Settling Back In

August 22, 2017August 22, 2017 / Ali Craft / 1 Comment

Well well well. School is in full swing, and the calendar is jam packed. We had last Tuesday off for Liberation Day, and let me tell you I have never been so glad to be liberated. How do we make Tuesday’s off a thing?

Judah just started preschool last Wednesday and he couldn’t be more excited. I snuck out of work for a minute to drop him off for his first day. I’m not taking it personally that he didn’t seem to care, told me to stop messing with his hair, and when I said “I love you, Judah.”, he responded with “BYE”. Guess that means he’s ready?? (or ungrateful that I GAVE HIM LIFE.)

Asher and Zoey are still home with our nanny. I think Asher will like having a little more time to himself (and Zoey) but will be thrilled when Judah gets home in the afternoons; they are best buds. Asher is getting a little more stubborn everyday, and it’s a wonder why seeing as how there isn’t even one stubborn person in our home.

He talks up a storm but always misuses my and I. “My jump” “my get an owie”, butttt you already knew he was adorable. He just turned two in July and is growing in spades. He has a signature big-grin-squinty-eyed smile that will leave you in a puddle. He has also developed a not so charming middle kid defense system of squealing and hitting when not getting his way…but we are working on that.

{FIRST} birthday

{SECOND} birthday

Isaac is back into his normal rhythm of teaching 6th grade math and Bible and playing basketball in the mornings twice a week with staff. Oh ya, so there I was in my office a couple weeks ago when I see my principal go to retrieve the first aid kit. I proceeded to ask him what happened and he told me he messed up his finger in basketball that morning. He then quickly said, “but that’s nothing”, pointing to his busted lip. My response was something to the effect of, “oh my goodness, what happened?!”. Apparently my boss’ face + husband’s elbow happened. Luckily, my boss is a good sport.

Church has been getting busy as we have been taking on more leadership roles, which means we have to get there early. *gasp* I feel like on-time would have been ambitious enough. As we are now leading up the welcoming committee, we are meeting a whole new crowd of people who can actually get places on time.

We have been so fortunate to have found ourselves forming life long friends here, lately espeically. One of those things with life overseas, is that in some ways you form relationships quickly because “we are all in the same boat”, but everyone is so busy doing their own thing and people tend to be a bit reserved as no one knows how long you will be here. Each year we watch friends leave that have become like family (and you can still talk bad about them on your blog because they say they don’t read ittttt), but new people come. You always just have to secretly hope that you don’t become great friends with people on their way out, so naturally we have a list of people we will hold hostage should they ever try and leave us.

Also, in my spare time *ha* I am coaching Varsity Girl’s tennis again this year. I will say though that it could be a pretty small time commitment if it keeps raining. Every. Blasted. Day. Apparently monsoon season is a little late just like the Craft family at church. Go figure. Anyone got some indoor courts we can borrow??? Between that and court maintenance, we are well on our way to becoming a Conditioning Team. And please don’t even ask why there are desk chairs etc. in that pile of junk on our courts, my only explanation is: Korea.

Everything else here is life as normal. Zoey is back to her pre-summer habit of sleeping through the night BECAUSE SHE LOVES US. The boys are still all about her and no one makes her laugh like quite like Judah. She has started eating baby food but isn’t interested in any finger foods yet. I guess Princess Z just likes being fed. She is sitting up like a champ and working on scooting. She will be terrorizing our house in no time.

We have some longer breaks this year with the way holidays fall, so with any luck and $$$ we hope travel some. I feel a bit like this after doing our summer stock up for our ever growing family of five, but we should be fine as long as everyone pinky promises not to grow out of their shoes.

That’s all for now. As always, sending love from Seoul.

Oh. Also. In my foolishness, in my last post about traveling with kiddos I forgot to give a massive shoutout to all the mamas who have gone before me and shared all their traveling wisdom. My list is certainly a work of collaboration; us mamas are stronger in numbers!!! ❤

Traveling With Kids: The Master Class

August 16, 2017 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

I should feign humility, but I’d really like to think that if I have any skills at all (besides making babies) it’s traveling with kids. After all, I have spent the last two years conducting some very intensive research on the topic and we have all lived to tell about it. May you find it helpful and if not, take heart, horrific travel experiences make for great stories; consider it your contribution to mankind.

Also, my experience is obviously geared around younger kids, so my advice will be too. I would like to think that by the time my kids are older they will pack and carry their own stuff, watch movies and eat junk food for the duration of the trip, and leave me the mess alone. Don’t you dare spoil it for me.

Some tips and tricks for traveling with (young) kiddos:

Don’t.
- Ha. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. For real now.

Talk up the trip.
- Build excitement about the trip. Talk about riding in the car/plane and about all the things you will do and people you will see when you get there. Try and make travel days something to look forward to and not to dread.
Wear them out before leaving.
- Let them play outside or run round before loading up. The last thing you want to do is try and travel with kids with pent up energy. When flying, after we get to the gate we try and let the kids run around, climb stairs etc. for a bit before boarding. Our airport in Korea has a play area for young kids; check to see if your airport has one.
Travel days are SPECIAL.
- Things that would never fly on a normal day are totally ok on travel days. These are the days that there is no moderation, no balance, and no one is trying to win a parenting award. There are limitless snacks and too much TV, and that is OK. The only people judging you are your fellow kid-less passengers, and they too may one day know just how real the struggle is.
Snacks.
- “Healthy” (crush proof) snacks: Feel free to pack Cheetos and gummy bears, but eventually you may to want them to stop eating that, lest you want to clean up puke. I try to pack mostly things that if my kid ate their weight in it, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Find the balance between some special snacks and things that will make them be excited but not too sugary/sticky/etc. Ex. pretzels, applesauce pouches, dried fruit, trail mix, cheese sticks.
- Pack snacks in Nalgene bottles: Still want to take fragile snacks? Can’t live without Goldfish? Fill up an old water bottle with snacks to keep them from getting crushed and spilled in your bag.
- Ziplock bags: Great to have on hand to distribute snacks and/or collect trash. Each kid gets a baggie to hold their snacks and they can be refilled as needed.
Movies.
- We also try and bring some device for the boys to watch movies. Make sure to charge devices the night before, maybe load a new movie or two, and bring headphones and a headphone splitter if they are sharing.
Wrap up some new (or even old) toys.
- Go to your local dollar store or bargain bin and stock up on small/inexpensive toys and grab some cheap wrapping paper to wrap them. We try to space out letting the boys open them so they have something to look forward to. We have even wrapped up some old toys before, so this would be the perfect time to wrap that toy that you loathe, and pray it disappears into the airplane abyss.
Clean crafts.
- Color magic
- Stickers
- Painters tape
- Magna Doodle
- Wikki Stix
- Tongue depressors with velcro dots on the ends for building
- Temporary tattoos
  - All respectable children should have at least a half-sleeve by the time you arrive.

Driving tips:

Car toys.
- We have a special basket of toys that live in the car. What makes them special you ask? THEY LIVE IN THE CAR. They don’t come inside, so there is automatic anticipation to use them. #momhack
Landmark incentives.
- Ex. You can have another snack/open another toy when we cross the big bridge! It gives them something to look forward to and keeps them from running through treats too quickly.
Talk about what you see.
- When I can tell the kids are getting antsy (“I wanna get outtttt” on repeat) I sadly turn off our audio book and talk to the kids about the scenery. Judah has learned lots about back hoes (and I’ve realized I don’t know nearly enough names of construction equipment to be a proper boy mom) and water towers…and I have only almost driven off the road as Judah excitedly spots them and shrieks “NOTHER BACK HOE, MAMAAAA!!”.
Maximize your stops.
- Sometimes your kids need a slow, no stress kinda trip with lots of stops, and thats ok, but otherwise, we try and make the trip as short as possible. We try to multitask at each stop, ex. I will nurse Z and Isaac can let the boys run around at a rest stop or Isaac will do diapers while I pump gas and grab food. Road trips are great all, but sometimes it good to just get to your destination.

Flying tips:

Consider bringing carseats.
- We brought carseats on the flight for the first time on our last trip from DFW to Seoul. It was a game changer for us as Isaac was sitting in a middle row of 3 with the boys so there was no way to barricade them both in, and I was one row in front with Zoey. Our boys are pretty good road-trippers, so putting them in their carseats made them seem much more calm and happy to stay in their seat than ever before. I don’t think it is right for everyone or for every trip, just consider your kids ages, temperament, and length of flight. Also, you have to make sure you carseat is FAA certified; it should say on it or have a sticker if it is.
Get the bassinet seat.
- If you are flying, especially internationally with a baby (usually ~1 and under, but it is based on height and weight), a bassinet can be super helpful. At the very least hopefully you can get baby settled in it so you can eat hands free. Check with your airlines as some will reserve it for you ahead of time, and some have you request it on a first-come-first-served basis at check in. You also have to be sitting in the first row of the cabin to use the bassinet. I will say it is basically Murphy’s law that if your baby is fussy and you finally console them and get them to sleep in the bassinet, the the seatbelt sign will turn on and you will be asked to hold your baby. I have definitely gotten to the point of exhaustion where I just want to say, “LISTEN LADY, I assure you that if it gets bad enough, I will grab my baby, but for the love of ALL THINGS, pleaseeeeee don’t make me move them yet.”-the pleas of an exhausted mama.
Cheap toys.
- We try and bring toys that we wouldn’t lose sleep over if they got left on the plane accidentally, as everything ends up getting spread out over the course of the flight. Again see: wrap up dollar store toys.
If you have small children, bring water on as long as they will let you.
- Staying hydrated can make all the difference in how you feel at the end of an international flight, so bring water if you can. Usually with young kids, as long as you set it aside while going through security so they can scan it, they will allow it. At the very least bring an empty water bottle to fill up on the other side of security.
Bring empty sippy cups.
- Instead of worrying with bringing milk or juice for our kids, we just pack them empty, and ask the flight attendants to fill them. They have always been happy to oblige.
Cabin pressure.
- I feel like this is common knowledge, but when flying with babies-toddlers, just try to nurse/feed or have them sip something through a sippy cup during take off and landing to help their ears adjust to the change in pressure. Between 3 kids and more flights than I can count, we have never had an issue.
Fly Tot.
- We also have this thing called the Fly Tot that we love for helping little ones stretch out and sleep. It is basically an inflatable footrest so that they can lay down. You should guess we are all too happy to through money at anything that might help my kiddos sleep. We have been really happy with it. See the Fly Tot here.

Things to consider:

Baggage allowances- most airlines allow for an extra bag as the infant’s diaper bag, a collapsible stroller to be checked at the gate, and then extra allowance to check pack n’ plays, carseats, or larger strollers. Check ahead of time!
Some airlines will allow you to select a special kids meal (hot dog, spaghetti, pizza, etc.), infant meal (water for making bottles, premixed formula), or even an older infant meal (baby food, juice).
Early boarding- most airlines will let you board before they board the main cabin. This will allow you to get everyone settled and claim your overhead compartment space near your seat.
Airports will often let you use express lines for security, immigration, or customs if you have your hands full. Don’t be afraid to ask. I’ll never forget after a particularly horrific day of travel we walked up to the immigration line and it was ENDLESS, and I promptly pushed our stroller to the DIPLOMAT/FLIGHT CREW/IMPORTANT PEOPLE line and Isaac’s like, “…babe…” I responded with, “Isaac our kids are screaming, exhausted, and covered in throw up (I told you…horrific). Leaving this airport ASAP would be public service.” *They didn’t turn us away, they must have seen that glimmer in my eye that told them I was fully prepared to fight someone.
JUST ASK! There may be extra seats and often times the flight attendants will take pity on you and give you some extra room. Or you can go as far as asking them to move the people around you so that you have more room…I have totallyyyyy never done that. Survival of the shameless.
Always bring a change clothes. If not, you are basically daring someone to throw up. Now I know. See: Why You Should Pack Clothes For Everyone.
If all else fails, bring earplugs.
- You can’t win them all. If you have tried everything, sometimes your kids may just fuss. Crank up your favorite jams, pretend the kids aren’t yours, and try to tune it out. 🙂

And just for your reading pleasure, a few humorous moments:

When turn around to find your son making a call on the TSA telephone.“Sorry, mom, I’ve got to take this”.

Or when you are going through security and think your husband has the child, your husband thinks you have the child, and then you hear, “um, excuse me, is that your child over there?”. (See your child running through the airport about 20 yards away.) Nope…never seen him before…

When you are so over parenting on an airplane that you literally ask the grandma sitting next to you if she wants to hold your baby…and you get him back 5 hours later. ALL THE PRAISE HANDS.

When your kid refuses to sleep any during the 14hr flight, and finally passes out…while landing. Hello, unconscious Judah.

When you are headed off for an international trip and you see a well dressed family and wonder where the heck all their stuff is….(that is only half our luggage).

When your child makes a new friend because he unexpectedly refuses to get on the escalator and you only realize after he is out of reach. #goodparents

Well, I’m not sure if I have helped, or actually convinced you to not travel until your kids graduate. So, if you get brave, may we see you in the clear skies or the open road. ❤

Lately

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

Well well well…time flies and here we are half way through October. Life is full in every way. There was that 3 week stint about a month ago where I was certain someone was trying to kill us between 2 ER visits with the kids and me being actually sick above and beyond the normal pregnant sick…but yet, we prevail.

For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been coaching the varsity girl’s tennis team. It has been a blast, and winning a lot doesn’t hurt either; we are currently second in our division, but needless to say we are all looking forward to getting our afternoons and weekends back soon. We have two weeks left in the regular tennis season *praise hands*, and then next month I take my top 4 girls to a week-long tournament in Okinawa, Japan. Everyone seems very concerned about me going “in my condition”, but they don’t realize I am crazy/stubborn/travelled at 37 weeks domestically when pregnant with Judah and 35 weeks internationally with Asher.

Isaac is doing well. Parent teacher conferences are Friday, which is quite the event for a math teacher in Korea. It will consist of anywhere from 40-50 ten-minute parent meetings between 7am-6pm, where Isaac tries to convince parents that their kids are actually very bright and gifted.

He is also doing his typical get-in-super-great-shape-while-his-wife-is-getting-big-fat-pregnant thing that I just love him for. As my ankles swell and my shirts become too short he’s all like “look at my muscles”. God love him.

I’m over here like:

The kids are great, making us love and hate life at the same time. On to a bit about them.

Judah

Judah is growing in spades. He loves to do all things adult including washing dishes, pushing the stroller, blow drying his hair, getting dressed complete with belt or tie, and trying to shave or style his hair like dad.

He has also taken up the awesome habit of throwing things out our 6th floor window. We obviously discourage this due to the risks it poses to our belongings as well as the passerbys down below, but the stubborn toddler persists. The other day Judah threw his baby doll out the window, so after a recon mission Isaac and Judah came back with a the doll, a spoon, crayon, and a piece of our laundry drying rack. I do take great comfort in the fact that our real baby coming-soon, won’t fit through the bars…

Remember that time he threw a glass tumbler (pictured: bottom left) out our sixth floor window and it didn’t break? So fun.

Last night, I let Isaac know I was headed home from practice to which he responded, “Grab the whisk on your way up”. Cool, Judah. Here I am like a creeper in the bushes looking for our dang whisk and a neighbor walks by and stares, so we exchange awkward hellos, while I’m sure she wonders what the h I am doing lurking in the bushes. Little does she know I’m not being weird, just retrieving my kitchen utensils from the bushes… carry on.

Judah loves to help these days, as any parent knows, the help of a toddler is NOT help. But he is learning. He loves to take the trash down with dad. I assure you Isaac loves it, too, and it in no way makes taking the trash out take 5 million times longer.

Also, Judah has decided he hates sleep (ignoring compulsory comments from our parents about how they have no sympathy). On average, Judah has been taking around an hour and a half to go to sleep after the usual bedtime story, bible, songs, prayers, and milk. Please note that this frequently makes an unnamed pregnant lady an hour and a half late for bed, also.We have only casually looked at getting new locks for the door…It was hilarious though the other day when Judah began speaking about himself in the third person during one of his nightly last-stands after what was likely the third book, 4th cup of milk and 50th kiss, saying through his tears “Judah crying”. Ha, yes he is.

Our tortured child, in his warm cozy bed, with a sippy cup of milk, alligator and baby doll all covered up, and tucked in with extra love, songs, and stories by both his parents. LIFE. IS. TERRIBLE.

I think one of our most challenging evenings with Judah, after putting him to bed, Isaac ran down to the corner store and I jumped in the shower. I was fully aware that Judah would likely get out of bed, but I was thinking if I hurried, that I would be out before he came out for the first of many times. Wrong. So here I am, having just stepped in the the shower (our shower is a shower head mounted on the wall of the bathroom with a drain in the floor) when I hear Judah crying “mamaaaaaaa” outside the door. Knowing Isaac was gone I figured I would just ignore Judah, quickly take my shower, and then put him back in bed.

But the crying didn’t stop, it just continued to get louder until, with my back to the door I hear Judah open the door. I decided “I am not even going to look at him. I am just going to take my shower and deal with him when I am done”. A few moments later, as I turned around to rinse out my hair I now see that Judah has come in, shut the door, and is standing dripping wet, still whining “mamaaaaaaa”. Well played, son. I rinsed out my hair, shut off the water, grabbed a towel to dry off Judah’s hair, stripped off his wet shirt, and repeated our nightly motto. “Judah, it is time for bed. When you get out of bed you are disobeying…”, as I hauled our semi-bathed child back to bed. It is ALWAYS interesting around here.

And some of the sweeter things that have kept us from putting him FREE TO GOOD HOME:

-lately whenever Isaac or I cough or sneeze Judah asks, “you okay daddy/mama?”

-when we call for Judah to come he responds loudly with “I’m gummingggg”

Asher

No longer “baby” Asher, this boy is also growing like a weed. He has been walking since June and is always on the move. About two weeks ago his vocabulary exploded, and now he is surprising us with new words daily. Good pictures of him are about as likely as a picture of Big Foot since he never slows down. It took 2 months and serious illness to catch these two. You’re welcome.

He has a fiery temper (no comment) which seems to have developed as a defense to fend off a bossy older brother. Also, like all my precious spawn, he hates to be held. As soon as I sit down, he eagerly runs over to crawl in my lap which seems sweet and always gets my hopes up, but then he just crawls all over me, ends up punching me in the face and kicking me in the uterus, and then slides off my lap. Little baby jerk.

He loves to eat and is always happy to clean his and Judah’s plate. He also has a friend in Judah, who is always willing to sneakily score snacks for the two of them when mom and dad aren’t looking.

yogurt for two = massive mess for mama.

He is officially off formula and we are working towards losing the nap time bottle of soy milk, Lord help us all. I am fully confident that he would happily give up Isaac and I for life before releasing the death grip from his beloved bottle. I figure as long as he is weaned before college.

And here is this picture again from our last post about kid’s cafes just because I think it’s hilarious and I can.

Baby numero tres

This little one is happy, healthy, and growing. I will be 27 weeks on Saturday. Despite the consistent daily nausea and a grocery list of other pregnancy ailments, I still enjoy being pregnant. The fact that we grow can humans still blows my mind. While I feel all warm and fuzzy about feeling like crap, I know Isaac must be growing weary of conversations like “hey, what’s for dinner”, to which I respond “do we really need to eat dinner every night??”. My pregnancies are never easy breezy, but Isaac is a trooper and we get some pretty awesome kids out of the deal so we press on.

Baby one: Weekly hand drawn chalkboards

Baby two: Periodic bump pictures

Baby three: First picture taken is a doctor’s office selfie 25 weeks

And just to ensure we never run out of stories to tell you guys, we started potty training this week. May your prayers be with us.

Kid’s Cafe: A Parents Escape

September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 / Ali Craft / 6 Comments

Folks…America needs to get on this ASAP. This is basically like ten steps above a Chick-fil-A with a play place. The price might also be ten steps above Chick-fil-A, but there are days I would literally throw my wallet at anything promising to entertain my children while I sat down (note: my wallet is probably empty anyways).

Kids cafes are a big deal here in Korea, and admittedly, we have not been taking full advantage. We’ve only been to two, but with baby three on the way, something tells me kids cafes could soon be playing a large part in keeping our sanity.

These cafes are all over, often with different themes. Last week we explored our second, and now favorite kid’s cafe, Lilliput. This one was about $13/kid for 2 hours and you had to buy food or a drink. So while my kids play I have to enjoy a delicious snack, or drink?? … Twist my arm. They even have staff that are there to monitor and play with your kids while you sit. I’m thinking we might move in permanently.

When you come in you leave your shoes in a locker, and take a pair of snazzy Lilliput sandals to wear, helping to ensure the place stays nice and clean…a very Korean custom. You pay for your time at the counter and are given a menu and shown to your table.

We went with another couple (hey, Mandy!) and their two kids, so we got lucky and were given this private sitting area all to ourselves! I am working on the assumption that they may have wanted to hide the rowdy foreigners, compared to the usually calm, quiet, and composed locals, but then again maybe they were just being nice.

*Imagine here a picture of our super swank private area that I forgot to take a picture of.*

If you squint and look past the mom and son playing, our hang out area was just next to the ball pit, with a low table and pillows for lounging.

Not pictured is a sweet lego area/craft area that the boys will love when they are older.

Here is Judah cruising on his Land Rover.

Asher playing a rousing game of hand the shoes to the kind employee. They both loved it.

This “sandbox” is actually filled with little wooden cubes! Way better than bringing home sand.

Introducing the cleanest ball pit ever, with clear balls so you feel less like there is something terrifying underneath. Also, that wall is interactive so you throw the balls at it in different games. Fancy.

Here is a not so appetizing picture of half finished delicious food, I was too hungry to take a picture before eating. We had margarita pizza, carbonara, and french fries. This is what happens when a pregnant lady misses lunch…

And if you had any questions about our spectacular parenting…mid-bite of pizza I looked over to see this. Naturally I took a photo while Isaac rescued him. I won’t admit how hilarious I find this photo, so don’t even ask.

Side note: since you obviously wouldn’t wear your nice Lilliput sandals in the fancy bathroom (I would, but I am basically an untrained monkey) that comes complete with baby-sized toilet, they have bathroom sandals for your selection. Kids sizes too, so cute.

It was so lovely to visit and enjoy a meal with our friends as our kiddos played. I feel like at this stage of life for us the only way to have an adult conversation is to get a sitter, or have people over after the kids are in bed (lol at that because that’s when I go to bed,too).

So if you need me, you can likely find me at Lilliput.

Tow Trucks in Korea: Another Adventure

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

One day about a month ago, Isaac and I gathered our resolve, and our children, loaded our car and headed out to conquer Costco. Usually, we go with a bus of people from our school that takes us there and brings us back, so we don’t have to get there on our own. Since our schedule has been so hectic, we decided to take a “quick” weekend trip.

Despite not really knowing where it was and the fact that our GPS couldn’t find a route, we were off. We were about 20 minutes into our grand adventure when we heard a thud followed by the noise of something dragging under our car. I’m no mechanic, but it didn’t sound good. I made it over about 3 lanes of traffic to the side of the road and stopped. We did the obligatory car inspection that looked at little something like this…

Yep. Looks like it’s all here.

We then had a look under the car to discover something important looking hanging down. For the stories’ sake, let’s call it a piece of our muffler. We did the obvious thing and began to google our car’s apparent aliment while I placed a long-distance call to my father to try and figure out just how necessary this thing was (turns out, you really do need it).

After realizing that driving it was out of the question, (of course not without me trying to talk my way into driving it by myself to our local body shop about 20 minutes away with all the windows down to combat the possible carbon monoxide inhalation (I seriously thought something along the lines of, “I’ll just hold my breath”)), we began the task of figuring out how to call a tow truck in Korea. We got the number to one, just leaving us with the slight hang up that: A) we don’t speak Korean (especially the vocab to describe our/any car issues) and B) we can’t even tell them where we are. So off Isaac went in search of a kind stranger that could translate for us, while I sat in the car with the children as we slowly melted in the heat. He came back after having no luck, so off I went to take a stab at it.

I walked into a hair salon just next to where we broke down, and luckily found some girls that I could just barely communicate with between my google translate and their limited english. They were so precious and pulled out all the stops telling the tow truck where to go, welcoming us in to wait in the cool A/C, bringing the boys fresh squeezed juice and snacks, and doting on them non-stop.

I am guessing they probably didn’t have kids of their own as they were mortified when just after opening his cracker, Judah dropped it on the floor, so I picked it up and handed it back to him. First child of laid-back mama problems?

When the tow truck arrived, there was a small game of “guess our car problem charades” before the issue was diagnosed. We decided Isaac would ride with the tow truck to take care of things and I would catch a taxi and take home our rapidly expiring children for their nap. We were initially told that it would take 3 days and about the equivalent of $130 to get fixed. Upon further inspections they came back and said it would take only an hour and $65 to fix. Has that ever happened to anyone in America, ever?? Typically your experiences look at little more like something along these lines:

So Isaac decided to wait for the car and grab some lunch to kill time. He ended up ordering some mystery dish that he described as “interesting”…better him than me, the pregnant lady that has gagged lately at the thought of things as simple as bagels.

Meanwhile, I used every tool in my mama tool belt to keep my over-tired children from opening the doors in the moving taxi. Each time that would grab at the handle the taxi driver would freak out and say in Korean what I would imagine to mean “No, they can’t open the door while we are moving!!”…must be another cultural difference…

After pulling up Kung Fu Panda on my phone and rationing and eating every last piece of candy stashed in the diaper bag for emergencies such as this, we arrived home safe and sound.

Isaac arrived shortly afterward with our car in full working order. It was an eventful day that sadly did not produce any groceries. To prove that we hate ourselves, the next day we decided to take our newly repaired car and children on an adventure an hour out of town to IKEA AND Costco in holiday traffic…and we have lived to tell about it, barely.

On to fight another day.

{Part THREE} The final chapter of our (NOT) quick trip to Jeju.

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

The never-ending blog post of the never-ending “quick” trip is coming to a close. And all God’s people said, amen!

(If you missed part 1 or part 2, here ya go)

The next morning, after a restless night of sleep, we headed down for breakfast and to see if any headway had been made in flights. We were told that we had new flights scheduled for 7pm, and that we would check out the hotel by 12 and kill time until heading to the airport. We thought we would try and get the boys to take an early nap since we would be on the go for the rest of the day, which resulted in 2 hours of telling Judah to lay down while we sat in a pitch black hotel room. We stored our bags at the hotel and headed off to lunch.

Then it was off to find some formula for Asher just in case of emergency, of all the things we can make do without, soy formula is NOT one of them. We flagged a taxi outside of the restaurant, carefully jumped in with Judah still in the hiking pack, and just as we started to move I remembered: THE PACI! I vividly remembered it falling under the table at the restaurant and thinking, oh I’ll get it later. In that chaotic moment, my minimal Korean came to mind and I hollered, “Ki-dah-ryo-ju-se-yo!” (WAIT, PLEASE!). I threw open the taxi door, ran back inside, ducked under the table, grabbed the paci, and was back in the taxi in seconds. Considering that was the only paci we brought, and they don’t sell the kind Asher likes in Korea, that could have been very very bad.

We got to the grocery store with no problem, and found the formula we needed. Victory! We were a little bummed out that we had forgone site-seeing to get formula, so we figured we would wander around for a little bit before catching a taxi back to the hotel and then heading to the airport. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ocean directly behind the store. Which brings me to another favorite memory from the trip. In the last month Judah has taken to calling any liquid, milk. Cup of juice? Milk. Water fountain? Milk. Judah had been asleep in the hiking pack after finally giving up the fight while shopping. We were walking along the ocean front when he wakes up and seeing the ocean, yells “MILK!!!”. Not quite, buddy.

We made it back to hotel to meet the group, grabbed our bags, and hopped in a taxis to the airport; we were so close to being home. {cries quietly}

Ok. I can’t even keep this up anymore. We get to the airport and get all checked in. This was the scene. People as far as the eye could see. Us and 40,000 of our closest friends trying to get off of this island. (At one time, the flight from Jeju to Seoul was the most heavily trafficked air route in the world.)

We made our way through security to realize that we hadn’t even seen the half of it.

The next six hours looked a bit like this:

Lines so long at the bathroom you just resolve yourself to be dehydrated. No line for the men’s bathroom because, duh.
Getting stepped on/over and almost going all mama bear crazy because people are about to step on your sleeping baby.

A toddler that refused to nap/sleep because there was obviously a party to partake in.

Koreans finding cardboard boxes to break down to sit on to avoid sitting directly on the ground. You should know that as shoes are taken off when entering the home, they are apparently also taken off before stepping on your cardboard box… that you got from the trash.

No real nutrition, as airport restaurants ran out of food, leaving us to share snacks from duty free. Macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and dried mango do not a dinner make.
Leaning back to back with Isaac to find some reprieve.

Ajummas (Korean grandmas) that kept giving Judah food. While the rest of us may have gone without dinner, Judah certainly did not. There was fried chicken, kimbap (let’s just say it’s like sushi), cookies, rice cakes, candy, more cookies. Because if there is one thing that a sleep deprived child needs it is sugar. Isaac would try and take a bite and then give Judah only half, but the adjummas weren’t having it, so they would give him two the next time. Also fun, is when they offer him something he doesn’t like, so I try to keep him from spitting it or at least don’t let them see it, so what happens? They offered him more, while I sat there discreetly holding the last half chewed bite they gave him…

…so we showed up to the airport at 4:30pm for our 7pm flight. That became a 9pm flight. That became a “please come check later for info on your flight” flight. At 10:45pm, among shouts of joy and possibly actual tears, we boarded our plane home. Now, THIS was the happiest we have ever been to see a plane.

We made it home just after 2 am. We are alive, and have since recovered from the illnesses we somehow ended up with after our ~~relaxing~~ getaway. It was one of those events that is so traumatizing, that the group was bonded together for life, so to my Jeju trip family and the ones of you that have stuck through this whole story and are now equally scarred:

{Part ONE} A “Quick” Trip to Jeju Island

May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

This story is so absurd, it wrote itself; please enjoy our sufferings. After our pretty intense escapade to the Philippines, we thought an overnight trip to Jeju, a small volcanic island off Korea’s southern coast, would be just the thing. All the older/wiser/people with a brain, are welcome to go ahead and start laughing now. Our school is part of a foundation of Korean foreign schools, that so kindly host trips each year to show the staff Korea. Our trip began with a 5:30am departure, no big deal after our 3am departures to and from the Philippines; the kids were champs. Never mind me leaving my phone on the bus in the chaos of unloading, thankfully it was a bus from our school, and Korea is well known for the fact that if you lose something, odds are good that someone will turn it in. Yay, Korea. Now, just look at that happy bunch.

We got all checked in and were given our boarding passes, which is when we realized that we were already supposed to be boarding, and so the adventure began. You must know how this story goes, we are in a massive hurry so of course, the security line has never been longer or slower.

I am still wondering if I will ever be able to go through security without breaking out in a sweat from wrangling bags, children, boarding pass, etc. I have no doubt that I looked as though I had just run a marathon, or died trying.

Isaac waited for all of our bags to come of the conveyer at security while I took off running with Asher in his Ergo baby carrier and holding Judah, as though the large group of Americans wasn’t drawing enough attention. We are so obviously the poster children for traveling with kids.

We made our flight by some miracle and the awesome Korean speakers in our group that could fully communicate our distress. We thought we would never be so happy to see a plane……….(there just really aren’t enough … in the world for this, so we will just keep moving)

We made it to Jeju and were met by our wonderful hosts. We loaded up on the busses and headed off down the rocky coast to breakfast as our tour guide told us all about the island.

FYI: This is the beautiful Korie, fellow teacher and child wrangler extraordinaire, whose help is the only reason we didn’t consider jumping off one of the scenic cliffs.

This was the scene at breakfast. Our efforts to get stranded there and spend the day staring at that view and drinking coffee were thwarted by our ever patient bus driver. After we had been nourished and most importantly, caffeinated, it was off to the bonsai tree garden.

It was so nice and relaxing. Although we love Seoul, there is a rather large problem with air quality especially during spring, so walking through the garden had us all like:

Next up was the traditional tea ceremony at the tea gardens. One of the things that Jeju is know for is for its tea crops, especially green tea. Isaac and I took turns attending the ceremony since apparently children, boiling water, and ceramics don’t mix. While I did my tea thing, Isaac changed diapers and wrangled kids, and while Isaac did the ceremony, Judah and I made soap, sounds fair right?

Next was a delicious lunch of Korea barbecue. There was a beautiful pool on the patio that the boys had some fun splashing in.

Just when we were ready for a nice long nap in the sun, it was time for a nice windy hike up a hill with fussy kids. We got a late start up the hill as we had diapers to change and caffeine to chug (have you noticed that our move to Korea has increased our reliance on Jesus and caffeine??). From the end of this trail you could see the two small islands that are the southernmost part of Korea. Fun fact: Jeju was the last strongholds that Japan had at the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea before they were completely driven out.

We opted out of the next sight seeing venture (a cliff or something) to let the kids nap on the bus. We did get off long enough to poke around the tourist shops selling the popular Jeju treats: oranges, green tea, chocolates, vitamin C tablets from Jeju oranges, sea cucumbers…guys, this is a real thing, and bleh. We “sadly” missed out when the group tried this. If you haven’t heard of this sea creature, you just need to google it.

Then it was off to the hotel to get settled. We had a lovely room and a balcony with a killer view.

Dinner was a buffet at the hotel restaurant complete with crab legs, yes, please. We ate our fill, and then some, and just when the kids started to make a scene (read: after) we headed out to the let the kid(s) run around.

We finally headed back to our room for the night and happened upon and interestingly labeled door. I try to live without regrets, but I don’t know that I will ever forgive myself for not giving this a go…I mean really, the fact that this stuff is still around in 2016 makes me happy and concerned at the same time. Something tells me that Koreans must not be quite as “lawsuit-happy” as us Americans…

We got the kids in bed and may or may not have been asleep before our heads hit the pillows…that was until the earthquake.

Is she serious? Did we survive? Did all of our fun plans get rained out? Did our flight get cancelled? And then delayed? And then the airport ran out of food???? I guess you will just have to tune in next time for the conclusion of our “not so quick” trip to Jeju island.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 / Ali Craft / 4 Comments

Let me guess, you stumbled upon this post and all your dreams came true. Yes, yes we did blog about grocery shopping. We just give the people what they want…ok? Let’s begin.

We have a few options for getting groceries. There is a street nearby that we did most of our shopping at when we first moved here; it just has a bunch of fruit stands, a couple small grocery stores, and a bakery. There is also a small store about a half a mile from our house, two that we pass if we walk home, and one that we pass if we drive home. We obviously have no shortage of choices.

All that being said, we try to make a trip once a week to the Korean version of Walmart, Emart (we have mastered the art of saying Emart in Korean: *clears throat* “Emart-uh” *takes bow*), where they have the largest selection, free parking, and lots of international staples (read: tortilla chips and sour cream). Actually, I realized in writing this post that where we shop is also determined by if we need bread or not. Most small grocery stores will not carry bread, or will only have a small (one shelf with maybe 6 small loaves when fully stocked) and unpredictable offering. I imagine that this is because Koreans don’t eat as many peanut butter sandwiches as we do, go figure.

Moving right along…most of the Emarts here are located in shopping malls. This is ours.

Just like most major stores here, it is multilevel with the moving sidewalks connecting the floors. Hang on tight, Judah.

Each section and sometimes even specific products have employees there to sell their item. If you are shopping for shampoo, odds are there will be someone in the section to help you make your selection. Need toilet paper? They are there to help. The employee’s outfits are also worthy of mention. Depending on what section they work in, they have different and…interesting uniforms. You would think the kiwi lady would look more excited…

They always offer free samples throughout the store. This has proven to be a great way to try different Korean specialties like vinegar juice, spam fried rice, and squid.

Oh ya, and right around the corner from the toothbrushes and electronics, you can pick out a new family pet!

Oh and another useless “fun” fact. If there is a promotion here like buy one get one free, it is referred to as 1+1 (buy one, get one). This is why we sometimes end up with three cans of off brand Pringles when we really didn’t even need one (Off brand items at Emart, er.. excuse me, Emart-uh are called “No Brand”.) Don’t even get me started about “No Brand” being dumb because inherently “No Brand”‘s brand is “No Brand”. Just ignore me.

And let me just say, we are going to be in big trouble if our $10 Haagen Dazs pints go 2+1 (I know you think you wouldn’t, but you move to a foreign country with a limited selection of ice cream and then talk to me about what you’d pay for it.) Desperate times…

As for asking for help, you better be up for a short game of charades and a scavenger hunt if you don’t speak Korean. When we had to start Asher on formula I needed to try and find some that was soy-based. On the first visit, I looked on my own but couldn’t find it and was too tired to try and traverse the language barrier. After a few days of screaming baby, I was chock full of new resolve to find something to ~~silence~~ soothe my child. I went back to Emart and decided to use the ever faithful, Google Translate. I typed up “soy” on my phone and translated it to Korean, found a lady to help me, and then said baby in my {not} flawless Korean while pointing at my phone. After a moment the lady nodded in recognition I thought, “Well look at that; it worked!”. Off we went down an aisle, but I realized she was leading my away from the baby formula section, so I said again in my obviously effective Korean, “BABY”. She seemed to understand, nodded again, and then took me back in the direction I had come in. I thought we had finally communicated clearly. Straight she took me to…wait for it…baby soy sauce. Yep, it’s a thing.

I had a little moment to myself of amusement and defeat, thanked the lady for her help, and took my sad little self back to the formula section to continue the search solo. Spoiler alert: Asher did not perish, it may have been touch and go there for a minute with Isaac and I; I eventually found soy formula on the next trip and life has been much quieter since.

Some days when we go to Emart, we try to knock out dinner in the food court. While they do have Burger King, the rest of the offerings may be less familiar. I believe they have a Korean, Chinese, and noodle restaurant.

Isaac’s is the top, which is a Korean dish call Bee-bim-bop, and mine is some Chinese something, descriptive, I know.

I would go on, but I have to save something for the next post, right? Just kidding…next on the docket is a little tale of a quiet weekend away ending in being stranded in the airport with two kids and 40,000 of our closest friends. Sending love from the future.

Spring Break: A Story in Pictures (and words)

April 13, 2016April 13, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

We had a great trip to the Philippines a couple weeks ago. We went with 7 high school students, 4 teachers, and our two kiddos; sadly, we were supposed to take two more students but one ended up with the flu and another one’s grandma passed away. They were missed!

Needless to say we were a little anxious to wake our two cherubs up at 3:30am, load them in a car to the school, a bus for an hour to the airport, a plane for four hours, and then another bus for eight and a half hours to our final destination. Hear this people, there is no surer sign that God is good than us making that voyage without mental breakdown. Hooray.

Waiting on our bus in Manila to Baguio. It was hot, especially compared to the Korean winter we had come from.

Our days were filled with breakfast at the seminary we were staying at, vacation bible school in the morning at a local school, lunch provided by the wonderful staff, then back to the seminary for Bible time and then some good old fashioned manual labor. The days were long but obviously worth it. In the evenings we would either order food in or clean up and head into town via a jeepney (the most common means of transportation in the Philippines) to grab dinner. We would come back and get our kiddos in “bed” just in time to debrief our day with the team.

Isaac and I feel very strongly that the main benefit of short term mission trips are to expose the people on the trip to cultures outside of their own, as well as a different way of life, and even just a reminder that we don’t serve an American (or Korean) God, as opposed to the idea that we are providing some sort of life changing aid or spiritual enlightenment. There were even many times this trip as we were teaching VBS that the Filipino kids would finish our sentences during the Bible story. The real value we saw was the impact the trip had on our students. They are very privileged and they were able to witness people satisfied without material things. It was also a great time while they were out of their normal routine and comfort zone to talk more about the role that God plays in their personal life. And not to go unmentioned, the obvious impact of short term missions in our family was to broaden our horizons and to give us a heart to share Jesus with rest of the world.

Being my first mission trip as a mama, the best part for me was watching my kids interact with our students, the fellow leaders, and the local Philippine people. Needless to say, they were the stars of the show. I was told as we said goodbye on the last day, “We will miss…Judah and Asher”. All week the awesome ladies from the school watched our kiddos while Isaac and I taught bible stories. At one point one our VBS students came to me and said, “Mrs. Craft, can I hold your baby?”, I told her that I didn’t even know where he was, to which she replied, “oh, he’s with the security guard.” Well, at least he’s safe, right?

On Monday of our trip, our sweet Judah turned the big T-W-O. We celebrated in style with lots of balloons, love, and cake. Lots of cake. Our awesome co-leaders and the ladies at the school had coordinated to get Judah an awesome double layer birthday cake to celebrate.

This post would not be complete without a proper shoutout to our fellow trip leaders. These rockstar ladies kept all the balls in the air while we changed diapers, feed kids, and coordinated naps/betimes. Not to mention they did more than their fair share of Craft child herding/holding. We humbly refer to ourselves as the Dream Team, but really, we are awesome. (It is critical to know that the sign they are pointing at says DANGER: HOT WORK IN PROGRESS KEEP OUT) It is photos like this that need posting to the internet that validate all my hard blogging work.

Our team was plagued with something resembling the flu and threats of getting acquainted with Philippine hospitals kept things interesting. Four out of our seven students ended up sick but luckily the leaders dodged the bullet. During our last day we stopped off at a local market for a few souvenirs. Naturally the guys on the team had no interest in getting out so they got put on kid duty. Much to their chagrin, moments after we left them alone Judah started throwing up. Bless their high school boy hearts. One of the students managed to find us to deliver the message, “Judah just threw up massively”. Massively; great word choice. The next words out of his mouth were, “I tried to entertain him (the child that had just thrown up) but it didn’t work.” How bizarre, usually you can joke a toddler right out of the stomach flu…bless. Bless. BLESS. We got him home and cleaned up (with our precious driver buying Judah two brand new “I-love-the-Phillipines”-esque t-shirts so he had clothes to change into. He got sick one more time as we somberly packed up for our 3am departure for our voyage back to Seoul.

We braced for the long travel day ahead, packing extra outfits for Judah, a t-shirt for me, and plenty of barf bags. The vans pulled up at 2:45am and we loaded up, Judah burning with a 102 degree fever. Praise God that his fever broke somewhere between Isaac and I almost throwing up ourselves from our driver’s enthusiastic maneuvering through the mountains and our arrival in Manila. We ended up at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we set up shop for the next 5 hours.

Finally, we boarded our plane and thought we were home free. In case you didn’t know that God has a sense of humor, as the wheels left the ground I was graced with the sound of not Judah, but sweet baby Asher (the child with only one set of extra clothes) throwing up on Isaac (the parent with no extra clothes). We survived with only one more round of vomiting; I can’t say as much for the handy airplane blankets.

We landed in Korea a little worse for wear but so happy to be home. Let’s just say that when we approached the customs line that ended up taking our friends two hours to clear, I took it upon myself to take my foul smelling and acting children directly to the line reserved for more important people than us and dared someone to stop me. They didn’t. We got through, grabbed our bags and a taxi home, stepping foot into our apartment 20 hours after leaving that morning.

And I know I’m crazy because I would do it all again.

When in Seoul…

March 14, 2016March 15, 2016 / Ali Craft / 3 Comments

You don’t even want to know when I first started writing this post. The struggle is so real. We are busy getting ready for our Spring Break trip to the Philippines. After school swim lessons are over for quarter three and middle school volleyball (I was helping coach) just ended, so we have just enough time to try and scrape together some warm weather attire and throw some bargaining chips in a backpack and head south for a week. We are going with two other teachers and taking nine high school students as well as our two kiddos.

We leave on Saturday at 4am and will be in transit for about 15 hours (1.5 hours to the airport, 4.5 hour flight to Manila, 8.5 hour bus ride to Baguio, Philippines), so if you think of us next week, first have a nice long laugh at our expense and then send up a prayer for us. I’m sure this won’t be us at all…

Anyways, here are a few more things about this place we call home.

Hailing a taxi

So luckily we learned this shortly after arriving, but hailing a taxi in Korea is apparently a bit different. You are supposed to hold your arm horizontal to the ground (palm down) and then pull your fingers back towards you.

We have been told that if you do it palm up, it is offensive, because that is the way you call a dog.

Good to know…

iPhones

I’m sure to most of us, a world without total iPhone domination sounds like it may be a sign of the apocalypse, but we live right in the heart of Samsung country. It was totally bizarre to walk into a cellphone store and not see any iPhones or Apple accessories.

Not mention, the nearest Apple store in Japan… (“No, customer service lady, I can’t take it in to my nearest Apple store.”)

Car colors

The Koreans share my affinity for neutrals.

Concrete walls

I am no engineer so don’t ask me why, but the walls in many buildings here are concrete. As you can imagine that makes hanging anything on the wall a real challenge.

Hellloooo command strips!

Non-automatic automatic doors

There may have been a couple instances when we first got here where we stood, waiting awkwardly, for automatic doors to open only for them not to. Many places here have automatic doors, but you have to push button, unlike the motion detector sensors in America.

Power Lines

In addition to not being a engineer, I am certainly no electrician, but…
I am just going to have to assume they don’t have the same safety codes as America.

At this rate it won’t be long before:

Eating

It seems as though everything here is meant to be shared. Almost everywhere you go you will see people order an entree or two, and then share everything that is ordered. They also eat many foods with knife and fork that you wouldn’t see happen in the states such as tacos, chicken wings, french fries, etc.. Isaac thinks that eating a burger with a knife and fork is a North Korean ploy.

Couple Style

This one still cracks me up. Couples will not just coordinate their outfits, but they will full on match, head to toe. I keep trying to get Isaac to do it but he just won’t go for it. And don’t you say I don’t have awesome photography skills.

This cute couple was heading to Dallas on their honeymoon. I suspect it is only this early in marriage that I may could have gotten Isaac to wear a boat neck shirt. Also, can you think or any better way to kick off a honeymoon than a 14 hours flight sitting next to us? I think not…

That’s it for now folks, time for you to get back to actual work. Have a great week!

P.S. In case you had missed this little gift from the internet; you can thank me later.

	Ray Daniel on Lately: Breaking the Radio Sil…
	Bobbie on Lately: Breaking the Radio Sil…
	Erin Chausse on Our {Un} Reliably Miraculous…
	Aunt Becca on Our {Un} Reliably Miraculous…
	Our {Un} Reliably Mi… on We’ve got wheels!

Our Southern Seoul

Making His name Famous in South Korea

Babies