Step aside chocolate chip cookies.

My new friend and neighbor, Amy, told me about this little treat that she likes to make. She swore it was simple, and completely delicious. She was not kidding. These cookies are amazing. So simple, and yet so delectable. Please make some today. You will not regret it in the least.

(except you might regret it after you have eaten five of them...)


The recipe:

1 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
(cream all of those ingredients together)

In a separate bowl combine:

2 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Form the dough into little balls. Drop the balls into your mini muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

While the cookies are baking set your special helpers to task unwrapping the Reeses mini peanut butter cups. When the cookies are done baking, bring them out of the oven and quickly stick a peanut butter cup into each cookie.

Enjoy!

After Darin got home from work tonight, we decided dinner should be in Korea (as Ruby said). And thank goodness we moved to Korea, otherwise we might not have been able to eat at such a place as Casa Del Mexicano. The reason it's good, their chef is Mexican. Who would have guessed?!

Then we did a little walking around in our neighborhood. Here are some of our usual sights....The main gate to Osan Air Base. The boys were less than eager to pose.

The bag shop that carries "Jack Georges". But mostly every time we see that sign, we think of George's best friend Jack, who we had to leave back in Colorado Springs. We think of him a lot when we walk around off base.

The produce truck.

He drives around with a loud speaker announcing all of the available produce on his truck that day. It's a strange voice that comes out of his loud speaker, but I guess it's convenient to have your produce come to you, rather than you have to go find the produce? I have yet to use the service.

We will never want to forget this place. We stop here EVERYTIME we go out the front gates. Our DVD collection has nearly tripled since our over seas move. The boys love this place. Tonight I made Henry do the transaction all on his own. He was nervous, as usual, but I felt like he's seen me do it enough times that he could handle it. I needed to take pictures.

Just a typical Korean store front. Please read the sign: "one who views in unique manner". I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. I have yet to view in unique manner I guess. I just walk past this store.

Of course, Miss Kim's BUR GER truck. If you enlarge the picture, you will see her piles of eggs available. It's hot outside. I do not see any refrigeration on those eggs. Do you think that's okay? I don't really. Maybe that's why Korea smells so weird.

Of course some things are universal, no matter where in the world we are, like how cute Jane is.

(and yes, that couple in the back ground are wearing matching outfits. It's something you see often around here. I have no idea the meaning behind it. But it's fairly common.)

Anyway, some days all of these sights feel so normal, but I just wanted to make sure and record them, because really, it's not so normal here.

The End.

They did it.

The night before I made them cakes. (Darin accused me of being the only one in the mood for a party?!)

The morning of, we set three alarm clocks, took showers, packed lunches, sat down together for breakfast...

Headed out the door, ON TIME.

Recruited dad to embark upon the adventure with us.

Arrived at school all wrapped up in courage.

And celebrated the success of it all that night with dinner at Chili's.

Thumbs up was the symbol if you had a great first day of school. Thanks for making me so proud, Henry and George. I love you both!

Our week in review.

Some highlights, and low lights...

1. It was the last week of summer! I tried to focus on the positive and allow the boys to enjoy their last week of slothful living. I likewise tried to enjoy each morning that I did not have to get out of bed before 8am. Next week, that will all change!

2. By Wednesday, Henry and I got to have a little afternoon date together. He was feeling the effects of his annual "back to school stomach flu" and was suffering from a massive head ache. To help get his mind off of the looming first day of school, the little brothers and sisters went to play at a friends house, and he and I got to run some errands and venture off base together for my first solo voyage in the van with my newly obtained Korean drivers license. Destination? The fabric store of course. He humored me by picking out a new fabric so that hopefully next week we can make him a pair of lounge pants that are the correct length. It was sweet to have some one-on-one time. It was a highlight.

3. A delightfully unexpected package arrived in the mail. Best friend Liz randomly purchased a few little Gymboree items for my ladies. Additionally she threw in TWO sewing patterns. What more could I have asked for in a mid-week package? It was a treat. The girls instantly changed into their new clothes, and I began sewing again, of course. (Pictures to follow soon).

4. My girls got themselves a coveted spot in a the newly developed pre-school program for this school year! Tuesday and Thursday morning I will have 3 whole hours all to myself. There will only be one million things on my list to do during those three hours, but I'll be grateful all the same.

5. At the same time that I was accomplishing getting the girls registered, Henry was still suffering from his back-to-school condition, and indeed threw up at the newly constructed base Community Center. And thus begins perhaps a few of the low lights...

6. We had a few too many trips to the BX this week. By the end of the week, any trip to the BX ended miserably. Our grand finale was when Jane tipped over a rack full of bathrobes and made it fall to the ground spilling bathrobes all over the floor. This was a very LOW moment. She will not come back to the BX with me anytime soon.

7. Darin's work schedule would have to make the list of low lights. We didn't see him much this week. I am reminded of other families who don't see their military member at all, so we are grateful that he does come home. But we can't help but feel a little bit sorry for ourselves that we can't see him as much as we would like to. A low light.

8. By Friday (today), Henry was admitting that his "illness" might not actually be an illness as much as a condition of nerves. This makes my highlights list. Isn't acceptance one of the first steps to recovery? He has to admit and accept to the fact that he is a nervous sort, before we can help equip him with the tools he needs to overcome his fears. It was a break through to have him willing to have a conversation. Thus, it makes the highlights list.

9. A brief outing out the main gates produced two highlights. When Ruby turned and said to me "Oh, so we do still live in Korea", because she saw the familiar off-base scene, that made me laugh, and I needed to laugh. The boys likewise were all jazzed up when they walked past one of the 43 DVD vendors who was playing a copy of the NEW Star Wars Clone War movie. The sound quality was outstanding, and the picture was above average, and they were absolutely giddy with excitement. A funny exchange about the price, where I thought it was first $5, and then $30, and we ended up getting it for $3, left us all laughing about the fact that we do indeed live in Korea.

Thus ends our week in review. It's been a long week, but I think it served it's purpose in the grand end-of-summer scheme of things. Here's to a happy weekend and do please be praying for all of us as we round the corner to Monday morning!!

Lounge pants.

Now all I need is permission to lounge all day long!

These came from an Amy Butler pattern found in her "In Stitches" book.

Flammin' hot pants and stuff.

Some smokin' pants were sewn for Henry today. It was decided that everyone should have an article of clothing to remember the sewing craze of '08. Tonight, if all goes well, I will get mine.

Henry got his this morning. (Which will soon become George's. I added 3 inches to the pattern in the length, thinking surely that would suffice for Henry. His legs are darn long.)

The girls wore their 45th thing (girl stuff is just so cute to make!) on Sunday. We've been holding off with the bird dresses until we had the matching purses to go with them. I worked like crazy on Saturday night on the matching bags. But I just couldn't do it. Somewhere around 1am the instructions suddenly didn't make any sense. So the lining is not attached. But Jane insisted that she could carry the bag anyway.

George got his apron. You know what this means, Darin is being left out. Help me think, we should definitely think of something fun to sew up for him. Maybe matching pants to Henry? I will think on that.

Steve, here is our church building. The front side is probably more noticeable, but it was complicated on Sunday, so this was the best I could do. Were you ever there?

And that's it for now. Six days until the first day of school!! And then the sewing will really begin. Just kidding. You know, I post this stuff for a few reasons...

1. Someday when I'm totally over sewing I'll be able to look back and remember when it used to come so easily.
2. As a sewer, I'm always looking for inspiration. Maybe others out there are just looking for a cute idea to try, or a tiny spark of inspiration to take needle and thread to fabric.

I have no other reasons, I guess. Oh yeah, my sisters like to see what I make.

But seriously, I have more fabric and more patterns, so it's alright to keep sewing, right?!

There just isn't enough time.

Know what I mean?!

A celebration breakfast.

I passed my drivers license test! So I took the children to the hotel on base that has a donut shop in the lobby. They each got to choose two donuts to enjoy in a foggy, muggy, rainy, summer morning. A lady walked out and saw them all eating donuts and said, "Wow, you are all going to be hyper this morning." I rolled my eyes. What does she know?! We can handle our donuts very well, thank you very much.

The hotel atmosphere prompted the ladies to say that they were certain Grandma would be upstairs. Could they please just take the elevator up to her room?! The last time they saw their Grandma Z., it was at a hotel. They are convinced she still resides there. And they ask at every hotels we come across if they might go visit Grandma. That's kind of sweet and sad all at the same time. I wish they knew her house in Germany.

Enjoy yesterday's sewing project. A lovely pattern I purchased on Etsy, and have since been able to sew three times. It's that easy. To spice it up on the third time, I tried to do an applique. I think it's cute. Ruby wore it with joy this morning. And that in turn filled me with joy.

Now on with the rest of the day!

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.