Where's Cadence Game

Way Back When Wednesday - Sudafed

In July of 2007, we decided to take a couple of weeks to visit our family in the states.  We offered to take our boss' daughter, Ah Young, with us.  Mr. Kim readily agreed.

Ah Young did great on the whole trip.  The only hiccup was her getting swimmer's ear half-way through.  Someone suggested that we get sudafed to ease her earache.

No problem, I thought.  We went to Target and I tried to find some in the cold and flu aisle and was unsuccessful.  So I went up to the pharmacist and asked there.  They said they kept it behind the desk and asked for ID because some of the ingredients are used in making meth.  Evidently this was a new development since we had left for Korea.

I took out my wallet to get out my ID.  Uh oh, all I had was my Korean foreigner card.  All in Korean.  I showed it to the pharmacist, but he couldn't accept it because he couldn't read it.

Thank goodness Derek was there with his, but he was out in the car.  So I had to get out of line, get him, bring him back, get back in line, and then purchase the sudafed.

What a pain!

Kewpie Comparison

Ever since Cadence was first born, people have been saying, "Oh, she looks just like a Kewpie Doll!" I had no idea what a 'Kewpie Doll' was so I thought they were saying 'cupid doll.'  Sure, my kid's angelic; she could be a little cupid

But this evening I saw a post on thepioneerwoman.com with a picture of her friend's collection of Kewpie Dolls.  Huh, they really were saying Kewpie.  So I looked further and did a google image search, and I saw pictures like this.

This awesome Kewpie picture came from www.mjdesigns.com.au.

The tufts of hair, big eyes, chubby cheeks, sweet grin...  My kid really is a Kewpie Doll!

Amazing Deal & Amazing Husband!

Yesterday, Derek fixed the broken lawn mower I got for $10 at a yard sale and mowed the lawn!  Yes, I did know it was broken when I bought it, but I figured that even if we couldn't fix it, we'd only be out $10.  What a deal!

And it seems to have been a simple fix.  The plastic tank was cracked--the previous owner left gasoline in the tank through the winter--so Derek glued it with PVC glue and it held!  Since the crack is near the top, Derek is hoping that if he doesn't fill up the tank, it will hold for quite a while. 

Here are some pictures of our freshly mowed lawn.  It looks great!!

And here's a picture of how our curb appeal is coming along.  We're about halfway finished!!

We will cover the dirt on the left of the driveway with pavers and with wood chips on the right.

I refuse to believe

I refuse to believe my baby is 10 months old.  It's just not possible!  I just brought her home from the hospital like, last month, right?

And here's the proof that I have the cutest kid on the planet...

You agree, right?

My Darling Daughter

I'm pretty sure I've got the cutest baby girl on the face of the planet!  And I have proof!  But you've got to come over to my house to see it.  It's her reaction to me when I get her after a nap.

I open the door to her room, she turns and sees me in the doorway, smiles HUGELY (is that a word?), crawls as fast as she can over to the side of the crib, pulls herself up, and gives me the "Mommy, you're my favorite, come and get me!" look.

I melt.

And in those moments, I'm pretty sure I'd do anything for her.  Including changing three poopies in one day.  That's right folks, my darling daughter is a major poop factory

Word of the Evening

Chintzy:

chintz·y/ˈCHintsē/Adjective

1. Of, like, or decorated with chintz.

2. Brightly colorful but gaudy and tasteless.

Derek and I were talking about digital scrap-booking supplies (Not Derek's favorite subject, but I brought it up and he humored me).  I showed him my favorite designer, Three Paper Peonies.  I love her style!  I totally want to buy everything out of her store.  All of her kits have beautiful, muted colors and simple embellishments.  In my opinion scrapbook supplies should compliment my pictures, not overpower them.

Derek seemed to like her style as well.  In fact his exact words were, "If all scrap-booking stuff looked like that, I wouldn't have such a low opinion of scrap-booking."  I agreed. 

Mostly.  My views on digi-scrapping are a bit more moderate.  While there are a lot of good looking kits that have brighter colors with more elaborate embellishments, there are also a lot of kits out there that are so bright and cartoony looking I just can't handle it.  Maybe it's just me...

Chintzy was the word that came to mind.  I had to look it up to make sure I was saying what I thought I was saying! :)

Way Back When Wednesday - Walking down the street

Walking down the street--or sidewalk--in Sokcho, South Korea is quite an adventure. 

Most food delivery drivers drive on the sidewalk.  They drive mopeds so they can get away with it. Sort of.

When we waked down streets that didn't have sidewalks, we were always confused because mopeds sound like trucks and trucks sound like mopeds.  We always ended up giving mopeds way more room to pass us than they needed and barely gave trucks enough!!

Most sidewalks were paved with pavers and over time they settled unevenly making sidewalks very hard to walk on.  I'm such a klutz anyway, the only way to keep me safe was to always watch my step so I wouldn't trip!

Way Back When Wednesday - Our Moldy Apartment

You know you're living in a cheap place when you've got mold growing on the wall paper.  In the bedroom.

The builder pasted the wall paper directly on the cement walls.  The same cement walls that were also the exterior walls.  And the same cement walls that connected up with the unsealed cement roof.  So we got a lot of seepage when the weather was wet.

Mr. Kim came over a couple times to either "insulate" our walls by pasting styrofoam on top of the moldy wall paper, or to clean the wall paper with bathroom cleaner.  I assume to kill the mold.  

Eventually, the owner of the building had the roof sealed with this nasty smelling green stuff, and that helped, but nothing really worked.  We just had to live with it.  

Silly Survey

We have Clear for internet at our house.  It's a wireless modem.  It's not our favorite; it doesn't always have the best speed, but it's cheap and fairly reliable.  Recently, they asked for a picture of our modem to see where and how it was set up.  I guess they're trying to improve themselves somehow.  Then they e-mailed me and asked if I would like to participate in a 30 minute survey.  No wait, they called it an interview.  At first I thought, 30 minutes?  For an interview?  About my modem?  No way, that's stupid!  But then I re-read the e-mail and it said that if I participated, they would send me a $50 Amazon.com giftcard!  Holy cow yes!  So I e-mailed them back with today at 3pm as the date and time that would work best for me.

They called right on time.  The interview lasted 26 minutes, and can I tell you it was the silliest interview/survey I've ever participated in!!  Here's some of the questions they asked.

-Tell me the story of how you came to place your modem where you did.
I set up my computer where I wanted it so then the modem went next to it.

-Tell me about how you set up your modem.
I um, plugged it into the wall and then plugged it into my computer.

-Did you say you moved your modem from your window to your desk?  Tell me about that.
I didn't like the lights shining out the window.

-So you didn't like the sun shining on your modem?
No, I didn't like the LED lights on the top of the modem shining out the window.  LED lights usually mean something electronic and I didn't want someone going by our house and seeing them in the window and knowing there were electronics there.

-So you moved your modem out of the window so you wouldn't get robbed?
I guess so.

-You said you tried your modem in other rooms of your house.  Tell me how that went.
I wasn't 100% pleased with the reception I was getting in our office so I tried it in other rooms.  It wasn't better, so I put it back in the office.

-If you could put your modem anywhere in your house, where would you put it?
Um, in a closet?  So it wouldn't be on my desk.  It's not the prettiest thing, and it clutters up my space.

-So you would like to put your modem in a closet because it's ugly?
Well, maybe not ugly, but it's not all that great looking.

-If you were to have the design of the modem say something about Clear, what would it be?
I um, don't understand the question.  Good internet?

And the list could go on and on!  I could tell the interviewer was trying not to prompt my answers, but I hate these kinds of questions.  I feel stupid as they ask the question, and then the only way to answer them seems to make the interviewer look stupid!

I'm looking forward to my gift card though!

It's the little things...

...that make my mind smile.

Maps, any map, all maps!  I am a cartophile.  Some of my favorite places for maps are Google Maps, Google Earth, and Strange Maps.

Music with 8th, 16th, and 32nd Notes.  That means the song is just that much more fun to play!

I know this section of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata has
more than just 8th notes.  It's got hundred twenty-eighth
notes or semihemidemisemiquavers.  And yes, I did have
to use Wikipedia to learn that.

Pictures of Korea.  They remind me of our great year and a half there.

Deoksugung Palace.  We've been there.  It's awesome!

Kanji and Hangeul.  Reminds me of Derek, and being in Japan and Korea.

Kanji: ni-hon-go,
or Japanese

Hangeul: baek-gwa-sah-jeon, or encyclopedia

Pictures of Cadence that turn out like this...

You can't really tell from the low resolution I use for
blogging, but this picture is tack sharp!!

Commercials for the Kindle.  I have one and I love it!  And the commercial is sort of reminiscent of Reading Rainbow.  Books can take you anywhere!

My mind is grinning from ear to ear! :)

All the pictures in this post are from Wikipedia and are public domain.

We have a problem...

It's called Ergalilektriphobia, or "fear of power tools."

Cadence makes this face every time Derek turns one on.

Oh, and she wails pretty loudly too!

Way Back When Wednesday - Sweet Rolls for Sacrament

I don't think I was there when this story happened.  A missionary told it to me, but I did know all the players in it. 

A new convert was asked to bring bread for sacrament meeting.  Actually, she might not have even been baptized yet.  It might have been that she was still an investigator. 

She showed up at church that Sunday morning with a tray of sweet rolls she had previously purchased at the bakery.  She handed them to the missionaries and told them, "I think everyone will like these better."  I guess she meant better than the plain bread that is customary.

What a sweet lady!  Her heart was in the right place.  I don't think she knew that she was supposed to bring regular bread, and she was just trying to make everyone happy!

Giggles

Dressing Up Our Cat

This story is probably going to sound really weird, but we're really weird so it fits.

Derek, Cadence and I were all in Cadence's room putting her down for the night.  Willow, our cat, doesn't like to be left out of anything came in and laid down on the floor right in the middle of us all.  Cadence's Horton Hears a Who onesie just happened to be nearby and so our natural thought was, "hmm, wonder what Willow would look like in this?  Let's try!"

So we did.  It took a bit of work, but Derek got her front legs through the sleeves and snapped it up between her back legs with her tail sticking out the right side.

Wow, Willow looked hilarious!  The sleeves of the onesie were even a bit puffed!  She looked like one of those cats in storybooks that wear clothes. 

Cadence was so distracted by the commotion!  Instead of eating, all she wanted to do was sit up and watch Willow crouch, take two steps, and then roll over.  She'd watch Willow do something, then chuckle and squeal.  Then watch her do something else, then chuckle and squeal again! 

Derek finally freed Willow--who was very grateful--and we finished up Cadence's bedtime routine and got her in bed.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Willow rocking the onesie...  But we'll probably do it again.  There's always next time! :D

Way Back When Wednesday - Going through the moon

It's difficult to get a classroom of teenage students talking.  Especially when it's co-ed.  The middle and high schools in Sokcho are all boys or all girls, so they get paranoid when they were together and had to speak English out loud in my class.

So I usually went along with whatever they wanted to talk about.  In one of my middle school aged classes, there was a boy who wasn't too shy.  His name was Seon-Oong.  He was great and would talk to me about a lot of things.

This day he was telling me about one of his computer games.  How he had to go down this hall and through the moon, but it was a mystery what was behind it, so it was scary.  I sort of smiled at this.  I guess you could call this a "pun."  He used a Korean word in this story instead of the correct English word, but the Korean word sounds like a different English word.  Can you guess what it was?  It was moon!  In Korean, "moon (문)" means "door."

I asked him, "you had to go through the moon?"  At first he didn't get it, and responded with a why-are-you-asking-me-this type of answer.  So I asked again, "Are you sure you went through the moon," putting a little more stress on the erring word.  And then he got it.  He laughed and corrected himself.  Going though the moon seemed a bit out of context.

Funny how some Korean words sound just like English!

Way Back When Wednesday - House Warming Gifts

Soon after we moved to Sokcho, one of our students and his family moved into a new apartment and they invited all the ETS teachers to come to their housewarming party.  Since we worked until 9pm, we went straight from work. 

In the elevator on the way down to the parking level, I noticed Mrs. Jung (our boss's wife) was lugging a HUGE pack of toilet paper.  I asked our co-worker why she was carrying around toilet paper, and he told me that it was a housewarming gift.

I was confused.  Toilet paper?  For a housewarming gift?  That didn't make any sense to me.  That was so ordinary, and sort of a personal item.  I expressed my surprise to him.  He was surprised at my surprise and told me that toilet paper and the like were very common gifts for a new apartment.  Something about practicality. 

I guess that made sense.  But I think a potted plant, or funky dish is much more fun!

The Lake

On Wednesday evening, we went to the lake with some friends.  The weather was awesome and since there are a bunch of trees nearby, we were able to sit in the shade and enjoy the lake.

Cadence didn't really enjoy the lake though.  She got pretty mad.

But she did enjoy the sand.

And she enjoyed playing with Jane.  It was the cutest thing.  Ever.  Jane would cross her eyes, and Cadence would bust a gut.

Can you hear the giggles?

And she was pretty dang cute in her swimsuit, don't you think?

Her hair was spiked with sunscreen

PS:  Tanya, thanks for the swim diaper! 

How Big is Cadence?

Took Cadence in for her 9 month check up.  She's 21 lbs. 2 oz. and 28 inches long.  She's in the 90% for her weight and 75% for her height.  Or maybe it's the other way around.  I can't really remember and I didn't write it down while I was at the doctor's office.  Either way she's a big kid!  We love her!

New Development

Yesterday night, I checked Cadence's progress falling asleep.  We have this awesome video monitor so I can check on her without disturbing her by going in the room.  I was surprised to see that she had pulled herself up and was chewing on the railing.  No big deal, I just hadn't ever seen her do that before falling asleep.   Eventually she settled down with her face crammed in one of the corners of her crib and fell asleep.

Another Cute Cadence Video

I'm not quite sure what she's doing. I think she saw her reflection in the glass and then just had to give it a kiss or two. Who knows. She's a cute kid!

Sad Story of the Day

So last night I planted some flowers.  ALL BY MYSELF!  I usually leave the dirty work to Derek, but I was really excited about these impatiens we got for 40% off at D&B.  So once it got cooler, I set to work and when I was finished thought, "I know, I'll water them with some fertilizer.  AND I'll water the tree Derek planted in the back yard!"

Watering the flowers went fine.  Watering the tree in the back didn't.  I forgot that we've been soaking our new sod 4 times a day and that the dirt around the tree (and the side of the yard) didn't have any wood chips yet, so it had turned into mud.  Thick, deep mud.  And I was wearing flip flops. 

About half-way out, I abandoned the flops and went barefoot.  That was also a bad idea because then I just sunk in even farther.  And I was wearing pants.  So I folded them up.  Then on the way back I stepped in a particularly wet, muddy area and sunk in up to my ankles.  No, make that above my ankles.  So much for folding my pants up.

 Can you see the foot prints in the mud?


Once I got to the back door, I realized I had a big problem.  Since it was 10pm, Derek was asleep.  There was nobody at the door to meet me with some paper towels to clean up.  So left my flip flops--which were now at least three times their weight with all the mud clumped to them--on the back porch, slid open the door, and crawled inside keeping my feet as high in the air as I could.  Thank goodness it was night time so the neighbors weren't out to see me crawling in my house!

 Poor, muddy flip flops!  Hope they come clean!


I crawled across the dining and living room floor, through our bedroom, into the bathroom, and hoisted a leg over the side of the tub.  Have you ever tried to get into the tub from your hands and knees without your feet touching the floor?  I dare you to try it.  It's not easy.  It took 20 minutes rinsing to get all the mud off my feet, and then another five to clear out the tub!

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And an even sadder story, I've decided to go on a sugar fast again...  Not all sugar, just any sugar my mom wouldn't let me eat regularly for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  So Frosted Mini-Wheats are in, Lucky Charms and cinnamon rolls are out.  I've done this before and was mildly successful and felt much, much healthier. 

And besides, I'm tired of wearing the larger-than-I-want clothing sizes that I am.  A sugar fast can't hurt, right?