Friday, August 30, 2013

Isaiah the Great!




 
We are so proud of Isaiah.  He advanced to a green/blue belt last night.  He has  worked very hard and amazed us all with the power and control that he has.  It is very fun to see how this little guy has grown up in just a few short weeks.  He is maturing and it shows in everything that he does.  He was awarded a bronze medal and we are just so proud of him.  And for those of you who are wondering; yes, breaking the board with your foot does hurt.  For the kids who don't break it the first time they have to keep going until it breaks. Some kids leave testing with bruises on their hands and feet.  So the boys  have discovered that it's best to break the board hard the first time.  Way to go little man.  We love you!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Moving again!

Wow this has been one crazy summer!  I am glad that it is now almost over because going back to work will definitely be a break for me.  Brandon has pretty much been gone the entire summer and during his second leave our landlord told us that we were going to be having to move out which was going to give us a 10 month lease here in Korea which makes it very difficult to find anything as owners want leases longer that 12 months.  We were having realtor problems, finding another apartment problems as owners didn't even want to try to rent to us, and having to look at apartments  in the hottest month that Korean has seen in years plus the fun humidity with two boys who really were doing there best to help mom out.    But after the third realtor, we finally made it happen.  Brandon was able to get home about a week before the move happened but in Korea they have a big exercise that puts Brandon on big shifts.  His shifts were 12pm to 12am  every day for two weeks.  Brandon was able to get the day of the move off and that was a big help. 

Our movers were only Korean speakers and we were so worried that there would big issues that needed to be resolved, but we only had translation problems in the morning that were quickly solved with a phone call.  They claimed that they would come at 7 am and be finished with our apartment at 11 and then they would head to our new apartment and we would be moved in by 3.  They were on time and they were out by 11:30am and we had the apartment cleaned by 12:30pm ready to head back to our new apartment by 1pm.  We were moved in by 4:15ish, and that included the cable/internet guy, the water purifier people, and the dryer guy.  It was the best move that we have ever had.  This company that moved us were amazing.  They were so careful with everything and considering that our first apartment everything goes out the fifth story window I thought that there was going to have to be something broken.  Nope.  Not at all.  It was totally the opposite.  They fixed a few things that had been broken coming over to Korea.  They hung all of the pictures that I wanted hung and I think that they would have hung my curtain rods if I had asked them too, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time. 

The movers had a cute little lady that only worked on the kitchen.  She took a big mental note about how my kitchen looked and copied it as to how she put everything away, not to mention that the clean dishes that she took out of the dishwasher were put back in the dish washer in a neater way in the new apartment. My medicine cabinet has never looked so good, it's organized by height.   Did I mention that they folded our clothing and put things away in the drawers.   Right now we are about 90% moved in and the movers kept telling us that they felt bad leaving some of our things on the floor.  We knew coming into this apartment that we weren't going to have as much storage, but we would have more space.  So the boys toys are in the playroom with out anywhere to put them right now. 

We love our new apartment.  The boys especially.  They have an amazing view of Daegu from their 25 floor window.  We have an elevator button in our apartment so we don't have to wait for the elevator so long.  The boys both have bigger rooms and we are closer to everything.  Work, school, all three posts.  And the boys will have a lot more kids to play with outside as many Americans live here.  If we were ambitious enough we could even walk to work.  It would take about 10-15 minutes. Maybe 20 for me as I am a little further out.  Just happy that it is over and we moved just in time to start school tomorrow. 


 
 
It started raining the morning of our move and I was so worried that it was all going to turn out bad.  But right as the movers were supposed to start loading the trucks, the rain stopped.  Yay for us.  But the view from Braxton's window shows a foggy Daegu the morning after we moved in and after a heavy downpour the night before, so you can't see Ap'san Mountains but it really is an amazing view. 
 
 
 

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Reading Maniac

 
Our library put on a summer reading program where the kids can earn prizes for every five hours that they read.  Braxton was the top reader in the kid category with a whopping 72 hours read.  He won a $50 gift card to the PX here as well.  We are so proud of him. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We have a new favorite fruit.  We don't even know what it is called.  But this is what it looks like.  The little ladies are selling these on the street and so one night I took the boys to the market by our house and went to a booth where a lady was selling these and she got the biggest smile on her face when we decided to buy from her and she placed two more in our bag.  The boys were thrilled.  It is some kind of a melon.  It is palm size and tastes like a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew.  It is cut like both and the seeds are taken out in the same way, but it is just quite a bit smaller.  YUM!