Korean Adevntures

Last week was pretty awesome for me and Tripp.  We got to go visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and step into North Korea on Wednesday, and then spend the weekend together in Seoul.  Our amazing parents got to spend that time with Bobby Boy and, of course, enjoyed every bit of it. We're so blessed.


The tour to the DMZ was really interesting!  Since it was Tripp and I going, I knew there would be a lot of laughs and good times, but I hadn't really realized the sad, serious history of the place until we got on our bus.  The tour guide played a History Channel video about the DMZ which was as enjoyable (I love history!) as it was heartbreaking (we both fought tears a few times).

On our way up there, we stopped at a memorial site where the Freedom Bridge is located, had lunch at yuuummy lunch at a Korean restaurant, took a peek across the border at the Dora Observation Platform into N. Korea and their "Peace Village," (commonly referred to in the South as "Propaganda Village"), trekked waaaay underground through Tunnel #3, visited The Military Armistice Commission (MAC) meeting room right on the border, and went to the exact spot of the August 18th Axe Murder.  It was pretty intense!!!  Here are some pictures from the day:

South Korean awesome Soldier!  All are at least a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do

At the DMZ... there is nasty ol' North Korea :(

Our tour guide served during the Korean War

Then this weekend was a whole other adventure!  We just wanted to have one last hoorah in Seoul before I move back to the States,  so it was a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kinda trip -- the best! :)   In an effort to not only save some money, but also have a new experience, I booked us a night in a Korean Hostel!  We shared a small room with 4 other people, and despite the fact that we didn't get much sleep for all the snoring a noisy guests, we had fun!  I'm so glad that we did it... I've always wanted to stay in one, and who better to try it with than your tall, strong, protective AND awesomely fun brother??? :D

We wandered around the city checking out cool shopping markets, eating yummy street food, navigating our way through the subway, and waiting in lines for Seoul Tower.  We had a lot of fun!!  After we spent the night in our bunk rooms and got ready in the teeny bathroom, we visited the Korean National Museum and shopped some more.  We also enjoyed some YUMMY food!!  I think Korean food is now my second favorite, after Thai. :D   I'm going to miss it so much when I move back... but I will NOT miss the way it makes your breath smell! BLEH!!  (Side story: in the middle of the night I went to the bathroom in the hostel and when I came back into the bedroom, I was hit by a wall of hot, thick, Kimchi Breath air!!!!  Omg it was awful and took me several minutes to adjust back to it without gagging, LOL!). 

I like Korean food... but this meal was nooo good.  Still, we had fun!

Bangrang Hostel, Seoul, South Korea!

Yummy street food and Korean cops!

WEE!!!! Lol

Security for the Summit, lol

It was a great week!!  My brother is awesome and a blast to explore with.  My parents are awesome and I really appreciate them taking such good care of my boy so that I can have fun with Tripp.  Life is wonderful.

Bragging Rights, Febe & B.B. Style

Ever since my dear friend Autumn gifted me the book Rattled! by Christine Coppa, I have been a fan.  She also has an awesome blog I love to follow and share with friends.  One of her latest posts about life as a single mom was fun to read and really motivated me to make a similar post of my own. 

As you no doubt know, my Robert Carlisle is my universe.  Several times a day he does something that I wish the whole world knew about, and I've been thinking about starting a "segment" on here celebrating those moments.  Something like, "Wish-You-Could-See-It Wednesdays," or "Too Cute Tuesdays;" a weekly post to share something awesome about my growing boy and my blessings as his mama.  I have a ton of these special stories stocked up to share, and decided to dedicate a whole post to them, to kick things off.

So, if you don't mind, I'm going to brag now. :)

- Bobby brushes his teeth!  Albeit not very well, but he definitely understands the concept and general steps.  When I say, "time to brush our teeth," he takes his index finger and scratches his teeth.  He does the same thing when we are in the bathroom and he points to our matching zebra toothbrush holders.  I hand him his kiddie toothbrush, he gets it wet, moves it around in his mouth, chews it a bit, occasionally rinses it out,  brushes some more and - get this - he spits!  It is soo cute!!!!!  He isn't as excited when I take my turn and try to bush his teeth... but its a start!

- Bobby knows the parts of face!  He points to and says "aaaa" (eye), "naa"  (nose), "eeee" (ear) and "ma" (mouth)!  When we ask, "where is your eye?" he points and says it.  When I ask, "where is Mommy's nose?" he points to my nose and says it!  He also knows belly button but can't say it yet.  Just the other day he went up to my Edward Cullen poster and showed me his eye!  It blows me away. :)

- Bobby is learning sign language!  He understands and uses "bite," "more," "drink," "stop," change," and "all done."  He also knows to wipe his hands when I say "icky!!" Haha

- Bobby is so affectionate.  When you ask, (most of the time) he will give you a kiss and a hug.  Sometimes he even pats my back when he hugs me, or he squeezes soooo tight that he shakes.  So cute!!

- Bobby loves to do chores!  I hope this quality lasts into his teens, because it is awesome! :)  His Papa is credited for this because they totally bonded over doing chores, ever since he was a month old.  Dad would put him in the front-facing carrier and they would work work work around the house, and Bobby would always have a hanger or some other "tool" in hand.  It is and always has been adorable.  Now he is 14-months-old, has been walking for about 5 months and is so active around the house.  He helps vacuum by either helping push & pull or riding on top.  He sweeps by pushing the little Korean straw broom around the house.  He helps do laundry by pushing the start buttons on the machines and carries clean clothes from the dryer to be folded.  (We'll work on the actual folding part when he gets bigger... for now he just throws the clothes around the room.)  He helps me unload the dishwasher by handing me the dishes from the bottom rack.  He helps me cook by stiring (more like poking, lol), helping me pour the liquids and placing ingredients in the mix. For instance, he will take walnuts out of the bag one-by-one and put them in the blender when we make smoothies.  He helps me hold the mixer when we bake.  He carries food and supplies from the fridge and pantry and puts them on the counter.  After I change his diaper, he takes the wrapped-up old one and puts it in the trash.  He is also starting to help me change his diaper by wiping himself (hardly, but its cute!), and pulling one side of the sticky tabs over and pressing it in place!

- Bobby loves to dance!  He will dance to pretty much any kind of music that comes on, from Lady Gaga to Brooks & Dunn to LL Cool J -- even the music that plays during the weather on TV!!  It is so precious!!!  He, Tripp and I love to have little dance parties in the kitchen and living room. :)

Last one for today, I promise!

- Bobby has a little vocabulary building!  Some words he says now include "Mama," "baba" for bottle, "ni ni" for night night, "hhhaa" for hot and "haaaa" for hat, "bye" which he recently said clear as day, "cheese," and similar sounds for "please" & "juice" and all the aforementioned words for the parts of the face.  He is also working on saying, "I love you," but right now it is slurred, lol. It is all a lot of fun. :)

If you've made it this far, thank you for sharing in these special stories!  Soon we will be near many of you and I look forward to seeing what he will learn from each of you. 

Much love and warm thoughts to you all!

Goodbye Butch

Today we have to put our cat, Butch, to rest.

He has been steadily loosing weight for a few weeks, his eyes are cloudy, he has been listless, recently he has been drooling a lot and after finding blood in the drool last week, we noticed a large lump under his jaw.  After a visit to the vet we discover that he has a Salivary Mucocele.  The doctor said he would need surgery, but after a family meeting we all agreed that it wasn't in his best interest to put him through that. There is no need to prolong his suffering and put him through all the trauma of the surgery when we all -- including our vet -- know that he doesn't have much longer with us.

Butch has been a part of our family for 16 years!  He and Kitty are older than the kids on my brother's soccer team!!  These cats have lived in 3 countries, 4 states and 15 homes.  They have traveled from the East coast to the West coast and back, all in an RV with 4 people and a bird.  They have flown overseas 3 times.  They have stayed with family while we lived in a country where they could not join us.  They have reluctantly welcomed several other animals into their home, but have always been our family members.  Kitty and Butch are brother and sister from the same litter, and they have never spent more than a few hours apart from each other their entire lives.  Doesn't that blow you mind a bit????  They take care of each other.  They communicate with each other.  They fight.  They are family!  It breaks my heart to think what it will be like for Kitty girl after today.  To no longer have that communication and companionship... after 16 years of knowing nothing different.  She will be taken care of, for sure.  Daddy is determined to give her extra loving and attention so she won't be lonely.  I'm so worried about her flying back to TX with us... she will be all alone in the cargo area.  :(  My poor babies.

So, today at 3:30 p.m. my mom and brother are taking Butch to be put to rest. We are going to have him cremated, bring him home to Texas and bury his ashes with a new plant in the corner of our yard where he would always go hang out.   He loved it out there.

We love you, Butchy, and we will miss you very much. 

A Quick Naptime Update

I'm starting to prepare for our move!  I'm selling and giving away old clothes and toys, separating items we need to send to Texas ASAP (like the awesome zebra print wallpaper for the bathroom cabinets, and adorable vinyl wall art mom and I got for our rooms), and already arranging furniture in my head! Haha!

Today the weather is cloudy and cold... bummer.  I was hoping to take Bobby hiking again today.  At least we have the rest of the week to look forward to!  Tomorrow is our playgroup, Friday is Craft Hour and running around on base, and Saturday is our big photo shoot!!!  Last year a friend of ours gave us a very generous gift certificate to a local photo studio, and we are finally cashing it in!  We have a 2-hour appointment and I'm hoping Bobby is up for the whole thing.  He is going to be the main model and we will get a large family portrait as well.  I'm excited!!!!!

As you can tell, Bobby is subject of maaannnyy photos lately.  Even more so now than when he was smaller... its just so much fun to follow him around and snap picture after picture.  Love it!  Here are some pictures from this week that I've edited with Picnik  (I upgraded to pro, lol!).

Uncle and Papa taught him that!

These crack me up!!  He was having trouble with his Helper Chair, haha!

 Look at those dimples!

 He loooves to play with hats!

 I love the collage feature... I get to show many more pictures with less space! :D

My beautiful boy!!!

Happy Fall, y'all!! :D

More Photo Fun

Yesterday we had a little photo shoot with another mama who is a photographer here.  She set up a little pumpkin patch and had several mini-sessions for kids, and I am so glad we got to do it!  She got pictures of Bobby in his adorable Yoda costume and in cute Fall clothes we got from our cousins, The Snyders.  We had fun during the shoot and I can't wait to get the CD of edited photos!!

After that was done we stuck around to play in the field and on the playgrounds.  Ohmygosh, we had so much fun!  It was a beeaauuutiful day and after a 2-hour nap, Bobby had lots of energy. :)  We really enjoyed our time and I had just about as much fun going through and editing the pictures I took.

Later in the evening we went for a walk with Uncle Tripp down the local market store.  I carried the sleepy Bobby in my cool wrap a friend gave me, and he was just about as cute as can be!  I wonder how much longer I can carry him in that thing... its nice!

Anyway, its about time to get ready to head out (I'm getting a MUCH needed pedicure!).  I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, too!  Here are some of my pictures from the last few days. :)

 

 

What A Day

Life is so awesome.

This morning I was planning to attend Parent & Tot Craft Hour again, but Bobby was ready for nap right when we were about to leave, so that was a no-go.  I was bummed at first but was kinda glad to be able to do some much needed cleaning instead of running around town.  Added bonus was that Mom & Dad came home for lunch, which is always fun!

After they split back to school, Tripp and I had so much fun cleaning and dancing with Bobby.  I got a few great videos I will post later... SO cute!!!  This baby boy loves to dance!  Even when you just start singing a random song, he'll start dancing... I love it.  Can't wait to put him in dance classes!!  (And sports and piano and tumbling and art... lol).  After Tripp left for work my little BFF and I continued to clean and dance and love on each other.  Such fun.  He is such a great little helper, I swear.  He totally understands how to help with simple shores and LOVES to do it!  He even claps with us when he does a good job, lol.  I love it!!!  (Did I mention that already??) 

After his second nap of the day we got ready to go visit the family at work.  They had both volleyball and football games tonight in addition to an ROTC Lock-In!  With Cadets participating in the games for Color Guard and working on projects for ROTC, they are busy busy busy!  Tripp Kid is there, too, as he is running an ROTC program and chaperoning. We picked up some yummy Chinese food and came by to visit and check out the excitement.  Bobby got to see his first volleyball and football games (and he promised he won't play football! haha! :D), and see some of the Cadets that love lovin' on him, and even visit with a doggie (he is all about dogs, any and every where).  It was pretty active and exciting, and I must admit I was glad he was tired and ready to head home after an hour.

So since they are all at the lock-in, that means Bobby and I have the house to ourselves tonight!  Not much different than having the house all day, only now when he goes down for the night the house stays quiet. ;)  This is like practice for when we move back and it'll be just us!  Since he was born Bobby and I have had a night alone only 3 times!!!  Crazy, right?  It is going to be quite an adjustment, especially back in such a big house.  Hope I don't have too many freak-outs! Lol!  Good thing we live in a great neighborhood and have an awesome support network. :D

Tomorrow morning we have a Halloween photo shoot I am really looking forward to!  Can you believe his Yoda costume still fits!?  Just had to add a little elastic for the head piece.  So adorable!!!!!  Can't wait to post the pics when I get them! :D  As for now, I need to go do the laundry and dishes so the house is nice when the family gets home tomorrow.  

Life is awesome. :)

EXTRA! EXTRA!

I am so excited to make this announcement…

We are moving back to Texas!!  

Seriously.

We no longer have any renters in our home, and we (Mom, Bobby & I) are ready to be stateside again, so we are coming back to our beautiful home!

This December our whole family will be back to move all our stuff back into the house, get it set up and spend Christmas together.  Come the first days of 2011, however, everyone but Bobby and I will be heading back to Korea for the start of school.  

It is going to STINK to be away from the family – bad.  My dad is the greatest teacher for Bobby.  They work together allll the time and Bobby learns so much from him… they are buddies!  And of course Bobby & Tripp have a sweet relationship that will be missed as well.  The good thing is that it will not be for such long stretches of time as it was when I was in TX alone.  Mom will be back as often and as long as possible so that she may see her awesome doctor here (and be with her baby boy… and me, lol), and Dad will be back every few months.  Time will go by fast, per usual, and we will Skype often so things won’t be too bad.

The thought of being back in San Antonio is soo exciting for me!!  Of course, being back in the house I love and where my son was born is exciting in itself!  We have plans for making it an even more wonderful place to live and I’m anxious to get to work on those projects.  But the familiarity and conveniences of living in the States is what I’m really looking forward to.  The 24-hour stores and restaurants, REAL Starbucks (the one on base doesn’t even have the Pumpkin Spice Latte!! WHAT THE HECK!?), Orange Cup frozen yogurt, Mexican food, good radio, access to Pandora.com, American road trips… woo hoo!!!   

What I am most looking forward to is being back at Christian Family Church and being able to see all my friends!  I can’t wait to bring Bobby to Sunday school and to get really involved in the church I love so much.  Introducing Bobby to everyone is going to be great, and I’m really looking forward to making some new friends, too.  

I know it is not going to be the same as it was last time I lived there, and I don’t want it to be.  This is an exciting new chapter in our lives and I am so excited to raise my son there.  Lord only knows how long we will be there this time, and I am thankful for all the opportunities He has blessed me with.  Living in Korea has been fun and there are things I will miss for sure, such as the cute & cheap clothes, yummy & addictive food like cold noodle soup and white kimchi, and especially walking!  I attribute getting back in shape to having to/being able to walk everywhere, and I love it.

I am soo very thankful for this opportunity and pray it all goes off without a hitch.  The house is still on the market, so there IS a possibility that it may sell before we get there… so we shall see what happens!

Can’t wait to see you all again!! And those of you outside of the great state of Texas, I hope we get to see you soon, too! <3