Our Family Photos:-)

Tammy & Emily being silly!!

TJ & Elijah pretending to play guitar!!

Elijah, Tammy, Emily & TJ looking so sweet!

They are so cute like this, it shows that they really do love one another!

The whole family!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...I know that I am 2 days late on getting this posted and I am very sorry for that. We have had a busy week around the Utter house! The kids had school Monday through Wednesday all day:-) Wednesday was the big Thanksgiving feast in Emily's classroom...it was really interesting with 18 1st graders, their teacher and lots of Mom's, Dad's and little brothers and sisters in their little classroom!! All that matters is the kids had a blast! On Thanksgiving day we went to Camp Bonifas, where Tim works, to have Thanksgiving dinner with his unit...it was beautifully decorated but Koreans just can't cook American food like we can:-) It was nice to be able to spend time with the other soldiers and the few other families!

Friday we had the pleasure of being visited by my friend Amber. She is from Syracuse originally and is here in Seoul as a Missionary for her church. She lives about an hour away and she came over to visit us yesterday and had the pleasure of getting to eat American food for the first time in a long while...she loves being here for her job but after a while Korean food gets old. We made some of my Oatmeal Cookies, which I let her take home a bag, and her Korean roommate has discovered that she likes very much! She was so excited to see our regular sized appliances because in Korea everything is tiny!! She was also excited to see American foods like Ranch Dressing...she was very excited when I told her she could have a whole bottle to take back home with her!! I made her some baked chicken in Italian dressing with Cheesy Hashbrown casserole and after her first bite she said her tongue was tingling with excitement!! She is so sweet and I look forward to her visiting us more often now that she knows the bus runs from her apartment to right outside our front gate! She is lucky though because she gets to go home on the 7th until the 21st! We were discussing yesterday some of the amazing things she will get to do while home such as eat a Hoffman hot dog, go to Doug's Fish Fry and be able to buy clothes:-)

Today, Saturday, I cooked a huge Thanksgiving dinner for 3 other families and ourselves!! We had a 27 lb turkey, a huge pot of mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, corn, crescent rolls, deviled eggs, creamsicle salad, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie!! The men put away some serious food and we still had a ton of leftovers, so I called some other friends to come and get leftovers for their dinner, and I still have a bunch left! My family has taught me to cook for an Army so I did and they loved it:-) We loved it even more! I have realized this week that I am turning into my mom! AAAHHHHH:-)

So anyways in conclusion this Thanksgiving I have realized many things:

1- Family is so very important!

2- No matter how far apart you are from your family they are always just a phone call away!!

3- You can have a family outside of your biological family, my Army family!

4- God never gives you more than I can handle at any given time, I can handle quite a bit thanks to his help!

5- Enjoy every minute you get with your friends and family because you never know when they will be leaving you!

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and know that we think of you often!
Lots of love and prayers,
Steph

Crazy October...

Hello all...to say that October was crazy is just a mild explanation of our month!! To be honest I don't really know where the month went for us...
TJ, Emily and Elijah are now fully established in their school routines! They have all adjusted to their new classrooms and teachers quite well! Elijah had a bumpy start but after much "thinking" in the thinking chair in his class has now gone almost 2 weeks without sitting in it! TJ had a couple of exciting field trips and his favorite one by far was the day that they went to K-16(which is the air base here in Seoul for the military)...while there they were able to go in the flight simulator! He has now decided that he wants to go in the Army so he can fly Blackhawks. According to the father, who actually flies them for real, TJ was very good at it! Emily is still doing great at school other than the occasional over running of her lips!
Tammy is still trying to adjust to having Mommy all to herself during the day...we are pretty busy though! Monday I volunteer in Emily's class during the morning so Tammy hangs out with Chelsea. Then Wednesday morning we have PWOC which she goes with me and hangs out in watchcare with her "Korea Grandma" Miss Robin...who will unfortunately be leaving us in a little over a month so Tammy is not happy with me about this!
I was blessed with an amazing opportunity to go to Hawaii for 5 days in October...it was so beautiful and I really want to go there as a family. The one bad part of my trip is that I managed to get a mild case of the flu...but have no fear it didn't stop me. I was swimming in the ocean the day that I was running a fever:-) The water was warm so it was all good:-)
Tim has been busy with work and we are now looking at less than a year before we leave here. His anniversary date of his arrival was October 28th!! Unfortunately we found out this month that he will not be joining us down here for his second year over here as we had anticipated. He is so good at his job that they don't want to let him go...but we are ok with this decision...we have settled into our routines and it works really well! He went to the board this past week and passed so hopefully in the next few months he will be promoted to an E6!! We are really excited about this. He has been back in college for almost a month and really likes his new school. He is working on going from Green to Gold and hopefully we will know more about this soon!!
Fall has finally arrived in Korea...tonight we are supposed to have a low in the mid-30's for the first time since we arrived here! Tomorrow our high is only 40...but it is only lasting 1 day...the temp is supposed to go back up into the 60's for the rest of the week!! We are really enjoying the mild weather! Well I guess this is all for now...time to chase Tammy off to bed so I can finish the laundry and picking up the house. We hope that all of you are doing well! We miss you and love you lots!

Another long weekend...

Hello all! We had another long weekend this weekend do to Chosuk, also known as the Korean version of Thanksgiving! The kids had celebrations in school on Wednesday and Thursday which were fun as some of the parents brought in different Korean foods. It was nice to try but there food can be a little to different our american taste buds!

On Friday we went to visit the Seoul Zoo. We went with some friends and we all had a great time! We haven't seen the whole zoo because it is so big but we just plan to go again real soon! It is really inexpensive and really fun! Here are some pics from our adventure:

Elijah, Tammy, Emily, Grace, Jesse, Chelsea and TJ with their new friends!!
Our munchkins looking at the white rhinocerus'!

TJ and Emily climbing the mountain!

Elijah and Grace hangin' out on the elephants tusks!

A Big Change

Well since the last time I posted Elijah has started school...this week is his first full week!

This is him the first day getting on the bus! He was so excited he ran all the way to the bus! He got on sat down and then waved good-bye and blew me a kiss. It was a tougher day for Mommy than for him. He loves his new teacher Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Julie. He has had to go back to napping as there is a mandatory hour rest time in their day. We just run around on the playground for an hour every afternoon to make up for it.

As for Tammy she is now all alone at home and loves it. On the first day that Elijah went to school I asked her, "What are we gonna do now that Bubby is gone?" Her response was, "You are gonna work out and I am gonna do the laundry!" Needless to say we haven't had a chance to workout yet but she does help with the laundry...she gets the clothes out of the dryer for me and yesterday she discovered that she can match socks!

We have also finally moved to our bigger apartment...Praise the Lord! The day that we came to sign for our new house was the first time that I had seen how big it was and I am glad because I would have been miserable in our old house! The floor plan is awesome, we have lots of open space to breath! No more tripping over each other and the toys! The kids have no more bunk beds and a toy room!! No more toys in the living room!! I have posted lots of pictures of the apartment on Facebook so everyone can check it out! Now we have lots of wall space so everyone please send us some pictures so that we can hang them up on our walls!

We talk about EVERYONE back home daily!! We are making new friends here but will NEVER forget those back home in the states! I hope that this post finds all of you well and know that you are in our prayers daily!

Love and miss you all-Stephanie

Been a long while...

Well it was a long, yet short summer for the Utter clan!! We had a great summer and are very much looking forward to falls arrival so that the temperatures with be more comfortable for us to function in the outdoors:-) Here is a review of where and what is going on with all of us:

• Tim has had a busy summer at work due to various people going home on leave! He was luckily spared of taking part in the "exercise" this August, but became a celebrity of sorts here in Korea:-) During a ceremony at his work which was videotaped for our local news. Tammy gets all excited when she sees him on there! Will post a link as soon as I can. He has also made a change in his school and career plan for the Army. He has transferred to American Military University to a Bachelors program in Religion which could lead to him becoming a Chaplain/Pastor in the future. He starts his first classes on Oct. 5th. With this our intent is for him to become an officer within the next 2-3 years. Here's to hoping and praying:-) At the beginning of November he will be able to move from Camp Bonifas and hopefully it will mean a move to Yongsan with us!


• I was home this summer with the kids of course...currently debating on wether or not I want to go to graduate school through a grant program that the Army has offered to spouses! I am excited that the kids are back in school because it allows us to get on a better routine. I am staying busy by being involved with PWOC and the PTO. Getting very excited about our move to a bigger apartment this coming Friday! Very happy that I packed light which should help our process to go quickly!


• TJ has decided that he now wishes to be called Timothy or Tim at school!! At home it will continue to be TJ! He has started the first week of 3rd grade and it went a bit bumpy to say the least...he didn't listen to the teacher very well which resulted with Mommy getting a phone call from the teacher. But this week promises to be much better! He has finally begun to grow just slightly but still progress! He has also finally learned how to tie his own shoes!! This week he started the bowling league and he is on the bantams which means bowling 3 games with no bumpers...he got 1 strike and a few gutter balls to say the least. We are hoping that it will help to increase his upper body strength. This summer he also started swimming all on his own...he even started jumping off the diving board!!


• Emily had a rough start to 1st grade herself because the first day of school she had to go to the dentist and have a tooth removed due to a bad cavity which led to an absess on the cheek:-( Her teacher was so very nice and helpful with the fact that Emily had a special diet the first week due to the tooth removal. This summer was pretty exciting for her as well...she finally has started enjoying getting her head wet while swimming and likes to try to swim without her life jacket. She's grown a few inches this summer as well...her legs are getting longer and longer! Em started bowling this week also and is in the PeeWee league which is with bumpers but she is learning how to hold the ball correctly. She is the one and only goof!!


• Elijah is patiently waiting for his school to begin...he gets to meet his teacher this coming Wednesday. He has continued to grow this summer as well and has discovered a new found love for the pool. He loves to go down the slide and jump in off the side which includes his head getting wet:-) Elijah is bowling in the PeeWee league as well and he has some power behind his throw!! He made a new friend at bowling this week, whose Dad was helping Elijah to learn how to hold the ball correctly and how to use his arms and legs to control the ball! He went to the optomotrist this week to get his eyes checked and we found out that for right now he is ok but in the future he will need glasses...the Dr. told him that if he stands in front of the TV to watch it he will have to go back to get a shot(cause he hates shots)! We do what we have to do to avoid bad behaviors!
• 
• Tammy is turning into a beautiful little girl...it seems as though just yesterday she was a baby and now she is 3! She's going to finally be home with Mommy on her own and she is very excited about that!! This summer she also learned how to swim on her own in a life jacket. She still doesn't like her head wet but it will come with time! Tammy is also doing PeeWee bowling and is quite entertaining...it takes about 2 minutes for the ball to go down the lane and sometimes loses power and stops halfway down but she is having fun and that is all that matters:-)

I hope to post more soon and plan to do better at keeping up with our posts! Please know that we think of all of you often and miss everyone lots! We have about 14 months left to go here in Korea and look forward to what the Lord has in store for us next!!

What a year!!

As I sit here reflecting over the past year I am continually amazed by the love that our Heavenly Father has shown my family. A year ago this weekend was when Tim went to officially enlist in the Army again! 3 very short weeks later he left us to head to Oklahoma for WTC, then on to Alabama for AIT and in October he came here to Korea. The time has flown but we have had many bumps and bruises along the way.
He missed all of the kids birthdays in that year, which was good because no one could ever come back to say that they got to be with Dad for their birthday when the others did not! TJ & Emily are preparing for the end of another school year. TJ has managed to soar through 2nd grade and excelled the whole way! He is an excellent reader and kicks some math butt:-) Emily has aced kindergarten! She is now reading and doing pretty well in math herself! They truly loved their classes back in Geneva but have adapted well to their new classes here in Korea. They are slowly making new friends but will never forget the ones they left behind. Elijah & Tammy are making new friends all the time but also talk about their friends at home(Aaron, Lily, Vicky, Sophie & Henry) are mentioned on a daily basis!
Mommy is adjusting to all of her changes as well. I am making some new friends while missing my ones back home very much. I am praying for God to show me His will for me during our time here in Korea. I have gotten a new hair do since arriving because my beautiful curly hair and Korea's outrageous humidity do not mix very well:-) I had a few inches chopped off and alot of layers and thinning done! I have found a hair dresser who knows what I need:-)
As for Tim he has been pretty busy this year. Since coming to Korea he has taken 4 college classes! He is now on summer break from school, which came at just the right time since he got a new job at work. He was promoted to E5 or Sargeant at the beginning of March and is now looking to go to the board for his E6 in October. He started a new job with more responsibilities this past week. He has been very busy trying to fix the mess that the last person in the job created. We get to see Tim every weekend, he comes home Friday night and heads back on Sunday or Monday.
This coming week will be very exciting for the Utter's. Emily graduates from Kindergarten on Monday morning and then school ends officially on Thursday at 11am. So summer vacation here we come. Mommy is busy trying to plan out our summer so we don't get bored:-)
We hope that all of you at home are well! We think of everyone often and look forward to hearing from you.
Love and Prayers-Steph

Our second week

Hello to all! We are now almost through our second whole week of living in Korea. It has been alot of fun and very interesting so far! Last Friday we were able to go see a professional baseball game with Tim and his co-workers and a few of their families! It was very interesting as in Korea they have cheerleaders for their baseball teams, the have girls in little short skirts for bat girls, and the fans wear suits and high heel shoes to a game! Yes we Americans sort of stuck out like sore thumbs with our t-shirts and jeans on!! One of the great things about baseball games here is the price of things...you don't have to refinance your home to have great seats! We paid 10000won each(about $10) to sit right near home plate on the lower level!! Then the food and stuff is just as reasonably priced...I think we spent a total of 80000won on the whole night! The kids had alot of fun and one of the teams won the game!!! Sorry I'm not much of a baseball fan:-(
Monday we went to a picnic with a bunch of our new neighbors here in our compound! Our new friends have fallen in love with my fruit salad and my banana cake! I can do one thing right at least!! We have also been going to the pool everyday since Sunday because we have hit the 80's for our daily temps here!! The kids are enjoying it but the water is just a tad to cold for my body to handle! Got to run for now to go walking with my friends!

Seoul, South Korea

Our welcome to the neighborhood gift!
Our building with the playground in front of it!!

Hello all! Sorry that it has taken so long to get a post up on here. We just got internet access yesterday afternoon and by the time I finished catching up on our e-mail I was falling asleep sitting at my computer:-( For those who haven't heard from us since our departure last week I will give you a rundown of what has been up with the Utter family clan:

Thursday May 14th we arrived in Incheon Airport at a little before 2pm Korea time(1am NY time)!! After being picked up by Tim and 3 of his coworkers we came to our new house in Hannam Village, which is in beautiful Seoul! The kids were amazed by the huge bridges that are all over the place here. As well as the high rise buildings which are quite numerous as well! Our flight was very long but we survived!

On Friday the 15th we had to go and do a bunch of inprocessing so that we could get on and off post as well as our compound which is military as well...we did a lot of walking and by the time the day was over we were pretty well spent! We were able to get TJ & Emily registered for school, they had to go have 2 shots in order to start! We also went shopping at the PX to get things we needed for the house, I was able to get a cell phone so I could have a way to call home:-) The kids went on their first cab rides and truly enjoyed!

On Saturday we went shopping at the Commissary(grocery store) so we could get food for our house! After we got home from the store the jet lag kicked in and we had a quiet evening. The kids and I were all falling asleep at 6 at night:-( Made life pretty interesting!

Sunday we went to church for the first time as a family since last June! It was so nice:-) We went to the Chapel service here at Hannam Village and it is a pretty large group. Service was great unfortunately it was the head Chaplin's last service as he is leaving South Korea in a few weeks! There are many families that are going to be leaving our community this summer which is nice for me because it will be more than just myself as a new person around:-) Sunday afternoon we rested as our jet lag was still kicking our butts!

Monday I had to go to my first day of class for inprocessing into the Army in Korea...it was interesting to say the least! Tammy & Elijah got to go to the daycare for the day and meet some new friends. TJ & Emily stayed with Dad and went to orientation at their school and to the hospital to get their TB test read. Tim unfortunately had to go back to his work/home on Monday afternoon.

Tuesday I was back in school for the day...this day was all about learning about the Korean culture!! Started to learn some Korean words and phrases!!

Wednesday TJ & Emily finally started school! They both are enjoying and getting to know their new friends. TJ managed to lose his bus pass on the first day!!! It's amazing how listening to Mom when she says to put it in your backpack it might have prevented this from occuring!!

Today was their second day of school and they are getting settled!

As for Tammy and Elijah they are just going on like always! Everyone is looking forward to this weekend because the pool opens in our community and Daddy will be back home with us at last.

I hope that all of you are doing well and know that we think of all of you daily!

Love & Prayers!!

Date is set!!!

We went this morning and picked up passports, visas and plane tickets!
We leave from Syracuse Airport at 6:40 am on Wednesday May 13th. Yes that is less than a week from now. We have to be at the airport at 2:40 in the morning. We will fly a little over 2 hours to Atlanta, where we have an hour and 25 minute layover. We will then get on a 777 for a 14 hour 55 minute flight to Incheon Airport in South Korea. We will arrive there at approximately 2:20pm on Thursday May 14th. Tim is taking Thursday and Friday off from work so that he can help us get set up. The weekend after that he has a 4 day weekend for Memorial Day so he will be with us then also. We are very, very, very excited!

Passports have arrived!!!

Hello to all! Yes you are reading that correctly my friends they have arrived. At Ft. Drum that is, but only for a few more hours:-) I got the call on Wednesday at about 3:30 in the afternoon and I think that all of Geneva could have heard me screaming because our house has got quite the echo to it right now! Jackie was there to celebrate with me(even amongst our tears)!
Monday the packers came and took the rest of our stuff to storage, so the kids and I have been living out of our suitcases at my Mom & Step-Dad's house in Weedsport and commuting back to Geneva every day. However this morning we are taking a bit of a detour on the way to school and driving up to Ft Drum to get our passports. Tim is supposed to be at the transportation office in Korea right now making our arrangements to get over there. He is aiming for us to be arriving there next Wednesday, which would put us leaving here on Tuesday morning. Will keep everyone posted when I get more exact information.
This is a bitter sweet time for the kids and I as we are all so very excited to see Tim, but sad that we will be leaving all of our friends and family behind. Our Geneva family is the greatest...words can never express how much all of you mean to us(especially myself). You have helped me go from the lowest valleys to the tops of mountains and been my friend the whole time. Every one of you will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of our lives and we now have a great place to come visit on vacation:-) To our friends that I haven't been so good about keeping in touch with since Tim has been gone I am so sorry and I seriously think of you all the time but when it comes to sitting down and actually being able to call...it has been impossible. The times I think to call are in the middle of the night cause that is the only time I have to sit still. Thank you all for being our friends and we love you very much.
To our family...I know this is going to be a very difficult and emotional transition but I also know that God will help you through it. He has big plans in mind for you that are going to keep you so busy that our time apart will be quick and you will barely have time to miss us. We will be able to talk to you on almost a daily basis, you can eat your dinner while we eat our breakfast:-) Thank you for all of the help and encouragement during the past year as we made this huge decision to first go back into the Army and then the more to Korea. This has been one wild roller coaster ride but I know that God has big plans for us while we are there. We love you all very much and can't wait to see everyone when we return.

Update on our progress

Hello to all! We are still patiently waiting for the arrival of our passports so that we can move but in the mean time I have set up the packers coming and taking our remaining belongings to storage so that once our passports do get here we can leave ASAP. In the mean time we will be staying with my Mom and Clint. They come Monday morning and will be all done by Monday evening. Then I will have some time to get our old house all cleaned up! Tim goes to Yongsan on Thursday to sign the lease on our new apartment and our stuff that I had shipped there is already there waiting to be delivered as soon as he signs our lease. The nice thing about this is the kids will leave a complete home here and go to a complete home there with all of their favorite toys that they have been missing for the past month. Tim will then be staying at Yongsan for school until the 9th of May. The kids and I went and applied for passports and visas about 6 weeks ago so hopefully they will be in very soon.

In the mean time we have been enjoying our wonderful summer like weather in NY. Here are some pics I took of the kids down at the lake this past weekend.

Strong Museum of Play

Well this week is Spring Break in the land of the arctic blast(aka. New York in April)! The sun has been shining but we have had this awful wind that takes all the warmth out of the sun. Anyways. Yesterday we went to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester with our friends the Pool's and the Haley's! It was 3 moms with 9 kids! Yes we did discover that we don't really have eyes in the back of our heads...but the good thing is we went in with 9 kids and came back out with the same 9 kids!

The kids all had alot of fun and that was all that really mattered! Here are some pics of our adventure... The whole group together!

All the kids playing with the train table, we need to find one this big for our house!

The train ride!

Slow but steady progress

Well it has been almost a whole month since I started this and I somehow managed to not share this blog site with anyone...wonder how that could happen with all the insanity in our lives. Let me just share with you what has been going on and how God is working in this whole situation:-)
Tim went to his housing Orientation at Yongsan on March 31st, at the end of his meeting he was informed of how much our BAH(Basic Allowance for Housing) would be for us to get housing off post and it worked out to be about $2800 and the building which we had been looking into moving into the 3 units we found online were over $4000 a month. But instead of fretting about this I shared with Tim what the Lord had been telling me...which was to be still and wait. So after a bit of an argument he did as I said and started to pray about. On Friday, April 3rd he happened to be back down at Yongsan for something to do with work and as he was driving around post the Lord told him he needed to go to the housing office right then. So Tim did as the Lord led him and went into the office. The woman in the office informed him that some how we were never put on the waiting list for housing but that if he could come back on Tuesday, April 7th she would be able to show him a 3 bedroom unit which was available immediately. Tim of course said yes he would be there. Now we fast forward to Tuesday and Tim goes for his tour with the inspector...he was originally supposed to see a 12th floor unit and ended up seeing a 4th floor unit. Our patio looks out at the playground. He also found out on this day that there are 15 people on the waiting list before us for housing that we somehow got to the head of the list. He of course took the apartment knowing that this was God's work and he couldn't interfere. He will sign our lease officially on April 30th which is good because it looks like we will not be able to leave here until after the 1st of May because our passports are not back in yet. We are praying that they will come in sometime in the next 2 weeks so we can get there the first week in May.
Tim will be able to stay with us the first week of May because he has to take a class at Yongsan. The other good thing is since they came and packed up and shipped our stuff for Korea on March 30th hopefully it will get there before if not right when we get there:-)
The kids and I are getting very anxious to get there as you can imagine. Tim is also getting excited about us getting there also. We will be living in Hannam-Gu(aka. Hannam Village) which is in Souel. When Tim was there Tuesday he found out that there is a Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken less than a block from our complex...so we will see! Well I guess this is it for now! To anyone that I haven't talked to lately...I am very sorry but it seems that our days come and go very quickly around here. You are all in our thoughts and prayers and we plan to keep in touch with everyone!
Love and prayers

Welcome

Hello to all!

This is going to be my way to communicate to everyone in a bulk format from now on. Since our lives are getting ready to go through some major changes. For all of you that I haven't talked to in a while, I apologize greatly. Our lives have been very crazy. I am never going to take my husband for granted again after I have lived as a single parent for 8+ months. Kids need 2 parents!!

Anyways...for those of you that don't know the kids and I are going to be moving to South Korea to be with Tim. We went on Monday 3/16 to do all of the paperwork for our passports and Visas for us to begin the moving progress. The woman who did our paperwork said that it could take up to 6 weeks for them to return but we have heard of many people getting them back within 2 weeks! All in God's time is the way that I am looking at it. Once we have our passports Tim can go and arrange our flights and then I have to get our stuff packed and put into storage and shipped to Korea. Right now I am just trying to go through everything and decide what I want to store here in the states, what I want to ship to Korea and what I want to get rid of all together. So yes I am busy. Plus we are trying to spend as much time with our family and friends as we can while we are here. The kids are VERY excited about getting to be with their Daddy again!! Tammy keeps packing underwear in her backpack and asks me to take her to the airport:-)

I will keep this posted as to our progress of the move and such.

Talk to you again very soon!!