Tag: R+F

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 30

No run today but I did do abs, and that actually went really well. This was followed by a mad dash for the shower so I could drive hubby to work and have the car today. I picked up my friend Sara and we headed off to grocery shop (very exciting, I know) at both a local Korean store as well as at the commissary (the armed forces grocery store where you can get a lot of US staples). It was interesting. 
We started out the adventure at a place called Home Plus. Sara is of Korean heritage so even though she doesn’t speak the language fluently, she has a fairly good grasp of a lot of things, including foods. I ended up buying lots of amazing sweet Korean chips and a few other food items that I never would have tried had she not been with me, and having just opened a packet for Hunter to eat, I can rest assured they were really good. Honey chips. Yum. I bought a couple of bottles of Korean wine too, and something I guess is considered to be a whisky type drink but is very smooth going down. One day I’ll work up the courage to drink it all. Apparently that one sneaks up on you so we’ll see how it goes. 

  
We wandered around looking at cooking supplies and various other things, I even bought a set of chopsticks that are called learning chopsticks, so my kids can learn to use them and won’t look like crazy weirdo foreigners attempting (& failing) to use chopsticks. I’m excited for them to have a go. The only thing I didn’t think through was that I only bought one set, meaning fights are going to break out now whenever the chopsticks come out. Oh well, it was more for fun rather than serious learning so I didn’t want to spend another 5000 won on a second set. They’ll just have to take turns on different nights. 

  
We followed our sojourn to Home Plus with a visit to the Air Force Base, it was midweek lunchtime and the place was fairly busy but we got a carpark and were able to eat our lunch without much of a wait too, our only incident occurred when Hunter was in the little indoor play area and a little boy just pushed his head straight into a bar going across. I about lost my mind. I went and got Hunter, who was crying and said to this little boy, “That wasn’t very nice, in fact that was very mean!” I looked around trying to see a parent and couldn’t until eventually, the mother came over and told him to come and say sorry, he didn’t, but he did ask if Hunter was alright, so I let it go. I’m on kid number three, not too much is going to get me riled up, but I don’t like kids who are mean just for the sake of it and this kid was just that. 
Onto grocery shopping we went. My whole day has gone fairly smoothly and I think, I want to buy hubby a nice plant for his office. It’ll keep the air clean and give the place a little bit of life and just be nice. So I did. I picked out this really cute fern type thing. I put it in the trolley (cart) and went about shopping for fresh produce, next thing you know I can hear this really weird noise, I’m wondering what on earth it could be (Hunter has a miniature trolley so I’m looking to see if he has crashed into something) but no, it’s my newly picked out plant, it has fallen over and these large gravel bits are literally pouring out all over the floor. Crap! I go and try to pick up as many as I can but these things have gone everywhere! Hunter and I are down on the floor trying our best to put them back in the pot plant, when eventually I call it and say that’ll do. I should have known then that the plant was possibly jinxed as then they charged me twice for the thing and I didn’t even notice until I got all the way home! Bugger. Hubby had better appreciate it, that’s all I’m going to say. Honestly though, given the number of times Koreans tried to take us (or themselves) out on this trip, I’m going to thank my lucky stars! These people are wonderful, sweet, lovely, normal people, until you put them behind the wheel of a car, then they turn into these crazy, drag racer, speed demon, hellions, looking to risk life and limb to get down the road! Insane! 

 So what’s all this talk about Dolly Parton? Last night (as televised here in South Korea) Dolly performed with Katy Perry at the Country Music Awards. Dolly Parton and Katy Perry, and it wasn’t that bad. I love Dolly Parton. Coat of Many Colors has been a favourite of mine for many, many years and last year, the kids and I sat down and watched Dolly’s movie, they too now love the song because they saw new meaning behind it rather than just having Mummy playing it and singing in her best Dolly imitation! I sound amazing! Well, I do when no one else is in the car with me anyway! Actually even Hunter tells me how wonderful I sound, not anyone else, but at least I have one fan! 😜 So Dolly coming on last night and singing on a show I normally wouldn’t have watched (I’m not into singers, actors, etc awarding themselves for doing their jobs and getting a shit ton of money on top of that)! Anyway, I was looking for the show ‘The Good Wife’ and this was on instead and there were no other interesting options on our hugely diverse AFN (American Forces Network) with its 5 channel range, so I left it on whilst I finished my blog. Hearing in the meantime this crazy notion that Dolly & Katy were singing together. It wasn’t half bad either. I thought Katy Perry (though looking like she was taking the Mickey out of every Country fan but at the same time giving her own twist on traditional country garb) performed very well. When you’re up there on stage beside Dolly Parton, there’s some big boots to fill (figuratively of course). I wish I could see Dolly Parton perform live. My sister and my niece went and saw her and I was so envious! My friend in NZ went and saw her, again, feeling like I should have been there, but no. I guess Dolly and I are never destined to meet, even with me in the audience and Dolly on the stage! Each time I sing in my loud Dolly voice, I shall pretend I’m hearing the real deal! 😆 

  

My skincare regime wasn’t quite as normal after I finished watching them perform, I looked at my neck and it was very red and a bit sore to touch. I think I may have pressed too hard on the AMP MD or I may even have to face the fact that the AMP MD and I aren’t going to work well together anymore. I would have thought any tenderness would have shown it’s face in the early days, but I am no dermatologist and what I can tell you is that I could see marks on my neck from it and they were stinging. I know that doesn’t do much for the sales side of it, but I have really sensitive skin so I’m a little surprised I have been able to use it this long without incident. I also promised to be honest with you in this blog, always, even when things don’t necessarily go the way I want them to. I shall give the AMP MD a miss today and possibly tomorrow and use it very lightly on Thursday and see how I go and let you know then how it worked out. Today marks my halfway period with Rodan + Fields and I think my skin is looking and feeling better. I’m just trying to establish the reason behind this sudden tenderness. It may even be that diet is playing a role. Who knows. 

  

Some exciting news for the night is that we are heading to a place called Anmyeondo, it looks beautiful and it’s a beach! A real life beach! And it’s warming up! I may even be able to just sit down and enjoy it (ok that’s highly unlikely given I have a three year old but I can dream right). At least I will be able to go to this place and see if it’s somewhere we can go as a family one weekend. It looks amazing. One of the ladies in the ‘ville’ (what the little estate areas are called here where everyone lives and/or shops) is going and put it out there to see if anyone else wants to come and I saw the post and jumped at the chance. I have been so desperate for warm weather and water and beauty! To say I’m excited is a little bit of an understatement! Hubby can’t come but the kids and I are on Spring break, so we shall go and enjoy ourselves! I have even given him the heads up to not expect us home early and he’ll either have to find a ride or get a taxi home! 
Came to also find out upon hubby’s arrival home that we have a ‘Spring Gala’ to go to on May 6th. Here’s the crazy thing about the Military life, we may go through a lot of stuff and deal with hardships and adventures like very few other people but we also get to dress up and go to Cinderella type balls on a fairly frequent occasion. I couldn’t do it every day, but I do love dressing up every now and again like a princess. This one is a couple of hours away from us so we shall have to figure out some logistics but I think we’ve got most of it sorted out already. My goal to look fabulous before my next birthday just got real. Now I have a ball to dress for on the night before! The bison steak I just ate for dinner tonight along with the garlic bread and mashed potatoes and gravy had better come to a fast and firm end! 

As for everything else, well, it’s all good! I hope it’s all good in your neck of the woods too!

Challenge Accepted Day 26

April fool’s. I’m not very good at practical jokes. Never really have been. I always felt bad for lying. I tried to tell my kids this morning that we were going on holiday to Thailand and to pack their bags and neither of them believed me! “I don’t think you’re telling the truth Mummy.” “You’re being weird.” That’s how good I am at lying. I couldn’t even fool my kids. Last year I declared that I would get black garbage bags and wrap them up making it look like there was a dead body in them and put them out by the garbage bin. That was before we knew we were coming here of course. I thought about doing it last night, but somehow I don’t think the Koreans would find it funny. I’d probably end up in jail (did I mention there’s over 40,000 cctv cameras in South Korea, so you are always being watched). It’s a strange place this one. Very different to how I had imagined it. 
I wasn’t really thinking last night when I said I would make up for the lack of workout yesterday, today. It’s Friday! That means I already have two workouts to do today. I couldn’t possibly add a third. I don’t even think I can run today. I wore high heels yesterday, something I don’t do very often, and my calves, shins and feet are all sore. Not sure I’ve ever had that before! Does that come with age or am I just that out of practice? So today’s workouts are Speed 1.0 (that’s my favourite because you do intense stuff then stretch) and abs. Those damn abs are trying to kill me! Yuck! That’s my least favourite from Alpha round. I’ve never been one for ab exercises. But I want that nice belly that will look good in a bikini even after having three kids! So a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, right! I told hubby today that I think we should actually go on a proper diet, just to lose 10lbs. I can maintain, especially when I’m back on my exercise bandwagon, but this losing weight isn’t working out so far. Oh how I’m regretting doing nothing but eating and drinking over the Christmas and New Year season! Now I’m going to have to really call upon some willpower and get my arse into gear! Do you know what else is weird, and let me know if this has happened to you too, I am now craving sweet stuff! I’ve always been one for a cheese platter over dessert, yet here I am looking longingly at dessert. All these amazing sweet dishes go through my newsfeed on Facebook and I want to make them and eat them! What has changed in me so much that I have gone from savoury to sweet? Anyway, back to the diet suggestion; I pretty much got this sort of death stare in response. I’m not really sure it’s going to happen but I do all the cooking so he may not have a choice. I may just make my tacos with lettuce wraps instead of tortillas (oh I can only imagine the hell I would get from all of them)! I guess I’ll just have to incorporate something. I find with so many ‘set’ diets that I don’t like a lot of the food. Every diet seems to have lots of zucchini, cucumber, egg plant, sweet potato and capsicum (what Americans call peppers), I don’t like any of them. The other thing is getting what’s available here, I love asparagus but I’m not paying US$6 for a small bunch, which is what I saw them for yesterday. I’m not into the whole shake thing either. I don’t mind adding a smuice (remember that mix between smoothie and juice) but I’m not all about living on drinks. I had actually made a smuice this morning. It was wonderful! I finally got cashew milk too, I really like that in my smuice. I also made scrambled eggs. They don’t look too appealing in the photo because I added home made salsa to 2 eggs prior to cooking it. It just gives them a really nice flavour, especially when you throw some avocado on top. On the side is a piece of grilled haloumi, it gave the whole dish the saltiness that it needed. Great breakfast and I was starving. 

   
 I did the ab workout and survived (barely) there was no way TBC could follow unfortunately, even with my little helper doing it with me! Then I procrastinated and played on Facebook for a while before showering and doing my morning regimen. I went back to the Redefine AMP MD regimen this morning, but found that tonight I needed to use the Smoothe regimen again as my skin was tingling a little bit. I’m wondering what it is I’m doing, perhaps I need to slow down on the AMP MD daily. Maybe it’s a little too much for my skin and I need to slow the pace. Everyone’s skin is different and different things effect different people in different ways. Perhaps my skin is saying that it just needs to slow down. I’ve all of a sudden been the most hard core with my skin regimen than I’ve ever been in my life and I think there might be a shock factor going on, even at day 26. I’ll take it down a notch and we’ll go from there. It’s not going to happen overnight and that’s what I need to keep remembering, a bit tough for someone with very little patience. 
Dear son and I hung out for a while today, how could I resist when he walked up to me and said, “Mummy, I want to snuggle with you.” Best words ever! He is my little snuggle bunny. So we snuggled, watched some tv, talked and laughed and before we knew it, it was time to pick up Madison from the bus stop. Well there was some drama there too. I guess there’s one lady who has a daughter but is always complaining about all the kids hanging out near her apartment (which is right at the bus stop). Unfortunately there is no playground here, something we are hoping to change, and there is no central ground for everyone to hang out, other than these lawns which back on to where the bus comes. She went on to the central page and whinged about everyone playing near her house (it’s not fenced and you can get it fenced if you want to). She had this tree outside with this weird buoy egg thing decorating it. I honestly just thought it was a junk thing so wasn’t too concerned about it in fact never gave it any thought. Well today the kids were all playing and I guess one or all of them knocked it down. And the other mums freaked out a little bit. Madison and two other girls then spent about 10 minutes trying to pick it up and put it back together, to no avail. Well above mentioned lady came out and was about to yell at them when I said “girls thank you so much for trying to put it back together, you are all trying really hard and doing the right thing.” She didn’t really know what to say then, but just told them to leave it alone and bring it to her, then her little dog came out, you know one of those little dogs with little dog syndrome, and started trying to bite my dog. I asked her to please take her dog inside or to put it on a leash. Well I guess that was pushing it because I got the death stare. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure we won’t be friends any time in the near future. Oh well. Luckily I’ll survive. There’s another woman in the block that has obviously taken an immense dislike to me, though I’m not sure why, I’m honestly not that bad. I guess I just rubbed her the wrong way the first time I met her when her dog tried to attack mine (again, not on a leash) & I was concerned for both the safety of my kids and my dog. Not sure that I said anything other than to tell my kids to back away, but I’m pretty sure I gave her a bit of a death stare, I don’t have a good poker face at all and I have a pet peeve for dogs who can turn vicious, to not be on a leash. Needless to say, she was downright rude to me today when I walked right past her and said hello, she looked up then purposely looked down at some other dogs in the neighbourhood. I mean, are we in kindergarten? Where did common courtesy go? Weird. 
That wasn’t the day over yet. We got to go to the dentist! Yay! It was actually a real yay. I had to get that tooth taken care of and so started the long journey to rectifying problems stemming from what was thought to be the right move when I was a young teenager. Anyway, there we were sitting at the dentist and my darling Madison had joined me tonight & she is certainly entertaining. She also happened to be with me the first time we came in and I had what I’m now calling ‘the bidet fiasco’. What is a bidet fiasco? I hear you ask. Well, having used bidets before, I thought I was a reasonably bidet-savvy woman. That wasn’t necessarily the case. I went in to use the toilet and wasn’t really paying very much attention to anything and flushed the toilet after being done, or so I thought. What happened next was water started spraying up in the air! I quickly jumped out of the way of the massive spray that shot up out of nowhere and started pressing every button in there trying to both stop the spray and flush the toilet. Surely logic would prevail and the button that jumped out at you the most was the flush button right? No, that wasn’t the case my friend. Now let me just say that we are inside a very busy dental clinic. Not too far from the eyes and ears of the busy waiting room and water is now everywhere inside the stall and pouring outside of the stall in the smallest bathroom I have ever been in to in my life. Dearest Madison is outside the stall yelling for me to stop the water from running whilst chaos is ensuing inside! Omg! I finally put the lid down and there it was, looking like the light at the end of the tunnel, the flush button! Thank god! The spraying, steaming, cleaning session, that erupted without a bottom in sight, came to an end. I opened the stall to find Madison standing there asking me what happened. I explained to her and we both started giggling hysterically. I cleaned up as best I could, not being able to do a whole lot with the water that had made its way outside of the bathroom. Luckily every Korean bathroom has a sloping floor leading to a drain. I may have then strongly encouraged my child not to speak of this incident again, particularly in the waiting room, held my head high and walked out. The receptionist has a direct line to the bathroom and gave a questioning look, but nothing further was said in English and I behaved like it was all very normal and that’s how we foreigners use our bidets. Since then, I have used the bidet without incident. 

    

After taking care of one tooth and setting up the appointment to take care of the next, (months long process unfortunately) we went to Outback – an American chain restaurant they happen to have here in SoKo (what we locals call South Korea 😉). It was very disappointing, hubby asked for a medium-well steak, it came out rare! And there wasn’t anything too appealing on the menu. We are both ok to never go back there, so that sums up just how good dinner was. We did wander through the streets and this one lady asked me if she could take Hunter’s photo (this actually happens more often than you think, yesterday this old Korean man was trying to hold Alessandra’s hand and she flipped out) it’s hard to know where to draw the line between the cultural differences, but I said no to this lady tonight. I don’t know where that photo of my 3yo son could end up, so no. And I’ll let Ally handle the situation with people wanting to hold her hand – obviously stepping in if necessary – but she can handle her own and isn’t a fan of strangers touching her, can’t say I blame her. It’s always interesting here. And definitely always an adventure! 
Happy Friday! 

Challenge Accepted Day 24

Well hello Wednesday and hello to feeling sooooo much better! I had a good night’s sleep and everything just feels good today! The T25 program today was Lower Focus but I ran an 81/2 minute mile prior to that on the ‘dreadmill’ and it felt great! I’m starting to recover so much better now which means my fitness level is finally on the increase. This is going to sound weird but the other thing I felt when I was running was like my bottom was becoming firmer. Do you know what I mean? You know, you can feel it shake, rattle & roll as a female, particularly when you’re running and you’ve got a little bit extra there, but today it felt like it was shaking and rolling, with no rattling! 😉 it felt good! The lower focus portion of it sucked, but Shawn T likes to take you to hell and back with lunges and squats in these workouts and I ‘hate’ lunges and squats! Yuck. Talk about making for some torturous moves. If anyone ever wanted to seriously torture me, they could just make me squat then lunge then squat and so on and so forth and I would probably give away my first born! (I’m just kidding child 😜) 

I had a shower and did my usual regimen with Redefine and AMP MD, I know I had mentioned to you that I had started using the AMP MD in the morning routine because it works out better for me than at night but today I learnt that you shouldn’t use it in the morning if you’re going to be wearing makeup (shows how often I wear makeup doesn’t it?) It stings a little. I shan’t be doing the AMP MD tomorrow morning given it is a big day and I will be wearing makeup once again. I also put the Rodan + Fields Essentials Foaming Sunless Tanner on and it is looking good. I would show you a picture but honestly, I was so white beforehand and it gives you such a natural looking tan, that you wouldn’t be able to tell I even had it on. I did however, go from zombie to healthy in one swoop! And there’s no streaking and no funky fake tan smell. All prejudice aside, this is the best fake tan I’ve ever used. Let me know if you’re interested in ordering some. It sells out quickly! 
So, I had to also get in and clean today given my slack-arsery yesterday. This place is crazy when it comes to dust bunnies! Our dog doesn’t even shed and yet we end up with dust bunnies every day! I’ve never seen anything like it, even in Bahrain (where the sand comes in off the desert plains and causes a fine dust to settle on everything) it was never this bad. I have a roomba (a robot vacuum cleaner) dear son is obsessed with Robbie (yes, the vacuum cleaner has a name). We got Robbie when Hunter was about 3 months old and here we are (he turns 4 at the end of May) and he is still obsessed. I am talking like crazy, obsessive! We arrived here and got our house and moved in but our household goods hadn’t yet arrived and rather than asking for his toys and his bed, every day he would instead ask me when Robbie and Roberta were getting here. I didn’t mention Roberta, but she’s our robotic mop. Not quite as good as Robbie as far as accomplishments go, but she’ll do. Hunter doesn’t love Roberta quite as much as Robbie, but it’s close. Going back to the dust, I run Robbie daily and hand vacuum twice a week in all the nooks and crannies and still I find so much dust. That’s one of the reasons why I ordered an air purifier, well that and the impending yellow dust and the smog and the pollution and the fact that I am mildly asthmatic and dear son may well be too. You know, all those lovely things that come with living in South Korea. I’m understanding the masks so much better now! 

 
   
Last night my air purifier arrived. Yippee. I had bought one already from the Post Exchange (PX) our almost department store on the base, but I wanted another one for upstairs. Honestly, in an ideal world I would have one in every room, but that’s not going to happen, so this was the compromise. So hubby came home last night with all sorts of goodies for me including the air purifier, 4 extra carbon filters, a diffuser as per the recommendation of one of my Aussie friends, Sarah, who owns a health food store. You see not only does South Korea have some pretty serious pollution problems, it also has some weird, funky smells. Smells that I cannot really describe. Smells located somewhere between a rotting corpse, excrement, fire and soil/manure/fertilizer. So as you can imagine, it’s pretty pungent at times, hence the need for a diffuser. I didn’t realize it when I ordered it, thinking I had just bought a plain one, but I guess I got a retro diffuser that changes colour. Everyone else in the house loves it and I’m loving the essential oils, so it’s a win/win situation. So today I cleaned, vacuumed and set everything up ensuring the house smells lovely and has some fresh air. And it is as good as it can be right now. In fact, after yesterday, today has been really lovely; hubby came home early because tomorrow he actually starts work in his proper role, our eldest stayed at school and will meet us later when we go and see her perform at the school’s concert tonight. She has a solo, so we are really excited for her. She has a great voice, it could do with a little bit of training should she want to pursue a career, but it’s good nonetheless. That’s where we are off to. I made chicken tortilla soup, it was very nice too, and now we shall be off. I’ll finish the blog upon our return and be able to let you know how it all went then. 

  
Ok so concert was a bit of a bust, not because of a lack of talent but because we couldn’t hear. The band sounded great but the choir and all of the speakers needed microphones and there weren’t any to be found, bar the one in the centre of the stage (that you can see in the photo)  

 focused only on hearing the instruments. Oh well. The people in the front row cheered so they must have sounded good, right? There wasn’t really a solo either. From then on it was just the band and normally I would have been all about the music, but middle school/high school kids aren’t all necessarily super talented and when the program is a couple of hours long and your child’s only role is for 5 minutes at the beginning, and you have a 3yo and a 7yo along with you and a big day tomorrow, well sometimes you just have to call it and we did just that. In fact hubby made his way out super early leaving Madison and I to try to finagle our way out of this and get Ally along the way who was at the complete opposite side of the theatre to us. Sometimes being a parent is rough! And Madison is a very special child (& I mean that in a 100% caring, lovable way that only a parent can talk about their own child), she’s sweet and different. I explained to her that I wanted her to go over to the other side of the auditorium to get her sister and tell her that we were going and to come over to me. She runs (& I mean runs, full pelt) and can’t find her, so she runs back – this all while the band players are changing – I say to her that she’s definitely there and to go back and find her. So she runs back, full pelt, finds her and runs back to me saying she found her. I stop her and say, “Madison, what was it I asked you to do once you found Ally?” “I don’t know!” “I asked you to tell Ally we were leaving and to come here.” She runs back once again and finally gets Ally who comes over and tells me she needs to go back to a room and get her stuff., I tell her to go and get it and that we are leaving (the next band members are now walking up on stage and finding their seats) and to meet me in the front of the auditorium. She moves it and finally I feel like we are able to leave. 
I see hubby out front with dear son and he’s looking concerned; “I forgot to pick up the roses!” He exclaims. Oh crap! The Army is all about ritual and ceremony and the roses play a part in tomorrow’s ceremony, he’s already paid for them and we’re not sure what time the flower shop opens in the morning. We ‘book’ it over there (meaning go with haste) and he runs in to find the lovely lady has been waiting for him to come in and collect them for the past hour! You wouldn’t find that in either Australia or the USA! We may be limited for shopping venues for roses here in South Korea and they may be super expensive but they take care of you once you’ve ordered them. To say I’m impressed is to say the least. I pictured myself leaving the house at O dark thirty searching for yellow roses! 
Ok, now for the other bad news. I have this little mark on my face and last night I had this not so bright idea to put some of the ‘Reverse Skin Lightening treatment (from the accelerator pack) on this mark, hoping it would go away quickly. Don’t ask me why I did it, sometimes, we just don’t think, sometimes, I just don’t think. Anyway, I put it on there underneath a silicone scar bandage (again not sure what the hell I was thinking, just hoping for a quick fix because I wanted to look really nice for tomorrow) and now I’ve got a big red mark on my face – not sure if I’ve burnt it, or exacerbated it by using the AMP MD roller this morning, or what I’ve done, it’s sore and tender and I’ve had to give the Redefine regimen a miss tonight and use the Rodan + Fields Soothe regimen instead. I promised I would be honest with you, so I’m trying to be honest, even when I make mistakes. Now I’m feeling not only like an idiot, but also pretty upset at this mark that is now lingering underneath my left eye. Just in time to make an appearance for tomorrow when I’m still feeling overweight and yucky and we have this thing, this important thing that I wanted to look beautiful for. Shallow and egotistical, I know, but I have so few opportunities to look really nice, so when I do I want to make the most of it. 
That’s it for me today. Another crazy day in my life. I’ll update you on how the red mark looks tomorrow and how everything else goes. Have a great day or night, wherever you are!

Challenge Accepted Day 7

Good Sunday to you! How is it Sunday night already? Feels like my weekend flew by as per usual! I hope you have made the most of yours. I’ve been doing quite a few different things this weekend, trying to really get into my new life here as well as my want to treat my body somewhat better, nonetheless, I have an Aussie friend who lives in England and has been drinking a turmeric hot drink for a very long time, she has told me about it before and I’ve thought about making it but never actually gotten there, until today. I made the base for it late last night then drank the turmeric latte this morning. It was actually quite lovely. I can assure you, I was very skeptical given the ingredients and I over compensated on the honey, try it with only one teaspoon full of honey before you add a second. I also used regular ground turmeric (that was all I had) but I did have organic coconut oil so used that. No non-dairy milk either, so regular cows milk it was. I’m going to look next weekend at Costco to see if they have any cashew milk so I can just drink it with this drink, but I wasn’t too concerned, it was really the health benefits of the turmeric I was looking for. It is also known as golden milk or turmeric tea and you can find a great recipe for it here:

http://kellybroganmd.com/so-long-coffee-hello-turmeric-latte/

And here’s my cup this morning:

  
There are plenty of recipes out there though and as I was searching for my cardamom this morning, I came across ginger and thought oh I bet that would be a lovely addition to it also, I think the key thing is to get the incredible benefits of the polyphenol antioxidant curcumin that is known to help many different ailments and what is also the key factor in giving turmeric its golden colour. 

Whilst on my turmeric kick, another recipe came across my newsfeed for turmeric toothpaste (isn’t it weird when Facebook reads your mind like that). Apparently Indian dentists swear by it so I thought why not give that a try too? Here’s a link to that recipe:

Turmeric toothpaste
  
It doesn’t look pretty, but it didn’t taste too bad when I used it this morning, I followed it with my regular toothpaste brushing as I didn’t see the harm in using both methods either, so we’ll wait and see. I will take my 1 week photo tomorrow smiling so we can look at how my teeth are in another week after using this method. 

Okay, let’s get to talking about my favourite thing I’ve done today, macro exfoliation! Rodan + Fields have this amazing tool called the Redefine Macro Exfoliator and I LOVE it! It is honestly the best 5 minutes of my skincare regimen all week, especially when I haven’t done it in over two months! Anyway, I think last Monday I had mentioned that I had found the empty box but not the tool, well I found the tool a couple of days later and had to charge it up so I decided Sunday night was going to be my macro night. 

How does it work? Well it’s this handheld personal tool (it’s the main photo for this article) that works using some great patent-pending technology called DOC-SMART, where the level  and length of time varies depending on which part of your face you are exfoliating. It is basically like your at-home microdermabrasion but with med spa quality results and all for a fraction of the price. It is a big investment to start with, retailing for $279 + tax & shipping but it is so worth it in my humble opinion. I seriously love this product. I used it tonight and my face feels amazing, I almost took a photo of all the yucky dead skin and crap that came off my face into the filter but I couldn’t bring myself to, it really wasn’t a pretty site! Instead I took a couple of close ups for you of the diamond tip head and the little picture on it that shows you how the DOC-SMART technology works, she literally shows you where to go next with the force of the exfoliation adjusted to the sensitivity of that area of your face and neck. I do go against her recommendation when it comes to the neck and I go with upwards strokes rather than downward and then I switch it to manual to use on the back of my hands every now and again, and it really shows when I do.  Everything just feels much softer and lighter and happier! 
 
  
Now onto the T25 side of the challenge, I must say that both hubby and I really enjoyed the stretching today! It was amazing how it felt to relieve some of the tension in your body after working it so hard! I have never done that side of it before and I should have, it definitely gives you hope that the week to come will not be anywhere near as hellish as last week! I did want to do more exercise today as I felt I was slacking off a little but I also knew my body had worked hard all week and it was ok to give it some rest today. Our original plan was that the  family would bike ride through the rice paddies but it was overcast and cold and hubby hurt his back last night so it just seemed like the best idea was to hang out with each other and watch movies (well the kids and hubby did this afternoon whilst I pottered about). We had a really nice pot roast beef for dinner tonight but I’m feeling a bit blah right now as I definitely ate too much! And I have to do a personal weigh-in in the morning 😩 oh well, them’s the breaks right?

Have an amazing day/night, no matter where in the world you are and I’ll see you on Monday for another great week of challenge fun! 

Challenge Accepted Day 6

Super short and sweet today. My skin felt amazing this morning when I did my morning regimen, so my break from the Amp MD roller did me the world of good, it also felt quite lovely and velvety, so I’m definitely happy with how it’s feeling. I’m also looking forward to doing the macro exfoliation tomorrow night, more on that to come.

It warmed up here to a balmy 3C so it was actually warm enough to go for a quick run with my darling eldest daughter (who did nothing but complain the entire time) & my crazy, lovable puppy dog, you know the ‘golden doodle’, who thinks that anything short of a three minute mile is slow, therefore pretty much ripped my arm out of its socket throughout the run! Anyway it was a short but sweet run, maybe 3/4 mile, I’ll have to borrow hubby’s Fitbit equivalent and see what it says as far as distance goes. It was a day off from T25 (YES) so my body has been thanking me all day! 😜

I went out with the family and did some grocery shopping and finally got some potting mix so I could repot some plants we bought when first got here. Cannot wait until it starts really warming up and we can spend some more time outside. I also started a little project I saw on Pinterest, spray painting any tin cans we use so we can line them all up on the railing interspersed with spaghetti sauce mason jars with tea candles in them so we can give a little bit of colour and life to our little patio (photos to come when that project is finished). I think it will look really cute and if it means I can upcycle and stop the copious amounts of waste we seem to be putting out along with everyone else here in South Korea, then that will be something. I’m not going to be taking any of it with me when we leave but I can always just try to give them to someone else can’t I. It’ll be really nice to see it all come together. 

  
Alright, it’s pizza night tonight, I told you guys I wasn’t dieting right? I’m too old for that, but I do need to get into shape again so that’s the whole point of this. Normally our pizza night is Sunday night, but we didn’t have a roast in the freezer so we did a swap (I bought a roast today) so I can get the roast on early tomorrow in the crock pot so it literally melts in your mouth. We’ll do a salad with pizza I think too. Otherwise, it’s all about trying to put this never-ending mess of a house together. I feel like we take two steps forward and three steps back on some days! I just want everything to have a place and I have done such an amazing job of throwing so many things out and still the crap seems to be everywhere! Yes, my hoarding problem has had to come to an end and I’m pretty sure I’ve already gotten rid of at least 400 pounds of extra stuff and I have at least another 200 pounds ready to sell at a garage sale in the near future! So everything is a big thumbs up from my hubby at the moment. Again, we’ll have a deep & meaningful (D&M) about my real hoarding problem that I’ve had to deal with over these past few weeks on another day. 

We are going to go for a family bike ride tomorrow through the rice paddies, so that will be really fun! I’ll make sure to take some photos so you can get an idea of what I’m seeing. Have a great night/morning, whatever the time may be in your neck of the woods!