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

Onnuri Outdoor Children's Service

the first sunday in may we attended an outdoor children's service at han river park. our third grade teacher at gcs is one of the children's pastors at onnuri church and she invited us to come enjoy the fun. we spent the entire day outside. it was great! we had praise and worship and a special bible story followed by games and picnic lunch including watermelon. yum!!! :) here are a few pics and the video clip i put together of the days events.

this is miss sonia yim, she is the third grade teacher at gcs and one of the children's pastors at onnuri church here in seoul.

morgan and some of her friends from school...

morgan doing the limbo...

morgan's friend, meghana, from gcs. her family is from india... her mom teaches with me. she teaches lauren's high school science class.

this was a super cool game. a round board with jump ropes pulled through and they had to keep the ball in the air.

She's Got Rhythm

Several months back I shared with everyone that Morgan had a new hobby... playing the drums. Every Sunday after church Eric, the drummer on the worship team, lets her play the drums. He even brought her her own pair of sticks a few weeks back. Thanks Alot!!! Now that is all we hear... pound, pound, pound... tap, tap, tap. Here is a little clip from this past Sunday. She is getting better every week. She really does seem to have rhythm. :)

Kids Night Out @ GCS

last night we had a special 'kids night out' at school. the elementary, 1st thru 6th, kids stayed after school. we walked down and around the corner to a bowling alley. it is about a 20 to 30 minute walk... used up some energy and time. :) they loved the bowling. it was a little tiny place in the basement of an office building. nine lanes with equipment that looked like they bought it when they closed the old rose bowl in tulsa. no bumpers... average score... 25! but they did not care... they had fun anyway.

after bowling we walked back to the school and had pizza delivered. yum, yum!!! i had several group games planned for them. i am so thankful for all of those children's church & vbs activities through the years. all the games were new to them. idk who had more fun... them or me watching them. it was great!!!

we ended the night with a movie and popcorn and then a quiet game of Bible bingo. i was pretty tired today and my throat was quite sore but it is all worth it when i see these pictures that remind me of how much fun they had.

EASTER 2009

we started our easter week with a beautiful sun shiny palm sunday. my bible lessons in class that week were a little more in depth. after all... i really want them to learn about all the other stories in the Bible, but if they don't get this week's lessons, they might miss the most important part. God loved us so much... i have been so impressed at how much they have learned this year. i remember the beginning of the year when i would say... "turn to...", they would stumble through the pages until i could get around to help them. most of them did not even know the Bible was separated into the new and old testament. now when i ask them to look up something, they are shouting out before i even ask... "that is in the..."! i think they are really starting to get it. it is a wonderful thing to see all these little children reading God's word!!!

i wanted to share with them some of the exciting things we do in america on easter. most of them had never dyed eggs. sooooo.... after a long search i was able to find white eggs (they are not common here in korea and expensive), food coloring, and vinegar and we dyed eggs. they LOVED it!!! when i told them about egg hunts they all just looked at me with a puzzled look. i finally explained it like hide and seek only you hide the eggs not yourself. i was kind of sad we could not get plastic eggs so that we could have had a real easter egg hunt.

we had a beautiful easter!!! koreans do not typically celebrate easter. of course the churches had services but nothing like the big services we have back home. the little church we have been attending, every nation church of korea, had a combined service that week. they generally have a korean service in the morning and an english speaking service in the afternoon. idk what we are gonna do when we come home and have to start getting up early again to get to church on time... we are kind of spoiled. :) easter combined service was at noon with lunch afterward.

this is the combined korean and english praise teams... notice the words on the screen below...

we also attended another church on easter sunday. onnurri church is one of the larger english speaking ministries here in korea. they have two locations in seoul as well as churches in other cities. the third grade teacher at gcs is one of the children's pastors. she invited all the upper elementary students to attend a special easter service at four that afternoon so we were able to do both. she said they usually have about 100 kids (grades 3 thru 6) in her group but that week they had about 130. it was a great upbeat service for the kids. she did a wonderful job with the message, the sunday school teachers did a drama...

and there was special violin duet by a brother sister team

notice how they sit on the floor in this big open room... no chairs and you have to take off your shoes before you enter the room.

after all the great services we had dinner at our house with grace and december. i made homemade rolls and a ham, not mom's but it was ok... :)

it was a FANTASTIC day!!! one of the many blessing we have had this year is the time we get to spend together. really enjoying each other without all the worries of the crazy schedules. i am so thankful for this time, especially since i know the time i have with lauren is ticking quickly by. if the speed of this year is any indication, she will be gone to college in the blink of an eye. and then morgan won't be far behind.

GCS Spirit Week

last week was spirit week at school. kind of strange because we do not have sports... but student council still has spirit week every spring. it was even more fun because the kids wear uniforms, so for them it was free dress all week. monday was pajama day, tuesday was crazy hair day...

this is my silly sammy. he is so stinkin' cute and he has the personality to boot. he is one big bundle of energy. he keeps me on my toes everyday... well they all do. :)

morgan would not look at me. her hair was great but she was being bashful with the camera. can you see? we used a cup to hold it up.

wednesday was mix-match day and thursday was dress for the future day...

lena, third grader, wants to be a detective when she grows up.

and these boys want to be scientists and doctors. we had lots of doctors in the building that day.

friday was twin day...

daniel and noah dressed as twin pirates. they are cuties, huh?!?! :)