Tag: Skincare

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 22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 21

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

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

  

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 20

Well, another day in paradise……. Ok, we’re still waiting for it to turn into paradise, but another day in beautiful South Korea! 😊 Last night was interesting at the Hail and Farewell, it was a long night, much longer than either of us expected it to be, that’s for sure. It was ok though. It’s always weird in the military world because you meet people (spouses in particular) and think are you going to be one of those people who’s all about the rank or are you just going to be a really nice, down to earth kind of person or are you just going to be someone so very different from me that we don’t have anything in common? It’s weird. It’s like a little world unto itself being a military spouse. For the most part, military spouses are awesome. They are some of the most incredible, strong, resilient people you will ever meet. They are Jills of all trades and masters of many too! They are educated (maybe not all of them in terms of University degrees – but a lot are) but they have pulled through situations most people can only begin to imagine. And most of the time, they are pretty down to earth people! We know we are moving constantly, we know we have no idea where we’ll be in five years. We know that most of us don’t give a damn about the rank of someone else’s husband/wife, it’s not about that, it’s about connecting with people who know what sort of life you lead. It’s about connecting with people who understand the challenges we all go through. And even when we meet a young spouse who is just starting off this crazy journey, you want to connect with them because you want to help them deal with the craziness ahead and give them the tools and resilience to make it, in this world of its own. 
When I first met my husband, I had no idea what this world was all about. In fact, my sister and I were throwing a party at our house in Bahrain (a small island just off the coast of Saudi Arabia for those of you who aren’t familiar) and we invited a number of American Navy guys we had met (having no idea of their ranks or what that meant). A number of them arrived and left shortly after, explaining to us they couldn’t stay because they were Officers and their immediate subordinates (enlisted) were at the party and it was unacceptable for them to stay. The Navy was very strict when it came to fraternization (socializing with an enlisted soldier that falls under your command). My hubby was enlisted and wasn’t concerned about any of that, he was an E3 at the time, meaning he was pretty low on the totem pole. Anyway, my sis and I were upset they left but had a great night nonetheless. It was only years later after living in Sicily with hubby, I began to understand just how serious fraternization was; the girls who organized my baby shower both worked at a bank together and were great friends. They both came to my shower (which was a ‘hubby’s invited’ party) but one of them couldn’t have her husband there because every other person there was enlisted and he was an Officer!  How crazy is that? 
Years later, my hubby is now an Officer and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because he worked hard to get here, we both did actually. He gave up the Navy, got out. Went to a Fire Academy in San Antonio and became a firefighter only to be told there wouldn’t be a job for at least 2 years. He then put himself through University whilst supporting his Aussie wife (who couldn’t work legally to begin with then couldn’t find a job that covered the cost of childcare making it worthwhile to leave her baby) and his daughter. He joined an ROTC program and became an Officer in the Army. I am still so proud of all he accomplished! Yet I hate it because I am immediately judged as being an Officer’s wife. Like I give a damn about that crap! If you’re awesome, then I like you, I don’t really give a crap where your hubby falls on the totem pole. I’ve been there. If you’re not so awesome, again, don’t care what rank your hubby is, it truly doesn’t matter! The only other thing that really bothers me is we can’t hang out as a couple with other couples who fall under my husband. I’ve met some amazing people that I really liked, both wife and hubby, but one of them has been one of hubby’s soldiers meaning it was a no-go as far as couple friendship goes. 😕 Boo. But, here we are in South Korea, just getting to know people, so I’m hopeful the people I meet aren’t going to judge, are just going to be themselves, and so far, so good. I actually even made a mistake. Yes me. Sometimes we have to admit when we are wrong and I am admitting I was wrong right now. Last Friday, I went to the local market with a couple of new acquaintances (hopefully on their way to being friends) and I said I was concerned these women wanted to have lunch with me just because of my husband’s rank. I was wrong. Actually, it was in very poor character for me to say that. So I formally take it back. They weren’t out to do that. I know this because I couldn’t go and I saw them the next day talking to every new spouse who had arrived and they all went out to lunch. Yay for them and boo to me. I am really glad I was wrong and I shall never make such poor assumptions again! 
So back to last night. I actually knew a couple of people! I’m not a super social person. My Mum is. She’s the most sociable person I know. My Dad has this saying that goes something like this: “The pope stands up at St Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican and he looks out at the crowded mass of people with my Mum standing beside him and the people say, G’day Lyn, how are you?” Something like that anyway. We can be anywhere and my Mum will find someone she knows, it’s crazy. She is just this amazing person when it comes to interacting with other people! I am more like my Dad. I pretend to be social but I’m a bit of an introvert. I’m not good in big groups. I get uncomfortable and awkward. I wish I didn’t and I try to go against it when I can, in fact my husband was fooled for a couple of years after we married that I was and extrovert. Don’t get me wrong, I love having big groups of people over to my house (he doesn’t), we throw amazing Halloween parties, I just don’t talk to a big group of people all at once, I’m more of a one-on-one kind of person, one-on-two at most. Unless I know you all well. Then it’s a different story. So I really pushed myself out of my comfort level last night and went and said hello to a girl we knew in Hawaii. Hubby was like, “well do you know her that well?” I said, “she came to our house, I know her well enough to go and say hi!” Anyway, she immediately gave me a hug and was so welcoming, knew exactly who I was. Yay. The next one was a bit of a failure. I recognized this woman from Hawaii, I used to sit in meetings with her at least once a month. I walked up to her and said hi, she put her arms out to hug me, so I immediately thought she recognized me, I hugged her back, she said welcome to Korea it’s very nice to meet you, I thought, oh crap, she doesn’t remember me (I’m not a stranger hugger) and I said how are you, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other in Hawaii, she said, “oh, you were in Hawaii?” I felt mortified inside and said, “yes!” And named a few names of mutual friends and what not. Then she calls her husband over and tells him we were in Hawaii and he’s like yes, I know, not helping his wife at all! Then I felt embarrassed for both of us, so made small talk and said good bye! Talk about being in a terrible level of uncomfortableness! Other than that social mishap, there were some nice, seemingly genuine people there and although a long night, where my children were very much done by the end of it (halfway through to be honest), it was ok.
Today we attended the ‘Eggstravaganza’ on the base (or Post if you’re a true Army person) and it was ok. There was only one food tent, not acceptable in my books and an opportunity missed by many, but I don’t know the reason behind it so I shall not judge too much until I know more reasons behind why there wasn’t more diversity and why FRGs weren’t there fundraising by selling food. Anyway, other than lack of food choices, it was good. Kids had a blast. We even ran into people we knew. We only stayed for an hour or so because we were all starving. 
  

I really screwed up all our plans for this weekend too! I wanted to visit a friend I made on our way over here to South Korea (that’s a story unto itself that I shall share on here another day)! She lives in an area that has blossoms blooming now and I said we would come. Problem is we have a curfew. Then I read the cherry blossom thing happened on this Sunday (a school night), so I thought no, it’s Easter Sunday, that won’t work. Then she and I messaged each other back and she said it was at night and I thought that definitely wouldn’t work, being a Sunday night and all. Then we messaged each other again and she said no it’s Saturday that this festival is on and I said we had plans, at least I thought we did. Hubby did have a meeting this morning, but at first there was supposed to be an egg hunt in my little neighbourhood (at 0630 this morning, I realised that wasn’t going to happen) then I thought we were having dinner with a couple tonight; hard to explain, we are looking after their cats whilst they go away, again a neighbourhood thing, we went to meet her and she seemed like a really awesome person and my kids and I really liked her from the minute we met, and we are having dinner together so we can meet her hubby, she can meet mine. She also lived in Australia for a number of years and just seems like my cup of tea! Anyway, I got the dates wrong and it’s next weekend we’re doing that! Silly me. So then I message my friend and say I screwed up, maybe we can come now, but she’s got all sorts of things going on there and it’s a no-go! So, we end up at the little festival, where there’s no food, followed by lunch in the food court, followed by wondering around the Ville that is outside of the post. It was suggested by another acquaintance (on her way also to being friend) that we travel to a place called Asan, but by the time we finished eating, hubby was done and wanted to wonder around close by rather than drive anywhere. 
We had fun in the Ville, he ordered a tailor-made suit, (I know right) and we enjoyed ourselves as a family. There were a couple of stores that made us laugh including the local ‘Hooters’. We came home and watched ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ and now it’s card night in our house, so I am being called as I write this!

  
I did T25 TBC. It was hard but I am certainly doing much better. I was even able to fast forward before the DVD froze so that worked out as well. My back is a tad sore though as I write this so I may have done one of the exercises not quite right. I weighed myself this morning and I was down over 2 lbs or about 1kg! Yay! Unfortunately, I haven’t eaten as well as I could have today. But I’m really happy it’s at least showing on the scales finally! I did my Redefine regimen also this morning, using the Microdermabrasion paste whilst I was in the shower and it felt great! I really wish I was using Reverse too, it makes a huge difference for sun damage from what I’ve seen. I’m thinking that will be my follow-up challenge. By the way, there are going to be some modifications in this challenge as I’ve realised the Rodan + Fields is a 60 day challenge and T25 is a 70 day challenge. It may just be a continuous thing with the Reverse regimen continuing on from where the Redefine left. I’ll keep you posted. 
So I’m being called again and must say adieu! I did start the day with a homemade cappuccino too (as per the photo) & realised I didn’t miss coffee as much as I thought I did. Also, note to self, in a humid environment, keep your turmeric latte mix in the refrigerator otherwise it will get mouldy! Yuck! Well, the Easter Bunny should make an appearance tonight so here’s hoping he, or she comes to your neck of the woods! 

Happy Easter!

Challenge Accepted Day 19

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 18

Hello Thursday! The Thursday before Good Friday too! It always surprises me that Americans aren’t more into Easter. I’m not overly religious or anything either but in Australia, Easter weekend is a big weekend. We have Easter holidays normally and everyone has at least a 4 day weekend. When I was growing up, shops weren’t open on Good Friday, it was like Christmas Day, everything shut down. I know it’s not quite as strict nowadays but it’s pretty close and it’s still a public holiday and a lot of people use their 4 day weekend to go camping or visit relatives, it’s a huge weekend on the roads in Australia! Yet in America everyone goes to school on Good Friday, there’s no Easter Monday. Just different. Now in saying that, my eldest daughter actually does have the day off but her little sister doesn’t! How crazy is that? Two schools run by the same people yet they can’t agree on their days off! Madison has a half day at least, but Spring break for them begins on April 11th (not sure how the blog’s going to go during that crazy week!
Ok, so last night I went to the dentist. My jaw aches on a regular basis and I’ve been told I have what was originally called mandibular jaw dysfunction but is now known as Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ). I thought that was why my teeth started hurting so much the other day but unfortunately it isn’t. The dentist took an X-ray of one side of my mouth only, “Let’s start there,” he said, and sure enough there was something there. He removed my amalgam filling (I had been to him before and he suspected something was going on underneath the amalgam fillings in all my double teeth) and sure enough there was a huge cavity! Let me give you some background information; when I was about 12 or so, my family’s then dentist told my parents I had very deep grooves in my double teeth (also known as pits and fissures) and he wanted to go ahead and fill them to protect them from cavities – obviously sealants weren’t being widely used in Australia at that time. Sure enough, he filled every molar tooth with amalgam (silver) filling. Now, here I am however many years later and it looks like cavities have gotten under all of those amalgam fillings! He put a temporary filling in this one and thinks it’s safe from needing a root canal but only just because it’s been caught in time. Who knows what hellish nightmare all the others are hiding underneath the amalgam fillings put in their to prevent cavities! Right now I’m not allowed to chew on my left side until I can get back to see him next Friday to put in the permanent inlay. And that’s the plan for all of my double teeth – remove the amalgam, hope nothing any more sinister is hiding in there, replace with inlays. I just want it all to be done! I’m not a huge fan of the dentist, I’m a bit cranky no dentist has mentioned this could be a possibility to me before now and I am not looking forward to this treatment over the next couple of months! Boo! 
The chewing though has reinforced the juicing thing today. I thought that it was s sign that this is what I’m meant to do. But I am a tad hungry and I will be eating dinner tonight. Sorry. Juice all day but dinner with the family tonight. Ally is having her first friend over for a sleepover and she is so excited. But it does mean I’m going to actually have to cook and not just give my kids some crappy food because Mummy’s only doing liquids! 😜 the plan is for a yummy Chinese noodle salad, a fresh salad as well as chicken, probably done in a light breadcrumb. My kids love it when I make homemade breaded chicken so it’ll be good I’m sure. Nonetheless, I’m not strong enough to cook that and not eat it! 
Since I have written this, we have had dinner and I am feeling very full and very blah! I was hungry and I ate too much! But I will say this, my exercise routine this morning was great! I took my dog for our first run through the rice paddies. It was great! She loved it and I much prefer to run outside instead of on the ‘dreadmill’. When I first heard talk of rice paddies, I wasn’t quite sure of what to expect, but we are talking paved paths that are better than most of the roads here in South Korea. It was a really nice run except when Luna ripped my arm off trying to get to some ducks, but otherwise, all good. I got back, had my juice/smoothie, said goodbye to the husband then started T25 Cardio. It went reasonably well, basically there are two boxes you can check after each workout: 

Barely made it

Nailed it

I was somewhere in between the two whereas last week, I was definitely in the ‘barely made it’ category. It feels good to be finally getting somewhere even from a fitness point of view, though I do feel like my body is changing, I know, yesterday I was all negative, but today it feels like things have changed.
I looked at my skin this morning and I honestly started seeing a difference! Yay! I’m not sure if you can see it yet in the photo but I could see it in the mirror and it was like a breathe of fresh air! At last my skin is starting to look better. I have really been consistent with using the Redefine regimen combined with Amp MD, the Macro Exfoliator once a week and Acute care as per directions. It is actually starting to show so I cannot wait to see the results in 42 days! 
  

Now onto the juicing side of it, I used whatever I had in the cupboard, there was no diet that I followed and I used my Magic Bullet to combine it all rather than a juicer. My first juice was a mix of strawberries, kiwi, a lady finger type banana (grown locally and wonderful), some honey, chia seeds and cranberry juice. It was lovely after my run but before my T25 workout! Not filling yet enough to ensure I had energy to do it. 
  

The second drink I had, I guess these are more like smoothies than juice, but the second one was really interesting. A little chunky but still good. I just threw pieces of carrot, celery, strawberry, banana and kiwi into the bullet and mixed it all together with OJ and some chia seeds. It was filling and a good lunchtime drink, not too sweet but sweet enough.  
  
Well, today has been interesting, rewarding, somewhat eye opening when it comes to observing adults and their interactions (I know I haven’t shared any of that but the mystery shall have to remain)! Anyway, the best thing today though has to be that it’s my nephew’s 10th birthday! He is such a trooper and I love him to pieces. Happy birthday Taylor and I hope you all have a sensational day or night! 

Challenge accepted Day 16

Today, is hubby’s birthday. He’s not feeling well unfortunately but he’s one of those people who won’t just rest when he can and has never had a sick day in his life! Today he did rest a little though because I forced him to! What are wives for, right? 😉
We also went out for an early, quick dinner with the family because that’s a tradition in our house, not necessarily the early & quick part, but the birthday person gets to choose where they want to go for dinner. We went to an American restaurant on the Air Force base – Chilis – the kids were good, the food was decent, the service great, all in all, a nice meal out and sometimes, you just don’t get that when you have three fussy kiddos! Or just when you have three kids in general! I had a Southwest chicken salad and water. I also ate quite a few chips and salsa, it was all very nice though and I could only eat half of my salad but it had lots of tortilla strips so it definitely wasn’t healthy!

I feel like all I’ve done is eat today! I worked out this morning (Speed 1.0) luckily that workout isn’t yet affected by the big scratch that has taken the last few minutes of Total Body Circuit, so here’s hoping with some special love and affection, I can maintain that DVD for at least a little while yet! I ran for just over a mile afterwards but I didn’t want to overdo it either after not feeling so great last night. My workout was followed by some cake making (hubby had requested chocolate cake and chocolate marble cake with triple chocolate icing (blught- yes I made that word up and tried to spell it exactly the way I say it)! That’s a little too much for my liking but hubby loves this on his birthday! I can make beautiful, fancy cakes and this is what he wants! 🙂 There was no pavlova today. I think just given general unwellness, he was thankful to have a cake at all! By the way, I opted not to have cake for dessert, instead I had some local strawberries with some vanilla Greek yoghurt on top- not necessarily low in calories but it was yummy and good for you! 
  
Going back to food from earlier in the day, I had the most amazing lunch! Local lettuce combined with local tomatoes, organic spinach, a little bit of pre-mixed salad, carrots, a little bit of avocado, some of the Costco chicken from the can heated up in a little bit of balsamic vinegarette all with some grilled haloumi! Yum! What is haloumi I hear some of you ask? It is a cheese you can actually grill directly. It originated in Cypress and has become a key element in many Mediterranean & Middle Eastern cooking recipes. I haven’t had it for years but saw it at Costco on Sunday and got so excited! I was a bit concerned it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it, but I wasn’t disappointed. This is the best salad I’ve had in years- it could definitely compete with some of the salads from ‘Aloha Salads’ in Hawaii! Definitely! 
  
Whatever it was that was going on with my jaw and teeth last night, well, I’ve got no idea. Hubby has been fighting off whatever has gotten to him for a while and I think it finally won the battle. He’s all heady. Lots of congestion, headache, you know. Just blah! As for me, I felt like anything I was feeling was all being felt in my jaw and in all of my teeth. Really bizarre! Then I made the mistake of going to Google Doc and got told I was having a heart attack! Ha! I think I’m going to make it! 😉 I do however have an appointment with my dentist tomorrow night to check on everything so we’ll just hope for the best. 
A funny thing that did happen today (well today and every time we go anywhere in Korea using our Korean/English GPS) our Korean lady GPS tells us about school zones, speed cameras, parking infringement regulations, sharp curves. She’s very helpful and annoying. Apparently there are huge fines for speeding in Korea and cameras everywhere- Australia, you thought you had it bad! She also says this thing, and we’re not sure why because it doesn’t look that bad to us, but she says, “Warning, danger zone!” Every time she says it, hubby and I immediately start singing: “Highway to the danger zone!” The kids at first just thought we were weird, then I told them it was a song, then they found it amusing, now they normally just ignore us, until today when Hunter asked if he could sing that song too. We laughed and assured him he could but I don’t think he’s hearing her cues or registering that the cues come from the GPS. It was funny to hear him sing it though and next time, well who knows.
Back to the Challenge:

So I just had a long talk with my sister tonight and realised that perhaps I needed to explain the 60 day challenge a little better. That will require a little bit of insight into me. I am a bull at the gate kind of person. I guess being Taurus doesn’t help if you believe all that. Anyway, I have little to no patience and am terrible at following through for the long term when it comes to some things. This 60 day challenge was the concept of my husband months ago, when I first became a Rodan & Fields Consultant. As you can imagine, I jumped in head first without really knowing the products but feeling like my skin had come alive within just a few days! I could only begin to imagine how great it would look if I stuck with this amazing regimen. Hubby said to write a blog about my journey. But I didn’t do either (stick to my regimen or write the blog that is). I used it inconsistently, I didn’t follow all directions. I tried to cut corners. I used a mishmash of products and the results didn’t continue to happen. I lost heart. I lost my oomph! I wasn’t so sure I believed in the products anymore and I’m not a sales-type person. I have a really hard time selling anything. I just wanted the products to speak for themselves and at first they did. Then they didn’t. My friend who got me started was disappointed, I know. Life got in the way too. It just wasn’t working out. When our household goods finally arrived here in South Korea, I realised I had to make a decision, believe in the products once again and let my skin do the talking or walk away from it all, once again. Obviously, I chose to take on Rodan + Field’s 60 day challenge (try the product and if you’re not happy within 60 days you will get a refund, empty jars and all). I needed to commit for 60 days and so I did. 
Today, I looked at my skin after my workout and wondered if there had been any changes yet and I really couldn’t see any and I started to once again feel disheartened, disillusioned, ready to quit, but no! I’m sharing this challenge with all of you so I have to be accountable. I can’t quit. Just like I can’t ‘not’ workout. I have made a promise to you. I’m not going to let you down! I’ve even gone on an AFW! That’s an Alcohol Free Week for those of you don’t know 😜 we (my Aussie family) have AFD’s (Day) & AFW’s & this is an AFW. The exercise is a whole different story that also got me down today! And the weight thing, but we’ll talk more on that another day. 
I think the main thing I have to remember is to ensure I consistently follow directions and to remember that the damage to my skin didn’t happen overnight so I can’t expect change to happen overnight either! It is just frustrating and I really want to turn back the hands of time! One other thing I need to remember is that I am only using one of the regimens. I should be using Redefine in the morning and Reverse at night. Reverse is what is going to get rid of or at least decrease the sun damage, melasma, that sort of thing. But I don’t have any Reverse regimen left and I can’t invest anything more until I believe in the products again. I can’t ask anyone else to invest anything more until I start seeing those results I saw in the first few weeks when I first started using the products! So here I am. Day 16. Not seeing miracles, but knowing it’s a process. It’s going to take time. Just like the exercise will take time and consistency & I’m going to need every ounce of patience I can get! 
  
(This photo was taken straight after my workout this morning). 

Challenge Accepted Day 14

Normally, we have some excitement in the day, there is truly never a boring day in our household, but today may have come close to being that. We got up, I did some clothes washing, made biscuits and gravy for the husband and two of the kiddos (myself and Madison aren’t huge fans). She had bacon, I had coffe and a yakult (the probiotic drinking yoghurt).

We got ready and went to Costco, I did my morning regimen beforehand of course but left the T25 stretching until tonight. I do have to mention something else I’ve been doing religiously for the past 14 days and that is moisturizing. When I get out of the shower, I really massage the tops of my thighs and buttocks with moisturizer, I also pay special attention to that little flappy bit under each arm (aka ‘bat wings’). I’m fairly muscular in my upper arms, always have been, people always thought I was a swimmer, but I’m getting older and need to take care of them now, before it’s too late. Anyway, back to the moisturizing, in a roundabout way of course; I’ve spoken a lot about my hoarding but haven’t really gone into detail, one of the things I have done throughout my life is collect shampoo bottles, moisturizer, conditioner, shower caps (you name it) but anything that says the name of a cool hotel I’ve ever stayed at. I was a flight attendant for a while so I got to stay at some wonderful hotels throughout the world. I’ve left these in baskets in our guest rooms or guest bathrooms over the years but they never got used and I’ve consistently packed them and brought them with us everywhere. It was like a link to my cool traveling days or something. Anyway, we’ve moved to a house at least half the size of our previous house, so all the little crap needs to go! And rather than just throwing it away I am slowly but surely using every little bottle, cake of soap, you name it and throwing the empty ones away! And each use feels good, I am finally putting this stuff to use and helping clear my house of all the little shit that is all adding up to be too much! When planning on regularly using this, I thought I could incorporate it into this challenge; every time I have a shower, I get out and I massage those above mentioned bits with the moisturizer and I knead it pretty hard and try to get in the there and help my body circulate and dispose of any extra fatty tissue from problem areas, it can’t hurt can it? And I’m disposing of this other ‘stuff’. 

Ok, back to today, we go to Costco and spend a small fortune, as you do at any Costco upon entering. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and call a conspiracy theory; Costco is using some sort of high range frequency the minute you enter their store to make you buy things, anything, lots of it too! 😉 ok, maybe not, but I find it very hard to walk out of Costco without spending at least $200! Today was even worse! We bought a small island. Not the kind surrounded by water unfortunately, but a small kitchen island. We needed some extra bench space in this little kitchen and I hated using my antique table for anything, so this was our solution, but we got home and hubby put it together only to attach the top and find this:

  
Not happy! So I guess we’ll have to return to Costco on Saturday and see how the Korean Costco return process compares to everywhere else. Here’s hoping it is as exceptional as we’ve experienced before! If not, I’m not going to be happy, as it is it’s going to be a pain in the you know what! And here I was so excited to have at least a tiny little bit more space. We’ll use it until we return I guess, we certainly don’t have anywhere to keep it other than where it is, so, que sera sera! For now anyway.

Alright, hubby and I went up to do the stretch video, two daughters went out to play and son was happily playing downstairs (so we thought) until he came up asking for pavlova. I told him we would all have some after dinner, but I had left it sitting on the aforementioned island, not yet covered in anything, including protection from little fingers. We came downstairs to start food prep when we spotted the pavlova which had a little finger poke in it that had acted like a tiny tremor precluding a cataclysmic event sending solid cracks all over one half of the pav (Australian for pavlova of course). I tried to rectify the damage using a lot of cream but it didn’t quite work out the way I intended it to and the cool whip wasn’t a huge hit with the girls and I (we prefer real cream whipped up, but hubby prefers that rubbish so I gave in to his wishes given it is his birthday week. 

   
 
  
I took that last photo to try to show you what it looks like inside, this one unfortunately got a little too cooked underneath but we have this super hot, tiny gas oven so I’m trying to think of anything I can do differently on Tuesday when I make another pav to prevent it from getting too cooked on the bottom, it shouldn’t even be brown, it should be a light malt colour and it does affect the flavour. 

My one success tonight was an amazing smoothie, strawberries, mango, chia seeds (a Costco purchase from today as was the organic, frozen mango) & cranberry juice – that’s about the only good healthy thing I had today, but at least I did that! 

Tonight, I am drinking my ‘sleepy time’ tea and I’m about to go and do my Sunday night Rodan + Fields regimen which includes the macro exfoliating! Yay! Well, have a great night/day and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Challenge Accepted Day 12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  
Wow! Wow! Wow! 

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

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

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 10 – round 2

Ok, so I just wrote my entire blog, and it’s all gone! Gone! Hubby just proofread it and it was all good to go but for some reason, the pics weren’t uploading so I chose to delete media and that in turn deleted my entire blog! To say it has been that sort of day, I think sums it up. 

So, now it shall definitely be short and sweet! We’ve not had much news from my brother-in-law, awaiting for the time to hit a decent hour so we can call him and hope that all is well.

My workout this morning was the absolute worst, I was tired, due to no sleep once again and do not even think about buying this rubbish:

  
It doesn’t work in the slightest, well it didn’t for me, I should say. On top of being tired, I drank some bottled white wine last night that obviously went straight to my head and I ate chocolate, lots of chocolate! Naughty me! It was even the good kind of chocolate; dark with pumpkin seeds, but still my body betrayed me this morning during Speed 1.0! It was awful. I truly struggled. I did however force myself to slow jog a mile afterwards so we shall call that a little victory!

Another victory for us today as a family was for our daughter’s parent teacher conference, not only is she doing so well on a social level, in the words of her teacher, “She is the sweetest, most polite student, and a joy to have in my class.” She picks up on new math concepts and strategies , is on grade par with her writing, reading and comprehension and is just a well-rounded kid! Such a huge leap from where we were just a few years ago and especially given she has just gone through her first change of schools and to top it all off, it was a mid-year move! This kid has been through hospital stays, physical challenges, years of pain and crippling (at times) illness, yet here she is, almost at 100% good health and such a beautiful soul! We couldn’t be prouder! 

Hunter and I had a great brunch, he had the fruit, I had the chicken/avocado/spinach salad, we cleansed the house of much useless paperwork, the girls actually got to play out side for almost 2 hours!!! All in all, though my challenges felt at times overwhelming, the day was a success, now all we can do is hope that my brother-in-law had a similar night. May your day or night, be filled with only good challenges and may you stay safe and dry!

   
 On a side note: My skin is feeling amazing, I have just done my nightly regimen and am feeling like my skin is growing younger daily. Seriously! You will see 😊 Au revoir for now, tomorrow shall be a new day!