Wholy Bedframe Batman!

So it just dawned on me that I didn't share our gorgeous new bed with you all. Without further ado...

THREE boxes

 

PLUS and hour and a half of my time

 

=

 

 

Add in two more hands (thank you honey!) and me working for a little bit longer and you get...

 

THIS!!!



 

I love the drawers on the footboard. That's where we keep our towels since we don't have a linen closet in our bathroom. Only tough part of this bed is the fact that I have to climb into it. It's super awesome... just leaves the possibility of a nose bleed, just kidding!

 



Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a happy halloween from South Korea! We have lots of fun plans for the day! We are heading over to the fall festival so that the kids can play games and eat and get some treats and then ending our day with trick or treating in our apartment complex.

Did you know that there are FREE  templates for pumpkins online? That's right! You don't have to buy those papers that you will only use once! This year, I used this site to print out our template. I love it! Free is always good!

Here is our completed pumpkin:

 

I'm a sucker for roasted pumpkin seeds and this is the only time of year that I make them at home. Do you roast your pumpkin seeds? If not, here's how you do it:

 

1) Rinse the pumpkin seeds under cold water and pick out the pulp and strings. I usually let them soak for 20 minutes so that more of the goo comes off.

2) Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been pre-sprayed with cooking spray. Spray the top of the seeds with more cooking spray and then sprinkle with salt.

3) Bake at 325 degrees F until about 25 minutesor until toasted. Be sure to check and stir them after 10 minutes.

4) Let cool and store in an air-tight container

 

... and of course I have to include pictures of our kiddos(Ry's costume is handmade, as usual):
 

 

Tasty Tuesday

I am going to try and share a dining experience every Tuesday. We will see how well I do with keeping this going... haha!

This week I am sharing an experience at our local E-Mart. For those of you who are not with us here in Korea, E-mart is a lot like Target... just really Korean-ized. I will have to do a whole post on E-Mart later. Anyways... on to the food.

I ordered the Ramen at their food court and this is what I got...

Ok... Lets start with the round pot... that is the actual ramen. It was FANTASTIC!!! It has green onions and egg cooked in to it along with some other green veggies and of course the ramen noodles and a broth that has a little spice to it. The round dish at the top with the three yellow circles are a type of pickled raddish that the Koreas call Danmuji. I'm a huge fan of this stuff. I eat it at every Korean restaurant that we go to that serves it. The next round dish at the top is Kimchi... I HATE this stuff! (Unless it is the cucumber variety) This one is a raddish based kind, unlike most of the kimchi that is made of cabbage and it is SPICY! Below the two round dishes is a "lunchbox" with rice, a fried egg, dried seaweed and slices of grilled SPAM (and there is some cabbage kimchi in the right top corner of the box). Yes, I did say SPAM. I like the seaweed and rice and egg all mixed up, but I could do without the SPAM.

There you have it, a typical lunch in Korea, one of my favorites, actually!

Riley's Art

Riley has been participating in an art class with other home-schooled kids nearby. A Korean lady, who owns a gallery, is teaching them. So far they have don't two watercolor pieces, an acrylic piece and a collage. I thought it would be good to show off some of her artwork. Please keep in mind that I help her draw out the picture and then she paints it. I think she's done a great job so far. What do you think?

Watercolor #1 - Leaves (inspired by the photo below the painting)

Acrylic - Hearts (inspired by the photo below the painting)

Watercolor #2 - Butterfly (inspired by the photo beside the painting)

I didn't get a picture of the collage... which got stuck to her sketchpad and we had to tear it off of the paper above it... oops!



On another note, Riley's girl scout troop went for a visit to see the working dogs (a part of security forces). I got a great shot of the group of them...

 

Being a stay at home mommy

What do I do in a day, you ask? EVERYTHING!

We have chosen to home school our kiddos so a few hours of my day goes to teaching. We are using a curriculum from Alpha and Omega Publishing called Lifepacs. Riley is taking Math, Science, History/Geography, Bible, and Language Arts from this curriculum. Here is more information about that part of her curriculum. She is also taking Horizon's Health, Horizon's Penmanship, and Horizon's Spelling and Vocabulary. To give her some other electives, she is taking piano lessons from her dad (they are using Alfred's Basic Piano Course Level A (theory book, lesson book and solo book), ballet lessons at the youth center, and art classes through our home school co-op. To add even more fun into the mix, she participates in Awana's every Wednesday (3rd year) and is also a Girl Scout Daisy (2nd year). Throw in a few field trip with the home school co-op and you have one busy schedule for a six year old!

I am also taking classes through American Military University. I am working on my Associates Degree is Computer Applications, which I should finish up this coming year and then I am re-enrolling and going for my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. That's a tall order for someone that has been out of 'normal' school/college since 2004, but I am really excited about it. Right now I am in week 15 out of 16 in two classes, Anatomy and Physiology as well as Spanish (at AMU via Rosetta Stone). If you want more information about AMU go here.

As you know, by all of my previous posts, I am up to my elbows cleaning and organizing our home. We have so much stuff that needs to be purged and I am determined to get through everything before we leave here in January.

Oh and just in case I have some free time... we are on an exercise kick. We spend a lot of our exercising time at the parent child gym that we have here on base, but we also have an elliptical at home that holds me over until we can make it back to the gym. We're hoping to get a nice set of weights so that we can do even more at home.

I know you're wondering... what do I do with all the 'free time' in my day... hahahahahaha.... I don't really have much of that with two kiddos home all the time. But when I do... We take time to enjoy the playground, I'm getting ready to start a great quilt that has a book to go along with it, I read in my kindle (sometimes this happens at the playground), I make freezer meals, and I spend as much time as possible with my hubby (who is also taking classes).

Oh and we have a new toy to introduce Elijah to... MILITARY MEN!!!!

 

Aha! There is a clean house in my near future!

For the past few weeks I have been working on cleaning up our home and getting rid of as much junk as possible. As of now, I have cleaned out the laundry room (with the exception of the cabinets.. cuz I cant see the mess, so I will get to this chore after everything else looks nice), Elijah's bedroom, Riley's bedroom, our master bedroom (which is getting a NEW bed frame TOMORROW!!!!!!! SOOO EXCITED!) and the pantry/fridge/cabinets in the kitchen. So lets see... that leaves:

*Reorganizing the kitchen counters

*Dining room/homeschooling room/craft room/office area

*Living room rearranging

*Hallway closet

 

I think I can ACTUALLY do this!

 

Here's the pictures for the places that I have recently finished organizing/cleaning:

Riley's Room

Riley's Room with a sleeping Ry bug hehe (I'm stealthy like that)

Gotta love the door! She's quite the decorator.

On to the master bedroom...

I finally organized all of my beauty supplies!!

More master bedroom... excuse the blue bag... it lives under the bed but since we are getting a NEW bed frame tomorrow it is hanging out by the closets =)

And now for the kitchen cabinets:

...that's all folks!