Happy Thanksgiving

So what are you thankful for? This is the question of the day and something that people wait to late to realize. People often take for granted the little things in life like when family only lives 20 minutes away yet you only see them on funerals and weddings. Or only call once in a blue moon or go months without seeing your grand kids because you have let time and life get in the way. What you fail to realize is that time is one thing that no one has a lot of and it is not promised to anyone. If you continue to wait for the right time to do things or have to continue to tell yourselves that you need to make time to do this that and the third you will wake up and realize that yet again time has passed you by. I am blessed and thankful to have spent my grandfathers last dying day with him. I am thankful that I got to tell him how much I loved him before he took his final breathe, I am thankful that god blessed me enough to place him in my life for the amount of time that he did. I am thankful that the process of me going to Korea was delayed so that I had time with my grandfather even though I didn't know that it was the end. I am thankful for my family who no matter what stood by my decision to move out of the country with my kids. I am thankful for both of my grandmothers who no matter the age or the time it took have been there for me and my kids and never faltered in their love. They made me who I am and I thank them for that everyday of their lives. I am thankful for my parents for -y mother and laughs with my father. I am thankful that I can still argue and fight with them and call the next day and everything be okay. I am thankful for them always keeping it real with me and for being tough on my kids, who miss them dearly. I am thankful for my kids, they are the reason why I breathe the reason why I laugh and even when I am crying they are the little hands patting me on my back. I am so thankful for them. I am thankful for my brothers who no matter their age always bring something to the table. They look out for me like they are my fathers offer wisdom when they can and have my back no matter what. I am thankful for my sisters that laugh with me vent with me and spend money with me lol, eat with me and harass me whenever possible. I am thankful for my nieces and nephews near and far. I am thankful for my ride or die friends my true best friends lol the ones who have my bail money if I flip out or will take care of my kids when I pass. They are greatly appreciated all the time. And of course I am thankful for my husband who has my back through it all, and gave us a great opportunity. He's right there with me when I make off the wall decisions or blow up on someone. He calls me on my shit and I call him on his. I am thankful for that because without those things who would I be. Now while you're eating dinner taking for granted the very things that I have mentioned above. Start to think about what you're thankful for and how many things you toss to the back burner because you have all the time in the world to do it? I was told to live everyday as if it
 were your last, I take nothing for granted because time is not on my side. And no matter how you may look at things time is one thing you cannot hold on to. A guy died today that I went to high school with from a rare kidney cancer. And his last post was about how he was a fighter and planned to beat this, 24 years young. Death has no expiration date doesn't matter if you're a newborn or 100 years old when it's your time it's your time. So again what are you thankful for?

Now, our first Korean thanksgiving was awesome, Olmsted, Mottes, Yingling, and the Irwin came and had dinner with us. And I cooked everything, cornbread dressing., candy yams, collard greens, ham, rice pilaf, mac-n-cheese. Cajun turkey, rolls and mashed potatoes apple pie and cake. The turkey from popeyes was great the best yet. And it's Olmsted birthday on Saturday so that bought him some chinese liquor 80 proof and lord have mercy that crap was nasty. It smelled really good lol don't get me wrong but it was like drinking rubbing alcohol lol.  I barely took a sip and was like oh lord I am good on that one lol. Dinner was great we ate, and ate and ate and guess what lol no one was yelling alright get your shit and get out lol. Love you Josie. lol but really I didn't even realize I wasn't home because my army family made it so much fun. And the boys had a blast with their new friend Alexah who has to be the coolest little girl since Parris lol. Love her to pieces lol, she ate so much she looked like she wanted to pass out lol. Oh and I tried Soju the other day and hahahaha please follow the directions on the bottle. DO NOT DRINK WHILE SITTING DOWN lol. Well here's a toast to new memories with great people. And sending tons of love back to my family in the states. Gramps was greatly represented from Korea to the States. First year without the crack cake but I have a year to prefect it.

E-Mart

Today we traveled to E-Mart which to me was more so like Walmart then anything. They had some really cool things in there and the set up of it is kind of weird. When you first walk in you have to go through the metal detectors which takes you to the clothes, shoes, purses, and makeup. We got Michael some new Korean tennis shoes, they have wonderful warm sturdy kids clothes but lord the cost of them are for the birds lol. I believe one outfit was 54,000 won yea I will be ordering and very very rarely buying from their stores. They do have a lot of sales but that was 54,000 with the discount so imagine without it. His shoes came to 27 american dollars 31,000 won so wasn't that bad. Especially considering the fact that our PX is anti boy clothing. On the bottom level is where the grocery section is and the carts are like the carts from Aldis you have to put a coin in to get it, and bag the stuff yourself, while all Korean grocery stores are like that. They do not supply paper or plastic lol very eco friendly here so you better be carrying your own shopping crap. We bought so frosted flakes the boxes of cereal here still come with prizes in them how cool is that. They are also getting in the holiday spirit and the little sections that are decorated with Christmas stuff amuses me. Like I said they are the only Asian country that recognizes Christmas as a holiday so it's nice to see their spin on them. And then the third floor of the store had like little clinics a cooking school and something that offered kids classes. They had a food court but the menus was all in Korean lol so we turned around and walked back out. By the time I learn all of Hangul (their Alphabet) it will be time for us to leave. Korean is a level four language meaning that it is one of the hardest to master, so speaking it and reading it will be two different things. lol at the check out the woman at the register started talking to me like I knew what she was saying I had this look on my face like huh????? lol and the woman helping me with the shoes for mikey was nice I know now that han is yes and a few others I just let her do her thing and nodded and smiled lol. She got him together because like I said Koreans love the kids lol. And their shoe sizes and clothing sizes blew me mikey wears a 140m in korean shoes lol....I didn't even want to ask about clothes. And again Hello Kitty has her own section that Cat got more money then Trump lol. Whoever made her is rolling in the money because she is every where. 

Seoul Lantern Festival, Mcdonalds experience and just weekly random updates...

So, the week started with Will going with a friend to pick up his wife. On the ride back I sent him a message saying that I wanted to try the new Mcdonalds that had been built by lotte mart. All I knew was that you take 3 straight there lol....While on the train back he says oh I saw it it's literally right there not far at all. So when he gets back to the house we hop in a taxi to the Lotte Mart, well what he didn't know was that there are two lotte marts with in 15 minutes of each other. So the first one that we went to of course was the wrong one we were in Jihang when I specifically kept saying Yanju lol. So after getting in a second taxi and heading finally to the right location and by the way the driver had no idea where mcdonalds was so we had to tell him lotte mart in yanju to get close enough and then walked the remainder of the way. Lol...smh on the way there I passed an outlet mall that resembled Aurora farms but with different stores of course. And a Korean clothing store with the hanboks and everything. lol but I have no idea exactly where I was to have a taxi take me back to that store so that will have to be an adventure to attempt to get back to that Korean clothing store. We want to have the next set of pictures taken in authentic Korean clothing. And of course as my luck would  have it there was a tent sale (which I am sure he will be back fingers crossed) that were selling kimonos for kids that I wanted to buy, but was waiting for Will and ended up missing the damn sell. I know next time to just buy the stuff and show him later. lol....The McDonald was great not greasy like back home served pop in glasses lol just your average fine dining in Korea lol. On the ride back we lucked up and got into a pimped out taxi fully equipped with lights embedded in the ceiling and lighted up dolphins in the back lol. Along with the shag carpet on the seats lol and he was driving at least 100mph we had to have ran like 4 lights lol. Of course this week was a short week because the kids had parent teacher conferences so no school for Thursday and Friday. I went to the conferences with a list of things to talk to his teacher about. So, here's what I was told mom, 1)they don't check book bags because they don't expect them to be bringing anything from home usually. She just tells them to grab their folders and anything that doesn't belong out. Well, javian being Javian figures that belongs because that's where I put it so he doesn't take it out. He is doing well can spell his name and everything, nothing major to discuss about his other skills because it's a work in progress and she doesn't expect them to know that stuff yet. Then we got on the subject of FRG. Which I have to attend the next meeting per Wills commander or whomever saying so lol. But other then that he is doing great adjusting and adjusting well. Since, Jay had a four day weekend and Will had a 3 day weekend for what I don't know. We spent Friday shopping for thanksgiving dinner and yes Delaina I ordered my turkey from Popeye's lol Cajun style woot woot. lol And got all the ingredients for the sides. Lets hope that everything is done in time seeing as how I don't have a real oven booooooooo. Totally forgot about desserts because my gramps usually takes care of that. Sigh first year without the crack cake I am def going to be in tears that night. lol And I have managed to stay so busy that I forgot that it was his birthday official in Korea. So special shout out to my best friend, grandfather and guardian angel miss you more then ever. Happy birthday and in honor of you I will be going to see the Korean NASCAR because if he was here he would so be there. But I know that everything I am experiencing right now you are right with me. So wish me luck on cooking a semi dinner as my gramps would have done with some special homemade sides from my granny. Shawny really needed a haircut he hasn't had one since he went to gdaddy and Will kept putting it off so I got the clippers myself and started to cut his hair lol. My theory hey my mom use to cut bjs in the beginning can't be that hard lol. So I started and then will took over mumbling next time I will take you to the barbershop your mother then went crazy lol. No just tired of waiting lol. We went to the Lantern Festival today which was awesome, Koreans are so darn creative and I love the fact that no matter what time of year they always have something going on. When we got off the train at Jonggak Underground mall woot woot cannot wait to go there they had some shoes to die for, we were surrounded by tons of stores that had the holiday spirit. I loved it even though there is no snow and that they are the only country in Asia that recognizes Christmas as a national holiday was good to see others in the spirit. It was a very short walk to the lantern festival and when in doubt just follow the Koreans lol. I took tons of pictures and despite the slight wind the only thing on me that was freezing was my hands. We did find a McDonald so you know that's were we ate. lol kinda done with the expensive ass american restaurants, gotta start eating Korean or something and on every corner was a Starbucks, but after my last experience I didn't go in lol. And we stuck to our word we didn't get lost at all lol straight shot on the train there and back lol. And less then 5 minute walk from train to destination and in the process found a show called jump with the karate performance and stuff over dinner. Def our next outing, well after the holidays of course. And hahaha they are trying to imitate the black Friday sale at the PX so instead of one day it will be 3 days and then cyber Monday.I won't be going every day but I will be there the first day. Hopefully they still have what I am looking for. lol. Until next time guys enjoy the photos. Oh yea after two years of being completely natural I decided to get a press and curl came out nice. I found an awesome lady here with a hair salon who hooked me up. Thankfully her husband is about to retire so they will be here for a minute so I will be able to keep her around until I leave. So for the winter I think I will keep the straight look until I get tired and go back to some sort of protective style.

Coex Mall

Yet another 4 day weekend in Army land, and heck's naw I'm not complaining lol. The month will go as follows 3 day, 4 day, 3 day, 4day. lol gotta love the holidays. Will had CQ duty in the barracks on Saturday it was for 24 hours, so me and the boys chilled around the house. I figured we would save exploring for next weekend when we would all head to see the lantern festival in Seoul. I ordered popeyes by myself woot woot lol still haven't figured out how to open the main door downstairs but I have mastered opening the inside door. And even got a few phone calls in to the States. Sunday we were invited to the Coex mall with the Current family, which is a huge mall in Seoul with an aquarium, and movie theater and stuff. Loved the mall they have a cold stone, TGI fridays, Mc Donalds, and of course dunkin donuts, burger king (eat it on post never go to a korean burger king) lol, and baskin robbins. We tried the fridays which was good but damn so expensive, I haven't tried korean food for the simple fact that I have the kids with me and they can tend to be picky eaters. But for the prices we pay to eat at American themed restaurants I will start to eat at Korean restaurants lol. Of course I had to browse the mall they have the hugest puzzle store ever!! I plan to go back and get me a few to keep me busy during the week, and tons of toy stores. One of them was Hello Kitty themed, lol she has her own toilet paper smh. I also found the Nintendo store, Sony, apple and Samsung, def getting me some beats by dre headphones lol. They have demonstrations of the latest video games set up in the middle of the mall. They have a few new games coming out on 3d that looked awesome and the new zelda on Wii is going to kick ass. lol....they have a true religion store, guess, Levi, pan-coat and I cannot remember the other brand but unless you are a size 1-2 in america I would not advise shopping here lol. In true religion the biggest size they had were 24 and lol the jeans in all the stores are no less then 480000 won which is about 400 bucks in america. Lol Looks like it's time to find second market and get to shopping knock offs lol or ordering offline. Not to many kids clothing stores were found, but they have tons of shoe stores, but again if you're not a size 4-5 maybe 7 in the USA you won't find any shoes to fit. And they have shoes I have never seen in the states that are to die for. After browsing oh yea I found a Starbucks that only pretty much has tea and the one kind of caffe Americana they have is 7000 won. 6 bucks for coffee kick rocks lol, man I miss speedway 98 cent coffee and circle k 89 cent coffee Mondays lol. We went to the aquarium which was awesome they had people in the tanks with the sharks and fishes doing tricks it was a very nice time. I even got a few pics of the boys in the a sharks mouth not a real one of course. And as usual mikey slept through majority of it lol so he didn't see much until like the end. We took the train there of course straight shot and despite how incredibly smart Koreans are they didn't make the train stations kid friendly. Hardly any elevators and tons of freaking stairs. If you have some weight to lose I would suggest riding the train to and from Seoul every weekend lol.. You will def lose about a good 50 lbs especially carrying a stroller up and down the damn stairs. We got home around 9 which was right on time because Javian had school the next morning. Which of course he was complaining about shit they get as much time off of school as the damn soldiers do from work lol. So he tried to be slick and stay up till 2 am lol sucks for him he has to get up at 6:30am so he was not a happy camper this morning. Now we are off to find the McDonald in yanju and to get the stuff for thanksgiving dinner. Pumped to spend the holidays with my army family. And to answer everyone's question no I am not home sick at all heading to Korea came at the best time for me. I wouldn't make it in Cleveland around the holidays with out my Gramps. So Happy Holidays to everyone and I will keep updating you guys as I go.