Halloween 2014

Halloween sure proved to be a busy day this year! It started out with me cutting bats from construction paper (template found here- easiest "craft" ever), hanging our pumpkins (painted paper plates orange earlier in the week), prepping food for the party, mopping floors, and throwing the kids in their costumes before heading down to a nearby post for a fall festival and trunk or treat with friends.

Holy cow this cake..... Y'all need to make it. This picture doesn't even do it justice. (Actual cake made from this recipe. The cream filling and ganache made from this recipe.) Praise the Lord, there are a few leftover slices!!

Sam was so grouchy when it came time to get dressed. I finally pulled him aside and asked him what was wrong. Tears, and "I'm so tired!" I told him he could nap in the car on the way to the fall festival. "But that's not good for me because there's no beds there!" Oh the struggle is real. Being four is tough, I guess. He perked up after we attempted a family photo.

Molly continues to be underwhelmed. Although she was our champion trick-or-treater. Sam wasn't into asking for candy. He was into taking most of Molly's candy for himself. We told Sam he couldn't have any candy until we checked it all for razor blades and peanuts. Safety first.

We also left his fireman hat at home. Not that he would have worn it anyway!

Girlfriend would not allow me to hold her balloon or her candy. And I thought we were so close.

We hurried home and threw some pizzas in the oven. I clearly am missing a brain because no one is going to see what the pizzas look like. Because they will be cut up into slices. But that didn't stop me from trying to put a pumpkin on one.

The other pizza was shaped like a ghost (pepperoni for eyes and mouth) but I didn't even get a shot of it before it was cut up and devoured. Anyways, who cares, right?

I was having too much fun to snap many photos at the party. (But as predicted, there were leftover carrots and oranges.)

My super awesome cookie-decorating neighbor brought these and I think Sam ate no fewer than 10. I will just trust that they were as delicious as they looked.

Overall, I'm calling Halloween 2014 a success. Ten adults, ten kids, one tiny apartment, good food, plenty of booze, and a playroom that kept all the little people entertained.

I'm just gonna close that door and think about it tomorrow. Or next week.

• Fall is whizzing by this year! Not sure if it's because we are break-neck busy, or if someone is trying to rob me of my last Korean autumn, but either way, I want it to slow. the eff. down.

• If you need a chuckle and have time to kill, my BFF sent me this link and I find it hilarious. And freakishly accurate.
• Facebook alerted me this morning that one of my local friends was having a birthday. The hell, facebook? Can't you give a girl more notice than that? I asked her if she wanted to get together, and we ended up at the sandbox (all the cool kids celebrate birthdays there, fyi) with a picnic lunch and cupcakes. Unfortunately, this park date meant that I would be giving up naptime (the ultimate in birthday gifts- a sacrificial piece of my sanity) but thankfully our friends rallied and met us at the playground to ward off the crazies until Daddy got home. I alerted Steve that he needed to grab some won because I would not be preparing dinner, and we ordered some chicken and the kids ate mac n cheese. Yum yum. Molly fell asleep on me at the dinner table, but seriously needed a bath (bad timing) so she angrily took a bath and then got her second (or third? or fourth?) wind. The last I heard her, she was jumping in her crib and throwing everything out of it. Nighty night!
• I printed all of our pictures from Halloweens past out today. Too funny. I highly recommend doing it as a way to add in some Halloween decor to your house. The first year Steve and I were married, we dressed up as rednecks and went to a party. The irony was apparently lost on us that we still lived in a trailer. Like rednecks. Ahem.

Extra klassy points awarded for taking a photo in the bathroom. Steve had some weave from the dollar store taped to the inside of his hat to create a mullet effect. My shirt had a sign taped to it that said, "Roll Tide!"

• Other accomplishments this week:
• tried a new chocolate frosting recipe (for the birthday cupcakes) today that was a success
• have started to make an Advent calendar list
• did one entire load of laundry today (still sitting in dryer- why does this feel like the ultimate chore?)
• cleaned and organized pantry
• finished editing and posting all photo sessions from this month (!!!)
• haven't cried (in public) at the sight of falling leaves
• tomorrow is preschool (HUZZAH!)

Steve got promoted yesterday. Finally (FINALLY) leaving the lieutenant rank in the dust.

It is so odd to see him wearing a captain patch on his hat and uniform. Even weirder to hear him answer his work phone- "This is Captain D" (I might have snorted the first time I heard him say that.)

This gem of a man ^^ (I make memes about him in my spare time if that shows you my level of sarcasm) said, "And the best part of being a lieutenant and working a captain's job..." I wanted to blurt out, "not getting paid for the work you're doing? That's the best. He loves doing more for less." But I managed to keep my mouth shut and kept snapping cell phone shots while staring at my one true love. He knows. It's been a long four years for Steve-o in the Army. He's been doing captain's jobs since he was a brand new 2LT. Terrible leadership, more bad leadership, a deployment that seemed endless (with, you guessed it, poor leadership), a bumpy move to Korea with even more lackluster leadership, long days, long nights, bad leadership, etc etc, you know the drill. He's been a saint. A hard-working saint. But he's done.

When we leave Korea, Steve will be out of the Army.*

And we couldn't be more thrilled for the adventure that awaits us in the free civilian world.


*I mean, supposedly. Hopefully. This is the Army, after all. We all know that nothing is set in stone. Ever.

Things I will miss about summer:

• playing outside until bedtime
• not putting socks on the little people
• not putting coats on the little people
• not wiping snot from the noses of the little people
• walking to the store for ice cream because the little people finally ate their green beans (They were bribed- what's it to you?)

Things I am looking forward to this fall:

• not sweating through my shirt
• changing leaves
• family photos
• heated floors
• holidays

Funny things Molly says:

• I won tell-phone! (I want a banana. Which instantly turns into a telephone when she picks it up.)
• Baby Wohween (Baby Lorene. One of her favorite baby friends. And every morning when she sees a baby picture of herself on her dresser, she claims it is her baby friend Wohween. Whatevs.)
• ah-Dahdee bush uh hayuh (I would like to request that my father tame my mane this evening, dear Mother.)

Not-funny things Molly does:

• falling asleep for ten minutes at preschool and then refusing to nap when we get home
• throwing food across the table at Sam (HUH-LARious)
• kicking and screaming and having to be physically removed from the playground under the arm of her mortified mother

Randoms:

• I love Korea.
• We are still waiting for Steve to have a promotion ceremony.
• I am booked solid for the month of October (photography) and am loving it. Steve has been a saint to make all of that happen. I only do sessions on the weekends since he is guaranteed (usually) to be home with the kids. He always takes them on some sort of adventure and/or cleans the house and does laundry. I know things will die down once fall is over, so I'm enjoying the crazy right now. (Also the break from laundry on the weekends!)
• My blog reader says I have 131 unread posts. Looks like I should get on that.

4!

Sam's 4th birthday was, dare I say it, possibly more low-key and easier than his 2nd birthday. You know, the one that took place at the Tennessee Welcome Center? There is a flower field in the middle of our town, and in the middle of the flower field- a sandbox. There are also picnic tables, a fish pond, and a playground. To me, this was the obvious winner in Potential Birthday Party Locations. We had cake, goldfish, juice boxes, bubbles, sand toys, and rice cakes to feed the fish. I expected the party to last an hour. Maybe an hour and a half. We all had so much fun that we stayed and played for over three hours.

construction cake - best tasting dirt evah!

Pinterest made me do it

The kids played in the sand for so long, we had to pull them out to do cake and presents.

cake time!

time to feed the fish some rice cakes

bubble time!

The kids ended up running the field, chasing bubbles and puppies, and a few ended up back at the sandbox again. When we walked back to the playground, we noticed that there were a few babysitters breaking up fights and entertaining the kids in our absence!

When one of the Korean girls asked Aubrey (Molly's age) her name, she replied "Elsa." They immediately called Molly "Anna" and then busted out "Let It Go" on their phone (in English!) and proceeded to dance and (attempt to) sing the entire song. It was more than entertaining. Free babysitting AND entertainment?! Yes please!

The parental group ended up at the table again, and by the time I got back over there, all the cake was gone and some soju and beer had appeared. We partied til past dark and then it was obvious that some children needed some dinner (more than cake and goldfish). After quick baths and dinner, the exhausted children were put to bed and Steve and I celebrated four years of parenthood with some popcorn and wine.

Sam told everyone that they were all invited to his party tomorrow, and I've gotta say, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again.

Last day of 3

Tomorrow my boy turns four.

But tonight he's still three.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go finish making the cake, write to-do lists for his party, wrap some presents, and blow up balloons. And drink some wine. Because tomorrow my baby is gonna be four. Wah...

It's still 2012, right?

I grossly underestimated the kids' winter clothes situation for this year. I blindly assumed that Molly would fit into everything that she wore last year, because she hasn't grown. Right?

 ((denial)) 

She was wearing size 18mo clothing last year. Those are basically belly shirts and high-water pants this year.

Headed to Seoul today for party supplies and to see if we can't find this little lady some clothes that fit. I'm just going to ignore the fact that my kids are getting bigger, the biggest one is going to be FOUR in 2 days, and I can't get those squishy babies back.

Despite how cute they are, I was ever so happy to send them off to preschool this morning.

Mondays aren't all bad

All of these days are starting to blur together a bit, so I'm going to try my best to document them, even if it's just a little something. Today we went riding Korean-style with our neighbors down to McDonalds for lunch in the next town over, and then went to a pumpkin stand I had seen on the side of the road. It was definitely different. The woman who sold us the pumpkins didn't speak any English and offered us some sort of veggie snack that had been drying/roasting in the sun. My friend and I ate it (Molly dropped hers on the floor) but held it in our mouths until we were driving away and then I had to spit mine out. Tasted like an old cardboard shoe, if that's a thing. After naps, Sam and I had a little time to ourselves and we practiced counting boats, helicopters, and cars on this ipad app he likes.

We eventually had to wake Sleeping Beauty so that we could go try on a coat that a neighbor had for her, and a helmet for Sam. We moseyed on out to the playground after that and enjoyed social hour there until Steve came home. (!!!) I made a breakfast casserole for dinner, forgot a key ingredient, had Steve run to a neighbor's house to get missing key ingredient (love my neighbors!), gave another neighbor all of my leftover black cake frosting and a big hunk of promotion cake, ate dinner, watched Thomas, opened mail, brushed teeth, folded laundry, washed dishes, etc etc.

Sam has been tucked in an ungodly amount of times tonight and I think my scary mommy voice might have sealed the deal. It's officially chilly here at night now and it is SO NICE to sleep with the window cracked open. Tomorrow is preschool and I have to go get things for Sam's party at a store where little people shouldn't venture (sooo many things to touch and break and disrupt!) and see if I can find a big boy bike with training wheels up here in Area 1 because I don't think I have it in me to drive to Seoul this week and hide a bike from Sam the entire time we're there.

Here is a picture I snapped of Molly this morning after she had been stuck in time out. I stuck my 85mm lens on my wee camera (looks wee with that lens on it anyway) and tried to take advantage of the good light that comes in their room in the morning time.

She and Sam are having a competition on who can get the most bumps and bruises on their heads and stress me the hell out. So far it's an even tie.

Here we are, a month later..

• Oh hello again! Nice to be back! I took a little unplanned blogging break when Steve left for the field this past month. Apparently I don't have enough brain power to raise the kids and write complete sentences simultaneously. He got back very early Saturday morning (2am-ish) and is back at work at 9am again today (Sunday). Because what says "thank you for spending a month away from your family" quite like a six-day work week immediately following. Ah, the Army. I love to hate it.
• Speaking of the Army, you might have noticed that you got a special ooh-la-la invite to read this cobweb-covered blog! That is because of all of this batshit crazy ISIS stuff and also, because I've been thinking for a while about how my children might one day feel about their lives being "out there" on the internet. I like to know who is seeing pictures of them and hearing about their little moments. And making everything private seemed like the best way to give me peace of mind on all of those fronts. So here we are. Thanks for coming!
• I was trying to recap this past month by making photo collages from all the pictures I took. Then I realized I had way more than one picture per day and it just got a little overwhelming. And I think this past month is a great example of how well I deal with overwhelming situations. (*radio silence*) So to do a very general recap, I:
• had girls' nights with wine/popcorn/chocolate post-kid bedtime
• spent a lot of time on the playground with our neighbors
• went on a lot of walks
• cooked (and ate) an unholy amount of macaroni and cheese and called it a proper dinner
• bathed the kids semi-regularly
• texted Steve no fewer than eleventy billion times
• did a few photography sessions
• ordered two entire chicken nuggets at a McDonald's drive-thru (instead of two ORDERS)- ego immediately deflated. And had to really improvise because the kids were kind of excited to eat something besides macaroni for dinner.
• did a clothes swap with two great friends
• visited the mail room and had many an awkward conversation
• took the kids to preschool and relished the few hours of silence and productivity
• rearranged my room with Aggie (after maggots in the kitchen AND a colony of dust bunnies under my bed- she is still my friend. A VERY GOOD FRIEND.)
• ate the best chocolate cake I've ever had in my life
• fed some fish, played in the sand, watched my kids develop the Army Orphan Syndrome and call every man they saw "daddy"
• We did more, but Steve is gone again, so my brain is kinda mushy again. (Sad. I know.)
• Let me tell you about this guy in the mail room. Back story: Over here, we have to go to these little huts from the 50s to retrieve our mail. Each unit has their own little hut and soldiers pass out your mail and boxes. It's really disappointing to go all the way there and unload the kids outta the car only to find you have absolutely nothing to pick up. But on this particular day, I had a lot of mail. A new guy (super chummy) was working and did his best to make all sorts of small talk while I refereed my children and tried to pretend I was listening. Well then Sam ran smack into a door and was crying. I picked him up and tried to distract him.
• me: "Look, Sam! We have FOUR packages! Wowee!"
• Sam: "I don't want four packages!"
• me: "Well I sure do!"
• soldier: "I bet you do!" *wink*
• After hauling everyone/everything back to the car, I looked at what we'd gotten. I had ordered a Fitbit from Amazon and it arrived! Yay! But the customs form labeled it as "personal care appliance item." Oh. OH! THAT'S WHAT THAT WINK WAS ABOUT OMG OMG OMG.
• I was mortified. There is no going back now. Except I have to. Every week for the next year if I want my mail. Now every time I see him, my packages all suddenly seem to have perv-y customs form descriptions. "DVDs and personal care item" is actually some movies for Sam and a hairbrush for Molly, but oh well. At least my trips to that hut are never boring.
• Speaking of hairbrushes- my neighbor recommended this brush to me to use on Molly's hair. I literally broke a comb in her hair one night. She was always crying and screaming even though I was using detangler and trying to be as gentle as possible. It was easily the worst part of my day outside of having someone touch their toes with their rear in my face so that I could wipe away their residual fecal matter. Anyways, I used this brush the other night (without detangler spray) and closed my eyes as I put it in her hair. Then I pulled it down. I wondered if it was actually doing anything because there were no screams. Molly was chatting away as if nothing was happening. After a few more brushes, I wanted to hit my knees and cry out to the heavens! IT WORKS! IT WORKS! HALLELUJAH WE ARE SAVED!! So if you are dealing with some kinky hair and need a miracle? Please buy that brush. (*I wish someone was paying me to say all that, but in reality, no one will pay a private blogger to do anything, so that is just my own experience and I don't want anyone else to break a comb in their child's hair amen.*)
• I'm pretty certain that most of you lovely people follow me on instagram, but in case you missed the news, Steve finally got promoted!! Wahoo! He was so fortunate (SARCASM ALERT) to fall into the group that got extended as lieutenants for an extra year, so we are happy that it's finally arrived. He has only been doing captain's jobs from the get-go, so it is nice that he is actually getting paid for the work! That also makes my blog name not really work anymore, so who knows what will happen with that. I voted for a Captain D's Seafood theme, but eh. Needs a bit more thought, I guess.
• I am going to try to blog more frequently. Promise. It might not be anything earth-shattering, but I do love reading back over our days, so I'm going to make a better effort at putting something up here most days. In between re-learning how to cook something other than macaroni for dinner this week, getting ready for Sam's birthday party this weekend, continuing to ignore the laundry and head down to social hour at the playground after naps, I'd say I have my work cut out for me. Happy weekend and War Eagle!

((Here are two of the collages I made before I got overwhelmed and shut the computer and refused to make more.))