Pork Sticks??

We were eating supper last night - pork chops made in the "slow cooker" (thanks Mom for the wonderful cookbook!) - when Kenton decided he wanted to use his chopsticks. It was so funny, he kept calling them pork chops or pork sticks instead of chop sticks:) I think he was a little confused! Anyway, I'm posting a video of him using chop sticks...I'm sure that it's a very appropriate way to use them. Ahem - I won't mention that there is Christmas music playing in the background!! Who listens to Christmas music in September, anyway??

The Culprit and The Damage

Okay, so it really wasn't too bad. He just has shorter bangs (do little boys have bangs?) than before and has a little tail hanging down that is all that's left of the hair he had.

I don't know if any of you take the quizes that are posted to the left of the blog but I have and I'm embarrassed at how much I DON'T know about the Bible! When you take the quiz it gives you the correct answers and shows which ones you got wrong. You can also click on the reference to read the passage (KJV). Than it gives you your percentage and what the average percentage is and how many people have taken it - it's pretty interesting!

Well, it's Monday morning again with another busy week ahead of us! We made a quick trip to Illinois this past weekend to see my Grandpa R and Ryan's Grandpa J. We were home in time for church on Sunday so it was a REAL quick trip:) But the time spent with our Grandparents is precious and we wouldn't trade it for the world! Today is picking the house up and running errands and than tonight we are going to watch the 4 highschool marching bands that are in our school district. They do a little exhibition once a year that we like to go and see. It's so different than when I was in High School! A lot more involved with costume changes for the whole band, more high tech, and the flag line has to know how to dance along with twirling a flag. Good thing I didn't have to know how to dance way back when! The flag is challenging enough without doing ballet at the same time:)

The twins are upstairs supposedly cleaning their rooms but I'm hearing a lot of door slamming and fighting so I'd better go check it out!

First Field Trip

The twins are going on their first field trip tomorrow to an apple orchard. They are SO excited and have been talking about nothing else all week!! "Mom, do I get to get up early tomorrow?" "No, dear....not for another four days." Than I sigh and think about what a long week it's going to be:) They get to go with the morning Kindergarten class which they think is the best thing ever...AND they get to be car riders for the day instead of bus riders!

Our Crown Financial bible study has been leading us through reviewing how we view our posessions. This is timely for me since I've been cleaning out closets and de-cluttering in anticipation of our move. It's amazing how I tend to hang on to things that I really should have gotten rid of years ago:) I don't tend to be a saver but I still have things I need to part with. When you look at everything from the perspective that God owns it and he's entrusting it to us to take care of you begin to realize that you can't possibly take care of everything you have so maybe it's time to clean out! "The more you have, the more you have to have to take care of the things you have!!" That's a quote from Jungle Jam - a CD the kids like to listen to! It's so true, though!

Uh Oh! I hear E - As the Lord has entrusted him to us I'd better go take care of His possesion :) Sure puts things in perspective, now doesn't it;)

Rotten Baby Brothers!

Ethan climbed into the middle of Kaitlyn's train track this morning and that was driving her crazy! It's sure hard to drive a train with a huge obstacle in the way:)

NEVER say Never!

You know how the saying goes, "Never say never?" Yeah, well it caught up to me this time! A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone (don't remember who) about how the twins have never cut anything they weren't supposed to with scissors. Well, that's easy when they haven't had access to scissors. BUT, because of Kindergarten they have a school box of supplies that they keep at home to do "homework" with and in that box are - guess what - a pair of scissors. AND this afternoon I'm sweeping away when I enter the bathroom and find a bunch of hair around the toilet. "How odd" I think to myself. Katie and Matthew are here and are using that bathroom and I'm thinking that Matthew must have given himself a haircut (while on the toilet, apparently) and didn't clean it up. WELL, about an hour later I'm in the basement yelling at - excuse me...asking Kenton politely to get his rear in gear and pick up as we have supper company coming in an hour when I notice - HE'S MISSING HAIR!!! The story went, "Huh, what scissors? What hair?" NOW, this is hard to believe as there is evidence to the contrary - he HAS to know what's going on! FINALLY, "Kaitlyn did it. She was practicing to be a hair cutter." HMMM, Kaitlyn is not fessing up so now we know one of them is lying..."Kenton did it himself!" "Well were you in the bathroom with him at the time?" "NO!" Ryan sat down with them and gave them the "One of you is lying to me and you would have been in less trouble if you would have just confessed" speech. Kaitlyn eventually confessed. LET me tell you that it's so hard to know which child is lying!!!! You just have to keep throwing out consequences until one of them decides that they had better hurry up and confess before they get EVERY thing they own taken away:) There will be a picture forthcoming and I have to confess - Katie and I were laughing through most of the ordeal as it WAS quite funny! She had also noticed the hair and had ALSO blamed Matthew - Poor Matthew - He wasn't around when this all took place so I don't think he even knows that he was a culprit for a short time. Oh well, the twins are now banned from using scissors EVER again (Or until the next "homework" assignment that requires their use) and I have hidden MY pair so well that even I don't know where to find them!!!

Back Home

We made it safely home early Wed morning - about 2:00am! Ryan and I were up until about 4 because our timing is off. Katie and Lauren came back from Illinois with us for a few days and they were sleeping soon after we arrived - as was Ethan. The twins' came home from Joe and Joan's this morning around 9am - way too early for me to be awake:( Now it's all about digging out after being gone for a week and a half and than Katie and I are going to tackle some closets and begin getting ready for a garage sale. After next weekend things will finally slow down a little and I can concentrate on volunteering at the twins' school and taking care of Ethan. It will be supreme to have all of us back under one roof again tonight! I sure missed them while we were gone.

K and K had picture day today - and PE!! We'll see which one they did first;0 Kenton didn't want to go today and I suspect it's because he wanted to spend time with us. It's hard to know when they really need that time and when they need to learn that they still have responsibilities and can't skip school whenever they want.

Well, the babies are both sleeping so time to get something done before the twins' arrive home from school!

10 September, 2007

Well, our final day in Singapore is now officially over! I'm trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I will sleep on the flight from Singapore to Tokyo and try to readjust to US time. I am ready to get home to see the kids!

Today Ryan went into work to do some relocation paperwork and I decided to get a neck and shoulder massage:) I've only had one other one in my life and boy do I wish I could afford to get them twice a week! We've been so busy here that I needed to relax a little bit before we head home. I had breakfast outside this morning and read a book and listened to the rain. It rained a good portion of the day. It seems like most nights here we've seen spectacular thunderstorms off in the distance but we haven't really seen much rain until today. No thunderstorm though:( After breakfast I did some shopping for souvenir's for the twins and Rachel. I decided that Ethan is too little to appreciate anything Singapore so he's going to miss out! After shopping was the massage and than Ryan was back from work.

We decided to re-visit the botanical gardens to take some pictures. The Orchid Garden is SO WORTH going to see. If you click on the pictures below and enlarge them you can see them closer up and the rain drops on them. The perfect time to go is on an overcast, rainy day as the colors really pop! There was a really neat gift shop there that I will have to keep in mind for future gifts!! On our way back to the hotel we walked past the US Embassy - it's actually fairly close to our hotel. I would have liked to take a picture of the outside but there was some activity going on there so we didn't want to stick around. It's a little disconcerting to see police walking the streets with MK 47's (I think that's right?) Not a sight you see in the US very often!

For supper we went back to Clark Quay to take pictures there (we forgot our camera last evening) and we saw that they were set up for the Chinese mooncake festival. I think that they celebrate the moon during this. I didn't post any of those pictures as this will be a long enough post...maybe when we're back home. We also walked down to the famous MerLion statue and took pictures there. Singapore means "Lion City" and legend has it that one of the first people here supposedly saw a creature that was half lion and half mermaid. Believe what you want:)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures below! We are looking forward to being home and seeing everyone again! Please pray that we have safe flights:)

This is a picture of Clark Quay on the Singapore River. The whole area used to be warehouses and they have all been restored and are used as shops and restaurants. It's a very nice area to walk around.

This is one of the boats that we took a boat ride on yesterday.

Fountain in the Orchid Gardens

Some species of orchids in the gardens were bred and named for famous people who have visited the gardens. There is one for Laura Bush but I couldn't find the actual orchid.

I believe this one is named after Nilson Mandela.

There are thousands of different species of orchids in this garden!

This is Swan Lake at the Botanical Gardens. We were pleasantly surprised to actually see swans:) I thought that it was just all about the statue!

For any of you who read Trumpet of the Swan this lake reminded me of that book.

I don't know what these are called but I thought that they were pretty with a palm tree in the background.

This is at the entrance to the Orchid Gardens - it cost S$5.00 to get in per adult which was extremely reasonable.

This is the restaurant that we ate at on Saturday night with Ryan's co-worker Gan and his wife Judy. Gan is from Malaysia and Judy is from Hong Kong.

Pictures of Singapore

These Taxi signs are outside of hotel's, business and light up when a taxi is needed.

I also updated my "journal" in the entry below this one... And acutally this post is only one picture.

9 September, 2007

Actually I'm going to back up to yesterday, Saturday. In the am we slept in for the first time since arriving here and than spent what was left of our time at IKEA looking at furniture. It's not really my style - pretty modern. Shirley, the realtor, took us around to more places. We have a fairly good idea of what is available here and won't make a final decision until after we move here in January. We found a 4 bedroom by SAS that we really like but it will go fast and won't be available by the time we get here. It sounds like those apartments don't come up very often either. We'll make the decision also when we get here whether we will live closer to the school or closer to Ryan's work. The school is kind of in the middle of nowhere (1/2 hour to shops, bike trails, etc.) and if we live closer to downtown I could walk to most anywhere I'd want to go. One other area we looked in is called Bukit Timah (Boo-ket Teema) which literally stands for "Tin Mountain"...it's a Malay word.

We ended our day yesterday with a visit to the Singapore Botanical Gardens with another one of Ryan's co-workers and his wife. We walked to the inside of the gardens and ate at a restaurant that was enclosed in glass and was surrounded by jungle. I ate a VERY tasty steak and Ryan had some kind of shrimp and pasta. The gardens are gorgeous and we'd like to go back tomorrow and take pictures if we can.

This brings us to today. Today we didn't have anything on our schedule except to be tourists. We went to Vivo City - a new, huge mall - and than from there we took a tram out to Sentosa Island. It's pretty commercial but it will be fun for the twins' to go. We saw a dolphin show while we were there and viewed pink dolphins. They claim that they can't be viewed anywhere else in the world. While there we also went to the southern most tip of Continental Asia. After Sentosa we found a GAP - it's so much more expensive here - about $50 US for a dress in Kait's size. I think that we will be stocking up on clothes in the US. We complain about the prices there but we keep hearing that it's cheaper there than a lot of other area's of the world.

From Sentosa we decided to try the MRT (subway) to get back. We were very impressed as they were the cleanest, brightest, most organized subway either of us has seen. They are also cheap compared to taking a taxi or driving a car. They also go most anywhere on the island. We stopped by a Border's for some books on Singapore before heading back to the hotel to freshen up. For supper we decided to try out Clark Quay (pronounced Clark Key.) WoW!! What an excellent decision. We have heard that it's popular with Westerner's and now we know why. It is located along the Singapore river by the downtown and offers fantastic views and restaurants. We ate at a Mexican restaurant that reminded us a lot of our honeymoon. There were three men playing guitars and singing Spanish songs - the best part was that they were all Asian men:) Only in Singapore!! After supper we took a boat ride of the river on a boat low to the water with Chinese lanterns hanging along it's perimeter. It's a unique way to see Singapore although it was a bit loud!

One thing that I'd like to note that we've seen here that you won't see in the US...around the corner of our hotel is a table set up with a worship area for Buddhists. We had seen several of these before someone explained what they were.

A few words that are different here:

Lift = Elevator
Rubbish = trash
Flat = apartment/condo
Give Way = Yield
Fly Over = Overpass

There are more but I can't think of them at this late hour of 9:35pm:)

Everywhere you go there are "Taxi Queue's". The taxi's here are very organized with lines for people so no one goes out of turn. You can't just hail a taxi from any street corner. You can book a taxi by calling a central number for about US $1.64 and thus avoid the Queue's. Taxi are fairly cheap and the most we've spent on a taxi so far has been US$7.85.

The most we've paid for a coke and snacks was S$27.00 - about US$17.71. I think that we were taken:) There weren't any prices listed at the hotel gift shop so we ended up paying much more than if we had gone down the the 7-11!!

7 September, 2007

This is a wet market. You can buy produce, household goods, fabrics, clothing, electronics cheaper than other places. The quality may not be as good on the clothing.

Here are some of the clothes. It's stall after stall in a unairconditioned area under government housing.

These are the hawker's stalls where you can buy supper cheaply. It's about $2.00 (US) for a meal here.

This is an example of HDB housing. This is government housing which is where 90% of Singaporeans live. The wet markets and hawkers stalls are underneath.

If you look straight out past the dock you will see a house out on the water. This is where someone lives and fishes. You can see Malaysia on the far shore.

Orchard Road view - this is like a tropical Michigan Ave

The following three pictures are of what a typical condo's pools look like. This is where Sim, Ryan's manager lives

Toys R Us on Orchard Road

Outdoor flower shop by our hotel

Examples of cars here - mostly foreign brands

Typical street view in the downtown

Piano Guy

06, September 2007 9:36pm

I'm SO tired of being cold!! I did not come to Singapore expecting to be so cold! Every place we go, every car we ride in has the air conditioning so high that there has to be frost dripping from our noses! I will have to pack more jeans and light sweatshirts and sweaters than I initially thought! Speaking of clothing I've noticed that everyone tends to dress fairly conservative here. The American high school girls would not fit in here. Skirts are not uncommon here and neither are "dressy" clothing.

I wanted to write a little more about our hotel room. When you walk up to the door there is a doorbell and a sign which can be illuminated from within the room to say "Do Not Disturb." Right inside the door is a cardholder into which you insert your room key which turns on the lights. When you leave and take the card with you it shuts everything down - a unique way to conserve energy! Everything else is a normal room except for the outlets.

We visited the Singapore American School today and were very impressed. They have an outstanding program but the downside is over 3000 kids attend there between 3 years old and 12th grade. It's all on one campus so it's a little overwhelming! The primary school (K-2) is housed in one section so they don't interact with the older children. Than there's an intermediate section (3 - 5) with a middle school and a high school. They have spots for the twins' to start in January - this is a miracle as there are currently 300 children on a wait list to get in. Most International schools in the city have the same type of wait list.

Ryan had meetings in the afternoon and I took a nap. We are still messed up with the time changes! It sounds like by the time we are adjusted it will be time to come home:( Ryan's co-worker, Sim, took us out for a Chinese supper in a revolving restaurant with good views of Singapore. We overlooked the shipping yards for part of the time which was very interesting to watch. I was given the opportunity to use silverware since I've never used chopsticks but I decided that I may as well start learning. To eat in the hawkers centers you need to know how to use chopsticks. It wasn't too hard although Sim told me that I wasn't using them properly but than again, neither was he. The food was good - very healthy as everything is steamed, not fried. I wasn't up for it though as my stomach is still adjusting to all the new foods and it thought that it was breakfast time, not time to eat Chinese!!

I haven't had much time to take pictures as they have kept us fairly busy. Ryan and I have decided that a good way to describe Singapore is like Chicago with much more greenery, less cars, and an Asian flavor. We have seen McDonald's, Subway, Burger King, Hard Rock Cafe, and even a Long John Silvers this evening! They have a lot of the same stores we do although it's the higher end shops - no Target or Wal-Mart:( We are going to have to get used to the metric system as that it what's used here.

Tomorrow's another busy day so I'm going to bed! Ryan's already there:) It's so odd to think that everyone back home is just beginning a day that we just ended!!

05, September 2007 6:15pm

Outside the hotel where we are staying.

View of the street from our room window.

View of rooftop garden next to our hotel.

So – Singapore – what to say…it’s proven to be a very interesting place so far! It’s an eclectic mix of cultures and people. Everything seems to have both a British and an Asian flavor which is an interesting combination.

We were picked up by Shirley, a Realtor, at 10:00 am to start looking around at housing and schools.

We started off our day with a school visit to the International Community School. This is a private Christian school. They are the only one that we visited so far that doesn’t have a wait list to get in. It’s a small, unassuming school and everyone was very friendly. We met the teacher that the twins’ would have and she seemed very nice.

Next we went to two different condos to see what’s available. The first one is in a small complex and had lots of character, windows, and light! It didn’t have a real good area for the kids to play, though. The second one was in more of a high rise and was more sterile and not as much light as the first one. There was a nice playground though and a bigger kitchen than the first one. We’ll have to make a choice whether we want to live in the city or out in the “suburbs”. Condos here come with a washer but no dryer. It’s not uncommon to see laundry hanging from windows and balconies around the city. Also, they don’t all come with dishwashers as the kitchens are relatively small. Both kitchens we saw had more storage space than I would have imagined but had small ovens. Like European flats they don't have closets - just built in wardrobes. We were asked to take our shoes off before entering the condos – Asian custom!

The next school we visited was the Canadian International School. Now I must admit that walking up to the school I was thinking, “No Way!” But after visiting we were impressed with the friendliness of the staff and the education. They learn World History not Canadian history and they encourage asking questions and figuring out the answer for yourself. This may be perfect for Kenton. I will point out here that all the schools are open air. The individual classrooms are air conditioned but the hallways are all open to the outside. This school has a small wait list so we may add the twins’. All of them also require uniforms and PE uniforms.

After that we visited Tanglin Trust – a British school – and we decided that it’s not what we are looking for. It’s a VERY impressive school but they were ostentatious. It wasn’t a humble school and that’s not what we want to send the kids into. We’ll see what the Singapore American School is like tomorrow.

Apparently the lines on a road way mean next to nothing! It hasn’t been uncommon for our driver to straddle two lanes at the same time! We asked Shirley this morning what the laws are regarding children and car seats and she said that they are very lax. People were complaining that they couldn’t fit 3 car seats, a maid, the grandma, and the parents all in one vehicle so they changed them to say that infants can ride on laps. I can’t imagine doing this as car seats are pretty ingrained into our way of life. It looks like Singapore in big enough and spread out enough that I am going to have to learn how to drive:( ON the wrong side of the car, the wrong side of the road, and know where I'm going all at the same time. They don't make you take a test until you've been here a year. Until than you drive on your home country license - scary!

Shirley also dropped us off at a supermarket to look around. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is not much that I normally buy in the US that is not available here. Some things are more expensive – a box of Lucky Charms was S$10 – but it’s still available. I will probably try to stock up on diapers and wipes in the US and have them shipped with the rest of our belongings as those were more expensive here too.

The weather was beautiful today! It was cloudy when we first woke up but soon cleared off to become a sunny day. It didn’t get too hot when you compare it to a Kansas scorcher but Shirley did say that this was a cooler day than most. We took a walk around the block this morning and than this afternoon went to a mall that adjoins our hotel and ate supper (Italian). We finally found an ATM that will accept our cards. The flowers here are awesome! I’m really hoping that I get to try my hand at growing orchids and other tropical flowers while we are here:)

We are back in our room trying to stay awake until at least 8pm. Than hopefully we’ll be back on a more normal schedule. Maybe we’ll hit the pool for a little while to cool off:) At some point this week we plan on playing tourist so hopefully I will have more pictures to share than.

Wed, Sept 5th

Tuesday, September 4th Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan, 4:15pm

We just arrived at Narita Airport after a 13 + hour flight from Chicago. The flight was uneventful even if it was long. There were a few areas of turbulence but I quickly learned to sleep right through themJ We flew north out of Chicago up over Alaska before heading west to Japan. Sitting in Business Class for me was a new experience. After “supper” (it’s only 2 pm Chicago time) they darken the plane and most people went to sleep for a few hours. Thankfully I was tired or I don’t think that I could have done itJ The seats are more comfortable than in coach but still leaves you with sore muscles at the end of the flight!

It was interesting to see a glimpse of Japan from the air. I noticed that the cars were all going the “wrong” way on the roads! The terrain looks like it has tree covered ridges and valleys and I saw a golf course. Very peaceful looking at not as busy as I have heard downtown Tokyo can be.

Upon landing it was interesting to note that Narita Airport looks like any airport in the US – busy, full of trucks going this way and that, all the same runway markings, and airplanes everywhere with the name of the airline in English. I was expecting more Japanese characters on the tarmac but once we were inside the airport they were everywhere. We had to go through security again to get to the gate for Singapore. It hit me again how foreigners in the US must feel who are unable to speak English. Thankfully most of the security employees seemed to know English to some degree. It’s a little overwhelming looking at all the signs and trying to find the English that is buried somewhere between all the Japanese characters. All of the airport workers were well dressed in red uniforms with the women wearing red berets. All wore white gloves. The outside airport workers all wore hard hats.

So, what do you do to keep busy on a 13 hour flight? You read a magazine/book, eat, sleep, watch a movie or two, eat, sleep some more, eat again, and read again and you are there. Sounds like the easy life!

The duty free and snack shops in the airport are full of Japanese items including food. I’m feeling hungry but I’m not sure how adventurous I’ll be! Our flight to Singapore starts boarding at 5:10pm (which is 3:10am US time) and takes off at 5:55pm. Well, we’re heading to the shop – time to become adventurous!

4:50pm
The snack shop was interesting! We saw raw squid stuffed with rice, vacuumed packed and sitting at room temperature on a shelf, assorted dried fish, and in the refrigerated section raw squid guts. I did manage to find Ritz Bits and a coke – at least I THINK that’s what they are! You can buy Kimonos, Hello Kitty paraphernalia, rice paper crafts, wood carvings of Sumo wrestlers, and a huge assortment of Japanese chocolates and candies.

12:00am, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - Changi Airport, Singapore

This is one of the cleanest, prettiest airports we have ever been in! It lived up to what we had heard about it. Ryan read somewhere that you aren’t allowed to take pictures inside the airport so we didn’t. Before we went through customs we hit an ATM just to find out none of our cards work! Thankfully we had some cash on us and after we exchanged it for Singapore dollars we were on our way. I saw a stand selling Orchids – I would like to find out if I can bring them back to the states as they were GORGEOUS and really not all that expensive. Customs was the easiest I’ve ever been through and than on to our luggage. Once we had that we found the line for the taxis. When we arrived at the front of the line the man who had been directing everyone to a taxi disappeared. After we had stood there a little while waiting for him to come back we headed to a taxi – that’s a mistake! We learned that there are two lines for taxis and you need to wait until you are pointed to one before going. Oh well – we got a taxi and headed to the Traders Hotel where we are staying. We couldn’t see much as it was night but we noticed a lot of lush greenery lining the road ways. Oh – not only do they drive on the other side of the road here but they drive on the other side of the car…and I’m supposed to learn to do that after moving here – the girl who can’t parallel park! We’ll see how that goes!

We checked into the hotel and than around 1am headed down the street to the 7-11 (yep, they have those here) for a soda and some chips. That was about all that was open that time of the night other than very expensive room service. Once back in our room we got ready for bed and I asked Ryan to plug in our small travel fan for noise. OOPSJ We somehow blew the motor even though it was plugged into a converter. It smoked and blew a fuse – there was a moment of concern as we weren’t sure that it wouldn’t set off the fire alarm!

Well, more tomorrow after we can actually see the city a little!

Tunnel Trails, Wisconsin

Alison and Kenton are going through a railroad tunnel on their bikes. It's so dark that you need to walk your bikes and use flashlights! This isn't the longest tunnel on the trail either. One of the other ones (that we didn't go through) is famous for dripping on a person!

Kenton is standing at the entrance to the tunnel right before we went through. It was a wonderful day for biking with the temperatures not being too hot. The bike trail follows an old railroad line and you actually bike through small Wisconsin towns. The part of the trail we were on was mostly shaded.

I think that the entrance to the tunnel is pretty! We were camping with a group from Elgin on Labor Day weekend - Highlights were - Kenton - going home, Kaitlyn - bike riding, Ethan - being held all weekend, Becky - playing croquet uphill with Sam Bachtold (he set up the course!), Ryan - the bike ride and getting sick:(

Singapore

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are safely in Singapore! I will post a journal entry later that I wrote while in the Narita airport (Tokyo, Japan.) It's 1:15am here and we are going to find something to eat - hopefully, Ryan says:) More later!!