Birthday Month!

March is birthday month in our family.  It was growing up for me, too.  Lucas' birthday kicks off the month and this year he turned four.  Sometimes I still find it hard to believe he's already four.  Lucas mastered buttoning a shirt and can officially navigate the xbox better than I can.  He has a huge vocabulary and an awesome personality that make him super fun to be around.  He's always saying something hilarious and sometimes, when it's especially inappropriate, I find it hard to contain my laughter.  The other day on our walk to the bus stop we had this hilarious conversation:

M: Do you want me to carry you? It's a long way to the taxi station.
L: You know what else is a long way?
M: What?
L: It's a long way to the top if you want to rock & roll.

And the kid likes rock & roll.

One happy Birthday Boy!

Lucas woke up super early, as expected, and calmly notified us that there were presents waiting in the living room for him.  He sat and waited patiently for us, as we aren't quite the early risers that he is. 

He even humored me and let me take a ton of pictures.  :)

Lucas got his first Legos this year!  I'm not sure who's more excited, Lucas or Adam.  They both had a blast making trucks and buildings all morning.  I haven't even stepped on any Legos yet so I think that's a good sign.  Few things are as painful as stepping on a Lego with bare feet.

The Year of the Lego.

Bear wasn't too sure about being awake so early and all the commotion.  So he mouthed his trusty rhino friend to help ease his anxiety.

This happened.

Since we previously had cake at Adam's change of command ceremony and Lucas was bringing cupcakes to preschool the following day, we decided to have birthday pie this year.

And just like that we have a four year old!

Plum Farm

On Tuesday the battalion had a spouse social at Plum Farm, a local organic farm in Waegwan.  The man who owns/runs the farm is the battalion's good neighbor partner and he often invites us out to the the farm for events and crafts.  We made "napkin art" tissue holders.  It's basically like mod podge.

Napkin Art.

It was nice to meet some new people.  The colors aren't exactly my style but it was really fun.  And we made some delicious food.

We also took Lucas bowling.  There are few things cuter than baby bowling shoes.

Lucas loved it.  He bowled two games and even got to eat some bowling alley food.  The MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation) facilities are great here.  There is so much to do!  While we were stationed in the States we didn't spend much time on post because we could easily find everything we needed or wanted in the city.  Here it's the best of both worlds- we get the comforts of home on post and the experiences of exploring a new city off post.  But back to the facilities here.  There are bowling alleys, movie theaters, dining, a golf course and ACS even puts on tours several times a month.  I try to encourage people to really take advantage of everything the Army provides here because there are great resources out there.

Here's a little bit of Lucas in action:

So much cuteness in one picture.

Annyeong haseyo

I've been searching high and low for baking stuff to make cupcakes for Lucas' upcoming birthday.  He's having a Mickey Mouse party and it is impossible to find red cupcake liners.  So I turned to facebook.  There are a few facebook pages for spouses of service members stationed in Area IV (Daegu is considered Korea Area IV) and a few people recommended sam won, a baking and decoration store in Daegu.

As we were walking up to the second floor where the retail store is located, we passed a nun.  She said, "an yong" to Lucas, which means "hi."  I said to Lucas, "She said 'hi' to you.  Don't you want to say 'hi'?"  He replied, "No, she didn't say 'annyeong haseyo' only 'an yong' so I'm not going to say 'annyeong haseyo' to her."  So formal.  As a side note, I've seen annyeong haseyo spelled about 12 different ways and I'm not sure which one is correct.

Right outside Daegu Station Exit 4- go to the right and it's about a block down the street on the left-hand side.

Big selection of, well, everything cooking/baking-related.

I went in looking for red cupcake liners and left with red and black food coloring, a bundt pan (!), silicon cupcake liners, and tongs.  And left without, you guessed it, red cupcake liners.  They simply cannot be found.  So we'll be improvising and hope the cupcakes turn out well.

I was so spoiled in the US as far as finding whatever I need easily.  Here, it's much harder for me to get around.  I always enjoy the adventure getting places even though I find being a passenger terrifying.  The roads are pretty narrow and the drivers are insane.  Adam always drives or I take the bus or a taxi.  I like that.  Of course there's the language barrier so I can't easily ask someone where something is located.  The positive side of that is I really get to explore by going up and down every aisle.  I'm normally super high strung and straight to the point but I've found I really enjoy just looking around.  At everything.

After the trip to sam won, we headed to the Market in search of quilt batting.  I believe I will never tire of going to the Market.  I didn't find any quilt batting so I'll have to find a place online that will ship to an APO.

Ahhh, the Market.  I love the Market.

As we were driving back to post we passed a few furniture stores.  We've been looking for a piece of Korean furniture for our entryway so we stopped at one.  After months of searching, we finally found it!

Here it is!

Beautiful fish carved in the doors

The top

Close up of the drawers- I love all the different wood grains!

This mirror goes with it.

We think it might be a dresser, especially since it came with a mirror, but it's not very tall.  It's a little bit wider than what we were looking for initially but all three of us really love it. 

Baby Rhino's first big quilt

Using google in a foreign country is an adventure.  Today google started on English.  Sometimes I get the US version of google and sometimes I get the Korean version.  Fun times.  After a few hours, google switched to Korean.  I tried for 45 minutes to switch it back to English and somehow it ended up on Portuguese.  At least I can read that a little better than Korean.  I finally got it switched back to English.  This whole ordeal lasted all day.  

I was all set to start quilting my New Wave quilt when I discovered I don't have any batting.  I'll have to go back to the market in search of batting sometime this week.  So I've decided I'll write about some of my favorite quilts I've made in the past that I never blogged about.  I need something to do with Lukie is at preschool.

Back in February of 2011 I decided Lucas needed a big quilt for his new big boy bed.  I had never made anything larger than a lap quilt so I was pretty nervous.  I decided to use this adorable Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman collection.  I absolutely love it.  The sashing is Kona White.

I was busy.

Disappearing 9 patch

The quilt went together quite quickly.  And it just kept getting bigger and bigger. 

The back

For the back, I used up some of the remaining blocks from the front.  The majority of it is from All Star 2 by Riley Blake.  I absolutely love that line.  Lucas' favorite color is orange and that collection is a great combination of orange and blue. 

Basting in the playroom.  This thing is a monster.

I free motion quilted this bad boy.  This quilt is at least twice the size of any other quilt I'd done up to this point.  It took about 5.5 hours of quilting to complete.

I quilted "love you" - a first for quilting words

Love him.

There you have it.  My first bed-sized quilt.  It fits on a queen-sized bed but it resides on a full.  This quilt went together much faster than I thought it would.  I made the blocks and pieced the top over a week.  I was able to do all the quilting in one afternoon and bound it in one evening (not the same day as the quilting).  Since this quilt I have made three more bed-sized quilts and plan to make many more.

Lucas sleeps under this quilt every night.  This is still, and probably always will be, my favorite quilt.  So much love was put into it and it gets so much love in return.  When I first put it on his bed he would say, "Baby loves this quilt!"  He used to call himself "Baby"- so sweet.  Several times a month he will randomly tell me how much he loves it and that I made it for him because I love him.  And isn't that the way it should always be with a quilt?

Rough days

For the past six months or so Lucas has been playing "ambulance."  He's really been wanting to ride in an ambulance and yesterday he got that chance.  He was pushed from the top of the indoor play area and landed right on his head.  Apparently the sound could be heard from outside.  There are no emergency services on this post so if you need to go to the ER you have to go off post.  That means Korean hospital.  We headed over to the TMC (troop medical clinic) and they took us in an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

The doctor believes Lucas may have a minor concussion.  He's in a great mood and is his usual chipper, chatty self.  He doesn't have any neurological symptoms so hopefully he continues to do well today.

Korean hospitals are different, to say the least.  Most of them are equipped with an International Clinic that has English speaking translators.  Normally if you go to the hospital for anything you'd go to the International Clinic and they assist you.  We arrived in an ambulance so we went straight to the ER.  Luckily the doctor we saw today spoke very good English and we didn't need a translator.  People are everywhere.  Super sick people.  They don't pull the dividers between the beds or anything.  Lucas thought that was great and I thought it was terrifying.  I don't think people visit the ER here unless they are literally dying.  The hospitals are always super crowded which can be a bit intimidating but the good thing is that a lot of people are actually getting treated. 

Rest and Mickey Mouse- doctor's orders.

Lucas can now cross Ambulance Ride off his bucket list.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, the neighbor's dog attacked poor Bear through the fence and tore his dewclaw.  Blood everywhere.  The vet on post was closed when this happened and there aren't any nearby emergency vet clinics.  These are the things I really took for granted in the States.  We've been wrapping his paw and it seems to be okay.  We'll check it again in the morning and see if he needs to see the vet. 

Bear's blood covered baby rhino.

.

Sad pup.

Rough day for the little guys in this house.

Seomun Market

One of my absolute favorite places in Daegu is the Seomun Market.  Anything you can imagine can be purchased there- purses, clothes, food, housewares, etc.  There is tons of fresh produce and seafood.  And there's a lot of dried fish, too.  I believe the dried fish are used for making broth for soups but that's something I probably won't try.  There are even dried bugs for medicinal purposes.  Another thing I probably won't try.  You can get a hanbok made and they are beautiful.

There tons of booths where you can have a hanbok made.  You can choose any color and any fabric you wish.  Amazing.

Not surprisingly though, my favorite part of the market is the fabric!  Daegu is a large textile manufacturing city and many of the fabrics I bought in the States are actually manufactured in Korea.  That excited me before we moved here and it has certainly lived up to my expectation.  The fabric at the market is pretty random but if you look hard you can find lots of good stuff. 

Lots of good stuff- about 10 yards worth of good stuff.

I can't control myself and usually leave with yards of random fabric.  Most recently I bought about 3.5 yards of fabric to possibly be the backing for a quilt I started a year and a half ago.  I made that quilt out of scraps and have been waiting for the right backing to come along.  Everything I found felt like I was settling.  That was the first quilt top I made just to make and use up scraps.  I didn't have a recipient in mind but I'm thinking I'll keep it.  My husband made me an awesome quilt rack and it needs more quilts!

Hello, Quilt Back!

I think I finally found my quilt back!  Now I just hope I can find time to finish it.  I was worried about being bored during the day while the Lukester was at preschool but as it turns out I've got plenty of stuff to do!

Every trip to the market has been very successful.  I realize I use the word "amazing" to describe a lot of things here but there's no better word for it.  I was really worried about moving to Korea because I'm a homebody and always liked being a quick plane ride away from home.  This is definitely out of my comfort zone but I'm grateful for the opportunity to explore this part of the world.

I can't go to the market without buying some adorable pajamas.

Donghwasa Temple

The weekend before last we went to Donghwasa Temple in Daegu with Tyler and Michelle.  Lucas absolutely loves them.  He's already planning what will be in their party bags when his birthday rolls around.

All of us near one of the smaller buildings.

Apparently we only like to visit temples when it's freezing cold and snowing.  When we left the house it wasn't too bad but within 20 minutes of driving the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and it started snowing.  But we were committed!  Afterall, we only have two years in this country.

That waterfall is frozen.  It was cold.

So much work goes into painting the temples.  They are just beautiful.  I can't even imagine the time and patience required to create something like this.  The pictures don't even do the colors justice.

It's very cool that all of the temples are still used.  There were many practicing Buddhists worshipping at this statue.

This Buddha statue is 17m tall.

This is another place we will definitely visit again when the weather is warmer.  Lucas always wants to be carried when it's cold so I carried him up and down flight after flight of stairs.  None of the stairs here are a standard size so it was killer for my legs.  Plus, I was constantly in fear that we'd both tumble down 30 or so stairs as my feet went to find a stair that just wasn't there.  I guess I always just assumed stairs were pretty standard but my experiences here prove otherwise. 

We spent several hours there but once I had to go to the bathroom, it was time to leave.

Common bathroom- game over

Many bathrooms here are basically holes in the ground but they flush.  You have to get your toilet paper before you go in the stall then hope & pray you don't pee all over yourself.  I certainly wasn't prepared for this.