And on we go...

Home that is. We have known for a bit but it's been official that i get to come back to the California in the mid to end of February. I'm very excited and also very sad because that means it's just going to be me and Jack, and Jordon is going to have to stay out here by himself till October. :(
On the plus side, when i do come back i have a job waiting for me and that means that we can get a car for us, because we do not have one. (Matt bought mine and Jordon's got totaled in an accident in 2008.) The other plus side to it all is that i can now see all of my family again. Jordon and I will be hopefully be flying by the 20th of Feb, with Jack. Pray that everything goes smooth for me coming back with Jack, i know we are working hard and praying hard here. Love you all.

Jessica

The Good, the bad,...

the ugly.

We found out at the beginning of the year that our landlord is not willing to extend out lease till we move. Our first thought is this really sucks but we kind of knew it was going to happen. Much to our dismay, we find out that if we move it will be out of our pocket and that to go though clearing we have to be completely moved out of our place before housing will let us move into a new one, which means that we would have to stay at a hotel or friends house (staying at the hotel means having jack in the kennel till we move). After looking at a few places, the Realtor we where talking to says that no one is willing to do a 6 month lease, another bummer. We think about it and decide that if we can stay where we are at and pay the extra out of pocket for rent it would be easier. We have out realtor tell the landlord and she say ok, but now she is having second thoughts about it all and is giving us hell. *sigh*

On the positive side, Jack is now a 1 year old dog as of the 7th of January. To celebrate he got to go get groomed :) i think i wanted that more than him hehe.

As they say...

Better late then never.

Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My friend Sandra and I made a turkey and all the side together in my small kitchen.We had a lot of our friends over so it was a nice warm family event. Jordon and some of the guys played UNO most of the day and our friend's boys played on Jordon's PSP. I made Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie (which really didn't get eaten that night). Overall Thanksgiving was a very eventful and fun day here.

Chrsitmas and up to it.

A week before Christmas we still didn't have a tree. While we where out shopping for Christmas presents, we saw a little tree on display and thought that it would be nice if we could buy that (it was a display tree, didn't think it'd be for sale). Jordon decided to ask anyways and our answer was it was. Mind you the tree is all decorated, has lights on it, and is about 5 ft tall. We got it for $25 with all the decorations lol, talk about luck. I have pictures but they are sadly not on my new computer, after Tina sent us some decorations it was a perfect first Christmas tree for us.
Now, I got spoiled for Christmas, Jordon had bought me a new computer, an iMac. So i now have a new computer to have at home all the time with me and to have the MagicJack hooked up to all the time now. Christmas day was a nice day for us, we had 2 of Jordon's co-workers and fellow soldier over that morning. Started off with having breakfast, which was strawberry pankcakes and eggs. Jordon opened his gifts he got a RC car and Wii game and was already playing his other (computer game). Jack got some new bones so he was already chomping down on those. I got a yoga mat and a Mug that says "I Love You". It was a pretty lazy day for us, i think we had Taco Salad that night for dinner lol.

Sorry there are no pictures. Hopefully next time :)

This is going to be a bit of a long one because it is spanning over 3 days. This is our holiday we took this last week the 10th through the 12th of November.

Day 1

November 10th

Our days went from 0730 to about 2000 (8pm). We spent most of the time in the bus for the first day, which we where happy to do since it was raining the whole day with some good winds making it super cold too. Our fist stop after getting lunch was a the Gyeongju National Museum. It was really interesting having the guide explain some of the history of Korea to us and how each century brought about something different, for instance they know when their written language was thought up and by who (a king, forget which one though.)

On our way, it was a 5 hour trip to the museum with a 1 hour lunch stop.

This is a pagoda at the museum.

After the museum we went to the Cheonmachong Tombs. They are (as seen above) mounds. Each mound is a different tomb for a noble person or king. They aren't sure completely because there are no indications of it being a male or female in the tomb.

My smerf, they gave us ponchos to wear because it is raining and windy.

Our smerf group going into the one tomb we could go in to. Tomb it self is a wooden box surrounded by rocks and then dirt. It's a pretty thief proof tomb so all the things are still in the tomb when they excavate them. They haven't excavated all the tombs in the area because of that reason too. :) After the tombs we went to the hotel. To say something about Korean hotels, they are not meant for those who like soft beds. They beds are hard to the Korean specifications because they sleep on the floor most of the time so they make the beds to mimic the floor and they have central heating for the same reason. All i have to say is that we where not prepared for that and the next day spent a lot of the time on the bus taking naps.

Day 2

November 11th (Veteran's Day)

My forced picture, i think we look really out of it. The next day we went on tour of the Bulguksa Temple and Sokguram

After the temple we went on a tour of the Hyundai Motor company factory and saw how they made the cars and learned some information about the company. We then toured the shipping yard and got information about the Hyundai Heavy Motor company. I know my dad and Weldon would have loved to see the welding they where doing on the huge ships. Once we where done looking at all that we moved on and stopped to see the lighthouse and the ocean, i didn't go out to see it but Jordon did and he said it was cool. It was getting late and we still had a dinner to get to hosted by the Hyundai Motor Company.

Center piece for our table at the dinner, it was getting pretty late and everyone at our table wanted to eat and then sleep. The day overall was really exciting since we got to go to a lot of places, it was also wet and tiring at the same time. We had a buffet dinner and some really nice deserts :)

Lucky to have some short speeches but very much to the point and understandable. Very grateful for Hyundai in sponsoring this 3 day tour.

Jordon and me, i think we where trying to make it as fun as possible while waiting for everything to start, we where getting tired at this point.

Day 3

November 12th

We packed up and left our hotel and made our way to Osan to the Task Force Smith Memorial. We did a little ceremony and the commander that was with us said a little speech. After this we went to lunch at another korean restaurant.

We went to Suwon afterwards and did some archery and toured around the Hasang Fortress. Everyone was really happy that the last day was so sunny and clear, by this time i think we had had enough of the rain and wet grounds.

Jordon getting into the rice box. It was funny to see him in it.
This is a game where you try to get the other person to jump high. Jordon and another guy got it going really well but one of them ended up falling off. Apparently this is a woman's game lol.

We went to dinner at a korean BBQ place where we cooked our own food. It was funny having a lot of americans cooking their own food and have know idea really how to do it. Over all the third day ended really well too and we said our good byes to our tour guide and we took our buses back home. Jordon had picked up Jack that night from our friends house that he was staying at. Over all the 3 day tour was a lot of fun and it was interesting learning about the Korean culture and why they do some things.

Procrastination, dogs, and sewing

These last few weeks i've been going to school online. I have to say that it's not as easy as it sounds. I'm taking 2 classes right now, Elements of Nutrition (which is really cool and fun) and The Role of Nutrition in Cancer and Heart Disease (5 weeks not so fun). My 5 week class i've been a major procrastinator about doing my work and i really need to get down to do it all cause the class is about to be in the last week, AHHH! Over all i have to say i've learned a great deal that i didn't know before. My professor in both classes are one in the same Dr. Tamura, she is opening my eyes (even though i've been into nutrition for a while) to thing i've not been introduced to. So, i wanted to share a little of what i've learned so far with my family.

At the beginning of the class my instructor told us to start keeping track of what we eat, ie. Snack at 4pm: 1 cup carrots, 2 tblsp ranch, 8oz water. i have to say it's not easy and i want to challenge you all to do it for 3 days and just see how much of something, what, when, and etc. of your eating habits, you can plug it all in here, this will take you to the mypyramid tracker, which is only good for calculating.

I have to say the most intersting thing my Prof posted so far was about Food Porn, yes i said this right. Food Porn is well i'll let my Prof words describe it.

"The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a great food advocacy group in Washington D.C. They first coined this term, "Food Porn", at least I think they did. I think it is a very descriptive and apt term for some of the things that we eat out there. Do you know what goes into a Twinkie? It is shocking.

I have a book called "Restaurant Confidential" that has been a fun and eye-opening book for me. I saw that a "Bloomin Onion" appetizer from The Outback restaurant packs a whopping, pornographic 2130 kcal if you eat the whole thing and all the dressing. And this is just the starter! I felt rather sick after seeing this. Although I have never ordered this particular dish, I have seen many of them on the tables of others and it really made me think, do they have any idea what they are eating and how many calories they are ingesting? Scary." --Dr. Tamura

She went on to ask us to look up our favorite restaurant or fast food place to eat and find out what has the most calories, sodium, total and saturated fat, it could be one item or 3 different items. Jordon and I came to a mutual agreement that we both like going to Red Robin, much to my surprise they had this wonderful nutritional calculator for their foods. Come to find out the most of everything what in the appetizers, the burgers seemed to have a low caloric count (at least compared to other restaurants. :)

I my 5 week course of hers she has us do little online CHD (coronary heart disease) questioners and other similar questions. Here is what she gave us. It's not really meant for those under 40 years but it'a still interesting to see your results.

On to better and brighter things, my wonderful, loving, growing, 8 month old dog Jack is becoming a hound dog. :( I have to say that having a puppy is much like having a kid. You have to worry if they are eating enough, having regular bowel movements, not getting into anything they are not suppose to, and making sure they play with others well, but unlike having a kid i don't get the perks of being able to take him everywhere i go. Well, Jordon or i take Jack to the dog park now on a regular basics so he gets to get out all the wonderful energy that he builds up while being indoors all day long. We have been noticing that our puppy is no longer a puppy when we see him next to other full grown dogs, he still has a ways to go but he is at 46 lbs (last timed weighted) and almost king of the dog park. *sigh* They grow up too fast, i want my puppy back. *sigh* One thing that hasn't changed in him is the look i get of "are you serious," funny as it may be it's the same look i get from Jordon. Ah, the reason i gave in to getting the jumping bean.

Sewing....i suck at it, but i'm good at fixing. Starting there i am slowly getting into learning how to sew. I have my sister's sewing machine here with me and a lot of patterns but i am lacking fabric and either my mom or Tina. (where are you two?!) My new adventure is going to be going out to the markets in Seoul and see if i can find the fabric place i was told about and if not...i don't know. Guess i'll just have to wait till i get back to the States to sew anything big. :(

Below is a video if Jordon showing everyone what Jack has learned. Sorry it's sideways, it's my first time recording to post a video. hehe.

Jordon and I went on a day date all day the other week.We ran errands and did a lot of things together that we haven't been able to do in a long time because of his new work shift. After running all of out errands we went to COEX mall, which is in another area out here, about an hour on the subway. We had been there before and had found some cool little shops that have just about anything that you can think of, and not that expensive on top of that. Last time we went we found Jackie Chan's Restaurant.That day we decided to eat there since it was getting late and when we got home we needed to go to bed. The food was delicious to say the least, we got fried rice, dim sum, and a spicy beef dish (really spicy).

This is the dimsum restaurant that we ate at, we had to get picture proof that we where not dreaming that Jackie Chan really had a place. His Pictures are all over the place on the out side.

Just me, doing the cheesy picture in front of the place.
While we where waiting to order food and in the process of trying to figure out what to order we decided to have a bit of fun with the camera. I love this picture because it shows his personality.
After we ate we decided to walk around a bit and then when we where on our way back to the subway, Jordon wondered if i had ever been up top COEX. (COEX is an underground mall.) I hadn't so we went up to saw a few things then decided when we got to the other side of the area where they had these art structures with lights, we decided to take pictures. The cool thing about the lights was that they changed or blinked on an off to music, classical at that too.
This is me in front of the structure. I have to say Korea has some really pretty art pieces all around the city. Can't wait for someone to come visit so i can show them all of the cool and interesting things i've seen and haven't taken pictures of.

Job and Interview

This past week i have been watching a 4 year old little girl named Cheyanne. She is very much full of energy and spunk. Much like most 4 year old she asks a lot of silly questions and is not interested in anything i want her to be, but loves animations like My Neighbor Totoro (which is supper cute), Dora, Backyardigans, and about anything else a 4 year old would like. We have a pretty regular schedule when she is here and i have to say i love nap time.

Last thursday night i got a call for an interview at the Tricare office. So, Friday morning i went for an interview and i think it went well. It's a full time position and it's really close to the house and if Jordon goes back to days and i get the job we can have lunch together. :) 

Here is hoping that they think i am worth it like i think i am.