Translation Tuesday

Here we are again, Tuesday.  We just won't mention that I completely forgot last Tuesday, until it was Tuesday night in the States.... or will we?  :P

So, I thought I would list how to count to ten in Korean- seeing as how this is going to become part of our homeschooling curriculum this next school year.  I plan to print these out and laminate them, and post them around the house in various places, to help us learn.  (Ok, to help ME learn, not so much for Jacob)! 

one- hana (hah nah)
two- tule (tule)
three- set (sehtt)
four- net (nehtt)
five- tasot (tahsot)
six- yosot (yoe-sot)
seven- ilgop (eel-gope)
eight- yodol (yah-dahl)
nine- ahop (ah-hope)
ten- yol (yahl or ya'll)

Say that ten times fast!  :) 

Its actually easier to count to ten in Korean than it is to remember the months of the year.  Several of the months only have a one letter difference!  I'll post those next week.

And a did you know?

Did you know that it is customary for a newborn baby to stay home for the first 100 days of life?  The Koreans then pass out 100 rice cakes for people to eat for good luck.  Who would have thought?  No wonder people with small babies get lots of attention!

hey, Jackson, look at this!

Kasey, you might wanna look away!  :P  We found another super creepy bug, this time on the playground.  Jon says they are poisonous, not enough to kill you, but enough to make a kid really sick.  So of course, since I pulled out the camera, I was mobbed by 5 kids all wanting to know, 'what is it?'

Ok, moving on.  Blegh!

There was a little disturbance on the playground tonight.  It bothered me. 

All of a sudden, there was a little Korean girl, about 5 or 6, and she was sobbing her heart out.  Obviously, I don't speak Korean, but after a couple of minutes of watching everyone else look around and away, I went and asked her what was wrong.  She could speak a little English, but not enough for me to understand.  So, since no one showed up for her, I took her a few yards down to the little market next to our apartment.  We were able to figure out pretty quickly that the school bus had dropped her off, and her mother was not home. 

Gah.  That just hurt my heart.  I couldn't even reassure her, and it made me feel really bad.

The shopkeeper asked if she wanted to stay with me, and she shook her head no really fast! :P

So she stayed at the store, and about half an hour later, I saw her mom come walking around the corner at the opposite end of the building.  It didn't seem like a big deal to her.  I think that bothered me more. 

Maybe she told her daughter she wouldn't be there, maybe the little girl just forgot she was supposed to stay outside and play for a little while.  But still, eek.  To be 6 again, and be that scared.  I don't ever want my kids to have to go through that. 

And that leads me to another reason why my kids will not attend school here.  In the event of NEO (noncombatant evacuation), there might not be time for children to be picked up by their parents.  Which means that the military will just keep them, and evac them as fast as possible. 

Uh uh.  No way.  Not over my cold ashes.  I'm not leaving a hostile country without each of my children.  There's no way I would do that to my kid.  Good thing that it doesn't seem like it will come to that. 

Anyhow, Jackson, I hope you liked the bug.  I'll keep watching for some more to post for you.  :)

wahh...

Ok, now I'm just a bit sad that we aren't in the States.  Aside from not seeing friends and family, and missing our TV shows, we can't really build the furniture that I was wanting to try my hand at. 

http://www.knockoffwood.com/ Ana White designs the plans and publishes them for free on her website, and the furniture rivals Pottery Barn, Land of Nod, etc, and in most cases, is even better!  She has built most of what she publishes, and her readers have built the things she has not built.  The price is about 1/4 of the cost of buying the furniture brand new, and its gorgeous!  I want to make the Farmhouse bed, the simple bench, the nightstands, media center, simple bookcases, the list goes on of all the things I want to make. 

Anyhow, that's all.  I wish we had a house to be able to make this stuff at (I could find most of the wood, and probably haggle a good price, too)!  But, in the long run, it will be better to come back stateside first, and see what house we will be in next, before making all this awesome stuff! :P

Translation Tuesday

Sooo.... I thought, since we live in a different country now, I would post once a week about new words we have learned.  (Good thing I didn't do it last week, cause I was told I had been teaching my kids the wrong word for hello)!  :D

Hello-  yo-bu-say-oh
Goodbye-  annyonghi kaseyo (ahn yong ee kay say oh)
Thank you- gamseh hamnida  (gom sahm needa- they say it really fast, so it sounds different than it looks).
I'm sorry- mean hamnida (mee ahn am needa)
How are you- onaseyo (oh nah say oh) (this is what I thought hello was, but was informed by a taxi driver that it was wrong- which is cool, since my kids were speaking Korean to him-and he understood them)!  :) 

Funny story to go with the I'm sorry part-  We walked from the iPark Mall to Yongsan Garrison two weekends ago, and coming through the gate on foot, we stopped to show our IDs.  Well, Tabatha's husband was talking to us, and we started walking forwards.  He followed, and the next thing I know, I hear him laugh and say, Mean hamnida, mean hamnida!  The guard had come running out of the guard shack and chased after him a few feet, because he had forgotten to show ID!  :O   The guard seemed to think it was cool that he was trying to speak Korean, and said it was alright, though, so no harm, no foul. 

Anyhow, I'm off to go make a grocery list- its hot as blazes outside and humid, to boot, but Jon said he'd watch the kids!  SCORE!  :P  No hauling a carseat into the commissary, woohoo!

Will be back in a day or so with an update on what we've been doing, and hopefully, pictures.

Buying a car

Well, deciding whether to buy a car or have the Army ship one of our cars over here.  Either way, it will be a few more weeks.  We are still waiting for our DLA to arrive, since that's the money we are supposed to use towards buying a junker over here.  A/C is really the only thing I want in our car.  The summers here supposedly get to around 105, and completely humid.  Yuck.  I just want the ability to take my kids upstairs first, and then come back down and deal with the groceries, instead of being dropped off with everything on the sidewalk below, and wondering how the heck to get everything upstairs.  (You should have seen the day that I had 5 large priority mail boxes that Mom sent over- luckily, I sent J up in the elevator, and our friends met him there so he could bring our little blue grocery cart down). 

I'm supposed to be uploading pics right now, but I keep forgetting to gather the cameras.  :P  So, please excuse me while I go do that. 

Doo, dee, doo, dee, dee, doo, dee, doo....

Ok.  Now that I have at least one of the cameras uploading (sheesh, 154 pictures!), I shall continue. 

There will be pictures of Second Market, and our recent train ride to iPark Mall.  I think I'll spare the general public the blurred photos my children have taken. 

We are finally getting back onto a normalized schedule, now that my house does not weigh me down with all its boxes and packing paper.  I felt like I was drowning in paper lately, and it just got worse from there. 

Anyhow, for anyone that is feeling disorganized, whether it be life in general, your faith, your house, your parenting, or your body, I highly recommend the book Life Management for Busy Women, by Elizabeth George.  I have pored over this book so many times in the last few weeks, I think I have some of it memorized.  It has really helped me re-prioritize my life, and get going again. 

I'm excited, too, because I know what my birthday present is!!  :D  I even got to pick it out (too bad I have to wait to actually order it)!
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-CS6000I-60-Stitch-Computerized-Functions/dp/B000JQM1DE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1275543762&sr=8-1

I stink at linking to Amazon, so that's just a copied link.  But that's gonna be my new baby!  It comes with the walking foot I would need to finish my quilts that Sandy helped me start back in Cove.  I've been getting all my fabric out and organized, and daydreaming over the things I want to make.  Sigh..  :)

Alrighty, its time to get ready to go.  We have a meet n greet in about half an hour, and since both my younger ones are still sleeping, I will get the rest of us ready, and plop them in the stroller at the last minute.  :P

To test, or not to test, that is the question.

Or maybe I should make that 'to homeschool, or not to homeschool'..  We will be discussing whether or not to continue homeschooling Big J this next year.  With the move happening, we still have about 2, maybe 3 weeks worth of work to do in order to finish up our year.  That's one huge plus to homeschooling.  It can go with us.  After our guests leave at the end of the month, I will be setting up our school room, and then we will be plunging back in.  It'll be nice to be back to our schedule completely. 

So, the topic was about testing.  I am unsure whether or not to get a standardized test for J, just to make sure that he is on the right track as we come to the end of our first year of homeschooling.  Its not too expensive, from what I have seen, but I don't really know if its necessary.  I know it probably isn't, but I don't want to find that we have missed something in his education (especially next year if we decide to put him in school)!  Any opinions?  Any sage words of advice?  :)

I'm off now, heading back to my world of dirty dishes and boxes to unpack.  Wish me well!  :P

Well, phooey!

I just finished hanging the load of laundry that was sitting half-dry in our washer/dryer.  I pushed the button to turn it on, to finish drying the clothes.  Nothing.  Hmm.  Tried it again.  Called Jon, who switched the plugs.  Nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  I'm sure you get the picture by now. 

So, the upshot is, I have a heart-felt thank you to my Mom, who showed me the wisdom in hanging your clothes out on a line a mere 3 weeks ago, and another one to the realty company we are using right now, World Realty (Steve and GiGi are awesome!), who made a call and have a repairman coming tomorrow at 4pm.   :)  Definitely loving this company. 

Not really a downside to this post, because our clothes have been coming out smelling slightly burnt (its a steam dryer), and I don't really have the hang of exactly how long each variously-sized load needs to dry completely.  Ok, well the only downer is that we had to go buy the clothes rack we have now (bought it last week), and we need another couple of sets of hangers.  Which is a bike ride away at the PX, and with 3 cranky kids, will NOT be happening today. 

So, our washer/dryer is plastered with half-dry clothes.  My apartment is halfway to wreck-ville, courtesy of the 5 boxes we picked up at the mailroom today (thanks again, Mom!:) full of some stuff I have yet to find a home for.  Will work on that later- the kids are at the playground with Daddy, and the baby is napping.  Woot!  I call it a win. 

We are getting our furniture in a little over 15 hours!  :D  I already have most of the living room planned, and the kids room, and our room.  The third bedroom/guest room/ schoolroom is being occupied at the moment by friends, but we should be able to fit everything in other places for a few extra days.  Oh, the thought of cups, plates, actual silverware!  And a couch, better yet, even a table for us to sit at for meals!  Woo-hoo!

And on that note, I'm off to browse to Net for a bit, then to take advantage of the quiet to put some things away.  :)

Oh, yeah and I found a Zumba class here!  Squee!  :)  :)  :)