BSL

I've read that there are lots of moms with this condition. It plagues your brain with thoughts of strollers, cribs, bedding, car seats and clothes all day long. And, somehow while browsing online your mouse only has access to the purchases that cannot be justified to the huz. "But look how CUTE $700 bedding is!"
I've heard it called "baby stroller lust" but in my case it's just "Baby Stuff Lust"

User Advisory Warning

Do not eat 4 Krispy Kreme's in one sitting just because your husband brought them home for you. It's now 12:45 and I feel as though I haven't slept for days.

Engrish

A friend sent me a very funny website. It's engrish.com and hilarious. These pictures are not doctored but just a picture of how difficult is can be to translate Asian languages into English, and the confusion it sometimes causes.

Check it out!

engrish.com

Change of Plans

So, the nurse called from the OB clinic today. Looks like I'm "high risk" and will be going to Seoul for my Dr. appointments. Which for me medically, that's great. A real OBGYN and possibly the Dr. that will be delivering me. It just stinks for logistics and Carter because I have to hope and pray that I can get a sitter (or a spot in the CDC) every time I have an appt. It's an all day event and just kind of a hassle to do, but if that's what's best...

Ramblings about my boring life

We had a spouse briefing today that lasted 8 hours. Luckily Cory was able to stay at home with the kiddo and there was a lot of useful information we gained. We learned about everything Korea and the base offers, which is quite a lot compared to most bases. We have all kinds of trips and activities being planned all the time. We're planning on actually venturing outside of "right out of the gate" this weekend to Yongsan. They have a furniture store, a store that military spouses put together with items they buy and ship back from all of Asia, and a lot of other Korean culture, stores, and shopping right off base. We were taught how to handle emergencies and where to go if you're sick. I learned that if you have a baby at a Korean hospital (which are very high tech supposedly) you probably won't get an epidural. More on having babies here:
I saw my NP here at Osan yesterday and am feeling a little better about the idea of having a baby over here. She was very knowledgeable and conservative and told me that considering my previous 'record' they'd be extra cautious. What normally happens here is that you see the NP here until 32-34 weeks and then they send you to Yongsan to see an actual OBGYN the last few weeks. Then, around 38 weeks they send you to live in the "Storks Nest" to wait to what my husband calls "to pickle". The NP said they'd probably end up sending me at 36 weeks just to be safe so I don't end up having to have a baby in a taxi on the sometimes 3 hour drive to Seoul. That makes me feel a lot better as well. I kept having thoughts about going early and not making it to the hospital. So far everything looks great with baby (although we had a scare - it took her two tries of about 5 minutes each to find the heartbeat, baby was hiding behind one of MY arteries) and the Chinese Birth Calendar says we're having another boy. We'll have to wait another 8 weeks until we find out for sure, but we'll see.

For dessert this evening...

we have radioactive tapioca!
This is what Cory ordered for dessert last night at a local Thai restaurant:




Carter and I really liked it actually. It tasted kind of like warm lime Jell-o tapioca . As you may have noticed I said that Cory ordered this dessert and Carter and I ate it. That's how it works when you have a pregnant wife and toddler. We eat your food.

Ashamed

I finally did something yesterday I swore I would never do. Well, indirectly swore. When these things came out, I was a freshman at the "W" and I remember seeing them in that dress store right on the corner downtown. I kept thinking to myself...Who in the world would pay that amount of money for THOSE? I mean, maybe they're cute for $5, but not $50. I hated them for a while and thought that people who wore them must have been born sans a brain. But yesterday I bought these for Carter:



While my actual promise was to never wear these on my own feet, it's just as hypocritical to let your kid wear them. But, in my own 3rd grade logical defense: Every other kid on the playground has a pair!

In the grand scheme of things...it doesn't matter because I'M PREGNANT!

The movers broke our crib. They broke the crib I spent months and months researching and looking at and deciding that I wanted, the crib that perfectly matches the other pieces of furniture in Carter's room. At first I wasn't to upset about it because I knew they were responsible and it was their job to somehow get us the same crib. It wasn't my problem, I just had to hope that Carter was going to do okay in a pack'n'play for a few more weeks. I found out that now...it IS MY PROBLEM. They're going to just cut us a check for the value we declared and it's our job to get a crib over here. Granted, the Koreans have cribs, the bx has some cribs. BUT THEY'RE NOT THE RIGHT ONES! What luck when we found OUR CRIB in the bx catalogue..only to be followed by a disclaimer "can only be shipped to CONUS addresses". But, we're smart and we asked the bx if they could special order it for us and the Korean guy said it would take 30 months. 30???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? My stomach fell out of it's rightful place an onto the floor of the bx, and someone had to call for a cleanup. Just kidding, but seriously. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter that Carter won't have matching furniture and his room will look like his mother must have had some serious issues with decorating that Martha Stewart herself wouldn't even pity? No...but that doesn't matter right now because I'm a hormonal pregnant woman and the only thing that occupies my mind ALL DAY is baby stuff. And if I have to get a second rate crib in a different color than that will be what is one my mind ALL DAY until we get him new furniture when he's like...a teenager. Granted I can get this new baby the SAME COLOR second rate furniture...A plus right?
Luckily, holding back some tears we found a Korean lady that spoke better English and asked her the same question. She told us it would take 3 months, not 30 and I feel a lot better about the situation. In fact I'm quite happy with it now. But, what if we didn't have a brand from the bx that they could order? What about people to come who's cribs will break and then they will be pregnant and cry over the fact that their life is ruined, like I almost had to. I want to run to the top of S. Korea and yell to all mommies out there, "I hope you have a brand of baby furniture that the bx sells in case the movers break it on your way here! If not, get one because there are not enough jars of Kosher Dill Pickles to make this better."







**I just want to add that we (me and my familiy) are extremely fortunate people with a roof over our heads and plenty to eat. We have a lot to be thankful for. I just wanted to point out that sometimes no matter how grateful of a person you are...being pregnant sometimes makes mountains out of mole hills...omg, kind of like Korea.

A blessing in disguise

I just found out that one of my very, very good friends is being stationed here in Osan. She's my first real AF friend, she's the first friend I shared motherhood with. She's also the friend I've shared too many alcoholic beverages with at times. She's definitely a girl with a very special place in my heart. She e-mailed me to call her yesterday with the news. Now, you're thinking this is fabulous right? Well, it is..kind of. They weren't due to PCS (due to move) for over another year. And, now all of the sudden they have 4 months to pack up their lives at travel halfway around the world. I'm ecstatic that she's going to be here to witness the birth of my second child (just as she was there for the first), I'm ecstatic her husband will now not deploy. But, I know they've just been thrown into a tailspin. What do they do with their house (that they just bought)? The cars? Their very very large dog? The huz and I at least had planned on going to Korea for about a year, got orders when we were supposed to and had time to take care of everything the way it should be taken care of. They won't have that luxury. I want to make this trip as easy on them as possible. I don't know exaclty why I'm even sharing this. Maybe to vent at the way the AF works sometimes, maybe to ask my family that reads this to keep her in their prayers, or maybe to work out my emotions on the whole subject. I feel torn to pieces for her. But as we talked on the phone yesterday, we both know there's a reason she's coming, and it's a blessing in disguise.

A day worth forgetting

If I haven't mentioned yet that inprocessing here could take your entire military career, then...well, now I have. Trying to sign up for a spouse orientation today I hit just one more roadblock. But see, in the US this would have been a tiny pebble that one steps on or over or kicks to the side of the road. But here, you would have thought I ran into the great wall of China. Did I mention we don't live there, so that's not possible. To set up child care, you have to be registered at the CDC here (no that's not the center for disease control, it's the child development center) which is not a problem. I had already picked up the packet and just needed to drop it off with a few other things (read: an entire book of other official important documents needed to prove that I and everyone I've ever met is a US citizen and has all their shots.)
I metioned that upon arriving, Carter had hit 18 months but since I had to wait to inprocess I had to wait to enroll him in Pacific Tricare which meant I could not make an appointment until the day before, but I couldn't figure out HOW to use the phone until today, so today was the soonest I could make his appointment. However, he was 'a risk' to the other children because he was ONE WEEK LATE on his shots.
Thank God, I got an 18 month well baby appointment this morning and they informed me HE DOESN'T EVEN NEED ANY.
Not to mention that it has been raining since 6 am this monrning. Yes, we walked to the appointment in the rain. I've discovered I need a new umbrella.

And then the gates of heaven opened wide

First of all, I made a friend. Secondly, she took me to a wonderful place today: E-mart. It's about 20 minutes off base and kind of like a Korean department store/Walmart/grocery store. They have everything from clothes, groceries and toys to bunnies! Really, right next to the porcelain dinnerware, there was a display of baby bunnies! Oooh, how cute. This is definitely much more comfortable of an environment to shop in. I'm just not used to the tiny, no price tags kind of stores. It's huge (3 or 4 stories?) plenty of room, and you can ALMOST tell what things are by the pictures on the packages. They have buggies (or carts for you northerners) that you pay for and then they have magnetic wheels so when you go up and down the escalator your buggy stays put. Except it's not exactly an escalator, It's more like a moving sidewalk at the airport that goes at an angle. Here are a few pictures (I can't believe I didn't take some of the bunnies. But next time I go I promise I will) of what I bought and the surrounding area.
I really can't wait to go back.

A sedative would have been the easy way out

But we all know the military doesn't ever let you take the easy way out. If it were up to me, they'd load me and my family on stretchers, start IVs, start us on some fentanyl and versed and we'd wake up when the whole thing was done. But, then we wouldn't get to 'experience' traveling to Korea. But really, it's something I could have gone my whole life without experiencing. Not coming to Korea, just the 'getting there' part. I think every woman should experience motherhood, best friends, a bikini wax, and a full body massage....not 'traveling to Korea'. I'm sure the fact that I watched that little map thingy on my tv screen (you know-the one that shows you where you are on the globe?) the WHOLE TIME. I didn't even watch a movie - I take that back, I watched 30 minutes of Definitely, Maybe. I'm pretty sure that subconsciously I was afraid we'd make a wrong turn and end up back in the states somehow. The fact that for a long time I kept thinking, "Oh my God, if there's an emergency, the closest land mass is STILL Alaska, we'd have to GO BACK!" was clue I had lost it.
Carter cried a lot, he ate alot, he slept some. He kicked the seat in front of him a lot. How do you explain to an 18 month old, "Please stop that! The poor man in front of you might kill mommy when we land. Don't you love me enough to stop it? You don't know it now, but you would TOTALLY miss me!"
We picked up our stinky-poop covered-howling-scared-to-death-110 lb-monster at customs and somehow made it into our vehicle and on to base (thanks to our LOVELY sponsors!)
We spent the next 8 days getting over jet lag. (The dog is still not adjusted)
I'm hoping by this next weekend things will slow down and we can get back on a routine. I'm not sure if Carter's new found aggression is from being an 18 month old boy or the fact that his entire life has been flipped upside down. I'm sure the new baby thing will go over REALLY well then in Dec then, huh?