Our first week and our new apartment!

Daddy and the girls at the airport

The girls were so happy to see their daddy after being separated for 3 long months. We took a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to the army post. We were able to stay in the lodging there on post for our first week. The housing office would not allow us to move into our apartment until beds and a fridge were in the place.

So Friday, a week after our arrival, we finally got keys to our new home! And what a home it is! My husband and I do have the same definition of "big" :) I love this place! I believe it is the nicest place I have ever lived in! I have a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 "Western" bathrooms (which means that they look like stuff back in the states) with a jacuzzi tub in the master bath, an enormous kitchen with tons of cupboard space, a master bedroom twice the size of any other bedroom I have ever had with one whole wall that is nothing but storage closets! and a vanity area with 3 more closets!

The realtor had to explain so much to us about how the different appliances worked because they do things so differently here. They have an oven/microwave combination unit! How cool is that? The floors are how they heat their homes, so we needed to be shown how to turn that off when we don’t need it. You can select which rack gets washed in the dishwashers! You don’t have a hot water tank here… you turn the heater on to get it and it comes out HOT… but when you aren’t using it, you turn it off to save gas. They have washing machines that also dry your clothes! (but unfortunately we didn’t get one). Our loaner furniture came on Friday, too. They brought the beds, table and chairs, a refrigerator, a dresser, night stands, lamps, a coffee table, end tables and a washer and a dryer. They were supposed to bring us a desk and a couch, but they were out of them, so we are sitting on the floor. Since we have lawn chairs and folding tables coming in our household goods (HHG) on Monday, we aren’t really worried about it. At least we have a place to sleep.

Now the rent amount will kill you... 1,700,000 Won... which equals about $1,350 +/- in dollars plus utilities! I was very nervous to get into such a "pricey" place, but my husband was already in an agreement on the place, there was no getting out of it... but I have to say, I love it! There are both Koreans and Americans living here, so we will get to make all kinds of new friends. The neighborhood is clean and quiet... except for those 2 roosters that live somewhere nearby. We are close to the train station so we can get back and forth to post easily. It is such a nice place! Our household goods (HHG) will be arriving Monday, so that means that all our important (lol) possessions will be here then. Yeah!


Master Bath


Kitchen and dining area


More Kitchen Cabinets


Master Bedroom


Wall of Storage Closets in Master Bedroom


Living Room


Girls Room


Did I mention that they have a playground on the premises?

Welcome to Alabama

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous going to Alabama. I have watched "Sweet Home Alabama"... it says you should "need a passport to go down here". What's a good old Yankee girl supposed to think? Well, it wasn't anything near as strange as I had imagined... at least not where I was in Dothan. Must be the military influence there has straightened them out (lol). My mother-in-law (MIL) kindly put us up in a hotel nearby. The girls and I had a great time hanging out with my MIL and my brother-in-law (BIL), Dan, the whole time. We saw my MIL's horses and went to a horse show. We had a cookout at Dan's house. He is great at grilling. My eldest was always quick to ask for a piggy-back ride like she had from daddy. Uncle Dan just loved hanging out and spoiling those two girls. On Mother's Day, my MIL took us all down to St Andrews State Park in Panama City, Florida to see the Gulf beach. It was beautiful down there. Small waves, white beaches, sea shells to be gathered and admired. There was also an inlet there that provided sheltered and shallow swimming for the little ones. It was wonderful! After church that evening, we all went out to eat at Ryan's Buffet. My MIL was just so tickled that we had come to Alabama to spend Mother's Day weekend with her. On our last day in AL, we went to a nursing home to see my MIL's sister who had a stroke a number of years ago. Doris was has a limited vocabulary, but it was even more limited that day due to how excited she was to finally get to meet her two little great-nieces. All she could say was, "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" It was such a sweet visit and I am so glad that we had the time to go see her. That evening we had dinner at my MIL's house... first time I have ever seen the place. It was a cute cottage down by a lake in the woods. My girls went outside after dark and collected frogs and may have even loved a few to death. We looked at old pictures and just enjoyed each other's company. I am so glad that we ventured into wilds of Alabama!



Uncle Dan, the girls and my MIL
with the girl showing the horse



Uncle Dan coloring with the girls



The girls on the beach at
St Andrews State Park




Uncle Dan and my eldest in the
waves of the Gulf of Mexico



Me, my MIL, the girls and
Uncle Dan (my BIL)



My youngest listening to the
ocean in a shell at grandma's



Uncle Dan and the girls

Traveling to Alabama

Well, we drove from Texas to Alabama in two days. The traffic in Houston is so bad... I spent hours white-knuckled in stop-n-go traffic. When the girls asked to stop for a break to stretch, I was glad to take a break from the traffic. We pulled over about 50 meters from the ocean, and there the girls found some shells to entertain them for a few minutes. We grabbed dinner at Ihop and got back on the road. We had barely crossed the border into Louisiana when we decided to get a room for the night. The next day we decided to stop in Gulfport, MS to stretch our legs and check out the Gulf coast for the first time in our lives. The waves were nice and gentle. Of course the girls loved it and I thought it was pretty nice myself. We spent about 45 minutes on the beach and got back on the road and got to Alabama around 9:30 at night. The hotel my mother-in-law booked for us did not have internet access. Since I only had that night to talk to my husband before he was gone on a training exercise for a week, I asked her if she would mind if I switched hotels to one that had internet access. I felt so bad having to ask that of my MIL since she had gone through so much trouble to find us a place close to her house. So we ended up staying at a Holiday Inn up the road and were even given a room upgrade... the manager on duty wanted to bless us by giving us a larger room on the 1st floor so I wasn't leaving my kids several times to go unload the car and drag things to the second floor. Just so you know, the military discount in Alabama is also higher than the AAA discount. Not a bad thing for those of us in the military. But because the cost of the room was a bit higher at the H.I., we only stayed there for one night.



Texas Roadside Flowers



Road-side stop in Houston, Texas




Girls crashed at hotel in Louisiana



Collecting Shells in
Gulfport, Mississippi