It's May!!!

I don't think I've ever been more excited to see the month of May in my whole life!

And our church is putting on the 4th annual Amazing Race this weekend - its for any high school students, in groups of 4. They will race around Bangkok completing challenges which will begin at 7am on Saturday and end at 11am on Sunday morning. The time and effort that the planners of the event is insane. It looks so cool (and I wish I could be a part of it). I, however, got to help fold papers (well over 600 sheets, to be exactish) for the challenges yesterday. And while I was doing that, Kylie went with her friend Allie to the big Nichada pool to swim :)

Tidbits

So, not too much new going on here. We've had some fun play dates recently. This afternoon Megan had a play date set up with her friend Katie. I invited Katie's mom, Amy, to bring the rest of her crew over to play as well. Katie is 7, David is 6, Megan is 4 and Kevin is 2. It was good chaos. Kids running everywhere, snacks everywhere, Kylie and the other Megan not sharing, the littlest Kevin happy as a lark because no one was bothering him but he could still be in the middle of it all, David and Jack wrestling (we couldn't figure out if we should stop it, but they continued to have smiles and laugh as they were doing it, so we thought it was okay) and Moo and Katie being bugged by the little girls. A fun time.

Near the end, we heard something break...Kevin had gotten into Moo's wine glass sand art she did in Cha-am and accidentally shattered it. Glass was EVERYWHERE. Had we not had friends over, I would have gotten the camera and taken a picture of the pretty sand all over her wood floor, glass all over her carpet, on the wood floor, out the door and down the steps. Kevin's reply? "I 'pilled." Megan was hysterical while I was trying to explain that it was an accident and he certainly didn't mean to and that we would try to make another one again.

I have no pictures from the afternoon, but it was fun. I do, however, have pictures of a couple of other things:

Grammy gave the kids each 200B for Easter. Megan and Kylie chose a decorative pillow for their beds. Kylie's is the dark purple one on the left, Megan's is the blue one with great colors on the right...both in chinese satin (from the place you purchased some purses Tricia at JJ Mall)! Jack chose 2 sets of blue lights. They are hanging in his bedroom and we plug them in at night - so fun and a good choice for him. I'll post a picture of them in his room later.

A close up of a beautiful pink hibiscus in my front yard. We also have birds of paradise in our yard at the moment, too!

Yay!!! My friend Bridgette took me to a great frame shop here last week. I wanted to get Jack's new picture for his room framed, as well as 3 prints I purchased from Sara's Art House! My 3 will go in my living room :) Exactly what I wanted and in 5 days! And insanely less than at Michael's, even with a coupon!

Playdate for Kylie

Miss Kylie Grace had a playdate this morning. With her friend Allie. Too cute is all I can say. The girls got along really well, had fun playing dress-up, princesses, a game of memory with me, had a pretend "pic-mic" (picnic in Allie's words), ate a real lunch of hot dogs, chips and carrots, had a flav-o-ice, played babies and only argued 1x, which I didn't hear, but Kylie reported it to me out of guilt, then quickly apologized to Allie. All in all, a good morning. It was nice to hear them plotting to have a playdate this afternoon over at Allie's house...as soon as Allie's mom Sarah came to pick her up :) We did inform the girls that we would have to wait until next week for another playdate, but it would happen.

Kylie and Allie are just a few of the 3 year olds in the neighborhood who aren't in preschool, so it's hard to find playdates when the other kids don't get home until 1pm, which is still naptime, then it's almost time for dinner. Fun for the girls and I didn't have to break up any arguments or fighting, so it was fun for me, as well!

And yes, those are skull stickers on the girls and a tattoo on Allie's forearm. They run with a tough crowd. (and have 4 big brothers between the 2 of them).

Youth Pastor Wanted

Have we told you about our church here? It is a non-denominational international church located within our neighborhood and is about 1/3 mile away from us. Neighbors walk there, but we drive because otherwise we would be soaked with sweat by the time we got there :) It's a great church and we are very thankful for it.

We have definitely come to the God-given revelation that this church could be any crazy church here. It is owned by the neighborhood we live in. A smart developer, to say the least. They built the school, neighborhood with apartments, townhouses and single family homes in all sizes, a church, a shopping center (grocery, dry cleaners, florist, hairdresser, Starbucks, etc), a country club and a doctor's walk-in office. It's brilliant. They couldn't care less about who leases the church. Thankfully, it is a church who loves Jesus. We've come to the realization that our Pastor has a heart and a vision for the church and the people in the area. It's amazing to see the plan God gave him for a church that basically turns over every year in this "ex-pat" community. A new elder board pretty much every year or so, a new deacon board pretty much every year or so, a new worship team pretty much every year, a whole slew of newcomers every August. When we first got here and met the pastor, he said, "If you've been here 1 year, you're considered an old-timer." I thought he was joking, but that is the reality of life here in this community. If you love Jesus, you can take a role in the church.

But it's also a great group of believers. We joined the church as members the other month and were introduced to the church as such. The pastor called up the elders to pray for/over us and we knew personally 4 out of the 5 guys. 2 are in our house group, 1 lives in our neighborhood and works with Dan, another is the Pastor and the other is the head Worship leader (who we don't really know). I think it's the first time that we've been in a church and really have known people. So we find ourselves here and really loving our church and are very thankful to God for what it is and who is in charge there.

That being said, our current Youth Pastor and his wife, who happen to be friends of ours, will be moving back to the States this summer. Chaengwattana Community Church is looking for a new Youth Pastor to replace him. It is a unique position in the fact that it is dealing with the school, ISB, and the Nichada community primarily...which means a lot of families from all over the world who are pretty wealthy. I realize that we are pretty wealthy compared to the majority of the world anyway, but we are on the lower rungs when it is compared with the rest of Nichada. Quite a few CEO's, CFO's, Chairmen of the Board's...Great families, but very different than what you think of when coming to minister in a 3rd world country. And, every family who lives in Nichada has children that go to ISB, which is very different than any other neighborhood where you have a mix of singles, childless couples and empty nesters. It is a unique position in a unique community in Bangkok with the opportunity to change the world. If any of you know of anyone who would be interested in applying for this position, would you please direct them here to this LINK, so they can look into it further?

The "Big 2-2"

Eleven years ago today, April 22, 1998, Dan and I officially began dating! The "Big 22" as we like to call it, set a precedent for us getting engaged 6 months later on October 22nd, then married 15 months after that on January 22nd! :) Happy Big 22 Tweeter! I can't believe we've been together 11 years!!! I love you!!!

A picture of us at a Mongolian Barbecue in Roanoke for a Young Life Leadership weekend the previous February. We barely knew each other, but happened to sit next to each other - I was getting up to go get more food or something and A (I think) asked us to pose for the picture. Check out my signature college wear: half-up pigtails, windbreaker and i'm pretty sure I have on overalls on under the windbreaker. So classic.

Us on spring break in St. John, USVI. Again, still not dating (it was the middle of March). Just a good time of getting to know each other. Happened to be sitting on the same side of the taxi :)

Officially dating here - at my neice Hannah's 2nd Birthday (the Ladybug Party). She was smitten by him and made him sit by her while she ate cake. Good thing he became a part of our family :)

Fancy Piggy Toes

The kids and I went to Smile today to get our nails done. Jack brought the DS and Kylie my iPod. Kylie wanted to get her nails done in black - with sparkles and Moo, after much debate, decided to not have anything done to her nails. She got them cut and has clear polish on them. I chose a pale green with a fun flower design. And I got more pink tinsel in my hair (and Kylie got 1 free strand of dark blue tinsel in hers, courtesy of Kuhn Nok). Voila!

The Dead Gecko

I wasn't going to post about this, but now I feel like I have to. 2 weeks ago, I was vacuuming the living room under the curtains and a baby gecko ran out from under them! I watched it scurry to under our shoe storage and continued vacuuming - until I got to another set of curtains and saw a gecko lying there. I tried to shoo it away, but to no avail. He stayed firmly planted in his space and me poking him did nothing to get him going, either. It seems he was dead. So, here I am, with Kylie home, the big kids at school and a husband traveling, with a dead gecko (and a large one at that) in my living room. I don't really like geckos at the best of times. I have learned to tolerate them, but having a dead one in my living room is not great. I wasn't about to remove it from the house, but I figured there might be someone around our neighborhood who would be willing to, so I sent the following email:

Hey All,
I'm in 39/862 and have a dead Gecko in my living room (i'm guessing it's dead...it won't move when poked). I was wondering if anyone would be willing to come and remove it for me. I don't know what the going rate is for dead Gecko removal, but whatever it is, I'm willing to pay it! Let me know if you are willing...

I got 2 emails quickly back from friends in the neighborhood commiserating with me on the dead gecko (and unwilling to offer help, which I understand). I got a call from my next door neighbor who volunteered her high school girl to come over when she got home from school to come and remove it - stating that Ashley did that kind of stuff all the time for her and wouldn't mind in the least! Ashley came over when she got home from school, slid it onto the piece of paper and tossed it in the garden outside. I thanked her profusely and sent her a card made by Megan later in the afternoon with money to get a pedicure. A win/win situation.

HOWEVER, an hour or so later I got a call from a neighbor. Now, I've met this neighbor 2x's before and had in-depth conversations with her. Once here in the neighborhood and once in the thai grocery store where we were the only 2 expats. So, with this in mind, she calls and laughingly asks if I had gotten the dead gecko taken care of yet. The whole time it sounds like she is barely keeping herself from bursting into laughter. She says, "Clearly you haven't lived in Asia before if you can't even handle a dead gecko". I'm in the middle of 14 different things and she's going on and on about how inept I am in handling dead geckos. She says at one point, "I just had the best chuckle reading through your email. I wanted to...no, no, that would just be rude." So I tell her to finish her thought - no worries. She says, "Well, this email was just too funny that I wanted to know if I could forward it onto other friends so they could get a laugh, too." And I'm like, "Sure, why not..." So, then she asks who I am exactly and where I live and states that we haven't ever met. I'm like, "(insert name here), we've met and had 10+ minute long conversations in both the neighborhood and Carrefour." And she clearly doesn't remember, which is kinda the icing on the dead gecko cake.

And I have to say that I've been, laughingly, asked 2x's more how my dead gecko is. From other people. I have to say, aside from A who has them in her house and possibly Bri and Sarah (who I don't remotely know if they have geckos), would you be willing to remove a dead gecko from your house? Oh, and if any of you are needing a name for your garage band? The Dead Geckos has a nice ring to it. Just FYI.

Lost Pictures - 3/22/09

I'm fairly sure I haven't posted this pictures here before...On March 22nd, we went over to our friends house (Roger and Becky's) after church. Let me first start out by saying that Roger was supposed to do announcements at church that morning, but was running late, so Paul, the Youth Pastor, did them. Paul started the morning out with, "You know you live in Thailand when..." and filled in the blank with "you fill in doing the announcements for a guy who had to kill a snake that was attacking his cat in the yard and then went after his bike tire." Yes. Roger had walked out to ride his bike to church and there was a snake facing down his cat. So Roger tried to shoo the snake away and it bit the cat and then struck the bike tire. So Roger killed it. And, we got to hear this story about 1 hour before we were supposed to be over there for a cookout. Not exactly what I had in mind. But, apparently the snake was non-poisionous because the cat is still alive and kicking :)

Anyway, point to my story is that Roger and Becky were hosting a cookout at their house (absolutely huge and beautiful) as a last get together before Dan headed out and then Matt and Tricia headed out. It was a great time, we were late due to quick naps we snuck in on the kids, we got to swim for a long time and the kids (and Dan, i think) got to do the zip-line they have in their backyard. Too fun.

We have loved our house group from church and have enjoyed getting to know everyone...I'm not sure I post about them often, but it's been great. Here are some pics Tricia took and sent to me...funny to have me in the pictures :)

Morgan, Megan and Jack

Matt, Dan and Aaron

Aysha, Steve, Kylie, Me and Jaya

Me, Jaya, Bridgette, Ro, Tricia and Matt

Songkran - LIVE

I'm assuming that you have read about what is going on in Bangkok right now. And I don't mean Songkran. I mean the red shirt protesters and burning of buses and government buildings being broken into and the army being called out. Nice. Welcome to Bangkok. It's definitely a "don't go outside" zone downtown, or was yesterday. Since we live about 12 miles outside of downtown, we did venture out to say goodbye to Matt and Tricia - we did lunch at McDonalds, ice cream at Swensen's then went back after naps to drop off and pick up things. While it's sad to say goodbye to them, we all feel like we'll just see each other again, so it's not too sad.

Here's what we learned about Songkran while driving:
-It's FUN.
-There are groups of people everywhere on the side of the road dousing people, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks - whoever.
-People also use a baby powder/water mixture to decorate people/cars.
-People go out on motorcycles to just do laps and get doused.
-TONS of trucks were out with groups of kids/adults/teens in the bed of the truck with a huge trash barrel full of water to douse people (I have never seen so many trucks or motorcycles out)!
-Most businesses are closed for at least Monday-Wednesday, if not the whole week.
-That means no Que Pasa, no other restaurants, no nails done, most every store closed...
-A lot of our friends are gone for Songkran to wonderful crazy places: China, New Zealand, Bali, Borneo, Pattaya, Phuket...we live an unreal life.

On the 2nd trip to Matt and Tricia's yesterday afternoon, we parked our car outside of their house and Matt met us there. When we got out of the car, a Thai gentleman came over and had a bowl of water in his hands. He doused Megan's shoulder, then Jack's, then Kylie started SCREAMING. He avoided her and doused my shoulder as well, then Matt's. Then another Thai man came over and put the white paste on our cheeks (leaving Kylie alone) - and then they soaked Megan and Jack through. I will say that the big kids did a GREAT job of not getting upset. If you know Megan, you know that she sobs when she spills water on herself. She was so brave and didn't get worried, but had a smile pasted on her face. Not a real smile, but a fake one, which was just as good, considering. :) It was nice to be a part of Songkran, even if we didn't really want to be.

Then, this morning (Tuesday), the kids and I headed up to our little neighborhood guard gate with our friends to douse passersby. The guards were nice enough to set up a hose for us to fill our buckets and waterguns, as well as use to douse people! We were out for about 2 hours and had a blast...and we all have sun (not quite burns) on our cheeks. I wish I had taken pictures out there, but I wasn't willing to risk our camera :) Happy Sonkran! Suksan wan Songkran!!!

Cute group of teens who were waving to us at a stoplight! When it turned green, we pulled up along side of them so they could douse us with water!

Cute girls across the street from Matt and Tricia's...have you noticed Thai girls give the "peace" sign in pictures?

Motorcycles out to get wet!

Group of teens splashing others and themselves!

Our car

Matt, Tricia and the kiddos "wai-ing" with Ronald

Bugga, Jack and their "Buddy"

Miss Tricia and Moo

Cute Ice cream sundae with oreo ice cream and a chocolate covered cherry!

Notice the seating places...Only normally Mr. Matt had to be in between Kylie and Jack



Kylie hiding in laundry baskets with Mr. Matt

The kids getting ready for Songkran this morning! (and giving you the "fist of rock")!

Our Easter

We had a great, but definitely different Easter. Started out with an Egg hunt here in our living room...which lead to a new Webkinz for each of the kids! Megan got a Sea Otter (Seaweed), Jack got a Bald Eagle (Scaredy) and Kylie got a Whimsy Dragon (Popcorn). Then we headed out to church!

After church we drove downtown to the Royal Orchid Sheraton hotel on the Chao Phraya River. We had a total of 6 adults and 13 kids for their big Easter Brunch. It was a very fancy place, expensive, but really a lot of fun and great for a once in a lifetime chance :) The kids did well eating lots of different things...gigantic prawns (as shrimp are called in Thailand), homemade hummus and pita, roast beef, ham, cajun chicken, great fruit, lebanese bologna...and lots of foods that they didn't try: goose liver pate, salmon in various forms, lamb, braised rabbit, monkfish in a mango salsa, sushi, tons of different thai dishes, indian dishes and japanese dishes. Curiously my favorite thing was a panini they had there...grilled eggplant, mozzerella, other things and perfectly done! :) Blended fruit juices, a 3 piece band, a HUGE selection of desserts, french chocolate eggs brought around for the kids and then they were also given small Easter baskets with various chocolates in them. Then they had a magic show and dog show...too funny! We had a great time and the kids want to know when we can go back - probably not anytime soon. It cost us $77 USD for the kids and I, Kylie was free and we had 20% off. Not cheap, but again, it was fun to do something on Easter without Daddy. :)

Then, after we got home, we went to the pool with 2 of the families from brunch and another one was there...it was so fun swimming with everyone! I wish I had gotten pictures of the kids swimming! Overall, a fun Easter!