Slices of Life

June 7, 2012

Why oh why is Abby such a hoot.  She came downstairs with gloves on her feet and gloves on her hands and a hat on her head.  She is such a wild card because you never quite know what she is going to do next.   Luckily most of her random acts are not destructive.  She definitely keeps us entertained.

June 9, 2012

We have rice paper screens in one of the rooms of our Japanese house.  They are beautiful but very dangerous for little hands as they rip very easily.  When we first moved into this house it didn't take too long before we noticed the first few holes in the screens.  We just left them there chalking it up to having small kids.  Well, I think Mike was sick of looking at the holes so he read up on how to replace the paper and did it himself.  It didn't take him too long to replace both sliding doors and one window screen.  The fun part was letting the kids punch as many holes as they wanted in the old paper. Then Mike peeled everything away and replaced it with the new paper. Now they look beautiful and they still are hole free!

June 12, 2012

We were making spaghetti tonight when we realized that our Prego was not looking so good on the inside.  It was one of those nights where we really needed a fast dinner and since the noodles were already cooking we knew we needed a replacement and fast.  Mike quickly thought of the sauce we use for our Chicago pizza and we made that instead.  It was absolutely delicious, especially with the fresh basil.  We vowed that we would never buy prego again but would just make our own sauce from now on.  It takes a little more work but it tastes so much better.  Thank you Cooks Illustrated for the great recipe!

June 15, 2012

Abby has been more interested in the piano these days.  This morning Andrew was trying to teach Abby how to play three blind mice because it only involved three keys.  Abby would play it going upscale instead of going downscale but that didn't matter to her because she was so proud of herself for "playing the piano." 

July 17, 2012

These year I decided to really make Father's Day a special one for Mike.  The kids and I put together a fun basket full of yummy treats as well as a token jar with things in it like:  free backrub, free babysitting, a day of no complaining...etc.  The kids were so excited to fill out their own coupons for Mike with things they were willing to do for him.  He really is our super hero and we are so lucky to have him.

Singapore . Days 8-9

June 28, 2012

We spent our last day of vacation at the Marriott in downtown Singapore.  The Marriott hotel has a very Asian look which is kind of cool.  It was fun to be able to explore the downtown area and go shopping.  We didn't buy much since the prices were worse than Japan and way more than online prices.  Still, it was fun to be in a REAL mall and walk around.  It felt much like being back in the US.  We spent our last day swimming in the outdoor pool on the 5th level of the hotel.  It's always good to end a vacation ready to go home. 

June 29, 2012

We headed back to the Air Base and waited to see if we would get on the flight.  Everyone there got on the flight which was good.  About an hour after checking our bags we were told that the base was shutting down because the Singapore Air Force was doing parachuter training.  Our flight would be delayed a couple of hours and would potentially not leave unless we could leave by a certain time.  We weren't allowed to leave the base because it was being shut down and there was no guarantee we would be let back in.  So, we all hung out in the small and kind of yucky terminal waiting to see if we would get home today.  There were lots of nice people and a few other kids that our kids played with.  There was a really nice lady who let me use her extra outlet converter so that I could use my computer.  After all that waiting we got the go ahead to board the plane.  We were super thrilled that everything worked out.  Even with the extra waiting we were so happy to be heading home on a free flight.  In the end we saved ourselves $4,000 in air fare and the wait and annoyance of Space A was totally worth it for this trip!  Thank you Space A!

Indonesia . Days 6-7

June 26, 2012

This morning the girls decided to try their luck at the trapeze that was set up by the pool.  Emma was pretty brave and had no problems getting up to the top and then she seemed to enjoy herself while she was flying.  Abby, on the other hand, was ok getting up but once they released her to fly on her own she freaked out and started crying hysterically.  It was a little sad to see but I was so proud of her for being so brave.  Unfortunately the boys missed their age time because we were heading over to another part of the island to ride elephants.

Mike has been looking forward to riding elephants ever since we knew we would be living in Asia.  We thought about the possibility of traveling to Cambodia or Thailand sometime while we were in Asia but decided that we could easily do it while we were in Indonesia.  In fact, that was one of the big reasons for staying on Bintan Island in Indonesia.  As we rode to the other side of the island in a cab we were once again reminded where we truly were....INDONESIA.  It was truly an eye opener to see how different it was to be in a country where everything was run down and where things were not clean at all.  We stopped at a little town so that Mike could get tickets to ride the elephants and he said it reminded him of one of the poor areas of his mission in Brasil.  On the upside, riding the elephants was truly an amazing experience.  There were two of us on each elephant.  The girls got to ride in front on the elephants head which I am sure was far more comfortable than riding the elephants bare back like the rest of us.  We were lucky that the ride was mostly in the jungle so that we didn't have to compete with the hot sun.  The elephants were amazing and so incredible to watch.  Peter and I rode Fina, Mike and Emma rode Ema, and Abby and Andrew rode Mely.  Our little guides rode barefoot with their feet wrapped around the ropes attached to the elephants.  They had little rods with a sharp end but they never really used them to get the elephants to do what they wanted.  We loved watching the elephants stop to grab large branches to eat.  The entire ride was a bit surreal.  I wasn't sure how everyone was going to like it but all the kids loved riding the elephants...even Abby.  When our ride was over we got to feed our elephants little plantain bananas and pet them.  The elephant skin was a lot rougher than I had expected and their little hairs were quite prickly.  The girls especially like feeding the elephants.  And just when we thought the elephants were quite adventurous we watched Mike walk over to hold the albino python.  He was pretty brave and so were Peter and Emma who jumped right in the picture with Mike.  Then we all jumped in to get a quick picture.  I was not thrilled to be so close to the snake especially when I saw its head look toward me.  Abby's expression says it all....what the heck are we doing?

We spent the rest of the day at both the pool and the beach.  We loved eating afternoon snacks at the grill by the water and just enjoying each other without any distractions.  These times are truly my favorite when we are all together having so much fun and not worrying about anything else and completely unplugged from the world.    

June 27, 2012

Well, all good things come to an end.  We spent the morning in the pool before heading back to our room to pack up all of our things and head out.  We truly had a great time at the Club Med Resort on Bintan Island.  Even after feeling super relaxed, I was kind of anxious to get back to civilization.  When I stopped to think about har far south we were on the globe it kind of freaked me out.  I longed for familiar and home.  It's a good thing we were heading home!