So Hubby and I were in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for a week, our schedule was school from 8-5, drive to Kansas City, eat & shop.  I didn't realize what serious shopping withdrawal I have gone through since living in Korea.  Don't get me wrong, there is great shopping in Korea, but I've missed popping into Ann Taylor, Gap, Tommy, Marshall’s, Ross, Victoria's, and many more.  The thing I have missed the most is SHOE shopping! Again, don't get me wrong, there are more shoes in Korea than I have ever seen in life, Korean women LOVE shoes. The only problem is my foot is BIG to Korean standards (8.5 just in case you are feeling sorry for me & want to send shoes) and if I want shoes I need to have them custom made.  So, back to my story, poor hubby had to go to school all day, then go shopping with me most nights.  He didn't really see to mind too much.  One night our friends the Z's saved him and invited us over for dinner.  It was great catching up with our old friends and neighbors!  (Can you believe I didn't take a picture of them?)

On Friday night, after school let out, we drove to Kansas City to pick up my MIL (Mother-in-law) & SIL (sister-in-law) from the airport.  They flew in for a day of shopping with their favorite in-law.  (I just dubbed myself that thank you.)   On Saturday morning we woke up and headed out to my favorite Kansas store in a little town call Atchison.  For those of you that know the area, that's right we went to Nell Hill's! (Hubby stayed in the hotel to sleep, he was done with shopping and jetlag had finally caught up with him.)

Our trip did not start off quite like one would expect. We had a nice drive to Atchison, but when we parked the car and I jumped out with excitement, I felt something funny under my foot.  I looked down,
screamed and jumped back in the car.  This is what I stepped on:
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After taking a moment back inside the car to recover, I got out of the car again, cringed, walked over the dead mouse, and then forgot about him for a while.

Here we are just before going into Nell Hill's:
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 If you have never been to this little store in this little town and you live close enough, you REALLY need ot go!  It is so fun, and it stocked full or goodies for your house.  You can get anything from candles to furniture!
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Not even a foot inside the door and MIL already found her first purchase!
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I would love to have this wall unit in my house.
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And SIL would like to have this one.
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And another piece of furniture I would like to have!
After spending a couple of hours at Nell Hill's we popped over to the little cafe next door, I call it the 'pie place'. I think the real name *might* be Jerry's.  Anyway, we had lunch there, which is not anything to write home about.  I forgot you should just skip lunch when you go to this little cafe and just go straight for the pie.  We had a sampling of pies and they were all amazing!  Pumpkin, coconut and chocolate - the chocolate and coconut remind me of the pies my mom used to always make at Thanksgiving.  OH BABY! 
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There was more shopping to be done this day, but I will stop here.  Atchison is  a great little town, visit if you can! (No, I'm not getting kick-backs.)
 
 
OK, so that title is a bit deceiving.  We had a LAYOVER in Japan!  Hehe!  However we were very excited about this opportunity to have a bowl of Undon with tempura shrimp & veggies.  Hubby found this little restaurant in the international section of the airport and has been telling me about it for over a year.  Every time he stops over in Japan he eats here.  And let me tell you, it is YUMMY!  If you ever find yourself at Narita airport on a lay over, go find this noodle place, it is very close to the McDonalds. (Sorry, I would give better directions, but that is all I remember.)
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So, we couldn't stop there.....since we were in Japan I felt we needed to have sushi.  Now, I don't care if we are in an airport, my thoughts are that any sushi in Japan (yes, even at the airport) is better than sushi anywhere in the US, or even Korea.  And I was right.  Hubby was a bit disappointed in the sushi because it wasn't up to "Japan" standards, (which I agree)  but he needs to get over it, it was still super yummy (and way better than anywhere else - and he calls me a food snob).  If I ever have the choice of eating sushi in the states, or in the Narita airport, I would totally pick the airport.
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After we finished our eating tour of the Narita airport, we boarded the airplane for the next leg of our trip....16 more hours to Houston...
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Halloween! 11/14/2009
 
I LOVE Halloween! October is such a crazy month here in our house.  Soccer season, (all 4 played this year) 2 birthdays and Halloween!  Since hubby threw the big FOUR-O party for my birthday we opted out of having a Halloween party, plus the morning after Halloween Hubby and I hopped on a plane and headed for the states.

Boy 2 did a fantastic job on his Halloween costume this year ~ he decided back in July this is what he wanted to be and I think it totally fits him!
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Boy 1, well frankly he scares me a little.  I'm just glad he didn't come out a girl because he doesn't pull it off very well.  Here he is as Lady Gaga.
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Girl is adorable no matter what.  She starts thinking about her costume on 1 November. I love her as a leopard!
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Boy 3 could care less what he dresses up as ~ he is just in it for the candy!
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When we started off, trick-or-treating was in the rain!
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I love these guys!
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Happy kids...
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Have I ever mentioned how much my husband ROCKS?  He is the bomb!  Two days after girl turned 8, I turned 40.  WOW, 40.  The big FOUR - O!  And for my big FOUR - O, hubby threw an amazing Murder Mystery party for me!  AND he did everything from ordering the scripts, to decorating, (including going to the flower market), to having it catered and much, much more!  This will be a birthday I never forget. 

The Murder Mystery was called Murder in Sin City.  Hubby was Ronald Trump, the owner of a very nice casino in Las Vegas and I was his beauty queen wife (a title I won 20 years earlier), Iguana Trump.  We were celebrating the one year anniversary of our casino and my birthday.
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Iguana & Ronald Trump
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Jamie Journalist, Precious Trump, our one and only daughter & Mimi Martini
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Jim Beam, the casino's favorite bartender.
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Agent Avery, who graciously switched parts at the last minute because the 'other' Agent Avery got the swine flu.
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Ace High & Hustling Haley
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Jack Black, the casino's favorite black jack dealer.
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Security Sam
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Elvis & Lucy Legs
The night was amazing with great company, food, drink and MURDER!!
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I love the tattoo on Hubby's neck!
Hubby had dinner catered from the Navy Club.
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My cake was AMAZING!  (Ordered from the Dragon.)
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After I blew out the candles, something horrible happened...
Ace High was found dead.
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And his poor wife, Hustling Haley was distraught.
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Agent Avery was all over it, figuring out who the killer was.
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In the end, Haley was hauled off to jail.
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I want to shout out a special thank you to my wonderful husband for making this night so special!  You always treat me like your princess.   I love you more!

To all my friends, thanks for coming and celebrating this special night with me. I feel blessed to have such a great group of friend.  I love you all! 

(To see more pictures from this night, go to my FB page!)
 
Girl Turns 8! 11/12/2009
 
October 26th, our beautiful daughter turned 8 years old.  Where did the time go? 

Her birthday morning started out just like every other birthday in our house, breakfast of the birthday person's choice.  This year girl opted for these pancakes instead of cinnamon rolls ~ this is a first!!  She also wanted bacon with her pancakes!  Her wish was my command.    During breakfast we opened gifts.
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A webkinz from her brother...
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A hug for her brother!
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A pink camelback!
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And Julie from her Grammy!
After morning festivities, Girl headed to school, but only for a couple of hours!  I picked her up at lunch time to take her to her favorite restaurant, The Flying Pan Blue! Can you guess what she had?
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Chocolate pancakes ~ oh baby!
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Her Daddy joined us for lunch!
After a super healthy lunch Girl wanted ice cream ~
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And Burger King for dinner....
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We ended the day with birthday cake!
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Yummm....Cake. 11/11/2009
 
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My darling friend Amanda bought this lovely cake for me.  It was a thank you gift for something.  I was so excited and dug right in popping that cherry in my mouth....you see it, the red one just left of the sliced apples?  Only to realize it was not a cherry at all.  What I bit into was a nice ripe TOMATO!!!  Are you kidding me?  Can you say O I N K ?!  The yellow round ball behind the red tomato was a yellow tomato, and the filling on the cake, well; I'm not sure what it was. 

Well, it was the thought that counts.  ;-)
 
 
Just when I think I have done about everything there is to do in Seoul a friend tells me about the horse races!   After she told me about the races, she decided not to go. (That guilty mom thing.)  Well, after much talk, I talked her back into going (that guilty friend thing).  So one Saturday in late October Amanda and I boarded a bus with International Women's Club of Seoul and headed to the races!

For those of you that know the area, the racetrack is by Seoul Grand Park, AKA - the zoo.  To get there by subway, take subway line 4 to Seoul Racecourse Park station, leave by exit 2 and follow the crowd down the covered walkway to the track.  Races happen most Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30AM  to 5:30PM.  The entrance fee to the park is 1,000 won.

Just so you know, H1N1 is in full force here in Seoul, so it was no surprise to see these guys at the entrance.....
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They were equipped with mask, hand sanitizer and thermometers, checking and squirting those coming into the race park.
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A little fall foliage going into the park.
We got to hang out in the foreigners lounge.  The benefit to sitting in this area is that you get a little extra help....and trust me, we needed a little extra help.  (And no, we did not plan our outfits even though we do look cute together!)
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We had to laugh when we were handed this "Simple Introduction to Betting on the Horse Races".
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We were not sure what this sign was saying to us...
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Amanda placing her first bet.
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Figuring it all out....
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Parading the horses -
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And they race...
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Since you can bring coolers anywhere you go here in Korea, I made up a batch of Basil-Lime Martini's to share.
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Here we are having a little celebration after our horses won!
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Amanda and I both did pretty well at the races, especially for not knowing what we were doing. We had a great day and it was fun making new friends! Thanks to the International Women's Club for allowing us to hang with you!
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OK, I know I wrote about Bunco in September, but I felt it needed another look from the month of October.  First off, L made some fantastic chocolate martini's...of which I will need to get the recipe.
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Second, the girls surprised me with a cake for my b-day. (Thanks girls!)
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And the third thing I felt I need to mention is that T won LCR AGAIN!!!!!  That is 2 bunco's in a row!  Auggh! I won NOTHING.  (I'm not bitter.)
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8th Grade Fun 11/10/2009
 
Who would have thought 8th grade would be fun the second time around?  A couple of weeks ago (yes, I know I am WAY behind on this blog....)  I went on a field trip with the Seoul American Middle School 8th grade to the Arboretum, I don't know exactly where this Arboretum is, somewhere out near Camp Stanley, about a hour bus ride. Now,  I must admit I was a bit scared at first, I mean come on most of these kids are bigger than I am and last year my group of 7th graders were a bit rambunctious.  I could only imagine what was in store for me and when they gave me this group and set us free, I did some SERIOUS praying!
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And these two....Oh dear.  You can see the one kid in the above picture...notice how baggie his pants are?  Well, I had to set the tone, so in a fun but firm way I had to tell that boy he needed to pull his pants up and tighten his belt or he could not stay with us.  It all worked out.  He gave me a bit of a 'fun, hard time' then followed my orders.
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Now if you have teenagers, you can only imagine how excited they would be about going to an Arboretum...the only reason they even considered going was to get out of school for a day.  Their assignment was to take pictures of 5 different types of trees, then write a paper on the differences.  Well my group was done with their pictures within about 3 minutes. We still had 1 hour and 57 minutes left.  God help me. 
They didn't even notice this...
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I was in awe of all the colors fall had to offer.  The kids were excited they ran across this little log in the middle of the walkway. (Notice the trees in the background?)
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I did get a nice picture with my son.
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And my 'coolness' factory went up just as notch.  Most of the kids ask me to come back to chaperone the next field trip.   I had a great group of kids.  They had fun, but were respectful and they may have been a bit rambunctious, but isn't that what 8th grade is about? 

I'll leave you with a picture of them playing, Duck, Duck, GOOSE!
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School Bus 11/04/2009
 
I never thought I would put my kids on the bus.  They begged, I caved.  Here they are getting on the bus to go to school.  (This was BIG for me so I had to share.) I worried all day that they did not make it to their class, and was so afraid that when I went to pick them up their teachers would tell me they were not in school that day.  Everything worked out, they made it, and I made it! Whee…..
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I made them sit together & yes, I followed them onto the bus.