So-so to Great!

It was really a difficult week this week. Being so new to the area and not connecting with many people yet has made our first holiday away from home a hard one. I battled the blues, but worked through them. We were invited to our church Thanksgiving, but we had to work so the timing didn't work out.
We got through the week and decided to make a little tradition. We watched Home Alone 1 and 2. They have always been 2 of my favorite Christmas season movies and we definitely needed to laugh! It was great to spend time together. I wanted to make a nice dinner Saturday, but left over pizza for lunch and easy eggs for supper were a better idea. I decided to wait on the dinner for today.
It was nice to be able to talk to our parents. I can't go through a holiday without seeing and talking to them on Skype. It is such a blessing to have it!
I thought that today I would be making a nice chicken Thanksgiving dinner. This year I'm adjusting to having a stove, toaster oven and microwave. No oven this year - I think it will be fine. I just have to keep my creativity with cooking.
We went to church today and had a nice surprise. The pastor's wife approached us after service and told us they saved us some turkey. We were excited! That sounded yummy! WELL! They didn't just have turkey for us. They saved us turkey, corn on the cobb, some fresh veggies and the best of all - a WHOLE pumpkin pie! Yes a whole pumpkin pie! I wanted to cry! Pumpkin is Cameron's absolute favorite!
So instead of making chicken we had turkey! I made mashed potatoes to go with everything. We had a great surprise! It was delicious and we have enough for another meal - and of course enough pie for 3 more desserts - if we are good and don't eat big slices :o)
We really do have a lot to be thankful for. I hate when it's so easy to get down in the dumps when we really have no reason to. We are so thankful for a new caring church! We are thankful for a great new job! We are thankful for our families! We are thankful for our health! We have food and housing! God is so good!

Christmas is coming! and We found a church!

We had another good week. Nothing really eventful happened. I've decided I need to take a notebook to work so I can write down the funny things my kids do and say so I have some cute stories.
We were able to go to the doctor in Uijeongbu. Cameron needed to get a refill on his meds. Our boss told us about a good hospital with a foreigner service. He gave us directions so we headed there Thursday morning. It went well. It was quite easy. We had to wait, but it wasn't too bad. It is really great that they have the foreigner service. Mostly people from the military bases here use it, but I'm sure a lot of teachers use it, too.
They have you wait in a special waiting area in their office. Then when your time comes they take you to the appropriate place. It is huge!
It was really a blessing to find a place close by. It only took about 20-25 min to get there. I will be able to go there too, for my thyroid problem.

We had a nice surprise of a little snow that afternoon. It didn't stick, but it was pretty. That day was a day of Christmas reminders for me. One of my students gave me a little candy cane. I'm not sure if she knew that it was Christmas candy, but it was special to me. Then in one of my lessons "stocking" was a word and there was picture of a Christmas stocking. So that night I got motivated and put up one of our 2 little trees. The last couple left one and ours came up from Naju.

We had a nice weekend. Yesterday we had a good day of cleaning up and a little bit of relaxing. I also put up our other tree. So we have one in the office and one in the living room. It is nice. I really need to get a nativity scene. Maybe I can order a little one from Ten Thousand Villages. I want to find one that isn't really fragile.

Today we went to church. After 2 weeks without I was ready! We visited another church in Uijeongbu and I think this will be our home away from home. It was really nice and they were very welcoming. We even had an invite to lunch at a person's home in a couple weeks.
It will be a bit different than our last church because it is a foreigner run church. There are 2 Christian Schools here in the area and a few military bases so this church will be more like what we are used to back home. The great thing is there are still many Koreans that attend there so we will still have that intercultural mix. I think it will be a great place to attend!

We still haven't gotten our hike in. We were hoping to go this weekend, but yesterday it was gloomy and still a bit too cold. It was nicer today, but we were pooped after going to church and then running to Emart. We hadn't had such a busy weekend in a while. Maybe next weekend.

Pray for Cameron. He has been waking up with headaches a lot. We think it might be sinus related. We decided today to go get a new humidifier. We had one from last year, but misplaced a piece to it in our transition so it doesn't work. We are hoping that this new one will be the solution.

Second week events.

A small view of our huge apartment complex.

We finished our second week of teaching. This week we had a little bit of a challenging schedule because Tuesday and Thursday night our students had a speech contest. We were judges. It was very interesting to see all of the students compete. Some of them took it very seriously and some did not. It was a requirement and a new event held by our academy. I think it would have been more fun had we been here longer and knew the students better, but it was fun to watch anyways. We will decide who wins Monday.

Our work week went really well. Both of us are adjusting to our classes and each day is becoming easier. I'm starting to get the hang of using the books here. They are good and we have teachers books and CDs for a lot of them. The activities are fun, but can be challenging if not timed right. I'm still working on keeping on schedule.

Thursday I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and it continued into Friday. I was concerned so I started pumping in the vitamins, Airborne and Zicam. I am on a mission not to get sick. I was sick way too much last year and do not want the same happening at this school. It seems almost inevitable working with children. I spent this weekend resting and drinking tea, juice, and soup.

It's Sunday and I'm feeling a bit better, though it still feels as if I might be fighting something. My head is a bit full, but my throat doesn't hurt too anymore. Hopefully I will beat whatever it is - hopefully it is allergy related and it won't hang on long. Pray for our health! Our insurance cards won't be ready for another couple of weeks.

We are trying to wait until our first pay in December to do much exploring around the area and in Seoul. We still haven't gone on a hike up the mountain that is next to our complex. I've been wanting to, but it's always bad weather, busy or trying not to get sick. I really would like to go before all of the leaves have fallen.

That is all for this week. We hope that everyone is having a great fall! Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming fast! I'm already enjoying Christmas music and I think I might be crazy and put my tree up this week. :o) Blessings!

New Job - English Zone

It's November and we are back in Korea. We have been here for two weeks getting settled in. The first week we were here we were able to get acclimated to our new surroundings. We are in a city called Yangju. It is another farming city located just outside Uijongbu a sub-city of Seoul. Yangju is very spread out, but the subway is only about 20 min away from where we live. We also have 2 of the major supercenter like stores about 20 min away as well. We live in a very growing area. The complex we are in is very new and there are new apartments going up all around the area. The school is located in the middle of our complex. The complex almost forms it's own little town.
After arriving Saturday night October 25. The current teachers helped us settle in and find our way around a bit. We had a restful first week. We had time to watch many of our classes and really get a feel for the school. Cameron and I really like the style and setup of the school. The scheduling and planning are done well and we look forward to really getting into the swing of things.

We just finished our first week of teaching. It went well! It kind of went by like a whirlwind. I think both of us were just getting a feel for how things would go. Our classes are 2-10 students each, with kindergarten to seventh graders. We will be teaching conversation while our Korean co-teachers will teach phonics and grammar. We look forward to getting more adjusted with each day.
This week we have speech contests Tuesday and Thursday. The students are excited and nervous. Most of the students will be participating. They each are memorizing a speech on a topic they chose. It will be neat to see the accomplishment of each student. I believe we will be judging as well.

Our boss has been really great helping us getting settled in. Both of us are excited about this new job opportunity. We really are looking forward to what God has in store for us this year. Pray for us as we start this new journey!

October

Okay. I need to do this before I forget anything! I'm already having a hard time remembering the whole month.

We got back from Brazil October 2. My dad and a friend picked us up from the airport in Detroit. In August we had rented a car for the trip from Buffalo to Detroit. We purchased our tickets for our trip before my parents moved back to Buffalo. It all worked out though. Hey, we had an excuse to go to Cracker Barrel in Michigan. Cameron was excited about that. There was a ton of University of Michigan stuff! He was able to get a nice new hoodie - on sale - I guess it was an early Christmas present - or just for fun :o) He deserves it!

I don't remember much about our first weekend home. I know Aaron was in the area working in Toronto so he came by for dinner and hanging out on Sunday. Adam and Marissa came, too. It was a fun time! More fun was to come the following weekend.

I think we spent most of the week home unpacking and sorting or out and about shopping - again! As if we didn't shop enough before we left for Brazil. We had some running around to do. We ended up with a bit of a document issue. Thankfully it got resolved quickly! We were afraid we weren't going to make it to Korea on time. We kept trusting God and everything came through. We knew he had a plan and would have everything under control. I don't know any time we have done something big that we haven't had some sort of bump in the road. The Devil tries to keep us down in the dumps, but we won't have it! It really is hard sometimes though. Thankfully we are getting used to the surprises and it has become easier to know that God will get us through. At first it's always easy to get frustrated.

Columbus Day weekend the whole family came home. Aaron and Janine came into town and Adam and Marissa came over. Friday night we had dinner and a fire in the firepit in the backyard. We roasted marshmallows, ate S'mores, and shared stories. It was really a great time. I think it was one of the most fun times of the weekend. It seems after the fire Mom, Aaron, Janine and I played Dutch Blitz if I remember correctly. We were up late playing, but we had a good time. I got slap happy as always.

Saturday we went to Niagara on the Lake. That was a nice drive. The colors had changed more up there so it was beautiful! It was also a pleasant weekend so there were people everywhere. We walked through town and checked out a few shops. It was fun! There were so many things to look at. We got ice cream for a snack.

We also discovered an awesome store called Ten Thousand Villages - www.tenthousandvillages.com - it is a store that sells all fair trade merchandise. I could have spent hours in there just looking at everything. There were so many neat and interesting things and they were all made with intricacy and care by an artisan or craftsman in another country. Each item has the country where it is from on the tag. Since we didn't have tons of time to look I found out if there is a shop in the Buffalo area - there is! It's on Main St. in Williamsville. I believe some of the shops are run by churches. If you want to get some really unique Christmas gifts I highly recommend it. They have a shop online, too.





So - getting back to our reunion. We had a great time at Niagara on the Lake. We took some fun pictures on Lake Ontario. I was able to get some pictures of Toronto. I think Cameron took these - he has a steadier hand than I do. I do awful with the extreme zoom on my camera. I need to practice. We finished off the night back in West Seneca at a Chinese Buffet. I hadn't had that in a while - Yummy!

We decided to go to the Chapel for church Sunday - Adam and Marissa go there. It was a good service. It happened to be Missions Sunday. After church we headed back to Adam and Marissa's for a quick lunch of sloppy-joes. Cameron and Janine enjoyed getting to watch a little bit of the Chicago Bears game that happened to be on. Unfortunately they didn't get to watch the whole thing. We had a portrait appointment. We went to Glen Park in Williamsville for family photos. It was a perfect day. The park was beautiful! We had fun!

After that it was back to my parent's for the evening. We had pizza and wings and enjoyed some great conversation!

Monday we slept in and then we all pitched in for brunch. Janine made Swedish pancakes! Mom was even able to come home early from work to join the party. That was delicious! More great times over food! After brunch Janine and Aaron got packed up. Then we played one last game of Dutch Blitz before Aaron and Janine had to head to the airport. Good times! Adam and Marissa took Aaron and Janine to the airport.

We really had a great weekend! It had been a while since we had gotten together as a family and this time was the first with all of us married. I'm so glad we got to have time time together. I hope we get to do it many more times in the future. Maybe next time will be in Korea :o)

Monday night after everyone left. Mom, Dad, Cameron and I took a drive out to see the colors. I was really wanting to go watch the sunset at Chesnut Ridge park, but the sun went down too quickly. So we took a drive in Orchard Park and got to see a little bit of it from a hill with a great view of Buffalo. Unfortunately, I ended up with a nasty headache, but I had wanted to go for ice cream. Route 20 was having their last night of sales for the season. I decided to brave my head and go anyways. I was hoping they would have Perry's Piece of Cake ice cream which Marissa got me into. I love it! They didn't have too much left for the last night so I got something like Dip 'n' Dots instead. It was good, but not as good as Piece of Cake.

That week we had a nice visit from some longtime friends of our family. They came through and stayed the night. It was a nice visit. It was great to catch up.

Cameron and I spent the rest of the week sorting and packing. I know we did some more running around that week. We were trying to get it all done before our last weekend. We did get most of it done.

I remember some point in these weeks I was able to try some really great new recipes. I got a cookbook with all chicken recipes in it - really great deal at Borders. So I tried one of the soup recipes. It was a hit!

We had a fun last weekend. Friday night we went out for ice cream with my parents. Saturday I got to hang out with a good friend and check out the Ten Thousand Villages in Williamsville. I had some much needed catching up and girl time! Sunday after church we headed out to Letchworth State Park for a picnic. I think we missed the peak, but the colors were still beautiful. I took lots of pictures. I love that park! I think it is my favorite park and it holds a special place because Cameron proposed to me there. The views never get old and they change so much with the seasons.





The first picture is one of the awesome pictures my dad took of us!

It was a bit chilly for lunch outside so we ate our lunch in the car and listened to the Bills game. I actually got into it which is definitely not normal. It was the day the power went out at the stadium. We listened between our stops at the various views and then listened on the drive back. I did have a nap at some point in the drive. We did one more of my favorite things - stopped at Earl's. We only got pie and got it to go, but that was okay! It was great as always! It was nice for Cameron - finally he got to eat something from this restaurant that I had been telling him about forever. And he got his favorite, pumpkin pie! I still need to learn to make it.

Our last Sunday was a nice one. At some point during the weekend my mom and I worked on knitting. We both needed a refresher and got to laughing while trying to figure it out. We had a good time and I believe we finally did get it figured out. I guess I will see once I finish the scarf we started.

The rest of the week was spent packing and getting ready to go. Adam and Marissa came for Wednesday night supper. We had roast beef - my favorite. Unfortunately that night was really low key for me. I was really having trouble with anxiety. Thankfully right before we left I was able to get some different medicine from my doctor so the trip went smoothly.

October was a another great month in our long vacation! We had a really time relaxing and hanging with my parents! It was a special time.

By the end of this 3 month journey Cameron and I were ready to be back into routine. Everything was amazing and special, but traveling a lot was tiring. It was time to start another year of adventure.