Tag: military life

Shut the French Door!

When it comes to French doors and privacy, there are only so many options. I started researching some of them when we installed our French doors on our house here in Virginia. We have a larger lot (over 2 acres) and are surrounded by woods, but in the winter, the trees take their deciduous steps and distant neighbours have now got much better views into your domain. This bothers me, particularly at night when it is so dark outside and the house is lit up like a small supernova. I definitely like my privacy. What to do on a budget? Well, given I had no clue how to make French Door curtains, I purchased some and they’re fabulous and cost about $30.

We have another set of French doors in our basement and it has always bothered me that my kids could be down there playing (the video gaming is set up down there) and anyone can see into those doors too. I had originally planned to buy another set of the same style of curtains for down there, but then I remembered I actually have a ton of curtains from our various moves – yes, when you move like we do, you acquire so many things – some of which are a metallic Grey and would match the decor down there absolutely perfectly! The curtains I had purchased (pictured) looked very easy to copy the style of, so with a few modifications, I set out to repurpose my existing curtains into practical ones for the French door.

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The first thing I did was measure the window opening in the door to ensure the curtains I had were long enough, they were. Then it was a matter of taking approximate measurements of the existing French door curtains to match up my gray ones. I measured the width of the curtain and realized I had to cut quite a lot off it. This is a little scary mind you as you are ruining, I mean restyling, something perfectly good. I found the best thing to do was to measure all the way down putting a small sharpie mark along the length then getting a ruler and joining these marks together, then it was just a matter of biting the bullet and cutting (if I ruined them, well I did have another back up pair that weren’t so perfect but would do). I made my curtains 26″ (66cm) wide with a half inch hem on the side that needed a new hem. Therefore, my marks were made at 26 1/2 inches (67.3 cm) across ensuring the 4 circles (normally what would go on a rod) became the feature top of my French door curtains and were evenly spaced on both sides.

With the length I cut off, I measured the amount I would need to make the two pieces that velcroed together, holding the entire curtain up when you wanted to allow daylight in. I did screw up a little bit here as I didn’t take into account the fact that the second piece wouldn’t have any hem on either end, don’t do what I did, make that second piece a fraction longer, it will make life easier and save a burnt finger when it comes to ironing that hem on. I made each of these pieces 19 1/4 ” (49cm) by 2 1/2 ” (6.35cm) PLUS hem – important you don’t forget to factor this in.

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I didn’t even tell you that I wanted to do this entire project without sewing! I had lots of iron-on hemming tape and thought it would be perfect for this job.

If you have never used hemming/bonding tape, basically you use an iron to melt it together, ergo bond the fabric together at your given hemline. The iron has to be hot (so the fabric you use has to be capable of withstanding a reasonably hot iron, and you must turn the steam function off. Be careful not to touch the hemming tape with the hot iron, it will melt immediately and leave a sticky residue on your iron – if this happens, turn iron off and wait to get cold before wiping with a clean cloth that has some rubbing alcohol on it (I do not know this from experience ;)). I decided to double hem my edges because I wanted a clean ‘finished’ look, it did mean a lot more work but it looks better in my opinion. One other thing I did was to cut the hemming tape in half lengthwise as it fitted each of my little, narrow hems much better like that.


Once everything was hemmed and ironed, I folded the front of the curtain over so it gave my front a more professional finish, I used more hemming tape at the top to secure these two folds together.

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I then joined the two pieces on to the back of the French door curtain like so (I pinned everything in place after I had measured it and before I permanently attached it so I could be sure it was all going to work and look nice and neat). My strips were attached 6″ in from the edges on each side.
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Then it was a matter of attaching the Velcro. Again, I didn’t particularly want to sew, not that I can’t, I’m just not very good at it and don’t particularly enjoy it, so I had some sticky back Velcro from another project and just used it. This really is a matter of eyeballing and making sure they will align when joined together. Pinning helps with this too.
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Finally, it was time to attach a curtain to the French door:


I love how these turned out. They match the decor down here perfectly, I had everything on hand so didn’t actually have to purchase anything and now I know we will have privacy downstairs too!


Would you try this at your house? What do you think of this project? Please come on over to Aussie Mum’s Adventures on FB and like my page: Aussiemumsadventures. You can find me on Twitter: @ozmumsadventures, on Instagram: Ozmumsadventures, on Pinterest: Aussiemumsadventures And please subscribe to my YouTube channel: Aussie Mum’s Adventures (I’m still working on it, so please have patience with me!).

Guns and You – it’s not red and blue!

America, this is reality calling, please wake up!

Seriously. You are heading for civil war. There is no black and white in all things up for debate right now, only grey.

My daughter went to school on March 14, 2018 and went outside for 17 minutes of silence, to remember the 17 victims of last month’s massacre in Florida, when she returned to her classes, some of her friends were extremely rude to her, thinking she had walked out protesting gun laws. Now don’t get me wrong, she will be doing this (of her own accord) on March 24th at the Marching for Our Lives Protest, she will also be walking out of school on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Her school has actually communicated with both parents and students in regards to this walkout and they have offered students a safe area (on school grounds) where they can peacefully protest, they have also offered students the choice on the protesting and said to them that it is completely of their own decision making. Students who remain in class will have time to read or do something of their own selection. Whilst those outside (teachers included) are able to safely protest current gun laws. No parents are allowed to be involved (unfortunately for me, but I completely understand why because of the safety aspect).

I digress, back to March 14; the school had asked if any students wanted to protest and were given a solid answer of April 20th being their day, obviously there was mention of some sort of remembrance ceremony though. My daughter joined many others that walked out of their classroom and stood outside in a circle around 17 pairs of shoes and silently remembered those 17 unknown students who had died just one month before, some of them whilst buying roses in their cafeteria for the one they admired; celebrating Valentine’s Day.

When she sat down with her supposed friends at lunch, two of them belittled her for walking out. They called her names and told her she was a coward for doing so. They started lecturing her on the fact that everyone has a right to own guns, who was she to say no one could have guns! She tried to tell them firstly that it wasn’t a protest and secondly that she wasn’t trying to take guns away from people, but it was all to no avail, she couldn’t get a word in. Her ‘friends’ wouldn’t or couldn’t listen to any other opinion. They had already been judge, jury and executioner. They are all 13 years old.

Here we are, a group of people trying to remember the kids/young adults who were all murdered just over a month ago by a psycho who had spent some time planning his attack on kids at school, whilst kids at school are so worried about losing their 2nd amendment rights (do they even have them yet or is this pure parent talk) that they are judging others because they thought they were outside protesting said rights! How can any of this make sense to anyone?

My world inadvertently involves guns. My husband is in the military. We have lived on base/post throughout various times in our many years of military life. We have plenty of friends that love their guns. My husband owns a gun. He is also extremely well-trained in guns. He doesn’t have a temper. He is very sound of mind and full of common sense; the complete opposite of me, lol! He is one of the people who could own a gun and society wouldn’t have to worry that he is going to go all nut jobs on everyone! He also doesn’t believe that assault rifles belong in the hands of society members. He understands the need for common sense gun laws. When he got his gun and the background check took 15 minutes, both he and I were in shock! 15 minutes to check someone’s background to make sure they were of the mental capacity fit to own a gun. He bought a second one in the time it took for his background check to complete. How can that be ok? And you can buy bullets at the same time!!! What! So someone has really pissed you off and in a crazy temper you walk into a gun store, get your gun and bullets within 15 minutes and go and take care of the person/people who have pissed you off? All whilst still in your temper! You may have cooled down had you been given a few days to chew over what it was they did to you (you may not too but that’s where psychological tests come into play). Surely to god every upstanding citizen out there doesn’t want innocent lives taken? Surely.

I’m Australian, I was living in Australia and very well remember the day the massacre occurred in Tasmania (28 April, 1996), the day everything changed in Australia, the day Martin Bryant murdered 35 people and injured 23 others, the day that shocked Australia so much that we knew it must never happen again! That was the day radical gun reform began in Australia. The government immediately enacted strict gun laws and issued a buyback program. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) summed it up well:

The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation. Among other things, the law also required licensees to demonstrate a “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course.

Now at this point in time, a National buyback program wouldn’t work here in the United States a: because very few people would voluntarily give up their guns and b: because it would cost an absolute fortune to compensate for said guns. As of 2017 in the USA, “there were no federal laws banning semiautomatic assault weapons, military-style .50 caliber rifles, handguns, or large-capacity magazines. There was a federal prohibition on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines between 1994 and 2004, but Congress allowed these restrictions to expire”. (CFR) After every mass shooting, particularly the one in Las Vegas, in October, 2017 and after the Parkland school shooting, “some lawmakers expressed provisional support for a federal prohibition of so-called bump fire stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic guns to fire at a rate approaching that of automatic weapons”. (CFR).

On March 24, students and parents alike, will ‘March for our Lives’ in Washington D.C. and throughout the country. My daughter and I will march. How can we not? There has been plenty of talk about the “Walk Up not out” movement being a great way to walk up to those kids who are sitting by themselves or those students who are being bullied. Firstly, how about we practice being nice and including all those who are different every single day? Why is it ‘walk up’ on that day only? How can things change without some sort of dramatic uprising? The massacres are not stopping! The school shootings continue. Something has to dramatically change! Teach your children to be inclusive, teach them to love, teach them to treat others the way they would like to be treated, make that an every day occurrence. But, do not ask my daughter to walk up to the psychotic kid that has spent his whole life torturing animals, the one who has shown every sign of becoming the school shooter. Don’t expect her to show kindness to him when he has nothing but animosity for every living thing out there and is looking for someone to start with. Don’t tell the wife of a brutal husband that beats her whenever he feels like it, that she should ‘walk up’ and be nice to him, that will make everything better! Stop it! You are being naive. Sometimes, there is no other way than to ensure the person cannot have access to the tools (normally guns particularly when one is looking to cause as much carnage as possible) one craves to cause damage.

Yes, the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that people cause carnage with knives (the eight (8) men in China that killed 29 people and injured 130 more). Now imagine if those EIGHT men had guns; assault rifles even. How much more carnage would they have done?

Yes the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that you can cause carnage with cars (the vehicle attacks throughout the UK and Europe in 2017 are devastating, many were killed and injured) again though, I ask, imagine the greater casualties had those men had assault rifles? Many more would have died, there is no disputing that.

Yes the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that criminals can easily access guns on the black market; it’s not normally regular ‘criminals’ causing this mass carnage in the USA, it’s every day white males aged between 17 and 50. It’s not normally terrorists, it’s men who are psychotic in nature or who have flipped a switch and literally gone loco.

Basically, stop worrying about your 2nd amendment rights. If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about! I heard a great quote the other day, “the 2nd amendment has been bastardized”. The forefathers couldn’t have foreseen the carnage today’s weapons would cause and the number of innocent children taken far too early by them. They wouldn’t have agreed with that! They set these amendments in place to protect ‘Americans’, not so they could be used to kill the most innocent.

This fight isn’t black and white. This fight is full of grey. The one thing we all have to agree upon though is that too many children are dying in the USA at the hands of guns. It has to be time for change otherwise what sort of future do we have?

What the ?

Hey fellow Mum/Mom, what the …..?

So, my daughter had her 12th birthday party a few months ago, she invited 8 of her friends. She didn’t invite one girl that she’s had this on again/off again relationship with. She asked me if I thought she was doing the right thing, I asked her how she was being treated lately by said girl and what their relationship was like. She responded with: said girl had been treating her like crap (after having a play date at our house the week before) and she had an invite for her but rescinded at the last minute because said girl was being a little hellion (according to my daughter).
Here’s my thing; my kid and your kid are both not going to paint themselves in the ‘worst’ picture when it comes to situations involving their friends. I’m going to believe my kid, you’re going to believe your kid.
Sometimes our kids aren’t telling the entire truth; sometimes they blatantly lie.
I can’t tell you who is being more honest, what I can tell you is there are always two sides to a story and why the hell are you unfriending me as your Facebook friend because our kids no longer talk?
Seriously, this happened! I have been a parent for over 12 years now and I’ve only just realised that it is a big mistake to get involved with any of your kid’s friend’s Mums! Well okay, maybe not. Maybe you’ll walk away with a friend for life, but maybe you’ll also both get drawn into the shit that happens when your kids have falling outs! Do not get involved!
Well, hang on, if it’s serious, get involved, but most of the time it’s just the frigging drama that goes along with a bean/tween/teen! It’s seriously not something you need to take a stand on and that’s where the grey comes into it: New Mum/mom, only child Mum/Mom, old hat Mum/Mom, your kid is going to go through drama, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being bullied, but it’s a whole lot of drama nonetheless! (Oh and keep a very keen eye out for the bullying because that’s a whole different ball game!)
The drama is going to involve your kid’s best friend/girlfriend/boyfriend or a complete stranger. You are going to have no clue from which direction the drama will unfold. Here’s the big picture though, don’t frigging unfriend the mother you friended a few months ago when your kid’s were best friends because there’s a damn good chance they’ll be best friends again before you know it! Don’t bring the other parent into the drama! I’ve learnt this the hard way, and I say this in all seriousness, don’t frigging friend someone either just because they are the parent of your kid’s friend! Just because your kid’s are friends doesn’t mean you need to be, and you know what? On a grown up level, just because you’re friends, doesn’t mean your kids need to be!
We seem to go through this notion where we think we have to Facebook befriend the parent of every kid our kids love and sometimes they’re not necessarily people we want to know and other times they’re the best friends we never knew we had. It’s a tough game that whole friendship as an adult thing but when our kids come into play, from now on my new motto is, hey, I really like you but you need to understand our kids may have differences and I don’t particularly give a crap because I really like you and the kids can work their own shit out or move on! Do not get overly involved! Advise your kid. Do the parental thing. Call the other kid out. But has the parent done anything to you? Is the kid old enough to have started developing their independence? Then shit, stop holding grudges against the parents; sometimes great parents have shitty kids and sometimes shitty parents have great kids! That’s just the way it rolls.
This woman’s juvenile behaviour has now made me think everything my daughter has told me about her daughter is true, whereas before, I wasn’t so sure. How can we set the example for our children, particularly our daughters (I’m a firm believer in women believing in other women rather than putting them down) when we start judging other women by the actions our juvenile children narrate to us when they are still learning what is right and wrong in the world? Disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings about this seemingly smart, well educated woman! And no, there were no other posts made by myself between Saturday night (the night of the party) and Monday afternoon (when she came up on my Facebook feed as someone I might know).
What the ?
Lady, you are doing nothing for your child by being like this. You are not setting a great example to resolve conflict and nor are you ensuring your child has the confidence to make the right decisions- be they right or wrong. I am glad in a way that we are no longer friends because you’ve helped me explain to my daughter the kind of woman ‘not to be’ (but I actually liked a couple of parts of your personality, so in another sense it saddens me that this is where we’ve come).
I wish you and yours all the best and hope your kid can walk away from this a strong woman who knows what it’s like to both fail and succeed and to know the important role other women play in this thing we call life.

Life – Not so Redundantly!

It’s been a while. It’s been crazy busy! It’s definitely been an adventure. I’ve been asked to categorize this blog but I can’t. I can’t because A: My interests are so varied they cannot be categorized into areas that would normally classify as categories and B: The crap life shoots at me and mine, cannot be classified either and you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way! 😆
We have been busy living, we have been busy doing. Unfortunately not necessarily doing everything I have wanted to do, but doing stuff nonetheless! “Come to South Korea”, they said, “it’ll be fun!” they said, “you’ll love it”, they said, “You’ll get to do lots of traveling!” They said. Well, we are so busy socializing every weekend that there’s no time for anything else! Between our kids’ birthdays and birthday parties, between other kids’ birthday parties, between end of school parties, between the numerous social occasions we find ourselves part of because of hubby’s work, between all the crazy stuff that consistently happens on a daily basis, even we, are incredibly busy, there has been no more time for travel, there has been no time for writing, there has been no time! Let me see, aside from my Jeju writings, when was the last time I wrote about anything in my life? Yes, it’s been a while! 
We came back from Jeju and I spent Tuesday May 31st unpacking and washing, Wednesday I had my follow-up Dr appointment (that I previously blogged about) followed by a Family Readiness Group meeting where we all brought a Mexican themed potluck dish. In between both appointments, I had to begin making dear son’s birthday cake as his party was on Sunday 5th June. It’s best to make the cakes early enough and freeze them ensuring they are the correct shape, etcetera, with plenty of time to make adjustments if necessary. I got one cake made on the day and followed it up with another on the Friday. We had a function to go to on the Thursday night followed by another one on the Friday night (both for hubby’s work). Friday day though, my girlfriend came over and watched as I made the cake, then made my own marshmallow creme fondant (taken from this blog:  http://thefarmgirlrecipes.blogspot.kr/2011/04/marshmallow-creme-fondant.html?m=1), the fondant is delicious! The only problem is the high humidity here did cause it to start to ‘melt’ by the Sunday morning, meaning I had to do some rearranging by the time we got to the party. But the best part was that every single kid (and adult) ate that fondant, unlike the normal response I get to store-bought fondant. 
 The function on Friday night was then followed with something called an ‘at the gate’ sale. We literally set up shop at the gate and soldiers and spouses grilled hotdogs and hamburgers and sold them to people coming in. It was actually lots of fun, they had set up a dunk tank and a fairy floss machine (cotton candy machine) and had a great system going. Unfortunately we didn’t get there until 9pm as the previous function ran a lot longer than expected, but we got right into it upon arriving. Hubby had worn appropriate clothes to get dunked (and I had changed into comfortable clothes for the bbq event). He got dunked almost immediately (maybe with a little help from his wife) then we talked to other soldiers, family members, their kids and people passing by and had a great time. I had jokingly said to someone that I wouldn’t get in the dunk tank seat for less than $50 & unfortunately, that statement was heard by someone willing to pay it! He did keep missing however and I was hopeful I would walk away unscathed, but alas, the husband got his revenge dunking me into the ice-cold water (literally, water filled with ice!!)! It was definitely fun and something I never thought I would get to do, so no complaints from me and no, I didn’t have a white T-shirt on, get your mind out of the gutter! 😜
Saturday morning was cake decorating time, but only briefly as we were then meeting my lovely friend I had made on the plane on the way over here and watching her son play baseball. We followed that with a long, relaxing lunch, enjoying catching up after so long and reinforcing the knowledge that we were meant to meet on that fateful trip! Then it was home again to keep going with the cake! Spider-Man. 3D. It was a tad redundant but thank goodness I borrowed a pasta machine from my friend to help roll out the fondant. The cake came out pretty nicely and dear son was over the moon:


His party lasted until after 3pm and we got home, absolutely shattered. Monday was a Korean holiday but it was also a day I was able to get into (for a very last minute appointment) an ultrasound of my thyroid gland. Long story, but a couple of years ago, there were nodules on my gland and we have to check them every so often (& all is great right now). I asked the same friend who had hung out with me during cake prep on Friday if she wanted to join me in going to Seoul and she did. It was such a nice drive there, amazing how different it is when there’s no traffic. The appointment was smooth, I organized for someone to collect dear daughter in case I was delayed getting back and we even had a lovely lunch, eventually. This friend and I seem to have bad luck when it comes to eating at restaurants each of us recommend; they are never open! And that’s exactly what we found once again in Seoul. Dear son was with us which didn’t help matters when it came to lots of walking! Eventually though, we found quite a nice restaurant by accident and were very impressed by the food!


 The walk around the area was also entertaining, the Koreans love to have fun things about and the location of poop bags to clean up after your doggy’s mess, (though empty) cracks me up every time I look at the photo! Pardon the pun! 


Dear son also loved the giant gorilla in a store filled with all sorts of realistic animals, though I’m not sure where anyone would put them? Definitely an interesting feature! 


All-in-all, a lovely day out filled with good company and a great outcome! 
Should I stop here or keep going? It does get interesting, I promise! 😊 That entire week though was a tad insane! I ran around like a crazy person and got very mad at a number of parents as well when they didn’t even bother to RSVP to our daughter’s 8th birthday party on Friday June 10th (coincidentally my sister’s birthday). I had given the invitations out (through DD) 18 days prior. Things work differently here. Most kids who live off post go to school by bus. We hadn’t met many parents from her class, there just wasn’t the opportunity, in fact, I only had one parent’s phone number. But should I have to go chasing them? I’m thinking an entire blog will be devoted to this subject alone, given the story. Needless to say – Parents you need to step up! Of the 8 invited, we finally heard back (three on the night prior) from 4. 50% deemed it worthy of a response! 
I did get an opportunity to finally see a great craft store here though on the Wednesday prior, with loads of art supplies also. Some things were cheap, some were OTT (over the top) but it was three stories of lovely things and I do like lovely things! I’m not a scrapbooker or anything (though I wish I was) but the painting supplies and other craft supplies and model toy supplies were fabulous! I got my styrofoam ball and pot ready to make dear daughter’s birthday cake, all of which was a surprise to her. It was actually very easy, tedious, but easy and it came out splendidly. There were 42 cupcakes covering the ball though, something I wasn’t expecting but luckily I had enough supplies to make a second batch of cupcakes. I made homemade buttercream icing (using the Wilton recipe) and mixed it with a couple of store bought (I’ve noticed American kids like their store bought icing but it’s too runny so I like to mix it. It was basically a 4:1 ratio, 4 cups of homemade to 1 cup of store bought Betty Crocker. I got 5 bowls and mixed up 5 different colours and was very happy with the outcome. And so was my DD! She loved it! I think that cake got more pizzaz than the Spider-Man cake. It was amazing how something so simple had such a big impact. One of the parents actually thought it was a bunch of flowers until she smelt it! 


Maddy’s birthday party was a two part affair, a slumber party at our house followed by a trip to this amazing kids’ cafe here in South Korea, called La Cartata! Hubby had another work event that involved families so even though I missed out, it was a great night for him to take our other two along for this event and leave Maddy and her friends here to have Mummy’s undivided attention. Mummy even got her friend to come over and help chaperone and oh what fun we had. We did the girls’ makeup, they did ours. We did fingernails and toenails and they did ours. They loved it! Maddy even said that although she was worried because no one had RSVP’d in the beginning of the week, it ended up being the best birthday party ever! And I must agree. I set up an ice cream bar for the girls as well and they each grabbed a cone, a waffle bowl or a regular bowl and got a choice of so many toppings to put on their ice cream that even a fro yo place would have been a tad jealous! They all thought they had gone to Disney! It was seriously a huge success. Brilliant! Best of all, we two adults had fun (aside from the screaming) but when there’s 7 & 8 year old girls around, screaming is par for the course as my friend soon found out!


Saturday morning worked out a little differently than we had planned. Only one girl stayed the night, yes one girl out of the four actually stayed, though one girls’ mother did say she would be coming the next morning. It was just a bit odd. They are now all turning 8, I thought they would be old enough to stay the night, but I guess not, though only 2 out of the four actually mentioned this to me when they RSVP’d, leaving the other two Moms to mention they would be picking their child up that same night, when they dropped them off. But what did I expect? Given all that notice and everything? 😉 I understood the no overnight thing, but not the not coming to the party the next morning, I even offered to swing by and pick them up (like a true minivan owner) but no. One girl had sport, the other was ‘busy’. All very odd. 
So here we were, heading off to this amazing venue that I had already paid a deposit on, not sure if they were going to go ahead and charge us for the 10-12 children we said we would have, yet us turning up with our three (literally our own three kiddos) plus one, with the possibility of another coming. I reached out to our neighbours and suggested we take their two little girls with us also and I’m so glad we did because they all had an amazing time. Two hours in the best kids’ cafe I have ever been to; a race track, a bounce house, a ball playground, numerous rooms filled with toys and activities, food, cake, and most of all fun! What more could a kid want? They had a magnificent time. On top of that, the place is clean, the staff are amazing, you can see your kids almost anywhere they are, yet you can sit there and adult if you want to! Yay! Once again, brilliant! The two parents who’s girls did come, were amazed at how great this place was and our neighbour’s little girls have been begging to go back! 


On the Sunday, we had another birthday party to go to followed by a dinner on a rooftop. The day was fun yet filled with the interesting; let me just say this, it isn’t only us who have our share of adventures! They had hired a bounce house and a cotton candy (fairy floss) machine, in fact the same one we had hired just a week before. We all have transformers allowing 110V through our houses alongside of the 220V standard local power. Anything you rent from the post/base, will always be 110V and in this instance, it tore through the transformer. I kept walking past this one particular spot saying how much it smelt and everyone kept putting it down to the fairy floss machine, but I knew it wasn’t, I didn’t push it hard enough though as it took smoke coming out of the little storage room before anyone really questioned the smell. Their entire 110V was kaput for the day, yet the party wasn’t even half way through. We did all we could to help but hubby and I were both too exhausted to try to entertain even more children so we eventually called it quits, knowing we could go and adult on our friend’s rooftop. It was just that time. And relax and adult we did (for such a short time mind you, given everyone had school the next morning). But it was nice after such a huge weekend that was literally all about the kids. We actually got to see something called a hummingbird moth. This moth has the same peculiarities as the hummingbird. It doesn’t seem to stop moving and uses its long beak type thing (called a proboscis) to suckle from the nectar of flowers. It is captivating and beautiful, yet most definitely not a bird. Not something we expected to see and truly appreciate on a rooftop in South Korea. 


And that is where I think I need to call it for this particular blog. Life here is filled with entertainment on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s extremely funny, yet sometimes you have to search for the humour. I feel like the only way to get through all of the craziness is to search for the humour. And sometimes I have difficulty doing that. I don’t like writing when I feel pessimistic or when I cannot see the funny side to something. It just feels like the world has enough pessimism and those of us who write to share/entertain, should write when we are feeling good and able to share in a positive way. Especially when I am writing of my crazy adventures here in South Korea. I haven’t shared anything too personal for a while because yes, we have been stupendously busy, but I’ve also not had the inclination to want to share in the light I would like to share. Obviously I’m also pretty good at getting on my high horse about things (i.e. RSVP’s) but when it comes to this crazy life, I want to share with you in a serious yet satirical way, underlined with a little bit of sarcasm and an optimistic sense of humour. Stay with me if you enjoy my writing. I won’t stop. I cannot stop. I just may have to delay every now and again. And please, as always, talk to me, let me know your thoughts. If you like my blog, share it. If you want more, let me know what you want more of! Email me at Aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com. 

Challenge Accepted Day 29

Good Monday to you and yours. Awoke this morning feeling fabulous! I had a wonderful night’s sleep. Sent both children off on their respective buses when hubby came home so I took the opportunity to take Luna for a run as it was a beautiful day. Well, we got down into the rice paddies and I thought, “should I?” “Is it a good idea?” And, yes, yes it was! There was no one about so I let Luna go and oh how happy she was! I was really worried she would take off and chase the ducks or something but instead, she ventured out to see some white birds but she came straight back and from then on, she didn’t go far and kept looking behind her to make sure I was still there. How wonderful it was for us both, she not choking herself to death by pulling on her leash, me not feeling like I’m slowly Killing my dog because I cannot run a 4 minute mile! Seriously, you could see her smiling. We waved to farmers and had a great run! 

This was followed by a not-so-great workout. I’m not sure what it is about Total Body Circuit (& I have it 2 or 3 times this week) but we don’t mesh! I was exhausted about 3/4 of the way through! I literally had to stop the DVD and do the workout on my own time (fast forwarding to each move or skipping the parts on my DVD that are all messed up but trying to do them myself) in order to get it done! It was downright depressing! I’m on week 5 & still I have my struggle moments with T25! Especially after such a great fun. The day seemed to head on a downhill (soft) slope from there. 

I had to clean. The dust bunnies were taking over. It was a matter of life and death. I couldn’t shower and clean my face until I had finished cleaning the house; who wants to be all lovely and clean then have to vacuum and mop? Not me. I’ve set Robbie up to go daily at 10am but one still needs to use a regular vacuum to get to the nooks and crannies and the ‘oh-so-tedious’ stairs! Seriously when is some going to create a stair cleaning robot? It was a process and I didn’t even get to the dusting as such! I’m not sure how cleaning isn’t a full-time job in and of itself. Especially here! Luckily I’m not the OCD type and could call it when I needed to. And that was about 30 minutes before Madison’s bus arrived leaving just enough time to do my Rodan and Fields regimen and all the other stuff required on a Monday. There was a lot. I did it all including AMP MD. It felt good today. My skin was very much ready and I’m glad I took the break. I also didn’t do my moisturizer mojo over the weekend (you know where I use the leftover hotel lotions to massage those body bits that could do with some extra loving – read the entire blog if you’re sitting there clueless 😜) so I did that today and my bits literally jumped out and thanked me! 

I forgot to mention the incidents that happened in between! My phone rang, it was the elementary school nurse, (not good) she wanted to let me know that Madison had fallen over in the school hallway (no one else was involved in the incident was a point pushed home) and had smashed her chin so hard that it had bruised. Great, she’s a spastic like her mother and here I thought she was the coordinated child! I made sure she didn’t have a headache or anything that needed to be followed up and when given reassurance, hung up, chuckling a little at my ‘unco’ child. I then saw that one of the curtains wasn’t hanging on a little hook (curtains are a little different here in South Korea) & thought I should reattach it which meant some chair climbing/balancing/you know. As I was finally done, I tried to get down thinking that would be the easiest part, & honestly, I can’t really explain what happened next, but somehow my leg whacked the chair (it’s a robust chair as you can see in the photo) and got this giant knot on the inside of my knee. I didn’t even know that could happen! Anyway, it hurt like hell! I couldn’t really walk for a while and all I could think about was that it could finish this challenge midway! Thank god it got better throughout the afternoon with some ice and Hail Mary’s! It was not over…. Ally got home and shared with me that her middle right finger might be broken because a boy in school accidentally whacked her with a Lacrosse stick. What! I have a look at it as soon as we get inside and it looks bruised but ok. Again, thank god! There’s only three days of school left before Spring break but she has exams on Wednesday and Thursday. So Madison asks if she can go out on the street and skate after finishing her homework and I think, “No!” Too many injuries today. So I let her and Hunter go out into our little tiny yard and play together, just as I’m about to call them in Hunter starts screaming and Madison is in a bit of a panic too. “What happened?” I ask. Hunter fell down the stairs and landed flat on his face. Oh, yes, my regular, accident prone, uncoordinated kid has made an appearance today! Yes, I was wondering where he was! Luckily it was just some scrapes to the hands, the face and, somehow, the back of the thigh! It was bath time thereafter and everyone had to be wrapped in cotton wool. I couldn’t do anything more. Luckily, all incidents ended once they were in bed! 

We had tacos for dinner and I opted for lettuce tacos. If you haven’t seen these, they are literally tacos wrapped up using a lettuce leaf. Now the photo shows one but I ate 4. They weren’t that big….. But they were good. I thought I may have missed out by excluding the tortilla but it was honestly really great. I topped up with some baby carrots on the side, but honestly didn’t need to, I am still full, hours later. Tonight I shall endeavor to have another early night as I am taking hubby to work tomorrow so I can have the car and go grocery shopping/perhaps check out some other new Korean stores. Before going to bed, I shall definitely do my Redefine regimen and see you tomorrow on my 30th day (halfway point of the Rodan + Fields challenge & 5 days away from being the halfway point of my T25 challenge – I guess you’ll all want some photos this week) have a great day or night, wherever you may be! 

  
As always, like my Facebook page: aussiemumsadventures and if you’re interested in doing your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then please go to my website: http://www.slongmorescott.myrandf.com and ‘Get Advice’ on ‘What’s Right for You’ so you can get the perfect advice for your skincare concerns. 

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!