dinner adventure...

on the way back to the coffee shop from the art market paul and i wandered up and down many little streets and looked at all sorts of shops, restaurants, and such as we went. paul found an italian restaurant that he had seen online while during his research. we ended up working most of the afternoon and early evening at the same coffee shop. i had another iced peppermint tea and a super duper yummy ceasar salad. it began to rain while we were there along with thunder and lightning too. at about 6pm when there was a break in the weather we decided to pack up and get some dinner. we went back to the little italian place that we had found. it is a really cute little place. it is almost like a house and reminded me a lot of the star pizza on shepherd. paul got pasta and i got margarita pizza. both were yummy and had great prices. today was a great day! paul and i had fun exploring the hongdae area and just hanging out. now we are at home and paul is watching "sunday night football" on the TV. we think it was last week's game, but who knows. the part that i like is that john madden is commentating which reminds me of home. silly, i know. the little things you don't realize that can remind you of home. hee hee!

the weekend....

it's sunday afternoon and paul and i have thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. yesterday we were homebodies all day. i don't think paul liked it as much as i did, but he obliged. we slept in and then just hung out at the apartment in our PJ's all day. it was fabulous! we watched many episodes of west wing and also stayed up late. it was a nice day.

this morning we slept in again, but decided to venture out for brunch and a working spot. paul did some online research for places to eat in hongdae. hongdae is the area in front of hongik university which is the cool art school in seoul that is near us. we took the subway here although it does not take that long to walk. paul found a neat little waffle/pancake place that was way cool to have brunch at. it is tucked away in an alley and we would have never found it had paul not done research. it was yummy though. i had a d'avant waffle that came with fresh fruit and syrup. paul had a waffle with egg, tomato, and bacon on it. both were really yummy and the atmosphere was cool too. i really love this part of town b/c it is ecclectic and artsy. reminds me of the montrose/museum area that we used to live in when in houston. after brunch we went to the hongdae art open air market in the park. it is small, but i am sure most of the folks there are students or just local artists. i love going. i can always find something nifty and the prices are good since they are students or "little people" (my tag name is local artists that are not the big time). i got some cool photo cards from this one girl who i loved her work and idea. all the cards i bought are photos from the bamboo forest i have been to in the southern part of korea. i want to frame the cards and use them to decorate with. i also got a card for a friend too. she has some great work! paul got a painted hat like i have from there, but his hat is grey with a red fish like design on it. very cool. i also did some christmas shopping there too.

now we are in this cool little coffe shop/cafe in hongdae working. i am updating blog, responding to emails, and doing other odds and ends. i also need to watch the most recent episode of private practice and grey's anatomy. paul is drinking a caffe latte and i am having an iced peppermint tea. so fun! the life we have in seoul............

turning over a new leaf.....

as of yesterday (monday) i am being more aware of how i treat my body........

i started journaling everything i eat and also started walking in the mornings. the alarm clock goes off at 5:45 am and i am on the field walking laps at 6:04ish. i started this week just walking 20 minutes. the hardest part is not the walking, but getting out of bed. ugh! it has been good though. the weather has cooled off too which can be a reason to stay under the warm covers, but i have not caved in yet even though paul is lying there all snuggly warm when i get up. that is so hard. the best part is even though the alarm goes off paul usually sleeps through hitting the snooze button. he really can sleep through almost anything. this morning he asked me if he had turned off the alarm, and i told him he had. too funny.

so far i have been mindful of the food intake. on sunday to help the cause i made the first loaf of whole wheat bread in our breadmaker. oh my it is absolutely yummy! i do think everyone should get one and make bread all the time. it is so easy----dump in the ingredients and hit the start button. approximately 4 hours or so later you have a yummy loaf of bread. gosh it is sooo good. i was really thrilled about eating my lunch today b/c of the bread.

i would ask for prayers to stay with the new leaf. i know it is hard and i get discouraged easily. paul has been a great support so far. he made fun of me today for eating my lovely sandwich while he ate thai at a restaurant. :)

highlights....

so this past week was an up and down. for the most part things were good. i was really tired most of the week which made everything else a little more sensitive. we did not do much during the week. we had pizza this week which is my favorite.....YUM! thursday evening joann and i played a mean game of scrabble. it was a lot of fun and i royally kicked her bum. my highest score ever--303! it was so fun! my great play got me 51 points....thank goodness for being able to add an "s" to the end and play off that word too. woo hoo! paul went out to dinner with the guys on thursday night and tried a mandu place in yonhi-dong. he loved it and had fun. friday night paul and i went on a date to itaewon for italian. that was nice. we felt like all our time lately had been busy and no QT with each other. we had fun even though the restaurant was just ok.

on saturday, leslie, jen, paul, and i went on the USO tour of the DMZ. this was really interesting. we had to wake up REALLY early since we had to be at the USO for 7am. ugh! we left our apartment at 6am. it was crazy early. it took about an hour to get to the area near the DMZ and then we went to the joint security area where the UN security command is. this is where the north and south meet face to face and share a space. we went to the "freedom house" and then into the MAC building which is where the "talks" are held. the building is half on the south side and half on the north side. the MDL (military demarcation line) runs through the middle of the building. the MDL is the actual line divinding the north and south. the DMZ is the area on both sides. it is wild. we only saw one north korean soldier who was standing outside their building on the other side. the tour here at the JSA was led by a US Army Sargeant. i will share more details in a blog just for the trip. i took loads of pics so i will upload those soon too.

in the afternoon paul and i rested after the long day of touring and history. today we slept late and went to lunch with friends for indian and then the boys went for coffee and the girls went to the store and home. when i got home i made a dessert---chocolate pecan pie bars---to take to buffie's for dinner. she was making a turkey dinner with all the fixings. it was sooo good. i brought the bars to make up for the pecan pie factor. :) i also made my first loaf of whoel wheat bread in the breadmaker. it smells really good, but i have yet to cut into it. i am waiting until tomorrow.

i have been watching grey's anatomy and private practice! it is such a great highlight of my week. paul and i are also watching episodes of west wing. west wing has joined my list of favorite TV shows. we are almost finished with season one. such great TV!

school is going well. the 4th grade is waiting to move into the newest part of the elemntary building. it is moving right along, but we are not sure of the final moving date. the last date we were told was oct. 20th, but i am not sure if that is still the case. last week was korea week so the week was pretty hectic and from the teacher's point of view not very productive. we did get things done just had many interruptions throughout due to activities planned. the kids saw traditional korean dance, made korean pottery, saw a tae kwon do demonstration, listened to story telling, dressed up in their hanboks, and enjoyed korean games and snacks. it was fun.

i think the highlight of the week was on tuesday when we had a visit from a blackhawk helicopter pilot, captain mcray. his wife is interning with the counselor in the ES and he had come up to school to visit with their daughter. i had mentioned before how cool it would be for him to come talk to the class. i mean how often do you get to meet a helicopter pilot? so tuesday he dropped by and he even brought a video from their mission to pakistan to help with the earthquake in 2005. it was incredible. after the video, he spent at least thirty minutes talking to my kids and answering their questions. it was awesome! he also signed autographs too. the kids were thrilled. i am not sure who was more excited the kids or me.

the update....

since my last blog on sept. 11th a lot has happened.....

paul came back from his two week trip to san francisco for work, we saw the movie bourne ultimatum, celebrated my 30th birthday out with friends for dinner at the wood and brick, had a week off for chu-sok break (korean thanksgiving), went to lotte world, ate a picnic lunch at gyeongbuk palace, watched the seasons premiere of grey's anatomy with friends and a celebratory brownie cake, watched the new private practice premiere, attended some really great techonology inservices at school, had an evaluation observation from my principal, ate indian food 4 times, ate dinner with friends, slept in, and spent the day with paul at seven monkeys coffee shop in edae reading my book while he worked.

i know that i have been out of touch, but i am trying to find a solution. please be patient with me and i am going to be better about posting blogs more regularly too.