What we've been up to

Hello friends,

Since my last update we've been doing some fun things, so ill share with you. 

I was able to go to a small market last week with Abbi and her kids, and it was so much fun. It was basically just an alley and all up and down the alley there were vendors selling stuff. There were lots of produce stands, but there were also a lot of other things like whole pigs, soup, fried fish and veggies, desserts, and gimpob. I didn't try any of the desserts, but I hope to eventually. Abbi told me they're made of some kind of rice flour or something and a lot of them are filled with a bean paste. Sounds weird, I know. Apparently they don't really do sweet things here, so even the desserts aren't all that sweet. However, if Koreans try to mimic American food, it usually turns out sweet. Like pizza, for example. They put different things on their pizzas here than we do, like sweet potatoes. Abbi says the sweet potato pizza is really good, but it's sweet, so that'll be interesting to try. Also, she said if you order a corn dog they'll ask you if you want sugar on it. What? I've also seen pizza crust made with green tea. Actually, pretty much everything is made with green tea cause I've seen ice cream and coffee as well. 

All of the food at the market smelled and looked delicious, so I had to be careful not to spend too much. I did get myself some gimpop, and it was delicious. Gimpop is basically the Korean version if sushi. It's veggies wrapped in rice and then wrapped in seaweed. Don't knock it till you've tried it cause its super yummy. 

It was really fun to buy fresh produce from the vendors because its cheaper and it lasts longer than the stuff at the commissary. Plus, what a cool experience!

Live octopus for sale

That lady is chopping up a pig

Fresh produce. You buy the whole basket.

Some other fun things I was able to do recently was go eat at neat places. I went with some girls from the relief society to a Japanese restaurant downtown to celebrate one of their birthdays. It was a lot of fun, and it was fun to be invited! We had only been here a few days and they were already including me in things. 

Downtown daegu 

Relief society girls at dinner

Eenja taught me how to use chopsticks correctly. I'm still not great at it

This is Eenja. It was her birthday

I ordered this pork dish that came in a pot with a kind of soup or something. It was yummy.

Walking back to eenja's apartment

So, last Sunday was my birthday, and it was kind if sad to celebrate all the way over here without my family and friends around, but Dan tried his hardest to make it special. On Saturday, Dan made me breakfast in bed and then got both the kids ready so I could just relax. Then we hit the streets of daegu hoping to find a Korean BBQ place to eat at for lunch, but we had absolutely no luck. We walked around for at least an hour and never found one, so we called it a day and just ate at this place right outside the gate of camp George called BBQ chicken. Super Korean, right? It was just wings in different sauces, but we were starving by then and it was pretty good. That night Dan made dinner and gave me some of my presents, which was a lot of different kinds of chocolate and the movie, oz. So, after the kids were in bed, we relaxed and watched a movie with an accompaniment of Godiva chocolate. Not too shabby. 

On Sunday, we had taught senior primary because everyone was sick or out of town. That was an interesting experience because the entire primary was like 8 kids, so our senior primary class was 3 kids total. After church evie took a nap and we relaxed for a while and then Dan made dinner again. Steak and potatoes. I think he thinks that's my favorite meal? Or that's all he knows how to make, because that's what I get every holiday that he cooks. Cute boy. Don't get me wrong, I do love steak. After dinner we had "cake" and blew out the "candles", which evie was excited about. 

The cake was actually an ice cream pie from the frozen isle, and the candles were actually strawberry sticks that Dan found. Not candles at all actually. Do not light them on fire. That would be gross.

After "blowing out the candles". She was so proud of herself.

Mr Emmett. This was just a cute picture. No back story at all

After my birthday was the 4th of July, and this is one of my very favorite holidays because we always made it a big deal growing up. So, I tried to make it as fun and patriotic as possible, but it didn't really turn out all that great. Oh well. Maybe next year. 

After Evie's nap, we went to camp walker to check out the festivities they had there, but there wasn't a whole lot for a little girl like evie to do. It mostly catered to older kids and adults. However, there was a bubbles show, and we thought evie would love that for sure, but she actually wasn't a huge fan. I think the guy doing the show freaked her out. Oh well. I thought it was neat. 

Red, white, and blue the best we could. Waiting to get on the bus to take us over to camp walker.

Evie liked standing in the back and waiting for the bubbles to come to her, rather than stand in the front and actually watch the show.

On Friday this week, some of the girls and the missionaries from the branch took me out to lunch for my birthday. Our lunch adventure is actually a pretty funny story. We met at eenja's house because she lives downtown, and then we would walk to the restaurant from there. It was a good plan, except that it was pointing rain outside. All day long. We walked out of her apartment to a torrential downpour, but instead of turning around and just ordering in, we decided to trudge on. About 2 minutes into our walk, I was soaked up to my ankles. By the time we finally made it to the restaurant I was soaked head to toe. I had an umbrella, but it was raining so much that even the umbrella was soaked and couldn't hold off water anymore. The entire street was a huge puddle, so i seriously looked like I had gone swimming in my clothes. But the good news is, once we got to the Korean BBQ place, it was closed, so we had to wander around some more until we found a restaurant that was open. The restaurant was a traditional Korean food restaurant, and that was totally okay by me. Luckily, the sister missionaries and Eenja all speak Korean, so they ordered for us and told us what to do. The food was delicious, but pretty spicy. 

This is what they call a "hot pot", which is just a pot that stays hot. Well named. Like, piping hot. The whole time. But, I was freezing and drenched, so something hot and spicy was perfect. It was rice, veggies, and beef, with a bunch of other stuff, all mixed together. Yum.

I went to the bathroom before we ordered to try and dry off a little, and this is the sign that was on the door for the men's bathroom. Hilarious.

Random picture of me waiting for the bus today. I high tailed it over to the bus stop and wanted to show Dan how close I was to missing it. Pretty darn close.

Today we, yet again, wanted to try and get some Korean BBQ, but failed, again. All of the places were closed until 6 because it was a Saturday. Bummer. So, we walked around until we found a place that was open, and I remembered my friend Abby saying that this place had really good gimpop, so we went there. I think the place was called Kim pasa. The ladies there didn't speak any English, and we don't speak any Korean, and the menus didn't have pictures, so we just put up 2 fingers and said gimpop. Luckily, this is what we got. It was different than the stuff I got at the market, but still just as yummy. I'm addicted. 

Gimpop

Dan trying to use chopsticks. We both forgot how as soon as we got here. I think it's the intimidation of it all.

Evie actually kind of liked it. She was a bigger fan of the soup though. She didn't eat very much, so when we got home I made her Mac n cheese. Go USA.

Those are all of our adventures so far. I'll try to remember to keep updating this. Love you all. 

First week in Korea

Our first week here has been kind of a whirlwind experience. It's a completely different culture, language, and time zone, so it's been a little hard adjusting to all of that. It's not just the Korean culture that we've had to adjust to either, but the army culture as well. We've been in the army for 2 years, but we've never lived on base and most definitely never lived overseas, so everything is new and different here. That's not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, it'll just take some time to get used to. Here's what's been happening since we left Seoul.

We left Seoul on friday and took a bullet train down to daegu, which was just about the best day of evie's life. She was so excited to go on a choo choo train and cried when we had to get off. The veterinary unit in Seoul  sent two soldiers with cars to help get us and all of our stuff to the train station, thank goodness, because we had a lot of stuff. One of the soldiers was a katusa. 

The katusa are a branch of the army here that are Korean soldiers. They have to go through some pretty rigorous testing about the English language and stuff to become one, so it's pretty prestigious. They aren't American citizens, they're more like a companion, for lack of a better word, to the army. So they work alongside our soldiers and help out in a big big way. Apparently, Koreans in the Korean army strive to be katusa because its much easier than being in the rock army (not sure if that's spelled right), which is the Korean army. 

So anyways. One of the soldiers was katusa and he made sure we got on the right train since we don't speak or read Korean. These trains aren't really built to haul people with a lot of stuff, so it took a while to cram all of our suitcases, stroller, and car seats in the overhead thing. Pretty funny. The poor people who came in after us didn't know where to put their briefcases cause I swear we took up the whole compartment with our stuff. 

Going on the train was our first real experience with Korea and the culture here, and I was pretty intimidated. Koreans don't talk when they're on public transportation, so you can imagine my embarrassment when evie and Emmett were both being kind of loud. Oh well. Hopefully they knew we were American and didn't get too offended.

  Luckily, the announcements for stops were in Korean and English, so we found the right stop and got off in time. The veterinary unit  here had another 2 soldiers meet him at the station in daegu to help us unload, which was super helpful because the train only stays in the station for a couple minutes and we had a lot of stuff, like I said already. 

After we got into the cars, the nice soldier drove us around from base to base and to the px and commissary so that we could get a place to live, cell phones, and the bare necessities, like sheets, towels,and toilet paper. These nice guys drove us around all day long helping us get stuff done, bless their hearts. They also took us over to the vtf (veterinary treatment facility) so we could meet everyone and Dan could see where he will be working. That place was so so nice. I think Dan is going to love it there, especially considering that the last place he was at was just a double wide trailer acting as a vtf. The captain that Dan is taking over for has been super helpful and super nice, and I think that's been good for Dan because it gives him a bit of a leg up in running the clinic after she's   gone. 

The people at the vtf are incredible. I seriously cannot say enough about how kind and generous they have been already in the short time that we have been here. Mrs Farley, the receptionist, took me around on Saturday to the px and commissary and helped me get a lot of things to make our apartment more homey, like a rug and a shower curtain. She was also the one who called around and had someone bring us a pack n play and some blankets. The guy who brought those to us also lives in camp George and is one of dan's soldiers. He's also super nice. 

After I was done running errands with Shanise, we were invited to go have lunch with captain waclowick, which is the cpt Dan is taking over for, and her husband. Let me tell you, it was incredible to finally have a home cooked meal that wasn't from a restaurant or fast food place. Incredible. They told us all the fun things they were able to do while they were here and gave us lots of advice about traveling and what to see. We couldn't be more excited to get out and do some of the things they mentioned. 

Saturday night we just sort of relaxed and spent most of the evening trying to figure out where the church building was and how to get to it. While we were in Seoul, Dan met a major who was a veterinarian and also happened to be lds, so on Saturday he gave him a call and asked him where and when the branch met, and he gave Dan the branch president's number. So, we were able to talk to him and after a lot of confusion on our part, one of the guys in the branch presidency came and picked us up. So nice. 

The branch here is incredible and incredibly tiny. I think there were 30 people there on Sunday, counting our family of 4. So, we can't hide in the back like we usually do and we will probably be giving lots of talks. That'll be good for us too, I think. In relief society, there were 5 of us and they told me that was actually a big number, and that just made me laugh. It'll take some getting used to, to be in a branch so small, because I'm crazy shy and not at all outspoken, so ill have to get over that I guess. After church we were going to walk with another family down to the subway so they cod show us how to do it, but its kind of a long walk and we didn't have a stroller or anything for the kiddies, so another nice person gave us a ride home instead. Her name is Abbi and she lives a couple buildings over from us. She has a son in nursery with evie and they love  each other already. 

On Sunday night, brother and sister Jenkins invited us over for dinner. He's the one who gave us a ride to church. We were just about to go outside and wait for him to pick us up, when Dan got a call and had to go into work. In Korea they do readiness tests,or something, where they will periodically make everyone come in and check that all the units are whole and ready in case North Korea decides to do something stupid. I understand the logic behind the drills, but we were super disappointed that Dan couldn't come to dinner with us. 

So, me and the kids flew solo to dinner. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and have evie play with some new friends. What a nice family. 

On Monday, Abbi invited me and the kids over to play, so we went over there and evie And Eli were able to play together for a little bit, and then we all got ready to leave because Abbi was going to show us this cool Korean store that was like a 20 min walk from here. We met up with some other moms, one of which is my neighbor who also happens to be lds! What are the odds? Her name is Aimee and she has 5 kids, the youngest of whole is also in nursery with evie. I'm so excited to have so many lds families around here, and especially excited to have a family one door down from us. 

We were almost out the gate when Dan called and said he was going to come pick us up and take us to do some administrative things, so I didn't get to go to the cool Korean store. Oh well. maybe next time. So, we went and got registered, visa-ed, and finger printed. Even Emmett had to have his photo taken so that when they pull up our names his picture is in there. Something that's been a huge struggle since we've been here has been shopping because we don't have a rations card.

They do ration control here, so you can't buy anything from the px or commissary without one, so since we don't have one, we haven't been able to do any big grocery shopping yet. When Shanise took me around on Saturday, she just used hers so that I could get a few things. Nicest girl. 

And that's one of the things Dan had to get for us on Monday while we were in processing, was our rations card. He will go pick that up today, so we will be able to go grocery shopping soon. Yay! 

After we were done with all that in processing, we went to lunch, and then the nice soldier who was driving Dan around took us to the kt olleh building off post to help us get Internet. Nicest man. He's the one who gave us a pack n play and blankets. So they signed us up and had a guy come out the afternoon to install it. 

Getting our Internet installed was kind of a fiasco because he couldn't get on base without me signing him in, but I was the only one at home with 2 children, one of whom was napping. Dan called and told me to go out to the gate and sign him in or he would leave, so I did. I put Emmett down, hoping he would go to sleep, and booked it down to the gate before he left. Worst mother ever. When we got back to the apartment, Emmett and evie were both crying. Awesome. Emmett never went to sleep and probably woke evie up by crying so much. Poor babies. I did finally get them both back to sleep, which was lucky because I had to go back out with him to sign him out. Phew. What a workout. 

On Monday afternoon we went down and played at one of the play areas here on base with Abbi and her kids. Evie could not be more ecstatic about  all of the playgrounds here. Heaven. While we were playing, Aimee, from the branch who lives one door down, called and told me she was bringing dinner over. I guess word got out that we don't have a ratio card and therefore have no groceries. We were so thankful to have something to eat, so that was so so nice of her. 

After dinner, another lady from the branch, Jen, called me and wanted to make sure we were all doing okay and offered to take me to the commissary the next day so I can buy some things. So, hopefully I will be doing some grocery shopping soon.

Everyone we've met so far has been just amazing. They're all so kind and generous and we feel so lucky to be on the receiving end of it. Our experience so far with dan's unit and our branch here in daegu has been outstanding. Today Abbi is going to take me to some of the street vendors off base that sell fruits and vegetables! I'm so excited! Dan took some won out of the ATM, so I'm all set. After Evie's nap, Jen is going to take me to the commissary, so it should be a really fun day. Hope this update was long enough for you.;) 

This is won, their money system here. 

so, we moved to Korea

After all the stress, anxiety, and paperwork, we are finally in Korea, together, as a family. I can't even tell you how blessed we were to be able to travel together. Every person we talked to said it wasn't possible, that it would never happen, that I would be going it alone with 2 babies. But then heavenly Father stepped in, and now here we are.

So, about the flight. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be, which was a huge blessing. It was about a 9 hour flight to Japan, and then another 2 hours to Korea. Here's how it all went down:

On Saturday evening we flew from Salt Lake to Seattle because that's where our flight to Korea would leave from. We were hoping to just check into our flight (super) early and then spend the night in the USO. Turns out, the flight we were taking was a military flight, so there was no way that was going to happen. There was no one at the desk, so we couldn't check in or get rid of our baggage and we weren't sure what we were supposed to do, so we went up to the USO and asked them. As fate would have it, every single person in the USO was in the same boat we were. They told us to store our luggage in the annex, and then hang out until midnight, which is when we needed to go get in line for check in because check in started at 2:30am. WHAT!? I guess on military flights they don't assign you a seat until you actually check in, so everyone was scrambling to be first so they can get on the flight and get a good seat. We were doubly stressed because we wanted to be able to sit together, not just get on the plane. As in traditional Army fashion, is was completely ridiculous and inefficient. Dan left us upstairs so the kids could sleep a little and went down to stand in line, but was then told that his family had to be with him to hold his spot. Again, what!? It wasn't too much of a sacrifice on our part, though, because we were sleeping on the floor, so I wasn't even asleep, and Evie wasn't sleeping well. The good news is that they made a separate line for families, so we got in pretty quickly and got 4 seats together. After we checked in, we went back to the USO and tried to get some sleep. I think Dan and I got maybe 2 hours and Evie got about 4, but lil Emmett slept the whole night and woke up at his usual time. Wouldn't it be nice to sleep in a car seat and have everyone just carry you around? He's such a champ. Then we made it through the enormous line at security and got on the plane. The plane ride itself is a bit of a blur because I was so exhausted, but from what I remember, Evie and Emmett both did great. Evie slept for the first 3 hours or so because she was so tired, and that made things a LOT easier. The food they gave us was surprisingly good, and Evie was mostly content. Our only mishap was when Emmett blew out his diaper and I didn't have a change of clothes for him. The poor kid had to just wear his sleep sack for the rest of the day. I regret not taking any pictures of him, because he seriously looked like a little redneck kid in overalls. We stopped in Japan at a military base there for a couple hours, which was weird. It was weird because I knew we were in Japan, but it didn't look any different cause it was an American installation. Everyone scrambled to find outlets to charge their many devices and mostly just sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Luckily they had a tiny kid play place, so Evie was able to run around and play with other kids. We finally got back on the (dang) plane and headed for Korea. Again, I don't remember much because I was running on fumes by this point, but I remember getting to Osan, Korea just fine. Once we were there, they brought us all into a big room and gave us lots of lectures about customs and immigration, blah blah blah,which was completely unnecessary if you ask me because the Korean guy at the immigration desk barely looked at our form and sent us on our merry way. Customs was even sillier because they just asked us if we had any contraband items on us, and when we said no, THEY sent us on our merry way. After that, they sent us to some buses and we did a lot more waiting. The buses then took us to Yongsong, which is where things got pretty interesting.

We were supposed to have a room set up for us at the Dragon Hill Lodge on the Yongsong base once we got here, but there was some sort of blackout or something, so they couldn't access our reservation or make any room cards. We opted to just go to a different hotel for the night instead of just wait around for them to get their system up and running, so we ended up at the Capital Hotel instead, which was off base. By this time, we were all barely functioning. And I mean, barely. Emmett and Evie were both totally asleep and Dan and I were complete zombies. Not to mention, we all smelled terrible because Dan, Emmett, and I had been 2 days without a shower and Evie had been a record 3 days. They sent us up to our room and when we got into it we just sort of looked at each other and giggled. It was a little tiny room, but they managed to squeeze 2 twin beds, a kid bed, and a crib into it. Seriously little. The best part, though, was the bathroom. The counter came up to my knees and the toilet was so low to the ground it was ridiculous. Again, we just had to giggle, due to our state of hysteria. I guess Dan and I will just have to resign ourselves to being giants for 2 years. The beds felt like we were sleeping on a wooden board, but man were we happy to see them anyway. The next morning, a bus came and took us back to the Dragon, which is where we are now. It's super nice and has all kinds of things inside, like shops, a play place, restaurants, shopette, salon, and many other things.

That's all the update I have for now. We spent our day yesterday watching movies, so we haven't really done or seen anything yet.

View from the plane, flying into Japan

The Capital Hotel lobby

Korean

View from our window. So pretty.

Just a little update

I haven't blogged in quite a while about our lives, so I thought I would do that now really quickly. We were able to go to Utah over Christmas to see Dan's family and it was so, so great to see everyone. Poor Dan hasn't seen his family in over a year, so he was ecstatic. Evelyn loved playing with all her cousins and getting so much attention from the adults. I could tell she was disappointed when we got home and there was no one but me to play with. While we were there we were able to see my grandparents from both sides, as well as my parents and Chris and Blaire, which was great because I missed seeing them over Thanksgiving. But other than that, our week was jam packed with family activities and bonding. Dan got to play nerdy games with his brothers, go fishing, and play the munchkin board game, so his trip was super successful. I love my nerd. It was seriously so great to spend Christmas with family and be around people who love us unconditionally, because we can be pretty weird and obnoxious sometimes.

Since we've been home, Evie has been sick. She got some sort of stomach flu or virus or something, and that was not fun for anyone, but that's gone and she now has a cold. She seriously gets sick more than any kid I know. Which brings me to this, I had Evie tested for Celiac disease because it runs in Dan's family and I don't think it's normal for her to get the stomach flu every month. They'll call me with the results sometime this week.

Other than that, this is what we've been doing:

• puzzles
• more puzzles
• reading books
• playing with blocks
• more books
• more puzzles
• blue's clues
• watching the biggest loser, season 7 on hulu. We are totally addicted to this show. It's a problem
• crying in the theater at les miserables (not just me, either. pointing at Dan)
• learning new words, such as "frog" and "fish". Except, Evie doesn't say them correctly and instead adds a "ck" to the end of all words starting with f. This is quite embarrassing when we're in public.
• watching almost no tv during the day, because that was my new year's resolution. Evie isn't taking that one particularly well, but we're getting there.
• and more puzzles

Dan finally got his official orders, but it still doesn't tell us where in Korea we will be stationed. I mean, seriously army? Seriously? Apparently they tell you once you get to Korea, where exactly you will be. Talk about annoying and inefficient. So, Dan is talking to a lot of higher ups hoping to get some information. I guess we just have to wait and see.

Saturday

It's the end of January, but here in Virginia it sure doesn't feel like it. Today was in the high 60s, and I think most people would rejoice over that, but I'm not one of those people. I love, love winter; with the snow, scarves, boots, hot chocolate, and cuddling under blankets that comes with it. It's such a magical time of year. But, not in Virginia. Since it wasn't cold at all today, we decided to go to one of the many parks in the chesapeake area and have some fun. We went to this beautiful park that had a little lake and a giant bridge that went across it, and we fed the ducks, geese, and sea gulls that were there. Evie was pretty entertained with the birds for the first little while, but Dan and I had a lot if fun. Evelyn also tried the swings again, now that she's a little bigger, and she absolutely loved it. We took turns pushing her and hearing her squeal and giggle. It was glorious. On our way home we stopped at ihop for dinner and evie had her very first restaurant meal that was all her own. I forgot to bring any food for her with us, so we just ordered some scrambled eggs and pancakes off the children's menu and called it good. In case you were wondering, she was thrilled by the whole experience and let the whole restaurant know it. I took lots of super cute pictures of us at the park, as well as some videos, but somehow they were all deleted. Still not sure how, so I'm trying not to dwell on that for now. There was a really funny one of evelyn with her plate if food. Sei la vie. The picture at the top is now the only one I have because I sent it to Facebook.

This last week has been really rough. Evie started it with a cold and ended it with an ear infection. Combine that with teething, and that has been our week. So, that is why we went out and did something today. Man, did I need to get out. Of. The. House. Other than that, life has been pretty ordinary, and I'm beginning to think that's not such a bad thing.

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4 day weekend

Dan had Friday and Monday off this weekend and we tried to make the most of it. On Friday we went to old time country market and corn maze, pictured below, on Saturday we mostly just hung around the house watching movies and relaxing. Saturday was also sort of a comedy of errors when it came to making dinner.I was trying this new recipe I found and it was really labor intensive, so I was thinking it was going to be really yummy. BUT, while I was frying the chicken the oil splashed me in the face and I now have several small burns on my face around my eyes, and then the oven caught on fire, and the pasta almost burned, and the meal didn't even taste that great. Sigh. So, on Sunday Dan helped me cook dinner (tacos) by making tortillas. Have you ever had homemade tortillas? Yum. He used to make them all the time on his mission in Russia, so he made them for me and it was a lot of fun.

is he not the most handsome man you've ever seen?

On Monday we went to a pumpkin patch and got ourselves some pumpkins! We've always been really bad about decorating and celebrating holidays, but now that we have Evie we're trying to make more of an effort. Dan picked the biggest pumpkin he could find, Evie was indifferent as usual, and we all had fun. 

Excuse the no make up please

just missed the smile

this is her new thing; sucking on her lower lip

Is this not the cutest picture you've ever seen?

Grandma and Evie at the beach

She was fine with the water as long as she couldn't see the waves coming at her

We took a bus tour of the Norfolk Naval Base on Friday

Seriously impressive. The one on the left was made from the metal from the Twin Towers

 

The start of football season. Go BYU and K-STATE!!