Our First Week Here

After 10 months of planning, 2 shipments of household goods being

shipped, a summer road trip across the south eastern part of the
States to visit friends and family, the rest of our stuff being packed
and sent to storage for the duration of our tour in Soko, finding a
home (with our Bro and Sis Glossup) for our sweet Roxy dog, getting
our home in Texas ready for renters, selling our old-faithful Yukon,
saying bittersweet “see you soon’s” to our sweet family and friends in
Dallas, and THEN a few flights later……. We are finally in the “Land of
the Morning Calm”.  Specifically, we are at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.
Whew, we made it!

The trip wasn’t like I thought it would be.  I expected screaming
kids, lost luggage, and rude first-class travelers (w/o small
children)….THE WORKS!  I just happened to be pleasantly surprised.
Maybe I just expected the worst.  Either way, it wasn’t a bad
experience AT ALL.  It was actually nice, calm and I even managed to
take my first nap EVER on a plane.  That’s saying a lot, considering
that I don’t cat-nap well.

Out of all the traveling, we only had a few “hiccups”.  First of all,
we arrived at the airport in Seattle, WA just after 4am and when we
stepped into the check-in line, one of us noticed that there was
SOMETHING dripping from the hiking backpack on the top of the pile of
the luggage.  This wasn’t just any bag.  It was the bag that I had
packed 3 days worth of clothes and toiletries for me and the 3 girls
for the duration of the trip until we got settled.  So much for
planning… I even put anything with liquid in zip lock bags so that
this so called “safety net” would catch the mess if they busted.
Well, next time I guess I’ll triple pack those zip lock bags because
this one busted and there was a gigantic drip of Dove shampoo that
went 4 suitcases deep.  I was ticked off!  And tired.  And frustrated
because this was THE ONE piece of luggage that I wanted to make it
through.  Ah, well, it’s just minor in the “grand scheme of things”
(like my Dad used to say).

Our girl’s were especially great with the traveling.  Jay and I took
it harder than they did… probably because we are OLD (that’s what
these girls of ours say, and we are definitely feeling it at times).
We had plenty of entertainment to keep them occupied.  A couple of
Kindle’s, a Tablet, and workbooks from Grandma were a few of the
things that we had to offer, as well as the novelty of being in an
airplane with flight attendants ready to help whenever you press the
button (which Mo got a talking-to by a sweet flight attendant for
pressing it on an off when I was napping).  On our second flight, I
accidently let GBelle (our full-of-energy-2-year-old) kick over a full
glass of orange juice perfectly aimed at (and ended up soaking) Jay’s
crotch when I was getting her back in the seat after a restroom break.
 I can’t lie… I LAUGHED OUT LOUD!!  Well, I got it back later.  I
ended up spilling a full cup of coffee into my own carry on backpack
just an hour before we landed.  GREAT!!!  I couldn’t even blame it on
my girls.  It was just one of my crazy, old messes.  (Mo is laughing
as she is reading over my shoulder right now.

Our biggest loss from the trip is the camera that I lost somewhere
between Japan and here.  It really stinks because I caught quite a few
frames of them with the luggage being pushed on two carts (Jay with
one, Ell pushing one and Mo pushing GBelle in the stroller while I
carried bags behind them).  It was precious.  We were planning on
putting those pics in our Soko scrapbook.

All in all, it’s been a great week.  We found out that we will be
closer to Seoul than we thought and we found a great home not far from
here.
More of the Glo’s in Soko to come!