2014 recap

How is it New Year's Eve already???? This year has ended so quickly, and I'll admit, I'm not quite ready for 2015. But ready or not, huh? Let's recap 2014 first! ((2013 recap here))

What were your highlights of 2014?

• Leaving the Korean ER
• We went to LotteWorld (think: Korean Disney World) with the rest of Seoul
• Signed up the kids for Korean preschool (!!!!!!!)
• Day trip to Dongdaemun
• Molly turned 2 and we had a puppy party!
• Steve's parents came to visit
• We put all of our eggs in one basket for Easter (literally), and the Army disappointed, so we made our own egg hunt.
• Hiked a mountain
• My parents and sister came to visit
• Went to Herb Island
• Hit our halfway mark on our time in Korea ((sob))
• Steve and I went on a date to Itaewon, ate Mexican food, watched the Banpo Bridge show, and I backed into a car.
• We got a second car! (But not because I wrecked the first one.)
• Our BFFs from Campbell moved to Korea!
• Steve and I celebrated 5 years of marriage by going to a battalion ball and then spending the weekend in Seoul (with the kids, of course).
• Made the blog private, Steve went to the field, I went a little nuts, etc.
• Sam turned 4 and we had a birthday party!
• Steve got promoted!
• Went trick-or-treating and then hosted a Halloween party
• Girls day to the penis cafe
• Steve went to the field, kids got sick, I went insane, lather, rinse, repeat.
• Hosted Thanksgiving dinner
• Went to Seoul to see the Christmas train display and Korean Santa, made gingerbread houses, and had a girls day to the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul
• Had a great Christmas and hosted Christmas dinner
• endless kids cafes, Seoul trips, parks, and after-dinner ice cream walks!

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
2013's resolutions were:

• Be present.
• Be patient.
• Be kind.

I feel like I failed miserably on most of these, so I think I will try to aim for these again in 2015.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
My best friend from high school had a baby and I am still feeling guilt over not being able to be there and take photos/commiserate over breastmilk/pour her wine.

Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no!

What countries did you visit?
We stayed firmly planted in Korea this year and I am 100% A-OK with that.

What would you like to have in 2015 that you didn't have in 2014?
Time to myself, patience, kids that poop on the toilet consistently

What dates from 2014 will be etched upon your memory, and why?     
Nothing particularly transformative happened in 2014. There were times when I lost decent-sized chunks of my sanity, but I didn't bother documenting them. (You're welcome.)

What was your biggest achievement of this year?
Overcoming my weird fear of yeast and learning to bake bread/pizza dough/cake from scratch/etc

What was your biggest failure?
Eating the above achievements

What's the best thing you ate?
Besides my feelings and achievements? Beef and leaf at our favorite spot

What's the best thing you bought?
babysitting hours

What did you get really, really, really excited about? 
Any day that involved a babysitter/preschool

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Girls days/nights/trips

Compared to this time last year, are you: a) richer or poorer? b) happier or sadder? c) thinner or fatter?
a) richer in all the right ways
b) a little bit of both- happy that the kids are getting to easier/more manageable ages, sad that our time in Korea is dwindling
c) definitely fatter, see above

Did you fall in love in 2014?
I fall more in love with Steve all the time, which, however cliche that sounds, I care not. Dreaming up a life on the civilian side is equal parts romantic and hair-pulling stress-inducing insanity.

What was your favorite TV program?
We recently started watching House Hunters Renovation. Who is surprised?

How did you spend Christmas?
We spent Christmas with our close friends at our home. Despite not being "home" for Christmas with our extended families, we enjoyed continuing our little family's traditions and having a low-key easy day.

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I believe I was cleaning up vomit. I turned 28. Not a fun time.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2014?   
Will this look good accessorized with vomit/snot/leggings? Let's put it on.      

What kept you sane?
my good friends, wine, coffee, chocolate, peanut butter, preschool, wine, Jesus, wine, Steve, wine, coffee, chocolate

Tell me a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.   
Keep moving forward. 

Christmas recap 2014

Christmas this year was FUN. Christmas with kids is awesome, but Christmas with kids who actually GET that it's Christmas? That is amazing. Here's a little photo rundown of the Christmas week.

Christmas Eve- oh the anticipation!

They were too wired to take naps and I was too tired to say no. So yes. Yes to skipping naps. Yes to a show. Yes to popcorn.

Of course, that meant car naps while delivering goodies to the gate guards.

Sam was snoring SO LOUDLY.

We woke them up and drug them upstairs to do Christmas Eve-y things like write Santa a note and set out cookies. Some people were more excited than others.

"Dear Santa, Merry Christmas! Hi! I want to give you cookies and milk and carrots for your reindeer. Goodbye, friend! xo, Sam + Molly"

"Take my pitchur, Muwm!"

Santa (moi) got busy getting things ready for the morning.

Star had to be plugged into a transformer. Tres chic, no?

Sometime after the kids saw the carrots the next morning, someone (?) came and cleaned them up. Whoops.

Sam's face when he saw the carrots outside the door- how priceless. I remember my parents scattering carrots in our yard and thought that it was so realistic! Not sure how realistic our carrot hunks were, but they bought it anyway.

Steve and I rounded out the night with some wine and Christmas Vacation. Perfection.

The next morning, I was the first one up (of all the mornings for them to sleep in!) and after everyone was awake and I started the coffee maker, Sam (slowly) busted through the red tape (literally) and discovered the gift he'd been talking about for ages- his monster truck. I then proceeded to get hardly any pictures of him because he was busy running it into every piece of furniture in our house.

Quite a few more strips were added the next morning for a more dramatic effect.

"Kimchi!"

Facetiming family- she insists on holding the laptop and mean-mugging everyone

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus

Steve took the kids outside to play with Sam's monster truck while I prepped food for our Favorite Things Dinner that evening.

Pizza dough and birthday cake

Horribly lit dinner picture. CHEESE! We are stuffed! And tipsy! And happy! And in our pj's because we are pretty close and don't need to dress up for each other anymore. ;)

Steve had staff duty the day after Christmas (womp womp), so the kids and I just hung out at home. Sam took a lot of pictures and kept telling me how good I was cheesin'.

Saturday, we went to a big kids cafe with our friends. So much energy burnt- lotsa naps. Yesssss.....

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning the house, mopping floors, jumping on couch cushions, and catching up on laundry so that we could spend our Sunday in Seoul. We ended up going to the Children's Museum and it was so fun!

These little machines sucked the balls up, shot them into that bin overhead, and once it was filled, dumped them all out again. Great fun.

I think Molly could have played with this oversized Lite Brite all day.

Likewise with Sam and this wall.

We moved on to the "music" room where you bang plastic pipes onto everything in sight.

"Seaweed"

Maybe Molly can help us install a new tile backsplash in our future kitchen. She was quick to correct Steve on how wrongly he placed tiles.

There was so much I did not get photos of- the crane, bricks, construction site, international cooking station, television studio, etc, etc.

I love that Korea instructs you to wash the clothes and then practice hanging them on a drying rack. No one uses dryers!

Don't tell her to walk down a runway. That cramps her artistic vision apparently. She's gonna charge down it at full speed and then dance at the end.

Someone was ready to leave by this point....

We spent the afternoon on post in America Seoul and Sam volunteered to get a haircut! Molly was drug out of the PX kicking and screaming and napped in the car while Sam got a haircut. They were so accomodating to the fact that he NEEDED to watch a monster truck video in order to sit still.

The assistant would try to raise Sam's head when he needed him to look up, but after a while, would just raise the phone and his head would follow. They are OMGSOPATIENT. I am happy to pay someone else $8 to deal with this high-needs-haircut child.

Today we had a playdate and did more laundry/dishes/cleaning. Steve is on half-day schedule but just got home a bit after 4, so who knows what tonight holds. It better hold something fun because the kids are still napping, so Baby Jesus himself only knows how late we'll be up tonight entertaining Those With Endless Energy. Hold me. And Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Korea!

No one is getting a potty this year

I wrapped all of the Christmas presents today. Minus the ones that require a screwdriver that only Polly Pocket herself would own. (Seriously, just because it's a kid's toy, why must we have microscopic screws?) I always love reading gift guides and seeing what people with similarly-aged children are buying. Although this year (and last) they were usually posted too late for me to do anything with. I got my shopping done early this year (for obvious reasons), and am playing Santa in every capacity.

At lunch today, Steve said, "I need to get you something." (Keep in mind, it is Dec 16 here.) I laughed loudly (apparently too loudly for a public place, as evidenced by the weirded-out stares) and told him that Santa (me) had it covered this year. Besides, you need to order from Amazon much earlier than now in order to receive the item by Christmas. He said I am just so hard to buy for. My Pinterest and Amazon wish list say otherwise, but don't you worry, Steve-o! Santa found something(s) for me.

"Just put my name in the "from" part on the tag." Did that two hours ago! Wasn't weird at all! And did I mention that you are just the most generous guy I know? Whoooo look at the time, I gotta go pick up the kids from preschool! Can't wait to see your face on Christmas morning!

Santa is bringing Sam a remote-controlled monster truck. Sadly, it is green, not orange. I think his disappointment will be minimal. Yesterday he mentioned that he wanted a school bus monster truck and we had to have a little chat about how busy Santa is and shipping deadlines and whatnot. Basically, so sowwy!

Steve and I are giving him this squirrel game. We haven't played any board games yet as a family and it's something I'd like to start doing while drinking a large glass of wine.

Supposed to be educational too, so we'll see. Twenty bucks says we lose 50% of the acorns the first time we play the game.

Sam is also getting these Thomas the Train puzzles. I cracked it open this morning before wrapping it and the pieces look big enough that he should be able to figure it out.

Santa is bringing Molly a tea set and sweets tower.

Steve and I are giving Molly this toddler-friendly paper doll set.

Kid stockings:
mini box of rainbow goldfish
oranges
mini box of cereal
winter pj's from Gap/Old Navy
the cutest kid-friendly digital cameras EVER*

They have a tiny LCD screen on the back and a USB plug so I can keep their little blurry photographic artwork 4eva! So cute!!

Steve only wants one thing, (ear eyemuff it, Mama) and he's already getting that so he is getting to open really fun stuff like a rolling pin, pizza cutter, flannel sheets, bed skirt, spatulas, and wooden spoons. He's also getting this thing-a-ma-jig in his stocking. Fits on his keyring so now he will have no excuse as to why he can't fix anything at any given moment, yes? His stocking will also possess bacon jerky. Because I do love him so.

Steve is unknowingly getting me a new cell phone case. My phone has been cover-less for many moons now, and it is by THE GRACE OF GOD ALMIGHTY that my screen has not shattered into a thousand fragmented, glassy pieces all over the px parking lot, especially when you consider Molly's extreme pitching power.

Also, a study Bible. I am the only chick at Bible study that uses the app on her phone. That is not only semi-embarrassing, but it drains my battery like whoa. So when this baby went on sale, I clicked "order" real quick-like.

I find myself flipping over to see the NLT version of verses more often than not, so if you like an easy-to-read Bible (no "thou shalt" anything in here), this one is great!

Santa himself is bringing me a sewing machine too! I told you he was a generous sonuvagun! I am ready to take advantage of Korea's cheap fabric markets and see if I can't make something cute. Or, if I'm terrible at it, maybe I will at least be able to sew on Boy Scout patches and hem something every once in a while. We'll see.

And a family gift..... I ordered chatbooks. (Chatbooks did not pay me say this. You know, private blog and no sponsorships and whatnot.) But this company will print out your instagram photos (long hailed as my favorite form of social media) and ship your book to you for $6 (60 pictures per book). I found a coupon code and ordered mine at the beginning of the month. Sam and Molly LOVE flipping through photo albums, so I know they will enjoy seeing pictures of themselves and our family and friends in these books. And I know this is all sounding super-sponsor-y, but I just can't wait to get them. All 26 of them. Because holy cannoli I have taken more than a few pictures over the past 2.5 years.

free code for you!

I tried to go for gifts that didn't have 1 billion tiny parts (minus the squirrel game), gifts that were semi-educational and/or encouraging imaginative play (tea set, cameras, puzzles), and things that we would ultimately use for longer than Christmas Day (see: all of Steve's tangible gifts, sewing machine, Bible). I don't want us to buy gifts just to buy gifts. We are going to do our best to focus on Baby Jesus' birthday and remember the reason we are celebrating Christmas Day.

What are you getting your family this Christmas?? Steve and Molly's birthdays are coming up, so I'm always looking for ideas.... (bonus points if the item can be found on Amazon)

*Most everything about our Christmas was purchased on sale or through Black Friday deals. Santa is not one to pay full price if s/he can help it.

• According to the massive amount of photos on my phone, it is time for another photo dump.
• Last weekend we went to Seoul to see a big Christmas tree and a train display inside the Seoul Millennium Hilton.

• We also noticed that Santa would be arriving while we were there. And then all of my dreams of living abroad were fulfilled when Molly sat in the skinniest Korean Santa lap ever.

Further proof that Molly will do anything for a donut.

And Sam will never be a fan of the big guy in red.

Delivering on our donut promises

Sweet, blessed naps on the long drive home

• That night we read the story of Saint Nicholas and I realized that I need to get a book of saints that is more child-friendly. I tried summarizing as I was reading, but it still came out like, "and the girls were saved from a life of sexual slavery!" Anyways, I thought a picture book of saints would be geared towards young children, but apparently not. On my to-do list! Good ol' Saint Nick brought the kids some Christmas pj's.

• The next morning, our neighbors came over and we cooked blueberry-apple muffins, bacon, and eggs. Then we set to work constructing and decorating gingerbread houses (which were actually graham cracker houses). After many piping bag explosions, reminding the kids where the candy is supposed to go (the house, not your mouth!), and then decorating our own (in shifts, so someone could always keep the kids from destroying the rest of the house), we had our own little Christmas shanty house village.

• Upon seeing the aftermath, I declared that I think we should just move. Leave everything as it is and leave. Seemed more reasonable than cleaning this.

The floor was worse. And the kitchen side was worse than this.

• Behold, our Christmas village.

• I finally figured out how to turn our heated floors on. Poor kids. They were starting to get used to wearing a full winter layer indoors.

• Our neighbors celebrated their wedding anniversary, so Steve and I watched their boys. Let me just say, two sets of twins would not work out well for me.

Unless we ordered delivery and drank a ton of wine every night. Then I'd at least survive.

The effects of wearing a ski cap while having wet hair. Could not stop laughing.

• Made biscuits from a Pinterest recipe and while they tasted fine, their looks left much to be desired....

Little hockey pucks

• Made some candy trees and was reminded of all the fun things I did at Christmas as a child. I also am wondering at what age I started to help with things like candy trees because I got a bit twitchy as the kids tried to "help" (aka scatter chocolates everywhere and unroll all of the tape). Mama? Please say something like, age 8.

• Had a girls' day out to the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul. 

If you squint a bit, you can see Seoul Tower off in the distance!

• Our main reason for going to the Express Bus Terminal was the shopping- fresh cut flowers (suuuuuper hard to find here) and Christmas decor.

None of my cell phone pictures do this place justice. It was just a maze of flower stands and signs I couldn't read.

Found cotton! And knew it had to come home with me.

• I didn't get any photos of the Christmas decor because my arms were BREAKING and the aisles were about two times too small, but rest assured that it was bananas and I wish I was a millionaire because there was plenty I could have brought home with me (had I brought a pack mule and a bank's worth of money).
• We had budae jjigae for lunch, and although I was a bit scared to try it (the man warned it was a little spicy, but coming from a Korean, what does that even mean???) and it looks kinda funny, but it was so SO good. The flavors were perfectly complemented by the fake orange juice we were given to drink.

Doesn't it look SPICY?? It was not. Full of beef, spam, hot dogs, ramen, veggies, dumplings, and udon noodles. I want to eat this again right this very minute.

• Saw this gem for sale and am suddenly very concerned that shopping won't be nearly as entertaining in the States after living here.

• We finally arrived back home to the sitter. Molly was on Cloud Nine all day "taking care of" baby Lorene.

Taken right before Molly lost all control of her limbs and almost belly-flopped on poor Lori.

• Yesterday we stayed home all day and made bread and flower arrangements and washed clothes. Super fun stuff.

• Steve had a work dinner last night, so I took the kids to McD's to eat in the snow.

Can't you just feel the excitement??

• As soon as I buckled everyone up after dinner, Sam asked me what was for dinner. I wanted to find the nearest patch of black ice and just run as fast as I could. After leaving McD's, we drove through town and looked at Christmas lights and then stayed up until everyone started melting down.
• Today has been spent drinking coffee, making pizza dough for a farewell dinner tonight, running errands (holy packages, Batman! The mail room probably thinks I have some sort of online shopping problem.... and when it comes to Amazon Lightening Deals, maybe I do), and doing more laundry. Time to get moving and figure out what to make for dessert! Nothing like a time crunch to make me extra productive!

It is so cold that my dough won't rise on the counter anymore! Gotta preheat the oven and then set it in there. Unfortunately, only one bowl will fit at a time.

• Annnnnnnnd I just realized that all of these photos are from this past week only. Wowza. I either need to blog more than once a week or stop taking so many cell phone pictures.