more holidays to remember...

korean's do not have mother's day and father's day. they have parent's day and children's day. we were actually out of school on may 5th for children's day. i guess typically it is a day where parents and grandparents spend time with their children and buy them gifts. parent's day was on may 8th. there were people setting all up and down the street selling little baskets of flowers. and then... the following week was teacher's day. i guess kind of like our teacher appreciation week back home but this was just one day. i got this beautiful bouquet of flowers!

our first 'hospital' trip

backing up a bit i need to get this one in...

well we almost made it the entire year without a trip to the 'hospital'. let me remind you that here they call a doctors office a hospital... and that was really what it was. the one we went to was a small clinic about the size a small doctors office back home. (or smaller) oh yeah... bet you want to know who and why... believe it or not it was not the accident queen. (aka... lauren) it was mo. they were biking last monday during pe class and she hit some gravel and crashed. she thinks it was a rock that got her but she is not completely sure. she got pretty scratched up on her leg and one of the spots looked kind of like it may have needed a stitch after we got home and cleaned it up. mr. lee, the pe teacher, wanted to take her right when they got back but you know me... i said oh lets just soak it in the tub and see. when we got home and she soaked it a bit... i decided we better go just check it out. they did not do anything but clean it again and put some iodine antiseptic on it... and had me buy some to put on it for the rest of the week. i think that it needed a butterfly band aid at least but they don't have those here i guess and the doctor said "no stitch". it was super easy!!! we walked right in and were out and back on the bus with in 30 minutes. oh and did i mention the cost... 4700 won and 700 won for the medicine so in all less than five bucks. crazy!!! at home it would have been at least a $40 co-pay. this is her showing off her boo-boo and her 'prescription'...

this one should have been first ~ scotty finally made it...

we are soooooo glad to have scotty here in korea with us. it is so fun to be able to share, with someone else, all the sights and sounds of daily life in seoul. there is so much more than words and pictures can describe! the girls and i met him at the airport last thursday afternoon. i thought they were going to knock him over when they ran to hug him. especially since he had been traveling for almost 24 hours at that point.

he did really well with jet lag. i think he may have a little adrenaline from the excitement of being here. he came to my class friday afternoon so we could leave straight for the train after school. my kids were cracking me up. they loved trying to teach him to say a few different words and then they wanted him to play with them. at the end of the day sammy said, "today was the greatest day, cause he was here!" the first thing i heard monday morning was... "when is your brother coming back?" :)

busan '09 ~ day 2

our fun weekend continued sunday. on our walk last night we stop by a store and picked up some bubble bath. morgan took a HUGE bubble bath to start off her day.

we woke up to sunshine so after breakfast we decided to head to the beach for a little fun in the sand. (i will put up the pictures i have for now but scotty has several others on his computer i need to get.)

we took the 'busan city tour' bus to see a little more of the city. we were pretty bummed when we got a sudden downpour out of nowhere about the time we got to taejondae park. it is the park where on a clear day, you can see japan about 47 km away. we made the best of it and had ice cream inside the snack shop and watched it rain on the ocean below.

after the tour we headed back to the train station and walked around the area for a bit before we had to leave. there is a market area directly across from the station. we got a few good pictures of the people selling their products. this is normal sight in korea. kind of funny though because scotty kept saying... hey i have one of those in my aquarium. i told him... i don't think they are selling them to view... they are selling them to EAT! :)

it was a GREAT weekend and we are looking forward to enjoying the next couple of weeks with scotty!

busan '09 ~ day 1

hello all! i am so far behind in posting so to avoid getting any further behind i am going get our current weekend on and go back and fill in the gaps later.

as some of you may or may not know... my brother scotty is here in korea visiting us for the next 2 1/2 weeks. this weekend we are in busan enjoying the beach. the hotel suite is beautiful!!! the girls both think it is the perfect room...

computer for lauren and you should see the bathtub...

morgan loves it!!! it is like the size of a small hot tub literally. (she has already taken three baths) it is sooooo cool and there is a separate shower as well. it only has one queen size bed so they brought us in a 'korean ondol mat' that morgan thought was pretty neat also. we are on the 8th floor and can see the ocean from our room. it was kind of cloudy today but the sun is trying to come out and is forecasted for lots of sun tomorrow.

we went to the busan aquarium this morning...

(morgan and lauren both LOVED the penguins!)

(there was a really cool 'touching pool'... believe it or not mo would not pick up the starfish?!?!?)

(they had such a fun time looking at all the cool ocean life and i had an even better time watching them enjoy themselves.)

(these are the girls stuffed penguins they got... what was i thinking... where are we going to pack everything?)

...after the aquarium we walked along the beach to the 'APEC' house. it has truly breathtaking views!!! it is the best of both... sandy beaches and then cliffs and rocks that are absolutely beyond words.

(i did not get as many pictures this time as last fall. scotty took lots with his camera... guess i may have to steal some.)

better go now... we are off to find smoothie king and then walk to the 'gwangandaegyo bridge'... they say it is beautiful at night with more than 100,000 electric lights... more tomorrow!

Mother's Day Breakfast

Mother's Day weekend is always a busy weekend for us because Lauren's birthday usually falls very near it. This year... I actually had breakfast made for me on Mother's Day. I really think it is a first. I guess now that Lauren is bigger and she really likes to cook... I cannot complain too much because since we have been here in Korea there have been many times that I have come home and dinner is started and sometimes even done. She says she likes to cook and she does a good job. She usually goes home after school when Morgan and I stay for her activities or me to get some things done in my room (because we have NO planning time). It is usually about five when we leave and with the lovely public transportation it takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to get home. Anyway back to Mother's Day... here is a little smilebox I put together for the special occasion.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Happy Sweet 16 Lauren!!!

Thursday, May 7th was Lauren's 16th Birthday. I still cannot believe she is really 16. This was not just a milestone for her... it was for me as well. :( We celebrated for several days... "Birthday Week". We so totally stole that from you Carri but birthdays have always been like national holidays in our house so I thought it fit us too. Thanks!!! :)

We did little things all week. Tuesday was Children's Day in Korea so we were out of school. We went to the COEX mall with our friend December and spent some time just walking around and had dinner at Bennigan's. It was a fun day! That mall is probably the most like we are used to as far as American malls. Thursday night we had dinner at our house with just us girls. We made a cake and sang 'happy burfaday' (her word). On Friday Grace and December took her out to dinner and to the movies. We LOVE them sooooo much!!! They have quickly become good friends. While they were out... Morgan and I scurried around to finish getting ready for the surprise party we had planned for Saturday night. We even managed to bake a huge cake and hide it in a box... in a suitcase... in the closet... she never even knew it was there. :) She knew we were meeting a few teachers for an early dinner Saturday but what she did not know was that it was more than a few and her friend, Joy, too. I had to get her out of the house a little early so December and Grace could come decorate. That was kind of tricky... i finally told her I wanted to go up the hill to Itaewon and get my hair trimmed.(it did kind of need it) We had a great dinner at 'On the Border' (our favorite place to eat here). It is pretty funny to see a bunch of Koreans in sombreros singing Happy Birthday in English! After we all finished eating we said our goodbyes and they all left. She and Joy and I walked around a bit giving the others time to get back to our house... she still did not know what was going on. After stopping by 'Smoothy King' for a treat, we headed home too. She just thought Joy was coming with us to hang out for the evening. When we got there, I gave her the keys to unlock the door but it was already unlocked. She looked at me with almost fear and said, "it is not locked... I know I locked it when we left mom!" As we walked into the dark room she noticed the balloons hanging and then suddenly everyone appeared with the cake and 16 candles to sing happy birthday yet again. I DID IT... I DID IT... I REALLY surprised her. It was GREAT!!! I was so excited that we were able to surprise her. Although we wish we could have been home to share it with all of you... we feel so blessed to have all these new friends to share the experience with. This will definitely be a 'Birthday to Remember'!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook