• Lunchtime on Monday was picnic time. This excited Sam greatly. We were no longer just eating grilled cheese on the living room floor; we put down the beach towel and had a PICNIC. COOL MOM, RIGHT HERE, YOU GUYS.

Molly's view of things - crib mattress and ipad, Sam watching random youtube videos about hot wheels cars, Mommy's ass, Daddy's poor sweaty back.

One last night camping in the living room. The only benefit to letting them use electronics is how close they sit to each other.

• Going to sleep on the air mattress on the last night in our apartment, I couldn't help but think about our first night on the air mattress in our apartment. 
• I kept looking out the window at the blinking lights on top of the empty hospital on the mountain and wondering when I'd see the entire North Korean army flooding over the top. Was that light blinking before now? Is that normal? Is that smoke? Is that a new light blinking? What was that noise? Better sleep with one eye open in case I have to grab my kids and haul a$$ to Seoul and get out of country. 
• Of course, nothing of the sort ever happened. I ended up feeling safer living a few miles from North Korea than I ever have in the US. And I'll miss that the most, I think.

Again with the phone... I think he knows that if he wakes us up before 6, we will let them do almost anything if it allows us to keep lying in bed.

• Tuesday was the day we had our final walk-through with our realtor and landlord. We spent the morning cleaning and getting rid of all of our possessions. The rest of our time at the apartment was spent saying goodbye to friends. Not too many of them left since we are among the last to leave, but who could forget White Doggy?

"White doddy wuv me." She was devastated last night when she realized that we weren't going back to see White Doggy again. (White Doggy lives in the candy shop below our apartments. We literally went in this shop every. single. day. Sometimes we bought juice or water, sometimes we bought nothing, but every time we talked to the owners (very nice husband and wife) and said hello and goodbye to White Doggy.)

A little bit of goodbye stomping to bid farewell to our neighbors below.

We will miss Sing Min (Cinnamon) and Sandy so much! They chased the kids around the playground one last time. Sandy said they would "always not forget Sam and Molly." I LOVE THEM.

Goodbye, Humanvill! It is so weird to think that we don't live here anymore.

Asking for just one decent picture proved to be too much.

• We got settled into our room at the lodge quickly. We got a family suite and it is AWESOME. Separate bedrooms, TWO TOILETS (this is huge for us since once one child announces the urge to potty, the other one suddenly can't wait another second before having an accident), and amazing artwork provided by the Good Lord Himself, according to Molly.

• I sold my last item EVAH on the yard sale page and had to drop it off across post, so we all took a ride on the bus. Steve is looking forward to going more than 24 hours without shaving.

• Since living in the lodge, Molly has set up her workstation. She is busy, busy, busy. (And we learned early on that it is just easier to unplug all the phones than to follow her around and hope that she doesn't dial 911 when we go to the bathroom.)

• We played at the playground and the boys got haircuts. After sufficiently sweating, we came back to our room to eat lunch and then it was time for Steve to final out. Last day in uniform! Big deal for Captain D!

All done! Goodbye, Army! We won't miss you!!

• After getting all of his paperwork signed and plane tickets picked up, we had to ride the bus over to the medical clinic to get our medical records.

Don't get between the garrison commander and his tunes.

Sam is too cool to sit with us.

Old habits die hard. I can't bring myself to throw cardboard or plastic into the trashcan yet.

• We couldn't leave Korea without one last stop at our favorite kids' cafe. So on the bus we went!

Jump,

sand,

toys.

The sweet owners that treat these two like the royalty they believe they are. We are going to miss them so SO very much.

• After hugs and bows and goodbyes, we headed back to the bus stop. We got on the same bus we rode in on, assuming it turned around just down the street and headed back towards post. Of course it did not. An hour later and with growling tummies, we made it back to post. Even though we did not intend to ride the bus throughout our entire town and the next one over, it really was nice. I enjoyed seeing everything again and realizing it might be the very last time I see some of this stuff. Selling produce in an open air market isn't the hipster experience like it is made to be in the States- it's just the way it's done here. There is a truck that drives around with a giant rotisserie chicken cooker in the back. Trucks full of watermelons parked in a no parking zone. People walking EVERYWHERE. Moms pushing babies, little boys walking home from baseball practice, ajummas peeling garlic to sell on the sidewalk. Looking at it with my "last" eyes, I realized that we just lived two years in a very foreign country. And we loved it. We stuck out like sore thumbs wherever we went, and it was awesome. We were welcomed with open arms and always treated like special guests, not the annoying Americans who still can't speak much Korean. We are looking forward to getting back to normal life, whatever that is, but I know we will have a giant Korea-sized hole in our hearts because this place really does feel like home. 
• I'm sure I'll be back soon to sort out my feelings some more after I have to say "see ya later" to my BFF Aggie tomorrow. *sob*

• Our 6th anniversary was an interesting one. It started out blazing hot, so Steve took Sam and the wagon down to a store to find some things to repair our apartment with. Molly and I walked to the bakery down the street to find a cake. This bakery is set up with everything right out in the open (cakes are in a fridge). So picture dozens of beautiful-looking pastries at Molly's eye level. Before we walk in, I tell her that we are only here to look for a cake, NOT to touch things. I keep reminding her of this throughout our entire time in the bakery. She does a decent job of just looking and sniffing. I remind her again that we are NOT TOUCHING anything and turn to pay the man for the cake. As I turn back around to check on Molly, I see her tongue touching a donut. And not a donut that I don't mind purchasing because donuts are delicious, but she is licking a donut filled with RED BEAN PASTE and UGH SERIOUSLY?! Naturally we buy the donut and Molly pretended to like it for a few minutes and then threw it away. 

freaking disgusting

• Later that afternoon, Steve and Molly ran up to post to go to the commi and Sam and I hung out at home. The sky turned BLACK and then the heavens opened up.

• Once Steve and Molly got home, we called a cab and rode up to post to see a movie about sheep. Molly somehow managed to fall asleep in the cab (cab rides here are anything but gentle and peaceful and sleep-inducing) and everyone was a bit grumpy about being taken to a movie. (Noted for the future, kids! Don't worry!) They ended up loving the movie and we loved not being caged inside our apartment. 
• After the rain and movie ended, the heat broke for a bit and we were able to walk outside without our faces melting right off our bodies!

hula-hoopin' ajumma

burn that energy

• After invading an ant bed with their feet, the crazies really lost their minds (hmm waking up before 6 every morning might play a small part? maybe?) and we had to do the walk of shame back up the mountain, carting two whining children in the wagon behind us. If we don't draw enough attention on our own, the screaming whining kids sure do their best to make up for it.
• We proceeded to give the quickest baths in the history of bathing, and chucked the kids in bed. Our original anniversary plans included sharing the cake with the kids. That plan was quickly aborted.

so cute, right??

• Then we celebrated surviving another day of sweat by doing a face mask together.

I LOVE this face mask. It goes on smooth and once it starts working on your skin, it fizzes and bubbles up and makes you look like the Hulk with a serious skin condition.

• The next morning brought another early wakeup, courtesy of our redheaded alarm clocks. I was in the kitchen and Steve was shaving. The kids were sitting on our air mattress playing. All of a sudden I hear crying and Steve runs over to see Sam with a discharged epipen in his hand, blood on his foot, and Molly holding the other epipen, uncapped and ready to go. The child literally stabbed himself with an epipen. At the risk of sounding like a basic white chick, I CAN'T EVEN. Whyyyyyyyy?????? I know that if I was to use it in the case of an allergic reaction, the next step would be to go to the ER. But what about an accidental discharge? I don't even know if any of the medicine had time to get in his body. I did what any other normal person would do and freaked the freak out. Basic google searches wouldn't even show us half the results because of our overseas location. (FRUSTRATING!) Then I called the nurse advice line at our clinic. I had heard from the officer in charge of the clinic that he kept the phone on him to make things easier, so I knew I'd get a direct answer. Except when I called the number, I got a Korean message that is basically the equivalent of "the number you have dialed is no longer in service." Except it sounded like, "ahleesooayesoh, aimnowahsimdreemneeda." I tried calling back a few more times, but kept getting the same message. So I called the actual clinic number. Which is now routed through the hospital in Seoul. I picked the option to do a telephone consult. Except that was just an answering machine. (And here we are, a day later, with still no response from that "consult.") After calling back again, I selected the option to talk to someone at the front desk/staff duty. Was met with the recording, "There has been an error processing your request. Please try calling back later." The only other option is to call the Korean emergency number, but the thought of trying to simply ask a question about an epipen- I could already envision the confusion. I pictured us riding in the Korean ambulance (glorified minivan) on our way to the Korean hospital and explaining that he stabbed himself with an epipen. And then the Koreans mistaking that for, "HE NEEDS AN EPIPEN." And then stabbing him with another one. So while going to an ER, any ER, seemed like the most logical thing to do, here it was not. Luckily, Aggie is a nurse and has nurse friends and made a few calls and reassured me after checking for a few things that Sam would be fine. And the kids' carry-on backpacks are now hidden. Silly me, thinking that having an epipen in his very own bag would be the safest thing for him in case of a nut emergency! OH SILLY ME. I am now carrying all the epipens and meds in my bag and let's just all hope there is no emergency situation at all, ever. Amen. Side note: I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE. NOW.

• After having all the morning fun we could have ever imagined, we had some people come by to pick up our Korean-plug fan, the AC unit in the kids' room, and all of our Korean-plug extension cords. In other words, $H!T'$ GETTING REAL. 
• I laid with Sam on the crib mattress while he watched some sort of Hot Wheels video on Steve's phone and at 5 in the afternoon, I just passed right on out. Kid shows are SO. BORING. 

Look at how happy this boring stuff makes him.

• Steve woke me up fifteen minutes later because I had to walk down into town to do some photos. I also needed to change. Unfortunately, Steve used my pants to wipe up a water spill in the kitchen while draining that AC unit we sold, so I was left wearing some questionable shorts and just grabbed the first shirt that looked like it might match and skedaddled outta there. Since all my bags were packed, I just carried my camera and phone (and fan!) down the hill and when I got to the location, I pulled off my lens cap and went to stick it in my shirt pocket. Except, my shirt suddenly didn't have a pocket. Because MY SHIRT WAS ON INSIDE OUT. You know what they say- you only have one chance to make a first impression. Good thing I'm not a professional! Because I sure didn't look the part. The pictures actually went really smoothly despite my sweating like a pig and laying all in the mud. And at least I knew why everyone was staring at me on my walk home.
• Another morning that started before 6 because why miss a sunrise if you can help it? And then our last meal at our kitchen table.

I made and froze something like 800 waffles before they packed up my waffle iron and that is pretty much all we'll be eating until we move into the lodge tomorrow afternoon. Get your insulin shots ready, ladies!

• The guys from housing were supposed to come at 9 to pick up our table and chairs, washer and dryer, and fridge. So when they rang out doorbell at 8, I went scrambling to grab a bra and Steve ended up answering the door in a beach towel and with shaving cream all over his face. Nothing says, "YOU'RE EARLY" quite like that answering the door. They set to work taking everything out and were done within minutes.

• Luckily we still have our two kimchi fridges to store cold items in and we will be able to do laundry at the lodge. I edited photos on a crib mattress on the floor and my butt is officially asleep. Steve cleared a few more things on post and now we are just trying to figure out how to avoid the heat while also not going insane today. Because it's Monday, and once again, nothing is open. Last night in our apartment! I still can't believe we're leaving.

6

2009 - wedded bliss

2010 - pregnant with Sam / celebrating Steve's upcoming graduation and commissioning / just got back from a trip to New Orleans with my family

2011 - beach trip to the Gulf while Sam stayed with my parents / pregnant with Molly

2012 - prepping for a deployment / overwhelmed by Molly's delicious chub / Sam still had hair

2013 - just moved to Korea / living without furniture / celebrated at a kids' cafe

2014 - military ball / overnight trip to Seoul

2015 - pregnant again / no furniture in Korea again / another cute cake from the bakery down the street / love him more than ever

• When was the last time I blogged this much? Before Molly was born? Can you tell yet that I am BORED OUT OF MY DAMN MIND?! Well, I am. We all are. Steve can somehow sleep on the hardwood floor with his towel pillow, so he seems content, if not in desperate need of a chiropractor. We are waiting for the hundred degree heat to die down a bit so we can go outside and play. In the meantime, we watch the rest of the world melt through the windows. If you haven't moved across the Pacific while pregnant in the middle of summer, you just haven't lived. And by "lived", I mean "sweat your guts out and ask your husband to repeatedly smell you because that smell cannot be coming from you. It. can. NOT. Has to be Korea. Or one of those smelly kids. Or, you know, anything but you. Please God."
• Our main HHG shipment was packed and picked up today. I have to brag on these movers, because it took them less than 3.5 hours to pack and move all of our wordly possessions. We have a tiny apartment, but Steve also lovingly refers to me as a hoarder when I explain that I cannot throw away that yarn/need all those felt balls/refuse to part with the kids' artwork, so I think the fact that our whole house could be packed and shipped in such a short amount of time disproves this whole hoarder theory. Right?! Not a hoarder.

I can't tell you what's in those boxes, but I'm pretty sure I need it. Again, not a hoarder.

God bless whoever is smart enough to create such technology. I think we can honestly credit the person who came up with ipads as saving these kids' lives today, because otherwise they surely would have been crushed by a box spring in a box while playing "the maze game."

Maze game in action

Ok, starting to look like hoarders now.

Molly strapped herself into her carseat and then freaked out because she couldn't get it undone on her own. haha "what was that, Molly? Can't hear you over all the packing tape and moving.... enjoy the show...." And please judge away on the pile o' crap that will see us through until we leave Korea.

Finally the crane was being lifted into place- the kids were beside themselves with excitement.

And then we went to the playground to watch our things go down the lift and sweat our guts out in the zillion degree heat. Praise the Lord above that our two favorite friends just also happened to be the only other people insane enough to be outside at this hour too. Sandy ("SMART") and Sing Min (Molly calls her Cinnamon) are like the best babysitters that never think playing with a 3 and 4yo is lame. They chase them all over creation, bring them candy and bubbles, and generally do my job for me. They are the best and I really want to take them back with me. Or pay them for all the service they provide. They refuse to even let us buy them ice cream. SAINTS AMONG US.

• After the movers left and the house was emptied and set right side up again, Steve and I set to cleaning the floors. The movers asked if they could wear their shoes in the house while they packed, and we said yes. But to be honest, after living here for two years and checking my shoes at the door of every place I've entered, it really skeeves me out now to see shoes in the house. So all the floors were mopped and bathrooms were cleaned and..... nothing. We've got nothing to do. I am scheduled to do someone's baby's photos tomorrow evening, so that keeps us in town all day due to our lack of transportation. It's also mine and Steve's wedding anniversary, and we've got a whopping nothing planned for that (who's surprised?). Sunday might include another bus ride to Seoul to burn time. Monday is the day the housing folks come get their things that we've been renting (washer/dryer/fridge/table/chairs). Tuesday we have our final walk-through and clear housing, then move into the luxurious, the glamorous, the swanky.... Camp Casey Lodge. Yes, accommodations that include the word "lodge" in them almost always conjure up feelings of jealousy in others. That's normal, ok? I just hope they can pony up and give us two beds, otherwise the kids might feel more skanky than swanky. We were told that they couldn't guarantee us a room with two beds, despite there being four people in our party and well, too bad. Not much else we can do for ya. Kids like sleeping on floors anyway, right? Especially skeevy Army hotel, sorry, LODGE, floors. I'm sure we'll survive. Three nights at the lodge and then a 6am report time for the airport shuttle bus just outside of post. 
• Then Hawaii! By way of Tokyo. We'll get there eventually.

• The first set of movers have come and gone this morning. They took our "express" shipment, which included my Kitchenaid, coffee maker, and vacuum (aka The Big Three). Basically, the kitchen is dead to me now. We are officially swapped over to plastic utensils and paper plates and tomorrow we will be sleeping on the floor. We will still be in our apartment though, and that truly is the silver lining! None of this feels real yet. I feel like someone hid my mixer in a cabinet somewhere and life here will just keep going on as usual.

• Yesterday felt long and stressful. It was about 400 degrees with 100% humidity and we had to get the kids out to burn some energy. Of course, we had to wait until almost 11 to get out and go somewhere because nothing in Korea opens until 11. That is one part of life here that I will seriously not miss. That, and every Thursday on post, nothing opens until 1pm. Oh, and every Monday, everything everywhere in Korea is closed. I am ready for some 24/7 America. Anyways, we took a big ol' sweaty walk down to Pang Pangs to let the kids jump and play. 

All three kids had a great time.

• But then it turned into lunchtime and we had to skedaddle before everyone's hangry started to show. We sweaty walked it back to McDonalds and ate and watched all the cars go by. One last sweaty walk up the hill and then Poopalooza 2015 began. For some reason (maybe the McDonalds?) both kids just could NOT stop pooping yesterday. We hit new lows when Steve walked in the kids' bathroom and said something about there being pooped smeared everywhere. I was in the kitchen and actually started laughing when I heard that (smeared poop is always funnier if you're not the one dealing with it), but then I got called in for reinforcement and seriously you guys, poop was EVERYWHERE. I have no idea how she (sorry to out you, Myer) even managed to get it on the bottom of one foot and on the stool and then a beanbag chair, but she did. After that, I was ready to strap some diapers on these potty-trained children and call it a day. We ate all the leftovers in the fridge for dinner and somehow the little people still found fault with a dinner of macaroni and cheese and apple slices. Long baths, early bedtime, then Steve and I got to organizing the items that would be going in the express shipment. 

That paper chain used to touch the floor! Holy smokes!

• I had my last OB appointment here this week. While I won't miss our clinic here, I will miss the sweet Korean nurse that subtracted two pounds off my weight since I was wearing sandals and holding my (empty) wallet. Bless her. I need her to do my weight check every time. Might even lose some by the end of this pregnancy, according to her readings!
• And speaking of Third Baby, there is nothing really to report (other than the fact that we are officially halfway there!). This is not a blog where you will find weekly bumpdates because 

1. ain't nobody got time for that
2. boring
3. I think we all know how this story ends (spoiler: baby)
4. I don't know how to take a flattering side view photo of myself, or if that scenario even exists, so I just avoid "bump photos" altogether to save us all from cringing. You're welcome.

• I did venture out to the Korean OB clinic last week because I just really needed to settle down and know that everything in there was ok, and the Korean clinic will give you an ultrasound if you give them $30, so that seemed easy enough. Well, it would have been easy enough if I had a car and didn't have to drag two kids through the rain to a place that wasn't terribly close to a train station and then wait for over an hour with said children who were not at all entertained by the Korean game show that was being played in the waiting room. I was finally seen though and everything checked out just fine and I could breathe again. After going over everything with the ultrasound tech, I had to wait to see the doctor. She went through every ultrasound again with me, but in rapid-fire succession and while she speaks very good English, it was still hard to listen through her accent while she spoke so quickly. 
• doctor: "liverkidneyspalatteumbilicalcordspinebrain"
• me: "did you say cleft palatte?!"
• doctor: "no. Palatte is fine. heartbeatspinalcordstomachintestinesbrain"
• me: ... 
• doctor: "Baby is fine. You come back four weeks and see baby again."
• me, happily: "Well, we're moving in two weeks so this will be my last visit."
• doctor, uninterested: "Ok. Bye bye."

• We rode the bus down to the Army post in Seoul this past week to kill time. There is a free bus that runs from our post to Seoul's post. While I was checking out the bus schedule, I completely forgot what day it was (pregnancy brain, yes?) and based our travel around the weekend schedule. After coming to my senses and realizing that I am an idiot, we ended up not being able to catch the bus from our post. This resulted in quite the hustle down the hill from our apartment to the train station. We rode the train for a few stops and got off in the next big town over. From there we took a cab to the Army post between us and Seoul. The buses do a "layover" there and we were able to walk onto post and take a bus from there to Seoul. The bus is so nice- air conditioned, plenty of seats, and we get to just relax and not worry about traffic. After arriving in Seoul, we walked over to the PX and had lunch. We brought some "cheesy dibbles" for Sam and Molly (I will cut the first person that tells him they're called cheetos!) for after they finished their sandwich. 

Look at that adorable cheesy cheese.

• Then we literally looked at every single thing in the PX. We were walking around the TV section and found Despicable Me playing, so we just parked it there for about 20-30 minutes and soaked up the AC.

• We are past the point about being ashamed of this sort of thing; we really just need something - anything - to do that doesn't involve being in our apartment or sweating our guts out all over town. After a nice long bus ride home (our bus companions were QUITE entertaining to say the least), we made it home in time to play on the playground, baths, dinner, and beds.
• The kids have been really good with all of this transition/upheaval. They are entertaining themselves with their imaginations since we've packed up 90% of their toys. Lately they've taken to playing "golf" with hockey sticks and tennis balls. Not at all concerning when our tv sits two feet off the ground/hockey stick level. Thankfully the tv will be packed up tomorrow. Or maybe I shouldn't be too thankful about that. It provides quite a bit of entertainment when it's too hot/early to do anything else around here.

Here's to hoping Steve's phone never dies or loses internet connectivity.

• Once we have all of our furniture moved out, I suspect this move will feel a little more "real" to me. But right now we are just doing the same ol' same ol' and life just keeps on moving.