Jesus I Know!

This evening when I went to put Ethan to bed I noticed he was warm. So I picked him up and offered to rock him instead of putting him straight to bed. When I sat down in the rocking chair he said, "Jesus I know" which was his way of asking me to sing "Jesus Loves Me" to him. So sweet!

Back before Christmas he was refusing any and all oral medications but since we've been home from Christmas break he will take them again. I'm so thankful for this as it was stressful trying to get his fevers down when he wouldn't take anything.

I WON!!!!

For Valentines' Day I found this really cool solitaire game for Ryan. The game itself is from Europe but the version I found here is made out of teak wood and semi-precious stones from Java, Indonesia. Anyway, I have been randomly playing the game and last night I actually won! The goal is to end up with one marble in the center and I did it!!! It's driving Ryan CRAZY and now he's accusing me of cheating - but I didn't! BUT, there's no way I could do it again since I was RANDOMLY playing:)

Chasing Rainbows

This evening after supper I was sitting in the office when I noticed that it was raining and sunny out. I went to the living room window and found the most beautiful rainbow I've seen in a long time. It's also the first one that I've seen in Singapore. I was pretty excited and even Ethan was saying, "OHHH, a Rainbow!" I found out when my friend Traci called that I wasn't the only one who'd noticed it or was excited about it:) Kaitlyn and I went into the field next to our place to take pictures and realized that we could see the entire rainbow plus a really faint double rainbow that was also complete!! I wasn't able to get the entire rainbow and the pictures don't do it justice (bad camera) but I did get it captured! After a few minutes we were soaked and Kaitlyn asked, "What are we doing, Mom?" I answered, "We, my dear, are chasing rainbows!"

A Faint Double Rainbow

The Beginning...
The Middle....

And The End!

Even though the I couldn't capture the entire rainbow on "film" I was able to get a video clip of it.

Last night Ryan and I attended a talk given by the author of "Homeward Bound, A Spouse's Guide to Repatriation", Robin Pascoe. She said something last night that I thought wasn't me until I realized in a conversation this morning with Jamie that she was right. She said that we tend to idealize what home is like. I do this without knowing it. It's frustrating to go grocery shopping here because you can't find half the ingredients on your list. I have this idea in my head that grocery shopping back home is so much easier because you can find everything you need. At some point in the past year I let myself forget that you CAN'T always find everything you need at one store - a point that was illustrated to me at Christmas when I couldn't find two ingredients that I needed. Before we moved here I would have walked into that small town grocery store knowing that I wasn't going to be able to find everything I needed and either would have made two trips to two different grocery stores or would have skipped the small store in favor of the larger store that was MORE LIKELY to have what I needed. I would have been prepared mentally for not finding what I needed. Instead when I couldn't find what I needed I was very frustrated because in my mind I should have been able to find it in one stop. I have idealized in my mind that grocery shopping back home is easy and never frustrating.

Robin says that when you experience the culture shock of moving to a new country it's easier than the culture shock of moving back home because you expect it when you move to that country. You don't expect to feel it in moving back home. You forget that while you have changed so have your friends back home. You forget that everything isn't as easy as you have come to believe in your mind that it is. When you move abroad (or at least to an Asian country) there is an expat community that will reach out to you because they know what you are going through and you are all in it together. When you move back home people aren't as likely to reach out to you because instead of looking like a foreigner who needs help figuring things out you are now a "local" who should know how to do everything.

It takes approximately a year to adjust to a foreign country - it can take 18 months to two years to adjust to moving back home even if you have only been gone for a year. It will be interesting to see how we all adjust - if it's easier than we think or if it's much harder than we think.

Refuge From the Storm

As I sat down a few minutes ago to check e-mail it started pouring outside. I turned towards the window to watch the rain (I LOVE rainy days and we haven't had one in awhile) when I noticed that there is a bird perched on one of our chairs under the umbrella. He's sitting there obviously taking shelter from the storm as he's trying his best not to move. Occasionally he'll jump a little as a raindrop finds its way to his head. I want to take a picture but I'm afraid that if I go for the camera he'll see me and I'll force him out of his dry spot and into the rain. So, I wait and listen to him sing!

Randomness

Kaitlyn loves to read to Ethan these days! I feel a little guilty as it's pretty easy to just let her do the reading to him and not do any myself:)
Ethan will do anything his big brother and sister do including turning cartwheels. This is his version - both hands on the ground and one leg up in the air!

Kaitlyn likes to help Ethan shower off while we are swimming.

Ethan was a trooper for most of the hike we took at Mac Ritchie Reservoir when Ryan's dad and mom were here.

He stopped many times along the way to pick up sticks and draw in the dirt. At some point he got into something poisonous as he broke out in a rash later that day and so did I anywhere my skin had been in contact with his clothes.

Love Is God

"Love is friends. Love is family. Love is going on vacation. Love is God. Love is Jesus. Love is earth." By Kenton Weiss

What an amazing thought that "Love is God!" Happy Valentine's Day!

Kaitlyn brought home a portfolio of random work today from school. There was a paper with the following written on it:

I am thankful for my house. I am thankful that I have a tub.

Ethan likes to run around wearing Kenton's soccer shin guards and socks!

The Worst Day and the Best Day

Today was one of the worst days I've had in awhile...but it ended on such a high note that it almost makes up for being such a bad day! God knew I needed some encouragement and some came in the way of two friends, a cup of hot chocolate at Starbucks, and great conversation! Than I came home to a quiet and clean house because the kids were in bed. Ah-h-h!

My poor dad got a phone call from me this morning where I was crying so hard I couldn't talk for awhile. I think that with five girls in his life he's probably gotten used to this type of thing because he handled it like a pro:) He pointed out to me that I really haven't had too many bad days in the past year which made me feel a little better! I don't want to dwell on what went wrong so I'll just say that it was a combination of County Fair, Ethan throwing tantrums, and a playgroup that went terribly wrong. I cried the whole way home from there...there were a few people who gave me strange looks as I sobbed my way up the hill:)...but, sometimes we need a good cry, encouragement and love from family, prayers from friends, and than we can pick up and carry on with a smile!

Someone once said that life is full of new beginnings...we get the chance every time the sun comes up to have a new beginning! Here's to a new and fresh beginning tomorrow!!

ONLY FOUR MORE DAYS AND THAN COUNTY FAIR IS OVER!!!

But, Really, I would do it again next year. Only because next year I would know what was required and would be able to do things better.

County Fair Silent Auction Project

Another mom and I have spent a few days this past week working in the classroom with the kids to complete a project for the upcoming County Fair Silent Auction. We have one more coat of varnish to do but other than that I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Someone donated a Pottery Barn table and chairs and we had the kids make finger print bugs and flowers on it. Than today we took scrapbooking stickers and added a little poem about bugs to the outside edge. Since I'm not generally a very creative person I'm a little excited with how the final project looks! We did have one re-do of the top of the table (had to sand and repaint) but now it's done! We'll see on Saturday what kind of money it brings in at the auction:)

Lacquerware plates

When Ryan's parents were here we visited a shop around Arab street that contained really nice lacquer ware dishes. I fell in love with one of them while we were there but decided to wait before getting one. I couldn't stop thinking about them after I left so I decided to go back and get them. These plates are made here in Singapore (at least the ones sold in this particular shop) and are made with bamboo and lacquer. The plates I picked up also have scenes inlaid on them using eggshells. I've taken pictures to try to show the detail up close but they look much better in person. I'm really excited to have these and two of my friends who went along with me back to the shop bought some as well. I figured this is a piece of Singapore and Asia that I can take back with me that I will still like even after I get home!

This first one is a close up of the scene pictured below. All the tiny little specks are also eggshells - just incredible the amount of work that goes into the details of these plates. Each plate takes about 2 months to finish from start to finish.

This plate is depicting a rice crop harvest. It shows people bent over gathering together the rice plants in a rice patty.

This is a close up of the plate below. It depicts a man fishing in the moonlight - can you see the net he's just cast?

These plates are quite big - the larger one above is 18" and this one is 16". They can either be hung on the wall or displayed on plate stands.

I'm off to figure out where and how to hang them:)

Some Serious Catch-Up

Wow, where to begin? It's been very busy around here since I last posted with Ryan's parents being here, getting ready for SAS's County Fair, attempting to work out, helping Lovel find a job in Norway, and having MORE company come in tomorrow! Some days I feel like I run straight from one thing to the next but my mantra lately has been "at least I'm staying busy!"

Some time I will try to update on the rest of Dad and Mom W's visit - if nothing else I need to get it down so I can remember at a much later date when I get around to working on my scrapbook of our time here. They are safely back home and we much enjoyed having them here.

Somehow I got roped into being the chair person for the ticket sales for the PTA's biggest fundraiser of the year - County Fair. My mom warned me not to let the PTA know that I exist and I guess I should have listened better:) To be fair I have been enjoying it (mostly.) This has taken up much of my time lately coordinating volunteers to help the day of selling tickets and with pre-sale of the tickets. I also have been helping put together a project from the kids in Kenton's class to donate to the Silent Auction - part of my room mom responsibility. We are having the kids put thumbprint bugs all over a Pottery Barn table and two chairs - it's looking quite cute!

The working out thing...! That hasn't been going too well which was NOT my intention. I'm working on it...ha ha!

As far as helping Lovel to find a job in Norway - we are being moved home sometime this summer which is earlier than planned on. We still don't know WHEN or WHERE so please don't ask! This has been an area of stress for me because I'm such a PLANNER. Planner's don't like to take things one day at a time although you would think that by now I would be used to that! When we told our helper, Lovel, that we were moving home she announced that she would like to go to Norway to work as an Au pair. It's an excellent opportunity for her so I've been busy helping her research it out, interviewing agencies, and planning for the expenses of it...a productive way to put my planning prowess to use:) We will post more when we know more - for now you can pray with us for God's direction and that all the pieces will fall into place for Lovel, too.

We are getting ready for our next round of company - two honor's orchestra students from Osaka, Japan - to arrive tomorrow evening. They will be here through Sunday and we are mostly giving them a bed at night and breakfast in the mornings. We are encouraged to attend their concert on the last night so we are looking forward to that and than we are to provide transportation to the airport for them on Sunday.

Besides all of that we need to get Valentine's cards written and sugar cookies cut out and decorated for the kids to pass out with their cards. No party at SAS for Valentine's day which is a bummer! It was always one of my most favorite parties when I was little.

And for now - I need to get the twins to bed!