Holiday Weekend Edition.

Thanksgiving was lovely. We had a glorious time cooking and ushering in the warmth and glow of the collective Holiday season that is now upon us. We brined a 20 pound Turkey over night, which produced succulent meat indeed. We cooked stuffing, and sweet potatoes, gravy, and pies. We had a house full of guests. It was lots of time together in the kitchen and at home as a family and with friends. Just as a holiday should be. And naturally, the only picture we have to show from it, is the one I took of the stuffing as I was posting the recipe to In Our Mix. Go figure.



The day after Thanksgiving while I was dreaming of my people back in the States doing Black Friday shopping, I took a bit of consolation in a Skyped phone call with my mother in Egypt while we cyber shopped together. It was a lovely way to spend two hours. Let's do it again next year mom!



But we did get to carry out one favorite after-Thanksgiving tradition as the Boys Scouts on base spared us the agony of a fake Christmas tree by importing 90 fresh trees from Oregon. We headed over to their sale Friday morning, and walked ourselves home a mini version of Christmas delight. Friday night was once again spent ushering in the joys of the new season.


(Is it okay that we don't require pants while decorating for Christmas?!)

Saturday I braved an incredible face wind (sort of like a head wind, only this one describes the situation when the wind blows directly and primarily in your face) and a rain/snow combo to complete my 10-mile run as promised. My foot went along with the program, and I am indebted to it indeed. I really wanted to run, so I'm glad my foot didn't stop me. But I was also really glad when it was over and I was back inside.

But the children needed an outing and it was a day ending in 9 (as in Nov. 29th), which meant right outside of the gates it was a "Market Day". The girls and I have gone several times, but the boys had never come with us. We ventured out into the cold to see what kind of Korean delights we might stumble across.

George scored this hat. Major Earnest is not entirely convinced that it was a good purchase. He is our ever vigilant fashion police, and this one barely scraped by.

But the girls' strawberry hats and scarves were completely endorsed and even bargained for by their loving father. When I walked up to the table and saw them, I knew I really wanted to buy them, but I said to Major Earnest I just wasn't sure I had enough fight in me to get them for a reasonable price. He just said to me, "How much do you want them for? I'm in the mood for a fight." And he totally got us a bargain indeed. (At which point I totally got a crush on him all over again.)

Of course, I think we are much stronger bargainers when we have our token blondes with us.

The next set of pictures we like to call: "Where Did Baby Jesus Go?"

So, as we brace ourselves for the realities of a Monday morning, we will treasure the time we were able to spend together for Thanksgiving. And as I may at times express a lack of enthusiasm for Korea, don't ever misunderstand that I am infinitely grateful to be together with Major Earnest and all of our children in the warmth and comfort of our home. Because one lesson I have sufficiently learned is, home is where your family is. And I am grateful indeed.

17 more days!!

Until I get to eat lunch of chocolate chip cookies, or peanut butter cup cookies. Whichever! I can hardly wait. And I can see that it has served as an added training incentive. Each run is dedicated to getting myself one day closer to a treat. I don't know if that's the right attitude or not, but I'm totally excited nonetheless.

It's just Henry is really loving the fact that he can have treats, and I can't. Like tonight, it was $1 scoop night at Baskin Robbins. We let everyone get their favorite flav, then we all sat around chatting at the food court. Henry casually says, "Hey mom, isn't this your favorite flavor? " And I said, "yeah, it's one of my favorite." And then he says, "I'll let you have a bite....  Oh yeah, just kidding, you can't eat any treats!"

And he thinks he's totally funny.

Today's run was less than inspiring except for the fact that it was tropical by comparison to Thursday's run. Thursday's run was during a snow storm, but I didn't let it stop me from completing 8.1 miles. The snow didn't stick to anything except my body, so I was pretty cold and wet by the end. And yet, it was still an inspiring run.

I have learned that sometimes adversity makes me bring out my A-game.

One thing I believe is universal about dedicated runners, and that is, we are all expert running- injury-diagnosers. My run today was mostly spent confirming a diagnosis I gave to myself about two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I diagnosed myself with Plantar Fasciitis. It has something to do with nerve damage in the heel of your foot. Darin has been suffering from it for about 3 years, so I had him to validate my suspicions. I think I said something like, "I would rather turn into a cow than have Plantar Fasciitis." At which point I may, or may not have been guilty of being a drama queen.

So I scaled back my running over a few days, and had Darin teach me some physical therapy tricks, and I really thought I had been healed.

But today was a bit of a set back. So that's mostly what I have to say about today's run. But, I did it, and that's all that counts right now. And I will be running 10 miles on Saturday. So my foot better get better.

And while it was winter last Thursday, today was a glorious fall day. One that reminded me of the lovely pumpkin soup terrine that Darin carried back in his luggage from Florida (if that isn't true love, I don't know what is!):



And the delicious dinner of pumpkin soup and spinach salad that it prompted me to make last week.



And the lovely fall weather reminded me that I never mentioned our Veteran's Day trip to Nami Island where our friend Travis captured some beautiful snippets of fall:

Travis took no less than 700 pictures that day!  I should just make a post about Nami Island all of it's own...  

So, there you have it.  A running update, a treat update, and images of fall here in the Republic.  

Now it's time to focus on Thanksgiving! 

Rachel in all her humility...

Dubbed it "Unofficial World Race Day". But I'm just wondering, who's in charge of saying if something is official versus unofficial. Because if nobody's in charge of that, I think it should be called "Official World Race Day".

(Henry and George with best friend Cole and Jack getting their first race experience back in 2006)



My sister Rachel is going to run the Rose Bowl 1/2 Marathon on December 13th. My brother Zack is going to join her, and I can't.

Finish line, LA Marathon March 2006

Christine Z., Annee, Zack Z., Rachel Z.

Just how a finish line should be.

So, I will be having a satellite race here in Korea on December 13th. Perhaps an event switches from unofficial to official once there are more than three participants?! In that case, I'm happy to report that I have racer #2 looking to pre-register here in Korea (consider yourself registered Sariah. There is no backing out now!). My friend Liz will be racing in Northern California. Sara B., will you be running with us still?

My friend Diana, in support of the event, has already mailed me my finish line mylar blanket to be wrapped up in when the 1/2 is over. And there is even some speculation about a t-shirt. So things are really shaping up.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are my biggest training days. Those are the days that I hit the pavement outside. The rest of the time I hit the treadmill with Jane and Ruby bubbling in and out of the room as I run. But you do what you got to do when there is a race to prepare for.

The treats remain off limits until then. But let me tell you, the after race lunch is going to consist of: Peanut M&M, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and hot fudge sundaes for dessert. So if that interests you locally, you better start your training as well.

Three things about Tuesday's training run:

1. It was 32 degrees and windy. So that counts as my official first winter run. It's hard to get used to, but invigorating once you thaw out.

The always freezing Pueblo 1/2 Marathon

1st Saturday in December, 2006.



2. I ran past bullet shells. I wondered why, and I almost collected a whole handful, but then I just decided, some mysteries are best left unsolved.

3. I ran right past some jets landing on the runway. I would mention what type of Air Force jet, but I would hate to expose my lack of Air Force knowledge. And while I'm usually oblivious to jet excitement, I have to say there was something very thrilling about running, literally right next to those jets as they were landing.

So 26 more days until the big event. I will be trying to post training reports on a weekly basis. My intent is to stir up the enthusiasm. Perhaps with enough encouragement I will have my whole family at least running "with" me that day.

St. George Marathon Finish Line

October 2007

Mom, Annee, Rachel, and Dad.


So the question is, will anyone else join me?

To blog more often.

Because I do believe there is value in it.

Before Darin came home, when it was Saturday, which felt like mile 22 of a 26.2 mile race. As in, so close, but clearly not close enough to be done, we were needing some distraction and fresh air. I had heard of a hiking trail not far from our house, so we decided to find it.

We were actually on our way home from the fabric store, so we were in fact not dressed for a hike. But sometimes you must simply pull the car over and hike for goodness sake, prepared or not. It was just what the children needed (and maybe their mother too).





Some funny things about the hike...The girls got photographed again. Because Koreans like blonde hair. The hiking trail was laced with designated exercise spots with built in equipment. Koreans love to hike and exercise. The combination of the two, a dreamy idea for them. We found a little pagoda hut at the top of a hill. Koreans love little pagodas scattered about their hiking trails, we've seen it other places as well. At the top, I was slightly shocked to look out and see the scene. I had never realized before how metropolitan my neighborhood is. It doesn't really feel that way to me, but from the sight of it from above, it looks rather city-like.









In other news, I called my sister today in crisis. A plate of homemade chocolate chunk cookies was staring me in the face as I cleaned the kitchen this morning. It seemed as if they had been left there with the specific task to make me eat one. I came very close, but before eating one decided to call Rachel and ask her permission.

I said, "Hi, it's me. What are you doing?"

She said, "Eating dinner."

I said, "Is it dinner of chocolate chip cookies?"

And she said "No, it is not."

And I said, "Because I think I should eat a chocolate chip cookie."

And she said, "No, you really shouldn't. What good would come of it?"


And just like that, the crisis was averted.



Also, today, I have learned two things.




1. All the summer dresses must be put away NOW. As long as they remain in the closet, I will fight the same fight every.single.morning. That fight about how they want to wear a spaghetti strapped sundress, and how I think it is no longer appropriate. So after lunch today we bought a bin, and after I finish this post, all inappropriate dresses will be removed from the closet.



2. I discovered another reason I don't like Barbie stuff. All day long Jane has been Lacey, and Ruby has been Courtney. So named because we recently purchased the Barbie Diamond Castle movie. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, but honestly, the names Lacey and Courtney ruin my day. Especially hearing my cutely named daughters Jane and Ruby, substituting their names for such. Perhaps I should write a letter to Matel requesting a new naming strategy in the upcoming movies? When we thought we had lost Ruby this afternoon at the BX Jane went running about yelling "Courtney!!" and then she said to me, "Mom, we can not leave without Courtney." And I'm like, "Oh yes we can, we don't have anyone named Courtney in our family. Now if Ruby wants to come home with us, I would like that."


We came home with Ruby, but somehow Courtney is back too.



Oh well, I'm off to hide a whole bin full of clothes. I hope it helps me win more fights tomorrow!

After 40 days and 40 nights...

He came home!

And I am beside myself with joy. To celebrate, the boys insisted upon a party (as if that was a hard sell.). So we partied tonight. The treat fast came to an end. Our dreamy Fudgy Cake was baked. Oh, and fresh whipped cream was whipped up. Fudgy Cake never tasted so good, and that's hard to imagine because under normal circumstances it melts in your mouth.

Here is the recipe:

Mix #1:
1 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
3 T. butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Mix #2:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
3 T. cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. boiling water

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9" square baking dish. Combine dry ingredients from Mix #1. Add liquid ingredients & blend well. Pour into baking dish. Combine Mix #2 ingredients except water. Sprinkle evenly over top of Mix #1 in dish. Pour boiling water over evenly (don't mix). Bake 40 minutes. Serve hot with ice cream or whipped cream.


But while you are busy baking yourself some Fudgy Cake, the treat fast resumes. From my second 1/2 marathon in Boise, which prompted me to run my first full marathon in Salt Lake City, my sister Rachel has been my ever faithful companion. She has been at all of my races, except for the Durango marathon (I'm sure she wanted to be). Anyway, we are going to race together again. She will run the Pasadena Rose Bowl 1/2 Marathon in December. With my whole body and soul I want to be with her, but circumstances will prevent that. To show solidarity, I will be running a solo race here on Osan Air Base on the same day. The details are being worked out, but it's sure to be a great event. I'll be wearing race number 1, so it will be hard to miss me. Rachel is the one who inspired me to go this long without treats, and she is going to continue on until race day. So I will too. (However, if Darin bakes a pie from scratch on Thanksgiving, which is highly likely, I will eat a piece).

Good bye to our 40 lonely days and nights. Hello to celebrating family togetherness and the joy of being in love. It's never easy to sail the ship alone, but we do tend to come away from these experiences a little bit stronger and more humble.

Enjoy the Fudgy Cake. I've got Major Earnest now to distract me from eating treats! Good night.

Those were the days...

I had to steel this photo from my sister's blog. (I left all of our vintage family photos in storage.) Please enjoy this glimpse of Halloween circa 1989.

Sweet relief.

Halloween and the whole month of October are officially over! And I personally couldn't be any happier about it. We did it all! But George casually said to me tonight as we were wearily walking to the car, "Halloween will probably be better next year, right mom? Because dad will be here." And I totally agreed with him on that one.

Many things just didn't happen the way that they should have (like we did not attend our church Trunk-or-treat party, nor did we manage to carve any pumpkins, or hand out any candy!). But we did manage to knock on every single door of one whole tower. And while George had enough drive to knock on every single door of all three towers, we finally convince him to call it quits after one, and join us for dinner at Taco Bell!













We also managed to fit in a full day of Halloween fun at the elementary school on Thursday.





A school wide costume parade.


Complete with our Principal dressed up as an Arab (is that even politically correct?!)


And our friend dressed up as the evil Step-Mother, which caused Jane to think she was at Disneyland again.






And a 3rd grade class party that somehow I was in charge of.





Followed by a "Family Fun Night" at the elementary school had us heading into Friday already pretty worn out.

And I have also realized that Halloween is only fun if you get to express your creativity through the costumes. But when you have kids who simply desire to be a character, you don't even get to have any sewing fun. When Ruby said she wanted to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid, and Jane said she wanted to be Dora when she turns into a true Princess, I simply picked up the phone to Florida and said, "Send me ballet tutus ASAP. I'm bailing out of Halloween!"

So I guess I've kind of had a bad attitude all along. The one thing that has kept it a little bit intersting for me has been my personal quest to not eat one. single. piece. of. candy. (or orange frosted cupcake, or pumpkin shaped sugar cookie, or pumpkin chocolate chip cookie with cream cheese frosting, etc., etc.)

So far, I have acheived my goal!

Sometimes if you find life to be getting slightly dull (yes, I'm being sarcastic), it's good to add a challenge, as though you are in the bonus round. Get your kids on board and turn it into a game. So as Henry offered me my 26th piece of candy tonight, just to see if maybe this time I might fold, I am none too sad to say a big huge ADIEU to Halloween!

Bonus round won!

Major Earnest, can you come home yet please?!! We need you now.

We need a time out.

The only good thing about being busy is that time passes by quickly, and we are all anxious for the return of Major Earnest. But the bad thing about being so busy, is that there is never enough time. These past seven days have flown past with hardly a pause. Before it all becomes a total blur, I'll post a few pictures...

A swimming birthday party. Complete with a bunch of fun friends

An Indian Jones cake that was so cool, even 9-year-old boys noticed it and asked me about it. (No, I did not make it. My talents do not extend out that far I assure you.)

With pizza, ice cream, presents, and about an hour and a half of swimming, Henry actually voluntarily told me he thought it was his funnest birthday party ever. And honestly, that was all I needed to hear to make it all worth it.

A traditional 7am Earnest family birthday party the next morning.

Complete with his favorite present:

the Ripstick

Followed up by mine:

Hand made pajamas complete with a skull and cross bone t-shirt and his name embroidered on the back! I was totally excited to give them to him.

All made for a fun Saturday for a very excited new 9-year-old. Lunch at Chili's and hours of fun ripping it up on a new Ripstick completed his birthday. And as always at the end of the day, Henry said, "the worst part about birthdays is that the next day, they're just over." Funny how different our perspectives were. Where I wanted his day to be totally fun and special, what a relief it was when it was over, and I had mostly succeeded!

Completing Henry's birthday pushed us through the weekend, but this week has been one thing after another. Today were the big Halloween celebrations at the elementary school, since tomorrow (the 31st) is a day off! Under normal circumstances I might complain about such a fact, but for now, we are all dying for one very long time out!

I promise, more updates to follow shortly!

A list.

1. While on my run today, I got stopped. He told me it might just be for a minute, but if I could just wait, they were moving explosives. That never happened while on a run in Colorado Springs. It was slightly shocking. And yet I was grateful for the warning I suppose.

2. I ran longer than I normally do on a Thursday morning, because I was "in the zone". Running speak for; the miles were coming easily today. Anyway, I was gleefully anticipating the recovery shower to kick start the rest of the day. Only to return home to find the water in the entire building was shut off. And it would remain shut off until 6pm! It was maybe 10am?! That was a long, stinky, dried up sweaty kind of a day, if you know what I mean.

3. Darin's been gone for 20 days and 20 nights. And he will STILL be gone for another 20 days and 20 nights. I think it was better before I looked on the calendar and did that computation. That was some very bad news to be given today.

4. Henry's math homework took what felt like 3 days to complete. It was all things like this:
7634-4239=
I wanted to slit my wrist all along the way. For some reason watching your child laborioulsy work through subtraction is in fact, NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT FUN.

5. George came out of his bed at 8:37pm to inform me with tears pouring out of his eyes that he would be having a test in Spanish class tomorrow. He stammered out the words, "I will have to WRITE all the words out. I don't even know how to!" At that very moment I wanted to crumple up into a little tiny ball and roll away down a grassy hill. What Spanish words will he have to write out? And why, oh why did he only mention it at 8:37pm the night before?! I unconvincingly said, I would wake him up early tomorrow morning so that we could study. He said, "how early?" I said, "I have no idea, just go to bed. Crying about it is not going to help us right now. Good night."

I think I better FINALLY go take the shower that I should have taken at 10 o'clock this morning. Perhaps at that point in time I will have better solutions for the obstacles of tomorrow.

P.S. Oh yeah, and Henry told me at 7:30pm that I could bring him two dozen cupcakes for the snack tomorrow for his class, since his birthday is on Saturday. I guess I should have thought of that, but I've been so busy worrying about his birhtday party tomorrow night, and making Saturday a very special day, that I simply forgot that cupcakes should go to school with him in the morning.

I definitely need to get in the shower now.

Halloween decorations.

Some mornings we wake up in Korea and it looks like we are engulfed in a cloud. Not really a happy white cloud, but a gloomy rain cloud. That's too bad, because it's not helping Korea win any points.


So sometimes in Korea, we have to make our own kind of festive. And since we inadvertently left all the "fall" decorations back in a storage unit in Colorado, we are decorating with little girls...


Here's the new pose as demonstrated by Ruby. It's supposed to be some sort of ballerina move. It looks slightly awkward, but she feels stylish while doing it, so who am I to judge?!

Here's Jane taking stock of life within a rain cloud.

And here I captured a moment of play between the ladies. I thought it was entertaining to hear Jane repeating over and over again that she would come in and save her. Ruby thought she was stuck.

P.S.

It's my sister Rachel's birthday today.

I love you Rachel!

I'm not trying to brag or anything

But when it comes to choosing an eternal companion, I think I have some skills. Because this shirt came in the mail from mine, and I wore it all day long and thought I looked cute. And he picked it out, all especially for me. And we just have a really good thing going. So I think I proved my skills about that today.

And I'm not trying to brag about my family, but they are really funny, so I'm just proud to be one of them. And you should totally read this post about the ultimate Slurpee hunt. Because Rachel is too young to remember when our Uncle Tom used to take us to as many 7-11's as he could find, in search of our perfect Slurpee flavor, and now with technology and all, Rachel basically did the same thing on a global level. And that takes skills, and she's my relative. So I think I just proved my skills again.

And again, not trying to make anyone feel bad, but I think I know how to recognize the hands of angels all around me. Because I'm doing a single parent gig right at the moment, and I have lots of kids (do you want one?), and it can get totally exhausting. But today around 4:30pm, I was in an empty house. It was completely empty and silent, and it was 4:30 in the middle of the worst time of the afternoon. And at that moment I knew that angels fly all around me and love me and watch out for me. So again, I think I proved my skills (did I?).

The end.