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.