Korean Folk Village

Sunday we spent the day with some friends of ours from Alaska at the Korean Folk Village. We really enjoyed hanging with them and their sweet little girls.

This is where they filmed the movie "The King and I"

This is a walkway that crosses the creek....notice there are no side rails or any means of protecting you from falling off the side.

This amazed me.....this bridge is a main throughway to cross the creek in the Korean Folk Village....I wouldn't recommend taking a stroller across it.....

They definitely don't have the safety standards that we have in the US. Notice the tight rope is held up by 2 poles only....and of course their is no net underneath.

This is an implement used on Korea prisoners. I can't imagine having this block of wood on my neck for weeks at a time.

Jeff & Grace
This is a Korean basket weaver at work

Grace & Liz ready for tea

Ed carrying the Korean urine pots. They used these pots to collect human urine, then transport it to the fields for fertilizer

I love the Korean way of dance. I was impressed with the moves of these guys!

The Korean Folk Village is home to numerous collections of Korean cultural artifacts, providing an opportunity to experience and learn the culture of the Korean ancestors firsthand. The site provides a venue to promote traditional Korean culture to both domestic and international visitors, and provides an open-air learning place for succeeding generations. The village has been developed to convey the wisdom and the spirits of our ancestors to both domestic and international tourists.

Crazy signs!

In keeping with the funny things I've seen...I'm starting a pic collection of funny signs....
Enjoy!

Notice the 2nd to last line..."For safety some facilities shall not be applicable for the pregnant, drunken, or under minimum height"

"Please don't forget to take your shoes yourself"

Love this one....it was going into a short door....

Head carefulness

We think this was supposed to say "massage tree on the back"...not sure...it was on a tree in the middle of a sidewalk...we guessed that it was a scratching post.

Take care the drop and watch out your step, please!

How weird is this....how would you like to be on the first night of your honeymoon and know that all your neighbors were peeping toms and watching you!!!

Crazy t-shirts!

I have enjoyed reading their t-shirts so much that I am going to start a picture collection of the fun shirts. This is my favorite so far, and also my first t-shirt pic. Stay tuned for more to be added daily...ha ha!

"Wear Cute Underwear"

A night out on the ville in Anjung-ri

Jeff and I getting ready to head out for a night on the ville!

Steve was one of Jeff's students in Alabama, and now works with him here in Korea. He is a great guy!

Another one of Jeff's co-workers.....being cheezy

A little Karoke...inside a korean apartment!

Saturday night we went out the the ville for a little bit of fun. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Makes me glad I don't live here and have to deal with this all the time. It's definitely not for me...but we did have fun. I am a people watcher...so of course I enjoyed that aspect. I had my first taste of soju and it really was good....surprisingly! Getting back to the apartment was another story. Makes me appreciate our American ways!!!

Korea

Just wanted to update everyone and let ya'll know that I arrived in Korea on June 11th. That was a LONG flight.....OMG...I don't want to do that again going home!!!! Korea is a very interesting place...the people are very friendly....the food is ok (for the most part)....definitely not a place I would want to live for very long. I have had many laughs at the crazy signs around here and have started a picture collection of them for you all to enjoy. Also, they love their t-shirts with English writing...even though most times they make no sense. They have no clue what they say anyways...ha ha. We saw one shirt that said "I will follow you to come to my house". I saw a little girl about 4 years old wearing a shirt with some cute little kids on it and it said "Candid Lovers". My favorite so far, which I did get a picture of, was a lady wearing a shirt that said "wear cute underwear".

Just a snapshot inside Jeff's apartment....we were getting ready to hit the gym.

I love their little carts they use for hauling their goods....especially cardboard. Cardboard is like gold to these people.

A Korean McDonalds....notice an ice cream is 400W (which is less than 40 cents US)

This is the Korean version of a Super Walmart. They have everything here, and have the sample people like a Sam's Club would. A great place to sample some real Korean food. They guy tried to get me to sample a live baby Octupus...but I just couldn't do it.

Shopping in the ville at Songtan. I got a laugh out of their "JcPenney"...notice the "Playboy Shop" down the street. They just pick whatever name they want and use that for their store.

BAMA Jam

Heading out to Bama Jam for the weekend w/ my friend Nikki! This is a HUGE event here.

This is the first time they have had an event like this...but they are planning on making it an annual event. There are some huge artist playing....Hank Williams, Jr., Lynrd Skynrd, ZZ Top, Trace Adkins, Little Big Town, Rio Grand, Pure & Simple, just to name a few! Their have been people lined up since Monday waiting for this event to begin. They have sold over 30,000 tickets and given away over 12,000.....this doesn't include the tickets that will be sold at the gate. They are expecting over 50,000 people. It should be fun!!!! I'll post pics after the event!

Check it out at http://www.bamajammusicfestival.com/index.html

Memorial Day at the Beach

For Memorial Day, my friend Nikki and I grabbed the kids and took off Florida to hang on the beach. We had so much fun, just hanging out!!! I LOVE hanging out at the beach and just people watching.

Birthday Bikini

May 30th was the last day of work for me.....even though the kids got out of school at 11 am on the 29th. The last day of work also happened to be our principal's birthday. My friend and co-worker, Delaine, made a cake for our principal to celebrate his birthday. Everyone got a big kick out of it and it was just too pretty to eat. I love the belly button.....I think we did a good job!

Bathroom Graffiti

Just couldn't resist snapping this picture. This is the second time this school year that Dylan has made the girl's bathroom wall at school. Riley said "that's not fair...my name has never been on the girl's bathroom wall". Ha Ha....I guess it is considered an accomplishment to find your name upon the bathroom wall.

Dylan finishes the 4th grade

Summer....my favorite time of year! End of the Year Awards Ceremony means that are days at school are dwindling fast. We will miss our school friends throughout the summer months....but are looking forward to a much needed break. Dylan was awarded for A/B honor roll all year, Outstanding Conduct all year, and Wildlife Stamp participation award. He is eager to start the 5th grade!

Riley finishes 1st grade

Riley wanted a picture of his friends that are girls!!!
Riley and Jesse
Jesse was cracking me up....she was all up on her tippy toes trying to be even with the rest of the gang!

It really is hard to believe that this school year is already over! Of course that means end of the year awards ceremony. Riley walked away with four awards....A honor roll all year, Outstanding Conduct All Year, Student Government Representative and National Fitness Award. Of course I'm proud of him!

My Crazy Boyz!!!

I got a new camera this week and the boys were eager to pose for me to check it out! Look at Taylor's new haircut!!! He called me Friday nite and told me he was shaving his head! All those gorgeous curls are gone! He said "mom...Whitney said she would sit in my lap while they shaved it if I would do it....how could I resist". He is too easy!!! ha ha!! Oh well, it will be nice and cool for football training this summer and be grown back in before school starts in the fall.

Great Friends at Adventureland

Riley with two of his best friends (Levi and Seth) at Adventureland in Dothan.

They loved the bumper boats. They even thought this was better than the go-karts!!!!

Soccer

Dylan just finished his spring season of club soccer. He loves playing on this team as it is definitely more competitive than rec league soccer. Plus....we travel all around lower Alabama and Florida for his game. His team placed 3rd for the spring season.....so we had a pretty good season. He has a few weeks break and then will start right back in with training for the fall.

Easter

Coloring Eggs and being cheesy

oops...4got 2 flip this pic!

What a cutie!

Each boy made eggs that really showed their personalities. Riley made a football and a baseball egg.

Taylor made a football and a Wildcat egg with his football number on it.

Dylan made a soccer ball egg and a Wildcat egg with his soccer number on it.

We have started a tradition of a neighborhood easter egg hunt. The kids would rather hunt eggs at our house than attend the local community egg hunt.

Riley and Colby counting their eggs and looking for the prize eggs.

The Easter Bunny left Dylan some braces and new teeth!

Dirty Boys

They are building a new house up the street from us and this involves clearing the land....which created a HUGE red dirt pile. All of the neighborhood boys are hanging out on the hill and becoming red dirt monsters. I have cleaned up so much red dirt from my floors and thrown away so many shirts/shorts by now.....even though the boys are having a blast, I will be SO glad when the dirt pile is gone.

Volcanos

In 4th grade they always have a science project that involves making an erupting volcano. Dylan decided to make his volcano and edible volcano. We baked chocolate cake and drizzeled it with chocolate frosting. For the lava we used cherry jello and lemon juice. It really erupted and the class loved it....they loved eating it afterwards also. His teacher gives out one 110 grade in each class for the best volcano and Dylan received that grade out of his science class. We had many request to make this cake again for upcoming birthday parties.

Read Across America Week

Klaus

Riley as a pirate! It almost looks like a witch's hat, but is is just the way he was standing in front of the window that made the point on his head!!!!

As part of Read Across America they boys had to dress up as their favorite book character for school. Riley dressed as a pirate from "Do Pirates take a Bath?" and Dylan dressed up as Klaus from his favorite books...A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I just love the name of that author. It is ironic because this series was also one of Taylor's favorite books when he was in the 4th grade.

Taylor and Kevin's Birthday

Taylor and his good friend Kevin's birthday are just one week apart. They wanted to celebrate their 16th birthdays together....which worked out great since they have the same friends. We took the boys down to Hot Shots in Dothan. HotShots has dedicated 45,000 Sq. Ft. of the facility for 2 Indoor Karting tracks. With speeds over 40 MPH, and a timing system that times each racer to the 1/1000th of a second, you are in for an experience that is found no where else in the region. They use Rimo Karts for your the driving experience. These karts are found in many top tracks around the country and through out Europe. They also have The Slick Track, which is a polished miniature road course that will give anyone the excitement of racing on a slick ice. They have unlimited paintball and video game rooms that are something that has never been seen before anywhere that we know of. The Video Game Rooms utilize "State-of-Art" audio & visual equipment. The 'Game Rooms' use High-Definition Panasonic 1080i, 100ft screen- projectors. With the state of the art Dolby Digital Surround Sound System, and these projectors connected to Xbox 360's and a Nintendo Wii video game console. They ended the evening with a sleepover at Kevin's house that consisted of Rockband and Guitar Hero all evening long. It definitely was a party that was talked about for a long time.

Basketball

Winter always brings us a fun time with basketball season. Taylor decided not to play for the high school this year, but to spend his time coaching the rec center league. He started out coaching Dylan's team, and did such a good job at it that they asked him to take on another team. He ended up coaching a league in the next age bracket above Dylan's also. He really enjoyed coaching the boys and put his heart into it. The kids loved having someone Taylor's age and their coach.

Riley's team had a fantastic year. They didn't lose a single game. Riley was awesome at defense and scored several points for his team. Basketball will always be one of my favorite sports.

Happy New Year!!!!

Distinguished Gentlemen (in training)

We were blessed to spend New Years with some great friends (Tim and Kim) and my Aunt Gail, Darrien and Dakota. We went to the bowling alley for a some fun and food. It was a bittersweet evening since we knew Jeff was leaving the next morning.

Birmingham/ Dec. 2007

This was a fun pic.....I love the shadow screens.

At the mall we met Freddie Roach from the Alabama football team. The boys are huge Alabama fans and Riley just happened to be wearing his Alabama jersey. He was thrilled to get Freddie Roach to sign the back of his jersey.

Great Friends....Great Times

Me and Billie Jean...I was SO excited to see her again....I really miss having her around.
Two cool guys

They are both so cute!

Taylor, Madison and Jeff had fun building the St. Louis arch!

In December we drove up to Birmingham to spend a few days with a great friend of mine, Billie Jean and her kids. We spent the day at the McWane Science Center and has a total blast. It was so much fun the kids wanted to go back the next day.

December 2007

Pinedale's Christmas Program

Dylan had a speaking part as the Lumberjack. I'm shocked because he used to be so shy (and still can be at time) but he has turned into a very good speaker.

Winter Formal....watch out girls...here they come!

Field Trip

In October, Jeff and I chaperoned Dylan's 4th grade field trip to Ft. Toulouse, AL.

Nestled at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers 15 miles north of Montgomery and just south of Wetumpka, Alabama, Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson State Historic Site has been a part of over 6000 years of history. The 165-acre park, operated by the Alabama Historical Commission, is open year-round for the public's enjoyment where you can step back in time, wandering through the French and American forts or walking to the Mississippian Mound site. You may choose to visit the William Bartram Nature Trail, named for the famed 18th century botanist. The trail winds through the southern edge of the park to the Tallapoosa River. Browse the bookstore and museum in the Graves House, with archaeological collections featuring French colonial, early American and prehistoric Indian items. The Park also boasts of a 39-site campground overlooking the Coosa River. Almost every month includes a weekend of living history by the French Marines at Fort Toulouse along with a weekend of living history by the Tennessee Militia and the U.S. Army Regulars at Fort Jackson. One weekend a month is also set aside for historic black-smithing. There are special events throughout the year such as Frontier Days in the Fall and the French and Indian Encampment in the Spring.

St Louis

The famous St. Louis Arch

Jeff and Tim getting ready to ride to the top of the Arch

Metropolis, IL...home of Superman

Robin, Donnie, Jeff and Lisa

(Jeff's brother and their childhoood friends)
Tim and Robert Wadlow
Robert Wadlow's chair
Jeff and Robert WadlowRobert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940) is the tallest person in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He is often known as the "Alton Giant" because of his Alton, Illinois hometown.
Wadlow reached 8 feet 11.1 inches (2.72 m)[1] [2] in height and weighed 440 pounds (199 kg) at his death. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood was due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death.

The first of December, Jeff and Tim drove up to St. Louis to visit with his family before he left for Korea. They had a great guy trip!

Beach Photos

My 3 boys!!!!!

Love 'em!!!

Can you say handsome.....WOW!

I couldn't be more proud of these three guys! They have my heart!

He definitely favors his mom What a cutie!

My little model....

This was our Christmas card photo....I was told it should be an album cover...they are such cute boys!
Mom

In November we drove down to Destin, FL for a day of shopping and to take some beach photos for our Christmas card. The weather wasn't the best for the pics, but we still got some good shots.

Update!

Wow...didn't realize it had been so long since I updated this blog.....thanks to a friend for bringing it to my attention. I am glad to know ya'll are watching it for updates. Where do I begin???
Well the year started off with Jeff leaving on New Years Day for a one year tour in Korea. Seems hard to believe that he has been gone 5 months now. Wow...how time flies. During that time our lives have been busier than ever...which is a good thing. Just to update you real quick...Feb 10th, Taylor turned 16 and is now legal on the road. I thought I would dread the moment he got his license....but it has been a good thing. I feel very comfortable with him on the road and he has been a HUGE help in getting the other two boys back and forth to practice/church etc. Plus it is great that he can get himself back and forth to football. This really has lightened my load quite a bit.
This past week ended the school year for us. I am very proud of how well my boys did this past year. They ended the years with all A's except for Taylor getting one B in Honors Biology. I totally understand that as I helped him with a few of his projects and know that I couldn't have done as well as he did. One project we had over 900 chromosones and we had to pair them up and figure out what kind of disease the person had by the missing chromosones....WHAT...we never did that kind of stuff in high school. But...Honor classes weren't offered as part of our curriculum.
Dylan ran for the school Student Government Association for next year and was elected the new school secretary. I am very proud of him....he had 4 opponents and there were approximately 500 kids voting....so it is an honor for him to get to serve the school next year. I think he is most excited that he will get to lead the entire school in the morning pledge throughout the next school year. That is just one of the jobs that he will fulfill during his term.
Riley is just finishing off his baseball season. I think he will be the only one of the boys that really gets into baseball. He played 3rd base throughout the year and had 2 homeruns this season. I'm very proud of him. He has potential being a little lefty player.
Well I think that covers some of the basics....I'm off to find some pics to put up and I will add more updates along with the pics.
Stay in touch....we love ya'll.

Hooter's Girls in Training

As part of the fun, Jeff agreed to take them down to Dothan to visit Hooters in their costumes. They got a standing ovation when they walked in and the Hooter's girls loved them. Of course, these two jokers ate it up! They loved the attention.

Halloween

Riley and Michael

This is Taylor and Aaron's girlfriends.....they dressed up like boys and

the boys dressed up like girls.

Taylor, Jarrod and Aaron as their favorite Hooter's girls.

This was the only picture I caught of Dylan. He took off with about 10 boys from the neighborhood and we didn't see him again till it was all over.

Homecoming

The boys (Taylor and Aaron) went to their first homecoming as a high schooler. They went down to Olive Garden first for dinner with some friends. Then headed over to Aviator's Landing on Ft Rucker for some fun. They had such a blast and promised they would never miss another dance as long as they were in high school.

Taylor and Stephanie

It's not just football.......It's Wildcat football!!!

Just a few snapshots of the Wildcats.....Taylor is #46 (right in the middle)....see if you can find him...

We celebrated the boys birthday's by renting a 19ft tall inflatable waterslide. We had Riley's party from 10am until noon and then took and hour break and had Dylan's party from 1pm until 3pm. It was a great way to have both parties in the same day, yet let the boys each have their own individual parties. The neighborhood kids got the advantage of having the water slide there all day and the benefit of being at both parties. The kids had an absolute blast!!!!

Dylan and his best friend Jake.

The weather was beautiful for Riley's party.

We had to move Dylan's cake inside due to a quick rainstorm passing over. By the time we finished the cake and presents the rain passed and they were back out the door.

The man on the left is the coach for the Brazilian soccer team, Igor is in the middle and the other guy is another player on the Brazilian team. Igor was the only one who spoke any kind of English and his was very limited. That made it interesting!!!!

During July we had the priviledge of being host to a Brazilian soccer player named Igor. Igor is 19 y/0 and plays soccer professionally for the country of Brazil. During the summer he works at the Tetrabrazil soccer camps held throughout the United States. During the week long camp here in Alabama, we hosted Igor in our home. Dylan thought it was great having a professional soccer player in the house and learned a lot from the camp. The camp paid off for Dylan as he went on to try out for the Enterprise All-Stars which is a traveling soccer team and made the team. This is a big accomplishment. We traveled throughout the southeast and played teams from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. We ended up in third place so we were pleased.

Igor and Dylan

Dylan ended up being goalie for the team and performed quite well.

During our stay in Denison, we stayed in a real haunted hotel. It was an experience we will never forget. The hotel is owned by Jeff's Uncle Don and is one of the oldest buildings in the city of Denison.

The lobby

A view from the roof of the hotel!

Rooftop again

This is the main desk in the lobby!

HOTEL DENISON

There is a hotel in Denison that everyone knows about; it's the tallest building in Denison and you can see from about anywhere in Denison.
Howard Murray Smith built it in 1884. By the 1920's, the hotel was booming. On the first floor there was the lobby, a lounge and the dinning room. The front desk was also there. It was the finest hotel in the area; none could be compared to it. The elevator landing (added in 1910) was behind the front desk. A great staircase came through the dinning room. The rooms were located ten floors above. A penthouse (ha, ha) was located on the roof over looking the city. A smoking room was on the second floor, along with a small library.
In the fall of 1927, the Young family had come to Texas from New York on the MKT Railroad train. The couple had two children, Anderson, age 14 and Emily, age 18. They were to stay at the Hotel Denison for 3 weeks.
On the evening of September 23, the Young's were in their bedroom, getting ready for dinner when a fire broke out in the room above. The ceiling collapsed, killing all of them and a maid that was helping Mrs. Young. The fire got out of control and went through the floors, killing most of the residents of the Hotel. The dinning room was full. No one had known about the fire above them. When the ceiling collapsed, it was a shock.
Sixty years later, 1997, the Hotel Denison had quieted down. The Hotel was redone, but most of the glamour had been lost to the fire; including the staircase which had a wooden statue of an angel. The staircase had been destroyed, burnt to a crisp. When they redid the Hotel, they moved the fireplace to a back stairway. The elevator shaft hadn't been touched.
The residents of the Hotel come to see the hotel and what it used to look like. Others come to see the ghost.
Some say the ghost of those who were lost in the fire still live there. The maids have been seen walking the halls, children have been seen playing in the dinning room, men have been smoking and playing cards in the smoking room. Emily Young has been seen on the roof, walking about looking at the city streets below her.
I have seen Emily. I live a block away from the Hotel and I walk on Crawford street; the street of the Hotel, at night.
I am currently trying to buy the Hotel and remodel it into what it once was.
Submitted from: Austin Bennett, TX, USA

“It is a great pleasure to me to pay for my room in this magnificent hotel. It was beyond my expectations, and nowhere, in my travels, have I found a hotel any better equipped and with better accommodations.” — Harry Houdini, as reported in the Denison Herald, October 14, 1924.

http://www.denisonalumniassociation.com/hoteldenison.htm

Dennison, TX

At the end of July we traveled out to Texas to visit with Jeff's family for a few days. Our first stop was Denison, Texas. Denison is the birthplace of President Dwight Eishenhower. Dylan loves studying the president's and was excited to tour the birthplace of the former president.

Panama City Beach

While my niece, Alyssa, was visiting us, I decided to take her down to Panama City for her first visit ever to the ocean. My friend, Lisa, and her family were down there on vacation, so we drove down to spend some time with them on the beach.

I love this pic of the boys!

The boys love spending time down at the ocean.

Alyssa on the beach for the first time ever!

Riley and his best friend, Seth.

Dylan had to hang with the girls, Alyssa and Ashley, but he didn't mind.

Pensacola, FL

We made a trip down to Pensacola Beach to for a weekend of fun with the Water's family. It has become a tradition that we always take the boys to Hooter's for dinner when we go out of town. Taylor & Aaron are trying to hit all the Hooter's restaurants in the southeast.

I just couldn't resist this picture of Taylor & Aaron
"spooning". It will make a great "bribe" picture someday!

Taylor's new ride

With Taylor hitting the road soon (okay 7 more months)...we decided to help him out with his first ride. We bought him this Dodge Truck to get him around town.

Taylor's new wheels A view from inside.
The front....what a pretty truck!
This one is Taylor after some of the neighborhood girls straightened his hair!

Jeff's Birthday

We celebrated Jeff's 38th birthday with dinner at Olive Garden with some friends Ben & Kristen. We then returned home for Jeff's favorite carrot cake and cupcakes for the kiddos.

Yes...we put 38 candles on the cake.

Darrien and Alyssa

Dylan, Alyssa and Lizzy (our newest family member).

Where's the fire extinguisher???

Second Annual Gator Races

Last year our family started a 4th of July tradition of meeting at my Aunt Gail's house for a "Gator Race". We hold a kid's division and an adult's division race. The winner of the race get to take home the championship belt to proudly display until the next year.

Riley just like holding the gator.

Dylan was the champ in the kid's division.

Jeff was the champion in the adult divison and took home the Gator Champ Belt

Fourth of July

What a cutie!

Arleigh & Riley love hanging out together.

Riley & Taylor with some "sparkling" fun!

We celebrated the Fourth of July with a trip to Georgia to visit our family. We always love going over there and spending time with them.