Wow, it’s been a long time

Yeah it’s been ages since I’ve been on this blog. I’ve just been so busy with the house, crochetting, writing, and well life.

But I just had to spare some time to help support a few friends who just published a book on the amazon kindle.  What the Fantasy

It’s a pretty funny parody comic. Anyway, they put a lot of work into it and it’s great. I’m proud of them and just wanted to brag.

Anyway, if you have the time check it out. Maybe you’ll laugh as much as I did.

 

Home Makeover: The master bedroom

It has been ages!!

Let’s see, since last I posted we have moved out of our basement apartment and into our new home (though it isn’t new, but new for us).

Here is what our house looked like when we moved in:

The Living Room

The Dining Room

The carpet is hideous.  It is stained and gross and it is the same icky blue carpet through the entire house.

Plumbing issues here, plus our fridge was a big headache to clean and fix the fan inside.  Lots of wasted food ><

The Laundry Room

Plumbing issues in here too due to a large water softener system that was broken.

The Master Bedroom

Hubby started painting right after we closed on the house.

The Master Bath

These wallpapered panels make me nauseous.

Toilet problems in here

The Library

My Craft Room (or future kid’s room) and guest bath

More plumbing and toilet problems in here.

Future Baby’s Room/ Niece and Nephew’s Room/ Guest Room

Tv Room

It took us about 4 days to move all of our stuff to the house.  Since then we have had our major plumbing issues fixed.  Our master bath toilet is okay (will have to maybe work more on it later).  We still need to fix our guest toilet.  I need to get a washing machine.  I have been hand washing all of our laundry.  Takes me over an hour to wash and rinse it all out.

Here is what we have accomplished so far.

we painted the master bedroom and tore out that stained blue carpet and began to install some laminate.

Kodi is liking the new floor.

I must say home renovation is really stressful and results in hubby and I grumping at each other and me saying everything from “you butt,” to “you’re rat poop!”  (seems the house was the home of mice and even squirrels before be bought it.  Vacuumed up lots of acorns.)

But we’re still determined and every morning we’re still smiling

On the move up here, Kodi decided to lay on my shoulders as I drove the 1 hr and 30 minutes to get here.

Insanely Happy

I just had to share.  And no, I am not making this up!

Hubby, Kodi, and I took a walk today and as we were walking up the street a car drove past, stopped, then made a u-turn and came back.  The car pulled over next to us.  There were two young men in the car.  The man driving leaned out the window and said, “Are you Johnny Depp? We would like your autograph.”

We told him “no,” and he drove off.  Oh how I wished I would have said Hubby was Johnny Depp!

I was so insanely giddy after this, I think I drove Hubby nuts for the rest of our walk.

Sorry…

We made it safe and sound to Indiana!  Yeah!  Kodi did very well on the plane and he seems to be doing well with the move.

Sorry I didn’t post, we have been busy getting settled and doing some house hunting.

 

More will come later.

Heading for Indiana Tomorrow

My Hubby was being very secretive the last couple of days saying he spent a lot of money on something.  When I asked what it was, he replied “A hooker.”

At first I was totally shocked, he had never once made such a joke to me before, so I slapped him.  Well it wasn’t a hard slap in the face, just a tap.  It was a joke after all.  But it was hard enough to let him know I didn’t appreciate such humor.  After realizing it was something for the both of us, I continued the joke about the hooker.  Every text message he received, I asked snottily (but in a joking way, Hubby says I am too sweet to ever be mean and snotty), “Is that your hooker?”  Every phone call, “That must be your hooker again.”

Turns out the surprise was new wedding bands.  They are a gray band with gold on the sides.  My Hubby is the best, even if he did make a rotten hooker joke.  Seriously he really is the most perfect man!

So we still aren’t packed.  Actually at one point we were packed, but for whatever reason Hubby has unpacked everything and has left it scattered about the living room for about two days now.  I think he is having all these Eureka moments or something and has to try out all of these “brilliant” ideas on how to re- and re- and rearrange all our stuff so that everything will fit “just right” inside our luggage.  I love him.  I trust him.  Just it gives me so much stress putting things off to the last minute.  “JUST FINISH ALREADY!!!”  I feel like all I do is nag.

Okay, just now I had to vacuum out the air of a space saver bag and as I stood there sucking out the air, Hubby was punching all the lumps out of the bag.  When all else fails, using your fists always solves everything. 

Now that suitcase is .4kg over weight.  At this point I wonder if we are going to be ready to even head to the airport tomorrow.

Not only am I freaking out about my luggage, but I am just being driven crazy.  Yesterday I thought it would be fun to take a shower with my puppy.  Yeah, as I was filling up the tub, I thought “oh he will like to play in the water.”  But no, he was scared and so I bent down to pet him and hug him and when I stood up I rammed my lower back into the faucet.  Now I have a painful goose egg.  Needless to say, I am now waddling around all hunched over.

During some careful sleeping (couldn’t really move without hitting the goose egg), Kodi woke me up because he was throwing up.  I then spent the rest of the night worried about him and how he will do on the plane.

*Hubby just checked the price for extra luggage and apparently the airline has increased the prices…Just great, now I guess we have to re-pack yet again and possibly leave things behind.

So Hubby is getting ready to go see his grandma, leaving me here to stress about the luggage (he says he will call the airline later)  LATER!  LATER!  There is no time!!!  AHHHHHH!  (I am totally too stressed)

And you know the worst thing?  I have no Coca Cola!

And apparently, according to my mother-in-law, I am not allowed to watch TV and be on my laptop at the same time, so I have to say goodbye to Iron Man 2.  I feel so crabby at the moment and am afraid I am going to start showing off my crabbiness to my Hubby.  I can’t ever show my crabbiness off to my mother-in-law because I am quite terrified of her.  She may be shorter than me and older, but I have no doubt that if she wanted to she could take me out.

I just need to breathe.  I need to calm down.  I am sure everything is going to be okay.  I really want to be back in Indiana, munching on some Tombstone pizza, breathing in that nice clean air, and swiping some chocolate from my grandmother’s candy jar.  Right now I could use a big hug from my grandma, but I have to wait at least 50 some hours for that.   Probably more… or less, my math sucks.

4 more days until we head to the Airport

We have 4 more days in Korea.  I am not sure if I am happy or sad.  Probably a little bit of both plus an uncontrollable fear of flying.  I thought after the first three or four times, I wouldn’t be scared anymore.  But no, I still get scared when the day of flying approaches.

I am almost finished with tutoring.  I have a student on Friday and one on Saturday.  Saturday’s student is my favorite.  I have taught her the longest.  ^^

I finished tutoring my little kids.  Their last day was Wednesday, so I bought a lot of snacks and we played some games.  Before I left they handed me a heart shaped card that says “I Love You” on the front and back.  Inside the card they each drew a picture of themselves and a picture of me and “boy teacher” (what they always called Hubby)

From left to right there is sweet, beautiful soul Grace then good natured Jessica, and cute Sera.  Up above is Clark.  As you can see, the girls are a little bit more advanced then he is.  LOL

Toward the right is Me (don’t know which one of them drew me) and Kodi, and next is Hubby.  He totally doesn’t look that clean cut.  He is more hobo Johnny Depp… well actually he got his hair trimmed and styled a bit, so now he is more fancy hobo Johnny Depp.

 

Cute right?  oh right, can’t read Korean?  I will translate.

Teacher thank you for teaching us these last 7 months.  When you go to America stay healthy.  Because of you we are good at English.  When you go to America be happy and live well.  Teacher thank you for teaching us with a smiley face.  We love you.  Teacher learn Korean. 

Cute.

The parents bought me and Hubby a gift too.  I got a box of different types of socks and Hubby got three pairs of dress socks.  I hope they didn’t buy it because they noticed I wore the same white and yellow socks a lot or that Hubby’s socks always have holes in the toes because Kodi loves to eat them. ><  For some reason my socks (and my favorite strapless white bra) go missing here.  Well I guess it is a good thing, cause now I have a bunch of new socks.

We tried to finish up all our packing today.  At the beginning of the month,  we sent all of our books by boat (who knows when they will get to America).  And today Hubby tried to mail all of his paintings (did I mention Hubby is an artist?).  Just now he came into the bed and said “What the~~~.”  It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about.  I thought he had drank something bad, since he did have a mug in his hand.  But after some looking around, I realized he had forgotten to send one of his paintings.  Whoops.

We spent the rest of the day trying to get all my stuff to fit into my suitcases.  After hours of sighs and the many saying of “Mandoo!”s and removing some more of my clothes, I think we finally managed to get everything to fit.  I just hope those space saver bags hold.  There will be a terrible explosion should they fill with air.  I also hope my balls of yarn pop back to normal after I open their bag.  And my poor shoes!  Hubby wrapped them tightly with bubble wrap.  They are all squished and shoved into my luggage.

We also spent a while removing all the batteries from 30 door and window alarms (we buy in bulk) because we were afraid they might accidentally turn on while on the plane.  We put all the little button cell batteries in a baggy.  Later, thank goodness, Hubby was packing everything and happened to touch the baggy.  It was hot.  Guess when you put a lot of those batteries together they heat up.  Geez, can you image if our suitcase had caught fire?  All my clothes!  Needless to say, we then spent some time putting all those batteries back into the alarms, and Hubby taped all the switching so they couldn’t move.

We still have a little bit more to pack, but I think we have everything in order.  I hope…

My mother-in-law attacked me today.  I had the hiccups really bad and Roman and I were in the living room.  He was on the floor and I was standing next to the couch.  For some reason I turned and caught my mother-in-law rushing toward me with a smile on her face.  When she saw me looking she stopped and for some dumb reason I turned to look at Hubby and in that second, I felt a big thunk against my back and I was knocked onto the sofa.  As I lay on the sofa dazed and shocked.  I hear her laugh and ask (I am only guessing) if my hiccups were gone.  They were… but in their place was a dull ache in my back T_T

What did I learn from this?  Never ever break eye contact with your mother-in-law (or any wild beast) because believe me the hiccups give her a good excuse to hit you.  It’s every mother-in-law’s dream to hit their daughter-in-law.  Next time I get the hiccups, I am locking myself inside the bedroom where it is safe.

Well that’s about it for now.

I’ll just leave you with the greatest discovery of all time: spinkles!  Seriously they are the best!

The Origins of Pizza

I just needed to post this.  As you all should know or have guessed, I love pizza, so when I saw this I laughed so hard it now hurts to move my jaw.  Yeah!

 

Anyway enjoy.

Origins of Pizza

 

Now if you laughed as much as I did, then you know it is only a joke.  However, some of us may take this as fact and be really ticked off like this guy.

Oreo Cereal doesn’t flush

Tried to wake up early today, but I ended up not going to bed until 3am because Hubby and I watched The Hangover 2 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I set my alarm for 10:30, but I didn’t wake up until 11:30.  I AM SO BAD!

Hubby and I then took our showers, got dressed, and headed out to do a little shopping (I had to get some body wash, face scrub, and some other stuffs).  We ate lunch at McDonald’s of course!  And because I refused to share my French fries and coke, Hubby had to buy his own.  Last time he ended up drinking all my coke before I could even have a sip.  And I just love French fries, so I refuse to let anyone have mine.  I even steal Hubby’s fries sometimes.  Does that make me a bad wife?  I refuse to share food, but expect my Hubby to share his.

I was tempted to get the cute Puss in Boots happy meal toy, but the adult part of my brain said “no.”

After eating, Hubby got his much needed coffee and I got a rose and jasmine tea.  Only after paying did I see a picture of the organic hot chocolate with a ton of whipped cream.  My first reaction was one of utter depression, but after the crazy sugar hungry monster inside of me calmed down, the all too aware me decided the herbal tea was better and wouldn’t give me any extra jiggles where there shouldn’t be.

Outside we got a taxi and headed to the apartment where I teach my group of 8 year olds.  When I got there, none of the kids were there yet.  When they all finally came, the boy was throwing a temper tantrum.  ><  Knowing this child, I knew class was going to be difficult.  Throughout the class he was constantly throwing tantrums, he stabbed me with a sharp pencil, he tried to hit the other girls, and he was running back and forth to the room his mother was in and the living room where I teach them.  It got even worse when it came time for break and I hadn’t brought them any candy.  The boy and one of the girls totally flipped out, which made me quite angry because they were being really rude and never even say thank you when I do bring them treats.  And on the times I do bring them treats, they just complain and demand for better treats.  Today after I scolded them and tried to make them aware that candy costs money and that they should be polite and grateful, the boy demanded that I buy him ice cream next time.  ><     I think I can honestly say that I will not miss teaching this class, and hope their last 5 sessions go better.

Sigh…. This is just my frustration talking.  Of course I am going to miss them.  And I’ll worry about the boy’s development after I leave.  He has trouble expressing himself, which is why he is still throwing temper tantrums.  I have been teaching him to say, “I’m angry” which usually calms him down and keeps him from flipping out.  Just today it didn’t work so well, so I had to pull out the big guns and demanded to know if he was a big boy or a little boy.  After he told me he was a big boy and said “Teacher is a baby,” he began to laugh and was quite calm for the rest of class.

Now that I have said all that, I bet you are all wondering about my title right?  Well, I had some stale Oreo cereal, and my mother-in-law does not believe in wasting anything (eating black bananas are just gross!).  Being scared of my mother-in-law and not wanting to throw the cereal in the food trash bag (we have to separate all our trash here) because she would see it, hubby said to flush it.  But guess what?  The cereal just swirled around in the toilet bowl and never went done the hole.  I then spent 10 minutes, a plunger in one hand and the shower nozzle in the other, trying to make all those brown rings and mini marshmallows flush.  Two wet pant legs later, I was successful.

Sorry, this is random but Hubby is singing Mindnight Radio from Hedwig.  LOL Oh how I love this movie!

I am such a baby, and apparently I still haven’t gotten over watching Paranormal Activity 3 (did I mention it was a silly movie and not even scary?).  Last night, while I was showering I felt this burst of cold air like someone had opened the bathroom door.  Not expecting it, I jumped about ten feet in the air (okay that is humanly impossible, but you get the idea).  Anyway, I am not sure where the cold draft came from, but it wasn’t from the door.  And I don’t even know why I keep freaking myself out in the bathroom.  There weren’t even any real scary bathroom scenes in the movie unless it is because they did the whole Bloody Mary thing in front of the bathroom mirror.

After my shower, as I was drying off, I nearly bolted right out of the bathroom  wearing only my birthday suit when I thought I saw someone other than myself in the foggy bathroom mirror.  After calmly trying to dry off and dress, I completely lost it as I stepped out of the bathroom and into the dark living room because my traitorous imagination began to picture a zombie or just some freaky dude sitting on the sofa.  Needless to say, like a scared child, I ran from the bathroom to the bedroom.  Hubby like always just laughed.

Speaking of Hubby, he is now wearing a sock on his hand and making rocket ship noises while playing with our dog.   Our dog has a sock fetish.  He really loves the just worn kind.  I guess the smell of feet make him happy.

I AM SO OH SO BORED!

Today I have been so out of my mind, want to run around the apartment naked (cause at least that would be something new) bored.  I have done nothing but lay in bed being bored to walking to the living room and lying on the sofa being bored.  I feel so sluggish and fat.  I hate this oh so special time every single month.  I don’t know if this bored feeling is related to my menstrual cycle or if it is because I feel like I literally have nothing to do.  Okay maybe not literally (I do love to exaggerate).  I am sure if I really felt like it I could easily find something to do like exercise.  But what it all boils down to is that I am bored and don’t want to do anything.

Does anyone else have days like this when you are bored like crazy but can’t get your lazy bum up to do anything?

I really really hate days like this!

And I hate hate living in the city.  There is nothing to do here!  If we want to go anywhere we have to flag down a taxi and travel awhile.  Maybe it is because I am a small town kind of girl, but I just feel so confined here.   I like open spaces and blue skies.  I like being able to walk around town shopping in quaint little shops versus overpriced designer stores.  When I go outside I want to see trees.  I don’t want to have to take a taxi to a park just to be able to see nature.

While I am writing about things I hate, I would like to add how much I hate staying up late and sleeping until 12 everyday.  For once I would like to get up at six and actually start doing yoga again.  And it would be nice to eat breakfast.  I haven’t eaten breakfast in a year.   I have forgotten what biscuits taste like.  T_T

So why am I feeling so bored today?  Probably because of my menstrual cycle, but it could also be because all the things that had been taking up my time are now over.  For the last month I had been busy looking for houses, putting in an offer, decorating it on the Sims, staying in contact with the realtor, and finally cancelling the contract.  Now that I have put my husband in charge of looking, and wanting to wait until we get to Indiana to look at houses, I just have no purpose.

With all this free time I should be finishing up my blanket and a decorative pillow for our bed.  I also need to finish Hubby’s sweater and my sweater.  I also have to figure out how I am going to get everything to fit in one suitcase because my other one if already full.  I wonder if I can sneak some stuff in Hubby’s luggage. o.oa  Maybe that is mean, but I am a girl and we all know a girl needs everything because everything IS important. I really should go back through my millions of clothes and leave more behind.  Oh it breaks my heart.  I don’t want to be without a single piece.

I have to prepare for my classes tomorrow some time before bed.  Hubby and I have to travel (by taxi) for about 30 minutes to get to another apartment where I teach English to a group of four eight-year-olds.  The class lasts an hour and thirty minutes then Hubby and I travel back home where I have a third grader come to the apartment for an hour and thirty minutes.  It wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have to travel those 30 minutes there and back.  Don’t get me wrong, I usually love long car rides in my home state, but who can like long car rides in a big city where there is nothing to see but many of a fashion faux pas and the car next to you trying to come into your lane and nearly crashing into your taxi.  And I just love it when the taxi driver runs the red light and nearly hits a pedestrian.  >< By the time I get out of the taxi, my shoulders are hunched up to my ears and my tummy is twisted in knots.  Stress gives me the worst posture ever.

At least I can look forward to McDonald’s tomorrow.  And I wonder why I feel fat?  I promise I will eat healthy in America.  Really I promise!  It’s just my kind of food is really hard to find here.  I can’t eat spicy so that means I can’t really eat anything, which is why I can’t wait to go home.

I did eat a little healthier for dinner.  My mother-in-law cooked duk gook which I find to be pretty yummy.  I should really learn to cook some Korean food for Hubby, because I know he will probably miss it in America.

This post has been nothing but pointless rambles, I know.  But I am writing, and that is doing something.  I would rather write something pointless, than still be lying stretched out on a piece of furniture wallowing in a bored funk.

Maybe I will run around naked… well just in the bathroom while I shower.  Don’t worry though; I won’t forget to lock the door.

 

 

 

 

Bad News but a Little Good News too

We had “our dream” home inspected on Thursday.  The inspector was so nice he made a video for us so we could see since we are out of the country.   On the day of the inspection, my mom and my grandfather went to the house with the inspector and his camera man.

I ended up staying up way into the early morning hours of like 3am, or was it 5?  Anyway, while I was waiting to hear from my mom, I read a sad story that made me cry like a little baby.  It wasn’t really crying. It was more like uncontrollable weeping.  Yep, it’s that time of the month again.  I swear if I am not angry, I am sad.  If I’m not sad, I’m hungry.  Oh wait!  When I am sad, I am also hungry.  So sad = hungry and not sad also = hungry.  So part time angry, part time sad, and full time hungry + whining and trying to sneak food into my bloating tummy before Hubby can catch me and say “Stop eating!”  Of course I usually pout so well that Hubby usually gives in a lets me eat all the chocolate ice cream or half a bag of Cheetos.

Anyway, back to the story.  After I had calmed down and stopped crying, I called my mom to check up on how the inspection was going.  At this point, the inspector was down in the basement.  Now I already know the basement is leaky and the furnace is some 50 years old, so I know there will be some problems, but I just didn’t expect A LOT of problems.  Just in the first few minutes of the inspection, my mom heard things like mold, termites, possible CO2 leaking, sinking kitchen floor hoisted up with metal rods that aren’t bolted in.  Also the breaker box is wired strange, the furnace and water heater’s installation is questionable and the wiring is ancient and should be upgraded.

It was beginning to sound not so good.

The next morning I woke up, having cried about the stuff my mom had told me over the phone (the inspection hadn’t even finished at that point) and knowing that there was more bad news, I checked the inspection report.  It was 57 pages long!  And there wasn’t anything good in those 57 pages.  Completely overwhelmed, I watched the video the inspector made.  As He showed me all the things that should be checked and or updated and fixed, there was a voice in my head singing “Money Money Money, MON—EY!”  I began to picture all our money leaking out of the bank like it was water being sucked down a drain.

The inspector showed that the foundation was cracked and the ground dips toward the house; therefore, when it rains all that rain water drains into the basement.  The roof had caved in a little and was being held up with extra beams.  There wasn’t enough insulation in the attic.  The unused chimney needed to be capped off.  Other chimney’s, I think the furnace one was rusted and the top was busted.  The wiring from the city was old and needed to be changed.  The roof had problems in spots.  The foundation of the garage was crumbling.  The wiring needed to be checked throughout the house.  The toilet was loose.  None of the windows had locks on them.

Now, I know some of these are very minor, but there were a lot of minor and major things.  The worst being that we would need a new furnace (gas furnaces range from 10,000 or more), plus we would need an electrician, a mold and radon inspector, and probably a carpenter to check everything.  Yes there are poles keeping the kitchen floor from sinking, but how long will that last?  If part of the floor is starting to buckle, how long until another part and another part and another part and another part (you get the point) starts to buckle as well?

Maybe I was naive, but I just assumed that the previous owners had updated the house at some point, it being a hundred years old and all.  Guess I was too naive and too gullible.

Anyway, later I found out my grandpa is down in bed sick because of the smell from the basement.  ><

Now at this point I am truly devastated because this was our “dream home”.  I had spent hours day dreaming about it, not to mention I had spent days on the Sims trying to decorate it.  There was only one thing Hubby and I could do and that was withdraw our offer and run like hell.

I e-mailed our realtor and explained the situation.  I think he was (according to my mom cause she also called him) grouchy at first, cause that is commission he is losing, which made me feel even worse.  But really what choice did we have?  I think after the initial shock, and after I had explained our reasoning for wanting to pull out, I think he understood and is in the process of getting us the cancellation paperwork and trying to get our earnest money returned as well.

The last couple of days have been stressful and sad for me and Hubby, but on the bright side we haven’t given up on finding “the house” and have even found some really good ones that we plan on VIEWING IN PERSON as soon as we get to Indiana.   Therefore, all is not lost.  I still am plagued with remorse and guilt and just overall depression about the house we are giving up, but I think it is all for the best.

And not all is lost.  I still plan on doing the whole homemaker thing, it will just be with a better house (yes, let’s be positive!)