How we've changed and things that remind us of YOU!

I've realized that there are definite things that have changed about us, our family, in the last almost month since we've lived here in Bangkok. Nothing huge, but differences that I've noticed:

***added since last post*** we have a milkman here in our neighborhood! He and his wife ring our doorbell every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning at 8am! We can buy milk, yogurt and juice. We normally buy our milk - at the same price as the grocery store and I don't have to leave my house! It rocks!

-we walk along the road outside our neighborhood all the time. It is roughly as busy as Sycolin Road is during rush hour - and we walk right next to the cars, not on a sidewalk, just on the side of the road. I would have NEVER have allowed that in the States, but it's commonplace here.

-the kids haven't been in car seats (only 3 or 4 times in seatbelts) since we've moved.

-the big kids drink soda (sprite, orange crush, grape fanta) anytime we go out to eat. Prior to moving, I think they had had soda 3 or 4 times in their lives! There is no lemonade! (I always bring a water bottle with me, so that's what Kylie drinks...thankfully she doesn't like the fizz in soda).

-our kids are pros at escalators. We thought they would enjoy them at the airports only, but we use them all the time...at malls, the grocery store...everywhere! There are hardly any elevators.

-Jack can swim. He decided he could put his head in the water when Michael and Heather visited us at the hotel before we left. Then, after 2 weeks here, Jack decided he could swim underwater. He can now swim under the water the whole width of the pool!

-Kylie can put her head in the water and jump into the pool by herself, without Mommy catching her (i catch her right after she jumps in so she won't drown).

-The kids in the neighbor run around by themselves, playing outside and going in each other's homes. I'm not there yet. I can't just let Megan and Jack be out by themselves without me or at people's homes without me (without both the parents and I discussing it ahead of time). We'll see if that changes.

-no stroller, no diapers, no crib, no high chair. Kylie is a full-fledged big girl!

-we take taxis everywhere or walk.

-I vacuum every day. At least the main floor, if not upstairs, as well. It's ridiculous.

-We recycle. Because the neighborhood does.

Reasons YOU would like it here (this is not a list of things you would only be interested in, just what reminds us of you - don't be offended):

Grammy and Grandad - great restaurants, great shopping, yummy snacks all the time. Chatachuck (like Englishtown, only 45 times the size)
Mom Mom and Pappy - great shopping, fun sights, crazy tv channels and odd sports at all hours
Mark - soccer (football) is rampant. at least 2 channels with soccer 24/7, waterparks
Mr. D - Heinz Ketchup in Thai :) Starbucks everywhere, Singha.
Heather D - Starbucks everywhere (and not expensive...mango frappachino?)
Matt - gaming channel on our tv...expensive electronics ($600 for the Wii!)
Andrea - frangipanis and geckos
Bri and Sarah - a million great restaurants (hardly any chains), great bookstores, muay thai
Suz - Jack's teacher is from San Antonio and has stuffed animal armadillos all over the room
Tiff - good shopping, cheap gems (for Matt to buy you)

p.s. yesterday was Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday! Dan and the kids were off from school, so we went to a (new to us) mall! We walked around, ate lunch and saw the movie Wall-E, in English with Thai subtitles (for $15)! Before every movie, they play clips of the King and everyone stands while the Royal Thai anthem is played, so fun!

Night of the Living Geckos

We went outside tonight at 6:45pm, which is almost fully dark here. All of the sudden, geckos came out of everywhere in our garage, on the facade of our house and from the bushes. At one point, we counted 8 in sight, from 3 inches long to 6 or 7 inches. Here are some picks of our little friends!

Shopping Adventures!!!

This weekend has been full of shopping adventures! Saturday a lady in my neighborhood took me to the local ex-pat grocery store. Brands from the States and England. I bought some hummus and pita bread as a splurge (the pita is cheap, the hummus expensive). Good to know what's there.

Then on Sunday after church 3 ladies from the neighborhood were going to the Impact Center here in Bangkok. It's a huge, air-conditioned convention center located near us that has different expeditions every couple of weeks. Going on right now is the "Made in Thailand" fair. It has a million booths that sell EVERYTHING that you could want that is made in Thailand: cars, food, furniture, household goods, fabric, kitchenware, clothes, baby stuff, pet stuff, make-up, art...the list goes on and on. Cat, one of the ladies, drove. She apparently drives like a Bangkok Taxi driver - which means she was fast, crazy and thankfully got us there safely! The Impact Center was PACKED OUT! Parking lots were closed because they were full, traffic was a mess and Cat pulled up by a Police Officer and asked him if we could park in a certain lot that was closed and he directed us to another area. We pulled up a huge marble circular driveway leading up to the Impact Center - with Cat wanting to park there, where a couple of fancy, important BMW's are parked (she drives an old mini-van). She finally sweet talked a guy in to letting us park there...where there shouldn't have been any parking spots. 10 Feet from the main doors! I was thoroughly impressed!

We got there at 11:45am and my first inkling that this was not going to be a 2 hour shopping trip was the fact that the ladies I was with made a plan to check in by phone at 2pm!
At 3:15 we stopped to eat lunch! They have a huge food court there with McDonald's, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen, Baskin Robbins and great Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian food! I ate Indian for the 1st time and LOVED it!!! Clare, one of the girls with me, suggested it! It was so good...definitely spicy, but so good (now I want it all the time)! I called Dan to tell him we weren't coming home anytime soon and he said, "Just remember I have to go to work tomorrow morning. Try to be home before then." :)

We then continued shopping until 6pm! We must have walked for miles! I got GREAT stuff: a backpack for Jack, great gifts for friends and family, a painting for Kylie's room (above), a hanging flower ball for Megan's room (she wants a garden theme), a mop and bucket and a fun holder for our coffee table to hold our 6 or so remote controls! So Fun!!!

We are watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics LIVE...

And you aren't ;)

(The ceremony started at 8:08pm (7:08pm our time) and Kylie fell asleep at 8:30, Moo at 8:40 and Dan at 8:50. At 9:10 I finally had to cart Kylie up, come back for Moo and put Jack to sleep. He wanted to stay up.)

Jack's 1st Day of Pre-K

Jack had a great day at Pre-K! He ate Chinese, white rice, pineapple, watermelon and ice water for lunch, got to play on the playground (with a fire-truck, climbing wall and sandbox with 2 medium sized shovels), read a book about Arthur, played with blue and yellow play-dough and got a sticker on his hand that says, "Celebrate!" He said his teacher was nice and that they had cookies and cheese sandwiches and milk for snack :) Pretty impressive in Jack's book! I had promised him we could have another of the cookies we made yesterday when Megan got home and that I would have a special treat for him - which was 3 big marshmallows (a favorite of Jack's)!

Oh, and I wanted to post a picture of these cute little
2 1/2 year old piggy toes painted orange and pink :)


And a picture of our new SCOOTER...What?!?

Cousins

My cousin just had her 1st baby yesterday- Nora Juliet
and she's beautiful (look at those sweet lips)!


Meanwhile, Megan, Jack and Kylie's cousins sent us pictures of them! Here are the 4 of them and a 5th cousin is due in November!!!

Megan's 1st Day of First Grade

...Or Grade One, as they call it here! She had a great day, arrived home when Jack and Kylie were still napping and I got to sit on the couch and chat with her about her day for quite a while! She likes her teacher, she got to play on the playground 2x's, she had Library and ate p&j sandwiches, apples and milk for snack, then ate mashed potatoes, ice water, beef stroganoff and plain noodles for lunch! One of the girls in our neighborhood is in her class!

She said she only cried 1x after Thai class, because she wore sneakers today and they had to take them off to go into Thai class. Then after Thai class, she couldn't get her sneakers back on without untying one and then didn't know how to tie it. So she cried a little bit before her teacher's assistant helped her. Needless to say, we worked on tying shoes this afternoon and she's pretty good at it (i don't think she has worn sneakers since she was 2 years old...she's always worn either mary janes, crocs or flip flops)!

I made her chocolate chip cookies and she liked having that as a treat :) I think she's going to like school...