The Week's Highlights

I am starting to get caught up around here. And I hope to return to regular blogging. Until then, I thought I'd share some highlights from our first full week back in Thailand.

I emailed our landlord with 3 (reasonable) issues that needed discussion/resolution. Renting is one of the things I strongly dislike about our life abroad, but we make it work. We've had some terrible, uncooperative, cheap landlords. It's especially difficult because we too are landlords back in KC and we consider ourselves good, reasonable people to rent from.

Our landlord here is excellent! She emailed me back within a couple of hours having already taken care of 1 issue and made an appointment for Wednesday to resolve the other 2 issues. She was right on time on Wednesday, took care of the remaining 2 issues, and brought us cake!!! Seriously! Cake!!!

Today was the first day we were able to go on campus to purchase new school uniforms and school supplies. What I remember being such a fun task in school is now simplified to going to the bookstore window, asking for the grade 1 supply pack, paying for it, and going home.

Since acquiring Thumper, I've felt guilty because he is not spending much time outside of his cage. It's tricky because he chews cords and rugs and needs close supervision. Oh, and he's terrified of C's happy squealing and jumping. We bought him a harness and leash but our one experiment taking him outside back in May didn't go so well. We tried again the last couple of days and it seems to be growing on him. Yay! Entertainment for D and less guilt for me!

C starts school on Monday. Will be sure to post some photos.



A Decade Together

Back in June, before all the craziness of our USA Summer vacation began, T and I marked our 10 year wedding anniversary. We celebrated with a evening downtown with dinner on the rooftop at Le Bua Hotel at a restaurant called Sirrocco. Delightful!

Check out dessert.

10 years, 2 kids, 4 continents... what will the next decade bring???

Election Time in Thailand!

Elections are coming up on July 3rd here in Thailand. Just this week the 50-some political parties were allowed to start putting up campaign posters. D thought they were great! Bub tried explaining all the animal heads to me but it came out as clear as mud. Driving around town you can also spot dog heads, alligator heads, and tiger heads. Hilarious!

We also had the unusual experience of being locked in a medical building stairwell that day. The escalator was being serviced, and the elevator was out of order. So, we took the stairs...to nowhere. None of the doors had doorknobs on the inside of the stairwell so D and I were trapped for about 30 minutes until a little cleaning lady heard our banging and shouts of, "CHUAY DUAY!" (Thai for "help!").  Below, is the knob-less door.

My vote goes to the guy who puts doorknobs on both sides of all doors!

Angry Birds

Have you heard of this game?

Is it as popular everywhere else as it is here? My kids love playing Angry Birds on our Ipad. It's silly, but I do see the appeal. Only problem was that we have only 1 Ipad and they both love it. A problem, until today, when D cleverly solved it.

She calls it "Angry Birds : Alive." While C had a turn on the Ipad, she gathered building blocks and her little stuffed angry bird, pulled a chair over, and put together her own game!

I prefer her version!

Pen Pals

So I posted not too long ago that D had lost her first tooth. Just as she was supposed to, she put the tooth under her pillow. However, she also included a note with a request...

Dear Faere,

 Can tomoro you giv me a bag ov faree dust

The tooth fairy had dinner plans with friends that evening and came in and found the note. She had no fairy dust to give. So, she wrote a note...

Dear D,

I see that you have lost your first tooth. That's wonderful!

I left you a little something because I am so thankful for the tooth.

I know you asked for fairy dust but my magical dust is so special,

I cannot leave it until I know that you will use it properly.

Please show me how kind, loving, and truthful you are.

Love, Tooth Fairy"

And then came one more letter.

Dear Tooth Faree

I now that you ced that you cood not give me no faree dust

but I do not get your pont

I, personally, think the Tooth Fairy was quiet clear.

Practice Makes Perfect

Preparing for our long beach weekend.

We've just finished swimming around the house, we'll see how they do underwater!

Little Poets

 Today was an awesome celebration in D's Kindergarten classroom. They have been studying poetry the last month or so and today they presented their work to the parents in a "Poetry Cafe." We combined it with our end-of-the-year party so we had food, drink, and poetry masterpieces!
 Each child stood at the microphone and presented 5 poems. It was absolutely wonderful! I took video of D's performance, but it's quite long and isn't uploading. :(

D, Jeah, and Meg. I never did the pleasant, smiling photo, but this one suits them.

1.5 more days of kindergarten, and then... first grade here we come!!!