i've meant to put pictures up for the last several months...so here goes.


rachel and nate and lizzie's brother, matt, came to visit in june!


best friends reunited.


getting thrown in the river at the korean folk village.


a day at everland! the happiest place in korea.


jump!!


rach and i outside "our houses" at cheongdeok-gung palace.


a day at caribbean bay.


making spider hats in class! they loved it!


4th of july party! we had a little too much fun planning/making food...we were eating leftovers for weeks.


at a mud festival! this is before we got to the mud part...


and this is after!


happy happy playing in the mud. i felt like i was about 9.


we played in the ocean for hours. later we found out the obnoxious screaming sound from the shore was a tsunami warning. oh right!


home for a quick week at the end of july!!


this is happiness.


the whole family went for a day to silverwood. fun fun!


i'm very white. either that, or carrie's very tan.


cool sisters with cool bags and cool shirts and cool hats.


fun with the little boys.


haddon boy.


at the dmz between south and north korea. at this moment, we're in north korea! ahhh!


lizzie makes friends with a soldier.


making play dough with our kids! they thought it was the greatest thing ever.


our first barbecue of the summer! on a sidewalk out behind lizzie's house. (after we got kicked out of the public courtyard we started out in).


jayne's amazing kebabs!


going river rafting!


fun on the boat! the river was really high because of the "chinese rain." (china seeded the air so it would rain and clean out their air for the olympics, so south korea got torrential rain for a couple of days. thanks china!)


after the ride -we made it alive and, apart from a bruised chin and cut toe, well.


sunday afternoon tea. (once again, we had too much fun planning/making things and ended up with enough treats for at least another 30 people).

well there you have it. my last 3 months in pictures. this is our first summer as "adults" with real jobs that go right through the summer, but we've managed to act like kids the majority of the time. =) we're at 2 months and counting!! october 29th will be a sad, sad day. yesterday was my last day with one of my classes because jayne is taking over and i'm getting a new class, and apparently 3 of my girls cried all during their next class after they found out. aww. mostly, they are 1st graders who cry at anything, but it's nice to know you're loved.

that's all i've got for now. peace and joy from my side of the world to yours.

i just sat on "don't go" (my lovely green couch) for a couple hours and wrote letters. yes, real letters, with a pen and paper and everything. there is something wonderful about writing on a physical piece of paper to someone. don't get me wrong, i find email as amazing and necessary as the next person, but i think letters are far superior in every way.

before my writing spree, i finished a book -"song of solomon," by toni morrison. amazing, but disturbing and a bit depressing (for starters, the book begins and ends with suicide). but this is no surprise with morrison. i can't say i liked it as much as her others, but i think i need to give it some time. i love it when novels are so wrapped up in culture and history and family that they can't help but hit home as if you were reading your own grandmother's diary. i'm not a stickler for realism in art, i believe it's definitely a place where fantasy and idealism should be welcomed because sometimes it's one of the only places we can find that kind of hopeful optimism, but i certainly appreciate art that reflects reality in all its raw beauty.

just a few days ago i got back from a most wonderful week at home. it was a piece of peach pie after months of bran muffins. in other words, it was amazing. pictures to follow. peace.