I really don't like the pressure of coming up with a title

Today is supposed to be a photo post, but that's gonna have to go up tomorrow. Because the camera and its cord are in the kitchen, and I am in bed with the fan pointed directly at me. So you see the problem this poses to uploading photos right now.

• I pulled my back trying to shove Molly into her carseat this afternoon. I know this isn't a problem most Koreans would have (since they typically don't use carseats at all and are all a size -6), but when someone parks all of four inches away from you, it makes it difficult to squeeze toddlers into the backseat. I launched Molly into her crib for a nap when we got home and threatened Sam with all sorts of things if he got out of bed. I assumed the position (horizontal) in front of the fan. Thirty minutes later, Sam comes out to tell my that "Myer pewped." I hobble in there to see that not only has Myer pewped, but she has taken it upon herself to do some exploratory research and once again, I could breathe fire. I hope no one above or below me is home, because every time I pick her up or put her down, I yell like I'm being crucified. I finally got her changed and then threatened some more before shutting the door and falling back into bed. Everyone sounds like they are asleep at this point, so let's hope it stays that way for a very long time.
• We made it to July and haven't turned on the AC yet! I feel like I should receive some sort of reward for this. Although, to be honest, it hasn't been miserably hot here yet. The fans we have seem to provide enough airflow and the kids can walk around the house mostly naked the majority of the time we're home. While talking with Steve last night, I realized that this country is rubbing off on me more than I thought. With central air, we were paying to air condition rooms that no one was occupying. Bedrooms that no one was sleeping in, a dining room that no one was eating in, and a living room that no one was living in. The more I thought about it, the crazier it seemed to me. I'm not saying anyone is crazy for having central AC (for sure, you are not crazy AT ALL), but it does seem mind-boggling to me now to cool a room that no one is in, all day and all night long. I am much more aware of when we turn on an AC unit and for how long it runs than I was before we moved here. I am also realizing how much I used to take a normal air-conditioned house for granted.
• I do have a sad air-conditioning-related update- today I made the decision to pull the kids out of preschool for the summer. *sob* I know. I have a year-round preschool and am not even utilizing it year-round. Please know that this is killing part of my soul too. I have noticed that the past few times I've picked the kids up, they seem to be sweaty, despite it not being all that hot outside. Inside the building, it's so stuffy and hot and they aren't running their AC units. I texted the owner this morning about it. (She speaks limited English, but seems to understand better through texting versus talking face-to-face.) Our conversation went like this:
• Me: Hi Ms. Kim! I was wondering if the air conditioning will be on at school today? Sam and Molly get overheated easily now that it's summertime and in the upper 80s.
• Ms. Kim: Okay. Be conditioned. Thank you.
• Me: (not understanding)
• Ms. Kim: I will keep the average temperature. All children are different conditions to control the temperature of the teacher.
• Me: I think I might keep them home for July and August and start them back in September. Would that be ok?
• Ms. Kim: Okay! Come to us and when the time.
• Me: Thank you!
• Ms. Kim: Health maintenance in the hot summer, and he's fine. Thank you.
• So to recap, I don't know what the hell she's saying to me, so instead of pushing the subject and asking for more clarification (that I'd probably never get), I just pulled them out. Was I regretting that decision before 10am? You betcha! But I knew I'd have crazy out-of-control mom guilt if I picked them up in a stuffy building and saw them sweating again. See you in September, sanity!
• In other sad news, our favorite kids cafe in town closed its doors. (cue my tears) The upside to this is that I got the #1 assistant's number and she is interested in babysitting. Holla! I'm going on a date this weekend to test the waters. I asked if she'd be interested in babysitting and she said, "I am interested, but I do not know the care of babies." I said, well it would just be Sam and Molly, not really a baby. (I guess the term "babysitting" threw her for a loop.) She said she wants to do it, so now I just gotta set the date and try to make the language barrier seem smaller than it really is. (All the prayers, please!)
• Kelly (wth happened to your blog, Kelly? I wanna link to you!) gave me her recipe for pizza dough and not only was it easy to make (just like she promised!), but it was freaking AMAZING as well. I may or may not have made three pizzas last week... Can I just pretend I'm getting a jumpstart on my winter layer of blubber now?
• I have Sam signed up to get a physical next Thursday, and then I will sign him up with CYSS so he can play soccer with all the other 3yo's this year. To say he is excited would be a gross understatement. I told him about it this morning and his reaction: "OH! SOCCER?! SOCCER?!?! I'm gonna KICK da ball! KICK! And I'm gonna pway soccer! And baseball! And football! And pushups!" Unfortunately, he doesn't understand that we are not going to a soccer game today, right this very minute. "The future" is a very hard concept for him to grasp right now.
• Molly is so obsessed with Aggie's "Beebee Thee-Thee!" that she talks about her nonstop. If I mention going anywhere, she is asking if Baby Cece will be in attendance. Apparently Molly's love for babies is expanding, because I turned away for a moment while at a kids cafe the other day, and when I looked back at her, she had a Korean baby's head in her hands, and was giving him a nice open-mouth kiss. The poor child, obviously petrified, started wailing. I attempted to explain via sign language and slow English (idk why I think that is helpful) that Molly was just trying to kiss, I'm sorry, we are working on proper affection, etc. The mom found it hilarious and soothed the baby with chips. I'm glad I'm not alone in that. At another kids cafe, Molly was following a Korean boy on a little scooter and.... he was terrified of her. Like, pushing the scooter as fast as his little legs would go, and Molly was just waddle-running behind him, giggling and chasing. He finally reached his mother (SAFETY!) and she and her friends were dying laughing that he was so scared of her. The owner thought I would be offended and said something to me like, "He is so tired and sad." But I just said, "He is scared of her red hair, huh? LOL" My friend and I couldn't stop laughing. Sheer terror in that child's eyes. I'll admit that I fear her red hair sometimes too. Every strand of that gorgeous hair is costing me in sanity. Very dearly too, I might add.
• I forget how to end these bullet posts. So.... The End.

Project 365 - week 25

Alternately titled- a day late and $4 short. I only took three of this week's photos with my real camera, despite lugging the dang thing with me EVERYWHERE. I am getting so bored with taking the same shot as below, of a child standing in the living room, but I also do not always remember to get my camera out of my bag when we are out and about doing things either. So I present to you, a busy week in mostly cell phone pictures.

She farted. And that's why she's laughing.

Steve had to work late and we had no groceries at home. Not to mention that I had zero desire to make anything for anyone. PX food court it is! Bad food and good people-watching. We walked out of there only to realize that the commi was already closed. Gotta love the random hours they keep here.

Aggie and family have arrived in Korea!!! We went down to Seoul to hang out and play and Molly was so infatuated with "Bebe Thee-Thee" (Baby Cece). She loves touching her hair, her face, open-mouth kissing her (poor Cece), and being anywhere near her. Sam was just as excited to see Aiden and Levi, minus all the kissing and touching. We are so happy they are here!

A little bit of shopping at the PX. She loves to carry bags. Especially when they are light.

The only picture I had from Sunday was this screenshot of a listing on one of the facebook pages here. This was despite the fact that we spent the whole day in Seoul with Aggie and fam again. I didn't think to take a picture while we were there. WHERE IS MY BRAIN???

Oh hey! A photo from my camera! And whaddaya know? It looks JUST LIKE the first picture from my camera! I need to find a way to take less boring photos.

A few days ago, Sam said something like, "A pwane in da sky!" but sometimes he talks really fast, so all my brain heard was, "PIE!" After that, I couldn't stop thinking about pie, but I had to wait until the commi was open again so that I could buy frozen pie crusts. I am no Betty Crocker. I will not attempt to make my own. Baking the pie was frustrating enough. I baked it after the kids went to bed (who wants to share pie?? Not this girl!) and Steve and I watched House Hunters and then after 45 minutes, it was still not cooked through, so Steve went to bed and I basically stayed up until 10:30 at night so I could be sure the pie was baked and then I ate a big slice while reading gossipy celebrity internet news. Then I left Steve a note telling him to take the pie to work and tell the guys that his commander's wife made the pie. (It got really ugly once I cut into it, and I don't want my name on something like that.) Being the saint that he is, he left the pie, knowing full well that I'm probably going to want some tonight after the kids go to bed. Gosh I love him. And pie.

Project 365 - week 24

"I'm gonna wook in dis wens and see sumfin." I just see the prettiest eyes on the other end!

We had a bunch of these leftover dollar store doggies from Molly's puppy party and she thinks they are just the best. She is giving this one some lovin' before she grooms him and takes him to bed.

"Take a pitchur of me wif mah cars, Muwm!"

What's more fun than kicking off Father's Day weekend with construction? AND helpers.

We were driving down the road to Emart when all of a sudden we decided that going to Seoul sounded better. So the aquarium it was! I don't even care for aquariums that much (oh look! more tanks full of nasty-looking fish!) and this was easily the best one I've ever seen. ((Also, Steve has this basic civilian uniform of Phillies tshirts and blue Auburn basketball shorts. He doesn't just go around wearing the same clothes day in and day out, despite what it looks like here..))

A BUG!

Dinner. Delish.

Project 365 - week 23

Nothing says "sexy" quite like these bad boys.. (but mama needs to breathe, yo.)

Hopping on their jet and heading toward Imagination Station.

Sweaty and snotty at the park.

I really like this alleyway. There is always something pretty growing back there.

Molly was only happy to go down the slide with her daddy. (Better him than me! Heh)

Whoops.

Molly found a dead weed at the playground this morning and thought it was the best thing ever, so I made her day by picking fresh ones for her on our walk home.

No pictures! How's THAT for a change?

• But bullet points, because I don't want to give you high blood pressure or anything.
• I feel like it's been awhile since I've posted any actual content on this blog (if you can even call it that). I post my weekly pictures and call it good. So here is a little life recap/update.
• I think it miiiiiiight be safe to go out on a limb (or beyond the bathroom door, if you will) and say that Sam is potty-trained. And it wasn't nearly as horrific and all-encompassing as all the parenting magazines and Pinterest articles and blog posts led me to believe it would be. Maybe that's because I waited until he was 3.5 years old, maybe because we had a very long talk about how failure is not an option. Who really knows. But one day, quite randomly, I took off his diaper and said no more. You can wear undies or nothing at all. For some reason, he is NOT into underwear at all. We have every type of underwear too, so he is not lacking a variety to choose from, he just doesn't want to wear it. So he is free (in every sense of the word) and potty-trained and loving it! He even poops on the potty!!! It is so awesome!!! My phone is clogged up (haaaaa PUN!) with 8 frillion pictures of poop in the potty because MUWM, TAKE A PICTURE! THIS MUST BE DOCUMENTED. He's proud of himself, I'm super proud of him, and I am REALLY glad to only have one child in diapers. I'd almost forgotten what it was like.
• Molly and I have some sort of upper respiratory, chest/head cold and if I haven't blown my spleen straight out of my nose yet, then that is proof enough that Jesus Christ exists. Molly prefers to wipe her snot all over me instead of any sort of tissue, so that only reinforces why I wear only the cheapest and crappiest of clothing. Although now our PX and commissary are being moderated by Courtesy Patrol (I kid you not), so I need to make sure I'm dressed decently enough to not get Steve in hot water. And if I may insert a useless hashtag within a blog post- #ohkorea
• This weekend we are rearranging the kids' bedrooms so that they are sharing a room. Because potty training didn't do enough mental damage to me obviously! In all honesty, it's about to get hotter than sin here, and with no AC, I feel bad when my kids wake up sweaty and hot with only a fan to cool them. So we have a portable AC unit that I acquired off a yard sale page recently, but it is just one unit. How do I pick between my two children? (Some days that is easy.) (Kidding, future Sam and Molly.) (But maybe not entirely.) So since they are both pretty good sleepers, we are moving Molly's crib and dresser into Sam's room and hooking the AC unit up in there. We will move the big bookcase cube and all toys into Molly's room and have a little playroom. Steve seems to think this will be the end of toys in our living room, and that usually just makes me laugh really hard.
• I was talking to another mom at the playground the other day while we were mindlessly pushing our kids on the swings and she commented on Molly's hair. "I love her hair. I wish I had it!" "Me too," I said. "But you do!" she said. "She got it from you, right?" And then I kissed her feet and declared her my best friend 4evah. In a less creepy reality, I just told her that my hair was naturally the color of dirt and that I am just trying to look more like Molly. It's not gonna be so cute come August when I have to start trying to pretend I'm going for that "ombre look" while my hair lady is still in the US of A vacationing. 
• I've started boycotting cooking dinner. If it can't be made in the crockpot, it won't be made. If it won't be made, then aren't we so lucky to live in the land of home delivery? Amen?
• Sam calls cherry tomatoes "sweet puh-tay-ohs". That never gets old.
• A siren went off this morning. I never got any sort of word that there was a test, so I was sorta kinda freaking out. I ran to the window and looked out at the courtyard, expecting to see people running and screaming. Instead I saw a lot of people looking out of their windows and a couple casually pushing their baby in the stroller, staring back at all the faces in the windows. So that was something.
• Steve wants to buy a 9-passenger van from a guy that is PCSing soon. I just... why on earth do we need to seat 9 people? Now if we had gotten this van BEFORE our families had come to town, yes, that would have been super helpful. But now? Silly. But he is a grown man, and I told him he can do whatever he wants. I will just insert my opinions frequently until he sees it my way. Besides, the only van I'm ever going to be willing to drive is this one. They are hella popular here, and I think they are so cute. Also, I might be able to greatly reduce my PR on parallel parking if we were to snag one of these babies.
• Best way to repair cracked, rough heels? I need help, folks. Steve says I need a sandblaster/chainsaw combo, but I prefer a less bloody method to fix these skanky feet of mine. Please fill my inbox with your knowledge. I'm all ears. (with a side of gross feet)
• Molly has watched me draw dots on the Magna Doodle so many times for Sam (so he can connect them and make a letter/number), that she no longer draws anything, but just sits there and pokes at it to make dots. How to remedy this...
• I really don't miss the States. Like, at all.
• Preschool has been reduced to one day a week for Sam and Molly. This happened a few months ago, actually. They were going every Tuesday and Thursday and then Sam REALLY did not wanna go. I didn't want "school" to leave a bad taste in his mouth (especially this early, and when they are not really learning much anyway), so I cut out Thursdays. I can squeeze all my errands and childless activities in on Tuesdays if I really try, so it hasn't been terrible. Although there are quite a few Thursdays where I wonder what on earth I was thinking when I made that call. (Helloooooooo terrible twos!)
• Conversations with Sam lately go like this:
• Sam- Is it hot, Muwm?
• Me- Yes, it's hot.
• Sam- I'm sorry it's hot. It's all my fault.
• Me- It's not your fault, honey. It's just hot. That's the way it is.
• Sam- It's all Myer's fault?
• Me- No, it's not Myer's fault. It's no one's fault. No one can control the weather.
• Sam- It's all your fault. It's ok.
• Me- No! It's not my fault! It's NO ONE'S FAULT. God made the seasons, and we happen to be in summer, where it's just HOT. If you have an issue with that (like I do), then you need to chat with Him about that, ok?
• Sam- It's all Daddy's fault?
• Me- *beating my head on the steering wheel*
• If I make it through these toddler years with a scrap of my sanity intact, I'm gonna go ahead and call that a victory.
• Has anyone used a toddler alarm clock similar to this one? I am considering getting one for Sam so that I can sleep past 5am regularly. I can only appreciate watching the sun rise if it's done on occasion, not every single mother-lovin' day of the week.
• Computer battery is at 10% and I think my brain is running on slightly less, so it's time I sign off. HAPPY WEEKEND!

Project 365 - week 22

Every shot this week was taken in my house. Not that I didn't go anywhere, I just didn't lug my big, beefy camera with me. My purse has been stuffed full of extra shorts for Sam (potty training! woop woop!), snacks, and water bottles lately, so no room for the camera. Enjoy my home-y lifestyle shots from the past week! (That's what I'm selling it as anyway!)

Pants are usually optional here.

Any time the schoolkids below are outside playing basketball, or a helicopter flies by, or a truck drives by, or a squirrel farts, you can bet your bottom dollar that this will be the scene up here on the 13th floor.

Taco salad and a beer after a long day at work. Love this guy.

We have started potty training. The rewards are M&M's (from Valentine's Day maybe?) and money. He is definitely way more motivated by the "monies" than the candy. Once he is fully potty trained, he can take his mixture of almost-worthless American coins and Korean won and get himself a little toy. Eye on the prize. And the toilet bowl please.

Moments like these make me swoon. Moments like dinnertime that night make me wanna throttle someone for not eating perfectly acceptable toddler food.

Girlfriend is a mess- but I do love what the humidity does to her hair. Curls everywhere!

I hit up the dollar store for some Korean awesomeness to stick in a care package for my sweet neighbor back at Campbell. I can't even tell you how long I've been waiting for our store to start carrying these chopsticks cases. And the random English words slapped on articles of clothing- it never fails to entertain me. Vickie, I hope this hat helps you overcome your loneliness since we've moved!