Photoshop cut-and-paste

I'm so proud of my Photoshop ability. I have been trying to master the art of cutting and pasting a person into a picture and making it look seamless and I finally think I figured it out.

Below is the composite picture - the best of the two pictures. This was taken out in front of the entrance to the Zoo and was so hard to get everyone looking at the same time.

Here are the two I cut and pasted from. I took me from the last picture and inserted it into this one, so we'd all be looking at the camera.

All in all, I think the composite turned out really good! It looks like an actual scene and not choppy or pieced together. Yay me! Sorry for the self-pat-on-the-back, but I'm just so stoked I got it to look good!

I followed this online tutorial - Swapping Heads by Morgan Kervin. I love her website, she's got lots of great free tutorials and actions and tips for photographers!

Thailand Restaurant review

I am all about trying new foods and restaurants, so we decided to try out the Thailand restaurant next to the Enterprise hotel on Saturday. Matt and Gabe were a little hesitant, but the USO at Humphreys had posted a copy of their menu online, so I knew there would be food they would like. It is a really nice restaurant! There was no one else in there the whole time we were there, so we felt a little awkward with the boys being loud at times, but the staff didn't seem to mind. Whenever we try a new restaurant, we tend to over order. Sometimes because it all sounds so good, and sometimes because we don't know what will be good or not. In this case, everything was very delicious!

We ordered two appetizers:

Shrimp Cakes - We got four "cakes" that were similar to crab cakes but with shrimp instead. They were FANTASTIC. Everyone enjoyed them. Price wise, they were a little expensive - 7,500W ($6.80) for four, but tasty none the less. The decoration on the side of the plate is a carved carrot - Gabe was really impressed.

Our second appetizer was the Chicken Satay. It was barbecued chicken on skewers with a spicy peanut sauce. Matt and I liked it, the chicken had a cinnamon rub on it to make it more sweet. We got four skewers for 5,000W ($4.50) which was more in our expected price range, but we all enjoyed the shrimp cakes more.

I ordered the Chicken Pad Thai. I had never had real Pad Thai before (just out of a mix or box) and I was really surprised. It wasn't as sweet as the boxes or mixes that I'd had before, but I've heard from other people that this restaurant is super authentic. I still really enjoyed it! I really liked that they asked us how spicy we wanted our dishes on a scale of 1-5. I know that Thai food can be really spicy, so I'm glad that I could pick the level of spiciness.

Matt got the Sweet and Sour chicken and it came with a side of heart-shaped rice. He REALLY enjoyed it, especially the chunks of pineapple mixed in with the veggies. Portions were pretty sizable. Matt and I couldn't finish our meals (and we eat a lot).

Gabe got the Chicken fried rice and really liked it. It was a BIG portion!

All three of the entrées were 12,000W ($11) a piece and we ended up spending 55,000W ($50) for the whole meal (including three sodas 2,000W each). It was a little more than we were intending to spend on a meal, but we definitely ate well and had leftovers. It was definitely worth it and we'll probably go again at least once before we leave. There are plenty more items on the menu I'd like to try! I've heard that on Fridays at lunch, they serve a buffet with several items from the menu for $12 a person. That would be the best time to try this restaurant out!

Artwork and updates

Gabe was very excited to share his recent artwork with everyone. This started as a color-by-number and progressed to a war scene complete with alien invasion. At least the sun is happy!

The next two are one piece of paper written on both sides (I'm so thankful that he draws on both sides!!) The first one is a robot, complete with eyes, teeth, two hands and fingers. The second one is a house with a guy in the window and he's watching the leaves (random colors) falling from the sky. I am loving his creativity and how each picture is getting more detailed.

Gabe has also started learning addition! He is a natural at Math (of course!) and is always very excited to learn something new. Matt and I have taught him the "hand" method where he's counting on his fingers. He much prefers a calculator, but I refuse to let him use it. This was the first worksheet he completed without any help from either parent and has since progressed and completed a 1st Grade workbook we bought at the PX. Zero's trip him up a little, he can't understand that you don't add anything for that number. We haven't started subtraction yet, but are planning on starting soon. I'm so thankful for a kid that wakes up in the morning and asks to do worksheet pages!!

Zander had his first experience with crayons last week and did surprisingly well! There was no marks on the floor and little-to-no eating of the wax. He was very excited to sit next to brother and color, even if he couldn't hoard the crayons or color on Gabe's paper. This is just the beginning of many pictures!

The last couple weeks haven't been nearly as busy as the beginning of the month, thankfully, but we are still moving! Gabe's T-Ball is in full swing now with practice twice a week and a game every weekend. Matt's job has been incredibly busy and is on his last class of this fiscal year. Zander isn't walking freely yet, but is moving and growing like crazy. I can't wait for him to start walking so we can be done carrying him! Recently he's developed this "helper" attitude where he picks up everything off tables and floors and puts them in laundry baskets, my purse, under the couch and then claps. He really tries to help clean up toys and other things, but it's resulted in many frantic searches for remotes, shoes and credit cards/IDs. Anything on the floor or tabletop has become fair game. Friday was the 16 week mark for baby #3 and I had my OB appointment today. Baby's heartbeat was 150 and strong. I've felt a couple kicks, but nothing continuous yet. Apparently now we can go to Osan's Radiology department for ultrasounds so tomorrow I'll call to schedule that appointment. We are still of the opinion to be surprised by the gender, I'll let you know if we change our minds. A boy or a girl would both be a great addition to our family! I only have two more appointments in Korea before we move back to the States, nerve-wracking!! The OB I had today is the same I had throughout my pregnancy with Zander, I really like him. I was surprised that he remembered me and the boys, there are so many pregnant women here! In other news, I recently completed three more books: ScreamFree Parenting by: Hal Edward Runkel, Room by: Emma Donoghue and Black Magic Sanction by: Kim Harrison. I have plenty more I'm hoping to complete before we leave here, but we'll see how it goes.

I must sign off for now and feed the crazies some lunch! 51 more days!

Yellow sand and bills

Okay, so I know that I've been mentioning "yellow sand" a lot in my Facebook updates and I figured I should take a couple minutes to explain, or at least point out, what "yellow sand/dust" is and why we are so concerned with monitoring it. Here's the link from Wikipedia regarding Asian Dust. If you don't want to take the time to read up on it, I'll summarize. Basically it's a seasonal occurrence in Asia where dust from the Mongolian desert is picked up by wind storms and collects toxic pollutants, fungi, viruses, sulfur and pesticides from China and carries it to the Korean peninsula and Japan. It's absolutely disgusting and if "yellow sand" levels reach over 300 "whatever per whatever" (I don't know the unit that they use to measure it), we have to stay inside and close all the windows. "Yellow sand" can cause respiratory illness and asthma in otherwise healthy people. Here's a picture Wikipedia has for what a "yellow sand dust storm" looks like from space. This past weekend, the levels were forecast to reach up to 1,000 "whatever per whatever", but thankfully when the storm passed us it was the middle of the night, so we weren't exposed to it.

Matt makes fun of me, but I monitor three websites daily (sometimes hourly on windy days) before opening the windows or letting Gabe play outside. Feel free to check them too! The first two are Korean links, and I've found to be the most accurate. The last is the link from USFK, we are Area III.

http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/asiandust/timeseries.jsp?area=0&stnId=232&view=1

http://www.airkorea.or.kr/airkorea/eng/search/main.jsp?action=hourly&districtName=&stationName=&district=031&station=131342&period=1

http://www.usfk.mil/usfk/weather-yellowsand

On the days when it's gotten up in the 200-300 levels, I've definitely felt the difference, headaches and cold-like symptoms. It's nasty stuff and even more reason I'll be happy to get out of here.

In other news, I wanted to include scans of our Korean utility bills. I've been meaning to do this for awhile just to let everyone back in the States see what it's like, very confusing. You get better at deciphering it the longer you're here.

The first bill is a two-parter because it unfolds into four pieces. This is our energy bill, it's similar to an American energy bill in that it gives us the running chart of past months, so we can see if this month was more or less than last month. The rest of it is a complete mystery. At the end you can see we owe 71,780W for this month (roughly $66) by 5/25/11.

This is our other utility bill, which we honestly aren't sure what it's for. Our water, internet and cable are paid for by our landlord and our heat is from oil. We think it might be gas, for our stove and dryer. Here we owe 17,180W by 05/20/11 (roughly $16).

Wrapping up Zander

It didn't really hit me how much Zander has changed in the last year until I started scrolling through the pictures. It's astounding how fast everything has changed. Here's a small collection of the millions of pictures I have taken of him since he was born. Enjoy the pictures. Enjoy the music. This song is known in our house as "Zander's song". He has always been a cuddler, even in the hospital, he would not sleep in the crib but had to sleep with me. As we were trying to wean him from sleeping in our bed, in the first few months, Matt and I would take turns dancing and rocking him around while singing slow songs in the dark. This would go on for hours and hours until finally he would be in a deep enough sleep that his crib wouldn't disturb him. "The Scientist" by Coldplay was one of many on the baby playlist we created, but for some reason this was the one that ended up on repeat the most. I've always loved this song, and though Matt isn't a big Coldplay fan, he grew to know the lyrics by heart. I still don't know what it is about this song that soothes Zander, the beat, the instruments, the lyrics, but it still has a hold on him.

I've been listening to it as I've been typing this and there's a part in the lyrics where he sings, "Nobody said it was easy. It's such a shame for us to part. Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so hard. I'm going back to the start." That part has always hit me, even before Zander was born. This life is too hard right now, let's just remember when times were carefree and simple. How many times in my life has that happened, too many to count. Listening to it now, it has taken on whole new meanings. "Going back to the start" is looking back at how big my cheeky boy has gotten and how much he's changed. It is literally "going back to the start" with this third pregnancy, a constant reminder that soon our family will be joined by a new baby. It's a lot of emotion in one song.

Anyway, before I become a blubbering mess, I will sign off and let you enjoy the trip down memory lane accompanied by a great song.

	Coldplay - The Scientist
	Found at The Scientist on KOhit.net