Our New House!

 Alright - here we go on our long-awaited Korean apartment tour!

We live on the 7th floor of one of two officer's towers on base. Between the two towers is a 3 story parking garage. Residents of one tower have one parking spot each on the bottom floor. The other has the second floor. Guests and overflow parking are on the roof. Many people jam their bikes and scooters inbetween cars.

Our '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee in our one parking spot in the garage

After entering the building, riding the super slow elevators up to the 7th floor, and taking the hallway down the wing to your right, you will find a nondescript door leading into our new apartment! As soon as you step through the front door, you're greeted by our Filipinio bench where you can sit and take off your shoes, as well as our seasonal tribute to Japan on the hallway wall. To the left is a good sized coat closet.

If you take a right, you will find yourself in the main living area (living room, dining room and kitchen). Below is a photo of what the living room looked like without furniture. You can see that we have some large glass doors that lead out onto a small patio.

Nice patio that will be big enough for a grill and one or two chairs

Our flightline view. Looking forward to sitting outside with our son and watching the airplanes take off!

We decided to divide the living room in half. The side closest to the front door will serve as my home office. This area is still a work-in-progress. We ordered a couple of tall, wooden bookcases that will help fill up that red wall!

(This photo was taken from in front of the glass patio doors)

On the other side of the living room we set up our sitting area. We bought a new Korean step tonsu that we pulled apart and assembled into a low entertainment center and display shelf. We'll have to adjust this set-up when our little dude starts crawling and getting into things. But until then, I love our display wall. Especially with our new gallery collage of travel photos above the TV!

Our living space is nice and open and great for entertaining. As you can see, there is a big open cut-out with a built-in shelf or buffet counter.

We extended the spicy red color into the dining room and kitchen to make the space feel cohesive.  I really like our spacious kitchen. As you can see, we have a ton of cabinet space, but only two drawers (not quite right.) I love the fact that we have a dishwasher again! But unfortunately, no garbage disposal. Instead we have little metal baskets that sit in the sink drain and collect all the bits of food. Then you have to manually pull them out and dump them in the trash. GROSS!

If you head back down the hallway to the other side of the apartment, you will find the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry room.

The first door on the right is a nice sized bedroom that will soon be transformed into a cozy guest room. Right now, it's serving as a junk storage room. haha

The second door on the right leads into a much smaller bedroom that is the perfect size for a nursery! As you can see below, things are starting to come together. We still need to hang the navy blue curtains and hang the decorations on the wall. The over-all theme we're going for is vintage travel. We have some framed maps that will go over the dresser, and hopefully we'll get a wall decal with his name and airplanes and put that over the crib. We also need some sort of shelving for books and toys. I'll post pictures once it's all complete!

The first door on the left down the hallway is our HUGE laundry and storage room!

(Across from the washer/dryer)

Eventually the storage nook behind the washer/dryer (pictured above) will be transformed into James' man cave/study room. At the end of the main hallway you find a linen closet, the guest bath, and a door into the master bedroom. The bathrooms are pretty basic, but it's nice that they have separate vanities and toilet/shower areas.

The master bedroom is huge! Our queen bedroom set actually feels small in there. The closet is not a walk-in, but has a lot more space than our closets in Misawa had. I appreciate all of the extra storage space in this house! We also have an external cubicle in the floor's "storage cage" where we keep stuff like Christmas decorations and yard tools that we don't need very often.

And that's about it! I hope you enjoyed your tour! As you can see, we have LOTS of space to spare so please feel free to come and visit! =^D

34 Week Baby Wentzel Update

Time is flying! As of today, I am now 34 weeks into this pregnancy. I had my first appointment at the army hospital in Seoul where I will be delivering the baby last week. They say everything is continuing to look great! The baby's still very active and has a healthy heartbeat of 140. Amazingly, my back is still holding up pretty well in spite of the extra weight. However, I've started to experience some sharp, tugging pain next to my belly button every time I lie down due to the baby pressing up against the left-over scar tissue in my abdomen from having my gall bladder removed three years ago. =^/ I've also struggled with swollen feet and shortness of breath from walking around in the heat. These complaints are all manageable, but I am looking forward to having my body back soon.

In the coming weeks, I've signed up for some classes that should help us prepare for Baby Wentzel's arrival. One of those classes involves a detailed tour of the Labor and Delivery unit at the hospital so I'll know what to expect. My next check-up is on July 3rd. After that appointment, I'll meet with the anesthesiologists to make sure we're all on the same page and come up with a pain management plan that will accommodate my back. Then starting July 18th, I'll move up to the Dragon Hill Lodge on the army base to begin "stork nesting" and bide my time till our little man makes his debut!

While the hospitals here offer general classes on labor and delivery, they do not offer practical classes on delivery methods (i.e. lamaze classes, etc.) I admit that this lack in our birthing education was making me a little nervous. I don't like feeling unprepared! Thankfully, these days you can learn pretty much anything you want to from books and the internet. After doing a lot of research and interviewing friends, we've settled on a method we think will work for us. It's called the Bradley Method, and it focuses on husband-coached natural childbirth. We really like his traditional, Christian approach which teaches that natural childbirth is not only possible, but the way God created us. James also loves feeling like his input matters. We've been going through the workbook together, practicing exercises and stretches that will prepare me for the event, as well as different positions that will hopefully help squeeze him out when the time comes. The key seems to be relaxing and allowing your body to do what it needs to. We'll see how things work out when the time comes... But till then, we are doing anything we can to successfully and naturally welcome our little guy into the world.

It's crazy to think that in four short weeks I will be considered full term! =^O The reality that we're having a baby is slowly but surely starting to sink in. I had a moment the day they delivered the baby furniture. It went something like: "Aww, we have a nursery! ... OH MY GOSH we have a nursery! =^O" haha.

Speaking of the nursery, we still have a long way to go before we have everything we'll need to care for little Wentzel. I've done a poor job of passing our registry information on to family and family friends. Our most comprehensive registry can be found on Amazon. But, honestly, we covet your love and prayers for a safe and healthy delivery more than anything!

One final exciting things to share - my maternity photos! James helped me take these at a nearby location. Can't wait to stop posting pictures of my engorged belly and instead share snapshots of our little guy!

Pink Flag 2013

Our second weekend here, all of the Fiendettes (pilot spouses in the squadron) traveled up to Seoul for a weekend away called "Pink Flag". I chose not to go up for the first night when they were eating and bar hopping in the international district. But Claire and I went up on Saturday afternoon so we could be there for the big event - a pink pajama party and lip singing contest! This event was wild and crazy, but it provided a great opportunity for me to start connecting with the other ladies in the squadron.

Some new friends sporting their pink sleep wear

Me and my fellow newbies

The social leaders of the Fiendettes started the night off with an awesome dance to various popular songs

Laughing!!

They really wanted all the new(ish) girls to represent and put on a good show. So we did a choreographed dance inspired by the movie Top Gun. Our costumes and plan were a total surprise. You should have heard the reaction when we all walked in in our husband's flight suits to "Danger Zone" (the theme from the movie). It was a riot!

Half way through, the music faded out and half the girls stripped off their flight suits to reveal their wive's party suits. Then they danced around to Adele's "Rumor Has It" and told us "dudes" why they're more important than airplanes. Very funny.

Big finish!

I think we should have won the competition... but since we are the FNG's (new girls), they wouldn't give us the award. Ah well... We still rocked it.

The rest of the night was taken up with games and food and hilarity. It was especially fun being there when Claire announced to the whole room that she and Jon are expecting a baby!!! Not only are there 2 Wentzel brothers in Korea, now we have 2 growing Wentzel cousins! So fun.

The current Fiendette pregos (minus Jordan, who will arrive in a couple weeks)

I'm thankful for a fun group of ladies to hang out with over the next two years! Harrumph!

Annyeonghaseyo, Korea!

In case you were wondering, "Annyeonghaseyo" (pronounced ahn-yong-say-oh) is how to say hello in Korean!

After 12+ hours in the air and a 2 hour lay-over in Misawa (bittersweet!), we had finally arrived at our new home in South Korea! James' older brother Jon and his wife Claire will still be stationed here for a few more months, so they picked us up from the airport and did a lot to help us get settled. That first week we bought phones, a car, and - after a lot of house and apartment shopping off base - decided to live in one of the large 3 bedroom apartments in a tower on base. It just seemed like the most convenient option with a baby on the way. (I promise, I'll post pictures and take you on a virtual tour of our place here soon!!)

The rest of the week was spent in-processing, shopping out the gate, and eating! I realize now that the only photos I took during our first couple weeks in Korea involve us eating at restaurants. haha. The international restaurants were one of the things that helped us get excited about this assignment, so I suppose it's not surprising that we ate thai food three times that first week. SO delicious!

First meal at our favorite restaurant here called "Thai 2". Thai 2 Tuesdays are now a thing...

James and Caleb checking out the competition at Sa-Wat-Dee, the thai food joint across the street.

Since we're in Korea, we figured we should actually partake of a little Korean cuisine too. Jon and Claire took us, along with two other new Fiend couples, out to one of their favorite Korean grills. We tend to call this type of food "beef on a leaf" because it usually involves cut up pieces of steak that you grill at your table and wrap in lettuce leaves to eat. They also completely cover the table with small side dishes for you to sample. They are rarely to my liking as many are cold, pickled or vinegary... But I enjoyed the experience!

Jon & Claire with our new friends, Cortney and Jason Piper!

Us with Carrie and Dave Ludington, who we knew in the B Course in Phoenix. Fun reunions!

One of the many slabs of beef we consumed that night

Korean side dishes

Our waitress cutting up the meat and refilling our endless supply of sides

Claire demonstrating what we mean by "beef on a leaf"

Over all, we are enjoying our time here in Korea. Everyone in the squadron has been very kind and welcoming. The day we moved in, people were eager to lend us whatever we needed and filled our fridge with delicious baked goods. We've also started attending the chapel and finding strong Christian fellowship through various Bible studies. I'm already plugged into the Protestant Women of the Chapel group here, and James and Caleb are working with other guys in the squadron to get a men's study started on Friday mornings. We also arrived at an opportune time to get a couple's study similar to the one we had in Misawa started. Over all, I think we will have no problem finding the support we'll need to get us through the next two years!

More to come!