Sunday night here

Monday morning we woke up to snow. It is always so magical to wake up and discover it has snowed outside. Since I do not have to drive in it I do not mind it so much. I walked Gavin to school and since the girls were up they came along too. Court had Monday off for the Super Bowl. It came on around 8 am so he was off at Henry's Place on Camp Henry with friends watching it. After taking Gavin to school I let Maddie and Abby play in the snow for a bit. There was not a whole lot but enough to make some snow angels. By the time school was out the snow was gone. Court was back home and sober enough to pick Gavin up from school. That night Court and Gavin went to their first Tiger Cub meeting. I am so happy that Gavin has an interest in Scouts. I was a Girl Scout for many years. My brother was a Boy Scout and I think it is a wonderful organization for kids. Gavin is really excited about it because he gets to spend more time with Zack...one of his best friends. He ended up making some sort of a frisbee thing that was covered with dried pasta. He came home just bursting and happy.

I think Gavin looks so cute in his uniform!!!

Tuesday we woke up to snow again. This time the weather looked pretty serious. Court left for work and SFC Rippstine called to say school had been cancelled. Wow what a shocker!! We walk to school so I never imagined we would have a snow day. I guess the road conditions were pretty bad which is why they called it off. So we had a fun day at home.

Wednesday it was back to the usual. The bad thing about snow days is they make you greedy...you are always hoping for just one more day off. I had to attend a parent-teacher conference at 3:15 pm. I met with Gavin's teacher and the reading teacher. Gavin is having problems with reading and we are going to try to work really hard on them. Right now he is not at grade level. He is going for tutoring twice a week and we are to read with him 20 minutes per night.

Thursday Gavin had tutoring. I took all three kids to the play ground right after school and they had a good 30 minutes of fun before Gavin had to be back at school for tutoring. I took Savannah with me. She is the daughter of a friend. She is 5 and Maddie just loves her to pieces. They played at our place for a while and then it was back to school once again to get Gavin. Friday was nothing too special. I took the girls to the playground around 1:15. Abby has been real funky with her sleep patterns lately. Staying up late and not taking a nap. I was really tired but wanted her to stay awake for awhile before napping. We got Gavin at 2:30 and then home again. Abby and Maddie crashed and mommy got a nap! :)

Saturday we had to run to Camp Walker for supplies. We had a group of friends over for dinner. It is so nice to do that. I cannot always go out and really I like just hanging out at home with friends vs. going to the clubs. Just not my thing. Anyway....it was a couples thing. We had Rob & Sue, Steve & Ju-he and Paul & Maria. The guys all voted for Meat Loaf. I ended up making a huge 4 pound meat loaf, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, biscuits and brownies. Tons of food, friends and a nice time. Court had bought the movie Doom. It sucked but it was something to watch. The ladies and I sat and chatted about shopping and girl stuff and the guys were all in the living room doing whatever guys do. Abby was a hit with everyone. She was happy to give hugs and share her food. She really likes Paul a lot. He put her to bed and layed with her until she fell asleep. When Abby woke up this morning she wanted to know where her friend was. So cute! My camera is messing up and for some reason none of the pictures I took turned out well enough to post. Sorry.. :(

Sunday and they kids were up bright and early...5:45 Maddie had me up. We were out of the house by 10 am. I am so proud of us! We went to the PX and Four Seasons. Then off to Home Plus. Court was so nice and took me to the Big One downtown.

I took some shots of the traffic and street as we drove about.

Mt. Apsan in the background here. You can see that balloon thing from our house.

This intersection is right by the Outback steak House and (more importantly) the Dunkin Donuts. If you recall last month we went downtown at night and we were right in this area. I took this picture on the way to Home Plus. On the way back we saw a lady get hit by a bicycle. :( Really scary but she seemed ok and was up and walking.

Korea is super high-tech in many ways. I have not noticed a lot of bill-boards like in the states along the roads. At several major intersections they have these HUGE screens with ads on them. In the above picture you can see the green sign with some sort of dinosaur/lizard on it.

At the entrance to parking garages there is always someone out there directing traffic. I would like to sit and just watch for awhile. I am not sure what it all means but their hand movements are just beautiful. They also bow to the cars as they pass. It has to be a crappy job but it is neat for me to see.

I almost got these for my nephew. I then noticed they are not REAL LEGOS. I still think they are neat. The fruit at the commissary is just awful. The apples are mushy and the bananas are bruised and go bad in a day. We ended up with a nice box of strawberries and a bunch of these mini-bananas. We were not sure what to expect. Court thought they were maybe genetically engineered. I do not think they taste all that different. After looking online I found this from the Dole Website:

Baby Bananas, also known as Oritos, Lady Fingers and Manzanos, received their name because they resemble the hands of small children--plump and short. These subtropical varieties of bananas are grown at higher altitudes. The peel has a yellow-pinkish cast. Quite sweet, these bananas taste best at full ripeness, when the peel is freckled with sugar spots.

It must be back to school time for kids in Korea. Home Plus was littered with back packs and book bags plus school supplies. Most of the back packs were really outrageously priced...$40 or more. And this was for Barbie, Hello Kitty and Disney princess ones. But I saw this bag for around 12,000 won and it just had to come home with me. I can never have enough Hello Kitty Bags. :) We have been meaning to get one of these "rugs" for awhile now. It is really a big floor puzzle sort of thing. We have put it out in the play room which is the patio. The floor out there was so cold and now with the rug it makes it nicer to play. They seemed really cheap too. We got the entire Alphabet plus numbers 0-9 and I am thinking did not pay much more that $10 for it.

I don't know if this was a fire or what? I just saw a bunch of smoke and thought I would take a picture. The view is from out the front door off the balcony.

Here is another shot and you can see the moon. Those are not clouds...more smoke. This is what I see everyday and I am still amazed by it. Their is always something new to notice and look at.