Tag: expat

Challenge Accepted Day 54/ Day 12

So today was a nice easy day for us. Maddy stayed home with me whilst everyone else went to school/work. For some reason, she has had Friday’s in April off. I worked out just after Ally left for school but before Hunter went to his school. It was Cardio Power & Resistance day and when I’m limited on time, it is of course a 37 minute (or something close) workout! It was tough but good. I have just noticed I’ve got a double workout tomorrow! Yuck! I’ll have to fit that in somewhere, as I’ve got my second round at the dermatologists in the am and we are car shopping in the pm. Cars are cheap here but they are also a bit used and abused! So we’ve opted to pay a few hundred bucks more to try to get a little more quality, but we’ll see where that gets us. 
Anyway, about the belly. I haven’t given you any updates on how that’s gone since my Lipolysis injections. For about 36 hours afterwards, my stomach was sore like I had done hundreds of sit-ups. I’m guessing this was from the electrical muscle stimulation machine, but whatever, it certainly wasn’t from me doing hundreds of sit-ups! I use my core in daily workouts, but not quite like that! It felt good, used, tired, like it had worked out! I did get a little bloated last night, was wondering if that was the fat doing whatever it is supposed to do, either way, I felt great today and ready to take on the world. I have one small bruise on my belly, but otherwise, all is good. 
Maddy and I raced home after dropping hubby off as that whole trip took a tad longer than expected whilst we discussed with the Naval LTC in charge of dentistry here what our options were as far as the dental insurance goes and I must say, we are a tad disappointed. We’ve paid a fair chunk of change into this dental program but really haven’t seen much in the way of return with so many things requiring such a huge copayment. Unfortunately, our timing for Ally’s dental procedures is not going to work out and we are going to get screwed any which way we look at it. We were really hoping to get a good deal but there just doesn’t seem to be a ‘right’ answer in sight. I think we are going to cancel further treatment for her and just have to bite the bullet and pay for the treatment ourselves once returning to the States or get new dental insurance and give the fairly crappy one we have now, a miss. I just don’t know. And I’m a bit mad at myself for jumping the gun. Unfortunately though, the wording is a tad deceptive for OCONUS military (that means Outside of the Continental United States) and there really is no black and white with everything dependent upon the provider. We are edging towards cancelling everything as far as Ally is concerned but I’ll keep you posted. 
Maddy and I then dropped Luna off at the only dog grooming place I could find yesterday that wanted to charge me an absolute fortune for grooming! Now we got her groomed in January but I gave her a bath about 5 weeks ago and brushed her hair, cleaned her ears etc. yet this guy was all about her being in a tangled mess. She definitely smelt and was in need of a good cut but ₩150,000 wasn’t going to cut it for me, that’s just under US$150! She has that hypoallergenic hair that doesn’t need to be brushed daily. I told him that I had her groomed in the States for between $60-$80 and he just laughed. Eventually we agreed upon ₩100,000 but that’s a hell of a lot of money and I wasn’t very happy about it. She does look cute but ‘I Like Dog’ will hopefully give me a better price with perhaps some better treatment next time. I don’t think she got any water for the 5+ hours she was at this groomer as she came home and drank so much, she vomited. We gave her extra love/snuggles/treats nonetheless and it was much easier to do, given how good she smelt! 


Then Maddy decided she wanted to have her hair cut and get ‘bangs’ (a fringe as we call it in Australia). I wouldn’t let her cut her hair too short, in fact I said she could just get all her split ends cut off, but if she really wanted a fringe, then she could do that. We had fun going out today with both of us dressed in matching skirts and high heels, so I put a little tiny bit of makeup on her eyes and boy did it stand out! The girl walks around as though she’s wearing mascara naturally, but with that one streak of purple/blue, she looked like she had full eye makeup on! I wasn’t sure I had made the best decision after seeing it on her, but hey, we were having a special day together and I just wanted to enjoy it with her. Anyway, after her haircut, she looked so much older than her seven years that I couldn’t believe it! Even big sis said it when we greeted her off the bus. Maddy’s attitude, her demeanor, everything changed after seeing those bangs, it was like she had literally aged right in front of me! This girl is going to be our trouble maker, I’m sure of it, yet she has the biggest, sweetest, kindest heart of any of our children. She just cares. And people know that she does, so they naturally like her but she’s also incredibly beautiful, I don’t think anyone has ever particularly disliked Maddy, though her strong-willed temperament may have turned them off a tad. 


After that, it was lunch with Daddy. It’s so nice to catch up with him during the day, especially when one of the girls can do it? They just love spending time with him. We returned home having done absolutely no grocery shopping or clothes shopping but just hanging out, then we spent about a half hour playing dress ups! Me for the ball and Maddy for the sake of it! It was fun. Sometimes it’s just fun to hang out with a kid and forget all about being grown up. All she wanted to do was try on every dress I tried on, and I let her. She even wore my shoes at one point. We picked out my dress and shoes and hairstyle and I’m now excited about this gala. I do still fit into my clothes! Then it was time for piano and for me to collect little man from school. The groomer also used that opportunity to let me know Luna was ready for pickup.
We came back in time for me to fold what seemed like a never ending pile of clean laundry before greeting both girls once again and popping over to dear Tawny’s house for just one (ok maybe two) glasses of vino. It was a lovely evening to sit and chat on her amazing rooftop, but nothing like the other day/night! I greeted hubby home, gave everyone their respective dinners (yes, it was that kind of night here) we put the kiddos to bed in a big slumber party type atmosphere upstairs where they could all camp out and watch Netflix to their hearts’ content. I cleaned my face and did my nightly Redefine regimen (the skin feels so lovely and soft) and we are going to watch something ourselves on Netflix. 
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!
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Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested I. Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know. I’m posting my 60 day pics in just a few short days!!!

Challenge Accepted Day 53/Day 11

Well there’s never a dull day in South Korea and today reaffirms that for me. My plans were changed this morning due to my friend not feeling well, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from doing anything as A; we really needed some groceries and B; I just didn’t feel like staying at home. A day out with my son would be nice. Then he decided he desperately wanted to go to school today. Oh well, Mummy will have a day to herself. That’s just fine with me.

And that’s what I did. Had a day to myself. I dropped son and hubby off then planned to come home and work out before heading out for the day. On my way home, I got a call from the travel agent confirming she could get the hotel and hire car for Memorial Day weekend at Jeju Island. Our first real adventure here in South Korea is now confirmed for that weekend! So off I went to pay for that. Well boy did she keep me waiting! No one else would/could help me so I had to wait for her and it was close to an hour before I was seen, delaying all plans for the day. I was finally able to finish up the business and get home only to realize I no longer had time to workout this morning and would have to dress and get on my way. With no real plan in mind, I headed to the International Market outside of the Air Force base. Only knowing I wanted to go back to this little Thai restaurant I had tried once before, to ensure the food was as wonderful as it was the first time I went with my darling son. 


I was not disappointed. If you head to the US Air Force base main gate, in Songtan Station, about 8km south of Osan City, you will find one of the best Thai restaurants I have ever been to, outside of Bangkok! I do not say that lightly. I got ‘stuck’ in Thailand for 3 months a long time ago and the only time I ate anything other than Thai food (mainly from street vendors) I regretted it. The Thai people are some of the most incredibly gentle, lovely people, I have ever come across. Not only are they sweet and generous, but they can also claim some of the most amazing food I have ever tasted, as part of their cultural heritage! I kid you not, you will find something on a Thai menu you will love. And this restaurant is no exception. From the main gate, head into the main entrance of the marketplace, you will see a number of Thai restaurants around you and I cannot vouch for any of the others as I have not been, but this one, “Yummy Thai Restaurant” is on the second floor, above a coffee house on the left hand side as you head into the market, but not too far down. You enter some stairs that lead to a small alleyway. It continues on to some very clean public toilets and a carpark and the restaurant is on your right hand side. It is very small but inviting. It is not opulent, but it is clean and the window seats look straight out over the Main Street, making people watching easy. Juree is the owner, head chef, head waitress and possibly the only waitress but on top of all that, she is the epitome of all I remember about all the Thai people I have met. She is kind and sweet and lovely and she can cook incredible, authentic Thai food! I believe she came from Bangkok but I could be mistaken. She is definitely Thai and welcomed my Thai greetings and thank you’s. Now, I also have to tell you that my favourite Thai food is Tom Kha Gai and that is what I have had both times but I have heard other patrons exclaiming wondrous words about their food. This little restaurant is truly a hidden gem. But hopefully not for much longer as she deserves to have her cooking shared with many.


After enjoying my solo lunch, I made my way through the ‘Ville’ to look for a hairdressing salon. I haven’t had my hair cut since January and with our ball being just over a week away, it desperately needed a good cut! I wound my way through the streets of the ville and ended back in front of the main gates at a salon called Yi Beaty Salon. Where Ms Yi gave me a very simple haircut and took a good four inches off. I told her to just get rid of the dead hair, and so she did. My hair feels so light, and so much better. The curl has come back to it too. I didn’t have time for her to do anything else, but it was nice to be able to get a haircut when I needed it. From there, I went to the ‘fish’ place – see my previous blog a few weeks ago – and got my eyebrows waxed. Obviously threading (where one who specializes in this skill, uses cotton thread to interweave through the eyebrow hairs to pull them out in rapid succession) is not a popular thing here and that is definitely my preference when it comes to taking care of my eyebrows, but waxing will do. I’m not so sure about this woman though. She didn’t speak the entire time she did my brows (she was European too) then I thought, maybe she doesn’t speak English, but at the end I asked her about reading and she completely understood and told me that no one does it. I guess I just didn’t get warm and fuzzies from her. 
I had to get the groceries in a reasonable hurry and I also went and bought a clear shower curtain from the other end of the base, as we are doing a bake sale next week and the area my hubby works in has these beautiful table cloths that have been handmade (I think) and we want to use one to advertise ourselves but they need to be protected and how better to protect them without spending a fortune than to use a clear plastic shower curtain. I guess we’ll test it out and see how it goes. 
Then it was a mad panic to get home with every possible red light, filling of potholes, crazy Koreans, getting in my way! What would normally take 20-30 minutes, took a good 50 minutes and I didn’t want my daughter getting home without me there. I was literally less than 5km away and moving at 0! Everything in me was trying not to panic/worry because that’s what I do, I took deep breaths, tried to stay calm and think if I was 5 minutes late, it would be ok. But in my heart of hearts, I knew I wouldn’t be ok if I was 5 minutes late. It’s just me. But I didn’t completely stress out either. When I finally came close to the house and saw the bus coming from the other direction, I was finally able to relax. Yay, somehow, I made it, even after the arsehole truck cut me off at a red light! 


We picked up Hunter, who had another great day at school but by the time he got the three steps from school to car, was completely exhausted and went into crazy preschool tired mode, where everything was an incredible drama, including the fact that I had brought Luna in the car with us and three of the boys at school were looking at her through the window. It only went down from there. Literally, three steps and the dynamics changed. But that’s how kids roll! Luckily he’s number three and I recognized all the signs. He’s still determined to go to school again tomorrow! In fact, this kid was so tired that at 7pm (we had almost finished dinner) he put his fork down and said, “can I please go to sleep!” Oh the pain of being three! 
When I was finally done with my day, including driving around trying to locate a dog groomer after doing an Internet search and finding most English speaking groomers have either stopped or are on maternity leave! Seriously, English speaking dog groomers could make a killing here! Anyway, randomly driving when I found one! Yay! I was stuck at a never-ending red light, so was even able to type the number in on my phone and make an appointment tomorrow! She so desperately needs it and I just cannot do it, don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried. I failed. Three hours of my time and I ended up just making her look like she was clean. Not cute and she’s the cutest dog, just clean! Grooming failure! I was sweaty, the house was covered in hypoallergenic dog hair, but dog hair nonetheless, the bathroom was a mess, the clippers were blunt, the dog was unhappy, I was unhappy. Three hours of both our lives gone with very little result! No, I’m good at lots of stuff but dog grooming is not one of them! So yay for appointment tomorrow. Unfortunately, the guy couldn’t give me a price, so let’s just hope it’s reasonable! Otherwise, I guess we’ll be driving around once again tomorrow looking for the original dog groomer I had been told about that obviously requires a treasure map with secret password to even locate them! 
Home. Children home from music lessons. Husband actually home reasonably early. Time to exercise. Didn’t want to! At all. It is really difficult to motivate yourself when your family is home and you want to hang out with them. It is so easy to come up with excuses but at the end of the day, the only person I’m doing this for, is me, so the excuses I give are to myself. That just doesn’t work if you look at the big picture. I’m letting myself down, no one else. I think that’s what a lot of people forget when they come up with excuses. They are only lying to themselves. My birthday is in nine days! Holy wow! There is no time for excuses, especially given how genetics have suddenly given up on me and age has taken over! The gala is in 8 days! My Rodan + Fields challenge comes to an end in 7 days! This is the big deal for me. I’ve worked hard for the majority of this challenge and I cannot give up now. So I didn’t. Thank god, it was cardio recovery, although some of those stretches are literally insane! Shaun T, I’m not sure what the hell you want from my thighs and buttocks, but they couldn’t play for the entire time today! Perhaps next time? 😜 I did my best! And there were only a couple of moves that I couldn’t continue to do for the crazy amount of time they were asking of me!
I made Alfredo pasta and Alfredo pizza for dinner for everyone and even Maddy had 4 (yes four) bowls of it! The pizza wasn’t that big so I had a small slice of it, as did Ally, and hubby ate the rest. But the pasta was a huge success. On top of that, I made myself a very nice, plain salad and finished off my Tom Kha Gai, that I had brought home. All in all, another great day, filled with mini adventures! 
I hope you are having a lovely day and/or night, no matter where in the world you might be. 
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Please email me at Aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

And let me know if you are interested in taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge. I love having your feedback and really appreciate you taking the time to read my crazy blogs! 

Challenge Accepted Day 50/Day 8

The weather is warming up in South Korea, meaning after a day inside yesterday when we should have been out and about playing, I needed to get outside today! We dropped dear son at school and I then dropped hubby off at work. I had to exchange some money in order to deposit ₩ into my bank account so they could take the school fees out today. It’s a public school but we, as foreigners, have to pay. I think I had mentioned this in a previous blog. No one could give me an exact amount but from my understanding it’s a little more than what I was told the other day but cheaper than I originally thought and works out to about US$220 for 2 months + milk. Yes, milk is a separate charge & all the kids drink milk so if your child doesn’t drink it, then they will immediately be segregated. Hunter is already segregated enough with the language barrier so he doesn’t need anything further. Either way, even with the milk, it is amazingly cheap and apparently this school is one of the best schools. It’s special somehow, I think it could possibly equate to a charter school? I’m not sure though, Judy (our realtor) tried to explain it to me as best she could and she just kept saying, “this is a very good school!”
It was as I was walking to the bank that hubby called and reminded me he had volunteered to read to Maddy’s class and would need to be picked up (again, the one car issue) and dropped off. He did however send the memo up last Friday so here’s hoping we can get that sorted out sooner rather than later. So my errand running came to a quick end so I could get home, grab the book he wanted to read and try to get a quick workout in. I didn’t have time to join Shawn T, so opted instead to use the beautiful weather to go for a quick run with Luna. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. She being her usual exuberant self, and me, well I just enjoyed getting out and about again. On the way back to the house though I did notice Hunter’s two school friends out playing in their yard (not at school) so I was a tad concerned at how his day would have gone given their absence. I didn’t have time to talk to them at that point though their Mom later told me she had taken one of them to the dentist and it just worked out that both of them stayed at home together. 
There was no time for a shower after the run, so I opted to sit in the car and wait for hubby to finish reading at Maddy’s school and use the opportunity to begin writing my blog. This lovely elderly couple came out of the school, I assumed he was a veteran as he was carrying a book (it’s the day for active duty and retired soldiers to read to the elementary school kids) and they walked up and got into the car beside me and I couldn’t help but hear their conversation. They opened the doors to their car and it was quite warm and the lady suggested they should have left the windows down, the gentleman then said, “But my darling, the great thing is you can wind your window down as we drive if you like.” She smiled at him and continued talking about Chicago having the best bulgogi she’s ever had. Bulgogi is a traditional Korean barbecue beef dish and I’m not really sure what she was talking about when she said Chicago as he then told her, “If that’s where you want to eat, then that’s where we’ll go! Whatever makes you happy my darling.” 
To my ears, it was like a lifetime of togetherness that still had the sparkle. I’m a romantic at heart you know. Hubby ruined the moment when he came back and talked about how the guy before him was an elderly gentleman who read poetry and the kids were going to sleep on him! I don’t care, the romance gets even better with the fact that he chose poetry (although maybe not the best choice for 2nd graders) Yes, the day was about military kids but sometimes it’s more about a teaching moment; Even if only one child there appreciated it, then that’s one child who shall grow to appreciate poetry and I think everyone would have appreciated seeing this couple together and knowing they were sharing a lifetime of love. 
Right, after that it was time to drop hubby back at work then attempt to get some travel set up for us. It didn’t happen unfortunately. We are trying to find somewhere great to go for June/July timeframe. I want to see so many places here but it adds up very quickly when there’s 5 of you. The other thing we have to decide on is do we actually take the kids on a tour of a country or do we all just go and hang out at a resort and just enjoy some sights close by? Hubby is opting for the latter because it’s so expensive and he doesn’t want to run the risk of all of us being miserable because the children are at breaking point on a tour we’ve paid a small fortune for. I understand! I’ve seen them at breaking point. Not only would it ruin it for us but for everyone else on the tour also. We’d get blacklisted and have posters put up of our family warning people to never travel within the vicinity of us! Who would have thought planning a family holiday (aka vacation) would be so stressful! To all you single people, or people who don’t have any little people running about, enjoy your freedom! Seriously! Once they’re here, they don’t go back! Instead they suck you dry; of food, of clothing, of shoes (that’s a new one for us that’s beginning to really add up) of almost anything out there you take for granted! Gone! But, I digress…. They’re wonderful little buggers when they’re not milking you of everything! 😜 Back to the holiday, I’ve just put some more feelers out on Facebook and tomorrow I’m having lunch with a friend and very much looking forward to discussing all of her travels in the region and picking her brain for the final opinions about their most recent trip to Vietnam. 
After I left the travel office with more frustration and confusion than when I arrived, it was time to get a couple of things and be home in time to get Maddy off her bus and into the van to go to her first piano lesson. It was exciting and weird all at the same time. She really enjoyed it though and is very much looking forward to going back everyday. (Yay! At least I picked a winner for right now!) I said hello and goodbye to her then went to get Hunter from school and amazingly, he had another fabulous day, even without the girls there! It was great. Hubby called me on my way there and said he’d gotten the memo back and could I swing by and get it, that way I could drop it off where I needed to and get the ball rolling on the second car thing. Excited I was. I shouldn’t have been. As with everything in the military or any Government agency or any bureaucracy for that matter, there’s always one more thing you need, and yes there was! So, another day. 
It was time to meet both daughters coming in from their respective buses so we raced home once more and collected them up in the car (Hunter was sound asleep in the back and I didn’t want him to wake up super cranky). Then it was finally time to do my Insanity workout. Did I struggle! It was hard. It felt like I hadn’t done anything in weeks not literally just two days. I’m not sure if that was from the big night on Saturday or just my welcome back intro to Insanity all over again, or what, but it was tough. My phone rang and it was a welcome reprieve from the hell my body was going through, but I finished. After all of my lazying and eating yesterday, I had to!
My skin does feel lovely tonight. I used the AMP MD on it, followed by the ‘liquid velvet’ and it really does feel amazing! I can see results. Hopefully you’ll be able to also. I have less than two weeks, in fact 10 days, for the Rodan and Fields Challenge remaining. Where did that time go? It’s been fun though and my skin is definitely glowing from the special attention I’ve paid it. 
Well, I hope you have an amazing day and/or night, wherever in the world you may be! Remember to like my Facebook page: Aussiemumsadventures and email me at aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com. Please share my blog if you enjoy it 😊

Challenge Accepted Day 41

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

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

aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

Like my page on Facebook: aussiemumsadventures 

And if you’re interested in any Rodan and Fields products: http://www.slongmorescott.myrandf.com
Let me know too what else I can do to get more readers and to grab your attention. I was a little lifted today when I realized I’ve got over 400 people following my blog. Thanks for your support! It’s really appreciated! 

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

Challenge Accepted Day 39

So my hubby finally got home at about 0100 this morning and was full of talk having gone beyond his normal bedtime, though after he was done telling me all about it, literally crashed in 5 seconds. Sometimes the man drives me insane! How can one go to sleep so quickly? For me, well I lay there and lay there, finally allowing my darling Jasmine to come in and sleep with me. It’s not too often this happens. Jasmine is the loudest purrer ever firstly, secondly, she feels like she needs to show me her love by being as close to my head as possible and by digging her claws into me. I woke up this morning with marks all over my chest from where she had ‘lovingly’ clawed me throughout the night. And throughout the night I had to take cover under my pillow so she didn’t lovingly claw my face. It sounds like she’s being mean, but she’s honestly not, it’s just the way she is. It also means I don’t let her sleep in our bed very often anymore. Madison and Ally do though, unless she’s mean to them throughout the night and I mean properly mean, not lovingly mean- Yes, there’s a difference. Anyway, she was so cute, how could I say no to that sweet little face? 

Onto today; Another day, another adventure. It was actually a fairly nondescript day today, although, my TV and I nearly came to blows this morning. T25 RIPT Circuit doesn’t work with about 15 mins 20 seconds to go! I fiddled with it, I fast forwarded, I stopped, I skipped and attempted to rewind but nothing. Not a damn thing would happen after that time. By the time I got done getting angry, I honestly wasn’t sure what to do! How am I going to incorporate RIPT Circuit when I don’t have over half of it available. Any suggestions would be most appreciated please. I am truly at a loss and not sure what the best thing to do is. I didn’t continue with anything else thereafter. I tell you. It would be so easy to give up right now if I wasn’t accountable to all of you who read my blog. 
I washed my face using the morning Redefine regimen, then folded laundry. It was all very exciting. In the meantime, Maddy’s friend came over for a play date so that was wonderful for her, given big sis had her friend here for a sleepover. Only problem was then little brother felt left out. Luckily he was in the mood for a movie so I put Big Hero 6 on for him and promised he would have one of his friends over for a play date today or tomorrow, sure enough at 3:30pm, his friend came knocking on the door, so he got to have his play date too and Mummy kept her promise. Today it was like my house was the kind of house you would see in ‘The Cosby Show’ or ‘Growing Pains’, it was the kind of house I always wanted to be in when I was a kid, but we lived on a farm too far away from anyone for anyone to just pop over. It was great though. Not that I would want it everyday and I know my hubby certainly wouldn’t but it’s nice to know the kids want to come here and play and that this will be a regular thing. It makes me happy to know we have a welcoming home. 
This afternoon was spent painting and I really got into it and came a long way on what I hope will be my best painting so far. We finished the project for Grandma and Grandpa and will get that off in the mail tomorrow afternoon, hopefully in time for Mother’s Day. Grandma has another present in there so this is just a bonus thing for them so I will share it with you on here and if she sees it, well, it’s ok. 

  

I’m honestly not even sure where they would hang it up and it will just be one more piece of junk they’ll have to find a home for (sounds harsh I know, but none of us are super sentimental like that, we adore this stuff, but then it gets put away somewhere for safe keeping.). I just really liked the idea when I saw something on Pinterest, so I wanted to make my version of it, forever safekeeping their footprints at their current size. Anyway, this was my first attempt at calligraphy style writing too, not bad. The present I did get my Mum though is practical for her current needs, so I think she’ll like it too. 
We had to go out to dinner again tonight with hubby’s VIPs and it was actually a good, fun night. Our kids were amazing! They sat at a table next to us but they were independent and did so well at it! I was so proud. It meant hubby and I had grown up conversations and people could swear and tell stories without worrying about kids being near by. It was great. I felt like an independent adult too, not just like ‘Mummy’! Sometimes, when we go to places, my kids occupy my entire night and I don’t get to talk/socialize/do anything but deal with them, sometimes it’s like people don’t want to approach me because I’m a Mummy and that’s all I appear to be able to do. Tonight, it was refreshing to not be shunned to a corner, to talk to adults about adult things, to not be harassed every five seconds, to just be Sheryn. I know I’ll miss them being little, but every now and then it feels great to bask in the glory of their growing independence too.
All in all, though not an exciting day for many, for me it was quite peaceful. I’m looking forward to painting again as soon as possible, but I now have to awaken at 0430 to drop my hubby off so I can have the vehicle tomorrow. Bah! Yuck. Not sure why the Army needs everything to happen so early. I’m also a tad concerned that I’ll be out before curfew. It’s ok for hubby, he’ll be in uniform, but not sure how it works for me. Guess we’ll find out. It’s not like I’ll have been out on the town or anything though is it? Oh well, I’ll let you know on the morrow! 

Tonight’s plan is to do my night regimen then assess whether or not I’m too tired to paint 😜 Have a great day and/or night no matter where in the world you are and hit me with your suggestions for the T25 Beta RIPT Circuit please. 

Challenge Accepted Day 36

Well what a lovely day! I awoke feeling like rubbish still, but it was time to put the big girl panties on and get out and about. And out and about we got. My girls are on Spring break this week and today was a great start to it (other than my rubbish cold that is)! Our neighbor and newfound friend, Rachel put out last week that she wanted to go and check out this place called Anmyeondo island. I love the beach, I love water, I love the peaceful feeling I get when I’m near it and I needed to feel some of that. So I jumped at the chance to join in and travel there. We cancelled our dentist appointments and changed some other stuff around just so we could go. That’s how important it was to me. 
  
This past year has felt like a very long winter. We moved from Hawaii to Colorado in July, 2013 and although Colorado was in Summer at the time, it doesn’t really ever get over 80F in the Springs and that doesn’t qualify as Summer for me, just like Hawaii never got over 80 nor did it ever really get under 70F. So the weather suited me just fine because it was always semi-warm, whereas when it gets cold, I need it to get hot, just to balance me out. My friend Trine (Norwegian) doesn’t think it gets really cold in Colorado and perhaps compared to Norway it doesn’t, but it got down to -32C once (That’s -25.6F) aka bloody cold, too bloody cold for my liking! No one told me hair can freeze when it gets that cold, my hair was damp when I left the house and it froze almost immediately and a giant chunk snapped off, literally snapped. Goodbye hair, it was nice knowing you. No, thank you very much. I like my hair and I like my warmth and though she is one of my dearest friends, we shall always agree to disagree when it comes to Winter. It just doesn’t work for me. Off point, I know. 2015 was a year that seemed to me like perpetual cold. No, it wasn’t the coldest winter on record in Colorado, in fact it was a fairly warm winter, but it was still winter, then we went to Australia in July, my first time home in 5 years, almost to the day, and it’s winter, again. Yay (sarcasm) It hadn’t even gotten up to 80 in Colorado yet! The Sunshine Coast was ok, though I still desperately missed Summer, but Melbourne was absolutely freezing. By the time I get back to Colorado at the end of August, they have pretty much had 5 weeks straight of 80+F temps that all came to an end the week we arrived back, no I’m not kidding! We booked a cruise in January to try and locate some warmth, but even that only gave us one day of nice, warm, laying in the sun, weather and that was on our second last day.
  
We get to South Korea and it’s bleak and miserable and cold and we arrive in Seoul to -30C weather where we have to go and take our dog to play every day, at least twice a day and where the son does nothing but cry as soon as we head outside. It was truly miserable. The one thing about Colorado’s winter is that it is truly beautiful, picturesque probably better describes it. It may be cold and snowing but at least the sun comes out a lot and there’s beautiful mountains and scenery to look at, even on the coldest days. Not South Korea. The trees seem to all be deciduous, so everything looks dead in Winter. It’s cold and bleak with high rises and buildings and junk everywhere. The Koreans are extremely technologically advanced but they still don’t care about litter. I drove back from the beach today and watched car after car roll down their windows and throw stuff out. The beach was covered in trash in parts, just like the streets here. I hate it. I want to stop people in the street and say “what are you doing?” There are also no public rubbish bins (garbage bins) so what are people supposed to do with their garbage? I had two bags of garbage just after our picnic today, the first I left in the restrooms inside the garbage bin in there because I didn’t want to leave a bag of garbage in my car, the second, I took with us. 
Back to today; I would have liked to crawl back into bed, but my need for beach and fresh air was more important, even with an almost 2 hour drive each way! I get out of bed and get cracking early enough to get an esky (cooler) packed as well as our picnic, but not early enough to work out. I do my Rodan and Fields regimen and lavish my face with Reverse #4 sunscreen (my fave sunscreen ever) then have to get breakfast for all children whilst also getting the youngest two ready. I take lots of vitamin C and some medicine that will stop my nose from running. Then it’s time to drop hubby off at work before feeding the cats we are looking after and picking up hubby’s colleague’s teenage daughter whom I have asked to join us, then meeting with Rachel at 9am (0900 in military speak). Crazy start to the day, yes. 
We are off. It was a fairly easy drive given the Korean driving skills, no great drama on the roads, a couple of weird GPS turns, but I expect nothing less, and all goes smoothly. Rachel is leading the minivan convoy and does a great job. I’m a terrible driver/leader, I don’t know why but I always sit there and think the person behind me wants me to go faster or something, and here, all I want to do is go faster but apparently, the Korean speeding ticket is an absolute fortune and there are speed cameras everywhere, so I don’t take any chances. I actually led on the way back and my phone and my car GPS were going crazy with camera locations so it was really a matter of using my cruise control, but I probably also braked a lot and poor Rachel was probably like, “What are you doing?” But I’m not sure how anal they are with speeding tickets and I don’t want to take a chance, so if I thought there was a speed camera, I slowed down to the exact speed limit if not less. And it helped that my GPS lady shuts up when I slow down too!
There are 9 of us hitting the beach including 2 adults, two teens, one tween, and 4 kids all under 8. In our car, we are excited. I can tell you that we all looked at the scenery as we were driving through these regions and finally saw ‘beautiful’ South Korea. It was wonderful to see only green for a change, or green intermingled with flowering cherry blossoms. I wish I could share a photo of it with you, but unfortunately as the driver, there were no good photos. It didn’t help that I didn’t take my camera either! We crossed a number of large bridges to get to the island and it was truly magnificent. I go excited the minute I saw water! We had no idea which beach we should have chosen though, so it was a matter of guess work and between us, we ended up at a bit of a rocky cove, but it meant we found amazing shells! I have never seen so many shells in my life! It was truly amazing. And we collected a lot. Thank goodness Rachel had a spare ziplock bag for us to throw some cool shells in. 
Leaving my eldest on the beach with her teenage friend (because neither of them really felt like going for a walk) the rest of us did a short hike over to the next beach where we discovered some cool shells, tide pools and a big rock stack. A gorgeous scenic viewing area claimed some space at the top of a fairly steep (for my 3 yo) staircase, there were also bunkers (we think) in between. That was my guess anyway, perhaps dating back to the Korean War where sentries kept an eye out for invasion? If anyone can enlighten me further, I would appreciate it.

  
It was a very easy hike even with young kids and well worth it for what awaited us at beach number 3, Sambong. A real life beach, with sand, and few rocks but lots of shells and tide pools. My phone decided a good time to die was right before I got a great photo of the entire beach! What I did get a photo of and what excited me the most was when Rachel’s kids found starfish! Starfish! They were beautiful and they were everywhere. It was so exciting, possibly even more so for me than for the kids, I love starfish! I grew up next to the wate but starfish were something I remember from a kid in New Guinea, I saw some in Tahiti, I think, and some in Malaysia or Thailand (or both) and a couple snorkeling in Hawaii, but that was it. This was literally hundreds of starfish hanging out on the beach in tide pools. We spent a long time just rescuing some who were looking like they had been beached, were starting to curl up, that sort of stuff. I have tried to do some research on starfish rescue (or ‘sea stars’ as they are now known – Ally kept saying this all afternoon but I didn’t give her credit and yet she was 100% correct) but no one seems to know too much about them. Apparently many are committing suicide on the west coast of the United States??? Seriously! Who knew? But no one knows why! Maybe real estate prices? Very strange though considering they have no brain according to scientists. Anyway, the kids and I thought it better safe than sorry given sometimes starfish just have to roll with the surf and have no control over where they end up, better to end up in small tidal pools with access to mussels than not, I say. So that’s what we did. Between us, we must have rescued 50 starfish. And yes, we are sticking with rescued! My kids are heroes! Even Hunter who hates anything stick or gooey on his hands, was very happy to pick these babies up and deliver them to the nearest tidal pool – Hero! 😊
  
These following two photos are credited to Rachel White:

   
 We eventually decided, given the next beach was 10km away, to end the hike there and return to our original location, find my eldest, and let the kids just play for a while before making our way back. On the way back, it seemed like what was an empty path became filled with Korean tourists from a bus tour, all on the steep steps. After many ‘hello’s’ though we go to the lookout to see the last group trying to take a photo. I asked if I could help by taking a photo for them and they were very happy. Having no idea, I mean none whatsoever, what Koreans use to say smile in a photo, I used the go-to for any English speaking person, “Cheese!” But this one dude in the back row cracked me up when his response was: “Kim Cheeeeeese!” Kimchee, or kimchi is a well known Korean dish and this seriously made me laugh, just because I guess I was expecting something like it, but I wasn’t. Brilliant! Next time, that shall be my go-to line, not Kimchee, but kimcheeeese! 
Back to the beach we go where the kids get to play for a while and the weather has warmed up enough for us to remove sweaters for a short while. It was fun. Needing to use the toilet wasn’t mind you, given the barnacle/rock extravaganza that awaited us, but it was fun nonetheless. I took the lead as I previously mentioned, to drive home when Rachel’s app didn’t want to cooperate, and it was all good except for my speeding up/slowing down maneuvers of course. We got home at a more decent hour than I expected and hubby was actually in between (meaning he came home to change before going out again) so it all worked out as the kids got to tell him all about their awesome, amazing, wonderful day at the beach. 
Unfortunately, the minute I got home, it was like all the congestion that spent most of the day leaving my body, came back in full force, perhaps the ocean air was a big contributor, anyway, rubbish was how I felt! It was time to check on the kitties again and I was supposed to start T25 beta round but at 7pm (the time we were back in the house) all this body wanted to do was relax, instead, I had to get my kids the extremely gourmet meal of ramen (2minute) noodles – thank you noodle Monday and for the fact that sometimes I don’t have to be elaborate! I had leftover pasta, got everyone in respective showers, including myself. Did the night regimen, no AMP MD tonight either, and sat down to write this. There may have been some trashy Korean TV in between, a first for our family as we searched for something suitable for the kids to watch with us, and it may have involved ‘little people’, a video of my dog intently watching the show ‘Little People, Big World’ and I may have also let my girls watch that crazy show ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ just to give them an idea about how I am a very normal mummy! But otherwise, a relatively quiet night! 
I hope your day and or night are magnificent, no matter where you are. For me, I just want to wake up without a sore, runny nose in the morning and be able to do a double Tuesday workout, given I didn’t do this one today! 
Happy trails! 😊

Challenge Accepted Day 22

Good Easter Monday to you! I have something to confess: I did not use my MACRO Exfoliator last night. I fell asleep watching a movie and was too tired when I got up to do it. 😦 I know, I know. Nor did I use the ACUTE Care. So I am doing both tonight and will use ACUTE Care both tonight and tomorrow night as I am supposed to use them on Day 1, Day 4 & Day 7. I missed Day 7 so will use it instead this week on Day 1, Day 2, Day 4 & Day 7, returning back to the program next week. I think it will be ok. Anyway, tonight, as soon as dinner was finished, I used the Macro and shall return back to Sunday night on Sunday night. I’m sure that a 6 day interval this week won’t make too much of a difference either, it felt great! 
Hubby had today off so he let me sleep in this morning! Yay. It was so nice as I was really tired. I forgot to have my thyroid medication over the weekend and it’s amazing how fast you feel it! He got both girls ready for school, got their lunch, did their hair, it was great. The only thing was I didn’t get to say goodbye to them, but he told them not to disturb me, thinking that’s what I wanted, but I like saying goodbye to them in the morning. I’m grateful to have slept in though, so I’ll take it as a win. 
Hubby and I worked out together afterwards. It was a cardio day today and for the first time, here we are on Day 22, I can honestly say that I nailed it!! Yes I did! The only thing I can’t do is the jumping and slapping your thighs at the same time. For some reason this really hurts my knees, but I do Tania’s modification for it and today I was quick, going faster than even she! It felt fabulous! 

  
We showered and dressed and headed off to the local market as hubby hadn’t been yet. It wasn’t quite as good today as far as fresh produce is concerned but there were more little stores open today than before because it’s slowly warming up and it wasn’t raining. We had fun, we went in to the little pet store and my heart broke at seeing all those little puppies in there! It makes you wonder what happens to them all if they don’t sell. There were so many and they were soooo cute! We looked at the fresh fish, the plants, the produce, the clothes. And just wandered. Hubby has been craving a kebab so we found a kebab shop and got one to share. It was ok but they used the tzatziki sauce (the one with cucumbers in it) and I much prefer tahini sauce or even a garlic aioli. Like I said, it was ok & the owner/servers were very nice, so no regrets. Except cheese. Cheddar cheese. That would have been a good addition!

  
  
We still had some free time before Madison came home on the bus so we drove to, and wandered around a ‘hypermarket’ (the commerce definition of a mix between a supermarket and a department store) called EMart. It’s always interesting to wander around a store in a foreign country, I find it even more fascinating when you can’t read what anything is. I almost grabbed a bag of what I thought was dried coconut pieces because it had a picture of a coconut on it, thankfully it had written in English (in minute writing mind you) that it was actually dried fish! Why would you put a picture of a coconut on a packet of dried fish? There was not a fish in sight on the packaging! Something else we found was that there was nothing in the store that would fit my husband. He’s 6ft with fairly broad shoulders. Not a small guy by any means. He found a really nice dress shirt & we asked about a bigger size but the girl just looked at him like he was crazy. It was actually quite funny. She started looking through the box like she was hoping one was going to appear out of thin air, all the while knowing no such shirt existed! Then he looked at a pair of shoes and found a pair he really liked but this sales assistant just started shaking her head like he was dreaming. She did however write the style number down in case we won the Korean Hush Puppy lottery and could find a pair in his size. Needless to say, we walked away from the menswear section empty handed.

Our day didn’t end there though. We collected dear Madison from the bus stop and it was a glorious day so I suggested we go down to the rice paddies and the two kiddos we had home could ride their bikes. Now Madison, though 7, has never really had the opportunity to learn to ride without her training wheels. In Colorado, we lived in a fairly hilly area and the only flat space was on a half size basketball court where she had to turn every 5 seconds, so it just didn’t work out, but today it did. She was amazing! Hubby spent some quality time with her teaching her to ride (he has so much more patience than I do), whilst I took Hunter and Luna along a different path. Honestly it took about 15minutes and she was going for it! She even greeted Ally when she got home on her bus by riding her bike!

  
After she had mastered it and hubby was concerned about her safety because of the 3-5ft drop beside the paths on the rice paddies, they along with Hunter headed back to the house and I used the opportunity to go for a mile run. It felt great and Luna was very happy too. It’s just so nice with the weather warming up and being able to get outside. My only concern now is the air quality; apparently today it was borderline and will continue to get worse as the yellow dust comes in over Spring? According to the website http://www.korea4expats.com the definition of yellow sand/dust is this:

“Known more commonly as yellow dust by most of the foreign community, it is basically inhalable particles that originate from the dry desert regions of China and Mongolia. There has been yellow dust coming from these regions to Korea for many generations. However, due to the deforestation that has occurred in Mongolia and China, along with the increased industrialization and resulting pollution in China, the yellow dust storms have been occurring with increasing frequency and with greater and greater negative effects. For the past few years, the dust storms often carry oxides (aluminium, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and silicon) and toxic waste thus increasing the risks of respiratory and skin reactions.”

OMG! What have we gotten in to? Yellow dust? Monsoons? Typhoons? Why did we agree to come here? No, I’m sure it’s not so bad. Right? I’ll keep you posted on the yellow dust situation, I just wish my dog could use a treadmill! 
Well, I’m sitting here finishing my blog knowing I have the end of a movie to finish because I fell asleep through it last night. My skin feels fresh and lovely, I am showered and about to have a cup of herbal tea and about to see the end of Spectre (I’m a James Bond fan) and hubby has to go to bed so I shall once again say adieu! Have a wonderful day or night!

Challenge Accepted Day 21

 Happy Easter! Hope the bunny came and you’ve all had an amazing day or are about to anyway! We’ve had a quiet one. For me, things didn’t quite go as I had planned last night, which in turn effected how my day has gone today. So, I finished my blog last night and went and played Uno with the family. I got the munchies and had one slice of cheese, just one. What I didn’t realise was the mistake I made by doing that! I forgot all about chewing only on the left, eating my piece of cheese quickly only realising shortly after I had swallowed it that my temporary filling had obviously gotten stuck to it and I had swallowed it. Oh the pain if something goes in there! Ouch! It’s awful! I’ve never experienced anything like that! So I went to Dr Google this morning to research a temporary fix until I return to the dentist on Friday & had I been in the States, it would have been an easy fix,m; just pop down to the local pharmacy, pick up a temporary filling kit and you’re as good as gold. If that’s not handy, grab some bees wax and use that temporarily. Here in South Korea, neither of those things are easy to locate and are not normally something spoken about in conversational English. Not sure what I’m going to do to get through the incredible pain when either a hot or cold liquid comes into touch with it sending terrors down to the nerve that could easily help me win any screaming contest! Not fun. And that doesn’t even begin to explain what happens when a tiny sliver of chocolate gets in there, as just happened. Holy wow!
So my Easter Sunday consisted of waking up at literally the crack of dawn and freaking out because Luna (our dog) may have gotten to the chocolate; the Easter Bunny didn’t pull a very bright move and left 3 baskets outside of middle daughter’s room as they all had a camp out together in there with the dog. All we could think about was if dear son had opened the door and allowed said dog to feast on all the chocolates in their baskets (I’m a worrier, I think worst case scenario and imagine it has happened). Luckily, he hadn’t. Instead middle child, Madison, had everything under control. She had picked all baskets up before allowing Luna out of the room and had even divvied them out to each child! 
I let hubby go back to bed and I got up and made milos (we discussed these the other day) and washed up the few dishes. Meanwhile, Madison comes running downstairs saying Luna has thrown up everywhere in her room. I double, triple, quadruple check that she didn’t get to any chocolate and they are all sure she hasn’t had any. I put her outside and we watch her and wait. She starts running around the yard as happy as Larry! Although a tad cold. I can’t go and deal with dog vomit until I’ve had a coffee. Oh, the water filter has been unplugged, there’s no hot water. Yay! Happy Easter! Finally, everyone gets their hot drink and I go and deal with the dog vomit. It’s not that bad but I still don’t know why she did it. She did have her first bath last night and I rubbed a little bit of organic coconut oil with a drop of lavender essential oil in it (I looked up the mix ratio and it should have been well under anything that could have hurt her, literally one small drop and about a 1/4 cup of coconut oil, well mixed. I only rubbed a small amount on her rump too. Anyway, as I’ve been writing this I thought I was going to have to rush her to a veterinary hospital as she started doing this weird thing I have never seen before. Thanks to Doc Google once again, I now know it was ‘reverse sneezing’! I’ve never even heard of that. I literally googled dog looking like their having an asthma attack & there it was. It was only that her tail was still wagging that I wasn’t freaking out too much. Oh that and I didn’t even have a car as hubby had to go into work, so I knew I was going to have to figure out something. I guess it’s quite a common thing. She’s perfectly fine now and it literally lasted about 2 minutes and she was fine! Talk about scary, especially after this morning’s happenings! Never a dull moment in this house.
  
So our Easter Sunday has been eventful, yet not so eventful. I ducked out to try to find something for my tooth this morning but was unsuccessful. We did happen to walk right past the Krispy Kreme donut shop and I said to my daughter that we should get some for breakfast. I’m not a donut fan but lots of people have said to me just in the last couple of weeks that I should taste them so I thought why not. Well I got a dozen mixed donuts and I tried something called the New York Cheese and OMG! It was wonderful! Like really good. I’m not a cake fan so when there’s a surprise inside, then that makes for a good donut and there was a wonderful, cheesecake-type filling inside. Yum. Not good for the weight loss though! Oh well, we are all allowed our little treats every now and again aren’t we. 
We had an Easter egg hunt for the three kiddos, with each of them hiding eggs for the other one. It was great and they loved it. They didn’t get to participate in any other egg hunts this year but they certainly didn’t suffer with each of them having about 65 eggs each to find!!! Like seriously! It started with Ally hiding for Madison whilst we were out searching for a temporary filling solution. 
 
   
Then Madison, Hunter and I hid for Ally upstairs whilst hubby and Ally hid for Hunter downstairs. We had Hunter’s egg hunt next (with the eggs hidden in a tad easier spots than those of Madison). He had a ball though, giggling and absolutely loving finding each and every egg. This year the eggs were filled with junk but next year we are going to fill them with coins too. I don’t support buying made in China rubbish so think this is a good idea especially when the kids have to save at least 1/4 of what they get and put aside 10% to buy others something, leaving them whatever is leftover to spend wisely on themselves. See my blog about the big talk to find out more. 

  
Ally’s was the final egg hunt and Madison and I did our best to really hide some. She thought at first she had it in the bag but soon realised it may have been a tad more difficult than she thought. It was fun though for her, she had to open things, look under, inside and around. It was a good lesson for her that things may not be as easy as she thinks they are. 

  

That was followed by a ham, mashed potatoes, broccoli, French bread and gravy lunch that got 5/5! I’ll take that as a win! Then hubby went to work, kids all sat down to relax after doing their homework and I started writing my blog. When hubby got home, I encouraged him to do the stretching DVD of T25 with me and it was actually enjoyable. It was great to just stretch. It wasn’t overly exertive or too much, especially when my body felt like it had to rest today & it did. I’ve also done the morning Redefine Rodan + Fields regimen and will be using the MACRO Exfoliator tonight as it’s Sunday night once again, meaning tonight’s the night! (Love the Macro Exfoliator)! Looking forward to giving my skin a good vacuum! By the way, if you’re interested in starting your own challenge with Rodan + Fields please go to:

 https://slongmorescott.myrandf.com/Home
If you click on ‘shop skincare’, then select ‘Get Advice’, you can find out which products are just right for you and take your own 60 day challenge. The challenges I have taken are to reinforce my own belief in both R+F and the BeachBody programs. I am not affiliated with BeachBody in any way, shape or form, but I am a Rodan + Fields Consultant and I had lost heart with the products because I had never really given them the dedication they deserved. I saw results immediately the first time I used them and intermittently since, but I’ve never dedicated myself to following the regimen Doctors Rodan and Fields set out. I am doing that now, and have reached 21 days or 3 weeks into the challenges. My skin feels amazing, I am finally not struggling with every exercise DVD that I do. The only way is up from here. 
Please also remember to like my Facebook page: aussiemumsadventures. I hope you have an amazing Easter Sunday filled with absolutely no drama! As always, please share my blog if you find it interesting and give me feedback! I love feedback! 

Challenge Accepted Day 19

Good Friday morning to you! It has been a lovely day in our house so far today (fingers are crossed, double crossed and triple crossed as I write that). Ally’s friend came over and she is a lovely young lady. They had a lot of fun together. It was our first time meeting her so it’s always nice when you like your daughter’s friends. What is weird when you become a parent is the awkward conversations you have with strangers because your kids are friends. It’s like you’re now forced to phone this strange person and organize to have a child, that in a lot of instances, is also a stranger, come into your house and stay the night! The stilted phone conversations can become even more stilted when the parent stranger comes to your door and wants to check out your house (to make sure you’re not some crazy, hoarding, lunatic, slob and what not of course) then you stand there and make chit chat for a while until they’ve realised you’re not crazy and it’s ok to leave their child with you! It’s really quite bizarre but I’m pretty good with Mums, it’s Dads that bring a whole new dimension to the equation, which is what it was in this case. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about right? When you are happily married, you don’t really give the opposite sex much thought and in most instances your friends are female and there’s no need to think about what you say or do, you are just yourself, but when it’s a Dad, you think about everything a little more. A Mum, I would invite in for coffee, a Dad, I’m not going to, because that’s just weird. Even coming into my home, I’m like “ok, let’s not move too far from the door because that’s just what feels comfortable.” I don’t know how to explain it further, you just don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea and it’s just plain awkward. Just me? It’s different if it’s a couple and you’ve met both of them and you’re on your way to being friends, but when you don’t know either one of them, well it’s just a tad strange. And he wanted to keep chatting! Seems like a very nice guy but I was at the point where I thought, it’s time for you to go now, I wish your wife had come. 😉 oh and there was absolutely no sexual tension there either in case you’re thinking that, I think he’s just a talker and I was just wishing the wife had picked her daughter up today. 
I went for another run with Luna through the rice paddies today – bit of a disaster actually! We started running and I want to say we got about 30 seconds away from the house when my iPod died. I tried to connect to Pandora on my phone, which I happened to bring just so I could take a photo (main picture) for you and Pandora isn’t supported here. So I was holding extra stuff whilst my dog, who is the winner of the worst dog on a leash award, was yanking my arm off! On top of that, I forgot to wear gloves and it was bloody freezing! Seriously! I thought my hands were going to fall off when I got back, ok I’m exaggerating a tad, I thought my thumbs we’re going to fall off at least. It was painful. It took about 20 minutes of sitting on them for them to stop hurting. Can’t even begin to imagine the pain of frostbite. Back to the dog, she sees her friendly neighbourhood ducks who skedaddle upon her approach and yanks me so hard, I drop my phone! Luckily there wasn’t any damage to it. So, that was my run! To run is fun! Well sometimes! 😊 
Once I could use my hands again, I had a hot green tea, cleaned and pretty much found anything to do to procrastinate doing T25! Not sure why I felt so against it, but I did. Eventually though it was time and I went upstairs and did abs. Holy wow! I cannot wait until the day I don’t have to modify at all for abs. I did make it almost through the entire pyramid move at the end though when I made it to 6! You’ll have to do it to really know what I’m talking about and I can’t remember all the technical terms but basically Shaun T gets you to finish with this ab pyramid. You go down into plank then quickly bring wide legs up as close to your arms as possible then jump up, then back but do wide in and out 2 times, and so on and so forth until you get to 7 wide in and out abs! It’s a killer! I got to six and time was called and I thanked God like you wouldn’t believe! I couldn’t do a second workout though, I had run out of time and needed to shower and get Madison from the bus stop as she was only on the half day. Too bad (not sure if my sarcasm comes across when you read that, but it’s definitely there 😝)! 
As far as the Rodan + Fields Redefine regimen, I’ve taken to using my Amp MD in the morning followed by the serum, then the am cream. It just works better for me that way and I know I’ll get it done whereas I can’t guarantee it’s going to happen at night. It’s all about making things work within your routine though isn’t it. My skin feels wonderful. Everyday I say to hubby how soft it feels but he’s one of those guys who doesn’t really notice that sort of thing. He tells me I’m beautiful just as I am so anything is just going to make it better, so I guess I can’t ask for more than that can I? For me though, as I said yesterday, I am starting to see a difference. One other thing I’m doing is drinking lots of water. At least 2 litres a day. It feels good. I feel fresh. At this point in time, that’s enough for me, oh and I took another butt photo (sorry still not sharing on here) and hubby could see a real difference! Yay!
A mango smuice was the drink of juice today (another made up word, a mixture of juice and smoothie- I like it). Mango chunks, kiwi, chia seeds & cranberry juice. My darling daughter ate all the strawberries last night so I shall have to wait until we can go to the market on Monday to get some more. It was yummy. For lunch, I broke my drinking smuice promise again and had the Chinese salad. It is yummy! The recipe is on the back of these Australian noodles I stock up on every time I go home. I love it, so does hubby. Basically you get Chinese cabbage & green onions, then you get noodles and toasted almond slivers, keep them separate until you’re ready to eat. Make up the sauce with olive oil, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar, you can add sesame oil too but I never do. If you refrigerate the sauce, the oil will go hard and separate but when you’re ready to use it just get it out and leave to reach room temperature and give it a good shake and it will be good to go. I’m putting a photo of the recipe that’s on the back of the noodle packet below, but I use about half the amount of sugar they recommend. For my American friends, sorry, I’ve really not found anything that tastes as good as these do but you can experiment with different fried noodles until you find something you like. 

  
I followed my lunch with another green tea as I’m a bit chilly and trying to avoid coffee at least until tomorrow morning, nothing drastic! So I did forget that we have a do to go to tonight. In the Army, when you hit a certain length of time (aka rank) you get hailed and farewelled. Tonight is hubby’s and in turn, the rest of the families’, hail or Army speak for welcome. There are speeches, a bit of fun and basically we get introduced to everyone and we see who will be working alongside of him. Everywhere I’ve been these have been different and you really never know what to expect until you go to your first one, so that’s happening tonight. It’s all going to be different once again because it’s being held at a gym (??) so we’ll see. I may have a glass of vino before we go (it’s been a week now 😉) that way, I’m ready to take on anything my kids throw at me and any surprises in store throughout the evening. No, not really, but I may just have a glass anyway! My afternoon is going to be quiet and dull and I’ll figure out what I should wear to a ‘do’ at a gym (does anyone really know?) I may just go and hang out with the kiddos too. So I’m going to say adieu for today and talk to you all tomorrow.
By the way, I loved getting comments yesterday on both WordPress and on my Facebook page. Please share my blog if you’re enjoying reading it and like me on Facebook: aussiemumsadventures. And comment! Give me insight into you. Let me know what you think. 
Ciao! 

Challenge Accepted Day 12

Oh what a difference a day makes! By the end of last night, I was in tears and ready to leave South Korea! Things went from bad to worse after I posted yesterday’s blog, but I am happy to say that today has been fantastic. 

Let me give you a rundown on the happenings of last night, right after I posted my blog; I went outside to locate my daughters and tell them it was time to come in (love that they can play on the streets with their friends in our little neighbourhood) I found them, only three of them were outside playing and told them it was time to come in, they went to collect their scooters and were to follow me back to the house shortly, except the 7yo’s scooter was nowhere to be found. She’s OCD combined with lack of common sense at times, so I asked her if she remembered where she left it, she and Ally (eldest daughter) both tell me she left it on the other side of the pole where Ally left hers, I tell them they had better find it. They do, in the garbage! Seriously? So I put a note on the village neighbourhood FB page summing up how unimpressed I am. It read like this:

“To whomever threw my daughter’s scooter in the garbage, thank you. That was a really nice welcome to the neighborhood! She is a good kid. She got reprimanded for leaving it leaning up against a pole but the fact that you thought you would teach her a lesson by throwing it into the trash was really, really thoughtful and kind and considerate of you! Well done! You just won the neighbor of the year award! Oh and what a good way to teach a 7 yr old a lesson, not.”

So, perhaps I was a little passive aggressive, but I was really angry and thought this was the best I could do since I seriously wanted to punch whoever did that. I know, little things, but I was at the end of my wits yesterday, it was not a good day for that to happen! On top of that, the workmen left my bathroom sink clogged, the bathroom floor tiles covered in crap, the towels I laid out for them filled with crap, crap all over my floor leading to and from the bathroom, the sink plug stuck because the grout had glued it down and various other little annoying things. I made them coffee! 😩 there were other little things too including the fact that my painting looks like crap! By the time I sat down to watch He Named Me Malala, i was feeling very sorry for myself! What a great movie to watch when you’re in that state! Um, excuse me, I’ve been shot in the head by the Taliban just for being a girl and you want to complain about your problems? No, I don’t, I just needed perspective and you gave it to me, thank you!

Today: I wake up realizing just how lucky I am to wake up and be me! I get the kids off to school and I do both my workouts! Yes! Both! Yay me! The run however, doesn’t work out quite as successful, by the time I run half a mile my legs are done! (It was abs and lower focus today). I’m ok with that. And I’ve definitely made up for it throughout the day, so I’m not going to feel bad. 

At 10 am we head out on our adventure, 3 girls (ok ladies) & a boy! What a fun day! Thank you to my new friend and neighbour for taking both myself and another new neighbour! And what a great introductuction it was! I am Australian, I have lived all over the world, I have travelled to over 100 countries, yet here I am, stating it blatantly, I am not quite au fait with the Korean culture and I am very thankful for any help I can get! And these ladies gave me my first real introduction to it. I was mesmerized walking down the street of the market, all those fresh fruit and vegetables I have been longing to see were here. All the fresh seafood I have heard about is here, my son was so taken with the octopus in a bucket that we literally stopped and stared at them for what seemed like an eternity. My new friend Leigh-Ann then shared with him the intelligence of the octopus and it was wonderful to take a step back and see him learn from someone else! In fact, my entire day was spent both wondering at the new Korean cultural experience and seeing other mothers with my little boy and them sharing with him their knowledge! Listening to his conversation with my other new found friend Sara, who was so obliging and sat in the back so willingly after me saying I was too old to sit there and then so willingly kept up conversation with my son about anything and everything throughout our entire day – the kid constantly talks!! It was truly wonderful on so many levels!

To top it all off we headed for Korean BBQ, something I thought I was familiar with, but hell no! It was wonderful and an entirely new world. I am so glad I went with two ladies who were familiar so I can take my family there – then others later- and we can all become familiar with it. Here are a few photos to try to share with you the experience:

   
   
Oh how wonderful it was having people there who knew a little of what to do, oh how disastrous it could have been having no one who knew anything! Thank goodness I was with the former not the latter! Needless to say, this is a meal of trust; you trust the beef is beef (once you taste it you know), you trust the sauce is going to be palatable, you trust the beef wrapped in lettuce will taste good,  you trust the bean sprouts will be in a nice sauce, you trust the green onions will be ok and you throw them all together and you trust your mouth is going to be big enough to fit that entire lettuce stuffed with beef and everything else inside of it! And somehow it is! Not only is there all of that trust, but somehow when it is all thrust together, it’s wonderful! Ok, so my lunch was fantastic but there’s more….. As we were walking get through the market earlier, one friend mentioned how incredible Korean sweet potatoes were; seriously? I hate sweet potatoes! She bought them, hot out of the oven, I was curious. The were six or seven in a bag, I wasn’t that curious. Eventually I asked a tad more about them, she offered me one.

   Oh My  God! Those are the most incredible roasted thing I have ever tasted! Wow! My parents have always loved sweet potatoes, they used to go on and on about cow-cow! I don’t ever remember being a fan, but tonight I do remember something; banana frittas! Korean sweet potato, cooked like it is in the market is exactly like the taste my mum used to make when she made banana frittas! I tried to explain this to my kids, but there is no comparison. I wish my Mum and Dad were here to share this taste with me because it is so amazingly similar to when my Mum would make banana frittas! I’m not sure how much I can inference this taste and if any American has ever tasted it, other than here, but it took me until I got home and tried another one, that I really understood it. 

  
Wow! Wow! Wow! 

This isn’t even half of my day, yet I know I’m infringing on your time. There is a tad more to say of importance, but I shan’t keep you for too much longer, I promise! 

So, I had this amazing lunch, then came home to our village ‘maintenance’ guy trying to clean up the mess these silly people had made, then went  to pick up my children, then to go and meet another lady with whom  I had volunteered to look after her cats (online), only to find that she seems like this awesome person that my kids and I all immediately liked immensely and I was like, “Well you said you would pay in wine and now I want wine and your company because you’re pretty damn cool & I think we could actually be friends!” Then to find myself out on our little deck writing my blog, to be greeted by my neighbour from yesterday, who wanted to bring her children over and play and with whom I also took an immediate liking to and no, I don’t regret it it, anyway, she came over, hung out, had a sangria, ok, maybe two (or a tad more) and we discussed yesterday’s happenings, and it was all a misunderstanding! Yay, I’m not going crazy! It seriously was a misunderstanding! I love just being open and honest with people. It always makes things better! Seriously! 

Anyway, my day has ended on a positive note. I’m happy. I wish you all such happiness. May we all look at Malala and realize just how good we’ve got it! 

PS: I’m still yet to do tonight’s regimen, it will happen.. Have an amazing night!