The first tantrum...

I knew the day would come when Gabriel had his first tantrum... I just hoped that it would be someday far from now when he was like 4... or 20... a mom can hope can't she? But that was not to be the case as Gabriel had his first tantrum the other day at nearly 8 months old. 

Gabriel was having a bad day to begin with. He was just plain crabby. He had a small melt down when he was eating his baby food. Every time I would give him squash, which I know he likes, he would cry. The second I would give him apples he would stop crying again... until I gave him a bite of squash and it would start all over again. One time he was crying and he waved his hand which hit my hand and caused me to drop the spoon full of squash, he thought it was rather funny and stopped crying and went to laughing... until I offered him the spoon again and he started crying all over again. 

Later we were sitting at the kitchen table and Gabriel wanted to grab my plate instead of playing with his toy, I grabbed his hand and who would of thought that me saying one simple word, "no", would cause a major meltdown. He just started screaming and getting so upset, he was also doing that thing that babies do where they tense up their whole body so it feels like your holding a 20 pound block of wood around that is screaming. I thought it would only last a minute at most, usually when I tell Gabriel no he may cry a little but he gets over it pretty fast cause I give him the mommy look and he stops, but that was not to be the case either. 

To be honest, Josh and I didn't know exactly what to do, Gabriel had never done this before. He ended up getting a time out in his bed. He was so upset that he was having a hard time catching his breath. After I knew that he was done with his screaming I had to read him a book and cuddle him so he would relax and breath. Maybe some people would consider me reading him a book and cuddling him after his fit would be rewarding bad behavior, but I didn't know what else to do, he couldn't breath very well and he needed to relax somehow.  

Now I know there may be many more tantrums to come... but I can still hope that he will hold off until he's like 20, right? A mommy can only dream!

Names...

I forgot how interesting it can be to be in a different and have people try and pronounce your name. People here pronouce all of our names, mine, Josh, and Gabriel's, all wrong. Now you think, considering mine is the easiest to pronounce that people would have the easiest time with my name. But that is not the case as mine seems to be very difficult for them. 

With Josh's name he gets a few 'interpretations'. They call him osh, yosh, Joshy, oshua, osha, and a few call him Josh but is sounds more like Ja-ah-oh-sh. 

Gabriel gets quite a few different names too. There is the most common, Gah-bri-el, but there is also caybriel, gaybrel, Gah-b, or gr-eh-ll.

But for some reason my name, Kayla gets the most incorrect pronunciations. I get Caw-la, Kayler, Kay-i-ee-la, Ky-la, Ko-la (Coca Cola haha), ah-la, aye-lee, cre-ler and many more and if they come anywhere close to actual Kay-la it still doesn't sound right. 

I just find it interesting that my name, Kay-la which is way easier then Jaw-shu-ah and Gay-bri-el is way harder for people to pronounce... at least if they say my whole name, kay-li-ah mee-chel-lay lee-vel-aye it sounds kinda cool:)

A Fun Night

I have decided that I need to have at least one girl in my life time. They are so fun! Tonight we watched our neighbors girls again. Ilze, their mom, came knocking on my door very frantic because she needed to go to the capitol, Seoul, which is an hour away and wouldn't be home until 10PM and didn't have anybody to watch the girls. I of course said that I would and Louini and Zeni came to chill out with Josh and I for the night. The girls had a lot of fun watching some Winnie the Pooh and somehow Josh found Thomas the Train on line which was their favorite thing. We ate spaghetti for dinner which apparently they LOVE and they played with some toys. They also asked me about my princess pictures again=D But their all time favorite thing of the night was just playing with Josh and I on the couch and playing with our hair. It was so much fun! Though, I may be missing about 200 hairs on my head and Josh's bald spot is probably a lot thinner, it was totally worth it. They were laughing so hard and it was so cute!

Zeni and Louini

The girls playing with my hair...

Josh did Zeni's hair too...

and yes, they are paper clips=D

Me and the girls...

And of course, they did Josh's hair too =D

Afterwards they had to go to bed so I brought them up to their apartment and tucked them into bed. Ilze told me that I just had to wait for them to fall asleep and then I could go back to my apartment. So after I read them a book and had them all safe in bed I just sat there and waited. Now Zeni sleeps in the living room because she falls off the bunk bed and Louini was sleeping in the bedroom on the bottom part of the bunk beds. Well as I'm sitting there waiting Louini, who is 4 almost 5, had been motioning to her sister where I couldn't see her that she was very scared. So Zeni gets up, she's only 6, and goes to comfort her sister. I of course saw this and asked what was going on and they told me that Louini was scared. They decided that they were then going to sleep together on the cushion in the living room. It was so cute to watch them snuggle together comforting each other. When I left they were fast asleep, both half off the cushion as it wasn't big enough for one kid, less alone two kids. 

My Big Little Boy

My little boy is getting so big!!!! 

It's actually making me sad that he's growing up so fast, yet there is a sense of pride 

in your child to see him grow and learn new things! 

This is my little man sitting all by himself...

This is my little man standing...

My little man "reading" his own little book...

Little Man "helping" mommy clean up from a messy time of eating...

and little man also has a total of 5, yes FIVE, teeth.... 

I couldn't get a picture of those though, he was being a stinker! 

Why am I here?

Ever since I have come to Korea I have been asking God this question, why am I here? I keep thinking that there must be something, some important, significant reason why God brought me here to Korea. I know why he brought my husband, he is doing an awesome job teaching and I'm sure he will learn a lot and touch the lives of the kids he comes in contact with, but I've been thinking what am I supposed to do here? I'm used to going on missions trips when I go to other countries, getting my hands in the dirt doing work or working with children or churches... here I don't have any of that. I'm just here... nothing significant for me to do or anything that just seemed important. 

So I've been wandering about everyday, thinking what should I do today. It's not like I don't have anything to do, on the contrary. I have an almost 8 month old son, laundry, cooking, ironing (never thought that would be on my list), diapers and all the other things moms do so it's not like I'm bored, there just doesn't seem like there is anything mission like to do... right?

So I got to thinking about it and I think I'm figuring it out... this, above, is why I am here. I am here to be a mom, which by no means is a small thing to do, and to be a supporting wife. I know my husband needs me here to support him as this is completely out of his element and he needs someone, nay, not anyone, he needs his wife, to stand by him and support him. I've realized that this is no small simple task, this is important, my husband needs me. I also know my son needs me, heaven knows diapers would not get changed and baths would not be taken and tummies would not be stuffed constantly if mommy was not here. I'm not saying my husband doesn't do those things, but there have been many a time when I've come home while Josh has been watching Gabriel and his diaper is brimming full and Gabriel is a tad bit fussy because he was supposed to eat 30 minutes ago. I've come to realize that of all the 'mission' trips I've been on this one, with these tasks, could be the most important one I've done yet. I'm a mommy and a wife, neither are 'easy' things to do but both are important and rewarding beyond belief. 

I've also realized that I CAN reach other people by being a mom and a wife. I've realized that there are really no stay at home mom's here in Korea... I've always wondered why... now my question has been answered. It seems that many people here, at least the ones I've met, seem to think that children are burdens and why would you give up work and life for a child. This is sad to me because I think being a mom is wonderful and so special, it's sad to me that people would find these little children, little joys, as burdens. 

I ran into a Korean mom here, she has a beautiful little girl who is 3 months old. I asked her what she did and she replied that she was a housewife. They way she said 'housewife' made me believe that she really did not enjoy the title or the job. It seemed as if it were a poisonous word for her to spit out.  After speaking with her a bit more I found out that she was on maternity leave and that she was completely bored with being at home with her baby. She said she couldn't wait to go back to work, she was counting the days of when she could do so and being at home was rather like prison. I also met another woman who told me that every time she saw me with Gabriel it made her want to start her family with her husband. When I told this particular woman that it would fun and worth it she looked at me like I was crazy. I told her that I loved being pregnant her words were "yeah, but then what about after, when the baby actually comes?" I told her that it was still completely worth every minute of it and she told me that she couldn't imagine that because you have to give up your entire life for a baby. 

I've thought maybe God wants me here with Gabriel to show other people that being a mom and spending time with your children is a wonderful thing and a gift to be treasured... not a burden to avoid. I love Gabriel so much, I love spending time with him and taking care of him. I love putting Gabriel to sleep at night when he is completely zonked out and I can just hold him and kiss him and he just lays there in my arms. I love the funny faces Gabe makes when he is eating and you give him something that is cold or something he doesn't like, I love it that when you give him something he does like he can't get enough of it and mommy just can't seem to get it in his mouth fast enough. I love to just watch Gabriel play with his toys and discover new things. I love that Gabriel wants me and that he needs me. I love to cuddle with him and give him sweet kisses. I love that he will just lay there sometimes and watch me like he is doing right now. I love him so much, I can't imagine him being a burden to me, no, he is such a blessing! Maybe this is why I'm here... I can be his mommy anywhere, but maybe, just maybe someone here needs to see me be his mommy... 

Just for you Oma!

My mom gave Gabriel this teddy bear the morning 

we left for South Korea... 

he LOVES it!

My mom also loves to see babies wrapped up in blankets... 

I had just laid Gabriel down on his blanket and he somehow 

wrapped himself up in it and played like that for 20 minutes.

Miss you!!!

Things I now do different

A few things I now do different...

I now use cloth diapers...

I now seporate my trash differently...

white bags is general trash, blue bags for bottles and cans, yellow bag for compost

I now make my own baby food...

5 carrots 3 white sweet potato 3 mixed vegi's 7 squash 4 apple 5 asian pear 5 peaches

I now peal carrots different...

I now do laundry every day...

I now dry laundry on a drying rack...

There are a lot more things I do differently, but I don't have pictures and I'm sure it may bore you:)

She used to be a princess!!!!

Yesterday I volunteered to watch my neighbors two girls for about an hour and a half while the parents were teaching. This normally wouldn't happen but their schedules got mixed up yesterday. The two girls, Zeni and Louini, are from South Africa and are ages 5 and 6, they are super cute and friendly. 

At first they just watched some Korean cartoons and read all of the books that I had here for Gabriel. Soon they got bored with each of those and started to look around my apartment. They found the pictures that I had taped up to be the most interesting, especially the ones from my wedding. I didn't think much about it, I just let them look at everything and explore. 

Close to when the girls parents were supposed to come back our other neighbors two girls came over and wanted to play with Zeni and Louini. Before I even said much Zeni and Louini come running over to the door jumping up and down yelling to the neighbors "She used to be a princess, she used to be princess!!!"

I turned to the two girls and said "what are you talking about, who used to be a princess?" They pointed their little fingers at me "You used to be a princess!" At first I had no clue what they were talking about, why would they think I used to be a princess? I then remembered that they had just got done looking at all the pictures on the wall, I said "do you mean the pictures over there" pointing to my wedding pictures. "Yep" they said, "your princess pictures!" LOL! So now my all my neighbors girls think I used to be a princess! 

Things I Never Thought....

Things I never thought I would do as a mother...

*I never thought that I would feed my baby food off of their own chest because I ran out of bibs and had to feed him naked.

*I never thought I would not realize that I was running out of bibs.

*I never thought I would care too much about where my baby was sleeping as long as he was comfortable, until he realized he can move his pillows blocking him in on 

his twin size bed (that's all we have, we're working on getting a crib) and "jump" off the bed.

*I never thought my baby would ever fall off of a bed.

*I never thought that I would forget to put socks on my baby if we were going out... until we went on a walk on a rather chilly evening and we were all in sweaters, and jeans... we just forgot to put socks on Gabriel.

*I never thought that my son would have a huge space in his top two front teeth when they came in and I never thought that I would find it super hilarious and cute! I will post pictures when the teeth are more visible.

*I never thought that when I would hear my son toot I would close my eyes and hope and pray that nothing was accompanying the toot. 

*I never thought I would have to cuddle my baby so he would be able to poop!

*I never thought I would have a hard time shaking Gabe's poopie's into the toilet from a cloth diaper... I have rubber gloves now.

*I never thought I would have a problem with spit up... and then Gabriel dumped buckets of it on me one day when we were in the mall shopping and I had to go buy new clothes to change into.

*I never thought I would let my baby have to cry it out to fall asleep... and then I had Gabriel and he seems to hate sleep and that is the only way for him to go down sometimes.

*I never thought I would have trouble finding baby food and have to make my own.

*I never thought that I would be one of those mom's who had food all over their face and in their hair just because their baby has grabby hands and since I don't have a high chair I can't control them as my limbs are all occupied.

*I never thought I would have a hard time telling my babies no... and then Gabriel will stick out his bottom lip and your heart just melts!

*I never thought I would get over people touching Gabriel's face and fingers, I thought I would be all over them telling them to get away... yeah, it's a good thing I got over that cause in Korea they are all over him!

*I never thought I would have to go through my babies toys and pick and choose which ones he can have for the next year because I can't fit them all in my suitcase.

*I never thought I would move to another country with a 7 month old.

*I never thought that my baby would love my milk so much that he literally attacks me when I lay near him.

*I never thought that my son would find my nose and mouth his most interesting toys and want to play with them every time he nurses.  

*I never thought my son would suck his thumb and that if he did that it would be so hard to get him to stop!

*I never thought it would be so precious to smile at my baby while he's nursing and have him look back and smile... only for him to freak out because he smiled and lost suction! 

*I never thought that I would be one of those mom's who could only talk about their baby and had to bring them up in every conversation... but somehow it just happens!

*I never thought chubby cheeks would be so tasty :)

I have to say, even though I never thought all these things, being a mom is WONDERFUL and I LOVE my son to bits! 

*edit: I would like to add... I never thought I would get so mad at a toy... but when you trip and your foot lands directly on top of a wooden block and it puts a hole in your foot... well you get mad ;D

Diapers!!!

When I found out that we were moving to South Korea I immediately thought about everything we needed for Gabriel and if we were going to be able to find everything once we moved. I made a choice to use cloth diapers so it would be one less thing to worry about. I also liked the fact that it was more environmentally friendly and would be healthier for Gabriel's skin, not to mention it would save money in the long run. I did a lot of research about diapers and decided to go with pre-folds with a diaper cover and doublers if I needed them. I found the cutest diaper covers at cheekydiapers.com and after using the diapers for almost 3 weeks now I have to say that I absolutely LOVE them! At first they were bulky but after I got used to them and figured out how to fold them and snap them they aren't bulky at all. I thought I would share some pics of my baby in his fabulous diapers =D 

Jealous of simple things... LOL

I never thought I would be jealous of other moms... but I have found something that I envy most moms for. It is rather simple and something that I soon hope to have... it is a high chair. Yes, a simple high chair or some kind of chair to put your child in while you feed them. I used to have one for Gabriel until I came to Korea and had to leave it behind. I have to say that feeding Gabriel can be VERY messy without one. I have to hold him in one arm and feed him with the other and some how try and keep his hands out of his mouth and try to stop him from grabbing the spoon.... it's not working very well...

Lol, at least he thinks it's funny=D If you can't tell from the picture it he ended up getting a hold of the spoon full of sweet potato and decided to rub it all over his face! Stinker =P  

To do or not to do.... I need advice!

Decisions decisions... I don't know what to do! I had this thought last night that I should go back to school. Well, technically I wouldn't be "going" anywhere, but sitting right here getting my degree online. But I don't know if I should. Josh supports me 100%. He has always wanted me to go back to school and he thinks that I would really enjoy it. I just have some things to consider. 

Cons: It would cost money. Money sucks, it stops you from doing so many things that you want to do, like possibly going back to school. Anyway. I don't know if I want to want to put us a little bit in debt for a degree that I'm not even sure if I will ever use. Also, I know I have a lot of time right now to do it, but I also know it will take more then just this year to complete the degree and I don't know what my life will be like in a year from now. I might have another kid, I don't know where I will be living, what I will be doing and I don't know what it will be like to have a one and a half year old running around... I just don't know. I also can't decide which degree I would go for... History, Art History, or English? I'm thinking English cause what would an art or art history degree ever do for me? But then again I love history.... oh but I love English! Err! Which one? 

Ok, Pro's: I would have a sense of accomplishment. I would have a Bachelors degree. I would know more about things that I love. I wouldn't feel like such an idiot when I'm in a room full of people and their all talking about their accomplishments cause I would have one too (lol, I feel like that a lot!). If I ever did need to get another job I could get one that I liked and it would be better then processing insurance claims like I used to do. If I don't do it now I probably never will. My brain would grow bigger and I would live longer (haha =D). I would have something to do this next year while I'm in the English Village compound and 30 min away from town. I wouldn't be as bored. I would get to write! I love writing...

But oh I just don't know what to do. It's a big step, kinda scary! I need advice!

Ever feel like a bad mom?

Yesterday Gabriel just had a bad day! It started out in the morning. Josh had been watching Gabriel after he got up so that I could sleep a little bit longer. Gabriel started to fuss because he was hungry which woke me up so Josh brought him to my bed so I could feed him. While I was feeding him Boo fell asleep, I guess he was ready for his morning nap. Well I decided that I would get up and I moved Gabriel to the middle of the bed and put a bunch of pillows around him so that he wouldn't fall off. I'm always paranoid about him rolling off the bed because in his room he has a twin bed and all that is stopping him from rolling off there is pillows and some suitcases. So as I'm putting the pillows around him this time I thought he should for sure be safe because our bed is bigger and there are still the pillows there. Well the poor guy wasn't ok. He some how made it over the pillows and fell off the bed and onto the floor. We immediately heard his crying and I could tell it was different then one of the waking up cries. We run in to go get him and the poor guy was on his face on the floor just screaming. I felt so bad because I was the one who had put him there so I was crying too. There is no greater pain as a mother then to see your own baby in pain... and it's even worse when you know that it was your fault!

Gabriel got over the fall pretty fast. We checked him head to toe to see if there was anything broken, bruised or scratched but couldn't find a thing wrong, thank God! So we put him down for another nap a couple hours later and he slept for quite a long time. Josh left to go to our neighbors birthday party and I waited until he woke up from his nap. When I went to go get him after he woke up he had a rather large scratch on his nose close to his eye. I wondered where it came from and figured he must have scratched himself. I looked at his nails and though some were a little long and needed to be clipped there was nothing really sharp that would have normally caused a scratch but apparently that is what must have happened so I clipped his nails. 

I then gave him a book to play with while I changed his diaper. It was one of those chubby kids books, he LOVES to play with them. Well he was holding it up just looking at it when it slipped from his grasp. It was so sad because it it landed "perfectly" with the corner down and hit him right on his cheek bone, he just started bawling! I immediately scooped him up and held him while he cried... things were not looking good as the day was only half over!

After Gabriel's diaper change we went over to our neighbors to hang out with them and Josh was still there. Our neighbors are from South Africa and are black... well African people or people who are of very dark color sometimes scare Boo. He's been getting better about not crying when he sees them, but the guy wanted to hold him which we let him but Gabe didn't like that very much and got scared so we took him back.

Ok, so the day was not going well but we finally thought all the oops's were done for the day. So I'm sitting at the kitchen table eating my dinner and Josh is holding Gabriel by our couch. Gabriel has recently found out that he has the ability to retrieve things after he has lost them. So he dropped something on the floor and immediately bends over to pick it up... well Josh didn't have a very good hold on him and Boo hit his head on the edge of the couch. Poor Boo just started screaming again! Him hitting his head on the couch actually left more of a mark then him falling off the bed or dropping the book on his face. He had a purple mark on his forehead the rest of the night and went to bed early as he was tired from his long day.

Now today he is as good as new and has as many smiles as ever. The only mark that is left from his bad day is the scratch on his nose that we're not sure where it came from. 

Poor Boo Boo just had one very bad day!

Oh America America...

I am frustrated with America... don't get me wrong, America is a great country and people have a right to take pride in being an American... but I am non the less frustrated. Let me explain.

America is the only country that does all of their weights, measurements, and temperature different. We are the only one that uses Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, we use pounds instead of kilo's, we use miles instead of kilometers and so on. It's all different. There is nothing wrong about it when you're living America, you probably wouldn't even think twice about it, I know I never did. Then I went overseas to Switzerland for 6 months... all you really have to do is jump up to Canada if you want to experience it, anyway, and I realized that EVERYTHING is different and that unless you remember every little thing from school and are prepared to do math every time you look at the temp or calculate kilometers... you really don't know what people are talking about. You can't understand fully what people mean because, though you may have been taught it, it was never enforced or were made to use it, therefore it is mostlyd forgotten. 

At first I just thought I was dumb and should have paid more attention in school. Then I realized that all the other Americans who were with me didn't really know what everybody was talking about either. We did get used to it after awhile. I moved back to America and I felt smart again because I knew exactly what everybody was talking about. Now I've moved to South Korea and feel dumb all over again... why does America have to be the one and only country that is different? At first I felt stupid again and then realized that my husband, who is way smarter then I am, had to do a little math every time someone mentioned something to him because it's not what we're used to.

Another thing that just frustrates me about America is the American media. In America we only hear things that are going on in the world if and only IF they effect America or if America is doing something "good" to help a "unfortunate" country. Things could be HUGE news, things that effect the whole world, but if it doesn't effect America directly then we don't hear about. Let me give you an example. When I was living in Europe for 6 months I was supposed to head to France for three weeks to do some missions work. Right before I was supposed to go to France there was a huge outbreak from the Muslims living there and they had started to burn cars in the streets and cause riots and breaking into places... it was like a mini war, this lasted for a few weeks. Big news right? Yeah, so I called my parents to reassure them that I would be fine... guess what, they didn't hear a word about it. Even after it had been going on for weeks, my parents were in the dark and they watch the news every night. So here I am again living overseas and some of the teachers here at the school are talking about things that happened a few months ago or even a year ago and though all the teachers are from different parts of the world they all know about it, except Josh and I. We're the Americans who only get American news so therefore we don't know what is happening in the world. 

Ok, so while I'm at it I have to say that I'm a little amazed at the American school system as well. One of our friends, Nate (yep that's you!) mentioned that one in like 5 Americans can't point to the USA on a map... crazy! Then I realized that we are at war with Afghanistan and have been for quite a few years now and most Americans don't even know where the country is! I'm not saying I'm super smart or anything, but I at least know where my own country is and where countries that we are at war with are located. 

So alas, I am still an American, yes, I am still proud that I am one, I have just become to realize over the past few years the flaws that our country has... so don't get mad at me:)

Thankful for the little things

In Korea we are provided with an apartment to stay in by the school that Josh works for. In the apartment they also provide beds, sheets, pillows, blankets, pots, pans and the necessary silverware and dishes. Now necessary silverware and dishes means we have two plates, two forks, two spoons, two cups and two smaller plates. It is all you really need, you just have to do dishes every time after you eat so they will be clean for the next time you have to eat. Coming from America where we seem to have way to much of everything, including dishes, it was a little hard to get used to at first but I actually kind of like not having as much clutter. But I have to say that it was a tiny bit annoying to want a drink and if you forgot to wash your cup you needed to go wash it before you could have anything to drink. So when Josh came home the other day with a gift from the school I was super excited... it was a cup! Yes, one single cup... who would be excited about that... I'll tell you who, ME! Now we have three cups and I have to say I'm rather excited about it!

The other thing I got very excited about was our shower curtain. Yes, I know it's just a shower curtain, but you don't understand. See we have one of those bathrooms where the shower isn't really separated from the rest of the bathroom. This means no tub or mini wall to keep the water contained on the floor and no door or shower curtain to keep the water from spraying EVERYWHERE! We always have to wait for the water to dry on the floor before you can go in the bathroom without shoes on. So last night we went to E-Mart and we found a cheap shower curtain... I was so excited! This doesn't stop the water from going all over the floor, but it will stop it from getting all over our sink and the stuff on our sink and I don't have to wash the mirror every day! YAY!

I know, these are little things to get excited about... but I am very thankful for them non the less!

Oh so safe... not!

As we continue to unpack the last few things from our bags we find out a very unpleasant but pleasant surprise. Unpleasant because this never should have happened and pleasant because we got to keep our stuff... let me explain...

If you've read my first post about the airplane ride to Korea you may remember that when we first got to the airport that Sunday morning there was a very unpleasant women who made us re-pack some of our bags. The one bag that we had intended for carry-on we had made sure that there was nothing in it that you are not supposed to take on the plane, such as lighters, liquid, anything sharp like tweezers or knifes. The other bag that we were then forced to take as a carry-on instead we had not been so careful about and originally had all of those things in it. Well when we were being forced to transfer things from one bag to another we tried to comb through our new carry-on bag as fast as we could to eliminate anything that would be a security issue. 

When we got to the security check point we went through with-out a hitch, the only thing they stopped us for was because we had 4 containers of baby food and they had to do some special tests on it before we were allowed to go any further... but besides that everything was perfect. At the time I was actually surprised that we didn't get stopped for anything just because since we had to change things so fast I was sure we must have missed something... right? But apparently not because beside the baby food we were good to go. 

Well as I unpacked my carry-on bag after we got to Korea I found a list of things that should have set off the alarm causing them to go through our bag. Such as... a sewing pack full of needles, scissors, and a stitch remover, a few bottles of liquid items like rubbing alcohol, a pocket knife, and a lighter. Needless to say after my discovery I was completely shocked. The airlines scare the crap out of you telling you that you can't take anything on a plane now days and we were able to unknowingly get all of this past security without a problem. 

I have to say that I do not feel completely safe about going on planes anymore. We were able to get numerous things past security that we should never have been allowed... but hey, you have to give them props, right? They did find the baby food!

Josh Has a Fan Club... LOL

Lately my husband has been coming home everyday telling me stories of these girls in his classes that won't leave him alone. My husband can over dramatize things sometimes so I didn't really think too much about it. He told me that he will go to leave the class room and they will call his name, he will step back in the room thinking they need something and one of the girls will scream out "Oh Joshy (as this is their nickname for him) your so handsome" or "Joshy, (he also HATES the nickname by the way) she thinks your hot".  Well I was getting quite a kick out of these stories... especially the 'Joshy' part, but still didn't think it was that big of a deal. Before I go on in my story, let me say that this week we have only girls at the English Village. Apparently the school that the government sent us this week was an only girls school.

So today comes along and we are running out of food in our apartment so we decided to go to the cafeteria for lunch. BIG MISTAKE! Good Lord, it was amazing! We walk in the front door to the cafeteria and there is a HUGE line of kids waiting for food and they all start screaming! Yes, literally screaming! I was expecting to get swarmed a little bit because Korean people love babies especially Gabriel... but I didn't expect screaming. The only time I heard these girls scream louder was earlier this week a production company came to English Village to shoot some scenes for a Korean super hero movie and apparently there was a very famous Korean actor that showed up (though we don't know who, Josh didn't get to see him) and all the girls just screamed for like 10 minutes. I heard it all the way from my apartment which is quite a bit away from where this was all happening. Anyway, so we try to make it through the swarm of girls but it seemed impossible. They all wanted to touch Gabriel and look at him... and of course talk to Joshy! Well his biggest fan club happened to be at the back of the line. When they saw him they started to jump up and down screaming "Joshy, oh Joshy, over here". Haha, I had to smile, my husband hates attention... and now he has his own fan club! 

Well thank the Lord for this cook who came up to us and told us that teachers don't have to eat with the kids, we could go upstairs to eat. YAY! Away from the Joshy Fan Club! Unfortunately we had to get past them to get up the stairs. So as we were trying to get past them they all had to touch Gabriel and tell us how handsome he was and of course... tell Josh how handsome he was as well! It still cracks me up, and I have quite the time teasing my little "Joshy" about it.  Ah to be an American in Korea!

Why We're Here

I don't know if most people know why Josh and I decided to come to South Korea to teach English. See back in December Josh graduated from college with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He thought that he was going to be able to get a job right away and he wanted me to quit my job because he wanted me to concentrate on our son Gabriel. We knew that we would be OK financially for awhile if we were both out of work, so we did it in hopes Josh would get a job soon. 

Well that was around the time that the American economy just started to take an even deeper turn for the worse. It came to the point that no companies were hiring like they used to. The jobs that were hiring, if they were in Josh's field, were for top notch positions and they kept saying that Josh wasn't qualified enough. The other people that were hiring were the lowering paying jobs like Menards or Target... they said that Josh was over qualified therefore they couldn't hire him. So there we were. I had quit my job to take care of our son and Josh couldn't find one, we were in quite a predicament! 

We kept believing in God that he would provide Josh with a job. We kept praying and praying, trying to have faith while we watched our saving slip away to pay bills. We were praying one night and we felt that God wanted us to give quite a large chunk of money to this family that I knew of that didn't have much and have always struggled to get by. We talked about it and knew that we had to do it and that we wanted to as well... but I have to say that it was rather difficult writing a check for a large sum of money when you are already living on your savings and wondering where your next penny is going to come from. We sent out the check with a card that had a bible verse on it and continued to have faith in God. 

About 3 days later I was taking a shower when a thought came to me. It was one of those "why didn't I think of this before" moments. One of those thoughts that stops you in your tracks and is like a ton of bricks slamming you in the face, one that you just can't keep to yourself... one of those God thoughts. I finished up quickly and I go to tell Josh my thought, that maybe we should think about teaching English overseas. Josh then said that he had recently had the same thought, which totally is not like him. Josh is more of a home body and more logical then moving overseas. We prayed about it and really felt that this is what God wanted us to do. I had always heard that you can't out give God and that he will always provide for you... it's not that I ever doubted that, but to see it first hand... well, it was pretty amazing! Of course that wasn't our whole reason for giving the money away, it actually never crossed our minds, we knew that it was something God wanted us to do so we did it. It wasn't until after we thought about going overseas that I put two and two together.

Anyway, so we started to plan to go overseas. We didn't know where God wanted us to go and we kept asking that he would make it clear to us. I kept saying, I will go anywhere... but I really don't want to go to Asia, especially South Korea. Well I swear that when you tell God that you really don't want to do something... he makes you do it! LOL! See we posted out resume on a website and we got about 50 job offers to come work in Korea. I kept saying "no, no, I really don't want to go there, how about Taiwan, that's in Asia, or how about Japan"... and we kept praying for God to make it clear to us where he wanted us to go. So after we prayed we got even more job offers to come work in Korea, things were not looking up for my plans! We then got a card back from the lady that we had sent money to. In the card she had written a bible verse that made me cry... it said "My thoughts are not your thoughts, declares the Lord". Ok God, I get it. 

It took me a little bit to warm up to the idea of moving to Korea. After I warmed up to the idea and knew that this was truly from God, I couldn't actually give you a reason why I didn't want to come here, I just hadn't and had made my mind up about it. 

We then applied for just one job in Korea, it just seemed like the perfect job and had everything that we needed. We got a phone call from them about 2 days later and Josh was hired that day over the phone and we started the process of moving to Korea! 

It has been an adventure moving. At times we were still not sure if we were going to have enough money to make it or to buy our plane tickets, but God always provided. So here we are, Josh has started to work and he enjoys it, I am still a stay at home mom and I absolutely love it and God is still at work in our lives. We are excited to see what this next year brings! 

First Day of Teaching

Yesterday was Josh's first day of teaching class. He was very nervous about it as he has never taught before. I was very nervous about it as well because I really want Josh to like his job and enjoy this next year instead of suffering through it hating his job.  He came home for lunch yesterday and I could tell he was very tense. I asked Josh how things were going and he said good. He mentioned that he hadn't taught anything yet but right after lunch was going to be his first class. I gave some words of encouragement and told him I was very proud of him for doing this. But I know that encouragement doesn't always work for my husband, he just needs to go out and try it before he will feel better about it. 

I walked Josh to his first class with Gabriel in my arms, we gave him a hug and a kiss goodbye and I told him to have fun and enjoy himself. The rest of the afternoon I waited in the apartment and wondered how he was doing. He finally came home around 5:00 and I met him at the door as usual to give him a hug and a kiss... he actually had a small 'Josh' smile on his face!!! I asked him how it went hopeful that the smile on his face was a good one and not one of those 'I'm smiling because I feel like a dork' smiles. He said that it went well and it was actually kind of fun!!! Hallelujah!!! 

See, you need to know a little bit about my husband. Josh is a super quiet guy. He hates public speaking and being up in front of a group of people, unless he's playing music of course. He doesn't even like asking someone in the grocery to please move because they are blocking the entire aisle and he can't get through... he would rather just wait ten minutes for them to decide what they want instead of saying excuse me. So for him to say that teaching a few classes in a row to about 20+ kids in each class is fun is like... well it's a miracle. 

I was so happy for him that I gave him another hug. I didn't realize how tense I was all afternoon about the whole thing until that moment... I could actually relax now! Now today Josh has said that it is going even better and it's getting more fun the more he gets comfortable with it.

I am so proud of my husband for stepping out and taking this challenge. Teaching is completely out of Josh's element, I'm so glad he is enjoying it!

Our First Week in Korea

Our first week at English Village has gone by extremely fast. The day after we got here Josh went to the office where he was taken to many different buildings and was introduced to many different people. Many of the people Josh met where Koreans who had randomly picked American names to replace their Korean ones... apparently it's a common thing to do, but they can come up with some odd ones like Sandy for a guy or Hot Guy=D I went with Josh for a little bit but Gabe started to get cranky after a bit, so we headed back to our apartment while Josh did school stuff. 

For lunch we decided to go the the cafeteria, though we arrive 20 minutes late they let us come in anyway. We then had our first taste of Korean food... lets just say that we had a hard time putting part of it down and didn't feel super great when we were done. So that night we hitched a ride to the local market as we had no food and we were not so thrilled about going to the cafeteria again just yet. 

The market was interesting, we needed help finding a few things and when we came across the fish we were a little grossed out with the whole fish, guts intact and oowy gooy nastyness hanging out of their mouth. We  ended up purchasing some anyway but it later got thrown away as I could not stomach the thought of eating it just yet. 

The rest of the week Josh was busy sitting in classes observing how things are done here and I was busy moving into our new apartment and trying to get Gabriel on a new schedule... which I am still trying to do. The weekend came and we got a little bored and we didn't feel like walking to town so we just stayed home and tried to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Sunday was Easter and we had some fun. I had hid some chocolate eggs that my mom had given me in our luggage and then I hid them around the apartment for Gabriel and Josh to find!                                                      

Gabriel had so much fun finding the eggs, but he was very disappointed when we had to keep taking them away because he kept trying to eat them! 

                                          

The rest of our travel!

To conclude our travel time, we arrived at the airport in Icheon about a half hour late. We went through immigration without any problem and proceeded to get our bags. I sat with Gabriel as he was rather tired and Josh got all the bags. We thought that the guy from the school, Sandy, would meet us there, but after 20 minutes of waiting we decided to go look for him. Well we found our that we made an oops and we still had to make it through customs before we got to the greeting area. 

In the greeting area there were a ton of people holding up signs for other people but our name was not on any of them. Well we decided to wait there for Sandy in case he was looking for us, it was after all about an hour from when our plane was supposed to have landed. We waited about 15-20 minutes and no one was coming... oh crap! We went to go look for a pay phone to call him and just as we were about to put money in the pay phone he found us! YAY, we can finally go now... right? WRONG! No, first we have to go find this girl, Megan, who had come with Sandy and had gone off by herself to look for us. After we found Megan we though good, now we can go, but we were wrong again! Megan noticed that one of the names on our bags didn't match Josh or I... Oh no we have the wrong bag!!! CRAP! So Sandy and Megan take off to fix the problem and I remembered that Josh had the luggage tickets so I him him after them. So there I was, with two carts full of luggage and a crabby 7 month old all by myself... lovely. 

Gabriel then decided then that he was hungry and made it very known that he was so. So I made a circle with the luggage close to a wall and sat on the floor to feed him. In my time of sitting there I found out two things... one the sound of an automated escalator saying "for the safety of all passengers please stay in the yellow line" over and over again can make you go crazy and two, that Korean people have no problem starring, especially the creepy guards with their huge machine guns. I felt like a circus on the floor that people couldn't keep their eyes off of! Finally everybody came back I could stop being everybody's apparent freak show. 

Supposedly another girl took our bag and headed to Busan, South Korea... so the airline was going to get our bag back and send it to us. Josh had also taken her bag thinking it was ours because I guess he was only looking at the first letter of the name on the tag because he was tired and her name was Kelly. So we finally made it to our car about 2-2.5 hours after our plane was supposed to land. We then had a two hour drive out to the English Village with a quick stop along the way to get some food. Yay we finally made it!

Unfortunately we were not able to move into our apartment that night, we had to stay in a studio type apartment for a couple of days first. We went to bed that night so excited to get some sleep after 30 hours of traveling, that was at about 10PM... only for Gabriel to wake us up at 3AM wide awake! This happened the next night as well but has slowly gotten better, this morning he woke up around 6AM!

Airplane Ride

I wrote the following in my journal while we were on the plane:

Sunday, April 5, 2009

We are on our way to South Korea! We've been up and traveling now for 15 hours and Josh and I have had zero sleep on these planes thus far. Gabriel is doing ok, he hasn't slept much either, you can tell he is very tired... he just won't sleep. We still have 10-11 more hous of this flight until we're in Korea and then I don't know how many hours of driving after that... I think it's only supposed to be 1-2 hours from the airport. Everything so far has seemed to go by rather fast, I hope the rest does as well.

When we got to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport this morning we ran into a not so pleasant stewardess who was supposed to help us check in... she instead gave us much more grief then help! She told us that we could not take on of our carry-ons on the plane as she felt it was a tad to large... but we could take one of our check-in bags instead. Well the check-in bag happened to be filled with a lot of liquid products so she said we had to transfer things from one bag to another. Well we started this oh so lovely task in front of the entire airport. I have to say, it is rather embarrassing to take your bra and other clothe items out of you luggage and present them to the entire world when you know all eyes are on you because you are the only one re-packing on the floor in the middle of the airport. Then the lady who was making us do all of this started to talk to her co-worker about how pathetic and dumb we are and she can't believe us... she was standing two feet away! I kept shooting her dirty looks but she seemed not to get the hint that I was mad... hmm! Anyway, then her and this other man started yelling at us to get our stuff out of the way. She really must not have been a smart woman to be picking on a mom with a crabby 7 month old at 5AM and there was the fact that we were waiting for her to give us our baggage tickets so we could put our bags in the scanner... maybe she was distracted by my ever so beautiful bras or possibly the sound of Gabriel crying the entire time was making her go nuts, either way she has made it onto my list of little evil green gremlins that suck the life out of other peoples lives.

So we made it to our plane at last, only to have a delay taking off because our entire plane was covered in ice. We were very worried about this because we only had a 45 minute layover in Chicago before our next plane was to take off. We finally took off about 25 minutes late... we were going to arrive after our next plane was already going to start boarding and we were still going to have to find the gate and check in because the first evil green gremlin couldn't get our seat number for that particular flight. Then our flight attendants couldn't give a hootie patootie about anything, much less the fact that many of us who had a 9:00AM flight could very well miss them. Oh, my favorite part of that flight was when Josh was holding his bag in his lap and the flight attendant came by and told him that he couldn't. She said that if the lady who was sitting by the window wanted to get out she wouldn't be able to if Josh was holding his bag. I looked down at my legs touching the seat in front of me and then at Josh's legs who were equally if not more squished then mine against the seats and though unless the woman by the window was going to magically become a leprechaun and shrink to make it through our maze of legs, there would be no way that she would be getting out whether Josh was holding his bag or not. But we just smiled and put the bag away and secretly thought that she was beginning to look a lot like the first green gremlin that we ran into that day. 

So we get to Chicago and run, well twaddle, as fast as we could to our next gate. I have to say that trying to hurry with a 20lbs 7 month old strapped to your chest, a 30lbs backpack on your back, a diaper bag in one hand and Gabriel's teddy in another is not an easy thing to do! Then of course there seems to always be the people that seem to walk like turtles directly in your path and don't get the hint to move over considering you've been on their butts for the last 5 minutes. So we get to our gate and are honestly sweating pretty bad, they call our name just as we get there and we go run to get our tickets and get in line to board the plane. As we board we are pleasantly surprised that because the lady in Minneapolis couldn't get us seats they had to give us what was left, which happened to be in business class right in the front so we had a lot of leg room! Yay, things are looking up!

The flight from Chicago to San Francisco was a lot better then the first. It got delayed at the beginning which was good for us because otherwise our twaddling through the airport would have been in vain. This flight was a bit longer, 4.5 hours but it was good and Gabe slept for like 30 minutes which was better then nothing. The layover in San Francisco was good too. Josh was sad when he found out how much airport food was, $7.00 for one cold turkey sandwich and $3.00 for a bottle of water... poor guy about had a heart attack!

We then boarded the plane to South Korea! One last plane to get on, only one more landing to suffer through (our least favorite part) and we could sleep! Well... maybe not sleep because even as I am writing this now with 7 hours left it still has not happened for me! And no, I am not a slow writer, I took a break =D

Anyway, when we got on the plane we were not seated together, there was an aisle and one chair separating us. I asked the guy I was sitting next to if he would switch with Josh, but Josh's seat was not ideal, so the guy said no. I secretly thought sucks to be you then, you get to deal with a crabby baby and now a crabby mommy! Then every time Gabe looked at the guy he would burst into tears, I think the guy felt bad and kept saying "he's crying because I'm not his Daddy!" I just agreed with the guy in hopes he would give in and move... no hope, apparently he didn't feel as bad as I thought! So when the person that was supposed to sit next to Josh showed up we figured we would ask him to switch with me. Well I didn't know this but when this guy next to Josh sat down he told Josh that he had requested his seat 30 days ago because he really wanted to sit there, so Josh didn't want to ask him to move because he felt bad about it. Well across the aisle I kept motioning to Josh to ask so he finally did. The guy didn't say much, he looked at me and Gabriel was crying, then just grabbed his stuff to switch. I turned to my switching partner and said thank you and sat down in my new seat. Then Josh told me about him wanting his original seat for the last 30 days and then I felt really bad about sitting there! A cool thing happened though, our row never got filled up so Gabriel ended up with his own seat that he could sleep in. We were going to ask the guy I switched seats with if he wanted his back but he was already asleep in his new seat. So now we are all just sitting here... Gabriel was asleep... and then I shifted in my seat and it woke him up and Josh and I still have not caught any Z's yet!

More to come!