First Official Snow Day

Let me start by saying, we earned this one. You know how we have that extremely convenient bus that takes us home every afternoon? Well, yesterday it started snowing pretty hard right around the time we got out of school. Normally, our bus leaves at 4:10 (an hour after we get out of school) and that's just about right. On Tuesdays, it doesn't leave until 4:30 because usually we have meetings after school. Because this was the fifth Tuesday of the month, we didn't have a meeting. Because of all the snow, we (and many others) decided to wait for the bus rather than try to find a taxi (they're always few and far between in bad weather). Just as we were headed down the stairs to leave, they announced that the buses weren't going to be able to make it out for the afternoon run. Which meant that now we've hung out after school for nearly an hour and a half and we still have to try to catch a cab. Ugh.

We were totally unsuccessful, too. We headed down to the subway, so that at least we could get a little closer to home without battling any extreme hills or stairs (keep in mind I'm wearing heels in the snow, but thankfully with pants not a skirt!). We continue the tredge home through snow, salt, slush, and just a general mess, finally arriving home about 5:15. Like I said, we'd already earned this snow day.

Cade was very ready to go outside and play in the snow by the time we got home.

So, I went out and took some pictures of him, and then he and Eric went to the store.

While I sat at home with a puking Kennedy. Yuck. And the poor kid was so worried that Cade was going to use all of the snow and there wouldn't be any for her to play in. The things they worry about.

I ended up getting snow on my lens, so I got a few really blurry shots before we went inside....

I stayed up 'til nearly 9:00 watching the snow, taking another trip out to take pictures, and checking email. Just waiting. Just hoping that they would let us know the night before. We finally got the call at 9:45. Really? {Ok. I'm not complaining. Momentary lapse in judgement. But I was in bed.} Then, we got to make our phone calls. It totally cracks me up that a school with this much technology: 1:1 laptops, iPads, school-assigned email addresses for every student, still makes calls to each student to confirm a snow day. Yes, they send an email, but I guess in the private school realm, you can still be blamed when a kid chooses not to check his/her email. Anyway, Eric and I each got to call 10 kids, about half of which had home phones answered by their parents in a language other than English. One dad even hung up on me. But, at least I didn't have to make my cold calls at 5:30 in the morning. So, like I said, I'm not complaining.

I don't have a very steady hand anyway, so slow shutter speeds are not for me. My hands were really shaky last night because it was so cold. So I just put a funky edit on this picture so it isn't quite as obvious how out of focus it is!

Linking up with:

Cardboard Box Dollhouse

The title on this might be a bit misleading. Eric and the kids did create a cardboard dollhouse for Kennedy on Saturday.

On Friday, the nanny took the kids to play with the girl that she watches on the weekends (leaving me entirely alone for nearly 5 hours! What did I do? Spent the time chatting on Skype. Fear of solitude? Nah. Just taking advantage of the moment). Anyway, apparently Leila has an amazing dollhouse. It was all Kennedy could talk about afterward!

So Eric (embracing the TCK power he wishes he had!) suggested they make one out of a box. Kennedy gave very clear instructions for how it should look. Eric said it is the type of project that can be worked on over time, so no pictures of the completed dollhouse yet.

Instead, I thought I'd throw in a few random pictures of Cade. 

While we were at lunch on Sunday, he thought it would be funny to sprinkle the pepper onto the tablecloth at the restaurant.

And then lick it off. Ahhh...life with a little boy.

And a little girl. Nothing compares!

So many books, so little time

I have so many books to read right now that I can't even begin to keep up!

First of all,  I have five books that I have to read so that I can write my six page "philosophy of Christian education" paper. Sounds like fun, right? Yeah, I don't think so, either. So far I've read one and a half of the books. Each one has some good parts and some parts where you think, "What is this guy thinking?!". There is so much information that I am at a loss as to where to start the paper, too. I've got about four months to finish it, so we'll see how it turns out.

I'm also in the book club, of course. Our book for this month is Barbara Kingsolvers, The Poisonwood Bible. Wow. That was a long book. I really enjoyed it, so I couldn't put it down so that I could work on other, more important readings. I just had to finish it.

It is a fictional book about a family who moves to the Congo as missionaries. They endure some incredible ordeals, including the death of one of their children. It made me very grateful for all that we have here in Korea. A lot of little things are different, but the big things? The important things? Like heat, running water, even air conditioning in the summer? We've got those things, reliably. And I am thankful for them.

Another group of books I'm working on is the reading list for the sophomore World Literature class. It looks like that may be what I'm teaching next year, so I'm trying to get a jump on the reading now. The class is having a guest speaker from Afghanistan next week to coincide with their reading of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. I'm going to try to get over there to sit in (even though it will be my first week of full time and our middle school Spiritual Emphasis week...busy, busy!), so I wanted to be hearing the speaker in the same context that the kids are. I had to go out and buy my own copy, so that I could write and mark all over it! I'm excited about this reading list, but it will be more enjoyable to focus on these books once I'm done with the philosophy of ed. books.

The books on my own personal reading list are the ones that keep getting pushed down on the priority list. I received Pearl S. Buck's Living Reed for Christmas, a historical fiction novel about life in Korea. I'm really excited to read this, as well as many books on my Kindle, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it...you reading anything good lately?

Heart Garland

Alright, just a quick post about our latest Pinterest project...the kids and I attempted this project together on Thursday. They quickly decided they weren't up for it, though Kennedy did help me by holding the paper wrapped around the chopsticks.

I think they turned out really cute, though I wasn't sure at first.

They definitely didn't turn out as cute as the ones that I saw pictured here. That's where you'll find step by step directions, too, if you're feeling like you need some heart garlands in your life!

I was already planning on hanging the lights up again and doing the die cuts, so I figured since I already had the supplies, I might as well go for another cute craft.

Eric says it's too soon to decorate for Valentine's Day, and I've never really gone all out for it in the past, but with these boring, white walls I'm putting extra effort into making this apartment feel like home!

Week 4: Self-Portrait

If I thought last week was hard...I think this week was even harder! At least last week I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do from the beginning. It wasn't particularly creative, but I ended up liking the edited image. This week, I was challenged creatively because I don't have a tripod...or anything that can be used very effectively as a tripod. My kitchen table is about the only thing that would work and I would have felt weird dragging it around the house. Who am I kidding? Our kitchen is connected to our living room. It's not that far away!
Anyway, I was really tempted to just take pictures of things that "represent" me...and as you will see that's what I ended up with for some days. But, I was also determined to figure out ways to take pictures of me, and I would really like to end up with some pictures of me with my family at some point!

Day 20: I wasn't in self-portrait mode yet, so I've got pictures of cookies...close up. If you want the full story on these Red Velvet Cookies, check here.

Day 21: Eh..still not up for pictures of me yet. Instead I took this one of the kids' lunch on Sunday...

Day 22: I took a pretty funny picture of me...got creative with shadows but I ended up looking like our YISS Guardian mascot...so I decided the books that I have to read on my nightstand are a pretty good representation of me.

Day 23: Started experimenting using the floor as my tripod...

Day 24: Wanted a shot of the snow and my shoes (finally got back to my workouts last week!)...turns out they're exactly the same color...not much contrast, so I had to go with the track...

Day 25: Opted out of following the theme today, so that I could focus on the fun in the snow!

Day 26: Finally managed to snap a picture of me with the kids before they left this morning. Moved the chair over and propped the camera on the back of it. Made me nervous, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

I think Day 23 is my favorite of the self-portraits, though I do like the fact that Cade is looking at the camera in the last one. That makes it kind of cute. At least there's evidence now that I've been here!

If you'd like to see others' work on Project 52, check out the links:

www.styleberryblog.com

Fun in the Snow

Since we didn't get out in the snow yesterday, I figured I'd better get the kids bundled up and take them out today.

Cade was so excited, he could barely contain himself!

They shovel the snow very quickly around here, so by the time we left for school yesterday at 6:30, most of the sidewalks were clear. Hence my inability to get pictures of the snow at school yesterday!

Thankfully, we were able to find snow in its original state at the park here in our complex. It's a dirt, sand mix so they can't shovel it!

Then we headed over the other park near our house, hoping that the snow there wouldn't be mixed with dirt and sand. But, they had shoveled that park, of course!

So the kids played in the pile of snow that they'd made when they shoveled (and by the way I have no idea who "they" are either!).

Kennedy had fun making it snow!

When the kids were sufficiently wet and covered with snow, we headed back in for lunch. I'm thankful that we were able to have our fun in the snow eventually!

I'm also thankful that I was able to get some good shots with auto focus (I knew they were going to be moving way too quickly for anything else), but I was frustrated with the errors my lens kept giving me today...anybody know anything about the Err 01 message on a Canon 50mm lens?

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday but with Words: