Tag: SouthKorea

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

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

Please find me on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures 
Email me at: Aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

Challenge Accepted Day 58/ Day 16

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

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

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

“Hunter can’t stay by himself?”

“No, Hunter needs Mummy to race.” 

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


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


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


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


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

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


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

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 57/ Day 15

Today has been a bit of a rubbish day. The weather has been crappy, I had very little sleep as our Vonage phone rang five different times between midnight and 0350! It was terrible! On top of that, my throat started hurting around 2am and has gotten progressively worse. So this blog shall be short and sweet so I can get to bed sooner rather than later. 

It’s a strange place, South Korea, there are so many wonderful things here but when you arrive in the dead of Winter and the place is both freezing cold and extremely barren and you find yourself and your family getting sick over and over again because of the polluted air, it makes it hard to fall in love with. I feel like we have all been sick here more times than anywhere else in our lives! Ally has this perpetual cough that will not leave her, hubby also has it, but not quite as bad, and I am constantly getting sick. Madison and Hunter are both doing fairly well since we brought in the air purifiers but even they complain of headaches and a variety of other ailments on a weekly basis. 
Anyway, enough of that, the day has been rush, rush, rush. Children off to school, including the small boy, followed by a super quick trip to get the Lipolysis shots -in teeming rain, where I had to run about a kilometer from where I had parked to get to the place, all after having done half of my workout. Then it was off to the bake sale, where we did really well, over US$500 raised!! But it was after that the medication started to wear off and I went downhill rapidly. I went and paid the rent, in the pouring rain once again and realized when I got home that I hadn’t eaten all day. I came home to a messy house with stuff everywhere. So the only thing to do was clean, wash, vacuum, you name it, then it was time to ensure Maddy had an event free ride on the bus and this young lady knew she should never bully her or anyone for that matter, again. All good there I think. I guess it didn’t happen on the music bus but on the actual school bus, so I spoke to the bus monitor about it and she is going to watch for anything further and report it if something else happens. 


I spoke to my other sis and caught up on all of her happenings and her drama, picked Hunter up and came back to continue cleaning/folding laundry (best job ever, said no one). We met with Ally and Maddy and had them do their regular chores and homework, shower etc. then I finally did the other half of my workout, with a quick warm up again. It was Plyometric Cardio. It was after that, I again realized that I hadn’t eaten today, so I whipped up some spaghetti, went and picked hubby up from work and we ate and now I am about to go to bed after having a shower and cleaning my face. I may take the phone off the hook tonight and try to rest peacefully after having a honey, lemon tea I bought at the local supermarket. It is amazing tasting stuff! 
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!
Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures 
Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested in Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know. At the above mentioned email and we’ll get you sorted out with the right regimen for you. 

Challenge Accepted Day 56/Day 14

The morning started out rough! I had all weekend to catch up on sleep, yet my body chooses Monday morning to fight with me about staying in bed! I only ‘snoozed’ once, but I’ve felt the pain all day. And today’s the day I had a food handler’s course and a variety of other things I had to get done. 

Then it was off to the bus stop to take Maddy to school and I hadn’t seen any dogs there for a while so thought I would take Luna. Big mistake! Of course today’s the day that this woman, with whom I’ve had bad doggy interactions with before, is there with one of her pups. That was all good, the puppy came over to say hi, Luna (who gets so excited at seeing any dogs, especially one smaller than her) jumps at her to say hi, the puppy backs away and I said “Luna, you can’t jump like that, she doesn’t know you’re playing!” She walked away to greet a friend, all was fine. Then her husband, who obviously was unaware of the previous incidents between the other dog and Luna, brought that dog out to the bus stop & straight over to Luna. The dog immediately started growling at her, then the wife pipes in saying, “come away, she doesn’t like Luna playing with other dogs!” Now before I even knew what I was doing, out of my mouth came the words “no, I don’t mind her playing with other dogs, it’s just your dog. She doesn’t like Luna. She wants to attack her.” I went on to talk about how I’ve been attacked by a dog and their dog scares me and, as I’m right in the middle of saying all of this, their dog growls then tries to bite Luna’s face! It was like the timing of my words couldn’t have been more coordinated with that dog’s temperament toward Luna. Luckily the husband had a hold of the leash, but I was pissed off. I said my goodbyes and walked away before I said anything further. It was only the beginning of my shitty day! 
I worked out – fit test today but I couldn’t find my previous results so just had to write it down and compare it to my results from 2 weeks ago:

Switch Kicks Day 1: 83 Day 14: 93

Power Jacks Day 1: 33 Day 14: 41

Power Knees Day 1: 61 Day 14: 75

Power Jumps Day 1: 33 Day 14: 39

Globe Jumps Day 1: 8 Day 14: 9

Suicide Jumps Day 1: 13 Day 14: 15

Push-up Jacks Day 1: 10 Day 14: 19

Oblique Push-ups Day 33 Day 14: 40
A big improvement in only two weeks! Yay me! Something went really well, so I shouldn’t call it a shitty day. I am only now just comparing my results to those of last week. Some light at the end of the tunnel 🙃

 From there it was time to drop the boy off and head off to help hubby with something he didn’t need help with at all! He had been told he would need extra hands to help him collect gas masks for all of us (his family). Yes, we all need to have gas masks when we live in South Korea, I guess because of that somewhat crazy guy who’s up to the north. Anyway, I had never been to CIF (the distribution place where they get all their kit) so it was an interesting experience nonetheless, but the information about needing help to carry the gas masks was most definitely false. So we stood in there, me feeling a tad out of place, hubby thinking there was going to be some full on suit for all of us, and these 2 small cases come out with 2 slightly larger cases. Nothing my husband couldn’t have handled by himself, yet three different people had told him he would need help. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. I now understand his frustration when he talks about getting his gear though, definitely an interesting setup. And I’m not really sure what the hell I’ll do if we actually do have to put the gas masks on. These are amazingly complicated! 


From there I dropped him off and went on my way to a Food Handler’s Course. We are having an FRG (Family Readiness Group) bake sale tomorrow and we have another big event coming up on May 21, so I wanted to be able to help out at both and decided to take this course so I could. Basically, it’s about food sanitation and general food hygiene. Most of it is common sense, but there are some good pieces of information as well, so I was very glad I took the refresher course, it had been a while. I was also very glad the class went for an hour and 15 minutes rather than the original four hours, I had thought it was going to go for. From there I picked up a new charger and some new foundation (had to choose from Revlon, Maybelline and Covergirl) and ended up with this one from Revlon, here’s hoping it’s nice.


The day got a tad boring with mundane stuff (although I did manage to put together a yummy, healthy lunch) until I was about to go and pick up Hunter and my phone rings. It’s a number I’m not familiar with but its local. Low and behold, it’s Madison. Trying to tell me something about how this girl on her piano bus has sprained her arm. I wasn’t really understanding, eventually I got the message that this girl had grabbed Madison and had hurt her, but she was ok. I say to her I will see her after her lesson and we can talk some more then and she can give me the whole story. I go to pick up Hunter, who has had another amazing day at school. And get another call, this time through Facebook, from a neighbour. All I can think is Luna has gotten out or been hurt or something. So I answer the phone and this Mummy tells me she’s at piano and Madison’s arm has been hurt by someone and Madison’s friend is very worried about her. WTH! So I tell her I’ll be there as quickly as I can. You can imagine everything going through my mind on the way over there! 


I walk in the door and the first person I see is Madison’s friend who was very concerned and I asked her to tell me very calmly, exactly what happened. She then proceeds to tell me how they were getting on the bus and this other girl was getting on and she wasn’t very talkative or anything, so Madison had asked her if she was ok, she didn’t answer I guess, so Madison again asked her if she was ok, apparently she then grabbed Madison’s wrist and twisted it and told her to shut up! To say I was furious, is to put it mildly. Madison then came out and I asked her to tell me the whole story independently from her friend. Her story was identical to her friend’s. I asked her if she was ok now and she said yes, it hurt a lot at the time but had stopped hurting now. Then I asked where this girl was and they showed me her practicing in one of the rooms. I went to the piano teacher, who doesn’t understand enough English to understand the entire story but who did tell me how amazing Madison is doing at piano. She is a natural. She then wanted to show me a piece she has learnt to play and I was very willing to listen whilst I calmed down a tad. She played very well and I couldn’t believe it. I am so happy we have her doing these lessons! I had calmed down when I knocked on the practice room door where this 5th grade girl (who looks like she could be in grade 8) was sitting at the piano. I very bluntly asked her if she had twisted Madison’s arm and told her to shut up. She was scared, I could see that. But I didn’t raise my voice, I just stared at her. Finally she nodded. I then told her if she ever touches my little girl again, not only will I go straight to her parents, I will also call the police. Then I walked away. Too much? Not enough? Hubby wanted to go and find her parents tonight and talk to them. I just thought we should give her a second chance. But now I’m sitting here thinking we should have found out where she lived and gone to see them. I will be there tomorrow when the bus comes. I want to see exactly what happens. I will also talk to the bus driver and ask him to keep an eye on the situation. This bullying bullshit is not ok. Which goes back to my blog on “The Unknown War in South Africa”. Parents can not stand by and do nothing when their children are hurt. Nor should they. Especially when the situations are so clear cut. We don’t have the racial tension here in South Korea that exists in both South Africa and the US, but bullying still happens and it is never ok. 
I came home and had to make lots of muffins for the bake sale tomorrow, then pick up hubby and drop him off at home, in time to get to the dentist once again. Madison and I went where I spent about 30 minutes in agony because they had asked if I could tolerate it without pain medication and I had said yes, trying to save on time, big mistake. Holy crap it hurt! But all bad things come to an end as well and eventually that torture did too. I said to Madaion that we had to run over to the dermatologist as well as I had made an appointment for Friday to get my lump lasered. So we ran in the pouring rain (neither of us with umbrellas or raincoats) a good three blocks, and told them I had to change my appointment to another day. Well she looks in her appointment book and low and behold, there is no appointment for me. Great. I said I would come back on another day and make an appointment as I just couldn’t deal with it all then and our conversation was all being transcribed either through Google translate or through another patient. I really need to learn some Korean! 
Finally, it was time to come home and bake some more, put kiddos to bed and write my blog. This week hasn’t started out so great. Here’s hoping tomorrow is much more positive with great interactions at the bake sale. Not sure I can take any more negativity. I have a lot of little things that I need to figure in order to make this week work and I’m just not sure how I’m going to do it, so that is also frustrating me some. I’ll worry about it tomorrow. For now, my skin is clean. My Rodan + Fields Reverse Regimen just arrived in the mail, so that’s exciting. Yes, that will be my next challenge. But for now, I shall finish this one and show the results to you on Friday. A very appropriate day given I am going to the ball that night and it’s the night before my big 21st (x2)! 😉
I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night, wherever you are!
Please like my page on Facebook: Aussiemumsadventures 
Email me at: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
And if you are interested in Taking your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then let me know at the above mentioned email and we’ll get you sorted out with the right regimen for you. 

Challenge Accepted Day 54/ Day 12

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


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


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

Challenge Accepted Day 53/Day 11

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

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


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


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


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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 52/Day 10

Let me first start by apologizing for yesterday’s crazy blog! I wrote on three different mediums yesterday at four different times throughout the day then put it all together after a very long, wine-filled lunch! Not the best for sure. My chief proof reader (aka the husband) was asleep when I published and I didn’t proof read to ensure I hadn’t doubled up on anything, including jibberish that I’m not even sure how it got there! Anyway, none of that today. Just me writing on one IPad then copying directly to WordPress to publish and today’s blog is worth sticking around for! 

So, I did wake up with a hangover this morning. I tried to drink lots and lots of water last night before going to bed but, given we gave the water a miss during our 6 hour lunch session, I’m not sure it helped any! It was worth it though, what a fabulous time we had. Back to today. I got up and had a berocca (the Australian kind that actually helps with hangovers and doesn’t contain caffeine), then woke Maddy up nice and early. We actually had a nice breakfast and talked about the various happenings at school and it was great. I walked her to the bus stop, sent her on her way and dear son and I came back and woke Ally up. I reminded Hunter he was going to school today and he immediately ran upstairs to get dressed. I tried to do a quick tidy up and was very surprised when he came back downstairs to finish his breakfast dressed like so:


He cracks me up, this one. Ally and I had a great talk as well about being a girl, it didn’t actually start off so great though when she started talking about going on a diet! WTH! I don’t think so. That led us into this conversation about boys and how they are categorizing them at school! No! If you are a Mum to a boy, it is your job to stop this sort of shit from going on. No boy should be categorizing girls! More of this conversation is going to come in a separate blog, dedicated to this subject as this isn’t where this blog needs to go. 
We dropped him at school and I dropped hubby at work, I came home and spent a lot of time researching various things so by the time I was done, it was time to shower and get dressed for the outing today with my German friend, and what an outing it was! She had been telling me about this dermatologist she had been seeing and that she was going to see him today and did I want to tag along, I thought it would be a good idea to go and see another dermatologist about this lump on my forehead so I said yes. After driving around forever, we finally found a park down this little tiny alley. Luckily South Korea is the safest country and one can almost park anywhere and be just fine, the only concern is more the high parking tickets. Anyway, we made our way over there and My friend told them that I was just looking, just seeing what they had to offer. We went upstairs where the Doctor and his wife actually practice and it was all very bizarre with the wife telling me that I should have this full on face treatment that was ₩900,000 and I should get these shots for extra fat on my face and I should get fillers for the lines around my mouth. And Botox to stop my jaw looking so strong. It was rally strange. The South Koreans are literally obsessed with their looks. Plastic surgery has become a huge thing here and everyone who has enough money goes and has various treatments. They are also obsessed with being very thin. I mean very thin. 
I told her no to all the treatments that she offered and said I would think about it, then my friend invited me to come in whilst she had her ‘fat’ shots. Say what? I asked her what was in the fat shots and she had no idea. So I went in and watched as this woman injected her with numerous shots on every ‘fat’ bit of her body. Very interesting. Whilst she was getting that done, I thought I would try to look up what these fat shots are as the woman couldn’t explain to me in English. And here is what it is: Lipolysis shots. The active agent that’s injected is called phosphatidylcholine (PPC). PPC is produced naturally by the body. It is a component of all the cells in the body and is highly concentrated in liver cells, fat cells and the covering of nerve cells. The PPC used for fat dissolving injections is harvested from the soy plant. PPC has been used in other fields of medicine, usually intravenously, for treating fat embolisms in the lungs, for lowering cholesterol levels and as a liver protective substance. PPC injected into fat deposits supposedly has a detergent like effect, causing fat cells to rupture and dissolve. Fat released by the cell is metabolized by the liver and excreted by the body. There is also some tightening of the skin in treatment areas. It can be used all over the body: face, neck, arms, back fat rolls, abdomen, thighs, love handles and knees, well, what the hell! Why not give it a go? So I did.
The first thing the doctor did was put me on to a BMI machine where everything was calculated. It came up that my BMI is 22% a little more than I would like. In fact, he told me it was 3.5kg of fat too much. Ok. Then his wife came out and starting pinching my belly fat. Literally grabbing hold of it and saying, “Yes, you must get rid of this!” The Koreans are very honest when it comes to things like that. Just as she was very honest about everything I needed to do with my face. I said “ok, just my belly.” So that’s what we did. For ₩150,000 I’m going to have 8 weeks of treatments, 2 times a week. That’s not all. Here’s how it works: You go and lay down, and she pops the injections all over your fat bit, whatever area you want them to do. My friend is getting them all over. The shot goes into the subcutaneous fat layer, and starts to do its job. She doesn’t give you anything for the pain, she literally slaps you then puts the shot in. It’s weird. When she has finished doing all the shots, she straps you up to one of those machines that sends electric shocks to spasm your muscles an Electronic Muscle Stimulator (EMS). Now that is weird. But apparently it helps to break the fat up. It almost feels like contractions. We were sitting in that room, a German and an Aussie, literally pissing ourselves laughing with the shocks going through our body! The weirdest thing I’ve done in a long time, but definitely comical! I even took a photo of me as I was spasming.


Now I know plenty of you are probably thinking why on earth are you doing this, or you shouldn’t be doing that. But I’m here to say that something has happened to my metabolism. 6 months ago, I was able to maintain my weight, eating more than I am right now, just as long as I exercised on a regular basis. Now, I’ve put on this extra 10lbs (all of it seemingly in my stomach) and I’m doing some fairly hardcore exercise, even the 5 weeks of T25, and nothing is getting rid of this belly. I’m at my wit’s end. And no, I’m not going to go and get liposuction or anything, but I needed to do something to get rid of it. Three babies have taken their toll on my lower abdomen. And this girl was given the opportunity today to try something new that may just take care of this problem. So, why not? 


The whole thing honestly feels like a dream. Hopefully, this works and I’ll be an advocate for this method of fat trimming! Obviously you should do everything with diet and exercise, which I’m doing, so let’s hope for the best and I’ll keep you posted. 

From there, we went to one of the local stores and bought special ‘Korean’ shoes for the kids for their school (you can’t wear shoes inside). And it was just one of those days where things just went comical. There was a display in the lingerie section for both men and women that cracked us up. The South Koreans have very interesting taste in men’s lingerie, then there’s the matching stuff! Sometimes, one has to wonder. After all the children came home, I finally did the Insanity workout and really enjoyed it. Hunter and Madison finished it with me too. My belly did however feel like it was still pulsing throughout the Insanity workout, here’s hoping it got a double kind of workout. 


I finished the workout very sweaty and in desperate need of a shower, then it was time to do my nightly Rodan + Fields Redefine regimen. I also used the AMP MD as one of the things they were really pushing on me today was derma stamping. Basically, doing the same as the AMP MD roller but in a stamping form. It just reinforced the fact that I have this tool at home and need to consistently use it. My skin feels wonderful. My belly does have some bruising on it but it’s not sore or anything. Just tingling a little still. 
Anyway, I’d love to get your feedback on tonight’s blog! The day certainly went somewhere I never saw coming. Please remember to like my Facebook page: Aussiemumsadventures and email me directly at aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com. If you would like to try a Rodan and Fields regimen yourself, please let me know and I’ll be more than happy to help guide you through it. Thanks for reading my crazy blog and I hope you have an amazing day and/or night, wherever you are! 

Challenge Accepted Day 51/Day 9

I awoke to another gorgeous day in South Korea. After getting everyone ready for school (except dear son as it’s Tuesday) and hubby returning from PT (physical training) and departing once again for work! I went upstairs and immediately did my Insanity workout: ‘Pure Cardio’! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that one, but it went well and I did my best. 

 We were heading off to lunch at noon, so I thought I would attempt to get a quick jog/walk with Luna before showering. I wasn’t really sure how it would work with Hunter but initially, my thought was to leave him in a spot where I could see him at all times and do a quick loop around with the dog. It never happened. Our walk/jog with Luna was an absolute disaster. We got down to the beginning of the rice paddies when dear son fell over and scraped his knee. I don’t want to call my son out too much, but the kid is the worst when it comes to being hurt. He literally screams like a little boy and carries on to no end. The biggest drama king I have ever seen in my entire life! I’m not sure if this stems from his numerous hospital trips and emergency surgeries or what, but he is the most accident prone thing I have ever come across, and the sight of blood brings blood curdling screams all the way from the depths of his lungs to the vibrations of his lips. I am now positive that every single person in the Ville behind us as well as our Ville, know exactly who we are. When I attempted to put a bandaid on it after carrying him screaming at the top of his lungs for the long trip back whilst trying to ensure the dog didn’t pull us both over as she wasn’t quite ready to end her journey so quickly, he then proceeded to reach decibels unknown to mankind. I was fairly sure the Korean police were going to arrive at any minute to arrest me for attempting to murder my son. Every dog in the neighbourhood had their ears pricked trying to figure out what was communicating with them on an ultrasonic level never heard before! It was truly an epic moment of bandaid in hand and son screaming bloody murder and fighting me with every ounce of strength his body could find! He wouldn’t even let me get him dressed as he was afraid I’d have a secret bandaid stash hidden somewhere. I even put the bandaid on my arm to show him it wouldn’t hurt but he wasn’t having any of it. 
Thereafter it was a little more Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang to try to relax him before heading off to lunch. And lunch was fantastic! Sitting up on the third floor watching all that passed by, chatting with my friend that I felt like I had known forever, the afternoon rushed by. I greeted both girls as they got off their respective buses, even watched Maddy get off her school bus on to her piano bus, all was good. In fact, the afternoon was fabulous until my phone died at about 1715 (5:15pm). That was it! I was incommunicado with hubby therefore making me a rogue agent. Yes, sometimes even husbands and wives get their information mishmashed. Hubby couldn’t remember where my girlfriend lived and I had lost track of time, therefore meaning our communication got lost and he didn’t know where we were, I didn’t know what time it was, he was concerned, I was having a good time on a school night. Luckily, all ended up being ok. After retrieving a a lost blankie and tablet (yes, modern day version) all was good. 

I never did get back to the latisse thing did I? If you’re not aware of latisse, it’s this eye solution that was originally designed to lower pressure deep within the eye, often referred to as intraocular pressure. When doing tests on patients, it was also found that these eye drops assist in the growth of eyelashes. Now I don’t have particularly short eyelashes, but they could always be a little longer and lusher. When we were waiting for our tour in Belize City, Belize, there happened to be a pharmacy right there, advertising all sorts of stuff to the American tourists from the boat including ‘latisse’ or Bimatoprost Opthalmic Solution 0.03%. It was cheap, like US$15 I think. I had a friend who had enquired about it Stateside (in the USA) and I’m sure it was a couple of hundred dollars. So I bought some, then promptly forgot about it until the other day when I rediscovered it. Now, it didn’t come with the lash brushes that Latisse comes with, but I’m currently using cotton buds (cotton swabs, Q tips) and throwing them away once I’m done to ensure no contamination. I am also being very careful not to let any excess fluid touch my skin or my eyes (as it can cause pigmentation) but I thought, why not? We’ll see how that works. I’m not going to track the results of that, I’ll give you intermittent updates though on how it’s going. Early days right now, so no change whatsoever. 
I did my night time redefine regimen, followed by the latisse thing, then it was time to finish this blog and fall into bed. I hope you have an amazing night and/or day, no matter where in the world you are!
Remember to find me on FaceBook: Aussiemumsadventures and if you want to email me: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

We were heading off to lunch at noon, so I thought I would attempt to get a quick jog/walk with Luna before showering. I wasn’t really sure how it would work with Hunter but initially, my thought was to leave him in a spot where I could see him at all times and do a quick loop around with the dog. It never happened. Our walk/jog with Luna was an absolute disaster. We got down to the beginning of the rice paddies when dear son fell over and scraped his knee. I don’t want to call my son out too much, but the kid is the worst when it comes to being hurt. He literally screams like a little boy and carries on to no end. The biggest drama king I have ever seen in my entire life! I’m not sure if this stems from his numerous hospital trips and emergency surgeries or what, but he is the most accident prone thing I have ever come across, and the sight of blood brings blood curdling screams all the way from the depths of his lungs to the vibrations of his lips. I am now positive that every single person in the Ville behind us as well as our Ville, know exactly who we are. When I attempted to put a bandaid on it after carrying him screaming at the top of his lungs for the long trip back whilst trying to ensure the dog didn’t pull us both over as she wasn’t quite ready to end her journey so quickly, he then proceeded to reach decibels unknown to mankind. I was fairly sure the Korean police were going to arrive at any minute to arrest me for attempting to murder my son. Every dog in the neighbourhood had their ears pricked trying to figure out what was communicating with them on an ultrasonic level never heard before! It was truly an epic moment of bandaid in hand and son screaming bloody murder and fighting me with every ounce of strength his body could find! He wouldn’t even let me get him dressed as he was afraid I’d have a secret bandaid stash hidden somewhere. I even put the bandaid on my arm to show him it wouldn’t hurt but he wasn’t having any of it. 

Thereafter it was a little more Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang to try to relax him before heading off to lunch. And lunch was fantastic! Sitting up on the third floor watching all that passed by, chatting with my friend that I felt like I had known forever, the afternoon rushed by. I greeted both girls as they got off their respective buses, even watched Maddy get off her school bus on to her piano bus, all was good. In fact the afternoon was fabulous until my I awoke to another gorgeous day in South Korea. After getting everyone ready for school (except dear son as its Tuesday) and hubby returning from PT (physical training) and departing once again for work! I went upstairs and immediately did my Insanity workout: ‘Pure Cardio’! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that one, but it went well and I did my best. We were heading off to lunch at noon, so I thought I would attempt to get a quick jog/walk with Luna before showering. I wasn’t really sure how it would work with Hunter but initially, my thought was to leave him in a spot where I could see him at all times and do a quick loop around with the dog. It never happened. Our walk/jog with Luna was an absolute disaster. We got down to the beginning of the rice paddies when dear son fell over and scraped his knee. I don’t want to call my son out too much, but the kid is the worst when it comes to being hurt. He literally screams like a little boy and carries on to no end. The biggest drama king I have ever seen in my entire life! I’m not sure if this stems from his numerous hospital trips and emergency surgeries or what, but he is the most accident prone thing I have ever come across, and the sight of blood brings blood curdling screams all the way from the depths of his lungs to the vibrations of his lips. I am now positive that every single person in the Ville behind us as well as our Ville, know exactly who we are. When I attempted to put a bandaid on it after carrying him screaming at the top of his lungs for the long trip back whilst trying to ensure the dog didn’t pull us both over as she wasn’t quite ready to end her journey so quickly, he then proceeded to reach decibels unknown to mankind. I was fairly sure the Korean police were going to arrive at any minute to arrest me for attempting to murder my son. Every dog in the neighbourhood had their ears pricked trying to figure out what was communicating with them on an ultrasonic level never heard before! It was truly an epic moment of bandaid in hand and son screaming bloody murder and fighting me with every ounce of strength his body could find! He wouldn’t even let me get him dressed as he was afraid I’d have a secret bandaid stash hidden somewhere. I even put the bandaid on my arm to show him it wouldn’t hurt but he wasn’t having any of it. 
Thereafter it was a little more Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang to try to relax him before heading off to lunch. And lunch was fantastic! Sitting up on the third floor watching all that passed by, chatting with my friend that I felt like I had known forever, the afternoon rushed by. I greeted both girls as they got off their respective buses, even watched Maddy get off her school bus on to her piano bus, all was good. In fact the afternoon was fabulous until my phone died at about 1715 (5:15pm). That was it! I was incommunicado with hubby therefore making me a rogue agent. Yes, sometimes even husbands and wives get their information mishmashed. Hubby couldn’t remember where my girlfriend lived and I had lost track of time, therefore meaning our communication got lost and he didn’t know where we were, I didn’t know what time it was, he was concerned, I was having a good time on a school night. Luckily, all ended up being ok. After retrieving a a lost blankie and tablet (yes, modern day version) all was good. 
I never did get back to the latisse thing did I? If you’re not aware of latisse, it’s this eye solution that was originally designed to lower pressure deep within the eye, often referred to as intraocular pressure. When doing tests on patients, it was also found that these eye drops assist in the growth of eyelashes. Now I don’t have particularly short eyelashes, but they could always be a little longer and lusher. When we were waiting for our tour in Belize City, Belize, there happened to be a pharmacy right there, advertising all sorts of stuff to the American tourists from the boat including ‘latisse’ or Bimatoprost Opthalmic Solution 0.03%. It was cheap, like US$15 I think. I had a friend who had enquired about it Stateside (in the USA) and I’m sure it was a couple of hundred dollars. So I bought some, then promptly forgot about it until the other day when I rediscovered it. Now, it didn’t come with the lash brushes that Latisse comes with, but I’m currently using cotton buds (cotton swabs, Q tips) and throwing them away once I’m done to ensure no contamination. I am also being very careful not to let any excess fluid touch my skin or my eyes (as it can cause pigmentation) but I thought, why not? We’ll see how that works. I’m not going to track the results of that, I’ll give you intermittent updates though on how it’s going. Early days right now, so no change whatsoever. 
I did my night time redefine regimen, followed by the latisse thing, then it was time to finish this blog and fall into bed. I hope you have an amazing night and/or day, no matter where in the world you are! (😂🕹📟🎥📽📹📼🕹bl ,Suberin ft vihghbfirths it s two

Remember to find me on FaceBook: Aussiemumsadventures and if you want to email me: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com
phone died at about 1715 (5:15pm). That was it! I was incommunicado with hubby, therefore making me a rogue agent. Yes, sometimes even husbands and wives get their information mishmashed. Hubby couldn’t remember where my girlfriend lived and I had lost track of time, therefore meaning our communication got lost and he didn’t know where we were, food for thought, know we gavevhotevubedI awoke to another gorgeous day in South Korea. After getting everyone ready for school (except dear son as its Tuesday) and hubby returning from PT (physical training) and departing once again for work! I went upstairs and immediately did my Insanity workout: ‘Pure Cardio’! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that one, but it went well and I did my best. We were heading off to lunch at noon, so I thought I would attempt to get a quick jog/walk with Luna before showering. I wasn’t really sure how it would work with Hunter but initially, my thought was to leave him in a spot where I could see him at all times and do a quick loop around with the dog. It never happened. Our walk/jog with Luna was an absolute disaster. We got down to the beginning of the rice paddies when dear son fell over and scraped his knee. I don’t want to call my son out too much, but the kid is the worst when it comes to being hurt. He literally screams like a little boy and carries on to no end. The biggest drama king I have ever seen in my entire life! I’m not sure if this stems from his numerous hospital trips and emergency surgeries or what, but he is the most accident prone thing I have ever come across, and the sight of blood brings blood curdling screams all the way from the depths of his lungs to the vibrations of his lips. I am now positive that every single person in the Ville behind us as well as our Ville, know exactly who we are. When I attempted to put a bandaid on it after carrying him screaming at the top of his lungs for the long trip back whilst trying to ensure the dog didn’t pull us both over as she wasn’t quite ready to end her journey so quickly, he then proceeded to reach decibels unknown to mankind. I was fairly sure the Korean police were going to arrive at any minute to arrest me for attempting to murder my son. Every dog in the neighbourhood had their ears pricked trying to figure out what was communicating with them on an ultrasonic level never heard before! It was truly an epic moment of bandaid in hand and son screaming bloody murder and fighting me with every ounce of strength his body could find! He wouldn’t even let me get him dressed as he was afraid I’d have a secret bandaid stash hidden somewhere. I even put the bandaid on my arm to show him it wouldn’t hurt but he wasn’t having any of it. 
Thereafter it was a little more Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang to try to relax him before heading off to lunch. And lunch was fantastic! Sitting up on the third floor watching all that passed by, chatting with my friend that I felt like I had known forever, the afternoon rushed by. I greeted both girls as they got off their respective buses, even watched Maddy get off her school bus on to her piano bus, all was good. In fact the afternoon was fabulous until my phone died at about 1715 (5:15pm). That was it! I was incommunicado with hubby therefore making me a rogue agent. Yes, sometimes even husbands and wives get their information mishmashed. Hubby couldn’t remember where my girlfriend lived and I had lost track of time, therefore meaning our communication got lost and he didn’t know where we were, I didn’t know what time it was, he was concerned, I was having a good time on a school night. Luckily, all ended up being ok. After retrieving a a lost blankie and tablet (yes, modern day version) all was good. 
I never did get back to the latisse thing did I? If you’re not aware of latisse, it’s this eye solution that was originally designed to lower pressure deep within the eye, often referred to as intraocular pressure. When doing tests on patients, it was also found that these eye drops assist in the growth of eyelashes. Now I don’t have particularly short eyelashes, but they could always be a little longer and lusher. When we were waiting for our tour in Belize City, Belize, there happened to be a pharmacy right there, advertising all sorts of stuff to the American tourists from the boat including ‘latisse’ or Bimatoprost Opthalmic Solution 0.03%. It was cheap, like US$15 I think. I had a friend who had enquired about it Stateside (in the USA) and I’m sure it was a couple of hundred dollars. So I bought some, then promptly forgot about it until the other day when I rediscovered it. Now, it didn’t come with the lash brushes that Latisse comes with, but I’m currently using cotton buds (cotton swabs, Q tips) and throwing them away once I’m done to ensure no contamination. I am also being very careful not to let any excess fluid touch my skin or my eyes (as it can cause pigmentation) but I thought, why not? We’ll see how that works. I’m not going to track the results of that, I’ll give you intermittent updates though on how it’s going. Early days right now, so no change whatsoever. 
I did my night time redefine regimen, followed by the latisse thing, then it was time to finish this blog and fall into bed. I hope you have an amazing night and/or day, no matter where in the world you are!
Remember to find me on FaceBook: Aussiemumsadventures and if you want to email me: aussiemumsadventures@gmail.com

Edge and. Power for Luce, one wmunst. Ask uwo round mind😊I didn’t know what time it was, he was concerned, I was having a good time on a school night. Luckily, all ended up being ok. After retrieving a lost blankie and tablet (yes, modern day version) all was good. And no regrets from me, other than a lost plate at the end of the night when I forgot what was in my basket and plonked it on the stairs, smashing it beyond further redemption. Bugger! Fgibfirvgiug , Good night!

Challenge Accepted Day 50/Day 8

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

Challenge Accepted Day 47/Day 5

Oh, where to start? So, being a military family, making friends happens fast and strong. You meet someone and it’s a matter of, is this person my sort of people? If yes, then firm friends happen, if no, then you both move on. There is a middle ground, but the older you get the shorter that middle ground. There’s no time for it. So today I just said goodbye to someone I only met a few short months ago, that was my sort of people. She was the first person I met in the ‘ville’ and she immediately made me feel welcome. She has a son Maddy’s age and a daughter between Maddy and Hunter and they all played really well together. They’ve done their time in South Korea and are happily leaving, but I’m a little sad to see her go as she truly was the first welcoming face after moving into our new home and I genuinely liked her. But alas, this is the life we lead, constantly saying hello and goodbye. So Leigh-Ann, I say farewell and wish you wonderful things in your future endeavours, it’s a small world, so until we meet again…
The day has been good. I drove hubby to work so I could have the car, I came home worked out doing ‘Pure Cardi….O M G! It was good, but there was no rest, like wow, things in my body were screaming in pain that I didn’t even know where to locate! But it was good and I felt great afterwards. I didn’t look great mind you:

  
 I showered, doing my morning regimen of Rodan + Fields Redefine (Did I mention I’ve ordered the Reverse regimen as my next 60 day challenge?) It’ll be good though to clean up some sun damage. Speaking of damage, I forgot to mention last night that after the dentist I walked around and found the dermatologist and went in and asked if they could do a quick consult, the dermatologist said yes and had a look at the lump on my face and said she would do laser treatments on it as that was the only thing she could think of that might work (she did ask history and what not too, so I was actually quite impressed). Anyway, I’m going to get laser treatment from her but without thinking, I made an appointment for May 6 at noon, that I’m going to have to reschedule, because that’s the night of the gala! That just won’t work. I’m not sure how laser treatment does work but I can’t imagine everything is all good on the same day, considering she did tell me she would need to inject a local anesthetic there before the treatment. What I was shocked at also was the price; ₩70,000 for the first laser treatment and half for the second and subsequent. I remember years ago talking to a guy in San Antonio who wanted $500 to do a laser treatment on that same lump. $70 sounds much better to me and this is with a local, whereas he said he wouldn’t give me anything and I would have to buy numbing cream! Obviously, I didn’t do it. I shall need to do a little further research obviously, but I wanted to make the appointment whilst there and research it at home, now I shall have to return there next week and reschedule the appointment anyway (I’m not sure anyone’s English is good enough for us to do a phone conversation & my Korean certainly wouldn’t get us anywhere) so I’ll have plenty of time to research laser treatments on the face. 
Back to today, after the shower and morning regimen, I gathered up the children (the girls both had the day off school as there were parent/teacher conferences going on) and we went and had lunch with Daddy. I had a savoury crepe filled with chicken, pesto, mozzarella, onion and tomato and it was delicious. I love the little crepe place that is on both the Army and Air Force bases. We dropped hubby off and headed over to the high school for the conference for Ally and boy was it worth going. At first to be honest, I was a little skeptical as I had never seen a conference quite like this before. It was in the gym and all teachers were lined up in alphabetical order in a great big U shape around the gym. Some of the teachers obviously teach a lot of classes as one in particular (Ally’s Science teacher) didn’t even recognize her and asked what class she was in then went through a massive folder and pulled out his report on her. The fact that the man had ensured he had reports on every child was impressive nonetheless, but he was a bit like a surgeon, you know what I mean, there’s Doctors then there’s surgeons, one, in most cases has a bedside manner, the other, i.e. Surgeons, does not. He didn’t. But he seemed to know what he was teaching and Ally knew where he was coming from, so that is all that concerned me. Her next teacher knew who she was and praised her, though she said he was pretty mean most of the time and didn’t understand kids at all. It was her next three teachers that were really amazing. All of them praised her incredibly, I mean really praised her. One of her teachers told me she should be in a gifted program and that he was doing everything he could to ensure that she was getting the stimulation she needed as far as her education went. She and 4 other students are in a small reading group that meets every week and reads at an advanced level and discusses both their reading and higher level thoughts/ideas/anything and everything they should be discussing given all of their advanced levels. It made me so proud to know that Someone else recognized something in Ally that was so special. She’s very intelligent (just like my father) sometimes lacks some common sense though (just like her mother) but basically is a well-rounded kid with loads of potential. Her report card was astounding! Even the Science teacher remembered she had moved here in January and he was surprised at how quickly she had caught on to the weather assignments, given she has never done anything to do with the weather before. Basically, all three kids have done us proud since moving here, Maddy’s report card was phenomenal as well and her reading level is where it is expected to be at the end of her school year (we still have a term to go) whereas, only last year, she was really struggling with her reading. She received nothing but praise from her teacher as well. Then there’s Hunter, who has just been amazing with his schooling here and who wants to go full-time at a local Korean school. Mummy proud moment! We celebrated with ice cream! 

Tonight has been spent preparing for the yard sale tomorrow, including refreshing a Barbie house hubby and I made a while back that we need to sell. I’ve invited a few of the neighbours (who live in apartments) to join us in our yard if they want to and for others to set up their own yard sales so we can make it a community event. We shall see how it goes. If we can walk away from it with some extra money in our pockets and all our crap gone, then I’ll be happy! Off to do my nighttime regimen (ooh and latisse – shall talk a little more about that tomorrow) and to get some beauty sleep before my 0600 (6am) rising to prepare for the yard sale. 
Have a wonderful day or night wherever you are!