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. :)