A's turning 30!

"Happy 30th birthday Aaron!"  
Today I want the world to know 30 reasons why I'm celebrating you today!

# 1

You're really clever and usually make me laugh at least 3 times a day (and that's on a slow day)!

# 2

You're the best photographer I know and the only one I know to be published in WIRED magazine.  Hhhello! 

# 3

You're a great athlete!

# 4

You're creative!

# 5

You're indulgent when it comes to junk food (which I secretly kinda love)! 

# 6

You're consistent.

# 7

You're affectionate.

# 8

You're the kind of guy most girls would want as a boyfriend!

# 9

You have big muscles and make me feel safe when I'm under your arm!

# 10

You're just the right amount of sensitive.

# 11

You clean WHILE you cook! 

# 12

Speaking of cooking, you're fabulous in the kitchen!   You're a natural.

# 13

You love junk food more than I do, which I love! ...Except for when you secretly eat my snacks!

# 14

You're faithful to me.

# 15

You're generous and have taught me how to become more generous.

# 16

You're a great hugger and always pull me in really tight! 

# 17

You don't take yourself too seriously and will dance around or be silly for the sake of making me laugh!

# 18

You're protective of the people you love!

# 19

You're becoming more thrifty and make me proud everytime you buy something on sale!

# 20

You're cautious and get nervous when I do something that I may get hurt doing (like driving the scooter)! 
I secretly like that you worry.  (I'm sure my mom and dad appreciate this too!) 

# 21

You love Serry (the neighborhood dog) as much as I do and will walk with me to visit her

when I miss her!

# 22

You're able to put me in check without me hating you. 

# 23 

You're intelligent!  I mean what guy knows both the names of buttons on a scientific calculator AND the names of most athletes, what sport they play AND what team they play for! 

# 24

You're a perfectionist about things that are important to you.

(I know everyone thinks I'm a perfectionist, but you are too, and I appreciate your attention to detail!)

# 25

You prefer having a night in, watching movies with me, to hanging at a busy bar!

# 26

You're spontaneous and make your life and mine more spicy because of it!

# 27

You enjoy drinking red wine, which means you'll be super successful one day! 

(It's been proven!)

# 28

You're intentional.

# 29

You're excited about being a dad one day and are slowly convining me I'd love being a mom!

# 30

You're my best friend. 

Now if those aren't great enough reasons to celebrate you today, then I don't know what is!

"Love you A. Happy 30th!"

Christmas cards!

Today was the last day of my Beginners English After School Class for the school year, so we made Christmas cards!  It had been a long time since I had taken photos of my students in a classroom setting, so I grabbed my camera and took a few! :)  Merry Christmas from my kiddos.

Ladies Night!

Last night, I was invited to go to dinner with the 5 "youngest" Korean teachers at my school!  In Korea, it's only appropriate to hang out, socially, with people around your same age.  There's about a 3 year age gap between the 6 of us, and ALL of them can speak English, so it was perfect! 

We all rode together in NaRae's car and did a little shopping in Migliore before heading to dinner at ToDai Buffet.  Girls in Korea love to memorize and teach each other the dances from Korean pop music videos!  .... Yes, even 30 year old teachers like to do this, and in public while they're shopping!  LOL

We waited patiently at the front door to ToDai....

... and at 5:30pm sharp, it opened with singing employees welcoming customers!  

(NO JOKE!  They were singing to us!)

This is the ToDai mascot!  I guess if McDonalds and Chick Fil A can have mascots so can a Korean buffet!

There was an abundance of amazing food in this place!  Think the size of your neighborhood Walgreens and fill it with aisles and aisles of food!  They had every kind of sushi, steak, chinese food, fruit, cakes, coffees, crab legs, soups, salads, fried food... YUM!  This was my first plate, complete with kimchi jun (pancakes), crunchy sushi rolls, fried shrimp, bell peppers, Chinese bread, and fried rice!

The other girls were much more brave and went for things like fancy sashimi and oysters!

Now Introducing:

김원범 (Kim Wun Bum) 

5th grade teacher.

윤나래 (Yoon Na Rae) 

3rd grade teacher

전혜란 (Jun Hey Ran)

5th grade teacher and NEWLYWED (Remember her wedding from last month?)

최유미 (Che Yoo Mi)

4th grade teacher

and last, but not least...

김미정 (Kim Me Jung)

6th grade teacher

 

We talked love, friendship, fashion, food, and culture... laughed a lot, and spent 3 hours chowing down and truly enjoying each others company!  I am blessed with great co-workers and friends at Dae Gyo School!  

Making liquid hand soap!

My creative juices have been flowing like a river lately!  I've been popping out projects right and left!  This post though is dedicated to 2 things: a memo board / frame, and turning bar soap into liquid soap!

I bought this frame at Daiso for 3,000 won (about $2.50), painted it avocado green to match my kitchen, and invested 1,000 won ($0.75) on a white paint marker!  I would have loved to put some fun craft paper in the frame to make it more exciting, but couldn't find any.  I decided the cardboard worked just fine!  BTW: When you use a paint marker on glass, it easily wipes off... So now I can write new messages anytime I want on a cute custom made board!  This note was for A! :)

Now onto the more exciting project... at least in my opinion!  Liquid hand soap is not only hard to come by in Korea, it's abnormally expensive, which is why I was so thrilled when I saw THIS PIN on pinterest!

*** I only needed to fill 2 soap dispensers, so I cut the recipe down.

Here's what you'll need:

I found this bar of Korean soap that Monica had given me for my birthday!  (FREE soap!)

I grated 1/3 of the bar of soap with a small cheese grater. (My wrist still aches)

Then, I put 24 ounces of water in a pot on the stove (Think the size of 2 small bottles of water)

I put the grated soap into the pot.

I then added 1 teaspoon of glycerin

(I found it at a Pharmacy for $0.75 and only used about 1/20th of the bottle! - SCORE!) 

Then I turned the heat on the stove to medium/high and stirred until all of the soap had melted.

Then I turned the stove off and let the mixture sit overnight.

IT WORKED!  IT REALLY WORKED!

I made enough liquid hand soap to completely fill 2 soap dispensers and it was less than 5 cents!

Less than 5 cents people!

So, turn off your computer and go make some handsoap!

Jet setting...

Thanks to Korea's generosity in giving me an extra 2 weeks paid vacation in February for re-signing my contract, I'll be jet setting with Aaron over to Boracay Island in the Philippines for the last 14 days of February.  Not great on the wallet, but great on the body!  We all need a little relaxation, don't we?!

I was excited when we booked our flights, but didn't get pretty butterflies in my stomach until Aaron found THIS PLACE!  My initial reaction was NO WAY!  A place on the water in Boracay would be a fortune! Since Boracay Island is home to one of the worlds top 5 beaches, most resort hotels are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive and even the hostels aren't exactly South East Asian prices like we're used to paying.  BUT, this place is only $56 a night (still about 2 - 3x's more than most places we've been), but I can dive into the ocean from my own room for heavens sake!

February 16th just can't get here fast enough!

*** As a side note, I'm coming home to America NEXT WEEK!  Hallelujah!