photos: more than you ever dreamed

so who's ready for some vacation pics?

We'll try to go in chronological order so that you can journey with us. This was the first vacation where the girls got to use their own suitcases, little Dora ones that my parents bought them. Mantha's is a cute yellow bus that somehow didn't make it into this picture. Initially, they were light enough for them to roll themselves, but as time went on, our luggage seemed to increase and josh and I ended up bearing the brunt of the weight. We were killing time here before our flight took us from snowy asia-land to tropical thailand.
Later that evening, we had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong airport. Five hours in an airport might seem like a nightmare to you, but if it's Hong Kong airport, you don't know how lucky you are! HK airport has to be one of the best airports in the entire world. It is a model of efficency, good planning, friendliness, and is stocked with great places to spend your money - bookstores, krispy kreme, ben& Jerry's. They also have free wifi all over and a kids play area - truly the place where everyone is happy!Finally after a full day of travel, we made it to bangkok about midnight. The girls were wide awake, so we put on their matching Gap jammies and they played around on the bed. A big day was ahead... ...most notably, Toys R Us! Emma did a good job at practicing the "wai", a common thai greeting, but mantha had trouble. Some of the birthday presents emma opened yesterday were hidden in that bag she's holding!Two days of shopping in bangkok, then we headed out to our vacation spot (that was not the original vacation spot, if you'll remember from previous posts!) The girls loved playing in the super clean and beautifully landscaped pools. Emma's "jumping in" was more of a hesitant lean, and her feet stayed on the edge until she felt someone's arms around her!

But samantha was content to jump in even if no one was there to catch her! (Fortunately, this happened only once. Her bravery in the pool could have caused this to happen multiple times!)High on samantha's list of favorite vacation activities must have been walking across this wall that seperated the kiddie pool from the big pool. She happily would walk back and forth for an hour! Her floaties make her look like such a big girl, don't you think?Emma was much more confident in the pool than last year, the difference a year makes, I guess! This sea turtle was one of the hotly contested items during pool time......but mantha found other ways to stay occupied while emma was floating around by herself!
She surprised us all by being very comfortable in the water. With her little floaties, she could "swim" all by herself and make pretty good time, too!I think this was one of the most relaxing vacations I've perhaps ever taken, even though the girls were with us. By coincidence, our room was located right off the lobby; in fact, it was part of the same building. The lobby of our hotel was an arched, open-air pavilion that allowed the breezes to lazily linger in. There were also several nice tables and super-comfy rocking chairs and so.....when the girls were napping, we would go out to the lobby (since we were only a few steps away), grab a book and settle in the rocking chairs while the rhythm of the waves kept time. This picture doesn't show it so clearly, but all that white just past the trees is the ocean...literally only 20 steps away from our dominoes table! Here's daddy, emma and mantha playing a quick game of Dora dominoes after naptime.

Apparantly, mantha had a "match"...

...and was pretty excitied about it!
Our resort also had a little putt-putt course nestled in between the pool and the ocean, so one afternoon we gave it a shot. Emma was really making a good effort...

...and getting lots of good help from daddy...

But after trying it out once...

...samantha decided there had to be an easier way!


Once at the beach, the girls enjoyed collecting seashells and getting super dirty, splashing in the waves, enjoying wide open spaces...

We quickly discovered that by the time the girls woke up from afternoon naps, there was not enough direct sun for all the beach-loving tourists...which was great news for us! After 4pm, we usually had the beach all to ourselves. So if you start to wonder why these pictures have a "dusk" sort-of feel, that's why! (And I, of course, didn't object because the weather was perfect at that time!!)

They both were SO eager to taste sand...


One day, we took the girls to an elephant park where we got to see the elephants! I thought the girls would be afraid, but no way! They thought it was great!

We also got to try a little coconut juice at the elephant park. Emma was not such a big fan of it...
...but mantha, our juice drinker, liked it a lot.

So Emma and I rode one elephant, and josh and samantha rode another. There's no pictures of us on the elephants because, as you can see, josh used the video camera for us and we used the other camera. By the way, turning around to snap a quick picture is not so easy when your elephant is sloshing through the swamp. Just in case you wanted to know. :)

Later on, there was a day without children...so we went to this nice outdoor mall and ate ice cream! (At the suggestion of our friend john, I chose to forego my usual inclination to choose a chocolate something and got Apple Crumble, which was vanilla ice cream with cinnamon, steamed apples and pie crust mixed in and caramel sauce on top. WOW. That's about all I can say.)

Our childless-afternoon company...

Our last stop was back to hong kong again for a few days. We went to Kowloon Park (our first time) and were SO impressed. They had a great aviary, fun flamingoes, swans, fountains, and a nice play area for the girls. It was quite the little oasis inside a bustling city.

Thank you, self-timer. You rock:

We ate our share of doughnuts, mongolian BBQ, great italian food and egg mcmuffins, but before we left we had a special visit with some friends from oklahoma. They happen to live in a very fabulous apartment on hong kong island, overlooking the ocean and outlying islands. They were gracious enough to treat us to fajitas, a quiet afternoon, and even willing to snap a few pictures before we left. Thanks again joe and kathy, for a truly AWESOME time at your place!

(Emma couldn't quite seem to look in the right direction here...)

...but this one's a keeper.)

So there you have it. Fun times were had by all.

Yesterday was Emma's 3rd birthday, so pics and story from that will be forthcoming. Thanks for staying around this long to look at my photo album!

the thailand twelve

Vacations are always so super fun to plan…and usually really fun DURING the actual vacation…but then sometimes the travel on the way home makes me question why we always do this every year! We had a good trip, complete with a few days in hong kong to buy stuff (see below) and eat krispy kreme doughnuts (also see below) but we arrived home thoroughly exhausted and ready to be settled at our own place again. Because of this fatigue, I am afraid my blog post trying to sum up our trip could potentially be likened to a tumbleweed rolling across west texas – nothing in sight can stop it.  So, I will take my very creative cousin Christa’s idea and turn this into my Thailand Twelve, tibits that is. Brief tidbits about our trip… Here goes:

1) We tried, as usual, to pack lightly so we could make room for the several things on our list (which I’m sure you read about before we left). When we checked in at the airport to leave asia-land, our suitcases were a paltry 30 kg (66 lbs). Well, as we left Hong Kong on our final leg of the 3 week journey, our 30 kg had mysteriously turned into 90 kg (198 lbs)!!! Wow. That’s some serious weight gain. Among the good buys in our suitcases were: a 5 lb. bag of chocolate chips, a 3 lb box of goldfish, new books for Emma’s birthday, and some extra toys…as if our kids needed anything else.

2) Number 1 prompts me to post number two – an official moratorium on collecting stuff. We have too much stuff. I will never, ever, ever buy anything else as long as I live. I simply have nowhere to put it. Well, at least I feel that way right now. We’ll check back on that in a few months.

3) Chocolate Croissants at Au Bon Pain. Sheer Bliss.

4) The other weight issue has not to do with my suitcases, but the person hauling around the suitcases and her weight gain. You can’t eat dozens of krispy kremes, chocolate croissants and ice cream from the Cream and Fudge factory without adding some fudge to your thighs as well. Josh and I went to the gym today and actually worked out (we found a different one that wasn’t so expensive…that doesn’t have filtered air, I guess). Hopefully in a few months, all that will remain of the krispy kreme’s will be in my memories.

5) Thank you, Thailand (with every hint of sarcasm showing here), for robbing Emma [and her mother] of the blessed naptime event. With too many fun things to do, kids to play with, things to eat…naptime seems to have become a thing of the past for Emma. That does not bode well for quiet afternoons at my house!

6) But truly, thank you Thailand for the time change! Even the one hour difference seems to help, and emma and mantha have slept till 8am or later the last few days! Hallelujah!

7) Eggs. After a visit to the pediatric allergist at my favorite hospital on earth, the tests showed that Samantha is allergic to eggs. Could have been worse – could have been milk, rice, wheat, soy…that seems like a nightmare trying to work those out of my kitchen. I’ve found a few substitutes for eggs in baked goods, so the next few days will see if they really work or not! We’re going to try to keep mantha egg-free for the next 3 months and see what effect it has on her skin.

8) When is a heart murmur innocent? Probably now, but to a mother, a heart murmur never sounds innocent. Maybe because the word “heart” is in front of it and everything that has to do with hearts seems very important. At Emma’s well-child checkup, the doctor discovered she had a heart murmur and called in a specialist to have a closer look. He was convinced it was completely innocent and may even outgrow it, but who knew? Certainly not me.

9) There’s a big, stinky bag of seashells sitting on my counter right now, awaiting a good soak and scrub. (Fortunately, I will not be the one doing it.) The girls had so much fun finding seashells, starfish, and snail shells while we were on the beach. Pictures will be posted soon – probably will be called Thailand 20, since who can choose only 12 pictures from vacation?

10) Discipline. Yikes. Three weeks away from home and routine seems to have convinced my children that obedience is no longer required and can be heeded at random. Oh boy, were they surprised when we got home!

11) My own room! Woo hoo! Not shared with kids! I don’t know how all the families in asialand sleep with kids in their rooms until they are 4 or 5. We both slept so restlessly with the girls sharing our hotel room. Every moan and cry and word uttered in sleep woke us up…anyway, we are glad to be back.

12) I must say this every time I come back, but it’s true: trips are great because you always come back home. We took a good look at our life this year in Thailand and came to the same conclusion – we are exactly where we are supposed to be and it brings us great joy to be here.

Stay tuned for the Thailand 20 coming soon…

long live the king

It's a funny thing, sometimes, living in thailand. For one, they are always really smiley and happy, even if they are inwardly seething at your foreigner ignorance. You just slap a big smile on your face and say, "Thank you, but I'm only going to pay 200 local dollars for this", smile, smile, smile. Another thing that is interesting is that it's a monarchy. Being as it is that I am not a Brit, it's a situation that's new to me.

For example, everyone, EVERYWHERE has big signs and posters showing flattering pics of the king when he was like 30 years old (no matter that he is pushing 80 right now). Medians in the highway apparantly the perfect resting spot for that overused picture of the king standing next to his throne. They pop up everywhere else to, from restaurants to taxis to hotels. Everyone loves the king - even though he may not influence a ton of things in daily life, he sure has the hearts of all the people.

Every time we've gone to see a movie in thailand, they do this thing at the beginning that is a tribute to the king. It's actually a very beautiful video clip put together where a choir is singing the national anthem while various videos of the king interacting on behalf of the people are playing out in front of you. The weird thing (and sometimes puts me on the edge of uncomfortability) is that everyone in the theater must stand out of respect for the king. I guess they probably wouldn't force you to, but anyway...

So a few days ago, our teammates and josh and I had the chance to go see a movie, sans kiddos. :) The video started and the sound of theater chairs flapping up against their backs swept through the theater. The video had changed since I saw it last year, but at the very end there was a scene that caught my eye and stuck in my heart.

It was a scene from the olympics, maybe the 2004 ones where a Thai athlete had just won gold. He was running and jumping, almost hysterical with joy, and lifting high above his head a picture of the king. The camera shot zoomed in with crystal clarity to the picture of the king being elevated, and the packed out stadium - and the gold-medal athlete - faded into fuzziness.

The image struck me. Here was an athlete, at the top of his game, the pinnacle of everything a person could accomplish in his field. And when the camera zooms to him, it is not him that is glorified. The eyes of the camera, broadcast to millions of thai viewers, were not focused on that athlete or his great acheivement. The eyes of the camera were focused on the king that the athlete represented. The venue, the event, even the athlete himself faded into fuzziness while the picture of the king was lifted.

God, make our lives like that! Help us, in our proudest moments of great accomplishment, lift high the banner of our great King, so that you may increase and we may decrease.

Long live the King.

I live to blog another day

If I can get by with blaming my lack of blogging on a bad video cable (which is true), then I will say that and leave it at that. But the truth is, we've been doing an awful lot of hanging out by the pool and chatting with friends that has taken a good majority of our time. BUT you can remember our dear friend Dell, who has served us faithfully so many years. He is undergoing surgery in a computer operating room as we speak, and we hope to know how his recovery is progressing tomorrow. :)

In other news, the girls have had such a fun time in their play classes this week! Thier teachers, who are referred to as Mrs. Belinda or Miss Mary or whoever, has gotten samantha particularly into Mr. and Mrs. Mode. Last night during our prayer time, this is what we heard:

Mr. God, please help Mrs. Belinda, Mrs. Elaine, Mommy, daddy, mantha emma. Amen.

So know you know. God is a Mister.

burkas with bling-bling: about Bangkok and more

I suppose now it is time for my annual “I love Bangkok” post – now that I have been freshly reminded of the place – and as usual, many of the things I have enjoyed about the city have been enjoyable again. The sense of freshness: pineapples, mangos, street vendors selling coconuts with a straws already in, tempting you to gulp down fresh coconut juice, palm trees, blue skies, the simple beauty of gardenias dotting the green landscape, diversity, energy, people… All those things are always true about Bangkok. There is also a sense of sweet familiarity with Bangkok for me too; granted, its reach only extends a few miles, a small strip of real estate, but within that area, life is predictable and does not disappoint.

This year in Bangkok has been enjoyable in a new way – Emma and Samantha now can enjoy things that they previously only glossed over on the way to and from our excursions. They enjoy the new fruits that they don’t eat often, the overwhelming glitter of shopping malls, the peaceful patter of fountains on almost every street corner. The swimming pool high on the rooftop of our hotel; looking out over the traffic reminds them of a line in one of their books, “the cars look like toy cars, the houses like toy houses.” They are confused when Asian looking faces don’t respond to their Asianese greetings and kind words. They are surprised that ladies wear black dresses (some of them jewel encrusted!) and face guards. They startle in surprise at the number of white faces that address them in English. They are apprehensive and reluctant at the fondness Thai people have for children.

Bangkok, so far, has maintained its status as one of my favorite places. Our first day in Bangkok, we headed to Outback for lunch and ordered two appetizers (one was free, thanks to a coupon!), a full rack of ribs and Alice Springs chicken. We were surprised to find the same waiter we got to know so well during Emma’s first few weeks still working there. They truly made us feel like important guests when they gave us dessert for free too! Except for the huge knot Samantha got on her forehead when she ran full-speed into the corner of a table, it was a great visit. We also went to Toys R Us that day and momma had to practice some serious restraint when it came to toy-buying. We ended up with lots of special gifts for Emma’s birthday, fun craft things to do with the girls, a new dress-up dress and several other things. Next door to Toys R Us is a fun bookstore, so we stocked up there too. Our last major stop that day was the preliminary trip to the grocery store (it takes me several trips). This is the place where I have to REALLY restrain myself…and I think I did an ok job. Get this: after exiting the store, josh was looking over the receipt and asked me, “Did you know this karo syrup was $10?” Um. No. I did not know that; and I had bought TWO. Two bottles of karo syrup for twenty bucks? I think not. I did something very unlike myself and marched right in there and returned them. Redfaced and all. No way would I pay twenty bucks for karo syrup.

Josh’s treat for day 1 in Bangkok was a meal at a Lebanese restaurant he has come to love; the girls didn’t eat up the hummus quite like the did last year, but we discovered that Samantha will eat sour pickles like you’ve never seen!

After only one full day in Bangkok, we headed down to a quiet little ocean town where we were going to stay for a few days. The place we booked was a little cottage just a few minutes walk from the beach and had its own spa pool that the girls could play in. Breakfast would be served on the patio amid the flower and rock gardens that were home to butterflies and birds. Translation: a run-down, “summer camp”-style building, with a green pool, mosquitos dining with you at breakfast, electrical tape patching holes in the mosquito nets, only one guy on the whole property who speaks English…yeah, you get the idea.

We were prepared to stay there and just deal with it the remaining nights. So what, the place wasn’t the Hilton, but it was true, the beach was less than 3 minutes walk from our door and it seems that Emma and Samantha had found their true life’s calling – beach bums. The first two trips to the beach were filled with shrieks as they ran in and out of the waves. They played “beach basketball” – a fun little game devised by daddy, who made balls out of sand, sort of like a sandball I guess, and they would run to the edge of the waves and throw them in with all their might. We bought a sandcastle building set and they have become busy little workers, transporting water and sand back and forth as they have built castle after castle after tower after house after…yeah, you get it. They love burying their toes in the sand, watching it trickle through their fingers, looking at the footprints it makes after the tide washes the sand away. With reckless abandon, they run forward as the surf laughs in and tumbles them over. Truly, I never would have imagined my girls would like the beach so much. Personally, I like beaches that have airconditioning, sand that doesn’t stick to you, and books. Exactly. Beaches like that don’t exist.

But, anyway, I ramble. The point is that they have already had hours of endless fun getting dirty, getting clean, building and destroying, transporting, collecting seashells and whatever else they can think of.

Enter my knight in shining armor husband who, unbeknownst to me, walks two minutes down the beach and finds a fabulous resort (one I had found online but decided not to book because it was too expensive) that has everything you dream a tropical vacation should have: bursts of bright pink and purple orchids everywhere you look, majestic palms lining your paths, oceanfront rooms, a beautiful sparkling pool with fountains and a fun kiddie pool – he found it. I didn’t even know.

He told me of his plan last night, to check out of our “bungalow” and move to this other place. This immediately threw my nonconfrontational self into a fit of worry, especially since the “bungalow’s” policy included all those “non” words – nonrefundable, namely. But he did it. He talked to them this morning. They were understanding and apologetic. They are giving us our money back. We walked down the street with all our twenty bazillion suitcases and now I am typing this with the free wifi in the room while my girls are sleeping and my husband is looking out at the ocean 30 feet away through our bay window bordered by palms, greenery and those bright tropical flowers I love so much. Truly, our room is close enough to the ocean that I could open our windows at night and sleep with the The five days I dreaded yesterday morning have turned into four days of bliss.

Once the girls wake up, our plan is to go swimming, play puttputt (at the resort) and get some pizza for dinner. What I thought could be a potentially ulcer-causing scenario has turned into quite the day.

Well, ok, since this post is long enough already, I’ll go back to my book I bought just for the beach (The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseni, if anyone is interested) and write more of this later.

Adios.

as mantha would say...

So, anytime that mantha wins a game (or does anything positive, for that matter), she exclaims with both arms raised: Hi, Hi Cherry-oh! It seems that it's her own little version of Hi-Ho Cherry Oh that emma exclaims when she wins that particular game. Samantha has taken that catch phrase, modified it and broadened its usage quite a bit. But, anyway the point is that...our bags are packed! We are heading out the door tomorrow morning! It's all swimsuits and flip flops from here! HI HI CHERRY OH!

We're excited about our big trip and the girls have been asking since Sunday..."Is today thursday?" Well, thursday is here tomorrow! We're hoping to still post blog updates while we are gone - we brought all the mammoth gear along to make it happen, so we'll see.

Adios. Ciao. And Goodbye.

(For now.)

official business

yesterday was a great reminder why I generally dislike undertaking "official business" in any form in Asia. Now, you may not think that going to the post office counts as official business, but in my world it does. So yesterday I was mailing some gifts to my family and I knew the package I was sending would be odd-sized and likely over the weight of normal packages they might mail, so a few days before I sent my house helper to the post office to go check it out.

She came back, all full of bubbly happiness, because she had found a super-helpful clerk at the post office who helper write down prices for all sorts of shipping methods. She also checked on the box situation, and was told that we could just bring our things to the post office and they would box them up for us. Apparantly it was better that way because they had to personally inspect anything going out of the country.

So yesterday during naptime, the two of us went down to the post office, lugging my big bag of things to put inside the box. After waiting in line for a few minutes, our turn arrived at last and I was interested to see if things would go more smoothly with her being there.

We filled out the customs form and wrapped all our things in bubble-wrap, and then when we asked the clerk for a box, things started getting a little interesting. A look of confusion fell across their faces...as if we were the only ones in history who had come looking for a box at a post office. They went to a back room and after several mintues of hearing them rummage around, they found one. They brought it out, but it was too small. A few more minutes of rummaging produced another box, bigger than the last one, big enough, but not exactly the dimensions of my items.

They asked me what kind of filler I had brought to protect the things inside. I politely told them, "none" because they had told my house helper that they could somehow make the box fit the exact size I needed. (I should have known at that statement that something wasn't right.) Well, they were still trying to help me, so one )the particulary confused looking man) started wadding up newspaper. After several crinkly wads, a different clerk came running across the room, shouting and waving her arms. "You can't do that!!" she exlaimed, in loud enough fashion to startle and intrigue everyone in the waiting room. Apparantly, Asianese newspapers cannot be used as filler in packages traveling internationally.

As they continued rummaging for acceptable filler material, a hush of conversation swirled around the rest of the customers. "Why can't they put newspaper in there?" I heard asked several times.

With a sly smile on my face, I turned and said, "Oh, that's because they're afraid America will steal all your secrets." A sea of black heads nodded in silent agreement. I later found out from my house helper that it's some American law that won't allow foreign newspapers in our country. Yeah, right. Since you can Al-Jazeera on cable now, I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, my house helper was gone during my outing of the "stealing secrets" revelation because she stepped out the door to see if she could buy some styrofoam or something out on the street that we could fit inside the box. When she came back, a sheepish grin covered her face. She slowly pulled something out of a bag, and apologized for not finding anything better to protect my package. Four rolls of toilet paper.

And that's how things are done here in Asia-land.

In other news, it snowed again yesterday and I took samantha to a candy store. (Emma was supposed to go as well, but due to excessive whining, her privileges were revoked. But samantha was vocal enough to represent emma's needs at the candy store, hundred fold!) We had found a little place that sells gummy worms, gummy bears, and stuff like that. I had a new revelation as we went on our excursion: wearing long underwear under your clothes really does make a difference! I even bought a cute little pink hat to wear on nice snowy days. Just in time to head to thailand...

I finally uploaded several weeks worth of pictures that had been taking up nearly permanent residence on my camera.

First we'll start with present-opening (which for us was new year's eve and new year's day)... These packages wrapped in DORA paper were from aunt kristen.

Samantha has officially joined the "the wrapping is more fun than the present" club... Already busy, checking out their new toys and puzzles...Emma's new Spa doll...


When it came time to open stockings, Samantha just kept digging and digging...full of faith that there would be a never ending supply of goodies to pull out!

Emma tried right away to bite into her package of gummy worms...without opening the package...

Reading betime stories a few nights ago (with the girls in new Dora jammies...)

A few weeks ago, Clara Anne and Emma were playing a "sleep game". I think it had something to do with squeezing their eyes shut really tightly and after that, I'm just not sure. But it sure made them laugh, so we took a picture.
Oh,yeah.....this is a new shelf I had made for the girls' room. It's sort of based on one in a pottery barn catalog, of course, not quite the same dimensions and lacking the very cool baskets, but you get the general idea. The main reason for getting it was to provide a bit of seating for josh and I in their room, and this bench is actually a really nice size. The girls mostly use it as a changing table for their growing collection of baby dolls, but hey, at least everyone is happy. And when happy = more organized, I will never complain!

I love how mantha's pony tail kicks up in this picture... And this one was cute too, so I thought I'd throw it in as well...

Playing yesterday in their room...

So there you have it. Fun pictures from our life recently, and my post office story. We head out for sunny, balmy, palm-tree studded thailand in about a week, and the girls are already excited! They've been filling their suitcases over and over again with all sorts of unnecessary (but to them, very crucial) items, and I've started compiling my lists. I have a "Places to Eat" list, a "food items to buy" list, a "household items to buy" list, a "snack foods I want to buy" list...and so on and so forth. Let's just say that we shall not leave any donuts uneaten...

*** correction ***

So, things were pretty much in the bag. It was a done deal.


But, of course, we live in a land where nothing is simple and where making assumptions can get you in loads of trouble. Here's the scoop:


While I was writing my blog the other day, josh went to go buy our gym membership. Not long after I clicked "Publish Post" my phone rang with news from Josh. About the gym membership.


When we had gone there last week, the four of us all went together because it was a weekend. The guy at the front counter was really great, showing us around and pumping up all the benefits to joining. He laughed with the girls and we all had a great time. He pointed out that, rather than buy two individual memberships (which would have been close to $600 US) we could buy a two-person membership for significantly less, especially since they wre running a special.

SO. Back to the phone call. Josh calls to say that one stipulation they mentioned right as he was about to hand over the dough was that we both had to be there at the same time for us to buy the two-person membership. Josh pointed out the very obvious facts that we had two kids, how can we both be there at the same time? And why didn't he mention any of this during his passionate spiel earlier? Josh asked if they would honor the original price and just let us get two seperate memberships since that's the way they originally led us to believe it worked. They adamantly and repeatedly refused.

That brings the current standing to -- we have not, in fact, joined the gym. Josh came home to talk to me about it, since it would mean paying 25% more when it was already a bit of a stretch to pay the original price. Josh is encouraging me to do it; I'm trying to decide if I'd be irritated about the principle of the matter every time I went to work out. (Thanks to the recent college football season, the word "chippy" has been added to my working vocabulary, and I do honestly wonder if I'd be a little chippy when I went to work out.) So thanks for all your encouuraging comments about working out and joining the gym...it's just a bit premature now! :)

In other news, we got our first snow thusday and friday. It wasn't a lot - nothing like all you okies have had this winter. But technically, it would be the first snow for each of the girls...at least the first one they could potentially play in and remember. There was enough snow on the ground for us to pretend to be like Peter in Ezra Jack Keats' "The Snowy Day", mantha's most favorite book ever. We could walk with our toes pointed in like this...or walk with our toes pointed out like this....crunch, crunch, crunch. We could drag our feet slowly to make tracks...or find a stick to make a new track in the snow.

I bundled emma up in her yellow chicken jacket (a gift from a local friend that I feel very ambivalent about) and mantha in her brown eskimo jacket. Gloves. Boots. Hats. Hoods. Don't forget the camera! So out the door we went.

I had to carry the girls down the steps of the backdoor of our apartment complex because ice covered the steps. The plan was to use the swingset area in back for our activities. Fifteen steps out the door, I wondered how long I'd be able to handle being out in the cold. When I was inside, it seemed like such a fun idea to do together...but now that I was out there, it seemed like the kind of cold that's only fun to look at from indoors, on the couch, in a super-warm blanket with hot cocoa right next to you. It was most certainly NOT the kind of cold that seemed fun enough to make tracks in the snow.

I gently put both girls down; mantha immediately clutched onto my leg and screamed, 'NOOOO!" Emma took a few brave steps, trying at my instruction to walk with her toes pointing out like this.... I quickly snapped two sticks off a nearby bush so we could make tracks, then we high-tailed it back inside. Emma would have been willing to stay outside longer, but I bribed her with a kitkat and hot chocolate, so she changed her mind.

Anyway, the girls will have to wait for another snowy day to have adventures like Peter!

you know, only the crucial things...

so this post will be short, sweet and to the point - full of funny things that have been happening around here lately.

the first thing is that as of today, Josh and I are gym members. Hmmmm. I hope it will be great and super fab and help me to get rid of my flab...but really the truth is that I want to eat chicken fried steak and chocolate decadence and all those things; maybe if I join a gym I don't have to cut back quite so much! :) Plus, this gym is cool - the fifty+ treadmills and elliptical trainers are lined around 9th floor windows that overlook the city. AND there is purified air filtered into the workout floors. Now that makes me feel excited about working out.

The second thing is that yesterday, samantha officially entered the ponytail club. It's a little ponytail; it's not much but it's really cute.

Ok, here's some funny things that emma has said recently -

Today I was asking her what mysterious substance she was eating. She looked at me and said, "Oh, just a little something I found in my nose..." Isn't that comforting?!

She is convinced that the battle Joshua fought was the battle of Cherry-Ko...maybe a reference to one of her favorite games, Hi-ho Cherry O ???

We were playing dress up the other day, and the choices were between a purple ruffely princess dress and a red and gold traditional Asianese dress. While deciding which dress to wear, she finally decided on the purple and told Samantha, "Here, you wear this Asianese one, and I'll wear this English one." Crack me up!

ok, that's all from me for today. Really, this is just a pathetic attempt to put somethign on my blog...but oh well. Adios.

fa-la-la-la-la and happy 2008

I remember several months ago, my blog was stuck on “yuck, yuck, and more yuck” for several weeks. Finally, my friend Rachel commented, “I’m so tired of seeing ‘yuck, yuck, and more yuck!’ and in an effort to save my friendship, I relented and posted again. Rachel didn’t comment on it this time :) but, for the sake of you not having to relive (exhale) over and over again, I finally am back.

To start with, here’s the weeks-ago promised chopsticks pictures. I will say that since the achievement, she has yet to have a repeat performance. Maybe it was just beginners luck?!

And this was a little foam project we all did together one night, before all the holiday festivities began. (emma was so proud of her little caterpillar!)

So, anyway…December, wow! It was a super-busy month, but I don’t think there’s much I would change about it. You all know we had several Christmas parties, so I was busy many days in the kitchen. Also, we did the insane-midnight-oil cookie bake again this year. Rachel, Amy and I all went to rach’s house this year and baked well over 200 cookies – chocolate mint snowballs, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip cinnamon Mexican cookies, and traditional sugar cookies. Even though I was super disappointed with the two cookie doughs I brought (they were both brand new to me – the recipe SWORE the orange zest made the chocolate chip cookies taste “warm”…I should have known better), I somehow managed to eat my entire way through this holiday season. Fortunately, I had lots of mouths to help me eat and lots of hands to help out…

And more pictures from another party – trying to choose answers (there was some cheating going on…) for the trivia game….

But emma didn’t cheat…

And mantha wanted to make sure she got in on the fun…

And one group picture where the girls were looking AT the camera, and not actually making weird faces or anything! Wow!

By the time Christmas Day came, all our parties were over, but we still had our little activity that we were doing at a local preschool. Ok, so the plan was to tell a 3-year-old version of the Christmas story, do a little craft (make the wooden spoon angels from our ghetto nativity), and then teach them “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. We also brought Christmas presents for all the kids and wrapped them all…something made WAY easier since I just had my house helper do it all. Who wants to wrap 30 presents? Not me. :) Anyway, the short version is that it was chaotic. It was cute, fun, rewarding, glad-I-did-it…but still, a little on the chaotic side. The bright side is that ghetto nativity scene got taken along for added Christmas enjoyment, and we got descriptive pictures of the whole ordeal…

First is Samantha sporting her “why-are-you-bugging-me-I-don’t-know-you” look…It’s pretty accurate if you haven’t met her for the first time… :)

Next is the polka-dot, Emma…the little dot of blonde in the sea of black…

All the little kiddos hard at work with their angels….

And the real polka-dot of the group – the preschool’s English teacher, from Kenya playing some games outside with the older kids…

After the super-charged frenzy of the kindergarten, it was too late to go home and get something to eat, so we finally managed to get a taxi after walking through a lovely construction site that borders the kindergarten and went to pizza hut where there was an HOUR wait to get a table! Yikes! Anyway, the pizza was good and I certainly didn’t want to cook anything, so we waited and ate and then went to Baskin Robbins where the girls had free pick of anything they wanted. Of course, they would choose the little bat looking creature (probably left over from halloween) because he was chocolate, not the cute little snowmen or penguin ice cream creatures. No, no…it had to be chocolate. Like mother, like daughter, I guess….

Well, I got chocolate too (as if there was some question!) and once they were savored down to the last spoonful, we headed home where we were going to make popcorn balls and tell the Christmas story one last time before heading to bed. When we arrived on the 10th floor (where we live) and started walking down the chilly corridor, I waited at the door for josh to pull out his keys, like I always do, and one look told it all – in spite of all the things that made it out the door that morning (the 30 christmas presents, craft materials for all the kids, diaper bags for the girls, homemade cookies that would be passed out, said ghetto nativity, both children, a husband and our house helper, the keys just somehow didn’t make it. Luckily, Amy had a spare set so we trekked back over to her house and scratched the idea of popcorn balls and just went to bed.

The next day, we got some pictures of mantha with her "hey-you're-my-mom-my-most-favorite-person-in-the-world" smile, to make up for the one at the preschool... :)

But a truly merry Christmas it was, and with all the fun opportunities to share not just the story of Christmas with others around us, but with our own children who understand much more than last year, it was a very heartwarming and meaningful Christmas as well. I feel so thankful that we have been able to incorporate some fun traditions to our celebrating and that our kids were able to actively participate in the most important ways of all – helping others find the Light.

We had a rockin new year’s party last night and set a record for ourselves – I think around 3:30 or so we made it to bed. But that’s not the record – the record is that we took down our Christmas tree and all our festive décor today! (In college, our tree usually got taken down during spring break!)

This morning, we opened all our new year’s presents, and emma even pulled herself out of her three-day funk sickness to participate in the fun! They had a great time FINALLY getting to open all the stuff under the tree and played happily for hours this morning with all their loot. Thanks to everyone who sent thoughtful gifts our way this Christmas!

On a more reflective note, Christmas Day marks our 4-year anniversary of living overseas. And though these last four years have brought so many changes to our lives (namely, emma, Samantha, an unexpected move from south to north and many others), I feel so at peace with where our family is, what we’re doing, our life, and everything. That is not to say that even at times during this year there haven’t been hard times – of course, there have – but on the whole, I think about my life and where God has us, and a sigh of deep contentment falls on my spirit. This year has brought new friends to my life (like amy and her family), has reconnected me with old friends that I haven’t talked to in a while (becky and her family), so many of my sweet friends are at places of great happiness with new babies on the way (Alicia and rachel) or are about to tie the knot (kim), I feel like some of my frustrations from November have seen some resolution, I have great family on both sides that I’ve been able to hug in the not-so-distant past, and I just have a great sense of contentment at the end of 2007. It seems like the first time in a while that I haven’t been looking forward to the next year as a way to bring me out of a slump, or like some big to-do list of things I want to change. I feel excited about 2008 if it will be half as good as 2007.

So, on that note, I shall join my husband who has already gone to bed without me and Happy New Year to you all!