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Monday, January 31, 2011

Trip Day 1 & 2

In the absence of any remodeling projects going on around here, how about I tell you about our trip instead?

I guess January 1 is still considered "the holidays", which means airline tickets were quite expensive. We saved about $800 by flying out of Chicago, instead of our smaller hometown airport. Chicago is about 3 hours away, so this also meant no airport party when we returned with Delaney, but whatcha gonna do, you know? $800 could throw one heck of a party at home (if we had it. Which we don't).

My mom came over at about 7 pm on January 1st, and Mr. RBR and I left a little before 8. We drove the 3 hours to O'Hare, parked, and checked in. We flew Asiana airlines. They were awesome.

Our flight left around 1 am. The flight attendants came by every 2 hours with either something to drink, a meal, or a snack. We tried to sleep, but it was hard. We maybe got 3 hours. Probably 2. But there were a lot of inflight movies, so that was nice. We flew over the top of the world, and 12 hours later we landed in Seoul, Korea at 6 am... on January 3rd! With the time change and the time spent on the plane, we skipped January 2nd altogether. Another thing that was interesting (to me at least) is that during the 23 hours we spent traveling, we were in darkness. It was dark when we left and dark when we arrived!

Upon arriving at the airport we exchanged some moolah and headed out. We found a bus that was going near our guesthouse and paid $15 per person for a ride. We waited about 20 minutes for the bus, and hopped on. I had no idea the bus ride was going to be that long! Rush hour was partly to blame, and finally one and a half hours later, we were dropped off outside the Renaissance hotel in Seoul...

with no idea where to go.

to be continued

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Three Handfulls

I really, really, really, really, really want a beautiful picture of all my kids together. And I'm trying!

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Ok, ah, hang on a minute. Delaney, uh.

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Zack. Yep, look over here. And Clayton. Uh, Delaney, hang on a minute.

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Crud. Try again next time.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Pigtails

My first time doing pigtails.

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Big brother Zack said she looks like a deer.

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What did he say?

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Boys are so silly.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Favorite Dune Pictures

Last summer was the first year our dune truck had more than a couple seats, so we could use it as a family.

I grew up doing this with my family, and I'm really happy we can continue what was a really fun tradition.

So what do we "do", exactly? Well, we go for rides of course, but we also...

See the sights.

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Go swimming.

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Try to snag the best spot to watch the sunset.

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And play in the sand.

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Clayton on the left, Zack in the middle, and one of the boys' cousins on the right.


What family traditions do you hope to pass on?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dune Truck Before and After

Here's the evolution of our dune buggy, or perhaps more accurately, dune truck. All courtesy of Mr. RBR. He spent a lot of long days working on that thing (often in scorching heat). All I did was provide moral support. After some long days wrangling two kids all by myself, I sheepishly admit there were times I couldn't even provide that. But now I'm so happy it's to a point we can use it as a family. That was the whole idea, after all.

We do everything cheaply, and the dune truck is no exception. It started with a 1992 S-10 pickup we got for free from Mr. RBR's parents. They didn't use it anymore, and didn't even really know how to get rid of it.

So they gave it to us.

Sometimes it's kind of embarrassing that we (I especially) take other people's junk. But then I remember we have no debt except our mortgage and I get over it.

We got the truck in 2008 (or was it '07?), before we had any kids. It looked like this:

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Well, not quite like that. Mr. RBR got a little demo happy and ripped the doors off before he remembered to take a picture.

After a little more demo...

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Mr. RBR removed the body rust and painted it... with spray paint of course!

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The start of a cage on the back.

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New tires and a lift.

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New cage.

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Done.

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Sometimes you just get lucky on these types of things. The truck we got for free, and the big black seats in the back we got for free too (a brother-in-law found them dumpster diving). The pipes Mr. RBR used for the cage were free too (we have family that uses them for business, and these were leftover). The brown seat in the back was a craigslist find.

Of course not everything was free. When we had a little bit of money, we'd use it for the lift, tires, etc. It took about 3 years to finish, because Mr. RBR would only work on it if we had the money to spare.

I'm pretty happy that for relatively little money, we have a pretty neat vehicle for family fun.

How about a final before and after?


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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

We Like Each Other

We like each other. A lot.

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Now that I'm posting again, I don't want to give you any false hope. I don't have any immediate plans to do any decorating projects--although I do hope to get back to them, um, some day. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends anymore, does it? I'll get back to it eventually. Until then let's just relax and enjoy each other's company.

With three small children running around screaming.

Hm. Relax is not quite the right word.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Freaky Freaks

There is a chance this might be our home made dune buggy, made from an S-10 pick up we got for free.

Might be.

Maybe.

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And these kids sort of look like ours, so there is a slight possibility these are my kids last summer ready for a ride.

A chance.

Could be.

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Poor, poor Delaney.

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Freaky Picture

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Poor, poor Delaney. She got stuck with a family of freaks.

1. Um, there is a chance we might have a dune buggy.

2. And there is a chance that we are freaky parents that actually take our children--car seats and all--for rides on our homemade dune buggy.

3. And there is a chance that I bought my children new dune buggy goggles for Christmas. Baby Delaney included. But of course her goggles had to be pink.

Signed,

Lisa the Freak

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A Cute Picture

A cute picture, just to make sure you still come around this here ol' blog...

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Wish me luck tomorrow. I've had Mr. RBR home for a whole month! But tomorrow he must go back to work.

The way it worked out was pretty crazy. The whole company that Mr. RBR works for has the week between Christmas and New Years off. Then we left for Korea on New Years Day for a week, so Mr. RBR took a week's vacation. Then he got two weeks off for parental leave (so GLAD Mr. RBR works for a company that is so adoption friendly).

But now all that fun must come to an end. On Monday Mr. RBR will leave me with these crazy kiddos by myself for the first time. Not only that, but he has Tae Kwon Do on Mondays, so he won't be home until around 8. Eek!

I think that's called baptism by fire.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Hello Stranger!

We are home. We are in love.

And we are so, so tired.

It's true. Delaney has jet lag (and mom and dad do too, a little bit). It's been a bear turning her schedule almost completely around--Seoul being 14 hours ahead of us and all. But we are settling in.

And needless to say, all our hearts have been captured by this little lady.



























































Excuse my bedhead and pjs. Ya know it's love when I'm willing to be seen like this!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Seoul


Seoul is incredible. The things we are seeing... amazing. The city is beautiful and the subway system makes it pretty easy and inexpensive to navigate. If you get a chance to visit Seoul, please do.


Counting down the hours until we get our daughter.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Me and my daughter


She is perfect. And she is mine.
Visited yesterday, we will get her forever on Friday (Korea time, Thurs night in the US).

Monday, January 3, 2011

Hello From Seoul!

Took us 23 hours of travelling to get from home to the guest house. The weird thing is it was dark the whole time! Despite perpetual darkness we only got 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I've lost all track of time. No clue if it's day or night anymore!

We are tucked into a tiny little room, but it's warm and has a hot shower. It's seriously so tiny the bathroom door doesn't open all the way because it hits the shower. Two twin beds, 1 nightstand and a small table with two chairs round out the room. No dresser, no closet even!

I'm the tallest, whitest person for miles. Apart from one older lady staring, I've been well received. ha!

Tomorrow we meet our daughter for the first time. Very excited and nervous!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

BYE!

Good bye USA. Hello Korea!

Hello baby girl!

Leaving in a couple hours.
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