Tag: T25

Challenge Accepted Day 28

Day 28 also known as four weeks into this challenge. Is that all? Feels like I’ve been doing this for much longer. We had a fairly quiet morning and a bit of a sleep in after a few glasses of wine last night. Love having kids old enough to do their own thing for a little while until we get up. 
Hubby and I stretched (T25 style) preparing ourselves for the week ahead. I’ve only got one more week on Alpha round and I’ve only really ‘nailed’ one workout! Not sure what that means, and I realized that I forgot to take any actual measurements of my various body bits before I started this challenge, I followed up with a shower and the Redefine regimen, I’m about at the halfway mark through my products so I must have been using the right amounts every time 😊. Tonight, I shall use the Redefine regimen and follow it with the MACRO Exfoliator it’s also an ACUTE Care night, so my skin will be thanking me immensely tomorrow. 
We picked eldest daughter up from her sleepover then took youngest daughter to a birthday party at a bowling alley. We thought it a great opportunity for the rest of us to bowl as well so that’s what we did. Then it was off to do some shopping. Nothing too exciting, but we did pick up a nice hat/coat stand that is literally a tree branch. Very cool, not what we were planning on buying but we have been looking for something unique and good quality to use as a hat stand, so it was perfect.

  
When we got home, it was definitely time for a nice long walk with our lovely, crazy puppy, so whilst hubby stayed back to help Ally with some math homework, Maddy and I walked through the rice paddies. It was a really nice walk. Unfortunately, we ran into the lady that doesn’t like me, of course, because that’s just going to be how it works, of all the nice people in the neighbourhood, she and I are destined to meet regularly. I’m not even sure why she has taken such a distinctive disliking to me. Oh well, her loss, cause I’m fun! 😜 

We watched the super train go by, it’s far enough away from our house that we can’t hear it but when we wander through the rice paddies we can see them go by regularly. We also saw a really pretty burial site (I’m assuming anyway). The rice paddies are also starting to pretty up. The farmers are always out working, I understand though having grown up on a farm and knowing my Mum and Dad spent every minute of their spare time working on said farm. It’s nice though to see it greening up and the cherry blossoms are coming into bloom as well as these other beautiful white flowers (not sure what they are called but they look so pretty). The day has been quietly satisfying though, sometimes one just needs some family time and a low key day, and that was our Sunday.
   
   
Have a great day or night wherever you are and as always, please like my Facebook page: aussiemumsadventures and if you’re interested in doing your own Rodan + Fields challenge then please go to my website: http://www.slongmorescott.myrandf.com 

Challenge Accepted Day 27 

Today has been fun, but not overly eventful. I didn’t work out. The idea of doing Total Body Circuit on what should have been my day off wasn’t overly appealing and we had to get to the bank before it closed, unfortunately, we didn’t make it because the last time they were open was yesterday! Oh hubby, check the times of the bank and don’t assume just because one bank is open, the other will be. We had to go on to the base anyway. Hubby had a lot of stuff that needed to go into his office and I couldn’t wait to get it out of the house. The amount of crap they have to carry with them just with their Army life, then the awards and other cool stuff they get down the line, all adds up. Needless to say, in this little tiny house, we needed the stuff gone ASAP. 

Off to his office we went and wow! Just wow. I took some basic cleaning stuff thinking it would be like his last office and need a bit of a clean but nothing major; I was wrong. Very wrong. It was pretty disgusting. I’m sure it hadn’t been cleaned in a couple of years and the layer of dust covering everything was somewhat overwhelming. The walls were dusty, the chairs were filthy, the whole place was just dirty. South Korea is amazingly bad for the amount of dust that seems to appear. I think I mentioned it the other day in my blog that it was just the worst I had ever seen. And this office was bad. I even had to clean the vacuum cleaner before I could use it. I wished I had another vacuum cleaner and could pull a Monica (Friends reference there), instead I got damp paper towel and cleaned the vacuum cleaner. Even after doing that, when I went to use the hand piece on it, I made a big mistake, dust went all over both myself and the carpet. Three hours later though, between hubby and I cleaning it together, we got it all looking nice, his stuff hung on the walls, the chairs all clean, the floor as clean as it would get given the vacuum cleaner situation, all in all, a successful afternoon.
It was a beautiful day here in SoKo too and we were stuck indoors for most of it. But on Monday when hubby goes into his office and it’s clean and his stuff is hung on the walls, it will be worth it. And tonight we went for our first dinner at someone else’s house. Someone who has nothing to do with my hubby, (I have to say that I love it when meals are shared and they’re not career related) and we had an amazing night! It was so much fun. We both had an amazing night. Hubby called it before we outstayed our welcome and with kids, and a wife who loves to have a good time (aka me) it was the perfect time to depart. We really did have a wonderful night and I think we could be couple friends, that’s always a nice thing particularly when you’re in the military because half the time that doesn’t happen. Seriously. I’m not sure how it works in the civilian world but in the military world it works like this; “I met this amazing woman, I really like her, her name is….” “I can’t be friends with them her husband is one of my soldiers.” Or…… “I met this amazing woman, she is awesome, her husband seems really nice…..” I’m not going to meet her husband sweety, that’s just weird….” Or “no!” 
So my husband met tonight with an open mind and I am so glad he did. I was a tad surprised when he met it with such an open mind, but he did. This all started with an ad about looking after cats, I’m a big cat person, my husband is not. My daughter’s are too. Son is not. I saw this ad and thought, you’re within walking distance, I’ve been there and needed someone to help me with my cat and had no one, so I want to help this woman with her cats. I responded to the ad and said yes we would help. It also added to bonus ad points that she said “will pay in wine.” What a fabulous woman to put that on a Facebook advertisement (just in our local village mind you). So we went and met her and she was frigging awesome, she’d also lived in Townsville, Australia for 6 years. Here I am in South Korea, understanding that I’m going to associate and live with both Americans and South Koreans but the chances of encountering an Australian or someone who has lived in Australia are minimal. First there was my cable guy (Aussie/Korean), who had never met another Aussie in the 8 years he had worked in Pyeongtaek (until me of course) and now this American who had live in Australia for so long! It was a sign. On top of that, I instantly liked her, so did my kids. Then she invited us for dinner and it just all seemed natural. And my husband went along with it. Definitely a sign. And what a wonderful night we had. I made pavlova because she had had it before and because my hubby is looking for any excuse to have it again. The kids had a great night, all in all, can’t imagine a better Saturday night, we really enjoyed ourselves and it makes for a better place when you find people you can relate to and enjoy their company and rank, place, position, whatever, doesn’t come into play. We also let our eldest sleep over at her friend’s house and this time I felt terrible for judging her dad when he can to my house as they both seemed like awesome people too. He’s just an extrovert, and the Mum/mom seems very cool and very nice, they just have that one car struggle too. All in all, a great day. The only thing that would make it better would be if my French friend answered her bloody phone, she asked me to call…. I want to speak to her 😊
Not too much to report on any front other than the night regimen went well. I used Redefine and all is good, having given AMP MD a miss today. Looking forward to stretching tomorrow with T 25, but otherwise all quiet on the front and as always, please like me on Facebook: aussiemumsadventures, and share my posts if you enjoy them. Also, if you want to try your own Rodan + Fields 60 day challenge, then go to slongmorescott.myrandf.com have a great night and/or Saturday! 

Challenge Accepted Day 26

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

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

    

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

Challenge Accepted Day 24

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

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

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

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 21

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

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

  

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 19

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

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

Challenge Accepted Day 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 8

Well today has been a little bit odd and I haven’t taken a closeup bare naked photo of my face for you to compare with last week (hopefully you’re not looking for a miracle, just a realistic product that works to assist in the defying of revealing our true age right?) that’s all I’m looking for, though on some days a miracle would be lovely too! 😜 anyway, the maintenance guy turned up with someone else this morning and they spent the next 5 hours jack hammering my balcony and in the process ensured my shower rod and curtain fell off, rendering my shower disabled until the hubby comes home, ergo, no shower for mwa! And I’ve had to put up with my own stinkiness after doing T25 cardio this morning, so I’m certainly not going to assist in further torture to myself by taking a selfie (& I hate those on a good day so it doesn’t take much to turn them down when I have no make up on and am doing a challenge with myself revealing every flaw I dislike about me! 😉). 

Anyway, the workout was a little better this morning, though that little voice in my head did keep wanting me to stop and do nada! Strong will prevailed and I kept going! I will be in shape! Something has to give! Just saw some photos from our cruise and I definitely have a belly in those too. Probably from drinking too much wine as well as doing nothing for the last few months. 

Alright, so I do have some good before and after photos to show you of bits of my bedroom! Every morning, I have gotten up in this little tiny room and been miserable because there has been too much stuff! I can’t even get out of my side of the bed because we have to have our bed against the wall in order for it to fit (yes we have a big bed in a little room). Anyway it has meant that I have learnt to catapault myself out of the end of the bed if ever I have to go for a midnight toilet break and I’ve gotten so good at it over the last two weeks that hubby no longer hears me, well until I trip over one of the numerous items on the floor that just keep piling up because I am yet to find a home for them!

  
  
Oh and here’s a before one of the main blog photo:

  
  
Looks and feels wonderful! I may wake up happy tomorrow morning and not all grumpy! It’s amazing what one’s surrounding can do to one’s mood! Speaking of mood, I have to share another funny story but this time from my 7yr old daughter, Madison; we were putting our shoes on ready to walk out the door to go to the bus stop to get my eldest DD when she started singing a song something like this:

One day Max and Ruby’s parents got on a bus and they told their kids they would be going away for a day, 

But they never came back! Max and Ruby didn’t know why, but their parents never came back! 

Now, I know it doesn’t sound funny like it is, but if you’ve ever seen the show ‘Max and Ruby’ you would know that the parents are never seen! Only the Grandma and the Bunny Scout Leader. Now I’m not purposely being un-PC, I just find it weird that there’s never any mention of anyone other than those two grown ups and they don’t live with their Grandma, and my daughter has obviously picked up on the same thing. Please don’t look at this in a tragic way, it is purely the innocent mind of a 7 year old, and it’s funny in this instance. Don’t get too deep and meaningful will you! 

Ok, it’s noodle Monday, which means the kids get ramen noodles (aka two minute noodles, aka one of the unhealthiest foods known to man but one that all kids love), I try to mix it up a tad so that it’s not just plain noodles and tonight it’s beef stroganoff and noodles. One of the easiest, but most delicious meals I’ve ever made. I would always get so excited when my Mum or oldest sister would make beef stroganoff! Here’s our way of doing it and I can’t give you quantities because I really don’t do quantities in recipes, I just guesstimate:

  • Whatever beef you’re using, in this case today, I’ve got a family pack or 2.21lbs of top loin steak – but it looks like it has a lot of fat on it, so I’ll trim it down and see how much I’ve got left!
  • Olive oil to cook beef in or coconut oil or butter, I actually used a little bit of coconut oil and olive oil missed tonight.
  • 1 small can tomato paste (6oz or 170gms or thereabouts, it’s ok if you have a little more or a little less)
  • Some onion, because my eldest daughter is really fussy about onion, I like to use the  Kirkland chopped onion flakes and just sprinkle them in after I’ve browned the beef.
  • Beef stock also, more rather than less, if that makes sense. 

 So when I say more rather than less, I mean that for every cup full of water you have a bit more than what the container recipe calls for you to have, per cup of water. 

  • Corn flour (aka corn starch in the States)
  • Water to mix with your beef stock. 
  • Sour cream
  • And I think that’s about all.  

I’m terrible at recipe writing obviously, but I’ll get better especially if I find you are slightly interested in reading this sort of stuff! I must also share a little side victory about my success with all three children over the last seven days and them all eating every single dinner I’ve made and actually really liking 6/7! Ok back to the next step:

  • Cube and brown beef
  • Add onion
  • Add tomato paste
  • Add beef stock mixed with boiling water (1 big heaped teaspoon per US cup water as per photo)
  • Let simmer for at least 20 minutes until beef tender, then add a couple of teaspoons of cornflour mixed in with cold water and add to beef until thicker. Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream  1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub.
  •  Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream 1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub….And wallah! Cook your two minute noodles and strain, then pour this amazing sauce over the top or have your noodles on the side and have this as a side or do whatever you like! Hubby prefers this with pasta but I mix it up every now and then and throw it into noodle night so the kids are getting more than all the crap that make ramen (2 minute) noodles, what they are!

  

  
The final product was magnificent as usual! And one of the easiest weekday meals to make! Let me know if you try it and enjoy it and if you want more from me. Otherwise, happy Monday, it’s not as bad as you think, it’s just the beginning of another week we get to celebrate being here! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 5

    I am smoked! Today’s workout has been a killer. Not one but two! Legs and cardio! Seriously! I’m not sure which one should be done first, today I did lower focus followed by cardio but when good old Shawn T asked me to do some outrageous squats in the cardio routine, my legs started screaming in pain! So next Friday, I shall switch it around and let you know how that goes. I even managed to do a mile run afterwards, there wasn’t much of a warm-up or cool-down for the run, but I was already pretty warm so I didn’t feel too badly. 😜

    As for the regimen, well my neck is feeling great but I think I’ve pushed it too soon by using the Amp MP daily so quickly, I should have heeded the Doctor’s advice (Dr Katie Rodan & Dr Kathy Fields) and started out a little slower, so tonight I’m going to give the roller a miss and go back to it tomorrow night. I’m still not seeing any radical changes but I’ll do a photo on Monday side by side with my first photo and we can have a looksy, I really want to share this journey with you, so let’s see if we can find any difference already & if not, then that’s ok too, I’m not expecting anything radical just yet.

    I did realize that I should have had my eyebrows done before I took my first ‘before’ photo but I’ve had such a hard time finding somewhere that does threading (something I fell in love with in the Middle East and have managed to find in Italy, Texas, Hawaii and Colorado Springs, but not here in South Korea (apparently there was a spa at the first hotel that we stayed in upon arrival in Seoul that did it, but I was jet-lagged, concerned about my animals, absolutely freezing – the temperature ranged from -28 to -32C when we first arrived here, that’s -18.4F to -25.6F! Aka: hell freezing over! So I didn’t do a whole lot). Anyway, I gave up yesterday after searching and ended up having my brows waxed at a little salon outside of Osan AFB. It was ok, my brows looked wonderful, but then again any grooming they had would have been marvelous and my mono brow – after 2 months of no grooming, was definitely asking to see a professional! My apologies for the shock brow photo, they will look a tad better upon Monday’s photo release, I promise.

    I also have to tell you about another area I dilly dally in, and that is being a Bzz Agent. What is a Bzz Agent I hear you ask? Well, it’s this fantastic job where you get to test products for free or almost free and share your opinions online and in person. So I just got my first product, Covergirl Lashblast Volume mascara in very black. My first impression when opening the packaging was a little disappointing because they use a plastic bottle cap that is to be disposed of as soon as you open it, the environmentalist in me, doesn’t like such waste when the brush has worked just fine thus far for so many previous products. I do like the thickness of the mascara though as it goes on smoothly without clumping. And the color is a nice black, black, sounds weird I know, but it’s not a blue-black, or a brown-black, it’s exactly what it says it is. The brush is possibly not quite pointy enough for my liking, I have sort of squinty eyes and found when nearing the end of my eyes where they meet my nose, I ended up with a little dollop of mascara on my nose, so I had to be more careful on the other side. I really like the texture of the mascara though and all in all would have to say that it goes on nicely, doesn’t clump and makes my lashes look a little more voluminous.

    Ok, funny thing for the day and once again it is my son who just cracked me up; his favourite movie is Pixels and the character Ludlow gets the girl, Lady Lisa, in the end. Hunter has just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and came over to me very seriously and said, “She’s a lovely girl, I want to be Ludlow so I get the girl!” Three and a half years old! There’s probably going to be a lot of Hunterisms throughout this blog as he cracks me up daily! You have to watch the movie to understand why that’s hilarious! 

    So my afternoon has been interesting, my new neighbor came over and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her through the rice paddies (everyone has told me that it’s a great walk with the kids and dog) unfortunately, given my double work out earlier this morning, the last thing I could think about was doing more walking! As I was heading to the bus stop a couple of hours later though, I decided to call in there and see if she wanted to come over for a glass of wine and yay, she did. It was really nice to have some female conversation, she seems like my sort of person too, sadly, she’s leaving in May, but that’s ok, I’ll enjoy her company whilst I can and she has a lot of knowledge about local things so we’re going shopping next week to a local market where I can finally get some nice fresh fruit and vegetables, I was starting to wonder where the good, fresh produce was hiding, as it certainly isn’t at the commissary, or even Costco, or Emart. Anyway, to say I’m excited is a little bit of an understatement, we’re going to get lunch at a local Korean restaurant she knows and just enjoy getting out of the house. I don’t get to do that very often now given the one car situation, so it will be really nice! 

    Alright, well it’s  Friday night here, the family have all started watching The Good Dinosaur – let me just digress a little about that movie; not what I was expecting at all! Hubby bought it when he went back to the States a couple of weeks ago thinking it was going to be this great feel good movie for us all (& there might be a spoiler alert here if you haven’t seen it) but wow! Not what I was expecting at all! I like the different take on the human, just wasn’t quite ready for it, but I wasn’t expecting so much sadness, nor the tripping out on whatever those berries were! Anyway, can’t wait to see Finding Dory, that one will definitely be worth it’s wait! 

    Ok, I’m going to say sayonara. Have a great day or night depending on where you are and don’t forget to share your thoughts with me on my blog. I’ll give you details next week on my website if you’re looking to take the Rodan + Fields challenge with me, there is a 60 day money back guarantee, so spend your weekend giving it some serious thought, oh and my Aussie friends, I know a few of you loved Proactiv and these products were created by those same two doctors who created those amazing products, they just decided to move to an age group reflecting their own ages, ie, anyone over the age of 20! 😉 nonetheless, they are launching the Rodan and Fields line in Australia, so if you’re interested, it will soon be there.

     Happy travels