It’s December and I’m STRESSED!!!!!

I feel like running around screaming and pulling my hair out, but no matter how much I want to, it won’t fix the problem.  In fact it would just give me more problems.  1) I’d be arrested and 2) I’d be bald.  Both are not something I need or want.

On a good note, Christmas time’s a coming!  Oh Christmas time’s a coming!  Wait… Christmas time is here!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!

But there is no snow.  WHY!?

Hubby and I put our Christmas tree up. It is a bit bare at the moment. It does have lights though.  And some crochet ornaments made by me.  We can’t have any glass or plastic or anything potentially dangerous because two years ago my little puppy ate a star and had to have it surgically removed.  >< I ended up making some Victorian crochet style ornaments of heads with top hats and bonnets.  I really like how they turned out.  I also made two little kid heads with pointed hats, and some big stars.   There are only about 8 things on our tree and I have way too much to do, so I don’t think I can make anymore.

I am going to be so busy this coming week.  Why do you ask?  Well for one thing, our green card interview is on Thursday and I am terrified.  What if they ask me a question I don’t know?  I mean I know a lot about my hubby, but sometimes when he talks to me all I hear is “blah blah blah blah.”   Yeah I am a terrible wife, but I do love my husband a lot.  Just sometimes I get lost inside my own thoughts and have no room for his.  >< Yep, so this week I will be cramming in as much dates and stuff as possible. “When did you work there?  What did you do here?  etc etc.”  I am so terrible with dates.  Jeez I feel like I am back in History class.    I just hope they don’t ask me dates.  Heck I even get our marriage date confused.  Did we get married in June or July?  Why do they both have to start with a J!!!!??  LOL Oh wait it was June, that’s right.

I shouldn’t worry about it, but I do.  Being raised by a pessimist has made me always worry and expect the worst.

Anyway to add to my stress, my hubby is a bit of a procrastinator.  (Shhh!  You didn’t hear that from me. )  He waited until yesterday to print out over 300 pictures of us to put into an album for them to see at the embassy.  The pictures are not dated and are out of order, plus we don’t even have an album yet.  Once we get that, I then need to put them all in order and write dates and descriptions.  Yeah I probably don’t need to write descriptions but hey that’s my style and I am always thinking about the future and future granny me wants to be able to have a written reminder.  Plus it’s for my babies and grandbabies to read as they look at all our pictures.  So yeah over 300 pictures to sort and write about before Thursday.

Also, Christmas is quickly approaching and I don’t have everything done.  I need to finish all of hubby’s gifts so he can have the most awesome Christmas EVER!  I haven’t bought anything for my family yet, which is giving me stress because I want them to receive their gifts in time for Christmas.  And AND, I promised my grandma I would crochet her a purse, but every time I start I end up not liking what I am doing and I keep starting over.  It’s for my grandma so I want it to be great.

In between stressing about embassy stuff and Christmas stuff, I have been listening to Christmas music, but every time Elvis comes on I start to cry.  Listening to Elvis singing Christmas songs reminds me of my family and how I won’t be with them on Christmas.  And I am sorry, but why does most of his Christmas songs sound so sad?  Or is it just me?  Actually any Elvis song makes me cry.  I think I need to see a therapist; I obviously have some emotional trauma about Elvis.  Maybe it started when I was younger when being obsessed with Elvis movies watching Tickle Me about a million times, I declared, “I’m going to marry Elvis!”

Imagine my heartbreak when my mother told a 6 year old me that Elvis was dead and had been dead for quite some time.  WHY ELVIS WHY?

Or maybe it was because every night before bed, when I was still afraid of the dark, my mom would stack about 8 of her 45s on the record player (Yeah we still had one) and I would listen to them as I fell asleep.  There was the “Little Willy” song, Grease’s “You’re the one that I want,”  “Boogie with Your Baby in the Back Row of the Movie Show” and Elvis’ “Don’t Cry Daddy.”   It is so sad!  I think I cried myself to sleep every time it played.  Maybe that’s why I cry when I listen to Elvis.  Or maybe it is just the lyrics.  Especially the love songs.  Maybe I am just a hopeless romantic and now that I have found the love of my life, listening to any kind of love song fills me with uncontrollable weep my heart out happiness.

So what with stress about visa stuff, stress about Christmas, and sadness over being away from my family, I am in emotional chaos.  Also, being raised by a pessimist has warped my brain into always day dreaming dark stuff.  I have just recently began to worry about taking my puppy to America with us, but I am so worried about getting him on the plane and if he will become stressed and I just keep thinking about the bad stuff that could happen, that I can feel my heart being squeezed inside my chest.  “GO AWAY PESSIMISTIC THOUGHTS!!!  I HATE YOU EVIL THOUGHTS!!!”  I just hope it all works out.  The puppy is my baby and I could not live without him.  That’s just one more thing for me to worry about.

I think this month is going to be too emotional for me.  I think it knocked a screw or something loose.  Yesterday I cried when watching Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Nuff said.

I think I won’t be able to relax until we are in America, have an apartment and have a means of income and are generally comfortable.  That may not be for another two months or more.  Just Great! ><

I want to be in America now!

Jeez I want a bologna sandwich.  Dang you Korea for not having the greatest deli meat ever!  I need me some Oscar Meyer and fast!

 

 

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30 Days until Halloween + Witchy Tips

OMG it’s OCTOBER!!  IT’S OCTOBER!  YEAH YEAH YEAH!  OCTOBER!!!  WHOOO!!!

Thursday morning before my students came, I heard men yelling outside.  I went into the living room to look out the window.  At the corner of the street two men began punching each other.  A FIGHT!

Me:  (jumping up and down insanely excited) A FIGHT!  Come quick!  They are fighting!

I continued my insane bounce in the living room as Hubby came to watch.  In my excitement my feet slipped out from under me and I nearly fell flat on my face on the hard wood floor.  Guess I deserved that.  I shouldn’t be excited about people hurting each other.  BAD MANDOO!

That night, hubby, Kodi, and I went walking at another apartment complex where they have multiple playgrounds.  They had a pirate ship at each playground, so of course I had to walk up on them and run around, spouting pirate talk, steering the ship, and even doing the stupid Titanic “I’m the king of world!”

I really wanted to slide down the slide, but hubby said no.

Me:  Can I slide down the slide?

Hubby:  No, it’s dirty.

Me:  Can I crawl through the tunnel?

Hubby:  No, that’s really dirty!

Me:  You are a happiness killer!

At least I got to sit and bounce around on the spring animal things.

We then put Kodi at the top of the slide and made him slide down.  I caught him at the bottom.  He seemed to like this, so we let him play for a little bit.

Back home, I decided I wanted to watch a bunch of Halloweeny type movies for October.

Here is my list:

 

Dracula

Frankenstein

Trick R Treat (Never seen)

Hocus Pocus

Nightmare before Christmas

Halloween (Hubby has never seen)

Psycho

The Shining

Nosferatu (Never seen)

The Addams Family

Practical Magic (LOVE!)

The Witches of Eastwick (Never finished)

Interview with a Vampire

Donnie Darko (Never seen)

Sleepy Hollow

Constantine

The Others

Rosemary’s Baby (Never finished)

Suspiria

We ended up watching Suspiria that night. Seeing the movie on everyone’s top scariest movie lists, I was expecting something really terrifying.  Something that would give me nightmares, but it wasn’t so.  The only really terrifying thing – besides the wallpaper – was the last scene when the dead friend tries to kill the main character.  Now that was scary enough to make me hide my eyes.  And is it just me or does the music make your brain want to explode?  It made me really nauseous, and I thought my dinner of French fries was going to make a reappearance.  Oh and I just loved the part in the music where a spooky voice shouted “witch!” every so often.  Funny!

Ugh!  My eczema seems to be coming back stronger than ever.  Hubby and I, after I finished tutoring on Friday morning, went to the hospital to get yet another doctor’s opinion and prescription.  It was a catholic hospital.  And for some reason my new favorite word to say is holy, which I say in a holy way.  It’s Ho—ly—-.

Got a hole in my shirt (Ho—-ly— shirt). Got a hole in my panties (Ho—ly— panties).  Anyway, imagine my surprise when I saw that the coffee shop in the hospital had Holy in the title; hence, most of my time spent there was saying Ho—ly— coffee.

Me:  You want some Ho—ly— coffee?

Hubby:  I don’t trust that coffee shop (He is very picky about his coffee)

Me:  But it’s Ho—ly—

While waiting to see the doctor, I got overly excited when I saw a nun.  I then started a conversation all about how much I love nuns.

Me:  I want to be friends with nuns.

Hubby:  Cute.

Me:  I want to volunteer with them and plant flowers with them.  I love nuns!

Hubby:  Shhh! You are too loud.

I don’t know why, I just really love nuns. I’m not even catholic.  Hmmm is it because of the Sister Act movies?  I don’t think so…

I’m a witch who loves nuns.

In the doctor’s office, the doc began speaking in Korean, but thought he should try to speak in English to me.  He then (in broken English) began to ask me about my family’s medical history.  He then asked if I had any other medical conditions besides eczema.  Does stupidity count?

The conversation then got real personal when he found out hubby was my husband.

He asked how long I had been in Korea, how long we were married.  Where I lived in America and blah blah blah.

Doctor:  Why did you marry Korean?  What is the difference between American and Korean men?

Me:  I don’t know.  (my cheeks caught fire and consumed my face)

Why is it that doctors always like to dive right into your personal life?  Is it because they have permission to ask about our personal medical conditions that they think they have the right to ask about our personal lives? He then prescribed hydrocortisone lotion and an antihistamine.

We then paid 20.00 to see the doctor (would have been much cheaper had I had insurance).  We left the hospital, got my prescription at the pharmacy (again 20.00 dollars because no insurance.  This was kind of expensive. I usually pay 10 dollars or less on medication.)

Then, because hubby promised, we headed toward the subway station to eat at Outback Steakhouse (YUM!)  On the way to the station, I saw some clothing racks outside with a sale sign above them.  Remembering the doctor telling me to wear cotton and stay away from other fabrics, I asked hubby if I could see if the store had any cotton t-shirts.  They did!  So I bought a long yellow T-shirt with navy blue sleeves.  The best part of all, the reason I wanted to buy this shirt above all others was because, on the front is the word “Cheez.”  I love cheese!

At Outback Steakhouse, like always, I got the chicken tender salad and French fries.  Hubby got the steak and mushroom soup.  We got the soup early, hubby let me try it.  OH so yummy, and while he went to the bathroom to wash his hands, I consumed all of his soup.  I couldn’t help it.  It was too yummy and I was just so hungry.

Our food soon arrived.  Hubby had ordered his steak medium well.  It came out cold and medium rare, so he had to send it back.

Last night we watched Grave Encounters it is filmed in documentary style like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch.  It is about paranormal researchers who spend the night in an old insane asylum.  Documentary style horror films always freak me out.  So I totally yelled at hubby for making me watch it and forced him to put on something funny.  But before watching anything funny, I really needed to potty.  I whined until hubby went with me and I made him stand just outside the door.  But I was still freaked out, so I left the door cracked and as I sat on the toilet I tried to reach outside the door.

Me:  Hold my hand!

Hubby:  (walks away)

Me:  T_T

Back in bed, he put on the Nostalgia Critic because we finished all of The Angry Video Game Nerd episodes.  We watched a couple of episodes of NC then I went to bed, and guess what?  I ended up having nightmares about that stupid horror movie.  I totally yelled and whined at hubby when we woke up this morning.

Because of my eczema outbreak, I can’t really crochet or knit unless the yarn is super soft so I can’t do much Halloween crafts.  I plan on going to buy some soft yarn soon so I can maybe make the spooky Sam Hain character from Trick R Treat (Never seen the movie, but the character looks spooky), and maybe some other spooky dolls or something.  And I can still sew (BUT IT TAKES FOREVER).  Hopefully, I will make something soon.  SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

Hubby is painting my wooden cut out tree and is painting me some wooden Halloween ornaments.  (PICTURES… if hubby will take them for me today.  Let’s keep reading and find out).

I did manage to crochet my angel baby Kodi a shirt and pants the other day.  And I am still working on my very soft sweater.  I am almost done with the back.  Then it is on to the front and the sleeves.  Speaking of my little angel, he just stole my Witchetty Grub and is playing with it.

I still have two students left to tutor today then I am going to go sniff my sandalwood oil diffuser.  I LOVE SANDALWOOD!  It smells so warm and right now it is the perfect fall smell.  Plus I used to sleep with a sandalwood sachet under my pillow.  I had the best dreams!  Hopefully the diffuser will give me the same effect as long as hubby doesn’t move it.  It was right next to the bed last night, but hubby moved it across the room, because he thought the smell was too strong.  That is probably why I had nightmares last night.  HUBBY!  Grrr…

In case you are wondering sandalwood helps redirect our focus to spiritual and magical things.  It doesn’t help with dreams, but in my case it seemed to do something, because I had the most vivid and – well – magically weird and awesome dreams.

Witchy Tip: (after all it is October!) A good herbal sachet to keep under your pillow to help keep away the nightmares is a rosemary sachet.  If you have any dried rosemary or even rosemary tea packets (I have done this – just opened and sprinkled inside a sachet).  Put the sachet under the pillow and voila!  Lavender and Chamomile are other herbs that are good to drink or even put under your pillow to help you sleep.

Perhaps I will stitch myself up a new rosemary sachet tomorrow.

Betony is a good herb that is supposed to help prevent nightmares as well.

It you have kids who are often plagued by bad dreams especially come Halloween time, hang dill in your kids’ rooms to keep those spooky dreams away!  If you want to do something cute for your kids hang some garlic in their rooms, you know, just in case of vampires.

More witchy tips to come!

Next time: love and herbs.

Hmmm… guess no pictures this time.  Hopefully next time, or later tonight in another post.

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39 Days until Halloween

On Tuesday, my hubby came home with Halloween goodies from Dunkin’ Donuts.  Two donuts: One chocolate bat and one cream cheese ghost.  PLUS two mini cakes: one chocolate and one pumpkin.  I woofed down one of the donuts like a starving dog.  I don’t even think I chewed.  By the time it was all in my belly, my brain could finally focus on the taste and it wasn’t good.  The donut was a bit stale.  Had I eaten it slowly or even took the time to chew I would have realized that it was bad before I swallowed it whole.  I should have known Dunkin’ Donuts here are usually always stale.

My hubby also bought me a caramel coco which I had been yearning for.  I drank that in a matter of minutes.  It wasn’t too hot, so I sucked that down quickly as well.

He then insisted that I try all of the goodies he bought.  Now I don’t know why my hubby keeps trying to stuff me full of treats.  Either he wants to make me fat or he just loves me and therefore buys me goodies to make me happy.

Overall the donuts were yucky, but the mini cakes (OMG) the mini cakes were awesome!  Just like American cake, which you can’t get in Korea.  Korean cakes taste bland like eating a sponge with some really gross cream on top.

Wednesday morning my hubby made me model for him – in the buff of course!  He had no idea what pose I should do, so he kept telling me to keep making a new pose, which he never liked.  He was very picky of everything.

Hubby: I want a very natural pose.

Me:  But these are very natural poses for me.

Hubby:  I want very natural like (becoming philosophical) There was a poet (blah blah blah) saw a soldier sleeping (blah blah) peaceful (blah blah) but he was really dead.

Me:  So I should pose like I am “at peace”?

There was more posing followed by “No” and “Not that” and “That’s not good.”

I couldn’t take anymore.

Me: Okay, why don’t I stand up?  You hit me really hard and knock me down. Then take the picture.  That pose will be very natural!

An unconscious Mandoo is a peaceful Mandoo.

Because we were running late, hubby and I took a shower together.  (Oh lala).  It was only washing!  We were going to be late!  After brushing my teeth I opened a new box of contacts and was excited to see that there were nine contacts instead of six in the box.  When I told my hubby how many were in the box, he decided it was time to quiz Mandoo on her math.

Hubby: so how many pairs is that?

Me: (still excited about there being nine in the box) 3!  No, wait (trying to do math while being very excited) 6…. No, I don’t know.  Stop laughing at me!

He then wrote the math problem on the steamy mirror.

I hate math.  I especially hate math in the shower.

After tutoring, my hubby and I went to a craft/paper store because he wanted to buy some paints.  I ended up buying some cute and cheap yarn that is too gaudy for anything but socks.  Neon orange and green.  It reminded me of a pumpkin and it was so soft so I had to buy.  I don’t have enough – maybe – to make a pumpkin hat, so I think I will make a thin scarf instead.  I also bought some cheap red yarn, a wooden cutout tree that I will turn into a Halloween tree, lavender smelling potpourri (it looked spooky), and some paper yarn.  My hubby bought some wire and paints.

It was evening, and in the taxi, on our way home, I realized my hubby was still wearing his sunglasses.

Me:  Why are you wearing sunglasses?

Hubby:  Because it is comfortable.

Me:  But it isn’t even bright outside.  What, is your future so bright, you gotta wear shades?  (And of course I had to sing the song after that).

Also in the taxi – it is about a 30 to 40 minute taxi ride – my hubby opened the wire and began to make something.

Me:  What is that? A duck?

Hubby:  Guess?

Me:  A head?

Hubby: Yes. (Long pause) I don’t want to do this anymore.  (Put the wire back in the bag)

Traffic was pretty bad, so we stopped at the big Wal-Mart like store near our house called Home Plus.  I got a chocolate milkshake and hubby got a coffee at one of the many restaurants inside the store.  I took a seat and hubby waited on our order.

He came to the table carrying a tray with my milkshake and his coffee.  He then for no reason at all literally flung the tray’s contents at me.  The coffee spilled a little bit on the table and on my journal which I had been writing in.

He claims it was an accident and that he was only trying to put the tray on the table.

Me, I think it was the result of some deep-seated anger toward me or toward the Lotteria restaurant.  I don’t know.  Or probably it was because he is just as clumsy as me.

It was so cool and fall like that we decided to walk home from Home Plus.  On our way home, I remembered that I need Coke (the soda, not the drug!  Yeah I know, that would explain so much).  So hubby said we would buy some at the mart next to our apartment, but first we took our bags upstairs, got our little puppy dog and took him to the mart with us.  Along the way, Kodi had to pee on everything and his little tummy was wet with pee so I couldn’t pick him up to take him inside the mart.  Hubby went in while Kodi and I wandered around outside.

Kodi got excited and decided to pull me up the alley (well as much as a Pomeranian can pull) and much to my horror he began to push out some number twos.  Now as you can guess, in the city we have to clean up after our dogs, but I was not expecting him to go poopy so I had no bag or scoop with me.  Being completely horrified and afraid some Korean man would see me and yell at me in Korean which I cannot understand well and cannot speak, I looked all around.  Seeing no one, Kodi and I ran back to the store to wait for Hubby, who by this time was wandering the streets, cell phone at his ear searching madly for me.  I told him what had happened and took him back to the scene of the smelly crime.  We looked at the little turd.

Hubby:  That’s very small.

Me:  Yes.

Hubby:  Let’s go.

At times Kodi decides he doesn’t want to walk anymore and this was one of those times, so I had to pick him up.  But since he was wet with pee and probably had a nasty poopy butt I held him in one hand and carried him out and away from my body.

There was a nice cool breeze, which Kodi must have interpreted as water because he began to leisurely swim as I was holding him.  It was so funny and I wish I had video tapped it.  But who thinks to bring a video camera when walking to the store?

At home, hubby gave the poopy butt a bath and I finished sewing my pumpkin (while watching Charmed).

Now for what you really want to see, right?  The pictures!

Witch boots in color!

I don’t really like the yellow and purple socks I made. Hubby chose the colors.  Me, I wanted red and green or red and black, but I was out of red.

 

 

 

My Jack O’ Lantern.  I absolutely love the  face.

Potpourri.

 

 

I told you it’s SPOOKY.

Up next:

crochet witch Halloween wreath

Halloween tree

treat monsters (for my little students)

skeleton doll

possibly a cat doll

crochet Halloween throw

and Halloween cross stitch

And

possibly more

or less…

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Missing my Kitties

Finally got an e-mail back from the embassy today.  Now we just need to get on our other paperwork.  Paperwork = LOT OF STRESS for me.  But the sooner we can move back to America, the better.  I am ready for my husband and I to get settled.

I miss my family and it is hard not being able to see them.  My husband and I did go to America in November and stayed for 3 months, so we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family.  It was hard on me having to leave them and come back to korea.  It was especially hard to leave my kitties behind with their grandmommy.  T_T

I miss them so much. 

Isabo, my cute and small warrior.  She likes to have things her way.  She is like the queen and the royal guard all combined into one little precious kitty.  My husband, who is more of a dog lover, doesn’t quite understand or like her sudden mood swings and tempers.   But mommy (me) understands and loves her best.  ^^

 

Then there is Vincent, who we adopted from the animal shelter while we were in America.  He is still a kitten, but is so much bigger than 2 year old Isabo.  All I can say about Vincent is that he is one big baby.  He never meows, just squeaks.  He was a feral kitty when the shelter picked him up, so he is rather skittish, but he loves hugs.  I just wish mommy was there to hug him.

 

 

When I first came to Korea back in 2009, my soon to be husband and I decided to buy a puppy.  So here is another baby I have who will be coming back to America with us, though I am so worried about what the long plane ride will do to him.  He is such a sweet little angel. My cute Kodi.

 

Added on to the stress of paperwork and green card interviews, is the problem of finding an apartment in Bloomington, Indiana that allows three pets.  And there is the problem of Queen Isabo getting too rough with Kodi, or Big boy Vincent hurting him too.  Kodi loves everyone and he loves to play so that may get annoying for my Queen BoBo.  I wish all my babies would get along.  This also means that I will have to have BoBo and Vincent’s claws removed.  I really don’t want to have to do that, but I worry about Kodi getting a claw to a big round eye.  And once I have a baby, I can’t have he/she (I hope she!  But dangit a little boy would be precious too) get scratches cause BoBo is being moody and jealous.  I can’t wait to start having babies!!  I want to crochet toys, clothes, and cute baby booties.  Makes me wonder why I want to have babies.  Is it just so I have a reason to crochet baby stuff?!

Anyway enough of worrying and missing and worrying some more.

I did manage to get most of my sister-in-law’s shawl finished, but I still have 29 cm left to crochet. ><

I still haven’t started working on my phone straps so I guess you could say I am taking a few days break.

Well it is almost 2 am in Korea and we are suppose to run to the tax office tomorrow, let’s see if we are able to wake up early… doubtful.

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