Back in Texas

We made it through all the wedding festivities. And we are back in Texas. It was so much fun! My brother's wedding was beautiful. The ceremony was in Sinks Canyon in Wyoming. Awesome setting. The reception was back in Riverton, WY at the baptist church. There was some silly dancing and amazing toasts. It was really neat to see Charlie's groomsmen there with him. We have known both Clint and Jeff for at least 15 years. Clint lives in Utah, and we had met him several times before. Jeff lives in California. We had never met him in person. To see all 3 guys together in the same place was crazy.

After the wedding was over, Mom and I went to Cody, WY. On the way there we stopped in Thermopolis. There is a hot springs there, and a bison pasture. We observed a large family of bison. A couple of them came up on the road near the car. We stayed at the Big Bear Motel. Great place to stay. I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to go to Yellowstone or Cody. It was clean with nice beds, and the owner Bob was awesome. We spent one day in Yellowstone. That was all we could handle. We did see some deer and pronghorn, then Old Faithful!

The next day we spent at the Buffalo Bill Museum. It is actually 5 museums in one, and we made it through 2 of them. The Plains Indian museum and the natural history museum. It was so much fun. The rest of the trip was spent admiring the mountains and relaxing. Another recommendation is the Chuckwagon in Cody. They serve a breakfast buffet, lunch, and have a dinner show. We made it to a couple breakfasts and a lunch. Never made the show, but I'm sure it's entertaining. The owner of the Chuckwagon is extremely nice.

On Wednesday, we drove 8 hours back down to Fort Collins. The next morning we took my brother and his wife (!) to the airport and made a stop in Pueblo. Justin's mom lives in Pueblo. We spent several hours with her eating a yummy lunch and talking. This is the first time our moms had met! Then we drove 7 more hours down to Amarillo, TX. Friday morning (my birthday!), in the car again and 10 hours down to Austin. Not the most exciting birthday ever. In fact, I was pretty grumpy after a long day of driving and the HEAT. But we were able to fix that with an awesome dinner at Whole Foods (cheesecake....) and some sleep. Saturday we were up early and off to Blanco to set up for my brother's reception. It went very smoothly and it was so great to see everyone there! Rachelle's parents were there, all our family, and Charlie's friends from Blanco.

As you can imagine, we crashed on Saturday night. Sunday and Monday were laid back and easy. I am going to see my cousin Lacey tonight, then go to stay with my Nana tomorrow. Saturday is my baby shower here in Austin. I am so glad I have this time to spend with my family. I miss Justin though, and I wish he could be here sharing this with me. At least the time is passing quickly. He'll be home before we know it.

Me, Myself, and Justin.

Being alone in Korea is tough. If I didn't have friends to hang out with I think I'd probably go crazy. I've had a couple freak out days to be sure but nothing I wasn't able to handle and it's getting easier. I'm glad the time between now and my triumphant return to the states is short. I've got the next two weeks off for summer vacation, then three weeks of summer camp, and a few more weeks before heading home. With all the things I have to do between now and then it should go pretty quickly.
This last weekend was pretty packed. Friday was a trip up to the DMZ. Saturday and Sunday hosted the much anticipated Mudfest. I'll be doing a seperate post for those once I round up the pictures for said events. To give you a little taste though, I will say this. Sandcastle. Oh yes, a magnificent sandcastle was built by myself and Melissa with Aaron's assistance. We did a mudcastle as well but it wasnt nearly as magnificent. More on this later.

Colorado

We made it to Fort Collins. It has been one crazy week.

The flight from Korea went surprisingly fast. It was 13 hours, and there is a 13 hour time difference. So I departed from Korean on Wed., July 1st at 6:15pm and arrived in Atlanta, GA on Wed., July 1st at 6:15pm. There was a couple hours layover in Atlanta. It was timed perfectly because I still had to go through immigration, pick up my checked baggage, and re-check it. I checked in with my mom, and then had a 2 hour flight to Austin. I had a great seat-mate. She was very sweet. I hadn't slept well on the planes but it worked out. We got to my mom's house around midnight. I had a good night's sleep, and didn't really get off schedule.

That same night my aunt Karen was having problems and was taken to the hospital. The next day my mom and I picked up my grandmother and visited her in the ICU. She was unresponsive when we arrived. She had had a stroke. Karen has been fighting kidney failure and diabetes for years. She passed away the next morning. I'm so glad that I was able to see her one last time, but especially to be with my Uncle Fred. It has been rough losing such a wonderful woman. My aunt Karen did not want to have a funeral or anything at a funeral home. Her wishes were for us to have a party. So we will be having a Memorial/Party for her in August. For anyone who knew Karen, we have a memorial website for her at karenscottmemorial.com.

So we have now made the first leg of our July trip. We left Austin yesterday morning, spent the night in Amarillo, TX, and have arrived in Fort Collins, CO. We had an awesome dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. Nyala Ethiopian. Mmmm. We'll be in town until Thursday. Then we head up to Wyoming to start the wedding festivities!! We have so much we want to fit in these few days that we have here. I know it will be hardest for my mom. Normally she is able to spend a month or so every summer in Colorado. She only gets a few days this year. But at least she will be coming back to see the baby when he's born!

I'm full of yummy Ethiopian food and tired from a long car ride. I'm thinking nap time! Oh, and to everyone in Korea, I miss you so much already!! I hope you are taking care of my man!

A few more hours

I'm all packed up and ready for my flight to the States. It leaves tonight (Wed. here) at 6:15pm. I will arrive tomorrow (Wed. there) at around 11:00pm. Around 19 hours of travel. Should be fun. I am prepared with lots of snacks, the ipod, book, and sudoku. I'm just hoping the two HUGE suitcases I packed won't be overweight. I'm sure they will be, though.

Sigh. Can't wait to be home. And see everyone I miss so much!

Another Day in Seoul and a Doctor appointment!

I had a great appointment with Dr. Chung yesterday. I had to do the Glucose test and a couple other blood tests. We did another sonogram as well. If I can figure out the cd they gave me, I can show everyone the movie. The program doesn't like mac computers though.

The little Blueberry is SO big!! I mean, he's normal sized, but so big considering the last time we saw him. And he was moving and kicking during the entire sonogram. He is still head up right now. Hope he turns soon, not only for the correct birth position, but he likes to kick my butt too. It can get uncomfortable. He's doing it right now. It is strange that I'm able to feel his head. I figured that's what it was, but the sonogram confirmed it. It is just to the left and slightly higher than my belly button (well, just under my ribs). He is a very healthy baby with a strong heart. And still totally a boy!

Apparently Dr. Chung is also a skin doctor. I had made an appt. with the skin clinic there, not realizing that it is the same doctor! I have had a spot on my leg that has bugged me for years. I finally was able to have it checked out. It is just hyperpigmentation. Dr. Chung lasered it right off for me! Yay! It should be 95-100% gone. Such a relief.

I also had a great lunch with a friend from the Expat Moms Blog. We ended up talking for several hours in a deserted Indian Restaurant.* Very nice. She has two amazing children, and a lot of the same ideas about birth and parenting that Justin and I do. It was great to talk to someone like that.

So I'm doing the waiting game again now. 5 more days til I get on that plane home. At the moment Justin and I are hanging around the house, relaxing but bored. We are thinking about making a little trip somewhere, maybe Suwon. I'm just so tired of all the walking it takes to do anything here. We'll see. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

*for those who might want to know, the Indian Restaurant was in Itaewon above the Smoky Saloon. I had seen their sign for a lunch special and wanted to try them. The food was very good, but not at all spicy. The 7,000won set comes with a soup, salad, samosa, 1pc tandoori chicken, chicken curry, rice, all the naan you can eat (or I could eat), and a chai tea or coffee to finish with. Very yummy and a great price. I was surprised there was NO ONE there. It is off the main strip though. The service was amazing. The waiter was SO nice. Again, only ones there though. Hehe.

Kicking away...

We can feel our little boy just kickin' away these days. It's awesome. Developmental websites say this is the best time to feel little one's kicking since they are big enough to feel it and small enough not to be overly cramped. Night before last I think Caroline counted about 65 kicks. He reacts really well to my voice, going so far as to kick when I ask him to. He definitely knows his Daddy's voice. We are going to make a few recordings of my voice for Caroline's trip back to the states. I'm gonna miss my girl and my little boy.

Orientation

Orientation was a couple weeks ago. I haven't posted on it cause I've been trying to forget about it for the most part. It was dreadfully boring. At least all the official stuff was. Lots of boring lectures. A few of which led by people who should not be speaking to hundreds of native English speakers. Fortunately I was roomed with Aaron, a teacher friend of mine. We managed to make the best of it. Mostly that meant reading books under desks and doing our best to do as little "productive" stuff as possible. We have a skit we had to do based on conflict resolution. Very little effort was involved. Then there was a co-teaching skit we were supposed to do. Unfortunately the teams that went before us took too long and we never got to go. Darn! We had decided to teach about zombies for our skit. It would have been pretty cool. The food was ok, though breakfast was very scant.

After the required stuff was over, then things got going. Man, people drink here! I wasn't drinking myself but everyone else more than made up for that. Aaron and I met a lot of cool people in no small part as a result of two large bottles of soju he brought and shared with everyone. So it wasn't a total loss. However...I was pretty resentful of being on "lock down." We weren't allowed to leave without giving them a good reason. I was unhappy, to put it mildly, that I was away for four days and three nights. Balls to that I say.