It's been a good day....

There have been plenty of days that I have read an email, a blog entry or a FB status of one of my friends or family and felt a pang of jealousy that I was not in the US. Today, it's my turn........
We started the day at breakfast here at the hotel. Jeff went off to play golf and I took the kids to the Kid's Club for the day right about 9:00AM. I laid by the pool and started the book "The Host." It was really hot so I got in once or twice to cool off, finally heading in to shower about 11:15. I went to lunch (must say the food here has been just ok though that may be because I am on an island in SE Asia and I don't like seafood or Asian food......) and then headed off to my spa appointment. I had a 30 minute coconut body scrub followed by an hour oil massage and then an hour facial. It was heaven. Got back to the room just about the time Jeff got home, we watched some TV and then headed off to get the kids and took them down to the wonderful beach here. We played in the ocean awhile and it started to rain lightly. We were enjoying the cool breeze that came with it when all of a sudden the downpour hit. I must admit the hard rain hurts on sunburns.....
We finally made it back to our room, soaking wet. Everyone got showered and we relaxed for awhile before heading back to the bar. Jeff and I got a drink and the boys danced to the "band," a girl and a guy with a guitar, really more like bad karaoke than a band but that's ok. The kids had a blast dancing, I caught some of it on video, hope to upload it here once I'm back in Singapore. We ended the day up in the dining room for dinner. I had very low expectations at this point and was more than pleasantly surprised that it was Mexican night! So good food to end the day. Now, all 3 of my boys are asleep in the next room and I may get the entire king bed to myself!!!! :)

My Bailey-girl

One more post before I go to bed.
I have so much to be thankful for, I'm truly a very blessed person, so many wonderful family and friends, just so much to be thankful for, I can't even begin to list everything. But one thing I want to call out is how lucky I am to have Lynn and Sandy living in our home back in Austin. We never worry about what is going on at our house, how is it being taken care of etc. They keep it looking way better than I ever did! But most importantly is how well they take care of our sweet dog, Bailey. She is about to turn 9 years old! I can't believe it, breaks my heart thinking about how much older she is getting and how we are missing out on spending time with her. But knowing how happy she is with the Gassers (including her younger brother Georgie) makes it so much easier.

Well, with Lynn's help, Bailey just sent me an email letting me know what all she got for Christmas from Lynn, Sandy, Georgie and Santa. She is just spoiled rotten! :) She also attached a picture of herself, I wanted to show everyone. Her muzzle and eyebrows have almost as much gray on them as I do, she just doesn't worry about trying to color them the way I do. I hope everyone who has a doggie (or kitty) gives them an extra hug tonight!

Christmas Eve

I should be going to bed as I need to get up early tomorrow morning to finish my packing for our trip to Bintan. But I wanted to write quickly about our Christmas Eve. It's the first time in 4 years that we were going to bed in our own home on Christmas Eve (even if we still aren't actually at our house in Austin). I threw a pre-made pizza in the oven (Zeny was off) for a quick dinner. We had already opened our gifts from each other, Aunt Lysh, Aunt Erin and Grandma and Grandpa. (The ones from Grandpa Joe and Gramsey and Gigi had long since been opened) The pizza was bad though I don't think warranted Jeff's exclamation that it was the worst meal he'd ever had (he obviously has blocked out some of my attempts at cooking). I ran to the grocery store to get drinks for today (we had friends coming over) and then we all showered and got ready for church.

Now I hate to admit how long it's been since we've been to church although, in our defense, it's not like church is something abundant in China. Singapore, however, is an entirely different story. I wanted a candlelight service on Christmas Eve like we always went to with my family in Salina. I found a Methodist Church that had one and we were off. In the cab on the way, Reed asked, "In church do we get to sit down or do we have to stand up the whole time? And is there a stage?" The cab driver was chuckling to himself.......

Anyway, the church was nice and really full. They had a puppet show going on beforehand, it seems they have a really big children's program there. The service finally started with the Christmas Story being told by mostly kids. There was a choir made up of all ages that sang the songs, the younger kids played the parts. There were 12 little girls in all white with wings and halos, the most precious angels! Most of you know how much I want to adopt a little girl. Since we've been in Asia I can't imagine my little girl being anything other than Asian. Of course these girls all have loving families but it was almost more than I could bear, they were all so darling I wanted to take each of them home! "Mary" was so precious, I just had to get a picture. The Wisemen were so cute too but I have no desire to bring another boy into this family! :) Here are some pictures from the service.

At the end was the lighting of all the candles and the singing of all the beloved Christmas songs. Graham (who had not been a poster child for good kids at church) fell asleep on Jeff's lap during the first or second song. I accidently dripped some wax on Reed's bare leg (he had on shorts) and he screamed and cried for awhile, saying "Mommy dropped FIRE on me!!!" He finally calmed down though refused to hold the candle anymore. I was trying to hold both his and mine and accidently lit the cup that was catching the wax on fire and had to blow it out. Jeff told me I was a danger to all in the church and couldn't be trusted with candles anymore. I laughed off and on and then thought about the time Erin and I couldn't stop laughing at the service we went to at Mentor church one year. That made me laugh more and I just about dropped the other candle! Anyway, we made it through, caught a cab in the rain home and got the kids to bed. Hope you all have had or are having a truly wonderful Christmas!!!

Christmas Party

On Saturday morning we went to a Christmas Party at the American Club. When they opened the doors at 10:00, we were ready! They had the best Christmas CD playing (I asked who it was the girl said she didn't know, she threw away the cover) and had lots of activities set up. There was an art area to make a Christmas card, a stage for Santa, a magician/entertainer walking around with his puppets, the marionette kind (sp???), a bean bag throw, pin the hat on the snowman, a bowling game, golf game, find Rudolph's nose in the snow and one where you had to get the ring around the reindeer's antlers. There was a huge spread of food as well. The third picture is of Reed with one of the camp counselors. They have a camp during all school holidays, Reed went for fall break in October. This guy has mentioned several times how much he enjoys having Reed at camp. :)

My pictures from Shanghai

I am finally posting the pictures from my trip to Shanghai in November. It's been so long now that I don't even remember what all I did but I had a great time and miss my friends there dearly. I do not, however, really miss Shanghai all that much. The fact that I'm so late in posting this can be blamed on my friend Melissa. While I was staying with her she let me use her computer. She had Mahjong on it and I became addicted again (had it on my old computer but not my current one). I came home, downloaded it onto my system and it takes up all of my time. Shame on you Melissa! :) But thanks so much for having Graham and I stay with you, you are a great host!

The first picture is of lunch with friends Hae Jin, Irene, Jessica and Melissa. The second is of dinner with Kathryn, Vicki, Jim, Anh Thy, Kirsten, Harmony, Lee, Dorsey, Christi and Marsha. I got to see several other friends as well, it was so great to spend time with them.

Next up, pictures of Graham and his favorite women. First, Jiang, our ayi who Graham seriously may love more than Jeff and I. He also loved seeing Ms. Chen and Ms. Swati. He got to play with all of his friends, Chris, Elliot, Christopher, Jeffery, Suzuri, Sana and Lily. I won't post all the pictures of the kiddos, but they are all darling. :)

Finally, really the highlight of my trip, getting back to the orphanage where I hadn't been since they closed it to volunteers last March due to flu and HFM outbreaks. My precious Brooke was there, it took her awhile to warm up to me but she finally did. I had a great time catching up with Anne and Marissa as well. It was a fairly nice day and we were able to take some of the kids outside. A lot of the kids had moved on to the next room so there were quite a few new, younger kids there but about half were ones who I have been spending time with for 2 years. In the one picture I'm putting my bracelet on Brooke. She absolutely loves wearing jewelery. :)



Everyone was asking when we are coming for our next visit. I really hope to, would love to take Reed back as well. Not sure if it will work out or not. I think I have just about 6 months left before Melissa moves home and our "guest suite" will no longer be available. I can't quite imagine though, not ever returning and not seeing my friends again. We'll just have to see I guess.

Pee pee in the potty, pee pee in the potty!

So Graham finally did it, he went pee pee in the potty instead of his beloved diapers. He was so proud he did a dance that any NFL receiver would be proud of. It was especially funny to watch him dance since he was naked, I am sorry I didn't have the video camera ready! Of course it then took about 5 minutes convincing him he was not going to bed in just underwear but I did promise he could wear them tomorrow. He is sleeping now with his new underwear over his diaper. :)

Proud of My Mom!

I swear I am going to post pictures from my trip to Shanghai and write about what we did for the rest of the week very soon, but I wanted to write about my mom for a minute. She has once again made the Salina Journal and, as usual, it's for a good thing, not a bad (for those of you from Salina, you know that when most of us are in the paper, it's usually in the Police Blotter section having something to do with drinking..........). Anyway, the article explains it much better than I would so take a look!
http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/Salina-History-Book-11-14-FOR-MONDAY
The boys loved looking at the picture and saying "That's Grandma!!!!"

Hanging in Shanghai

Well, Graham and I have been in Shanghai for just over 2 days. It's been great. Graham did well on the flight and it took just an hour to get to Melissa's from the airport Sunday late afternoon. It's fairly cold here and it was SO GRAY Sunday afternoon but both Monday and Tuesday there has been at least some blue sky and really nice temperatures in the afternoon. Jiang came to Melissa's at 9:00 AM on Monday morning. Graham went running to her and literally jumped into her arms. They hugged for at least five minutes. She kept saying "I love you, I miss you" and he kept leaning back to look at her and then squeeze her again, it was so cute.
We went to the Shanghai Centre (where we used to live) and to the playroom there. He hugged Ms Swati, his teacher, Ms Chen, the playroom supervisor and Runa, the Filipina ayi who used to babysit him sometimes. He had a blast and (with no nap) had to be drug out kicking and screaming around 4:00 when we headed back to Melissa's.
I had lunch with Melissa, Jessica, Irene and Hae Jin. It was so great catching up with them and as Irene pointed out, it was like I never left. Then I ran over to the mall via subway and did a little shopping. Then went with Jessica and Anh Thy to Ikea. I didn't need anything but seemed to buy some things anyway. It was so much fun shopping with Jessica again!!! :)
Today Melissa and I did some shopping at the Hongqiao flower market, the Christmas stuff they have out this year is incredible, then the Pearl Market and then had lunch with Jessica at Peter's Tex Mex. We then ran to the DVD store and back to the Pearl Market for Jessica.
Tomorrow is a bazaar and a girls night out. Thursday I get to go see my precious Brooke at the orphanage and I can not wait!!! I know the week is just going to fly by and I'm trying to enjoy every minute. No, I'm not wanting to move back. :)

Happy days......

I just wanted to post about how happy I am with the outcome of the election and where I believe our country is headed. :) I wouldn't wish that job on anyone but glad that Obama is ready to take on the challenge. I hope he pulls in people from the Republican side and that they all can work together for a change. I think that might help people who did not want him to win (like my dear hubby) get behind him a little bit. It's been a great experience to be overseas during the election, to hear what people from other countries are saying. I definitely think 0ver 90% (not a scientific number, just mine) of the people of the world are happy and now have hopes that the worldwide economy will eventually turn around and that the US foreign policy will be little more friendly. Man, what a huge job ahead of him. And sadly, I have to pray for his safety as we all know there are enough nut jobs in our own country who would rather not having him walking around. Let's hope for all of our sake's that things do change and change for the better. :)

Karate Kiddos

One day at school Reed learned about karate. He came home and showed me and then Graham gave it a try, he has a unique way all his own. Here are their videos. I apologize for my already mono-tone voice being even worse, I think I was sick when I filmed this. Also, I can't get the videos to turn right side up......



Here is the G-man:

I have a lot of catching up to do....

But wanted to get these three pictures up tonight. We went to a Halloween Party on Sunday late afternoon. I think Graham is the cutest pirate ever. Reed makes a great Spidey although it was just a little bit small and he blew out the back so I'm not sure what we'll do for Friday at school and trick or treating that night. Last is a picture of my boys and the Crockett boys, our friends from Shanghai who are leaving Singapore in a week. :( Luckily they are moving back to Austin so I know we will see them next summer. (There is a new Crockett boy but he's just 2 months old and didn't make the group picture)

I wish I had my camera!

We went up to the American Club to eat lunch, swim and workout. Unfortunately there was a swimmeet so we went to the bowling alley instead. Reed has bowled several times but this was Graham's first time, I'm so sad I didn't have our camera. The bumpers were up otherwise it would have been about 4 to 3. They both dropped the ball as they bowled so it was LOUD every time. Graham decided that he needed to run up to the line but he stopped before the line each time. It was hilarious. They both did pretty well. The second game Jeff and I joined in. Guess who won???? MOMMY by 20 pins over Daddy. It was awesome. The bumpers only helped me about 2 times..... Good fun!

H-O-T!!!!

Ok, it's starting to sink in that I live in a tropical climate. I'm not complaining, the lush greeness (is that a word?) is beautiful and we can lay by the pool year round which has always been one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. However, I do miss the once in awhile days in Kansas and even Texas where you walk out and realize it's only getting to like 78 or 80 degrees. You take a long walk and enjoy the cool air. Yeah, that doesn't happen here. About 10 minutes before a storm and 10 minutes after you do have that cool air, but it's not a long period of time and chances are if you are enjoying it, it means you either are about to get rained on or you just did.
Most places of business, restaurants etc. keep the A/C on full blast so it's like walking into a movie theater in the middle of summer, you want a sweatshirt with me. I can only imagine how cold Erin will be when she comes to visit! And you see a few people with some type of sweater that they carry around for that very reason. I don't as I'm so hot from walking that I welcome the cold air. What is crazy though, is how many people here wear jeans, sweaters, long-sleeved shirts and sometimes even jackets. I sincerely do not understand how they do it. I see them walking down the street just like me, I'm in shorts, a sleeveless shirt, flipflops and a towel to wipe the sweat off my face. They are strolling along in jeans and a jacket. There must be something medically wrong with them, don't you think????

UN Day Song

Here is the song from UN Day. I know in the beginning it's tough to listen to as they are all on different parts of the song but near the end they all start the chorus together and you can hear the wonderful words. :)

I was so emotional!!!

Last Friday was UN Day at Reed's school for the kindergarteners. When you have 10 classes for each grade you have to spread things out! Anyway, I got there just in time for the beginning of the parade, I could hear the bagpipes as I was walking up.

As Reed's class marched by I could see that he was looking for me, he smiled so big and waved when he saw me, I'm SO GLAD I made it in time! I thought he looked great in his Don't Mess With Texas shirt. I got a tiny bit choked up watching them all walk past but then I was fine.

Until......they all were sitting down in a big group. They started singing a song that I caught most of with the video part of my camera. In case you can't quite make it out, they are singing hello in many different languages. Stick with it and in the middle you should be able to hear them pretty well. I could barely keep from crying, my chin was quivering and I was so glad no one was trying to talk to me as I would not have been able to speak. It was so moving. Here are all of these 5 and 6 year olds celebrating their home countries. Most are not from Singapore so they are from all over the world living far away from home. They are not prejudiced against each other, they don't make fun of each other, they just play and learn and have fun together. (At least that is my experience with my 5 year old boy, I sure hope the girls aren't dealing with fights already, they have a lifetime of that ahead of them they don't need it now.)

They are all just so precious and innocent and I wonder why that has to change. Why can't we just accept each other with all of our differences and look out for one another so that we can all live happy and fulfilled lives? I had no idea that a simple UN Day would affect me like that but it did. Hope you enjoy the pictures. :) Love and Peace to all!!!

***Have tried for an hour now to upload the video, will try again tomorrow as it's so sweet to watch......***

Total ramblings about my day

It's Thursday night and I'm getting ready to put the boys to bed and listen to hours of incredibly boring conferences calls in my bedroom. Jeff LOVES to have the darn things on speaker phone. Both boys have new sayings or new favorite words. Reed's is "Annoying" (wonder where he hears that????) and Graham's is "Gross." They both use those words a lot and it's pretty funny. The other thing Reed says all the time, mostly in regards to his DS game is "So easy" with a laugh that lets you know he is just the coolest. He learned the words genius and expert and is constantly asking me if he is a genius or expert, if that person is a genius etc. The other day he told me he was an expert at drawing because he's really into it and really good at it. Funny kid.
I did BodyPump today at the gym. I walked home in hopes to prevent some of the soreness. It's a really good class and I have a long way to go before I can do the entire thing without dying. It's been great having this gym with classes, didn't really have any of those in Shanghai, there was one but it was hit or miss as far as the class actually happening.
Tomorrow is UN Day at Reed's school. The kids are supposed to dress up as they would in their home country or another country they've lived in. It took me quite a while to convince Reed that he could not dress up like he was from Germany since we had never been there (he has told people that he was from there and that he speaks German) let alone be from there. As you know, the US is not exactly known for a certain kind of dress. Jeff found a t-shirt at the Austin airport that says Don't Mess With Texas and it's in red white and blue so that's what he's wearing with jean shorts. I can't wait to go and see the parade and take lots of pictures for everyone. I did finish pictures of the apartment, just have to download them and get them into an album.
Guess that's about it for now, we've changed our plans for next weekend and instead of a 6 hour bus ride we're going to do a 55 minute ferry ride to Bintan, Indonesia. We are going there right after Christmas as well but to a different resort. Should be a fun and relaxing 3 day vacation.
Better get the kids to bed. Reed just told me "God made this game SO EASY!!!!!!!!!" He really makes me laugh.

2 pix from last weekend

Just to show what the boys look like these days, here are 2 pictures from our visit to the Canadian International School carnival that we went to with our friends, the Hsu's. Graham loved his face painting and Reed and Darian did their best in their first ever 3-legged race.

Where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've posted. Sadly, the week after I wrote the last one was not such a good week. Just feeling a bit lonely and blue. I, of course, miss family and friends back home. I also really miss my Shanghai friends, not Shanghai really, I am enjoying Singapore, but I do wish the girls could all move down and into my building here so that I don't have to do any work to have friends. :)
Jeff got back around 1:00 AM this past Monday morning. Today was a holiday, Hari Raya Puasa, so all 3 of my boys were home. We got a slow start to the morning and made it to the American Club about 11:45. Jeff and I worked out while the kids hung in the Kid's Club. Then met Angela and her 3 boys at the pool for lunch. West is only 2 months old so he didn't really care where he was but the other boys all had a great time. Came back and Reed and Jeff literally played that dumb Nintendo DS for hours. Annoying. But, it's Jeff's holiday so he can do what he wants.
Reed is off all of next week for fall break, I've signed him up for a camp M-Th. They will do some field trips and other activities. It's from 9:30 to 1:45 so a much shorter day then he is used to. Jeff may be in Shanghai the first part of the week but we are hoping to take a bus to Genting, Malaysia for a 3 day weekend. Some friends have stayed there and recommended it. The bus ride is 6 hours long but supposedly stops several times and the boys LOVE riding on the bus. It's supposed to be a comfortable one. I have not been to Malaysia yet and think seeing the countryside would be pretty cool. Trip isn't booked yet so we'll see if we really go or not.
I'm slowly starting to realize what the weather is like here. Since we moved here at the end of the summer and had spent 6 weeks in Kansas and Texas, I was used to the hot weather. But here we are, the first of October and if anything, it's just more humid. I think the rainy season starts next month. Usually the rain cools it down for a few hours so that part will be good. Having to deal with public transportation during a downpour is not much fun. I think it will be a daily occurance during the rainy season.
I'm almost finished with the pictures of the apartment, they WILL be posted by the end of the week (and by that I mean by Sunday night). That's it for now.

It's been a good week.......

Despite Jeff being gone since Sunday (for a full 2 weeks) I've had a pretty good week. Melissa didn't leave until Monday afternoon so we hung out until then. Tuesday I went to the ABT (abs/butt/thighs) class at the American Club and while I DIED during the class and still have so much tightness in my thighs that going down stairs is tough, I met a couple of girls there that I enjoyed talking to.
Wednesday morning I went to a meeting with my friend Kirsten (from Shanghai) for the organization Caring for Cambodia. (www.caringforcambodia.org) They are an incredible organization started by Jamie Amelio. She and her husband moved to Singapore from Austin around 2002 I think, he was with Dell at the time. He has since moved on to run all of Lenovo. They visited Cambodia early on in their time here and were deeply affected by the country, it's people and it's recent history. You can read more about it on her website and other websites I'm sure but the jist of it is in the 1970's a regime took over and decided to kill anyone and everyone who was considered an "intellectual." This included all doctors, teachers and other professionals, anyone who went to college, anyone who spoke a 2nd language and anyone who wore glasses because they looked like they were intelligent. I believe around 4 million people were killed though my numbers could be off. Horrendously awful. That has left a generation of uneducated people throughout the entire country trying to put their lives back together. These adults, now parents, never went to school so they don't have any idea what their kids should be getting as far as education, hygeine etc. So Jamie and her husband, Bill, opened up a school and got some teachers and supplies. That, I think, was 2003. Now, in 2008, they have 5 schools that serve 5000 students. They do teacher training, now they have a trainer living there doing it full time. They serve breakfast to the students, usually their only meal of the day. They give each child a toothbrush (a new one every 4 months) and have taught them how to use it. The list goes on and on. It's amazing what the ladies of CFC have done and are planning to do. I'm really excited to see what part I can play in helping their cause. I'm hoping to go on a trip to build a house there, or work on the new school they are planning, something to help out! Anyway, as always I am reminded how incredibly lucky we are to have been born where we were, when we were, it's mind-blowing the horror, tragedy and poverty others have to deal with. On a happier note, again I met some great women at that meeting.
This morning I had a coffee with the other moms of Reed's class. Turns out one family is a Dell family, all of the moms are really nice, it's going to be fun to do some volunteering with them. After dinner tonight the boys and I walked over to the closest mall so I could get Graham some passport photos for his SAS application for next year. I ended up meeting a girl there with 2 boys who is from Houston. She has only been in Singapore 8 weeks, it's her first assignment and I could see in her where I was 3 years ago in Shanghai. We exchanged numbers and she said she had met some other moms and had started a lunch thing and will let me know the next time they get together. THEN after the pictures were done we were headed into McDonalds for some ice cream (my bribe to get them to be good while we were waiting) and ran into a boy in Reed's class and his twin brother, they also ride the bus with Reed. I had met their mom once before and she was really nice. Reed gave Noah a big hug, then Graham went up and hugged him too, which I don't think Noah really cared for considering he had never even met Graham before! We sat and chatted for quite awhile, they live close by so we are going to get together this weekend hopefully, and figured out that she is friends with the Houston girl I had just met, a part of her "lunch group." The world is so small.
If there is anyone still reading this long and boring post, the reason it's been a good week is obviously I've been meeting some people and hopefully finding a cause to work on to replace my beloved orphanage work.
I got a note from my friend in Shanghai who I always went to the orphanage with and she was able to get in and see the kids after a 6 month ban on volunteers there. She said my precious girls are still there, said it was sad how little things had changed with all of them, at that age 2-4, they should all be changing on a daily basis and sounds like they haven't. But the good news is I should be able to go and love on them in November when Graham and I head up there for a weeklong visit.
Reed is off of school tomorrow so I am taking him back to Sentosa Island, look for pictures of him with a bird on his arm soon.

This past weekend

My friend Melissa from Shanghai was in town with her 18 month old, Morgan. On Thursday she and I took Morgan and Graham to Sentosa Island. There is a small bird and butterfly park there, Graham got to get up close and personal with some birds. We also got to touch the stingrays, sharks and fish at the Underwater World there. On Saturday we took all the kids to the zoo. We had been to the night safari but not the regular zoo, it's really, really a nice zoo. Reed couldn't understand why we couldn't run with the kangaroos like we did in Australia or why we couldn't pet the goats like we did in Kansas City, but overall, we really enjoyed it. We didn't get a lot of great pix there so I'll move on to Sunday.

The American Club had it's 60th birthday party on Sunday so we went. They had a great buffet, we stuffed ourselves and then joined in the festivities. We spent the afternoon by the pool, they had little paddleboats for the kids. I'm really amazed at Reed's patience to stand in line forever for things he loves to do. There was also a live band playing 80's and 90's music. Had to show you a picture of one of the lead singers. He is a transvestite. Can you tell which one he is? They are a really fun band, we had a great time.

Finally, a cute shot of Morgan eating some pasta today before playing at a My Gym. She insists on feeding herself!!! Little miss Independence!

I'm not a very good blogger.....

I have thought of so many things over the past 2 or 3 weeks that would be really cool to write about on our blog. Things we've done, things I've seen. My thoughts on the presidential race that I know everyone is dying to hear about. But I have this belief that I need to always post pictures as well and I seem to procrastinate downloading then uploading, so I don't do anything. I'm going to make myself sit at our desk for 30 minutes every day to keep up on things. I won't blog every day I'm sure, but hopefully at least every few days so anyone who reads this will know what we are doing here on this side of the world. I'm also trying to figure out the best layout for the darn thing. Erin, I know I'm basically copying yours, take it as a compliment! :) So, that is that. I'm going to download some pics after the kiddos go to bed so hopefully there will be 2 posts before y'all even wake up!

Graham Cracker

I'm excited to say that Graham has gone happily to school the past 2 days. Tuesday I took him early so I could drop him off in his classroom rather than the assembly room. He still wasn't thrilled but the teacher bribed him with M&Ms and I left. Zeny picked him up and she said he didn't have any issues when he went to assembly so I thought that was good. Wednesday he didn't get up early enough to go early but didn't seem too distressed when he saw his ugly uniform so I knew that was a good sign. We walked to school and he talked about all the cars and trucks and taxis and sports cars and minivans that we passed. We got to the door of the assembly room, he walked in, an assistant teacher took his backpack, I asked for a kiss, he gave me one and went to sit down by his classmates. Same thing today, I peeked in after about a minute and he was standing up with everyone dancing to the music, which is all sung in Chinese on Tuesdays and Thursdays. SO! I think it's safe to say he has adjusted and of course, tomorrow is the last day of the quarter and then he's off for 2 weeks so we'll probably have to start all over again!

Boys in Uniform....

Ok, I decided to go ahead and post a couple pictures of the boys on the first day of school. Reed and Jeff after breakfast (note how dark it is!), Reed all ready to ride the bus for 45 minutes with his DS and Graham on the elevator, still happy.........!

Lovin' Life in Singapore!

Well, we've been in Singapore 3 weeks (Jeff 2 months) and everyone is settling in nicely. We really love the apartment even with it's small rooms. The view is incredible and we have enjoyed watching fireworks, storms rolling in from the sea, buses (Graham loves to shout "I see a bus!") etc. from our living room. We had only been here 5 days when we had Reed's 5th birthday party with our friends the Crocketts and Bhargavas, it was a lot of fun.
Reed is loving his school even though he has to get on the bus before 7 AM. Graham seems to pretty much be hating his school, at least every morning he begins the day by saying I'm not going to school and fights it all the way to school. He must eventually calm down as when he is picked up a few hours later he is smiling and tells me he is happy. That happiness seems to wear off within a few hours and by dinner time he's not going back the next day.
I have been learning the bus and MRT routes. They are not too bad but a taxi is SO MUCH quicker. I try to only take them when I have my arms full of stuff or I have the kiddos with me. I look at cars on the web every few days, it's really sad that they are 3x the amount they would be back home.
We've done some fun things, the Night Safari which was really cool, hanging out at the American Club is always fun, the boys swim almost every day after school. Right now the weather is no problem, some days it's really humid but other days it's no different than Kansas or Texas in the summer. I'm not sure how I will feel 3, 6, 9 months from now when it's still the exact same as it is today.
For my loyal readers who have checked in here for over a year only to see 4 or 5 posts (Dad, Erin, Kim and Brenda :)), I am really planning to blog on a regular basis so everyone can see what we are up to. Hopefully more people will check in from time to time, I plan to post pix as well. I have some now but blogging is supposed to be in the NOW so I won't go back and post ones from the past 3 weeks, will start fresh with today, moving forward.

I know you all will be on the edge of your seats........................ :)

Go Bananas!!!!

Reed's class recently performed at the lower school assembly. The video quality isn't great, I'm quite a ways away. Reed is standing right under the word bananas. Hopefully you'll be able to hear them singing/chanting. The best part is at the end when they "Go Bananas." At least that's my favorite part of watching Reed. :)

Reed's golf clubs

We had a lot of fun this past weekend. We ended Sunday at one of our favorite restaurants and on our way back home, we ended up buying Reed his first set of golf clubs. He's so excited. It was about 5 minutes after our purchase that Jeff remembered Reed is LEFT handed. We'll give these a try, if he needs left-handed clubs I'm not sure how we'll convince him to give these to his little brother! I'm going to attempt to attach a picture now, it's been so long I've forgotten how to do this. :) Just to be fair, I'll attach a picture of Graham in his turtle goggles (in the tub).

We're Back!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I started this blog last summer when I was in the US thinking I was really hip and cool and would become a serious blogger. Then when I got back to Shanghai I realized that the Chinese government didn't want anyone on blogspot! They seem to have changed their minds so I'm going to give this another shot. I'm just going to start from today and try to keep this updated. :) Keep checking back, sooner or later there will be something interesting on here!