Fields of Adventure

So a lot of things have happened over the last couple weeks and are worthy of note. First, Nick and I signed another contract. This means we will be here at CEV for another year starting November 19th. We have fasted and prayed about this decision and know without any doubt that it is what we are suppose to do. We love it here so much and we are always learning new things. 

        Second, a few weeks ago we earned our green belts. 

We are kicking butt and taking names!

Third, the fields that surround us are being harvested. It was awesome to watch the fields grow this spring. I'm thankful for all of the beautiful walks we have taken to soak in our surroundings. This past week as we were walking we got some good pictures. Right now they are harvesting the onions and we also have seen fields being prepped  for rice. 

 This is right in front of our school. On the left we think the field is being prepped for rice. The middle field is barley and the field on the right is garlic. right across from these fields are the ENORMOUS onions. We think they are going to harvest the seeds along with the them.

Fourth, we have had a great time with some awesome kids lately. We had the opportunity to allow two families to go on a date while Nick and I had a huge water fight with their kids. We had a blast!! HAHA We went all out.

Fifth, I'm not sure if I mentioned the books we are making for Cyber School, but we have finished one and hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week we will finish the second one. These books have consumed most of our time both in and out of work. Each book is around 60 pages. We could not have done them without help from our co-worker friends, and our Heavenly Father who has guided us through the process. When the project was handed to us, we both kinda freaked out, but through prayer and understanding we were able to press forward and accept the challenge at hand. We feel that we have put our all in it and hope that it is accepted as good work by our bosses.

Sixth, our group here at CEV has started a "Biggest Loser" contest. We weigh in every Monday to see and record results. The contest is based on weight-loss percentage. The winner collects the money that was paid for the entry fee and second place will earn their entry fee back. Nick and I are out to win it!!

Seventh, We have finalized all of our plans for our two week vacation to Japan. We are looking forward to traveling  and exploring there in August.

Eighth... Well I can't think of anything else going on here.. So I will leave you with this adorable picture of our Lilly and Reagan holding hands with a Korean baby. This baby we met before we got on the subway and she really loved the girls. When we jumped on the train the mother got on through a different door. Her baby immediately started fussing and reaching towards the girls, so she strolled down just so they could hold hands. It was adorable!

May Workshop Trip

Wow, What a FANTASTIC couple of days we've had. Each year our bosses take us on two overnight workshop trips. One is in May and the other is usually around September or October. This was our first trip, we were very excited. We had a great time at Gyeongju!

So I don't want to overload you or make my blog SUPER long, so the pictures I don't post here will be on facebook.

We hit the road around 9:00 am on Tuesday morning. This is Mr. Ha. He is head over the Cyber School Department. He drove our van!

We stopped at a fun rest area.... All rest areas here are full of games, food, and people. This particular rest area had batting cages. Brandon hit every ball that came his way. The Koreans that were interested cheered him on. Richard decided he wanted to try his luck at baseball and did a decent job.

We finally arrived at our first destination in Gyeongju, Bulguksa Temple.. It was really big and beautiful. The people were getting things set up for Buddha's Birthday on Friday.

 The awesome Fish Dragon!

 A walk way

 Lanterns and a part of the temple

 Golden Buddha that I probably (try definitely) wasn't allowed to take a picture of.

Climbing the stairs even though they have a warning sign!

Nick and I at the top of the stairs.

 Someone found some random brooms next to the stairs so naturally we pretended to be witches!

The guys wanted an awesome photo too, however it was impossible to get.. This was the best one I had of them. They were jumping and pretending to be ninja's... I'm surprised Nick didn't light himself on fire :) (Sorry Inside Joke) (because Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire!)

The next place we went was just up the mountain, we drove this crazy curvy road.The sight was so beautiful and worth the small amount of anxiety on the way up. At the top of this mountain was a cave that had a Buddha in it. When we got there the first thing we saw was this really big bell.. Guess  who wanted to ring it.. and not just for the mercy..

 The view!

 Me under some beautiful lanterns and more of the view.

After we saw the cave Buddha we headed off to find a great Korean restaurant.  Nick got the safe choice of food where as I thought I would venture out.  What they ended up bring me was a butt load of sides (as is the natural Korean way) and a goopy soup with a flavor between pleasant and unpleasant and a texture just south of the unpleasant line. (Yes I regret it, move on... I sure did, to potato chips and water)

After we ate lunch we went to this place that had three museums full of the same stuff, so these are the only picture we have.

 Aren't we cute?

We are totally confused about this room.. From what we gather it is a room to take screaming babies because you are suppose to be quiet while looking at the museum stuff. As we were contemplating another member of our group thought of it a different way.. They suggested that if could be used as a baby making room. HAHAHA. (One of the many ways Korea is encouraging it's citizens to build the population)

Moving on.. We went to this really cool burial site of lots of important dead people. How do we know they were important you may ask, well because the bigger the hill the more important you are. I'm convinced that someone just made some really big hills, put some fake "important" names on them and made people pay to come see them. With that said here are a few cool, but dead sites from this place.

There was a burial mound we were allowed to go in.. Inside they had a display of the cross section of the mounds.  The tomb is made up of a room in the center where the dead guy and a bunch of his stuff is put and then they cake on a bunch of flat river stones to build up the bulk of the hill and to top it off they cover it with five meters of dirt icing and grass fondant.  (Hehe baking humor)

 Sadly there wasn't any frogs on the lily pads :(

Next we got back into the car and found our motel which was AMAZING. We had about an hour of free time there and then we ate again. The food here was  SUPER yummy and I was actually full. When we finished we grabbed some ice cream and a couple of taxi's to this really awesome place. I can't remember the name of the place but the pond was called Wolji pond. It was beautiful. We walked around the whole thing. Here are some pictures.

 Can you see Nick?

This is an interesting picture, you may say, but you don't really know the story behind it. Well all day we were around large (when I say large I mean two or three buses worth) groups of children who were on field trips. Well here at this place we had a brilliant idea, Why don't we hide in the bamboo forest area and jump out when they come by. All of us liked the plan but not all followed through. If you know anything about me you know that I have great follow through skills, these kids didn't stand a chance against my skills. Amanda, Nick, and I \hid in there until just the right moment. Then we ran our roaring.. The screams were fantastic, but I am glad laughter followed.

After such an awesome day we went back to the motel and slept. Okay I am lying we went back and played Spot It! (This is an awesome game.. everyone must own it) Then we went to bed.

Nick and I set an alarm but it didn't go off. We got lucky that somehow I woke up 30 minutes before we had to be down to leave.

We went to a few more places and then home. The first place was right across the street from the Gyeongju theme park. I was honestly hoping that was our destination, but it wasn't. We were at the Gyeongju world culture expo park.

 The amusement park :( the good news is we decided as a team that we could rent a van or something and come back soon and play.)

 Me and the Buddha (I was actually allowed to take a picture of this one)

 I'm an ox!

 Nick is a rat!

 So I have seen these trees everywhere. I thought they looked like the Japanese Maple but they are green not purple. I had Nick look it up (of course) and guess what? They are Korean Maples.. I want one

Our trip was a blast and it didn't last long enough. For more Photo fun, see my facebook page!

Banana's?

First I must start this update by telling you I had an incredible weekend. I ate cinnamon rolls, tacos, tacos, and more tacos. I also had a Subway sandwich (YUM!!!). I was able to go to the PX (Shopping on the military base) and pick up a new pair of jeans. At the PX is where I found the Taco Bell and the Subway. I'm sure the people working thought I was crazy because I ordered from both places sat down and ate my tacos then got up and ordered some more. All of my orders were large because I got some goodies for Nick, although he wasn't with me. I'm sure the people thought I had eaten all that food and came back for seconds.. HAHA! I am so grateful for our friends.. they are so wonderful. They feed us yummy food and let us stay with them and mess with their kids. We love them!!

Now down to business. I must apologize for not posting but I have been really busy. I found out a week ago I was being moved to Cyber School with Nick until the end of July (we start this week). I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but leaving my classroom on Friday was hard.

Our two new teachers came this week. They are from Colorado and they seem pretty awesome. Before they got here these pictures were put up of them. I know you can't read or see it well, but the red background made them look devilish and plus they spelt Brian as Brain. It was really funny and a little creepy. When Richard and Suzi noticed they took it down and replaced the background and corrected the spelling of his name.

So the past few weeks have been fun and also challenging. I had a Saturday where I just melted down and cried a lot. I really missed home and just really needed a hug from my mommy. In-fact  I'm very grateful to a dream I had right before this depressing day(which probably caused it to begin with) that allowed me to hug my mom. We were both crying as we hugged one another. I woke up with tears in my eyes. I'm thankful I had the dream and I am also thankful for my awesome husband who knew what to do to help pick up my spirits (or his). He ran out and got us some pizza! Yes it had corn on it but it was still really good. Here is a picture of us enjoying the pizza. (it only took two cab rides and a quarter mile walk to get it)

Moving on... We have spent a lot of time on the bus, going to Daegu for one reason or another. This guy in the picture drove up beside the bus. He is driving a front loader and on his cell phone. If this isn't scary I don't know what is. 

We went to the market one day and found these frogs in a bag to be sold for food. This made me sad because we have been watching over a family of frogs that is currently living in one of the drain areas by school. They aren't nearly as big as these boys but they are cute.

We also found these soft shelled turtles for sale.. ewe

Nick went to Seoul for a meeting and found this really cool machine. The top four rows serves bananas and the last three bottom rows serve a banana holder.

He had to have one...

Well that is about it for an update on us.. however I do wanna wish all of my Mothers a Happy Mother's Day! To my mom, you have always been there for me to support me and help me realize what life is really about, thank you for that. I will be thinking about you on Mother's day. Jennifer, You are a great Mother-in-law. I can't express how grateful I am for you being in my life. I am also grateful to you for raising Nick. Judy, thank you so much for being there for me, I love you! 

Also I wanted to let my brother know how proud I am that he has graduated college. This is a huge accomplishment that many people in our family haven't reached yet. Welcome to the side of, "Now I have a degree, now what?"  I love you and your family so much keep accomplishing your dreams (one bite at a time).

I am also proud of Devan and Duncan, they both graduated Snow College with their two year degree this past weekend. 

Okay, Okay... enough of the mushy stuff.. I will leave you with the cutest picture I have probably taken in Korea.

This little guy is holding Nick's finger on the bus.. I think you can even see a little smile. SO CUTE!

We love and miss you all... Can't believe it has almost been six months.