366 Project: Week Twenty-Three

Okay, this is going to be a short one because, well, in less than 24 hours we will be on a plane...moving to another country. Our passport country, but still. And, I won't get any sleep tomorrow night with a toddler strapped to my chest and two bigger children to deal with, so I need to sleep well tonight!

155/366: Our end-of-school picnic. Shauna said we should get a picture together, and I'm so glad she did, because she may have been the only person that I took a picture with. Whoops. Best laid plans.

156/366: A shot of one of the local grocery stores with all of their produce outside on the street. I'm trying to remember the things that seemed strange at the beginning!

157/366: Day one of Japan! We literally walked right into a parade and festival when we went to find our hotel, so we strolled through that for a few hours before getting dinner at the brewery in the harbor just behind our capsule hotel. Pretty much couldn't have asked for a better day.

158/366: We packed it in on day two of our #Tokyotripfor2. Starbucks at Shibuya Crossing, Meiji Shrine, sushi and shopping in Harajuku, followed by the Tokyo skyline view and dinner in Shinjuku. Almost 19,000 steps and 9 miles. The girl was passed out by 9:00 again!

159/366: The day's original plans were thwarted by rain after our trip to Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple. We made do with lunch and shopping before heading to the airport for our return trip home. Eventually...maybe...you'll read the details of our trip!

160/366: The kids got in a few hours with our friends and neighbors at the playground before they left for the airport. It was a heart-wrenching final goodbye for them.

161/366: We spent our final day in Korea packing, cleaning, shutting off phones, and closing accounts. Then, we spent our evening strolling through our old beloved neighborhood and eating at our favorite Korean restaurant. It's hard to believe that our time in Korea has come to an end. The past five years have been been full of ups and downs, challenges and victories, and have changed us in more ways than we can count. I'm so thankful that God brought us to this place and these people for this time. Tomorrow, we return to 'Murica, and I'm excited and terrified at the same time.

5 Signs that You're the Mother of a Toddler who Doesn't STTN

In honor of my dear son's nearly 15 months of life, I thought I would share these fun thoughts that have been with me as I continue to get up several times a night with our sweet Reece. (she writes with a hint of sarcasm)

If you are the mother of a toddler who doesn't sleep through the night...

5. You keep a sweatshirt by your bed for all of your late night wakeups when the house is freezing. On a really bad night, you don't even bother to take it off between trips into the baby's room because you know that you won't get a chance to get warm in bed.

4. You still "sleep when the baby sleeps," though you used to be of the belief that rule expired around baby's 6th month. Now, you know that rule doesn't expire until the "baby" sleeps through the night regularly.

3. You know that in the middle of the night, your refrigerator makes noises that sound like the baby when he first starts to stir. Yet, every time you hear it, your heart skips a beat because it's fooled you yet again.

2. On the rare occasion that the baby does sleep all night, you still don't sleep well because you're worried that maybe he's not breathing. There has to be a reason that he hasn't woken you up yet!

1. You don't allow your husband to actually go into the baby's room at night, for fear that he might mess up your "system" (though it is already obviously a failure), but you won't allow him to sleep as long as you're up, either.

I'm sure you have thoughts of your own to add! And, I hope you enjoyed these shots from the Museum of Flight in Seattle last winter that in no way relate to sleep!

At Lindy's, Christmas 2014

It's strange that in spite of shooting every day now, I have no pictures to share aside from those that I share for the 365 posts. Did I have pictures to share before I started this project? Hmmm. Well, I guess I am typically behind in posting pictures, so this just fits right in. Christmas 2014.

I'm ashamed to admit that we're in a bit of a "survival mode" period right now. Our weekend was spent trying to catch up on rest and sleep because Reece slept terribly. The kids' bedroom was covered in puke when we woke up on Sunday morning, thanks to Cade in the top bunk. It required about five loads of laundry and a whole lot of scrubbing (by Eric) to get that mess cleaned up. There were a ridiculous number of tears and a whole lot of fighting. I think we were all relieved for school to start again on Monday.

Last night, we had grilled cheese and some random sesame noodles that I threw together because I didn't have all of the ingredients for any one recipe. Thankfully, black beans are in the crock pot and I made it to the grocery store today, so hopefully we can eat a little more normally for the rest of the week.

Temperatures are supposed to get above freezing this week, too, which always makes life a little easier when you live in a place where you can't accomplish much without walking outside a lot. I have to admit that I almost took a picture of our washing machine the other day for the p365 when I realized that if we were still in our old apartment, our washing machine would have been frozen for the past 10 days. I'm so glad that I don't have to worry about that anymore!

It warmed up enough to get some snow today--though just a dusting--and it was pretty to watch it fall over the city out our windows. As we look out the back windows right now, you can see the snow on the Han River where it has frozen. That's how cold it is right now. Sheesh.

We did have fun playing games with the big kids on Friday night. We got out of the house on Saturday afternoon to watch the basketball game, and had a good time chatting with friends while the kids played. And, on Sunday afternoon, Reece showed off his new ability to put together two steps at a time unassisted. By yesterday afternoon, he was up to three. It turns out this kid will walk, eventually. I think I'm finally ready for it. Maybe. Check back with me in a month.

It's hard to believe that 13 months ago, we were in the States celebrating Christmas with family. Reece wasn't even two months old. Kennedy just pulled the hem out of the pajamas that she got from Lidi because they're now too short with it in. Cade is still sports-obsessed and would wear those soccer cleats that he got every day, if he could.

I remember absolutely nothing of what we did in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, when we left. I remember that Reece nursed successfully all day on Christmas, and that was the end of that. I remember that we had a hard time trying to think of anything feasible to do with a 6 week old and a 9 month old, so maybe we didn't really do anything?

I do remember that we went to the Museum of Flight with Lindy and my brother right before we left. I still have pictures from that day to post (though I'm not sure how I managed to get so many with Reece in the Moby the whole time), and I remember that we made stops to see a lot of Eric's family on the way north to my aunt's house.

I also remember that this little Sorento was loaded to the breaking point nearly every time we got in it for those two weeks, and that the limit for how much we could bring back with us to Korea was not set by the airline but by what we could fit in this mid-size SUV. What fun.

Well, Reece is napping this afternoon (day 3 of 3 and it's only Tuesday!), so I had better take advantage of the quiet to get a head start on dinner so we don't end up with grilled cheese again!

Christmas in WA...2014

(Yup, you read that right.) So...guess what I did the other night? That's right. I did something totally crazy. I edited some pictures from Christmas 2014. It only took me a year. I'm so proud!

It was a little painful for a few reason. First of all, the original reason that I struggled so much with editing these because they were all out of order as far as dates were concerned. I didn't set the date on the camera as I pulled it out of the box because I wasn't sure which time zone I'd wanted to use. This had been a problem previously, and I wasn't sure how to fix it. So, I didn't set the date until I'd had it more than a week.

Secondly, I pulled this thing out of the box no more than a week before Christmas, and though I'd spent all of the early fall learning how to take better pictures (with an actual class this time!), these shots did not reflect that. The struggle was real.

Thirdly, Reece was a newborn. So, I took a lot of pictures of him. At the time, I thought he was the cutest thing ever. But, he wasn't. And, looking through these a year later, it was hard to find cute pictures of him that I actually wanted to edit and post. Don't feel bad, Reece. You're just so much cuter now!

The fact is that I'm caught up on recent pictures I've taken, aside from those I have from my 365, but I'm only six days into that. So, I've got six pictures.

After looking back to the posts from January of 2015, I realize that along with not posting pictures of this trip, I also didn't record the events of the trip. And, since I was heavy into the mom-of-a-newborn fog, I don't remember many of the details at this point.

I do remember that I enjoyed spending an extra week with my dad, brother, and Gretchen before Eric and the kids arrived. It wasn't necessarily all relaxing as I did have shopping to do and a newborn who didn't eat or sleep well, but it was nice to have company during the day and help with all of that fun stuff.

Eric and the kids flew in on the 22nd, I think, so they had a very short overlap with my dad. In that time, we went and cut down a Christmas tree (by request from Cade), celebrated Christmas at my dad's with his family, and did Christmas with Gretchen and her daughters on the 24th. Late that night, we headed south to spend the remainder of our trip with Eric's family. (Don't worry, I have pictures from that part of the trip, as well!)

I remember feeling like the time was oh-so-short but being so grateful to spend the holidays with friends and family in Washington for the first time in four years!

And, since I left you with Reece's sleep pitfalls, I will say that today he took a two hour nap for the first time this winter break, and he's been sleeping better at night, too. We still have a ways to go, but I'll take what I can get. Of course, we're all getting colds again, though, so this may be the end of our forward progress in terms of sleep. Erg.

Happy New Year! and our final Christmas in Korea

What better way to welcome 2016 than by re-living Christmas Day? That's what I'm thinking, anyway. While the big kids play their thousandth round of Pay Day, Reece naps, and Eric is pricing his wish/want/need list, I figured I should get some pictures edited.

We like to keep things pretty casual on Christmas day, regardless of where we are in the world, and we've had some pretty great Christmases. This is our third Christmas spent in Korea, but we spent a fair amount of time in the days leading up to Christmas re-living past Christmases.

The kids and I looked back at Snapfish albums of Christmases spent in our home in Stanwood (as we think about parting with our current Christmas decorations, they wanted to see what our tree and stockings in the States looked like). We talked about the Christmas spent in Thailand when my dad dressed up as Santa. We remembered the Christmas that my brother was here to play Legos all day long. We talked about the craziness that was last Christmas, with Eric and the kids flying in just days before and of course, life with a newborn (largely undocumented as a result of said newborn). And we made some new memories on this, our last Christmas in Korea.

The kids were up ridiculously early. That picture above of Kennedy and Reece in front of the tree? That was Christmas morning. Still dark, and yet. there they are, waiting impatiently to get at those stockings and presents.

While we were blessed to have presents sent from family, these kids still managed to plow through all of their presents in record time. It's always a little crazy how fast that happens, though, I guess. After weeks of preparation, shopping, and wrapping, it's suddenly over.

They received lots of the things that were on their lists: a watch for Kennedy, Legos for Cade, and books for all, among the highlights. We were all excited that the kids got some much-needed new clothes (their growth spurts have been crazy this year, and I've been caught unprepared; I'm so excited to live in a country where I can shop if I need to--at reasonable prices!).

Reece obviously enjoyed this Christmas infinitely more than last. He got some new, more age-appropriate toys, and all of the kids have enjoyed them! I think his favorite part of the morning was all of the tangerines that were in the stockings. The big kids, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed caramel rolls!

We spent the rest of the day eating snacks, putting together the new puzzle the kids got, reading new books and magazines, relaxing and enjoying each other's company. It was a good way to spend our last Christmas in Korea. We can hardly wait to see what Christmas 2016 brings, though!

In fact, we've spent much of the past week doing the same. Aside from going bowling on base, a trip to the Embassy to renew the kids' passports, and a stop at City Hall for ice skating, we've spent the past week relaxed, playing endless games, and reading. I certainly wouldn't complain if 2016 brought a little more of that!

My goal for 2016 is to try to document the transitions and life changes that are coming a bit better than I have been the past couple of years. As we go through some of these big "lasts" (like our last Christmas in Korea), I hope to capture what our lives are like in this stage for the kids to be able to look back on. So, I'm going to attempt another 365 project (or at least half of one, anyway)...wish me luck!

Ballard and Mt. Rainier

Well, last week was one of those weeks. The kind where you're running around all the time, but you pretty much accomplish nothing? Oh yeah. It's a great source of pride.

We decided that the kids and I will do AWANA this year (I'm still not convinced this was a good idea!), and there was a lot of paperwork and things that had to be done in order to gain base access to participate. My friend and I took about four trips to the security office on base to get our fingerprints done before I was finally successful. What fun.

In addition to all of that, either Eric or I (or both) were gone most evenings last week, so we were really just getting the bare minimum done. The kids did homework. We ate dinner and cleaned up. That was about it! We tried to get out for bike rides, but our evenings feel so short these days.

And, of course, just as soon as we had all of the biking gear we needed and everything was figured out, one of Eric's tires went flat and we were so busy that it was probably about five days before he was able to get it fixed. He finally got it taken care of on Saturday, and we were able to ride 11 miles on Sunday. Biking is definitely our new favorite way to get to Seoul Forest because the line for the parking lot was ridiculous!

This week, we're working on preparing for Lindy's visit. We finally got some of those little things done that had been bothering me like throwing away stuff the old tenants left behind and hanging pictures on the wall. This is a four day school week for the kids before the Chuseok holiday weekend, so we've got the lazy bug in preparation for a few days off. It keeps getting harder to get out of bed in the morning!

It's always my goal to get through the last round of pictures before another one comes along, but it rarely works out. I'm close to finishing up the summer pictures, but no doubt the pictures of Lindy's visit will be delayed (if I actually manage to take any that is!).

After our trip to Skamania, we had a couple of down days to get some more shopping done, and then we began the countdown to our departure date. It was time to start saying those last goodbyes once again. So, we spent one day with my brother in Ballard, visiting the locks, hanging out at the park, and walking through town to find dinner. It was a beautiful day, and a great way to spend some quality time with him before he started his new job and we were headed back to the Land of Morning Calm.

The next day, we got up early and headed up to Mount Rainier for the camping trip with Eric's aunt, uncle, and cousin that we'd been talking about all summer. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in one night, and we really didn't get much of a chance to check out the beauty that is Rainier because of our time constraints, but it was fun nonetheless.

Reece was more than happy to hang out in the pack'n'play, go for walks in the stroller, and sleep in a tent. In fact, I think it was one of the handful of nights that he slept straight through. The glory of the great outdoors! And the big kids, sleeping by themselves in the new tent that Eric picked up for hiking, slept in past 9:00 the next morning. We actually had to wait for them to wake up to leave because Eric had pretty much packed up everything before they got up!

But right now, as I reminisce over our summer, my youngest is chatting it up in his crib and starting to communicate that he's done in there. So, I'd better break out of the bubble before things get ugly!