Wednesday, November 10, 2010

efforts concentrated elsewhere



cause more stuff is going on over here than i can keep up with. so i'm not going to kill this blog off, exactly, just put it on an official hiatus (as opposed to unofficial?) for the time being. you can find me over there if you want me!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

bad things come in 47s or something like that

what the crap, thursday? i mean SERIOUSLY.

so i woke up this morning. cause middlest wanted her hair straightened for cheerleading pictures. annnnnd no one else was up. yes, someone's alarm was playing music LOUD enough for the alarm to wake up the neighbors but no one in our house was awake. so i turned on lights & wiggled beds & such & everyone got up & started running. never a good way to start the day.

and littlest was a crabby patty about doing school. for some reason, the baby doll needed to come to school today. no she doesn't. yes she does. baby got grounded to the other side of the table. and littlest was still a crab.

and then i cleaned the living room floors. more on that later. just remember it.

and then i decided to go dye my hair. littlest was playing outside & had been out there happy for hours. HOURS i tell ya. so forgive me if i thought it was a good idea to sneak upstairs for a few minutes to attend to something for MYSELF for a change.

because then all hell broke loose. -ish. hair dye EVERYWHERE because for some reason i think it's a good idea to try different kinds. and none of them are the same consistency. and this one was the consistency of...oh, koolaid. heh. that was fun. and then comes littlest whining up the stairs. apparently the road had bitten her little knees & her little friend doctored her up but apparently the band-aids little friend used weren't up to littlest's standards. so she needed new ones. i pleaded with her to give me a few minutes so i wouldn't shed hair dye all over the house. she was content.

and then she was thirsty. and went downstairs after water. and apparently climbed up on the counter & helped herself to bandaids. and it really just occurred to me but i guess she threw the wrappers away because i haven't seen them lying around anywhere? hmm. good job. and then i discovered she'd been gone for awhile & went looking for her & met her on the steps & holy hannah! WHAT IS ALL OVER YOUR FACE? of course it was blood. of course. guess she joins her daddy & her bubba with the delightful nosebleeds. but then it was time to rinse the hair dye out before it ate my hair into nothingness. so here's a massive wad of toilet paper & please sit down before blood gets on more stuff than just your shirt & skirt & chest & face. and finally it stopped & the hair dye was rinsed out & back outside she went to play again.

and THEN i discovered that that little jackass baby weiner decided to pee all over my newly cleaned living room floor. and then not much later, he pooped on it. after being fine all stinkin day, he waited until the floor was clean.

and to top it all off, 1 was snappy for no reason. at least what i considered no reason. and apparently decided that spending the evening playing video games while the world spun on around him with cleaning & things was a good plan. not today, buddy. not today.

almost TGIF. but then another whirlwind weekend. but maybe next thursday will be better. but probably not since dear korea gives us a middle of the week holiday that the big kids get off of school. so thursday will be another monday.

who thinks i will lose my mind sometime in the next 19 years? cause, yeah, that's what i'm looking at, in case anyone missed that bulletin.


***oh, and p.s., more stuff than this went on today. in case you thought i had no right to gripe since my day seemed relatively empty if you were comparing catastrophes to hours. BUT IT WASN'T. the aforementioned events were the highlights.

also. does anyone else find it amusing that i posted something on my facebook referring to a group of people that are just exasperating as all get out & one of the group members responded to the post? clueless, i tell ya. just clueless. but i guess that's the way it is when you think you run the world. once you get yourself up there so high on the pedestal, i guess it's pretty hard to see what's going on down below. morons.

Monday, June 14, 2010

click, click, clique?

poor little neglected blog. sigh. i keep vowing to turn over a new leaf but every time i do, that little jackass flips right back over on me & i don't notice for about 2 months & then hey! yet another neglected blog post! shameful. just shameful.

so i quit the homeschool group. (travelling circus, stop reading NOW...you're already heard it.)

it was a great group when it started. many different people, many different views, but all meshing together nicely. and plans were emailed & everyone knew what was up. AND THEN THE GREAT PCS EXODUS OCCURRED.

and the group changed hands and whee hoo, yippity yahoo, it all went to crap. for me at least. i'm sure everyone else is happy with it. cause they're a part of the CLIQUE. and i'm not. so poo on them.

i was always the awkward kid. the nerd kid. the funny-looking kid. the doesn't fit in with the "in" crowd kid. and i wasn't the kid that took it gracefully and went about with my other nerd friends, my other awkward, funny-looking friends. i was one who tried to fit in. and by doing so, probably signed my death warrant as the nerd kid who will NEVER fit in. i didn't have the right clothes or the right hair or the right attitude. or the right overly-permissive parents. i didn't have any of what THEY had. not that i care at this point. but back then it was hard. and it seeped into me and now it infuriates me when it happens again. because my 4th-9th grade self creeps out and pouts in the corner while the cool kids flounce around in their name brand clothes.

and that's where the homeschool group went wrong for me. i get that i'm not exactly part of the in crowd with my not-army family and my kids too big or too little to fit in with the mean age of the group. and i don't get all the acronyms and i don't feel the deployment pain and my life isn't totally bound by the rules & regs of uncle sam. but i'm here, with you, away from home, away from any co-op, looking for support in the jungle that is korea. BWAHAHA. shame on me for expecting it.

getting left out of the planning once is one thing. being informed at the last minute about a time change for someone who didn't even bother to attend the event-fine. we'll let it slide. eff me once..shame on you.

but for it to happen again. and for no one to deign to call me, email me, FB me for heaven's sake. for me to have to call around & sort things out from afar, eff me twice...shame on me.

i don't need it. i dno't need the aggravation. i don't need the competitiveness. i don't need the rearing of my childhood's ugly head once a month. i don't NEED it.

so have at it. with your meetings and your cookouts and your field trips. i'll continue on as before except this time without digging up aggravation meant to have been buried 20 years ago.

and if anyone reading this ever catches me acting like the ass i'm accusing these other catty women to be, please do slap me. heaven forbid i ever be an accessory to making someone feel as unworthy as anyone has ever done to me.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming...

to bring you this terribly depressing post. but it's 2:30ish am, no one else is up & tears are threatening to overtake me so what to do but share with the internetz!

leaving AGAIN. sucks. made so much worse by the anticipated absence of my friend. the military said it was their time to go so they did. and i got left behind. and i have SO much to be thankful for but sometimes in the midsts of grief and anger, it is so hard to remember. i left a sister behind, in a country where she is alone and sometimes happy. but i fear the loneliness weighs on her. and i am sad. i am leaving my family behind-blood and not. and new lives are forming while others are slowly coming to a close. and while i am overjoyed to see my husband and my kiddos, 5 faces that i have grown to love will be missing from the scenery. and the beginning of another period of loneliness threatens to eat me alive.

i know this is what we have to do. i know this is what God has put before us. but my human self is oh so doubtful of the plans He has for us. my heart aches. and the tears have begun to spill.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

belize! - day four

so thursday. thursday wasn't much exciting. the usual feed birds, feed us, internet, feed us, feed birds, internet, dinner, internet, coladas, canasta routine. **i forgot about frappes! 2 different flavors of ice cream, frozen coffee, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, whipped cream. not much sleep for the night due to caffeine overload. but oh so good!** friday will be much better...ATM Caves is on the calendar! so instead i'll just expound on belize itself.

it's gorgeous here. and wide open. i've already said it once but this is just such a welcome change from crushed in korea of the gray/yellow/green skies depending upon what crap is in the air that day. so much space to raise children & let them run. as a child, i grew up in the country with plenty of room for running. and oh did i hate it. we were too far out from everything & it was miserable. but i see the logic of it now. perhaps at some point i'll have a yard for running. although by that point i don't think i'll have any little enough to enjoy it.

it is dirty here. in the towns. people are litter bugs & there is dust & dirt everywhere. probably wouldn't work for my family of allergy fiends. claritin has worked for me while i've been here but my allergies are basic compared to 1 and littlest. mold & mildew flourish in this tropical atmosphere.

the heat is cloying and oppressive. humidity sits on us like heavy blankets. air conditioning is essentially unheard of. although the atm chamber at the bank has AC. you also have to slide your card to get in. i guess they don't want to pass out AC for free. i've been sweating since i got here. i'm growing accustomed to sweat running down my back & my front. and i seriously appreciate the shower at the end of the day. and cold water splashed on my face in the interim. nothing beats it.

bugs bite frequently. deet is nasty stuff but keeps the ticks & squitoes away. there's a strange bite on my foot-right in the perfect position to be irritated by my tennis & hiking shoes. finally got smart enough to put coconut oil on it last night & the itchiness has subsided immensely. haven't spotted any ticks on my self yet but sister has found a few. no clue if there is lyme disease carried around here or not. probably, as everything else seems to be.

there is poverty here. education is privatized & very expensive, which i gather leaves quite a few people out in the cold. reasonably certain the 2 night-time security guards here cannot read. it's sad, really. but it is a developing country so perhaps at some point things will be better & there will be more hope.

there is a mishmash of people here. many of the groceries are chinese. there was honey at the market with a german's name on it as the bottler. many american ex-pats everywhere. and the belizeans are black and brown. mayan ancestry shows in high cheekbones & foreheads. mennonites & amish walk the streets in long sleeves, long pants, straw hats. the only woman i've seen had on long sleeves & a black bonnet. i didn't see her lower half but i assume it was clad in a skirt.

when we entertained the idea of south korea, people said "why korea?" and i got quite a few "why belize?" when i entertained the idea of vacation. people should stop asking why & just do what they can do. once in a lifetime opportunities should not be passed up. fear should not keep people chained to their couches, cowering from what the world holds. americans in particular seem to stay walled in by fear and trepidation. been there, was that. it took me (thirty-something) years to venture out of my bubble. don't wait too long...life has a habit of passing us by.

Monday, April 19, 2010

belize! - day three

so...wednesday. things are possibly starting to run together due to 1-the lack of watch or cell phone with the time on it & 2-the nightly pina colada ritual. i figure i'll be back to the real world soon enough & will have enough time checking then that i shouldn't worry about it right now. so long as the birdies get fed at 8 & 3, we're good.

wake up, feed the birds (what time?...just making sure you're paying attention). head off to the market & post office. things are SO inexpensive here! we got what would probably have been about $60 worth of produce in the US or the commissary for about $15. amazing. fruit & veggies for the birdies. we then hauled it all home & made parrot salad. it involved large knives & cutting boards & a steamer. easy, mind-numbing work. chop, chop, chop. gracie took some pictures. that alleviated some of the numbness. for about 20 seconds. then back to work.

wednesday was also mouse cage cleaning day. (i think that actually happened BEFORE marketing. but like i said, it's all running together.) it is usually mondays but since SOMEONE had the audacity to disrupt the schedule with an airport arrival on monday, mouse cleaning got moved to wednesday. know how you move mice from cage to cage without getting bit? pick them up by their tails! there's a fantastic picture on facebook with me in my mask. CASA has its own mouse colony for when there are raptors in residence-no running off to the pet store or field here! just head for the mouse room! there are about 10 grown or juvenile mice & then about 10 babies of 2 different litters so varying ages. mice-meh. can't get real excited about them.

then it was lunch time & then a little later feed the birds (again) time & then we got to jump in the (air-conditioned HALLELUJAH!) peregrine fund truck to see some orange-breasted falcons. took a LONNNNNNNG ride on bumpy roads to a mountain. found what may have been some slash & burn farming right near where we parked the truck. that was quite mood-dampening. then followed long-legged & fast-walking yeray UP the mountain to a sink hole void of falcons. continued (puff, puff, gasp, wheeze) following him to another hole with a female on a nest with 3 eggs. he had a fancy-schmancy scope he let us look through. it's so amazing to me that these birds nest on the walls of cliffs. she was a pretty thing & we saw her move around a bit which was interesting. the going back down was much easier than going back up. natalie, of the not-as-long-fast-legs led the way. i was in the middle & felt as if i were going to be run over at any minute. we all made it back down safely & got back on the crazy bumpy road back home.

ate serendib for dinner...sri lankan food in belize? of course! i mean, i had to go to korea to try indian & thai, why not come to belize for sri lankan? it was pretty good. nice & spicy. didn't care much for the dessert-wattalapan, i think. it was advertised as coconut custard but seemed more like pumpkin pie. pumpkin, in my book, is nasty. no thanks. i tried to like it but just couldn't.

after sri lankan, headed back home for more canasta & coladas. we were hoping for tamarind daiquiris but there seemed to be a shortage of tamarind juice that night, so we stuck with old faithful. and it was just fine.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

belize! - day two

really it's 6. i just can't get caught up!

so tuesday.... tuesday is birdie cage scrubbing day. i don't guess there's much that can be said to glamour that up. soap & water & scrub brushes & brooms. guess a working vacation can't be all vacation.

tuesday afternoon was a birdie surgery. a cattle egret (korea friends, think of the white birds we see all over the rice paddies) had come in - a week or so before i did - with an injured wing & some of that foam stuff you spray to fill in holes in your house all over his feet. natalie managed to get the foam off with tweezers, scissors & lots of patience but his wing still needed some attention. the veterinarian they use was coming out to the clinic to try to pin the wing. unfortunately, once he was sedated, they could feel around & find that the injury was much more serious than they thought and the decision was made to go ahead & put him down. it was kind of sad.

i did not even try to observe the surgery as i did not want to fall out on the floor & be in the way. so i spent the afternoon reading/sleeping in the hammock until it was time to feed the birds. i had agreed to do it in case the surgery wasn't over when it came time for feeding. everyone got food & clean water.

once natalie was done, we went into town for some pina colada supplies (that damn song has been in my head ALL.FREAKIN.WEEK.). and came back here for pina coladas & canasta. yeray, who works for the peregrine fund (click it to read about it) documenting orange breasted falcons in central america, joined us for coladas & canasta. he invited us to go hiking with him on wednesday to hopefully see a falcon or two and possibly some eggs. with that in mind, we went on to bed with plans to hop out of bed in the morning so we could get all of our work done in order to be able to play in the afternoon!

Friday, April 16, 2010

belize! - day one

it's thursday...i've been here 3 1/2 days. i can't figure out if it seems like more or less than that! and i've not been blogging like i meant to so i have to hurry up & catch up before more adventures happen!

the country is beautiful. so much more wide-open than korea with its buildings stuck on every spare patch of land that doesn't have a rice paddy. and so green! even in the dry season, it is green. again-better than korea that is still struggling to wake up from the cold cold winter.

so, monday. i got a wake-up knock at 4am. needed to be at the airport at 5:30 and with the unpredictability of dorchester rd. traffic, we wanted to leave 45 minutes early. we left 40 minutes early. good enough. the atm was uncooperative so that took a few minutes. and we finally made it to the airport. and i had checked in online & the curbside guy was fantastically high spirited for 5:30 am...sang me the "brandy" song as he tagged my bags. flight was early getting into atlanta & i had plenty of time to make my connection. flight into belize was about 3 1/2 hours & the water coming in was SO green. this internet here is awful so i'm not even going to try to upload pics. check my facebook-there are plenty there! upon arrival, customs was easy & she gave me a break on the duties for the donated supplies i was delivering. and then i got outside & natalie was nowhere to be found! so i sat. in my jeans in belize. whoo hot. and a taxi driver used his phone to call my sister who was running late! sheesh. what is new? there was a mixup on the pickup so she was late. but then she was there. it was a bit of a drive. i fell asleep.

upon arrival, it was about birdie lunch/dinner time. so we fed them. they get birdie salad, except for the egret who was in residence at the time. more about that & the birdie salad later. we then went fishing, belize/staples style. belize style means using a wine bottle with a hole punched in the bottom & filled with cat food/parrot food & then sunk in the river (we also used lines with small hooks baited with masa). staples style means we had no patience and didn't catch any fish. oh well. the water was nice.

on the way back, we decided to put gas in the truck. only 1 gallon, since everyone uses it. but we were going to use it that evening so we figured we'd put a gallon. $10 belize. exchange is 2-1. yeah, that's expensive! they have full service gas stations here. so we stayed in our truck & told the guy what we wanted. and then when he was done, the truck wouldn't start! agh! we waited a few minutes. it still wouldn't start. so we got a push out from the pump so we wouldn't disturb business. and then we walked home. and then that evening, we walked back out again. all the way to san ignacio. where we had some drinks & met an ice cream guy who makes guiness ice cream? perhaps we will see him at the market saturday. and then we walked all the way home because the taxis wanted $7 belize to take us home & sorry dude but we're on a budget! and then we fell down in our beds with mosquito nets so we could get up & feed birdies on tuesday.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

numbers

6 errands run today.
40 kazillion strands of hair cut off my head.
1 airport shuttle ticket purchased.
1 monkey wrench in the machinery.
30 minutes of insanity stuck in a car with a bored 3 year old.
2 dishes for MOPS tomorrow not yet even started.
3 more days worth of school lessons.
4 more days til i fly.

still 2 cold feet.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

oh korea

so i made it to the hospital today. just another stop in a long line of c.f.'s that occurred all day today. to include completely losing my shit, quitting school, broken closets & an apparent hep a vaccine shortage. such is my life.

journeyed out to good morning hospital to find the usual mess in the parking garage. managed to pull into a space forwards-big no no around here if your car is bigger than a matchbox-and just prayed i'd be able to get back out. met with my friend sunny at the information for foreigners desk who discovered that there was no hep a vaccine to be found at the hospital. of course there isn't. she did, however, make several phone calls to locate me a vaccine & found some at another hospital but sorry, there is probably no english department. greeeaaaat. chalk up another c.f. to the day.

she then escorted me upstairs and down a long line of chairs filled with staring koreans to the family doctor who spoke very good english but apparently thinks i'm going to BALI, not BELIZE. whatever. they both start with b? after determining that i weigh...oh, wait, i'm not saying that on here...a certain number of kilograms and figuring out that chloroquine must be taken for 2 weeks ahead of the trip & 4 weeks after & 3 pills at a time & so that makes...uh...24 pills, yes., and then repeating back the instructions for taking the pills, i had to walk back down the road...no, how do i say that?...hallway! full of chairs full of staring koreans to the desk. and paid a little bit (take THAT american effed up healthcare! and, no, i don't think obama-care is going to fix that problem) and then got my prescription & a map from my friend sunny for the other hospital with no english department, sorry, and my chloroquine to be taken 3 pills a day one time a week for 8 weeks that only cost me a little bit at the pharmacy across the road from the hospital, i went back to the parking garage to discover answered prayers as i could back into one space so i could drive forward out of the parking garage! yay! but now i have to go to no-speaky-engrishy-hospital. argh. did i mention that i was alone? going i knew not where?

but i had a map! from my friend sunny! and i found paris baguette & then as i passed the hospital, discovered that it WAS the hospital, and drove down some little roads (sorry adjashee with a cart that i followed for 5 minutes) and snagged a parking spot without a camera and then relocated the hospital on foot & yes, there is no english department, but we can say second floor! and i went to second floor with still no english but a text message on the phone (thanks, ladies at 1's office!) that got me a hep a shot! which wasn't cheap. guess 3rd time wasn't the charm. or maybe it was but for korea, not me. and i found my truck again on the 1st try and there was no parking ticket sticker on the windshield and i actually had the gps so i could get myself home again thank the Lord.

and the closet door is still broken, and my shit is still lost, and i still quit school, and there is still a hep a vaccine shortage in korea. but at least i got MY hep a vaccine and some chloroquine. and yet another step on the way to belize is down. less than 3 weeks. feet are still cold.

ohhhhh myyyy

tomorrow is my appointment at the byeongwon for a shot & hopefully a script.
here we go again with medical in a foreign country.
i'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing that i was able to identify myself to the lady on the phone & she knew who i was.
shoes are waiting for me in the states.
sunglasses will hopefully meet me there.
and i've definitely got the cold feet.
oy.

Monday, March 22, 2010

and now to lighten the mood...

since i'm a little bit over my butt-hurt. a little bit. i didn't say totally. anyway....

this past saturday, the ladies planned a trip to dongdaemun and the flower market. dongdaemun means "great east gate" & there is one there but mostly there is shopping. serious shopping. shopping such that last weekend, when a friend & i went to the fabric place, we met a group of women who had flown over from shanghai for the weekend to 1-go to the fabric place & 2-go to dongdaemun. our main mission was for ribbon & doo-dads for hair bows. and hair bow clips. all of which is amazingly cheap up there (over here? whatever).

so the plan is for me to pick up 2 girls & meet at starbucks at 7:30. notice i said the "plan". NOT what actually happened. friday night i was up late waiting for the dishwasher to finish so i could empty & reload. because our dishwasher can only be run at night now. because we paid over $1000 in utilities last month & i'm trying to avoid that happening again. and night electric is cheaper, so they tell me, therefore the dishwasher only gets run at night. between 10pm-5am. i don't remember why there were 2 loads worth of dishes but there were. and i was waiting on the molasses-ass dishwasher to finish sloshing around so i could go to bed. and then it was 2:30 or so. and i swear i set my alarm. which apparently i did but neglected to switch it from weeknight to weekend. and then at 7:25, 1 gained consciousness long enough to ask me was i leaving? and OMG IT'S 7:25 AND I SHOULD HAVE BEEN UP 1 1/2 HOURS AGO! and the race began.

so i finally made it to starbucks, sans my riders who had either already been picked up by someone else or missed the memo & walked on post under their own steam. 4 of us met in the starbucks parking lot where we soon discovered the sign on the door kindly informing us that they were closed due to water outage. nice. thanks, caffeine fail.

we persevered and picked up the 5th member of the group & headed for the train station...trains run REALLY early, right? SURELY korean starbucks will be open, right? AHAHA no. not when most koreans don't roll off the floor until about 10am since they stay up til 2am...presumably emptying their dishwashers. however, one of the 2 dunkin donuts was open. so we were able to satisfy our sugar/caffeine/water/juice needs. and we were off to the flower market!

until we hit traffic. hooray for traffic. we waded through it & thought we were on the right path. what's that up there? it says market! this must be it! and we were on the far left lane to make a left hand turn into...into...into...aww crap. that says grain market! quick! make a u-ey! and we did, cause that's what you do in korea. but then to get back on the road headed in the right direction, we needed to turn back around. in the traffic. agh. but through group driving...turn here! you can make it! look out for adjeema & her bike! ooh, look at the fish! keep backing up, you've got a few more inches...we got turned around in the right direction (after witnessing the costco parking guy holler at the lady in the car who just about sideswiped us in her haste to get in the line for costco parking) and were ready to make another stab at the flower market. which, yes, it was a flower market. but, no, it wasn't the right one. this was the wholesale flower market that we figure supplies the market we were actually looking for. but there were still flowers, and pots, and dirt, and greenhouses, and a skinny little road on the edge of a 10 foot drop off to a creek that we played chicken with some top heavy bongo trucks on. in other words, it was a market in korea next to a korean road. and it was fun. but no flowers came home with me since adjeema wouldn't sell me a single, only a flat. and i just didn't need that many daffodils, sorry.

and then we jumped back into traffic to head for yongsan for some quick lunch & a quick spin around the px before heading back out into korea to head to dongdaemun. we walked to the nearest subway stop where i temporarily lost my subway navigation skills but where a nice korean girl with a phone subway map sorted us out. and then at the next station where my skills were still nonexistent, she caught up to us & got us on the right train and, lo! we were at DONGDAEMUN!

sort of.

apparently coming up on a different train gets me confused & renders me unable to find the correct exit from subway-land to get to where we need to be. we'd pop up out of one flight of steps to find a huge road with no crosswalks separating us from our goal. and pop up out of another one to find another road separating us (this was after some of the crew had to buy a ticket just to walk through the station to another exit). this time we found a crosswalk or 2 and raced traffic to find ourselves where we meant to be. **note to self, it's subway exit 9** at this point we had spent so much time being lost that we had to kind of race around the ribbons & such to try to get home on some semblance of time. i'm the proud owner of 60 yards of ribbon now. and there were 172 yards spread across my living room floor that night as i was given the task of distributing the ribbon we bought in bulk so as to not annoy the adashee who was cutting...which meant someone had to cut it. and i volunteered. i'm so sick of ribbon right now that i threw mine in the drawer & haven't touched it since.

once we'd bought out dongdaemun, we got back on the subway (exit/entrance 9!). during our transfer, we smelled the delicious aroma of deli manjoo so my workout buddy & i raced up one flight of stairs to discover that the aroma had vanished! back down we went and followed the smell to where i introduced everyone to deli manjoo: corn-shaped, custard-filled cakes best eaten hot & fresh. we all ate way too many. but i think that & all the walking balanced each other out. after another short train ride and more walking, we made it back to post & the van. everyone grabbed up some drinks & snacks for the ride home. i think i tried to fall asleep on the ride home-not sure anyone noticed. we made it back safe & sound, albeit 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, and in record time for korea traffic out of seoul on the weekend. it was a great time & once my feet & ribbon fund recover, i expect we will do it again. we're losing one of the adventurers, though. she will be greatly missed!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

fake

today i have been called, by implication, not a "real" mother or a "real" teacher.

i'm trying not to get too bent out of shape. one comment was by a teenager & the other by someone who spends quite a bit of time with his foot in his mouth.

but both of them are extremely close to me. and my feelings are hurt. not beyond repair. but still enough to make my eyes well up.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

5...

...weeks until we are done with auri's alphabet. i think we need to rearrange the alphabet cause the end of it sucks from a food/animal standpoint. maybe we could mix it up a little bit so all the suck letters aren't at the ass-end.

...weeks until i'm on an airplane back to (momentary) civilization & then (awesome) foreign hiking/scenery/new experiences. and mosquitoes/tarantulas/tiger attacks. i can't decide if i should be excited or freaked the hell out. which reminds me, i must call the byeong-won for some shots & drugs. great. hopefully it won't be an arm & a leg. especially since "someone" needs a new 500,000 won orthodontic appliance. esh.

...weeks until i say goodbye to a good friend. the military will be taking away my gym partner/therapist/Godly inspiration while i'm off on my adventure. we're trying to stuff everything into every weekend before then. this military life thing sucks.

so. to summarize, two out of three things suck. quick! someone give me some stuff that doesn't! oh, wait! i think THAT baby is actually taking a nap at naptime. that doesn't suck. so now we're even.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

yes! or...no!...or OMG I'M DOING WHAT?

so...what's that over there? over there on my counter? that's right...$1900 worth of paper. paper that will get me to BELIZE!

come april, i'll be running away for TWO WEEKS. leaving it all behind for another foreign country. apparently i've gotten brave over the past couple years.

so i'll leave behind a kitchen full of groceries & recipes, a pile of schoolwork (maybe, maybe not. but we'll let the kids think i am) and all of the sundry other things that are here, in this country, and not in THAT COUNTRY. IN BELIZE. cause that's where i'm going and all.

blue hair is out until i'm headed back to korea. it's been nixed by she who keeps the mosquito net. in favor of we would like to keep our pretty little gringa heads, please. i guess maybe she has a point.

i guess i'll try to blog more. or at least about the trip. you know, the one to BELIZE. cause i'm going there. in like 5 1/2 weeks. OMG. IS THIS REALLY ME?

Monday, February 8, 2010

the pot calling the kettle...and all that

a friend of mine...or maybe she's an acquaintance-kind of one of those blurry-lined relationships...is an atheist. not really a stand on a soapbox & shout kind of atheist so far as i knew. she was a regular at the homeschool group before it changed hands-and the group was undoubtedly christian. her facebook profile does state that she is an atheist. and her groups joined-which show up on my page-reflect her beliefs (would we say lack thereof?). i don't pay it much attention for the most part. we aren't close enough for it ever to be a real conversation.

but then today. oh today. her group of the day was the "ban religious child grooming" group. go ahead. search it. i'll wait. i wouldn't recommend reading the entire description. it's more than likely your eyeballs would fall out from the disparaging comments towards the Bible and God.

the stated purpose of the group is to ban the practice of teaching YOUR children about YOUR religion. because apparently to this group of people, that comprises religious grooming. and that should be obliterated at all costs.

and here is where i'm confused. if this group's purpose-as if there were any hope of achieving more than sparking blog posts-is to ban religious child grooming, then what do they consider what they are doing? their children will not be raised in a vacuum, i'm sure.

**WARNING-huge generalization ahead**


as it has been my experience that many times people who trumpet their lack of religiousness pride themselves on NOT sheltering their childrens' eyes, minds, and spirits from much of anything, then i think it should go against that philosophy to shield their children from *gasp* Godly religion...in the interests of open-mindedness and all that. i say should because i think that they are sheltered from Godly religion out of a very real fear (on the parts of the parents) that their children might actually find something valuable and worthwhile in something that figuratively scares the pants off of said parents. however, by enforcing the teaching of several things-evolution, lack of a Creator, absolute demise of the soul when the body itself dies-or absolute lack of soul to begin with-are they not grooming their own children? and if so, how is this any different or less damaging than the grooming preceded by that magic word "religious"? is it not the consummate opposite and, by being that polar opposite, THE EXACT SAME THING?

am i really misunderstanding this? or, like so many other people desperately struggling against admitting the truth of our Creation and existence, are these people grasping at straws? do they really think that by worming their way further into other people's children's upbringing, that this will take the focus off of their lack of hope for a future? or is this along the same lines as evolution-any port in a storm in order to avoid the absolute truth that it is easier to run away from than face?

oh, and P.S.?
"Group polluters and religious saboteurs will be removed and blocked."
appears they aren't up for any form of debate. guess it's hard to defend a stance when there is no leg to stand on.