Interesting Interests!

James: Went on a trip with his class on Wednesday and came home with a jar of clams & crabs...live!...mind you. I asked him what he's going to do with them to keep'em alive. His answer was to build a "river" & delta in the gravel lane for them to live. He spent hours preparing it, and then when he released them into their new home, he was consternated to find that they did not stay there!! They began running off! So, he scooped them back up and plopped them back in the jar, where they still remain! If you look closely at picture #2, you'll see a crab off to the right starting to run away.


Jesse: Is spending more time with his pencil and crayons. Here he is with a picture he made "just for Mommy." When I told him I'd take another picture of him for the blog doing something else of his choice, he went into my room and sprawled out on the bed in a pose. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "I want my picture taken like this!!" So........here's Jesse!!


Joy: Joy also enjoys drawing pictures (picture #1), but her favorite past-time lately has been to curl up on the couch and sing to a multiplication tape we brought over for James as she reads off a multiplication chart as well. She asks to do this for pleasure!! It sometimes is not so pleasurable to some certain others to hear a cacophony of "2x2 is 4, 2x2 is 4; 2x3 is 6, 2x3 is 6" and on and on and on, etc, etc, etc. going on and on until her batteries run out! (Clarification: the tape player's batteries, not Joy's!!)

BTW, those marks on Joy's face are still the mosquito bites healing up...not chicken pox! At lunch the day after she got bit up, she told me that as soon as she got to her classroom, the teacher took her up to the school nurse who checked her all over for the chicken pox. She was cleared and they were all amazed at how much she was reacting just to the mosquitoes. Hopefully it's a good "reaction" and she will build up antibodies to these foreign mosquitoes.

Today's interesting happenings:

I remembered to take the camera to lunch today. We've had more interesting food, but there are a few different things here that may be of interest to you... The kimchi is on the top left ~ it is white kimchi, which means it lacks the red pepper powder. It is still strong, but not nearly as hot. The noodle dish in the top middle was actually the hottest dish today. On the top right were peanuts, walnuts, and black beans. They were good. Then, the traditional rice and the soup. Today's soup was a beef and potato soup in broth - not hot.

All in all, I think most Americans would be able to handle this meal today. A week ago, however, we had a meal so hot that I knew we were in trouble the moment we walked in the lunchroom... An 11-yr-old girl, June, had just finished up and was blowing her breath & fanning herself, while drinking a cup of tea. (Now, for the record, Koreans do not drink with their meals...they drink a small cup of lukewarm tea afterwards.)
She saw us coming in and gasped, "Hot...hot!!"
"Wow!" I thought! "She's not usually one to exaggerate."
I looked around the cafeteria and saw an unusual sight...students were all heading to the tea canisters and gulping down cups of tea before returning to finish their meal. Ouch!
The meal looked innocent enough...and when I began eating I noticed it did have a bite. However, it really didn't seem so hot as they were all acting like....At first, anyway!!! Then, about halfway through, it seemed to explode, and no matter which dish I'd take a bite of, there was none that would help cool the mouth down! For even the rice had a hot sauce mixture over it that day! James went running for the tea, which we began gulping. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight we all made! It would have made for a very humorous video clip if only I'd had the camera!!

Joy got stuck in the bathroom:

Today after lunch, the kids all filed into the bathroom before quiet time. Joy happened to be last, and it also just so happened that the door would not open back up! It was completely jammed! I tried everything I could think of, including a credit card, but could not get it. I skyped John and he rushed home from school between classes and tried too, but to no avail. So the school engineer was summoned ASAP.

(Note the hole in the door...we have no clue as to why the hole...PLUS: FYI: We only posed for this picture after the engineer made a mess first!!! Sorry, I just had to defend my housekeeping there!! :) )
By this time, I'd passed a body towel in to Joy via the 3/8 inch clearing at the bottom of the door. "Use this to lie down on in case it takes awhile for the engineer to come." I told her. However, needless to say, there wasn't much "quiet" time today! When the engineer finally showed up, he could not get it right away either. Finally he just used brute force with a screwdriver & hammer. The doorknob still didn't work, but at least Joy was free!! He tinkered around with it awhile longer, but no luck.

We were told where to buy a new doorknob for only about $11, but then informed that we would be charged $33 for the engineer to install it for us. John wanted to keep his 30 bucks, so he went to work on it himself. It was one of those "can't-be-too-hard-but-then-turns-out-much-longer-than-you'd-planned" projects as this is a 100-year-old house! But, after much frustration and perseverance (John really dislikes following up on a job not done well in the first place) the new doorknob was finally in place! Whew!