The MOTHER Of All Catch-Ups!

Here's the deal. It's late at night (or very early in the morning, more truthfully). I am pretty darn tired, but I promised myself I'd get these pictures up this week since the passage of only 13 more days will mark SIX MONTHS we've been in Korea and I still haven't posted the pictures of our apartment! I will get out next week to take pictures of the neighborhood where we live and work and play, but for now here's some pictures of everything since last December. On your mark...

...get set...

...GO!

Wyatt, in what I believe is the most awesome self-portrait EVER. His expression in this picture never fails to make me laugh.

Christmas Eve jammies and slippers! They have both grown about an inch since I took this picture.

The selections bar attached to the toilet in the master bathroom. The illustrations crack me up!

Master closet with vanity. I love not having to do my makeup in the bathroom.

Master Bedroom with Skeeter

Kitchen

More kitchen. Excuse the water bottles everywhere. Most Koreans won't drink tap water, and bottled water can be purchased for quite cheap pretty much everywhere. I am not most Koreans, however, and drink the tap water all the time. I give the kids bottled or purified though, just in case there really are heavy metals in there...

My ridiculously teeny oven. You know those huge awesome jelly roll pans? They won't fit in there- not even close. I had to buy new baking pans and cookie sheets when we got here. Oven baking isn't huge here apparently, but you'd better believe you can go to Lotte Mart (the equivalent of Walmart or Target) and drop 500,000 won -almost $500- on a rice cooker!

Front room with kiddos playing.

Front room again.

Looking down the hall to the entryway. Yes, I shipped my piano seven thousand miles. When the military moves you overseas, you are authorized a certain amount of weight they'll ship based on the service member's rank. We were authorized 6,000 pounds- and when the movers estimated we were around 5500 I had to choose between my treadmill and my piano...which was really hard, as you know I love and need both. You can see who won!

Kids' bathroom

Jana' s room

Koreans have a very different notion of closet space. Makes for good toy storage though!

Wyatt's room.

Entry/Mud Room. Whenever we come home we stop and take our shoes off and the kids say, "Mom, we're in the house's mouth!" and when we walk down the hall to the front room they announce, "And now we're in the house's tummy!" They make me laugh.

I will just add here that there is another bedroom that we use as an office since it has no closets at all- but it was way too messy to share a picture online!

Skeeter peeking out the door to see why I'm standing on the landing. To the left of the door is a camera, and when someone rings the doorbell it sends a live view to the screen on the wall in the front room (below) so you can see who is there. Very high-tech, and so is the alarm system. On the door is a keypad too, so we get to punch in a code every single time we want to come in. Huzzah. 

The mounted remote is for the air conditioning unit, and the thermostat is for the heat. This place has so much fun technology. Even my fridge plays a cute little ding-dong song when it's left open too long.

A view out the main door into the "parking lot." I swear, when people are constructing housing here, they pack the buildings in as tight as they will fit and then throw in parking as an after thought. I have yet to go anywhere in Korea where I thought, "Gee, look at all the parking, there's plenty for all!" When we go to the big 7 story shopping mall in Pyongtaek, there are several people on every level just for directing traffic. Crazy!

American washer and dryer, clearly not meant for this Korean laundry room. I have to do an awesome shimmy-dance to get to the washer.

This was just cute, everyone fell asleep in Jana's bed at storytime.

The front window as it was decorated for Valentine's Day. Wyatt is becoming a pretty handy little photographer!

Jana doing yoga on the Wii. Whenever she wears those pants she goes around singing "Rainbow bum!" all day. She is so darn cute!

Happy 5th Birthday, Optimus Prime!

Mommy and Wyatt (and Lovey) snuggling. I threw this in to prove I still exist!

Hooray, I've been meaning to do that for a long time! I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of my Korean abode. I also hope you are all enjoying a lovely Easter weekend and are happy and healthy and getting adequate rest and and lots of fluids and eating plenty of leafy greens and enough chocolate to keep you going! We love and miss our dear friends and family, but we really are loving it here. Stay tuned for pictures of next week's trip to the Demilitarized Zone (you know, if the North Koreans will let me take any pictures...?)!