This will be an informational post... no pics this time. Sorry.
What has been going on here in Korea with the Fritz'? Well, Im glad you asked. LOTS.
Jake has been at Green Platoon for 3 weeks. That means, every Monday morning, around 6am, he leaves to drive up north to K-16 (another military post up by Seoul) and is there until Friday night when he gets to come home for the weekend. He basically is up there just to fly, learn the area, and "progress" so that he can come back down here and fly and pick up sick people (since he is in the Med Evac company). He has been enjoying that fact that he is flying again, although he misses us during the week. We talk every night and since he does come home on weekends, its not too bad. He will be doing this one, maybe two, more weeks.
James has been living life to the fullest, I guess. I dont remember if I told you, but he went to his first baseball game a few weeks ago. I stayed home with Sam while Jake took James with the rest of his company. James had THE BEST time with his daddy! He still talks about "baseball" while daddy is gone. James has been playing hard as well. He got into his first fist fight. We were at a friends house for dinner. He was playing with the 5yo boy that was there. I guess James hit him so the boy took it upon himself to throw some punches at him. His mother and I ran over there as fast as we could, but by then, he got about 5 good wacks on him. Poor kid was so sad afterwards. Other than that little episode, he is loving his new friends and loves to go to Nursery. Im going to see about maybe getting him into a preschool soon.
Sam is QUICK! He is crawling like a maniac and trying to walk SO hard! He has a little "bike" that he pushes around and helps him walk. He walks along furniture. If you hold his hand at ALL, he thinks that you are trying to help him walk. Hes just a walking fool!! He is also eating like a crazy person! He will eat anything that you give him!! Its cute, kinda annoying because he wants YOUR food, but its ok because that means I can stop nursing him soon!! :-)
Myself - nothing. I made some blankets for my sister and the boys. I am going to make some more and some pj pants. Just trying to stay busy as always. The boys help enough with that already. I have lots of good friends here and they are helping with making my time here pleasant. Primary is well. We have our program next month. Being President is a lot more work than I thought. There are a lot of little things that keep you busy.
Anywho... we miss family and are trying to figure out where to go after here. We are debating between Germany and Colorado. Who knows. We have 1.75 years to figure that out. LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL!
23 September 2011
05 September 2011
Train and bus... BAD
(sorry, some images are real fuzzy because the boys wouldnt stop moving and we were on a train)
Ok... I know that I am getting worse and worse with the blog, but I am going to try and do better.
Jake is at Green Platoon from Sept 1 until the middle of October. It just is a place where he needs to go to progress and be able to fly. Thats all. He gets to come home on the weekends and call basically whenever he wants, so its not this horrible thing that he is stuck at and I am all alone.
Sam is standing up by pulling on things and walks along furniture. He just broke his 6th tooth through and is sleeping better because of that, I am assuming. He crawls EVERYWHERE and is super fast.
James, well, we love James. :) He is goofy and loves to play with his brother. He loves his trucks and playing with them everywhere.
We got our truck. THANKFULLY! We picked it up last Friday, but the transportation people forgot our paperwork. So we made a trip on Monday to go get it. We figured we would take the bus and train up to Yongsan (the Army post where we had to get the paperwork), see the war memorial museum, and make a fun day out of it. WRONG. Let me tell you my story...
Monday, woke up, got everyone ready, and headed out the door. Went and paid rent on the way to post then parked the car inside the Army gate so we knew it would be safe. Walked out and saw some friends from church. Talked and realized we were all going up to about the same area. We waited for the bus to take us to the train station. One came, then drove off?? Weird... maybe it was too full? Maybe they dont like a lot of Americans? Who knows. We waited another 5minutes and another bus came. We all packed on and went to the train station. We had planned on taking the subway, but after talking with a friend who has been here for a year, she said its faster but more expensive to take the train. We made it to the train station and went to a kiosk to buy tickets. After trying for ten minutes and not getting anywhere, we went to the counter and talked to the lady. She automatically put us on a train instead of the subway, so we figured we would do it. How do you argue in Korean? HA. Now to find our platform to wait at. Yup. Cant find it. So we found our friend again and she showed us what to look for. We went down to the platform and waited. A few trains left and came. One came and said it was going to Seoul. It was about 7minutes before out scheduled time to leave, but we figured it was going to sit there and wait to leave and also it would stop at our stop (Yongsan) before Seoul. We get on the train and sit. There was someone in our seats. Weird. So we sat somewhere else. No biggy. Then this old guy gets on and yells at us because we are in HIS seat!! Oh my word, people. CALM DOWN! We start moving and after about 40 minutes, we ask the train "conductor" if we are on the right train. NOPE. We are not. He kinda giggles and says "no, you get off and wait for next train, get back on". So after we say ok, we get off and get back on the next one. We get to the train stop in Yongsan and look for the elevator. Its out of order. Ok, find another one, go up, and walk out. Look at Jake's GPS on his phone, think we have to go South, walk south, realize we should be going north, walk north, find the military gate and go in. Ok... we made it to the Army post. Phew. We hop on the POST RUN bus (the free bus that takes military people around post) and the kids both pass out on me. No biggy. We do a long run around post and end up at the PX exit on the bus. We get off, get the sleeping kids into the stroller, and head out THAT gate to walk about a mile to get this paperwork we need to register the truck that the people forgot. Get there, they give us ONE piece of paper! We travel ALL that way for ONE. PIECE. OF. PAPER!!! Whatever!! By now, its 2p. We left the house around 9:50a. We are tired, hot, hungry, and have sleeping children. We ditch the idea of going to the museum and decide to grab some food and head back. Got back on post, ate food, everyone is happy. We get a cab and get back to the train stop. At the train stop, we get tickets and figure out where to go (after much looking on our part). Get to the platform and ask the employees working on the train if we are at the right place. They smile and nod. Ok, sweet. We see the train coming but it, again, is like 7minutes early. We get on and ask the train "conductor" and she says "yes, yes, this train". This train is just early, ok, awesome. Get to the stop, get off, and go to the bus stop. We are in a familiar area we go to so we are getting happy. Get on the bus and start moving. After about 10 minutes, we realize, this bus passed our turn a LONG time ago. Are we on the right bus??? NOPE! We get to the end of the bus route and basically get kicked off in the middle of NOWHERE. We have to run across this freeway looking place, go down about half a mile, and wait at "a bus stop" (which is really just construction cones) and wait for the CORRECT bus with the SAME number on it, just going in the OTHER direction. 10-15 minutes later, it comes. We get on, along with 30 other Korean high school kids, and make our way 30 minutes down the road to post where we wanted to be. Get in the gate, and see Brad Young, our friend. Chat, make dinner plans, and LEAVE. Get home and its about 6p. THE. LONGEST. DAY. IN. KOREA. Oh my... THAT is our first attempt at the bus AND the train!! Maybe next time we will just drive ourselves. ????
And the pictures on the bottom of the boys staring off into space, is what the look like when you put on a movie that they WANT to watch!!!
Ok... I know that I am getting worse and worse with the blog, but I am going to try and do better.
Jake is at Green Platoon from Sept 1 until the middle of October. It just is a place where he needs to go to progress and be able to fly. Thats all. He gets to come home on the weekends and call basically whenever he wants, so its not this horrible thing that he is stuck at and I am all alone.
Sam is standing up by pulling on things and walks along furniture. He just broke his 6th tooth through and is sleeping better because of that, I am assuming. He crawls EVERYWHERE and is super fast.
James, well, we love James. :) He is goofy and loves to play with his brother. He loves his trucks and playing with them everywhere.
We got our truck. THANKFULLY! We picked it up last Friday, but the transportation people forgot our paperwork. So we made a trip on Monday to go get it. We figured we would take the bus and train up to Yongsan (the Army post where we had to get the paperwork), see the war memorial museum, and make a fun day out of it. WRONG. Let me tell you my story...
Monday, woke up, got everyone ready, and headed out the door. Went and paid rent on the way to post then parked the car inside the Army gate so we knew it would be safe. Walked out and saw some friends from church. Talked and realized we were all going up to about the same area. We waited for the bus to take us to the train station. One came, then drove off?? Weird... maybe it was too full? Maybe they dont like a lot of Americans? Who knows. We waited another 5minutes and another bus came. We all packed on and went to the train station. We had planned on taking the subway, but after talking with a friend who has been here for a year, she said its faster but more expensive to take the train. We made it to the train station and went to a kiosk to buy tickets. After trying for ten minutes and not getting anywhere, we went to the counter and talked to the lady. She automatically put us on a train instead of the subway, so we figured we would do it. How do you argue in Korean? HA. Now to find our platform to wait at. Yup. Cant find it. So we found our friend again and she showed us what to look for. We went down to the platform and waited. A few trains left and came. One came and said it was going to Seoul. It was about 7minutes before out scheduled time to leave, but we figured it was going to sit there and wait to leave and also it would stop at our stop (Yongsan) before Seoul. We get on the train and sit. There was someone in our seats. Weird. So we sat somewhere else. No biggy. Then this old guy gets on and yells at us because we are in HIS seat!! Oh my word, people. CALM DOWN! We start moving and after about 40 minutes, we ask the train "conductor" if we are on the right train. NOPE. We are not. He kinda giggles and says "no, you get off and wait for next train, get back on". So after we say ok, we get off and get back on the next one. We get to the train stop in Yongsan and look for the elevator. Its out of order. Ok, find another one, go up, and walk out. Look at Jake's GPS on his phone, think we have to go South, walk south, realize we should be going north, walk north, find the military gate and go in. Ok... we made it to the Army post. Phew. We hop on the POST RUN bus (the free bus that takes military people around post) and the kids both pass out on me. No biggy. We do a long run around post and end up at the PX exit on the bus. We get off, get the sleeping kids into the stroller, and head out THAT gate to walk about a mile to get this paperwork we need to register the truck that the people forgot. Get there, they give us ONE piece of paper! We travel ALL that way for ONE. PIECE. OF. PAPER!!! Whatever!! By now, its 2p. We left the house around 9:50a. We are tired, hot, hungry, and have sleeping children. We ditch the idea of going to the museum and decide to grab some food and head back. Got back on post, ate food, everyone is happy. We get a cab and get back to the train stop. At the train stop, we get tickets and figure out where to go (after much looking on our part). Get to the platform and ask the employees working on the train if we are at the right place. They smile and nod. Ok, sweet. We see the train coming but it, again, is like 7minutes early. We get on and ask the train "conductor" and she says "yes, yes, this train". This train is just early, ok, awesome. Get to the stop, get off, and go to the bus stop. We are in a familiar area we go to so we are getting happy. Get on the bus and start moving. After about 10 minutes, we realize, this bus passed our turn a LONG time ago. Are we on the right bus??? NOPE! We get to the end of the bus route and basically get kicked off in the middle of NOWHERE. We have to run across this freeway looking place, go down about half a mile, and wait at "a bus stop" (which is really just construction cones) and wait for the CORRECT bus with the SAME number on it, just going in the OTHER direction. 10-15 minutes later, it comes. We get on, along with 30 other Korean high school kids, and make our way 30 minutes down the road to post where we wanted to be. Get in the gate, and see Brad Young, our friend. Chat, make dinner plans, and LEAVE. Get home and its about 6p. THE. LONGEST. DAY. IN. KOREA. Oh my... THAT is our first attempt at the bus AND the train!! Maybe next time we will just drive ourselves. ????
And the pictures on the bottom of the boys staring off into space, is what the look like when you put on a movie that they WANT to watch!!!
03 August 2011
Aw, the weather...
Well, August has started out to be the most interesting month for weather. Yesterday, there was a tornado that touched down at Camp Humphreys. We dont live ON post, so it was a good ways away from us. But close, none the less. There is forecasted rain for the next ump-teen days. This is the month of muggy, rainy, wet, windy, tornado-y weather, I guess. Oh well, we usually stay home anyways.
Our truck will be here at the end of the month. That is one of the big things that we are looking forward to. Also, Jake's Dad is going to be visiting us next weekend. I know that a little 2yo is VERY excited for that!!! Nothing too much has changed to report. Same old, same old. Just wanted to post some recent pics for all those who follow that.
Our truck will be here at the end of the month. That is one of the big things that we are looking forward to. Also, Jake's Dad is going to be visiting us next weekend. I know that a little 2yo is VERY excited for that!!! Nothing too much has changed to report. Same old, same old. Just wanted to post some recent pics for all those who follow that.
21 July 2011
July 2011
What a big month for us. I think? It just seems like we are finally getting are bearings here and we are growing from this experience.
Jake is still not flying. He has to do a series of progressions before he is able to fly here in Korea. And he is about 8th on the list to do these progressions, so its going to take awhile. But he has a lot of duties at work to keep him busy most days. He also got a calling in church. He gets to help with the Young Men (or Young MAN since there is only ONE kid).
James is perfect at being 2! He yells and screams and knocks over his brother as often as he can! He likes his room and loves to watch Disney movies. He had his little run with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now we watch WALL-E almost every day, if not three times! He loves to go to Nursery at church and even says BYE to us and closes the door before we are even out. James can also count to 5 (I think he can do more, but he just gets mad that we keep saying "how many").
Sam is starting to crawl! FINALLY. Well, he "army crawls". He kinda just swims, actually. He is getting faster and better each day. He also loves to eat. My goodness does he loves to eat! His latest food experience is breaded chicken and rice-a-roni. LOVES that stuff. But he also sticks to the basics - Cheerios, crackers, bread, baby food.
Myself, I am just trying to get bills paid, keep the house somewhat clean with two kids, find something for the children to do every day, and make a million phone calls to the U.S. for things that need to be dealt with. I also got a calling in church. I am the new Primary President! Ya, its a little weird, but I think that I will be ok. My first counselor is a friend of mine who LOVES Primary, so we should be ok.
We are working on getting our truck shipped over. Jake's father was EVER so kind to drive it from UT to CA to be shipped. It should be here soon and I will have a vehicle finally. We also are working on aquiring things to make our home more beautiful. We just got a painting of O Jerusalem that we are in love with. So... balancing our finances is interesting here because of the exchange from US dollars to won all the time. But we will figure it out.
Jake is still not flying. He has to do a series of progressions before he is able to fly here in Korea. And he is about 8th on the list to do these progressions, so its going to take awhile. But he has a lot of duties at work to keep him busy most days. He also got a calling in church. He gets to help with the Young Men (or Young MAN since there is only ONE kid).
James is perfect at being 2! He yells and screams and knocks over his brother as often as he can! He likes his room and loves to watch Disney movies. He had his little run with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now we watch WALL-E almost every day, if not three times! He loves to go to Nursery at church and even says BYE to us and closes the door before we are even out. James can also count to 5 (I think he can do more, but he just gets mad that we keep saying "how many").
Sam is starting to crawl! FINALLY. Well, he "army crawls". He kinda just swims, actually. He is getting faster and better each day. He also loves to eat. My goodness does he loves to eat! His latest food experience is breaded chicken and rice-a-roni. LOVES that stuff. But he also sticks to the basics - Cheerios, crackers, bread, baby food.
Myself, I am just trying to get bills paid, keep the house somewhat clean with two kids, find something for the children to do every day, and make a million phone calls to the U.S. for things that need to be dealt with. I also got a calling in church. I am the new Primary President! Ya, its a little weird, but I think that I will be ok. My first counselor is a friend of mine who LOVES Primary, so we should be ok.
We are working on getting our truck shipped over. Jake's father was EVER so kind to drive it from UT to CA to be shipped. It should be here soon and I will have a vehicle finally. We also are working on aquiring things to make our home more beautiful. We just got a painting of O Jerusalem that we are in love with. So... balancing our finances is interesting here because of the exchange from US dollars to won all the time. But we will figure it out.
30 June 2011
25 June 2011
Settled in
We have finally settled into our place in Korea. We have been in this country for just over 2 weeks and have been in the apartment for just over 1 week. Life is getting into some what of a groove since we have all our stuff, but there are still a few wrinkles to iron out.
Jake hasn't really gone to work yet. He still does inprocessing stuff which is just a lot of paperwork to say we are here. And then he goes into work for small amounts of time here and there. Then they usually let him go to do other paperwork that WE need. Its going to be nice once he gets one a schedule and he has things to do.
James is just a BALL of energy. We cant seem to get him to wind down at all. He has all his toys, but the past 3 days have been constant rain, so he cant go outside and we cant go hunt for a playground. There are things for him to do on post for an hour each day, but we cant get there because Jake doesn't have a set schedule so he needs the car and even if I COULD take the car, I don't drive stick, so I couldn't take it. Sigh...
Sam, oh Sam. He still won't sleep as wonderful as he did back in AL. Its been a week of Benadryl and it doesn't really work anymore. I think he is teething, however, because he drools like a crazy man and is REALLY pissed. I think I see the tooth coming in, but I refuse to give him Tylenol all day JUST because I THINK he has a tooth. He just needs to suck it up and realize teething hurts. He still eats every 4 hours which is getting REAL annoying. But he is eating actual bananas and bread and baby snacks and teething biscuits and all that fun messy stuff.
Me... Im tired. I have no idea what to do with myself each day. James drives me bonkers half the time, Sam can't leave my side, and I feel like I am a horrible mom. I want to give them a schedule (wake up, eat, play, sleep, play, etc) but it seems like when I try, I lose control and can't deal with the madness. Pointers anyone? I just wish there was a switch I can throw into overdrive and be this amazing mom.
Anywho... life is good here. We are feeling more at "home" every day and its getting easier. The language will always be a problem, but the Koreans are so sweet and generous, I think we will get by just fine.
Oh ya, they LOVE the kids. Every where we go, the women want to hold Sam and talk to him. They think James is cute, but he just shys away. So they play with Sam and just LOVE him. Who knows why. :-)
Jake hasn't really gone to work yet. He still does inprocessing stuff which is just a lot of paperwork to say we are here. And then he goes into work for small amounts of time here and there. Then they usually let him go to do other paperwork that WE need. Its going to be nice once he gets one a schedule and he has things to do.
James is just a BALL of energy. We cant seem to get him to wind down at all. He has all his toys, but the past 3 days have been constant rain, so he cant go outside and we cant go hunt for a playground. There are things for him to do on post for an hour each day, but we cant get there because Jake doesn't have a set schedule so he needs the car and even if I COULD take the car, I don't drive stick, so I couldn't take it. Sigh...
Sam, oh Sam. He still won't sleep as wonderful as he did back in AL. Its been a week of Benadryl and it doesn't really work anymore. I think he is teething, however, because he drools like a crazy man and is REALLY pissed. I think I see the tooth coming in, but I refuse to give him Tylenol all day JUST because I THINK he has a tooth. He just needs to suck it up and realize teething hurts. He still eats every 4 hours which is getting REAL annoying. But he is eating actual bananas and bread and baby snacks and teething biscuits and all that fun messy stuff.
Me... Im tired. I have no idea what to do with myself each day. James drives me bonkers half the time, Sam can't leave my side, and I feel like I am a horrible mom. I want to give them a schedule (wake up, eat, play, sleep, play, etc) but it seems like when I try, I lose control and can't deal with the madness. Pointers anyone? I just wish there was a switch I can throw into overdrive and be this amazing mom.
Anywho... life is good here. We are feeling more at "home" every day and its getting easier. The language will always be a problem, but the Koreans are so sweet and generous, I think we will get by just fine.
Oh ya, they LOVE the kids. Every where we go, the women want to hold Sam and talk to him. They think James is cute, but he just shys away. So they play with Sam and just LOVE him. Who knows why. :-)
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