New home, Birthdays, GPS, and Boyfriends

So...since we moved here we've been trying to unpack everything and make it like home! Well it's all done! It took a while but it feels SO nice not to have boxes everywhere. Here are a few photos!

 

The apartment has alot more room for Tanya to move around in and she loves that part of it! We don't have to keep a baby gate everywhere which is really quiet nice. The only place we have a baby gate is by the kitchen...so she doesn't get into the kitchen and then into the laundry room.

On another bright note, Tanya will be 1 year old tomorrow...sadly we can't her birthday party then...so we will most likely just have it this weekend at the house...I guess. We've been so busy with moving it's almost too hard to do it anywhere else. Now we just have to get all the supplies! Justin and I will make a game plan tonight probably about Tanya's birthday and all and everything were going to do. I really wanted to avoid the whole "last minute" thing but apparently I couldn't...

She is so grown up now! She says "Dadda, Dad, Daddy, Mom, Mommy, Mama, Luba, Cindy (One of our friends), Sarah (Her daughter), Baba (Bottle), Night Night (Tired), Kitty, Kitty cat, Trigger (Our cat) and so much more. Those are just the most used one that I could think of already. We really have to try to get a video of Tanya walking for family and such but she does it so unexpectedly that it's hard to know when she's going to do it! Auuugh.

Talking about my little Diva also brings up that she has a "boyfriend" haha. He's one of our friend's son. He is only a few months old but Tanya is beyond fascinated with him...(And stealing his paci for some weird reason...maybe because she didn't really use a Paci for a very long time and is now wanting one? Haha). Also she is now getting her...7th tooth in!! 3 are currently trying to pop all the way through while the rest of the 4 are already all out!

We also got a Korean GPS a little while ago and I never thought it would be interesting to photograph GPS's until I took these two photos...only a few hours apart haha. I thought it sort of looked neat!  It was taken while Justin and I went out with a couple to Daegu to take photos and such...and see the sights.

And here are a few other photos I took while in Daegu. It was quiet beautiful! I love taking photos of the sun setting over Daegu! Last but not least Tanya made some more Korean friends! (They blew bubbles for her haha) Although in the photo below she doesn't seem all that happy haha.  :)

Japan, Apartments, COT's and more...

(Hey everyone...I feel like I havn't posted in forever but...(Here it comes, the excuse) I have been extremely busy. However...I am back!)

First off, I've had a busy 2 weeks lately. Between being with friends, shopping, getting things in order...it's been busy. It is getting warmer and warmer in Korea lately. Tanya will be a 1 year old within 2 weeks...how crazy is that? 

Also we went to Daegu for some much needed "Quiet parent time" with another couple that we were friends with. Our friends babysat Tanya for a few hours and they got someone to watch there kids. I almost forgot how nice it was to just go out and eat without having to either 1.) feed someone else while hoping to eat and 2.) no screaming! We had dinner at TGIF! Which was amazing!!! Then we walked around a bit and looked at things. I got 3 new contact pairs...only for $15!! Can't really beat that! Now I have brown, bright blue, purple and Grey contacts! I have yet to get green but i'm sure someday I will see how my eyes look like when they are green.

    

Next comes some bigger news. We are moving!! Don't worry, not out of Korea (We've still got 9-10 months left here) but definitely out of the "Country" as the Koreans call it...We're moving to the "City" apartments which is only...about 5 minutes by car. I feel like i'm already living in the "City" Of Waegwan but apparently it's "Country" due to some crops by us haha. Anyway, We are moving into a new apartment where we do not have to pay $800 for gas each month...which is almost the amount of our rent. The Realtor told us the reason we're paying so much is because we are out in the "Country". Okay, let me explain this one more time...Our Country apartment...is a 2-3 minutes walk from all the stores and such...I don't think it qualifies as "Country" But I guess I will never understand that. Also, the apartment is much nicer and has ceiling fans...I never really thought much about how important ceiling fans were until I moved to Korea. With ceiling fans you do not have to turn on AC...thus saving TONS of money!

Oh! I almost forgot...we had a pretty big fire start near alot of apartments from the hills/mountains. It took about 2-3 hours to get it put out by helicopter. I came almost when the fire was out so these shots are not that good. Oh! Justin put in his COT yesterday...and put down these locations...1.) Germany, 2.) Belgium, and 3.) Italy!! Hopefully one of those will be our next home after Korea!!! I'm really hoping!! Now  comes to the sad section of news...

 

Now onto the the news of Japan. The 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off the Pacific Coast, then setting off a massive tsunami. All the channels here in Korea were showing us all the devastating damage in Japan. I'm not sure what they showed in the states but I honestly hope everyone realizes just how horrible and HUGE this thing gwas.

 

To make things worst...a rare snow storm recently sent temperatures to go below zero...so now without heat for alot of people things get even more sad and scary. In total, about 850,000 households in the north are still without electricity...in the freezing weather. Not only that but some families are getting a slice of bread...to feed a family of three! Or half a rice ball.

A couple of our friends live there (all in different locations and luckily all are okay right now). Talking to them about how everything is over there just made me want to cry. One of my friends in Tokyo is saying they are running very low on food for example...and that is in Tokyo! Millions of people are spending nights without water, food and heating. So as we sit here reading this in our nice warm homes they are out there suffering. More then 10,000 people are estimated to have died. Talking to another friend who was closer to the tsunami said that they too have no running water, no power and very little food...and there is also a 5 hour long wait for gasoline. I just hope everyone keeps Japan and all the people affected by this in their prayers. Also if you can, the Japanese red cross society is taking donations. It's as easy as going to this link and donating some money...I hope things start to look up for Japan and the people...

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

The game of things, Spray paint, Leaving for the field

 (Hey everyone...Well first off let me say...i've had a long few days. Our cat got spray painted, My husband left for the field for seven days, I'm lonely...but on the bright side...I had an amazing time before he left and we bought an amazing game that we are absolutely in love with!!!)

So, Hopefully that got your attention now. Haha. Last weekend all started with a game...Justin and I went to the PX in Daegu and I saw this random game that said "For Adult" with the world "Hilarious and shocking!!" So naturally that grabbed my attention. Suddenly I figured 'why not? We don't have any games?' so I put it in the cart without reading anything about it. Justin see's me do this and is suddenly curious what I put in the cart. he glances at it and tells me we don't need it. That is when we see the price of the game...$29.99...not he tells me "We definitely don't need it for that price!" for some unknown reason I defend this game that I know nothing about and say "Hey, we don't have any games...we need at least one...and this looks interesting" which seemed to be enough to convince my husband who put it back in the cart and we went back to our shopping.

So we finished shopping went home and sat around until we decided we should do something...so we called some friends and asked if they wanted to do dinner with us. They agreed but before we did that we all decided to go to the park since it was SOOO warm (and that in itself is quiet rare here in Korea!)

 Anyway, moving on. We all had a blast! So then we went to our house for dinner. After we ate dinner we couldn't figure out what else we could do and then 'viola!' we remembered the game. So opening it up we all tried to do a round...which was when we realized this game was much better with more then 4 people...so we started calling people up...it was about 7:30pm and everyone got on their phones and called couples and such. Finally at about 9:30 we had two more couples come over after we convinced them to play this game...so with 8 people played (plus 4 kids but they couldn't play haha) we started the game!!

When I say it's a good game...I mean it was a good game...we started playing at 10pm...and we stopped playing at 5am! It was hilarious. (All the kids had fallen asleep by then! Luckily we had enough bedrooms haha!) So now i'm sure your curious about this game...it's called... "The game of Things!" and to make it simple, you pick up a card and read the question. Everyone writes down their answer and then people have to guess who said it! For example let's say the card says this...

'Things you shouldn't play catch with?'

These would be the replies from some people...and you have to guess based on peoples personalities who wrote what...

1.) Great balls of fire
2.) Feral Kittens
3.) Dolphins with laser-beams
4.) Babies with chainsaws
5.) Your new granddaughter
6.) STD's 
7.) Porcupines
8.) Poop 

Perhaps now you can see why the games fun? In defense to the game, that question is just one of the "Okay ones" There is a reason it is an adult game...here are other questions that it asks you. 

Things you should never put in your mouth.
Things that smell terrible.
Things that squirt
Things you don't learn in school
Things you shouldn't say when you are trying to make a good impression.

What would you do with chocolate?

If you changed genders for a day what would you do?

Sooo now that i'm done rambling about how amazing that game is...let me move on haha. Some people were drinking while playing this game (No one that drank got obliterated) but anyway..r.at about 5am all the guys went out to the belcony area to smoke...about 10 minutes later they return and one of them is holding my cat and acting suspicious. So I ask to see the cat and low and behold my cat has a black spray painted line down it's back...

*Breath* *calm down* *Calm down* *Don't scream* *Breath*

Those thoughts were literally going through my head...after I did that I calmly asked how the cat got that color...(One of the couples had already left so there were only two in question). Well the three musketeers (My husband, and the two other husbands) all looked at me conufused as if nothing was wrong.

Right, Okay...you want to play the "Am I dumb" game? Fine. So I point at the black streak on my cat and once again ask how it got there. So one of them decided to speak up..."Well he sat on the ledge and when he jumped down it was like that" he said. Okay, not really an outragous story...quiet possible actually...IF THE LINE WAS STRAIGHT!!! No the line was far from straight. So I look at my husband and and it's clear that he is going to play the "silence" card. So then I turned and look at the other husband. Finally he sighs and I get ready to hear the story.

"We were all out there taking a smoking break..." He begins and I nod my head. Finally i'm going to get answers.

"AND this random puerto rican comes out of nowhere with a spray can and sprays the cat...Luba we tried to stop him but we couldn't" He says while nodding his head...Seriously? So I just rolled my eyes and grabbed the cat and headed for the tub to get the spray paint off of him. The other wives helped me so I wasn't dead by the time I was done...because let me tell you...triggers nails...hurt.

So that was when people started leaving. Trigger hated me for that day for washing him but luckily most of the spray paint came off. Except for parts on his tail which I just had to cut off. The day after that we all went over to our friends house and played the game again with a new couple and had just as much fun! So we are going to offically make a "couples" game night when eveyone gets back from the field. (Except no spray painting my cat this time!) Aside from the cat being spray painted (Which I later found out the whole story) the weekend was pretty amazing and not a dull moment!!!

(Last but not least some photos of the princess.)

(And just in case anyone is curious...Trigger is perfectly fine now!)