in her car seat and a big stroller.

Dean, Kyler and Tristan rode in one seat,

while Hunter, Cambria and I rode in another. The leaves are just starting to turn. I love the change of colors.

Yesterday we went down to Osan to Ange and Brian's open house at their new love nest. Their apartment was way cool, like so many Korean apartments. Since it's on the top floor of their building, it had a loft and an outdoor area. I would love a loft someday, when I have my dream home. But that would mean settling down and building something. Yes, that's my dream. How many more moves and years stand in the way, I wonder?

Wish you were here

2011-09-19T17:03:00.001+09:00

I took these with my iPod. Our poor camera flew off the stroller recently and isn't working at all now, not to mention its other issue of letting in too much light. I've been agonizing long and hard about whether to repair or replace it. I've found repair places online. This website seems helpful for replacement, along with Consumer Reports, and I'd like to upgrade sooner or later. Decisions, decisions!

This next one was taken with the real camera before it went airborne, but with its other problems. Speaking of the Trist-man, he is one defiant potty trainee. His latest trick is to put his entire booty into the toilet water when he doesn't want to use it (and I put him on the seat), even though he clearly needs to "go". If my camera was working, I'd have pictures of that to show his friends and girlfriends later! Dean has suggested that we give up and wait a year, but he clearly knows what to do (he showed his bear how to use the potty the other day), and lately has been dropping his loads closer to, if not in, the pot. He had no accidents in church yesterday, wearing underwear.

Last week he managed to lock the van with himself and my purse/keys, etc. inside, and baby and me on the outside. I tried and tried and tried some more to get him to push the right spot on the unlock button, but finally gave up and walked to the main gate to summon the MPs. They called in a slim jim, but were actually able to get him to unlock it before the slim jim arrived. That incident made me quite late for a primary meeting, and I had already missed a group exercise that morning thanks to some potty antics. Serenity now! Later that day Kyler's teacher called to report on how naughty Kyler had been. It sounded like tattling as he rattled off all of Kyler's misdeeds for the day. I'm glad that someone else finally gets to enjoy the boy; it's really been unfair that I've had him all to myself for so very long.

I went with some ladies from church to visit this traditional village, right here in Seoul. The pictures are also with the iPod. It does alright when there's plenty of light. The basket weaver is in the background, with some of his wares in the foreground.

A lady in her hanbok in a traditional house. I got Tristan to use a urinal for the first time while there.

This grinds grain, I believe, though probably not with helpers like these.

Tristan always likes to climb over the "fence" and make people nervous. He likes the fishies, and pushing his stroller around

Dean is currently in Maryland to visit army research facilities and see if maybe he'd like to become a lab animal vet or pathologist, or do a phD in such things. It's unlikely that he would, but as he said, "you never know". He was able to visit his uncle and some cousins in Connecticut before hand. I'm trying to not completely lose my marbles on the home front, and when it makes sense (some years down the road), I think I'd like to take off at will and let him man the fort while I regain composure somewhere less stressful than home, ha ha.

Where to begin?

2011-09-07T23:34:00.000+09:00

Dean is trying to exercise whilst Tristan climbs him.

It has been hectic around here lately. I finally hired a house keeper to come half a day a week, which has lightened my labor load. Granted, the clutter is back in place within a day, but at least it's clean underneath for a bit.

Tristan's potty miracle was short lived. We have him in underwear most of the time (even out of the house), but he still prefers to drop his load anywhere but the royal throne. He's pretty good about numero uno at least, or will hold it for a long time.


Cambria is generally a happy baby as long as she's not hungry, and she's wrapped up snug with a favorite binky.

The boys are back in school; Hunter seemed relieved, and Kyler was excited to finally go a week after Hunter. Sadly, we got a nutburger for Kyler's teacher. Dean has had to deal with him a lot at the vet clinic, so was disgusted that we ended up with him. Sure enough, we've been getting a barrage of emails every day full of his weirdness and requests, since before school started. He is spending the first two weeks of school going through the motions with the kids, like how to line up to go to the lunch room. Really? For two weeks? I can see why people otherthanme would choose to home school.

Hunter, our fourth grader

Finally sending Kyler to school a year late (need I remind anyone that he missed starting last year by ONE DAY?!) feels like the black cloud hanging over me has turned to sunshine and rainbows. He is mentally exhausting, and thinks he should have one on one attention and entertainment all day, every day. I cried on the inside this whole extra year. Dean had a four-day holiday weekend, so after gleefully sending the boys on their way we spent the day together with the two little ones, who are still cute and delightful.

Kyler - Mr. Socialite

I forgot to mention back in August that Dean and I celebrated our birthdays. I made a lovely steak salad with chipotle dressing and a coconut cream pie (still his favorite) for his birthday, and arranged a date for us on mine, to a Brazilian restaurant and the cutest little coffee shop for dessert. I would LOVE to have a B&B or a little decadent treat shop like that some day. Without discussing it, we both bought massages for each other, and still need to redeem them.

We had a birthday party for Hunter and Kyler on Labor Day. We told them about it . . . on Labor Day. That saves the constant headache of questions every five minutes until the event. It was an airplane party, with no pictures, but lots of airplane/projectile flying and airplane toys, plus pizza and cupcakes. They were delighted and received much nicer presents than they deserved from their friends : ) Toward the end of the affair a group of hooligan boys descended on us and started inhaling pizza and cupcakes, then demanding water and asking to come to our home. Uh, no thanks. Apparently that's how it goes around here; groups of kids roam around looking for parties to crash. I was not amused, and lectured the boys later about not ever doing such a thing.

We were blessed to attend the temple sealing of Angela Hur on Saturday, whom we adore, and who has been in our home teaching group here. I haven't mentioned them enough. She, Corinna Barrett and Adam Murphy (until he moved back to the US) have been a joy to have over for dinner and a lesson every month. The kids love them and ask every week if they are coming. I am so impressed with the single population in our church here. They are all outstanding enough that they are here in Seoul, Korea, of all places, doing something way cool and having all kinds of experiences. Most of them are not affiliated with the military, so they don't have that and all the conveniences of the base. I really can hardly comprehend how much more difficult it would be here without the commissary, APO shipping/USPS, the PX, American schools/hospitals, and all the other amenities we have. I never realized how difficult it would be to live in a foreign country that speaks a different language, and has a different writing system. I do know how it feels to be illiterate, and helplessly dependent on the kindness of others. Anyway, our singles are AWESOME!

Look Into My Eyes

2011-08-28T22:35:00.005+09:00

Exhibit A Kyler pretending to sleep. Note, I would not give Cambria to a truly sleeping Kyler, and he is now missing his two front teeth. He is our most eager baby holder, which is a great help when Mom is trying to fix dinner, or help Tristan, or answer the phone, or extract respectable behavior from the boys . . . Turns out that having four is more work than, say, three, or two, or one. She is a wonderful baby, though, and if she is well fed, usually just needs to be swaddled and given a pacifier to be happy. And of course she loves to be held. Apparently girl babies need to be looked at a lot in order to feel loved. I have certainly noticed that she will gaze into my eyes for a long time when I'm holding her or nursing her. I love it!

Exhibit B Tristan loves all things Cambria, including hair ornaments. Frankly, his hair is more spectacular than hers at this point, and probably for a long time to come. He modeled head gear Thursday morning, before banging the bridge of his nose while playing on the couch at home. The juicy hematoma is now draining between his eyes. It looks like a rainbow-y horn.

Exhibit C.1 A horn is not enough. Here his chipped tooth is visible. His play is getting more H&K like. He has been in training for two years, after all. It happened soon after the horn. I must again sing the praises of Oxiclean. It got all the dark chocolate and pink Crystal Light out of this white shirt. It comes in a spray bottle, a gel tube, or a jug. I have the jug and use a toothbrush to apply it to such indiscretions.

Exhibit C.2 All dressed up for church. Trist-man was not cooperative and wouldn't be coaxed into this picture. Our camera has decided to become crappy of late. Sometimes it takes decent pictures, and more often it does this. I have the urge to spend a lot to get a decent one, since Cambria is growing so fast. She doesn't look like a newborn anymore - no longer red and wrinkly, and I fear I've missed too much already. Of course it would take time to research and figure out what camera to buy, and I just don't seem to have enough of that lately. For all I know maybe it is just on some weird setting; I need to look in the manual under "crappy".

Exhibit C.3 She and I are wearing the same outfits as the last time we took a Sunday picture. I haggled a bit off my side-swept bangs and am trying out this look. I kinda like it, but need to have them trimmed by a pro.

Exhibit C.4 Proud Papa. He said today that he is surprised at just how excited I am about having a girl. Really? I've been wanting girl babies for 10 YEARS. I took a walk up to Itaewon yesterday to the antique district and drooled over many lovely things, and pondered many ideas for a girlie bedroom. Of course I'll have to wait until she's out of her baby-hood. I did find the most adorable (new) round, velvet, button-tufted purple pillow, that will go beautifully in her bedroom some day.

Exhibit C.5 The uncooperative one. He needed a nap, but looked so cute in his three-piece suit that I got Daddy-o to wrangle him into a crappy-camera picture, horn and all.

Potty Miracle!

2011-08-16T22:17:00.000+09:00

Tristan is holding a knife behind his back trying to open this box of diapers that he was desperate for, just last week!

We've been dabbling more with potty training the Trist-man, but not doing it consistently makes it hit and mess. Swim lessons have gotten in the way of training, since we all have to leave every morning for them. This is the eighth and final week - whew! So today must have been the day. He was all about the potty, going to the bathroom himself, undressing himself (often closing the door, which is more than Hunter does - even with company over), climbing up on the big 'un (with the padded seat insert) doing the deed, then redressing himself! I've been giddy all day over it! He is 25 months. I knew he could do it! He only had one accident at the end of the day. I never have re-done the one-day method since the first attempt before Cambria was born.

Kyler is dressed in his swim attire.

As for swimming lessons, Kyler apparently doesn't like diving - says it hurts his nose, and didn't want to go this week since his class has been working on it. He lost his second front tooth today. It looked awful dangling there by itself, and I was going to get a picture but he yanked it before I could. The boys have been learning to keep track of their swim goggles this summer, as they desperately want them every day for swim lessons, which is remarkable for them to keep track of anything! Hunter is getting quite tan from being in the sun every day. Kyler's fair skin doesn't tan much, and fortunately hasn't been burning much either.

We blessed Cabria Rose a week ago Sunday in church. As always I only seem to do projects when I have a deadline, so I was hand sewing the crushed fabric roses on the bodice as we drove to church. She was an angel and slept through the whole meeting, including her blessing. She did manage to poo at the end of the meeting, which of course blasted right through her new size 2 Huggies diapers and sullied the dress. I put a onesie on her just for that purpose, which did contain most of it, along with her tights. Huggies fail! I got it all out by brushing liquid Oxyclean on it and washing on gentle. My mom made most of the dress while she was here, so I finished it (hemming, buttons/holes, closing the lining, roses, etc.) We'll get more pictures soon.

We got the game Settlers of Catan in March of this year, and have been playing it like crazy since, with anyone we can. Hunter and Kyler can even play, and Hunter has won a time or two. We highly recommend it, and would love to play with anyone who is inclined!

the Saga ends?

2011-07-28T17:13:00.000+09:00

I bought a membership to John Rosemond's website a while back and decided to submit a question recently, which he answered. My question was what to do about Hunter who has been sneaking downstairs at night to play on his game cube, and I mentioned his other behavior issues. He will sometimes fall asleep at lunch or dinner because he is so sleepy, and sleep 6 or more hours in the day time. Here is his answer:

A: the obvious solution is to remove the video game from the home. they have no place in a healthy family environment anyway. you need to put a permanent end to this problem so that you can concentrate on the more pressing behavior issues. by the way, video games, says the research, are associated with low motivation, misbehavior, aggressiveness, underachievement, and short attention span. you are describing an addict, and the research clearly says they are addictive. get the heroin out of the house! today! now! do what i say! john

We did it, only we decided to be kinda sneaky like ol' Hunter. We showed him this answer and told him it would have to go. He was a little weepy, but said he at least wanted to sell it since he and Kyler had purchased it with their own funds. I explained that it really wasn't worth much of anything after their treatment of it, not to mention how old it is... Being busy with a newborn and all the other normal craziness around here, it took me a couple of days to get to it, and to ultimately decide exactly what to do. I got out a hammer and had Dean go at it, containing it all in a box. I put the box back where the game cube had been and left it there for Hunter to find.

The next day he didn't say anything about it until later in the day, as he and Kyler marveled about it and accused me of being the culprit. I denied it. We actually had a spare unit, that I think I picked up for $7, and they got it out and hid it under the spare bed in Tristan's room. I had them retrieve it and they begged me not to destroy it. Once Dean was home Hunter really got excited, accusing us of doing it and carrying on, trying to choke back the tears. We continued to deny it, just as he denies every misdeed of his life, even as we catch him with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. He admitted that he had come downstairs in the night to play and found it destroyed. It warmed my soul to picture him slinking back to bed unsatisfied. I had removed the cord from the TV as well, and locked the computer so he couldn't do either of those things during the night.

There hasn't been a word about it today. I forgot to take a picture of the destroyed unit before it went out with the trash. I've hidden the spare one; maybe it will make an appearance in a year or two. He's password protected out of the Wii, so he can exercise or whatever when he's supervised, but that's it. I hope the saga is over.

I Never Imagined

2011-07-22T22:36:00.000+09:00

We went to a children's museum with lots of fun stuff recently.

... that we would upgrade our video gaming system. I let the boys buy an old school Nintendo Game Cube a couple of years ago (with their money). Recently someone we know was selling a nearly-new Wii. I mentioned it to Dean, and without hesitation he said "let's get it!" He had been wanting to try the Wii Fit for exercise. He has been using it, even doing yoga, which apparently he's been wanting to try for a while. If all the posture exercises convince him to hold his head high instead of slouching (one of my pet peeves!), then I'll be happy. I won't let the boys use it without Dean around. They've treated their Game Cube like a red-headed step child, so I'm not about to let them trash this. Hunter wailed and then hid for hours when his friend came over the other day and I denied them of it. He has stopped asking.

She has the longest, prettiest fingers, and often uses the pacifier.

Now I know what it is like to take all four kids shopping. Somehow I've managed to avoid it thus far. I told the boys I'd get them something at Taco Bell if they would be exceptionally good. I wore Cambria in a pouch, and had Hunter push Tristan in the umbrella stroller. Kyler's been stealing at stores once again, we discovered recently, so he got to sit in the basket of the shopping cart that I pushed. At one point Hunter managed to separate himself (and Tristan) from me, and ran right to the front to have me paged. Oh, joy. Kyler tipped the cart completely over while he was in it (I was looking at something); he jumped out before it hit the floor at least. He spent the rest of the time whining about wanting to get his quarter from the van to buy a gumball. Hunter pointed out a magazine in the checkout stand that had a headline about how to get rid of a fat belly, and thought I should buy it for myself. I got Hunter a burrito at Taco Bell, since he was actually helpful, and Kyler got to eat leftovers for lunch at home. We all got to listen to him carry on about it the whole way home, and I doubt that it cured him of any of his misbehaviors, but I felt a little vindication, and that's what matters.

Tristan loves all things baby. He can't get out of the swing by himself.

Tristan woke from a nap with nasty goop coming out of one ear the other day. His ear drum must have ruptured, and it turns out both ears are infected. He never made a peep about it or showed any sign of illness. The lady who uses him to model occasionally called late this afternoon to see if he was available to finish a shoot, since the other kid who was modeling was having a melt down. Dean was able to come home from work and stay with the boys while I went with him and Cambria in a taxi. Between Tristan and Kyler they've made about $1000 now (all going to college funds).

I was trying to remove the redeye, but managed to do this instead, and it's saved, grrrr.

Hunter and Kyler have had four weeks of swim lessons now, and have four more to go. They have loved playing in the water forever, but it wasn't what anyone would call swimming. Now they are learning for real. I never did learn to dive, just belly flop.

Not sure what it means, but finally got a picture.

Yawn!

They were both very sleepy after church. Kyler loves holding Cambria most of all.

We went to a Korean water park recently and were required to wear swim caps. The black ones looked like doo rags, and the caps made it hard to spot the kids amongst all the Korean kids. Normally it's easy with their hair that isn't black. I was afraid of a repeat of our last trip to a water park two years ago when Tristan was one month old (like Cambria is now) and I got stuck holding him the whole time while the rest of our party had a grand time. I made sure that didn't happen this time. She was a hit with the Koreans, of course. Water parks and cameras don't much go together, so I didn't get any pictures.

the 4th

2011-07-04T22:56:00.003+09:00

Here is our 4th child - it's still hard to believe that we have four now. Same goes for the Koreans. They can't believe it either, and count them all when we come around. She is a doll, and has been sleeping 'round the clock lately, including through the night. That sounds great, except that by morning those who feed her are overflowing...

We started to celebrate this guy's golden birthday on July 2nd, and had his favorite for dinner - pizza. Then we decided to wait and continue the rest of the (simple) festivities on Sunday the 3rd. Spence and Rachel came over and had cheesecake with us, and with a little direction from Mommy, he blew out his own candle. The toy Cars camera was the favorite of the presents - just ask Hunter and Kyler.

He is a fantastic big brother, always wanting to keep her pacifier handy, and shove his fingers in her ears to be sure they are OK, or test the seat belts to be sure that they are working - by unbuckling hers... He was rocking her so vigorously the other day in her car seat at home that I thought the whole thing would launch.

He did help put the chairs up after church yesterday.

Today we decided to put on our party hats and say "goodbye"

We kept Cambria covered with a light blanket to keep the sun and the Koreans off her. They don't take their own babies out of the house for a number of months after birth, but have no problem fingering others' babies.

to Seoul for just a bit. We went to Namhan Mountain and hiked around. It was great exercise for the out-of-shape post-partum one, except that my shoes were killing my feet and I went barefoot the last downhill stretch. Apparently these particular shoes really are too small, as my feet aren't swollen any more.

Here's part of the wall, which is essentially the fortress (one long wall). The map above was handy.

I've realized that once you've seen one Buddhist Temple, you've pretty much seen them all. I like to look anyway.

I really liked the giant orchids growing in the pots on the right. At home, every time I sit down to nurse the baby I notice that my orchid looks dry, and remember that I haven't watered it in ages. But since I'm sitting down nursing I can't do anything about it, and once I get up I forget. I finally remembered today, and one leaf is pretty much a goner. Poor orchid.

We have a similar picture of Proud Papa with baby Hunter way back when he was in vet school. I think he was actually studying then, rather than playing games. I don't miss those days.

So that's what we did in Korea on July 4th. We did go to the base to see the awesome fireworks show on July 2nd (Saturday). We told the boys that the fireworks were for Tristan's birthday. They were impressed.

I am at a complete loss for a new name for the blog. Ideas???

Debut

2011-06-27T21:06:00.000+09:00

Here she is! I never even knew about getting these kind of newborn pictures - until it was too late to do it with Tristan, so I was uber excited to have Cambria molded and posed to get shots like these. There will be many more to come, but this is what the fabulous photographer has edited so far.

She was awake for a little while, then once her tummy was finally topped off, she slept through hours of this, and then a few more hours afterward. We are certainly enjoying her around here!

In other news, Tristan had another modeling gig today. I had to take all four children - ugh of ughs, but we survived, and it's that much more money to fatten his college account. Kyler had his first modeling session while I was still in the hospital. My mom went with him and found it all to be very interesting. Speaking of my mom, we were sure sad to see her go, and we all wished we had planned for her to be here another week, but alas changing the return flight would have cost as much as the original round-trip ticket. People here in the church have been very generous with meals, which we sure appreciate. Dean is back to work as well after his ten days of baby leave (which included weekends).

We will miss such perks when he's a civilian again. Yes, he finally told his command that he intends to be finished with the army after we leave Korea next June. He had just been accepted to do a residency in internal medicine, compliments of the army, but ultimately decided that's not what he wants to do. Now we have a year to figure out what in the world we'll do, and where in the U.S. we'll do it.

Imagine My Surprise

2011-06-21T22:15:00.001+09:00

A few weeks ago at church Dean walked into the primary room after meetings were over with my Uncle Louis - imagine that in Korea! They've been serving a mission in Russia and have to leave every 90 days in order to maintain a visa there. They knew that they were supposed to meet up with someone in Seoul when they came, but couldn't remember for the life of them who it was. It was us, and Dean recognized Uncle Louis in Priesthood meeting and we were delighted to have visitors. They came home with us and had lunch and played games. We always love company. I was about 39 weeks pregnant at that point, so the next time they come we'll have a three-month young baby to show them!

Hunter worked on a project for some time in his gifted class at school, and we were able to attend his presentation of it. He studied and reported on the cultures of the U.S., Cuba and the Dominican Republic. He did very well, except for covering his face when he saw me pull out the camera : )

I need to cut Kyler's shaggy hair before he does this style again!

We worked out the timing very well with my mom's visit. It's been a great help to have her around with Miss Cambria and the boys!

The boys are all enthralled with our sweet baby and constantly ask to hold her.

She is still one hungry girl, and I'm still not making enough to satisfy her, though I finally "let down" my milk today, which she gulped. She gets too cozy and falls asleep when nursing, so 'round and 'round we go.

We are all so excited to finally have a girl around here.

She is definitely a keeper! Even though she is a big newborn, she still seems tiny. She's not chubby; she was 21.5 inches long at birth, and was down to 8lb14oz four days after she was born. She is now one week old.

Well It Was Bound to Happen

2011-06-18T22:44:00.003+09:00

and it Finally Did...

My mom came as scheduled on Friday night. Dean and the big boys took the subway to the airport in Seoul to pick her up. She came when I was 40 weeks this time so we didn't have another near miss like with Tristan (she came at 39 weeks and flew out two days after he was born at nearly 41 weeks). Dean was stressed out as usual wondering when Cambria would show. A fabulous doula here suggested I start taking evening primrose oil orally and vaginally to potentially speed things along, as my cervix was "high and closed" on Friday at the 40 week appointment. I started with two orally and two elsewhere. I put three in on Monday night at bedtime, and woke to painful contractions at about 2:00am, with the contractions coming from right there.. It took me a while to realize that they were the real deal, as I would drift off to sleep, then be woken again. I had been having braxton hicks contractions for months, but they were nothing like these. I filled the bathtub with water to try to relieve the pain, but it didn't much help.

Cambria Rose Lavallee was quite purple for a while.

That's when I realized it was time to wake my darling husband, whom I had woken the night before at about the same time, for a different reason. He had been talking in his sleep the previous night, and I was afraid he was having a nightmare. He wasn't, but was never able to go back to sleep so he was really exhausted Monday night and had taken some Benadryl to help him sleep through the night - ha ha, right on cue for having a baby. I told him what was up and he jumped right out of bed. We finished packing and got to the hospital quickly, with me vomiting some. We went through the emergency entrance and I sat right down in a wheel chair. I think the tires must have been flat - or maybe just my huge-ness weighed it down; it didn't move very well. The triage guy walked us all the way up to the WICU. He motioned a big belly to the staff in the ER - sometimes makeshift sign language is the easiest with the language barrier around here in Korea.

I was so sleepy I dozed off a lot between contractions, even though they were only 1-2 minutes apart. I was too exhausted to hold her much at first, though she did try nursing right away.

Of course the contractions were monstrously painful by then, and the nurse in the WICU "checked" me right away. I was still "high and closed," she reported - as my water broke on her hand. She said that they would probably admit me since that happened. There was certainly no question in our minds about whether or not it was time, even if she was skeptical Within an hour I was dilated to a 10! I begged and begged for an epidural as soon as we had gotten to the WICU, but they had to call the anesthesia person in, and she took her sweet time. I was very grateful for epidurals with the first three.

June 14, 2011, 5:41am; Cambria weighed 9lb 5oz

The OB was super nice, and asked if I wanted to push then. She also had to be called in, but got there quickly. I said "no way", not until I could get some kind of pain relief. There wasn't really time for an epidural, so when the anesthetist finally got there she did a spinal. It helped a little bit - not much. I had never made so much noise, for sure, as it hurt like the devil as always. Once the spinal had been in long enough to take effect (about 10 minutes), Dean started prodding me to push, because it would wear off in 90 minutes. I didn't want to - pushing is the worst part, and I've always been a lousy pusher. But it hurt so bad that pushing like crazy was what my body wanted to do.

She is a happy baby

I had always had an epidural, which does take away the pain and some of the urge to push, so this was a new experience, and I was afraid of the pain of actually feeling Baby come out. I only pushed a couple of times and out she came. I screamed my head off because it hurt so bad - burning like I was on fire. I learned later that that was the ring of fire that I had missed out on before. I was awfully disappointed to have torn for the first time on baby #4. My doula friend said later that if Baby doesn't crown first, then tearing happens, which is exactly what happened. Dean said #3's head would come out a bit, then go back in, over and over. He said the OB pulled on this one's head and neck once they were out, and I know I pushed some more to get her going because I wanted her out and the pain to stop. Then it was all over. It's always amazing to me how the body knows to stop hurting. Tragically, the batteries in our camera were dead, so Hubby took these pictures with his iPhone, and I wasn't able to get one of him shedding tears of joy after the birth, as he has with each of the children. It always melts my heart.

The only other request we made was that the placenta be left alone until it stopped pulsing. I have only recently learned about that (from Mamabirth). So it was only a few minutes, then they had Dean cut the cord as usual. I had never seen the placenta, so Dr. Cundiff showed it and the sac to me. Interesting! Dean said the placenta was by far the smallest he has ever seen - because the blood was allowed to drain into Cambria. She weighed 9lb 5oz, and I'm sure a little of that is due to that extra blood.

Her little face had a bit of bruising, and her right eye has a bit of blood on the sclera (white of the eye), from "birth trauma", which will probably take a few weeks to clear up. She is a delightful baby so far and we are ever so blessed and happy to welcome her to the family. Her breathing was a little too fast for their taste, so they ended up keeping her an extra day and a half to see if she had early pneumonia or something along those lines. There was no such thing, so they attributed it her just still adjusting to life...

It was actually peaceful to stay there a bit longer rather than face the loud crowd at home. When the boys came to visit right after dinner one evening, Hunter got right in the nurse's face and told her he was hungry. Kyler kept trying to get the TV to work - it didn't. They both complained about being bored and galloped around the room like bulls in a china closet. Tristan was bewildered without me being at home in the mornings, and spent the whole time trying to climb into my lap when I was holding Cambria, or running out of the room, or getting into everything in the room... They quickly wore out their welcome.

She didn't think much of her first bath.

We are all home now. The doctor had me bring her back in this afternoon to check her breathing again. She has done great latching on, but as usual my milk supply is slow, so we've had to give her formula so she isn't so sad and hungry. My milk seems to be slowly making an appearance. One thing that kind of weirded me out is that they have young male soldiers as the nursing assistants, in the delivery room or immediately after - attending to the baby's and new mother's every need. Oh, dear. This guy above is super duper nice and loves the babies and is very complimentary and congratulatory, but it still weirds me out to have to ask them for personal items or when they check the fundus or ask very personal questions as part of their job. Ah, well, whaddya do?

Shoe Dummy

2011-06-03T09:33:00.001+09:00

I love this adorable little swim suit on the Trist-man. The pool has opened here and the boys are loving it! Kyler has been asking ever since it closed after Labor Day last year when it would open again. He has no concept of yesterday/today/tomorrow, much less "in eight months".

Tristan loves to play what I call "shoe dummy". When he wants to go somewhere, he spends the day bringing me whatever shoes he can find. If I'm dumb enough to put them on him, he soon has them off and wants me to put them back on... He sometimes likes to help dress himself when he finds random baby clothes around.

I've had the pottery piece on the right since Emily, my college freshman roommate, gave it to me for Christmas way back then. I finally decided to take a picture of it and lay it to rest. Note all the breaks and repairs. I replaced it with the piece on the left, but will miss this one and the thoughtfulness behind it.

Tristan continues to enjoy experimenting with makeup. His favorites are still mascara and lipstick. I decided to take the bull by the horns on Monday (Memorial Day) and try the one-day potty-training method since Dean took the big boys fishing with Dr. Yun (a Korean civilian vet at work). Alas, as the book details, the trainee must be cooperative, and this guy isn't exactly. So it didn't go well. We are doing what the book says to help him become cooperative, and are seeing some improvement, and are still dabbling with the potty. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can get at it again.

I'm due in a week! We shall see what happens.

We put Hunter and Kyler into the same bedroom again, as we decided that there's no reason for them to be-foul two rooms in the house. So Tristan is in his own room, which means he doesn't get woken up early every morning by BoyWhoGoesToSchool, so it's working out great already.

And, a tip for the interested: I dabbed a bit of castor oil on Tristan's chest and forehead bruises, but not the one on his back. All the bruises had a little hard nodule in the center (except the one on his forehead). Dean said it was probably calcification as the blood is (slowly) resorbed. All those bruises (minus the forehead one) came from him finally tumbling a few steps down our hardwood spiral stairs some time ago (love this army housing). Well, the ones on his chest began healing finally and are now gone (along with the forehead one, which has been replaced by a new one - it never ends with hemophilia boy), but not the one on his back. Amazing. I love non-drug treatments! If castor oil isn't on the shelf at the drug store, it's sometimes behind the counter, and is not costly.

Chicken Balls

2011-05-23T21:52:00.000+09:00

Kyler has been on a chicken and turkey kick lately, meaning he injects "chickens!" or "turkey!" into any and all conversation. Yesterday at church, for instance, as we waited for the elevator and saw that it was going down without us he said "the chickens are going DOWN!" Last week when I was trimming his hair he said "you cut off my CHICKENS!" Speaking of his hair, it had been getting rather shaggy, hence the trim. He liked slicking the top back with gel, and thought he was really stylin'. He went to preschool like that twice, and the whole class was in an uproar over it.

Dean and the younger boys recently took out the r/c airplane.

Tristan speaks his own little language, and we are privy to some of it. He is not a good eater - only wants to dine on treats. He won't eat his meals at all (unless they are exceptionally tasty - like the whole bratwurst he ate yesterday), then spends the rest of the day running to the fridge for "balls", meaning apples, oranges, plums, etc., or cheese sticks, or climbing to get into cupboards looking for tasties.

It was loads of fun until it got caught in the batting cage. Note the cherry blossoms in the background.

We've been intending to potty train Trist-man before the baby comes, but now it's getting down to the wire. He is 22 months. I know what the naysayers think - regression, he's too young, yada yada. I give him more credit than that, and just need to do it. All kids were potty trained by age two in our grandparents generation. Dean actually took Kyler to work today so I could maybe have the time without distraction, even though I told him I'm not ready to do it yet - can't find the doll at the moment, still need to read through the book again...

I quite enjoyed watching Dean try to get it down. Between the big water gun and the little football, he finally got it.

I asked Hunter to do Family Home Evening last week, and he did a great job. He decided to teach us about Tithing, and found plenty of things to teach from in our books and other resources. He's done it before as well.

I went to a "baby shower" on base Saturday, for any pregnant ladies. There were lots of informative booths, such as with the embassy to know how to get Baby an American birth certificate and passport, and I signed us up for an infant CPR class through the Red Cross. I came home with a big box of diapers, a "deluxe first aid kit", and other baby items.

Some wonderful ladies here threw a joint shower for me and another expectant mom at my favorite Thai restaurant in Itaewon recently. I only asked for girlie accessories like headbands and such. They ladies were all too generous and we are excited to use all the fun girlie things when Cambria decides to make her appearance. We have settled on her first name, and may even have a middle name lined up.

Little Tristan came down with the croup (again) on Friday, so I took him to the ER on base where they gave him steroids and a breathing treatment. I was hesitant to take him in because he has a couple of ugly bruises on his chest, and there could always be an idiot who can't comprehend hemophilia who might scream abuse. The doctor didn't say anything when he examined his chest.

Tristan is in the highest point of this, looking out the window. Invariably other moms will ask if "he's OK way up there?" when my boys are doing something like that. We have yet to have a broken bone or any such thing.

Dean stayed home from church with him on Sunday, as I had a couple of duties in Primary. He started to take him outside for a walk while the rest of us were gone, but Tristan took a tumble down the stairs exiting the building and cut his lip open, so Dean took him to the ER again. They put one stitch in his lip, but it was gone (bitten out?) within several hours. It's not bleeding much, thankfully. Of course the doctor (who has seen him before for such injuries) refused to give the factor that Dean took with him.

I'm due in 18 days! My mom will be coming in 17 days!

A hard day's pillaging makes for a great nap.

Lost and Found

2011-05-12T10:01:00.000+09:00

It seems we've had a streak of losing things. About a month ago I lost my wallet. I always keep it and my keys in my purse, so I only ever don't know where they are if I change my routine for some reason, or if the little people around here get into it. We were out on a Saturday to see the cherry blossom festival and had taken the subway, sans Hunter who was at scout day camp.

I had bought some melon bars in a subway station at a 7-11 (yum yum - they taste like honey dew) and hadn't put my wallet back in my purse which was hanging from Tristan's stroller. I needed to visit the ladies room so wheeled the little man along with me, but used a small stall that his stroller wouldn't fit into so I put it right outside my stall. My purse was hanging from the handle of the stroller. I thought, "if someone grabs my purse, at least I have my wallet", but really wasn't concerned because we always hear and witness how honest Koreans tend to be.

Naturally, that particular door didn't latch shut, so I held it closed with one hand while I took care of business so I set the wallet down, and didn't think of it again until half an hour later when it was conspicuously missing from my purse. We rushed back to the subway station; it wasn't in the stall, nor was it at the help desk. The man working the help desk charged into the women's bathroom and tried to push his way into the stall to investigate. It was occupied, and the lady soon came out without even flushing. He looked around and was satisfied that my wallet was gone. He took my phone numbers... haven't heard a thing.

We are awfully disappointed that someone wasn't honest and took it, when she could have left it alone or taken it to the help desk. There wasn't a lot of money in it, but did have everything else, including my military ID, Korean and American drivers' licenses, hospital cards we're supposed to have here, ration card to be allowed in the PX and Commissary on base, check book, bank cards, taxi driver directions in Hangul (to get back to the base), temple recommend, etc. Dean had the following Monday off, so we spent a lot of it on base replacing cards.

When we did our taxes soon after on the base, I took all the kids files of information because we needed their SS numbers. When it was time to register Kyler for Kindergarten, I couldn't find any of the files. Oh, the horror. Their birth certificates, SS cards, shot records, etc are all in them. Fortunately, they turned up a couple of weeks later in my disastrous sewing room - what a relief. I still need to register Kyler.

The night before going to UFG for two weeks, preparing all the "stuff".

The beret ("cover" or hat)

More recently, Dean came home from work on a Friday and sat with me on the sofa for a bit. Come Monday morning he couldn't find his beret, and of course soldiers can't be seen in public without a complete uniform. He couldn't imagine what might have happened to it, and searched the house over, including under the sofa we were sitting on. He ended up wearing his patrol cap to work for a week, which they are only supposed to wear during a training exercise or when deployed. He had been working on shaving and shaping a new beret, but it is a long ordeal. Finally on the following Tuesday I was decluttering the paper pile on the kitchen counter behind the sofa, and there it was under that Friday's stack of mail.

Side view of the patrol cap. He returned from two weeks "in the field" for UFG last October rather ill, so had been put on a nebulizer - he's trying to suppress a grin after I picked him up :)

Front view of the patrol cap. It seems so much more useful than the silly berets, which offer no sun or rain protection. Again, returning from the UFG exercise.

Of course this school year Hunter has lost most everything that isn't attached to his body. He lost two real lunch bags the first week of school, so his lunch goes in a grocery bag every day. We spent the $60+ for a cubscout uniform, and he usually can't find it for scouts. We haven't seen the hat in ages, so it's probably long gone. His bus pass is missing about half the time, and I've had to replace it once. He's lost a wallet, full of his money (I think around $50 - about a year's worth of birthday/holiday money for him). Every day he spends considerable time looking for his shoes. That's what I can think of now - I'm sure there's more. I hope he gets his head together some day.

Yesterday Dean came home from work and the kids got right down to business as usual tormenting him to use his iPhone or laptop (to play games). There are requirements for such privileges. If Hunter's room is clean and his chores and homework are done, he may play such games for as long as he has practiced the piano that day. It actually works (if you don't consider that "cleaning" means stuffing all the contents from his floor into whatever nooks and crannies he can find). He sets the timer for 30 minutes and practices the piano when he wants to play games. So he came down to do that.

Then Dean came through looking for his iPhone, as he uses it to time his exercises (sit ups, push ups, etc.) and also to listen to Rush while he works out. He couldn't fathom where it was, and even sent Hunter out to his car to look, wondering if Hunter wouldn't fess up and produce it if he had anything to do with its mysterious disappearance. He didn't. Finally after much angst, Hunter pulled it out of Dean's underwear drawer where he had hidden it, for later use? Of all the things the kids do, being so dishonest and deceitful are probably the most upsetting. They are like drug addicts who will do anything to get the next fix of video games. That's why I never wanted video games in my home in the first place.

Dean's mother always talks about what a good boy he was, and how he would get up in the evening between 7:30 and 8pm and just go to bed when he was their age. I was honest almost to a fault as a child - could count on one hand the number of white lies or indiscretions I've committed my whole life. So we just don't understand this sort of behavior. John Rosemond says not to question it; it's just what kids do, and it's our job to teach them better, but ultimately they are humans, and can make their own choices - good or bad and will suffer the consequences.

It's a Jungle Out There

2011-05-01T21:25:00.000+09:00

When Hunter was five and we lived in the magical town of Astoria, Oregon, I took him to see a production by the Missoula Children's Theater. He wanted to get up on the stage and perform. He is theatrical and loves being in front of people. Surprisingly, they came here to our Army base this spring, so I got him to the audition and (like everyone else who "tried out") he got a part in The Jungle Book. It was an intense week of practice (3-7 every day, Monday to Friday) with two performances on Saturday.

He did well and enjoyed it, and would like to do it again when the opportunity comes around. He was a wolf pup. I've been trying to get him into baseball but have gotten the run around because of his hemophilia, and the season is already two weeks along. At this point I'm hoping for swimming come June.

He likes to bear his testimony at church, and does it all on his own. My policy has always been that when a child of mine wishes to do that, he is more than welcome to do it, himself. I also recall one of those First Presidency letters read from the pulpit that discouraged parents from whispering testimonies in their children's ears. So, he comes up with something to say and heads up there. Today, it was that if we wish to receive answers from God, we need to read the scriptures. If we wish to talk to God, we must pray. People sometimes ask me if I coach him. Uh, no. If only he would be so pious at home...

Easter Uggs

2011-04-25T20:32:00.002+09:00

Whew - I'm glad that's over with! We had the combined excitement of Easter, along with the joys of the first science fair project, due today.

We spent much of Saturday wrestling with the project - which was to be a model of something. Hunter was interested in why bears live in caves, so for the past month we've been mulling over it. He tried cutting a cave out of cardboard (with my sewing scissors, no less) and it wasn't too terrible, I thought - especially since he did it himself. I'm convinced that the "good" ones are done by the parents, just like the good pinewood derby cars are done by the dads. It's a bunch of hogwash to me.

Dean googled ways to make a cave, and tried with the best excuse he could find for plaster of paris in Korea, but that didn't work. He tried making a substance out of shredded newspaper and water, which also didn't particularly work... Hunter didn't seem to much care about the whole thing. Why would he, since his teacher showed me the class homework chart at parent teacher conference last week, and Hunter has turned in homework two times in the last 30 days. Every day he tells me a different excuse for why he just can't do it (forgot it at school, already did it - but it doesn't get turned in, etc.) But his reading comprehension is three times higher than necessary, because he spends the day at school and home reading. That doesn't seem so bad, except that he doesn't do his classwork or think he should have to do anything else at home. His teacher has to take books away from him all day.

I ended up staying up until 1am last night finishing his three-panel presentation poster and cutting our last attempt at a cave out of some packaging material that came with a small appliance. Of course the information that he came home with about the project used the example of doing an experiment to determine which metals have the highest heat capacity. Are you kidding me? In elementary school? I didn't learn anything about that until college. I don't know how people with multiple kids in school deal with that. I vowed that I would never *do* my kids' homework, but there I was doing it for him. In third grade he couldn't have possibly done all that. He hardly knows how to use the computer - by my design.

Anyway, I hosted an Easter lunch and had lots of lovely ladies over, most with kids, and we did an egg hunt behind the building. Tristan caught right on after I showed him how; Kyler was busy bumbling below our balcony and missed the whole thing. Dean dyed eggs with the boys late on Saturday and we put them out on Sunday morning, along with their baskets. I didn't get pictures of any of that. Dean and the boys watched The Testaments in the morning before church, then we had our home teaching group over for Easter Lunch, which is always nice. Angela and Corinna are both fabulous, but Adam had other plans for the day.

Tristan has learned some new skills of escape. He can unlock and open our front door, then go through two sets of double doors to get out of the building and chase birds into the street, or whatever else he fancies. He can open the bedroom windows upstairs with nothing between him and the clear blue sky. I had the maintenance people come install a chain lock on the front door which worked for almost 24 hours keeping him in (to his dismay), but then I got home from a shopping tour of Myeongdong and proceeded to open the chained door, which promptly broke the chain... Now we have a baby gate in the doorway. Tomorrow I'll call about getting the windows locked. He loves to dump out Comet/Ajax cleanser, and also dumped nearly 10 pounds of flour on the floor on Saturday. He can get right out of his crib now, which means he won't nap or go to bed. I'm weary to say the least.

Always trying to get away, he is.

My belly hurts when I walk much at all, and Baby moves a lot and often puts pressure on me. I have BH contractions frequently, especially after doing anything. I have to make an effort not to waddle by the afternoon. I am remarkably better off than I have been in all the pregnancies with the boys, however. With them I had vicious carpal tunnel syndrome in both arms, hideous swelling of everything - particularly the nose and face, my voice deepened, near-constant heart burn, and new stretch marks with each one. This time I have each of those maladies on a much smaller scale, like maybe three times have my arms given problems at night. I don't have any new stretch marks - and am still crossing my fingers. I am still wearing my wedding ring, and can still wear a number of my shoes. I do have 7 weeks to go, so it's only going to get worse, but still it's not as bad as in the past. It must be a girl, and already she's being nicer to me!!! Still no agreement on a name yet.

This was at the beginning of April. I actually made the skirt, as a challenge in the sewing group I go to.

Soldier Man

2011-04-23T18:40:00.002+09:00

I haven't posted much about Dean's time in San Antonio at Captain's Career Course, so here goes. He used his time well and went to institute classes weekly and went to the temple with other Latter-day Saints.

This senior missionary couple really devote themselves to the soldiers and were involved with institute, Sunday services and so much more.

They were responsible for all these pictures.

Dean and Jay spent a lot of time together while there.

And then it was all over with a graduation. We're so happy to have him home. I can hardly believe it's been five weeks - the time didn't fly nearly so quickly while he was gone for 10+ weeks. He had a bit of driving shock coming back to Korea. The drivers here are still ruthless as ever.

The Name Game

2011-04-17T19:53:00.001+09:00

It's that time once again to come up with the perfect baby name, and this time it is for a GIRL (fingers still crossed!) In the past I have come up with lists of names and Darling Husband crosses off most of them until we can agree on something. We discussed baby names a few months ago, and thought we came to an agreement because we both walked away from it with a name that we've been telling people who ask - only he has been telling one, and I've been telling another. Today we realized the error, and both prefer our chosen name.

So, the name I (really really) like is Cambria, with a long a in the first syllable. He thinks of dinosaurs, because apparently it was a geologic period between around 542 million years and 488.3 million years ago. I've said all along that virtually no one knows that - I sure didn't, but he is a walking encyclopedia. The name he likes is Cherise. Any thoughts??? My second choice is Mischa ("Meesha"). We have no middle name contenders yet. The due date is June 10. There are some other names on our list that we both like. The boy names are left over from Tristan's gestation.

Pray for Pokemon

2011-04-10T10:43:00.003+09:00

Kids really do say the darndest things. I came downstairs the other day to find Hunter and Kyler kneeling in solemn prayer. They explained that they were praying for help to find the Pokemon (Game Cube) game. Their pleadings were answered this morning when they found it shoved in the VCR (Tristan?). No wonder it hasn't been working for a while. Two birds with one stone on that one!

Hunter has brown eyes like me, Kyler has blue eyes like my dad, and Tristan has hazel eyes like Dean.

I picked up Kyler from preschool the other day and he went into a tirade about how long it has been since he has had crab to eat, and demanded to know why I haven't taken him to a restaurant to eat some. I explained that Daddy and I have no intention of taking ill-behaved children to a restaurant. So he said that Daddy and he would catch some in the ocean the next time we go to the beach, or why didn't we buy some in the store for him to eat... Maybe when his birthday rolls around again.

Kyler recently lost his second tooth (both bottom middle). He tried to get me to pull it out, but that's not what I do, so it came out on its own just fine. He trimmed his hair (again) a while back, so it's still in recovery mode for a while.

Tristan has been speaking a bit more, and understands quite a bit. He used to say "nnnnnnuh!" for "no", but now he actually says "no". He says "Mommy!" and "Daddy" a lot, and now says "hi!" and "bye!" to the gate guards every time we go through the gates on base. He also says "MY!" for "mine", which he actually learned from me when I won't let him have something that is clearly not for him. He says "nooo" for "nose" as well, and "go" when he wants to go somewhere (usually with shoes in hand and coat on). His favorites are "baby" and "pee pee". He identifies every infant and tot he sees, including himself in the mirror as "BABY". The other is a result of having older brothers. He says "gaw gaw" for "I need a drink". I love all his babyisms! Now it's time to get going on the potty training. I don't intend to have two in diapers at the same time.

We had these pictures taken recently on base. We couldn't get Tristan to smile, but he's still a cutie!

Beware the Bean!!!

2011-04-04T20:50:00.001+09:00

I LOVE the trap door on the back of Tristan's jammies. I made the three big pillows that the boys play on daily from curtain panels and memory foam (leftover from a former home and a mattress topper).

A week ago I made my final district primary visit to Camp Humphreys Branch. It is over an hour away and it was nice to be able to leave the kids with Dean, since he's HOME now (yay!!!). It went well, and then this Saturday we had our semi-annual district primary activity at the chapel on the temple grounds - which enables the parents to attend the temple (the district covers the entire peninsula) while the kids are at the activity. I was released from the calling the next day, since I'm now in our own branch primary presidency.

Tristan enjoys riding on Daddy's shoulders as much as the other boys did.

So, we were having our home teaching group over after church for dinner, and I made chili in the slow cooker for an easy meal, since I would be getting home after the family/guests. We always look forward to having them over. Only Angela was able to make it this time - and maybe that's a good thing. A few hours after eating, Dean mentioned that he didn't feel quite right. Hunter said something about feeling like he could throw up. I had the very same sort of feeling, and eventually I did throw up my two bowls of chili with fritos, and dessert. Then I continued to have other unpleasant gastrointestinal anomalies and threw up some more throughout the evening. I went to bed, and all was over with.

Family Home Evening - can you count four sets of legs?

Yesterday Angela asked me at church if we were OK last Sunday. Apparently she had the very same issues and had looked up KIDNEY BEANS online, since that's what I used for the chili. I usually use pintos, or black or red beans, but thought I would try these for a change. I also usually "quick soak" them since I don't plan ahead, and if I decide to make chili for dinner at 4pm, it is still ready by 6pm this way. But since I planned ahead for this I soaked them overnight, then changed the water and put them in the crock pot around 7 in the morning on low. They were still a little "crunchy" when we had them at 2pm. They were never boiled, and now we all learned a lesson! At least Dean and the kids didn't have the violent manifestations that I did. Lesson learned!!!

The post-FHE show. It's no wonder that Tristan ends up with horrible bumps and bruises, but he loves playing with the brothers.

Know a Mormon?

2011-03-29T10:34:00.000+09:00

I have this blog on my blog roll, and enjoy reading what he has to say. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know we are a "peculiar people", yet it still surprises me when so many people still have not knowingly run across any of us. I wonder if I am not forthcoming enough about it. I do tend to socialize primarily with people of my faith because I am rather shy, and often don't get to know my neighbors more than in passing. Part of that is because of our peculiarity. I have no desire to go out for a girls' night to drink or whatever.

The one lady in our building who I have chatted with the most knows that we are LDS, and seemed stunned (shocked? - her husband is a chaplain, Protestant I believe) when I first mentioned it. I do know that as a family we need to be more outgoing and be better at getting to know those around us. A former colleague, whose four children have all since joined the church (but not herself), once said to me that "Mormons" seem exclusive and only associate with each other. I don't think it is intentional on anyone's part, certainly not mine, but because The Church is such a significant part of our lives it just happens.

Yellow Belt and Green Pudding

2011-03-19T14:16:00.002+09:00

Today was the Cubscout Pinewood Derby, as well as our district Relief Society conference, and a community yard sale here in our housing village. Since Dean was supposed to be home last night, he was to take all the boys to the derby, while I planned to go to the yard sale, then attend part of the conference. However, Dean's first plane had an issue so was grounded, and the best they could do for him was put him on the same flight the next day... He should be well on his way and arriving this evening.

So, this morning Tristan's lip started bleeding again. I had taken him to the hemophilia clinic three days this week already, including yesterday (Friday), and it stops bleeding once he gets factor, but since the factor only has a half life of 8 hours or so, and being in such a vulnerable place, every time he eats or bumps it slightly once the factor wears off, it starts bleeding again. I washed his bloody bedding and clothing last night, and pretreated it with some Oxiclean gel. Every bit of it came out! I am impressed! The gel comes out liberally, so I used the whole tube of it, 7 ounces for about $4, but it saved everything.

So, what to do this morning? The wonderful scout leaders hooked Hunter up with a ride to the derby. They also "helped" him make his car last Saturday - all day long he was at their home. Apparently it did really well in the races. I went to the yard sale, then took Tristan (and Kyler) to the clinic, which is open on Saturday mornings, then got home just before Hunter shortly after noon.

The yard sale was a huge success for me! I can't often bring myself to buy new baby clothes (unless they are marked waaaay down) since I can get them nearly new for so cheap and since they are outgrown in just a few months! I probably spent about $50, and got a stroller that is in better shape than ours (same brand, similar model for $5), a new maternity swim suit (mine was stolen out of the trunk of my car by some south-of-the-border construction workers in Sierra Vista, AZ, last summer AFTER I had just gone swimming in it - so dripping wet, along with the wet towels), several new-with-tags maternity blouses, and a whole lot of gently used, super cute (I'm choosy) baby girlie clothes in all sizes. We should be ready now! My dad has said that a good yard sale is as good as Christmas, and it is sure true!

Kyler's teacher is putting the yellow belt on him, and gave him the official certificate of advancement.

Kyler advanced from white belt to yellow belt yesterday in Taekwondo. He sure enjoys it. Hunter has been trying to get his act together this week, obeying me when I tell him to do something, getting his homework done (though still forgetting to put it in his backpack sometimes), and trying to be pleasant. He is after more privileges, which is what I've been hoping for, so it might be time to get him on the waiting list for Taekwondo, although we'll have to jump through hoops because of his hemophilia.

A family from church is moving soon and had too much weight, so needed to give away their piano. I jumped all over it, and now we have a piano again! Kyler loves "The Little Drummer Boy", so asked me to play it the first night we had it. I gave Hunter a lesson - his last one was last May, but he seemed to retain everything (which wasn't much - still in the primer level), so hopefully now we can get on track. I want to institute the rule that he may play video games for as long as he practiced the piano that day, assuming everything else is in order and he has that privilege. So if he practices the piano for five minutes, he can play games for five minutes...

I snapped a picture of the final picture they got of this outfit. Indeed, it takes many, many shots to get the right one!

We have been approached a few times by some modeling agents here on base, who take pictures of the kids to have in case they need them to model. One lady came by Wednesday evening wondering if Tristan would be available Thursday morning for a shoot. I had water aerobics, so said we'd be available after 11:00. She had a taxi come get us and we went to the "studio", if it could be called that. It looked like a condemned house, but they set up one area to take the pictures. They "oohed" and "aahed" over Tristan, of course, and put makeup on him, and a little stuff in his hair, then dressed him up in a total of two outfits for the pictures. I'm not sure if they photoshop his lip wound out, or what. It doesn't look that bad when it's not actively bleeding.

We were there for about three hours, which was most agonizing. While there it sure didn't seem worthwhile, especially since the location was in that house with old, filthy wood floors. Kyler rolled all over the floor and ran around like a monkey the whole time, of course, and Tristan was in little white outfits... But, they had lunch brought in and paid Tristan 160,000 won (about $150) and gave Kyler 10,000 won (about $9) to boot. The other moms that were there do it quite a bit, and told me a lot about it. Often times it's in a much better location, and there isn't as much waiting around, or if it's an all day shoot the pay is more. One little girl (about two or three years old) was there alone. Her parents both work, so they send her with the agent. Yikes! It was interesting, to say the least. We'll see if any more opportunities come up. I intend to put the money in a mutual fund or something for him, along with whatever other money he has at this point.

We live very close to a hospital, and always get a chuckle when the patients come outside to smoke, or eat at a restaurant, or just go for a walk. About 50% of the men here smoke. Yuck.

I'm trying to be a little more festive for holidays and such. There really wasn't any point in cooking corned beef and cabbage without Dean here (Hunter and Tristan wouldn't eat it for sure), so we had split pea soup since it's green, and some pistachio pudding for dessert - ha ha. At least it was something!

Since Dean was in Albuquerque for an extra day because of his lost flight, I suggested he make a birthday cake for his mom since her birthday is 3/19 (Happy Birthday Dee!!!). He was stunned at the idea, but I gave him a super easy, fabulous recipe. I don't think he's ever baked anything before, but he can certainly follow the directions on the cake mix box, and sure enough it turned out wonderfully, and was a surprise for her. I'm so proud of him!

Bloody the Lip and Black the Eye

2011-03-15T10:58:00.003+09:00

This blog is turning into a hemophilia log, it would seem. I've had a bit of an epiphany. The reason we had almost nary an issue with Hunter as a tot was because he didn't have any older brothers around. Kyler has been involved in every single incident we've had with poor little Tristan. The latest were last week.

Kyler and Tristan were up on Kyler's twin bed playing. Then a couple of days later they were playing together on a living room chair; Tristan fell off both. He was left with a smallish hematoma (knot or bump) on the back of his head, and a cut lower lip. I decided to watch the lip and see how it did. Sunday morning it was bleeding but stopped by the time we went to church. He managed to fall off the pew onto the hematoma but it didn't add much to what was already there. Monday morning his lip was quite bleeding, and had been all night. It was most pitiful as he bled all over his toast.

Tristan likes to try on all the shoes at Burger King when we go to the play area.

I took him to the hemophilia clinic where they gave him a dose of factor. They are open business hours, so aren't an option on the weekend. They always love to see him and comment about how handsome he is. They did "physical therapy", using ultrasound to help break down the hematoma.

We went to the museum of natural history with some friends recently. This slide is three stories, and all the kids loved it.

At the clinic they asked about Hunter's ear. I had kind of forgotten about it since it isn't actively bleeding any more. I picked him up from school and took him over to the base hospital to see if I could get the ENT doctor to have a look. He did right away, and said there was still so much dried blood in there that he couldn't see the membrane (ear drum). This doctor is only about the second one I've ever encountered outside the hemophilia community who has even the slightest snippet of knowledge about it. He asked Hunter if he was descended from European royalty, which Hunter didn't know anything about. He also asked if he had hemophilia A or B, which is more than most would know to ask.

In other Hunter news, his teacher told me last week that he had basically stopped doing his homework and finishing his class work when he began the gifted program. He will be kicked out of the program if he doesn't step it up. It's no surprise, but I told him how disappointed I was and that he's back to a 6:30 bed time (lights out) and he's more than welcome to eat dinner once he's shown me his completed homework... My mom thinks he's a distracted child. I think he is just lazy and disorganized.

Tristan plays in the basket o' hats and gloves.

He has been interested in makeup lately, especially mascara. He's not as interested in me cleaning it off.

Success

2011-03-09T22:28:00.000+09:00

My friend Lisa's parents had this framed in their home years ago when Lisa and I were college chums. I eventually bought one for my home, and my dad really liked it and wanted one... I can attest that #1 is absolutely true - marrying the right person does indeed determine 90% of our happiness or misery in life. The other 20 suggestions can be applied in the marital relationship as well, contributing to the success of the marriage.

This was taken a year ago, around the time of our 10th anniversary.

I am forever grateful that I did make the right decision, and indeed regardless of whatever else is happening around us or to us, we have each other and that is everything. I knew he was "the one", because the Spirit made it very clear to me before his mission. I remember the unmistakable "burning in the bosom" when I was pondering our relationship as I drove down I-40 in Albuquerque on my way to school one day.

That answer carried me through two long years of "waiting" for him while he served the Lord in Brazil, starting when I was 19. We wrote every week (I actually missed one week in there - not too bad out of 100+ weeks) and were permitted to talk on the phone on Mothers' Day and Christmas. Our love has grown exponentially since then, and I count it as one of the greatest blessings of my life, a fulfillment of my Patriarchal Blessing. I also know it is a great blessing to our children, to be reared in a home where Mom and Dad love each other, and whose relationship is the primary focus of the home.

I've been thinking about him and our time together because today is the 11th anniversary of our wedding. He wrote me the sweetest poem, as he occasionally does for such occasions, and set it to music in a power point slide. I can hardly wait for his return in nine days.

A Gentle Soul

2011-03-04T09:27:00.000+09:00

I'm grinning from ear to ear after reading a blog post by a senior missionary serving at Ft. Sam Houston where Darling Hubby has been biding his time. I married him for many reasons, including that I knew he was stalwart in the Gospel and would never stray from it. He is perfectly active and upholds our standards, even as he is far, far away from us. He is a gentle soul and I love loving him. He is also intellectual beyond my imagination, and as humble as they come. We sure look forward to having him back in a couple of weeks!

Stab me in the ear

2011-03-03T21:27:00.003+09:00

So I got a call from the school nurse on Monday morning saying that Hunter's ear was bleeding and I needed to come get him. Weird. He has had no pain associated with it, it's not infected, and the ear drum is intact. I couldn't get an appointment that day in the pediatric clinic, so I talked on the phone with the ENT, who thought maybe the tube was coming out. I opted to try the watch-and-see approach.

It bled all night, so I loaded them all up and went to the ER first thing Tuesday morning. They were as hostile as unhelpful as always regarding the hemophilia, and refused to give him the factor I brought. Instead, they decided it would be best to transport him in an ambulance to another hospital, so I followed in the van. I never would have found it myself, I'm sure, but it still seems like a huge waste of resources, which the military loves.

They were extremely nice at this hospital, but we had to wait some time because the pharmacy was busy mixing chemo meds, so they finally asked me to mix it myself. I hadn't done it for about three years, and the instructions were in Korean. It has to be done just right, and the clotting factor is extremely expensive. I followed the pictures, but they left out one part, namely removing the caps on the bottles of the sterile water and the factor concentrate (which aren't obvious), but apparently that step was in the written instructions, and thankfully the nurse dude was able to salvage the factor after reading through the instructions.

Not sure what it means. We've also seen a "Beer Hunter" sign, but have yet to get a good picture.

Hunter continued to bleed for a few more hours until it finally stopped, and since there was no active bleeding by morning I sent him to school Wednesday, with instructions to not go to recess or horse around at all. I picked him up when school was out and we went to the bank to get big money, then went to Itaewon to exchange it for Won so we could pay for the factor at the hemophilia clinic. I have been reimbursed by Tricare for Tristan's treatment from last year ($4500), but not yet for the preliminary testing/xrays/factor for Hunter. I would have gone to the clinic in the first place on Tuesday, but it was closed for a Korean holiday.

People here often carry their small children on their backs. This lady looked older, too, perhaps a grandmother.

The clinic is the most efficient operation I have ever witnessed. They have a tiny parking lot, holding maybe a dozen cars if they are double and triple parked. So they have two full-time guys who rearrange cars all day so that people can come and go as needed. We just wave at the receptionist - she knows us, and then sit down until it's our turn. Our name will come up on the TV screen in the front of the room, only I don't read Hangul, so usually people will let me know that it's our turn - funny how much an American name (Tristan or Hunter) must stand out. We then open the door to the doctor's office. He sits at a desk in front of a computer with our electronic charts.

He looked in Hunter's ear and said the clot was very unstable (he speaks good English) so he would need more factor that day, and said to come back the next as well. It was impossible to tell what was bleeding in there until we went back Thursday. By then the blood had cleared out and the other hemophilia doctor who was working that day said that he appeared to have scratched the skin in the ear canal. Apparently the skin is very thin in there. At least he didn't hurt the ear drum. There's a play room downstairs for the kiddos, near where the physical therapists work with patients, so they saw Kyler and one of them brought Hunter's coat to me (that I've been wondering what became of) that he must have left there months ago. The nurses gave Hunter the factor intravenously and we were out of there within half an hour. Amazing, especially compared the the 5 hours we spent going to the base hospital, then the next hospital...

Today, Thursday, they gave him another dose of factor and the doc said he should be seen by an ENT to "dress" the wound in there. I am sure grateful for modern medicine. Life wasn't so easy for my dad in the days before factor replacement. He would be laid up in the hospital for weeks at a time when he had a serious bleed, whether external or internal (such as a swollen joint or a big bruise/hematoma).

If it Looks Like a Fish

2011-02-25T20:21:00.003+09:00

We recently attended the 1st birthday party for our branch president's son, and it was in full Korean style. Apparently back in the day there often wasn't a second birthday, so they made a point of going all out for the first, which is actually at 100 days (9 months gestation plus 100 days is a year, in Korean age). So we were told to not just eat until we were full, but until we were "tired"; the tradition continues of going all out. This guy was actually 12 months old.

Hunter was sent a "flat Stanley" from a friend in the states, with which he was to take a picture of something Korean, so we all went on a walk the other day to see what we could see.

A Korean college student in Itaewon (touristy shopping district within walking distance of us) came to my aid when my fingers were all sticky with the filling from some hoddeok. He pulled out some kleenex then wanted to practice his English on us. He took this picture of us, with my camera. At one point during our excursion Kyler thought it would be a grand idea to run into the street as a motorcycle came racing by. I don't know how he wasn't hit. The driver freaked out and stopped to see if he was OK. Hunter ran out in front of a car at night a while back, and Tristan did in the parking garage at church not too long ago, giving our branch president's wife a fright. They must all have a mission in life, as they've survived thus far!

On the way home we got some cheap pizza, and tried out these fish-looking treats. They are filled with a sweet red bean paste, and are tasty, and were only 1000 won for four of them (about a dollar). Hunter was just sure there was fish in them, and thought the reddish filling was fish guts...

Next I decided to stop by the Paris Baguette Cafe (there's one on nearly every corner here) to get some of these cream horns or whatever they are called. They are filled with cream and are to die for.

We recently checked out a new park, which had the biggest bench we've ever seen. Soon after, Tristan decided to tumble into a frozen pond. I couldn't get to him quickly enough, so he was soaked in the ice water from the waist down. My friend and I stripped him and put him in a dry coat. He didn't like that, but was fine otherwise. I then had to get Kyler to preschool, then rush home to get Tristan a change of clothes, then rush back to the base to my OB appointment... Tristan was asleep by then, and I hadn't yet dressed him, so I pushed him fast asleep in the stroller through the hospital with just a diaper and over-sized coat on. He slept through the appointment... When Kyler was about his age he went with us to visit the Oregon coast, and did the same thing on the beach, only a small wave went over all of him, so he was soaked from head to toe, in street clothes.

Dean's instructor gave him 36/36 on his paper that he turned in recently, and told the class how great it was and that she was going to submit it to be a finalist for the best paper overall. There are something like 140 people in the course total, broken into smaller classes. He was embarrassed by all the attention, but he really did work hard on it. We're down to three weeks until he is home.

The Countdown

2011-02-18T17:10:00.000+09:00

We're down to a month before Darling Husband returns. He turned in a 10 page battle analysis this week as part of his coursework. We worked on proof reading it together via skype. He chose the ancient battle of Cannae between the Romans and the Carthiginian General Hannibal. Interesting stuff, and apparently the military still applies principles learned from it today. Hannibal was the victor with his barbarian army. He has had to sit through a lot of boring days this week listening to people yak for hours at a time. He says he'd go insane without his iphone to play games on. He actually got a bit of a reprimand the other day from one of the instructors, another captain, who asked if his games were more important than what the retired general who was then speaking had to say. Dean said "yes". Oh, my. I asked how he ever got through college. Apparently it was by sitting in the back and listening to Rush Limbaugh on his headphones. He graduated with honors in biochemistry (I couldn't have begun to do that), so I guess he managed just fine.

I bought this little coat for $2 when Hunter was little, and now all three have used it. I asked Kyler to take the ice scraper out to the van, and this is what he wore to do it.

Kyler has sure been flourishing in preschool, and now Taekwondo. Every day he asks if he's going to school, then is excited if he is because he has Taekwondo right afterward, and loves it. The other day I was late dropping him off for preschool and his teacher said his little table mates were waiting for him before they would begin their "work". He has a gift for standing out and making friends where ever he goes. He puts his Taekwondo uniform away every day in the same place, and doesn't have to be told to put it on or reminded of anything, then runs out the door to go to his class (very close to us in our housing village).

That is such a stark contrast with Hunter, who is incapable, apparently, of putting anything away, or keeping track of anything, such as his cubscout uniform. They are supposed to wear the uniform every week to scouts, which is right after school one day. It boggles my mind how out-of-it he is. It would most likely be a chore for me to have him in Taekwondo or anything else, because I would have to remind him, and help him find his uniform, and go through the colossal struggle of getting him out the door every time (which was the case when I did have him in a dance class at Camp Lejeune). Once a day for school that whole ordeal is enough for me. We've been telling him for years that if he would stop one bad habit (namely eating snot all day) we would LOVE to put him in whatever he wanted. It hasn't worked at all. Now I know for a fact that it has caught up with him, finally, at school. I went to his class Valentine party the other day and some of the girls clearly shunned him and acted like he had given them the plague when he delivered his valentines to them. I sure felt sorry for him, but it's up to him to stop his bad habit. If anyone has a cure, PLEASE let me know.

The boys love to sleep together. Can you find all three in the toddler bed? Hunter (who can never find his pjs) is wearing Kyler's top and his skivvies.

Dean really wants me to get Hunter into something extracurricular, and the Taekwondo is so convenient (at least for Kyler) that I want to, so I've finally said that if he could get his act together for one week, I'd put him in it. It's been a month since Kyler started. I hoped that would be a motivator for Hunter, but not so much. He'd only have to get his homework done and signed off daily (a class requirement, which he rarely does), and keep up with his chores, and put his shoes on the shelf next to the front door - for a week. That's all I ask, but there's no sign yet of any of it happening any time soon. His teacher at school has said he has the classic absent-minded professor syndrome. Her own son was apparently the same way, and was actually tested for special ed at school. Then they figured out that he was gifted, and completely absent minded - just like Hunter. Hunter is finally in the gifted program, so goes most of the day, one day per week. He really enjoys it so far.

For Valentine's Day I made pink pancakes for breakfast, following in my mom's footsteps of using beets for the color. I could hardly tell a difference in taste, but Hunter threw his up. So much for that. For the first time I gave them presents for the occasion as well. Kyler got a package of Spiderman socks and I gave Hunter a new wallet, since he's lost every wallet (money included) he's ever had. We'll see how long this one lasts. Their grandma sent them each $20 for the holiday as well, so he took his to school and bought several books at the book fair. He loves books! Kyler has been a spend thrift of late, and wants to buy everything in sight whenever we go to the store. I've stopped allowing him to buy candy, since he's not consistent in brushing his teeth, but I do allow him to buy sugarless gum. He also wanted to buy some new underwear the other day - I forget who was on it, but Hunter wasted no time in wearing them since, of course, he can't ever find his own.

Tristan is as cute and adorable as ever. He is learning to say a few words, and understands what we say pretty well. His only fault is that he is stingy with his kisses. If I ever ask for a kiss he'll shake his head and turn away. Only a couple of times has he given me one. He doesn't mind receiving kisses, though. He spends the day racing around the house seeing how much he can pillage and pull out of the cupboards and dishwasher, etc... Oh, the joy! This would be about five pounds of buckwheat flour.

I am growing by leaps and bounds, and have started having braxton hicks contractions. I am often light headed because I can't seem to drink enough, which probably explains the contractions. I haven't been able to help myself and have been buying little girlie clothes and things as I see them on sale (75% off at the PX) or that other people are selling. Dean's only comment was "and so it begins..."

I was released from the nursery a few weeks ago (yay!!!), only to be called to be the first counselor in the primary. I am already the only counselor in the district (stake) primary. Ugh. But it's been fine so far, just takes some juggling, and I'm able to apply lessons learned between the two callings. I made my first district primary visit to the Osan Branch last week. That was nerve wracking - driving somewhere out of Seoul without Dean especially, and dragging the kids along, not to mention that I hardly feel qualified. But it went remarkably well, which is encouraging.

Ball o' Baby

2011-02-04T18:47:00.000+09:00

We attended the Christmas Ball for the 65th Medical Brigade, which encompasses Dean's unit. As I was gravid (preggers), I had loads of trouble finding something to wear, and forget about finding a modest maternity formal. Most ladies were in real ball gowns, but alas the one I bought mail order, hoping it would fit, didn't at all. Nor did the dress I ordered from Motherhood Maternity (way too big). So I was left with this dress that I got on ebay for cheap. I hemmed the long sleeves and the skirt, which was a few inches longer than this. Now I'm wondering what to do with the dresses that are still new with tags - maybe try to sell them on ebay? It's too late to return them.

These are the other captains with Dean. Most vets coming out of school these days are women. In his graduating class of 135 at Colorado State, 99 were women. So it's no wonder that there are so many women vets in the army as well. Dean felt awfully sheepish because he didn't know to wear a bow tie (there were nearly 900 people at the ball, and Dean was the only one in this kind of tie). We still feel like newbies, and this was our first formal even in the military.

Rachel and Spence were in attendance as well.

I had my hair done for it, which was a first for me. The Korean lady who did it must have used half a can of aqua net. It was like a helmet, but it stayed in place!

Half-way House

2011-02-04T18:39:00.002+09:00

Yeah, that's what it feels like around here much of the time; I live with devious miscreants who always seem to be conspiring against me, or against my sanity at least. We are nearly to the half-way point of Dean's current absence, so 5+ weeks to go. He is kept busy with assignments at CCC. I'm trying to keep busy at home.

I was looking through the most recent pictures uploaded to the computer from our cameras, Dean's camera being his iphone. There were scores of fuzzy, crappy pictures, taken of a box, or part of someone's head, etc., or this of my sexy army man. It was pretty much the only salvageable picture of all that the little people had taken, even though it is fuzzy. I am guessing they got hold of his iphone and snapped away. I love seeing him in this much of his uniform - only around the house of course. I am guessing he is peeling fruit for his lunch there. He towers over me in his boots when I am barefoot, which I usually am around the house. Tristan pushes the little yellow chair to the kitchen all the time to help himself to all the excitement he can find on the counter tops or the stove.

I'm way behind blogging signs and sightings in Korea. I saw this car recently while driving on the freeway. It took several shots to get a decent one - I was driving after all.

This would be a small apartment building. I'm not sure what was intended with the name of it.

I went visiting teaching recently, which was most worrisome as trying to find anything around here for the first time is an enormous challenge for me. But, we had good directions from our visitee and made it on time. The boys immediately hunted for her poor cat, who spent the entire time hiding. They couldn't resist the loft, and ran up and down the stairs quite a bit.

Tristan is getting better at eating with a utensil, but we have a long way to go. He isn't screaming quite as much lately, which is a blessed relief.

Hunter went to a birthday party a while back and this was his piece of cake, that the DAD made, our branch president no less. He had no instructions or anything, just went to town with what he had and made a most amazing cake with a waterfall!

I'm not sure what happened to Santa here in Hannam Village during the holidays. His head was back on by the next day, fortunately.

It's Possible!

2011-01-31T21:34:00.001+09:00

I finally had an ultrasound appointment, and the tech said that Baby looks like a girl!!! She said she couldn't be 100% certain, but more than 90%. I tried to not go in with high hopes. For one thing, it's against Korean law to tell women before about 32 weeks what they are having. I'm no Korean, and this is technically an American hospital, but there have been reports of hardcore ultrasound techs refusing to say, and I'm not keen enough to necessarily identify on my own, especially since it's only ever been a boy so far. There have also been reports of being told wrong at the ultrasound here at this hospital, so I'm still afraid to fully embrace the idea for fear of disappointment at the birth. But I'm getting excited nonetheless! We didn't read the book on how to have a boy or a girl, but I looked up the theory online, and we tweaked things accordingly right around that time - so maybe we finally did it right! Kyler was in preschool during the appointment, thankfully, so I only had Tristan, and he kept busy scribbling on my chart and disrobing his feet.

In other news, Hunter has been placed in the gifted program at his school. I don't want to make a deal of it to him, because I've known way too many dysfunctional gifted people and it takes a lot more than smarts to function in life. Hunter has a hard time getting out the door in the morning... I told him last week that if he couldn't get downstairs for breakfast (all ready to go otherwise) by 7:00 he would have to spend the day (after school) in his room. He did just that one day last week, so today when I reminded him of that, he was down by 7, and then had plenty of time to get to the bus. After school we got him a new bus pass since he's lost his last one. Baby steps!

Kyler enjoys preschool. His teacher said the first week he wanted to talk the whole time and didn't get the idea of sitting and doing his little assignments, but he has since gotten in the gear. He pulled out his tooth that has been loose for some time while in preschool last week, and put it under his pillow once home. He mentioned that the tooth fairy didn't come after all the next morning, so she snuck in when no one was looking after that and he got two bucks! Whenever we go to the PX nowadays, he says he wants to buy some "junk food" - his words. Shockingly, a dentist did a screening at the preschool and gave him a clean bill of health.

Interesting...

2011-01-20T00:06:00.001+09:00

I saw this posted on Facebook by a friend and found it to be fascinating. I have the same curiosity when reading such blogs (including some blogs of my friends), especially since in most ways I am a typical Mormon house wife, yet clearly my blog posts aren't so rosy and brimming with only sunshine. I blog our reality, which truly we have a happy life and I love my role as homemaker, wife and mother, but when I look back on posts of my own that only list the happy details, it feels like the full picture is not accurate. I imagine and hope that years down the road when we look back as a family (once I print them into books) we will all be able to laugh at our struggles with child rearing and family life, and that the boys will be wonderful men who are well adjusted and fulfilling their divine potential.

What I really like is to check out this blog occasionally. Truly I could roll on the floor laughing, and this is at least partly why I don't blog (act, talk, etc.) like is parodied on the blog! It is so right on target, down to the spelling and grammar. Whoever is behind it is a genius, and what are we if we can't laugh at ourselves?!

In other news, there isn't much, ha ha. At my last OB appointment the doc tried to see what kind of baby I'm carrying, but Baby was too busy crossing legs and putting hips back to tell. At the end of the month we'll try again at the next appointment. We're also going to have to stop calling Tristan "Baby". He has had the croup since Sunday night (poor Baby!), but after taking him to the doctor and dosing him up with some steriods, I actually got several hours of sleep last night, and so did he. The previous two nights he spent coughing up his lungs. No fun.

Kyler started preschool a couple of weeks ago for the first time, and has loved it so far, although today he demanded to know why it is three hours long (three days a week). I'm not sure why. It is a hassle to have to drive him all the way to the base, then, by the time I get back home, rush back two hours later to pick him up. But the three hours of quietude are worth it, I suppose. He had been on the waiting list all school year, and finally made it in. Of course he is the oldest and biggest kid there. Hunter is up to his usual antics. He has been saying for a while that he wants to be an engineer, so I talked about math and science, and he then wondered what job he could have that would involve reading, since he enjoys reading so much. I suggested publishing and editing. At least he didn't ask how he could make a career out of playing video games.

Darling Hubby is still in San Antonio. Captains Career Course is a lot of work with lots of papers to write and presentations to prepare and give, then the classmates want to go out on the weekends and booze it up, so he got to drive drunks home once last weekend. He is itching to come "home", but still has nearly 8 weeks to go. I'm trying to keep my sanity while he's gone, and not eat too much chocolate, ha ha. I'm attempting to make a t-shirt quilt out of his old t-shirts. There are many different ways to go about it, and I chose one. I've never made any sort of quilt or blanket so this is a first. It's got a couple of flaws already that I can't really fix, but not being a perfectionist, it's OK with me, and hopefully he won't notice.

What did I do

2011-01-10T17:25:00.005+09:00

to deserve this? I often ask myself this question when I'm dealing with my children. Sounds loving and motherly, huh? Anyone who has spent much time with my children, especially when they are together, has seen how typical and rambunctious and wild and crazy they are. The modern fix is to give their boy-ness a name and medicate them into more subdued behavior, or throw them in front of evil flickering machines (i.e. TV and electronic games) all day, or put them in "school" starting at age three (or 6 weeks), or make the family life revolve around driving them to activities, (instead of revolving around the marriage, which should be the most important relationship in the home) etc., none of which is acceptable to me. I do understand that they are boys, and that if we lived in more primitive times they would be spending the day tearing things apart (the earth for farming), killing appropriately (food for dinner, skins for many uses), running and screaming joyfully (outside where it doesn't bother Mother), and enjoying and exploring all that the world has to offer. Instead, we live in an urban setting, cooped up inside most of the time (since it's winter), with three wild boys who live to act out their primal urges and energy, which translates into tearing the house apart around the clock and constant screaming.

Of course I always envisioned myself raising quiet, well-mannered girls who would delight in learning the things I enjoy, particularly homemaking skills such as baking or sewing. Instead, I keep having boys who could have been raised in the barn and not have any worse habits and manners than they display now (despite being told daily for years that their shirt is not a napkin, "please use the napkin in front of you", for example). I hate to even spend much time thinking about what this next baby might be. I don't want to feel disappointment if it is yet another boy, because how could I not be excited for any baby we are blessed with? And some day, they will be all grown up and won't be trying my patience every waking moment. I've heard older women whose children have long since been raised admonish young mothers (I hardly feel young any more) to not "wish away their childhoods", yet that is exactly what I often do, such as today when I was touch up painting all over the house because they have grimed it up so much in the six months we've lived here. In my imagination, girls aren't so filthy

Anyway, with Dean being gone for the next couple of months (he's been gone 8 days now), I've decided to take the bull by the horns and get their most egregious behaviors under control. I even have a "manual" by which to do it. I started reading it two times, but couldn't ever get Darling Husband to read it with me, and all the authority figures need to be on the same page and do the same things in order to make it work. Alas, he finally read it while traveling to the U.S. and is sending it back to me, so that I can finish reading it. I have started with some things already (I have read a few of his other books, and did read part of this one), and am seeing improvement already, but we have a long way to go.

1. It's always a huge pain to get Kyler to buckle up in the car. I would tell him repeatedly to buckle up, he would ignore me and bounce around doing as he pleased. I even slammed on the brakes a couple of times (at low speed with no cars around) to throw him into the seat back in front of him. He didn't like it at all, but it still didn't bother him enough to ever buckle up without the saga. I once heard an idiot psychologist say that with children "repetition repetition repetition" is the key. How wrong he is, and how worthless that advice. Once I implemented the new method, I no longer have to remind (beg, plead, order, demand - all to no avail) Kyler to buckle up - the monkey is off my back. He often does it on his own now, which is vastly better than never doing it. Now, if after a reasonable amount of time he hasn't buckled up on his own, I simply inform him that he will be spending an hour in his room. So far he has spent two or three hours in there (in one-hour increments on separate occasions), and doesn't like it one bit, but he knows he is in the wrong. The monkey is on his back. It's working. Repetition never worked. On a naturally well-behaved kid it might, but that's apparently not what I breed.

2. "I wanna sit by Daddy!!!" with an ensuing screaming match and cat fight - at every meal. I finally got smart and let them choose who would sit by Daddy every day for breakfast (Hunter), and who would every day for dinner (Kyler). If I have to hear about it, neither one sits by Daddy. How's that for being a mean mommy? It's working. I rarely hear about it.

3. "I wanna sit in the front!!!" with ensuing screaming match and cat fight - ad nauseum. And you might wonder why I am not loving every second I spend with them. Again, we decided who would sit in the "front" (the middle seat of the van) for the trip "there" - happens to be Kyler, and who would sit in the front for the trip "home" - happens to be Hunter. They have to be separated to prevent fighting. If I have to hear about who is sitting where, they both sit in the back, separated of course. Problem solved.

4. I asked them to do their chores on Saturday. They ignored me and did nothing. I did not nag, plead, bribe, etc. Sunday, they got to spend the day in their rooms, except .for when we went to church. I had a pleasant day, and Monday morning when I told them to do their chores, they did. It's working.

5. The screaming. Constant screaming, primarily from Kyler. Although Tristan seems to be following in his brothers' footsteps in that he doesn't talk (he's 18 months now). He says "uh oh", and occasionally says "Mommy" or "Daddy", but I'm not sure if that's because he's calling us or because those are the most commonly screamed words around here. So he screams all day. It's getting worse by the day, and has only really started in the last couple of weeks. He screamed some in church yesterday. Kyler's screaming frays my nerves and literally causes me ear pain. His screaming is more or less innocent in that it is when he is "playing" (i.e. running around the house like he alone is a herd of wild hyenas), or just like many little kids screams instead of talking normally (so that he can never hear anyone but himself) but it hurts my ears and my psyche none the less. Hunter isn't around as much since he's in school, but he loves to scream when he is. When we had the cookie exchange, Hunter came along and screamed something and one of the ladies jumped out of her skin and actually got after him because it hurt her ears. I was so glad she did that! It tells me I'm not crazy - the screaming is painful and must stop, and the more people reinforcing that to the children the better. So, taking a cue from John Rosemond, I informed Kyler that from now on, when he needs to scream, he may go to the bathroom, close the door, go to the far corner, and feel free to scream his brains out for 15 minutes. So whenever he screams for whatever reason, he goes to the bathroom (which of course he doesn't want to) and is free to scream all he wants. Surprise, though (not for me, actually), the last thing he generally does is scream in there. He is confined for 15 minutes to think about not screaming. It is working. The screaming is much less.

6. This could go on forever. Whenever I run errands with the boys, and that includes the eight-year old, I have to spend the whole time beckoning them to me. They don't just follow me into the store, or stay by my side. I literally must redirect them every few seconds, as though I was herding cats. I finally realized that that was ridiculous. Again, the monkey was on my back. I informed Kyler that he would be spending an hour in his room for every time that I had to call him to me. You'll never guess. Instead of lagging behind a mile, or straying constantly, he stays with me. It's a miracle. So far I think he's only spent an hour in his room for that one. The monkey is on his back, and he's making the change. That's the whole point of all this. I cannot change their attitudes or behavior. My efforts are to give them enough reason to change themselves. As J.R. says, "a well behaved child is a happy child" - and I might add that such children have happier mothers.

There are too many behaviors to list them all, but I'm seeing an improvement. Hunter still has the 6:30 bed time, and likely will through the school year, because he still doesn't care enough to do his homework without being told, and I still find socks hidden all over the house, etc. etc. etc. But at least I have pleasant evenings now (instead of having the equivalent of a pack of coyotes running loose in the house until all hours). I generally send Kyler to bed then as well, and Tristan if he's ready.

Hopefully Dean will notice a great improvement in two months.

Yes, we did

2011-01-07T13:28:00.002+09:00

- celebrate Christmas, that is. I didn't manage to take (m)any pictures, though. I hosted a cookie exchange that was loads of fun. We enjoyed going to see a huge model train display at a hotel. It had everything, including a Nativity scene,

presents,

a wall o' Santas,

a huge, beautiful Christmas tree,

and the ginormous display of trains that went around and around. The boys all loved it.

Since I was driving (we've reverted to our normal driving situation, meaning I drive), we parked in the lady parking.

Over the month we also hit a couple of tree lighting ceremonies on the base, one of which even served Chili - score for me not having to come up with dinner! We also reading stories from a Christmas book that my mom gave us.

Then we found a little mandu (dumpling - kind of like potstickers, but steamed) restaurant. We thought the kids would be excited since they love mandu, but it was actually a mandu stew restaurant, and Hunter whined the whole time and wouldn't eat because the mandu was "too juicy". Then we headed over to city hall to look at the fabulous outdoor Christmas lights. It sure was cold, but that didn't stop people from ice skating.

On Christmas Eve, our dear friends Spence and Rachel came over to be festive with us. Rachel brought a delicious holiday bread, we drank hot chocolate, played Christmas games, and read from Luke 2. The boys even put on matching pajamas when it was time for them to go to bed.

Normally they dress for bed more like this.

On Christmas day the boys slept until after 6, then we all got up and opened presents, after which I went back to bed. I was tired after staying up late wrapping! It was lovely as always, and we're getting everything put away. We stayed up with the older boys on New Year's Eve and all drank sparkling cider at midnight. I love the holidays, but it is a relief when it's all over.

Dean left for San Antonio, TX on Jan 2, so we're missing him. He first went to Albuquerque for a couple of days to adjust to the time difference and get the car, then drove from there. He has started the captains' career course, and will be gone for about 10 weeks. I'm working on getting some behaviors under control (from the little people) while he's gone, and hopefully finally getting organized and getting the house fully set up. I went to the "self help" center on base and borrowed a drill and bit to put holes in our cement walls and finally hang more pictures. For some reason we do have a few sheet rock walls, but now we're really getting somewhere.

Toilet Fish

2011-01-05T16:56:00.000+09:00

I have failed to post several outings we have had with Captain Cho, Dean's preceptor (or is Dean his preceptor? I can't keep it straight, but he's a veterinarian) in the Korean army. He is super nice and we love sight seeing with him, and his wife when she's not at work. He and Dean had the same day off during the week before Christmas, so we went to the Co-ex mall with him and saw the aquarium, including this two-headed turtle.

The aquarium was creative and made little aquariums out of everything they could think of.

There are fish in each of these pictures - coke machine, kimchi pots, toilet, appliances, and many more items not pictured.

Look close - the fish are swimming around.

I always get a kick out of the parking folks who are dressed like this. Captain Cho wondered why I would take a picture of this guy - it's so common place here to have the parking helpers (ladies included) dressed up like this.

Across the street from this mall is a Buddhist Temple. It was free, and frankly I prefer to see stuff like this over aquariums that cost a fortune.

This is a view while passing under this building which is on stilts (or columns or whatever).

These are tombs or head stones or something along those lines, memorials to high ranking monks.

There was a lantern festival recently, and these hanging lanterns were lovely. The apartment building in the background is really high end. Captain Cho said the units go for about five million dollars a piece. Yikes!

We ate at Jackie Chan's restaurant in the mall for lunch. It was yummy!

All for Nothing

2010-12-26T20:06:00.000+09:00

I called my mom one morning last week to say "hi" and see what was up. She casually mentioned something about "...after Grandma died". "What?!" I said, as this was news to me. My grandmothers were 96 and 93, so it could have been either one, and I hadn't heard anything about anyone being sick. Apparently Grandma Merrill had been sick with pneumonia, and after a few days in the hospital and a few miserable days at home, she died on 12/22/10. She and my grandpa lived two blocks down the road from us in little Ramah, and she was always full of compliments and hilarious anecdotes. It is always sad to lose someone we love, but after living a long and full life, and knowing what we do about what is after this life, it is also peaceful to know that all is well now and she no longer has to be miserable. Both my grandfathers died when I was a senior in high school.

I last saw her this past summer in Ramah while I was there for a couple of weeks. One day I went to Gallup with Ronelle and her mom while there, and while we were in the grocery store, low and behold my grandma walked in by herself and grabbed a cart and was ready to shop! I was stunned. At home she wore oxygen, and Aunt Sharon is very protective of her and would always hold her by the arm when she walked. She didn't wear oxygen out of the house, and didn't use a walker or anything. I asked her if she needed help or anything, and she insisted that she didn't. She said holding on to the cart was all she needed. She was there to get fixin's for chili, as Uncle Eddie was going to be coming through Ramah and had requested some. She rode the van with the senior citizens from Ramah. She makes the best chili - and I finally got the recipe out of her, woo hoo! (ground or diced pork or beef - she prefers pork, El Pato sauce in the yellow can, and green chile - who knew it was so easy?)

So, I decided that we only regret what we don't do, and I'd always feel a little bad if I didn't try to go to the funeral, so I got a "compassion" fare ticket to go to the funeral, alone. Dean has much of the week off work for the holidays, and I found gracious people to watch the boys on the two days he would work. I certainly didn't want to spend $5000 to bring the whole herd, and that would sure mess up their sleep schedules and be torturous for me (once again) on the plane. So, Dean took me to the airport today and I tried to check in, but alas, there was no ticket, even though I had an email with the confirmation number and itinerary. They put me on the phone with someone at United, who said my ticket had apparently been canceled today, but he couldn't see why, and the flight was completely full, so the next available flight was 24 hours later. If I took that, I would miss the funeral, and have to turn around and come home so soon (since Dean is leaving for the US one week from today) that I decided there wasn't any point. That was the best flight of all that I had looked up when I made the arrangements, and probably any other flights were full as well, so I found the subway and came home.

That, by the way, is no small feat for me. I finally rode (and consequently figured out) the subway alone for the first time on Friday. I feel so accomplished. I was afraid that by the time I left here I still wouldn't be proficient in it. It's easy enough to go with someone who knows what he or she is doing, but a far different thing to do myself. The hard part was trying to get through the walk-through gate in our housing village. It is not manned, so it has double doors and you slide your ID card through a slot to get through the first one, then put your finger on a scanner to get through the second one. However, there is not enough time to get through the door and get your finger on the scanner on a good day, and certainly not when dragging a child or a piece of luggage, and I had a big suitcase. So it had me exit the first door to try again (because I wasn't fast enough). I thought I would outsmart the system and leave my suitcase in there. But, it thought someone was still in there, so it wouldn't let either side open. Ugh. Some guys were trying to leave through the gate, but couldn't since it wouldn't open, so they went and got some MPs..... long story..... the MPs finally had to wait for someone from the main post to come, and I was starting to get frost bite, even with a hat, warm gloves, a scarf, and of course a coat. So I walked around to the main gate and left my suitcase in there, admonishing the MPs not to blow it up (you know, an abandoned package). They said they'd bring it to me when they got it out. They did, hooray! And I rewarded them with cookies. Dean is happy for me to be here.

Today . . .

2010-12-15T21:08:00.003+09:00

I continued my new habit of reading the Book of Mormon before getting up. I rarely want to get up in the morning, but have to have breakfast ready by 7 for Hunter on school days, and I nearly always have a hot breakfast on those days. So, I've learned to justify lounging in bed a little longer if I do it while reading. It is infinitely more beneficial than what I've otherwise done my whole life, which is wait until I'm drifting off to sleep and try to cram in a few verses that I can't remember afterward. I actually had a hard time putting it down this morning (I finished it recently and am well into 1 Nephi again), but had to get going about 6:55, which was plenty of time for oatmeal with coconut milk and honey.

I spent the day "helping" Kyler clean his room. It took all day (it was that bad) but it was rewarding. Now the hard part - keeping it that way. Dean usually goes upstairs to tuck them in bed, but tonight I forced myself, in part to see that nothing was left on the floor, and to close his pj drawer.

We didn't leave the house today, so Tristan got to take a full nap. After his initial grouchiness upon waking three hours later, he was a delight all evening. He played a "game" with me, in which he would scamper to the kitchen, climb the stool, and bring me two fists full of items from the bucket o' baby - pacifiers, two ounce bottles, bottle caps, etc.

It was hard to stop in Kyler's room, because we were so close to truly being done. I finally stopped and thought I'd make some butternut squash soup from a recipe book at nearly 6:00, when we generally have dinner, but alas there was not enough time when I read how long it would take to cook the peeled/chopped squash chunks, so Dean had a T-bone that I had already started just for him, and the boys and I had Huevos Becky. It was all good, and done quickly.

As I search for recipes online this evening and keep running across delectable-sounding turkey recipes, I only feel a slight twinge of guilt for the remains of two turkeys that I finally had to throw out last week, from the two Thanksgiving dinners we had (which Dean had pulled the meat off of and put in the fridge for me). I had made a point of buying big turkeys (and there are no grocery store gimmicks here to get them cheap) so that I'd get the most for my money (they all have about the same carcass - the heavier they are, the more meat they have). We had leftover turkey a couple of times, but sure didn't go through it all. Oh, well.

Darling Husband and I did the dishes together, which didn't take long at all, and he is always good company. I'm forever trying to develop the habits recommended by the Fly Lady. I made the bed yesterday and today; yay for me and for baby steps.

I have been thinking about cookies and finding the best ones to make for a cookie exchange next week, and thinking about having Christmas dinner on Sunday for our Home Teaching group, and thinking what to make for the cubscout bake sale this Saturday, and making something for Hunter's class party on Friday, and possibly doing story time at the library tomorrow morning - which means coming up with a book/craft/snack. Oh, dear. I almost never stay up late for such reasons, though. It will get done, somehow, and done better on enough sleep.

Stirrup the Rabble

2010-12-11T16:35:00.002+09:00

I had my first OB appointment yesterday. We thought, based on dates, that I was 16 weeks along, but the OB did a simple ultrasound and said Baby was measuring more like 14 weeks. We are thrilled that we are finally experiencing some fertility, now that we are 30 somethings. I conceived shortly after weaning Tristan. Fortunately, I didn't have to take any children along to the appointment. This is the sort of thing they like to do in an exam room. I'll update more when there is more to tell.

Dean is leaving for San Antonio after the first of the year for 10 weeks, plus travel and Albuquerque time. I can't wait for that blessed experience. He's hoping to bring back his beloved - Pancho. I'm not sure where he's going to go in the apartment... I sure have missed his messes and squawking and giant poop-crusted ugly cage.

We had signed up to have some family pictures taken here in our village this morning, only to show up and find nothing. I looked up the flake of a photographer on facebook and apparently she's moved back to Virginia.

Today the high was forecasted to be 28 degrees, so we thought we'd do something indoors for entertainment. We visited the 63 Building for the first time. It was pretty overrated, or at least when taking along our brood. We lunched on Korean food, some fried sweet potato balls, and fancy ice cream, then paid nearly $50 to see an Imax movie of some paleontologists and a few dinosaur scenes in 3-D. When it was over a Korean lady sitting in front of us scolded us. We have no idea what she said, but she was certainly angry. Perhaps she didn't care for Kyler's constant chattering (he couldn't get the English headset to work for him, operator error I'm sure), or perhaps she wasn't fond of getting kicked in the head by Tristan a couple of times. I slept through about half of it. There's a "Seaworld", an art gallery, a scenic view from the top, and more, but no military discount. Dean and I decided there's not much point in going back unless it's without the children. Each of the venues costs about as much as the Imax (which wasn't any better than watching the Discovery channel at home for an hour).

I did take advantage of some of the Christmas scenes they had, since the children were all "gussied up", as my grandmother would say.

Hemophilia Hunter has had a black or multi-colored eye for a few weeks. Kyler "snorkeled" him on the forehead just above his left eyebrow so, naturallly, Hunter proceeded to bite Kyler's forehead. The lump lasted a week or so, then the pooled blood drained down to his eyelid and has been an array of colors from purple to green to yellow, etc. as it is slowly resorbed. Kyler's bite mark was gone in no time.

It was naptime for the Trist-man, so he was Mr. Grumpy for much of the outing. He's been a snot factory of late and hasn't had an appetite since yesterday.

Kyler is angelic as always.

Their saving grace is that they are cute.

Monkey see, monkey do!

The Doctor Said

2010-12-06T14:37:00.010+09:00

I know most homemaker-type bloggers only post about how wonderful their perfect children are, and I'm happy for them, but I believe in the real deal, so you get the nitty gritty here, and everyone can feel much better about their darling angels after reading about ours. It is also therapeutic for me to "get it out", and it will help me remember "what it's like" to have young children at home.

Hunter Pants (as he is affectionately known around here) has become disorganized and unmotivated to the point of really being a problem. I got an email last week from the bus system reminding me that riding the bus is a privilege and his privilege is in question because his bus pass has been lost (he had supposedly found it by the time I got the email, but hadn't been showing it when he gets on the bus). Today I got an email from his teacher wondering where some paperwork was that she had sent home for him to be tested for the gifted program. We had promptly filled it out and instructed him to put it in his backpack, which he obviously hadn't done since it never made it back to his teacher. I looked around and found it in the coat closet. He has been getting in trouble with his teacher for not getting his homework signed off at home.

When he "cleans" his bedroom, he merely stuffs his clothes/toys/books/etc. into nooks and crannies, or kicks them into Kyler's room, or strings them up and down the hall, or maybe tosses them into Tristan's crib, which is in his room, or throws them on the other side of his bed... He walks in the door every day after school and kicks his shoes off where ever he happens to be standing when he decides to take them off. He shoves his socks between couch cushions, in cupboards, under rugs, anywhere out of immediate sight. He tries to wear the same clothes to school every day because he "can't find" anything else (clean, folded laundry that I give him has the same fate as listed above). It is my opinion that children (not toddlers, obviously) should keep their own rooms clean. How else are they going to learn good habits in life? It nauseates me to hear stories of missionaries living in abject filth, or girls going off to college not knowing how to do anything domestic (cook, clean, nothing).

So, due in part to my own life-long bad habits, and due mostly to the children's penchant for making messes where ever they go, then walking away, our house is generally a mess. I hate it. I also believe, again, that the children should be responsible for cleaning up after themselves around the house, but of course that is like pulling teeth. Dean occasionally will make a remark, but mostly understands the overwhelming nature of the situation. If I only had to clean up after the two of us... And no, I don't believe Dean should have to do much of anything around the house (beyond the obvious, especially since we don't have home repairs or yard work these days), though he does help out. He slaves at work all day every day, and doesn't ask me to come in and file papers or whatever; the home front is my specialty and domain. I've been seriously considering hiring a housekeeper, which is the trend here, to come in once a week. I may do it yet, but primarily believe that we need to develop good habits and keep up with the work ourselves. I feel the money could be better used in a mission or college or retirement or house fund, or for date nights. We'll see.

Yesterday during church, Hunter's breath was so bad (he claimed he had brushed his teeth twice, but that has been an issue forever as well) that I gave him half a stick of gum. When the sacrament was coming around, he wanted the gum wrapper to put the gum back in. The new half was still in the paper. I told him to tuck the gum up in his cheek. Instead, I watched him fling it on the floor when he thought I wasn't looking. I just didn't do that sort of thing when I was a kid. It is beyond me that at eight years old he still acts like he doesn't have a clue in life and really couldn't care less. During church, he can't seem to stop yakking, and often stands up for no reason, or will yawn, stretch and sigh, or fight with Kyler, or otherwise behave boorishly. He went up to the stand to bear his testimony and had to wait his turn. He proceeded to bounce around from chair to chair, and to lift himself up on the chairs and grin at us. You get the idea. Dean and I are losing our marbles over this kid. It's funny, because he gets such accolades where ever he goes. He was one of only two children to bear his testimony yesterday, and the only one to do it without any help. So of course people are impressed by him (especially his grandmothers, who think he walks on water), which is fine. But living with the boy is certainly trying on my psyche. He's been wearing tennis shoes to church because he can't find both of his dress shoes at the same time.

I have had the rule for years that TV and electronic games of any kind are a privilege to be enjoyed by those with good behavior and clean bedrooms/bathrooms. Alas, I usually don't have the will to trudge upstairs and check his or Kyler's quarters, so I foolishly take their word for it when they tell me all is clean, and I let them sit in front of an evil flickering machine. Then when I finally do make it upstairs, their rooms are as usual, or all I have to do is open a closet to have an avalanche of crap come tumbling down. We've taken away privileges and toys and evil flickering machines, yada yada, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere. He tunes us out more and more when we ask him to do things (like his chores) or simple things around the house (like "put these important papers in your backpack and give them to your teacher", or "put your shoes on the shelf" on a daily basis).

So, I looked up John Rosemond's newspaper column here to see what he has had to say lately. I found my answer. Hunter isn't "nasty" to us generally, although in the last month or so he has said some particularly obnoxious things to Dean ("I hate your guts" and something along the lines of "I wish you were dead"), which is odd because the boys all worship the ground Dean walks on, and of course these statements were particularly offensive to Dean. I believe those two occasions were after Dean denied him playing games on his iPhone. I had Dean read the piece, and he was on board, so at dinner we explained to Hunter that we had discussed his issues with "the Doctor", who was very concerned that Hunter was clearly not getting enough sleep... So, when he shapes up and the monkey is off our backs, we'll know he is caught up on his sleep, and can resume a normal bedtime. All privileges are suspended in the mean time as well. Like J.R. says, we didn't get to this point overnight, so it may take months, but something has got to give. He doesn't poop his pants, fortunately, but he does have a terrible habit now years in the making of eating his snot, which is abominable. Nothing has worked to nix that, so we're hoping this will be cured as well. It is on his list of necessary improvements.

In all reality, he probably is sleep deprived. We have an 8:00 bed time, but by the time they torment us (demand food because they are suddenly "starving"), fool around, bounce on the bed, then Hunter reads in bed, he's often not asleep until after 9:00. He frequently falls asleep when we drive around, and occasionally around the house. For now, we will employ the 6:30 bed time, though I let him have the lights on until 7. Here's hoping for improvement!

Giving Thanks

2010-11-29T07:58:00.002+09:00

We were able to host six missionaries for Thanksgiving Dinner this year, which was delightful. There were two sets of elders and one set of sisters, including a Korean elder and sister, who both spoke English as well. The sister even speaks Chinese and has had occasion to use it on her mission. They were most appreciative and, while they love Korean food, were thrilled to have a traditional American Thanksgiving meal - a first for the Koreans, who had never had Turkey or cheesecake. They arrived in time to help with the finishing touches of the meal (peeling potatoes and setting the table), and one elder carved the turkey. The Korean elder spotted Dean's Tapatios Hot Sauce (Mexican) and put some on his food. We had an extra bottle and gave it to him, and it turned out to be his birthday.

They gave us thank-you cards while they were here, sang Angels We Have Heard on High to us in Korean, and even helped with the dishes. The American sister brought a Thanksgiving craft and did it with the boys. It was a Native American headdress in which they were able to write what they were thankful for on each of the paper feathers. One elder comes from a family of six brothers and two sisters. I marveled at how his mother had accomplished such a feat, particularly managing so many boys. He said he does wish he could go back and be more obedient to her. That gives me hope that my boys may turn out after all. On a day-to-day basis, I often wonder...

One of the elders is on the Cornell football team. Ultimately, this is why I have children. I hope that they will grow up to be such decent, wonderful people as these elders and sisters. We all went around the table and said what we were most thankful for. For me, it has to be that we are all here together as a family. Indeed, we are blessed!

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to check out the children's portion of the Korea National Museum.

Most of it was in Hangul (Korean). I would be curious to know what this sign says.

Earlier in the week we were able to participate in a pottery making activity for Dean's unit. Tristan was the star of the show, as usual. This lady is an officer in the Korean Army.

It's always amazing to watch a master potter at work. He did most of it, so that our pieces will actually be nice. Kyler didn't want to throw a pot on the wheel, surprisingly. Sometimes he has a shy streak.

There's no point in putting anything in the lower drawers around here. They are the Trist-man's domain.

Dean had to go to work in his dress uniform recently, to be inspected in preparation for the Christmas ball at the end of this week.

Head Carefulness

2010-11-13T22:11:00.001+09:00

We had Veterans Day off and decided to go out of Seoul just a bit to visit the Korean Folk Village. It actually cost about $35 for the family, which is fine, but most museums and such here are either free or just a couple thousand won (couple of dollars). It was fantastic, though, kind of like a little Nauvoo with many houses and shrines and working shops to visit. The kids really liked the jail.

These are some instruments of discipline.

"Watch your head" - it was a low door.

It didn't say what people had to do to earn these punishments.

Kyler exercised some much-needed discipline on Hunter, ha ha. A group of Korean teenagers or young adults were having a merry time taking turns "disciplining" each other as well.

This guy weaves. There were other people spinning thread, making baskets, gardening (real gardens), and much more.

This is a real black smith shop, and this guy was making farm implements.

This is one loooooong kiln for baking the pottery that artisans make.

We had lunch in one of the restaurants, which was very good. All the employees in the village wore traditional dress of some sort, such as this lovely Hanbok.

It was a lovely fall day, and we were glad to get out of town and away from the G-20 excitement.

These guys were fantastic. A group of about 20 young men danced while making music. It went on for about half an hour, and they all knew their parts perfectly. These guys did the main percussion music; others had long ribbons on their head gear which they whipped around in unison while using smaller drums. Even Tristan was mesmerized for most of it.

This guy put on quite the show as a tight-rope walker. He was older, too, which was interesting. He did a lot of "tricks" up on the rope.

The buildings near the village were pretty authentic, including the local 7-11.

As forecasted, it rained heavily mid afternoon, but we had seen enough by then and were all tired out and ready to go home.

Fall for Fun

2010-11-13T22:00:00.000+09:00

The kids aren't aware that it is customary to serve treats with Family Home Evening. This last Monday we made caramel apples before FHE, then ate them afterward when they were cool. The secret is still safe, but it was fun to do, especially with these yummy Korean apples. We melted candy caramels and threw some almond slices in for excitement.

It was our first time; next I'd like to try making donuts.

We went to a halloween party with the theme of Super Villains. We decided to be liberals, and won scariest costumes (I was Ruth B. Ginsberg; Dean was, well, rocking the skinny jeans). A woman there told Dean she used to be a liberal type, and had dated someone who looked pretty much like he did (in costume).

yonki goho

2010-11-13T21:15:00.001+09:00

We had a bizarre experience this evening. We were able to go on a date (yay for Thai food!) and were nearly home, but not in our housing village yet. We stopped and proceeded to park on the side of the road (just as many other cars were parked) so we could buy some fruit from a peddler, when a crazy woman with a shaved head and strange clothes started yelling at us. At first we thought she was speaking Korean, and had no clue what she was saying. She said the same phrase over and over, something like "yonki goho". She said it so many times we finally realized she was saying "young kid, go home". She was definitely targeting us. At first we thought maybe she didn't want us parking there, perhaps because she owned the business where we were parking, but that clearly wasn't the case. She was just a freak with a portable CD player. She was right outside the passenger side of the van, where I was planning to get out and walk up the street to do business with the fruit guy, but I wasn't about to get out right in her face so she could attack me or whatever she was up to. With G20 here this week we've been warned continually about violent protesters and such. Dean figures she must be a communist left over from that. We proceeded to park in an alley up the street, closer to the fruit vendor. She followed us and continued yelling, always the same phrase. Everyone else on the street ignored her. We waved at her several times, then as we were leaving, snapped a picture of her. She seemed to like that, and posed a bit. I don't know if that is a Korean gesture of ill will, or if she thought she was flipping us off. The picture was through the windshield and turned out horribly - oh well. The whole episode was WEIRD!!!

The Man Can Cook

2010-11-08T11:55:00.002+09:00

I thought I had lost my keys the other day when I needed to take Tristan to the hemo clinic, so I called Dean and he came home (naturally he found my keys right next to my purse which I had been cleaning out - I always keep them there). It was about 4pm by then, and traffic gets exponentially worse that late in the work day, so I suggested that Dean "start" dinner. I was planning to make manicotti. I got home around 6pm, and dinner was ready, and he had cleaned up after himself, too - bonus! He is perfectly able to cook, just needs a little direction (what to cook and a recipe).

I had previously asked at the clinic about getting a helmet for Tristan, but that doctor didn't think he would wear it. His current hematoma (goose egg) has not been healing very well. He hasn't had factor over the weekends, so the last few Mondays it has been much bigger and discolored. That same doctor was concerned that perhaps he was developing inhibitor (immunity to the clotting factor) or that there was a crack in his skull there. The other (much older/more experienced) doctor was there the next day and thought rather that Tristan must keep bumping it, and he had a nurse produce this sweet little helmet. He does pull it back throughout the day, but it's not hard to put it back in place, and now, Monday morning, the hematoma looks about like it did on Friday - woohoo! They have had a hard time getting an I.V. going to give Tristan the factor. They usually end up sticking him more than once. They give him candy and let him play with their phones to keep him happy while they do all this. The younger doctor said on Friday that the blood vessels of Caucasians are much more friable and fragile than those of Orientals (his word), which is why they have such a hard time with Tristan. He said that that isn't necessarily documented, but the "old doctor" (his words) observed that when he worked in the U.S. for 20 years.

So, on Friday the doctor said that starting this week Tristan should only need the factor every other day, which is great news. We've already drained $5000 from our savings to pay for all the factor and doctor visits (about 95% of that is the factor - the fees are nominal). It should be reimbursed by Tricare, but that will likely be a long, arduous process with multiple denials and losses of paperwork. We've finally made the decision to not apply to stay here for a third year. Two years of this situation in particular is long enough. We can see now why the hospital here didn't want us to come. We absolutely didn't have these issues with Hunter when he was little (he also has hemophilia). Apparently they are slowing way down on letting families come here now, because the schools, hospitals, parking, etc. are all over capacity. The elementary school has 2,000 students, yikes! It is hard to get an appointment at the hospital.

Looking for a good time?

I left Kyler's hair alone for about a week, but buzzed it off before church last week. He shed many a tear while I did it, but it only took half a minute. I think he looks like a real bruiser now.

Yesterday (Sunday) Hunter woke up vomiting, so Dean stayed home with him and Tristan, and I took Kyler to church. Kyler and Tristan do play a lot during the day, which is nice. I guess it's not the end of the world that Kyler missed starting school this year (BY ONE DAY!). I don't know that he is well behaved enough to have gone anyway.

I have already received my code to get my 50 Christmas cards from Seehere, but we need to get a snapshot of us. I was hoping to yesterday when we were dressed for church, but that didn't work out.

Flaming Sinuses

2010-10-25T09:44:00.000+09:00

Lately we've been going to the hemophilia clinic most days as Tristan's current goose egg is taking a while to heal. It doesn't help that he bumped it again a week ago. Tristan is a trooper, and sticks out his little arm for them to put a needle in his vein and give him the factor VIII. Sometimes he cries a little, sometimes he doesn't. At least there's entertainment while we wait, and Kyler's always in high fashion.

We went to the World Cup Stadium Park a while back. The playgrounds aren't necessarily as safe as in America, but the kids did fine.

There are plenty of questionable trademark knock offs here, although I'm pretty sure Chick Fil A doesn't serve beer. Doesn't every kid stand in the dishwasher?

Kyler has had fun with the Halloween costumes which emerged in the last month.

I love these signs.

Another of Tristan's daily tasks is to get into the bike-riding gear. The boys are required to wear orange vests along with helmets when riding bikes in our village.

The base had a fall festival recently. I put Tristan in this bouncer with Kyler, and they had a ball. Dean entered a hot pepper eating contest and won handily, of course. I've never seen anything too hot for the man. They each had 10 Korean peppers. He snapped the stems off first, then at "go!" popped all 10 in his mouth, munched them quickly, washed the remnants down with water, and had his mouth inspected. There were a number of Korean participants, who were probably favored to win since their food is often spicy. Dean won a new Blu Ray DVD player, and the new Robin Hood movie in Blu Ray. He did say his mouth and sinuses were on fire after the contest.

Flung my Casserole

2010-10-24T21:38:00.001+09:00

Last night was our Branch Fall Activity (at church). Other than taking an hour to get there (traffic on Saturday nights is horrendous here), it was loads of fun. Oh, and somebody (not me) managed to dump an entire sweet potato casserole on the floor of the parking garage, so we contributed no food to the dinner. I was blamed for the poor choice of box that the casserole was in, however, which is supposedly why the casserole was flung from the box.

Tristan is an easy-going guy and had a good time wandering around, playing with other little ones, snatching cupcakes from the cake walk table (which was at his height), and foraging from others' plates. His diaper exploded during the long car ride there, so he had nothing on but the dinosaur costume and a diaper.

Dean went again as Captain Love. I asked him to quickly find a costume online for me as we were getting ready to go (actually as I was sewing up some treat bags for the boys, one of which Hunter the Vampire is wearing in this picture. So, I went as a "leaf blower", with a leaf dangling from a baseball cap that I could blow on.

Hunter wanted to be something "scary". I couldn't coax Kyler into a picture, so maybe on Halloween we'll try again.

Kyler did, however, attempt to fix whatever he thought was wrong with his hair this afternoon. I am still pondering whether it will look worse buzzed, or left as is. Hunter did the very same thing in the same place when he was four (Kyler is five). I thought we ought to be past that stage. Kyler has been obsessed with his hair lately, wanting to water and comb it every day, and fretting about roosters. I think it looks better left as is (wash and air dry, smooth down by hand while wet) than combed smooth. He worries about fashion, shoes, weaponry, and so much more.

Saved at last

2010-10-15T14:27:00.003+09:00

Hunter has been anxiously awaiting his baptism for some time now. The day finally came, 10-10-10, about a month after he turned 8. We decided years ago that there wasn't any reason for the kids to take the sacrament, since they weren't baptized, and all it is/was to them was a snack/drink, and an opportunity to be irreverent and obnoxious. So, hopefully it will mean something to him now as he starts to take it. We tried for a picture of the occasion.

And tried.

And tried some more. Ah, well. This is our reality. Tristan had other things in mind to do.

Dean baptized and confirmed him here in Seoul at our church building. We did it in conjunction with the Stanley family who were baptizing Emma. We all shared a bit of lunch afterward.

On the way home, Tristan made a most wonderful discovery.

Retreat! Retreat!

2010-10-15T13:32:00.003+09:00

We recently had the glorious opportunity to attend a weekend marriage retreat sponsored by the army, so we jumped all over it. We even managed to find babysitters for the children, which was the only hurdle and expense, other than souvenirs and such. We were bussed with 10 other couples, a chaplain and his wife to the British hotel, the Kensington, on Mt. Sorak early on a Friday, and returned Sunday.

We patronized a rest stop along the way, and sampled some interesting snacks (not these, actually, but they were available). These are mostly dried sea creatures.

They sold three packs of eggs on the shelf (unrefrigerated). That's how eggs are sold in Brazil, too. Hence, I don't get excited about the eggs if the power goes out...

We attended several marriage seminars, which were all useful and interesting. We were serenaded at dinner both nights by a saxophone dude. The meals were a mixture of Korean and Western foods (Kimchi at every meal, etc).

I tried frog legs for the first time. They more or less tasted like mildly fishy chicken.

The scenery was gorgeous. It was a refreshing relief from all the cares of our little world.

There was beautiful furniture galore in the hotel. This piece is a throne chair.

On a hike to a waterfall (I think it has been years since we've really hiked - it's hard to do with small children) there was a group of older Korean ladies having quite the time of their lives. I haven't ever been to a Peyote Meeting, but if I had to guess, this likely resembled one. One the way up we saw the group of women sitting around a campfire, though no fire at the time. They were laughing and having a merry time of it. On the way back these two ladies thought we were interesting and interacted with us as much as they could with the language barrier. One was holding the other up. Must have been some pretty good Peyote, or whatever they have here.

There is never a shortage of signage, and there was a life saver (just not visible in the picture).

Here is the biggest bronze Buddah. That would be me in the corner (not bowing).

We made it to the waterfall. We were planning to "renew our vows" here, which the chaplain offered to do for the couples. We thought it would be nice to do in such a setting, in the tenth year of our wedded bliss, but alas, we forgot once we were there.

There were buddhas galore in the shrines and temples.

We went down the mountain into town on Saturday night and checked out the fish market. Here are more of these sea squirts. The best part of that outing was when we took a stroll along the beach. We started to pass a couple of guys grilling fish on a little fire they had going. They got all excited and insisted that we join them. They offered us their Korean liquor (Soju), but weren't offended when we declined. We toasted America with water, at their insistence. One of them has been to the U.S. a number of times with his work, and he loves it. They were grilling (what we later determined to be) some fresh mackeral. It was dee lish! All they did was slap it on the grill. Someone told us it comes already seasoned from the fish market. They were sure friendly (I think the Soju helped).

Those extension-cord-looking things in the back are dried squid or octopus. A native Korean in our group insisted that we try a bite of hers that she had bought. It was like trying to chew on a piece of salty leather. I finally took it out when she wasn't looking.

More of the temple

A square grand piano at the hotel

A giant nutcracker and a double-decker bus

Driving on the Sabbath

2010-10-03T18:06:00.002+09:00

I ended up driving to church today, as Dean is on call for the week and was called just as we were about to leave. In the U.S., I drive almost exclusively because Dean hates having to drive nicely. But since that's not what is done in the Seoul, he doesn't mind driving like a maniac, or rather just like everyone else here.

Things went fine until I followed the GPS off on some random road that leads down to a recreation area between the river and the freeeway. There isn't much land to speak of in the Seoul, so they are creative and make use of what little there is. In the states such land under an overpass might be planted with flowers. This particular error of the GPS has happened numerous times, but that has yet to stop me from doing it again. Naturally, there were about 10,000 buses and cars in the parking lot for this recreation area - Sunday is a big day of shopping and fun, much like in the U.S. So, one of the bus drivers decided to block the road so that no one could get out. Nothing out of the ordinary there. He hopped out and strolled around a bit, then told the person in front of me that he was stuck and how he was going to maneuver out of there. I managed to eventually do an illegal u-turn and get on a bridge across the river.

I found myself in a turning lane when I didn't want to be after crossing the river, and of course the Koreans, who are perfectly friendly in public, are rude and ruthless and won't let me over in traffic. When they want to, they "nose" into your lane and honk at you as though you are in the wrong. I've done my share of nosing; if you don't start driving like them, you're going to get into trouble, but this time it wasn't working. Our good friends the Lees were just a couple of cars behind, I noticed in the mirror, and they were kind enough to let me in, whether they meant to or not, ha ha! I soon noticed a red Toyota Sienna ahead, so proceeded to follow them the rest of the way, with the Lees right behind. (Koreans don't think much of the Japanese, who have invaded them hundreds of times over the millenia, so a Toyota is likely owned by an American).

By following them, I was finally shown the best way to the ALLEY that the church is in. Yes, that's right, our lovely church is down an ugly alley, with room for one car at a time and a three story parking lot. That doesn't mean there is a lot of parking - not at all. There are maybe ten spaces on the first floor, and then maybe 20 or so on each of the lower levels, if you count the double ones - where you would leave your car in neutral so that it can be pushed out of the way. We were a bit late at this point (would have been on time if the GPS and bus dude had cooperated). By a stroke of grace, Tristan was asleep, and stayed asleep as I put him into the stroller. We rode the elevator to the third floor and went to church. The front row was wide open, so we made use of it, and Tristan slept throughout the meeting, which was Heavenly. Hunter bore his testimony, which is always nice. Kyler wanted me to "help" him with his. My policy is that when a child is ready to bear his testimony himself, he is more than welcome to. I vaguely recall one of those letters from the First Presidency read at the pulpit asking people to not whisper testimonies into their childrens' ears on the stand.

Then, it was off to the nursery for Tristan and me. I never in my life thought I'd welcome a call to the nursery, or at least not since we were last called to the nursery about 7 years ago in Loveland, CO. That was most wretched, as we had zero experience with tots, except for our own Hunter who was not quite nursery age. But, after chasing Tristan around the chapel for Sunday School and Relief Society for the last couple of months, I welcomed the nursery with a sigh of relief. I'm just a helper, fortunately, so try to abate tears and break up fisticuffs and such. Tristan does great in there, pretty much what he does at home all day: get into everything and have a wonderful time doing it.

Dean was able to get to church after Sacrament Meeting, so he drove the boys home and I took the Trist-man. Driving out of the winding parking garage in the church, I managed to dent the side of the van. It made a terrible noise, but didn't end up being that bad, or so I thought until I got home and Darsha asked what had happened to the van. So, it is certainly noticeable, but the great thing about driving an inexpensive vehicle, is that it really doesn't much matter when such incidents happen, and no, I'm certainly not going to pay to repair it (so that it can happen again). Dean scraped up the same side a while back in the alley as we were going to church, and I scraped up the other side in an even-narrower parking garage in a hospital here in the Seoul. The van was in near-mint condition when we bought it early this year, especially for having 60,000 miles.

The fun wasn't over yet. I was nearly home and driving down one of the narrow streets lined with vehicles parked half on the sidewalk, half in the road (there is zero room for parking, but that has yet to stop anyone). I didn't think I was that close, but managed to kiss side mirrors with a parked van. I "parked" up the road and walked back. I was tempted to just keep on going, but I had flashbacks of the driving course here that said there was pretty much nothing worse that a foreigner could do than leave the scene without getting the OK from the "victim". They weren't concerned about the damage, and had actually pushed their mirror in on its hinge so it wouldn't be sticking out there so far. I made it home, and do not plan to do any more driving today.

Oh, and it took about two and a half hours to get home last night from the temple area, which is less than ten miles away. I hope to never repeat that. There are 13,000,000 people in the Seoul, and about 10,000,000 of them were stuck in traffic with me. No wonder we now get about 250 miles on a tank of gas here (we used to get 400+; I think it holds nearly 25 gallons).

On an unrelated note, we experienced our first Musical Testimony Meeting a couple of weeks ago. Dean and I gave each other "the look" when it was announced, but were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The only time I remember feeling the Spirit more was at a particular funeral, but that's another story. It was amazing, and we assume the idea came from Utah, but it was wonderfully spiritual nonetheless. Whoever wanted, got up and stated what hymn he/she had in mind, and which verse was particularly poignant, and the organist played and the chorister led, and we all sang. It was most touching to hear people's feelings behind the hymns that they chose.

Flood my donuts

2010-09-21T18:02:00.000+09:00

It is raining buckets here today. We had to wade through this to move our cars, and Dean had to bucket some water out of his. Tomorrow is Chusok, the biggest Korean holiday of the year, so travelers are probably not enjoying the rain. I thought the monsoon season was over already. Dean was sent home from work around 1pm today because of the rain.

Sometimes it's easier to have a quick bath downstairs when we do unspeakable things beyond the confines of our diapers.

"And it came to pass that they slept upon their swords that night, and on the morrow they fought again, and they contended in their might with their swords and with their shields, all that day."

"And it came to pass that they slept upon their swords that night"

Kyler will play with anyone, any time. This guy was working on the roof of our building.

We're overdue for signage.

The translation here is "good luck merging".

We tried some Pizza Hut. The price for a large pizza was 34,000 Won, which is about $30. Since I walked in and carried it out (maybe instead of delivery or eating in?) they knocked off about 7,000 Won.

The yellowish ring just outside the topping (not the crust and not the white) is pureed sweet potatoes. I liked it, Dean didn't.

I finally made it into Dunkin' Donuts. These were pretty good.

Birthday Obligations

2010-09-11T20:59:00.004+09:00

So Kyler's birthday rolled around recently. We agonize every year over what, if anything, to do for the boys' birthdays. I'm just not a kids' party planner. And, the house was in a state of terrible disarray with boxes and stuff everywhere needing to be put away in an organized manner. I can only work so quickly. So the short-term plan was to not tell Kyler that it was his birthday and celebrate a couple of days later, when things would be in better shape. I didn't have birthday presents yet for him, other than a chimpanzee shirt I found in New Mexico before we came here.

Alas, Grandma and Uncle Bro called him up that morning to wish him a happy birthday, and the cat was out of the bag. Dean was off work because of Typhoon Kompasu which came through and did some damage on the base. He was out and about for a meeting and stopped at Emart to get some excitement, and I made a cake, along with some of Kyler's favorite fare, namely mac'n cheese with hot dogs for dinner. The cake was easy, and Dean said he thought it was the best cake he had ever tasted. I got the recipe from Heidi's recipe blog. It calls for one baked German chocolate cake (I had a triple chocolate mix on hand, so used that), with holes poked in it with a fork when it comes out of the oven, then pour sweetened condensed milk and warm caramel topping over it (to soak into the holes), and top with whipped cream, with crushed Heath bar on top (I had Heath chips, and made caramel topping since I didn't have any on hand and the commissaries were closed due to the storm). I thought it all turned out nicely, but Dean later asked me why I was so openly hostile to the children. Huh? We had decided together to just postpone it a couple of days until we were more prepared, and I was thinking of just giving him money so he could shop for his own presents, not to mention the money from Grandma. He seemed happy enough with all the attention and the cake and presents.

In all reality, birthdays weren't that big of a deal in my childhood. My mom would spend the day (since mine is in the summer and Nikki's is during the holidays) telling us that we should work all the more on our birthdays. I do remember a couple of birthday parties as a young child, and we always got presents and cake (though as we got older, Nikki and I may have had to make our own :) so we were celebrated, but certainly not to the extent that so many kids are. To this day my dad has no idea when any of our birthdays are, and it doesn't bother me - I think it's kind of funny. Birthdays were a bigger deal in Dean's childhood, hence his concern. At Emart Dean got Kyler a sword, a bow and arrow set, and a radio control airplane. Uncle Dusty sent him a new football, that he can't chew bites out of (like the poor Nerf one he's had for a few years).

Then, a short week later it was Hunter's birthday. Dean sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese, complete with clapping. It is convenient to combine their birthday celebrations, or a party if we do one. But, we just had "cake" and he requested his favorite meal of spaghetti at home. He got money from Grandma, a new war/strategy game from Uncle Dusty/Bro, and a dart gun, toy binoculars, a movie, etc. from Dad and the hostile one, ha ha. He had requested a cake with droids on it (from Star Wars), and ever wanting to please my children and brimming with talent, I came through for him. Master Kyler came along and added some embellishments, but the droids are still in place, so no harm no foul, right?

We felt a little bad about not having a party. They go to other birthday parties, so they expect it. I can't blame them. But since we move so darn often and don't necessarily have scads of instantaneous friends to invite (not to mention all the other reasons already listed), we invited a nice boy over for a few hours to play and celebrate with him today (Saturday). He brought nice Iron Man presents, which was above and beyond, and they all had a good time.

Since I've neglected to post anything about their birthdays in the past, and this is the closest I've ever come to a journal, I will say that we did manage to throw together a last minute party for them last year. Most of the guests were sick or had other things come up and couldn't attend, but they still gave them presents, which was above and beyond. So, we had the Schrubbs and Tim and Michelle over for burgers and cake, and it was very nice - I thought: )

The year before, I was still in Astoria with just Kyler, so I took him out to eat and told him "happy birthday" and that was pretty much that. He turned three and sure didn't know anything about birthdays. Hunter was in Jacksonville with Dean, so Dean took him to Chucky Cheese. The year before that we were in the abominable rental house in Astoria and just had dinner and cake and presents at home for each of the boys, and it was fine.

The year before that, we agonized as always over what to do, and I finally came up with having a party for Hunter at Michael's, where the kids each made/painted a treasure box to take home. And for Kyler's first, we had Grandma Dee and the Hernandez cousins over for a little party at home. I'm shocked that I can remember all that, but the kids are still young, after all. For Hunter's third, I had just given birth to Kyler a week before. I'm a little fuzzy on that one, but I'm sure Grandma Dee and the Hernandez' were there. For Hunter's second, I was living alone in Carlsbad, NM with Hunter while Dean had started working in Albuquerque. I think we went to Pancho's for dinner with Uncle Bro and Grandma Dee and of course Daddy in Albuquerque. For his first, we actually had a birthday party in our lovely little backyard in Loveland, CO, with friends and the Burnhams from Denver.

At least it will be another year before the next round...

Behold

2010-09-11T20:15:00.001+09:00

The Fabric Market

Indeed, I had heard the stories even before coming. It certainly lived up to all the hype. Six stories of fabric, notions and craft items galore.

Miss Rachel in the Happy Quilt Shop, a favorite of English speakers. There are hundreds of little shops. My boys adore Rachel. She had them over for ice cream and games, and they'll never forget!

Beads

Flowers

Jewelry

Buttons, anyone?

Or thread? Darsha is the fabric market pro.

Men and women crocheting apparel in their little shops.

Need a zipper? It was loads of fun, especially since we went sans children. I really wouldn't go with them. Then we had lunch in a delightful little restaurant nearby. I had bibimbap for the first time - yummy! It is similar to fried rice, and tasty. I thought about it all week until I talked Dean into going out for more.

The egg cooks in the *hot* pot when stirred around with the other foods.

Here are some typical accompaniments with a meal. The bottom left is some sort of dried fish stuff; it's actually ok, and Tristan ate some. The bottom middle is garlic cloves in a spicy sauce. Dean and I ate those right up. Bottom right is some fish stuff. The top ones are all kimchi sorts of things. The top left is the typical cabbage kimchi, and the middle is seaweed. The top right is another vegetable.