The last week of summer the kids and I stayed very busy as Hubby had to work LONG, HARD HOURS in a far away 'secret' place. The last 2 weeks of summer Hubby had to take a bus to work, leaving home at 6AM and not coming home till 10PM. Poor guy, I felt bad for him and felt even worse that the kids and I were having fun without him, so just know, our joy was overshadowed by the pain we felt for him. With that being said, we did have a pretty good last week of summer. We went to the pool, the movies, a waterpark, played at the park, watched Girl at cheer camp, made a gingerbread house & had a pajama day. Here are a few pictures from our week....
Now most of you know I am up for trying many interesting things here in Korea, however, this one made me barf in my mouth a little. "Coffee in the Jelly, Jelly in your Coffee". Come on now, I am all for coffee, and I am all for jelly on my toast, not in my coffee.
I agonized over where to take Hubby for our date night last Saturday. And then I heard about Mexipalooza at Tomatillo's Mexican restaurant! How fun would this be, Korean version of a fiesta with a mariachi band and all..... Hubby and I jumped on the subway and headed to the Yeoksam subway exit where we took exit 2 to get to the Gangnam Finance Center. Now, I thought Mexipalooza was going to be in the restaurant where we could sit, eat dinner & have a cocktail while listening to live music. I was mistaken. It was outside, all concessions were set up under tents and there wasn't any seating, it was standing room only. Now, it was fun enough, and there was great entertainment! I'm not talking about the band either; I'm talking about the people out on the dance floor..... There was a burrito eating contest, I was a judge.... Oh, and did I mention I didn't feel like I was in Korea AT ALL? The American to Korean ratio was insane. I would have to guess at least 20 to 1. I felt like we were at a fraternity party in states. Where did all these American's come from?
The day came; Boy 1's eyebrows started growing together. It has only gotten worse over the past year; I started talking to him about waxing. He wasn't thrilled, but realized it was not an option; no one in their right mind should sport a unibrow. School starts next week....it was time. Good bye unibrow.
I don't know about you, but I LOVE water parks. However the thought of taking ALL my kids to a water park by myself frightens me. The big one, Boy 1 is fine, no worries there, but the others, OH MY GOODNESS. They are all different levels of swimmers and they all want to do different things, plus Boy 3 thinks he is invincible. I am so afraid of losing one of them, or one going under and no one noticing. Therefore, I have not once taken my kids to a water park here in Korea, which is a shame because there are some great water parks here. So when my friend M came over last week and invited us to Splish & Splash Water park at Camp Humphery's I took her up on the invite. Camp Humphery's is another military post here in Korea. On Tuesday, we met our LARGE group at gate 19 & walked over to the train station where we bought tickets for Pyongtaek. The cost was only 4,200 won per adult & 2,100 won per child. The train ride takes just over an hour and my kids LOVED the train. This was Boy 3's first train ride & let me tell you, he was super EXCITED!! Here we are on the train...you can rearrange your chairs so you can face each other. Coolness. Once we arrived in Pyongtaek, we took a cab to Camp Humphreys. If you are going, ask the cab driver to take you to K6. (This is the gate you will need to enter through.) Once you arrive, walk through the gate, and it is a pretty straight shot...between buildings, only about a 1-2 minute walk. Here is a picture of our group before entering the park. Upon entering the park, all my fears were diminished. This is the PERFECT park for small kids! See the pool in the background of the picture above? The deepest part was only 3 feet deep. I LOVE this place! This park wasn't only for little kids; there were a few things for the bigger kids to do. There were a couple of big water slides, and the high dive...... Girl wants everyone to know she went off the high dive ELEVEN times!! Boy 2 finally worked up the nerve and went off the high dive 4 time! (I didn't get a picture of him on the high dive though). Boy 3 couldn't get enough of the water slides..... The kids and I had such a great day, we can't wait to go back next week. Thanks to Boy 1 for being such a great help to me! (Notice how much taller he is than I am!)
Cut then ends off the kiwi. Run a spoon between the skin and the meat of the kiwi - run it all the way around, on both ends. Your kiwi should slide right out. Enjoy!
So, I couldn't let the kids get all the glory, I had to join in. On Sunday night I went for my first commercial! Here I am in the hair & make-up chair. The commercial I was in is to promote tourism to Seoul. What a perfect fit for me - I LOVE Seoul! Now, this really wasn't that big of a deal, as I was one of about 20-25 people in this commercial. I'm sure if I even make the commercial it will be for only 1 or 2 seconds, but it was a fun experience - even though I was cast as the 'middle-age' woman. Damn - when did I hit middle age? I'm still 22 in my mind. So, wouldn't you know it, they dressed me in a frumpy outfit and put me beside a tall, eloquent, beautiful 20 something professional model from Canada. Come on now, am I supposed to be her MOTHER?!?! I was picked up at my house at 8PM, at 11:30PM, they finally took us into the studio to begin shooting. Once in the studio, we it took an hour for them to get us situated, moving us constantly. At 12:30 they finally started filming. Filming took just under an hour. All we had to do was smile, laugh and look at the camera. Some people couldn't keep their eye on the camera, so we would have to start over......then someone would scratch their head and we would have to start over....then someone would yawn....this went on forever! Finally, we all got it right! This was the final set up of the people. See the camera on the left side? When they said action we had to start smiling, laughing and just looking like we were having a good time, the camera would roll down the tracks, when it made it to the end of the tracks the shot was over - we could stop laughing. The best part of this was that I met some fascinating people (well, and the money). See the guy in the green shirt on the left side of the screen? He is from Congo & he is a professional soccer player. The guy in the glasses in the blue shirt on the right is from India, he owns 8 Indian restaurants here in Seoul. I told you about the professional model from Canada, I also met a professional model from France. There was a famous Chinese, Korean actor, a few teachers from other countries, oh and a rapper - he looked like he was from NY, but I didn't get the scoop on him. They had Girl come with me, as a 'just in case' they might need her. The didn't end up needing her, but they still paid her & she was very happy with that....she got to stay up till 2:30AM, drink soda, eat donuts, play DS and make funny faces at me during shooting! She was such a trooper!
Saturday night my wonderful husband took me to dinner at one of our favorite "merry-go-round" sushi places, then to see a FC Seoul soccer game! Upon exiting the subway station, the concessions were out! To our surprise the sales were not kimbap & dried quid, they were selling DUNKIN DONUTS! Now don't get too excited Twin, this is as close as Hubby got to them...taking a picture of me. ;-) (Notice the stadium at the top of the picture?) I just love the entrance to World Cup Stadium from the subway. Here is a picture as we are going up the escalator. Getting ready to go in.... One thing I can say about FC Seoul fans is they have S P I R I T ! ! ! I don't know who these guys are, but I love their spirit! OK, get this....anytime FC Seoul scores, the fans light flares!! Seriously! When I saw the 'fire' I thought for sure this fan was going to get thrown out, but no! They even sell the flares....go figure! Twin, Hubby ask me to take this picture for you..... This was on the board right after he scored. In the end, FC Seoul pulls it out!
On Friday Boy 3 shot his first commercial! Yes, I said COMMERCIAL!! It is for Denmark Milk, as pictured above. The commercial will be aired here in Korea starting on September 7th, the day before his 4th birthday! They also told me his picture will be poster size in bus stations all over. How freaking cool is that?!?! A funny story about this shoot… Boy 3 DOES NOT like cow's milk. He likes soy milk. I let them know this in advance; they told me 'no problem'. When packing our bag to go on the shoot, I packed soy milk for my boy 'just in case', and it is a good thing I did. Boy 3 was right on. He shot the first half of the commercial perfectly without too many retakes. In the first half of the shoot he had to look happy and pick the glass of milk up. In the second half of the shoot he actually had to drink milk. Boy 3 was very thirsty, and he LOVES (soy) milk. (At this point I ask them if they would like to use the soy milk - I told them again that Boy 3 does not like milk. They told me no, they wanted to try with their product anyway because the soy milk is a little darker in color. I did my job and warned them.) When it came time for the second half everyone was very excited, it looked as if Boy 3 were going to nail it right away. His face was perfect, he picked the glass up just right, (his hands had to be positioned just right, smile on his face and look as if he loves the product). This was going to be too easy for him. He did it, he was totally nailing it, he was taking a HUGE drink, smiling the whole time, he sat the glass back where it was supposed to go, smiling for a brief moment until he realized it was not what he was expecting, he then got a disgusted look on his face, spewed the milk out his mouth across the table, started gagging and saying "YUCK, YUCK, YUCK" he then started wiping his tongue on his shirt gagging the whole time! All 30+ people that it takes to film a commercial died laughing. This was such a classic moment! They continued trying their products for a few more shots, Boy 3 gagging each time. In the end, they took my advice and gave him the soy milk. I hope to get a copy of the bloopers. Boy 3 hair & make-up. After hair and make-up. Being a ham. Getting ready to film. (This is only a few of the production team.)
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AuthorProud Army wife and mother to 4 wonderful children. I love to cook, travel, work out and scrapbook life’s adventures when I find the time. We just got orders & are heading back to the states in March 2010. I'm bummed that our time has been cut short, but proud of Hubby for the reason why. Archives
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