Elevators

So today started off has any other day in our day. We are participating in VBS this week and having a wonderful time! We also are going to the pool in the afternoon's as it is hotter than normal here this year. Well while Jim was grilling dinner tonight, my mom and Zane were downstairs playing and keeping Jim company. Zane said he was going to go to the house to get some cars. My mom comes upstairs and asks, "Where is Zane? Is he in the house? We can hear him yelling dad but can't find him."

My reply, "No he isn't in the house and he hasn't come in the house."

We both head out of the house to see if he is downstairs when my  mom realizes that he is stuck in the elevator. About this time my upstairs neighbor comes down the stairs and tell us that the elevator is broken. At this time in my best Korean and trying not to panic I let her know that Zane is inside the elevator. She calls the elevator company and Korean Emergency Services.  I ran outside to let Jim know Zane is in the elevator which is stuck. Jim runs into the building to try and open the doors but that doesn't work so he goes to get some tools. He tries to open the elevator on the fist floor but has no luck. He then goes to the second floor and that is when he realizes the elevator is between the floors. Jim does get the doors open but only enough to see Zane. We are all talking to him and I am telling him to "Trust in God," and we just talk to him. At this time all of the neighbors who live on the top floors start to come home and well they can't take the elevator but are all worried about Zane.  About this time the Korean EMT's arrive with a fire truck behind them. The firefighters try to open the doors on the first floor to realize that it would be better to head to the second floor. They get the doors open on the second floor and lift Zane out. He was a hot, sweaty and scared little boy but he was okay. We told him that we are very proud of him and that he did a great job.  Zane has told us that he won't be taking anymore elevators unless it is to his friend Garrett's house as they live on the 9th floor.   He is now in bed and I am sure he will be fast asleep very quickly.

We did learn that Zane didn't cause the elevator to get stuck, the motor stopped working and he just happened to be inside at the wrong time! I never expected our first visit of emergency vehicles to come to our house to 1-be in Korea 2- to be for our son stuck in an elevator!

The Korean ambulance showed up first and the paramedic sprinted to the elevator. It is hot here and they were worried about about Zane and the heat. 

After getting taken out of the elevator. 

In front of the fire truck. We tried to get him to take a picture with the firefighters but he wouldn't do it at all. We will take them cookies!

Getting hugs from mom and dad.

Letting us know he was scared and us letting him know that we were proud of him for being so calm.

The truck getting ready to leave.

Just chilling on dad's bike.

Diving Boards

It is hot here in Waegwan and electricity gets very expensive in the summer so we tend to try and not run the ac but find other things to do that will keep us cool. We have been at the pool daily since it has gotten hotter and Zane is turning into a fish!  Zane is getting much better with his swimming skills and he will start taking more lessons as well. Today he decided that he wanted to give the swimming test a try so that he could go off of the diving board. He has been watching the "big kids" go off the board and really watching those who can truly dive. He has been jumping off the side of the pool but I guess that got old. He took the swimming test, my  mom was in the water next to him but he swam 25 meters all on his own! Then he had to tread water for 1 minute and he did but had a hard time staying still. The lifeguards were leery of letting him go off of the boards by himself so Jim or I have to be in the water with him. I forgot how tired one can get treading water! I got a great workout!  Here are some pictures of the little man jumping off of the diving board. We are going to have many more swimming lessons and are thinking that diving lessons might not be far behind! 

Zane doing a star jump off of the side of the pool.

first jump off of the diving board with me close by

getting some help to the side

another jump

and the final one of the day as Zane was getting tired.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and finding ways to stay cool!

Love you all,
Liz

Judging

So I am finally going to sit down and write this post. I haven't really been fighting writing the post just kept putting it off and putting it off. After an incident that happened to me today I figured it was time to write the post.  And God has had this topic on my  mind and heart a lot and I mean a lot lately. It all started awhile ago when I was asked what devotion had left me with the biggest impact from the past year at PWOC, Protestant Women of the Chapel, and it was all about judging. I am not, by any means saying that I haven't judged because I have in many different ways,but God has been opening my eyes to it more and more and today he hit me hard. 

Here is what God says about judging: 

Matthew 7: 1-5, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank  in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

It is hard when you live in a small area and pretty much know who everyone is and vice versa. And when there is even a fewer number of kids in the area it can get even more interesting. I got judged today for how we are raising Zane. I will be the first to admit that he doesn't listen as well as he could or always follow directions but he is 5 and still learning, as am I. I will also say that he doesn't always behave appropriately either but we are using those situations to learn and change how we do handle those not so great times.  I have criticized others, not to them directly, but still did it, about how they are raising their children and well God opened my eyes by using my own child and showed me the errors of my ways. I am not criticizing anymore as we all choose to do what is best for our child and our family. What works for one child might not always work for another child as they are all different. And more importantly we have to do what God wants us to do. There are times when it is harder to get through the day and I have say, "when does school start?" but am also thankful for the time I am getting to spend with Zane.  How we choose to raise and punish our child is our business and God's. I ask God daily to teach me to be the mother to Zane that God wants me to be and I pray for Zane as well.   It is easy to judge because we all think we know what is best but that usually not the case. Things don't also happen over night as we wish that they would. There are times when it is harder because we want or think that those changes should happen over night. It would make things easier if they did happen overnight! 

I am not going to share what happened as that is between me and the other person but it is hard. I really do think of them as a friend and value our friendship. I am praying that God can heal what has been broken. When you choose to judge others the outcomes can be very hurtful so keep in mind what you say and how you say it so that you don't find yourself in current pair of shoes. I will be doing a lot of praying and will leave it all at the feet of God.

Rice Krispy Sushi

Zane and I are participating in this summer's reading program with the library. I am reading books to Z, which he loves and we record them as we get done. He has read 15 books so far and received a few prizes. He has also gotten 3 chances to enter into a drawing for one of the following: X-box, iPod or a new bike. I am not sure what we would do if he won any of them.  Yesterday 14 July we went over to the library for the craft project. The kids made lollipops and rice krispy sushi. I don't have any pictures of the lollipops, as someone didn't get his way so he didn't participate. He did however make the sushi and had a wonderful time.  

waiting to start making sushi

unwrapped rice krispy treats and some of the toppings

spreading out the glue- frosting

putting on the gummi fish

first piece before the "seaweed" was added

all finished- after the seaweed

the second piece-we cut a treat in half to make 2 pieces

unwrapping the "seaweed"

we flattened out the 3 treat so that we could roll it and make rounds

spreading the frosting

adding the fish-then we added the "seaweed" rolled and cut in half. 

all of the sushi that Zane made

showing of his work

eating his goodies!

I know that some of the pictures are blurry and I am sorry for that, I didn't take the good camera but my little  digital one and it doesn't always take good pictures. 

Love you all,

Liz

Cookies and Waffle Irons

So I have this friend who make incredible cookies and cakes.  She hasn't really made cakes since being in Korea as our ovens are very tiny. The biggest pan I can get in my oven is a 9x13 and only one at a time. It gets even worse in the summer time as it is way to humid, not even hot, to turn the oven on in the house. I have to turn the ac on just to use the oven therefore I use the grill and my crock-pot a lot.  Anyway, last night my friend posted on her blog about making cookies in her waffle iron and they looked so cute. They are these tiny little 2-3 bite cookies, good when following Weight Watchers, and so easy to make.  I made some and decided that they would be even better just a little bit bigger and then topped with ice cream.

Here are the pictures from my waffle iron. 

Here is a plate of the small cookies. A few had been eaten by the time the picture got taken.

Here is the bigger version before vanilla ice cream.

Here it is with vanilla ice cream.

And now a happy little man eating a chocolate cookie waffle topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Now if I could figure out how to link my friends blog to this I would but all I can figure out is how to paste her recipe and directions into the blog.

LilaLoa

Waffle Iron Cookies

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups flour

Pre-heat waffle iron. (And by that, I mean -- plug it in.) Cream butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add eggs, salt, and baking powder. Mix well. Add cocoa powder and stir gently to combine. Mix in flour. The dough will be a little bit sticky. Lightly spray your waffle iron with pan spray. Drop 2-4 little blobs of chocolatey cookie dough goodness on the iron and close. Bake for exactly 60 seconds. Use a fork to lift the cookies out of the waffle iron. Serve as soon as they are cool to eat. Or...wait for a couple of hours and put some butter cream love and sprinkles on them.

If you get to make them I hope that you enjoy them as much as we did!

Liz

4th of July

Yesterday we spent possibly our last 4 of July in Korea relaxing and hanging out with friends. Here are some pictures from our evening. 

attempting the dunk tank

and throw

and miss but oh so close. He did sink her just don't have pictures.

playing with friends while waiting for the fireworks

the gang

my friend Leah and I

trying to get a picture of just the two of us

the three of us

Zane trying to hide behind dad from the camera

the kids

Water fun and Ice Cream

This past week at playgroup the kids finally got to have their water day. The past few weeks the weather has been very cool and the sun really hadn't been shinning. I am not going to complain as it meant the windows could stay open in the house and we didn't have to run the ac. Well the cooler weather has disappeared, monsoon season is giving us her rain and the humidity has arrived. I do look forward to the day that we once again have the use of central air but who knows if that will happen.

This past week at playgroup the kids had a water day, strung beads to make a 4th of July necklace and made ice cream in zip lock bags. The ice cream was awesome too!  Here are some pictures from this past Tuesday 3 July, 2012.

Zane and his friends Garrett and Gracelyn getting ready to play in the water.

The kids turned the slide into a water slide.

at the bottom

Zane working on stringing his beads. You can tell he is concentrating by his tongue sticking out.

He did a great job but when we got home he swung his necklace and the beads went flying. He did this twice!

Shaking up his bag of ice cream.

back to playing with the water on the slide.