Milk and Eggs

I was just thinking how this will be our third Christmas here. At first so many things struck me as odd when we first got here. Now I am noticing that things which once were odd have become normal. Like for instance. I buy Eggs in a group of 10, not by the dozen .



And how I can only buy milk by the half gallon.



And that is doesn't expire for over a month sometimes. Yummy! It is really convenient though.(the expiration date not the half gallon thing. That is just annoying.)

I just bought this milk 2 days ago, and I am good until after the new year.

Happy Turkey Day!

It all stared off with a neighbor of mine. We decided to rent the community center near our house and invite a few lonely people over for Thanksgiving. We put out an open invitation at church and had a few bites. No one want to be alone on Thanksgiving. So we end up with like 4 families that want to join us. Then a few more. Then we found out that among the families coming a few of them had also invited missionaries to come. No problem right. How about 14 sets of them. That's right we had 28 missionaries there. 28 missionaries that were soooooo excited to be eating American food.
So when it was all said and done there were over 8o people there. It was a little crowded but still worth it to see all of there happy faces and by some miracle full bellies. We had 4 turkeys 3 hams, about a hundred pound of potatoes(that was the one thing we had left over) and a lot of pies.
I am so glad that we had people to celebrate with. Harold had to fly some 3 star around that day(and he didn't even get a coin for it, cheap skate General) so we really would have been alone. It is never fun to be away from home for Holidays. I am so glad we had friends here to share this Thanksgiving with.


Harold Cooking the 25 pound turkey he didn't get to eat :(



Tonya And Karen serving it up.


Emma at the "what are you grateful for" tree.


The teen table.

Jody getting some food before it is all gone. She is my neighbor. She is moving next month :(

Look at all those happy faces. It was all worth it just for that.

Growing Pains and the Gift of Time

What a crazy fall this has been. A month after we got home from the USA our family got some bad news. I should have known when everything lined up so beautifully for that family picture. My oldest sister found out that her cancer was back. She has been clear for almost ten years. Cured we all believed.
She has been feeling fine but while we were home she was finding it a little hard to breath. We really thought nothing about it. We all said "It must be Utah allergies." "You know our family, we have bad lungs, remember Grandma Jackson?" "We are all heavy breathers."
Anyway when she got back to Texas she didn't feel better so she went in to have it checked out. The news is not good. The cancer is back and it is all over. She had lots of fluid in her lungs and some big masses in there, which is what was causing the breathing issues. It is in her liver. Her bones, and joints and just pretty much everywhere.
It was a blow and we were told they would probably give her 6 months. She is only 47. It was so sad. Further test showed that this cancer was from the same strain as her original breast cancer. They thought they had got it all but I guess not. Stupid cancer it doesn't play fair. The good news is even though they can't cure it, they think, since they have done it once maybe they can get her into remission again. So now we are all hoping for the gift of time.
I really felt the need to go home and see her. So that is where I have been.
On a happier note my little sister decided to get married. So I flew in to Salt Lake City for a few days for a wedding before heading to Texas.
It was a great trip full of much growing. Some of which I would rather not do. So at the age of 35 I feel like I am having some major growing pains. Ahhh Life! What more can I say.

Juliana & Jarek with mom and dad. I am so glad that I was there.

Here's a crazy coincidence. I was in Salt Lake City the same time that Tiffany(now in Maryland) and Nicki( now in Washington state) were there. We all got together and went to lunch and then they took me to the airport. I can not think of a better time to see two great friends. The really made me feel strong. What a blessing.


TEXAS

Here we are ready to go out.

Micheal, Joydell, and Christmas.

Billy and Micheal carving a pumpkin.

Micheal and Christmas taking a nap. They are best friends.

What do you get when your mom's name is Joyce ,
and your dad's name is Gardell and your the first girl born.
You get named Joydell.
It was so good to see her again.
We had a lot of Laughs, just as many tears and made some priceless memories.I also learned to never waste a minute. Time is truly a gift, use it wisely.

The beatles come to Korea!

Look what happens when you work together
$40 from Caleb
$40 from Logan
$40 from me
$20 from Miranda(cheap skate)
$ 20 from Emma
Home delivery from Harold

We have already had many hours of fun.
This is the family rocking out before bed time.

Here are the kids and some extras after school

Here is what mom does while the kids are at school. Thanks Jen and Jody(9 months prego here) for the jam session. Now I am almost good enough to play with the kids.

A day at the Aquarium.

Dr. Fish again. These little fish are always hungry for more flesh.

A two headed turtle. Just seeing him is supposed to be double the luck.

I can't even explain these next pictures.
It must be a Korean thing.

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Kind of interesting don't you think.

Happy anniversary, and first day of school.

We celebrate 17 great years together! Honestly we didn't mean to match. Miranda was so embarrassed she wanted us to change before we left. We didn't. Well this was a day early because he left on our anniversary for the Philippines Again. Funny how he seems to be missing all the big "Stanley Days" this year. Still we are lucky because we get to see him in between his trips. A lot of military families don't even get that. It really works in his favor because it makes us appreciate him all the more when he's home.

The kids go back to school.

Emma and Logan in front of their bus ready to start 2 and 4.
Miranda and Caleb getting on their bus. It's taken from afar so as not to embarrass them. They start 8 and 10 this year. Ahhhhhh "Slipping through my fingers" "sunrise,Sunset"
"Bye mom, thanks for not homeschooling me."

Another great picture from this summer.

So we don't look great, but I love this shot. This is life with my sisters.

Good luck getting out of this.

We went to a church meeting last Saturday and I was amazed how many cars they fit into our church's parking lot. It has 3 levels of parking that are pretty good sized. When we got there we were like 10 min early and they put us in the bottom lot. I thought we were lucky to be getting the last spot. Then they probably put like 20 more cars on our level alone. It was crazy.
After the meeting, you could tell people who had spots where they could move were on the run to get their cars moved so others could move too. Most cars that are parked blocking someone in will have: A note with a number to call, or Keys left in them, or be left in Neutral so others can push them around a bit to get out. Some how I can't see this working in America. It is like this at a lot of the stores here too. I've seen people pushing another persons car so they can get out themselves. Still when you are packed in this tight all you can do is wait. This picture doesn't do it justice but look at how many cars are going nowhere.
Still it says something about the Korean people. First, they make it work. I guess this comes from having a lot of people with very little space, and second, they must be pretty tolerant and patient. I didn't see any cars get dinged or any fist fights break out. In America I think someone might have got shot.

My baby is seven!

This was the night before I had you. You refused to turn head down so I had a scheduled C-section with you. I should have known then that you did things your way.

We were so happy to have a little girl in the house again. Dad bought this dress months before you were born. You were so cute when you cried.


Here you are with your siblings right after our move to Germany. Dad was gone that year. I am glad you were so good.

You were such a good sport when it came to dress-up. Your sister did this to you all the time. She still does.

I love this photo. It was taken minutes after your dad came home from Iraq. The other kids ran to him with open arms, but to you he was a complete stranger.
I love how you need convincing and how he was so willing to convince. Now your great pals.

Ahhhhhh! Chicken Pox. You were my only kid to get this. Anyone who doesn't immunize for this is mean. Go get the shot!
It was so sad for you, and for me. Poor girl.

Classic."Look a little sink" You brushing your teeth at the bidet. I corrected you after I got the picture.

Another cute crying picture.

Here's another cute crying picture.

This is what you ordered.

Here you are having fun with dad.

Pure Joy!

Happy Birthday Emma. You sweet, sensitive, lovely girl.