To Mom mom's house we go

Steve is back! All is right with the world again! At least at home. We had a small playground snafu with some older kids the other day (nothing serious) and it made my mama heart hurt at the thought of sending my sweet, sensitive Sammy to a New York City public school. (Molly called them all blockheads (we love some Charlie Brown over here) so I tend to worry less about her.) I tried typing my thoughts out, but since it is 2016, a time defined by epic butthurt, I couldn't come up with a way to write it without imagining myself being chewed out by a homeschool mom or a public school mom. So I just trashed it altogether and vented to some (unfortunate) friends. (Thanks and sorry, Kelly and Casey!)

Steve's work trip took him to Ft Bragg for the week, but he was able to fly into Philly and hang out for the weekend before riding back up to NY with us. The kids were SO excited to go see their grandparents. They have the best time there. I'm sure it has nothing to do with toys and tv and pure sugar and everyone telling them yes all the time.

A little person playing with Little People

"I know we just pulled out 6 million toys, but now we need you to read us 9,000 books."

Sneaky Sam found some chocolate pretzels and he knows that no one will tell him no.

Sam rigged up this "wench" so Molly could pull her giraffe in a shopping cart. I'm dying at the fact that he even knows what a wench is.

I love watching these kids have fun outside. I love it when they can be barefoot and safe and make up games and go to a clean potty a few feet away and everything else that is instantly missing when you live in a second floor apartment with no yard. A time and a season for everything, I know. It makes me appreciate it that much more we when are visiting family, but I sure do wish that I could take my half naked babies out back and drink some coffee/wine while they play.

Parade, party of one.

We pink puffy heart the shade.

Literally their happy place

Let's not forget that Steve's mom also throws endless pitches to Sam, draws multiple hop scotch boxes for Molly, AND takes them to the zoo. (I escaped to Costco, Chick-fil-A, AND Ikea all by myself!! Well, with Will, but he doesn't talk so it's almost like I'm alone!! HEAVEN!)

Steve arrived Friday evening and we were so glad to see him! The next day we had to move a final few things out of our old house (it sold!) and clean up. The new owners had a painter come in to paint the place. I was horrified to see that they slopped BEIGE over my beautiful light gray walls! I am personally offended but Steve is more like, eh whatever, it's their house, they can paint it however they want.

To me, it completely clashes with the kitchen colors but WHATEVER, it's not my problem that they have bad taste. Heh.

To be five again! I think his biggest problem that day was that he launched one of those little rockets onto the roof by accident.

Will got ahold of his first hoagie (bun) at dinner and it was hilarious to watch him go to town on it! Takes after his mama with the love of carbs.

You think he'd sleep a happy sleep after tasting his first bread product, but he slept HORRIBLY the entire time we were there. One night found Steve and I on the floor with no pillows while Will slept fitfully in the bed (located 2 feet away from the empty pack and play), surrounded by a pillow fortress. I feel like my body is so used to not sleeping at this point that it doesn't even matter, but I do still count that as alone time and I cherish it. So it ticks me off when he refuses to sleep for solid 4 hour chunks. Like dammit, I really need that. Just let me have the hours of 8pm-3am to myself. NOT ASKING FOR MUCH HERE.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning and headed back to NY. First order of business upon our return was to make popsicles of course. Sam was really looking forward to any extras I might have (milkshake lol).

Will slept wonderfully in his own bed that night and while we had a great time in PA, it was good to be home.

Monday was our 7th wedding anniversary and since we can't go out at this point in our lives, Steve picked up lobsters on his way home from work and we had quite an eventful dinner. The kids (all three of them!) actually ended up being in bed by 645, so we had dinner alone! And it was the best dinner we've had in a really long time. We never get the chance to get an entire sentence out without being interrupted by someone or something, and here we had this entire dinner to talk and laugh and tell stories and make jokes and it was incredible! And we didn't even have to go out! It was a really fun anniversary.

Obviously we are a "pants are optional" family come suppertime.

Seven years! I am still in shock at how much has happened since that day. It has been a very full seven years (mostly full of moving and being pregnant and moving and having babies and moving). I've never had a chance to grow bored, that's for sure. Steve has kept me on my toes since Day 1, and I look forward to the adventures that lay ahead!

The next day I was hungover. Because wine. Apparently I need to stick with a two glass max because I really was feeling crippled the next morning. Tons of water later and I was fine. We ran some errands and got stuff done around the house. Yesterday we hit up Target and the grocery store (an all-morning event with this group), came home for lunch, I did at least 6 loads of laundry, cleaned the floors, scrubbed the entire kitchen (ok, it's tiny, but still) Cinderella-style, and then decided that staying home for the last hour before dinner was a suicide mission, so we loaded up and went to the kids' cafe.

Will loves this place! Makes me long for Korea even more than usual.

She looks much too teenager-y here for my liking.

And my burger baby, moments before bed. I love this happy baby, even if he isn't so keen on sleeping!

The farewell committee- they tend to show up in various stages of undress each morning and let the neighbors know that Steve is headed into work.

Sam tried giving a flower to our friend this morning at the park (holy humidity) but she had already started driving off. He settled by giving it to me.

And now I am being summoned to the crib by the littlest (and only) napper. Big kids have suddenly taken a huge interest in The Magic School Bus so I am riding that happy naptime train as far as it will take me. Almost Friday! Happy day!

FIVE WHOLE YEARS

That's how long this blog has existed. Trust me, no one is more shocked than I that I'm posting this on the correct date. But way back on January 20, 2011, I decided I'd start a blog and my first post was nothing short of amazing. Actually, it was just short. And not amazing. Maybe even a little whiny. And turns out we are right back to not sleeping through the night again, so that just goes to show you that five years from now, you might be doing the exact same things you're doing right now. (That will either depress or excite you.)

In keeping with the theme of January 20th posts, let me regale you with a story about Will. He loves to eat all night long. Which is so weird because he eats all day long too. But at night, he seems to limit his diet to 90 second snacks. He wakes up crying, alerting me to his level of starvation (Red Alert Deathcon 10), and is so hungry that he cannot even open his eyes. Poor babe. I pick him up, nurse him for 90 seconds, and he instantly konks back out. Aw, that's nice. Let me put you back in your bed. Let me sneak back into MY bed. Three minutes go by. I am incredibly comfortable and start to fall asleep. Cue more crying. Another 90 second snack. More sleeping before burping. Back to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. As Sam would say, the moral of this story is..... 47. Aka, I don't know what I'm doing (just like Sam doesn't know what a moral is) and if you have any tips on keeping a sleepy, eating child awake to eat longer, I am all ears. Things I have tried: stripping him down, changing his diaper, tapping his feat, rapid movement of the food source, touching his face with my ice cold fingers, coughing like I am about to lose a lung. I hope I am missing something very easy and major that could turn nighttime around for us.

three weeks old and a quick snack before bed

Our boiler broke this past week. We have air units inside that are for AC, but also put out some heat. (Key word: some.) But it turns out that the heat those bad boys put out is not comparable to the lack of insulation in an 86-year-old home. And the wind has been whipping lately! Since all the kids were getting sick (oh, and me too! That hacking you hear is moi), we declared defeat and schlepped everything on over to my in-laws' house. Praise the Lord they only live a mile down the road. And praise the Lord our neighbors are heating/plumbing guys and came over on a weekend to take a look at everything. As it turns out, our boiler is not only old, but has been "quick fixed" too many times in the past and is also too small for our house! Basically, the only option that makes any financial sense is to get a new boiler. Sadly, the best way to pay for a new boiler is to sell a kidney, which, Google informed me, can bring anywhere between $1,000- $10,000. I'm hoping my excellent health nets me somewhere in the upper range. FINGERS CROSSED.

perfect timing for our first SNOW!

Will slept through it. All of it. Even in this picture he is asleep. I guess he has to make up for those all-nighters sometime.

The new boiler will be installed this weekend. Until then, we (once again) grace my generous in-laws with our sick, coughing, noisy, plus one presence. I'm sure they're thrilled.

In other expensive home news, I will soon be able to post before and after shots of our kitchen, which has undoubtedly gone through the biggest transformation out of any room in our house. I would be able to post them sooner, but I flubbed on the backsplash. Yes. I know. I found this news hard to process as well. But as we were meeting with the tile installation guy and showing him the tiles we practically stole from this website (so cheap!), he said, "Those look great! Where are the rest of the tiles?"

Me: Excuse me? These are all of the tiles. We pulled them out for you.
Tile guy: We need about 36 square feet to do your kitchen, so...
Me: Oh perfect! Because I ordered 40!
Tile guy: Hmmmm.... (trying to be nice to the idiot)... that doesn't quite look like 40 sq ft to me...
Me: Hmm. Well that's weird because that's what I ordered. Are you sure?
Steve: (inspecting the box) Maybe they forgot to ship a few boxes? You need to check that email and see if there are more tiles coming.
Me: Ok. But I ordered 9 boxes, which comes out to 40 sq ft. I'll check again, even though I'm pretty sure I'm right (as usual- and smug- as usual).

After the tile guy left, I checked my email and the website and found that the only reason we got such a steal of a deal on the tile, was because I cannot do basic math or read basic things. I understood the website to be selling me a box that covered 4 sq ft. So I ordered 9 boxes (and change). Well. Turns out that I only ordered 9 sq ft (and change). So when I went to see what it would cost to order 31 more sq ft of this tile, it turned out to be a REALLY TERRIBLE DEAL and I couldn't stomach the thought of paying that much for our little backsplash. After a not-so-quick trip to Home Depot to confirm that they had nothing to match our 9 sq ft of tile, I was searching Pinterest, trying to convince Steve that the super cheap white subway tile would be a great look for our kitchen. But I could barely even convince myself. Luckily we found another deal on tile (although not the same as the original 9 sq ft) and ordered it. This time, I confirmed the numbers multiple times with Steve before purchasing. It will arrive one day, will be installed eventually after that, and then I'll post before and after photos sometime before 2017. Hopefully.

unrelated to the kitchen, but just another small reno project of ripping down the cheap tile ceiling in the storage room

I'm sure this won't take long or be costly (said no Jenn ever).

at least the help is reliable, if not improperly dressed.

I know I'm only about a month behind, but I figured I'd go ahead and post my New Year's resolutions. Better late than never, right? Also, resolutions and goals are pretty much, practically, 98% the same exact thing. Love how no one wants to have resolutions anymore, but everyone wants to list their "goals" for the new year. Do you not resolve to complete your goals? Did I just blow your mind? Anyways, I'm gonna kick it old school and use the extra six letters and have some resolutions.

1. Wear makeup sometime during the year 2016. And maybe real pants. (The last part of that resolution is not a binding agreement or contract and I reserve the right to wear my sweatpants and maternity pants as long as I see fit amen.) I've been "rocking" (ha) this all-natural look for all of 26 days now. That may or may not be because my mascara and ziploc bag of makeup is frozen solid in the passenger seat door of my car. But I'm going to use that excuse as long as I can.

2. Lose weight. There are people who vow to stay healthy throughout their entire pregnancy and some won't even attempt getting pregnant until they've hit a healthy goal of some sort. My life motto tends to be something along the lines of- "cookies were made for pregnant women" and "no need to be miserable while pregnant- quinoa will still be there after you give birth." Being pregnant over the holidays was like an express ticket for gaining a few extra pounds. So eventually I will lose some weight. I read on Google (so it must be true) that nursing women shouldn't begin dieting until after month 2 of breastfeeding, otherwise it might negatively affect supply. Who am I to argue with logic like that? I'll boil that quinoa after Valentine's Day.

3. Run. This really ties in with losing weight. Running paired with the quinoa is the suckiest, most surefire way for me to lose weight. Plus the children are strapped in and not on top of me so it's *almost* like me time.

4. Take pictures with my real camera more than once a year. The phone and instagram and chatbooks are just SO DAMN EASY THOUGH.

5. Purge. Purge the house, purge the car, purge my clothes, purge the kitchen, purge the basement (shrieks in horror), purge the toys, and purge that one box that Steve and I packed up in Auburn and have never unpacked since. I should actually just throw that away unopened because if we haven't opened and used it in 6 years, I doubt we actually need anything that's in there.

6. Shower regularly. I'd like to assign a number to this like, "once every 3 days" but that just seems overambitious. Jenn, just shower more than you are now.

7. Slow down and enjoy everything more. I feel like I've already gotten off to a FANTASTIC start with this one since I have done nothing but nurse and snuggle and eat and stare at Will since the day he was born. Hopefully I can become less sloth-like soon and learn to enjoy everyone while also getting the laundry put away and cooking dinner every night.

8. Blog more. This is probably my resolution every year, even if unspoken, but I just love being able to look back at photos and stories about what we were doing way back when. I don't want to stop having this online scrapbook of our lives.

9. Organize the photos on my computer and external hard drives. Help? Does anyone have an efficient way of doing this? Currently things are going into folders categorized by month and year. I hope someone out there has a magical tool that makes this easy.

10. Try new things. I feel like once we got back to the States, we lost a big hunk of our adventurous spirit. Korea made it easy and exciting to go see and do new things every weekend. Between working on the house, moving in, working on the house, having a baby, working on the house, moving back in with my in-laws, and never sleeping, it feels like we don't get out and explore like we used to. Hoping 2016 is the year we go and do fun new things.

So to recap:

• The blog is 5 years old today.
• How long have you been reading?
• How can I wake a semi-awake yet sleeping baby to eat (without waking up everyone else in the house)?
• Holler at me if you know a good organ dealer- I've got one sweet kidney to sell him.
• Before and after house pics are coming soon(ish).
• Resolutions = goals with more letters
• How often do you shower?
• What is the best way to organize years and years of photos?

Thank you for reading!! I've met some of the greatest people through this blog (and even gotten help from a Tricare big wig during a recent debacle) and hope that even though instagram is WAY easier and quicker than blogging, that you will still come here every now and again and read my sleep-deprived ramblings. Amen.

• 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