Milestone

"When it comes to teeth, I am now an adult!" - heard today in our home as Hannah pulled the last baby tooth out of her head.

IT happened this week

It happened at our house this week.  The youngest child finally heard the words he has been dreading.

"Hudson, your sister now gets to stay up an hour later than you."

I wish I could express the look of shock, dismay, bewilderment that came over Hudson's face in that moment.  He stood in the living room, shaking his head back and forth not moving for a while. Then he finally said, "you're kidding, right?"  nope.  More shaking of the head. More dismay.

He submitted. Still shaking his head.

Characters

In case you didn't know, these two are a handful.  They both like to laugh and are both loud, and both can find their share of mischief.  They truly are 2 peas in a pod.  And I love them both so desperately!

Homeschool Conference

Week 2 of our time in Thailand consisted of a homeschool conference.  Again, my kids were elated.  Another week running free with friends, while Rob and I are in meetings.  We traveled out to the middle of nowhere. Seriously. I have no idea where we were.  We stayed on a compound/hotel which was rustic, but had TONS of room to run, play, and be a kid.  

Hannah and her friend balancing dice on a tongue compressor.

Hudson and his buddy playing a tossing game.

Again, another precious group of people from America came and stayed with our children, teaching them all sorts of wonderful things.  One night they had a game night that was an evening full of carnival-type games for the kids, complete with prizes.

Sputnik 2: report and home-made rocket

Hudson with his Neil Armstrong poster

While we were there we had an evening where the kids all presented their projects they had been working on about space.  Needless to say there were a lot of "Neil Armstrong" and "Apollo 11" projects, Hudson's being one of them.  Hannah, however, dares to be different and didn't want to be like anyone else.  She researched and wrote a paper on Sputnik 2, then built a model of Sputnik 2 to present at the event. (insert thankfulness to the Lord for allowing me to marry a man who could build a rocket out of what is in my house).  We had a fun month learning about NASA and all the history and effort that has gone into space exloration, it was an excellent project for us to do together.  And, yes, currently, Hudson wants to be an astronaut.

My homeschool conference was good and encouraging, as I am still a newbie at this homeschooling thing, though my kids make it really easy!  I was refreshed, given new ideas, and ready to finish strong the rest of the year.

Hannah is the girl on the front row in the red shirt.

Hudson: the tall one

The last night, the kids all came in and sang for the parents.  This really makes me happy.  I love to hear my kids sing, not for pride or becasue they can, but becuase their hearts seem to soar as they sing songs to their king. These children are living in many countries all over Asia, where spirits and demonic worship are welcomed and longed for.  As these kids sang "Mighty to Save" it was all I could do to keep the tears from flooding my face as the testimony of these little lights that were shining so the whole world could see, sang with all their hearts and emotion.  It was a beautiful. Wish you could have been there.

Hellllooooo Sunshine!!

There is nothing better than swimming outside in February.  We had a beautiful pool and lots of friends to enjoy the sunshine with!  It was wonderful! Some of our favorite things to do, while not in meetings, is to swim, eat wonderful western and Mexican food, and hang out with friends.  So we did a lot of all of it!!  

2 Beautiful mermaids

 

CANNONBALLLLLL!!!!

This became quite the game at the pool. 2 dads, small children flying through the air.
Yes, this is Hudson.

We love Mike's burgers!!

The Fam finishing their burgers.

Different day, same food.  Hudson's love language is burgers.

We also had the opportunity to attend some meetings and have corporate worship and teaching while we were there.  I have to admit I never realize how much I miss meeting with other believers in a corporate setting until I am there and the tears are rolling down my eyes, and my soul is refreshed and encouraged by so many gathering together in one accord!  I am truly looking forward to that aspect of returning home this year.

There was a precious group of people who came from America to love on our kids during the week and give them a wonderful week.  Hudson participated in VBS and went to the zoo with all of his buddies.  Hannah was part of the youth, each day leaving the hotel and venturing out in the world with other kids her age.  SHE LOVED IT!! One of the events was a day of ziplining 100ft. in the air through a forest, followed by river rafting and elephant riding.  Yes, she had the time of her life.  Living where we do, with no other English speaking children their age, these weeks with friends are such a highlight!

We are truly blessed and thankful for such a wonderful week!

Traveling Adventures

We have returned home from our winter break to sunny Thailand.  I think it is excellent to take a few weeks every year when you are sick to death of being cold and throw on your t-shirt and shorts and go sit in the sunshine in 80 degree weather!!  That is what we did.

Getting there was a bit of a challenge.  Rob had some meetings that the kids and I weren't involved in so he left us for the  sunshine about 5 days early.  This left the kids and I traveling alone.  No worries, I have big kids who pull luggage and are EXCELLENT travelers. 

The night before we left I washed dishes and finished everything but cleaning my house, we weren't to leave until 2pm the next day so all I had to do was clean and pack a small bag, Rob had taken all our clothes in the big suitcases so I wouldn't have to carry the heavy load. (what a great guy!)  About 7:45 on the morning we were to leave, I get a phone call from my sweet mother -in-law telling me the airline had just called her and my afternoon flight had been cancelled, but there were still seats on the noon plane, the last one to leave our city.  What choice did I have?  I called the airline and by the time I got through and confirmed the seats, it  was 8:30.  I live an hour and a half from the airport and of course needed to be at the airport early which gave us exactly 1 hour to leave the house, and be gone for 2 weeks.  My brother promised he would clean up for me, which he did, we showered, grabbed our bags and headed out the door. We made it to the airport just in time and made our flight.

Then....instead of having an hour layover....we had 8 hours.  We had been told there was a new Starbucks that had just opened in this airport. So everyone agreed we could sit in there, drink coffee, eat a donut and hang out til our flight. PROBLEM.  The airport attendant told me it was in the international terminal, which was great, because we were flying internationally, but he was wrong. It was in the domestic terminal.  So, we went through immigration, and were then stuck in a small international terminal where all we could do was pay $5 for water and wait for HOURS with no food/dinner!!!   We hadn't eaten breakfast because we rushed out the door and hadn't eaten dinner becasue there was no place to eat.  Finally we boarded the plane and made it to Bangkok.  At 11pm we checked into our hotel, bought some snacks in the convenient store of the hotel and headed up to our room.  If only my story ended there....

Our room key said 712A.  Upon arrival of the 7th floor, I scan the doors and spot 712.  I slide my key in the door and get a red light. Slide it again, red light. I try the handle and the door opens.  We all 3 start heading in the room when we see a suitcase and a man in the bed.  Whoops!  We backpeddle very quickly trying not to wake up the person sleeping in the room.  That was when I see 712A right next door.  We all laugh and finally get to sleep.

Day 2: Our next leg of the trip was a train.  I bought train tickets online and was supposed to pick them up at the airport. PROBLEM: the tickets were on the airport complex, not actually inside the airport.  No one mentioned that on the website where I bought the tickets.  And sadly, I don't speak Thai.  I must admit, however, living in a foreign country teaches you to perfect and hone your Charades skills, so I finally found out how to get where I was going, it just involved 2 different buses and a public transportation center.  Again, on this day, being the good mom I am, there was no breakfast. Hudson scavenged some Ritz crackers for us at the hotel convenient store, but we were fading fast.  After a long ordeal I finally retrieved my train tickets and we had some time to kill, making our way through Bangkok until the train left.

The highlight of the day was the mall we found which had a Sizzler (we love Sizzler's salad buffet!) and a Cold Stone Creamery.  Since it was 2pm and we were famished we enjoyed both places!  And then we picked up some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast the next morning.  It was quite a treat for us!

At 7pm we arrived at the train station to board our train, which was to leave at 7:30.  We piled on the train and found our car mostly empty, which is nice! However, 5 minutes before the train was to leave a group of high school girls on a field trip with their school piled in our car. We had an extra bed in our room (every room in the car has 2 bunk beds) but we don't think any of them wanted to stay with us, so the 3 of us had our room to ourselves. YEA!!  7:30 rolled around and our train didn't leave. 8:00pm, still at the station. 8:30, yep, still there.  I wished so much that I could speak to those around me, but alas I have spent 3 years learning a different language, and was left to be in the dark for those hours.  Finally at 9:00pm the train rolls out of the station, only to go 5 minutes forward, putter to a stop, then go backwards into the station again.  We sat there for another hour before finally leaving for good.  We ended up on the train for 16 hours....which was fine while we slept, but not fine for hours 13-16  while Hudson was ready to get up and run around!! 

After quite a long 2 days...we finally arrived at our destination and found Rob who was waiting for us, a little worried about where we were and why we hadn't arrived on time.  Despite it all.....seeing the sunshine and feeling the warmth was worth every minute of those 2 days!

Local Friends

So this lady isn't really my friend, but she looked cool so I took my picture with her.  I think she wanted to be my friend, though.

This is our house helper's little girl and she just turned 1.  She was a cutie.  Our helper brought her over to our house on Sunday afternoon and she played and played with Hannah.  She was very outgoing and wasn't afraid of us at all, which is the case many times.....we look different.

 I love how she is laughing in this picture. Did I mention she REALLY liked Hannah?

We are happy to have friends who are willing to drop by our home and visit for awhile.  This made our day!!

Happy New Year!!

So you thought it was already 2011, and had been for a month.  Over 1 billion people would beg to differ with you.  Finally the holiday season has arrived.  For those of us who are expats, Christmas and Thanksgiving just don't have the holiday feel.....but alas, New Year has arrived.  There is red everywhere and the shopping is insane.  Hannah and I have enjoyed venturing out into the streets to take it all in.  I have found that every day I have bumped into someone different on the streets who I know.  It is quite a reminder that we do live in a "small" town.   Here are a few sights we saw on this day.  

Cotton Candy only comes once a year in this country
Hannah waiting for her freshly spun blue flavor.



Hannah walking down the street of our town, booths as far as the eye can see.

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This man is selling blessings to be pasted on the sides of every doorway. Hopefully this will help good luck come to each home.