Go big or go home

The day after we arrived in the States, Clay thought he'd surprise everyone by sitting up AND getting his first tooth.








So a kudos goes to Cory, who knew better than me, Clay was getting ready to sit up.

Milk was a bad choice

I forgot how excruciatingly hot it is here in Texas. Plus, when you have to drive everywhere, you get in and out of a hot car and in and out of air conditioned buildings. I don't think your body ever regulates so you just end up being so hot all the time!

It's so sunny here, today will be 104 degrees! The skies are so blue and all the colors are so vivid!
The grass is green, the people all speak English and the food is amazing!
My first American meal was Chick-fil-a, and I ate mine AND Carter's meals.
The next was Panda Express, followed by another Chick-fil-a and Sonic.

Don't worry, I'll try not to be too grossly obese when I return home to Osan. The jet lag has been helping me get out a run at 6am before it's too hot. Although, I'm pretty sure my children will never sleep through the night again.

Our flight here was the worst consecutive 16 hours of my life, a story I'll save for a later time and I've really enjoyed spending the last few days with family.

I've already been to Target twice, the mall once and feel like a squirrel storing up for winter. I have to buy it all NOW IN CASE THEY RUN OUT!
But alas, this is not the Osan bx, and there is excess of everything.

I'll post some more specific blogs later after I get some decent sleep and can think in comprehensive sentences.

4th of July

We've had a great weekend so far. Cory has a four day weekend and we started off with a trip to Everland!
We went with several friends and had a blast!

The kiddos all had a great time riding rides and eating ice cream. Bevin and Christina even watched all the kids so the rest of us could ride the T-Express.

We started with a ride on the tulips:



Followed with a favorite, Flash Pang Pang:



We caught a parade at 3:00 that none of us had ever watched. Not until the parade started did Cory announce as he is reading the brochure, "Hey guys, It says they use like 800 gallons of water in this parade!"

Hmmm....

Needless to say we were all a little wet.

Then, off to lunch for some delicious:



The kiddos having a good time



Mac Daddy



Yesterday was Liberty fest here on base. Of course what better opportunity to dress the boys alike?

I think Clay's going to be a blondie!








We were eating right by the loud live music, so we came prepared...



Sorry we didn't get any family photos, but it seems like Cory and I only spent a few minutes together. We traded off catching up with friends, getting food and chasing Carter.

Bowling

Or, well, karate. However you look at it.

O+

I've got a long list of things to do before I head to the states in a week. Some of that includes

• getting a POA for the dog
• making sure Clay can re-enter the country when we come home since there is no record of him "coming in". That requires a special stamp on his passport, and I'm a slacker and haven't gotten him one yet. And don't look down on me because I haven't done it yet. It takes like a whole novel's worth of paperwork. Who has time for that?
• making sure everyone's shots are up to date
• picking up Clay's Echo and Chest x-ray films
• PACKING

But one thing not on my list was getting a kajillion tubes of blood drawn.
As most of you remember, I had a blood transfusion back in September.
They told me back in February, during an interesting phone call, that because Korean blood is not regulated by the FDA I'd need to come in and have some bloodwork done, just to check everything out.
They assured me , after a few momets of panic, that Korea DOES test their blood, but the FDA doesn't test it. I need to be tested for about a kajillion different diseases. Woohoo!

I had the blood drawn in February, and got the results back two weeks ago. I was in the clear! No mad cow, hepatitis or the hiv. Woohoo! I wasn't really too concerned (after all the Flight Doc didn't seem to be.)
But I got a phone call today saying I needed to come in and have MORE blood drawn because of the transfusion.
This nice gentleman informed me that I can't just rely on one test. I have to be tested at 3, 6, 9 months and 1 and 2 years. WHHHHHHAAAAAAT?
Are you kidding me?
While I'm a pretty laid back person and have lots and lots and lots of faith in the medical community, I really don't like the fact that I'm always going to have that little worry that something could show up in a year! Or two years!?
I know the AF wouldn't have let me go to this hospital and get a transfusion if they didn't think it was safe. I trust them, I really do.
But it still doesn't take away that small maybe, that worry that will be in the back of my head until I have my final blood draw.

You know, we just like to keep life interesting.

7 months

So I'm only a few days late this time around! Clay turned 7 months old on Thursday and is just as happy as ever.
Granted, he is wanting to be held a lot, so cooking dinner time isn't his favorite time of day. But really, all he wants is for someone to hold him and talk to him. He is so content to just "be".

I think this picture sums up his happy little life just fine.



He is rolling over really well, sleeping on his tummy, still pretty far from sitting up on his own. Cory keeps thinking he is "really close". but I'll attribute that to he fact that he's never raised a 7 month old before. When Cory met Carter, he was already crawling and eating table food. SO, the stage we're in right now is completely foreign to him. Although I have to say, he's doing a great job! He's a natural. I'm glad he's my baby daddy...well, and my husband too I guess. :)

Dream House

This morning, Carter really wanted to color with Dad. They sat outside on the porch and each drew a picture.
I think the apartment living is getting to the both of us and prompted Cory to draw a nice big house (that I would love to live in!)
However, on closer inspection of the picture I realized that when we move into this house one day, we'll also be gaining two new pets.



WE'RE GETTING PET LOBSTERS!

I can't wait.