Happy Valentine's Day

It was important to us that even though we were in a Hotel we still wanted to keep our traditions.   So Jeremy and I decorated the hotel.  I wish we would have had balloons but nope they didn't have any.  SAD :-(  

We surprised the kids (and Jeremy) with some fun homemade valentines.  Which was pretty amazing because I do not have any of my stuff.  Luckily I have some great friends that were willing to share their stuff.  Thank you Heather!!!!

This is the kids bundles.  Jeremy got some fun Golf stationary that said, "A bad day playing golf, is still better than a good day at the office. "  Giggles.  And he got a new pair of "comfortable well made boots".   I got a wheat grinder Yeah!!!  Now, I just need to find out how to get wheat here in Korea.  HUMMMM

The PX had these cute little bags.  They fit all the kids stuff perfect.  I think I will try and save them and use them as long as they last.  Cute Cute Cute.

This year the kids got Cell phones.  They all want phone so bad.  How cute are these???

The inside.  How stinken cute?

Here are the kids on their Cell phones.  I think they were a huge Hit.

The kids checking out their Valentines.  We love you guys...

We got to spend Valentines with the Isoms.  We are both stuck in the hotel until our house is finished.  I had made a huge pot of Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli, a huge salad, rolls, fruit smoothies and chocolate dipped Strawberries.  So we invited them to come eat and spend the night with us.  What a fun Valentines. 

Little Auderey and I snugging.  She was telling me all kinds of stories.  

  

I do not have an oven so dinner and dessert were a little tricky.  Thank you Chocolate Dipped Strawberries we had a fun dessert and didn't have to cook anything!!!  Yeah.  I dipped the chocolates and Jeremy made the cute designs.  

Date Night = First Korean food

We had dinner with some wonderful friends. The Isom's and the Lanes.  Sara and baby Audrey are next to me her husband Aaron Isom, John, and Heather Lane.  We all came to Korea around the same time.  The Lanes have been here for 2 months, the Isoms got here around the same time as us.  We really hit it off with these couples and hope to have many more dates.  

We were told this was the best restaurant Hwa Hwa is the name I think.  It's a beef and Leaf restaurant.  It was delicious. The smell when you walked into the restaurant smelled soo good.   It was a lot of fun too.  They bring out your hot coals and help you start cooking your first set of meat.   

Then they bring out all the different sides, here is some bean sprouts with some kind of hot sauce on it.  (Not my favorite.) But the Cabbage salad was delicious. 

We had brocolli with some sauce on it. (Not my favorite) They also had some Kimchi.  Again Not my favorite. 

Rice and sauce.  YUMMY!!!

The meat was sooo yummy.  You cook the meat and then put it in lettuce with rice and sauce and eat it.  It reminded me of PF Chang's Lettuce wraps. 

Cooking the food was just as fun as eating it.  They also had a pair of scissors you could but the meat with.  It was a lot of fun. 

Lots and lots of meat.  We had three platters full of meat.  Chicken, Bacon, Sausage, and beef.  YUMMO!!!! We had the best time with our new friends.  It was Aaron's B-day so I started singing out loud at the restaurant several people joined in.  He was so embarrassed. He asked, Did she just really do that.  yes indeed we did. 

Our 1st month in Korea

After we finished in-processing in Youngsan Korea we boarded the bus for the 2 hour drive to Camp Humphreys. Finally we are at our new duty assignment.  Yeah!!!  One of our first stops was housing.  We found out that we did not get the option of living off post.  We had to stay in lodging until the New Housing opens up.  I was actually very excited about this news.  I even prayed for it.  It's nice to be in lodging and walking distance to everything.  If we were off post it would have made getting Jeremy and the kids on post tricky.  So I feel very blessed to be able to stay in lodging.  Another one of Heavenly Father's Hugs. 

We were told the new housing would open up sometime in March.  We will be in this hotel for about 2 1/2 months.  It's going to be a fun adventure. We are going to be a very close family after this.  Ha ha ha

Welcome to our new home.  This is our living room.  Complete with a desk, tv, and pull out couch.

This is our spacious kitchen/Dinning room.  We have a total of 4 chairs and then we use the computer chair  We actually all fit around this table for meals.  We have a full fridge, Microwave, and 2 burner stovetop.  It even comes with a dishwasher and dishes.  SWEET!!!!  

This is our pantry and bathroom.  

Jeremy and My bedroom.  This is always so dirty.  We have so much stuff there is not places to put everything but we do try to keep it somewhat picked up.  Jer has a lot of Army stuff and he came home with even more.  Wow!!!!

Here is our TV and Jeremy's dresser.  Here  is the other chair.  This is its home while we are not eating.   It gives us more room in the living room.

Here is Tina's closet and extra storage.  Since we live in a 1 bedroom suit we only have two beds. We had to purchase a twin blow up mattress for the kids.  Our kids rotate every week on who gets to sleep on the air-mattress and who shares the pull out.  It's working out beautifully.  It does get a little tricky in the morning when we sleep in.  We have to put everything away each and every morning and set it up each and every night.  It keeps us busy that's for sure.  Keeps the kids busy and organized.   I think we have it down to a science now.  We are on week 5.

Cute kiddos sleeping all snug as a bug.  Kayden is down on the air mattress.  Kayden actually prefers to sleep on the air mattress.  He likes it better then sharing the bed.  We really haven't rotated.  But if Kayden ever wanted to sleep in the bed he gets to. 

There are a lot of street vendors here in Korea.  They have a market on days that end with 3 & 8.  We haven't been able to attend one yet.  We are excited too the last one was on Sunday.  So we hope to catch one this weekend. 

This is what it looks like driving down the main road by Camp Humphreys

The Olleh is one of the big Cell phone companies here in Korea. 

They drive on the sidewalk!

We went on a special adventure to AK Plaza with the Lanes.  They showed us how to use the Bus system.   Bus 20 is  right outside the Walk out gate  it takes you all around Pyeongtaek. 

The bus was pretty empty when we got one.  But let me tell you after we were finished shopping and we were getting back on the bus, it was pretty full  There was not an empty seat.  We had to stand up and hold on for dear life.  It was crazy!  The bus driver went really fast then stopped and we were being flung all around the bus.  It was hilarious! We were all laughing so hard we had tears coming out of our eyes.  It was AWESOME!!!  I wish we could have got a picture but we were holding on so tight.  Fun times and lots of memories. 

AK Plaza is a huge Department Store it has 12 floors of stores.  We had a lot of fun shopping and looking around.  

One of the first things we did at the plaza was everyone got T money cards, so we can ride the bus and subway with just our cards.  We used these machines to put our Won in and fill the cards up.  The kids thought this was super exciting. 

This is the first thing we bought in Korea.  We saw it and thought Loriann & Jason needed this for their new little baby.  Isn't it so cute??  We love it.  What a fun spoon.  

Here we are on the 12th floor.  Behind us you can see the city. 

As you ride up to the next floor they have these lights going and fun cartoons playing.  Very awesome!!! 

Here is the view.  Pretty crazy hu?

Here is the Menu.  What would you like to try??

Here is another store.  This would be like a super Walmart.  

This is the Fitting Room.  Jeremy can almost see over the top of it.  

Driving in Korea is a little scary.  They drive so different from the United States.  Jeremy sums it up best.  They kind of make up their own rules.  They run red lights, they make u-tuns right in front of you, they pass you on the right,  They stop in the middle of the road and let people out of the car.  There are cute little Korean grandparents that walk in the middle of the road, Some even use their walkers.  It's crazy!!!  Something we definitely have to get use to.  The video we watched when we took our drivers licence test said,"Expect the unexpected."  So that is what we do.  

Here ia a vendor in the middle of the road..  We are driving behind them as I snapped this picture.

They even park and drive on the side walks.  We have a lot to learn living here in Korea.  

This is a road we drive to get to Osan Air base.  They park on the sides and we still have two way traffic.  It's a little scary to me.  However, Jeremy drives and doesn't seem too bothered by it.  He is not nervous.  I think I am nervous enough for both of us. 

This is how close the other cars are.  Yikes!!!  Too close for my comfort. You can't even get over because there are cars on the other side or there is a building.  

Just another day driving in Korea.  See? Scary hu???  Jeremy and I both passed our test and can now drive in Korea.

We have a little Military Branch here in Korea.  Our building is a sky rise .  It was really hard to take a picture of the building because of the location and being in the middle of the road.  So here is a picture of the door.  AWESOME!!!  We love our Little Branch.  The people here are so nice.  We had some friends that let us use their 2nd car for 3 weeks while they went on vacation.  We have had someone invite us over for dinner every Sunday we have been here.  It's so nice to immediately have friends and a family.  

Brooklyn, came home from school and told me she wanted to run for Student Council.  Wow!!!  This is so out of Character for Brooklyn.  She is usually so shy.  So of course we started to work on her posters.  I was like great we are in a hotel.  I do not have any of my crafting supplies how on earth are we suppose to make posters?  Well we went to the store bought some poster boards glitter glue and scrapbooking flowers.  This is what we came up with.  Pretty good for not having any supplies.  

Here is some Korean (Funny) Money and the equivalent in American dollars.

I was out shopping with friends and I saw this Korean candy and thought I would get some for the kids.  So many fun things to try.  Over all we are loving Korea.  We still haven't really been able to explore Korea.  But what we have seen has been fun.  We really are loving it here.  And can't wait for some more adventures.  We love and miss you all.