myretroperspective

I do realize the subtitle of this blog is "sincere thoughts about our life" and so far the depth of sincerity has not been great. I think we are finally getting some distance from all the transitions of the past year and being able to process their effects and how the Lord is using them. I ran across this article from the resurgence on twitter yesterday and it has stuck with me. The author contends that one becomes an excellent wife over time knowing Christ and living to serve rather than just showing up on her wedding day excellent. On the forefront of my heart these last 9+ months has been the question of if I'm a "good wife" and despite R's and others' encouragement, I constantly come up short. This author brought me renewed hope in the process of becoming who Christ has (re)made me to be.

Our last day in seoul! We were exhausted but ready to check out more of the second largest city in the world. We have been to some pretty big cities, but none even compared to the feeling that you have while in Seoul.  Our first stop for the day was Gyeongbokgung Palace which is located in the heart of the city.  Q uick history lesson: the palace was first built in 1934 by the Jeseon Dynasty but was burnt down and rebuilt a number of times throughout history. After being reconstructed in 1867, the palace is said to have had 330 buildings and 5,792 rooms. However, from 1911, the Japanese government destroyed all but 10 of the buildings, including the surrounding wall. In 1989 the Korean government decided to embark on a 40 year project to restore the buildings left. As of 2009, 40% of the original palace has been restored. W e had planned this trip to Seoul weeks before for the main purpose of going to see a Hillsong Concert. They are a band that we have been fans of for years ...

no better way to start the morning : ) contrary to what guide books say, seoul has some great architecture.  we stopped by itaewon to get mike some custom made suits for work. itaewon is known as the foreigner hub of the city. you can find the most foreigners and foreign goods in this neighborhood.  picking out the fabrics. a very tedious task if you can tell in the background just how many fabrics there are to choose from. the owner was amazing. he had been working there for over 40 years and was no where near retiring! he kept trying to sell jeremy and mike a nice linen suit jacket. "a must" for summer according to him.  seoul tower located in the middle of seoul. it is 777 feet high from top to bottom. amazing sunset view view of the city from one of the observation decks there were thousands of locks attached to a fence surrounding the observation deck. you could bring your own and be "locked" to your love forever. 

so i've been a little behind lately. a few weeks ago, jeremy, me, mike and alissa decided to go to seoul for the weekend. we had a three day holiday weekend which was perfect. there's so much to see there that even three days wasn't enough. we left really early saturday morning to catch the bus up to seoul which is about a four hour bus ride from where we're at. amazing that you can cross the entire country in under five hours. even though some locals still say that seoul is too far to visit. so here's part one: saturday we caught a rugby game on the outskirts of seoul. the stadium was meant for 10's of thousands of people to watch soccer. but with rugby not exactly the most popular sport in korea, we got in for free to join the other 100 people watch korea play singapore.  my favorite part was when they would lift the players up to catch the ball. i assume that there is some technical sports name for this, but i wouldn't ever know it.  in korea, it is not u...

In my world, travel is not always as glamorous as it seems. But there are those spare moments in which I do get-a-way and it’s life-changing. Generally, this happens when I can just go some place and relax on a beach. I suppose it’s a Pisces thing. Recently, I was in Jamaica for a variety of reasons… none of which turned out the way they were planned. But I soon learned that was the way it was intended… the universe had other ideas. I needed to spend some time reflecting on thoughts that were occupying my mind. So I headed to the exclusive Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay to connect with my mind, body and soul. In just 72 hours, I had time to think about a subject that brought fear, anxiety and excitement to my life. I had no internet and occasional signals on my blackberry that kept me connected to life outside of my cottage. For a minute, I thought that I was being punked! But somehow I stayed semi-connected with a friend who helped me sort out my feelings and devise a plan to move fo...

i  know you guys have been just dying with anticipation to see what sort of living conditions we have over here. well the wait is over my friends. we actually got a really nice place, seeing as how most couples we have talked to have to share a studio apartment. yes, we're newly weds and crazy in love, and that's why we're glad we get to keep it that way in a spacious two bedroom apartment.  our lovely living room with dumpster furniture. trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds. we know that each piece of furniture usually only has one previous owner. they are not big on thrifting or used things here because they think that part of the previous owner's spirit stays in the piece that they owned. in every apartment building there are areas where you can leave unwanted furniture and such. lucky for us, it's right next to where we park our bike everyday. i get my shopping fix in every single day. and that large rectangle looking thing in the corner? that's our ai...

john and his twin brother timmy (john is the one on the right) you may have heard some of my stories about funny things my students say or do that wouldn't be appropriate in the states but since i'm in another country, and there's a major language and cultural barrier, it comes of as funny. the one student that has more of these "funny" stories than anyone else is john. he is one of my six year olds and one day in class we were playing a game where i yell out a color or shape and they have to find it in the room. i yelled rectangle and they all rushed to the door, i yelled white and they all run to the whiteboard. you get the point. the next shape i yelled was circle, and while everyone ran in a different direction, john ran straight for me and grabbed my boob. well at least he got the shape right. when asked by one of the korean teachers why he did that, his response was "they are bigger than my moms". touche john. yesterday john threw a crayon across t...

The next time that you head to Las Vegas you may want to pamper your skin. I checked into the spa at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas for 80 minutes of pure bliss. I was invited to indulge in the amazing Lightening and Brightening Facial designed to rejuvenate the skin and give it a glow! My therapist began the treatment with a gentle peel, enriched with copper, followed by a facial massage and mask. Nearly two hours later, my skin felt hydrated and refreshed. This treatment, available only at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, utilizes a new, all-natural Hungarian product line called Omorovicza. The product incorporates nutrient-rich minerals found in Hungary’s legendary thermal waters. You can actually witness the healing powers when you look at your skin following the facial. I loved the results and can't wait to go back. Beautiful skin is HAUTE!   To learn more about spa treatments offered at the Four Seasons Las Vegas visit http://www.fourseasons.com/lasvegas/spa/facial_treatme...

Most of the moves I've made in the last 10 years have revolved around the academic school year and fell either in May, June or August. When R & I got married we moved into a temporary situation which was cheap and 1 mile from my office, but we knew we'd have to find something more permanent by the new year. Which made this last move different-no humidity or heat or beating out sweaty sophomores for rental trucks. We moved a week before Christmas to the house we have grown to love more and more. As I think I've said before it was the first place we looked at and we decided almost immediately without knowing all of its many advantages. One of the hidden things I've loved about our home is the garden that has bloomed right before our eyes. As the months have warmed, our little plot of earth has yielded the most beautiful flowers that I probably couldn't even grow if I wanted to. It started with tulips beside the mailbox in March. Then April yielded dogwood bl...

This morning a friend’s call got me out of bed… catching up can be good for the soul. But one thing that resonated with me was her observation about my life. I’ve known her for more than 20 years and she’s always been extremely honest. So it’s no surprise when she told me that she observed something about me that I never thought about… my ability to make laughter a staple in my life. She said, “I saw you in a photo with someone and the two of you were laughing!” And based on that fact alone… she concluded that we must have a great friendship. Well, it happened to be somebody that I had just met the day before and even though that photo was taken months ago during one of my trips… she’s right. As I’ve said before, travel opens up a unique opportunity for me to meet all kinds of people. Because I enjoy meeting people, I tend to draw like-minded people into my zone and if we click or vibe… we stay in touch! My friend also said that the next time she gets into a relationship; my photo remi...

When it’s time to escape, it’s time to get away to some place haute, but sometimes no matter where I am… I can’t escape what’s on my mind. When something weights heavily, I find that I’m forced to deal with it. I’m not the type to compartmentalize like some people. But when real emotions start to come out… I’m grateful that my friends lift my spirits to make me stronger and wiser. As a result, I can approach whatever is unpleasant or that lesson in progress with clarity. Their strength offers a shoulder and the understanding that I have to resist the temptation of trying to control something that I have no control over so I learn to let go and trust the process. I’m one of the lucky ones to have a friend who is half way around the world call me on a tropical island to say something that empowers me or laugh out loud at another friend who sends me text messages with jokes mixed with “real talk” to help me understand that my life is shifting in ways that I may not understand, but I’m bet...

There’s something about a man who tells me that I’m beautiful… he makes me smile. I’ve heard a lot of conversation lately about an article that expresses a particular take on whether black women are beautiful. I must be one of a few women who thought nothing of it. In fact, I had a conversation with a few girlfriends who had different opinions about it. I just really don’t get plugged into debates like that because it’s pointless. People can have the right to their own thoughts but at the end of the day that old saying rings true “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Well, over the course of my life I’ve had men tell me that I was attractive to them. I’ll never forget when some of them (who are fathers with daughters) would pay me the highest compliment… they told me that they wanted their girls to grow up and be just like me. When a man tells you that—it’s mind blowing because men are extremely protective of their baby girls. I often asked them why and generally it had to do with a ...