Tonight, as I sit here, struggling to come to terms with the fact that my teeny, tiny 5 pound preemie is turning one TOMORROW, I thought it would be a perfect time to finally write about his birth story.  Mostly so I can bawl my eyes out while looking at all of the photos of my perfect little boy coming into the world.  Also a little because I realized it's something I never wrote about A YEAR AGO (cue tears) when he was born.  I seriously cannot believe it's been a whole year.  I can remember every single detail like it was last week.  Seriously, this is some sick joke, right?  He's not actually a year old, right?  No?  Ugh... One day I'll accept it.  Not right now.
So here we go.  Wilson's birth story. 

So, after spending 4 days in the hospital because of my preeclampsia, and about 23235342 different plans, the doctors sent me home on "bed rest" to try to cook that baby until 37 weeks.  They sent me home on Thursday.  I went to the hospital for tests every other day for the next week and they continued to send me home.  Finally, the following Thursday, I called Labor and Delivery telling them I had had an excrutiating headache for the past 3 days.  Since this was a sympton of severe preeclampsia, I figured they'd want me to come in immediately.  Nope.  The nurse on the phone acted like I was silly for calling.  So, I hung up, bawled my eyes out, and drove to Walmart for headache medicine.  When I pulled in a parking space, I got a call from Labor and Delivery.  It was the nurse I had spoken to earlier telling me to pack my bag, eat a big meal, and get to the hospital as soon as possible because I was having this baby.  FINALLY!  I drove home, ate a bunch of food, and drove myself to the hospital.  When I got there, my blood pressure was 150/95.  They put me in a triage room with the lights off and told me to lay down, close my eyes, and try to relax.  When they came back to check my blood pressure again, it was 175/105.  The midwife came in and told me I had to be put on anti-seizure medication because my preeclampsia had reached the "severe" level.  The techs had to insert my IV into my wrist in the dark, using the flashlight on their iphone becuase the midwife wanted to keep the room as dark as possible to help my headache.  Once my IV was in, they moved me to my room.  That's when Drew arrived.  He had been at work, but they sent him to be with me once he found out I was at the hospital.  
Once in the room, they started my IV of Magnesium Sulfate.  I had been researching preeclampsia for the past 6ish months, so I had read ALLLLL about this stuff.  I knew it was going to make me feel like I was dying and basically wish I could just die, so I was understandably scared.  Holy Cow.  I am not kidding when I tell you that the first hour of the magnesium was the worst hour of my whole life.  (And I've stabbed a knife through my hand soooo....)  It felt like my organs had caught on fire.  It was like the worst hangover you've ever had, combined with the most miserable flu.  Can't imagine what that would be like?  Good.  I hope no one I know ever has to go through it.  After about an hour, though, the feeling of being on fire and needing to puke started to go away and I was feeling a little more normal.  
Skip all of the boring, weird parts where the midwives checked to see where Wilson was and started the whole induction process.  Let's go straight to the part where I started to feel contractions for the first time.  My nurse and midwife suggested I get the epidural before they induced me, but I really wanted to feel what it was like to be in labor.  That sounds weird, but it's just something I wanted to experience.  They told me I'd probably want the epidural within an hour of being induced, but I made it 7. :)  But once those contractions started, I was more than ready for the anesthesiologist to come in and give me that epidural!  2 of my friends had had babies just a few months earlier, and they told me horror stories about getting their epidurals, so I was completely terrified.  BUT... I was a freaking champ.  Once that was in, it was smooth sailing.
I tried to sleep all night, but I was just way too excited.  It's such a weird feeling being in labor.  Knowing that your baby is RIGHT THERE, ready to be born, but having no idea when you'll actually get to hold him.  The anticipation was killing me and I just could not get any sleep.  (It also didn't help that I had to be on my side with a peanut ball between my knees and my nurse had to check my vitals every 30 minutes.)
So the night dragged on and on and I just wanted to hold my baby!
In the morning, my VERY FAVORITE nurse from the week before came in and I was so happy to know she would be the one delivering Wilson.  She was a saint and deserves some kind of award.  (I bawled my eyes out the whole way home from the hospital saying that I wished I could have said goodbye to her.)
FINALLY, after 256 days of waiting, it was time to meet my sweet little boy.  Right before 11:50 am, my nurse helped me with a "practice push".  One push and she said, "STOP!" and told the tech to get the doctors and midwives.  Since Wilson was a preemie and had been exposed to magnesium sulfate, he would need extra doctors in the room in case anything was wrong.  One, two, three, SEVENTEEN people piled into the room and took their positions.  At 11:51 am, the midwife told me to start pushing.  3 minutes and 3 pushes later, Wilson Andrew Shavlik was born!

They whisked Wilson away to the warmer to check his vitals and make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be.  Luckily, it was!  They had him for 10 minutes and let me tell you, those 10 minutes seemed to drag on longer than the entire 20ish hours of labor I had just gone through.  But finally, the midwife said, "I think it's Mom's turn now!"  And it was.

I hoarded this 5 pound, 12 ounce bundle of joy for about an hour, and then it was Drew's turn!

Our wonderful photographer stuck around and took some more pictures of us loving on our new bundle and helped me sneak protein bars and animal crackers.  Because I still had to be on the magnesium for another 24 hours, I wasn't allowed to eat any food.  So I had to sneak it for another 12 hours after I gave birth.  Have you ever tried running a marathon and then not eating or drinking anything for 12 hours after?  I imagine that would be very simliar to giving birth and not eating for 12 hours after.  Don't try it.  

I am still so amazed, a year later, that I grew that little human. What a complete miracle he is. He's such an amazing, wonderful, funny, smart, loving, entertaining little guy. Being a mom has completely changed my life, but I'm not sure I even remember what life felt like before this day a year ago. While it doesn't seem possible that Wilson has been HERE, in our arms, for a year, it also feels like he's been in my heart forever. Like I've known him my whole life. He's truly everything I never knew I needed. I love that little man with every ounce of my being.
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"And she loved a little boy with all of her heart- even more than she loved herself."

So. I want to preface this post by saying a couple of things. First, this is so completely unlike me to share anything so personal. Second, I am not complaining when I write this. This isn't for ME. This is for anyone who has felt or currently feels like me. Third, I'm not writing this so I can have a bunch of people compliment me. I'm writing it so all of the beautiful women I know feel beautiful and see themselves as powerful, amazing humans.
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I can honestly tell you I've never really had any REAL "body image issues". I am grateful for that. Sure, I've always wanted to be smaller, thinner, more toned, whatever. But I never want those things because I thought it would make people like me more. Or get more attention from guys. Whenever I would lose weight, it would be for ME. I've always liked myself the way I was.

I liked myself in high school when I had a bigger show choir dress than all of my friends. Or when I couldn't share clothes with my best friend because she was half my size.

I liked myself freshman year when I gained the freshman fifteen.

I liked myself sophomore and junior year when I started putting more of an emphasis on being healthy.

I liked myself senior year when I was at my all time low weight.

I have liked myself ever since then. Through the ups and downs the scale has shown me over the last couple of years.

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And then... I got pregnant.
I remember saying I wish I had lost more weight before I got pregnant so I didn't get "too fat." At my VERY FIRST doctor appointment at 8 weeks, I was told that I was starting my pregnancy overweight and shouldn't gain anymore than 20 pounds in the next 8 months. Piece of cake. I didn't plan to gain an ounce over that.
OOOOOOKAY.

I was not my skinniest, but I felt good. I had just recently posted my first ever bikini photo on social media haha. I was happy with my body.

The first and second trimesters made me think I would be right on track for weight gain. At my 30 week appointment, I had gained 17 pounds. My belly AND my baby were both measuring smaller than they should've been. My doctor said I was good on weight gain. I felt good. My baby felt good (I'm assuming.) Everyone was happy. I still loved myself and my body.

And then. My 32 week appointment came along. Still felt great! Still loved my body!
You know what my doctor told me?! I will never forget.
"I want to caution you because you've gained too much weight already and you still have 8 weeks to go."
"How much have a I gained?"
"22 pounds. Since you were overweight to start, we didn't want you gaining any more than 20 pounds. So just get out and exercise more."
Oh.

If you know me, you know I am probably the most emotional person you've ever met. I cry at the drop of a hat. It took every OUNCE of energy in my body to hold in my tears until I got out to my car. As soon as I sat in the driver's seat and closed the door behind me, the tears started POURING out and would not stop. I cried the whole way home. I cried for 20-30 minutes after I got home. How could I have felt SO good about myself and then all of a sudden feel like the grossest, ugliest, most disgusting person on the planet?! I was devastated. Even when I was a total fatty my freshman year of college, no one TOLD me I was overweight. I truly never felt judged. I never felt ashamed of my weight. But now I did. I was so, so sad.

I tried my very best to brush it off and make it seem like what the doctor said didn't affect me, but it really did. It hurt me so much.

Like, I fully understand that women need to be mindful of their health while they're pregnant. I'm not dumb. I get that the doctor is supposed to nicely let a woman know if she's gained too much weight. BUT. I just couldn't believe she said it to ME. I felt so great before she said that. I had been walking at least 2 miles a day, 5 days a week. I wasn't eating a rabbit's diet, but I wasn't eating fast food and ice cream all day every day. (Only sometimes haha)

For a few days after my appointment, I was secretly so upset. I felt horrible about myself. For the first time I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I didn't think any of my clothes looked good on me. It was a horrible feeling.

And then it hit me. MY BODY IS FUCKING AMAZING. So fucking amazing. Sorry about that word, but it is!!!!
I am literally growing a human.
For the last 34 weeks, my body hasn't belonged to me; it's belonged to a teeny tiny human.
MY body, the one I've always liked but never fully appreciated, is growing a little person.
MY little person.

My little person who weighs about 4.5 pounds right now.
Who's growing inside my uterus, which has grown about 2-5 pounds heavier than it was.
My little person who's floating around in amniotic fluid, which has added about 2-3 pounds to my body weight.
Whose life is being sustained by an organ that MY BODY grew. By an organ that my body will get rid of in a few more weeks because, hey... IT CAN MAKE ANOTHER ONE!
An organ that weighs about 2-3 pounds right now.
Did you also know that MY BODY has made some extra blood that is being pumped by my heart, that is slightly bigger than it was 34 weeks ago??
Extra blood and a slightly bigger heart that have added about 3-4 pounds to my body weight.
My slightly bigger heart pumps this extra blood behind my boobs, which have doubled in size and added a good 2-3 pounds to my body weight.
So that in a few weeks, my body... MY FUCKING AMAZING BODY can continue to sustain my little person's life even AFTER he has entered the world.

So you know what? My doctor can call me overweight. She can caution me to watch what I'm eating and tell me to work out more. The random lady at the grocery store can say she thinks I'm farther along than 34 weeks. The other teachers at school can comment over and over on how big I am. YOU can think I'm a whale.
But guess what?
I don't care.
I love my body. More than I've ever loved my body before.
I APPRECIATE my body. Because it's working so incredibly hard to make my little person.

I feel healthy.
I feel happy.
I feel sexy.
I feel POWERFUL.

I love my body and I'm PROUD of my body.
And you should feel the same way about yours.
You are a BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL woman.
Go eat chocolate cake, celery, ice cream, or an apple. Eat what makes YOU happy.
Go run a mile, lay on the couch, take a walk, or take a nap. Do what makes YOU happy.

Love yourself and forget what anyone else thinks.

Ahh, it feels good to be back.  I haven't written a blog post in MONTHS!  I hope to start writing regularly again soon.  At least about home improvement projects and my mad- free furniture finding skills!  
Today, however, I'm going to share our new family photos!  These were taken 9 weeks ago, by Drew's wonderful cousin, Sam, and I'm finally getting around to posting them all and sharing them with you.

This was a very impromptu photo shoot.  It was a beautiful day, so I texted Sam one Saturday morning and she came over that afternoon to take some pictures!
First, we attempted a FULL family photo, dogs included.  They weren't cooperating because our neighbor's dog was outside and that's all they could pay attention to!

After these fantastic fails, we took the dogs inside and had our OWN photo shoot.  (I should probably mention that these were all taken right behind our house, in front of our neighbor's barn.  Pretty convenient.)

Next, Sam wanted to try out a little thing she saw on Pinterest.  She gave us each a dry erase board and a marker and instructed us to write the one thing that we loved the MOST about the other.  We turned back to back and got to work.  (Not to make that sound like it was a hard thing to do!  It was easy, of course!)

So before I show you the pictures of the reveal and Drew's reaction, I want to explain things a little bit.  This was 100% an impromptu photo shoot.  However, it as all my idea.  I found out I was pregnant that morning at like 5am.  I already knew exactly how I wanted to tell Drew, so I texted Sam right away asking her if she had time to come take the pictures.  (We had already talked about my plan before, so she had just been waiting on me to say when!)  Drew and I went to breakfast at IHOP, then we went to Lowe's to get some things we needed for the house.  It was SO SO hard to keep this a secret all day long.  I had texted 3 or 4 friends telling them the news because I could NOT hold it in.  I even considered just blurting it out to Drew, but then Sam said she could come later that afternoon!  
We told Drew she bought a new lens and wanted to test it out on us.  I thought having the dogs in some of the pictures would be a good distraction.  The dry erase board was my idea, but Sam pulled it off so well.  She made it seem like it was her plan all along.  She was the best actress EVER.
So I will save you more pain, and go ahead and show you the rest of the pictures!!!!

All of these were taken in like a 60 second time frame.  But even Sam said it felt like it took Drew FOREVER to read my white board!  I actually never even read his until all of this excitement was over.  I was too focused on his facial expressions!  I could not have asked for a better reaction.  I am SO glad Sam was able to capture this whole moment on camera!

We.  Are.  So.  Excited.  
So, these photos were taken in August.  (To answer the question I am sure I will get 100 more times, NO.  This was not a wedding reception baby hahaha.  We've already been asked a billion times!! )
I was in fact pregnant on our honeymoon turned babymoon to the Bahamas.  Luckily, I was exactly 5 weeks when we went (I actually found out at 3.5 weeks) so morning sickness hadn't started yet.  But, I couldn't enjoy the fancy alcoholic beverages and we had to cancel our scuba diving adventure.  Snorkeling was JUST as fun though!  
I am 12 weeks along now.  We have had 2 ultrasounds so far and will be getting another one in a month to find out if Baby Shav is a boy or a girl.  My due date is May 3rd at the moment.  1/3 of the way done and happier than ever to be out of the first trimester.  I was one of the lucky ones that got ALL DAY sickness, not just in the morning!  I refer to it as the 3 month pregnancy hangover.  Just unfortunately, without all of the fun the nights before!  I'm feeling much better now and am starting to get my energy back!  The dogs haven't enjoyed me coming home from work and napping all afternoon!  (I have though!!!)
I have some funky cravings- but usually can't eat whatever they are because besides water and saltines nothing else really agrees with my stomach.  It's all worth it though!  

There's the video of Baby Shav squirming all around.  

So, now EVERYONE knows our news!  It has been ridiculously hard keeping this a secret for the last 9 weeks.  At times I was very envious of all the women who didn't find out they were pregnant until 6 or 7 weeks.  Knowing early was amazing, but it meant keeping a secret for even longer!

We are beyond excited and cannot wait to be parents.  Now that the secret is out, there will be updates whenever we have them.  Stay tuned for the gender reveal sometime around Thanksgiving!  And I'm sure the nursery reveal will follow very shortly after;)  I'm way too anxious to get that set up and ready to go!  

Love and miss all of our friends and family back home, or where ever you might be!  (Germany, Italy, Japan, Colombia, Spain, the list goes on and on!

Slowly, but surely, we have been working to finish each room of this house.  We've been doing a little here and a little there on each room, but we have finally completed a room!  Our downstairs guest room is finished and begging for guests.  So without further adieu, here is the guest bedroom reveal!

This desk has been Drew's forever and was his grandpa's before that.  (I think I have that correct.)  We brought it to Virginia with us and I knew it would go perfectly in the guest bedroom. 
The chair in the corner was a HIDEOUS pinkish-maroon chair that was sitting next to our neighbor's garbage can on trash pickup day.  I hauled it home and recovered it in discount fabric from Joann's.  Total cost of the whole chair project, fabric and all, was about $25!  The pillows actually came with our bedding set, but they match perfectly!
The decorations are ALL (almost all) from Dollar Tree.  The vases, water beads, flowers, mirrors, and picture frames are all Dollar Tree treasures!
The cross stitch is a Drew Shavlik original creation!
The All You Need is Love picture frame was a Christmas gift a few years ago.
The toiletries have accumulated over time from various hotel rooms.
And... the guest towels and basket came from Bed Bath and Beyond.  Thanks to anyone who gave us BB&B gift cards for the reception! ;)

I got the idea for these two pictures on Pinterest.  I found some clipart and cute fonts and recreated them!  They are my FAVORITE part of this room!

Excuse the glare. BUT.
The middle picture frame is from Goodwill, spray painted gold.
The clipboards came from Target's dollar spot.  They were originally black and silver, but I spray painted them gold as well.  Thanks to those that bought Target gift cards!!!!

Here is our DIY headboard!  This was a left over section of fencing that we had after our backyard was fenced in.  It used to be a completely different color.  We cut it down to the right size, sanded it, and stained it.  Then we screwed it to the wall, and voila!!!!  

I'm sure more things will be added to this room.  Things will be changed.  Blah blah blah.  But for now, it will stay this way!  Now come visit so we can get some use out of it!! :)

So, I may have told a teeny tiny lie in my last post!  I PROMISED the cabinets would be done over a week ago, and that I would post pictures and all that.  Well.  We have had quite a few mishaps with these stupid cabinets.  First, we found out the hard way that these 60 year old cabinets aren't even or level or symmetrical.  We found this out because all of the holes we measured three times and drilled in for the new hardware were completely uneven.  So we had to fill all of the holes, sand them down, repaint, and drill new holes.  We did all of the holes and were able to attach all of the hardware (handles and hinges) in one day and then attempted to hang the doors.  That's when we discovered the second problem.  The hinges we bought were CRAP.  They were soft and wouldn't lay straight on the door or the cabinet.  After we tried to hang 4 doors, multiple times, with lots of yelling and tears, we decided to remove all of the hinges, return them, fill the holes, and buy different ones.  This all happened on Friday.  Since then, the cabinet doors and drawers have been hiding out in our "catch all room" because I want them as far away from me as possible.  I cringe every time I get a glimpse of them.  I might have some type of PTSD from the things those cabinets have put me through.  We have ordered new hinges, and once they come we will finish the cabinets.  At this point, I'm not super anxious to finish them because I don't want the stress of putting the doors on again, but it will get done.  It has to get done.  So it will.  And when it does, I will post millions of pictures.  Until then, here's what we have going on right now.
(Please ignore the mess.  Keep in mind we are basically updating a whole house all at the same time, so it's a little hectic around here)

Lol this is when we had the cabinet doors drying up top.  But, as you can see, the actual cabinets are all painted white and look wonderful.  We have since painted the kitchen walls white as well.  After the walls and cabinets are completely done, we are going to get some kind of vinyl flooring to hold us over until we can afford something better.  We're going with a vinyl floor that looks like hardwood and sticks right over top of the existing linoleum.  
Here's a few pictures of the kitchen along the way, so you can see what the whole thing looks like!

Last week, Sunday through Thursday, my mom and Isabel came down to help paint the house.  They are rockstar painters, so things got done way faster than they would have if I had been on my own!  The first room we (they) painted was the dining room.  Here are the color palettes I used for inspiration in this room.

We went with the tan color, Maison Blanche, for the walls in the dining room.  Our dishes are turquoise and brown, so I decided to use turquoise, brown, and (lots of) gold as accents around the room.  Also, before I show you the whole room, let me tell you about everything in it!
First, the dining room table came from my parents.  While we were in Korea they got a new table and chairs, so they gave their old one to us.  The table is glass and the chairs were a bright coral/orange color.  Those did NOT match our color scheme, so i did a quick fix and "reupholstered" them with some new fabric from the discount bin at Joann Fabrics and a staple gun.

Next, maybe you remember these beautiful thrift store mirrors I bought in Muncie a while back?  Well the bigger one found its home in the dining room.  

It went right above a thrift store buffet we snagged for $38!  It will eventually be sanded down and repainted, maybe get some new hardware, but it's in great condition and should have been selling for much more than $38!

The last things I'll brag about are all of the decor on top of the buffet.  We got an old set of lamps from Drew's mom, so one found a home here.  (I might paint the base, not sure yet.)  I bought the little owl babies from Hobby Lobby from the sale rack.  This is just a temporary home for them at the time.  They will be moving next door to the living room once they get a fresh coat of white paint.  AND... last but certainly not least... perhaps the ugliest, weirdest, COOLEST thing I have purchased at Goodwill in my entire life.  (And I've bought a LOT of things at Goodwill!)  This my friends, is not a painting.  It's fabric and the horses are STUFFED, so they stick out.  It's so weird and old ladyish, but I LOVE it.

And here, my friends, is the dining room right now.  (Not finished, but we have a decent start.)  Again, it's messy.  And most of the pictures suck because it was getting dark outside.  

The next room we (my mom and Isabel again) tackled was the living room.  Originally, we planned to get a black leather couch from the BX.  The walls were going to be grey, and all decor was going to be black, white, grey, and silver.  BUT we got a really good deal on a couch from someone who is about to PCS to Florida, so we changed our whole plan.  Here is the color scheme we chose for this room.  Well, sort of... I improvised a bit.

For the walls, we got the lightest blue we could possibly find.  I must have compared 20 paint samples.  I wanted white with just a hint of blue, and that's not really what we got... BUT I am happy with the way it turned out!
This room is actually clean!  But I still have some disclaimers.  We have not gotten around to buying curtains yet.  Also, we have not even started decorating in here, so it's very bare.  Although, there is one piece on the mantle that I'll point out in a bit.

The tv stand in the living room was another thrift store find!  It was only $28.  I think it will eventually get painted, but I haven't decided and it's fine the way it is right now.  
The couch will eventually have some more pillows; white and blue, but for now we just have yellow.  
You can only see it in the second picture, but there is an end table next to the couch that I picked up at a garage sale for $3.  It was falling apart, but it's nothing a little wood glue can't fix.  That's getting painted too.  Eventually.  Before we move.
On top of the mantle is a piece of artwork that I found at a thrift store for $6.  It originally looked like this...

I painted the whole thing white...

...and then went over the design with yellow paint.

However, to no one's surprise, I'm not happy with the way it turned out.  So I'm thinking of painting the back piece a different color other than white.  Suggestions?

The next room!  The downstairs bathroom.  This is one that I envisioned all on my own based off of a $300 mirror I (almost) bought from Bed Bath and Beyond.  

Now, there was no way I was going to shell out $300 for a mirror.  (Okay, I strongly considered it, but then I came to my senses!)  I knew it was possible to make something almost as cool on my own.  So, I bought another thrift store mirror.  This puppy was $8.

Then I painted the frame tan, so that it wasn't as noticeable if it showed though the rope.

And then I spent hours.. days.. glueing rope to the frame.  It took ages.  I ran out of rope.  Couldn't find the same rope.  Got new rope.  Blah, blah, blah... but here it is!

So there's that.  I planned out the whole bathroom based on that mirror.  All of our decor in the bathroom will eventually have rope involved.  Right now, we haven't purchased any of it yet, but it's coming!
Here's the bathroom.  We are still working on repainting the tiles on the wall, but we're half way there.

Those are all of the rooms we have painted AND started decorating.  We also painted one downstairs guest room and the upstairs bathroom.  

We still have four rooms that need painted... The other bedroom downstairs (Drew's manacle), the guest bedroom upstairs, and our bedroom.  All are planned except our bedroom.  That's the hardest room to figure out!  I don't have any pictures of those rooms right now, but, here are some of the laundry room (boring), hallway, and Drew's future mancave, the trashed "catch all room".  

This week I'm working on finishing some projects and organizing rooms.  We hope to finish getting the furniture we need and the bedding/decorations we want soon.  I promise as soon as rooms get finished I will do a complete room reveal!  

It's a crazy life right now.  So much going on, so many new things, new places, new people.  I pinky promise you all that I won't be so absent on here once we are all settled in.  

In other news, if you haven't yet, head over to our reception page to find out all of the details about our wedding reception!  There is also a song request form that I would LOVE for everyone to fill out!  Even if you can't make it, we'd love to know what songs you think we should play!  

Miss everyone, no matter where you are, and can't wait to see you all (hopefully) soon!  That's all for now!

Finally.  We are all back from Korea, and settling into our new home in Virginia!  I have been wanting to sit down and write a post every day for the last week, but we have been going, going, going, and I haven't had time to!  I know lots of you are dying to see the house; I've gotten lots of texts!  While I'd love to give you a video tour of what it looks like right now, you probably wouldn't be able to see much behind the paint cans, tool boxes, stacks of homeless decorations, drop cloths, and trash.  So, what I will do is show you some pictures from the listing (sorry) and the videos our realtor took for us when we were still in Korea and had not seen the inside of the house!  I promise you, in the next week we will be finishing up a lot of rooms, and I will be posting about each and every one!  I have before and after pictures like nobody's business and I can't wait to show them off. But until then, please let these pictures and videos hold you over.
You'll have to click on the pictures to make them larger and read the caption!

So there you have it!  A glimpse at our new home!  The house is beautiful.  Very old, but very charming.  We have over an acre of property.  The house has 4 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.  There is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom apartment above the garage, which we plan to rent out soon.  We are currently busting our butts painting every inch of this house and updating as much as we can!  We're working on repainting the tile in the downstairs bathroom and painting the kitchen cabinets right now.  Almost finished with both!  My mom and sister are coming out Sunday and they're going to stay for a couple days to help paint!!  Once everything is finished, I will post before and after pictures.  AND THEN I can finally start decorating!  And get a job so I can afford to live again.  I swear Lowes must love us right now; we are their most frequent shoppers!  We've been there at least once a day every day since the day we moved in and spent ALL our money there.  

In other news, Drew finally put on that uniform again.  He'd been off work since I left Korea and started going back in Wednesday.  He's still not working, working... but he has to go in for a few hours a day to in-process and whatnot.  It will be a sad day when he starts those 12 hour shifts again.  What will I do?!  It's been great having him around to help with all kinds of stuff.  

We are loving Virginia.  The doggies have happily adjusted.  They are HUGE fans of having a fenced in yard.  OH YEAH!  We got our yard fenced in on Wednesday.  It's wonderful to be able to open the door and let the dogs out.  It's been too long since we could do that!  We really haven't done anything except house work, but we really do love it here.  The weather is beautiful; so hot and sunny and not too humid!  (yet)  Can't wait to be done painting and remodeling so we can actually enjoy the weather and not just take 30 minute tanning breaks:)

I would love to write more, but the kitchen cabinets are calling out for me to finish them.  It's been 4 days since I started them, and it's about time to get these suckers done.  They will be done by Sunday at the latest.  Mark my words.  Promise I'll post them as soon as they're finished!

Until then!

Once back in the US, I got busy, busy, busy traveling all over Indiana seeing people I'd missed for the last year!  Rooney got to return to his first home in Muncie and Hoosier got to enjoy the luxuries of a fenced in yard for the first time.  Meanwhile, I got to see all of the new additions to Muncie and my two best friends, Cassie and Sarah!

I also discovered that Muncie has an amazing amount of thrift stores and flea markets FULL of treasures.

After Muncie, I got to meet the newest edition to the Schillinger family, Eloise Christine!  And I got to see Momma Schillinger and big sister Harlow!  Totally and equally excited about all three!

After one week at home, I was mostly adjusted to the time difference and 100% ready to travel to Virginia for a weekend exploring our new home!  I had to sign some papers for our new house, go to a job interview, and FINALLY see our house in person!  (Yes.  That means we basically bought a house without ever seeing it.  BUT we found a realtor from heaven who was able to send us videos and help us SO MUCH through the whole process.  We got very lucky.  And we LOVE our house!)

I am sure you're dying to see the inside of the house, but I'm going to make you wait for it!  I have some videos, but I think I am going to wait until we get into the house to show pictures.  It's so perfect.  4 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms.  A 2 car garage with a  3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom apartment above it!  AND we have an acre of property.  The dogs will LOVE the yard!  I cannot wait to show you all pictures.

The area around our house and around base is perfect.  There's SO much to do!  Shopping for days.  Any restaurant you could ever hope for.  And WAWA.

Base is also GORGEOUS!!!  It's so huge compared to Osan, and so pretty.  My mom and I walked along the water and went picture crazy.

We're also SO close to Virginia Beach!  So, my mom and I drove down there to touch the sand and see the ocean.  

Seriously cannot wait to get to Virginia with Drew!  There is SO much to do.  I did not want to leave to come back to Indiana, but i dragged myself onto the plane.  When I got back, my BEST FRIEND was waiting for me!

Since then, I have seen our reception venue, tasted some of our reception food, tried some reception cupcake flavors, decided on centerpieces for the reception... I think the reception is ready to go!! :)
I did some more thrifting, basically planned interior decor for our entire house, spent a lot of time on Pinterest, and hung out with Rooney and Hoosier.
I also got to go up to South Bend to visit my friend, Ally, who student taught across the hall from me last year!  That girl saved my life.  Whenever my teacher made me cry, she was there to vent to!  We spent our mornings talking shit in the copy room.  Spent our lunches quietly listening to the teachers talk about each other.  And we had amazing Panera dates to plan our units and lessons!  It was great to get to see her again!

I know, I know, this post is not nearly as exciting as mysokolife posts, but I just felt the need to post some sort of an update.  Soon, I will have DIY posts, house updates, and fun posts about new adventures!  
I am SO excited for Drew to get home tomorrow night and FINALLY get ready to head to our second duty station!  I'm counting down the hours until we move.  I can't wait to show you our new house, our new city, and our new adventures!

I absolutely canNOT believe we have spent a year in South Korea.  Okay, it's only been 11 months.. but that counts, right?  Everyone said this year would fly by, but I never expected it to go this quickly.  I can't believe all of the amazing experiences we have had and all of the friends we have made.  This year has been more exciting and educational than any of the years before it.  Sitting here on my very last night in South Korea, I am realizing how much I will miss this place.  We've called Songtan, South Korea home for the last year.  We lived together for the first time here.  We celebrated our first Christmas together and wedding anniversary here.  We got a new dog here.  We made AMAZING friends here.  Don't get me wrong, I am SO excited to be back in the United States where all of our friends and family are, but I will miss it here.  Leaving tomorrow will be very bittersweet.  I'm sure in a few months we will be sitting in our new home and thinking, "Gosh, I miss Korea!"

For my very last #mysokolife blog post, I am going to recap the last year.  I'm going to relive all of our awesome experiences, month by month.  This post is mostly for me, so I can remember all of the things I've done.  All of our amazing memories.  However, I truly hope you will enjoy it too.

I remember being SO excited to get to Korea, but so nervous.  I was excited because I had been 1000 miles away from Drew for the past 9 months, and we FINALLY got to live together!!  I was nervous because I was moving to a different country, on a different continent, where they spoke a different language.  AND I was basically going by myself; without assistance from the Air Force.  People told us I wasn't welcome at this base.  They said non-command sponsored people, like me, were a burden to those that were "allowed" to be there.  I was nervous about finding a place to live!  I was nervous about EVERYTHING.  But I took a deep breath and hopped on a plane.
It seriously feels like last week that I cried in the airport when I saw Drew.  When we shared a hotel room with our (would be) CRAZY upstairs neighbors.  When Rooney and I went for runs at 3am because we were SO incredibly jet lagged.  When I searched for an apartment.  When I didn't know my way around base or around Songtan!  I cannot believe all of this happened almost a year ago.  

By June we were completely moved into our apartment, without all of our household goods, and starting to get very comfortable with our new home.  We were exploring as much as we could and trying all of the new foods!  I went to Spain for two weeks, and when I got home, I started my job and we went on our first Realty Family trip!

July consisted of sightseeing and exploring our new home, making lots of new friends, stabbing myself in the hand, celebrating my birthday, and having surgery!  Still can't believe I stabbed myself and ended up in a Korea hospital!!

In August, the weather was SO hot and humid it was almost unbearable!  Despite sweating wherever we went, we explored as much as possible.  We ventured to Seoul for the first time.  We went out with new friends.  We got a pool!  We toured the Korean War Memorial Museum.  Rooney turned 2!  AND we started school!

In September, it started to cool off and we could start keeping the doors and windows open again!  With no more trips to the Emergency Room, we were able to really take advantage of our days in Korea!  Exploring, field trips with the girls, fun with friends, and our first of many trips to Suwon!!!

October was still warm, but the evenings were getting cooler!  The leaves were changing and it looked beautiful outside!  I was finally working full time after recovering from my stabbing incident!  Drew and I watched the girls overnight for the first time!  We had our very first family photos taken too!  There were a lot of little moments in October.  

Novemburrrrrr.  Finally, it was time to break out the coats and sweaters!  No snow yet, but it was getting pretty cold!  We celebrated our first real holiday away from our family, but we were able to spend it with our awesome friends.  A lot happened in November.  Some of our favorite memories happened during this month!

December was a hard month for us, as we were extremely homesick.  We did our best to celebrate Christmas in Korea with all of our favorite family traditions from home.  It wasn't the same, but we made it work!!  Our first Christmas together is something we will always remember and a memory to cherish.  Oh, you know... we also celebrated one year of marriage!

Hello, 2015!  A new year full of more new experiences.  This meant less than 5 months left in Korea and we were quickly realizing we needed to start going on more adventures!

In February we said goodbye to more friends, we traveled as much as we could, and we enjoyed our time in this wonderful country.

In March, the weather finally started to warm up and it was beginning to look like spring!  We explored as much as we could, because I booked my flight and the realization that our year was almost over hit us.  

My last 25 days in Korea!  Talk about a busy time.  We dealt with packing and moving out.  Drama with Drew's orders.  We put an offer on a house in Virginia, which was accepted, and started the process of being first time home buyers!  I still worked full time.  We adventured as much as possible.  AND for some reason, we planned a mini vacation right in the middle of it all!  

And that brings us to right here and now.  I'm 11 hours away from being in the air.  Sitting in my completely empty apartment, reminiscing on the last year of my life.  There have been ups and down.  New friends and lost friends.  Lots of soju.  Hellos, goodbyes, see ya laters.  Sweat, blood, tears.  Laughter.  Memories that will last a life time.  I could not have been more blessed than I was this year.  I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity I had to come over here, to a completely new "world" and immerse myself into the culture.  I hope to come back to Korea, but nothing is guaranteed in this crazy Air Force life.  So if we never return, at least I know I had the time of my life this go around.  I am so glad I was able to share it with all of you.  

Annyonghi kyeseyo, Korea.  Stay in peace.

Last weekend, we went on our last Korean adventure!  We traveled back down to Busan (where we were for New Years) with some of our friends from Drew's squadron.  We stayed in the same FANTASTIC penthouse apartment on the beach.  It's the most amazing house I've ever been in.  Makes me feel like I am on the Real World!  

We got to Busan Sunday afternoon.  Unlike last time we went, this time there were actually no hiccups on the train ride down!  The only bad part was that the weather in Busan SUCKED.  Torrential downpour and crazy wind ALL.  DAY.  LONG.

Once everyone got settled into the penthouse, we all went to lunch at an awesome Irish Pub down the street.  We all got soaking wet on the way over, but it was worth it for the delicious food.  (I also was not smart and only packed tank tops, tshirts, and sandals.  Not great for the rain!)

The only other eventful part of the first day was that evening when we all put crummy clothes on and ran down the sea!  It was still pouring down rain, but we ran around in it and even got in the water!  It was obviously FREEZING cold, but it was so much fun to jump around in the waves.  Then we ran back into the penthouse and got the craziest looks from all of the Koreans that we passed!  Also- we dragged SO much sand into that stupid place that it was covering the floors.  Ugh I hate sand so much.

Sunday night we had some yummy street ramen and kimbap.  SO GOOD.  Then we went back to the penthouse and played Cards Against Humanity for hours.  It was still pouring down rain when we went to bed, and continued until we woke up the next morning.

Monday morning, Drew and I woke up and went to TomNToms for coffee and Honey Bread!

After breakfast, it was time to go to the Sea Life Aquarium!  The rain had stopped, but it was FREEEEEEEZING cold!  
There are TONS of pictures from the aquarium, so I'm making a slide show so this post isn't a million miles long!  This aquarium is completely underground.  Kind of weird, but it was so cool.  LOTS of pretty fish!  Most of the pictures are pretty blurry, sorry!

After the aquarium, we went to lunch at Mad About Garlic, a really good Italian restaurant.  It was in the same building as the penthouse, so once we were done everyone went back up to lounge around and nap.  Yes, I know.. sounds like a SUPER fun vacation, right?  HA.  The weather was a huge downer.  It didn't allow us to to very much!

BUT once we were all rested up, a group of us decided to walk to this super fancy-schmancy casino and waste all our money.  Busan is a very rich area.  There are tourists from ALL over the world that go there.  Everyone drives amazing cars and spends way too much money.  Apparently this casino is a big place for a bunch of Chinese millionaires that have plenty of money to blow.

We didn't win any money.  I broke even.  I really don't understand why people enjoy gambling.  It makes me want to cry when I lose $5 haha.  One of the guys we were with won $150!  I guess that would make me like gambling!

After the casino, we went to dinner at Bulgogi Brothers and had some bibimbap.  OH MY GOSH I really despise eating out over and over and over.  I just wanted a giant salad at this point.  I need a Pizza Hut salad bar in my life.  

Saturday night we had so much fun!  We went to a Noraebang, which is a Karaoke bar.  Not a normal Karaoke bar like in the US, but one that has private rooms for each group of people.  That way you make a fool out of yourself in front of your friends and not random people!  We had SO MUCH FUN at the Noraebang.  We stayed for 2 hours and sang the night away.  I wish we had gone to one of these sooner, because they are my favorite thing ever.  I love Karaoke.

As you can see, the Noraebang was the perfect end to our weekend in Busan.  Tuesday morning we got up and around and headed to the train station.  Unfortunately, we were SUPER late and had to jump on the train without getting our tickets.  OF COURSE the very first time we've ever been asked to show our tickets was the day we didn't have them!  It was dramatic, but we figured it out and ended up getting seats.  
The dogs had been at the kennel all weekend and I was so excited to pick them up.  This is the first time they'd been to a kennel, so I was nervous.  Apparently, they had a blast!  They had a huge yard to play in, and tons of other dogs to wrestle with. They didn't want to leave!  I'm glad to know I can take them to the kennel whenever I need to now!

Even though it rained all weekend and prevented us from actually enjoying the beach, we still had a lot of fun just getting away from the craziness of moving.  But of course, all of the packing and cleaning resumed as soon as we got back to Songtan!  Almost home!

On Sunday, Drew and I traveled around the world in just one hour.  We went to Bucheon, a city near Incheon, to go to an "amusement park" called Aiins World.  I had been looking for cool adventures to take to fill up our last few weekends, and this was a place I saw on a website called KoreaYe.  The pictures I saw of Aiins world looked SO cool.  Inside the park, there are tons of replicas of monuments all over the world.  All of the pictures I saw online and on Instagram looked amazing.  I didn't think the replicas were going to all be life size; after all, The Great Wall of China was there, but I thought they would be decently big.  Nope.  Imagine Barbie sized replicas of all of these monuments.  It was the cheesiest place we've gone in Korea, but it was still fun.  It was a good day spent with each other, and we got an okay history lesson along the way.  
How many of these world monuments can you identify?  I didn't know very many off the top of my head, but luckily they had signs in English to help us out! 
So... here is our trip around the world.

Who knew it was possible to see so many world monuments in such a short amount of time!?  Overall, Aiins World was too cheesy for me to recommend anyone go there.  Save the !0,000 won and just look at my pictures!

After becoming world travelers, we found this little village on the way to a restaurant for lunch.  It was one street that went through a handful of "traditional" Korean houses.  That's in quotes because they were so well taken care of that they didn't look very traditional.  They were beautiful, though.  We read that a certain amount of traditional Korean artisans actually live in the houses and keep the village going.  It's like a living museum.  There was even a little farming area behind the houses full of people working on planting new crops.

There were a few ajummas dressed in hanboks, drinking tea together inside one of the houses.  I wanted to take a picture so badly, but I was too chicken.  They were so cute. 
After touring the village, we found an awesome restaurant nearby and got some lunch.  Ohhhh I am going to miss Korean food so much.  
We had a very fun day in Bucheon... I mean touring the world!  Only two more adventures left!  Can you believe it?!  We are going to a place called Nambu next weekend so Drew can get his electronic fix.  The weekend after that is a trip to Busan with a bunch of friends.  And THEN the next weekend, I'm home!
17 days until I'm home.  Things are starting to get crazy.  Trying to pack.  Waiting for Drew to get orders so we can schedule TMO to come pick up all of our stuff to ship home.  Working on finding a house to buy in Virginia!  AND I have been talking to the director at a private preschool, La Petite Academy, about a job!  So things are crazy and busy and exciting and ahhh!  I can't wait to be home.

See you soon!

Yo what up homies? It's ya boi, Baby White Bread. I decided to stop by to drop some knowledge on ya dome pieces. Ok, that was way too much for me to keep up with. If you haven't figured it out by now, it's Drew. I was voluntold by an unnamed wife of mine to make a post about my AF sponsored resiliency trip to Mt. Seoraksan. Basically, it was the Air Force's way to get us to 'find inner strength to become better members in our unit.' GREAT. I was thinking this whole trip was gonna be some Kumbaya, ice-breaker kinda deal. I was wrong. It was hardly anything like that. 

Anyway, day one started off at noon on base, we all checked in, piled on to two big charter busses and headed out to the hotel. We arrived 3 hours later, get our room assignments and go get cleaned up for dinner. After dinner, we all meet in the hotel's ballroom where the chaplain explains to us what we should expect and what is expected of us. Nothing out of the ordinary. After that little meeting was over, we were left to our own devices for the night.

Day two. We wake up around 7 for breakfast and are done and out of the hotel by 9 to make our way up the mountain. Chaplain explains that there are basically two routes to take, the path to the right is the most commonly used and where the majority of the hiking is. The second path, to the left, is where hardly anybody goes and isn't where you get the best view. I think it was his attempt at telling us to go with the big groups without actually saying that. I had a few friends go on this trip with me and we had decided collectively that we wanted to go on our own adventure. So naturally, we chose the path less taken. I am so thankful I didn't go with the group, because we had a freaking blast. I took pictures along the way, so I'll caption them as we go on this adventure together.

This is a cool time lapse of the cable car we took to get to the initial hiking spot. No sound, don't worry.

So after we had taken in as much of this spot as we could, we decided on a different peak to scale and made our way over there. We saw a smaller, more secluded section of the mountain behind the cable car station. We made our way over there and realized the only way we could get to our destination was to pass directly through a Buddhist temple. We quickly and quietly made our way around it and started on the second leg of our dude-venture. After we arrived, we saw it had not one, but two spots to climb. I took one while Webb and Thomas took the other. 

Once again we had enough of this site and wanted to do something else. I had seen a pamphlet at the hotel of a path in this national park that led to a remote waterfall. I ran it by the guys and we thought it would be a waste to NOT try and find it, so off we went.

And no. I did not jump in. Why, you may ask? Let me tell you. That was some of the coldest water I've felt. No way on God's green earth was I going to remove my clothing, in the wilderness, jump off a ledge into a pond of unknown depths, just for fun. I did however, drink the water. Here ya go..

Last Saturday, I went on my last realty family trip of my year in Korea!  Unfortunately, Drew had to work, so he wasn't able to come.  BUT.. Lots of our friends were on the trip, so it was still a great time.  
On Saturday, we met outside the main gate at 7:30 and loaded everything on the bus.  The ride to our destination was 3 hours long.  We were heading down to Gunsan, which is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the west coast.  People usually go there during the summer, but even during April there were tons of people there!
Once the three hour bus ride was over, we were in Gunsan and ready to go over to Seonyudo Island.  We had to get on a small ferry to get to the island.  I was slightly terrified of it sinking in the middle of the ice cold water, but we made it back to land safely.  There are over 20 islands right off of the coast of Gunsan, so there was a to see!  It was a VERY foggy day, but it was still beautiful!

Once we made it to the island, we were able to get off and walk around for a while.  There wasn't much going on since it was an off season, but there was still fresh seafood to eat, soju to drink, and things to see.  Some people took a bus and drove around the island for a short tour, but I chose to walk around since we'd just been on a bus for 3 hours and then a ferry!  

We walked around looking at everything for about an hour and then it was time to get back on the ferry.  Instead of going straight back to the main land, they drove the ferry around all of the islands so we could see everything!  After a while, all of the islands looked the same haha.. but it was so pretty.  And there were TONS of seagulls following our boat, so they appear in many pictures.

After about an hour riding around on the ferry, we were back to where we started and ready to head to our next destination.  We got back on the bus and drove to a little rest stop area next to the beach.  Once we were there, the cooking began!  Sissy and her husband grilled ribs and there was also more raw fish, rice, kimchi, seafood pancakes, and so much other Korean goodness.  Sissy always has the best food.  It's impossible to just eat one plate on a Sissy trip or at a Sissy cookout.  It's just so good.  I wish I had pictures of the deliciousness, but I ate it too quickly to take any!
Right after we got off the bus and sat down to eat, it started to rain. :(  We all moved our tables inside a little pavilion area and ate in there.  It was gloomy and sad, but we made the best of it!  Plus, once we alls started drinking soju, we didn't really care how bad the rain was.  I have decided to swear off soju for a while after this trip.  Well, one of my good friends, Laura, is leaving Saturday, so I'll have a teensy bit of soju at her going away, but after that.. I need a break!  I have a BUNCH of soju ready to bring home, but I don't think I need to partake in any soju drinking events for a long while haha.  I think I have consumed more alcohol in my one year living here than ever before in my life combined.  I've said this before, but Korea is like the college of the Air Force.  Party, party, party.  Go, go go.  Never.  Stop.  Drinking.  I need a break!  And a vacation, but that's a different story.
After everyone finished eating, we got back on the bus to drive to Seonunsa Temple.  Unfortunately, it continued to rain for the rest of our trip, but we got some rain ponchos to wear so that we were still able to go see the temple!  (Ps.  Most of these pictures are super blurry.  SORRY!  It was really rainy and I had to use my phone, so I was trying to keep it dry and take pictures at the same time!)

After the visiting temple, it was time to go back home to Songtan.  It was a long 3 hour bus ride, but it was so much fun because just like all Sissy trips, we sang karaoke the whole way back.  Sang karaoke and drank way too much soju and Chilsung Cider.  Oh my.  I LOVE going on trips with our realty family, but I am glad this is my last one for the year.  It was fun, but so exhausting.  These trips usually require a day of recovery after, but this time I had to be ready for an adventure in Incheon with Drew the next day!  I will write about our "trip around the world" at Aiin's World tomorrow.  Can't overload you with posts today!  
Right now I am down to 8 days left of work and 18 days until I leave Korea.  Holy cow.  I'll be home before I know it!  Cannot wait!!!

I've been deleting pictures off of my phone and my computer and I found a ton that have never been Instagrammed, Facebooked, or blogged.  A lot of them are fun, interesting, or just need to be seen by someone other than me!  I've been realizing that I haven't been taking enough pictures.  I've taken pictures of mountains and monuments and temples, but I need to take pictures of the PEOPLE.  The people doing actual things.  So for the next 22 days (yes I only have 22 days left!) I will take more interesting pictures of South Korea.  But first, here are some that I already had!

Well, there is my totally random post.  None of the pictures go together and they don't tell a real story, but they help to tell the big story that we've been living this year.  These pictures all seem like they were taken last week!  I cannot get over how quickly this year has flown by.  We've made some great memories here!  Looking forward to making a few more before we're out of here!  Tomorrow I'm going on a trip with our realty family ( Drew has to work :( ) to Gunsan.  Then on Sunday Drew and I are going on an adventure to Seoul.  CAN'T at all wait to blog about those!!!

22 days left.  Gonna make them count!

2. Kimchi. If you don't know what kimchi is, let me explain. Basically fermented veggies seasoned with hot red pepper sauce, garlic, and whatever else. Korean families make their own kimchi each year by chopping up the vegetables (cabbage is very common), mixing everything together in a huge clay pot, burying it in the ground, and letting it ferment. And then they enjoy it for 3 meals a day, 365 days a year, all the years of their lives.  Every time you go to a Korean restaurant, you will get a variety of kimchi to eat with your meal.  I generally push those little bowls as far away from me as I can.  Not only do I despise the taste of kimchi, but the smell is awful too!  Maybe before living in Korea the smell wouldn't have bothered me.  It smells like red chili paste with a sour twist.  Spicy but sour.  Not bad unless you've smelled it for an entire year.  I've noticed that many of the older Koreans actually smell permanently like kimchi.  Well, kimchi and mothballs.  I swear... they all smell like that!  Not a good combination on smells.  I certainly will not be missing anything to do with kimchi when I get back to America.

3. Smog.  I know South Korea is definitely not the only place with smog, but oh my gosh it's so bad here!  I've never lived somewhere that was smoggy.  Until I moved here, I lived every day of my life in Indiana.  Sure, I've traveled to big cities and other countries, but the smog in Korea is just terrible.  There are beautiful mountains all over South Korea; some very close to where we live.  Unfortunately, I've never gotten a very good view of them from our house because the smog is so thick that it blocks my view.  If I stand at the top of the big hill on base and look out toward the city of Osan just to the north, I can rarely see the big buildings through the fog.  Smog is so thick here that when it's actually foggy outside, it's like staring at a white wall.  Driving on a foggy day is super fun.  The smog even blocks most of the stars at night.  Only after a good rain does the smog disappear just long enough to get a glimpse of the mountains or the stars.  I can't wait to look up into the sky back home and see ALL of the stars!

4. Korean bathrooms.  Public bathrooms in South Korea are adventures.  Sometimes they are clean and normal bathroom stalls with toilets that flush and a roll of toilet paper on the wall.  Other times They are normal toilets that flush with NO toilet paper on the wall.  That's when you have to grab the toilet paper from the sink area of the restroom and pray you have enough to make due.  And then sometimes.. you get the kimchi squatters.  Kimchi squatters are these very special "toilets" that are basically urinals laid on the ground.  I would rather pee outside in the woods than pee in a kimchi squatter.  You have to take your pants completely off, which sometimes requires you to take your shoes off!  The floors are always wet, probably from pee.  So imagine taking your shoes and pants off and trying to avoid touching the floor with anything.  Once all of that is done, you have to straddle the "toilet" and aim to make it.  To top all of this off, kimchi squatters do not usually come complete with toilet paper.  It's a drip dry kind of system.  Really fun to do.  (Related to the kimchi squatter is the kimchi squat.  When you bend both knees but still keep your butt off the floor.  You know, how little kids bend down?)  If I run into a kimchi squatter, I usually refuse to pee.  I'll hold it... no matter how badly I have to go.  Oh yeah.  And I forgot to mention you aren't supposed to flush your toilet paper.  In any toilets.  Anywhere.  Not even in your own home.  (We do, but we also have a clogged toilet like 4 times a day.)  You're supposed to throw all toilet paper, no matter how it was used, in a trashcan.  Imagine how lovely public restrooms smell.  Yum.

5. Songtan regulars.  Just outside the main gate is a strip of stores, restaurants, and bars known as The Ville.  This is generally where we go on the weekends to hangout with our friends.  We frequent bars like Think Lounge, known for their impossibly delicious Soju Teas, and Cowboy Grill, where Black Rosary used to perform.  It never fails though, no matter where we go on a Friday or Saturday (or Wednesday) night, we always see Songtan Sally and the Flower Lady.  Songtan Sally is the infamous hooker who walks up and down the strip asking anyone and everyone, "You wanna go?"  Currently pregnant, somehow Sally still gets people to "go".  I can't imagine being so drunk that you'd go anywhere with this woman.  
The Flower Lady is another regular who just really knows how to ruin fun.  This woman goes from bar to bar all night long selling roses.  "You wan flowa?  For you, 2,000 won."  No.  We do not want a rose.  No.  We do not want a flower.  No.  Go away.  We don't want.. okay jeeze.  Here's some money.  Now give me a flower and get out of my face.  That's usually how the conversation goes!  This woman does not take no for an answer.  She once kissed Drew on the cheek over and over until he gave her money.  Then she walked away without giving him a flower.  Lovely woman, she is.

6. Monsoon season.  All I need to say is, nonstop rain for 2 weeks at a time, a few days of rest in the middle, and then a few more weeks of rain.  Enough said, right?

7.  Produce prices.  I would do anything to eat an entire watermelon right now.  I could go to the store and get one, but I don't really feel like spending $15 on a piece of fruit.  Grapes are $7 or more.  Strawberries are the same as grapes.  Blueberries, apples and oranges off base are ridiculously expensive.  It's really impossible to afford eating fresh fruit.  I once bought grapes that I found for $5 and Drew and I ate them like there was no tomorrow.  There better be a watermelon and some strawberries and blueberries waiting for me when I get home.  (Thanks mom.)

8.  Not having a yard.  Dear Lord I really hate having dogs and NOT having a yard.  Do you know how annoying it is to have to put a coat and shoes and walk downstairs, get the dogs behind the garage (in the mud pit) and then let them pee!?  I can't wait to have a house with a yard and be able to open the back door and let the dogs out.  That will be one of the happiest moments I have when I get back! :)

9.  Being stared at.  Everywhere we go, everyone stares.  When we get on a train, all eyes turn to us.  When we walk into a Korean grocery store, everyone stares at us as we walk through the aisles.  If we go into a restaurant that isn't frequented by Americans, people stare the whole time we eat.  Waiters and waitresses stand by our table and watch us eat.  If we drop one thing with a pair of chopsticks, they immediately bring us a fork.  People don't want to sit next to us on the train.  They will keep an open seat between us.  They'll stand rather than sit.  They'll sit as far away from us as they possibly can.  Like we have a disease or something.  It honestly cracks me up.  Americans have been in Korea longer than I have been alive, yet they still look at us like they've never seen anyone like us.  Some people hate us and want us out, some people love that we are here, some are indifferent.  You never know what the person next to you thinks of you.  I understand; if I saw a group of people speaking another language back home, I would probably stare.  I've just never been on this side of things, and I won't miss being in the minority!

10.  The garbage system.  First, it is easier to find Waldo than it is to find a trashcan in South Korea.  Seriously, don't buy snacks or drinks on the street unless you want to carry the trash with you for the rest of the day.  (Or unless you can find a sneaky area to hide your trash when no one is looking.)  There are NO trashcans in public places.  It sucks.  Second, in Korea you have to use special trash bags to throw your trash out.  They're big white bags with all this writing on them, and they cost an arm and a leg.  Think you can get away with buying regular trash bags at the commissary?  Nope.  You're looking at a $1,000 fine.  We have never been fined, but we got close to it!  Now we take our trash to base.  Probably not REALLY allowed, but Drew still has a dorm room, so I think it's okay!  Third, there are no garbage disposals in Korea, so you have to throw your food trash away in a separate bag from your regular trash.  Instead of the big white bags, you have to use smaller orange bags that also cost an arm and a leg.  Put all of your food scraps for a whole week in a bag and let it sit there til trash gets picked up.  Smells super good.  Also, since it's so expensive just to throw trash away, people dump there trash wherever they can!  It's illegal, and you can get a huge fine if you're caught, but people do it.  They find woods, or fields, or abandoned property and dump all of their old furniture and garbage and food.  It's terrible.  There is litter everywhere.  Korea is such a dirty place.  I never thought I'd miss a garbage disposal and those huge, rolling, outdoor trash bins so much until I lived here!

11.  Strays and animal abuse.  I think you've all realized by now that I have a problem.  Well, a few problems.  But my main problem is wanting to save every animal everywhere.  My problem has only gotten worse since moving here.  There are at least 6 cats living in our garage area.  I see the same ones every day, but I also always see new ones.  They eat out of the food trash that people put out at the road every week.  You've never seen strays so fat in your life!  Besides cats, there are also stray dogs everywhere.  In Korea, dogs are disposable.  If your dog runs away, get a new one.  If you old dog comes back, get rid of the newer one.  Your dog got ugly when it grew up?  Get a new one.  Your dog had puppies?  Throw them away.  (This just happened near us last week.)  People treat dogs like crap here.  Their "national treasure", the Korean Jindo, is chained up, locked in a cage, starved, not played with, abused, and even sold as meat.  I've seen trucks carrying dogs in cages on their way to the meat market.  I've found puppy mills full of Jindos surely bound for the market.  Injured dogs running down the street.  Puppies with broken legs still chained up in the yard.  It's so sad and it breaks my heart into a million pieces.  At least we can say we've saved one little baby!

12.  Fashion.  There is nothing I hate seeing more than every girl in the entire country wearing gym shoes with EVERY outfit.  Cute skirt and top?  Pair it with gym shoes.  Cute dress?  Better make sure your gym shoes match!  Shorts with tights underneath?  Gym shoes.  They seriously wear gym shoes with every single thing.  I just really want to see some normal fashion again.  Cute shoes.  Normal shoes.  

13.  Ajummas.  Old, cranky Korean women who are respected by everyone, given seats as soon as they get on the train or bus and even reserved a special section seating on the train, but are still always mad about something.  They push you out of their way.  They bark at you if you do something wrong.  They're just so mad about life.  They will yell at you if your kids aren't perfectly bundled up in the winter.  They're pushy, they steal seats, they elbow you, they have complete disregard for others and they are just rude.

14.  On that note, let me end by saying the thing I will not miss the most about living here is the general rudeness of everyone.  I don't think Koreans try to be rude.  I don't think they are a rude people.  I just think politeness is different here.  Koreans are very respectful.  But I've learned that that does not mean they are necessarily polite.  It's not normal to hold doors open of the person behind you.  People don't smile and greet each other on the streets.  People just seem rude.  And I can't wait to be back in a place where you smile at people as you pass.  You hold the door for the people behind you, even if it means waiting a few more seconds.  You wave at people you don't know. 

Yesterday we wasted about $120 and 8 hours of our life that we will never get back.

Because I have FOUR weekends before I leave, we want to jam pack fun trips and activities in everywhere that we can. Unfortunately, we waited until the last minute to make a plan for yesterday, so we ended up choosing a Korean amusement park called Everland on some kind of whim.

I guess we should have known an amusement park would be absolutely packed on the first Saturday of Spring, but we clearly didn't do a whole lot of thinking! Imagine how many people would go to Cedar Point and Kings Island combined if they were to pay people $100 to go in. Now multiply by 10 and that's still not as many people that were at Everland yesterday. South Korea is the same size as Indiana, but it has over 49 MILLION more people! Someone it always seems like all of those people are in the same place at the same time.

Every line at the park was ridiculously long. 40 minute waits for little kiddie rides. Even an 80 minute wait on the ski lift type "ride" that ever amusement park has. You know the one. Slow, not scary, takes you from one end of the park to the other. The one for the Aunt Sues of the world who come into the park but don't want to ride anything :)

We walked around for a little bit and then found a huge wooden roller coaster at the back of the park. The wait said 2 hours, but we got in line anyway. That's a pretty acceptable wait at any park, I guess. We waited and waited and waited. Drew held our spot while I went to get us food. Which, to my happiness, was reasonably priced. Almost 2 hours after we got in line, we thought we were about to get on the roller coaster! But. Jokes on us, we still had to wait inside a huge building. Ugh.

At least we had lots of fun people watching. There was so much matchy-matchy, I was in heaven. I had to point out every couple wearing matching shoes, shirts, hats, or even entire outfits.

We FINALLY got on the roller coaster, and it was actually super fun. I haven't been on a roller coaster in forever, so it was awesome. But just like THAT it was over. And we were back in the crowd of crazy Koreans.

We got in line for a 4D movie of Rio, which was a 40 minute line. I went to a 4D movie a long time ago and it was awesome, but this did not deliver. It was about 6 minutes long and once again, a major disappointment.

After Rio, we decided to just cut our losses and head home. We were both super disappointed, but I guess that's what we get for not planning in advance!

Here are some pictures of Everland.

So, overall I would give Korean amusement parks a 1/5 (only for the delicious food!)

We certainly will not be going back to Everland haha. But, super excited for next weekend because we will be going to Haesindang Park, so known as Penis Park haha. Don't worry. There will be lots of pictures!

Only 34 days left in Korea!! Can't wait to be home:)

As of right now, I have 40 days left in South Korea.  For the last 10 months, I have lived my life in this foreign country.  I have made a home in South Korea.  I have learned a lot about the Korean culture.  I have learned the every day customs.  I have learned about their holidays and traditions.  I know that you always give something or take something with your right hand, while holding the inside of your elbow with your left hand.  I know that you never pour yourself a drink, but always pour one for everyone else.  I know that you take your shoes off before you enter someone's home.  I know that there is no such thing as the Sea of Japan; it's the East Sea.  I know that you don't point, you don't whistle at night, you don't rest your chopsticks in your rice bowl, and that almost everyone is a Lee, Kim, Park, Choe, or Lim.  ;)
I have learned some Korean words and phrases.  
I know how to say hello - an-yeong-ha-se-yo.  
Goodbye if I am the one leaving - an-yeong-he-gyea-se-yo
Goodbye if I am the one staying - an-yeong-he-ga-se-yo
Thank you - kam-sa-ham-ni-da
Yes - Ne
No - an-ie-yo
Sorry - mi-an-ham-ni-da
Here - yogi
and I know how to say the name of the school across from our house (we use this to tell taxi drivers where to take us.) - Gwan-gwang go-deung-hagg-yo  (I never say this right and always have to say it in English)
I have survived 10 months in a foreign country only knowing how to say 9 words.  Both impressive and sad at the same time.  I cannot understand a word of Korean, either.
Being in South Korea has been the most amazing experience of my life so far.  I am so fortunate to have had this opportunity to come live here with my husband and immerse ourselves in a culture that is so completely different from our own.  For an entire year we were outsiders.  WE were the minority.  We were stared at constantly.  People wouldn't sit next to us on the train.  One time we weren't even allowed to go into a bar because we were Americans.  Most Koreans liked us, or at least didn't mind us, but there were some that definitely were not happy that we were here.  Overall, the people of South Korea are kind, helpful, and respectful.  However,  I have learned here that respectful does not mean polite.  
So before I write a book about that, I'm going to jump right into the real reason I am writing this post.  What will I miss about South Korea?  Lots of things.  It's funny because I know you won't understand most of these, but this is what my life has consisted of for the last 10 months.  If you don't know what some of the words or names are, Google and Wikipedia are going to be your best friends!  OR you can comment here or on Facebook and ask me!  :)  Enjoy my list!

1. First and foremost, I will miss Korea's food.  Not all of it, (kimchi and most of the weird side dishes at meals) but I will miss most of the food.  After I leave Korea I won't have an excuse to eat rice almost every day!  I won't have delicious bulgogi beef, grilled right in front of me on my table.  No more Meat Restaurant where we stuff our faces with all of the delicious grilled meats, chunks of garlic, mandu, rice, noodles, and green plum tea.  No more bibimbap!  No more fresh udon with delicious seafood.  No more taro bubble tea.  No more green tea ice cream.  No more odeng, chicken on a stick (or is that dog?), hotteok, or fried anything you could want from the street vendors!  No more peanut balls or corn choco.  No more corndogs with potatoes in the breading!  No more shrimp chips, kimbap, bingsu, choco pies, crab chips, or gourmet ramen flavors!  No more Oodles of Noodles Khaw Soy!!!!!  It is seriously amazing that I have not gained any weight since being in Korea.  Don't get me wrong, American food is mmmmmm mmmmm delicious, but Korean food will always have this special place in my heart (and stomach.)  I'm sure you don't know what most of this stuff is, but take my word for it; it;s all amazingly delicious.  

2. Public transportation!!!!!!!!!!  I miss my car a LOT, but having access to public transportation, like the train, is SO awesome.  It's so much easier to hop on the train and ride for 2 hours up to Seoul rather than sitting in traffic all day trying to get there.  I also love that there is usually a taxi right around the corner when you need to get somewhere close.  Well, unless you have an appointment, because then the cabs seem to disappear.

3. My big kitchen.  Our apartment has an awesome kitchen with tons of counter space and lots of cabinets.  I will definitely be missing this kitchen once I leave. 

4. WET BATHROOMS!  Oh my gosh.  Korea has it going on with their wet bathrooms.  The shower drain is on the floor, usually in the middle, of the bathroom.  The shower we use doesn't even have a shower curtain.  This makes cleaning the bathroom SUPER convenient.  Spray bathroom cleaner on the whole bathroom, scrub a little with a brush, and rinse the whole thing down with the shower!  Washing dogs is also way easier in a wet bathroom.  No need to worry about splashing water on the floor or on the walls!  One day, I will build my own house and have a wet bathroom again.  

5. Paris Baguette.  So, this probably should have been included in the food, but oh well.  This place is so amazingly delicious.  The first time I had Paris Baguette was in the Incheon airport when I waited for my flight to Spain.  They have pastries, muffins, corn dogs, pizzas, cakes, rolls, EVERYTHING a bakery could ever dream of having, and it's all good!

6. Korean movie theaters.  I HATE going to movies.  Unless it's a movie I really want to see, I would rather wait a few days and watch it online in the comfort of my own home.  However, I have actually enjoyed going to movies in Korea.  Mostly for the movie snacks.  (Again with the food!)  We can get regular popcorn, caramel corn, seasoned popcorn, dried squid, grilled squid, butter squid, beer, pop, ice cream, and so much more.  Every movie theater smells the exact same; lots and lots of caramel corn!

7. Soju.  Seriously, soju is such a dangerously awesome drink.  I will really miss not being able to buy one $6 drink from a bar and getting drunk enough for the rest of the night.  Our favorite place to go out on the weekends is called Think Lounge.  Their specialty drink is soju tea, which is served in a pitcher for $6.  A whole pitcher of soju and tea for one person.  The unspoken rule at Think is that you never have more than one soju tea.  If you break the rule, you'll probably end up puking your way to the cab line by 10:30pm and sleeping on your bathroom floor for easy access to the toilet.  (Not that I know from experience or anything.)
I will also miss kettles, Karaoke, and my Filipino, bassist player boyfriend.  (All related to soju.)

8. Our friends.  Most of our great friends that we've met in Korea have left, but we still have quite a few that we will be leaving behind!  We've met so many awesome people while being here.  I'm so glad I got to come with Drew so I could have these people in my life.  Liz and Ayron are in Germany now.  Jeff and Sara will be in Italy soon.  Our downstairs neighbors are going to Japan.  Our across the street neighbors just got here a few months ago!  It has been hard making such great friends and having to say goodbye so quickly, but it's a small  Air Force, and hopefully we will see each other again!

9. My job!  Can't beat going to work in yoga pants and no makeup every day.  Also can't beat homeschooling!  Although I work a lot of hours a day, homeschooling only takes up about 3-4 hours of each day!  As opposed to teaching for 6-7 hours straight, PLUS coming in early and staying late at a regular school, my job rocks.  I also get to hang out with 4 pretty awesome girls every day.  They can even be bribed with snacks to play with my hair and scratch my back!  

10. Medicine.  Korea knows where it's at when it comes to medicine.  Remember when I had my surgery?  I got the best meds ever for that!  They take great care of you at the hospitals and definitely make sure you'll feel great at home.  They even package up your medicine in daily doses.  Teeny little baggies with the dosage instructions written on it.  Sort of excessive and much bigger than a bottle of pills, but it's pretty convenient after you've had surgery and you have to take about 9 pills  a day!  
Slightly related- I will also miss Korea's vets.  Everything is so much cheaper at the Korean vet than the American vet!  Rooney got a 10 day prescription of pills and antibiotic ointment and scrub during that whole ringworm incident, and it only cost like $36!!!!  Hoosier has had 3 sets of puppy shots, he's been dewormed 3 times, and he just got microchipped.  All of that cost less than $150!  It's unbelievable! 

11. The money.  I'm just going to say it: we make a LOT of money here.  Way more than we will when we come home in May! (sigh)  I will definitely miss Overseas Housing Allowance when we get to Virginia!  I will probably cry when I see the difference.  Also, a lot of stuff is so much cheaper here.  When I realize that, I will really cry.


That is my list of the 11 things I will miss about living in South Korea.  I also have a list of things I WON'T miss about South Korea, but I will save that for another day.  It's a little bit longer than 11. haha
I cannot believe I am coming home so soon!  I spent the entire day today cleaning the apartment and organizing all of our junk.  Drew has to schedule TMO to come pick up all of our household goods, I have to talk to our realtor about moving out, I have 25 more days of work, and then I'm home sweet home.  At least for a little while!  Then off to Virginia to house hunt and move into our first home together!

Can't wait to be back..  See you SO soon!

Remember last weekend I said our day at Hwaseong Fortress was my favorite day in Korea?  Scratch that.  I have a new favorite day, TODAY!  After being in South Korea for 297 days, we finally made it to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  We had been looking forward to this day since before we even got here!  
Today we took a tour of a place that required us to sign a paper accepting responsibility for injury or death as a direct result of enemy action!  Even so, it was probably the coolest experience of my life.
Our trip started out at Imjingak Resort Park.  Imjingak is the farthest north that anyone can travel in South Korea, without special permission.  Our tour guide said that South Koreans that travel beyond this point wait for months to get the permission to go on a tour.  Imjingak is a little memorial park that has many different statues and monuments regarding the Korean War and the reunification of the peninsula.  The park also had a small amusement park, which was weird haha.  

On a lighter note, here's us next to some cutie statues.

After we were done at Imjingak, we got back on the bus and drove to the Third Infiltration Tunnel.  Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside the tunnel.  HOWEVER, I found some online, so I'll include them at the end.
There are four known tunnels along the border of North and South Korea, and believed to be up to 20 more.  These tunnels were dug by North Koreans as a way to invade South Korea.  The Third Infiltration Tunnel was discovered in 1978 based on information given by a North Korean defector.  The tunnel begins in North Korea, obviously, and ends just 27 miles north of Seoul!  The tunnel is 1.1 miles long, and supposedly 6.5 feet wide and high.  I say "supposedly" because we walked through it and even I had to duck most of the way.  I am not 6 foot 5 haha!  This tunnel was built so that as many as 30,000 North Korean soldiers could move through it every hour!  That's a ton of tiny little men running in the same direction!  South Korea has blocked off the tunnel at the Demarcation line by 3 GIANT barricades made of concrete.  These things are HUGE.  We were able to walk all the way to the third barricade, which had a hole cut in it so we could see how thick it was and how far it was from the second barricade.  Ain't no body getting through that tunnel.  
This is the only picture I was able to take.  I'll explain it in the caption!

Walking through the Infiltration tunnel gave me such an eerie feeling.  It was so cool to see though.  Just crazy how close they got to Seoul!  AND that they dug past the Demarcation line.  Naughty North Koreans... breaking all the rules.  Or, as one of our guides said, only following rules when it suits them.
After we walked through the tunnel, we climbed back up the super awesome incline and explored above the tunnel a little bit.

After exploring a bit, we were ready for our next destination; the Dora Observatory.  The observatory is located on Mount Dora, which is on the Korean side of the 38th Parallel.  It is the closest you can get to North Korea without going into the DMZ.  This was such an awesome place.  While we were here, we had zero cell phone service and no access to internet on our phones due to the jamming towers in North Korea.  They are in place to isolate their citizens from the rest of the world, but they worked on our phones too!

We were able to see North Korea clearly with just our eyes, but we could also use telescopes to get a better look.  While we were there, a convoy of box trucks was coming down the highway that connects South Korea to Kaesong, North Korea's Industrial Region.  This is an area where North and South Koreans work together as part of a collaborative economic development.  
*(Ignore the random speck of dust on the right corner of the lens.  I just noticed it as I was uploading the pictures.  OF COURSE it's in every single picture!  I'm so sad!)*

 I hated thinking this, but from all the way over here, North Korea looked beautiful.  So full of nothing.  It was honestly just a refreshing change from the complete chaos and busy-ness of the Korea in which I have spent the last 10 months.  I like to think of South Korea as a muffin top.  You know, just way too much "person" going on to fit into such a small pair of jeans.  Those poor, beautiful jeans bursting at the seams.  They could be so stylish, so fashionable, but there's just too much person getting in the way.  Those jeans are South Korea.  Such a beautiful country, filled with so many people and so many things, that we just can't see how stylish and fashionable it really is.  Compared to that, this little glimpse into North Korea looked so peaceful.  Of course, I know that looks can be deceiving, and they certainly are in this case, but I couldn't help but to think just how beautiful it looked from there.  

After we were done at Dora Observatory, we got back on the bus and drove to Dorasan Station, the only train station that connects the two Koreas.  

Everyone was able to walk inside the train station, that is actually still used twice each day.  It's only purpose, besides being a stop on DMZ tours, is to bring a train, from Seoul, full of tourists who are taking a DMZ tour.   From 2007 - 2008, the train actually went into North Korea to deliver South Korean materials to North Korean companies in Kaesong.  

In addition to being able to go inside the station, we were able to buy a 500 won ticket to go inside to stand by the tracks!

The train station was pretty awesome.  After we were done there, we went to lunch and then it was time for the best part of the trip!  We finally got to go to the DMZ and the Joint Security Area (JSA)!!!
We arrived at Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Command military post that is part of the JSA, also called Panmunjeom.  This post is named after the US Army Captain Arthur Bonifas, who was one of the two men killed by North Korean soldiers in the Axe Murder Incident.  (More on that later, I promise!)  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the base.  However, I have a sweet post card that has a picture of it, so here ya go.

So, once our IDs were checked and we were escorted into the post by a US soldier, we had a briefing about the DMZ, JSA, and everything we were about to see.  The briefing is where I got most of the info I'm sharing with you in this post.  I could have sat there and listened to the dudes talk about North Korea for hours.  I was in the zone today.  I am ashamed that I didn't know very much about the Korean War and the DMZ before today, but a fire has been lit and I am ready to learn!
After our brief, we got back on a bus and drove into the Demilitarized Zone.  Amazing.  We got to see the fields that are farmed by the villagers of Taeseong-dong, or "Freedom Village", one of only two villages that were allowed to remain in the DMZ.  (One village is on either side of the Demarcation Line.)  Villagers of Taeseong-dong are some of the richest farmers in South Korea.  They don't pay taxes or rent, they are exempt from the mandatory military duties, and each family farms about 17.5 acres of land, much more than the average 4 acres per family on the rest of the peninsula.  These families are part of this elite community because they, or their direct ancestors, lived in a certain village before the Korean War.  The families farm the land on the Southern side of the DMZ and they make somewhere around $85,000 a year doing so!  There is an elementary school in the village, but if families want their children to get a higher education, they have to leave and go somewhere else.  Since these families are all extremely wealthy, their children often go to very prestigious schools.  The families in this village live in very nice homes that they don't even have to pay for!  There are many rules and regulations in Taeseong-dong, such as an 11pm curfew, but they are still free citizens of South Korea.  Another interesting fact is that women are allowed to marry into the village, but men are not because of the mandatory military service for all South Korean men.  

As mentioned before, North Korea has their very own village on their side of the DMZ.  Their village is called Kijong-dong and is a little less than a mile and a half north of Taeseong-dong.  According to the North, Kijong-dong, or "Peace Village", is a collective farm made up of 200 North Korean families.  There is also a child care center, elementary, middle, and high schools, and a hospital.  However, in reality, Kijong-dong is a fake village.  No one lives there.  No one works there.  The houses aren't even real!  They are concrete boxes with most of the windows and doors painted on.  Some are real, but none of the windows have glass in them!  There aren't even floors in the buildings.  They are just hollow boxes of concrete.  For many years, Kijong-dong blared propaganda messages over a loud speaker for up to 12 hours a day, which is why it is referred to as "Propaganda Village."  North Korea built the village to be the most noticeable feature when looking across the border, in order to entice South Koreans to defect.  They also built a giant flag pole in their village, 60 meters taller than the flag pole in Taeseong-dong.  Their flag is the fourth largest in the world and weighs 600 pounds!

After driving through the Demilitarized Zone for a bit, we reached the Korean Freedom Building.

The Freedom Building is right in front of (or behind depending where you are) the actual JSA and Demarcation Line.  The building was built in order to house reunions between North and South Korean families who were separated during the war.  Unfortunately, this building has never been used for that purpose, since North Korea won't let it's citizens cross the Demarcation Line.  I do know there have been a few reunions that lasted a couple of days, but I believe they were held in North Korea.  Don't quote me, but I saw it in a documentary.
Also-- another fact about this picture.  The grassy area in front of the building is in the same place that the Sunken Garden used to be, which is the site of the Soviet Defector Incident of 1984.  That incident occurred when a Soviet tourist defected into the South and was followed by North Korean soldiers.  A gunfight broke out and it ended with one South Korean casualty and two North Korean casualties.  (The soldier that briefed us said he has heard five North Koreans were killed, but who knows.)  If you're like me and wondering what happened to the Soviet tourist, he successfully defected and left his communist country through another communist country.  Lucky dude.

MOVING ON.  (I am sorry this post is so long.  There's just a lot to say!)
After walking through the Freedom Building, we were at JSA, Panmunjom, the border of North and South Korea.  We were being watched by North Koreans.  We were literally staring at the enemy.

The South Korean soldiers who stand guard at the JSA are handpicked.  There is a height requirement and they have to be the most intimidating soldiers South Korea's got.  They stand in a taekwondo stance and wear sunglasses to be as intimidating as they can be.  Notice that the two soldiers on the side stand with half of their bodies behind the buildings.  This is so they can give hand signals and communicate amongst each other, and in case North Korea would start shooting, they are already halfway covered.
North Korean soldiers stand guard on their side too, but not all the time like these guys.  The way North Korean soldiers stand guard is very interesting.  

The Mac building is where the North and South come together to have discussions.  The building is split down the middle- one side is South Korea, the other is North Korea. When they come together for meetings, they sit on the appropriate side and never cross the Demarcation Line.  There's not an actual line, but there is a table.

We were pretty excited to go over into North Korea!

After we left the JSA, we drove further into the Demilitarized zone to a part that was surrounded by communist North Korea on THREE SIDES!  Better hold hands so they don't pull us over... Kidding. 

And last, but not least is the site of the Axe Murder Incident.  The Bridge of No Return was used regularly by the North Koreans until this incident happened in August of 1976.   I'm going to make this a long-story-short-version.  At that time, there was a giant, 100 foot poplar tree that stood in the way of two United Nations command posts.  It blocked the line of sight between a checkpoint and an observation post.  North Koreans were trying some pretty crazy stuff, trying to pull people from the South into the North, so Joint Security Force Company Commander, Arthur Bonifas, decided the tree needed to come down.  
So, there were over like 30 people that went down to this tree to chop it down.  Captain Bonifas was not armed because there were rules against how many armed soldiers could be at one place at one time.  The Korean workers brought axes to prune the branches off the tree before it was chopped down.  After the trimming started, a group of North Korean soldiers appeared and watched the trimming for a while.  Then, suddenly, the North Korean commander ordered them to stop trimming because Kim Il-sung had personally planted that tree there and blah blah blah, lies lies lies.  Captain Bonifas told his men to keep working and ignored the North Korean commander.  More North Korean soldiers showed up, but Captain Bonifas told them to keep cutting.  Then all hell broke loose and the North Koreans attacked with axes, crow bars, and clubs.  Captain Bonifas was beaten to death and all but one of his men were injured.  Finally, they were able to retreat and escape the attack.  Once they were to safety, they realized they were missing Lt Barrett.  It turned out he had found a dug out to hide in, but the North Korean soldiers found him.  He was beaten with an axe that had been dropped by the Korean workers for over 90 minutes.  He was rescued by a search and rescue team, but died on the way to the hospital.

All in all, today was the best history lesson I could have ever hoped for.  It was also eye opening and just amazing.  I told Drew that we have to get stationed here in Korea again just so we can take this tour again when people visit.  I would go every weekend if I could!  
If you are like me and can't get enough of these stories and history lessons, start watching the documentaries on North Korea.  There are two on Netflix that are decent.  You can also find TONS of others online.  "10 Days in North Korea" is a really good one.  The History Channel also has an awesome one that focuses on the War and the DMZ.  Seriously, there are so many with so much information.  It's an interesting, but scary topic to learn about.  
The division between the two Koreas is so sad, and was never meant to be such a permanent thing.  The North Korean government is just... crazy, and the North Korean people are prisoners that don't even know it.  I am so thankful for all of the men and women who have helped and who still help protect not only my home country, America, but also this gracious country, South Korea, that has opened it's doors to me.  I know that one day, trips to the DMZ will be just for a glimpse at what was.  The people of North Korea will no longer live such terrible, isolated lives.  One day there will be no North and South Korea; just one, unified, free nation.

Today was another awesome day in South Korea!  It was the USO Spring Troop Visit!  We just found out that this was happening last weekend, but Drew was able to get half of the day off so we could go!  BECAUSE... some of our very favorite people were going to be there!

Drew and I were so excited to get to see some of the Colts all the way over here in Korea!  They were really the only reason we went!  BUT we were pleasantly surprised by some of the other guests!!
The show was introduced by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Winnefeld, who coined 500 service members after the show!  (Drew was one of them!)  Dude is super important and I am so jealous of his wife, who got to travel around with him and the rest of the people on the tour!!

The first to come out was Dennis Haysbert, the dude from the Allstate commercials.  His voice is so awesome.  He had lots of kind words to say and asked, "Are you in good hands?"  haha!!  

The second performers were Dianna Degarmo and Ace Young.  They were both American Idol winners and actually met on a USO Tour and got married!  I had no idea any of that happened, so I thought it was a sweet story!  They performed a couple of songs for us.

After these two, Wee Man came out!!  For you oldies that don't know, Wee Man was in all the Jackass movies with Johnny Knoxville... no?  Still don't know what that is?  Oh well.. He's a tiny little dude with a GIANT personality.

After Wee Man talked, he introduced the next guest with a little "song"....

Miss America!

She was sweet.. Apparently her boyfriend or fiance or whatever is a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.  They actually were able to surprise her at the show that they put on at Bagram Airfield.  Her boyfriend (we'll go with that) actually came to the show to surprise her!  She hadn't seen him since September!  Ahhhh can you imagine how adorable that would have been?  I would have loved to see that!  I would have cried like a baby.
After Miss America sang a little bit of Happy, it was time for the moment we'd all been waiting for!

It was seriously so cool to see those guys over here in Korea.  We would have never thought to see such a big piece of "home" all the way over here.  
After the Colts (and David DeCastro from the Steelers) threw some passes, gave away some shirts, hats, and balls, it was time for Phillip Phillips.  Okay.  So first of all, I truly did not even know that American Idol was still a thing.  Phillip Phillips won American Idol in 2012.  I've heard a couple of his songs and I recognized his name; who couldn't?  But I had absolutely no idea he was such a good performer!  OR THAT HE WAS SO INCREDIBLY ATTRACTIVE!  The dude can sing and the dude is even better at playing guitar.  He was so good!  
He sang a few songs, one of them being his version of Thriller by Michael Jackson.  I found out after getting home and creeping him all over the internet that that's one of the songs he sang during his American Idol audition.  Anyway.  Without further adeu, here is the incredibly attractive Phillip Phillips.

The show ended with everyone singing "God Bless America".  I was hoping they would do a super cool version of the National Anthem, butttttt... no such luck.

After the show was over, we were able to sort of "meet and greet" everyone.  They all sat in chairs in a single row and 10 people at a time were able to stand behind them and have a picture taken.  Our picture will be on the 51FSS Facebook page tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to seeing that!

  I had a love connection when I looked into Phillip Phillips' eyes haha.. I almost tripped on my own feet because he was so attractive.  (Sorry Drew!)  I was standing behind Wee Man and in between Dwayne Allen and Pagano.  I shook hands with Dwayne Allen and then said, "Coach!" and Pagano turned around and shook my hand.  After that, Wee Man said he was jealous of all the love the Colts were getting, so I shook his hand too! haha.  I tried to take a picture of Pagano, but Wee Man bumped by hand and it turned out like this...

I tried to at least look at Andrew Luck, but the security force guys were not about that.  They pushed us right out of there.  Like actually, physically pushed us haha.  These people on this Spring Troops Visit have literally been around the world in seven days!  They went all over and tonight they were flying out to Hawaii!  They had a busy week, but we are so lucky they gave up part of their normal lives to come visit everyone overseas!  
Today made me even more excited to come home so I don't have to miss anymore football games!  Something like 60 days until we are back in the great ole U S A!  And a LOT more than that until football season haha!

Today was probably my favorite day in Korea so far.  We've done lots of cool stuff, but today was just all around perfect.  Today, we FINALLY  walked along the entire wall of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.  The first time we went to Hwaseong was lsat summer.  It was too hot to go for a 4 hour walk around the city, so we put it off for another day.  MONTHS later, we finally went! I am so excited to show you all of our pictures, that I cannot type this fast enough.  Today seriously rocked.
The weather was AMAZING.  It was sunny, clear skies, and upper 40s.  We walked around for hours without coats, gloves, hats, anything winter related!  The sunshine and zero humidity had me in such a great mood.  Judging by the hundreds of other people walking around Hwaseong today, I think the weather put everyone in a great mood today.
So anyway.  Suwon.  Hwaseong.  Suwon is our favorite place.  Maybe it's because we got so familiar with it while I was going back and forth to the hospital after stabbing myself, I don't know.  Whenever we can't think of anything to do... Suwon.  So, we headed to Suwon this morning and planned to walk all the way around Hwaseong Fortress.

I have been getting VERY frustrated in the big crowds of people lately, so rather than walking along the main road to get to the fortress, I led Drew down some side streets.  I "knew" exactly where I was going haha.  I have a pretty impressive internal compass here in Korea, but sometimes my compass leads us the LONG way.
We sort of got lost, but it ended up being worth it because we got to see some pretty cool things!

Let the adventure begin!

The walk took us about three hours.  It's a little over 4 miles all the way around the fortress.  We had so much fun seeing everything and trying to imagine what Korea was like all those years ago.  I really wish I knew more about Korean history!!
After we finished walking around the fortress, we went to Coco Ichibanya for some delicious curry.  And ended our day with a wonderful bubble tea.  
Today was fantastic and I cannot wait for spring to come so we can have more adventures like this!  Next weekend is our trip to the DMZ!  After that, we will have about 8 weekends left in Korea.  Can you believe it?? We're down to 2 months or less!  Can't wait to be home!
Miss you all and see you soon! :)

Finally, we were able to take another weekend adventure!  The weather has been getting warmer lately; definitely better than the weather I'm hearing about at home!  It's been in the high 30s, low 40s recently, but it still gets very cold at night.  We originally planned to go to the DMZ, Saturday, but we didn't book it in time, so we went with plan B... A trip to N Seoul Tower.  
Started out "early" Saturday morning heading for the train station.  I say "early" because we were supposed to leave BY 9, but this certain man that I live with has trouble waking up early on the weekends haha!  At the train station we ran into some other Americans who had just arrived in Korea and had no idea how to get to Seoul.  They kind of attached themselves to us like leeches, unfortunately.  See... these two people asked if I could tell them how to get to Seoul.  Well... Yes, I can tell you how to get there, but where are you going in Seoul?  That makes a huge difference!  I made the same mistake the first time we ventured to Seoul; you think there's going to be ONE place to go, but Seoul is huge and there are hundreds of places to go.  So, I asked where they were trying to go, and they told me N Seoul Tower [insert wailing emoji here].  I told them that's where we were going (mistake) and explained how to get there.  They asked if they could follow us there, and I said sure... THINKING they would you know, venture off on their own once we got there.  NOPE!  I really shouldn't sound so mean about it, but when you go on an adventure with your husband, you really don't want to have to be a tour guide for two randos.  Feel me?

The train ride was the most unpleasant two hours we've ever experienced on public transit!  JAM PACKED with people, no open seats, and it was hot hot hot from so many people, the heater, and wearing winter clothing.  I really miss my car and being able to drive places on my own!  (See you soon, cute little Focus.  See you soon.)  Anyway.  We finally made it to Myeongdong Station and quickly went from sweating our butts off, to freezing our butts off!  We super overestimated what the temperature was going to be in Seoul.
From the station, I led our little group to the cable cars that took us up Namsan Mountain to N Seoul Tower.  Originally, Drew and I had planned to climb the mountain to the top.  However, with our two tag-a-longs... we were sort of forced to take the cable cars up to the top.  I'm still a little bitter about that part, but whatever.  We bought ONE WAY cable car tickets; if I couldn't climb up, I was certainly climbing down, and headed up the mountain.  
Once at the top of the mountain, we made it to the base of N Seoul Tower and the Love Locks!

N Seoul Tower sits on top of a huge mountain in Seoul and can be seen from basically anywhere in the surrounding areas.  At the bottom of the tower are hundreds of thousands of locks that people have placed on the fences.  Drew and I bought a lock MONTHS ago and decorated it in order to put it on the fence, but of course we forgot it at home.  No worries though!!  They sold locks right there, and even had Sharpies to write on them.  We bought our lock, wrote "Olivia + Drew" on the front and "2015" on the back, locked it on the fence, and threw our keys out onto the mountain.

After walking around and looking at all of the locks, we climbed up to the very base of the tower to get tickets to go up to the very top!

The elevator to the top of the tower only took 30 seconds.  Once at the top, the view was AMAZING!  There were windows all around the tower so you could see out.  There are even a few restaurants up there that you can eat at while enjoying the view.  We chose to just walk around and take lots of pictures.  Even though the day was super gloomy and smoggy, we were still able to get some awesome pictures from the top!

I kept trying to picture what Seoul looked like before all of the high-rises and apartments.  Probably much, much clearer than today!  And a lot like the mountains in front of us.

We walked all the way around the inside of the tower many many times.  I kept taking pictures of the same thing and thinking I was still on my first rotation around!!  It was just so awesome being up so high and being able to see so much of Korea at once!

After taking pictures for about an hour, our tag-a-longs finally headed in their own direction!  Drew and I rode the elevator down to the bottom of the tower and people watched a bit.  As promised in my last post, I was on the lookout for MATCHY-MATCHY!  I was so sad that I only saw ONE instance of matchy-matchy yesterday.  What a let down.  BUT it was a pretty good example.  A family of four was all matching in the same, puffy winter coats and grey sweat pants.  Drew stood in front of me and pretended to pose for a picture while I actually took pictures of them!  HA.  Only, I was super obviously and everyone probably knew what I was really doing.

After we put enough time between us and the tag-a-longs, we started our climb down the mountain.  This made me even MORE mad that we didn't climb all the way up.  It would have been the easiest mountain climb we'd done since coming to Korea!

Once at the bottom of the mountain, we explored the area and looked for a good place to get lunch.

That's about it from our trip to N Seoul Tower!  Our ride home was even more unenjoyable than the ride up to Seoul!  We got lost somehow and ended up having to pay for our train tickets twice.  BUT we made it home and spent the rest of the evening snuggling with these two cuties.

Next weekend we are hoping to go on another fun adventure.  To a Folk Village or a city we haven't been to yet!  The following weekend is FINALLY our trip to the DMZ!!  We are so excited for that.  For those that don't know, the DMZ is the Demilitarized Zone, the border between North and South Korea.  While we're there, we will get a chance to actually cross the border into North Korea!  We'll be in a building, but still.. I think that counts, and I'm totally adding it to my list of countries I've visited!  Can't wait to post about our trip there:)
We're down to about 10 weeks until we leave Korea and head back to the US!  So incredibly excited to come home and see everyone!  It won't be long!

In addition to chocolates, there were also displays of fruit gift boxes, and of course Spam gifts boxes!!! But, these were for the Chinese New Year next week, not Valentine's Day.

While all of the Korean women are going crazy over chocolates for their lovers, the men are waiting, and maybe preparing, for next month.

One month after Valentine's Day, on White Day, it is time for the men to reciprocate and give gifts to the women. This day is called White Day because the gifts used to be all white chocolates and lingerie. Now, they stray a little from those gifts, but they still make sure to get something! Apparently there is a sort of unspoken rule, The Rule of Threes, that says the men have to spend 3 times as much on the White Day gift as the woman spent on his Valentine's Day gift. I'm not sure if people really follow that rule, but I read about it!!

So anyway. The girls get the guys stuff, the guys get the girls stuff a month later, and if a guy buys a gift for the same girl that bought him a gift the month before, it's happy ever after for them.

A month after White Day, on April 14th, is Black Day. A kind of depressing, but hilarious holiday for ALL THE SINGLE LADIES and men, but they weren't in the song. Apparently, on this day, single people get together and eat jajangmyeon, which are black noodles. Maybe they all get together in hopes that they will meet another desperately single person and fall madly in love? I'm not really sure. It sounds like an awesome holiday though; wallowing in self pity with a bunch of other losers!! ;) kidding. Sort of.

After that, there's a bunch more love days, but those aren't widely celebrated or advertised. Diary Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day (lol), Photo Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day. 


Koreans are super into coupley things. You can spot a Korean couple from a mile away; not because of PDA or anything, but because of the matchy-matchy!

In Korea, public displays of affection are kind of taboo. You rarely see couples holding hands, and I've NEVER seen anyone kissing! The way couples display their affection for one another is by wearing matching clothes. This ranges from wearing the same hat, to wearing the same colors or patterns, to matching your entire outfit; hat to shoes!! It is so common to see a young couple wearing the same shoes, pants, shirt, and hat. I have also seen lots of older couples wearing the same coats! Matchy-matchy is huge here. They say it's a way to connect with your significant other; something they share just the two of them. This video explains, and shows, matchy-matchy perfectly. It's 6 minutes, but it's worth the watch! It's funny to see just how many couples are matching. And yes, you really would see that many matchy-matchy couples in a day! 

After the ice festival, we all had dinner together. Bulgogi, rice, quail eggs, some pancake-y things, and lots and LOTS of soju.  (And my 80-something-year-old landlord pouring beer into my cup every 5 seconds.  Which resulted in Drew drinking twice as much beer as he normally would have haha.  NO family, I still don't drink beer.)

As always, the bus ride home was karaoke central, with your girl carrying the team. LOLOL I'm totally kidding. I just really wanted to say that. We started out with our regulars, Wannabe and Titanium. And from there, Shit. Got. Real. (Thankfully, there were no BUZZKILLS on the bus with their puking children this time, so we were actually able to act like adults [or not] and have a good time.)

Me and the greatest rapper of all time, Megan, performed Super Bass. Drew rapped some Snoop Dogg too, but none of that is on video :( We were all awesome. Okay, Megan and Drew were awesome. I just pretend. Ray, our downstairs neighbor, was rockin the freestyle rapping. Really, all of our friends are just super talented when it comes to drunk karaoke. So, enjoy the following videos. Make fun of us, be impressed by us, be jealous that you didn't see it in person, whatever.  Just enjoy. 

Clearly, Sissy always makes sure everyone has a great time!  Can't believe we only have a few months left here to enjoy all of the fun and excitement (and alcohol) Sissy provides!!!

BY THE WAY.  Since I know my grandparents and Drew's grandparents read this, let me explain that we have not become alcoholics in Korea.  Basically, being in Korea is like being in college.  For those that didn't go to college, it's their one year to pretend they did.  For those who did go to college, it's our one last chance at pretending we're still there.  I blame the soju.  And our bad* influences of friends.

*AWESOME

I'm not a HUGE fan of these, but they're much better when I make them myself and know what is inside! I usually end up picking a gross one from the store!

That does it for all of the Korean food we made this weekend. In the past, I've also made bulgogi and bibimbap (rice, meat, veggies, and egg in a bowl. I just need more practice with everything so I can come home and cook it all for you!

I'll end with some puppy pictures so you can all get your fix.

Yesterday was our first Saturday spent just the two of us in what seemed like AGES. It was my first day off in 2 weeks. Like every other Saturday together, we wanted to go on a Korean adventure. We had grand plans of going to Seoul, and then to Itaewon, and then, of course, we ended up just spending the day in Suwon. Suwon is so close, and there is so much to offer. Suwon is definitely our place. We love to just walk up and down the streets and find new things, new places, new restaurants, new adventures. It was nice to get away for the day and enjoy each other's company. Plus, we finally found the wall we had been searching for many other times before. I don't have a glamorous story to go along with my pictures, but as they say, pictures say a thousand words. So, enjoy.

The rest of our visit consisted of us searching for a good place to eat. We walked for over an hour, and never found anything that looked appetizing. We ended up going back toward the train station and going to a place called Food Mom. It's a "fast food" place that serves some pretty good Korean dishes. We filled our stomachs with Seafood Ramen, Dongatsu, and a favorite, Kimbap! Yumm. My mouth is watering just thinking of it. After eating, we went back to the train station for bubble tea, and headed home.

Later that night, we went out with friends and enjoyed the last few hours of Drew's weekend.

There's never a dull moment here in Korea. We are having such a blast, and can't believe we are down to 4 months. We will be home before we know it!!

In other news, our 6 pound cotton ball, Hoosier, is adjusting perfectly to his new life and family. He and rooney have finally started playing and even snuggling together. I get NOTHING done anymore, because all I do is sit and watch them. They're too cute.

We miss you all at home. We can't wait to see you and for you to meet Hoosier! I also can't wait for American McDonalds and Chipotle. ;)

Hope to have some more adventures to share soon!

Yes! It's true!! We have added a new member to our tiny family this week. After 8 months of living in Korea and BEGGING a Drew to let me bring home EVERY stray dog I saw, he finally agreed to opening our hearts and home to this little sweetie.

Everyone, meet Hoosier.

On Wednesday night, my friend Sara messaged me pictures of these adorable little puppies. Sara has the same "problem" that I have; we love animals TOO much. (PS, I don't think it's a problem, but apparently some people do, so whatever haha)

Sara found Hoosier and his two fluffy sisters on the side of the road! Her daughter said that she saw a man dumping them off. :( Obviously, that broke my heart and made it THAT much more vulnerable!! Drew and I went over to get a quick puppy fix, and we ended up leaving with our little fur baby.

We had actually just decided earlier that day that we would be getting another German Shorthaired Pointer puppy from the same breeder we got Rooney. (I found out his mom was JUST bred, and would have puppies ready for their new homes right before we get back.) But once we saw little Hoosier, we forgot about those purebred puppies at home.

Our first night with him was better than we could've ever imagined. He peed in the house when he met the girls, probably because he was so freaked out! And then whenever I took him outside, he did his business and went right back in. I woke up at 6am to him whining at the door to go out. I didn't make it to him in time, but that is the last accident he's had indoors. 2 nights and only 2 accidents!

We took Hoosier to the vet yesterday to get checked out. The vet estimates that he's no more than 6 weeks old. He only weighs 5 pounds and 14 ounces!!! He said, and I quote, "he's one of the healthiest street dogs I've seen." No fleas. No mites. No RINGWORM!!!! His temperature was normal. Breathing was fine. He was clean and healthy as can be. We got him dewormed and started on parasite preventatives. We are going to watch him over this next week to see if his health stays in good condition, and if so he has an appointment for his first puppy shots next week!

On a related note, I will desperately miss Korean vets when we leave. The whole check up, INCLUDING a deworming and parasite prevention, cost only $23!!!! Plus, the veterinarian is so incredibly nice. He was asking about Rooney, and just very helpful. I'll miss saving hundreds of dollars on my puppies.

I'm sure you're wondering how Rooney feels. Well, he does love Hoosier, but Hoosier is a bit terrified of Rooney. Rooney doesn't realize he is 65 pounds of solid muscle. He has body dysmorphia hahaha. He thinks he's actually a little lap dog. SO when he tries to play with Hoosier, he comes off a little strong. Things will get better once Hoosier starts growing. Not that I want that to happen. I REALLY enjoy him being 5 pounds of fluff! Still haven't gotten a picture of them together. Rooney won't sit still when they're together, but we're working on it!

I feel so happy that we could help give this puppy a new, loving home. Sure, we could've waited and gotten another registered dog when we got home, but we got to save a puppy's life!! Not to be morbid, but we could have saved him from the meat market down the road! So glad we got to rescue him. He is SO loved already.

We have the best Korean souvenir ever!! I can't wait for you all to meet him:)

I'll end with pictures of Big Brother Rooney!