The Dog Days!

Wow, and sorry, it's been a month since the last post. And July was suppose to be our down month. From our last post, we were in Omaha for a family reunion, Pretzel making camp, Art Camp, private swim lessons, Charlie's therapy, family in from Dallas and Camp Pride - Korea Culture camp. I'm not even sure where to begin!

I wish I had a few pictures to share from our Omaha trip. but alas, it was a case of trying to manage the trip vs. trying to record the trip. We were celebrating Mom & Dad's 50Th wedding anniversary (but not really celebrating ... via Mom's instructions). It was the first time in at least 20 years that we were all together in one spot ... yes ... all 7 kids + 7 spouses and the entire grand kid crew totalling 15 ... so all told, 31 one of us including Mom & Dad. Just to make it a bit more complicated ... we decided to throw a "Bartholet" Family reunion on Sunday so throw Dad's 4 brothers and sisters plus their kids, and grand kids into the mix ... well it's a party and as we proved ... enough to fill a pool with 5 lifeguards on staff. Anne captured really good shots of the event so I hope to have more to share. And thanks to my sister in law Gina, we had a professional photographer get a few family shots of the entire crew ... the original 31!

Last weekend, Eugene, Dodie and Rachel (Chris's brother and family) came to visit us for a long weekend. It was a weekend of shopping, eating and catching up. The boys loved it. Any excuse to camp out in one room ... translating into late nights and really early mornings. Fortunately we wised up by night #2 and Charlie was regaled to our bedroom closed for his camp out.

It was great to see them and we hope to get more visitors from Texas.

Last week Jet, Charlie and I attended Camp Pride (Korea Culture Camp). It was at a Korean Presbyterian Church about 20 minutes away. I must say, it blew away all my expectations going into the week and will be a highlight for upcoming summers. All three of us made great friends. Charlie was in the pre-K class and Jet in the Kindergarten class. Me ... well I was a lunchroom lady. Hey! Don't snicker ... this is a cushy job in Camp Pride kingdom. Our job ... setting up the tables, cutting fruit and serving the lemonade. It beats kitchen duty hands down (no offense kitchen crew). I had time to cruise the camp, shop the market, knit and

tune in my new i-phone! Not bad heh! The boys on the other hand were kept busy for the 6 hours that they were there ... the entire week. Tae kwon do, Korean language, art, games, music ... they were action packed days.

The week ended with a program put on by the campers. Yes ... in typical Korean adoptee program fashion ... it lasted about an hour(s) longer than it should have in a hot hot gymnasium! But it's a small price to pay for the highlights of our week: Korean lunches all week long ... topped off by a really great lunch prepared by the Korean ladies of the church, the best Korean market I've ever seen (vintage stuff), great friends (who we'll see every year), head - shoulders - knees & toes sung in Korean by the PreK and K class and cool Korean art projects.

I did score the coolest Nativity scene in the market. I've been on the prowl for a Korean nativity scene for 3 years. The woman running the market collects Korean antiques and has so many really cool items at really great prices. This nativity scene contains figures that were carved & painted directly after the Korean war by Korean civilians to raise money for the war orphans and to help the economy. The woman that runs the market put these figures into a nativity scene and painted the manager similar to a major landmark palace in Korea that we have visited. This was one of many really cool things that I picked up at this market: Jewelry, carved figures, antique needlepoint tea towels, mulberry paper, books, pencil cases, ect... . Watched out, I'm armed for Christmas!
On another note, after a year of driving 15 minutes to Master Kim's Tae Kwon Do studio, we've moved to a new studio run by Master Jeon and his family. If you think breaking up with your hairdresser is hard, try breaking up with your Tae Kwon Do Master. He took it well and understood that there was no way to juggle our fall schedule and the boys class schedule. Alas ... sorry to my friends that enjoyed seeing the good-looking Master Kims pics online (you know who you are!). We'll try to post some of our final farewell. We're going to visit him one last time to thank him and present him with a small token of our appreciation.

Well I'll try to be better in August. Sorry for the delay. Please stay tuned.