life with the lieutenant

• 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*