Summertime

It's almost here. I thought this would be a good time to give everyone an update. Next week is finals week so Dusty and I will be busy grading and getting everything finished up for the semester. Sometimes it feels like it's flown by, other times it seems like it's dragged on for a long time. Either way, Dusty and I are both really looking forward to the summer. We have decided to stay close to try and save money and take advantage of our free time to work on other things besides teaching.

What we've been doing this semester:
- we moved
- we made our apartment into a home
- we adjusted and adapted to life in Daegu
- we learned a new job (again)
- we taught new curriculum and made new lesson plans
- we made new friends
- we talked a lot about our future plans, goals, and dreams
- we started a sort of Bible study with friends
- and of course... we traveled Korea and climbed like crazy

Currently Reading - The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi
Currently Listening To - The God Journey Podcasts
In the Kitchen - Made Butter Chicken and Naan a few times recently
Currently Watching - Videos on Gymnastike.com


We've been busy these past several months. Basically it's been another semester of transition for us. We are so happy where we are. We love our surroundings, our jobs, our friends, and our lifestyle. It was a difficult move for us but we couldn't have asked for a better set-up. We are definitely thankful that the transition stage is behind us now and at this point are hoping for another year and a half here. We both know we are nearing the next 'life stage' but neither of us feels quite ready to move on from where we are now. I realized this semester that I have moved 8 times since I graduated college in 2003. Yes, that's right folks. 8 TIMES!!! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to staying put here for a little while longer. I think it will give us the time and freedom we need to decide what direction we want to go next.

Upcoming summer plans:
- Dusty's parents are coming to visit for a week. We are so excited to see them! They'll be here this Friday. We have been trying to get all the finishing touches done on the apartment so they'll be comfortable during their stay.
- After that I'll be studying my booty off for the the national counseling licensure exams which I hope to take this winter.
- I also hope to study Korean. My goal is to finish the Rosetta Stone program by the end of summer.
- I want to learn some songs on my ukulele.
- I plan to organize all our photos, get albums made, and delete whatever is leftover.
- I have a blanket that I've been working on crocheting for over 2 years now. Maybe I'll work on it some.
- I hope to find some great summer reads.
- I'm also hoping to get lasik eye surgery.
- Dusty will work a camp throughout August to make some extra money.
- He's also planning to do a language exchange.
- And of course, we will stay active climbing, running, doing yoga, etc.

Future plans:
- We plan to come home over winter vacation to visit our families and for me to try and get my counseling license.
- That's as far as we've gotten. We have ideas and dreams but no set plans past winter. We'll keep you posted.

Oh yeah, I wrote this a few weeks ago but I forgot to post it

It is a balmy Wednesday evening. We (Dusty and I) are so fortunate to have the majority of this week off of work. We taught regular classed Monday but our school is having their annual sports festival Tuesday through Thursday. Friday is Buddha’s birthday, which is a national holiday here. Our school graciously gave us these days off so we decided to take a little getaway, just the two of us. We don’t seem to get time to ourselves very often. I’m not complaining because I love our lifestyle here and the fact that we have many friends who we love to spend time with. But, it’s so nice to have Dusty all to myself for three whole days. No distractions, no phone calls, no schedule, and no letting the time determine what we should be doing. We decided to come to our favorite climbing place in Korea, Seonunsan. We will be here until Friday evening at which time we’ll head over to another crag (closer to home) and spend the weekend (you guessed it) climbing with friends.

We were meant to leave yesterday afternoon but we woke up in the morning to heavy rain. Dusty decided to head off to work (on his day off) to check out the festivities. I opted to stay warm and dry in our cozy apartment and slept in until 9:00. I told him I’d work on packing while he was gone. However, once he left I found myself lacking motivation seeing as how it was pouring outside. Instead I watched some gymnastics videos online, took a shower, and caught up with Brandi on skype. It’s not often I get her all to myself without interruption. It was great talking to her. I recently decided I’m going to work toward getting my counseling license this winter, which is a big decision for me. It gets the ball rolling in a direction and means I have lots of work to do. I’ve been done with graduate school for nearly three years but for whatever reason, haven’t felt like I wanted to pursue licensure until now. For whatever reason, I feel ready. But, I’m scared. I’m scared of failing. I’m scared I won’t be good at it. I’m scared I won’t be able to remember how to do it. There is a lot of fear that I’m going to have to face with it and I can’t think of any other person who could understand it all better than Brandi. She’s been through the whole process and is an awesome counselor, friend, and sister. I hope to write more on this decision in my next blog.

Dusty was a bit disappointed when he returned to find everything still needing to be packed. Ugh! Such a chore it is. I explained my severe lack of drive to do anything that day. I asked if we could just spend the day at home relaxing and packing up and head out early the next morning. To my surprise, he thought it was a great idea. So yesterday we spent a peaceful, relaxing day at home, just the two of us. We didn’t do much. We packed. We took lots of breaks. We ran a few errands. We watched an episode of the Cosby Show. I love that show. We ordered fried chicken for dinner and snuggled up to watch a movie. We were in bed by 10:00. It continued to pour throughout the night and we both woke up around 3:30 to some loud thunder before falling right back to sleep.

This morning we were both up by 5:30 and were out the door by 6:15. The drive was lovely. I slept for the first half but by the time I woke up the rain had mostly stopped leaving behind a heavy, misty fog for the sun to battle for most of the day. We arrived here around 9:45 and quickly set up camp. We’ve done it so many times by now that we barely need to speak. We set the tent up together, then I get inside while Dusty hands me our pads, sleeping bags, and pillows. Then we unload the clothes out of our packs and set them at our feet. Then we unload the food. When we finished, we ate a bit of tuna salad, crackers, and dried seaweed. Then I had a bowl of cereal (I didn’t get breakfast). Before I was finished Dusty had set up the hammock and was ready for a late morning nap. I joined him and we slept soundly for about an hour. When we woke up we ate a little more and then packed up for our hike to the rock climbing area. It’s about 3 miles up to the crag. It’s a bit long but beautiful all the way and I enjoy the exercise and feeling warmed up before I even get on the rock. We arrived up at the crag around 2:30 to find it wet, very wet. So wet in fact that we only did one easy climb. We decided it would be better to just take it easy today and let things dry out a bit. So instead, we sat on top of a rock and talked while enjoying an amazing view. Then we hiked around looking at some climbs we might like to try tomorrow and ate a bit more before hiking back down to the campsite. I did a little bit of yoga while Dusty fetched some wood for the fire. And that brings us to now. Right now I’m laying in the hammock while Dusty gets a little catnap in before dinner. I think we’ll have sweet potato chili tonight. Mmm! Speaking of which, I’m going to go get that started. I’m hungry!