"Mom, I love you! Like a punch in the face!"

Yesterday was Lincoln's first day of preschool. He wasn't that excited about going, but wasn't fighting it either. The week before he had met his teacher at her visit to our house and had a chance to go to his classroom and play at the open house so it wasn't totally new territory for him.

After we walked Gunnar to school, we came home and he was on a quest for a specific dinosaur and he wasn't going anywhere without it. Fortunately, we found it in a timely manner and headed off in the van. En route Linc asked me to stay with him for a "short bit" after we arrived at his school. I agreed, knowing this would make him less anxious.

When we arrived, he walked in his slow Lincoln way up the drive and into the school, all the while carrying a dinosaur. I would have expected nothing less!  He was a little reluctant to go into his classroom but when he saw his name tag with a parasaurolophus  picture on it he sat right down. (Before school started, we were asked to provide a picture of our child so they could recognize their face to go with their name. Fortunately, I had a picture of a dinosaur replica AND Lincoln from the T-Rex Cafe in Orlando--this is the picture I used as I knew he'd be more interested in finding a dino than himself!)

Khyber and I ran some errands and I quickly figured out I am going to have to learn to manage the 3 hours 3 times a week that Linc is in school a lot better!!!  Last year he was in school only once a week for 2 hours and it didn't seem frivolous to go for coffee with friends or make a quick trip to Kohl's. Now that seems to be a bit much and I'm going to have to figure out something constructive to do with that time.

When I picked Linc up I asked him if he had a good day and he said he did. I asked what he did and he said, "Just played--and painted in red. I only paint in red--it's my color!" Well this was news to me, but happy to hear he has selected a favorite!

Last night over dinner this is what Linc tells me. "Mom. I love you. Like a punch in the face!" and then laughs. Seriously, where does he come up with this? And really, does he even know what a punch in the face is?

I love the things my kids say. I wish I could remember it all forever. Tonight, coming home from Gunnar's first ever Cub Scout meeting he says, "Mom, there are 2 Amazons. The rain forest one and the dot com one!" Yep==he's right! And I would have NEVER thought of it that way!

So... Gunnar had his first ever Cub Scout meeting tonight and LOVED it much to my dismay. It seems like it's going to be a lot of work--and it will be, and it will be good for him. But as I enter another 1/2 year of being a single parent, I hope I can give Gunnar and his scouting the attention it deserves. He is excited about selling popcorn so don't be surprised when we hit you up!

The famous "slap a Korean" picture 2-14-06

I laugh and laugh when I see this picture.

We had gone to Children's Grand Park in Seoul which is this small zoo, playground, amusement park in the middle of the city. Gunnar was running around chasing pigeons and this kid came up and chased a bunch of the birds Gunnar was in the middle of away. It pissed him off so whack, he gave it to this kid!

Here's a fun one. March 5, 2006. The day of my first EVER race

Seoul Marathon
So today was the Seoul Marathon and the day in which I ran my very first EVER competative race. It was so much fun. There was so much energy amongst the 11,000 participants. It was foggy and cold but the perfect weather for a good run as you didn't get too hot!

When I started out on this 6k venture, I thought to myself that I would like to finish in 45 minutes but after doing 6k on the treadmill and having a trial run on the race course and coming in with a time that hovered around an hour, I figured there would be NO WAY that I could come close to finishing in 45 minutes. WOW. I amazed myself today. First off, as we are running along, I realize that when I did a trial run I went 1K further than I was supposed to so on that day I ran just over an 8k instead of a 6k. And, I do way better on pavement than I do a treadmill. I crossed the finish line at exactly 48 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I walked around the rest of the day with a shit-eating grin in my face because I was so over-joyed. The only downer was that I had no one to share it with as Chris was off running his 13 miler and I was flying solo at that point. Who would have thought a year ago that this fat ass would be running in a race???

I waited around for Chris to finish and he came in near-dead and very tired with a time of 2:35--that's two hours, thirty-five minutes. I am very proud of him but he thinks he wants to downgrade to a 12k or a 6k and I told him too bad as I want to upgrade to a 1/2 marathon in time! (9-12-10 comment--I NEVER remember thinking that...)

We each got little goody-bags with towels and medals and packed full of amino drinks and Korean snacks that have way too much sugar for me! Still it was so much fun, I can't wait until the next one. There is another one here on the 18th of March but I'll be enroute to the States! Oh well, there will always be more!

At the house before the race 

Chris and I before the race 

At the starting line 

 

Me at the end 

Chris and I 

September 26, 2007--nearly 3 years ago

Here's what the Foster family was doing nearly 3 years ago to the day...

we went hiking out at Seongnam yesterday and it was a lot of fun. It took us just over an hour to get to the top of the mountain where there is this fortress and pavillion. We hung out up there, had a picnic and then started our over 2 hour trek down. A lot of it was nearly vertical and the trail wasn't much of a trail. You had to climb in and around a lot of boulders and tree roots to get around. I applaud Gunnar and doing it with minimal whining. There were a few times he tried to convince us that his legs were broken and that he needed carried, but I tried to keep him distracted by talking about what lives in the mountains and about what he'd do if we were camping. It was a lot of  fun. Linc enjoyed his view from the backpack and was a trooper the entire day. I'll try to get my pictures uploaded to flickr so you can check them out if you so desire.

Tonight is girl's night with Shaunna and Sandra. We try to get together every two weeks, but it's been nearly a month. I'm looking forward to it a lot. Chris is being an awesome husband and has agreed to watch Shaunna's daughter Abby while we go out. One thing about Chris--he's really good at stepping up and helping out in situations like this. ALMOST makes him a candidate for Husband-of-the-year... almost! ha ha.

Tomorrow I am substituting in Yangjae again. That means Grace is coming to stay with the kids. I just love her. I wish I could afford, and had the need to have her full-time but I don't. I'll just use her as much as I can. The kids love her too and that makes her that much more awesome!

This Sunday we leave for Sorak-san (Mount Sorak, san is mountain in Korean)and I'm really looking forward to it. We'll be out there for 3 days and it's something I've wanted to do for well over a year and we're finally getting around to it.

So I guess that's it for this week. It's been a fast one. Tuesday was Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving type holiday) and Chris was off Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow night we'll have friends over for dinner and then Friday is Girls' Night again (with a different group of girls) and then Saturday is Gunnar's soccer game and a Korean Folk Festival. Wheew we have a lot going on!

Peace out!

tjf

Columbus Day weekend 2007--my first 10k race and helping Kristy out

This was a really fun read for me, especially since it's been one week since my 1/2 marathon and this was written right after my first ever 10k... And it makes me miss racing in Korea--so much more fanfare (and the races are cheaper, too!)

07:05 pm 10/8/07 3 voices in head Become a voice in my head

viscioustart i cut the tip of my finger off--and oh yeah! i finished that 10k~! And that's just one of the things I've accomplished this weekend... Saturday was a crazy, nutso busy day! We had to get up and have Gunnar ready to join his soccer team as they marched in the fall festival parade. I am a bit perplexed at the number of kids marching in this parade as they FAR out-numbered those watching the parade. Interesting. After the parade, we had to head to the commissary parking lot for Chris' unit's fundraiser car wash. That was sorta fun. We made nearly $500 so that's good. We then trekked back to the Fall Festival to see what was going on and to chow on some over-priced hotdogs. Nothing was going on and the hotdogs were indeed over-priced. Around 4 we headed home. That night I fixed a good ol' batch of spaghetti for supper so Chris and I would have a good store of carbs for the 10k on Sunday! Wow! Sunday morning came around EARLY. I just wanted to crawl back in bed. The nanny showed up around 6:45 and we were off in a cab to Seoul City Hall for the race. We arrived about 5 minutes later (we live wicked close to City Hall) and joined the THOUSANDS of Koreans all decked out in their running gear. It was crazy. My first stop was at the shirt booth to exchange my shirt for a smaller one as the one I ordered was too big (I'm still learning Korean sizing) and then to the port-a-john! Fun fun. Korean races are always so much fun. There are all sorts of these high-energy warm-up programs going on for you to join in on. Crazy aerobic chics doing things on stage you have to be a crazy aerobic chic to be able to do and thousands of people in all shapes and sizes trying to keep up! The music is good too! It's during this time that you size up the competition and me, being the person that I am, make comments to my husband like... "If that guy beats me, I'll kill myself!" :-) ha ha ha ha. Right on schedule the brew-ha-ha that begins the race commences with fireworks and the launch of hundreds of helium-filled ballons. The crowd grows considerably smaller as the marathon and 1/2 marathon begins. Finally around 8:10 it is our turn to snake our way to the start line and the 10k race is started with it's own personal round of fireworks--a first for me. Normally there is a large over-head clock that you can see as you cross the start line to see what time you actually cross but not this time so I have NO idea what time my official time started. Oh well. I begin by fast walking the first 3 minutes because A)I needed an official warm-up and B) it was so crowded I really had no choice until the masses started to thin out. We go a block, turn right and here we are running along the Cheonggyecheon Stream where we run 5 km out, cross a bridge and run 5k back to City Hall Plaza. I kept up a good pace the first 5k, finishing that portion in my best ever 5K time of 33 minutes. I cross the bridge and then hit the water and Gatorade stations, discovering once again that drinking and running are not well mixed. But I kept on running because I know if I stop once, it's harder and harder to keep going. The 2nd half of the race was much harder, as the sun and risen higher in the sky and was beating down on us. Because we were on the East side of the street, there was no shade from the skyscrapers so I just had to deal with it. Around the 7.5km mark there was a sponge station so I cooled myself down with a wet-cold sponge and sucked a bit of water out of it before discarding it to the side. I'm still running! Wow--it's been 4.75 miles of running. Just past the 8K mark, I see a red shirt bobbing ahead and realize it's my husband. It must been a mistake, I thought as I he is a much better runner than I am. I entertain thoughts of catching him but talk myself out of it because I know I'll use the rest of my energy and not be able to finish if I try something like that. Around me more and more people are succombing to walking and the next thing I know, I'm walking. WTF? I speed walk for about 3 minutes and then pick up the pace again to a run. As I round the corner to finish the last block before the finish line, I notice one of the people I had pointed out earlier saying I'd kill myself if he beat me so I put all the energy I had left in me and sprinted the last block to the finish. I love when you finish a race how everyone is cheering for you--it's quite exhilerating. Just as I cross, I look up to see my husband, leaning against the fence in pain. I also notice the race clock says 1:20:02. One hour, twenty minutes and 2 seconds since the race began so I know that I've finished in less than 1:20. I also realize that it took me considerbly longer to run the 2nd half than it did the first. I approach Chris (whose hip has been hurting him for awhile, and especially since his last jump and who is under doctor's order to not be running) and ask him how long ago he'd finished and he said just a couple of minutes, which totally pissed me off because if I hadn't walked those 3 mintues. THREE MEASLY MINUTES, I could have beat him. We go to the booth to turn in our time chips and get our finishing medals and bag-o-goodies before hailing a cab and we were home before 10. Not a bad start to a Sunday. It was a LOAD of fun and I can't wait to do it again. We run the free races on post, but it is just different when you are out there, running an official event, with THOUSANDS of others. There is much more energy behind it--for me at least. I treated myself to a pedicure that afternoon and relaxed. Later we took Gunnar out to practice riding his bike and then over to the park for some swinging and sand time. That night while cooking dinner, I was slicing potatos and the tip of my finger got in the way and it is now gone. Well a big ol' chunk of the tip of my finger at least! Today was family picture day at Yongsan Family Park. My dear friendKristy set up a day where families scheduled a time slot to have pictures taken. Becasue of my inside connection, we had the first slot and then I spent the rest of the morning helping her with pictures. This entailed me jumping around, doing the hokey-pokey, pretending to attack her with a wiffle ball bat etc... whatever it took to get the kids to smile! It was kind of fun. Afterwards we went to lunch at PitaTime--my favorite place in Itaewon next to Thai Orchid! This afternoon we did some shopping on base, got Lincoln his first ever Christmas present. The way things work here is if you find something you'd better buy it then or it won't be there later! We also bought a Vietnam/Angkor Wat book to better plan our winter holiday trip! So that's been it for our exciting Columbus Day weekend. Tomorrow we hit the zoo and then on Wednesday Chris is back to work and Linc has his 6 month check-up. Can you believe he's 6 months old already???

March 2nd 2008--right after my 2nd 10k race in Seoul

07:47 pm 3/2/08 2 voices in head Become a voice in my head

viscioustart update and the 10k Today I finished my 2nd ever 10K. This is actually the 4th race I've entered in Seoul, not counting the 5k's on post. I ran it in 1:05. I wanted to finish in under and hour--59:59 would have been great but it just wasn't in the cards for me. What pisses me off is I am my own worst enemy. I walked a portion of this race too and I know if I hadn't done that I probably could have made the under hour mark. I guess I should just be proud I finished it and I did as well as I did since 3 years ago this fat ass wouldn't have been running around the block! :-) It did snow some during the race, but for the most part, it was comfortable. Not too cold as long as you were running and it wasn't pouring rain like last year so I was happy. I was a bit sad to see about 1/2 the people there--the past two years this particular race has been much larger! My mom was here and is gone. We had a nice visit but it just seemed different this time. She seemed to have been in a funk the entire time she was here--I think it had to do with her husband being in Africa and her not being able to talk to him. I understand it's hard, especially when you miss someone, but I say buck up--Chris used to be gone MONTHS at a time and I NEVER knew IF or WHEN I'd hear from him and when we return to the states it will be the same. You just have to go on with life. It's ok to be sad and to miss them, but don't let it ruin your entire day. Ok. I'm not saying we had a bad time, it was just different from her normal visits here and my visits back home. The boys were thrilled to death to see her, especially Gunnar. Linc took some time warming up to her but did right away. When we were coming back in to Seoul from taking my mom to the airport, Gunnar saw Namsan Tower and said, "We forgot to take Nana to Tower Mountain. That makes me sad..." It made me sad too. He focuses on the funniest things. Gunnar got sick mom's first day here and that really sucked. He and Chris had a 24 hour bug--well Gunnar's was more of a 3 day bug but the puking only lasted 24 hours. The 2nd night he was sick he told me that his beaver was gone. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what he was talking about until he said, "I feel better cause my beaver is gone." Turns out he was calling his fever a beaver. Too cute. There was another point where I couldn't get the thermometer to work properly and I said, "Gunnar you must be dead!" He started crying and said, "Mommy, I don't want to be dead!" It was so sweet and sad--he took me literally. When it rains it pours. I found out this week that another one of my dearest friends her is leaving early--like April 1st early. I keep hoping it's some sort of sick April Fool's joke but it doesn't look like it. So within a week I am losing two of my dearest friends. March is going to be full of going away parties. I guess that just gives us more excuses to go to Manila, not that we need anymore. Went to Manila on Friday (again). I wanted to take mom but she wasn't feeling well so she stayed at home with the kids. We had a grand time and I'll have to get the pictures posted from it! When I got home, mom was up and she said she couldn't believe I stayed out that late. Well, believe it Momma! I have just over 4 months left to enjoy all of this and I'm maxing it out! This is going to be a crazy week. I have a lot going on and am having a hard time finding babysitters. Chris is still gone until sometime on Saturday and then leaves again in less than a week. I'm going to go broke on babysitters this month! :-)

Archives March 8, 2008

Instead of reposting ALL of my old entries from everywhere, I'm just going to pick some of my favorites--or the ones I deem most important. Here's a funny one from 8 March 08--we were still living in Korea and Lincoln 11 months old...

ass of a pig

Today I said something to Gunnar about Lincoln being a baby to which he replied, "Mom he's not a baby!" So I asked, if not a baby, what is he then. In all seriousness Gunnar looked at me and declared, "He's the ass of a pig!" Mind you--not a pig's ass but the ass of a pig.

It took all of my mom power to calmly explain to Gunnar that we did not use those kind of words, that we don't speak about our brother that way and that he needed to go to timeout with soap in his mouth for that incident. He did so somewhat willingly. After he was sputtering in timeout, I excused myself to Linc's room to laugh hysterically at his response. What will he come up with next?

Well this afternoon we are headed to the park and we leave the apartment and he opens the door to go down stairs and says, "After you my lady!" WOW! This coming from the ass-of-a-pig-mouth from earlier. What chivalry!

He also told me first thing this morning that something was ridiculous. As his vocabulary expands, it amazes me how well he speaks and uses words in a proper fashion--even if it is to describe his brother as the ass of a pig!

Going to try this again...

First it was live journal and then myspace and then a few Facebook notes, but since Khyber was born (16 months ago) I have fallen off of the blogging wagon and it makes me quite sad.

A LOT has happened in those 16 months. We bought a house, Chris went to Iraq again, we've taken too many trips to count and we've made some new awesome friends. Gunnar has gone from kindergarten to 2nd grade and Linc is ready for preschool. I'll try to recap as much as I can. Not because I think you care but because I want this to serve as some sort of reference for our family history. Damn I'm kicking myself for not keeping up with it better.

So now what do I do? Should I attempt to copy and paste my years worth of previous blogging here so everything is in one spot? Hmmm.

Today is Sunday the 12th of September. 9 years ago, I was convinced the boy I had fallen in love with was headed to war within a week and I'd never see him again. And while he did eventually go to war, it didn't happen with the swiftness that my brain was convinced it would. Thank God for that. And he has been 3 times and I am continually thankful he has returned to us pretty much the same as when he left!

It's a cool and rainy day today. Perfect for football, if only I could stand the roar of football on the television. It was a perfect day for running so that's how I started my day--a 6 miler with some sprint workouts thrown in the middle just because Emily said so! I am still in awe that I was able to finish a 1/2 marathon and with 2 more longer mile races ahead of me in the next few months, it makes me nervous that I am going to have to do it again and again. I'm not fully convinced me finishing wasn't a complete fluke and am afraid of what will happen on my next attempts.

Chris has the boys (minus Khyber) in the garage "building" stuff. Gunnar wants to make a time machine and Linc just wants to be in the middle of it all. I am anxious to see what they create!

In one week we'll be in Florida getting on a big ol' Carnival ship headed to the Bahamas. This is the first trip Chris and I have taken without the kids and is going to serve as a pseudo-honeymoon for us--8 years late! Since there isn't a Borders on the boat, I hope we don't get too bored since that seems to be our favorite date night activity.

Khyber is pulling at my arm and crying--perhaps that's what I stopped doing this when he was born. I remember a similar interruption when Lincoln was about this age--every time I sat down to write, he was more needy than what I wanted him to be at that time. But life is short and this age goes too quickly. Soon enough I'll have time, again, to write.