I hope you're in your comfy chair...

We spent our Saturday in Seoul and here were the highlights:

Our destination was The Dongdaemun Market. It is the portion of the city that is known as the garment district. It houses the fabric market, and every other thing imaginable that is used to make clothing products of ALL sorts, including shoes. It was in summary, mind blowing.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To start off with, we managed to get there! Darin was driving and I was navigator. So, right off the bat, my family is impressed that I was reading the map, and that somehow contributed to our arrival at Dongdaemun . Therefore, it constitutes highlight number one. Darin's highlight number one might have been that we successfully managed to park our car in a parking garage, and it did feel triumphant when we did that too.

Once we were out and walking to the fabric market, we paused for a moment to appreciate the view of the original ancient gate that was the entry to this market many eons ago. We couldn't get any closer to read the historical market. The roads have literally been built all around it. But we thought we should at least try to stand in front of it. For some reason, we were starting off with some grumpy kids. So the following photo series represents Darin's instructions, "Get out of the picture if you can't smile." Please enjoy the photos.

Good-bye George.

See you later, Jane.

That's not a smile Ruby. You're out.

The picture.
(and we wonder why the Koreans stare at us...)

Next highlight were the sidewalk sofa makers. I have no idea what they were saying, I imagine it went a little something like this: "Hey, need a couch, just give me a minute, I'll make it for you."

And then the workers here might be saying, "Hey, you don't like your bra, let's get you a better one. Come on, pick out the pieces."

But mostly, it was alley upon alley of stuff like this.

And of course, I couldn't stop laughing as I passed by my 100th ribbon stand. Only a week and a half ago I asked my sister to mail me ribbon, because I was not having any luck finding anything great online. I walked passed no less than 5 million miles of ribbon. Each mile was a tiny little tease, a representation if you will, of all that I have yet to discover about this place!

Darin gave me an hour or so to walk through the six story building that was the official Seoul Fabric market. He took all the children to find some lunch and carefully helped me find a good meeting spot which he hoped I would be able to find again. We synced our watches, and said good bye. After one hour of wandering through ENDLESS possibilities, I walked back out into the sun with a blazing headache. It was simply, too much. I will be back. On the first trip, who can be expected to even understand that place. I was lost most of the time that I was inside the building. Anyway, I'll be back. That's all I can say.

Here is how the serious Korean fabric market guys leave with their goods. My stuff just fit into my purse. I felt slightly like a failure when I saw how much he was leaving with. But it was time to move on.


After the fabric overdose, we needed fresh air, and fresh melon. Check out the melon-on-the-stick guy.




Next we wandered through about two miles worth of outdoor vendors in search of the perfect wallet for George. In search of shade, we cut through another alley and began wandering for what felt like another couple of miles of underground shoe stalls. Maybe we passed by 3 billion shoes.

After one more refreshing snack (please understand that these pictures elapse over about five hours worth of time. Each snack was well deserved.), it was time to find our way back to the car.



Thanks to the cute ladies posted around the city under umbrellas directing traffic and telling you when to walk across the street,



we nearly escaped Dongdaemun market. We were ALMOST to our car, when Jane spotted a Target sign and fell on the ground crying because no one would take her inside.

Have I mentioned before how much my ladies miss a good morning stroll through Target? Jane was beside herself in sorrow that we were about to leave Seoul without walking inside of this Target. It was hard explaining to her that this was not the "real" Target. I tried to show her inside the windows, etc. I finally just had to pick her up and carry her away. Poor Jane misses Target.


Which brings me to the final highlight of returning to the car, onto the freeway, and all the way back home, safe and sound with another Korean adventure under our belts.


Just a view of the scenery as we drive between Osan and Seoul. Somethings are just impossible to explain, you must see it for yourself.

Stay tuned for the next post with the sewing highlights from the week.

Notes from today.

Today I decided I liked summer. At one point as I was walking around somewhere with all four of my children, I realized I wasn't annoyed. I realized that I was glad that we were all together. I thought, at least when we are all together I know what everyone is doing and how they are doing it. I hear about how they are feeling, and what they are saying, and how they are behaving. In other words, I'm there. And I decided today that that's really important to me. So while I don't love taking four kids to the grocery store, the post office or the embroidery shop, today I felt a sort of peace while doing it, knowing that it was the right thing to be doing.

I just didn't want to forget that feeling.

Jane told me tonight to take her picture because she looked like a mommy. I thought that was sweet.

At lunch today, Ruby sat down at the table with an orange popsicle flavored yogurt and said, "Click on my mouth if you want me to eat my yogurt." I looked up to see if I had heard her correctly, and sure enough she had her pointer finger "clicked" on her chin, and only when her finger was in place, could she proceed eating her yogurt. It was at that point, when I realized that she viewed herself as an interactive webpage element that perhaps (just perhaps), my 3 year old is playing too many games on Nickjr.com. But it still made lunch time super funny to me.

Darin picked up George's apron from the embroidery shop this evening. We were all very excited about that. It inspired George to put it on and make dessert for everyone. He made a pot of hot chocolate. At that moment I fell in love with my children all over again, because do you know any other four children who unanimously agree that a pot of hot chocolate in August is an outstanding solution for dessert? Yeah, I didn't think so.

And finally today, I had a vision. I remembered this $3 bedskirt I picked up from a Target clearance rack months ago. It managed to make the move with us, even though it's a queen size, and not really a solution for any bed in this house. But today, mid morning routine, I remembered it, pulled it out and realized it could make some darling curtains for the girls room! So I had mental stimulus throughout the day in my mind as I did some mild math problems, and envisions sewing strategies for turning this bedskirt into curtains.

Now the question remains, should it happen tonight? Or should I go to bed?!

Those are my notes from today.

A few great things happened this week...

Yeah, I'm still sewing. But, for this week it makes the list of great things happening. How could it not? Check out Ruby's adorable tiered skirt. Jane had a matching one a day or two later. It was super fun to make, and even more fun to watch the ladies walk about town in. And yes, I did mean literally walk around town in. At this point in our week, we were still walking, but keep reading, the week gets better...

You know, a while back, my sister wrote a post about something she self-titled and diagnosed as"obsessive personality disorder". I read her post and felt almost sorry for her the way she had to cut out certain activities in life simply because she thought she couldn't find the proper balance. I pondered the situtaion for a while, and concluded that I was not in her same boat. At the time, I couldn't say that I had anything that so completely obsessed my attention. I'm wondering if it's time to re-examine the situation?!

Here's the link to the tiered skirt. Come on, how about you make one too, then I won't be the only one obssessed?!

After I had two skirts under my belt, I managed to have a morning where all the children were away. The ladies had gone off to play at "pre-school", and the boys had banded with the other Cub Scouts on base for a Scout Play Camp. I headed off solo down to the "market" thinking I needed some stuff. But on my way into the BX I happened past the beauty salon that was looking quiet and empty. I popped in and to my utter delight discovered a $17 spa pedicure, which was so deluxe it took up a full hour of time. Come on, what is summer good for, if you aren't allowed to waste away an hour on a spa pedicure?

Of course the crowning acheivement of the week, was when Darin went and retreived the mini-van. Never has a family so loved their car, as the Earnests! We thought of places to go on Friday, just to be all together in the car. We drove through and got food. We drove to the outdoor swimming pool. We drove to the post office. And we drove to the grocery store. It was almost too good to be true. And to top it off, Friday was 98 degrees (and you know what that means around here!). So Darin definitely won "husband of the year award" for producing such a miracle on such a hot day! Thank you Darin.

More great things from the week... an unexpected package from best friend Nancy. She just happened to think of me, by sending some adorable tops she found on super clearance at her "stores". Nancy has a super clearance gift. She has had it since high school. Thanks a million times for adding such fun to my day Nancy!!

And finally, the whole family got to come check out the fabric store for themselves today. Having devoted so much time to sewing lately, I thought everyone should come and have a look at the fabric store. I told George that he could find some fabric for me to make him an apron. Here's the finished product with a classic George pose. We will have his name embroidered this week. It just so happens that we also have a embroidery shop right in front of the BX. And who could have predicted that such a kiosk would add to my joy here in Korea?!

Another weekend.

Another weekend come and gone. I'm not counting, but I think it's our 6th one (which means there are only 98 to go). Shara blessedly took me again to the Happy Quilt. Just to try to give you a visual, here is what we are dealing with at the fabric wearhouse. Stacks upon stacks, and you never know what might be lurking in a bag in a corner somewhere.

After the fabric store excursion, I came home and tried to rally the troops to go "downtown" in the rain. With the promise of more cheap DVDs, everyone found their shoes. Henry picked the newest Indiana Jones, George got some Star Wars Clone War thing, and the girls, Sleeping Beauty! Henry's DVD quality leaves MUCH to be desired, but the rest are awesome for only $3. We meandered through our random "downtown" while rain intermittently fell. We now proudly own six umbrellas, one for each member of the family.

While wandering we found "Mr. Potato Guitar Shop" for uncle Scott. Now maybe he'll come and visit us?! It was finally time to come back home and have dinner and settle into a long night of sewing.

Ruby got the new dress this time. Jane is still waiting for her "bird" dress to be finished, but I promised her she could wear it to church as soon as it's done. So she settled on "the" skirt.

You know, the required ballerina pose.

And finally, curtains for the dining room.

The good thing about sewing is that it means I'm up late at night, just in case anyone might call me at 1am, thinking it is 1pm, from the states. I'll talk to anyone from home, no matter the AM or PM. It was a lovely chat sister, in the wee hours of the morning. I have piles of fabric now for a full week's worth of entertainment. But, I also promised I will get the boys registered for school this week. And Darin has promised that we'll have our car by the weekend! So there is LOTS to look forward to. Good night for now. (Every now and again you need a night to catch up on the lost sleep...)

Day 2, of "My Life As a Seamstress"

I had a little bit of fabric left, so a dress was produced. It's not totally done, I'm still waiting on my double-fold bias tape to arrive in the mail...other than that, it's pretty darn cute. It could use a bit of embellishing, so for that I will continue to seek inspiration at all my online fabric stores. (Since the dreamy Korean fabric warehouse doesn't sell notions.)

Ruby and Snow White were feeling a little left out, so they posed for a picture too. Ruby put her skirt back on for day 2 full of fun in it. I was okay with that, seeing as I was still pretty proud of myself.

Anyway, I'm out of fabric now. My new friend Shara is going to take me back to the fabric store, but it's only open on Wednesday and Saturday. Because of the pretend war, we couldn't go today, so I'll be dreaming of fabric until Saturday comes around...more creations to follow next week.

It was totally worth it!

The ladies loved their new skirts all day long! Hooray for getting them done.

What next?!

Was it worth it?!

Was it worth staying up until 2am to make this twirly skirt? Maybe not, considering I still have to make another tomorrow to avoid all strife.

(In case you want to stay up until 2am to make your own twirly skirt, here how I did it, mostly, not exactly, because I am simply inept at following patterns completely!)

But it was totally worth staying up until 2am to see this guy, walking out the door to his "war" shift which will run from 2am-2pm (which today ran from 2am-5pm!). Thank goodness it's only a pretend war! He was sweating before he even walked out the front door in all that gear.

Good night!

Just try it.

Being a bit of a prep and a snob (according to this quiz), I don't usually succumb to such games, but this one only had six questions, so how could I resist? Besides, I do love Paris, so maybe it really knows me.

(Thanks Leslie for the link.)

What Your Pizza Reveals

Your appetite is pretty average. You don't go overboard - but you don't deprive yourself either. You aren't particularly picky about pizza. It's so good... how could you be? You fit in best in the Western part of the US. Your taste is rather complex and sophisticated. You consider yourself a gourmet - and a bit of a snob. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are deep and thoughtful. You should consider traveling to Paris. The stereotype that best fits you is upper class preppy. You don't do anything too ordinary or vulgar.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Who knew?!

We still travel around base old-fashion style, our feet and a double stroller. It's not always fun when you remember something like you ran out of pull-ups and it's 7:35pm. Or when it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity and you remember that you don't have anything for dinner.

But this afternoon I remembered I needed to paint my white walls some color other than white. And there is a place, it's called the "Self Help Center" and they will give me some nice neutral brownish color, which at least won't be white.

Having a bit of a compulsion when I move to get COMPLETELY moved-in and decorated within 30-days, I had to go there this afternoon. The calendar is ticking. But of course, it's changed locations, but not in the literature that is given out when you move in, so when we arrived in the neighborhood of building 449, there was no brownish colored paint for me to load the stroller up with. So that was sad. To soften the blow of disappointment we walked into the highly air conditioned commissary to think about what we could eat for dinner. But with all the sweat dripping down my face, somehow I had lost my appetite. Henry retained his, and persuaded his siblings that they should have some variety of mac and cheese for dinner. Whatever. I walked home with a box of mac and cheese. I was mostly distracted thinking about my walls that wouldn't be painted tonight between 8pm and 2am. Some dreams are hard to let go of.

But then when I got home, I saw an email saying my van will be in KOREA on the 18th. Is that tomorrow?! I think it is. It will be in Seoul. So perhaps a Korean adventure will be in order this weekend. Because, so help me, I think I need my car back.

But hey, in case you were wondering, if you run your errands late in the afternoon with a double stroller and two tired girls, they can still fall asleep in the stroller, just as they used to fall asleep in the car seat. So that part was nice, this afternoon. (Or maybe they had passed out from heat exhaustion and I should go check their pulse...)

Meet the band.

There was Rocker on guitar, Jonas was keyboards, and Earnest was supposed to be the background dancer. Things were going well.

But like any great band, things were bound to fall apart. Rocker was insisting on a solo. This made Jonas really ticked. He walked off stage.


Earnest was already on shaky footing since she kept talking about costumes. And when she mentioned that maybe the Fairy Godmother could help them, the guys were convinced she wasn't based in reality.


Like any true diva, she walked off to find some snacks. So the band ended. But Rocker kept rocking the guitar. For him, it was always about the music.


(P.S. Aunt Rachel, Henry wanted to let you know he was doing this song on expert level. He thought you would be able to appreciate that bit of info.)

An explanation.

About what we've been doing this week...

First of all, on Monday the power was scheduled to be out for maintenance. We had been forewarned about it. So that when the actual power outage day come around, our children were nearly at their wits end in anticipation. What exactly would life in the 21st century be like with no power? It had been the main source of conversation in the intervening days.

Lucky for them their father has a lap top computer. They played computer games in the morning, watching the little battery life icon in the upper-right hand corner, as though it was nearly as exciting as the game itself. What would happen when the battery died? The battery finally died. After a bit of discussion, and realizing that Darin and I were busy moving all of our temporary furniture into a single bedroom to make way for our household goods, they realized they were going to be on their own. They turned to their final resource, toys, and each other. Novel.



By mid-afternoon we were all hungry. And life on the third floor with no a/c was starting to get hot. So we volunteered to take them to the bowling alley.

After a healthy game of bowling, we walked home speculating amongst ourselves about the condition of our electricity. Would it be on, would it still be off, and the conversation went around and around.

To our utter delight, the a/c blasted us with a refreshing blow the moment we opened the doors to the main floor lobby, and we instantly knew, life could resume.

Until we walked into our house and realized that life would not resume, possibly for several days, until we resurfaced from all of the boxes.


So there you have it. An explanation of the past few days. Somehow with all the packing up that was going on back in Colorado Springs way back in May, I had completely blocked the thought about all the boxes needing to be unpacked. I think now it was a method of self preservation. Had I realized that every box I authoritatively instructed a mover to pack up, would exhaustively be unpacked by me on the other end, I might not have come.

After spending this morning unpacking again, I finally told the children that since the sun was shining I would take them all to the outdoor pool and swim with them! No one wanted to come with me, until I agreed that we could have a taxi come pick us up. I managed to get everyone suited up, the taxi at the curb, and got us all the way over to the outdoor pool, only to discover that they are closed on Wednesday. Everyone wondered how I could have made such a terrible mistake on the hottest day we have yet encountered.

To cheer the children up, I told them that we should walk over to find some lunch at the food court. They all walked hugging the walls of the buildings trying to stay in the shade. And then wouldn't you know, at the food court we ran into Darin, who was a happy person to share lunch with. We were then further blessed to run into some new friends that we have made here, who invited us over to their house to wait, until the indoor pool opened at 2pm.

So the day turned out lovely. And I cannot help but marvel at all of the little mercies we receive along the way. There is always joy in the journey if you pause long enough to have a sense of humor about things (or something like that).

George asks some hard questions.

Yesterday, as George was looking out the window with an ice cream sandwich in hand (it's summer time, we often have ice cream sandwiches in hand), he asked me the following questions:

G: "Mom, is the earth a part of anything?"
Me: "Sure, it's part of the solar system."
G: "Yeah, but what's that a part of?"
Me: "Oh, well that's a part of the universe I think. You know, outer space, all the stars and moons and stuff."
G: "Yeah, but that's part of something else too. What's that a part of?"
Me: "George, I think your ice cream sandwich is about to drip. Listen, the important thing to remember is that God created the earth and the planets and everything on them. Just think about that."
G: "Yeah, but I still wonder what the universe is a part of."

Those were some hard questions because I got the sense that he was still restless about it all. I thought that a good explanation about the solar system would sort of settle it for a six-year-old. Why does he need to ponder beyond the universe? He's just a kid?! My grandma always used to say each generation arrived on earth smarter than the previous generation. I think she's right.

What is the universe a part of?

Happy 4th of July!

Since most of our peeps are in the USA, tonight more than other nights I am feeling the distance. As we have finished celebrating the 4th of July in Korea, most of you are just waking up with the whole day ahead of you. Ours worked out unexpectedly well. Let me explain how: We planned nothing. All the kids knew about the 4th of July was that we were going to a church picnic at 11am. Beyond that, it was just Friday. Everything that happened beyond the picnic was a totally unexpected bonus, making us seem like some of the most fun parents on the block.


It started off with an early morning 5K for me. I was pleased with finishing in just over 23 minutes and being the first female finisher. However, given that the first male finisher did it in 16 minutes, you can see the gap in talent from the male to the female field. Oh well, it was a good showing for me, all things considered. Great way to start the day.

After the race, I came home and got the family ready for the branch picnic. It was only about 78 degrees, but with 100% humidity that makes for a very hot day. So we opted out of the kick-ball game, and into the outdoor pool instead. The kids didn't even know that I had brought their swimming suits. So that was surprised number one of the day.


After an hour or so at the pool, we told the kids it was time to go find some food. But first, since Darin had stuck a baseball bat in the stroller, we went for food by way of the batting cages. Henry says Darin was better than me, but I'm pretty sure I was awesome.

We walked over to the BX to find some food and some air conditioning. After spending a while enjoying a late afternoon snack, we decided we'd go back home for a while. But then, we walked outside and as we were about to cross the street to go home, we saw that "Wall E" was starting in 5 minutes. Darin and I quickly conferenced and decided that since movie theaters are usually so nice and cool, we could lose nothing by spending a few hours watching a movie. The kids could not believe their good fortune that rather than go home, we hopped in line to the movies.

We walked out of "Wall-E" (where Jane, Ruby and Darin got nice little naps), and decided that it had cooled off enough to go to the Liberty Fest at the flight light. The Air Force had arranged for some great summer time entertainment, so once again, instead of going home, we took the kids to the street party. After bouncing castles, balloons and free random 4th of July stuff, as well as diverse entertainment...

We steered our group towards the grand finale of our 4th of July, dinner at Chili's. For some reason it's a high light for our kids and nothing says a good time like the whole family sitting down to dinner there.

Finally it was 7pm and we had left the house around 10:30am. We walked out of Chili's and ran into an old friend from Germany who we had been hoping to find! A pleasant evening chat on the sidewalk, a final walk home. And the kids collapsed in their beds at about 8pm. Darin and I watched the fireworks out on the lawn with the Korean neighbors over the fence. And that was then the end of our unplanned, but surprisingly fun 4th of July. Hope yours turns out just as fun.

Preservation.

In reference to preservation, I am preserving my strength this morning. I served my children a gourmet breakfast. I wouldn't want to over-extend myself. You know, get all worn out only after the first course of the day. So it was plastic bowls, and sugar cereal all around this morning. And I have to say, no one complained. So it's a good thing I conserved my energy...


What if our afternoon gets as busy as it did the other day?...

We'll all end up curled up in a bed somewhere, sleeping, waiting until the long, hot afternoon is over.
And then, just to keep it exciting, we might venture back out to the cute little Korean lady who sits at her mall like kiosk cart at the BX, waiting for adorable little American girls to come walking along in need of hair bows. I'm not kidding you. She has no less than 180 different ribbons all on display. We walked up there in our outfits, without bows in our hair. We had her help us pick out just the right shades of pink and purple. Then she told us to come back in 20 minutes. We did. And when we came back, she pleasantly clipped the bows upon Jane and Ruby's heads, and called over about three other Korean ladies to laugh and giggle at our expense. I will believe that they were giggling at our cuteness. Not the fact that they too thought the bow arrangement was retarded, because that's kind of why I was laughing.

Could summer days pass by any slower?!

XOXO