Happy 6 in 2012 [March 26, 2012]

Six years ago today Joseph and I said "I do."

We have had a great time being together and we have been through a lot that might have made some couples say good bye.  Not us though.  We are made of stronger stuff.


Since it's our anniversary this is probably the only time each year it's okay for us (really me) to talk about our wedding and not sound silly.

Our wedding was a great day.  Nothing went wrong. The cake didn't fall over, no one lost an eye or a shoe while dancing and no one fell over during our vows. 
The weather was perfect: not too hot or too cold.  It was sunny and a beautiful setting in a garden.  Can't really ask for more than that.  We wrote our own vows and we wrote what we wanted the man marrying us to say.  Since it's our wedding, I don't classify that as being OCD.  We wanted it to be perfect. 


A few people in Korea wanted to see our wedding photos and I didn't think we brought them but one of us was smart before we left Florida and downloaded the CD to our hard drive.  Looking through them just brought back so many happy memories.  We wanted a pretty setting, good pictures and food and a great party with the people we love.  Simple and no fuss.  We had just that, I think.

We usually try and celebrate our anniversary with a trip since it usually takes place around or on Spring Break.  Being in Korea affords us no holiday of any kind and being that we are already on a trip, we didn't do much.  Joseph bought me some flowers, took me to breakfast at our favorite coffee and sandwich shop and we had a dinner picnic of chicken and veggies on our bed since it was too cold to have it on our roof.  We watched a movie and talked and then went to sleep.

Below are some pictures that we especially liked and enjoyed from our wedding.  Not sure why they are posted backwards but I didn't feel like messing with it to reverse it.  Just roll with it. 

Just us cousins

Cousins and grandma

My aunties

Love you Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mary.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

This photo has history. 

Joseph, Amy and Allison decorated the ballroom!

Love our family! 

you made me buy a suit for this? 

love you grandma! 

dad actually wearing a suit...hehehe
he was actually speechless later!

lovely ladies

my best girl

his best men  :-p

he handsome husband

he said he was going to do it...

mom and dad both walked me down the aisle

We made our own flower bouquets the night before

 

Engagement photo

Grown Up Ladies [4-1-12]

Afternoon Tea
My copper kettle
whistles merrily
and signals that
it is time for tea.
The fine china cups
are filled with the brew.
There's lemon and sugar
and sweet cream, too.
But, best of all
there's friendship, between you and me.
As we lovingly share
our afternoon tea.
~Marianna Arolin 

Winter, Grown Up Ladies and Tea.  That sounds about right for a tea party.  I have always loved tea parties in part because of my grandmother.  Ever since Kate and I were little and we would stay with our grandparents we would play Dress Up Ladies (wearing our grandma's nighties and high heals, of course!) and have a tea party.  Grandma would get out her tea pot and make a pot of tea as only she can.  We would have any treats and sandwiches she had on hand and talk about grown up things:  How our husbands were doing at their jobs (as doctors and travelers) and how our kids were doing (at private schools) and how our house was coming along and we would use our most impressive grown up voice and accents.  How unabashedly fun. Mom or grandma, do you have any pictures you could scan and email us for that?  I'd love to put at least one of them on here.  :-)  xoxo
Fast forward to the present and I still love tea parties and an excuse to entertain so why not put the two together for a fun day? 
It has been winter in Korea for about 4 months now and it snowed on April 2nd.  The tea party was on April 1st.  That gives you an idea about how our winter has been.  It's been great, but we are all ready for it to be over now. 
About a month ago I had the idea to celebrate the beginning of spring and the end of winter so the idea of the tea party was born.  Since we are in Korea some ideas had to be nixed: a tea tray and the tiered sandwich tray just won't work here.  However, everything else would provided I didn't want to get too fancy.  Upon further research--you know me and research--there are several types of tea: high tea and afternoon tea with several types of tea under each heading.  For more information go here.
Our menu consisted of roasted chicken pasta, deviled eggs, tuna crackers, cucumber sandwiches, brownies, cheese cake, Welsh Cakes, sliced carrots and tomatoes, Feta cheese cubes and of course, tea.  Each guest was asked to only bring themselves and any tea they wish to share.  Out of the 16 or so who were invited we had 11 ladies at our tea all dressed up and ready to have our tea party!   It was such a good time and we had a lot of laughs and grown-up-appropriate-tea conversation.
This is something I would like to continue as a yearly tradition as a celebration of not only Spring, but life and love as well.  Being together with the girls for an afternoon of tea and conversation is just fun.  I am looking forward to it each year with my family and friends. 
Enjoy the pictures!
**Ladies from the party will be sending me more pictures that they have taken and I will post them here as soon as I get them so if you would like to see more pics check back.  These are just from my camera and I didn't want to delay posting anymore waiting for the others. Since I was hosting I didn't take as many as they did.

May not look like a lot of food but there was additional in the fridge

So pretty

Yummies!

Food table

Tea Table

Bathroom decor: Korea Style

Lee Ann and I

The Two Martha's!  
Debbie made the Welsh Cakes

Good times and good eats!

Lovely ladies

Learning from Emily about her Georgia trip (the country)

Lee Ann, Lily and Becki

Nadia, Lee Ann, Emily, Lily and Giselle

Becki, Nadia, Lee Ann, Emily and Lily

Giselle, Kate and Lisa

The only boy at the party.  Can you tell? 

Grand Slam! Seoul Weekend 3-17/18-12

Rugby Grand Slam.  Great weekend with a few concerns and that about sums up our weekend. 

Oh...you wanted details?  You can have the appropriate ones.  The rest, you will have to ask for in person.  :-)

Welsh Flag

Saturday morning:  9am.  Coffee at Penthouse de la Reed.  After coffee we head to the train station and take the slow train to Seoul.  We wander in the general direction of our guest house, Yeha, to drop off our stuff.  If you are visiting Seoul, we recommend Yeha Guest House.  Click here for more information.

We head to get lunch because by this time we are starving.  We ate at Scrooges because it is a rugby pub and we will be hanging out here for the next 8 hours or so for the various rugby games.  After lunch we wander around and freshen up before the game. 

Back at Scrooges we eat dinner and play various games before the rugby games begin.  The Welsh game was great!  Wales won and Debbie and Becki were very excited and glad Wales won the Grand Slam!  We were glad as well but seeing as we aren't Welsh...

Sunday was a day of a as-real-as-it-gets-in-Korea UK breakfast: eggs, hash browns, real bacon (it's rare here), toast, jam, butter, sausages, and beans.  It was delicious.  Next was shopping and then lunch at Quiznos!  Yumminess. Found our latest family member the cutest Hanbok and a few other things and then headed home on the express bus.  All of us fell asleep about 20 minutes in and didn't wake up until we were pulling into the Daejeon terminal.

We had a great weekend and can't wait until our next weekend there.  

"We Won the Grand Slam!"

------------

Itaewon is the foreign neighborhood and it is also where the American Army Base is.  Point of interest:  some of the American Army personnel are not as nice as they seem to be when the sun goes down.  To be honest, I would be ashamed to say I was American in this neighborhood during those hours.  We personally saw a few soldiers (not in uniform) asked to leave an establishment with their transvestite escorts in tow due to their inappropriate comments and behaviors.  Outside during the later hours of the evening are not our favorite part of Itaewon although to each their own.  Our idea of a good time is food, shopping and laughter.  Not acting like a fool.
Anyway...

Regardless, we had a lovely weekend and we enjoyed rugby.  I hope when we go home to stay we can continue watching rugby and keep up with it.

There were a lot of pictures however these will be the only ones on our blog.  When we next see you we will be more than happy to share all of our pictures if you care to see them.  So sad there were this few to post.

National Anthem

Is it bedtime yet?  :)

Music trio outside our hostel: quite good actually

This man was half an inch shorter than me! 
In the Seoul subway station and we couldn't stop laughing.
He was slowly edging away from me as we think he caught on.