This is what we did tonight....

You know you are an Expat when...

The following list is taken from http://www.thethinkingstick.com/you-know-youre-an-expat. Thought you guys would appreciate our lives, thinking and conversations we have with friends here in Thailand and in the States!

You know you are an expat when…..

you look forward to Wal-Mart just to browse the aisles and look at all the choices of shampoo!

it takes you 25 minutes to pick out a juice to drink because you just love reading the labels.

you bust up at a TV commercial that’s been on for a year but is new to you.

your credit card statement for the month of July is more than you make in 3 months!!!

you care more about politician’s stand on global issues than on taxes and health care.

you can name all three airlines above without hesitation.

friends get annoyed driving around with you because all you say is “When did that happen?”

you shop last year’s styles because they’re new to you and lets face it, your friends don’t care.

your shipment includes plastic wine glasses to be used by the pool.

you buy a year’s supply of deodorant, toothpaste, make-up, shampoo, etc and still get the suitcase under 50lbs.

you are a sucker for ads on TV (just because they are in English).

you can pack a suitcase to 49.9lbs without a scale.

you are standing in line talking to yourself only to realize the people around you can understand you.

you find yourself listening in to others conversations just because you can.

you get tired of people asking you “so what’s it like…is it scary?”

you freeze when people ask you “paper or plastic”.

a sales rep asks for your phone number and you start with the country code.

in June you pre-plan all your meals for July just so you don’t miss your favorite restaurants.

you can’t relate to gas prices in the States cause the rest of the world has been paying them for years.

you have friends in more than 10 countries.

when people ask you what you’ll miss the most about a country and you reply “foot massages”.

facebook.com is truly a ‘friend network’.

you choose your bank based on their online banking options.

you buy a year’s worth of new clothes in two weeks.

Eventful...and long

Jack's been having some issues at school. A)I hate the word "issues" and B)I don't really love that we are dealing with them. To make a long story long, the teachers are concerned that Jack is starving by 8am. He eats breakfast at home at 6:30am, then has snack provided by the school at 9:20am. He eats a lot at his snack. Then lunch at 11:30am (where he also eats a lot).

They have also noticed that he is very tired around 1pm. When he gets tired or hungry he just shuts down and doesn't want to do whatever it is the class is doing. We had talked with the teachers at his parent/teacher conference in the beginning of October and explained that he is tired at 1pm. If he was in the States he would get home by 11:30am, have lunch and take a nap - just like Megan did as a Kindergartner. Instead, he leaves for school at 6:45am and gets home at 2:30pm. He goes to bed at 7:30pm, falls asleep quickly and wakes up by himself at 6am. And, if you know Jack - you know that when he gets frustrated, he just shuts down and doesn't do whatever you want him to...at least not without prodding. He'll just sit and stare at you or pretend he doesn't see whatever it is you want him to see. But, they wanted us to get him medically checked out to make sure there isn't some underlying cause to all of this - because they feel like it just started the end of September. We haven't noticed a change in his behavior at all at home. He's generally a pretty good kid for us at home - not remotely perfect, but not horrible, either.

So, he had a well-check up (needed one anyway since he just turned 6) and we talked to the doctor about the teacher's concerns. They tested him for low blood sugar (totally normal), thyroid issues (haven't heard), hearing (fine), vision (fine) and did an EKG. The EKG came back abnormal, so we were scheduled to go to the main hospital here in Bangkok for an EKG and EEG...due to the staring blankly when he gets frustrated. Well, thankfully the pediatric cardiologist saw us, looked at his 1st EKG and said, "this is normal." But had us do another one he ran there at the hospital. Thankfully, ALSO normal. No worries, no concerns.

Then we had to go and do an EEG. They hooked him all up, then asked him to fall asleep. He fell asleep for 3 minutes, they woke him up and make him hyperventilate for 3 minutes (rapid breathing) while lying still with his eyes closed, then told him to go back to sleep. After 20 minutes, they shined a strobe light in front of his face at increasing intervals, then woke him up and had him stay still for another couple of minutes. He did a great job, wasn't thrilled to be there, but did really great. And thankfully fell asleep when they wanted him to.

We had to wait until the next day to see the Pediatric Neurologist. He checked Jack out, read the EEG and said that everything looks normal! So that is great. And really not that surprising.

So, where we stand now is that he is taking in an extra snack to school so he can have one at 8am when he gets hungry. And we have another conference set up to talk to the teachers in another week or so.

Jack's Lego Party

We had a great Lego birthday party for Jack! Six boys came, along with Megan and Kylie, which made for 9 total kids. Dan had purchased Lego Racers race car kits in the States and brought them back for party favors - 1 for each of the kids. Dan and I had originally planned on having the kids put them together at the party as the main activity...but I have to say that I am so glad we weren't that crazy didn't do that! It took Dan and I 1 whole hour to put together 9 cars by ourselves the night before. We did leave off the wheels, so the boys would have a little bit to put together. :) It worked out well. I'm bummed I didn't think to get a pic of the cars all lined up in the boxes, but that's okay (actually, you can see it in the background if you enlarge Kylie's picture where she is holding the picture she colored...you know - FYI).

We took pictures of each of the boys with Jack as they arrived at the party at our front door with the Lego Factory sign!

We had each of the kids work on coloring pages printed out from the Legos.com website while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

Then we played "pin the dot on the Lego". Everyone loved it and had fun. The dot on the upper right corner was missing...Megan was bummed because she was too tall to properly place her dot :)

We played a spoon race game and divided the kids into 2 teams. They had to take their spoon, race down to the end of the room, scoop up as many legos as they could and race back to drop them in their container! The team who filled their container first won, which was Jack's team!


Then we had the kids divide up into pairs and gave them a set time (which ended up open-ended, since they were having a hard time) to build the tallest tower they could together.

Megan and her partner had the tallest tower!


We gave the kids their race cars and they put the wheels on. Then, Dan pulled out a board marked off with tape that we had them race their cars on! It was not for the fastest, but the farthest distance. The kids learned that if you try to push the cars, they go out of control...but if you let them go, they will roll pretty far.

Jack with his Lego cake! 2 layers of red cake, a middle icing layer of green, blue cupcakes for the round parts and covered in blue! A team effort by Dan and I!

Everyone with their cake, ice cream, juice and blue mouths!

And the presents!!! More legos than I can count, no sets that we had previously and no repeat sets! A cool ISB shirt, some fun books and other odds and ends. Jack loved EVERYTHING and was so excited to bust it all out and put the sets together! Legos everywhere!!!

Loy Krathong

Last year we posted about Loy Krathong. Both big kids made Loy Krathong floats this year in Thai class - and were able to bring them home so they could float them if they went to a Loy Krathong celebration. We didn't go, but thought you would enjoy pictures of this unique celebration!

Loy Kratong is probably the most picturesque and beautiful of all Thai celebrations. 'Loy' literally means 'to float,' while 'kratong' refers to the lotus-shaped receptacle which can float on the water. Originally, the kratong was made of banana leaves or the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a spider lily plant. A kratong contains food, betel nuts, flowers, joss sticks, candle and coins. The making of a kratong is much more creative these days as many more materials are available.

The Loy Kratong ritual is a simple one. One needs only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make one's wishes and let it float away with the current of a river or a canal.

Megan's Loy Krathong float

Jack's Loy Krathong Float

First Soccer Games

Saturday morning brought about the first soccer games for both Megan and Jack. Both had games starting at 8am, so Dan and I split time at both games :) They did a great job and have great coaches and friends on their teams :) And, more importantly, they both had fun and are excited for it!

Jack's game

Megan's warm-up

Daddy and Bugga matching...and the sweaty kiddos

Happy Halloween!!!

Holy Cow, Halloween was crazy! A)We live in a new neighborhood in our larger neighborhood that was not here last year. B)Last year we lived in a different neighborhood that was guarded by guards from Dan's work, so you had to have ID to get in. C)In past years, busloads of Thai's have come to Nichada to trick-or-treat. D)While there are a lot of American citizens in Nichada, the only ones who could purchase American candy live in our little neighborhood. E)Add A-D up to make a HUGE, INSANE Halloween!!!

The doorbell 1st rang around 5:50pm and didn't stop until we shut our gate and turned out the lights to go trick-or-treating ourselves. Tons of kids. Tons of parents and even a few random Thai ladies who were trick or treating without any kids with them. Odd.

We were waiting for friends to come and meet up with us, so we sat outside our house and gave out candy...by the handful. The kids loved it and often didn't even let kids get close to our driveway, they were so excited...they just wanted to run right up to them to give it out!

Our Santa, Elf and Ballerina waiting to hand out candy.


Chillin with Daddy and handing out candy.


The Chaos - this is not on the street. This is the front step of a house!

On the street

Me and Elena (who went as Mario...the rest of her family were Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach and King Boo)!

Me and Cat (a butterfly fairy)

Me and my Tweeter (who's home! He managed to be home 1 week out of October, but just made it back in time for Halloween)!!!


Our Kiddos!

We had a great time and had fun with friends...then had other friends stop over later on to hang out and show off their little ones!