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Archives for May 2013

Friday Funnies {2}

Written by: Amanda // Category: Uncategorized

As 99.9% of you know, I'm an English teacher. It's definitely not a job I considered myself ever doing, but yet here I am (and I love it). The challenging part is that I teach English to a bunch of adorable little Korean kids who don't have the slightest clue how to properly speak English...if they speak English at all. There have been a few instances lately when I'm asked a questions about grammar rules that I just can't answer. Well readers, I present to you why. Enjoy, and happy Friday, don't forget to link up what made YOU smile this week! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's time to link-up all of your most hilarious posts. <div align="center"><a ... Read More

Lately [8]

Written by: Amanda // Category: Lately, Uncategorized

1///// Started the week off with a bang making homemade lotion and a sugar scrub. (Thank you Amber!)I'll post the recipe soon...or you can just go to Amber's blog and check hers out! 2///// I broke a record and went a whole SEVEN days without having to wash my hair. By day seven I'm proud to say my hair was still fairly fresh feeling. I couldn't believe on day five I could wear my hair down! Have you read my last post about not using shampoo? 3/////I also severed ties with any sort of my 'tomboy' self that may have lurked around from childhood. I bought two different shades of lipstick. I still am in slight denial as this picture clearly shows. 4///// I've always had a crazy love for cherries. As a matter of fact, I have absolutely ... Read More

Weird Wednesday (5/30)

Written by: Amanda // Category: Weird Wednesday

Sometimes Korea surprises me. I find all sorts of cool things that I never would have dreamed on finding the the US. Tuesday was no acceptation. First I must mention that I'm a little bit of a kid at heart. I love popsicles, ice skating, and playing on exercise equipment. Well, I was given one of these the other day and I'd have to say it's one of the coolest things I've come across! Yes my friends. That IS a chocolate milk straw. It changes regular milk into delicious chocolate milk as you sip! No stirring needed. The little chocolate balls are small and light, reminding me a little of cereal. They devolve as you drink, and are gone just as you finish the glass! How nifty. I wish I knew what company makes these and where to buy ... Read More

Things I wish I had known…part two

Written by: Amanda // Category: South Korea, Travel

I wrote part one of this post 'Things I wish I had known' a little while ago, and decided I'd finish it up. Both parts of the post talk about things I wish I had known before I moved to Korea. It would have made my life so much easier! 1. I wish I had known we were definitely staying in Korea for more than two years.  I recognize the fact that plans change pretty quickly. Two years before we moved to Korea we weren't even considering the idea! I was still thinking about going to Hillsong Leadership School in Australia, and Derik...well...he was thinking about Korea, but just going by himself. If I had known we were going to be traveling the world more than two years I would have made sure to see all my significant relatives ... Read More

Seoraksan favorites

Written by: Amanda // Category: Expat Living, Photography, South Korea

Last weekend we took an epic trip up north to Seoraksan National Park. If you live in Korea and haven't been there...you're seriously missing out! The drive up is gorgeous, and the park itself is breathtaking. Like a majority of national parks back home, this isn't a place you can just wiz through in one day. We'll be going back for sure sometime within the next year. We although we had three days of fantastic road-tripping, the weather only cooperated with us for two of the days. Sunday was a rainy, dreary day, and not many pictures were taken. However, the amount of pictures I took the first two days made up for the loss. Today I got extremely overwhelmed looking through all the gorgeous photos that I decided just to post a few of ... Read More

Lately[7]

Written by: Amanda // Category: Lately

I'm somewhat embarrassed that three posts are coming out of my blog today. Apparently the week was shorter than I thought. I usually do Lately posts on Thursday, but I decided to trade my blogging time in for a good ol' Jillian Michaels workout. Borneo is coming up quick (2 months!) Without further adieu, Lately: 1/////As most of you know, we went camping for the long weekend we were given in celebration of Buddha's birthday. We traveled up the coast with the destination of Seoraksan National Park in mind, and took our time enjoying the sights. And camping. And bonfires. 2/////Camping breakfasts are unbeatable. I don't care if you're a gourmet 5-start breakfast restaurant, camping meals will always win. 3/////We saw a ... Read More

Friday Funnies (LINK-UP!)

Written by: Amanda // Category: Friday Funnies, Uncategorized

Introducing the newest, latest, and greatest friday post by me. I've teamed together with some AMAZING girls to bring you a weekly link-up: Friday Funnies. Check out the info below and follow along! <div align="center"><a href="https://www.livinginanotherlanguage.com/" title="Friday Funnies"><img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc271/trishalynn_08/Friday-Funnies_zps6e8f9bbf.png" alt="Friday Funnies" style="border:none;" /></a></div> It's time to link-up all of your most hilarious posts.   Isn't that great? A link-up where you'll actually want to click & read all the other posts. No better way to start off the weekend than with some good laughs, right?   If you just aren't funny or haven't ... Read More

I STILL Don’t Use Shampoo

Written by: Amanda // Category: Beauty

It's official. I've been on the no poo method for a quarter of a year. For all of you who aren't sure what the heck no-poo is, it has nothing to do with going to the toilet. It's a term used when talking about not using any sort of shampoo on your hair. I know, now you're thinking, "Wait. What? You haven't used shampoo in THREE MONTHS?" Yes. It's true. And my hair looks and feels amazing. The picture above was taken last week, so as you can see I'm not a dirty grease-ball. So what is no-poo exactly? It's eliminating shampoo and conditioner out of the picture entirely, and substituting baking soda and vinegar in it's place. The baking soda acts as the cleaning agent in the hair washing process. You only use enough to cleanse your hair, so ... Read More

Weird Wednesday (05/22)

Written by: Amanda // Category: Weird Wednesday

I know it's been a while since I've done a Weird Wednesday post. Trust me, even after being here for a year I still come across tons of strange incidents and things that have raised my eyebrows...on a daily basis. Today's Weird Wednesday is short and sweet...I've been trying to catch up with the hundreds of photos I took this weekend on our hiking/camping trip. Alright. Get a load of this. I know I live in Asia, where anime is pretty much the king of all entertainment, but I believe this is taking it a little too far. First of all, trucks of any sort are hard to find here in South Korea. When I finally do see one, it's like seeing a Ferrari back home. "Oh! Check out that truck!" "Look it's a truck!" pathetic I know. Trust me, you'd do ... Read More

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Currently on Instagram

Our adventures may be few and far between nowadays Our adventures may be few and far between nowadays, but the ones we get to take are oh so sweet. 

My daughters are now 2.5 years and 6 months old. Life never slows down, but only gets faster with each day we’re blessed to live. Social media may not be a part of my life how it used to be, and instead I’m working on living life intentionally each day as we raise our girls during these crazy times. 💕
2020 has been a year has it not? As much as I love 2020 has been a year has it not? As much as I love social media, I found myself taking a break as the things we were all going through made social media so insignificant to me. 

In January/February I had a miscarriage. It was a horrible way to start the year, and little did I know it was just the beginning of it all. 

Even with the loss, hardship of moving back to the US in the middle of a global pandemic, and navigating our new lives here, we were given many blessings. The greatest of those was finding out I was pregnant again in March.

It’s a scary time to be pregnant right now, especially after a miscarriage, because doctors visits are very minimal. Also, Derik was never able to come to a single visit. I was terrified something would happen and I would be told bad news and have to face that alone. But God was gracious to us. 

We kept our special little secret to ourselves, and it wasn’t until our third trimester before we told immediate family and close friends. My pregnancy was very private for me, and a special time to bond closely with the babe growing inside me.

Our sweet little girl arrived November 30, and yes I had to deliver with a mask on, but she is perfect and I truly feel our family is complete. 💕🌈
 
“When a rainbow appears, it doesn’t mean the storm never happened or that we are not still dealing with its aftermath. It means something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy, and hope.”
I am in love. As I’m sure every other plant/mons I am in love. As I’m sure every other plant/monstera collector is when you get to behold such a beauty in real life. If there were ever #plantgoals, this is it. 

Since moving from Germany, it has been a long and slow process getting our life back to normal. All of our belongings have yet to arrive so we’ve literally been camping in our house on an air bed and camping chairs for two months. 😂 All that to say, having to start my plant collection over again here stateside has been so much fun! I will miss the plant prices if Germany, but the selection here blows my mind. Anyone else obsessed? We’ve lived here for almost 8 weeks now and I already have 11 plants 😂😬😬😬. I don’t have a bed or a couch, but by golly I have greenery. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️🌱
Oh my heart. I’ve been trying to figure out the Oh my heart.

I’ve been trying to figure out the words to say about our time in Germany, but my fingers can’t seem to type out how to express my love, gratefulness, thankfulness, sadness, and heartbreak I feel about leaving. Every country we’ve lived in has taught us something and has given us so many beautiful memories, as well as opened our eyes a little more to different cultures and ways of living.

But Germany was special. The first time we stepped foot into Germany was in 2015, and we loved it so much we stayed the extent of our travel visa (3 months). I was able to visit again in 2016, and then we officially packed everything and moved in 2017. Germany has always had my heart: the people, the festivals, the food, wine and beer, the immaculate home landscaping, and even all the rules that every resident is just expected to follow to a tee (like recycling every tiny scrap of trash). Our family grew from two to three while in Germany. Bringing our daughter into the world, and raising her for a year and a half in a different culture, will be one of the most beautiful memories of my life.

Our move was impacted by the COVID pandemic, and it took three long months of delays, red tape, and countless phone calls to get everything together so we could actually get on a plane and have our stuff packed and shipped to our new home. 
I am breathing a sigh of relief to know all the stress of everything is over and our new adventure can begin. I am mourning the loss of leaving Germany. I am in a weird transition right now trying to grasp it all, but here we are jumping into new things head first! We are back in the US for a while, in the beautiful state of Tennessee, and look forward to many new memories, travels, friends, and being able to spend time with family! 
Photos from my sweet and talented friend @juliejayphotos
I feel like I failed hard this year at Christmas m I feel like I failed hard this year at Christmas markets. We went to a total of ONE market, which is exactly 19 less than I told myself I would go to this year to make up for not going to any the year before 🤦🏼‍♀️(I was 40 weeks pregnant and not feeling crowds). I will say, it was a great one and the weather was so nice, we stayed out until the market shut down.

If there’s one thing I will miss most about Germany when it is our time to move, will be the sheer enthusiasm this country has for Christmas, and I’m not talking about consumerism. Food, laughter, friends, family, music, dancing: celebration. Also, Germany shuts down for not only one day, but THREE. Stores are closed, mail is not delivered, people aren’t out and about. Everyone is home enjoying time with family, and I love it. However, I may have gone into full blown panic mode Christmas Eve when I realized I had a total of 8 diapers to get us through until the 27th. 👀
We spent Thanksgiving back in North America: Whist We spent Thanksgiving back in North America: Whistler, Canada! A 10 hour flight from Germany , and I can’t say this one was better than the one we took over the summer on our trip to Alaska, but we survived! Entertaining a 11 month old for that long is much harder than a 6 month old, especially when they aren’t into sleeping on the plane AT ALL. 🤪

Whistler was beautiful despite the lack of snow, and we enjoyed our time with family, the delicious food, and as much sightseeing as one could do with a jet-lagged baby. 
This was actually my first trip to Canada ever, (unless you want to count the move my parents took up to Alaska from Arkansas when I was two. 😂🤷‍♀️ ) and I loved it! We would really like to take a big Canadian road trip someday and explore more of the country! 😍😍🇨🇦
Being a mama may mean I don’t always have time t Being a mama may mean I don’t always have time to put myself together, but I would rather spend the extra moments making special memories with our daughter that she can cherish forever. I doubt that she will look at this picture and see a tired, messy haired mama that’s barely had time to wash her face nevermind carefully apply makeup, but am hoping she will see a mama that never tires of carrying and cuddling her, or sharing new experiences with her. 💕
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