life with the lieutenant

• Steve rolled over and bumped into me. It was still pitch-black outside so I knew it wasn't anywhere close to time to get up. I asked him what time it was. 4:30. Ugh. As I lay in the dark, going through my mental to-do list, gauging just how tired I was going to be if I never fell back to sleep, I decided that I wanted my one goal for that day to be "run one mile without stopping."

no one said anything about it being pretty or quick or fun

• Luckily I fell back asleep, and when I woke up, my friend texted me asking if I wanted to go for a jog. Motivation! We went and I know that one mile is nothing, but after huffing behind the boat for 12 minutes and 18 seconds, it sure felt like something to my lungs. I hope to whittle that number down to something under ten before the heat of the summer is upon us.
• And bless Sam's heart, as soon as I started my (very slow) trot, he exclaimed, "Oh we are going so fast!" Bless you, child. My little portable cheerleader. 
• Afterwards, we wandered over to the playground/sandbox and let the kids move for a change. 

• Spring is not happening as fast as I'd like it to up here. Seoul is having cherry blossom festivals and I am lucky to find one cherry blossom tree that has bloomed and isn't stuck right next to someone's clothesline/exhaust pipe/rusted tin roof. Here you only manage to see a tiny portion of the LIME GREEN FENCE that encloses this cherry blossom from the sidewalk.

Can you see them hanging over the fence down there??

• After lunch, I mandated that naps be taken, but Molly refused, and instead just mocked Sam while he was sleeping. After he woke up, we made our way up to post to see if there was any marked down Easter candy. The Easter Bunny flat out FORGOT to get me a Reeses anything, so I was hoping to find that there. Unfortunately, there were no Reeses. And the Easter candy that was left (bleh) wasn't even marked down. Wtf. Seriously.
• While we were at the PX, we went ahead and got Sam's hair cut and then went to Starbucks so we could have a reason to drop by Steve's office. We aimlessly drove around and tried to find some cherry blossoms, or signs of life spring. Found almost nothing so we drove home and I made dinner.
• Tuesday morning brought preschool and a slew of household chores for me. It is amazing how much I can truly accomplish when someone is not standing directly in front of me, undoing whatever I'm doing, or creating a new mess in an area I just cleaned. After cleaning and running errands, I met Steve for lunch and then ran through the commi. Picked up the kids, they resisted naptime pretty hard (UGH), woke up, convinced them that picking up toys and vacuuming was a game (!), and made dinner.

Just trying to get a picture of her cute new pj's- sticker book wins again though.

We are venturing back into breathtaking sunsets again. (!)

Will never get enough of this pizza. NEVAH.

• Wednesday, and I couldn't take it any longer. Must. Go. See. Cherry blossoms.

They literally screamed when we got to Seoul and saw the blooms. Here they are jumping up and down in excitement.

photo credit: Sam

He's got good camera phone skills!

An older lady offered to take pictures of all three of us. Sam was not thrilled to be kicked off picture-taking duty so soon.

• How many pictures of cherry blossoms is too many? I'm clearly not worried with the answer to that question.

Had to get Seoul Tower in on the action!

Having Molly as photographer proved to be slightly more challenging... there are approximately 68 pictures of this sidewalk and my feet.

Molly is usually unsure of what to do with her hands during pictures.

• Because everything was going so well after we left Yeouido Park, I somehow navigated us to post (?!) and we ate lunch at the sit-down sushi place instead of the germ-infested Burger King play pit.

Sam, just eating his rice (did not like) and soup (liked) while drinking WATER out of a coffee cup. He feels so important here.

Molly and Sam are treated like little royals here by the waitresses- she kept encouraging Molly to eat her rice so she could bring her some ice cream. Oh the hardship!

• After such a successful lunch, I was feeling a little crazy. We stopped by Aggie's house to drop something off after picking up some birthday gifts at the PX. Then we went to ride the train. Supposedly, we were going to ride to Gyeongbokgung palace. But in my happy delirium (high off of good behavior, sushi, and cherry blossoms, no doubt), I got us on the wrong line. And that is really hard to do given all of the maps and the phone app I was staring at.

I am still unaware of my mistake at this point.

• All the kids wanted to do was ride the train, so after I realized my mistake, we got off at the next stop, switched directions, and rode the train right back to where we started. Of course, the kids had no clue. They were just happy to ride the train (we only went two stops away from where we started). So instead of popping out of the exit we usually do, I led them over to the underground entrance of the National Museum of Korea.

FWOWUHS!

It is so rare to get a picture of Sam outdoors, smiling, and looking at the camera. When I do, it's like some jackpot trifecta.

Molly headed over to check out Seoul Tower

Tiny silhouettes

Looking for fish

We stopped for drinks and a sit.

Dog park on post- Molly was ready to hop that ditch and jump the fence.

• Both kids were asleep by the time I buckled them into their carseats and I got to drive home in silence. As soon as we got home, I bathed the kids, hopped in the shower, and then Steve came home and brought chicken with him. Kids slept HARD that night.
• Thursday was preschool and shockingly, everyone woke up on time! After I picked them up, we were trying to decide what to do with our afternoon since napping was CLEARLY not in the cards.

Molly is unimpressed with the Seoul Tower I built.

That's the reaction I'm looking for, Sam!

• We decided to go walking with friends and see if we could find some macarons that a mutual friend had posted about on IG. First stop: playground.

Had to take a picture to show Aggie just how sad the cherry blossom situation is up here compared to Seoul. LOL (CHERRY BLOSSOM! Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. COME ON TREES.)

Another playground- new to us- embedded in sand, of course, for maximum dirtiness.

• God forbid we go in before the sun sets, so we walked around and said hi to the cows that live near us.

Moo.

Out on the farm, approximately four blocks from our high rise apartments.

So much candy was promised on this walk.

There is an entire painted wall one block behind the main road we drive on every day. I never would had known it existed if my friend hadn't taken us back here.

My walking buddy also spotted a bag of discarded glass tiles. I picked up a few and then Steve and I hauled the kids back out after dinner to pick up a few more. We are thinking we can use it somewhere in the bathroom we will redo in the house we do not yet own in a location that we are still completely unaware of. Planners. Yep. That's us.

• Friday morning, Sam slept in. It is rare for him to sleep past seven no matter what time he goes to bed, so naturally I kept going in there to assess breathing and make sure he wasn't dying of a fever or anything. Molly kept herself busy by not having to share any of the toys with anyone else.

She got this sweet doll for her birthday and it looks just like her! I finally noticed that the doll was named "Myra" which is what Sam called Molly before it evolved into "Myer." (And now it's "Mowwy" and I can't even talk about it right now.)

• We couldn't take it any longer and had to wake him up at 9:40. Then we hustled out the door and went.... back to Seoul.

But first, lunch. And while we did go to Burger King, we did not sit in the play area or play. We were there to eat and run! Germs, stay back!

Train ride! Kids were more excited than they appear. They were doing their best to be very very quiet...

• This was the first time I became irritated with Koreans clamoring to take their picture. Sam and Molly have those gingery light-sensitive eyeballs and during the hours from 11am-2pm, they cannot be expected to do anything beyond a heavy squint. Forget locating a helicopter in the sky during these hours as well. Much frustration. Anyways, we were fighting the squint and Sam announced that he had to poop (we had JUST left the train station with TONS of potties!! Whyyyyyyy) and every time I would get Molly to put her hands down (from shielding her eyes from the sun) and both of them sort of looking in my direction, another group of Korean school girls would gather around and coo and try to take their picture (which sent Sam and Molly scrambling in the opposite direction). Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally we got this semi-successful picture and went off in search of a toilet.

Shade is their BFF.

• We finally saw a toilet sign and made our way out this tiny gate and then I saw a sign that said "no readmittance" so I slowly backed up and decided we'd find another toilet or Sam could just poop behind a bush somewhere. (WE JUST GOT HERE FIVE MINUTES AGO WHY WHY WHY) As I'm creeping back through the gate, the guard runs out and yells "no entry! no entry!" and motions for us to get back out and surely he saw us walking out five seconds prior?? I tried explaining that I know not what I do, I am an American, so stupid, so sorry, please let me in, I want to stay longer than five minutes, my kid just has really bad bowel timing, I am not a liar, LOOK AT THE TIME STAMP ON MY FREAKING TICKET. Then a Korean angel stepped in, motioned at the guard to back it up, and said, "you fine. Don't worry." Then I explained what had happened and he explained it to the guard in Korean like he was some sort of authority figure (? he was just another visitor to the palace) and the guard just let us come back in. Then the Korean angel walked around with us and asked where we were from. 
• Side story: This question always feels like a trick question with no right answer. Do I tell them America? With some, this is a sufficient answer. For others, they're like, no shit you're from America. WHERE in America?
• I told him we were from Tennessee (no clue why I said that)- it was the first thing that popped into mind (I was born there though, so technically, not a lie)- and he made a few arms movements like he was google maps, routing his way from Korea to Tennessee. After a minute or two of that, he said, "Ah. Yes. Tennessee. I know it." He then told me his second home country was Oklahoma. Was not expecting that. Then he told me where some bathrooms were that were inside the palace gates and we parted ways.

This is the only thing that got them through all the walking. "I swear there are some fish up here!" (Please God, let there be fish in this water.)

Luckily, there were plenty of fish.

Molly- gives no shits about another pond that we need to walk to.

Luckily, I loaded my purse with candy for bribes.

Second pond. More fish.

"Last picture, guys, I SWEAR."

Juice on the train

• Steve was home waiting for us when we got back and we went straight outside to the playground. Because car naps! Some people are energized...

• I was surely NOT cooking that night, so off to the beef and leaf we went. (Where we still have to cook our food, but at least I don't have to prep or clean up.)

The aftermath- too hungry to take a picture before or during.

Can you spot the gingers?

The ajumma made them their own little set up and put Spongebob on.

• Saturday morning was our neighbor's boys' joint birthday party at Pang Pangs.

This is Molly's face now when I ask her to say "cheese" or "kimchi". If I can get her to say "HE!" then we are usually golden.

A floor table, because Korea, and how cute is the Captain America party stuff??

• After the party, we swung by the apartment to pick up a few things (namely, diapers and wipes) and then swung by McDonalds in hopes that with full tummies, the kids would take a car nap. Because you guessed it- we were headed back to Seoul. CHERRY BLOSSOMS, YOU GUYS. 
• The traffic was absolutely NUTS. I mean, this was the last Saturday that they would be blooming and everyone in Seoul was flocking to see them obviously. We finally got parked and then were shuffled under the trees along with the rest of the crowd.

OMG so many people

• So the above family photo ^^ this older man asked if he could take our picture. We said yes and everyone smiled so nicely! Except the weird part was that he took the photo with his phone, not mine. And then he turned around like, "thanks for the picture! Nice to meet you!" I ran over and asked if he'd take one with MY phone. You know, because I like pictures of my own family.... He took this one and then had me take another one with his phone so he could get in the picture with Steve and the kids. Too funny.

• I know, I know. Enough with the cherry blossoms! But I just can't. All of these beautiful pictures are on my phone and they do me no good there. They must be put on the blog so I can go back through when I'm 90 and look at how beautiful this place was.

Selfie stick nation. I keep meaning to buy one but whenever I'm in town near the store, I always forget won.

This portion of the festival was blocked off from traffic.

Off the crowded path. Can finally breathe again. Loosen the grip on our children.

• After I took these shots of Molly, a group of teenage boys rushed over and asked her for a picture. She just shooed them away and said no. Then they apologized to her as if she was somehow inconvenienced by the whole ordeal. Girlfriend is in for a mighty rude awakening in a few months.
• After potty breaks, we walked over to the river and joined everyone else that just wanted to relax and enjoy the perfect spring weather. We watched kites, bikes, dogs, people, boats, and jet skis.

•  Sam picked me all the best flowery weeds like it was his job.

• We went back into the madness to find the kids some ice cream.

• Could only find Turkish ice cream, which Steve was leery about, but the kids didn't seem to mind. I didn't taste it, but Steve said it had the consistency of frozen banana pudding. Yuck, no thanks.

• Sam insisted we watch more boats, so we went back down and sat on the grass again. Then Molly fell on some steps (after being warned 487 zillion times to NOT go on the steps) and broke the tip off her ice cream cone. Forget the skinned elbow, total devastation over the broken ice cream cone. We decided it was time to try and find our way to post so we could eat dinner and head home. After quick baths, the kids konked out quickly in bed and Steve and I weren't far behind them!
• Sunday morning started with Sam hopping on our bed asking for breakfast. Steve looked at his phone- 8am. We have to leave by 8:30 to get to church on time. Steve's morning routine is... intense. So there was no way he was making it. But I hustled big time and got the kids clothes ironed, breakfasts packed, coffee made, and we were out the door by 8:32. Not too shabby. The kids looked much better than me obviously.

• We made it church during the second verse of the processional hymn, so I'd say we did ok. The kids were good, although Sam told me I needed to call the Easter Bunny on the way home so he could load him up with candy. Sadly, I had to break it to him that that is a once a year kind of deal. Heartbreak.
• After getting home, we changed into play clothes and walked down to the sandbox. I had gotten a digger toy at a Korean thrift store this past week and Sam was itching to try it out.

But first we feed the fish rice cakes (except Sam- he really likes rice cakes and snacks on them while everyone else feeds the fish).

Racing!

Molly on the new-to-us digger

Dongducheon's version of cherry blossoms- still beautiful, just not quite as plentiful as Seoul's.

• Quick stop for a pizza lunch, which turned into a pizza picnic at the fair.

We know not what we order. No English, but thankfully there were pictures! We ended up with cheese and some sort of combination pizza with a crazy crust.

Combination pizza with the crazy crust. Also included- garlic dipping sauce (which was basically garlic mayo- holy yum)

• Molly was eager to ride the same back-of-the-truck ride that Sam rode last week, but we were short about two dollars for them to ride, so we distracted them and headed home. Steve and Sam went to run errands together and Molly and I just hung out at home. We went to the playground and Steve and Sam joined us. Then dinner, baths, bed! What a week! I'm pooped.