Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas

We are in Korea. What a different type of Christmas. We miss family and friends and are extremely homesick. It's snowing like crazy back in the states and we miss boarding in the awesome Pacific NW. We will enjoy a mellow celebration opening a few gifts then visit Everland to view Christmas decorations. We have great hope for the future and can't wait to see where we are going next.

I would tell you what we've been up to this year but you can read it in the other blog posts.
We pray everyone has a great Christmas and next year is the most blessed year yet.

Andy, Sherry, Chicane Pence

Happy Thanksgiving! It's all about the small things....

It is Thanksgiving today and we are in Korea without an oven. All is well though, because we bought a turkey and some sides which will be eaten with cousin in Seoul on the weekend.
Cousin has an oven. Oh how lucky to have a cousin with an oven...and that is just one of the many things we are thankful for this year!

Here are some other things we are thankful for! Friends and Family.

I am especially thankful for my dear sweet buddy Amber! Yes, YOU girl! For my birthday Amber bought me a sprout growing container and some seeds. I LOVE sprouts and have been very sad these last several months to go without them. All I have found in Korea have been bean sprouts....not the same!
I've got them growing good and well now and eat them everyday! One of my favorites foods is a little something I invented called....wait for it.....wait for it.....

"The Yummy Goodness!"

Yep and it may look and/or sound gross but everyone who has tried it has liked it! And it is oh so healthy! Here goes:
Slap down a tortilla and slather some hummus on it (in my case...home made because why would Korea be cool enough to have hummus?)
Put in the microwave for about 45 seconds,
Then put a scoop of cottage cheese on it as well as some of those delicious sprouts (again...home grown....see prev parenthesis) and top it of with....wait for it......home made hot sauce....(that I smuggled in to the country)....so sue me!

I've been missing, dare I say desperately, this wonderful meal since I arrived in this ingredient barren land. But now I am happy again...thanks to Amber! Yummy goodness will most likely be my thanksgiving dinner tonight!

I am also thankful for my cousin Jamie who (knowing that we don't have an oven) sent a baked goods care package. Oh my goodness....cookies and banana bread! Girl...you caused some serious marital discord when Andy thought it was all for him! I would show you pictures but we ate it too fast.

I am thankful for my sister who skypes us every other day. She keeps me posted on everything so that I don't feel quite so left out of family matters. Plus I get to talk to our nephews quite a bit which is awesome!

We are thankful for health, adventures, one another and a military income during our economical down turn.

Thank you Lord for all your blessings!

Paying the Rent

Well, it's that time of the month. How would you like to take a trip with me to pay the rent?
Are you ready....it's quite a hassle so hang on for the ride!

1.) Both Andy and I go to the ATM machine on base and max out our withdrawal limits. Our Korean rent is equivalent to paying our home mortgage.

2.) Take the stack of 20 dollar bills into the base bank and exchange them for 100 dollar bills (you get a better exchange rate this way.)

3.) Take your 100 dollar bills into the money exchange right outside the base's main gate. Trying not to get robbed on the way!

4.) Since the Korean Won's highest bill is 10,000 won (comparable to a $10 bill) we have to pay our 13 million won rent in these small bills.

5.) Hurry across the street to our realtor to give her the hugmongus stack of money, which in turn she will give to our landlord.


6.) Here is Kay counting the money and giving me a receipt.

Yes, we go through this rigmarole every month as does every military family that lives off base.

You have to pay in cash...it's the only way they will accept rent.

Isn't this the craziest thing you've ever heard?

My everyday prayer to God

I pray everyday, throughout the day, mostly for friends and family and for the United States and our planet. But lately I have added a selfish prayer, one that I pray about a dozen times a day. Maybe it's more of a plea than a prayer, but my heart is aching and it goes like this:

Dear God,
Thank you for my life and all the blessings and adventures you have given me. My special prayer is that you will send us back to Boise....the one place that I call "HOME". I know that the possibility is so remote that it would take a miracle from You to make it happen, but I believe in miracles. I miss my family and my support network. I am missing my nieces and nephews growing up. I want to be close to my grandparents as they age. I miss my church family. I miss the beauty and freshness of Idaho and I especially miss my pottery studio. I am broken down and tired from so many moves...I am lonely and isolated from all that was familiar. I need my haven back.
You know the desire of my heart Lord, but If it is not in your plan to answer this prayer then I pray for grace to accept what I believe is your will for our lives.
.....but please please please let us go back to Boise!
Amen

Best 5 bucks we've ever spent!

Here is me throwing down my fiercest back hand pose. Yes...be very afraid.

"DEATH TO MOGIES"

O.k, let me explain. This is not a badminton racket in my hand but rather a high tech, state of the art mosquito killer. Or as the Koreans call the little beasties..."mogies".

Side note: (Thank you Korea for not having regulatory laws on shocking devices and thank you for selling them in mass for only 5 dollars.)

Oh yes, I'll be sneaking this 'oh so awesome' racket back to the U.S. ....you know it!

It doesn't matter that I have shocked myself (inadvertently or otherwise) with it over a dozen times so far.

Mogies are a real plague here in Korea.....and trust me, I know bad mosquito infestations...I have lived through them in Florida. For the last three weeks, Andy and I wake up every morning with the dreaded "pimple looking" bites all over our faces....and poor Chicane too.

They have taken to biting my eyelids which make my eyes swell and look as if I have run into a door knob.

We have come to HATE them!

Yes, hate is a strong word even for these blood sucking, buzzing little clowns. I channel all my rage toward this singular insect by becoming the hunter rather than the hunted.

Andy and I take turns doing "the sweep" before bedtime. When our bug zapper makes contact with one there is this sick yet satisfying snap, crackle and pop and then the lingering smell of burnt hair. ....and then nothing but smiles and hope for a night of restful sleep....

We haven't had a night of restful sleep in almost a month now....because for every mogie we kill there are a dozen more lurking. We keep the zapper within reach at night. We are both guilty of jump out of bed around 3 or 4 in the morning incoherently cursing the wretched winged devils with shouts of, "I'm gonna get you! and Die sucker! (pun intended) and HA HA HA....take that!"

We also take turns encouraging each other with "Good job babe! You killed that one DEAD! There's another one...GET HER!!"

You can learn a lot of interesting facts about these distasteful creatures compliments of Wikipedia.

The "HEY LADY" ladies

"Hey Lady you want to buy T-shirt? Very cheap. Special price for you because you beautiful lady."
"Where you from? America?? Ooooh you rich. You want buy watch? Special price for you because you American!"
"Hey Sir, this you wife? She beautiful lady, you want to buy scarf?"
"Hey Lady! You want bag? My price is 600 yuan but because you my first customer, you special price of 440 Yuan. What??? You give me only 35yuan? Why you joking with me? Come on, give me No Joking price! See the quality? This not cheap. You want cheap you buy other bag. This bag very good quality. O.k. O.k. I give you this bag for 400yuan, this is very special price because I like you..ok.?"
"Hey Lady, Hey Sir, you no walk away. OK. give me your best price and no joking price, see the quality?"





You get the picture. If you know me you know that I am terribly claustrophobic and I was in Beijing no longer than an hour before I had my first panic attack. I call them the "Hey Lady" ladies. They all come at you at once competing to be heard and to sell their wares. They grab you and try to pull you into their booths. They block your way and stick t-shirts and other junk in your face. Very aggressive and overwhelming. I ran away with my hands over my head yelling, "Get me out of here". True story.

So yeah, I'm not much of a shopper and China is all about shopping. Arghhh....look at all the crap! I am proud to say that neither Andy nor I bought any touristy stuff no matter how cheaply it was offered.

Because it's EVERYWHERE you go that you get accosted, in order to survive, I started making a game out of it. Since the Chinese (like the Koreans) always assume that any white person is American we started answering them in other languages such as German, French, Spanish, and Italian, (yes we can speak a little of this and a little of that). It was hilarious until we were shouting German phrases all they way down the hall of an underground subway shopping station and caught the attention of some real Germans. (Apparently there are a lot of Germans in China.)

Another tactic when we were approached with someone trying to sell us something (like a pair of socks) we in turn tried to sell them something...like one of my hair scrunchies. They would usually walk away really confused.

Also I went to China with one goal in mind and that was to find SOMETHING ANYTHING Made in America.
Well, the only thing made in America that I found were me and Andy.

We love a good BM.... don't you????

Remember back when we first moved to Korea and we were talking about our awesome heated toilets? I mentioned that surely this topic would be revisited....well, I keep my promises.

This blog will not contain gross pictures...because I just can't bring myself to to that...but it will be vividly detailed so those with a weak constitution may want to stop reading NOW.



Seriously....there is no turning back from here......

Did you know that there are "No Pooping" signs in Beijing? Yep, people have been known to just drop trou and squat and unload on the side of the street. I'm NOT making this up. In fact we personally witnessed a small boy doing just that....right across the street from the Forbidden City. He hung his little behind over the street grate and let her rip! I guess the government is really trying to crack down on this problem ...especially in the big cities. But "IT" happens folks!

Also, we saw this cute little toddler with his parents (this was in Shanghai) all dressed up in this sweet little baby outfit. When he turned his back to us his whole complete bare bottom was exposed to the world. Yep, these babies don't wear diapers....they wear bottom-less chaps and I guess they just "go" whenever they need to.

We take Chicane for a walk when she wants to do her "business" and I suppose the Chinese just take their kids for a walk in much the same manner.

So I might have mentioned that the Chinese may have 1 public restroom for every 500,000 people. These "restrooms" are literally just holes in the ground and that's about it. You would be lucky to find a clean one. We weren't that lucky. In fact, I spent most of my vacation just holding it.

There was this one occasion where we were visiting the Olympic village and we were far far away from home... Both of us needed to use a restroom. So after walking about 20 miles (yes....Olympic village is HUGE!) we find a LONG line of people, some with wads of TP in their hands (obviously savvy foreigners, and we were like EUREKA! So we get in our respective long lines. I have my treasured wad of TP in my hand. The closer I get to the bathroom door the more assaulted my sense of smell becomes. I stood in line a good 15 minutes before gaining view of the bathroom door entrance. With excitement and trepidation mounting I start my little "don't pee my pants" dance when all of the sudden 5 little old Asian ladies completely cut in line right in front of me. .......I'll pause here to share Andy's story which is going on simultaneously to this one.....

Andy in his own words....

Ever tried to use a urinal with 25 dudes trying to be next in line to the point they are on your back and looking over your shoulder? No? Me either. I walked in to the WC saw the gaggle at the urinal and decided a stall would be a better choice. The first stall was open a few inches so I slowly pushed on the door to open it and the entire door fell off it's hinges and slammed into a Chinese man inside. When angry words started roaring out from behind the collapsed stall door, I decided to promptly leave without using the bathroom.

Back to Sherry: I got four of those sneaky old Asian ladies to find somewhere else to wreak havoc, but the last one was really stubborn and she dug her heals in. So I said "HEY!" and I heard an echo of "heys" in line behind me....apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't appreciate this lapse in courtesy.
The smell was really getting to me and I was peeved so I made a hasty decision to get the goob out of there and so abandoned my precious well-earned spot, much to the delight of the 50 people in line behind me.

I met Andy and we shared our stories and laughed (sort of) because neither of us accomplished our mission. We took a taxi back to the hotel and raced down our hallway to see who got to use the potty first.

Pack your own toilet paper and DON'T DRINK THE WATER.....we're going to China!

We are almost half way through our Korea adventure...can you believe it? Ughhh I am sooooo behind on our blogs. Also we realized ..."Holy Smokes..we need to get some traveling under our belt".

First stop: BEIJING!!!

Thank God for the Olympics because I have a feeling that the city of Beijing is 100% improved because of the event.
We got the full benefit of a cleaned up city with beautiful architecture and somewhat clean air! We really think Beijing is an awesome place to visit. In fact we found China to be so much preferable to South Korea....(but more about that in a later blog.)

All the research I did prepared us for the fact that bathrooms in China were going to be hard to find and most likely NOT up to western standards. Also, one must carry their own roll of TP. This is a luxury that Americans take for granted...public restrooms nearly everywhere you go and free toilet paper. I LOVE AMERICA!!!!!

Of course I had to use the bathroom as soon as our plane landed and here is a picture of the bathroom in the Beijing Airport. Besides the "normal" toilet in our western style hotel, this was the nicest bathroom we encountered during our vacation.

I was super glad that I had TP with me. Fortunately for you this is the only bathroom picture I will show on the blog.
I want to keep this blog rated PG and I don't want to gross anyone out....(but I will be describing our bathroom adventures in detail later...so be forewarned.)

After a long "rip off" taxi ride from the airport to our hotel...(Taxi's will be a whole other blog). We settled into our hotel and decided to explore the city straight away.

Even Andy, the "Human Map", (also fodder for another blog) needed a little help to get us going in the right direction.

EVERYWHERE were remnants of the games. Let me just say that a whole lot of money was spent on this Olympics. Beijing 2008 posters, banners, paintings, advertisements, sculptures are literally on every street you walk.

Another thing we noticed were the number of bicyclists around. It is great! One of the measures that China took to help alleviate their horrid pollution problem was to take 800,000 cars off the street everyday before the Olympics. We were told that there are 3 million cars in Beijing alone. Since this measure had such a noticeable impact on the air quality they decided to put this into effect again. YAY! In fact they stared this on the Monday that we arrived. The pollution was really bad and both of us could feel it in our eyes, nose and throat. By Wednesday the air was almost clear! WOW! Only in a Communist country can you tell 1/3 of drivers that they cannot drive on particular days. That's one star for communism. The ONLY star they are getting from me! (Commies VS. Capitalist swine is also another blog we have lined up).
We walked in the direction of where we thought Tianamen Square might be. It was supposedly a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We are walking along and everything is going fine when the street we are on goes into an old neighborhood of Beijing. I am really excited because I care more about this China than I do about all the touristy rubbish. But Andy gets all "sketched" out. He's like, "It's not smart to go down dark alley ways in the dark..." and I'm all like, "Yeah! but this is probably the ONLY neighborhood that Beijing didn't demolish for the Olympics and I want to see it!" But of course Hubby won this round, but he did let me take this picture of him. He is almost bigger than the shop.

So we walk around in circles for two hours when we wind up back where we started. By this time the charm of walking is starting to wear off. We see a guy on a rickety bike rickshaw type deal and he wants to give us a ride. We agree on a price of 2. My throbbing feet were grateful and we settled in for a quaint bike ride. Well guess what? We end up riding down the street that Andy didn't want to go in the first place. Yeah, it was sketchy...but it was the right way! This guy starts pedaling and I kinda feel sorry for him because Andy is kind of a big dude. But I decide to settle in for the ride and enjoy the scenery. About 90 seconds into the ride our driver took this photo of us.

Ahhhh! Look at the happy couple...and yes we are NOT in focus....thanks for nothing buddy!

Driver gets back on and pedals for another 8 or 10 minutes and stops. What?!?! We are there already??? After walking around for two hours??....it was just down that sketchy street that Andy thought was so "dangerous"?
So we get off the bike and Andy gets out his wallet to pay the man with 2 Yuan. The driver gets all upset and pulls out his cell phone and shows Andy that he wants 200 Yuan. Well folks, 200 yuan is about $30 U.S. dollars. Andy said,"NO Way" you only went 2 blocks. And driver made all kinds of gestures about how laborious it was to cycle us even that far. Andy only had big bills in his wallet and gave the man 100 yuan. The man was "acting" all upset but really let's think about it for a minute. Do you know anyone that makes $15 for 10 minutes of work? We were cheated for the second time that day. But the good thing about us Pences is that we learn very quickly and getting this nonsense out of the way the first day proved beneficial for the rest of the trip.

I'll stop here for now...but just know that I have about 15 posts in "draft" mode.
So STAY TUNED!

Danger!!!! DANGER!!! 90 second cake

So I stumbled across "Mug Cakes" on the "Here be Tatters" group. This recipe has become viral of late. And being the rebel that I am I decided to take this brilliant concept to a whole 'nother level.
I think pictures will best describe what we are talking about here!

I have been without an oven for 5 months now. You cannot believe how stoked I am to get cake from the microwave...in just 90 seconds. It's evilicious!
Any chocolate cake mix will do.
I prefer bowls to mugs. It bakes faster so that I don't have to waste precious seconds getting that oozy warm chocolate to my lips AND even though it is the same serving....I THINK I am getting more!
Must use bottled water here in Korea. I don't worry about measurements...another trivial detail that just takes up too much time.
Stir well; runny pudding consistency is what you are looking for.
Hershey kisses, chocolate chips...whatever...THROW IT IN BABY and HURRY!
Looking good.
90 seconds more or less
Let's soup it up a bit eh??? Can we get more evil than this??? I don't think so!

Heaven!

It's going to be quiet for a little while.....

We are getting ready for a little vacation in China. So this blog will be quiet for a time. There will be lot's to share when we return so please stay tuned.

Biggest NOPER ever!

Here we have fish fin, Chicken Feet and raw fish. Yupper? Noper? Yet to be determined.
NOPER!!

The first pot is boiled silk worms and the second pot is snails(or hermit crabs) in the shells

Andy was brave enough to eat one of these worms. They smelled like a hot musty out house and Andy said that it tasted pretty much the way it smelled and was the worst thing he has ever eaten. With that said, I decided not to try it as it would be pretty emabarrasing to throw up in front of the cooks.
Got some stuffed squid for you. We didn't try this one either...I think the silk worms threw us off our adventerous spirits for the night. So this could very well be a yupper....we don't know.

Can you guess what this is? I actually liked them and they are a YUPPER!
So of course this is a yupper. A $15 waffle to be exact. But it was worth every penny...let me tell you. Ahhh I would like to eat another one right now!

Our dog is a ROCKSTAR

Yeah! Our dog is pretty much the Beyonce Knowles of the dog world.
This is a typical scene.
Every time we take Chicane out in public the Koreans go crazy over her. She may well be the only pointer in this whole county. Most Korean dogs are small and definitely not spotted like our girl. She causes quite the ruckus. She has literally stopped traffic more than once.
We've been told that in this country she is worth $10,000 and if we were in Japan she would be worth $50,000. Ha ha....she must be some tasty treat! No really, there's no way I would ever sell her for any amount of money...would you sell your kids? That's all I gotta say.
However, I should start charging people for pictures of her.
As much as people seem to love Chicane, other dogs seem to hate her with equal intensity.
I don't know if it's her royal bloodline....she's a decedent of the "Von Jägermeister" line (I'm not making this up)....or if it is that she thinks she is a human, and won't give other animals the time of day. Whatever it is she has been attacked by many other dogs. We didn't mean to raise such a snob and all the attention she is getting from everybody is certainly not helping our cause.

Dog training goes a long way and our girl is not only super smart but she is very well behaved. Andy always makes her run through commands for the Koreans and they think it is the greatest thing in the world to watch her sit and lay down on commmand.

Mini Moo's live in my Happy Place

I haven't been able to stop talking about mini cows since I first heard about them a couple years ago.
Video

Let's take a break from the reality that is my life (living in Korea) and spend a little time in my "Happy Place".



They are the coolest things since square watermelons.

This is for you Misty!

I think my sister is this blog's #1 fan and perhaps our only reader....so sister girlfriend...this one's for you!

MORE YUPPERS AND NOPERS

These are awesome! Yuppers baby! I've decided that I love everything "Aloe". These sugar free "Jolly Rancher-like" candies are a guilt free pleasure.

Oh my goodness! Just looking at this picture makes me wanna gag! NOPER x 2! GROSS!
It's some kind of chemically manufactured totally synthetic juice with some kind of orange pulp floating around in it. This is a case of me falling for great marketing. I mean look at this...wouldn't you want to try it? Blah...it's totally disgusting....excuse me while I go yack!

Um...Andy might say Yuppers on these strange cookie/cracker sandwiches but I say NOPER! I think I like my Sesame flavor to be savory and not sweet.

AHHHHHH!

YUPPERS with two snaps around the world and BACK!

Ummm hmmm! I think I am addicted to these moon pie thingies. I think they are like 5,000 calories a piece and probably the reason why I have gained 5 pounds since moving to Korea. They are laced with some kind of Korean crack or something because I can't stop eating them. Funny thing is, is that I NEVER eat this kind of junk food back home in the USA. I know better....
Please help me......

Update #2

The aftermath is heartbreaking. We lost a BSU professor in this fire. I just feel sadness and thankfulness today. Here is how close our home came:





Story here.

Update

10 houses lost and 9 more damaged. It looks like one person lost their life. Our street was spared. If I were standing in my front yard I could see the burning homes up on the rim. I have always admired those homes...very big and lovely. Many times we walked our dog up and down that street admiring the homes. Now it looks like a war zone. This is the worst housing fire Boise has ever seen.
The good news is that the community is rallying to support those who are misplaced from their homes.

One of my greatest fears in leaving my first home was that something disastrous would happen in my absence. I realize that even if I were there, there is nothing I could have done. I do hate being so far away from friends and loved ones and feeling so helpless over here in Korea; I still worry about my neighbors. But I am thankful that we are safe.

4 alarm fire in our neighborhood

Update:
Our street is directly below the ridge that is on fire. All of our neighbors have evacuated. The news mentioned that our homes should be safe. Whew.....keeping my fingers crossed that the winds don't pick up again.


KTVB.COM

I was just informed that my neighborhood in Boise is on fire. It's a very serious 4-alarm fire. My house is not burning as of yet but according to what I can see on the news it is very close to my home.
Please pray for no-one to get hurt and for our home to be spared.

Go fly a kite!

Andy brought a two line 2 meter kite to Korea to polish his flying skills. We hope to one day take up Kite boarding on the snow as a hobby.

This particular kite is .....how shall I put it?....violent to work with. I have seen it drag Andy across a parking lot. I have nightmares that the kite just takes off with me...so needless to say I am a bit scared of it. I am trying to be a good sport though. Here are pictures from a fun kiting day we shared with my cousin Ryan.
Me launching the kite.


Andy and Ryan untangling the kite.
This day was one of the first monsoons we experienced in Korea and as you can see, everything is very wet.
It was also a very windy day which made flying the kite extra challenging.
My arms were getting tired picking up the big wet kite so Ryan took over the launching and he and Andy made a great team.

Yep, that's my cuz!


Yay....it's up and flying!


I couldn't resist including this picture of Ryan and Andy exploring the weird creatures crawling amongst the rock.

Hot and Steamy rain...

Here is a video of a monsoon we had a few weeks back. It rained like this for two days straight and our street was a river.
Personally, I really love rain like this but it didn't do much to alleviate the heat.
It rained like this for a short time today.

We have been in Korea for 3 1/2 months, I can't believe how fast time is flying.
Andy is busy with "War Games" this week so I haven't seen much of him and I miss him.
Our landlord sprayed a ton of pesticides in our yard....without telling us and so consequently Chicane has been sick. I have a very week constitution when it comes to gross and smelly things so incidentally there is a pile of puke waiting to be cleaned up. This happened a few days ago and it literally took me 5 hours to clean it up. Yes, go ahead laugh....just get it out of your system. I may have to leave this one for poor Andy.
I am still fighting some kind of mysterious illness. I am convinced that it is environmental because I was sick like this when we lived in the deep South which has a similar climate. I have been having prolonged headaches and fevers accompanied with extreme fatigue. Gosh darn it all!

Other than that I have been busy with my tatting endeavors. I thank God for the online tatting community. I have so many dear friends looking out for me, it makes me feel so loved!

I am anxiously awaiting cooler weather. I just feel with cooler weather, I might get my energy level back up and will feel like exploring Korea more....which will lead to more posts for you to laugh at.

Oh Dear God....I am MELTING!

Do you want to know what it is like living in S. Korea? It's like living 2 doors down from the SUN! Imagine yourself in a sauna room with your clothes on, lots and lots of pollution and a putrid dead cat thrown in for good measure....WELCOME to my world!
I have had the worst headache ever for the last 4 days. God did not build me for hot climates; I'm a snow angel. Heat literally makes me very ill.. So here we are.
Now that I got that gripe out of my system I will share something much more pleasant.

It's called EVERLAND and it's kinda like Korea's version of Disney Land. It's about a 40 minute drive from where we live. We bought season's passes so that we can go anytime we want. They have roller coasters, a safari, a zoo, a giant movie theatre and lot's of other stuff that we will share over time.
Today I'd like to share our favorite part.....the animals! You can get really close to the animals at this zoo. I especially love the monkey's and the birds. The birds are just out in the open. You can reach out and touch them if you aren't afraid of their beaks. Here is a few pics in no particular order:







Click on picture to read the sign....seriously you can't make this stuff up!