Sader's Birthday

This weekend we had summer vacation for our academy, which means we have Friday and Monday off! So, on Friday, we decided to have a special day to celebrate Sader's 1st birthday.

We took Sader hiking on a local mountain called Namsan. Let me tell you, he LOVED it so much.

His little nose was going crazy with all the new smells. He loves to play in the grass.

He was always in front of us, but every once in a while, he'd turn around to make sure we were still there. He's the best dog. Seriously. Can you tell how happy he was?

Then, we decided to take him to Star Dogs Pet Cafe, a local coffee shop that is for dogs too! We thought it would be a good idea because he's so playful and needs to be socialized with other dogs.

Well, as you can see from this picture, he was completely terrified. He's practically hugging Teaven, seeking some type of protection. 

I'm almost embarrassed for him to post this picture, but as you can see, at first they made him wear this diaper, which I think took away some of his coolness factor. I mean, you're the new kid, and if you want to make friends, the last thing you want to do is look like that. Absolutely pitiful.

Another thing I feel I should tell you, is Sader has serious butt issues. You get anywhere close to his butt and he flips out. Of course, I'm sure you know that when dogs greet each other, they tend to head straight for that area. So, I'm sure he about had a heart attack.

There were so many dogs! I'd say at least 15. Kind of intimidating for your first time. 

Towards the end, he started to warm up, especially since I took that silly diaper off him. Let's just say, I think our dog is a little socially awkward. Boy, is he in for a surprise when we move back to America.

Overall, I'd say it was a good day. 

Korea Bucket List

I suppose it's time for an update since my last post left everyone on the edge of their seats. hah.

Teaven and I did not get the jobs back in Texas. It was a little disappointing at first but not entirely surprising since we live on a different continent. We are at peace knowing that God is in control and trusting in his plan for us to stay here for about eight more months. No matter what, we are thankful to have jobs.

So, since we've set our final departure date, I decided to make a bucket list for Korea.

Korea Bucket List

Learn how to make Korean food 

Fireworks festival (in October)

Go to the beach

Reach goal weight

Chinchin fish (Somehow, I've got to convince Teaven to do this with me. They are little fish that eat the dead skin off of your feet)

Go to a Korean church service

Star Dogs Pet Cafe (hopefully taking Sader tomorrow)

Take Sader to Namsan

Chungju Lake Ferry

Dangyang Caves

Take a picture with a Chungju Apple

Learn more Korean

Here is a list of some of the things we've already done:

Chungju Martial Arts Festival

Japan

Namsan Tower, Seoul

Nutcracker

Wicked

Baseball Game

Buy a dog

Love Motel

First Race

Beondegi

Learn to read Korean

I'm looking forward to our last months here. Sure, it's hard to be away from family, but it's been really nice to have so much quality time with each other. Plus, I'm going to appreciate the fact that I can sleep in every day of the week. That's right. Every. Single. Day. mmm, what a luxury!

Transition

This week, Teaven and I celebrated our one year anniversary!

I can't believe it's already been a year since that wonderful June day. I've been so blessed to have such a wonderful man by my side and can't wait to spend the rest of forever with him!

Although our actual anniversary was this week, we actually celebrated a couple weeks ago. We went to Seoul to see Wicked, which was SO amazing! If you haven't seen it, go. right now. We also ate some delicious Mexican food (of course!) and just had a great time spending the day together.

In case you didn't know, my entire family is going through a time of transition. My older sister, Carissa,  and brother-in-law, Eric, are visiting Texas this week to spend time with my little sister, and low and behold, he gets an interview for a position in San Antonio! We'll find out at the end of July if they'll be making the big move back to Texas. They've lived in Illinois for the past 10 years, so it will be really nice to only have them 2 hours away from us instead of 14 (well, that is whenever Teaven and I get back to Texas).

I miss these kids.

Speaking of Teaven and I getting back to Texas, I guess it's no secret anymore that we're trying to come home. There's been a lot going on with my family, and we just feel that it's time to head back to good ol' Texas. Eric wasn't the only one with an interview. Teaven and I both interviewed for jobs in central Texas this week. We are trusting God to lead us in the right direction. It would be so exciting for us both to get jobs and be able to move back in a month. However, if we don't get these jobs, we are planning on moving back in March of 2013, which is so far away compared to a month!

So, you can be praying with us as we are trusting God with our future plans. We should be hearing back about the positions sometime next week. 

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." Proverbs 16:9

Nike Women's Race 7k

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I ran my first race in Korea. I trained for about six weeks with my lovely friend, Jamie, and we made our goal of finishing in under an hour! 55:40, baby!

As I approached the finish line, I was quite pleased to see the clock telling me I was under an hour because I was having my doubtful moments during the run. There were much more uphills than I had planned for while training. Maybe I shouldn't have avoided going uphill during training. hah. But, I will tell you, I am very pleased with myself. In February, I wasn't working out at all. ever. In March, I started Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, and a couple weeks after that we started training for the race. There's a huge difference in my physical endurance between February and now. It's a great feeling.

We felt like cattle for a while. There were so many people crammed together. I told Jamie during the race that if we didn't finish in an hour, I was blaming it on the crowds who were walking.

Finished!

My wonderful husband and awesome supporter.

Overall, it was a great experience. I mean, how many people can say they ran their first race in Korea? I do think it will be a different experience running in America though. There would be Korean women who would sprint for a little bit and then stop to fix their makeup. Ridiculous. haha

Happy Graduation!

Being so far away from family can be really hard sometimes.

Like this weekend.

When my younger sister, Kayla, graduates from high school.

Is this really happening? Wasn't it just yesterday that she was the annoying pre-teen with triangle hair?

I must say, she has grown out of the annoying little sister stage and into a beautiful young woman. She's one of my best friends.

Congratulations, sweet sister! I look forward to making many more memories with you and watching God mold you into the woman you are meant to be!

Fun Things Ahead

It's finally happening. I'm finally working towards a goal I've been dreaming about for a long time. A goal I've been terrified about but secretly longing for. 

That's right. I've entered a 7k race. My friend, Jamie, and I have started training for it, and I'm so thankful I have her doing this with me. You see I have this problem of not believing in myself. But this is the time where I'm working to change that. Already this year, I've accomplished a huge goal that I set for myself over a year ago. I finished Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It's hard for me to see my progress sometimes when I'm outside running and wind up having to walk because it gets too hard. But when I think that just a couple of months ago, I could barely make it 3 minutes without stopping, I consider this an accomplishment. I need to remember these little "accomplishments" on my way so that I don't become so discouraged with myself. My goal is to run this race without stopping, but even if I do have to walk, I will be content knowing I finished, knowing I've accomplished yet another physical goal. 

In other exciting news, guess what Teaven and I will be doing for our 1st anniversary...

We're going to see Wicked! Teaven's already seen it, but I haven't. We're both super excited about it. Don't worry, it's the Australian tour, so it will be in English. 

See, didn't I tell you our lives would get more exciting once the weather got warmer? So much to look forward to. 

Crazy Times

I realize that I have been horrible at blogging lately. I truly am sorry. But it's been a cold winter.. much colder than I'm used to, and in all honesty, Teaven and I haven't done anything super exciting. Thankfully, the weather is finally starting to get warmer, and I am ready to be able to play outside again.

Thanks to that warmer weather, Sader and I have started running several times a week, and one morning we saw this beautiful view as we walked down a road near our apartment.

We are planning a trip to Cheongju sometime this month. It's a bigger city about an hour away from us. Our friends told us it has an awesome Indian restaurant that we are excited to try! We miss Indian food. 

One exciting thing that happened for me (I say for me because this very same day Teaven had a very awkward and frustrating encounter with our vet.. more on that later) is my trip to Seoul about a month ago. As an early birthday present, I went to Seoul to get my hair dyed. Now, you may ask why I would go all the way to Seoul just for my hair. Well, here in Chungju, it's very difficult to find salons that have real blond hair dye. Most of the time it's more of an orangy color. In fact, there was a high school student who passed Teaven and I on the sidewalk and said "you, me, hair color same" when in all reality it was no where near the same color! So, all that to say I went to Seoul because I researched and found a place that has experience doing hair on foreigners. I had so much fun that day! When I arrived at the bus station, I took the subway to Hongdae, where the hair salon is located. Lucky for me, there was a Taco Bell right down the street, so I ate there for lunch before my appointment. My appointment was great. I felt so pampered. They gave me English magazines to read (such a treat when I haven't read a magazine in 8 months!), and always made sure I was comfortable. Their English was great as well! My hair turned out great. In fact, I believe it's one of the first times that I loved my hair immediately after it as done. Usually, it takes me a couple of days to love it. I will admit, it was pricey, but I loved it. If you ever need your hair done in Seoul, check out Hair and Joy. Afterwards, I went to a mall that Teaven and I really like and bought him video game since he had such a bad day back at home. Then, I headed to the bus station, had KFC for dinner, shopped around a bit, and then had Baskin Robbins before my bus was ready to leave. It was a great day!

Now, on to Teaven's side of the story. I apologize if I get any details wrong. He is much better at telling it than me. A little background first: Teaven and I have been going to a vet not far from our apartment. When we first started going, he did his best to speak English to us. Then, he found out we have someone who can translate for us, and he began to rely on her every time we went to the vet. Well, we decided to get Sader fixed before he gets much older, so we asked the vet for an appointment. We had a holiday on Thursday, so we decided that would be a good day to get it done. We met Mina, our Korean co-teacher at our Hagwon, at the vet, and she was able to tell us everything that was going to happen before she had to leave. What ensued was about 3 hours of craziness. The vet would bring Sader to us each time he got a shot until he finally fell asleep. Then, after the surgery, he called us in to help him as he was finishing everything. This was weird for us, but we dealt with it and finally got to take Sader home. The vet told us to come back the next day for Sader to get some shots. Well, since this was the day I went to Seoul, Teaven had to go by himself. While the vet was trying to communicate something to Teaven that Teaven already knew, three Russian people walked in. The vet was getting frustrated because he didn't think he was being understood, so he went to the Russian people and told them everything, hoping they would be able to tell Teaven. However, these Russians did not speak English, and it was the vet wasn't very smart to assume all white people speak English. They spoke Russian and only one of them spoke Korean. So, Teaven and the Russians both tried to explain to the vet that they did not speak English, but he just was not getting it. After the vet finally gave up, Teaven found his assistant attaching old x-ray film to Sader's cone to make it longer. It's ridiculous to think they thought Sader wouldn't be able to chew the x-ray film off. Obviously, they need to invest in some bigger cones. After Teaven told her to stop, he tried to pay, but they wouldn't give him the medicine. So, he called Mina to tell them to give him the medicine, and the phone conversation turned into a huge yelling match between the vet and Mina. Teaven was finally able to pay and hasn't been back since. lol. I'm sure I left out some details, but as you can imagine, it can be extremely difficult to communicate to people in a different language. It's also a little eye-opening living in this country because we are able to experience a little of what discrimination is like. In America, that would never happen. 

Anyways, that was much more long winded than I expected, but I hope you enjoyed it!