Fifty Three

This past week and weekend have been so busy. Joshua was gone all week on a field mission and it seemed that no matter how positive or happy I tried to be, every day something worse would come along. By the end of the week, I was defeated so I was happy to have Joshua back home.
During the week while Josh was gone, I had dinner with a friend of mine (whose hubby was gone, too) and her little ones twice. First at our house and then the next night, we ate at her house. It was nice to have someone over to our house since that's such a rarity due to the fact that we live so far away from everyone.
Late Friday night, Joshua and I went to Daegu and saw Harry Potter.... *sigh* Loved it but was so sad that finally Harry was over. All those years of reading and it's finally done.
I have been reading a lot. I ordered 5 new books from Amazon about 2 months ago. When they finally came in two weeks ago, I picked them up and haven't been able to put my books down.
I have read The Help, Sarah's Key and am starting on The Hunger Game series.
This past weekend we went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. Now, THAT was interesting. It's basically just a bunch of people getting together getting really drunk and really dirty. I didn't do much of either. I sipped on my water bottle and got a little muddy. Joshua, however, drank a few beers and got VERY muddy. I didn't get in any of the pictures that we took because I knew how yucky I looked, BUT I'll post some anyways :)
The prison you climb into and get sloshed with mud every 2 seconds..
The aftermath of the prison

The aftermath of the mud wrestling pit

Joshua's face all calico looking from half of the mud drying and the other half being fresh! haha

That's all for now..
xoxo,
Hannah

Fifty-Two

Gosh, over two weeks in between postings! I feel like I'm slippin'! We have had a nice past two weeks. This past weekend was lots of fun. We celebrated July 4th with a much needed 4 day weekend. This (much needed) four day weekend was then followed up with a 3 day work week for Joshua which meant our weekend came again even sooner. It was nice to have him home for a while.
I've been busy just working/volunteering and all the housework that is still necessary here in our little casa de Delp. Washing clothes, washing dishes and keeping the house clean can be hard work sometimes! Sigh. Other than that, we are just counting down our time left in Korea. In 5 days, it will officially be 2 months left for me! I think it will be bittersweet. I've gotten so used to being here and living this way- no car, no family, no best friends and yet still being able to survive. It will be weird to go back to the states and have a car, my family and my closest friends all within the same continent. Not really sure how it will be. I think I'm in for some major reverse culture shock. Waiters that actually come by your table to check on you and refill your drinks, sales people that don't follow you around the store, not being watched as I walk, people being able to overhear any of my conversations because they will all be able to speak my language. Oh how odd it will be.
The next three weeks will be high-stress.Joshua's schedule is: this week Tues-Fri in the field, the next week mon-fri in the field, the 3rd week mon-fri in the field.
Could they take my husband away enough? I swear he's not supposed to be deployed yet, they treat him as such. Oh well, I guess I'm just glad I have him all the other time and at least he'll be home on the weekends. That is definitely something to be thankful for.
This week for the boys, I'm making chicken and dumplings. Not sure how it will turn out as I have never made it before. My back up dish (in case I fail miserably) will be tatertot casserole. Yum! I may just make the tatertot casserole just so that I can have it even if we don't eat it.
Anyway. That's our life from the past week or so. Will write again soon.
Xoxo,
Hannah

Fifty-One

So much to say in such a small amount of time to say it!
First, I will start off with my discovery today. I realized that one of the COOLEST Sunday school teachers from my Junior and Senior year lives in Colorado (where we are being stationed after Korea). Also, used mapquest and discovered that she's only an hour away! I am BEYOND excited. I haven't seen either of her boys that she had since I graduated high school and I can't wait to meet them. She and her husband are really cool, down to Earth, God-loving people. They are JUST the kind of people we need to have when moving far away from home :)
Second, we had dinner with the guys yesterday. We had a summery and childhood type meal. Sloppy Joes, french fries, corn, and peach cobbler.
The sloppy joes were delicious. I ground and browned 3 lbs of meat, added 3 cans manwich and added in one can of pork and beans (an extra addition that I threw in from a suggestion on a recipe that I found). There were 8 of us all together and almost ALL 3 lbs of sloppy joes were gone. I made LOTS of to-go plates for the boys and sent them on their merry way. Hopefully they enjoyed their dinner again tonight.
Nothing exciting has happened. I am waiting on a big package in the mail: books! LOTS of books!! Okay, so maybe only 4 books, but still- BOOKS!!!! I can't wait for them to hurry up and arrive. I've been waiting almost 3 weeks and they still haven't made it here :( My best friend sent me a package in the mail. In the package, she sent me Water For Elephants (the book). I read it in three days! I have been yearning for more books ever since. I love reading. Book worm over here, for sure!
I made some snickerdoodles 2 days ago, so I will post the delicious recipe here soon. I also have a recipe (and pictures) for my peach cobbler that I made for the boys so I will post that soon, too.
Off to shower and get to bed. Will update with pictures soon :)
Xoxo

Meatloaf

...I was going to take a picture, but then it was gone before I could! Ha :)
My meatloaf recipe probably is nothing special. My mom gave me a recipe and then Joshua and I just altered it to our tastes. On any given night, I can say "How about meatloaf for dinner?" And his response is always "Yeah!". Needless to say, it's one of our favorite dishes.

1 lb ground beef
1 egg
8-10 croutons crushed by hand
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
Mix all together in a bowl. I usually add most of the Barbecue sauce but leave a bit left to drizzle on top.
Press meat into bottom of loaf pan and drizzle last of barbecue sauce on top of the meat mixture.
Cover loaf pan with foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

My grandmother adds a can of Rotel tomatoes and peppers to her meatloaf. That would be a great variation to this already 'Texas style' dish but Joshua (and I!!!) are not spicy food type people so we veto this addition.

Om nom nom
Enjoy :)

Fifty

I had a ladies movie night at our house in Waegwan tonight. All the hubby's stayed home and kept their kids while we hung out. I tried my hand at popping pop corn on the stove top. (It was okay.. Some of it tastes a bit burnt to me, but oh well.) We ate chips and salsa, homemade popcorn and some cupcakes! I made some yummy cupcakes that I found the recipe for on the Kraft food website. They were white cake cupcakes with cool whip frosting then I cut up marshmallows and pieced them back together to make it look like pop corn on top. They were cute and I felt the need to share it with everyone tonight :)
I took a picture of them, so I will have to share soon :)

EDIT:

Caramel 'popcorn' (caramel dribbled on top of the marshmallows), Plain 'popcorn', Buttered 'popcorn' (half a cup of water and 3 or 4 drops of yellow food coloring brushed on top of the marshmallows give them the yellow color!)


There is one recipe that I have tried numerous times only to have it flop every. single. time. Pudding. Seriously, pudding?! How hard could it be, right? Well it was apparently difficult for my mind to comprehend.
When mom came to visit, I had her show it to me again. And finally it clicked! Now I have been on a rampage of pudding making. I have made it 4 times since mom left. LOL! That's 4 times in one and a half weeks!!
This was the ubber yummy banana pudding that I made!


All for now.
Xoxo,
Hannah

Tater Tot Casserole

Last night, some of the boys came over. We ate tater tot casserole. It was my first time making it. I couldn't find a recipe that I thought would be fabulous, so I just created my own. :)

Tater Tot Casserole

1 32oz. Bag frozen tatertots

2 cups cheddar cheese (seperated)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 lb ground beef

2 green onion stalks

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon garlic salt(we REALLY like garlic :))

Preheat oven to 350F

Brown beef

Cover the bottom of a greased 9x13 with the browned beef. Top with salts and slices of green onion.

Layer chicken soups and 1 cup cheese on top of beef.

^Meat and soups before cheese and tater tots

On top of soups and beef, press in tater tots. I didn't end up using the entire bag, just about 3/4ths or so.

Top off tater tots with 1 cup cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until tater tots are cooked and cheese has melted.

^The finished product before the oven

The boys LOVED it. Usually, they eat one helping and they're through. They ate two BIG helpings. I had to make them stop going back for more so that the others would have some left! This was definitely a hit and will be made again soon.

Yum!

Enjoy :)

xoxo,

Hannah

Fourty Nine

Promised to write again soon, didn't I? Yes! I did! And look, here I am!
We sent mom off on an airplane on Monday. She made it back to Austin safe and sound. I made sure to take Wednesday off from volunteering so I got to straighten up the house and get it back to working order before heading off to 'work' today.
Friday, mom went with my to one of my schools I volunteer at. I think she really enjoyed it and as soon as the kids realize that my mom was present, they either acted REALLY good or they acted REALLY silly. Ha! It was fun to watch, that's for sure :)

These are three of my girls in my last class. The two in the front are VERY good at english. Even if they don't know how to pronounce something or know how to speak it, they comprehend a lot!

My last class is almost ALL boys! Only my three sweet girls in the above picture.

This past weekend was a busy one. The Army Birthday Ball was on Saturday night. It was fun to get all dolled up and go out looking pretty. Joshua wore his Class A's (his Army dress clothes) and I wore a long black ball gown. We ate a yummy three course meal at a very snazzy hotel and listened to them gab about the Army. We enjoyed a couple glasses of wine and overall just had a nice night. It was fun to get out, get dressed up, and hang out.

On the bus to the Exco

Joshua and I outside the Exco center

Our fancy-shmancy table

I mailed out quite a few postcards this week, also. Maybe 7 or so. Check your mailboxes, people. You never know what you can find in there... besides a cobweb or two ;)

Also, I just had to share since I recently discovered this. So so funny! I think one day this kid will laugh at all of this and realize how cool his dad actually is!
http://waveatthebus.blogspot.com

xoxo

Hannah