family, fa-mi-ly

so, luke and i just waved goodbye to uncle bill and margo after a fantastic 5 days with them visiting here in korea.
when they got here thursday, luke took them to the nearby park and botanical gardens where they all took a walk and saw some pretty stuff.

then, i took the day off friday and we took them to the korean war memorial, which has the history of how korea came to be, ranging from several hundred years ago to more recent times.




on saturday, we took a tour to the DMZ, where we actually stepped inside north korea and learned a lot about the history of the conflict and where the two koreas stand now. during this tour, we got to visit an observation deck where you can overlook the area of the DMZ, we got to go into one of the tunnels that the north dug to try to infiltrate the south even after the war ended, and we also got to visit the actual border where they have held talks and discussions, and see into and step into a small area of north korea. the DMZ itself is about 4 km wide, and in this area there is a lot of vegetation and wildlife that is almost extinct in the rest of the world, but is thriving there because it reamins untouched in this area. very cool.

this is the north korea "propaganda city" that used to broadcast messages over the border. very few people live here, but the north upkeeps it to show how "great" it is there.

this is a building in north korea. we stepped over the border inside the blue building to the left where many peace agreement talks have been held. the guys at the bottom of the picture are south korean soldiers, and the north korean soldier is on the top steps and inside the building.

i am actually IN north korea taking this picture. see the mics and the flag on the table? that represents the border. the soldier is a south korean soldier who stands at attention like that the whole time someone is in the room. cool!!!!!

this is a sculpture that represents the 2 koreas and the dream for them coming together again in peace someday.
on sunday, we took them to dongdaemun stadium where there are several little shops and a HUGE indoor flea market.

then we took the VERY crowded subway...

and met my friend darlene for a traditional korean dinner. SO MUCH FOOD!!!

uncle bill bought me a handmade flute from this guy and he taught me a little song right there on the street. :)

then, today before they left, we took them to gyongbokgung palace.

there are SO many more photos, but i just can't put them all here. all in all, it was a wonderful weekend and we had such a great time. it was really fun having visitors and being able to share this fun city with them.... who's next???

what?!?!

okay, here i am again! it's been a while.... yet not nearly as long as liane and CERTAINLY not as long as papa. :)
things here are great, we've been really busy snowboarding with the school club the past 3 weekends. the trips were great, as usual, and we had a blast teaching the kids and taking fun pictures of them and stuff. the weather has been pretty nice, still cold, but there was a warm spell for 3 days earlier this week that was VERY nice! then it got cold again, but it's okay cuz we want more snow to keep boarding as much as possible.


this pic is very fun and had to share. liane's wedding was awesome and SO fun and SO rad! seriously, i want a photo booth at every party i ever go to from now on!!
good times. :)


this is me 2 weekends ago with the club. this place was pretty fun and had a good park to hit fun jumps in. of course, there were bigger jumps to hit too, but luke took care of those. :)
we're going to this same place again tomorrow, yay! more pics to come, hopefully.


see, here he is, and this isn't even one of the big ones. he has no fear... i wish.
anyways, life is good... i applied for the transfer round, so hopefully that brings good news for us!
that's all for now... peace out!

halloween and surfing

This picture is from a few weeks back when Luke and I went to the east coast. The waves were big and just crazy, so no surf for me, but Luke had fun!!


After a big rainstorm last week, this was the view out our back window when i woke up in the morning. I thought it was just gorgeous and had to take a picture.


Last weekend we went surfing and the waves were good sized for me, so I ventured out. But, it was a little chilly that day, so luke let me use his hood and gloves. I felt like a kid in a giant snowsuit... very "Christmas Story" and "i can't put down my arms!!!" hahaha
do you like the ninja turtle gloves??? :)


halloween! i'm a witch, tracie is a pirate, romy is an eggplant ( i loved it!!!), elise is a flapper, and craig is just a teacher, i guess. he wasn't very creative. :)


me the sparkly witch and luke the "vato" mexican thug. heehee

things are good here... it's getting cold, very cold! we even had a snow flurry 2 nights ago for about 10 minutes, it was cool. we're looking forward to our hawaii trip and the trip to vegass. i can't wait to see the fam and friends!!! yay!
love to everyone! :)

forever ago...

so here are a bunch of pics from when we got to korea until today. i know, some are from forever ago, but better late than never, right! :)

chusok day, the korean thanksgiving.

















this is part of the park and palace we went to, so beautiful!















these are the "kimchi" pots that they literally rot the cabbage in. they leave them outside, buried in the ground to ferment and get (apparently) oh so good. blech!






me and my friend tracie partying it up and dancing like rock stars! heehee




the wonderful cupcakes luke made for my birthday. he had them scrambled when i got home and i had to unscramble them and put them in the right order and right place before eating one. isn't he the cutest!!




luke standing at this really pretty beach he surfed at a few weekends ago







a different beach, around the corner... this beach had the coolest starfish all over the place. i really liked this one because it had 6 arms. aren't the colors amazing?!




we found these fun waves at the starfish beach. and there were also like 6 korean surfers out there that we made friends with. it was a cool, fun day

ugh

so here we are, back in korea.
a few updates for anyone who wants to know...
luke and i got in a car wreck a week before we left the states. we're fine, the car is not. and we are still dealing with getting the insurance all figured out. no bueno, and VERY frustrating. but hey, the minivan rental was nice. :)
we got to see mom and dad before we left, and then liane and carl came into town which was very fun, and we had a very nice family party on sunday. it was wonderful to visit with everyone before we came back here.
the plane ride was pretty uneventful, and we had an angry bus guy when we got back. whatever. he didn't want to put our surfboards on the bus, made us pay $7 extra for them, and was just very grumpy. again, whatevvvvvvv.
our house was just about a thousand degrees when we got in... and stale air. yucky! it is SO humid here too. ick. and our fish are dead, but we didn't expect them to survive in the first place. it was just the neon tetras. hahaha
although we are almost over the jetlag, we still have woken up at about 4:45- 5:00 the past two days. today it was nice though and luke made us french toast! yummy! god energy food for long days of meetings!
and oh, the meetings.... school stuff has been fine. i'm looking forward to seeing all my kids again. i haven't been able to set up anything in my room yet, because they are painting it. they had ALL summer to do it, but they choose to do it when I am here and now unable to do any class work. you know it, whatEVVVV!!!
luke said he'd help me this weekend. awwww, so nice!
all in all, things are good here. besides the melting in the humidity part. we miss everyone and had a WONDERFUL summer. and we are really looking forward to seeing everyone again this winter! yay!
love you!

update

things are going well here.... surfing a lot and enjoying ourselves. the weather has mostly been really great. a little chilly today, but pretty sunny and nice for the most part. a different swell is coming in right now, so the waves are changing and being kinda weird. this morning, the waves started out really good, then the tide went really far in and they died to nearly nothing, and then they turned all crazy and mushy and choppy all at the same time. so we left and went to lunch. :) but we both had caught waves, so it was all good. luke went surfing again this afternoon at del monte beach, but i was sleepy so i stayed in and relaxed. we try to surf in the morning and afternoon, but sometimes i'm too worn out. luke never is. haha.

we'll try to fit in as much surfing as we can before we leave for nevada. we'll get to reno tuesday evening, have fun with family and friends for a few days, then we leave for virginia on saturday (can't wait to see the fam and go surfing with liane and carl!) and then back to reno for a couple of days before we come back to the coast and more surfing! yay!
so there you have it... all is good in the world of the phlegmings. :)

dolphins

so today, while luke and i were out surfing, this big pod of dolphins swam by. this happens a lot, so you might be thinking no big deal, right? well, these dolphins were RIGHT next to us! seriously, one came up and blew the blow hole in my face and i could have reached my foot out off the side of my board and touched it. it was a little scary, but mostly pretty cool. they kept playing around us for a while and then moved on. one even caught a wave with luke. it was cool.
the waves were pretty fun. i've been practicing on the new shortboard a lot so that i can ride it in virginia. but today was kinda little, so it was a longboard day. very fun.
:)

i'm a published author!!

okay, not exactly, but it is still really cool.
a while back, i entered a contest for Surfing magazine about a great love story, and the guy said I really would have won, but the submission was too late because we get our mail late in Korea. but, this month, in the august issue, they printed the story!!!! so now everyone knows our great engagement story!!! yay!
i wish i had a link to show it to you all, but instead, go to a bookstore and check out the august issue of Surfing. It is in the letters section and titled "I love you, but..."
awwww, we are so cute! and it came out right for our anniversary! :)

happy july 3rd!

hey! it's our anniversary, yay!
we are back at grandma betty's house after camping for a week. branden came down to camp too, it was very fun. but boy did i ever need a shower after 6 days of camping! my hair was so greasy and NAAAAAASTY! the ocean water only does so much......
today we are going surfing and then coming back, cleaning up, and going out do dinner, with some cheesecake, of course!
and then tomorrow we will head back to camping again for only 3 nights this time. it's really cool to be at the campground for the 4th of july and see all the fireworks in the sky. the campground is right on the beach, so it is way awesome. and branden bought some silly little fireworks that we may light off also. :)
surfing has been great, yesterday we went to carmel beach and nearly froze our buns off. much colder water than santa cruz! luke was off tearing up the waves and branden and i stuck together and surfed the fun stuff. we had the longboards and luke was shortboarding. speaking of shortboarding.... my new board is so cool! i have surfed it a few times and caught some waves and everything! i trade off between the shortboard and longboard. but when we go to virginia, i'm just taking the shortboard, so hopefully i can handle liane and carl's home turf!! heehee.
okay, gotta run and go get ready for the surf!
peace out.

buddha's birthday

here are some pics of our outing last weekend to the festivities here in korea for buddha's birthday, it was super fun!

this is the cutest little statue that is in the center of one of the squares, where you could donate money and offer wishes and prayers. it was in front of this beautiful temple that is newly constructed, full of wood carvings, paintings, etc. it was so pretty.


they had these lanterns up everywhere around Insadon, the town where the main festivities were in Seoul. this was also in the courtyard in front of that same temple. i loved how the lantern interweaved with the huge tree.


these ribbons attached to this giant weather balloon were actually prayers and wishes that the people wrote. at the end of the week of ceremonies and festivals, they released the balloon into the air. it reminded me of the nepalese prayer flags.


at night, there was a HUGE parade. many people participated and walked with lanterns they made or lotus flowers they created during the day, schools walked, groups walked, and they also had a ton of floats. this was one of my faves. the legs moved too. it was cool!

the whole day was fun, we went with our friends boe and tracie. i also got a very pretty necklace that is a lotus seed that is painted on, so nice!!! and i gave a donation to these nuns and they gave me a handmade lotus flower, it was so great! the weather was beautiful and the day was fantastic!
:) 

spring break pictures

look at these beautiful cherry blossoms! we found them while out on the east coast looking for some surf for luke. they are starting to bloom all over the place... finally! i thought they were never coming because it had gotten cold again. but its finally warming up and here they are! it makes it so beautiful around here!

these are all the small little blooms, but there are also trees that bloom these huge white and purple flowers also. i need to take some pictures of those to show you all. and on base there is this street that has trees on both sides and they form a sort of cherry blossom canopy over the street. it is so pretty!!!

we found this little character at one of the beaches on the east coast. silly. its a mosaic statue and very cute, but part of her face is chipping off.

this octopus was at one of the other beaches on the east coast. they all have some sort of theme character or whatever. this particular beach also had a bathroom with a big clam shaped roof on it. it was quite funny.

i just liked this rock. it looked really pretty out in the water and the waves were crashing up on it.

anyways, things are good here... getting ready to start our last 9 weeks of school, and only about 65 more days until we get to the states!! yay!!! we are SO excited! so, that's that. talk to you all later, dudes! ;)

yo mama'a mama...... abu??

hahahaha
so yeah, its been a while. things here are the same as always. luke and i are doing well. i've been busy with my school bands and my online classes. i've decided to take a week off after this one i'm in now to relax a bit. one right after the other is pretty strenuous and i'm getting overwhelmed. my school kids are getting ready for our honor and type thing here. a lot of them tried out, and i wish i could take them all. they all are so great. luke has been subbing a lot, and on his days off he's been finding surf. we went with the school snow club 2 weekends ago and then last weekend with one of the boy scout troops to help the snowboarders. the weather was beautiful both days adn warm adn so nice. we took some pictures and luke posted them on his blog. all he does is post pics and do comments, but you should check them out. the site is: surfkorea.blogspot.com.
the weather has been warming up finally... the sky was blue today, with no wind and it was pretty warm. i can't wait for spring. the rees get so green adn the flowers are so pretty.
no news on the transfer stuff yet, but keep your fingers crossed! it would be so cool to get somewhere in europe! mmmmmmm
we have started the countdown to getting back to the states, yay! only 104 days! :) we're so looking forward to seeing everyone, going surfing, visiting liane's college (finally!!), and just being in the good ol' U.S. of A.
that's about it here. sorry i couldnt be more interesting. :)
love you all lots and hope to talk to you soon!

a little bit o' tag

So, I got tagged by Jess, Liane, and Horne. Seriously, people! But, Horne's won't show up on my computer now, so I'll just do this one. :)


Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Teaching music (middle and high school)
Dean of Children's Center at Idyllwild ( so fun!!!)
Teaching swim lessons at Bubble Swim School (gentle ways are best!)
Party hostess at Club Funtime Pizza 'n' Play (ugh!)


Four movies you would watch over and over:
The Princess Bride
Empire Records
Better Off Dead
Pleasantville

Four places you have lived:
Beautiful Seoul, South Korea (mmm, smog!)
Reeeeeno, NV
Las Vegasss, NV
Puerto Rico


Four TV shows you love to watch:
Jeopardy!
Degrassi-The Next Generation (I SOOOO miss that show!)
Mythbusters
The Jeff Corwin Experience
(I'm in Korea, people... there's not much to go on here, except old shows)

Four places you have been on vacation:
Puerto Rico
All over California
Hawaii
Europe


Four websites you visit daily:
Bloggage of family & friends
University of Phoenix Online
aol.com or gmail
surfline


Four of your favorite foods:
sushi
crablegs
spaghetti
halibut and rice pilaf

Four places you would rather be right now:
anywhere in europe
anywhere near a beach
puerto rico
closer to family


Four bloggers I'm tagging:
mom
dad
horne
jackie

hello!!!!

okay, i know its been like, forever, but here i am. :)
so, here's a major update.... we had a FABULOUS time in hawaii. the weather was beautiful the whole time and the waves totally rocked. it was like 85 degrees everyday, and the water was so perfect. not too warm, not too cold. and i totally ruled on the waves. they were so nice. and i tried shortboarding a couple of days and it was really fun, i actually caught some waves on it! it was scarier than the longboard, and when i was on the top of the wave to drop in it was like a mile down it seemed, but i did it. :) then, when we came back to korea, it was so freezing here! we brought warm clothes to put on when we got off the plane, and its a darn good thing! seriously frigid!
we went snowboarding a couple of weeks ago and we're going again this weekend. we go with the school to teach the kids snowboarding. its free... yeah!!!!! heehee the snow is kinda crappy and icy and fake, but hey, again, its FREE!!! no better way... except for free and good snow, that is. whatever.
school is good, we have the end of the semester coming up soon, so i have the kids doing their semester projects. they can play music, do a report on a musician, write a piece of music, etc. it's really cool seeing the ideas they come up with. they are presenting them next week, i can't wait.
luke and i have recently begun watching the tv show family guy and it is friggin hilarious!!! one of my kids loaned them to me. i think the funniest part is that its just a big farce on old tv shows and movies. seriously funny! i don't think my kids get all the jokes in them, but whatever. ;)
my masters classes have started back in again. HARD! the class i'm in now is psychology. i took the class in college, but it must have been the super easy version because this class is crazy hard. and i just finished the first week! oh well, its okay, i only have to take one class at a time, so i have enough time to study and stuff and read the thousands of pages of homework! :)
so there you have it, the update on the happenings. i know i need to post some hawaii pics and blog some more, but i have more homework crap to go do. talk to you all soon!

SNOW!!!

It crazy snowed here on Saturday night!! this is the snow couple that luke made. we also started snowball fights with random koreans.... they loved it. :) and luke threw snowballs at cars too, it was very funny! don't worry, no one got mad or hurt! :)


Luke and I went to our friends Boe and Tracie's house for dinner and movies, and all of a sudden the snow started to flurry. it started around 7 pm, so we went out and played in it for a while.


Me and Tracie all bundled up....There is a little hut out at the park area that sells snacks and drinks, so we got some beers to warm ourselves up. hahahahaha :)


we made some snow angels too. i couldn't believe it was deep enough for it! it probably snowed about 6 inches just while we were out there!


this is the next morning out of boe and tracie's window looking at the park we played at. amazing amounts of snow! it was too cool!!!!


and this is the scene out our window the next morning. seriously, there is so much now! and it hasn't even all melted yet. there is still so much left! and it is REALLY cold here, like 19 degrees this morning when i got to school, and the overall high was 40. brrrrrrrrrrrr
i hope we keep getting snow like this! i love it, and maybe the ski resorts will have more REAL snow this year!! :)

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turkey day at the phlegmings

hey guys! here are some pics of turkey day.... we sure had fun, but we missed everyone a whole lot. and we have TONS of leftovers!! :)

me and luke at our table. we tried to get some of our view in the background... you can see seoul tower and the hill behind us and some rooftops.

look at the spread!! seriously, SO MUCH FOOD!!!
look at our cute little turkey. yummy for the tummy!! :)


and here's our living room, all pretty and clean. do you see our cute fishies?!? they are really adorable and all named after surfers :) i know we're supposed to send more house pics, and we will, as soon as we clean the rooms! :) hahaha

anyways, i put up the christmas tree and i'll be posting some cool pics of that soon too! hope you all had a great turkey day! love you lots!