Category: Shawn T

Challenge Accepted Day 45/Day 3

What a funny, interesting, weird, challenging, yet satisfying day. It started off with dropping little man off at school and once again he was very excited. He wants to go all day every day. We are thinking on that one…. But the exuberance with which he runs into his classroom is wonderful. And his teacher absolutely adores him, this morning she actually came out of the school building to greet us at the front door and give Hunter a big hug! It was a relief to see. There is obviously a huge language barrier but one knows one’s children and when they are genuinely happy and the happiness I saw in both of them instantly reassured me we had made the right decision in sending him here. So I said goodbye and drove hubby to work. He had a few minutes to spare and after not getting home until 0200 this morning, I think he needed a tiny reprieve before going into the office this morning. By the way, I forgot to mention that I was awoken at 0530 this morning with, “Oh, Shit!” I asked what was wrong but could smell it before he had to tell me, our lovely puppy dog had obviously eaten something that didn’t agree with her yesterday and had gotten diarrhea during the night – somewhere between 0200 & 0530 more precisely- and had shat all over the bathroom floor, with the majority being on the bathmat! Hubby had then proceeded to step in it because he doesn’t turn the light on so he doesn’t disturb me. His exclamations certainly woke me up and he wasn’t very happy. Nor was I to be honest. The overwhelming stench permeating from our bathroom brought tears to my eyes and bile to my throat. Meanwhile Luna just looked at me like, ‘I couldn’t help it but I’m so sorry, especially after yesterday!’ Hubby cleaned up his foot and I told him to leave the rest to me. Yes, once again the champion wife! 😜 Really, the only way is up when your day starts like that!
  
Going back to the few minutes to spare, hubby showed me a few of the new things going up on the base and it was really cool to see where things are going to be, unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be here for most of it, it will be amazing though once completed. I dropped him off at work and headed into the local ‘Ville’ to meet with the music teacher. Yes, I wanted my kids to get into music, Ally was taking guitar lessons in Colorado and has a guitar and I wanted Madison to start doing piano as she seems to have a knack with it, so I finally got there to see what the studio looked like. So here’s the deal in South Korea, most places will supply transport of some sort to the kids for extracurricular activities because they know we are limited to one car. I had seen the music bus parked and had talked with the teacher a couple of times about getting the girls in but I wasn’t sure on prices and wanted to check out the studio myself before allowing my kids to go there. Today I was very happily surprised. Madison will start piano and go 5 days per week for 1 hour and will be picked up from our little ville and returned afterwards, there are a number of students who already go so this will work out perfectly and she is so excited. All of this at a cost of ₩140,000 per month! That’s less than US$140.00! This is a group lesson, yes, so she will be sharing her hour with 4 other kids, but even so, that’s perfect for Madison right now as her attention would waiver if she was intently taught piano for 1 hour. They have a great setup too, with 7 grand pianos in there! Ally will go to guitar lessons 4 times per month, each lesson for one hour, but her lessons are one on one. They will also come and pick her up and return her. All of this for ₩120,000 p/month (less than US$120). We were paying $50 for 30 minute lessons before! All of this and now I have spoken to a number of people around here who all have their kids in lessons there and are very impressed at the caliber of the lessons. We are all excited to begin this new musical journey!
From there, I went and met with Judy, the most amazing real estate agent/realtor, I have ever come across (sorry Jodith but this is different). All agents here go above and beyond, they are your go-to when you pay bills, if you have any issues with your house, if you want something done in the neighbourhood, basically, for all your basic housing needs. Judy has gone well beyond that! Yesterday she came and helped me read through all the paperwork that I had gotten from the school, some of which Google translate lost in its translation. There were questionnaires to fill out, things that needed to be done and I just wasn’t getting a full description from my app. Judy filled out the answers in Korean, she went through everything with me and called the school directly to ask questions. She then spoke with Hunter’s teacher numerous times to figure out kindergarten pricing, the cost of milk (apparently food is provided but you have to pay for milk separately and all Koreans drink their milk at lunchtime so he would be a bit of an outcast if he didn’t, luckily he loves milk), whether or not I could go on this field trip on Friday, all sorts of stuff. She then called me to say I have to open a Korean bank account in order for them to take the money out for his tuition fee and milk as they are no longer accepting cash. So after the music school, I headed off to meet Judy at the bank. 
What an interesting process. It’s very similar to opening an account in most other countries (by the way, I have realized I now have bank accounts in England, Bahrain, USA, Australia and now South Korea, what a shame none of them have money in them). The teller at first really didn’t know what to do as normally a foreigner is a US/Korean national, I am neither. Then when I didn’t have an income here, she was a little taken aback too. Finally she understood that this was for schooling fees and after making me sign lots of international forms for taxation purposes, actually ripped them up because she realized I didn’t need to worry about any of them. I had to enter my pin what seemed like a ridiculous number of times and I asked Judy if I was even going to be able to use an ATM because if it was all in Korean, there would be lots of problems. Luckily, there’s a foreign language button on there, so I’m good to go. I must say though, I was very impressed at the uniforms of all the tellers, very flashy indeed with a built in necklace and all:

  
From there I decided to venture into the local city. I had wanted to see a dermatologist and Judy (the woman is a lifesaver) called her friend and found a great one for me, even the bank teller said they were the best (I guess lots of people visit the dermatologist here). Anyway, I have this weird little lump above my right eyebrow but in the center of my face. It has been there for years and it annoys the crap out of me. I don’t know how I got it, I don’t know why it’s there, all I know is given the dedication I have had over the past 44 days to my face, I have become very aware of it and I want it gone. I have been massaging it intensely with my R+F products and it has gone down a tiny bit but it’s still there, so I thought I would go and just get the opinion of a dermatologist. She called and set it up for me to go in for a free consult this afternoon, but OMG! What a kerfuffle! Do you think I could find that bloody place? No! I drove around and around and around. I couldn’t find anything and I spent forever on the GPS trying to find the dentist (because this place was sort of in proximity to the dentist) in the favorites list but couldn’t (hubby later told me its in a folder all its own and he’ll show me how to access it next time we’re in the car). Anyway, after doing my exploratory drive around town and heading down a road where there were no other cars and the streets were a bit weird looking and a different colour, I thought I had better call it a day and try again some other time. I tried to just drive down streets that looked familiar and had entered one thing on my waze app and another thing on the car GPS, so they were both yelling at me to go in different directions and I was ignoring both of them with a vengeance! I ended up driving down this country road and thinking, ok, now I’ve gone too far, when both of them started telling me to turn around, do a U-turn, anything, just stop going straight ahead! So I finally listened and headed back, it was only on my actual drive home that I realized I had been in the fields that run parallel to the main road for a little while. Oh well. The things you do when given car freedom and no little people to worry about in the back! 
The rest of the day was uneventful. I spoke to my sister for a long time on FaceTime after having spoken to the other one last night. The kids played with some friends who are leaving to go back to the States in a couple of days; one of the challenges of living this life, you are always saying goodbye to people. I finally realized at 1700 (5pm) that I hadn’t done Insanity yet today, so quickly got my butt into gear and started doing it. What a workout! It felt good though, yes even the walking push ups! My legs are burning as I sit here and write this though, so we shall see how everything feels tomorrow! Hubby actually came home at a decent hour finally, and was exhausted. Dinner was a hodgepodge for everyone, though I did cook up a chicken breast and have a gigantic balsamic chicken salad that I love. And now, I am laying in bed, finishing this blog with a fresh face after using my Redefine regimen and sleep beckoning. I have avoided Benadryl all week and have been living on 4-5hours a night myself and hopefully tonight will be a good, sleep-filled one. 
Thank you for all the feedback on your dogs and suggestions on what to use. I have seen the shock collar in action now and to be honest, I have always thought they were cruel devices that shouldn’t be used on animals, but seeing them, I don’t think they are. I will feel the shock collar myself before I put it on Luna to make sure I know exactly what happens when I press a button. But here’s the thing, she’s a smart dog, I haven’t given her the training she needed and now she is a little bit out of control and I need to get her in line with us. I need to make walking a fun, controlled thing, not something where she pulls me along. I want to be able to enjoy running with her and I can only do that after she has tired herself out a little. So, this is the solution I have come up with for now. My hubby was very surprised when I told him I had ordered one, given my strong opinion about them, but I’d never really seen one in person and had taken my opinion from the movies. I know there are people out there who disagree with them. I just need a good training device that will work with my dog and work fast. And my neighbour has been able to train a golden retriever puppy very quickly using hers. And she never looks like she is in pain, she just stops the bad behaviour immediately and wags her tail. I’m all about that!
Ok, well have a wonderful day and or night, wherever you are! Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment and to share my blog. Don’t forget to like my Facebook page: aussiemumsadventures and email me directly at aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com. And remember, you will never be younger than you are right now, so enjoy it! 

Challenge Accepted Day 44/Day 2

The shock collar is ordered! My heart is racing with both adrenalin and a little bit of anger thrown in. My bloody dog, that I love incredibly has finally pushed me beyond the limits. And other people’s dogs have instigated it. What am I talking about? So I leave the house this afternoon ready to go and pick Ally up from the bus with Luna as I no longer take her on my morning or afternoon walks with Maddy because too many people let their dogs off leash and I am not ok with it. Especially when your dog can be aggressive. There are too many kids and too much action. Your dog should always be on a leash unless it is completely non-aggressive and completely trained. My dog is completely non-aggressive but she’s not well trained. In fact, she’s a little shit. So, today, this lovely golden retriever that is obsessed with Luna as it is, is off his leash as we walk out of the house and his owner (before knowing we were coming around the corner) throws a ball in our direction (right down the middle of the street mind you). Well the dog isn’t interested in the ball anymore once he sees Luna and he comes pounding down to us and jumps all over Luna, well she jumps all over back at him because she is not trained and she loves everyone and she’s a little so and so, and next thing you know she has twisted off her collar and is running full pelt away from me with this other dog, I am running down the street getting crankier and crankier by the second because I know my dog isn’t going to listen and she completely surprised me by getting loose. Eventually, she came back, the street was full of people, I very loudly said every dog should be on a leash and walked back to the house. Luna is now grounded and I am furiously typing away because I am still cranky. I know we don’t have a park, I know that lady and her husband both walk their dog, and their dog doesn’t listen either, it is a busy street and dogs get hit by cars and my dog is one giant ball of craziness and now she is getting a shock collar. Done. The issues I’ve had with dogs since we’ve moved here is ridiculous! What happens to Americans when they move overseas with their dogs? Why would you feel the need to just let your dog run through the neighbourhood as a free for all? I guess I wouldn’t be so cranky had we not had, not one, but two, run-ins with the other lady and her dog. For some reason she just thinks her dog can run around free, her dog started growling at Luna and getting ready to attack whilst there were kids around. I’ve been attacked by a dog, I freak out at dogs growlIng and getting ready to fight. The only thing that saved my wrist was my metal watch that this dog who attacked me many years ago, broke when he tried to bite me. He still drew blood but he came away with my watch in his mouth rather than my wrist. I have a real fear of aggressive dogs. I just don’t like dogs running around free when there are kids the dog doesn’t know also running around. Dogs are animals, if a kid does something to a dog, the dog is going to bite them, as it should, because that’s the only instinct the dog has. And kids can be animals too. Owners should always be aware of their dogs and their dogs’ needs. Just as parents should always be aware of their kids and their kids’ needs. Sometimes we can’t do it, like today, but most of the time, we can. Right, rant over. And here I am doing something I never thought I would do, in fact, I was downright offended when a friend suggested to me I should get one for Luna, but she is right. I’ve done everything to try to train this dog and she is not listening and I will not have her doing that again, so shock collar it is.   
So that’s how my afternoon started, but my morning started with saying au revoir to my girls then coming back and starting on ‘Plyometric Cardio Circuit’ and seriously going OMG! I thought I was doing ok, I remember why I love T 25! That reason; because it’s 25 minutes plus a 3 minute cool down. This; holy wow! This is intense! I forgot how intense it was! I couldn’t even complete the third drill, I think that’s what he called it when you do the basket ball drills, the level one drill, the ski (?) drills and the up/down drills (where you’re down in plank and you bring your feet up together and have to jump up). Anyway, by the time round three came around, I was done! I managed to do the cool down exercises, but man, I was both shocked at how many exercises there were and shocked at how tired/exhausted I was! It was intense to say the least. Tomorrow, I have a big day again. I have to go and see the school, because today my Korean American realtor/real estate agent, came over and read through all the paperwork and is trying to get some questions answered on our behalf. We don’t think Hunter’s should go on the field trip on Friday. Just because the bus drivers here are well beyond crazy, in fact, they are the craziest! 2 hours on a bus to Seoul, by himself, with a crazy bus driver? No, it’s not going to work out. I know he’s not actually really by himself but he’s three and with lots of people who don’t speak the same language and it’s his first week of kindergarten, no, it’s just not going to work out at all. 
After all the drama of the dogs, I was finally able to take a few minutes and get my painting finished. Not sure if I want a tree in the right hand corner or if I like it as simplistic as it is. Either way, I like it. I’ve given you two different perspectives of it depending upon the light you view it under and honestly, neither of them really show the colors as I see them. Anyway, I would love to know what you think. Here’s the other version:

  
As far as Rodan and Fields, my skin is feeling great, I’ve just ordered the Reverse regimen to do as my next challenge. Unfortunately the MACRO E has sold out and is gone. As are all accessories right now, but they promise to bring more back (accessories of course), yes please. I’m looking forward to revealing to you all just how wonderful my skin looks and how great it feels. Right now though, hubby is at work, it’s nearly midnight, and I am off to catch some beauty sleep. For the last four days I’ve cut out the Benadryl (Kim you will be happy) and used either meditation or melatonin, both of which have meant about 4 hours of sleep per night. Of course hubby is out on this night and tonight’s the night it all catches up with me. So good night, may you find happiness in the smallest things no matter where you are! 

Challenge Accepted Day 43 & Day 1….

My son went to a Korean kindergarten today. And he loved it. I have been worrying about it all weekend too. He has never really gone to kindergarten, even when I used to volunteer and he went into the childcare, it was hit and miss. It was only once a week, but sometimes he would cry for the first hour or even longer. It took about 3 months before he was finally okay to stay there without crying. He wouldn’t even stay with friends, my friend Trine was really the only person he would stay with for any period of time. We had talked about him starting school often over the last week. Yesterday, I even asked him if he was going to cry when Mummy said goodbye and he very proudly told me that no, he wouldn’t. Well, he told the truth. Not only did that kid not cry, he had a big smile on his face and was very excited. He had his little backpack with his blankie and his Spider-Man toy and he was ready to face the world and all its challenges. He kissed hubby and I goodbye and went into his classroom, ready to socialize with his classmates. The two German/American girls with whom he is friends, weren’t even there yet, but he was still excited to go in and see what this school thing was all about. I must confess that his bravery and eagerness did bring a tear to my eye, but don’t tell anyone will you! Hubby was quick to point me to the car in case he changed his mind and regretted his decision to face today with such courageous jubilance. But he didn’t. He walked into that classroom and immediately joined a group of young Korean boys and girls and happily played with them. 
For me, well I dropped hubby off at work and came home to a quiet house. I have to admit there were times I went to talk to Hunter throughout the day. A helicopter flew right over the car and I almost pointed it out (as I always do) until I realized he wasn’t there with me. It wasn’t like this with the girls and not because I don’t love them as much as I love him or anything to do with boy vs girl, it comes down to the fact that he is my last. There will be no more babies, and he is growing up. A day that makes you realize that things are changing, I’m getting older. There will be no more pitter patter of little feet in my house until the grandchildren days. Whoa! Grandchildren! Holy wow! Can’t even go there at this point in time, but I’m understanding my own feelings about why I was a little taken aback this morning at my own emotional response. Anyway, I got home and took some more ‘before’ photos, because today I started Insanity! Yes, my T25 voyage officially came to an end for now, although, my friend is going to send me her T25 DVDs (she doesn’t use them anymore and quite by chance offered them out to any takers on FB – I, of course, put my hand up big time). So Insanity it is! Here’s the original before photos with the photos I took today in the black pants which will now become my new before photos. 

  
  
I couldn’t really notice much of a difference in the first two front photos but I do see a difference in my butt from 5 weeks of T25! I did the fit test too, the one that you do at the beginning of the Insanity challenge, and did much better than I thought I would, surprising myself. I’m going to leave the results here so you can help me track my progress. 
  

Ok, enough Insanity talk and prep, there it is. You’ll just have to stick with me for another 60 days to see the results and then we can maybe go back to a T25 challenge and then who knows where? 😜
I decided to make hubby and I lunch and took it to him in his office, aren’t I the sweetest wife ever? 😂 yes, I crack me up too! But it was good and sweet, I even put it in a picnic basket. We didn’t have long unfortunately, but that was ok because I had things to do anyway. They have this paperwork that we have to have ready in case we need to evacuate (you know, like if someone just north of us might be a bit loopy and do something he threatens to do all the time). Anyway, it is actually serious business. We have to have everything in a ready to go packet so in a worst case scenario, we can be ready to go at the drop of a hat. Even the pets have to have their own paperwork, so my job today was to gather together final pieces for that. I picked up some groceries, and ran a couple of other errands before heading home. The first pick up was at the bus stop for Maddy, then we drove to the school to pick Hunter up. We got there a little early and the doors were open (with a teacher standing there) and we watched Hunter playing in his class, looking so happy still. Until……. He and another little girl were running to get something in this game they were playing and neither of them looked up and ended up banging heads. Tears were shed from both. Luckily it was on Hunter’s other side and not his already bruised eye. Finally his teacher saw me at the door and brought him over, then proceeded to tell me all about his day and an upcoming field trip, in Korean. I vowed then to use Google translate for every conversation. Thank god for modern technology! Because then she handed me all this paperwork that looked something like this:

  
Yes, I have at least 30 pages of Korean paperwork to fill out and read. So, I used Google translate for the first 10 pages and was able to understand most of it and fill it out, by the time I got done with that though, I was exhausted! It takes a lot to concentrate on this sort of stuff. With Latin based languages I can at least look at the root word and go from there but Korean may as well be alien writing to me. I am not only impressed but filled with admiration at those who can speak and read both Latin based languages and Asian languages! So, I did the next best thing and invited my realtor over for lunch and asked her if she would help me read through this. She said yes! So tomorrow, hopefully she can help me fill all of this out. One of them is a permission slip to go to Seoul on a field trip and I’m all about that but they would travel by bus (I think) and bus drivers her are the craziest of everyone! If my son’s going to be on one of those crazy buses, then I’m going to be there with him! Haven’t got a full plan yet like what I’ll do with Maddy in the afternoon, but one step at a time. 

Tonight, well, tonight has been quiet. The kids ate and were about to go to bed when hubby got home (he got a ride from his colleague) so we put them to bed and sat and had dinner together watching two of our favourite shows that we watch together; ‘The Good Wife’ & ‘Madam Secretary’. We are very diverse in our viewing preferences enjoying comedies to superheroes and everything in between; ‘Modern Family’ & ‘Blackish’ to ‘The Goldbergs’, to ‘Supergirl’, ‘Agent Carter’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Shield’, are all regulars on our tv and soon we’re hoping to borrow the entire Game of Thrones collection, so we can get into that. Anyway, it’s been interesting. Tomorrow I get to do the full Insanity thing! Tonight, I shall do the Rodan and Fields Redefine night regimen and follow it with the ACUTE Care, I only have a few of those left, so should be seeing a decease in the wrinkles (I am already). So I shall say adieu. For now. Have a wonderful day and or night wherever you may be and give those little babies a big kiss and enjoy their pitter patter, even for a moment.

Challenge Accepted Day 42

Tonight I’m feeling very somber, I don’t want to get you down, so I’m just going to keep today’s blog short and simple. This has been a very sad last week. First a friend in a horrific motorcycle accident and possibly paralyzed, then a friend fighting a losing battle with cancer, now my friend’s father has passed away. To say this last week has been sad is to put it very lightly. 
We did very little today. Everyone was worn out from so many things going on, I wasn’t in the mood to explore or seek out new destinations, hubby was still recovering from his enormous week, the kids were starting to realize they were going back to school tomorrow and we had a house to sort out to enable our new IKEA purchases were going to fit in. The day, although seemingly nice, was extremely windy and quite cool. A good day to stay in. Hubby built all of my pieces and wow! I am so happy with everything. In fact, we have even decided to keep the island from Costco as a good little liquor cabinet thing. It just works. 

  
The kids and hubby watched another Harry Potter movie, and I painted. I am confirming my Insanity start tomorrow and I will take before pics for that new challenge. I also have less than 20 days on the Rodan and Fields challenge and my skin is feeling wonderful. I’m really sorry to my T25 supporters that I am unable to finish the challenge. Tomorrow will show if the has been any change in at least the alpha portion of the challenge and we’ll see where ‘Insanity’ gets me. 3.5 weeks before my birthday too!! 
Well, I’ll finish it off with a photo of my current painting. It’s nowhere near finished, but I’m happy with it so far.

  
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If you too are interested in taking the Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge: http://www.slongmorescott.myrandf.com

Challenge Accepted Day 41

Today has been a sad day. I found out this morning that my friend passed away yesterday, she had cancer. She thought she had beaten it. It came back in full force, terminal. Yesterday, cancer won! The world lost. One of the good ones, gone. I’ll, be back to touch on this more on another day, but for now, that’s all I want to, all I can share about it. 
I do have some other disappointing news I’m afraid, nothing compared to how I started this blog, but disappointing as far as this blog is concerned anyway. Given the circumstances surrounding my T25 beta selection, I’m going to have to end my T25 challenge early and start a new challenge; I’ve chosen Insanity! I’ve inspected the DVDs and all look good, though I think my pioneer DVD player that I bought in 2001, may be half the problem also. I’m looking for something to be able to clean it up – any suggestions would be appreciated. I don’t want to get rid of it because it’s dual voltage and worldwide region and I’m attached to it, but it surely needs a clean 15 years later…..
Well, what a day we had today. Our first experience at a South Korean IKEA! It was crazy! I thought Costco was bad but IKEA was a nightmare. I have never experienced anything quite like it. Koreans are a very kind people but they move like they drive, they will literally push you out of the way if they need to get somewhere. We find it rude, culturally, but to them, it’s just the way it is. I’m doing my best not to get offended and today was really good practice for that! Hunter did freak out a little bit because there were so many people but the good thing is we stand out, all of us with golden blonde hair and all, so there was never any danger of getting lost. But at times, it was standing room only in the biggest IKEA I’ve ever seen in my life. That place must trade in the millions (of Korean won of course) on a daily basis! We alone spent our fair share of money in there! It was great though. Crazy, but great. Anytime we needed anything, we just found a store worker who normally spoke enough English to put our Korean to shame. We bought a new, bigger and better kitchen island, so I now have the pleasure of returning the other one to Costco, because we just aren’t happy with it at all. Once again, I hope Costco is as understanding as they are in the States. We also bought some storage for the laundry as it’s driving me crazy in there. Nothing goes into the concrete walls and nothing sticks to them because of the humidity, we have very little storage in this house and the laundry has now had to become our pantry as well, because there wasn’t even a decent cupboard to hold food. When there’s five of you and a cat and a dog, you need to have somewhere to put all of your food. Hopefully, what I’ve bought will work and will clean it all up. I never feel like the house is clean because there’s clutter everywhere. I’ve gotten rid of so much since we arrived here yet still have too much junk! A planned yard sale at the end of April combined with more decluttering, should get me somewhere! 
Everything else we bought was small or insignificant. One thing we did buy and I’m excited to start using, was a summer duvet. We use duvets or doonas (pronounced Doo-na) in Australia and they are used throughout Europe also. They are either feather and down quilts or wool or man made materials inside of a quilt type fabric. The difference is they are plain and you buy interchangeable covers for them as necessary to make your bed coverings the way you like them. It also means you don’t wash your duvet regularly, you just wash your cover, not ruining it like one does a quilt type spread whenever it needs to get washed (which is on a regular basis). My friend Trine who is Norwegian, introduced me to the idea of having both a Summer and a Winter duvet. Well, last night, and this may seem like TMI (too much information) but both hubby and I awoke absolutely saturated and no, not from anything fun! It is so humid here that one sweats immensely. I am not a sweater, yet I was drenched. It was disgusting! We talked this morning when he said he had woken up the same way and realized that the winter duvet we have is just too heavy and we need to do something about it. I told him about Trine and James and how they use both a Summer and Winter duvet and suggested we do the same. He was all about it. We both like to have a covering over us at night but this was just too heavy now and we also like to use the feather and down comforters, which actually offer a nice breathability, as does wool. IKEA was the perfect place to buy one, so we did. We thought about getting another cover but honestly, I’m still loving my white cover, especially as it is coming into Summer and I have my lovely blue accents to go with it, so I’m just going to stick with it for now and look next time we go (yes, we shall go again) for some new sheets as well. 
We eventually finished up at IKEA with 400 won each, soft serve ice cream cones (well, the four members of my family did & they were terrific apparently, especially at the equivalent of less than 40c) and moved on to the outlets next door. These outlets are not really what we would consider outlets. Most of the items in there were overpriced as far as we were concerned, even the stuff that was 50% off. Hubby showed me a really nice light pink water resistant golfing jacket from Nike and it was on sale for Korean won 129,900, that’s about US $120.00. In the States at a Nike outlet store, I would have expected to pay about $80. The same went for most of the stores in this place. The only time we found a bargain was when we bought Ally a new pair of trainers (she has been complaining and looking for new trainers for the past 2-3months) finally, we found some. They’re a ladies size 6 mind you, the smallest size they had in the store, and they fit my 11 yo daughter who is one of the smallest (as far as height goes) in her grade. We always laugh because the running joke (pardon the pun) is that she needs to grow into her feet! Anyway, they fit her well when we put her inner soles in it (she has flat feet) and were 39,000 won, cheaper than all the shoes I was looking at online and she was able to try them on. Perfect. I’ve just bought new inserts for her too, so they’ll be great in her new shoes. That was literally the only thing in the 5 levels that worked out. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste my time going there again. At the time of writing, this is the only IKEA in South Korea, (Gwangmyeong) so you’ll know where I’m talking about. Don’t bother with the outlets next door. It’s just not worth it. 
We returned to our car and made our way back to Osan Airforce Base as the family had decided Chilis was on the menu (this is an American chain restaurant that has somehow made its way over here to a US Airforce base). I haven’t been all that impressed with it so far, but they all love it for some reason and tonight I finally found something on the menu I actually liked. Normally I’m a chicken kind of person at a restaurant, but all the chicken in this Chilis seems to have a lemon base in the cooking method and I don’t like lemon and chicken together unless it’s in a marinade and even then, I’m not the biggest fan. So it took me forever to decide on something and I was about to give dinner a miss altogether when I spotted something called the steak fajita quesadilla (I think). It was really good. No lemon in sight. It was just a very good meal. Far too much food for me, but good nonetheless. The steak was cooked well and was actually not very fatty, I got a blend of cheese rather than ‘jack’ cheese and it all worked well together. I highly recommend it if you’re heading to Chilis, Osan for dinner. We had some highly energetic kids still so we wandered over to the exchange store to look for some ‘slippers’ for Hunter for school on Monday. In Korean schools, you have to take your shoes off before entering the classroom, so you need some slipper type things to be able to wear inside there. I’m not really sure if I got him the right shoes, but we ended up getting a pair of adidas ‘flip flops/sandals’ and are hoping that not only will he be fine because of the little massaging pointy bits, but also that these will work as ‘slippers’.

  
I’m a tad nervous for him going to school on Monday. We keep talking about it but I’m just not sure how he’s going to do. I guess we’ll find out soon enough! Anyway, we found Madison a pair of trainers/runners as well and hubby found a lovely pair of dress shoes to match his new suit. All in all, a successful shopping trip. By the time we got home it was very late and dear son was sound asleep and we still hadn’t gone to visit the cats! We raced over there to find things a little amiss. Carpets moved, or rolled up. Different lights on. Weird stuff. The girls and I were a tad freaked out so I immediately sent my friend a message asking if anyone had come by today, thank god she answered almost immediately confirming someone had and apologizing for not letting me know. Then my phone died. We hung out with them for quite a while and when we finally got home I was able to get the full message about her friend stopping by and all being ok. Once home I did my nightly Rodan and Fields regimen followed by my AMP MD roller before sitting down to write my blog. And here I am. It’s almost 12:30am – I’ve missed my blog deadline. The girls are sitting up with hubby watching Harry Potter, and I am having a glass of wine or three and toasting my friend. I hope that you and yours are safe and well and you give all of your loves an extra squeeze tonight. Thanks for sticking with me and as always, pleas email me at:

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Let me know too what else I can do to get more readers and to grab your attention. I was a little lifted today when I realized I’ve got over 400 people following my blog. Thanks for your support! It’s really appreciated! 

On a side note, I cannot take credit for the main image for this blog but I did find out as I was researching images for it, this is literally IKEA’s largest store in the world. Credit to ‘The National’ for their image.