Weight loss – aussiemumsadventures

Living with a ‘tweenage’ girl – belle fille intelligente

Note: This was originally written in 2016, updated April 2nd, 2019.

Today I have been reflecting on being a female in this world. There have been so many books, blogs, articles, you name it, written about young girls and how to give them the strength to face society as the best women they can be, but it is tough as a parent, to watch your child struggle with social situations in her ‘tweenage’ years.
My eldest daughter is 11 going on 12 this year (2016). She is incredibly smart, in fact, one of her teachers (a professor) just told me that he thinks she is incredibly gifted and wishes there was a formal gifted program at their school. Instead, he has started a high-level reading program with 5 students (our daughter included) that meets once a week during their lunch break to read and discuss whatever current book they have selected. It works well for our DD as reading is her strongpoint. It was always mine too. Forget Mathematics, give me a book any day, although she is mathematically minded as well.

Although eldest DD is very gifted when it comes to reading, she is lacking in some social skills and I’m not sure how to help her. She desperately wants to be popular but for some reason, isn’t well liked. Neither of us encourage her to seek popularity, rather to make a couple of well-trusted friends, but she just wants to be liked anyway. We try to understand what it is about her that other kids her age don’t take to, but we just don’t know. She is highly liked by adults/teachers and her own siblings adore her, particularly little sister. But what is it that she does, or how is she behaving when we are not in view, that is making her peers not take to her? She brought home a note last Friday that really upset me. It was from another student saying how much everyone dislikes her because she has a smart mouth. We tried to find out more about what this meant, but I truly don’t think she herself knows or is aware of, what she is doing. How does one rectify this? How can I help my daughter better socialize at school? She is always very polite and sweet. She can be bossy, yes, but swears she isn’t at school. She used to be a leader but now she is more of a follower because she so desperately wants others to like her that she has given up on the things she wants to do/play at school, doing seemingly, only what others want. I really worry. All this on top of being a girl in a society that is slowly improving, but still judges girls by their looks, their weight, their smile.

She hates her smile too. She needs braces and now with the whole dentist fiasco (was supposed to get them in Korea but didn’t because it wasn’t a very good deal) will have to wait some more. How can I instill in my beautiful girl all the wonderful things about her when she is already judging herself so harshly? Wondering what she does wrong that makes people dislike her? Hating her smile? The great thing about her though, she is full of confidence on so many other levels. How can I put this so you can understand? She believes in her sporting prowess and believes she is good at so many sports (some are hit and miss, but you know, who am I to judge). Though I do prefer she hear some truths from me rather than teammates.

Then there’s her height. Most girls her age are taller than her. She is starting to feel it too, with kids teasing her at school about how she’s not growing. Sometimes I just want to punch all of these unthinking, inconsiderate, little so and so’s! We talk about teasing all the time in our family and our motto is: ‘Only give what you can take; Nothing mean, all in good fun’. But these kids are definitely not practicing that. Some of the stuff they say is just plain mean. DD tries not to let it get to her, but it does. She keeps asking me how she can grow taller. I’m always going to use that sort of a question as a chance to motivate more fruit and vegetables being eaten, but I don’t have the growth secret. Now, I’ve just started saying to her that it will happen in good time and when it’s meant to. Everyone grows and matures at different rates and she may well change at a later stage than most of her peers. My Mum keeps asking me too if she’s grown, knowing how big her other granddaughter is. I’ve finally told her not to ask anymore. I know she doesn’t mean it in a bad way, but DD is getting a big enough complex about it as it is, so all talk about her hitting her growth spurt has been banned at this point in time.

Girls. They have it tough. We have it tough. Then she talks to me about perhaps going on a diet. What? No, I don’t think so. Her body is slowly changing as she becomes a woman and that means certain areas are expanding (and no, I dont necessarily mean breasts) and she isn’t comfortable with it yet, but that’s what happens to most girls (and some boys). The only thing I say to my children about dieting is “Every thing in moderation.” You can eat anything you like as long as you eat it in a balanced way, is my point of view. That means limit the stuff you know is bad for you, ensure you get lots of good, hearty fruits and vegetables on a daily basis and don’t keep eating just for the sake of eating (exactly what we did on the cruise and over Christmas which is what started me needing to go on an exercise regimen in the first place). Also make sure you get plenty of exercise on a daily basis. My girls ride their bikes almost daily. They walk to and from the bus stop. They walk our dog. We try to be a fairly active family. I’m not concerned about the exercise part, but my dear daughter does like her junk food and won’t eat any fruit except apples, so she may have to start doing something else on top of our regular stuff. I suggested swimming but she told us that some of the girls who don’t like her are on the swim team. Back to that again.

I think my husband is just now starting to see all of the obstacles facing girls. Other girls are mean to girls, boys are mean to girls. Girls are expected to be both beautiful and smart, yet the minute we make a mistake it’s ‘because we’re a girl’ or because we’re not smart.

It’s time we changed this kind of thinking for once and all. No more putting crap on other girls. It is our duty as mothers (aka females) to ensure our girls are not mean to other girls. It is ok to be competitive, but when you start putting someone else down to lift yourself up, something has gone wrong. We should be greeting each other daily with a pat on the back and a compliment. That’s something else I’ve learnt from my other daughter (from the moment she started talking until this day); give compliments. Try to find something, anything, about someone you are talking to and compliment them on it. “Your hair looks amazing today!” “I like your scarf.” “Those are beautiful (insert anything here, earrings, sandals, etc).” It doesn’t have to be super personal, but it does have to be sincere. This gossiping crap has to stop too.

There’s an old saying we are all familiar with, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.’ It’s true. Just don’t speak. Obviously there’s also some grey here, if something has been done to wrong you, then tell your story, but don’t put that other person down in the telling, otherwise you’re stooping to the same level, meaning you are no better than them. Even when eldest DD talks to me about someone at school, she never puts them down, she will say something very simply like, “…… was really mean to me today. She called me short and said I was a B word.” (She’s not allowed to say it but will let me know if someone has said it to her by stating the term ‘B’ word). Now this was but an example, but I like the fact that in the real life scenarios there isn’t any name calling coming from my own daughter. My girls rarely put other people down. It makes me very proud! I encourage you to ensure your daughters don’t either (and sons for that matter).

We must pick each other up rather than put each other down. We must encourage healthy eating rather than junk (which we are doing, but we still have a long way to go), we must encourage the realistic body not the photoshopped image, (again, we are doing just that) but we must also encourage the realistic body that is doing regular exercise rather than the overweight body that is doing none.

Our daughters need to hear from us every single day just how beautiful they are, just how smart they are. Unfortunately certain web sites, some famous people, authors and journalists and bloggers and whomever else, that talk about the unimportance of beauty have got it wrong. Yes, I said beauty is not unimportant. But before you get on your high horse and start accusing me of being shallow and all sorts of other things, please hear me out:

We are made (human nature) to admire beautiful things (whether that be in nature, or in another human being). There is such a thing as inner beauty, yes, but there is also such a thing as outer beauty and it will always be recognized. Our daughters should be recognizing their own beauty both inside and out. I read an article the other day about how you shouldn’t be encouraging your daughters to care about the way they look and I have to say, I completely disagree. You should take pride in your appearance, you should encourage your children to take pride in their appearance. You should love yourself both inside and out. We all look in the mirror and we all see flaws no one else sees, but we have to be able to see beauty there too. There will always be someone more beautiful, smarter, with a better body. We need to be aware that that will always be the case, but it’s ok, because we are confident in our own selves and our abilities and our beauty, both inner and outer. We know that a smile is truly beautiful (yes, even the smile thought to be a flaw by the owner), we know that happy girls are confident girls and vice versa and confident girls are beautiful girls. Our daughters are always going to see people being recognized for their beauty. It does exist and it is very real and there are truly beautiful people surrounding us. It’s part of life. We need to focus more on the confidence part. We need to focus on all the positive things in our girls. We need to help them to help both themselves and to help others. We need to make sure they are lifting others up.

How do we do this? Well this is where we as women must lift each other up too. I challenge you to give everyone you meet tomorrow a compliment. I challenge you to find things that will inspire your daughters to be the most beautiful people they can be by bringing others up. Lead by example. Don’t gossip, don’t bitch and moan, always talk positively about your friends and their strengths and always remind your daughters to be the best “insert name here” they can be. I also went into my daughter’s room whilst she was at school today and put inspirational quotes, and reassurances everywhere. Including some I thought pertinent to just her at this time. And there are quite a few for when she’s laying in bed looking at her ceiling:

Just in case she needs reminding when no one is about. 😊

Boys will not judge my daughter and place her into a category and girls will not bring her down. She shall know each and every day just how special and amazing she is. And how beautiful she is on the inside and out. She will know how talented she is when it comes to singing and playing her guitar and she shall know that she has very special strengths and is truly gifted when it comes to reading and comprehension. We will be realistic with her when she asks our advice but we will never shame her choices. I challenge you to make sure your daughter knows those same things; as relevant to her and her own strengths. Your sons too.

*Update: 3 years later.

My eldest daughter is now incredibly confident and not invloved in any drama with any girls. She knows her own strengths, she works hard and she is surrounded by a great group of friends. She has started playing lacrosse (absolutely loves it) and is still an avid reader. She has truly come a long way from this moment in time. I hear her talking to her friends sometimes and I never hear her putting anyone else down, which makes me incredibly proud. In fact, knowing all of this has given me the strength to get through it with my now 10 going on 11-year-old daughter who seems to be going through an almost identical situation on a daily basis. A friend of mine asked me for advice the other day because she too is experiencing something similar. I told her to reassure her daughter. Tell her she’s there for her. Listen, but try not to let her see how angry you are at those other kids, that ‘mama bear’ doesn’t necessarily help in these moments. Don’t get involved directly with the drama either, that just prolongs it (trust me, I’ve learned from experience). But most of all, remember the 3 R’s: Reassure, Remind, Renew. Reassure her daily of all her strengths, all that she has both inside and out. Remind her to help others up rather than put them down. Renew her confidence in herself and love, love with all your heart.

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Fibroids

Uterine Fibroids. You’ve heard the term; if you’re American, you’ve probably seen a drug commercial for a medication to take to relieve your symptoms (yes, the USA has these crazy drug commercials pushing out prescription pharmaceuticals with catchy tunes and all).

But what exactly are uterine fibroids and why am I writing this article on them? Basically, I want you to be your own biggest advocate when it comes to your health and these tumors (normally non-cancerous) are extremely common in women of child-bearing age and older and can be a real pain!

According to UCLA OBGYN (http://obgyn.ucla.edu/fibroids) uterine fibroids also known as leiomyomas (pronounced ‘lie-o-my-O-muhs’) or uterine fibromas, are “firm, compact tumors that are made of smooth muscle cells and fibrous connective tissue that develop in the uterus.” They are the most common tumors in the female reproductive system, effecting between 20-50 percent of women of reproductive age. Twenty to fifty percent! That’s huge! The thing is they can range in size from something so small as to be undetectable, to something as large as a grapefruit! They can grow inside or outside of the uterus and they can grow back! The only medical guarantee you’ll get for them not growing back is if you have a hysterectomy! But aren’t so many women too young to have hysterectomies? Obviously it’s not an option if you’re not done with having kids either!

Sometimes I feel like we are living in the dark ages. How can this be the only way to permanently get rid of fibroids? Please don’t despair though, there are other options for treatment, just know though, there is always the possibility they will come back.

First things first, what causes uterine fibroids? Guess what? No one really has a clue! There are some indicators that hormones (estrogen and progesterone) play a role, “Fibroids contain more estrogen and progesterone receptors than normal uterine muscle cells do” and fibroids tend to shrink after menopause. Other than that, it’s a bit of a guessing game!

As far as who’s likely to get them goes, unfortunately African American women seem more prone to uterine fibroids, they are also likely to be affected at a younger age. If there’s a history of them in your family, then that too is an indicator of increased risk. There could also be environmental factors that play a part, but in my opinion, there needs to be a whole lot more research done on these.

What are the signs and/or symptoms of uterine fibroids? Well, a friend of mine who had a very large uterine fibroid started with very heavy periods. These can actually be so heavy in fact, that you end up losing too much blood and in her case, needing to get a red blood cell transfusion for severe iron-deficiency anemia. Now this is extreme yes, but not as extreme as we would like it to be and if you’re anything like me, you don’t necessarily pay attention when your body goes through some minor changes like heavier periods. What other things can you be on the lookout for? Well normally fibroids aren’t painful, but if you’re experiencing any pain or pressure in that region that seems somewhat inexplicable, definitely go and get yourself checked out, you could experience pain in your back or even in your legs (could be symptoms of many other things too, I know!) What else? Periods lasting longer than a week. Peeing lots and feeling like you still need to pee after you’ve peed – that’s a lot of peeing right there! 😆 Not a laughing matter but worth a chuckle. And if that’s not enough then there’s the constipation you could also experience! Yippee! Nothing better than peeing a lot but not being able to go number two! (Definite sarcasm happening here 😉). Of course, there could be other things going on or you could be having no symptoms at all, then your doctor surprises you with the news that you’ve got uterine fibroids after your most recent lady exam! Not fun news for anyone! Basically, it’s time to start thinking about how to get rid of those suckers!

So what to do next? Well after the news has been confirmed through those wonderful pelvic exams or if that doesn’t work out, your doctor may use one of the following methods: ultrasound, or lab tests to rule out other causes of anemia, MRI, or a one of these lesser known tests –

Hysterosonography: Also called saline-infusion sonography, is basically where they inject sterile saline in the uterus cavity and use ultrasound to get a better picture of what’s happening.

For more info, click here

Hysterosalpingography: This is more commonly used if infertility is an issue. It’s where your doctor injects your uterus and Fallopian tubes with a dye then uses X-ray to see what’s happening.

For more info click here

Hysteroscopy: This one’s a little more invasive. Your doctor will insert a small, thin, lighted tube into your vagina and go all the way into your cervix. You will be injected with a liquid or gas to expand the area so your doc can have a good look around. This might be done under a local or even a general anesthetic. Doesn’t sound like much fun at all, but if it has to be done, at least know exactly how it all works and what you might experience afterwards!

For more info, click here

I am by no means a medical expert, so I’m trying to write this article in layman’s/laywoman’s terms so you know what to look for and some basic options. Obviously your doc will share with you some, if not all, the options of treatment and what’s best in your situation, but I’m going to give you a list of treatment options right here and try to break each option down a little for you, so you know what questions to ask if these come up.

Watchful waiting is actually a very common option. You literally do what it sounds like and patiently wait, hoping the fibroids will go away on their own. Every woman is different and every fibroid can be different. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, there are numerous other options:

Firstly, let’s start with medications:

Androgens: Just as it sounds, it’s like a male hormone and can give the side effects that you imagine such as weight gain, unwanted hair growth and a deeper voice, as well as a few others, so make sure you are fully versed in everything you can be about this drug.

Birth control: I’m pretty sure you’re familiar 😊

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) agonists:Basically this puts your body into a menopause-like state for the time that you take them. You can only have it for a matter of months also because it can cause bone loss. The other thing is that the fibroids may grow back the minute you stop Gn-RH.

Progestin-releasing intrauterine device (IUD): This is really used to relieve the heavy bleeding from uterine fibroids, it doesn’t shrink them, obviously it also acts as a birth control, so not an option if you’re hoping to become pregnant.

Tranexamic acid (Lysteda): This is another one taken to ease heavy bleeding. It’s non-hormonal though and only taken on heavy bleeding days.

Other options (There could be more options, especially as modern medicine embarks on new discoveries – hopefully anyway, but these are the most common as of the time of writing):

There are some non-invasive options such as MRI-guided Focused =Ultrasound Surgery. This is performed whilst you’re inside an MRI – your doc gets a precise location of the fibroids, then uses an ultrasound transducer to target sound waves to heat, thereby destroying bits of the fibroids. So far this one has got thre thumbs up as being safe and effective but again, not at stopping the fibroids from growing again.

Then we have the minimally invasive procedures such as Uterine Artery Embolization, where small particles are injected into the arteries supplying the uterus. They cut off the blood flow to the fibroids and basically shrink them, relieveing all other symptoms at the same time. the only problem with this is if your doctor gets it wrong or something happens and the blood supply to the ovaries gets screwed up somehow. This can cause major complications.

Myolysis is a laparoscopic procedure where an electric current (laser) basically destroys the fibroids and shrinks the blood supply that feeds it. Cryomyolysis works the same but freezes it instead.

Laparoscopic or Robotic Myomectomy is when your doctor makes small incisions on the abdomen and uses a camera on the end of one ot the instruments to see and therefore remove the fibroids through these incisions. The Robotic side of it is where there’s a magnified 3-D view that offers more precision and I’m sure a hell of a lot more cost.

Hysteroscopic Myomectomy seems like a rather uncomfortable procedure where the camera and instruments are inserted through the vagina rather than through the abdomen. This procedure is really for fibroids that are inside the uterus (submucosal).

Endometrial ablation is really for any abnormal bleeding rather than anything else, though can be combined with the Hysteroscopic Myomectomy to remove submucosal fibroids.

Then there are the traditional surgical procedures, of which the most well-known is the Hysterectomy, basically the removal of the uterus. This unfortunately is the only proven permanent solution for fibroids and is obviously not an option if you would like to have children. If you also have your ovaries removed at the time of your hysterectomy then the surgery will bring on menopause, and a whole new set of things to consider!

The other surgical option is an Abdominal Myomectomy for when you have very large or very deep fibroids or if you have a number of them. It is true surgery where they open you up through the abdomen and remove the fibroids, but the scarring afterwards can actually affect future fertility though is a better option (IMHO) if you are still wanting to have a baby, than a hysterectomy.

Again, be your own advocate and find out exactly what your doctor is recommending and read, read, read. Make informed decisions about your own body, remember that you have the right to decide what is best for you.

Also, please don’t ignore those warning signs!

The Full Korean Experience – not necessarily the experience I wanted

I have been humming and ha-ing over this week’s blog and whether or not I wanted to share with the world everything that has happened. Backwards and forwards, my thoughts have gone, do I? Don’t I? Should I focus on something else, there’s been a lot you know! But at the end of the day, I think this may just help someone else out there and prevent them from going through the nightmare I went through on Monday.
Where to start? I guess the beginning is a good place. So for those of you who aren’t familiar with my blog, I have been on a fitness/weight loss quest for approximately 80 Days. Last year, I returned from Australia to Colorado and pretty much stopped exercising for a time as I had house renovations to finish, a house to sell (then rent out when we couldn’t sell it in time), furniture to divide as we were moving to South Korea and could only take half our stuff if that, three kids to take care of, a husband who had to go away for a lot of the time, and the regular activities of life. Exercise sat on the back burner. Before long, it was the holiday season and our time to say goodbye. Event after event meant lots of eating and drinking were in the works, it didn’t help that it was winter and one could stay bundled up and cover all those spots that weren’t looking so great. Unfortunately once you hit the big 4 0, things slow down also, so you must stay on top if you wish to stay in shape.
We went on a cruise in early January looking for some sun before we moved, unfortunately, even that was sparse. South Korea was literally my worst winter nightmare when we arrived with the temperature in Seoul sitting at a balmy -28 to -32 Celsius for the 3 days we were there. We literally went outside in layer upon layer but the damp air combined with wind chill left us all miserable. Our poor puppy didn’t get much playtime outside in those 3 days. Again, exercise didn’t really happen. In fact, it didn’t really happen until our furniture arrived in late February when we finally got our treadmill.
On March 7, I decided to write a blog about all of my adventures here in South Korea. I seriously have this sign on my head that says ‘if you are a weirdo, please approach’. There is another one somewhere else that says: ‘If you are looking for the most ridiculous, unimaginable situation to happen, then come stand by me and we can go through it together!’ It’s crazy, but true! My husband is always saying, “You should write a book!” I thought I’d start with a blog. Please feel free to go back and read the journey from the beginning.
Anyway, I started exercising using BeachBody programs and here I am 80 Days later and the results are not yet what I would have expected but I’ve not really dieted or anything either. So, a few weeks ago, my neighbour took me to this dermatologist office where she is getting ‘fat’ shots. I researched what these shots were and they are actually Lypolysis shots. The experts are still undecided on benefit versus risk factor for these shots but they seemed for the most part, fairly good. I met one lady here who has been on them for 18 months and swears by them. She has lost over 60lbs doing nothing but these shots. Given the fact that I wasn’t really seeing any results at that time from working out daily, I thought I’d give them a try and share the story with my readers. What could it hurt? The number of women (both Korean and American) in that clinic, was amazing! Obviously, lots of people are doing this here. Here’s what I didn’t mention in the blog; they also give you a prescription and you pop over to the Korean pharmacist next door and get it filled. I tried to find out what this tablet was in every possible way I could. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out anything. All I knew was that it suppressed your appetite. Well, I was at my wits end by this point and thought, “why am I not losing any weight, perhaps I need something like this to kickstart everything.” So, after asking others about the effects on them, I decided to try it.
Last Monday, I awoke in the morning feeling like rubbish. We have all had this horrible thing from the yellow dust coming in from China. It is literally like a cold, cough, chest thing, with a runny nose that never goes away. Ally, our daughter, is suffering the most, followed by myself. I have even had to use my asthma puffer (I have a very mild form of asthma called exercise induced asthma and haven’t had to use ventolin for a very long time) on a daily basis. The exercising has been tough for me because I just seem to cough throughout it and have limited energy all the time and then end up having to take my inhaler because I can’t breathe. I don’t feel I am getting fitter at all, even though I am following the Insanity program very rigidly.
I got everyone off in the morning except dear son, who had had a high fever since Saturday night. I had 2 coffees in the am and pottered around basically procrastinating because I didn’t feel I had the energy to work out. It was then I thought about the prescription and how everyone had said that it not only suppresses your appetite but it also gives you energy, so I took it. About 20 minutes later, my mouth started getting really dry. Like crazy dry. I drank a liter of water without even realizing I had done so. Then I started feeling energetic. I refilled my water bottle and went to begin Monday’s regimen, which was a fit test followed by the start to Level II of Insanity. Basically a 1.5 hour workout. I stopped and refilled my water bottle numerous times, I also had to stop and use my inhaler twice because I just couldn’t breathe, eventually I finished the workout. I came downstairs and dear son was engrossed in a movie and I started feeling really light headed. I was so sweaty and yucky that I literally thought that before I sit down, I’ll take my workout gear off and just put a loose Tshirt on so I can cool down then go have a shower (this seemingly unimportant tidbit will become relevant in the story later). “Crap, I forgot to eat!” Is what I said to myself. So I went and got Hunter and I some lasagne. On the way back from the kitchen, I almost fell over. I just couldn’t catch my breathe. It was all very, very strange. I could feel my heart pumping like crazy and yet I was dizzy and exhausted and finding it hard to breathe all at the same time. I kept thinking that I just needed to eat something as my body was feeling hypoglycemic after that crazy workout. I forced myself to eat some lasagne then lay back on the couch waiting for the food to hit me. It didn’t get better. I closed my eyes and kept calm, but I just wasn’t feeling good at all. My phone rang right then and I couldn’t even answer it, it was my husband. I sent him a couple of messages back:

I closed my eyes and the phone rang again and even though it was in my hand, my hands didn’t seem to want to work. I saw it was my realtor and I knew she had our upstairs dehumidifier to deliver but I just couldn’t talk or do very much at that point in time. Obviously, she was in the neighbourhood as next thing I know she’s knocking on the door. Hunter went to the window and looked out so she knew I was home, but I just really didn’t want to deal with her at that point in time. Eventually, I crawled to the door, because she kept calling out to me and I let her in. Then she saw me and started panicking. She then started trying to call my husband, yet he had gone into a meeting and not even taken his work phone in with him, his work phone he’s supposed to have on him at all times! Judy started really panicking then and asking who else she could call. My mouth then stopped working and it was getting very difficult to speak at all but I kept calm because Hunter was looking at me the entire time wondering what was going on. I could see my neighbour’s car wasn’t there anymore (the one I went to the dermatologist with) so I told Judy to call another friend as I knew she was home, we were supposed to do something together that afternoon, that was until Hunter got sick. It was all a bit of a calamity from there on. My friend got here and immediately called an ambulance, but they wouldn’t come off post and wanted to transfer her to the Korean ambulance, but she didn’t want that. She later told me she then called her husband who told her to drive me to the clinic here as they had ambulances here waiting and would take me to the Osan ER. Hahaha. Sorry. You’ll understand shortly. I kept trying to tell them that I only had a long Tshirt on, so my girlfriend grabbed me a pair of pants (pajama pants mind you but didn’t think to grab me a bra).
We arrive at the clinic and I vaguely remember us entering through the back door, where the people in there just stood around for a time, not really knowing what to do. My friend told them about the Lipolysis shots but she didn’t know I had taken this medication earlier. They put me on a pulse oximeter (you know that little bandaid type thing that wraps around your finger and measures the amount of oxygen in your blood as well as your heart rate) and I guess my heart was in arrhythmia (which is where your heart beat is abnormal) and in my case, in tachycardia (meaning it was very high, at one point sitting at 150 or something). I sat there in this extremely awkward position because they couldn’t get the bed to lie down, very aware that I wasn’t wearing a bra and mortified that no one would put a sheet or something over me. There was a lot of talking and some of it I heard, some I didn’t. I remember looking up at one point and there was my husband. Obviously, my friend had gotten hold of him somehow. As it turned out, she had called her husband and he had gone to my hubby’s office and literally told them it was an emergency and he had to come immediately as his wife was in hospital. Talk about drama-filled!! Talk about embarrassed! That’s me right now!
Anyway, back to the story, OMG, it’s not even beginning to get interesting just yet! When they said my heart was in tachycardia I spoke up about the prescription from the Korean dermatologist and I tell you what, that Doctor immediately judged me. In his mind, I was the biggest idiot he’d ever met. Had I not been so sick, I would have said something, but to be honest, I didn’t care at the time. He immediately started lecturing about losing so much weight and I tried to tell him that I’d only lost 5 pounds and that was in most part, due to exercise, but my words were a bit slurred and I knew he didn’t really care what I had to say at that point, he was judge and jury and I was guilty of something. Well, it just got worse from there. Hubby had to go and collect the children and they told him I would be transported by ambulance to Dan Kook hospital. We just had to wait for a Korean ambulance. My friend would go with me in the ambulance and he would meet us there. Eventually, three Korean medics came in and stood around talking over me. They were arguing back and forth with the Korean/American nurse about something. Eventually I learned they wanted to take me to Good Morning hospital, but I guess that hospital is now off limits. After what seemed like an eternity to me, they left. I was told later by my girlfriend that there were three ambulances waiting right outside of where we were, yet for some reason they called this Korean ambulance (who then left) and ended up taking me in one of the ambulances that was waiting right outside upon our arrival there. It was the worst trip ever. I am talking the barest of bones ambulance one could ever see. I am not au fait with too many of them but surely they at least have shock absorbers, because this one definitely didn’t! Every hump, pothole, slightest anything, speed bump, you name it, I felt it. I did pass out for a little while and when I came to, I saw it was the American/Korean nurse sitting there beside me in the back of this god awful machine. He kept saying, “Stay with me!” And I kept thinking do I really have to, it was much better when I passed out because I couldn’t feel the pain of this god awful ride! Yes, even in our worst times, there is humour!
After what seemed like a ride to hell (& in fact was) we finally got to this hospital that the American Doctor on base had been pushing. I don’t remember much about arriving there, just a lot of Koreans doing a lot more talking. I do remember my friend trying to say about my heartbeat and them being concerned it was asthma. Then the American/Korean nurse left and we were all alone. This is where it gets kind of gross, so don’t read on if you’re going to be offended by my over sharing, but this part is really for foreigners in South Korea particularly in this region. You do not want to go to this hospital. Ever. Period. Death’s door or not. Never.
They put me in a room and started asking if I was pregnant and wanting me to pee. I kept assuring them I wasn’t. There was no chance, they didn’t believe me. It was ridiculous. Eventually I said that I had to go anyway as they had now pumped a whole heap of fluids into me also, but that I couldn’t get up, so they brought a bed pan in and this female nurse came in and put the bed pan under me and stood there pressing my belly trying to get me to go. To say that I was mortified, couldn’t clearly put across what I was feeling. My bladder obviously retracted into somewhere because there was no way I could go with her doing that. She eventually left when I told her no, never to be seen again. I eventually went and no one came along to take the bed pan. Can you believe it? Disgusting. I started coming to my senses then and looked around at the nightmare surrounding me. There was dried blood all over the curtain. Everything was dirty. My husband eventually moved the bed pan to the floor and put it just outside of our curtain but no one came and took it during the entire time we were there. The floor was filthy. I moved so my kids could sit on the bed as I didn’t want them touching anything anywhere. This man came in to take my blood (no one was in the room with me mind you at that point) and grabbed my wrist whilst I wasn’t looking and started to jab a needle in it (on the inside of it). He missed and the excruciating pain shot through me like a cannonball. I have been jabbed many times but none of them quite so painful as that! I literally screamed. He stopped.

Hubby came back and I was in the middle of telling him about it when this same guy came back to do the other side. “No way!” He said he had to. I didn’t realize he had actually missed on my right side until he had done the left side and there was very little pain. Then I looked at him and saw he wasn’t wearing any gloves! Seriously. In the mean time, the husband looked at the pulse oximeter to see what was going on and why it sounded weird and realized it had never even been plugged in. Here we were at this hospital because my heart had gone into tachycardia yet no one was even monitoring my heart. Then someone came in and handed me a mask and told me to put it on. I did. But I said to hubby it was weird as it was making me feel sick yet I couldn’t feel anything coming out of it. He pulled the cord and low and behold it wasn’t plugged in to anything either. I kid you not. He called for a nurse and one came in and told him, “No, she has CO2. She needs CO2. For the hyperventilation.”
“What are you talking about?” Was my reply. But she left. No answers, no anything. I thought ok, maybe they know something I don’t, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, so I put that mask on hoping it would alleviate my hand spasms and tingling. Honestly, after about 15 minutes, the tingling was still there yet I now was feeling extremely nauseous. These people are definitely incompetent was the conclusion both hubby and I came to. In the mean time, my friend’s husband came and picked her up and I owe them both a debt of gratitude. I finally looked at my husband and said, “I just want to go home.” I started crying and was just done with this nightmare. Finally someone else came in and said “ok, I just want you to sleep for a while so we can monitor you, then maybe you can go home.” Monitor me with what? Was my first thought. Different so called medical personnel have come in here 4 times and accomplished nothing each and every time. You don’t even know that thing on my finger is not plugged into the oximeter machine! Rather than blurt all this out, I told her I was feeling much better and I wanted to go home. She said, “Oh, ok, if you’re ok, then you can go.” So we did. I leant on Ally to get to the car. I was feeling like death warmed up but there was no way in hell I was going back into that place, ever.
We drove home and all I wanted to do was get clean but I just didn’t have the energy. I literally lay in bed until the next morning. Hubby had a thing to go to four hours away but wasn’t sure he should go, I told him I was fine and that all would be ok. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon how one looks at it, both Hunter and Maddy were sick on the Tuesday, so we all stayed home and literally didn’t move. They sat on the couch sleeping and intermittently watching Netflix. I laid in bed sleeping and intermittently watching Netflix. I made sure everyone had lots of water and Gatorade and crackers and light snacks except me as the husband kept telling me to eat. I ate lasagne.
As I write this, it is Thursday. I am taking it easy for now. Working out now takes about 10 minutes longer as I stop often to ensure my heartbeat doesn’t get too high, but I have a follow up appointment next week so here’s hoping we can get to the bottom of this. And no, I’m not going to stop working out. I’ve come too far. But I will be responsible about it.
I just know my Mum is going to freak out when she reads this, but I couldn’t tell her about it when we spoke yesterday. It had to be emotionless. Funny how Mum’s always worry, no matter how old we get.
Hopefully we can all take away something positive from this. For me, I’ll not be taking prescription anything when I don’t know what it is. I think the Lypolysis shots themselves were ok, though, who knows, but I think a combination of things transpired last Monday resulting in one of my worst nightmares. We as women set such high expectations on ourselves. I know that I’m still going to want to exercise and try to get my body into the shape it should be, but I also know that not all shortcuts are worthwhile.

May the fourteenth be with you! Ok, we’ll take the force!

It’s been a few days now since I last wrote a blog and things have been a little all over the place. The local police called me to ensure there were no injuries in my car as this guy is obviously still insisting that he is injured, even though it was such a minor accident for his truck anyway, having no damage whatsoever, not so minor for my car that hit the corner of his truck bed, that was literally made of steel, yet we have no injuries and he is saying he was injured. I don’t think so! I am just hoping he was caught on camera unloading somewhat heavy items from the back of his truck after the accident. If there is one thing I don’t like it is people who try to to take advantage of the system and of situations. I had three children all under the age of 5 in my car, all in the back where the impact was, and they are all just fine. Seriously, just fine and this dude wants to try to sue me? Again, I don’t think so.
Ok, let’s not focus on the negative, there were some positives from this week, the dentist was amazing and has said that he will continue with Ally’s treatment free of charge! Yes, free! Would any dentist in Australia or USA do that? No is the definitive answer. Very happy with that. Also, I finished the first 4 weeks of Insanity. Here are my photos so far (now the first one in the blue actually goes back to the beginning of the whole thing when I started T25, the second one is from 4 weeks ago when I began Insanity and the third is from tonight):

I can see some results. Not as many as I would have liked given how hard and how long I’ve been working out but also given that I haven’t been on a diet as such, I think it definitely shows that working out is helping me get toned. Oh and I’ve lost somewhere between 6-7.5lbs depending upon the time of day I weigh myself and the day of the week of course 😜 (who knew scales could be so bloody temperamental??).
It has been a somewhat subdued week, I guess. Hunter went back to school on Thursday and Friday, but Thursday I ran around and did errands, we did get a new (old) car finally. It’s something from 2002. It was cheap. It runs well & has AC and heated seats and a heater of course. All the basics and it means some independence for me, although given how shitty last Monday went, I’m not too keen on driving just yet. It’s weird, I have always been a reasonably confident driver yet this accident has thrown me for a six.
Friday was spent doing odds and ends at home, Maddy had a half day for some reason, so I couldn’t go get the Lipolysis shots either as I didn’t want to traumatize her, but she helped me so much around the house and got to play and hang out with her friends so it was a really nice day for the most part. We did happen to go to the grocery store and witness a man collapse and gash his head quite severely on his way down. The whole thing was all a little overwhelming with the ambulance getting called and this man literally out cold. It was obviously quite traumatic for her as she didn’t want to go back to the commissary on Saturday (I forgot to get milk) until I reassured her he was ok and that it wasn’t going to happen again whilst we were there. How do I know he’s ok? Well, we had some friends come over for dinner and drinks on Friday night and one of them happened to work with this guy, so when I started telling the story, she chimed in with how she had been the first person they called from the hospital because she was the last to speak with him on his phone. It really is a small community over here and I’m finding this out more and more on a daily basis.
Saturday morning, we decided to purchase the entire collection of Star Wars movies with copious amounts of junk food (ok, maybe not copious but certainly more than we would normally ever consume in a week, let alone a weekend) and stay in for the weekend and have a Star Wars marathon. I had already worked out Saturday morning so I wasn’t feeling guilty about not doing too much for the rest of the day and the kids seemed to be onboard (until their friends came door knocking wanting to play with them outside). It ended up being hubby and I who really watched the movies with children grazing on junk food and watching bits and pieces then wanting all the blanks filled in because they were somewhat lost. We did make the ‘best parents ever’ stigma for a short time, given there were no set meals over the weekend and food consisted of very few ‘healthy’ things! Honestly, you may think I’m the worst, but every now and again one just has to go with the flow and let your kids just eat crap. They stayed up late interspersing their time throughout Saturday and Sunday with playing outside on their bikes and watching the movies with us. On Sunday afternoon we all went for another family bike ride and it was so enjoyable. This time Hunter didn’t complain at all and his little legs kept pedaling the entire time. It was truly fun, even when it started to rain, there was no complaining from anyone. The rain gave us a good excuse to watch one more Star Wars movie (yes, we made it through the first 5 in order, throughout the weekend). It was just a nice, low-key weekend, with no need to be anywhere at a particular time and no one demanding our attention outside of our family.

Monday (today) has already been successful. I am now on the recovery week of Insanity, which means doing Core Cardio and Balance every day, starting today. And it felt good. I am still trying to kick this nasal, sinus, chest thingy I’ve got going on but I’m now guessing it’s from the yellow dust coming in from China. From what everyone has told me, it sticks with you for a while until you get used to it. Shit! If I wanted to deal with crap coming into my lungs killing me, I would have kept smoking. This is ridiculous. And poor Ally just cannot get rid of her cough! I’m thinking I will definitely have to take her to make sure she is not asthmatic or suffering from bronchitis or who knows what! This place is not agreeing with her lungs either. She is the worst of us all. One of her teachers actually made me so angry last week. Ally is always coughing, always blowing her nose, it is literally like she is allergic to this place, she gets into coughing fits and almost throws up at times. I have her doing a nasal rinse daily and we make sure she spits out all of the yucky stuff when she’s home, but the poor kid just doesn’t seem to be getting better. Back to this teacher. Ally came into her class and started coughing, the teacher stopped talking until Ally was done (as she apparently does when anyone makes any noise in her classroom that she hasn’t approved of). Then Ally’s nose started running and she had to use the roll of toilet paper this teacher had in her classroom for just such occasions. I can’t remember exactly what she said but she basically singled Ally out and ridiculed her then got mad at her for using too much of this roll of toilet paper. On top of that, Ally’s voice was a tad croaky last week because she has had this thing going on for so long, this teacher then made fun of her because she couldn’t reach the notes she had to reach in the class (it was choir class). Ally came home devastated. I was furious! I thought and thought about the best way to react to this. Ally didn’t want me to make a big scene and she didn’t want this teacher to pick on her further, and I completely understood where she was coming from. I know sometimes teachers will take it out further on the children if the parent intervenes, especially those teachers who don’t offer a nurturing environment to their pupils. That was the last thing our daughter needed in her life right now. So, I didn’t do anything until after I had calmed down immensely. When hubby got home, I asked Ally to tell him about it so I could gauge his reaction to the whole thing and was surprised at how angry it made him too. I told him my idea and as always he suggested I wait until I was calm to do it. Now a part of me would have liked to storm in there and grab this woman and shake her a bit until she came to her senses and stopped being such a bitch, but the more practical, sensible side of me knew that wasn’t anyway to show my child how to resolve conflict, instead I wrote her a letter and gave her a new roll of toilet paper. And yes, the toilet paper was my cheap shot, but at least this way, Ally can use it as much as she likes and this woman can never make her feel bad about it.

She never gave Ally a reaction, but she hasn’t picked on her again, so I’ll take it as a win for my little (big) girl who needs all the wins she can get right now given her health and her friendship situation. More on that another day.
Back to today, I went with my friend Rebecca back to see our favourite dermatologist spouse (again, hoping she’s actually a nurse) and to get our Lipolysis shots. This time, I actually took a photo of her sticking a shot into my belly. So weird. She and her husband only realized today that I’m actually Australian, even though I told them the first time I met them. Anyway, they were both excited today because their sons (yes, there are 2 of them) both live and study in Adelaide, Australia, and they have both been there. This was followed with, “it’s pretty, but it’s too hot and too dry.” I felt like saying in return that I could completely understand their distaste as this place is too cold and too wet, as well as too hot and too humid, (and yes, I do mean wet & humid independently of each other) for my liking. On top of that there’s the yellow dust and the monsoon season. Um, hello! Give me Australia’s weather any day!

Right, I think I’ve caught you up on all our exciting happenings. The days are definitely getting warmer here in South Korea, we are supposed to hit 33C on Saturday, That’s about my perfect temperature right there, although I think that’s hotter than it ever got whilst we were in Colorado Springs! A sprinkler may be in order though, just in case.
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I hope you have a wonderful day or night, wherever you are in the world. This Aussie Mum plans on doing so! 😊

Final daily blog – but it’s not over….

So I think today’s the day to end my daily blogs. It has been a very quiet day. My emotions are running a little askew given this crazy week. My faith in the system is faltering as is my faith in people (just a little). It also has given me food for thought as far as this blog goes and the direction I want it to take. I know I have the Insanity Challenge to finish, and don’t worry, I will. On top of that, I’ll keep you informed of my progress, just not on a daily basis.
I want to be a professional writer. This blog is my start to doing that. I am still trying to find my way as far as the subjects of my writing. I love being able to give you my personal opinion and my take on everything, but I also love writing about the crazy stuff that happens, therefore, on what could be termed a ‘boring’ day, I believe it necessary to give the daily blog a miss.
Please let me know your thoughts. This is important to me & I truly value any feedback you can give me. Have you enjoyed the blog thus far? I thoroughly enjoy sharing parenting moments, military spouse experiences, South Korea craziness, exercise hurdles (pardon the pun) and general everyday stuff, but only when it’s exciting, not when I’m forced to on a day-to-day basis and not when I’m trying to ‘dress-up’ daily activities in order to keep you entertained.
I will tell you I did Plyometric Cardio Circuit this morning and it still about killed me! Waiting for the day it doesn’t! My Neighbour and I also headed over to get our Lipolysis shots, unfortunately it also meant we passed the location of all my misery for this week (aka the accident scene) and my friend and her daughter almost got hit by a motorcyclist on the same bloody road!
Thank you for reading my blogs and staying supportive of me. Please continue to share my more exciting posts. This professional writing business doesn’t happen unless people are aware of you 😊 and please give me your opinions about anything and everything I write.
I hope your day is amazing!

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May 9 – Car accident

Day 21 of the Insanity Challenge

Always an adventure, right? Certainly was today and not a good one! I got into a car accident. I had three young children in my car! It was awful. No one was injured thank god but it was scary and awful and totally my fault. We had to stand there for over two hours whilst they found footage to show that it was my fault. No one spoke English. It was just awful. I didn’t think it was my fault to begin with and I’m still not 100% convinced. But, oh well, so be it. Of course the truck I hit is made of steel so does some pretty major damage to my car. Again, so thankful none of the kids were hurt.
I am now curling up in bed feeling sorry for myself. I don’t want to play anymore. Pity party for one basically. I’m a little bit over South Korea with its tight streets and people who park anywhere and pedestrians who just walk in the middle of the street. My car is too big here.
My activities for the day came to a complete halt. My pity party consumed me. Hubby called because he knew I was feeling angry and sorry at/for myself. It’s only a car. I should be just grateful that we are all ok & that I didn’t get cited. I did get breathalyzed however, and that was weird too. The breathalyzer was weird. It sort of looked like a square metal speaker with a hole in the middle of it. He told me to blow. I couldn’t figure out where I was supposed to blow as in Australia you have a straw type thing that you blow in, right? I haven’t been breathalyzed for years. Anyway, he didn’t get the Korean to do it, just me. Then he looked down at it and quickly put it in his pocket, “OK.” I’m assuming the OK meant all was good as I hadn’t had anything to drink (at 10:30am) nor had I any cough medicine (which I actually thought about having just before I left the house at 10am).
Here’s what else I thought about, I think everything happens for a reason, I have to assume there was a reason. Perhaps had we gone in Rebecca’s car, we would have been killed or maimed? Perhaps something else horrible awaited us and this was the best case scenario? I don’t know, it’s only a car. I used to have a perfect driving record, I guess that’s why I’m so pissed off too. I made a couple of mistakes as a teenager but from then on I have been a great driver. I can’t say that anymore. It was my fault. It’s a tough pill to swallow. And there were so many people who flocked around. I was the morning entertainment for all the local Koreans on that street!
I did over half of my Pure Cardio workout & was planning on doing the rest when I got home (I didn’t). I think tomorrow is going to be my better day. I’m not intending on driving anywhere, so that’s the first plus and secondly, I’m going to perhaps garden a little, maybe paint with my son, I shall do some interval exercises if it works out and I’m not wheezing away (as I was this morning when I had to stop and take a break). As the famous line from ‘Gone With the Wind’ goes, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”
So, for now I’m going to get lost in some tv drama and forget about my crappy day.
I hope yours has been so much better!
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Birthday/Mother’s Day Weekend – May 7&8

Day 19

The drive to our gala ball was long and filled with traffic delays. Some people who came from the Area 1 region were stuck in traffic for over 8 hours so I can’t really complain about our three hour drive! It just felt like forever. When you’re stuck in traffic, it was always does.
We arrived and raced into the bathrooms to change because last year anyone who was late was apparently locked out until the official ceremony portion was finished, luckily for us, so many must have been delayed that they pushed back the formal portion for a bit and all was good. I have to say that I looked very nice. Yes, I just said that. But here’s the catch, firstly, I bought some blue contact lenses for about $10 here. I wanted light blue but couldn’t find any so a darker blue they were. Well yesterday morning I decided to put them on. It had always been the plan since I had decided on my blue dress, to wear the contacts. I bought a beautiful blue eyeliner as well. I had put them in before going to have my hair done, but hubby and I had crossed paths very quickly in the am whilst I raced out to get to my appointment thinking we were in a hurry. I got home from the hairdresser and as he was looking at my hair, my darling husband exclaimed, in a not so promising tone, “Oh, what happened?” I looked at him and he at me and his look was one of almost horror! I laughed because I knew what he was now referring to, the damn things were uncomfortable, so I was very aware of them at all times. “I don’t like them at all! In fact, they make you look soulless!” Wow! Ok, didn’t see that coming, but it was too late, my mind had been decided. I was wearing the dark blue contacts. I ended up having time to put my makeup on before we headed off for the mammoth journey and off we went. So firstly let me explain that these contacts are different to ones I had bought years ago, they didn’t quite cover my entire eye, so my eyes went from dark blue to green to black pupils. They also impeded my vision somewhat, making everything have a greyish hue. It wasn’t like I was blind, but reading anything small was even more difficult. And they were a bit uncomfortable. So we get into the social area and hubby knows a few people and is talking away to them and here’s the other thing going back to yes, I looked nice, but…. I am that girl, the one who looks like she’s all held together and I speak very properly, but I am an absolute spastic! I know it. My husband knows and still loves me for it. So he is introducing my to one of his colleagues (who happens to be a lawyer and he holds out his hand to shake mine and I go to shake his and my greyish hue isn’t helping matters, nor is the tiny part of my hem that seems to have come undone a tad, and as I step forward I miscalculate where the hem is and trip on it and my glass of wine is literally mid transition from right to left hand so I can shake his hand with my right and somehow I save my glass but a large quantity of wine jumps out, not getting anyone else mind you, just me, but lands all over this hand that is reaching for his. It was comical and I just saw that look on hubby’s face, the one that says, “I know you’re a spastic and I love you for it, but sometimes, I really wonder.” There was no hand shake. 😜 thank god, the east of the night was uneventful as far as calamitous events go. The great thing was that my friend Michelle that I met on our crazy journey here to South Korea, was actually there at the ball. It was so good to see her. On top of that, there were many people we knew from Hawaii and Colorado. The Army is a small place. I met some really good people. It was a bit of a strange ball, we were greeted by a man on stilts as we descended on the escalator, but it was nice nonetheless. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear a lot of the speeches because of the echo in the back corner, but it was entertaining. I just wish we hadn’t had to drive so far to get there and back. I also wish we had known about the childcare option. Oh well, next time.

Saturday May 7 was a beautiful day in South Korea, a nice day to celebrate being 21 (x2) and definitely time for us to get out of the house. We decided to head out for lunch and I was in the mood for Mexican. So off we headed. We found what looked to be ok Mexican restaurant up on the second floor in the main Vill outside of Osan. The service was a bit shoddy but the food was actually really good and they did a frozen kiwi margarita, that was great. We even got the kiddos one virgin mango margarita to share and she put it evenly in three plastic margarita type glasses for them too. The first thing I ordered unfortunately was not to my liking at all, I guess South Korean mole and I don’t see eye to eye, though I’m sure I’ve had it (true Mexican style) a few times before and liked it, but this particular mole enchiladas was awful! My darling husband went and talked to them and got them to switch it over to the burrito that he was having that looked and tasted absolutely amazing! Thank you husband! That was the best move you, and I, could have made today.

Then it was time to go to the movies. Captain America, Civil War! Epic. Now, I didn’t like the whole civil war part of it, but the movie, the action, the everything, was awesome! What is really interesting about seeing a movie at an overseas military base (& we had completely forgotten because it had been years) is that the national anthem is played and everyone must stand. This would have been fine if that’s the way it had gone yesterday, instead, they started playing the Korean national anthem with no introduction whatsoever. I hear this music come on as I am beginning to write my blog on my phone and look up and it is some Koreans scaling a very picturesque mountainside (an advertisement for Korea, is what I thought) I go back to writing until my daughter says, “Mum, stand up!” I stand up before I even know what I’m doing and look around and everyone is standing. It’s the Korean National Anthem, followed but the US national anthem. Please, a little more introduction wouldn’t go astray, we haven’t all been here for a long time, we also aren’t all familiar with the protocol, it might be nice for our new spouses (and not-so-new spouses) and new soldiers for that matter, to at least know what’s going on, especially if you never go to the movies.
The movie is over, it has been long, but fantastic. We are all getting up to walk out of the movie theater when I look down at my seat as something feels odd and low and behold, there is chewing gum everywhere! Someone has thought that putting chewing gum all over a movie theater seat is a really good idea, and I am the victim to it. Thanks! Like I’m not uncoordinated enough as it is. And, I’m wearing my new gladiator high heels as well, with a really cute, short dress. Yes, you are a winner! You got me! Gum all over the back of my dress, right on my bottom. Thank you! From the bottom of my heart, thank you, you super immature idiot! You put a big dampener on my birthday! Oh and I still haven’t gotten it off my dress, plus the fact that you germ infested that gum! Eeew! Disgusting in so many ways!

Hubby and Maddy went in and got a birthday cake from Baskin Robbins after the movie as I didn’t want to go anywhere given the gum situation. We then headed home and spent a very quiet evening playing family games, and just enjoying each other’s company. I was very spoilt with a beautiful gift of a Colombian emerald necklace. My wonderful husband had bought it when we went on our cruise back in the beginning of January! I had tried this necklace on at least five times and it was magnificent but I had also said no. We couldn’t afford it. It was a great deal, but it was something frivolous that I didn’t need. My husband had snuck back there on our last day and had bought that necklace and had made secret payments (I pay all the bills from our main account). He is such an incredible trickster and awesome present buyer! He was sure I knew, but I had no iota! None whatsoever. I’m sure I’ve said before what a crappy present buyer I am, and how amazing he is, this once again proves it!
Today is Mother’s Day in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Belgium and the United States. We were able to sleep in a little bit, but duty called eventually. I had some beautiful cards from the entire family, but yesterday’s present was an all inclusive one, just as it should have been. Hubby was going to make breakfast but soon realized that given last week’s crazy schedule, we had very few groceries. Breakfast soon came off the table. The kids ate whatever we could muster and hubby and I drank some good coffee. Neither of us were feeling so great, this bloody horrible thing ripping through our bodies, is leaving us drained and full of yuckiness! The coughing is getting old. Today was probably the worst it has been for me so far, but then again, I’ve been taking mucinex (an old prescription from Colorado that is for this exact type situation and wasn’t out of date) but hubby can’t take anything prescription based unless it was currently prescribed to him. So he’s had to suffer without. He didn’t really want to go anywhere but was willing to if I wanted to. I knew we needed to get some supplies in order to function tomorrow, so it was off to the bigger commissary we went. I told them all they could choose a restaurant for lunch given our limited food, and of course, they all chose Chilis. Thank god it was amazing today! The woman who served us was truly incredible. Our food was as good as it gets at that Chilis, no complaints though. We then went to the Commissary and grocery shopped. All very exciting I know. From there we came home, unpacked, called my mother to wish her a happy Mother’s Day (I had called her numerous times already but this time she actually picked up) and popped over to our friends’ house with a bottle of Champers to celebrate both my birthday and his birthday. We had a lovely time with them, but alas, it was a school night and we had to call it early. We got home, tried to finish our family card game after putting little man to bed, when I realized my emerald bracelet was no longer on my wrist! Let me give you some background on this bracelet; The husband had bought this for me last year when I came back from Australia to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. He had to go away and wanted it to be something special. He had found this bracelet at an estate sale at a well-renowned jewelry shop. He had gotten it for a bargain (an expensive bargain but it was incredible) but we had had it appraised for a whole lot more. My Christmas present was a beautiful emerald ring he had made to match the bracelet. This pendant (my birthday present yesterday) had matched both. Now my beautiful bracelet was gone and we hadn’t even had it insured. I’m not sure why, I think we were waiting for the paintings or to figure out the whole mess with the paintings not being here and the fact that we had to insure our stuff back in the US even though we are here and we just have had so much other shit to deal with, we hadn’t gotten around to it. This was literally a one of a kind bracelet. I was heartbroken. Let me go back one further. When we lived in San Antonio, our house had been robbed, these bastards had literally waited until the husband and I took my Mum and Dad to the airport, then went in and robbed us of all they could. They went through every draw, every cupboard, every everything they could in our bedroom. They did however, leave our baby’s (Ally’s) room alone, but they stole everything else of value that we had. My husband and I had saved up all we could, he had gotten out of he Navy and had joined the Army. We had just bought our first house, literally using our savings to pay for 1/3 of it because no one would give us a loan unless we could. We had lived in the Middle East and hubby had my sister get this beautiful emerald pendant handmade (in Saudi Arabia) for me for my birthday/our wedding. It too, was one of a kind. The bastards stole that. I just happened to be wearing the matching earrings, so they never got those. They got our Video camera with all of Ally’s 1st year of footage on it. They took everything we had worked for. It was a complete violation of us and made me very bitter towards San Antonio, for no other reason than I needed to blame something and I didn’t have a person/s. To come home and find your door kicked in and your baby’s entire first year of memories gone because some bastard thought it was worthwhile taking the video camera and you hadn’t even given it any thought to transfer those videos because you had it in a safe place and the ‘tape’ still had 20 hours of footage to go on it! Gone! Forever! Our baby girl’s first adventures in Italy that we filmed will never be found and we can never show her because some arsehole broke into our home and stole them from us, not only did they do that, but they took every piece of jewelry both my husband and I had ever saved up for! Long story short, I am bitter and the minute something goes missing, I completely freak out. That’s what happened tonight. I freaked out. I literally lost it. I was out with my torch (flashlight) and my neighbour, Geoff happened to be out there and asked if I had lost something and I couldn’t even talk, I just mumbled, “emerald bracelet! I’ve lost my emerald bracelet.” He asked if he could help me look and I couldn’t even answer. I just kept saying I don’t know, I don’t know.
I called my friends and had them searching on the rooftop, I searched up and down the road, the girls and hubby were pulling everything apart searching inside. Nothing. I couldn’t even feel anything. All I could think was not again, what did I do to deserve this? Every part of you that has done the most minute thing wrong starts to wonder exactly what it was that you did to cause this. I know it’s only a material possession and as I said to my girls later on; “I got this upset over something materialistic, but something precious to me because Daddy bought it and it was very special, imagine that at the end of the day, that means nothing and you guys are everything, imagine just how devastated I would be if something happened to you when a bracelet means this much, but means nothing! They both seemed to understand and nodded and promised they would always be careful. They promised they would always let me know where they were, they promised they wouldn’t do anything stupid. I used the bracelet analogy to even mention that I didn’t actually ‘lose’ the bracelet, it fell off, so sometimes we don’t even mean to do anything but it happens, and told them they just always need to make good decisions. Very deep, I know, it was all I could do to keep my shit together after freaking out over my bracelet then realizing the only thing that is truly important is my family.
The bracelet was found! Thank god! Hubby found it in my handbag. Either on our way to our friends’ house or on our way back, it fell into my handbag. I wasn’t being punished, just tested. I didn’t pass well, but afterwards I was able to draw on it to send a point home to my girls to let them know how much they mean to me. Happy Mother’s Day. The only thing that matters is your people. That’s it. We get involved with the material things and they are lovely things but the people are the most important. My people, your people, our people.
Well, that’s all for me, today, I look forward to your feed back and as always:
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!

Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures

Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

Challenge Accepted Day 60 – End of Rodan + Fields Redefine Challenge

Yay, we’ve hit the 60 day mark and here are my results! What do you think. For me personally, I think my before photo was too flattering! It doesn’t show all the lines in my forehead that were definitely there, it also doesn’t show just how much less the vertical line has gotten. But oh well. Let me know your opinion please.

This is going to be short and sweet, I did my Insanity workout, then ran around like a mad hatter trying to get everything ready for tonight, then went and had my hair done and now we are about to head off on a three hour drive to get to the ball, where we shall have to change into our dress clothes and go from there.
The salon had the craziest car park I’ve yet to see in Korea! I was lucky to at least find a spot though I did have to climb in and out of the sliding door at the back!

Well, that’s all for me, today, I look forward to your feed back and as always:
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!
Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures
Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested in Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know at the above mentioned email and we’ll get you sorted out with the right regimen for you.

Challenge Accepted Day 59/Day 17

Wow! Only one more day until my Rodan + Fields 60 day Redefine challenge is over! How has it been 60 days already? I have a really busy day tomorrow, but I shall definitely find the time to post those ‘after’ photos before I put any make up on. I also have to find the time to work out super early, because tomorrow is already looking like it’s going to be a shambles! With the Korean holiday, Hunter will be home all day and Maddy doesn’t have a piano lesson! Thank goodness we have met good people here who have offered to help out until our babysitter can get here. Craziness!

And today, well today has been all about the deep cleaning for me. The yellow dust has come in and even though I awoke feeling worse than yesterday, I just didn’t want to put anyone in the family in more jeopardy by not getting rid of all the dust in the house. Both air purifiers are on their max setting now and my house is, for just a short time, dust free. The bathrooms are clean, the washing is done, the floors are vacuumed and mopped and I am exhausted.

I even made my own version of bulgogi for dinner. I had the meat marinating from this morning in a concoction of Asian pear, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice wine, and a couple of other things and I thought it was wonderful, so did Ally, unfortunately no one else in the family appreciated it. Yes the baby corn doesn’t go in traditional bulgogi, nor do the ramen noodles, but we I am all about compromise if the children will eat it and baby corn and noodles are some of their favourites! I even threw in cashews just for a little something extra and it was lovely. I’ve got my lunch tomorrow sorted out.

I had to take Ally to her music lesson today as the bus wasn’t running but it was fun. Whilst waiting, Maddy was able to practice on one of the many pianos and her teacher (there were no classes today but her teacher was still there for some reason) even let her play on the grand piano! She thought it was wonderful. And I am amazed at how far she has come in two short weeks. She seems to be beginning to read music and has a natural talent when it comes to actually playing. Her teacher just kept praising her today saying how amazing she was. Then Ally was in there having her guitar lesson and her teacher was also impressed. I guess they have my Dad’s musical ability.

We picked up hubby, tried to find a phone deal that would work with Ally (a phone seems somewhat necessary here as the kids are off doing their independent things) yet were shocked at how there is no basic option. Everything has to be fancy. Our daughter doesn’t need an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy. She has a tablet and is very lucky to have that, there’s no need for anything else fancy, she just needs to be able to make and receive calls and text messages. Anyway, I haven’t had time to investigate it further, but there has to be a solution. We have an old iPhone 4 just sitting there but are not sure it is unlocked nor if the SIM cards here fit in it. Getting a working phone is just a lot of hassle and it shouldn’t be.
Otherwise, I had cardio recovery this morning with the Insanity workout. That stretching is a killer! OMG! Those squats and lunges where the searing pain starts to blur your vision and its either stand up or fall arse over and never recover! I wanted to fall arse over, in fact, my body begged me to, but my mind didn’t want to play, so I stood up, relaxed for a few seconds and went back into it. Not fun!
I’m am about to shower and do my second last Redefine regimen for this 60 day challenge. There is still a bit of all the products left over so I will use it in conjunction with the Reverse regimen until the products run out then continue just doing the Reverse Challenge for 60 days! I’m excited though. Just hoping this throat thing clears up for tomorrow night! Now hubby and the son seem to have it also. I can imagine us at the ball, that’s when my nose will decide to start running and my eyes will start watering and I’ll be coughing like someone with the Black Plague and my dress and hair will look wonderful but my makeup will have run because bodily fluids have enticed it to be anywhere but on my face! Hey, there’s a raccoon in a ball gown! Oh dear. This could literally be the worst night ever! Let’s keep the fingers crossed and hope that all my vitamin C and honey lemon tea, have worked their magic on me. Oh and hubby too. He’s the driver and there will be two of us in the car that have birthdays the next day! He’s already asked me to calm it down a notch on the way home. 😜
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!
Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures
Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested in Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know at the above mentioned email and we’ll get you sorted out with the right regimen for you.

Challenge Accepted Day 58/ Day 16

Well, where do I start today? What a day it has been! Nothing at all like I was expecting when I awoke this morning! Better, so much better! So once again, sleep eluded me for a couple of hours this morning. Hubby had put the phone ‘off the hook’, so to speak, but the battery had obviously died during the night, so it then came out of the base of the silly thing! I really could have hurt the person on the other end of that line at 0320! I guess it’s a good thing they weren’t nearby. To make matters worse I got cranky at the hubby thinking he hadn’t taken it off the hook and as the saying goes, misery loves company, and I wanted some at that time this morning. He wasn’t playing! 😜

I got the kiddos ready for school and knew hubby needed to be at work earlier than usual so thought I would save my workout for after I had dropped he and Hunter off. Hunter had a big sports day at school and my neighbours were going to volunteer to help out at it, so had asked them to take some photos (he’s only three after all, how big could it be?) I had my first spouse’s luncheon plans. I had been invited once before and couldn’t get there because I didn’t have childcare but this time, my boy was in school so it would all work out perfectly. Then we had Ally’s honour roll ceremony/presentation afterwards. It was going to be an exciting day. My throat hurt and I could feel the gunk accumulating in it, but nothing major, so it was big girl panties time. A couple of Tylenol (Panadol) and I was good to go. I also drank so much water yesterday and today and had the little Korean vitamin C drinks, drank orange juice, took vitamin C, had my lemon and honey tea last night and this morning, so think I’ve battled it with all I’ve got!
Off to school we go, “No, No. Hunter and Mummy stay.” Were the words I heard as I was kissing him goodbye. “What?”

“Yes, Hunter and Mummy stay til one o’clock.”

“Hunter can’t stay by himself?”

“No, Hunter needs Mummy to race.”

Oh crap, I thought. What am I going to do. My neighbour’s husband said he would look after him if I really needed to go, but how could I? This is my little boy. This was obviously a big deal at this school. I said I had to go home and get running shoes and a couple of other things and I would be back. I called the lady who had invited me to attend the luncheon and told her what had happened and she was very understanding. Then it was a race to get home and get some stuff together then get back to try and find a park at the school. As it turned out, I got the absolute prime parking, rock star parking even, , and everything else just fell into place.
It started out with a variety of Psy songs (the Korean singer best known for Gangnam Style) on these ginormous speaker, literally rocking the place to the ground! Had I not known better, I would have thought we were in a nightclub, we were literally yelling at some points to communicate! Then I realized there was actually a professional DJ! Whoa! Things quieted down when all the children went out onto the parade ground and stood listening to speeches. It was at this point in time a lady introduced herself to me as Hei-El’s Mum, Eun Mee. What a godsend she was! She spoke perfect English and was full of knowledge about everything we (my neighbours and I) wanted to know. I feel like I was supposed to stay at school not only to hang out with my son, but to meet her and understand Korean culture far more. It was such a wonderful experience today, made better by her explaining everything. Finally, I understood what was going on.

The Republic of Korea (the official name of South Korea also known as ROK) pledge of allegiance to the flag was the first thing to happen and like Americans, the South Koreans put their hand to their hearts with most of them knowing it by heart. Then it was the ROK national anthem. I found this to be less important than the pledge, as I stood for the pledge out of respect for my host nation, but Eun Mee told me to sit down for the anthem. Weird. The various people including the female principal (very unusual in this male dominated society) gave their speeches then it was time to start. This was a big deal. There were hundreds of prizes. I thought they must have been for the kids but she then told me they would be raffling most of them off. What? Yes, on the program, there was a number and throughout the day they would be calling numbers out to claim prizes. How cool. That would never happen at an Australian or American sports day. There were two teams, the whites and the blues and through some selection process that I will never know, they selected my son and his two German/American friends to be on team blue. I’m not going to give you an event play by play as I wasn’t really sure what was happening sometimes, given the loud music and all the craziness, but I can tell you there was a race where the kids put on fake bottom pants and had to use a hockey stick to roll a football up one end of the field and back again in a relay format. There was also another event where they brought in two of the biggest bags of balloons I have ever seen in my life. The object of the game was to let them both out at the same time and whichever team popped their balloons the fastest, won. Then there was our event.
So I went up holding Hunter’s hand and we went two by two with the teacher in the lead holding our neighbour’s daughter, Anna. Her Dad and her sister, Ava, were directly behind me. Their Mum had to work briefly in the morning so was coming a little bit later. We get up there and Eun Mee is trying to tell us there is some sort of swing and we will have to go in twos and carry each child up and around a pole and back to the start, again using the relay method. Ok, then the teacher says that I can help Jeff (Anna and Ava’s Dad) and she leaves! Help him do what? Why are you making the non-Korean speakers go first? We go over to where the starting line is and are looking at this contraption and I am thinking wth? Then I see the other people starting to connect everything and show Jeff what we need to do. There is literally a little swing hanging between us. They put a helmet on Anna that is miles too big and we squat down so she can get in. Next thing you know it is time to start and we are running down that field carrying Anna and looping around with a slight lead on the other team. Then it’s Hunter’s turn and would you believe it, that kid decides he’s not going to get in! We all do our best to coax him and I promise him it will be fun, eventually he hops in, the helmet falls off immediately and we are running down that field like there’s no tomorrow. He did enjoy himself though even with that trepidatious start! We get back and Ava is waiting so she jumps straight in and Jeff and I are off back down the field, this time trying to make up for some lost time and doing it, but just not enough to account for Hunter’s delay. I am exhausted. It is the most hilarious thing I’ve done/seen at a sports day.

On top of that, Eun Mee’s sister is there and I had asked her if she could take some photos of us, well for some reason she thought Anna was my daughter, so photos of us carrying Anna are the only photos I have of this event. Oh, well, it’s good that my neighbours have good photos.

Then they start doing the first raffle and the prizes are so funny, we are talking about ziplock bags, laundry detergent, paper towel, toilet paper. It was really cool to see practical stuff that people could use rather than rubbish no one wants. And all of them were wrapped up so beautifully. This guy walks up to Jeff, Rebecca (who has just arrived) & myself and tells us to come over, they want us at the microphone.”They want all foreigners at the microphone” we’re his exact words. I’m not sure why so we three head over there and they give us prizes and tell us to draw a number then announce it in English. I think we were either the celebrity guests or the monkeys at the circus, I’m not sure which, but it was fun nonetheless. Then they give us each a prize for announcing. I got a beautiful package of ziplock bags.

The events and raffle went on throughout the day and Eun Mee filled me in on so many things. I guess the public school system here is actually very hard to get into and this is a very small school that not many people are aware of. It is also a very good school with the teacher:student ratio at about 1:5! How amazing is that? People sign their kids up to go to a certain public school but there are only so many slots open; say there are 200 kids applying and they only have 40 slots. They do a lottery to decide who gets in. I asked Eun Mee what happens when you don’t get in and her response was they have to go to private school. My first thought on that was what about people who can’t afford private school, given that it’s about 1.6m ₩ (equivalent to US $1,600)!

“They have to find a way to afford it, there is no other answer.” Was her reply. Wow! I asked about home schooling and this didn’t seem to be an option. So now I sit here and feel very lucky to have found not only this wonderful school where there are so few students, but to have even gotten Hunter into a school in the first place. This is something very few outsiders get to experience and we were welcomed today as part of the community. I had so many adults and children walk up to me and say “Hi!” Eun Mee said they wanted to talk so much more with me but couldn’t speak enough English to do so, my thoughts were I wish I could converse with them in Korean but I’m too old to learn another language fluently in the time we’ve got here! But Rebecca and I have a plan to at least do a basic Korean course. We will find out what we can next week about what is on offer through the military before looking privately. I shall at least be able to ‘get by’!
The kids all did a race and Hunter came in 4th. Though I’m not sure what he was doing at the beginning of it, then it was time for a few more activities/raffles then lunch. They took the kindergarteners up to their room for lunch and Eun Mee and I chatted the entire time. Rebecca and Jeff then decided to leave as all of our kids’ events were done. I decided to stay and keep Eun Mee company as her car was parked smack bang in the middle of a whole lot of cars. And it was a good thing I did. They called out the last prize of the day and it just so happened to be my number! Yay. It was also a really nice first aid kit and I had just looked at buying one the other day, so it was perfect. They ended with a short ceremony and it truly capped off the entire day! I have never seen such a well-organized, high-end, music-filled sports day! They had rice cakes (nothing like what we call a rice cake in Australia) throughout the day (that were amazing mind you, filled with honey and just plain yummy) there was tea and coffee and water bottles supplied to all the parents. The kids got snacks and ice creams and yummy drinks as well. They also got a beautiful present from their teacher as their ‘Children’s Day’ gift. Children’s Day is a big celebration here, it is about honouring children and their need for love, care and respect. It is also a day to honour adults who have contributed to the greater good of the children. It is always celebrated on May 5th and is a Korean holiday. In fact, this next week is sort of like a Spring break for Hunter, as there are a few different holidays being celebrated. They are off on Friday in honour of Buddha’s birthday though his actual birthday is on May 14th. On May 8 it is Parent’s Day, another very important day to honour your family. Then on May 15 it is Teacher’s Day, and I am looking forward to giving Hunter’s teacher a lovely gift. Apparently it must be under ₩30,000 in order for them to accept it, which I find very interesting, but I already have some things in mind so I’m not too worried, just looking forward to seeing their happy faces.

From the school, it was a mad dash home to get changed into something more acceptable to wear to an honour roll ceremony. Then off to pick the hubs up and off we went. Well, what an unorganized disaster that was! Firstly, they ran out of programs. Then the certificates were not there, then the certificates arrived and were not in any recognizable order, after about 20 minutes of us sitting there whilst the principal, the vice principal and the 3 members of student council tried to organize it, they gave up and just started calling names in any order with no semblance of rhyme or reason. They brought kids up who were on the honour roll, with kids on the Principal’s honour roll, there was one boy who just went up by himself and stood there with nothing further going on and this was smack bang in the middle of the ceremony. It was ridiculous. We were embarrassed for them! Especially after I had just been at a school that had so meticulously planned their entire sports day. It was truly unorganized chaos. Anyway, our daughter eventually got her certificate and from there it was a mad dash home because we were now running late and I didn’t want Madison to get home and be by herself! Luckily, we made it with minutes to spare!
I somehow worked up the resolve to do today’s workout, Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs! OMG! I struggled. I think my body is fighting off this thing and I had such a big day, it was just plain hard. But, I did it. Not well, but I did it! I was finally able to have a shower tonight when I washed my face with the Rodan + Fields Redefine Daily Cleansing Mask, and oh, did it feel wonderful. I followed up with the Enhancements Micro-Dermabrasion paste and that too, felt amazing. The Pore-Minimizing toner and Overnight Restorative cream were only made better when I included some Redefine Multi-Function Eye Cream! Lovely. My hubby has once again returned to work for the evening, I am filled with a quiet household and this soon to be 21 x 2 lady is going to relax with a glass of vino for a minute.

I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!

Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures
Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested in Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know. At the above mentioned email and we’ll get you sorted out with the right regimen for you.

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