• It snowed here a tiny bit on Tuesday and we couldn't get our coats on fast enough so that Sam could get down there and shovel it all up and "help the gate guards." (They weren't shoveling this dust, but laughed and waved as Sam diligently worked on plowing the playground.) We are more than a little jealous of all the snow the east coast is getting, but took a walk with only jackets on on Friday, so it's not all bad, I guess.

• That afternoon we visited a kids' cafe and had lunch and it was awesome the end.

• After putting the kids down for naps at 1pm that afternoon and then sleeping through until 7pm, Steve and I just decided to go on to bed (you know, as opposed to the couch) and see how long the kids would sleep. It would be suicide to wake them after sleeping six hours. I charged the ipads just in case they woke up an hour later, but to our surprise, they slept until about 230am. That next day we only allowed the kids to take car naps to and from Seoul and we were back on track that night! Everyone slept between 11-14 hours respectively!! Cue the choirs of angels singing!!!

3am movie time

Wearing her main man Aidan's shirt after barfing all over hers (and Aidan's rug). Sorry, Aggie. Pretzels and bed-jumping just do this girl in every time.

• After hanging out with Aggie and fam in Seoul, we headed back to our town and decided that going home would be mutiny, so we stopped at our favorite park and played outside. It was glorious and made me forget why we wanted snow just a day prior.

Wearing my gloves because she is full of delicate Southern blood and 45 can be chilly sometimes, y'all.

Sam literally just ran in crazy circles the entire time because OMG GRASS! (dead though it may be)

•  Friday we hit up our favorite kids' cafe and Steve might have reverted back a decade or two.

#letthembelittle

• Saturday was spent purging and cleaning and watching YouTube videos on tiling a bathroom floor.

Molly prefers books instead

• We also ended up at the kids' cafe again because it was raining and we were all going a little batty being cooped up inside with each other.

• We came home and made this pasta and salad and if you haven't made this pasta, you need to run, not walk, to the store and get the ingredients and make it tonight. (I subbed heavy whipping cream for the milk, because taste.) Even my kids (appropriately dubbed "pickiest eaters on the planet") ate it and proclaimed its goodness. KID APPROVED AND DELICIOUS why are you still here and not at the grocery store yet???
• This seems like a good time to segue into telling you that I completed (past tense, because ^pasta^) the 28 Day Jumpstart that was in my 15 in 15 to-do list. It was surprisingly delicious and I still keep to the breakfast and lunch parts of it. Dinner seems a bit trickier around here because not everyone wants to eat sweet potato tacos with me every night. Something about variety and meat. Idk.

• I also cut out sugar (including fake sugar! #11!) AND milk (bonus points!) during this time. I also came to realize that we have been drinking some really nasty coffee and we needed to upgrade. Another 28 Day Jumpstart realization was that I love sriracha sauce. LOVE. What else can I slather it on???
• And even though I "haven't had time" to read anything longer than a Berenstein Bears book in years, I have somehow found the time to read six books in two months. This, for me, is.... insane.

• Love & Respect was an interesting book, although when I tested the book's theory on Steve, he responded with the "wrong" answer.
• Bossypants was funny, but a lot of the references she made were "before my time" and I sorta thought we were close to the same age, but apparently a lot of things happened in pop culture when I was but a wee thing. Overall, a good read though.
• Dad is Fat is a book I got Steve for his birthday because Jim Gaffigan is hilarious. His book did not disappoint and anyone with kids would enjoy this immensely.
• Yes Please was a dud for me. The whole book felt like she was whining or talking about doing drugs or whining or complaining about being tired. Was not a fan, even though I find Amy Poehler hilarious usually.
• Bread and Wine was gifted to me far too long ago for me to JUST NOW be reading it (sorry, Lauren!), but I finally did and loved it. Now I am waiting to see if I can get an interlibrary loan for some of her other books.
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? was so funny and quick to read and I actually cried I laughed so hard. Highly recommend.
• You can gather by the above books that I like memoir-style books and bonus points if they're funny. I need more recommendations for books like these, so if you know of any, please comment below so I can get started on the interlibrary loan because the book selection here is pretty limited.
• Church today was... interesting. The kids were way more interested in crawling all over the pews and reciting the alphabet than sitting and behaving like storybook children.

• Judging by the heavy whining and snack demands, naptime/quiet time is over and it's time to find something to do to finish off Sunday. Happy last full week of February! Where did this month go??

Time-traveling

• So we went back in America! We arrived last Thursday. We got word on Tuesday that Steve's granddad's health was declining rapidly and so on Wednesday morning, we got leave approved, bought plane tickets, and on Thursday morning, we were leaving Seoul on a jet plane. It was (and still is) a surreal experience. And I am going to use this blog post to straighten out my thoughts on the matter. Welcome to muh brain.

• As soon as we heard that his granddad wasn't doing well, we had planned to wait it out a bit and see how he was doing after his initial five days in hospice. But I had this awful feeling in my stomach all day and couldn't stop thinking about him. Steve's mom emailed the next day letting us know that the sooner we could come, the better. My neighbor was great on Wednesday with taking the kids out to a kids' cafe so I could pack and clean my apartment (not sure why that felt like such an urgent priority, but it was one of the things I could control, so I did it). Then we flew out on Thursday.

• The kids stayed awake for the entire flight. Well, Molly took a two hour nap at the very end, and while I'm thankful that she slept at all (instead of, you know, screaming her face off the entire flight), two hours out of twelve kinda felt like a drop in the bucket. Sam was intent on not missing one minute of having a screen attached to the back of the seat in front of him and did not so much as blink for the first (12 hour) flight. We arrived in Detroit in the morning (despite leaving Seoul in the morning) and ran around and killed time at the airport. The flight from Detroit to Philly was only an hour, but everyone crashed HARD. At that point, we were coming up on 20-something hours of being awake and all that white noise just zzzzzzzzzz.....

• Upon landing in Philly, Sam lost his shit. And I mean, he needed a tranquilizer. Or I needed a tranquilizer. Or a stiff drink. Maybe both. And yet my mother-in-law (God bless her) reacted as if this was the most normal behavior and was very nice to Sam, offering him juice, his socks that he'd thrown on the floorboard, a monster truck, etc. The kind of nice I could never be if someone was kicking my seat every second while flailing about and screaming like a chimpanzee that escaped a mental institution.
• We went straight to the hospice center since his granddad's prognosis was a bit unknown at that point and we wanted to be sure to see him just in case. 
• We left the psycho in the car with my (God bless her again) saintly MIL. Molly had taken that whopping two hour plane nap and was in an agreeable mood (or was scared straight by all the screaming next to her) and she came along with us. She gave Pop pop hugs and kisses and squeaked out her "I wuh yew Poh-poh" a few times. He was so happy to see her. I leaned over to give him a hug and a kiss and he gave me the sweetest series of butterfly kisses on my cheek. Instantly, the trip, the screaming, the last-minute stresses of packing and cleaning, the long flight, and the sudden reintroduction to America melted away. Oh I love that man.
• We told Pop pop we'd be back in the morning to visit (with a well-rested Sam) and went to my in-laws' house. That night, the hospice nurses gave Pop pop some medicine to help him sleep since he was restless and agitated, and unfortunately, we never got to see him awake again after that. Two days later, he passed away, surrounded by family and holding a picture of Sam and Molly. I was parked in my MIL's garage at the time with the sleeping (formerly screaming) kids. I was relieved for him that he was no longer in any pain and that we were able to hug him and kiss him one last time. I can't help but miss him already though. 
• I know he's in heaven now, and I'm so happy about that, but he left a pretty humongous hole here on earth, so if you wouldn't mind saying a few prayers for his family, I know they would appreciate it. 

• The next few days were spent preparing for the funeral and on Thursday, he was laid to rest. 

walking the dog at a painfully slow pace // passed out after watching 101 Dalmations // throwing won into the wishing well- probably wishing we'd find the playplace Steve and I made up so that they'd run through the mall and burn energy (Molly of course stuck her hand in the water and then licked her fingers)

"playing" with Marci // "playing" with Daddy // eating the best cereal he's ever tasted and playing with "Daddy's old toys"

These kids watched omgsomuch tv/movies/ipads. I think that might be their main memory from this trip- unlimited ipads, pajamas, and cereal for every meal. This first week home will be like boot camp for them.

• It was good seeing all of Steve's family, despite the circumstances. We were able to hang out and make pizza and build fires and watch Steve's bar mitzvah tape from 2001. (highly entertaining)

Hard to see, but that's a younger Steve on the screen! How cute is he?!

• Steve and I were able to leave the house for bits of time here and there to run errands (it's really nice to ditch the kids without having to arrange a sitter!) and Target just did not have the same allure that it once held for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, everything in there is beautiful (if not extremely overpriced), but we have no clue where we're going after this. I can't buy anything there. And kids' clothes were just meh and everything else wouldn't fit in our suitcases home. Very underwhelming, I guess.
• I should backtrack and say that the first American store we entered upon our return was Trader Joe's and THAT had me shaking (literally!) I was so overwhelmed. All of the produce- fresh, not rotted, plentiful, variety. And everything written in English to boot! It was just an overload. As a mother told her children that the strawberries were too expensive, I grabbed two pints of them and exclaimed to Steve that these were so cheap! (We pay about $10/pint of strawberries here while the TJ's strawberries were under $3.50. But in Korea's defense, theirs are much tastier.) We stood in the cheese section and just marveled. Didn't buy any cheese, but definitely spent a lot of time gawking. The fresh flowers, the delicious-smelling breads, the yogurt that didn't expire two days after today's date! It was probably not the smartest place to stop first. 

• Our Chick-fil-A experience was similar to Target. I know, I know, don't crucify me! It just didn't taste as good as I remembered and the kids were all "Are you serious right now?" with the playplace. Pretty sure Korea has set some unrealistic expectations for playplaces in their minds. We found a trampoline place online that we wanted to take the kids to so they could burn some energy but it was $16 per hour per kid and do you know that our kids' cafe here charges us $3 per hour per kid and there is also a sandbox and a bunch of toys and people to play with your kids and good coffee? So you can envision how much my eyes were bugging out upon hearing of this jump place. 
• Anyways, let me just say that outside of friends and family, I have no desire to go back to the States. So why don't y'all just move here instead? I know this great little kids' cafe....
• On Valentine's Day, we loaded up and headed back to the airport for the long flight home. 

found a fun playplace at the Philly airport- go figure

pre-flight donut // scared selfie // praise Jesus for electronics and kid-sized headphones // the nap that ended before we ever got on the runway

• We had a layover in Detroit but found a very nice soldier service center there (kinda like the USO) and hung out there until our flight was ready to board. Right before we went to our gate, I was taking Sam out walking around the airport and he wanted to go see this fountain. I told him he could look but not touch since there was nothing blocking it from the general public. And naturally he goes up and leans all up on it and not only soaks his entire shirt, but his beloved bear (aptly named "Brown Bear") too. I drug him back to the soldier center and Steve took him out to buy him a new shirt (a little Detroit memorabilia...). I then took Molly out walking and to the bathroom with me. As soon as she saw the toilet, she loudly declared that she wanted to pee too, and even though she just needed a diaper change, she wanted to sit on the seat as well. So I take her diaper off and then she grabs the toilet seat with both hands. Then I stick her on the seat and she does nothing. She tells me she's done and I tell her I'm going to wipe her. Seeing as the only time I wipe Sam is when he's gone #2, she assumed this was the same and bent straight over and laid her hands right on the floor. I tell her to please just stand right there while I go to the bathroom and don't touch anything. Definitely don't touch your face. That includes picking your nose. Why are you still touching your face??? This is how you got that weird flesh-eating bacterial infection last time we flew to Korea! WHERE IS THE BLEACH?!
• We finally get our hands washed and head back to the soldier center. I immediately forget about Molly's lack of diaper because Sam is now asking me where his wet bear is and showing me his new fancy Detroit shirt that is about two sizes too big for him. After a few minutes, Molly (who is sitting on a nice leather couch) says to me, "I pee pee, Muwmmy." Well shit. Steve looks at me like I have lost my mind because who forgets to put a diaper back on a non-potty-trained child? Me, that's who, ok? I've lost my mind. I let one child hug a fountain and another child pee on a leather couch. I am not winning any awards today. We then hustle to our gate and board with all of the rich first-class folks who will get to fly to Korea in BEDS on the top floor (yes, the plane has two floors!). We made our way to the second-to-last row of the cattle car section and sit down. Ah. Finally. We made it.
• Then the captain comes on and tells us that there is a bit of a delay with an engine something-or-other and then we'll have to go de-ice the plane because it was snowing and then we need to reboot the computers and hopefully we won't be too late and blah blah blah. We sat on the plane for 2.5 hours before it ever even saw the runway. Sam took a nap and woke up before we even taxied to take off. Everyone on the plane was hot, thirsty, hungry, and mighty irritable. We finally took off and everything went well. Although I must say that seeing the flight tracker showing that we have 13 hours and 33 minutes until landing is easily one of the most depressing things I have ever seen in my entire life. The kids weren't terrible, but I still don't recommend taking kids on a flight like that for fun. They actually slept quite a bit on the way back so that was nice. We finally (!!!) arrived in Korea and made our way to customs. Apparently a large chunk of the country was also returning with us because we stood in line at customs for WELL over an hour. With two kids that were "so hungwee!" "so fuwstee!" "so sweepy!" It was SO FUN, YOU GUYS. (eye roll, eye roll, eye roll)

just 400 of our closest friends waiting in line for customs, nbd

• After more than a little crying, we finally got through customs, got our bags, and attempted to figure out how to get all the way out to long-term parking. We had taken a taxi from the parking lot on our way in (running late, freezing, short legs, you know the drill) and it looked like the train wasn't running so late at night, so we just started walking. In the rain. Dragging Molly. You can imagine this was a slow, painful stroll to a car that we weren't quite sure where was parked. Eventually we found it and Molly passed out shortly thereafter. While a normal person would have fallen asleep at the wheel and driven straight into the ocean, Steve and I were raging at the lack of efficiency in the customs department (someone might just write a letter!), eating candy we were hiding from the kids, and talking about how good it felt to be home. The kids woke up right as we got into town and we scrubbed the airplane funk off of everyone and fed them snacks. Then they went to bed around 2am and Steve and I drank wine and celebrated surviving that trip again. We went to bed at 3am and got the least restorative four hours of sleep a person could get. Back to the grind today- sorting through rotten produce at the commi, wondering when (if?) they'll ever have meat in stock again (looks like we will be putting the canned tuna back in rotation this week!), and trying to get unpacked and settled in again.
• Thank you for all of the travel prayers and the prayers for Steve's granddad and family. I appreciate them more than you know!

• Steve put a pass in (again) for us to stay in Seoul on Saturday night. It didn't get approved until Friday evening. By the time I went to book a room, the hotel on post was completely full. BECAUSE OF COURSE. I called and asked to be put on the waiting list and we packed a suitcase on Saturday morning in hopes that we would be able to stay the night.

• In the meantime, we drove to Seoul and visited the National War Museum. We have driven by it dozens of times, and Sam has always asked to go see the airplanes and "hewuhtoptuhs" so we finally went. The child was on cloud nine. Running from airplane to tank to airplane to boat yelling, "Come on, you guys! I gotta show you sumfin COOL!"

Pano from the top of the ship

• Molly was not as enthused. Cold, her knees hurt (or so she says- this is my children's standard excuse for anything they don't want to do), and cold.

• We finally made it inside to thaw out and it was just as great as the outside. Plus warm, so maybe a bit better!

 

I wish they still made cars like this! So much class!

• And then a little target practice...

• We wandered all over the museum learning about Korea at war. While this might not seem very kid-friendly, Sam and Molly are pro-military everything. They love planes, helicopters, soldiers, tanks, etc, etc. They don't quite understand bad guys or shooting, but thought the museum was very entertaining. Even more entertaining was this 3D movie about jets taking out an enemy target. I was sweating bullets the entire time even though I was fairly certain the good guys would come out on top. Sam and Molly remained unfazed.

Can you spot my kinfolk?

• I posted a video to instagram, but in case you didn't see it, Steve pushed a double parked car out of our way.

• After the museum, we went to the PX. While we were there, we got a call from the hotel! A room opened up! Yeehaw!

Nothing says "young and hip" or "romantic weekend getaway" like toting baby wipes on top of your suitcase.

• After a sushi dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

• Snug as a bug, right? Wrong.  Despite skipping naps and going nonstop all day long, the kids were not about to go to sleep at the early hour that Steve and I had hoped for. Around nine, we were seriously talking up bedtime. "This needs to happen NOW. Get in bed NOW. Go to sleep NOW." Molly was devastated. She wanted to go home and sleep in HER crib! With HER doggy! Not here! This was puzzling to say the least... We've stayed here before. They've always loved it. She refused to sleep in her bed with Sam. Eventually she came over and passed out almost immediately on my arm. Sam decided our bed looked irresistible too. The room was so warm that I was beginning to sweat. Co-sleeping is not our thing. I find it miserable. I imagined that this is what life in a FEMA camp must be like. I reminded myself that many mothers find themselves in much worse situations than this. At least there's this comfortable, sweat-soaked bed... Steve finally convinced Sam that they should go sleep on the other bed. I managed to wiggle my arm out from underneath Molly and settled in for what I thought would be the most glorious night of sleep....
• Around midnight I woke up so hot and sweaty. Steve said he was sweaty too. And pushed to the very edge of the bed since Sam decided to sleep horizontally. Even when the thermostat was set on cool, it was still pumping out heat. I begged Steve to crack the window. Bring some of that 20-degree cool relief into this inferno. He did and we all slept happily ever after.... until 6:45 when Sam decided he needed to have an in-depth conversation with Steve. Oh well. Thank goodness for coffee.
• We got ready for church and loaded the kids into the car. We parked near one of the gates that has a train station just outside. We get on the train and ride to Myeongdong. Eventually we find the cathedral, frozen hands and all, with three minutes to spare.

•  Mass was a quick 45 minutes (!!!) and we were back out into the cold.

This was taken after mass and does the actual church no justice at all.

• After mass, we walked back to the train station and went to the hotel, where the breakfast we had been bribing them with all morning was waiting.

• On our way back to the hotel, Sam's foot got caught in the car door as I was closing it. This resulted in much crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The promise of bacon and a donut proved to be enough to soothe him though (and his foot is fine).
• After breakfast, we went upstairs to grab our suitcase and check out of the hotel. The hotel has a big fancy revolving door in the front. The kids love it. As we are walking towards the door, Molly seems to have no idea that she is not six inches wide and just walks straight into the door as it's revolving. She gets smushed in between the door and the wall. As Steve hulks the door in the opposite direction, I yank Molly out. We finally make it into the car. I tell Steve that we need to get out of here before someone meets their maker. (Molly is fine.)
• The rest of Sunday was spent napping and napping and watching kids movies. Because it's hard to injure yourself doing those activities. Amen.
• Monday was spent half-watching the SuperBowl (we don't get any commercials, yawn), so we ran some errands and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. It was quiet and peaceful and perfect. We need more three-day weekends just like it.