life with the lieutenant

I took down all of the Christmas decorations today (while Sam got rage-y and sad because how dare I do such a thing??!) so it appears that this new year is going to stick around. No going back to 2014. 2014 was challenging, but comfortable.

Challenging because we are still living in a country where we can't read anything, all the produce at the commi is rotted, Steve still goes to the field when everyone gets sick, and I can't drive to my parents' house and dump my kids so I can repair my sanity (which currently looks like scrambled eggs, in case you were curious).

Comfortable because we knew we weren't going anywhere. We were going to be living in Korea for the entire year and that was nice to know. We love Korea. It is safe and happy and fun. 2015 holds a move in it. A move that doesn't have a destination yet. Where does one go after the Army? We have thoughts in our heads (and luckily, we are in agreement) and tentative plans, but ultimately, we won't know where we're heading until it's much closer to our move date. Part of me is all, la-la-la! No destination means that everything will just stay the same! We can live in Korea and keep all of our friends and go to the same kids' cafes and have adventures in Seoul on the weekends and eat foods we've never eaten and go places we've never been. Until the Army kicks us out in July. Then I will be incredibly weepy. Prepare yourselves for that, all 4 of you who still read my blog. (Hi Mom!)

It won't be all doom and gloom though. I am still ridiculously excited to see what life has in store post-Korea. There will be new adventures and things to see and people to meet and this is my pep talk to myself when I start thinking about leaving Korea, can't you tell? Best of all though, I get to do it all with Steve, and he's my favorite, so I have no doubts that it will be fun. Oh, the kids will be there too. (Hi there, sweeties. I'm so happy someone taught you to read. I hope I'm better at hiding my crazy by now!)

Anywho, in keeping with the new year, I decided to set some goals for myself (most original blogger/person ever). I need goals that I can cross off of a list. So the first order of business was to write them all down on paper (so that I can later cross them off, of course). Then I read them all to Steve to see if any sounded too crazy. ("Those all sound very manageable." Bingo.) And now it's time to post them on THE BLAWG for God and the world (all 4 of you!) to see.

15 goals for 2015:

1. Complete the 28 Day Jumpstart. Working on that now. Basically, a lifestyle change diet.
2. Read one book per month. First month- donezo! I thought I never had time to read books, but I read a chunker in 2 naptimes! What the what? High five, brain!
3. Climb that mountain in Uijeongbu. You know the one I'm talking about. It's so pretty. And gigantic. And it looks like the place that Simba was dedicated by the monkey. Anyways, I want to climb it before we leave.
4. Create photography website. I have a domain name, but it costs a freaking kajillion dollars to host it, and since I get absolutely zero business from a website (everything here is very FB-driven), I am going to save that for when we get stateside.
5. Blog photo sessions. You know, to help with SEO and page hits and booking sessions and blahbbidy blah blah blah. It's boring, but needs to be done.
6. Get legit. So let's just pretend that maybe Uncle Sam doesn't collect any taxes on my little photography gig at the moment. (Korea is like the Wild West! No one cares about these things here!) I am going to be an adult when we get to the States and get a business license and pay taxes and have a lawyer look over my contract and blahbiddy blah blah blah again.
7. Get Sam a big boy bed. We have a headboard or two in storage that might work for him, but the child needs to start sleeping on something other than a crib mattress. (His poor little back!) It doesn't make sense to get one now, so we are going to hold out until we get stateside.
8. Potty train Molly and get her out of the crib. Right now, my sanity can't afford for Molly to NOT sleep in a cage crib. Potty training will not go smoothly if she can't get up to take care of business. I might also be terrified to potty train a girl since they can't just go anywhere like a boy can. She has started to express a mild interest in going on the potty, but mostly I think she likes to run around naked, so we will see if this happens before we move. I am not one for pushing big kid milestones (remember my kids didn't walk until well after one?), so I'm not pushing this one either.
9. Go to the beach. I don't care if this one happens here, in the States, or somewhere in between. I just need to go to the beach.
10. Take a picture at the LOVE statue in Philly with Steve. We will be going to Philly after we leave Korea to visit family, so I definitely want to get this picture while we're there. You know, because I have the love feelings for him and all.
11. Stop putting (fake) sugar in my coffee. I am actually 4 days into this one and it's going better than I expected. I actually drank black coffee this morning at a playdate and think that it might taste better than the coffee with milk I've been having each morning. WE SHALL SEE.
12. Go on a Han river cruise. This is just one Seoul thing I want to do before moving. Definitely without kids.
13. Go on a vacation with Steve. Jesus himself only knows when this will happen since we don't know anything about life after July, but I'm hoping there is time to go on a vacation with him (and only him!) in between seeing family and starting civilian life. Hooray for terminal leave!
14. Complete the Soul Detox. You have no idea how many times I just typed "Seoul Detox". Imma need that soon too. But the Soul Detox is a Bible study plan by She Reads Truth that I started a while back, but never finished, and the verses are great. So now that I've got that study Bible (it is SO GREAT), I need to finish that up!
15. Take the kids to an Auburn game. This has been on "the list" for quite some time, but I think the way terminal leave shakes out, we might just be in the right place at the right time to go see a game this year.

And..... yeah. That's it. Nothing terribly exciting, but all things that I want and need to accomplish in 2015. Most importantly, they are all things that have some finite end to them. I like that. I love crossing things off a list, probably more than I enjoy making lists. (And I love a good list.)

So come on, 2015. I'm ready. (I think.)

Questionable panorama from our most recent Seoul Tower trip