E-Mart

I took my dad to experience E-Mart...kinda like a Korean Super (grocery store included) Wallmart.  It is worth going here just for the carts.  All 4 wheels on the cart swivel, so it goes in all directions with just a tug.  The wheels also have grooves which lock in place on these nifty escalators.  Here is a "look-ma-no-hands" picture of dad with our cart on the escalator.  When you get to the top, the cart is pushed forward and when the wheels are off the grooves, it is set free to go in all directions again...too fun!

We didn't buy too much today, but I did buy a pair of under.wear to add to my "Korenglish-not-quite-right-saying collection."  (that will be another post sometime)....They say, "Love made you special."  It was a dollar well spent because they make me laugh whenever I see them.

They're done for the day....

I have a lot more pictures and adventures to report. More tomorrow....these jet lagged, tired out, played out, partied out grandparents need to sleep....

Shopping in Songtan

I know some of you are dying for pictures from my parents' trip, so here are a few from Monday. We went shopping in Songtan, the town just off the base.

Here we are in one of the purse shops. You can see the crack in the wall in front of my mom. That is actually a hinged door. It is a trap door in the wall of the store that leads you downstairs to "the good purses." When you go down the cellar steps, you are in a room with more purses. From there, there is another secret door leading to yet another inner sanctum. No, they are not stolen....just really good knock offs that would not pass inspection because of copyright laws.





Here is a view in one of the markets.



My parents were amazed by this bowl of chicken feet. They begged me to buy some for dinner, but I had to say no...bah ha ha!!!



This is the main strip in the shopping district.


Fish...and lots of kim chi


The "nutty Nolts" even found some walnuts in Korea.



mmmmm good.....NOT!!!

Adeline walking (well sort of...)

A friend of ours gave us this walker to borrow for Adeline.  For the first few days, she just played with the toys in the front of it.  She would stand and hold on to the handle, but she would get scared when it moved and sit down.  Well, on Friday (the day my parents left to come here...so this is one thing they did NOT see her do on Skype before they came), she decided she could do this walking thing.  She took off, and this has now become her favorite toy. 

I love the part where she is waving and talking to all her fans.  Less fond of the shot of me in my PJ's....lol. 

She is getting more coordinated every day.  Today she started learning how to turn corners.

Dinner with Mary Jane

Mary Jane and her friend, Bev (taking the picture), came for dinner on Sunday evening.  It was fun to find all of the friends and acquaintances she and my parents shared.  We had a lovely evening, sharing stories and pictures.  Only God could have orchestrated a meeting like this on this side of the globe.

They're here!!!

Thank you to all of you who prayed for safe travels for my parents.  They are here!!!  They arrived Saturday evening after a long 25 hours of traveling.  I am so proud of them!  They have never flown alone before, and never across the ocean.  Of course, there is an (almost) 1 year old baby girl that served as the main motivator for this trip.  They are spoiling her already, and she is eating up all the love and attention.  They are doing pretty well with the jet-lag so far.  They felt great this morning (of course, that is the easy time).  They felt sluggish this afternoon, and my mom just went to bed at 8:45 pm.  My dad is trying to hang in there a little bit longer.

Small Things

You may have noticed the "Company Girl" logo that has been decorating my sidebar for a few weeks.  I have been remiss to not explain....Rachel Ann has a very fun blog that is uniting women to make their homes sanctuaries.  She gives a "small thing" challenge for each day and awards points for completing the tasks.  At the end of the month, she gives away two great prizes.  One to the person who has earned the most points, and one randomly drawn from everyone who has completed at least 5 tasks that month.  It is a lot of fun.  Click on the logo on my sidebar to learn more....and become a Company Girl!!!

One of our tasks last week was to create a centerpiece from things we love around our house....and we get extra points for posting a picture.  I already have a small Korean lamp that Patrick bought and a small plant on my kitchen table.  There isn't really room for much more there, so I added a few things to this display above our bookshelf.

Our "small thing" today was to be able to laugh at ourselves, and to share a silly story about ourselves with the rest of the Company Girls.  I thought I would post mine below for some Friday fun....

Friday Fun

Yesterday, I was multitasking (nothing new)...we live on the third floor of our building, and I carried two garbage bags, the bag of salad I was donating to a mission dinner, and juggled my purse and Adeline in the other arm.  We made it to the car, Adeline dangling sideways by this point.  I dropped the bags of trash behind the trunk so I could get everything/one loaded.  Can you see where this is going?  I loaded Adeline in her seat, started the car...backed up...what is that crunching noise?  Trash everywhere!!!  I admit, I had a moment of "if I leave this mess here, will anyone ever know it was me?"  Moment passed....I ran back in the house (up 3 flights), got two more garbage bags and picked up what I could.

Play Group

A few of my friends here started meeting weekly for a play group.  We rotate houses, and the hosting mom serves something simple for lunch.  I volunteered to host this week.  I planned to make baked ziti (recipe in the next post) this week for our family, so I just doubled the recipe and made a batch for play group.  Here are some pictures from our very fun afternoon.

Yes, Jacob got in there all by himself.

Some of the adults sat at our kitchen table, but we moved the coffee table from the living room into the kitchen to make it easier for the kids to eat together and make the mess afterward easier to clean.

Baked Ziti

I have been asked for a lot of recipes lately, so I am going to be posting them more often.  I figure if I have to go to the work of typing them out to send in an email, why not blog them instead so I can find them easily in the future.  Here is the Baked Ziti recipe I served for lunch at our play group.

Baked Ziti

12 oz uncooked ziti or small tube pasta

2 lbs ground beef

1 jar (28 oz) spaghetti sauce

2 eggs

1 carton (15 oz) ricotta cheese

2 1/2 cups (10 oz) mozarella cheese, divided

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink;  drain.  Stir in spaghetti sauce.  In a bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.

Drain pasta; add to cheese mixture and toss to coat.  Spoon a third of the meat sauce into a greased 9x13 pan.  Top with half of the pasta mixture.  Repeat layers.  Top with remaining meat sauce.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 min.  Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake 5-10 min more or until the cheese is melted.  Let stand for 15 min before serving.

Adeline's Baby Album

I have been spending some time on Adeline's baby album, and I thought I would show you some of my favorite pages.  Sorry, some of the pictures have a glare, but you get the idea.  I have been scrapbooking for several years.  It is one of my favorite past times. 

It is probably hard to see, but in the last spread of pages, I took a picture of Adeline in the same outfit, in the same chair, every Tuesday with a sign that said how many weeks old she was.  Perhaps I will post more pages another day....

It's a small world afterall...

I was so excited when I read these posts by Mary and Ginger this week because I had a PERFECT God experience to illustrate that GOD (not luck) is involved in the small details of life.

The lady standing in this picture with our family is Mary Jane....

Mary Jane came into Sunday School this week and sat to my left.  The SS teacher started with an icebreaker to encourage us to meet new ladies in the group.  We were supposed to ask someone we didn't know where they were born, their favorite color, and another question that I don't remember because we didn't make it past #1.  Mary Jane and I never met before.  We introduced ourselves, and the conversation went something like this...

MJ: "I am from Pennsylvania." 

me:  "Really!  I am from PA too.  I am from sjdkfsldjf county."

MJ:  "You have got to be kidding me!  I am from sjdkfsldjf county too!!!"

(can you see where this is going?...)

me:  "Wow!  I am from ________(small town)"

MJ:  (with a stunned look on her face)  "I was born and raised in that town!  What is your maiden name?  What family are you from?"

me:  I told her my parents and grandparents' names.

MJ:  Her eyes lit up and she said, "Fay (my aunt) is my best friend!  Didn't she throw a going away party for you and your husband before you left for Korea?"

me: "Yes"

MJ:  "I was THERE just before you arrived that day!  I live in Indiana now, but I was in town for a visit, and I went to see Fay, and she told me all about you."

Last summer, when my aunt threw that party for us, Mary Jane had no idea that she would be coming to Korea.  So, she didn't really pay attention to the country where we were going.  She is here for two months, teaching with Word of Life Ministries.  We went on to discover that she went to church in PA with another aunt/uncle of mine, Wilbur and Rachel.  She was supposed to be traveling and almost didn't come to our church this week, but her plans fell through and she felt like God had a special blessing for her there.  It is AMAZING to me that God put all those little details in place for us to meet on this side of the globe.  Even the fact that the leader chose that question for us for this particular week (last week was name your favorite dessert).

It really is a small world, and we really do serve a big God.

Group Date

You may remember this post...well....It was GREAT!!! A couple of people had to back out at the last minute because of sick kids (you were missed). There is so much "stuff" going around here now...and all these sick people seem to want to visit my husband at work, which is very unfortunate for our family. However, Adeline's ear infection has cleared, and we are all doing much better (thank you for your kind words).

Okay, now onto Saturday's details...

Brian and Amanda thought we were meeting at the bus station at 12:20 to take a 12:30 bus. WRONG! The bus left at 12:20, so when they pulled in the parking lot at 12:21, they watched us driving away. They just ended up driving (and arriving an hour later than us because they did not have the driving advantage of the bus lane). oops! We all met up for some shopping at the Chosun...very fun! I bought a t-shirt for $5.05 and a pair of sandals for $2.40....not bad!

Then, we headed to the subway to go to the show, Nanta. Well, this took us FOREVER! We had to change subway lines twice, and the lines were NOT close to each other. It took us over an hour to get there. I am sure many people had a laugh over the crazy group of Americans running through the subway station. We were late for the show, but we still enjoyed it. One of the guys, Mike, was picked to go on stage (thus the chef's hat in the picture below). He did a great job!

We decided we were not into running through the subway again, so we took cabs to get to the restaurant. Our dinner was delicious, and we were enjoying our conversation when someone said, "doesn't the bus leave at 8?" YIKES!!! We had 15 min to pay our bills and walk/run to the bus station. Luckily, we bought the tickets ahead of time because I think we were the last people on the bus, but WE MADE IT! Since two of the couples drove, we ended the evening after dinner a bit abruptly to get to the bus station.

So, our date consisted of a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, but all-in-all, it was another successful adventure in Korea.


Amanda, Christie, Lynn (me), Kristin, Kathee











Mike, Emil, Brian, Patrick

Sunday finest

Delicious Bars

My friend, who is not a blogger, who was the one who convinced me I needed to start a blog, told me I should start posting recipes on my blog (how many times can I use "blog" in one sentence?).  Since I do enjoy both cooking and baking, I agreed that I should share this interest with my blogging public.  So, this is one of my favorite, quick but completely homemade, always have the ingredients on hand desserts.  The great part about making a dessert that you cut into squares is that you can take this dessert to multiple events by displaying the squares on a plate, and no one has to know you are double gifting (is that a real term) the goods.  I made this this week for this reason (don't know why I seem to be repeating words tonight).  It went over well at both my MOPS group and my book club (we discussed Jane Austin's, Emma.  Liked it but didn't love it.  The general consensus of the group was that it was long and hard to get through (some said painful).  I enjoyed the last 100 pages much more than the first 387).

I planned to post a picture, but the bars went over SO well, that they are well.....GONE!

Delicious Bars

In a large bowl mix:

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 cups flour

Mix with your hands until this forms fine crumbs.  Remove a little over 1 cup for the top.

To the rest of the crumbs, add:

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

Mix this and pour into a greased 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips and the reserved crumbs.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 min.

He loves us!

This morning, I woke up to this.....


My sweet husband left a note for "his girls" saying this was an early Valentine's gift because it would be logistically impossible on Thursday (he works 12 hour shifts Tues, Wed, Thurs this week). Honestly, it was way better and not expected on Tuesday! Of course, the beauty of this gesture is all in the details. Don't get me started on the fact that he got tulips and a card for our sweet baby girl.

I LOVE surprises....the difficult part of this is that I am really hard to surprise. I don't try to be. I just figure things out. My husband leaves for work at 5:20 am (I must interject to say that part of the reason for this is that he rides his bike to work in the BITTER cold so that I can use the one car that we are sharing). That means he got up around 4 am. He brought the flowers in the night before while I was nursing Adeline. He put them in a bowl of water and stored them in a closet in our entryway where I store extra toilet paper and paper towels. This brings us to yet another detail...he stocked the bathrooms with an extra roll of toilet paper to make sure I wouldn't have a reason to go into that closet.

Look closely at the picture...we have no vases....this is Korea....we brought the bare minimum. He emptied out two of our snack containers and put the snacks in ziplock bags. I thought this was very creative (expecially at 4 am).

Cards are one of my favorite things to receive from my husband. He knows this, and this card was so sweet and I know I will be rereading it for days!

Thank you, sweetie, for making your girls feel so loved and cared for. You are a blessing and we love you....Happy Valentine's Day!

Did anyone notice?

I am sorry to those of you who look forward to Adeline's fashion debut each week (grandparents especially).  You may have noticed the absence of Sunday finery this week.  Well, we have been a bit under the weather in this house lately.  I have not mentioned it before because I know some of you have been really sick lately (like with substances coming out of your body in ways that we don't even want to think about or discuss).  We seem to continually be passing around variations of the same cold for weeks now.  It almost looked like we were going to all be well...and then, things took a turn for the worst.  Adeline had a fever for a few days (103.5 at its worst), and her daddy finally looked in her ears and we had a double ear infection on our hands. :(  My poor baby!!!  I am blessed that we didn't have to actually take her out to get this diagnosis.  Patrick called the MD working in the ER, had a prescription put in, and she has been on antibiotics for a few days now (couldn't the medicine still taste like bubble gum without being that obnoxiously-bright-pink-stains-everything color?).  She is feeling much better (and "talking" about it now in her crib instead of taking a much needed nap).  So, I will post more this week....sorry I have been a bit absent lately.  I was needed for cuddling. :) 

When Adeline grows up, will she...

be a librarian...

be a doctor like her daddy (for now, I think we'll put the $200 stethoscope away)....

be a pilot....

be a secretary...

or be an artist?

For now, I guess we just have to settle for her being darn cute....

suggestions anyone?

There are a lot of moms with a lot of experience out there, so HELP!  Adeline LOVES music, and I want to get her some kid CDs for her fast approaching first birthday.  I loved Psalty's Kid's Praise music when I was growing up (mom, do you still have any of that?).  I am looking for both Christian stuff and educational stuff.  If I have a variety, I think it will help me go less nuts listening to it all day.  So, what are your favorites?  What should I avoid for the sake of my sanity?

Superbowl Monday?

Yes folks, when you live on this side of the globe, kick-off is at 8:30 am on Monday morning. Actually, this is a much more family friendly time than Sunday evening. Our friends, Emil and Kristin, hosted a superbowl party. It was strange to have pancakes and breakfast casseroles instead of the typical superbowl fixings, but we had a blast!

Here are all the ladies. Most of us spent little time actually watching the game. The kicker (pun intended) was that the air force network the game is on does not air commercials...which is the main attraction for me.

Here is Emil manning the pancakes and sausage. (I used a new method to upload these pictures, and I couldn't get this to flip...you get the idea).

Angela and I looking at a scrapbooking catalog and placing our orders.

Adeline loved all the new toys and watching the big kids playing.

Here are the guys (and Adeline). Emil is about to leave for work....thus the flight suit. Patrick was the only one of the guys rooting for the Giants. Unless one of his favorite teams is in the running, he always roots for the underdog.

Book meme

My friend, Mary, tagged me for this book meme.

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.)
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I didn't have any books around me when I found out I was tagged for this meme. I looked around, and I found one beside my couch that I started reading several months ago and haven't picked up in quite a while. Anyway, here goes...

The book is The Seven Pillars of Health by Don Colbert, MD.

Sentences 5-7 on pg 123 are...

"Since she was only thirty years old and appeared to be in good physical shape, I had failed to ask her about exercise on the first visit. However, seeing that her condition was unchanged, I questioned her and learned that she did not exercise. I had her start jumping on a rebounder first thing in the morning for only five minutes, gradually increasing her time as she became conditioned, and told her to continue with my previous recommendations."

For some background, this patient came with complaints of severe headaches, fatigue, acne breakouts, and severe constipation. She had a bowel movement only once a week since her teens. Of course, this little bit of exercise solved ALL of these problems. mmm hmm....

If all it took was 5 min a day of jumping on a rebounder, miss tons-of-complaints clearly does not have little ones in her house to chase all day long.

I am going to tag Nancy, Janelle (who just added a shelfari bookshelf to her blog), Angela (who told me about shelfari), and anyone else who wants to play along....just let me know if you do!

Sunday finest

This is a face Adeline has been making a lot lately. She makes sort of a "who, who" sound or an "OOOOOh" sound with it. Her Grandma Nolt thinks this is hysterical and tries to get her to mimic this face whenever possible...okay, so do we.