Faulkners in Asia

November and December 2009!

2010-04-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from November and December. Graham finally got to play soccer and Reed started playing kickball. Grandpa Joe and Gramsey came to visit and we had a great Thanksgiving with them and Darin and Lori along with Gramsey's other son Josh, who lives in Chiang Mai (Thailand). We spend a quiet (as quiet as our house can be) Christmas at home, just the four of us, awaiting Grandma and Grandpa Lilly's arrival on New Year's Eve. That slideshow is next. :)

Halloween 2009

2009-12-15T05:37:00.001-08:00

I figured I better post my Halloween pictures before another holiday has come and gone! Sadly (but not surprisingly) I don't have many good pics of the boys in their Star Wars costumes (Reed was Anakin and Graham was Luke). Both had parties at school on Friday the 30th, I helped out in Graham's class that day. His good friend, also named Reed, was also Anakin which is a fun coincidence.
Right after school I drove the boys to the other American school in town where Graham's friend Julia goes. Her mom, my friend Kathleen, is on the PTA and invited us to their party/festival from about 4-7 that Friday night. The boys had a blast (you can see Reed doing a broom race) and then they had Trunk Treating (or whatever that's called) so they got lots of candy.

I had pretty much decided we wouldn't do anything Saturday night since they had so much from Friday and there is only about 2 places that they can go trick or treat and there are literally thousands of kids who go to those 2 places. Luckily Darin and Lori Dunham (Jeff's step bro and wife) invited us out to their house. Gramsey was here visiting so we got to spend time with her as well. We grilled out and the kids walked door to door in a normal neighborhood. It was great. The kids had a blast as did the grownups. They have a nice house and a HUGE yard which is such a treat for us since we've been in an apartment for almost 5 years. Below is a picture of Graham and Grace in matching soccer shirts. They are about 6 months apart and truly inseperable when we get together. Last picture is Gramsey with all the kiddos, drying off after the torrential downpour that hit that night. Luckily for us it's the tropics so it's not like it was cold. The blankets are there because the A/C was blasting. :)

Graham's 4th Birthday!

2009-11-11T05:03:00.000-08:00

Graham celebrated his 4th birthday 3 times! First was the actual day. As soon as Daddy got home from work he opened presents and we had cake. When he opened a lego truck from Reed he said, "I've been BEGGING for this!!!!" The cake was pretty sad looking (Mommy made it) but it tasted great.

Two days later I brought blueberry muffins to his classroom (his teacher is a huge healthnut and discourages typical birthday treats like cupcakes). Graham got to wear the special birthday vest and hat with 4 candles on top. He loved being the center of attention!

Finally, that following Saturday we had his party. We rented out the bowling alley at the American Club (they have 4 lanes) and invited a total of 11 kiddos for "Cosmic Bowling." They turn off the lights and pull the curtains and have neon lights on the lanes. Unfortunately the game zone is next door, separated by glass so it wasn't real dark but it was different and the kids loved it. After an hour of bowling most of us went out by the pool and spent the rest of the afternoon there. When we got home and he opened his gifts he shouted "Awesome!" after each one. His only wish that didn't come true was having all of his grandparents here! Some day......

Glenda's Visit

2009-11-11T03:43:00.001-08:00

I am going to catch up tonight! :) In early October Glenda (Jeff's mom) came for a visit. The boys were so excited to see her. We packed a ton of stuff in to the 8 or so days that she was here. I don't have pictures from everything and my mind is going so my memory isn't all that great but I do know we did the following: went to the boys' classes, Raffles Hotel, Botanical Gardens (twice), American Club, Singapore Flyer, took the Hippo Bus tour around the city which included a quick boat tour as well, Clarke Quay, Sentosa Island, hiking at a nature reserve and the Night Safari. Here are a few of the pictures......
First, me and our car, people have been asking to see a picture of the car I've been waiting 4 years to have! :) This was outside a really cool store called China Connections which is in one of the old, historic Black and White houses.

We went one evening to the Night Safari. It's such a cool place though hard to get good pictures since it's obviously dark out. They have a "Fish Spa" there, several around town, and the boys have always been dying to do it. Finally I said ok, figuring I'd pay the money, the kids would put their feet in the water and as soon as the fish started eating away their dead skin they'd freak and it would be over (didn't even think kids had dead skin). Well, they were the first customers of the evening so the fish were hungry and while they did pull their feet out once in awhile when the big guys bit down, they stayed the full 10 minutes and didn't want to get out!
Another famous attraction is the Singapore Flyer (there is also one in London I guess). It looks like a huge ferris wheel but instead of seats there are compartments that hold up to 28 people. You can actually rent one out and have dinner or parties as well. It moves so slowly it takes a full 30 minutes to go around. We were given headphones to listen to, a man was telling us where to look and what all to see, and some history about Singapore. The view was fabulous. We can actually see the Flyer from our apartment. It wasn't a clear day so we couldn't see far out but a huge storm rolled in (the downpour started just as we finished) so we were able to watch it move ever closer to us. Hopefully you can see that in one of the pictures.

Finally (as far as my pictures go, for those of you who know Glenda, she has tons more), we went to a nature reserve for a hike one morning. In the book about what to do this waterfall had water and was really pretty. It seems to be dried up now but still the whole area is really green and beautiful. There are so many parks and reserves like this around the island, we need to do a better job of exploring them.
We had a great time while Glenda was here! We are ready for more visitors so come on down!

JibJab Video

2009-10-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

In copying Erin and Kim, I made a JibJab video starring all the boys in the family. Not bad for my first attempt. :)

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I want to work with these guys!

2009-10-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

You may have already seen this on someone's Facebook page but I loved it so much I wanted to put it on my blog. So much fun at the office!!! Not sure why the one chick wouldn't participate......

Summer 2009: Part 2

2009-09-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the limited pictures I took while in Gulf Shores. Most of it is my laziness but in my defense, Erin is a great photographer with a really fancy camera so I let her take most of the pictures and she did a fantastic job. You just need to go to her blog to see them all. www.lillyrollins.blogspot.com
We had a really great time at the Bay with the Rollins family. Jason took the week off so we could go out on the boat, take the jetski etc. The boys and I were really excited that Jeff too, took the week off to go with us. He hadn't seen Erin and her family in about 5 years! Again, take a look at Erin's blog (if you haven't already) and find her pictures from our trip to see what all we did. But here is a glimpse. :)

Summer 2009: Part 1

2009-09-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

I am attempting to do a slide show of our summer travels. As always, I did not get nearly enough pictures of the people we went to see. Some day I'll figure that out!!! We started in Dallas then went to Kansas City. From there Salina for a few weeks and then headed back to Dallas stopping off in Tulsa for a night. Spent one night in Austin, back to Dallas again, I flew up to Portland for 48 hours, back to Dallas. Then, with Jeff with us, we flew to Gulfport, MS and then drove over to Gulf Shores for a few days with Erin and her family (those pictures will be separate). From there, back to Dallas one more time before coming home to Singapore. Phew!!!! I tried to put captions on the pictures I did take. I wish I had gotten pix of my Grandma, Grandpa Joe and Gramsey as well as all of my sisters. Next summer, right!

"First Day of School! First Day of School!"...Nemo

2009-08-19T17:58:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was both Reed and Graham's first day of school. Reed started his 1st grade year and was so excited. His teacher is Ms. Goldhammer and he has 3 classmates from last year in this year's class including Noah, one of his best friends. Reed gets on the bus at 6:56 AM again this year, he still wakes up excited, I'm hopeful he stays this way for a long time!

Graham started preschool officially Wednesday. He has 2 years of preschool under his belt already. He was really excited to go to SAS like his brother. I had to put him in his PE uniform because they gave me the wrong size collared shirt. His bus came by at 11:15, it's a small bus or van, he was the only kid on it Wednesday but half the preschoolers went Thursday so hopefully tomorrow he will have friends to ride with. I met him at the school and the parents stayed in the classroom with them the first day. Graham was right at home, interrupting the teacher, talking up a storm. He loved the playground, fingerpainting and dress up. The red knight costume is his favorite!

At the end of the day, the boys rode home on the big bus together. When I met them at the bus stop, they were sitting together in the front row. They looked so cute, Reed was really watching out for Graham. Again, hope that lasts!!!!

Reed's 6th Birthday!

2009-08-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

There is so much that I should have written about on my blog over the past few months and I plan to do a slide show from our summer adventures soon (once the kiddos are in school!) but at the request of my dear sister, Erin, I will update my blog tonight with pictures from Reed's party. The first few pictures are from the actual day, the boys had camp that day and Jeff had the day off for Singapore National Day. Reed opened his gifts in the afternoon. You'll see his Tower of Doom which he calls the Royal Kingdom. I think he's combining the Royals (baseball) and the Kingdom from our visit to Medieval Times. :) Also his new Wii game from cousin Zach and the rest of the Rollins clan.This past Sunday we went to Wild, Wild Wet waterpark (http://www.wildwildwet.com.sg/) with four other families, there were 9 boys in all. Sadly our friends, the Cains, had to leave early for soccer tryouts so they aren't in any of my pictures. Graham fell asleep halfway through but the other guys had an absolute blast. His friends were Ethan, Jonah and Liam Cain, Darian Hsu, Kenneth Nelson and Oscar and Noah Depp. Such great friends, such great fun!

Graham said the funniest thing....

2009-04-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

I want to preface this story with the fact that I take domestic abuse/violence very seriously, it is in no way a laughing matter. But when you read this story, coming from a concerned 3 year old, you just have to laugh......
When Graham woke up from his nap today he was fairly cranky so I held him on my lap while sitting on the couch, him snuggled into me. He finally warmed up and sat back looking at me. Then he leaned in close, pointed to my lip and asked, "Mom, what is that?" I asked what he meant. He said with a very serious expression and tone, "Mom, what is on your lip? Is that where Daddy punched you?" I burst into laughter and couldn't stop for several minutes, he finally decided it was funny too and laughed. After awhile I was able to ask him if he thought Daddy had punched me in the mouth and he said "Yes," like, "That's a stupid question."
For the record, Daddy has never punched me in the mouth. Have a good day! :)

Cambodia Trip Part 2: The bike ride!

2009-04-21T22:18:00.001-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention about our ride from Phnom Penh to Kep was seeing buses along the way so packed full of people that it looked like they were sardines in a can and there were tons of people sitting ON TOP OF THE BUS as well. Now, this road is so bumpy that at one point Meredith held up her arm to see what time it was and couldn't read her watch because her arm was flying around so much. But we all had our own seats and had air con. The people on the other buses that we were passing had neither. I asked someone later and these are the people that go from their villages into the city every day to work in the garment factories. So an hour in the morning and an hour at night, at least 6 days a week, this is how they travel. I felt so bad for them!

Onto our accommodations in Kep. We stayed at a little place that had about 8 bungalows. The "reception area" was an open air structure that also served as the restaurant, the bar, had a pool table and wireless. We ate there on Saturday both breakfast and lunch, pretty good food. The owner's wife, I believe, was the cook. He was from somewhere in Europe, didn't recognize the accent, and I think his wife was from Cambodia. There are walkways connecting all the houses, it's very lush and green. Our bungalow had 2 beds complete with mosquito nets, a very small bathroom with cold water only and a fan mounted on the wall. It had a roof and walls but also cut outs above the windows for fresh air. It had a little front porch and a hammock. The roosters somewhere in the distance seemed to be confused as they woke me up at 3:00 AM and kept going until about 5! Here are some pics.

Saturday morning we walked towards town and the resort dog followed us. It's really pretty there, so much green as it rains quite a bit, also very humid. We finally jumped on a passing tuk tuk, taking the dog with us as he seemed afraid and we didn't want to lose him. We got to the crab market which had people selling various things and lots of little restaurants. There was a monkey chained to a tree, not sure what his purpose was but we were squatting down talking to him, and realized he was eating his own vomit. We decided to keep walking. Fun to see everyone going about their daily business, did have to stop a couple of kids from terrorizing a kitten, Meredith is as big of an animal lover as I am! Walked all the way back to our bungalow and was just dripping with sweat, exhausted, with 2 hours until the race! Saw lots of burned out homes or places where homes used to be, can definitely see how this area was once where the rich had vacation homes. Not a lot left of it now but I think it may be coming back.

Finally it was time for our bike race. Not really a race, just a 10k ride through the country side in order to raise money for an organization, Bridges across Borders for Southeast Asia http://www.babsea.org/. There was also a 10k walk and a half marathon the next day but we were flying out early in the morning and would miss that. Our entrance fee of $50 (USD, everyone in the country wants USD and even the ATM's dispense it!) got us a cool shirt, all the transportation to and from Kep as well as the races, a nice dinner Saturday night and covered the price of the bicycles that we rode which then went to the villagers. Sixty bicycles were donated and I'm sure, are making a huge difference in 60 families lives. Over $50,000 was also raised (we had to raise at least $250 each ourselves). We got to the starting point where all the bikes were waiting. You'll note these are not 10 speeds (or any speeds) but did have handy baskets on the front for our stuff. It was to begin at 3:00 PM so Meredith and I thought we'd LOVE the cold showers that were waiting for us as we knew it would be so hot and humid. I even bought an expensive visor that was made to keep the sweat off your face and out of your eyes. Just as the starting gun was shot a HUGE crack of thunder hit and as we were pulling out onto the road the downpour began. This was not a little rain, this is what we refer to as TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. Not just downpour but sideways pour right into our faces. That visor of mine proved even more valuable. One thing I didn't know, 85% of the race was on dirt/rock roads. When those roads get soaked, they are actually mud roads. NOT EASY. I kept trying to tell myself that the person who gets this bike deals with this on a daily basis, it didn't help too much from feeling sorry for myself and wondering why I was doing it. I wondered why we couldn't just give them the darn bikes. And, ironically, it was FREEZING. The cold air and being literally soaked to the bone made for a very chilly ride. Not to mention all the stuff in our baskets were soaked, all of our money, our passports, cameras and phones, Meredith's camera never did recover. The kilometers were not marked so we never knew how far we had gone. I won't go into all the detail but it was a LONG ride. Especially for poor Meredith who is totally in shape and could have finished in less than half the time it took us as she patiently waited for me. I told her to go ahead and send someone back for me if I didn't finish an hour after her but she stayed with me, bless her heart. Once it finally stopped raining we were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside. We made it to the finish which was at a school were villagers were waiting and cheering (along with 97% of the other participants who had already finished). We didn't get to hand over the bikes then, that was to be done at the closing ceremony on Sunday which we missed and were disappointed, but it was still fun to see some of the people. We climbed onto the airconditioned bus, still freezing as we headed towards our cold showers waiting for us. During the ride I thought I wouldn't do this again but even by the time we got onto that bus, we were planning for 2010's ride!

That night we had a nice dinner and some entertainment, at risk kids from Phnom Penh doing a breakdancing show. They were just adorable. Then, early the next morning we had our arranged taxi ride back to the airport in the city. We had been told the drive back would be a little shorter since we were in a car rather than a bus. It was still dark and a Toyota Camry picked us up. The driver (hardly any English) wanted $30 up front and the other $20 when we got there. I gave it to him and we drive about 4 minutes when he stopped and said, "My associate will take you the rest of the way." An almost identical Camry waited for us. I explained to him I had just given him $30 and he said, "It's ok!" So he got 30 for a 4 minute ride the other guy got 20 for a (supposed to be) 5 1/2 to 6 hour trip. This second car had no seatbelts in the backseat. He did have a little screen covering the rearview mirror that showed music videos and played the music very loud (all in Khmer). It's still dark and he starts driving. We asked a couple times to turn down the music (using charades since he doesn't speak any English). He is driving incredibly fast on these narrow roads. There are already people on bicycles, people walking and buses and trucks on the road. He honked his horn constantly for everyone to get out of his way and swerved around everyone, no worries at all at what may be coming towards us in the other lane. As daylight came more and more people were on the road, many holding children on their bikes or mopeds. This did not phase the guy. I yelled at him many times to slow down especially when we were driving through towns where people (many kids) were just steps off the road. He didn't. I thought we truly might die especially with no seatbelts and wondered if that would be better than surviving a crash in rural Cambodia with no doctors etc. We obviously did survive but a dog and a chicken did not. He slammed through both of them while we gasped in horror. We made the 3 hour trip in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Even in the city he continued to drive this way. I had planned to tip him as I thought he got the raw end of the deal but of course, by the time we got there, I didn't give him an extra cent. After he unloaded our suitcases he turned to us with a big smile and said, "Bye!" Just another day at the office for him. We tried not to think about who or what he hit on his way back to Kep. Other than that experience, we loved it all. We had to pay another $25 to get OUT of the country but had such a fabulous time. We can't wait for next year, we hope to bring our families this time to cheer us on and stay a little longer so we can be at the closing ceremonies. May even throw in a quick trip up to Siem Reap and Angor Wat so we will have really experienced all of Cambodia. I have to say every single person we met (besides the murderous taxi driver) were just as nice and sweet as anyone I've ever met anywhere in the world. Thanks for reading!!! :) I will send out my kodak gallery of pics now. If you don't get it and want it, send me a note tracyefaulkner@yahoo.com .

Cambodia Trip!

2009-04-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I've written on here so I don't know if anyone is still checking the site or not! Here I'm going to write about my trip to Cambodia and post a few pictures, I have more in a Kodak slideshow that I will send out right after I post this with more pictures.
On Friday, February 27th my friend Meredith and I flew into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the capital city and we were going to spend the day there before taking a 3 hour bus ride down to the town of Kep for a bike ride the next day. After paying $20 USD to get into the country we found 2 guys trying to get us to take their taxis into town. We picked the $7 vs. the $9, the other guy laughed and said, "He doesn't have air conditioning!" Turns out $7 gets you a tuk tuk which we thought would be fun. Dara, our driver, said he'd take us around all day and bring us back to the airport that evening to catch our bus for USD 35. We probably could have bargained but decided that was a pretty good deal and off we went.Our first stop was a school run by the Cambodian Children's Fund http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/. This was started by a Hollywood exec a few years ago after visiting Phnom Penh and seeing all the children who lived and worked in the trash dumps, scouring the trash for tiny pieces of metal etc., from sun up to sun down. He ended up quitting his job, hoping to start one school and try to help 40 kids. He now has about 7 schools and has helped hundreds and hundreds of children. Meredith and I brought school supplies and some kids shoes for the children there. I didn't take any pictures there as the kids were all in school and we didn't want to be disruptive. It was really cool to see though, I promise! :)

Once we unloaded one full suitcase there at the school our driver, Dara, decided we like doing charity things so he suggested we get a big bag of rice (took us awhile to understand what he was saying) and take it to an orphanage. But first, we wanted to eat. The girl at CCF had suggested a restaurant down on the river so we asked to be taken there. Dara said that place was too expensive and he'd take us to a different place on the river for cheap western food. We ended up at the Pink Elephant Pizza place. It was pretty darn good and cheap (the little place behind our tuk tuk)! The river view was not quite what I was expecting and we had several people come up to sell us things. I ended up buying some sunglasses, a newspaper and we both bought a book which had been photocopied and sometimes the words slid off the page. But, we were helping the economy there, right? :)

Next we were off to find a big bag of rice for the orphans. Dara took us to a place I'm sure he takes all the tourists and we got a 50kg bag of rice. That's over 100 pounds. It was HUGE and HEAVY. Between the rice our suitcases and us, we barely fit in the tuk tuk and I was starting to think we'd be too heavy to move. But we did and started our trek outside the city limits to the orphanage. We were onto dirt roads, in a much more rural part, lots of frightenly thin cows. We aren't sure why since there was lots of green grass but these guys were walking skeletons. I don't think my pictures did them justice. We realized our driver wasn't exactly sure where this orphanage was as he kept asking people and turning around. We were in an area that I wasn't sure we'd be too welcome as American women and at one point I said to Meredith, "Our mothers would not be pleased right now." She thought our hubbies would be more upset but I could just hear my mom if we ended up missing in Cambodia!!!! Anyway, we finally found the orphanage, gave them the massive bag of rice and got to meet some of the children. They were all darling. The older kids were at school in the town, the younger ones getting ready for lessons on the "ranch." They all speak Khmer (native language), English and most are also learning French or Japanese. The youngest, a 3 year old boy, spoke to us in English and Japanese. Truly remarkable. Again, not really able to take pictures of the kids but it was a great experience. Here is the website though: http://www.lighthouseorphans03.0rg/.

The rest of the afternoon was spend visiting 2 museums and the Royal Palace. The first picture below is the museum with lots of artifacts, clothing etc. The second picture is just a tiny portion of the huge Royal Palace. The third picture was taken as we were zooming through town, many people live in this type of situation, so much poverty. The second museum we went to used to be a school. It was turned into a prison the 70's where the Khmer Rouge held and tortured men, women and children (yes, children, even babies). They took pictures of each prisoner, these are on display, headshots of each one almost like driver's license pictures. Some of the pictures of the women show babies in their arms. Some of the pictures are of people strapped to beds for torture. Each building we went into was worse than the last. It was devestating to see and yet I am so glad we went. To get a small glimpse into what the Cambodians went through. Anyone who was educated, spoke a second language, even wore glasses was executed eventually, after months of torture usually. Obviously I didn't whip out my camera here either, much too solemn. There are lots of books about the tragedy that went on there, Meredith and I both have started reading more about it. I'm in the middle of "First They Killed My Father."

Finally Dara took us back to the airport. We were a little early but felt we had already had a full day and after the last museum, didn't feel like doing much else. Turned out there was one thing at the airport that cheered us up......there was a Dairy Queen! So, ice cream while we waited and then we joined some of our fellow riders and some runners, climbed on a bus and headed off to Kep, driving for 3 hours on one of the bumpiest roads I've ever ridden on! Next posting I'll write about Kep and our bike ride!

Milestones: Reed

2009-03-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

I didn't set any goals for Reed for 2009 (please read my post about Graham down below first!) as he is older and I couldn't really think of anything in particular that he needed to work on. (really, what WE as parents needed to help him work on) But he has had some milestones just the same. Reed LOVES school, I mean loves it to death. It sometimes takes me awhile to wake him up in the morning but once he's awake and realizes he is going to school he jumps up, gets dressed (sometimes takes a bath first floating with just his nose and mouth outside the water), eats his cereal and is ready to go. He has been an extremely picky eater his whole life and I would say that he has been really good about branching out and trying new things. But getting back to school, he has come such a long way in his reading. I don't know how old I was when we started reading but I don't think it was kindergarden.

He has also gone back to being a really sweet, helpful kid. I sort of remember him being this way until about 2 1/2 but then the troublemaker took over. A long, long time ago Jeff's cousin Robin Faulkner told me that kids start being nice and fun to be around again about the age of 5, right when they start going to school fulltime, which she felt was unfortunate. At the time Reed was about 3 months old and I couldn't comprehend how he COULDN'T be sweet and wonderful all the time.............. Anyway, he has gone back to being wonderful (most of the time) helping me out, helping Graham much of the time, being a great big brother. There are, of course, fights and arguments as well but I guess they wouldn't be normal kids/brothers if there wasn't that going on.

The biggest milestone I think is Reed lost his first tooth last week. While he is SO excited about knowing the tooth fairy will be in his room with her magic wand, he waited about 11 days to put it under his pillow because he was waiting until today to take it to show and tell. His "grown up" tooth is already showing through, he informed me the other day that it is also his "permanent tooth." :)

Milestones: Graham

2009-03-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this post forever but have been too darn lazy to write it. There is NOTHING on TV here on Friday nights (during the week they have great shows on late....) so here I go.
As 2008 was nearing it's end, I thought up several goals for Graham for 2009. 1-lose the pacifier (pop pop); 2-learn to swim without floaties; 3-be potty trained. While on our trip to Bintan, Indonesia, the day after Christmas, Graham woke up from his nap and we were headed to the beach. Jeff was pulling on the pop pop and Graham was holding it with his teeth, the soft plastic part ripped off. No more pop pop. I thought we would have a horrible vacation due to this but Graham did quite well. He asked for it a couple of times but never really cried (he still has Doggie). First goal completed and we had not yet hit New Years!
The second goal seemed to be met almost as easily, since we go to the pool several times a week, sometime in January Graham decided he no longer wanted floaties and poof, off they went and he's been swimming like a little fish ever since!
Thus far Graham is the typical 2nd child, doing everything just a little bit earlier than his big brother did because he copies everything he sees. And then there is potty training......
"Buddy, do you want to wear big boy underwear like Reed?" "No, I'm DIAPER BOY!!!!" This is no lie. Graham has not shown much interest in losing the diapers. He states he likes them and I believe him! He will sometimes go on the little potty, get all excited and do a little dance, but then asks for the diaper to go back on. His teacher at school has pretty much insisted that we send him in underwear (I have no idea why, he's only there for 3 hours and she's not ever had to change him). So, a few weeks ago, I started sending him in underwear. He has had an accident there and a couple on the way home but overall, has done fairly well. Yesterday he went all day with one pair of underwear (skipped his nap). Well, he announced to me that he did pee in the pool but he's not the first kid or the last to do that, right? So today I took him to the store with me and then the American club, didn't even bring a diaper, just an extra pair of shorts and underwear. After getting groceries he rode a little ride in the mall and then, boom, peed all over the floor. Ok, my fault, should have taken him straight to the bathroom before letting him get on the ride. Then we went to the club, he "went" about 6 times in the bathroom, so far so good. Finally, he was going to swim. We discussed at length about how important it is that he not pee or poop in the pool. I won't give you details, but he pooped twice in his swimsuit (luckily was not in the pool either time). I can only hope we meet goal 3 by mid-August when he's supposed to start at Singapore American School!!!!
Finally, I just have to say how loving and funny Graham is. He has hit his terrible 3's with the fake crying to get his brother in trouble and saying "I hate that!" about just about everything but it's not all the time. Today we were in the cab and I asked if he thought we were going to have fun, just the two of us. He answered "Yes because we really love each other" and then gave me a hug and a kiss!
That's the loving side, the funny side is how he likes to let us know when he can do something "easily," one of his favorite words, and his practicing his bowling anywhere, anytime, working on his form. The kid LOVES to bowl and he does it probably 2x a week at the club. He continues to worship his brother but definitely has his own mind and personality. That's our Graham-cracker!

Reed's Christmas Concert

2009-02-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

His class sang Hip Hop Reindeer. It was too cute!

Graham Dancing

2009-01-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

I'm really branching out here! I have not been able to upload this cute video of Graham dancing to Puff the Magic Dragon because it is so big. I've put it out on YouTube, here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lAA199pU4s

Not sure how to have the actual picture show up but at least the link works.

The Joy of Bowling Part 2

2009-01-19T04:44:00.001-08:00

Here is Graham's video.....

The Joy of Bowling

2009-01-19T04:22:00.000-08:00

I took the boys bowling a couple of weekends ago while Jeff was out of town. They absolutely love to bowl. I happened to catch Reed getting a strike with the video part of my camera. Afterwards, every time Graham bowled, he also exclaimed "I got a strike!" just like Reed. Actually, he said, "I got a STRIPE!" but you get where he was coming from. :) It won't let me post both videos at once so I'll do Graham's next.

Just a couple of pix

2009-01-05T06:08:00.001-08:00

Wanted to post a few pictures from our trip to Bintan. It one of 3200 islands in Indonesia. Just a one hour ferry ride from Singapore. I love this first picture that Jeff took while we were sitting on the beach. It totally looks like one that people use as their wallpaper on their computer. Then just some random shots from the trip. In the last one, I didn't mean to get the little girl in the picture but doesn't it just look so natural? :)

It's been a good day....

2008-12-28T05:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T02:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-09T05:54:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-18T02:55:00.000-08:00

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......

2008-11-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

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....

2008-10-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-11T02:50:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2008-10-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-10-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T04:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

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.......

2008-09-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-15T07:20:00.001-07:00

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.....

2008-09-15T03:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-08-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-25T16:18:00.001-07:00

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!!!!

2008-04-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

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!

The boys

2007-08-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here are Reed and Graham's school pictures from May. Graham wasn't actually in school last year but I snuck him in for a picture anyway. :)

Hello!!!

2007-08-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Faulkner family blog. We have been in Shanghai for 2 years already so I'm a bit late in starting this but will try to keep up our blog for however many years we have left in Asia. As some of you know, we have either another couple of years in Shanghai or just one year there and then 2-3 in Singapore. This is all subject to change of course, at the drop of a hat. :) I'll post a couple of pictures of our boys, Reed turns 4 on August 10th and Graham will be 2 mid-October.