Oskar's New Toy

For Christmas, I got a gift certificate for "Only Natural Pets" from my sister. I got really excited when I saw an "interactive animal sounds" toy for doggies, and I ordered it (along with some new bully sticks). The toy came in the mail today and. . . well. . . I'll let you see for yourself how Oskar reacted to it. . .

Merry Christmas!

Since our Christmas cards didn't come in the mail and therefore there will be NO Christmas greetings from the Woogies this year, we decided to just post our Christmas picture here on the blog. Merry Christmas, everyone!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

--Luke 2:11

Random Oskar Fun

This post is really nothing but a collection of random pictures of Oskar that I couldn't fit into any other logical place in the blog. But they were too darn cute not to share. . .

This is Oskar's new way to beg for food. He stretches himself between the love seat and the recliner and stares at your food, drooling. Sometimes, he gets lazy and will just lay down. . .

This is Jonathan's favorite picture. He calls it "The Masked Kidney Bean." Short story long, Oskar has a blanket that he has destroyed by digging and chewing on, so it's covered in holes. Every once in awhile, he gets himself stuck in these holes and, well, this particular time, Jonathan thought he looked like he was wearing a superhero's mask. . .

In this clip, Oskar's ball has actually landed on the chair, and he can't quite figure out how to get it down. . .

Hope you enjoyed :)

Mustang Valley Demolition

This post will probably not be of much interest to you until you have lived at Osan or, more specifically, at Osan in Seoraksan Tower. However, I have to vent about the current bane of my existence: the demolition of Mustang Valley Village. For those of you who are not familiar with the area, Mustang Valley Village is the old military family housing unit here at Osan. The buildings have been condemned and abandoned for years while new housing tours sprung up around them, namely Seoraksan Tower, located directly behind it. Due to some bickering with the Korean government (SURPRISE!), it has taken forever for the Air Force to get permission to actually demolish the buildings. But, lucky us, they finally got permission this past August and the demolition began . . . and so did the constant headache and increasing frustration of all Seoraksan Tower residents (especially grumpy ones, like me).

Soon, we were dealing with loud bangs and crashes 7 days a week (although, give them props--they are HARD workers. They even worked on weekends, which was awesome when you are trying to sleep in), insane traffic patterns (for those that know the area, they turned the way road to Seoraksan into a two-way--not kidding. Yikes.), and construction workers directing traffic for no reason (case-in-point: the one guy who sat next to the stop sign on the way out of Mustang Valley. He waves his little wand and says "stop" in Korean over and over. Soooo. . . .copy, dude. Follow the rules of a stop sign. Got it.) Let's not even mention the dust and abestos constantly floating in the air.

So anyways, I had a perfect view of my balcony of the process, and I thought I'd share. This is what it looked like before. Ahhhh. . . many people would pay top dollar for a view like this one. I mean, come on, abandoned housing? You can't put a price on the beauty of that ;)

Hard to see, but they started the demolition on the buildings on the far-side of the complex. . .

Looking towards the Indoor Pool. . .

All finished with the buildings on the Indoor Pool side. . .

Look at those wide open spaces. . .

. . . they have to be almost done!

Nope! Two more buildings to go. . .

Now, it may appear that they are pretty much done, but they are still out there, tearing up roads and digging random holes. I'm sure there's a reason for it all, but it's a bit maddening at the moment. *Sigh* As are most things when you live in the land of the "not-quite-right."

A VERY Early Christmas Gift. . .

So, Christmas is already in full-swing at the Woogies' house this year. Yes, I know its not even Thanksgiving yet.

Anyway, we have discovered that Oskar is VERY particular about the type of Christmas music we play. Take a look. . .

Happy Korean Fall!

I absolutely LOVE fall. It's my favorite time of year. I love bundling up in jeans and hoodies. I love hayrides and wiener roasts and hot chocolate. I love the Covered Bridge Festival and my birthday. ;) But, unfortunately, I haven't been able to experience most of that stuff in several years (okay, I've had my birthday, but you know what I mean). Luckily, though, there is one thing I do get to experience, and that is the LEAVES! Now, granted, a South Korean fall is not an Indiana fall, but it still has some BEAUTIFUL colors. Oskar and I took a walk around base to snap some pictures for you all . . .

This red color is one of the most striking I've seen in a long time. GORGEOUS!

I love these little gingko leaves that fall. They are such a pretty color, and they stack pretty well. Oskar likes to run through them like a mad man!

I love this orange color too. BEAUTIFUL!

Yesterday, I joined some friends to celebrate fall in the perfect way--a visit to a Korean apple festival! After getting lost for about an hour, ending up in a field, and ultimately following the one person in our party WITHOUT a GPS ("Hey guys--I bet it's where all those flags are"), we FINALLY arrived!

The apple trees didn't quite look like the ones in the States. . .

But, apples are apples, and they looked delicious nonetheless!

The apple festival was small, but extremely cute! The Koreans were so friendly, and there were lots of things to do!

There was basket-making and games for the kids. . .

And, of course, all the apples you could eat!

We discovered a place where you could make apple wine. Did you really think I would pass up THAT? ;) First, you had to dump apples in a grinder. We actually got to throw our own apples in, but I could hear Jonathan's voice in my head as I got close to the grinder: "Baby--don't you DARE drop your camera in that grinder." So I put it away :(

After grinding, the apple pulp was dumped into large buckets. . .

. . . like these.

Bless this guy's heart. He was our "instructor" but didn't speak a word of English. As you can tell by his face, I think he was getting annoyed by this point, but he stuck it through! We had to take the apple pulp and put it in our jars. To that, we added two cups of sugar and a teaspoon of yeast and then LOTS of stirring.

The wine has to sit for a month before its ready for tasting. I'll let you know how good of a wine-maker I am. ;) Next up, making apple jam. We were given this little pan of jam on a burner. . .

Stirring, stirring, stirring the HOT jam. If it looks like I am leaning back, it's because I am. Between the bees flying around and the hot jam splashing up on me, I was ready to be DONE with this whole "jam-making" experience. . .

FINALLY, the Korean ladies poured out the HOT jam into jars. VIOLA! Homemade apple jam! (Yes, it was a scary experience, but the jam is DELICIOUS, so its worth it!)

Koreans have some of the most unique handicrafts I have ever seen. I got such a kick out of these. Check out the one with snot running down his face. . .

Before we could go home, we had to let the little ones pick some apples. Because of the language barrier, we couldn't really understand if we had to PAY to pick the apples. So we told the kids to just "pretend" they were picking the apples. . .

. . . that didn't work so well. So we just took the apples and walked away. . . quickly.

And a blog post is never complete with a cute picture of Oskar. In honor of fall, I threw him in a pile of leaves and snapped a picture. You can almost SEE the loathing in his eyes.

Happy Fall, everyone! :)