Dear Daddy

Dear Daddy,

I am having Mommy write this because my fingers are still too small and chubby to push these HUGE compute keys. Someday I will be big and strong like you and can do it myself, at least that is what Mommy keeps telling me and I really hope that she is right, I really do want to be like you!

Even though I’m just a little guy, I love you SOOOO much! See, you just think that I’m little and that I don’t understand stuff like that yet... but your wrong Daddy, I know what the ‘L’ word is and I LOVE MY DADDY! I miss you so much when you go to work everyday. I will always cuddle with you in the morning, I know Mommy is sometimes jealous that you get all my cuddles but I think she understands, I just want to spend time with you. I know sometimes I cry for Mommy in the morning and you have to take me to her... she looks kind of funny when she just wakes up doesn’t she? Oh No!!!Don’t tell her I said that, she will tickle me! It will just be our secret! See, I have to cry for her sometimes, my tummy is just soooo hungry and I need her to fill me up so I can go spend time with you and we can have

our man time, no Mommy allowed! I do spend all day with her after all and she makes me eat broccoli and squash... eww! I know you feel for me because you don’t like them either! You should take all the yucky veggie’s she tries to make us eat and hide them! I have a good place in my crib where I don’t think she will find them!

I know you have to spend all day at work to give me toys and so Mommy can eat to make more yummy milk for me, but I do miss you when you are gone. If I could have it my way you would be home with me all day playing on the floor with me and teaching me all the animals on that book you made for me. By the way, sorry Daddy about tearing that book apart, my fingers are just too chubby and I have a hard time holding on to things like you do (and I’m discovering my muscles so I can be big and strong like you, but I didn’t mean to wreck it, I’m sorry). I get so excited when you come home for lunch and for the night. Sometimes you don’t see it, but I always smile and laugh when I hear you come home, I just can’t wait to see you and play with you! Plus, nobody gives bear hugs like you do and you let me play with your cool name tag even though I drool on it!

I want to be just like you when I grow up Daddy. I want to play guitar and sing like you do. I want to be big and strong and be able to throw Mommy down and tickle her when she tries to feed me broccoli! I want to wear those big skater shoes just like you and wear white t-shirts everyday, even if Mommy thinks they are silly I don’t care, I want to be just like you! Maybe when I get older and can understand more you can teach me how to fix those big car engines you were trying to explain to Mommy the other day, and maybe you can teach me how to ride a bike and throw a ball! Can you Daddy? I keep dreaming about it, every night! I know you will teach me everything! I can’t wait! I’m working on this whole crawling thing and standing on my own, I know pretty soon I will be able to run around with you, just like you always talk about!

Daddy, I’m getting so tired now. I keep trying to wake up early in the morning so I can be just like you and only get 8 hours of sleep... but I can’t help it, my eyes hurt and I think Mommy is getting frustrated because I’m getting cranky from not enough sleep, how do you do it Dad?I guess you will just have to teach me... so much to learn! I will try again tomorrow Dad, then I will get to spend even more time with you and cuddle before Mommy gets up. She does look super scary when she gets up after all... you should tell her to just cut her hair short like us men, then she won’t look like something that crawled out of the kitchen cupboard! Get down at my level... you will see what I’m talking about, it’s kind of scary! I will see you in the morning! It is my favorite part of the day and I can’t wait!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy! I love you SOOOOOOOO much!

Your Stinker,

Gabriel

P.S. On the next page is a picture I had Mommy take, just you and me! I love you!

Shopping!!!

Yay I get to go shopping this weekend! Woot Woot! I don't like shopping a ton when I'm in the states. I like going garage sale shopping or if I go to Maurices with the girls and if I actually have money to spend on the things that I like, but other then that I'm not a huge fan. BUT when I go shopping in other countries I love it! They just have a lot of different stuff and you get a whole different experience and there is a lot more culture involved! Plus, I get to buy almost whatever I want tomorrow! hehehe! See on Monday it's my birthday, but not just any birthday, nope this one is special. Why may you ask? It's my golden birthday! Yay for me! Ok, I know most people don't make a big deal about it but I do! To bad Gabriel's golden birthday is going to be when he is two... he won't even remember it:(

Anyway, so because Josh can never decide what to get for me and I usually end up getting funky plastic pot looking things and because this is my golden birthday after all, he said that I get to go shopping and get cute clothes and whatever... within means of course:) Ha, we're definitely not that rich of course:) 

My one fear though is that it is going to rain and my shopping isn't going to happen:( The weather thing that I read said that there was a chance for scattered thunderstorms... soooo hopefully they scatter away from Seoul, I want to go shopping gosh darn it! Aren't I selfish;) hehe!

Shopping here I come!

Horrible Stomach Ache

Did you know that sometimes your body won't make enough acid in your stomach? I didn't! I knew that it can produce too much acid and then you get things like heartburn or ulcers, but I didn't know that sometimes it won't make enough. 

Well last night I had the unfortunate experience of learning this fact. I had eaten dinner (which was so yummy by the way) and I wasn't feeling super great before hand anyway, but about an hour after I ate I started to get an awful stomach ache. The pain kept getting worse and worse and before I knew it was starting to crawl up in a ball on the floor. I took some Pepto-Bismal and it didn't work (and it always works for me) so I went and got some Tums thinking they might help... but they didn't! Taking these two medicines made it so much worse because they were antacids so they were taking even more acid out of my tummy. I started to sweat and was breathing really hard... I can't really describe the pain, I just know that it HURT something awful! I can kind of relate the pain to labor... but then again I had back labor and this was in my stomach and I have to say labor was still worse:) Anyway, I can usually handle a bit of pain but it wasn't going away and I was seriously going to tell Josh we had to go to the hospital. Call me a wuss but you have no idea how bad it hurt! 

Josh started to ask me questions and somehow knew what was going on. So he ran and got me some milk... GROSS! Our milk here is so nasty! I can handle it on things like cereal but it is honestly the most disgusting thing ever! You know how they say if you feed your cows onion the milk will taste like onion? Well the same must go for cabbage because the milk tastes exactly like milky cabbage! Yes, disgusting! Anyway, that made me feel a little bit better as apparently milk has acid in it. And then, yes, I'm sorry TMI warning, I threw up. And then I felt great! 

I asked Josh where he learned that from and he said that he was watching TV one time and they were talking about it, apparently vinegar is supposed to work way better then milk but we didn't have any. So, in the end I was actually happy that my husband watches TV sometimes:)

Half Naked Cuddle

I walked into the living room the other day after Josh had gotten done changing Gabriel and I found that Gabriel, who was not buttoned up all the way, had snuggled up to one of his favorite toys...

I bought it before we left America because I thought he would really like it and it turns out that it was definitely worth it! Other pictures of Gabriel and his toy...

Bomb Shelter

Our school seems to have this habit of not telling us useful information. Most of the time it's small stuff but sometimes it's rather big things. For instance they didn't tell us when we got hired here that we may have to work weekends, they will let you go about paying for things that are actually free for teachers, you never know when new teachers are coming and a lot of times if shopping is cancelled on Monday nights (they provide a vehicle for us to go) we don't know until 5 minutes before we were actually supposed to leave. 

The most recent thing that we found out about that could be very useful information is the bomb shelter. See, if you haven't been watching the news you may not know but North Korea, South Korea's arch enemy if you will, has been 'flexing their nuclear muscle', according to the CNN news guys, for the past few weeks. They were starting to stir the pot a little bit before we actually left America but we didn't think too much about it. Quite a few people here in South Korea are getting more nervous that they will actually attack South Korea and some people are actually planning ahead. Heck there have even been a few people in the states asking us when we are going to leave... to answer, not yet:)

So last night we went over to a friends house for dinner and the topic of North Korea came up and what the plans were if North Korea actually decided to attack... what would we do? I don't know what we would do honestly. I have been thinking about it but haven't really made any plans. My thought is... run like hell! haha! =D I have looked on line and the US Embassy has these stations that you are supposed to go to if they are evacuating Americans and depending on what section you live in depends on what station you go to... problem is I don't know what section we live in:) Other then that, well I was thinking of packing our backpack with necessity's like diapers and a change of clothes for Gabriel, but honestly I'm not too worried yet so I haven't done too much. 

So in the conversation at our friends apartment I said that I wasn't sure what I would do if they actually decided to bomb the place... technically I don't know why they would waste a bomb on English Village... but whatever, I'm sure their bombs are big enough that it wouldn't have to be directly focused on English Village and it would still hit us. I said that I would probably grab Gabriel and run to that bathroom since it's the room that is most in the middle of our apartment. I then find out that English Village has neglected to tell us that we actually have a bomb shelter in each apartment building. So really, if North Korea had actually decided to waste a bomb on English Village yesterday morning, Gabriel and I would have been sitting on the bathroom floor when, virtually, right outside our door there is a bomb shelter... we just never knew it was a bomb shelter... so Gabriel and I would have probably died and our neighbors would be safe and sound in the hatch... sigh... gotta love this school.

So our neighbor lady and I were talking about how we should possibly check it out and see if it was clean and possibly start to think about putting just a little bit of food and water down there... you know, just in case. Soo.... this morning, after talking with Josh's family, we went outside and peaked inside the bomb shelter.

It's not exactly what either of us had thought it would be and Josh doesn't think it would keep us very safe if we actually were being bombed. At least it would be safer then the bathroom:) It's underneath the stair case that leads to the upstairs apartments...

The cover 'hiding' it is really just sitting on top of the hole but apparently it's pretty heavy... which I don't know how I would lift it if I were here by myself but I'm sure adrenaline would kick in... I am buff... umm... on the inside that is:)

The ladder going down into the shelter starts like 3 feet from the top of the hole... I don't even know how fast I could get down by myself considering the first step if forever down in the hole, much less trying to hold a baby... 

Anyway, then down in the hole is just, well, that, a hole. There is about a foot of concrete between you and day light and then all the walls are all concrete surrounding you, so just one big hole...

At least they have a bomb shelter... EVEN if they don't tell us about it! ha! None the less, hopefully we never have to use it!!!