The Shelf and more

Dan built me a shelf the 1st Christmas we were married...so December 2000? Nine years ago? It's great and I loved it, but never knew how to put it up or decorate it. He made it with an S for our last name and it's so fun! I don't really like wood unpainted, so I knew I wanted to paint it, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. So it moved from Malone, to Blacksburg, to Leesburg, to our 1st house in Bangkok until I finally figured out what to do with it...and all the Mary Engelbreit stuff I have accumulated over the years...

It's for Kylie's room! I realized that she needed a shelf in her room and figured I could use an old "tear a day" Mary Engelbreit desk calender to decoupage it with Mod Podge! I had never used Mod Podge, but it was so easy and simple to use. Since the wood was unfinished, all I had to do was use a small foam brush to paint some Mod Podge on the back of the picture I cut out, then press it on the wood and cover over the top with Mod Podge. After the shelves were finished, I painted it (should have done it in reverse...now I know) and did NOT like the dark, dark purple. So, we went and picked up another purple that was perfect! It turned out so cute! I already had the K and letters for our last name, so I found the Y-L-I-E on ebay before we even moved to Thailand (seriously, I know I think about projects for a looong time - I'm definitely not a "spur of the moment" girl, unless I know I'm going to love it). Anyway, it turned out so cute! And we are finally getting Kylie's room decorated a bit!

I've made both Megan and Jack things with their names (Megan when she was a month or so old - we still lived in Malone and Jack when he was maybe 10 months old) but had never figured out what to do for Kylie. Well, I just finished it and we both love it. It's totally her - a shimmery orange/gold that she chose out, a cute Momma and Baby elephant and some sparkly ribbon!

Oh, and my Mom had given us all these cute Mary Engelbreit magnets, so we got a magnet board for Kylie's closet and she has a great time playing with them...so fun!

Can you guess what's on my mind?

Seriously, can you? It's September 24th (incidentally my 1/2 birthday) and I have serious issues with Christmas on my brain...you know - in between planning Jack's 6th Birthday, thinking through Halloween costumes and being in 95 degree weather. CHRISTMAS. Oh, and not just needing to buy presents (which I do - for everyone but Laura)...but decorating! We cannot believe that we haven't celebrated Christmas in this house. In Thailand, yes. But not in this house. And here's what's weird..for Dan and I, at least. We've lived in 5 houses total in our marriage and celebrated Christmas in all the previous 4 - and generally one of the first thoughts I have when we first enter the new house is, "Ah, THAT'S where the Christmas tree will go!" But. Not. This. House.

It's kinda stressing me out. Putting up our tree here will involve moving of furniture - which I don't like. Dan is more than happy to move furniture around (much like his Mother) while I grew up in a house that had the same arrangement for my whole life (mostly due to the fact that we had a blind dog and moving the furniture would have just been mean). But still...we still have to figure out where to put the Christmas tree and where to move furniture to when we have to move it out of the way. I'll stop fussing about it now.

BUT my point to this post was to say that we went to IT Square today - me, Megan, Jack and Kylie. To look for things for Megan's Halloween Costume (i.e. non-Halloween things, but things that can be used as Halloween Costume things)...and I found great stuff at an Export Store (I think it's just clothes made in Thailand/Cambodia, etc for Old Navy, Aeropostale, American Eagle, etc that doesn't get shipped). Anyway, found great stuff for cheap ($2USD each) and am getting the urge to decorate...which offically won't happen for 2 more months, but LOOK!

Nope, not pillow covers - 2 shirts and a pair of Old Navy pajama pants! I'll make them officially sometime in the next couple of weeks, but we wrapped them around pillows on the sofa just to see how they look!


Seriously, look at all this fun stuff! 2 pairs of pajama pants (1 red fleece, 1 Old Navy print), 2 pairs of shorts, 3 tops (red polka dot, green stripe and red stripe tank top), green shoes for Megan and 2 Reindeer hand towels for my bathroom downstairs at Christmas! I think the shoes/towels/red striped tank top are the only things not getting altered or cut up in some way :) I'll keep you posted...mmm, Christmas.

Croc Farm III - The Return, Again

We made it back from the Croc Farm safely with all 7 kids and all the fingers we came with - which I have to say, is quite the accomplishment! The first time we went there, it was just our family. Then we took Matt and Tricia. Now we went with our family, another family who has 4 kids and their friend. It was good, crazy, hot, slightly stressful and fun. A very mixed combo.

We watched the Croc Show again, where they put their heads in the crocs' mouths and all their crazy stuff...and the whole time I kept thinking, "The 1st time it was crazy, the 2nd time it was fun and now I just feel like the odds are against me and we're gonna see someone get their head chomped off." Not good.

The highlights this time for me, I think, were that we got to buy bunches of string beans and feed them through a fence to goats and then deer that came out - too fun! (And I'm sure I've mentioned before that goats are Dan's favorite animal, so that was fun, too!) And at some point in the morning Kylie made some reference to the "pigs" at the zoo and I thought she was crazy - then we saw the wild boar's they had! And little boar piglets! So cute!

We had a fun time with the other family - our 3 kids were allowed to walk and hold hands with their "buddy" and did a pretty good job of it. Surprisingly Jack and his buddy D did the best at staying together and holding hands! I wish I would have gotten a picture of all of them doing it, because it was too cute, but clearly I wasn't thinking about it then! Here are some highlights of the 119 pictures I took and I'm pretty sure that Ken beat me and took more!

M and Kylie pretending they could hear better with straws in their ears

Amy and I

Me and my Tweeter

Me and my Moopert

All the kiddos (l to r, back than front): Jack, D, K, Megan
Bonus, M and Kylie


Me and my Bugga

My Tweeter posing with a goat!


Me and my Jack

Wild Boars (I thought they were warthogs - Megan corrected me!)

Kylie posing with an orangutan

Feeding the goats string beans

The kiddos waiting for the elephant show to begin

A couple of minutes into the show

Good friends

Silly, 3rd born girl, friends


The adults: Margot, Amy, Ken, Bonus, Me and Dan

The Men

The 2 families at the very end! We lasted 5 hours, which - with 7 kids aged 7 and under, not too shabby in 96 degree weather!

Two minutes into the car ride home - zonked!

TP and Teacher Work Days

Kylie and I normally do our grocery shopping for the week on Monday mornings at 9am - the exact time the grocery store opens. Less people, we get done quicker and we're home. Generally when we get home, I'll bring in the groceries...except for non-perishables, which wait in the car until Dan gets home. This week it was 2 large things of toilet paper. This is what ensued by Dan bringing the toilet paper inside...
I was in the kitchen making dinner when Megan came in out of breath and explained that on a window in our living room - which is way up high and has a big ledge (that Dan secretly wishes he could jump to)...is a roll of toilet paper - stuck! Apparently Dan thought it would be funny to to throw them at the kids so they could put them upstairs under sink cabinets...but Jack wanted to throw one back at him and it landed on the window ledge. They had to get a broom handle to reach out over the top of our stairs and fish it off. Then toilet paper baseball, and toilet paper outfits ensued...here is Dan pretending to be the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the scene where she fights either Edmund or Peter with 2 swords...nice.

So I mentioned The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? We decided to read it as a family and finished it last week. The kids loved it and made some great correlations/had some great thoughts about it. At one point, Megan said, "So Aslan died willingly - eventhough he didn't have to - for Edmund, just like Jesus died on the cross for us!" I told her I can remember being in Summer Campaigners in Franklin Oaks and finally making that same connection and no one knew what I was talking about because they hadn't read it! She's a quick one, that Moo.

This one, on the other hand...she fell asleep for the last 2 chapters of the book, so she missed that Aslan came back to life.

So Dan bought the movie and we watched it together as a family (with lots of scary parts fast-forwarded by Dan while little hands covered up eyes). Kylie finally got to see that Aslan comes back to life and defeats the White Witch...if you haven't read the books in the Chronicles of Narnia - here's my plug. You can borrow them at ANY library and they are AMAZING! I always think of the conversation/quotations that A and I got on in Austin right after church...C.S. Lewis is an amazing author and makes his books come to life. Okay, enough of a plug. But seriously, they are good.
We've had other things going on this week...like 2 teacher work days, Dan getting measured for his very own tux (so he can take me to a ball!), a cookout with the church and lunch out with friends...Lord willing, we'll head to our favorite Croc Farm tomorrow with friends, their 4 kids and their other friend who is staying with them! We've done the Croc Farm as a family, the Croc Farm with Matt and Tricia and are now attempting the Croc Farm with 7 kids total. Lord willing, we won't lose anyone or lose any fingers. Although we are going with a family where the Mom wanted to be a HIPPO when she grew up :) We'll keep you posted, I'm sure!

Hard Rock

So the other week Dan had to work a little later than he normally does, which meant that he would miss all the shuttles to get him home. He can catch a taxi, but they are not thrilled with coming out to where we live in the middle of rush hour. So, the kids and I decided to go down, meet him at work and then do dinner out downtown. We have quite a few friends who have been to the Hard Rock Cafe Bangkok and love it (good food, great with kids, reasonable prices)...so we decided to try it out! It's not too far from Dan's work and is easy to get to by the Sky Train (which the kids love riding) so it worked out well!

We got there and got seated. They brought out a balloon for each of the kids, a kids menu, a pack of crayons, a Hard Rock Cafe pin and a set of rub-on tattoos for each kid! We ordered a fancy cheeseburger for Dan, a Cobb salad for me, 2 macaroni and cheese's for the big kids and a hot dog for Kylie. Plus 3 lemonades and 2 cokes. The kids did not like the macaroni and cheese (which tasted like it had wine in it? It was like my Mom's Cheese Rarebit, which I love, but which is freaky to serve kids with noodles in it). My salad was fine but not great and Dan's burger was okay. The total bill came to 2200B or $64.71. !!!!! Then, I guess as part of the bill, we were given 3 kid's cups to take home and 2 souvenir glasses for Dan and I. Definitely the last time we go there. :-/

So we left there and decided to walk around a bit...through some fun streets we had not been down before with fun stores...

We have friends here who like games. More than Dan and I do and thought they would appreciate the "nail service & strategist club" sign.

Miss Kylie saw this cool chef guy and wanted her picture taken...


Then got the other 2 to get in with her. So then after this street, we walked downs some back streets and thought we could cut through an area to get out to the road by Dan's work and not have to take the Sky Train...turns out we were wrong. We walked. And walked. And walked. And ran into massive amounts of bugs. And walked. And realized we were stuck inside the Royal Thai Police Headquarters. And walked. And I made them take this next picture...


And walked some more and finally got to Dan's road where his work is off of! By the time we got to his work to get the car, we were all grumpy, soaked with sweat and exhausted. Not exactly the plan we had for the night, but good to check off the Hard Rock Cafe on our "to do" list. Done once and won't be going back :)

Labor Day

Dan had off yesterday! He hasn't been in Bangkok for a holiday (whether Thai or US) in MONTHS! I think since January or February. It was soooo nice to have him home. We got tons of stuff done in the morning (Megan and Jack still had school because they are only off for Thai holidays) and took Kylie to lunch at the Mall! We went to a place called:


It's a Charcoal Grill and Japanese Restaurant. My friend Sarah took Kylie and I there last Monday with her 2 little girls and it was really fun and yummy! I wanted to take Dan back there, but figured it would be cheaper if we didn't bring Megan and Jack, so lunch worked great!

We ordered beef back ribs, bacon, corn, okra, some kind of noodles (chub chae), chicken teriyaki, rice, vegetables and miso soup. They bring out a little charcoal grill, pull down the vent hood to keep the smoke to a minimum and we grilled our own meat right there! Everything was so yummy and fun...although we ended up lighting our bacon on fire :) The ladies had to bring lettuce leaves to place on the grill to make the fire go out. I liked that they brought the lettuce leaves out on a pretty plate all nicely arranged and weren't remotely in a panic...still so Thai, even with flames coming out of the grill! :) Hopefully they are used to it...especially with us farangs (foreigners...pronounced far-ong and kinda rhyming with King Kong).

Kylie likes it...the rice, the corn and the "chicken" which is what she calls the beef ribs and would gladly eat all of it if we let her :) Yay for holidays!!!