The potty! YEA! Asthma. Boo. Nathan and the girls!

The Potty!
Elliot peed in the potty for the 1st and 2nd times ever last night! Woo hoo! Of course there was a bit on the floor first, but I was very proud! The second time he even went all by himself without anyone knowing 'till he was sitting down doing his thing!
I thought that was even more impressive since we've hardly even mentioned the potty to him for over a month while the kids have been on-again off-again sick. Then last night he had his diaper off for awhile, and there you go! Tonight while we were out he was obviously upset at having to pee in his diaper, so maybe this is the beginning... of something beautiful (ha ha!)
Nathan shared in the excitement and being proud of Elliot, which was awesome, and then was bound and determined to empty the pee into the toilet from its removable potty compartment. Okay! Kids!!
Asthma, boo, hiss!
Well, Nathan's been diagnosed with childhood asthma, and the doctor said Elliot sounds like he'll have it too. This is the end (I hope!) of our LOOOOOONG round of being sick here, including much coughing. I just pray they'll outgrow it, which I think happens a good amount of the time, although, there's lots of asthma in the family.
Of course, it's not what you want for your children, so I am a little sad, but honestly I feel a bit better to have some kind of plausible explanation for all the coughing. I really am praying with faith that they'll outgrow it. A friend gave me a passage from Isaiah 43 recently which talks about coming through great trials unscathed, which really encouraged me that the boys would come through this time of sickness and be perfectly fine (it's been a good 5 weeks or so of almost constant viruses around here, for anyone who doesn't know!). (They aren't on any inhalers or anything, they have something similar in a tiny patch they can wear for 12 hours if things are acting up.)
HOWEVER, it's the time of year for reflection and counting your blessings, and I think I could be a lot sadder about this asthma thing except that I am aware of A LOT of much, much, much worse human suffering all around the world. Israel and Palestine? (Charlie Wilson's War is a timely movie to have a look at life over there, we just watched it). So much of Africa? Just about anywhere outside the developed, free, West? Even close to home, there are children with much more difficult illnesses and obstacles. Children who bring that same magic to their parents' lives as Nathan and Elliot do to our lives here.
Thinking of the magic of children, I want to thank God for the very special arrivals of Jana Lynn and Luke Paul Johnston, and Megan Yvonne Stacey in 2008, and the healthy growth and upcoming birth of our new little niece in February 2009!!!

Nathan and the Girls
Well, we always assumed that if we get to adopt some children one day, they would be boys, but Nathan informed a family friend here tonight that he doesn't like boys, he only likes girls. Oh! Don't give up hope for a granddaughter I guess!
This is part of Nathan's present fondness for the gentler sex. Building off his amazing attachment to Cousin Tara, Nathan has got himself a girlfriend at daycare, Suminyee (or something like that). The daycare staff know all about it. Apparently she's quite a cutie, and the last I heard she and Nathan were being quite good, staying on the sidelines together while some other boys had a fight (that was Nathan's story, anyway!).
If you ask Nathan if he has a girlfriend, he's as likely to tell you about Suminyee as he is to tell you he has 4 girlfriends! Or 5! Suminyee, Cousin Tara, and we're never sure who else! He also picked out a backup dancer in his Hillsong Kids Christian video who he "really likes." You only see her for about 5 minutes during the whole DVD, but he likes her!!
Romeo!
We're just happy he finally knows the name of one of the kids at daycare!
Well, it's 9:42 on New Year's Eve. I really gotta go to bed! Sleep, it's oh so sweet!
With lots of thanks, and curiosity about the year ahead,
God Bless You!

Random Thoughts Part 4, The Bathroom

I have no idea what happened to the text for this.
I'll replace it one day...
Flushed down the drain I guess...

Nathan naps!!!

Nathan is actually napping right now with being sick! He's been off and on sick for at least a month (no exagerration, we've had it all, twice!!), but he's just now starting to get extra rest. Thank the Lord, truly, truly.

No joke, he has just had his, like, 3rd, 4th and 5th naps of the year 2008. He is just not a napper, even when he's really sick. It is really just a gift of God that he is actually getting some naps right now, and I'm so thankful as I believe sleep is about the best cure for illness.

For those of you who know my non=napping son, and his I'm-20-months-old-and-my-baby-brother-is-about-to-be-born-I-think-I'll-Stop-Napping-Now history, you can appreciate how rare and wonderful these few days of napping are! Oh, so this is what two napping kids feels like!!!

Foods I Never Need to See Again After Korea (It's not your fault, Korea, really...)

-Seaweed. Seaweed, seaweed, seaweed!!!! Argh!!!!!! Slimy, thick, wispy, it's EVERYWHERE!!!!!! I know it's good for you but yech! (That crispy laver stuff is the only exception).

-Sushi. Thanks to that growing drive to be a vegan, and thanks to my favourite movie here, The Chef, which has some unfortunate sushi making (re: raw fish dissection scenes). Oh, sooooooo gross. Too bad. Wasabi, I will miss you so!

-Dok. In all it's chewy, glutinous, flavourless, yet you can't avoid it in a single day, yuckiness. It was fun to make it though!!!!!

Food I'm glad they have here, an ongoing list!

-I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! (Ben!)

-Cheese! (Well, it's kind of cheese. Our Seoul-Shopping friends get us more sometimes)

-Daejang Chige (Ben)

-Coffee!

-Buckwheat and Earl Grey Tea!

-Spinach! And, that yummy cooked spinach, sesame seed and rice vinegar salad we have sometimes at school.

-White potatoes, though we don't eat them enough at home.

-Apples!

-The best tofu ever, made on-site Soft Korean tofu in Gangneung city. "Son Dubu Kuk" Soft tofu soup, that stuff rocked. If I was single I'd go to Gangneung just to eat it. Mmm.

-Bean sprouts.

-Popcorn

-Yogurt (especially when the boys are sick, what a lifesaver!)

-Peanut Butter! Thank heavens!!!

-macaroni, and spaghetti sauce.

-Thai and Indian sauce/spice mixes. Thanks friends who get them in Seoul for us!!

-Bulgogi, and anything else wrapped in lettuce with rice. What a good idea!!! Way to go, Korea!! Brilliant!

-Thin, crispy, salty sheets of "laver" What is laver? Why not just say seaweed? One reason: Nathan likes it and I think it's good for you! Also, the only tolerable way to eat seaweed. Not dried, tastes good as a kimbap wrap.

-Kimbap.

-Bibimbap, without the meat or raw egg, which is easy enough to do.

-Those tasty street pancakes with the bit of syrupy sugar and various seeds inside, that the boys love (Good job Ben!). Definitely have to share those with the Butlers when they come.

-Corn on the cob, a local, seasonal special. It's done now, but the boys, especailly Elliot, loved it!

-Cereal. Good ol' fortified cereal, the parents-of-toddlers' nutritional lifesaver. Phew! Boy, we have about 53 more kinds of cereal at our tiny Port Credit No Frills than we do here in Donghae, but I am very thankful for what we've got!!!!

Foods I miss from home, An Ongoing List!

-First of all, on behalf of Ben: the Hoagie House, burritos and all things Mexican, Thai food, Burger King Whoppers, and all things Indian!

-Cheerios! Oatmeal! Oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal... You can get it at Costco in Seoul. Might as well fly home to Canada, about the same amount of work involved! Flax seeds and molasses and other healthy stuff I put in oatmeal to jam my family full of nutrition...

-Tea. Tea, tea, tea. Too bad I'm just not a green tea gal. Orange pekoe, Irish Breakfast, Chai Rooibos, Western style fruit teas... Good ol' tea. (We do drink a lot of Korean Buckwheat Tea at our house here. It's good for Ben's ezcema and my varicose veins, which you wanted to know, I'm sure! We usually have a cup each after the kids are in bed.)

-Fruit. This is the fruit we eat at home, and, ONLY these fruits, for a whole year it seems:
1) Apples (very healthy, no complaining, very glad for
apples! The boys love them, Really, it's great.)
2) clementines/mandarins. Cheap and healthy.
3) raisins (do they count?)
4) bananas, when we're not tired them! We're tired of
them, though!!!
5) Once in a while, a huge Asian style pear. But they're
quite expensive too. They are huge!
Ok, so they HAVE other fruit here, it's just INSANELY
expensive. You can buy a small cantaloupe, a very small
watermelon, a small cored pineapple, a quart box of very
pale strawberries (right now) or a bunch of grapes (we
used to buy grapes more), for 6,000.00 won each. Which
is at least $6.00. $6.00!!!! for a cantaloupe!! That's
what I miss. I do appreciate that in Canada we have all
this variety of fruit and veggies at the expense of the
environment, all that fuel used for shipping and
transporting, and growing things out of season, I know
it's not good for the environment, but right now I really
miss it. Esp. since they boys aren't eating well right now,
I'd love to have plentiful cantaloupe, pineapple,
watermelons, mangoes, to give them! Also, our city here
is famous for persimmons, they are quite abundant,
really. But, none of us like them, and they make my
tongue swell, so it's a no-go. Snookered!

-Canned lentils. On their own, or any kind of dish that contains them. Mmmm. They cook dry lentils in rice here, but it's not the same.

-Mom's Turkey Dinner. Turkey, the last hurdle to veganism! So good!!

-Yams, or, North American Orange Sweet Potatoes. Same thing! We have purple skinned, white fleshed sweet potatoes here, in abundance, but not the same. Different taste, definitely different texture. Heavier and not as smooth. And I don't think as nutritious.

-Canned and frozen peas. We have canned peas here, but they are their Western counterpart's ugly, starchy, really hard cousin. Blech! But, definitely better than nothing!

-Canadian soy milk. It's sweeter and thicker here. But better than nothing!

-Indian buffet restuarants with Ben.

-Homemade Bread, and, whole grain bread.

-Campbell's Vegetable Alphabet Pasta for the boys.

-The Burger King Veggie Burger.

-Homemade muffins, cookies, banana bread, zuchinni bread, carrot muffins...

-Heidi's Sunday night Church dinners....

-Hot Chocolate

-OVALTINE!!!! It's right there in the Philippines, I know it! So close and yet so far away!!

-Quinoa, with a bit of butter and soya sauce... Mmmm, healthy goodness...

Finally Christmas! (even though we miss you all a lot)

Happy to say, it finally really really feels like Christmas, and it's wonderful! Of course it's not the same, and we acutely are aware of all we're missing, but it's so nice to have those warm Christmas feelings!
After the boys went to bed, I wrapped a few Christmas presents (all the lovely packages are hiding on the balcony from the boys)... a few from us, which I think are pretty good!, and one each for their daycare Christmas party. Then Ben and I settled in, snacking and just relaxing on our lovely heated floor, watching "It's a Wonderful Life" (Ben's idea, good man), with just that incredible, warm glow of Christmas lights lighting the room. It probably helped to make the evening so special that we haven't had such a nice stretch of time together in awhile.
Oh, and we had our first snow in town tonight, and it was a good heavy one! No fluffy white slow falling flakes, but a pretty good storm!
So that was very Christmasy too.
Tonight was a great Christmas present for me, full of peace and warmth and rest and love.

Our SeaSide Train Trip

Click on the title to see the video!

Korean Laundy

Laundry at our apartment in Jugong Samcha:
Well, it's good for the environment here. Korean companies MAKE clothes dryers, but, not for Koreans! Nobody uses them. Everyone line dries on their enclosed balconies. Apparently in winter you dry your clothes on racks inside your apartment because the clothes would freeze on your completely uninsulated balcony (we will fight this as long as possible as the thought of laundry everywhere inside makes me crazy!!!). I bundle up in my parka and toque to keep warm while I hang the laundry at night on our chilly balcony!!

They're also good here at only washing with cold water. We don't even have the option with our apartment set-up of using hot water to wash clothes. That's okay, but soooo different from home!!!
Also of note about laundry in Butlerville, Korea, are my sweet laundry helpers (oh, Ben too, of course): Nathan and especially Elliot, LOVE to empty the laundry into the machine for me. It's great! Way to put that throwing arm to work, Elly!
They're the best.

Korean Ice Cream

We were discussing all things Korea tonight with Tania and Marius Van Niekerk and was reminded of when we went to the Baskin Robbins in town a month ago. We got sundaes that were supposed to have strawberries on top.
They were out of strawberries.
No problem! They've got cherry... TOMATOES!!
Yes, folks, they honest-to-goodness had a cut-up dish of cherry tomatoes to use instead of that other, completely interchangeble red fruit, strawberries.
Thankfully we got to the end of the sundae assembly line just in time to say, No thanks.
The Culture Lesson here is, in Korea, Cherry Tomatoes exploit their true identity as a fruit to the fullest and appear in all kinds of fruity places, like fruit trays and ice cream parfaits.

KOREAN ICE CREAM PART 2:
Flavours you will find in Korea, because Koreans use "sweet" vegetables (and legumes like the Why-Use-Chocolate-When-You've-Got-Red-Bean) to flavour all their "sweet" desserts:

Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Sweet Potato Ice Cream
Squash/Pumpkin Ice Cream
Red Bean Ice Cream
OH, AND we just found out in the frozen dairy treat section of your convenience store, you can also find...
PORK FLAVOUR ICE CREAM TREATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES, PORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OINK, OINK, PORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, the corn is okay, the pumpkin is completely awful.
I would rather starve than try the pork.

Interesting, eh?

Random Thoughts Part 2 (yep, about a month's worth!)

Korea and the Environment:
My humble, I-don't-know-what-I'm-talking-about opinion is that they're pretty green here. Yes, I know the population density makes it more pressing than in Canada, but, good for them!
For example: everybody here disposes of their food waste separately from their regular trash. Really. Residences to schools to restaurants. Where does it go, I have no idea. I asked a Korean and she didn't know. Oh well. I feel confident it is NOT going to a separate but humongeous Food Waste Landfill. So, good for you, Korea!
2) There are a lot of Really Small Cars on the road here. Apparently there's a significant government incentive program. You either save a lot on insurance or the purchase cost of your car. (I know, I am a fountain of detailed supporting evidence. Not.) Interestingly, there are also a lot of Jeepy-looking SUV's. Which doesn't support my environmental theory. There is no way they're even the same car species as those monster Lincoln SUV's we've got in N.America. Another interesting car thought is that 95% of cars on the road are grey, black or white. This is because, other colours are considered to be for young (re: immature?) people. Which of course means a lot of young people wouldn't choose them because they're trying to look older and more mature. So, it's a pretty boring traffic jam in Korea. Grey, grey, grey.
3) All right, I know some people would just say they're cheap here, or, more gently, that the oil heat is ridiculously expensive (as it is at our place), OR that you could turn on the heat as much as you want and it wouldn't do much when your (ahem, ahem) apartment is almost entirely uninsulated and has big spaces around the balcony windows for cold air to come in, BUT, I like to think Koreans live and work in freezing cold buildings because they're trying to save the environment. I do know that they do a great job of actually unplugging things to really cut down on every last kilowatt being used.
Back to heating... Like the schools that I and some other teachers I know work in. Recently discovered a thermometer on the wall in the main hall. It's a cozy 8 degrees Celsius in the main floor hallway. Really and truly. That would just never happpen in Canada. Even if there were a hole in the ozone layer visible to the naked eye, right above you. So, kudos to Korea for freezing your green bums off! (Thankfully the teacher's lounge gets a lot of heat from sunny windows. And, actually, I think they did start to turn some heat on this week. Why not last week? 8 degrees!!!)
Oh! My handsome hubby has returned. No more internet for me! Catch ya later!

A LOT of Random Thoughts... About a Month's Worth! AND, I finally figured out how to include links to other sites! Good ol' Help Menu.

Where to begin? Feels like every other day I think of something to remember for the blog, but I can't access the blog at work (is that some kind of don't blog at work block? Who knows, the access denied screen is very much in Korean!).
So here goes...

Well, as of last night we are leaning strongly towards coming home after just a year, instead of two (ok, but, only God knows!). The biggest practical reason is Ben's work schedule is not really sustainable in terms of sleep. Since Daylight Savings Time kicked in, the office is 14 hours behind, so they don't get in, at best, until 11pm here. Is it fair to expect them to be done with Ben's design and programming by, like, 11 am their time? Not really, though they don't complain. It's just harder for Ben to get to bed at a good time, and to really get enough sleep in the morning. Just to clarify, as Ben did, we're REALLY thankful that Ben can work for VIBE this year, it's super super helpful, and should be helpful next year too, as hopefully he'll work for them full-time from a home office in Kingston...

Thinking of maybe being in Canada next year, we are having normal parent disbelief that our first-born should start Junior Kindergarten this coming Fall. Yikes! Time flies, eh? Wow. I said to my friend Maria on Facebook today that I would love to be a fly on the wall at my kids' school, just to see how cute and sweet they are... big boys... at school! I also think maybe JK is a good idea for Nathan. He obviously CAN sit still for an enormously long time, and is Super Smart (hee hee) and a fantastic reader, but I think JK would be pretty helpful for him to really learn to Listen to His Teachers (not a strength) and participate when he's supposed to, like for circle time and stuff. Before he hits Kindergarten, grade 1. Ok, I know he's only 3 but this might need a lot of work! I was also thinking today that our current daycare, that is totally a provision from God, is just not big enough for me to feel good about our boys being there for 2 years. A kid might go a little batty.

Another reason to come back is that we miss all those in person strong relationships and support systems, sounding boards, hugs... hugs.... hugs! Ok, maybe that's just me with the hugs. I really miss hugs. An EPIK teacher at another school in town put on FB this week "could really use a good hug after that awful class" and I was like, I know sister! I hear you! Girlfriend hugs, family hugs, the kind where you don't have to say anything... missing the hugs. They're so helpful. Stop right now and hug somebody! Unfortunately in aiming to head back to Kingston for a rare time where Ben can have a big-city design job AND we can be close to family, we are choosing NOT to be back in the middle of our awesome in-person housechurch and friends community. Hint, hint, move to Kingston, dudes!

Hey, speaking of friends, Rebekah sent us Hello video clips from (most of) the gang at Housechurch recently. Awesome! I recommend this as a really special thing to do for people you know who are away from home... like us... anytime, as many times as you want... Hopefully I will get my act together and put some video hellos together for you all. It's great.

Well, honestly, I'm a complete dunce and it JUST sunk in that besides all the free babysitting and meals (ha ha ha) moving to Kingston will mean we have a chance to, really, strengthen our bonds with all our family there after living far away for a long long time. Really share more of our lives together, understand each other more, TALK more! That's pretty special -- you know I mean that 'cuz it's me writing, not Ben. =)

So, ha ha, just when I dared say to someone today, "sure we'll be there, because it's almost impossible for either of our kids to get sick again for a long time," Elliot started throwing up again today!!!!! To quote the wonderful Ms. Valerie Stacey (ironically also in reference to her offspring getting sick again:
"UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE!!!"
Oh dear. What can you do. Bad kimchi? =) At least he's just extra tired, as opposed to really super cranky as per the last 2 teething weeks. Still oh, oh, oh-so-cute though!!!

In happier news, as people on Facebook might know, we are seriously pursuing a week long vacation at an all-inclusive in Bali,Indonesia. Wow! Who in the entire world could have imagined this Butler family at a tropical island all-inclusive? Not me! Ever! Yee haw! We'll keep you posted. The big reasons are: it's a lot cheaper to do it from here than from Canada. And 2) for a small blip in our lives, we are actually a double-income family! Ka-ching! Hello, vacation! Better go while we can! (Ok, and yes, there are other more fiscally responsible things we could do while we're a double-income family. We'll do those too. I hope...). In my mind, it can also be considered a Cultural Experience. Ha ha! Sounds so noble!!
Ok, is this the longest post ever yet? If not, check out Part 2!!

WE MISS YOU EVERYONE!!!!