Blah

I have officially run out of things to entertain the children in and around this hotel. I am starting to believe that our government should use this as a new form of torture. Lock the offender in a room with a screaming toddler and a moody tween for a week and I swear they will tell you anything you want! I GIVE! It is finally starting to hit me that this is not going to be over any time soon. This time of transition is pretty lonely. I know it will be better once we get settled, but Tuesday is taking an eternity to get here. I miss my friends. The kids miss their friends. Jason is gone most of the day in classes, which I am sure are very boring, but I swear I am going to smack him if he compares it to being as stressful as my day one more time! I miss having my own personal space. I miss the children having their own personal space and staying out of mine. If I never have to watch another cartoon again for the rest of my life it would be too soon. I miss my car. What I wouldn't give to be able to go where I want and when I want. Hell, at this point I would settle for just knowing where the heck I want to go. Cell phone, I miss you the most of all. Without you I am forced to actually watch the children on the playground instead of engaging in the sweet gossip I cherish so much. Tuesday, if you can hear me, I am on my knees begging you to hurry up and get here!

Oops

Ok, so yesterday I almost had my first panic attack! The day started out normal. We all got up and had breakfast and Jason left for his classes. Since the kids and I had explored the hotel for the last couple days, I decided that we would find something else to do on the base. I had heard that there was a "Family Fun Park" with mini golf and batting cages. Normally I would leave the outdoor fun to Jason (let's just face it, I would much rather stay where the air conditioning is), but I decided to go for the Mom of the Year Award and take the kids to this park. Jason had been told that we were not supposed to leave the base without permission while they are still get us all processed into the system. With this in mind, I checked the map of the base that I had been given very carefully and verified that the "Family Fun Park" was indeed within the base walls. Ok, so here is where my panic attack starts. I take the children and we head down to the taxi stand at the hotel we are staying at. I tell the driver "please take us to the Family Fun Park." He responds, "Family Park yes" and we are off. After about 5 minutes I notice that we are getting close to one of the gates that leads off-post and I am starting to get nervous. I reconfirm my destination and he again acts like he understands. Next thing I know, we are outside the gate and headed into downtown Seoul. Now I am sick to my stomach and freaking out that we are not going to be able to get back onto the post. The cab driver proceeds to drop us off at the "Yongsan Family Park" which in next to the Korean National Museum. For some reason I convince myself that I must have read the map wrong. We get out of the car and it quickly becomes obvious that this is just a botanical garden and not something the kids are going to be very interested in. At this point, I am freaking out, but decide to make the most of this situation and we head for the museum. I take the children and we walk through the children's museum and then head to a cab stand to take us back to the hotel. Once we get into a cab it is very clear that the driver knows about as much English and I know Korean. We begin a polite game of charades in order to communicate my destination. After a few minutes of this I finally pull my map of the base out of my purse and he figures out where I am headed. We are off. Now he knows where I want to go, but apparently he has no clue how to get there. We end up stopping for directions from 3 different police men and making a circle around the whole base before finally ending up at the gate that is closest to the hotel. The guard at the gate then tells me that the cab will have to let us off there since he is not allowed onto the base. Ok, now I am getting ready to find out whether I am going to be able to get onto the base or not. My heart is beating out of my chest for the few seconds it takes before he asks for passports and military ID. WE ARE GOOD TO GO!!!! I can finally relax because we are on the base when it hits me that I have no idea where the hotel is from the gate. Just then a British gentleman pulls up to the gate and the gate guard asks him if he will give us a ride to the hotel. Apparently the rule about not getting into cars with strangers went right out the window, because I threw the kids in the car and we were off. This sweet man drops me and the children off at our hotel just in time to run into Jason who is on his lunch break. I relay the story to him and he finds the whole thing hysterical, which pisses me off. He eventually stops laughing and tells me he is proud of me for controlling my panic and making the best out of the situation.

Day Two

Yesterday was our first full day at the Dragon Hill Lodge on Yongsan Garrison. The facilities and restaurants here are all really nice, but the rooms don't look any different than any other hotel I have ever stayed at. The worst part is, the Army is basically paying $290 a night for us to stay here. Hell for $290 a night I could get a suite at the Bellagio in Vegas! Oh well, like the saying goes: "It is not the right way or the wrong way, it is the Army way!" Right now we are being told that we will be here until the 14th and then we will be getting on a bullet train to Daegu. I think this sounds pretty neat. I have always wanted to ride on a bullet train. Once we arrive in Daegu we will find out whether we get our housing immediately or whether we will be put up in a hotel until it is ready. Since we got here Jason has been in mandatory classes from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. He swears he is bored to tears, but I would gladly trade places with him. I am stuck doing my normal job as a mother in a room the size of a closet. I took the kids yesterday and we explored the hotel and pretty much ran out of things to entertain them in about 2 hours. The coolest part about this hotel is the playground. It is MASSIVE. It is like 5 McDonald's playlands put together and towering up to three levels for the big kids, an area for smaller children with more tunnels and plastic playhouses than you can count, a half basketball court, and a meditation area. Our room overlooks this area and I made sure I took a picture of it. This kids both had a wonderful time on it. Today I think we will explore more of the base and see what all we can find to do. I read that they have something called the Family Fun Park, so we will see what that is all about.

Jet Lag

I have to say that I am very proud of myself and my children. We all survived the 14 hour plane ride to Korea without any major problems. I never have any problems with Jackson, but I was very concerned with Marley since she is 2 1/2 and that age is terrible even when not on a plane. We started out our trip at the DFW airport USO in the international terminal. Now the international terminal USO is much smaller than the regular one, but I could not have been more impressed. We were overwhelmed with all the complimentary food and drinks they provided. The gentleman that worked there even put a Disney movie on for the kids to watch. After we loaded up on goodies, we all headed out to the plane. From the time we got on that plane to the time we left I was completely blown away at the fabulous service we received on Korean Airlines. We were offered fruit and juice every two hours, the meals were wonderful, the two alcoholic beverages that we consumed were free, and there were no screaming babies (including mine)! Once we landed we breezed through immigration and customs. The only miserable part was the fact that we landed at one end of the airport and the meeting place for the military shuttles was at the other end of the airport (i swear it was a mile walk with all our crap). Once we got to the military shuttle check in we only had to wait 30 minutes before we were all on a bus and on our way to the Dragonhill Lodge. We hit a few speed bumps at the Dragonhill, but we are working them out (we hope) today. Well we are off to explore a little bit.

Family Time

We arrived safely at my parents house in Dallas after only one kid throwing up in the car. I would love to know what it is about a freshly steam-cleaned car that children are allergic to. Wednesday morning my brother came in town from New York. It was awesome to see him since we had not gotten to see him since Christmas. By afternoon he was off to the river to meet up with Jason, Jackson and my dad for the annual Father's Day camping/fishing trip. Mom, Marley and I have been enjoying our girl time at the house and getting some shopping done. The boys will be back on Sunday for a few days rest and relaxation before we head off on the long drive to Ruidoso for Jason's family reunion. I am excited about getting to see the family and getting in a little time at the casino!!

Empty House

The movers came today and loaded up all of our things that we are taking to Korea. My house looks so empty, but the kids are really enjoying hearing their voices echo. Now we just have to get the house clean and ready for renters. Jason and I went ahead and did all the touch up painting after the children went to bed so that we did not have any helpers. Tomorrow the movers will be back to pack up all the rest of our belongings that will be headed to long-term storage. I swear when we get back from Korea it is going to be like Christmas rediscovering all the stuff we forgot about.

Almost Time

Today has not been a very good day. My children are making me crazy and I just found out depressing details about our flight. We were all excited about getting to fly Korean Air since on their website they show all the coach seats as having personal TVs and power outlets. Today I found out that that is only true on the newer airplanes, and naturally we are on one of the older planes. Now it is going to be that much harder to entertain my two year old. I am so afraid that the rest of the passengers on the plane are going to come after me with pitch forks! We are two days from the packers coming to pack up my house and I have to scramble to change what I am taking in my carry-on.

Up until this point things have been running semi-smoothly. I have all of our stuff separated into three categories: military stuff, going to Korea, and staying in storage. Monday they are taking the military stuff. Tuesday and Wednesday they pack and take the Korea stuff. Thursday and Friday they pack and take the long-term storage stuff. Then I get to spend 3 nights on air mattresses while we clean our house and get it ready to rent.