Happy Mother's Day!

 Daechoong Mama is a great friend of mine.  We actually go to the same church.  Her kids and mine are buddies.

She put together a Mother's Day Video that was shown at our church.  Follow the link below to her blog to watch.  She's an amazing mom who did an amazing job.  Not Daechoong at all.

http://daechoongmama.blogspot.com/2013/05/happy-mothers-day-everyone.html?spref=fb

Yes, my head came out GiNormous!

gone fishing at Ho`omaluhia Botanical Garden

Yes. Housing cost is crazy here in Hawaii, and you have to pay an extra dollar or two or everything because it's all shipped in...but having fun has definitely been easy on our pockets compared to other places we've been.  All beachdom is public and free, so are beautious hiking trails, and rainbow watching.

A couple of weeks ago we found another amazing place. No entrance fee. No parking fee. And they even lend you the poles for free.  Ho`omaluhia Botanical Garden sits in beautiful Kaneohe. We wanted to take the kids fishing.  There's lots of beach around, but an internet search brought up this jewel of a place.

We had no idea what to expect when we got there.  Since botanical gardens don't tend to have snack bars, we took some spam musubis and drinks and chips in a cooler with blankets to sit on.  We didn't know what kind of terrain the 15 - 20 minute hike to the lake would take us over so we tried to pack light.  But somehow I kept adding stuff and ended up taking the cart we take our shopping stuff up to our condo in with us on the trail.  Next time, this won't happen.  We saw other families driving their strollers on the train, but the shopping cart didn't cut it.  Dr. J and I decided that next time, we'd only take what we could carry.

The hike to the lake was beautiful!  Seriously, the beauty of this place amazes me.  I think I felt so depressed in other places because I'm used to getting this dose of beauty every single day.  I know other places are beautiful...but THIS beauty is what my soul craves.

Before getting to the lake, there was a cozy building next to the parking lot of displayed on local art about nature, and also let you borrow fishing poles to take with you.  They gave us a cute map too, so we wouldn't get lost.

But really, we just had to follow the stream of people.  Fishing is only allowed on weekend days from 11 to 2.  So about the time we went, other families and groups, armed with poles and coolers were making their way over the trail to the lake, too.

Once at the lake, everyone found a spot and made house (the local way of saying "got comfortable").  The kids didn't have to eat their lunch because they'd quickly devoured their shares of musubi while waiting for their daddy to get the poles.  So, they were good to go.

Altogether 8 fish were caught. We soon learned what the thrill of a catch felt like.

But it was just as fun to let them go and watch them swim away into giddy freedom.

For bait we used bread and hot dogs.

It was an amazing day of simple outdoorsey fun.

Of course, when it was time to go...we had to hike back.

 That, apparently, was not so fun.  Still free, but not fun.

Mother Father Not-so-Gentleman

Have you seen the follow up to Gangnam Style?  
Flip on over to Kimchi Mamas and read what I had to say about PSY's new music video.  You know, especially because Jun's second grade teacher is playing the song for them in class and teaching the dance to them and everything.  Oy.

All creatures great and small

This past Sunday Dr. J and I woke up and just knew that our family needed a time out.  The past few weekends we'd been running around to lessons and weddings and birthdays and playdates and night outs and business openings and pantry/refrigerator filling missions and just general out and aboutness.  Some of these things we took the kids to, some of these things they were not expected at my mother and father thankfully did some extra loving duty and kept them busy.  It was fun while it was going on, but Sunday we woke up and just wanted to be just us.  Just wanted to listen to the kids silliness all day.  Just wanted to talk to them about stuff they wanted to talk about and maybe see if we can help them learn stuff we've been meaning to teach them.

We decided to not do anything structured.  Which mainly only meant not going to church. but. still.  Church takes up a lot of Sunday.

So.

We slept in.  Ate a lazy breakfast.  Came up with a theme and let the day flow just like we used to when we didn't have a church to go to in Korea.

We started out at the Waikiki Aqaurium.  I've posted about our charming local aquarium before.  It's not a large fancy aquarium, but there are many beautiful fish to see and it's a great way to spend a bit of time.

now they are old enough to use the electronic tour guide things.  they have special kidster ones!

I was calling this a Rock Fish.  But it is a Frog Fish.  Toad Fish?  Something like that.

Done with seeing beautiful creatures from the sea, we realized we were hungry.  So we hiked over to the nearby Honolulu Zoo.  We have a membership there so sometimes we'll pop in just to run around in their amazingly pretty green space.

This day, before playing, we indulged in some lunch.  Dr. J and I had some burgers while the kids enjoyed the kid's meal. 

spam musubi, fruit punch, animal crackers, and a flamingo key chain.

I guess it's not a typical kid's meal.  I think they offer corn dogs too, but this option always does the trick. 

Then after a whole bunch of time running around in the wide open green lawn and climbing on the playground equipment at the center of the zoo, the kids finally wandered over to see some animals.  Dr. J and I lazily followed.  We let them lead.  For the last few weeks they followed us too and fro and were told to be quiet.  This day we let them talk and ask questions as much as they wanted and followed them around for a change.  They asked about God and animals, and lizards giving live birth (it happens!  skinks!  who knew?), whether we can take an egg home to hatch if we find one (um, no.), how exactly they get skunks to not make stink farts anymore (what exactly does the surgery take out, just bad air?), do the sheep in our kiddie zoo yell like people? how come God only made it so only people could talk?  Why did God dress up the boy peacocks?  Why are there more girl peacocks than boy peacocks?  I'm not kidding folks, these were the questions.  And on and on...

It made me think a lot about how different our lives were in less than a year since we'd come back to the islands.  Our lives are fuller here because we know more people here and we are putting down roots.  Our days definitely feel richer.  But there's only so much hours in a day and when enough of it gets divided up there is sometimes no more left for each other.  It doesn't happen often but I remember the first time it did happen......

I realize the kidsters are in different clothes here and it's because it was take on a different day.  But it's at the same zoo!  and I'm using this picture because I don't have one of them running around or jumping or anything because I mostly but my phone away and ran with them.  =)  They looked something like this, except they had on the clothes from the other pictures from this post. 

I watched them play and patiently learn about the creatures we share our world with I thought our loud to Dr. J and asked whether we were still OK.  He said we are.  I think so too.  We are all still connected.  I still know them.  They still know me. 

The Mighty Mighty Mo

Last week we finally made it out to visit the big military ships and naval attractions we have here.  It used to just be Pearl Harbor when I was little.  You'd go into a little theater to watch the movie about the attack and then take a boat out to see the memorial, but now there's a docked submarine you can crawl through, the Pacific Aviation Museum located at those hangers that Josh Harnett and Ben Affleck dodged kamakazi planes at, and the USS Missouri Battleship.

We didn't have all day and we didn't want to rush, so we thought we'd take our time and pick one thing to visit.  Dr. J and the kids had never been to the USS Missouri so we bought tickets for just that and walked over to the area to catch the convenient shuttle over.

It was funny because the shuttle ride passes you through a base before dropping you off at the USS Missouri's entrance.  Gracie looked around from window and then turned to ask me "are we in Korea again, mommy?"  Huh?  Then I realized that we hadn't been back on a military base since we left Korea so to her seeing the familiar block like buildings and gates and fences must have triggered memories of Korea.  I assured her that Hawaii had bases and places like Korea too.  It really made me realize though how much we've left that life behind...

The ship was pretty impressive right off so it was definitely something exciting for the kids to visit.  There were guided tours offered when you got on the ship and that might be a great option for most but we figured that it might be too slow a speed for our clan.  Instead we guided ourselves around and kind of just took what we saw for what it was.  There was enough to read and figure out.  We listened in on some tour guides when we passed nearby and they seemed to be telling their group really cool stuff, so I would definitely say that if you can get a live guide, but for us....our simple tour was just right.

This is sort of how it went.

Wow!  Cool!  Here are the papers that the Japan Leaders and American Leaders signed when they decided they didn't want to fight anymore with each other.  It ended World War 2.  They signed it on this very ship.  They said sorry to each other and they have never fought again to this day.  Now our countries are wonderful friends!

Here are the guns that they fired at the planes that flew by!  Can you imagine little one person planes shooting at HUGE ships like the Mighty Mo?  But they did, and they were able to sink them, so never look down on people or things just because they are little.

There are the BIG guns to shoot at other ships because other countries have ships like this too, so really in the end since we all have big ships and could hurt each other the same, it's best not the fight.  (of course, this is the mommy tour.  Dr. J is saying "Woah!  Look at those Huge Guns!  That's so cool!  Look at them!"  and on and on.)

Wow, guys!  The Might Mo also helped Korea in the Korean War.  The very ship we are standing on also went to help the American Army fight as they helped the Korean Army.  Just like we just got back from helping to serve in Korea with the Army.  The Might Mo served there too!

Guys!  There are these doors everywhere because this ship floats on water and might fill up with water at anytime.  These doors can be air and water tight to keep the water on one side and safe air to breath for people on the other side. (I didn't know if this is exactly how these doors worked...sometimes I'd make things up.)

It was pretty neat that you got to walk around the whole interior of the ship.  We thought it would be just a little bit when we started following these little green arrows, but it just kept going on and on through the food area of the ship, the living quarters, the work stations, the medical facilities, the post offices and on and on.  We're familiar with base living so it was also fun to see that everything we see on a post was also present on a ship...just more cramped and intricately planned.

We ended our time with some lunch at the cafe at the aviation museum at the next stop on the shuttle run mostly because the lines were so long at the burger stand at the USS Missouri attraction.  A quick shuttle ride after lunch and we were back in our car and back to our regular civilian lives.

I usually have things under control...

credit: Donnapie.tumblr.com

Work life has ramped up a bit to say the least. It's gotten complicated. But challenging is good and I'm definitely learning a lot. This is good. What is also good is that I really do my best not to bring any of it home. I've been doing pretty well with that. It's been my fear that after being a stay at home mom for 7 years, my transition to a working mom would be negatively disruptive for the kids. To counter this fear, I'm all theirs as soon as I walk through the door until they close their eyes for the night.

 AND THEN, after some convo with Dr. J, I turn myself over to whatever entertainment of shame I am hooked on. It could be an episode of Grey's or New Girl on my Tivo or the latest Stephen King novel or most likely an episode (or two) of a Korean Drama I've started up. Sometimes a beer or a glass of wine goes with said entertainment...but any case this "me time" I've created works. Usually.

That is unless I embark on a rare suicide mission. One such mission happened this past Friday. Suicide mission is a term I made up for those times when I, for some crazy reason, will watch a k-drama from beginning to end in one sitting. Yes, that's hours upon hours. Yes, that's not something a reasonable person does.

In my defense, it doesn't happen that often.

Anymore.

 But this Friday, I finally started a Drama I'd heard about for awhile called "Answer me 1997" also known as "Reply 1997". By episode two, it was over. I was beyond hooked. I don't know how people waited for each episode when this was run in real time week to week last year. It has the entertainment and throwback value that A Gentleman's Dignity did, the characters are all loveable, the love story line is very (eh hem) acceptable....okay it's HOT....., and there is some good social commentary. I was in college in 1997 and the soundtrack is filled with songs that were popular in the 90's so the nostalgia factor was high watching this too. Oh, and if you've been watching Korean dramas and listening to Korean music from the 80's and 90's you will be gifted with references and visual easter eggs which is just fun.

I really watched it straight through.  episode after episode.  strategically.  completely.  thankfully the ending was awesome.

I am a nut, but I crawled into bed at 2 (okay maybe it was after 2) in the morning, a completely satisfied nut.

It's back to work and school tomorrow.  Thank goodness I hit PLAY on Friday instead of today.  Gotta look at the positives.  A huge pot of dakdoritang (korean chicken stew) (not so spicy so the kids can enjoy) is bubbling away on the stove for dinner and leftover lunches during the week.  The weekends go waaaaay too fast.

Five!

I'm pooped.  Gracie turned 5 today.  FIVE!  I don't know why, but using up a whole hand of fingers always gets me.

For Gracie, today it happened and we threw a party for her.  She was up at the butt-crack of dawn telling the whole condo "It's my birthday!  I am five!  You must listen to me today!"  And we did.  We listened to her say this to us very loudly, all day.

The picture above is from the little party we held in our condo's party room.  A lovely group came together to celebrate and bless Gracie as she headed into whatever adventures her fifth year had to offer.  The funny thing is, at the main event of the party, the part she waited and waited for after much homemade Korean food as had by all - the candle part - she got all shy.  So cute.  But the candles were blown out, ice cream was eaten, presents unwrapped and merriment was had by all.  It was a good little time.  Good enough to cause much tired nonsense towards dinnertime and bedtime a whole hour early.

Oh, and I would HIGHLY recommend those cupcakes.  I've made birthday cupcakes from scratch before that were really good and if you have time you totally should, but if you don't and you like to actually enjoy a good cupcake you should get these!  yum!  I got them at cake couture.  Just vanilla and chocolate for this party because I wanted to keep it simple for a kid's birthday, but my favorite is their black and white, and lemon. (note: cake couture has not sponsored this post in any way.)

Anyway, now I have a five and seven year old.  No more babies.  Not even a little bit.