International Day (Week, really)

The kids had International Week at school this past week! Jack's kindergarten had parents come in and present different workshops from various countries (flower arranging from Thailand, henna painting from India, learning about folktales from Ireland, etc)! Megan had 5 different countries represent in the 5 different classrooms for her grade and do activities, have food from that country, play games and learn about different things from there! The 5 countries were India, Ireland, Thailand, Israel and someplace else that I will have to ask her about...sorry!

Jack's Henna tattoo "J"

Then, on Thursday (because Friday was a teacher work day), they had the "Parade of Nations" and an assembly! They were allowed to wear a costume/tradtional dress from your country and carry their flag! Megan wore a cowgirl outfit and Jack his Old Navy USA t-shirt. We really don't have a national costume...

But, the rest of the kids looked ADORABLE!!! My favorites by far are the Korean girls, the Thai kids in their silks and the Indian girls in their saris! Here are a few cute ones!

Thai girl and Korean girl

Swedish girl

Norwegian girl

Thai muay thai kickboxer boy, American girls and a sweet girl from Papua New Guinea! SOOOOO FUN!!!

A Present

In EW (our Encouraging Women Bible Study) I am doing a study called God Seeker by Kristen Sauder. It's a study on Exodus 33

God says, "Seek Me." Does that mean He's hiding? It sure feels like it sometimes. Frantic weekly routines and pressing responsibilities keep us preoccupied, yet we can't shake the nagging realization that day after day God seems awfully far away. God Seeker aims to dispel the myth that intimacy with God is only for a few. This study encourages you to pursue God passionately expecting a dynamic, uniquely personal relationship with Him. God Seeker not only offers hope for a brand new vibrancy and vitality in your relationship with God, it also trains you how to seek God, and how to sustain the intimacy your soul longs for. Practical, attainable action points based on Biblical truths shatter the barriers and bring God near - to stay!

We've only completed 2 weeks, but for me, so far, it's been good. Last week we were studying and talking about how to have your "tent of meeting" (i.e. quiet time/devotional time/time with God) and what it looks like. I was telling the rest of the ladies that my favorite author, Robin Jones Gunn, has said that when she spends time with God, she sits in her favorite chair with her Bible, notebook and pen and lights a candle. A) I think she likes the coziness of having a candle lit, but B) it has been a symbol for her children that she is spending time with God and that she's not to be disturbed. So the kids (who are now grown) know that Mommy is spending time with God when the candle is lit. And they knew they could leave prayer requests at her chair there, because they knew that that was where Mommy sat to talk to Jesus.

So, I was then telling the ladies how fun that would be, but that my kids just aren't there yet. Either they would burn the house down with a candle lit or Jack would burn himself. We don't have candles lit unless there is an extreme reason and the candle is on the stove...where they can't reach it.

TODAY my friend, Maryanne, handed me a present in our class at EW and told me to open it up there. It is a battery-operated candle - she found it here in Thailand at the store!!! And it's sooooo cute! So that I can have a candle lit without the house burning down or Jack burning himself! Thank you Maryanne!!!!

Now I don't have any excuse for not spending time with God!

Haircuts

Due to lice, I buzzed Jack's hair. And not really well. It wasn't trimmed up on the sides or really all that great around his head. And Megan, after a week of picking out lice, still had nits on the ends of her hair, so we chopped that off, as well. This past weekend I took them to the salon to make it look pretty and not just be functional. And after the lady was done with Jack's hair, she braided Kylie's for the fun of it!

I'm over lice. Unfortunately, we are still finding nits on the ends of Megan's hair 1 or 2 at a time. 3 weeks after we first found them. We still check each of the kids' heads every. single. day. and it takes around 1 1/2 hours. No nits today, but last night we still found 2. I think it's because they are soooo hard to pull out, that when we first went through her hair, there were some that just didn't get pulled all the way down the hair shaft and off. Hopefully these 2 haircuts will help that. I keep threatening to shave her head. She doesn't find it funny. I'm over lice.

Newest Nails

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours! We started the morning out with a Scavenger Hunt (but I don't think it's really it...so if someone remembers the real name of what we did, let me know...)! We did one last year as a surprise for the kids and repeated it this year! Each of the kids had 2 clues to find and read - and clues that each of them could actually read by themselves. Megan had "normal" written clues, Jack had easier ones for him to read and Kylie had pictures with arrows pointing to where the next clue was hidden! The kids loved it and it lead to our bed under the pillows...and a present for each of them! A pirate ship lego set for Jack, a multiplication/division math board for Megan and a matching game for Kylie!

Happy Valentine's Day....We love you!!!

Vote!!!

So here's an email I got from my friend Amanda. She teaches here in Thailand and is a part of our Life Group! You can also click on the right side to view her video! It's awesome!

Howdy Friends!

I need your help!  So you all know that I live to Travel and that I love sharing where I go and what I do with all of you through pictures, blogs and more recently videos.  Now I have a chance to do this as my job!  As you know many careers start with internships and right now I'm applying for the internship of all internships with STA Travel.  If I won I, along with a partner would get to spend 3 months traveling around the world and taking pictures, blogging and making videos for the company with the hopes to inspire others to travel.
   Now the biggest part of the application is a video I had to make and post on my profile on their website.  This is where I need your help.  I need VOTES!  Now, votes wont make you win but they help you get noticed and getting noticed in a competition where hundreds and even thousands apply is a big deal.  Now how many votes do I need?  Literally thousands.  So if you could please go check out my site, vote, maybe comment and then PASS THE LINK ON!  I need as many people as I can to see my video and vote.   It only takes a minute : )

CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY VIDEO AND VOTE FOR ME

Thanks for all your help and check back, the top 50 are announced on March 9.

Love, Peace and Safe Travels,

Amanda

Lice

Megan came downstairs last Monday night after bedtime at 7:30pm and said her head was itching...would I check it? Sure enough, she had lice. I called my friend Amy and she came over right away, brought lice shampoo (from when she and her 4 kids had it 1 1/2 years ago) and we shampooed Megan's hair and picked out lice for 3+ hours.

Jack and Kylie had it the next day and since then it's been an endless (so far) cycle of picking out nits and lice, shampooing every 3 days and cleaning non-stop.

Things I'm thankful for:
-Amy. She has brought us lice shampoo, nit combs, dinner, sent her maid K. Heng over every morning (except Sunday) to change all the sheets for me and vacuum everything for me and Amy has checked my hair for lice every. single. day since Monday. She even brought our kids slushies one afternoon, let us borrow her cd player and a fun kids cd to pass the time while they are getting nits picked out and me her old bike to borrow for a while!

-K. Heng. Without her help in the mornings, life would be a lot rougher, to say the least. It takes me approx. 1 hour to pick through the 3 kids' hair 3x's a day. If I have to shampoo someone, it takes about 2 hours to do them, then still the rest of the time to do the other kids' hair. Not fun, but I'm sooo thankful that K. Heng has helped with the cleaning. I think I've done more laundry in the past week then I have in my life. I kid you not. The washer/dryer ran last Tuesday from 6:30am until midnight...and continued like that for the next couple of days. We are still washing all sheets every morning...

-My Kids. They certainly don't enjoy having lice, missing school (and Megan's pretend class trip to Kenya), not being able to sit on upholstered furniture, not being able to snuggle me, having to sit still with their heads at odd angles to get lice picked out and missing out on other things...But, they have been about the best I could ask for in their attitudes with this. They do a fairly good job of waiting their turns sitting in my room while one gets their hair picked. They have, for the most part, remembered to not sit on furniture (they each have wood/plastic chairs they can sit on) and have been pretty good.

Jack got to go back to school on Thursday and Megan on Friday. We're hoping that we are nearing the end of this ordeal...Amy asked me last night, "Which is worse - jet lag or lice?" I said Lice - definitely, because you know you are going to get over jet lag eventually. Lice just seems like there is no end in sight. If we even miss 1 nit, it will hatch into a louse and lay 7 to 10 nits per day...bleh. Really, that's all I have to say about this: Bleh. Lice suck. Oh, and I am praying fervently that neither Amy nor I get them. Because, well, Lice suck.

Backlog part 5 - Finishing Up

Phew, this makes the end of the "backlog" series...then hopefully I can be fairly caught up on posts.

Crimefighters

Vase 1 of flowers Dan brought me!

Vase 2! The total price for all 4 bunches of flowers was 100B or $2.82USD! He said he couldn't not buy them for that price!

Family Photo before Daddy headed out on a trip

Leaving in his cool AOT SUV taxi

Depressing countdown Chain


Kylie and I got our nails done. Me, for our Encouraging Women Bible Study Spring Semester Kick-off - Kylie because she wanted to! Our kick-off theme was "The Premier" and was decorated with popcorn and film strips...we had a "When I go to the Movies..." questionnaire and played movie charades! Everyone on the Core dressed in Black & White, hence the toes :)

Our study selections for the Spring

Allayne and I getting things set up

Yummy food

Backlog part 4 - Flat Stanley

Megan had an assignment at school to send Flat Stanley to a friend or relative somewhere that he could visit and then be mailed back! Megan chose Grammy and Grandad. They took him on all sorts of adventures in the snow and at Christmas! She loved getting it back from them and cried when she read Grammy's letter "I miss Grammy...."! Thanks Grammy and Grandad! We're glad Flat Stanley had a great time visiting you!

Backlog part 3 - Friends moving

Apparently part of the expat life is having friends move. This January/early February we will have 2 families move...one to Canada and one to the Philippines.

Megan and 2 of her friends...the middle one has moved :(

The first family we know through church and each of the kids have a corresponding kid in their family to play with. Their oldest was in Megan's class and we will miss having them around...

Aysha hamming it up for the camera

The second family has been great friends for us...Bridgette was the first lady to introduce herself at EW to me on the very first time I went and saved a seat for me. She and Steve have also been in our housegroup the whole time we have lived here. They are the ones who set the precedent that we needed to do dinner together every week. It was a great precedent to set. It's not always easy to either be making a dish to take or hosting dinner for 15, but it is really a great time to be able to chat about both small and big things. Somehow bonding over food just makes things easier to talk about and share...and we have greatly benefited from Bridgette's AMAZING cooking and their hospitality when they host! We have loved Aysha (and now little Tehya) and will miss them greatly...to say the least. We've had the privilege of attending 1 farewell party and 1 farewell cookout for them. And I refuse to believe they are moving...