Bedtime Routine

Bath and story time! What fun! Kami gives the best kissies!

And the book that makes Kami laugh evertime. I don't know why. I think it's called "Red Hat. Green Hat".

If My Daughter Could Dress Herself...

...this is what she would wear. A Dora the Explorer dress that I actually bought off of ebay (it's handmade...I LOVE finding stuff like this!) for next summer and pink tennis shoes. Doesn't she look fab?

Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer!

Kami is obsessed with Dora and this is why. Here's he bubble machine that Kami's Auntie sent to her for her birthday. Dora has her own special place in the bathroom near the bathtub. We fill her bubbles with bubble bath and the bubbles float into the bathtub. A little bit of different take on the bubble bath there for you.

Go Cards!

Okay, so I totally haven't even been following the St. Louis Cardinals this year with all the craziness this summer, but I pulled this out of Kami's closet and realized that she hasen't even worn it at all! So, I thought I'd better put it on her and take some pictures of her in it before she grows out of it, like next week! I swear she's growning so fast! I can hardly keep up!

Slacker

Yep. That's me. I'm a blogger slacker! Life this week went from kind of slow pace to full speed ahead. As you've probably already noticed, I've added a new section to my sidebar called UMUC. Because I come to my blog so often, I figured it would be easier for me to add a link there. Anyway, that is the school I'm taking classes from and hope to finally earn my degree. With the exception of this semester, I figure that if I take two classes per semester, I will be able to finish my degree before I leave Korea (yes, Mindy...that means I will finally get that math class you've been after me for years to take!). So. That's my goal. UMUC has a fantastic Distance Education program that I am working with. Hence the reason I am only taking one class this semester. I figured I'd better try it out to see if it's do-able and if I like it. After week one, I'd say, so far so good.

Osan OSC (aka, Osan Officer's Spouses Club, for those who don't know the jargon) has also started up and I've volunteered to take the position of Historian. We had our first meeting yesterday and that was the first time I'd really gotten to meet some of the other spouses around base with the exception of church. Being off base, you're really kind of isolated from what's happening on base and meeting people. I was telling Drew the other day, I know I could've made at least 10 friends here in the apartment complex so far....if I only spoke their language. But, anyway, I'm excited for the OSC year to start and be able to meet some people hopefully with some of my same interests.

It's been raining quite a bit this last week. If you've been checking the blog, you would have noticed that in the weather status. I was kind of laughing because it was reporting "light rain". I dunno about that. But, maybe comparatively speaking, it was light to what they usually get here. The crazy thing was that it was non-stop rain. I guess I'm not used to that. It's been a long time since Seattle.

Oh, and for those interested, Drew and I were extended callings in our branch this last week. We're both extreamly excited to be serving in our new respective callings. Drew is working as the Branch Clerk, and I'll be serving as the 2nd Counselor in the YW's Presidency. I'm totally excited about this!

Okay. For all those photo people that come on the blog, here are some from this past week. My photo challange for this past week as been a week in the life. It's been really good for me, because that means I have picked up my camera at least once during the day. So, here's some pictures of Kami this past week.

MONDAY: We went to a little market and picked up some barettes. Kami doesn't keep them in so, I usually don't buy them. But these were too cute. After about the third time of her taking it out and me putting it back in, she finally kept the barette in for the rest of the day!

TUESDAY: Got Yogurt? Kami somehow managed to poke a hole in the top of a yogurt container and began "drinking" the yogurt. I was about to freak out and take it away, when I thought, "Hmm. What a smart girl. She figured out a way to get something she wanted. Cool by me."
WEDNESDAY: It was really rainy today, so I thought we'd do some baking. I had a bunch of banana's that were about to turn ugly. So...Kami and I made them into muffins from Drew's work! So much fun! I hope to have many more times where I get to cook with my daughter. Of course since it was sunch a rainy day, we also took wagon rides around the apartment.

THURSDAY: After fighting with Kami to stay seated in her high chair and eat her dinner, it occured to Drew and I that she may not want to be in a high chair anymore. Maybe she wanted to join us at the big table. So, we invested $10 in a booster chair. She does much better now.
FRIDAY: The rain finally stopped and it was a beautiful morning, so we decided to take a walk on the trails in the back of our apartments. WOW! Serious off-roading going on here! Some of those trails are nothing but dirt paths and hills. FANTASTIC. Hiking, here I come! There is also a lady back there with a make-shift resturant in the middle of these paths. She's got a tent set up, ramen noodles, drinks, etc. She also has some tables and chairs set up. It made me smile.

Oprah. Kami. Pure Randomness.

Okay. So, I was watching Oprah yesterday she had on Dr. Oz, who went into this women's kitchen and cleaned out her kitchen of all the junk food she had. It made me think about all the unnatural food we eat and with Dr. Oz's guidelines, I went through my kitchen and starting looking at what I had. If your kitchen is anything like mine, it's more than you think. He suggest staying away from any food that has any of these in the first 4 ingredients labled on your cans/boxes/bags/etc:

• Sugar
• Hich Fructose Corn Syrup
• Enriched Wheat Flour (White Flour)
• Saturated Fat (lard, animal...oh man, there goes my St. Patrick's Day dinner!)
• Hydrogenated Oil (transfat)

Anyway, it was really interesting. In other news, it's been a while since I've done a Kami update. So, I'll try to remember the new stuff she's doing.

• Kami's newest words are: "No"="Na", "Uh-oh", "Yum"="Mum", "Hi", "Bird"="Buh"
• She also has some sounds for words, like, she has a sound for "drink", she makes a grunting sound when she sees a pig (like and *oink*) and she says *meow*
• She love Dora the Explorer, especially ever since she got a Dora bubble blower from her Auntie for her birthday. So, now every time she see's Dora, she starts to blow. She also blows when she sees things she think's are hot, especially food that has steam coming from it.

Hmm. That's all I can think of right now. Not too much going on here. It was actually a really cool day today so we went out to the park and brought the bubbles down with us. We were the main attraction in the park!

Escargot?

Okay, so I thought I'd have a little fun with Kami's lunch today! I kid you not, this only took the amount of time it takes to heat up a frozen fish stick in the oven (approx. 20 minutes)! AND Kamden ate ever last bite of it! I actually got the idea from a book I've got, only they used homemade chicken sausage. Here's what I did if anybody's interested:

Heat frozen fish sticks (I used Gorton's Tenders Origional Batter), put in the over according to directions. Meanwhile, dice up potatoes and place in boiling water until tender (you could also use the store bought mashed potatoes), strain water and mash potatoes, season and add whole milk until you get your desired consistancy. While the potatoes are boiling, microwave a handful of frozen peas. Arrange as pictured. I also used Chow Mein Noodles for the antenna's and smile. SO STINKIN' EASY!

Rice

These pictures are taken right behind out apartment complex, and of course is not uncommon to see here in Korea. This country has a beauty that takes my breath away.

Watermelon

So, I went with a friend from church to the outdoor market the other day and picked up a good size watermelon. As it sat on my counter all day, I though about the daunting task of slicing the watermelon. I knew it would be a huge undertaking. Finally that evening, as I reach for the knife drawer I decided that I would finally tackle the task. With all my force, I lay into the watermelon. To my surprise, I hear a slight *pop* and the whole watermelon splits open with ease! My jaw dropped. This was the easiest watermelon I have ever sliced! Also proably one of the tastiest, too!

Welcome To Our Home

Here's some pictures of our apartment I though you all might enjoy!

Photo Challange: Shoes

I still haven't forgotten my photo challanges! There's just a little slow coming! Here's a couple that I took this week of shoes!

This is a new pair of Kami's shoes I thought were just too cute!

And of course, Sunday shoes are my favorites!

Moving Day

For those interested in how they move things in and out of these high-rises, here you go! Let's just hope nothing falls from the platform that all the stuff is on!

Scrapbook Pages

Oh, my! It's been a long, long time since I posted any scapbook pages on the blog! Believe me, it's not been because I haven't done any pages! I think I've done quite well at finding time! ;^) That being said, some of these pages are not quite done yet. Some are missing journaling....some are missing a title. The Easter page was origionally supposed to be a single page, but, I'm just not feeling it. I think it needs another page. And there's just too many cute Easter pictures from our photo shoot that I want to put in Kami's book. And, some pages, as you can tell by the first page are long overdue! Kami was only a couple day old when this picture was taken! Most of these pages have been inspired by pages in Scrapbook Magazines...with my own little added twist. The way I figure it, that's what those magazines are there for, right? I don't have the luxury anymore of taking the time to come up with an "origional" design anymore. I've been having a hard time with this, so I have to keep telling myself that there is a time and a season for every part of our lives. My main focus right now is raising a beautiful daughter, being a patient and understanding wife and maintain my own sence of me. When I think of it that way, I don't feel so bad not being able to sit down and lay out which embellishment goes where and should this picture go here or there. It's so nice to be able to flip open a magazine and say...that looks good...and go to work! 20 years from now, will it really matter anyway where you got your ideas from? I don't think so. What matters is that you've recorded such a precious memory in your lives. Okay! I'm done! Enjoy the pages! And feel free to copy...whatever! ;^)

Pictures!

Okay! For all you picture lovers out there, this post is for you! I broke out the camera the other day and took some pictures from around our apartment. The first picture here is actually from inside out apartment looking out at an angle (directly in front of us is another apartment building). Pretty isn't it? It kind of reminds me of Washington State....only think Washington humidity and have it be between 90-100 degrees everyday!
Behind our apartment building is a fabulous walking trail I'm not sure how far it goes, but it's really well maintained...very beautiful! Speaking of walking, since I've been doing a lot of it, I have to say Kudos to the Koreans for paving their sidewalks with that cool bouncy material that you usually see on a running track! It's so much easier on the feet! Anyway....this is also a picture of our actual apartment building! It's about 15 floors high (we're on the 5th floor), our apartment is the width of this building and 1/4 the length of it (does that make any sense?)...so it's a pretty good size as far as apartments go. There are about 10 of these high-rises total in our apartment complex.
And here is a cute picture of Kami...we're walking back from one of the parks in the apartment complex. I cannot even begin to count the number of people who have stopped us on the street to admire Kamden! In Korean culture babies are considered "everyone's treasure" to cherish, so it is not uncommon when we are stopped, that Kami is kissed, picked up, or patted. I hear blondes and red-heads are especially popular. Anyway, today was actually a beautiful day so Kami and I decided to take a walk down to a cute little baby shop not too far from our house. Only to remember when we got there and saw that it was closed that today is a Korean holiday! Oh well. It was a nice walk anyway! Later this afternoon we went down to the park and met a really, really nice family. They've got two little boys, one is about 2 years old, the other is only 2 months. The dad spoke English really well, and I have a feeling that the mom understood it more than she spoke...or maybe she wasn't comfortable speaking it. Speaking of trying to get comfortable speaking another language...I thought I'd try my hand in saying "Thank you" to the woman at the fruit stand today....I ended up saying, "Kamsah Hasayo", which is a mixture of "Thank you" and "Good afternoon" I'm such an idiot! Time for me to take a Korean language class!!!

Annyong Hasayo!

Greetings from the Land of the Morning Calm! Yep, that's right, Kami and I finally made it to Korea! We arrived Monday night and have been busy every since! Not to mention trying to adjust to the drastic time change, new surroundings, climate, and culture. In fact, something different....I pulled up blogger here and it's all in Korean. Hmmm. I'm relying on my memory of which button does what! Since I really didn't have any prior knowledge of Korea, it's hard for me to say it was differnt that I had expected. That being said, I do have to admit, it's more beautiful than I thought it would be. There is lots of green, lots of hills, lots of water and right now, very, very hot and humid! We live in an apartment about a 5-10 minute car ride from base and about a 25-40 minute walk (we still haven't picked up our car, so we've been doing a lot of walking and taxi riding); so we're all getting our fair share of excercise. I'm hoping that necessity forms a habit! Okay! So, I'm hoping to post some pictures for you all soon! And for those of who you asked if I needed anything? If anybody want's to tape any Sesame Street episodes for us, that would be perfect! We're really missing our SS friends!