And a Video

Climbing Dome!

We* worked hard this morning to put the dome together!  I'm not sure which was more difficult - tightening a ba-jillion bolts or keeping the kids off of it until it was good and secure.  We were so thankful for the gorgeous day. We spent about five hours building the dome and playing on it.  The Brooks even came down to join us for about an hour.  It's certainly going to be a fun neighborhood attraction!

It didn't take her long to get the hang of it. Ha ha.

Even Beck tried his hand at climbing with a little help from Daddy.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Happy & Pops!! What a wonderful Christmas present to both them and me.  You've given my furniture and cabinets another 10 years of life.

I'll post a video a bit later today.

*And by "we," I really mean Thomas. I helped a tiny bit.

Some Christmas Eve Pictures

These are pretty much the only pictures I took all weekend. If anyone else got some good ones, do share!

Tuscaloosa Gala

I told a few of you about the Gala we attended in Tuscaloosa the week before Christmas to celebrate the opening of a new Federal Court House. Here's a picture of us all dolled up!  We were definitely in the youngest 1/10 of the 300 people there, and we got lots of sweet comments about and sideways-glances at my huge tummy.  Definitely the only pregnant girl there. 

As I was getting ready, I had a bit of deja vu.  The first Chi O party I took Thomas to was in Tuscaloosa in December - 11 years ago!  We both look back on that night with fondness and a realization that it was the day we fell in love.  The sparks were definitely flying even though it took us about two more months to become an item.

I believe he wore the same tux with a different tie.  I, however, would not be able to fit in the dress I wore...for obviously reasons :) 

Oh, how much has changed in 11 years!  One thing's for sure - I love the man I get to get dressed up with more and more as the days go by.  I'm so thankful for our history, and I am giddy about our future!

Another Update from Afghanistan

Update from David:

It is starting to get colder and feel more like northern Afghanistan should, I guess. I'm still doing very well. We have received many care packages from people we don't know. In them there were many letters that people across the country wrote to deployed soldiers. I found one from a 3rd grade class at Mountain View Elementary School in Marietta and have started correspondence with those kids. I have a pen pal (I guess multiple pen pals)! It's pretty neat to see people close to home reaching out to those of us over here. I also have been receiving care packages and letters of my own, which I am very thankful for. I want to say a special thanks to the Bishops for their kind letter and my parent's Sunday school class for a care package. Thank you all for the continued thoughts and prayers for Claire and myself. It's hard to believe that I've already been gone for almost a month. Time seems to be going by pretty fast here so far. I hope everyone is doing well back at home and has a wonderful Christmas season! Merry Christmas.

And here are some pictures he sent for the blog:

These are the planes they fly (when weather permits). It sounds like they're going to be able to fly today. I imagine that the wings end just outside of the frame of the picture, but it's a lot more fun to imagine that they go on a lot farther.

David's Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures that I took a couple days ago.

We are living in tents like these. There is a mountain range that is quite a view when it's not foggy. There is even some grass (no trees that I've seen) growing from the snow melt. They have us living 10 men to a tent, so it's kind of tight quarters - pardon my mess. Things are continuing to go well out here. It is real foggy in the mornings and it usually has been clearing up in the afternoons. We also got about 15 care packages for our soldiers and contractors from an organization. That was very generous of them. It had one entire box full of letters and cards to the troops. I noticed that some of them came from Atlanta which was pretty cool. I think I'm going to respond back to one letter in particular that came from a 3rd grade class at Mountain View Elementary School. I didn't recognize any of the writers, but it was really nice to see people close to home taking the time to write over here.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you have a wonderful week!

Thanksgiving and More...

We had a great Thanksgiving although we missed being with all of you. Seung Hwan was off all week and Benjamin and I got spoiled. Tomorrow will be a hard day. We had the Boney's for the first part of the week - which was so fun... but we did not get any pictures, and Claire for the 2nd half. We had so much fun with Claire. We ate too much, visited Aunt Marty and Reid and Kim and family, went to the mall, decorated for Christmas, and played and played. Here are a couple of pictures...





Alice went to Claire almost as soon as she walked into the door.



This Santa sings like Alan Jackson... Benjamin was amazed.

And because I am so behind in blogging... here are a couple of pictures of the little monkey...

Arrived in Afghanistan

Hello Everyone! I don't have any cool pictures to post yet (I need to eventually since the mountains here are beautiful and covered in snow - it's just real foggy and they're hard to see at times), but I wanted to let everyone know that I got over here safely. After many long hours of travelling, I eventually made it into Afghanistan and to my unit. It has been snowing and freezing cold out since pretty much my arrival to camp marmal. I think I'm finally getting accustomed to this time zone, which is 9 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern time. They have us living in tents, so I've got a bunk bed and about 10 square feet to myself cordoned off by a couple of hanging blankets. The food has been much better than I expected, and the German food in particular has been pretty good - a nice break from the run of the mill American food. They do serve a variety of different dishes, which is nice, and I was even able to celebrate Thanksgiving with all the trimmings.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving back in the states. I wish I could have been there with everyone. Also, thank you for all of the prayers for Claire and myself. They are greatly appreciated.

Vale's Thanksgiving Play

Check out our little Indian.

Halloween Video

Thought you might like to see a snippet of our Halloween in motion.  Check out how small Beck's outfit really is and how fast that Buzz can move to get some candy...

Up next, some videos from Beck's last dance creative movement class.  Nothing super exciting, but cute nonetheless.

Oh, and there's a certain little monkey that we're all dying to see pictures of.

Heritage Tour

Last weekend as part of our trip to Doug Starr's daughter's wedding in Lexington, NC, we made 4 side trips.  They were to Regi;s, Miriam's, dad's and my homeplaces.  It was a very special trip.  These are a few of the pictures that we took.  Hope that it brings back some happy memories.  I regret that Melissa, Seung Hwan, and David did not ever get to Greenville. (And David - not even to Hartwell).  Although these pictures can't capture the whole "feeling" of home, they sure did make John and I to relive some happy times.  Enjoy!

Big news of the day was the tree coming out.  Fascinating to watch.  Pondman Todd told me yesterday that I had to choose between the tree or the pond.  They do not play well together.  I chose the pond.

Don't you think that the navy coat hanging over the bird feeder is attractive?  I would have never thought of that!  It definitely keeps the squirrels out...and the birds too, I'm afraid.

I had to hurry and take pictures before the rain started so the project is not completely finished.  Whatever is not finished today will be finished on Monday.  But I think that you can still get a good idea of what it will look like.  We are so happy with it.  And Scott (the main man) said that it will take 1 year for plants to mature. Wow!

Day 3

Yikes!  This was my view as I opened the door of my office this morning!



This was the view from my room for most of the day.



This was the result at the end of 3 long days of work!

AAAHHH!  Beauty...wish I knew how to include an audio to the sound of the water flowing over the rocks.  We will sleep with out door open tonight!
Tomorrow the plants if the rain holds out. Otherwise it will be Monday.  But I will do a final post.

Yard Work - Day 2

Work on Day 2 just ended.  It doesn't look like much change but imagine moving those huge bolders.  That took a lot of planning and execution and rest in between. And as you can see, there is only 1 bolder left to place.  Here are the only pics that I took today.

Backyard Project - Day 1

These pictures are of day one of our back yard project. We are super-excited about getting the water feature fixed and properly integrated into the landscape. We want to post the other three days of the project as they work. Good intentions and all that...
We are also thankful to be able to choose our yard project in 2011. This time in 2009, we had a whole series of projects chosen for us by the monsoon rains.

The project requires the bottom basin of the fountain to be enlarged, new, BIG boulders brought in and a large number of plants either
relocated or planted new.



They began today with digging up all the plants on the hill, enlarging the basin and delivering boulders and plants.





Tomorrow? We don't know.

LivePerson

The last 40 days of summer quarter at SCAD became an all-hands-on-deck push to boost fall enrollment (which was successful, by the way). Part of that push was having my team start taking LivePerson shifts. You know when you are looking at washing machine's on the Home Depot website, and a box pops up declaring that there's an expert online who is available to chat? Well, that was me. Usually the recruiters do that job, but my little support team got called in to be resident experts. Only, we're not nearly as familiar with the daily life as the recruiters.

Usually the questions are pretty easy. What scholarships do you offer? When is the application deadline? What do you mean SCAD doesn't have an application deadline? That must cause for chaos in the admission office.

Today I had a more interesting chat. After talking I scrolled down to the information in the pre-chat survey he filled out so that I could make a note of this interaction on his record, because, well, he deserved it. Only then did I discover his name was Billy Bob, and you can reach him at noneofyourbusiness@yahoo.com.

This was the chat:
Claire: Hi, Billy. How may I help you?
Billy: hello what type of drama/musical do yall have?
Claire: Are you asking about what kind of productions go on during the year? Or about the performing arts program?
Billy: yes
Claire: Performing Arts
Claire: Program information can be found at that link.
Claire: As far as the productions that take place, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you much.

{At this point I started typing that I had not been around for the full year yet, but would try to track down some more information if he would be willing to wait just a moment}

Billy: yes
Billy: try
Billy: TRY !
Claire: Why don't you contact someone from the department. At the link above, you can find contact information for the Dean and Chair.
Claire: If you click "View Bio" you can get their contact information.
Claire: They should be able to give you some better information.
Billy: :P NOO!!

Way to go, Billy. SCAD would be lucky to have you.

Vale versus Cricket

Don't worry, neither Vale nor the cricket were harmed in the making of this video.  Sorry that I am just now posting this. It's so funny!

Vale v Cricket from MNR on Vimeo.

Happy and Pops

I guess this is going to be video week for the Kangs and I am so glad I got this on video. Benjamin has been doing this motion for Pops when I get him up from his nap this week. Pops actually makes a popping sound when he does it... B tries. This is often how I hear him calling for Happy, which he has yet to do for her in person but now I am proving he DOES do it!! Benjamin loves his Happy and Pops!!!

Untitled from Katie Kang on Vimeo.

Benjamin is really walking too!

Benjamin decided yesterday he could walk and has been walking really well today! Here is a video:

Untitled from Katie Kang on Vimeo.

We are ready to see everyone!

Beck is really walking

Beck woke up from his morning nap yesterday and decided that he wanted to walk. He has been walking, as you know, but all of a sudden he started walking about 75% of the time.  It's cute watching him try to keep up with Vale.  This video isn't a great example of his walking, but it's a wonderful picture of our daily lives.  Please note Vale's new bathing suit we got yesterday for the beach. 

What's the official countdown, Katie?? How many weeks?  Days?

It was a great evening with all three grandchildren here. Sorry... No pictures. That would have required a free hand!

I learned a lot tonight.

Benj can defend his turf.

Beck both preaches and dances. Who knew??

Vale is amazingly persistent.

All of them loved bacon and eggs for supper. Cinamon rolls too.

Happy is in her element with her grandchildren around her like little flowers. Screaming meat eating flowers.

The Kangs Come to Savannah

We had a really great time this weekend when the Kangs came to play! It was a very pleasant, laid-back weekend. Saturday morning we had some clouds and wind, which were friendly companions for walking through town and down by the river.

It was very windy. We walked from my work up to the river, visited some shops down by the river, and strolled back down before taking a little drive through some of the Victorian district. Benjamin, true to form, was content. He was precious and sweet. I'm also going to claim that his first steps were here.

We went out to dinner back downtown, and then Sunday we went to a park that David found. Other than that, we were pretty chill. The Kangs sword fought each other on the Wii, which was much more entertaining for David and I than it probably was for them.

We also played a LOT of Settlers of Catan, a.k.a. the best game ever. The perfect mix between luck, strategy, and alliances.

And at last, I have to note that Benjamin has a new blankie: Katie's favorite Anthro shirt. The second he gets his hands on it his fingers go straight into his mouth (yes, Katie and Seung Hwan, I am narrating your kid's developments). As sad as it may be for Katie, it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It's always a treat to have family around, and David and I had a wonderful time hosting our first weekend house guests.