Elevator

We live in a 5 story apartment building. We live on the 4th floor. Since I moved here last September they have been working on building an elevator. It has been rough doing the stairs with the kids. Grocery day sucks. For most of the time the outside of our building has looked liked the above picture.
Last week they took all of that down and painted the outside!

Also last week they took away the big metal pieces that had been covering the holes they cut for the elevator. I went outside one day and saw this. I think it will not be too much longer!

I added the neo-counter today. I thought it would be cool to see who is online and what country they come from. Although I doubt many people other than my family and friends visit this blog. I also added the cute calendar. It from a pixel site I am a member of. :)

Trip to Home Plus and lunch with Dee

I got up early this morning and went down to Dee's place. Gavin and her son are now walking to school together. Dropped Gavin off and told Dee if she would drive I would buy her lunch. So we agreed to meet up at 10:30. Originally the plan was to go to the KATUSA snack bar on Camp Walker. But Court suggested Shang-hi grill. Dee thought she might know where that was so we went off to find it.

We ended up at Home Plus instead. They have a McDonald's which is perfect for the kids and a huge food court. This was my first visit to this Home Plus but I think it is my favorite out of the three I have been to. It is HUGE!
Above and below are a few outside shots. You can see how big it is. It is also a really nice place and super clean which I always like. Going during the week is better because it is not so crowded and there are plenty of parking spaces available.

Our first stop was McDonald's. I was soooo tempted to eat here. I have had McD's once since I left the US and I am so sick of Burger King. But I also really wanted Korean and wanted to try something new.

Maddie, Abby, Dee and her son Jaydee wait for our food. Everyone had Chicken Nugget kids meals.
Next stop was the HUGE food court. There were a million different restaurants/vendors including Japanese. Popeyes and Baskin Robbins. For the Korean and maybe Chinese and Japanese food you looked at this case and picked a number. I love these food cases. It is all fake food but it looks so pretty! So many different dishes and I appreciate being able to see what it is that I am ordering! Then you go to the lady and tell her what you want and pay for it.

We had a seat in front of our food place. We had our ticket and had to wait until our number came up. It was maybe a 5 minute wait.

Here is Dee's food. I am not sure what it all was. Top left I tried it and it was good. The middle was a pot/soup with dumplings, clams and squid in it. I did not try this. Bottom right is Kimchi.

Here is my food. In the big bowl/plate...rice at the bottom, top right was potatoes and onions and carrots. A little spicy, to the left of that was spicy beef. The bread stuff sort of tasted like eggs? All super yummy! The top bowl was a salad similar to cole slaw and very very sweet. The other two bowls contain different types of kimchi. I did not care for the one on the bottom but the one on the top was really good! To my surprise under each of these bowls were 3 more bowls with soup in them. One was a rice soup. Basically rice and water...kinda bland but went well with the other spicy stuff. One had noodles and onions in it. Very tasty! The last was a cold soup with cabbage, onions and I am not sure what else. That was good as well.

The amazing thing about these lunches was that each cost just 5,000 won a piece! All that food! And we could not eat all of it. It was fabulous and I really liked what I chose!Here is part of the food court...it was huge.

They had a free play area for kids with all sorts of riding toys. There was also a pay place that looked like fun. Dee says you pay and leave your kids...it is like a babysitting service. Nice!

The girls had to go for a ride on this puppy. Inside was a small screen so it was like a ride and a video game all in one.

If you have some free time you can hop into this booth and practice your singing. It is a Karaoke both/machine.

Dee with Jaydee here getting some pancake dessert things. I was too full from lunch to eat anymore.

After we ate and let the kids play in the play area we walked around the 3 floors of the store. I saw this mini dishwasher. I wish we had a dishwasher at our place. I am sick of washing dishes by hand.
Here is a shot of one of the check-outs which is in the grocery part of the store. As you can see there are 22+ lanes to check out. On the weekends they will all be open.

One thing that is super frustrating for me is people who cut in lines. I know this has to be a culture thing. Dee and I were in line at this check out and this lady and her kids just walks right in front of us like it is no big deal or as if we did not even exist. So I snapped a picture. More shots of the grocery department. It is HUGE!

Here is a cosmetic area. This is also in the grocery area. I made no exciting purchases since I was just basically there for lunch. I ended up with some coffee and bananas though.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this latest installment of my blog!

Trip to E-Mart

I am a little behind with these pictures but still wanted to get them up. These were taken on presidents day...Feb. 20th. We went out to lunch with some friends and on to E-mart.

Here is the car we rented when we went to Osan. I think it was a Daewoo something or other. Super nice compared to our car. We kept it a few extra days and decided to go to E-mart.

We followed Craig and his family there...got lost a few times but eventually found our way. Thought I would get a shot of the parking garage since it is like all the other ones I have been in for the big stores. Really small spots. They also usually have people directing traffic and telling you where to park. Since this was a Monday it was not as crowded.

The following are a few shots from the parking garage to give you an idea of the local scenery.

Here is Abby in the floor in the toy section. They have a pretty good selection of toys at this E-mart. Way in the background wearing the blue Jersey you can just make out Court. Some of these shots were taken by Gavin. He has gotten into the habit now of taking my camera and going off to take pictures. About half of them are no good and some of them are usable.

Gavin took this one while riding up the escalator. You can see a lot of this one floor. This store is huge and there is so much to look at. We spent several hours here.

Flowers...picture by Gavin.

Some cutesy stuff. Looks like pencils/pens and cases for them. Also bags. Love the Hello Kitty stuff!
After telling his wife "no pets" Craig proceeds to buy two baby bunnies. He later returned them and bought a dog instead.
Here are two sales ladies in the kids clothing section. I never feel like I can really browse in these because a salesperson is always coming up to me. I just want to look and do not need help. I am not sure if they work on commission or not? Pic by Gavin.
The school year is ending here and a new one is beginning for the kids that are Korean so there are a lot of school supplies for sale. Gavin took this picture. These backpacks are pretty pricey. 40,000 won or around $40.

Say Cheese! Another picture courtesy of Gavin. A Korean family having some dinner at the food court. I picked up these two DVD's. They both work on our DVD player are were around $4 each! WOOHOO!

Banana flavored yogurt drink. Abby loves these.

Mini Kimchi pots. I should have gotten a few more of these. They were around $2 each and they will make nice little gifts to take back home.

Awesome strawberries! YUM! The produce is so much better at the Korean stores than at the Commissary.

I took these other shots while we were just off Camp Walker.

I have not been in this place but I have been told you can take a picture of a dress in and the lady can make it for you. A lot of people use her for formal dresses.

Just a random shot of the street off Camp Walker.

Here is a blanket Court bought me. He thought it was mink but it is not so I gave it to Maddie. She is allergic to her Mink blanket so she needed a special blanket like her brother and sister.

The new puppy

Court and I have been talking about getting a puppy here for some time. Originally we were going to wait until we came back from the states but he came home yesterday with a surprise for me! :)
I am not sure how old he is but he is very young. He probably could have used a few more weeks with his momma. We are pretty sure he is a Shih Tzu. Very friendly and sweet. He seems to love all the kids. Abby keeps telling me.. "him likes me!" and "him so cute!"

Abby had a really good time with him last night.

With all the little girls here last night for the party (there were 5 total) you knew this had to happen.

Still no idea what his name is to be. I think we would like something Korean. If anyone knows a good name akin to the American Fido or Rover let me know please! :)

Gavin is 7 years old!

Well it is hard to believe Gavin is 7 years old now. We started the morning off bright and early. Gavin wanted to open all but 3 of his presents in the morning so we gathered together in the living room. Sure does not seem like he got much to open but I have explained that he is getting older now and his presents are more expensive.

We left his bike in Indiana when we moved here. He had outgrown it anyways. So we let him pick out a new bike and he got it yesterday. It is a Mongoose. From Grandma Sally and Grandpa Gordon he got two sets of Magnetix, a Game Boy game, clothes and a book. From Mom and Dad he got a new Nintendo DS game, 2 game cube games, Spongebob DVD, a vibrating/noise maker gun, books and the bike.

Gavin had his choice of parties. He could do bowling or Burger King and invite his entire class or he could have a sleep over and invite a few friends. He chose a sleep over. There were a lot of people here throughout the night. Dee and her sons Tizoc (who stayed) and Jaydee. Lois with her two kids Harley and Savannah (both stayed), Thomas and his wife Song...their three kiddos...James, Andrea and Zach (he stayed), Craig, Tanya and their two kiddos Abbie and Trevor (both stayed) and of course our three kiddos and us. So a total of 20 people here. We had 5 pizzas, loads of drinks and snacks.

Clockwise from the top..Harley, gavin, Savannah, Maddie, Abbie and Trevor.

After eating Gavin opened presents. Left to right...Abbie, Trevor, Maddie and Gavin.

Gavin with another present and Maddie.

Gavin got some Yu-Gi-Oh cards...really neat because they are Korean.

Abby, Harley and Gavin playing after opening presents.

With all the kids you know someone would have to get hurt. Well poor Zach got his finger stuck in a door. He had a quick trip to the ER and was back again. Here he is giving the finger LOL with Harley and Craig in the background.

Another shot of the trashed living room and a lot of kids.

Happy Birthday to you! Harley, Court, Gavin, Savannah and Maddie.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the Kirby cake.

In the back it is Harley, Gavin and Savannah. In the front is Trevor, Abbie, Tizoc and Maddie.

All the kids having cake and ice cream...yum!

Gavin and Trevor really hit it off well and Trevor is a really great kid.

I am not sure what time the boys finally went to sleep. I know I came out at 1 am and told them to be quiet. This was taken around 6 am.

Another shot of the boys sleeping...hard to tell there is four of them jumbled all together.

When I went to bed Abbie and Maddie were sleeping princesses together. Savannah was sleeping in the living room with the boys.

When I woke up Maddie and Savannah were in the bed and Abbie was on the floor.

It is morning now and everyone is up. The girls are all dressed and playing princesses. They boys are playing video games. I think it was a success as far as parties go!