Now What's Up With Us!

Now that you are updated on the big happenings, here’s a little of what’s been going on with us on a day to day basis.

The kids are loving school! They have friends from all over the world….an experience that just wouldn’t happen in the US! Leah’s best friend is from South Africa, Caroline is good friends with a little girl from Thailand, and Tim seems to be friends with everyone from everywhere….Ireland, Thailand, the US, Australia, you name it! They are getting involved in lots of activities….Tim is in Cub Scouts and the girls are in Girl Guides (international equivalent of Girl Scouts.) Caroline is a Bluebird and Leah is a Littlebird. Each kid is also taking an after school class – Tim is in team handball, Leah in beads and bracelets, and Caroline is in a making stuffed toys class. There were probably 75 classes to choose from, and if we had wanted to (and had unlimited funds for after school activities!) they each could have been in a different class each day! All three older kids are also taking Thai in school, and also really enjoy that. Tim seems to be picking it up the most quickly, and will wander around the house spouting out phrases in Thai that only he understands! J

Nate hangs out with me every day. He goes to the store, rides in the golf cart with me, plays on the playground, etc. The highpoint of his day is picking the kids up from school – he loves the playground at ISB, their school. He also LOVES our driver, Yai (rhymes with guy) and runs around saying “Yai Yai the driver guy!” If it’s the weekend and we aren’t going anywhere and Yai is here, Nate will head outside and hang out with Yai. Yai, fortunately, seems to like Nate just as much, and will pull him up and down the street in the wagon, play ball with him, etc. If you were around Nate much at all before we left AZ, you’d know he talked but half the time you couldn’t understand him. Well, since being here, he’s also had a speech explosion and talks like crazy, 95% of which you can actually understand!

For me, I’m busier than I thought I’d be! We have a maid Monday through Friday now, and that is really a strange (but good) thing to get used to. (Everyone here has one….I haven’t met anyone yet that doesn’t have a maid!) She keeps the house very clean, does all the laundry, irons everything (I’ve never before had my underwear and PJs ironed!), makes dinner about four days a week (some Thai, mostly western food – all good!), and keeps an eye on Nate if I need to go somewhere without him. She also will babysit if Rick and I want to go out on the weekend, which is really nice. You probably wonder what I do with all my time now that I don’t have to clean the house, do laundry, or make dinner?!?! There is so much to do here, if you want to do it all, that you could have your day filled pretty much every day. I’m involved with the women’s group that meets once a week at church, a newcomer’s group (only once a week, too, only for 6 weeks), and I run Leah’s Littlebird group along with someone else. Between that and running kids to and from school and to and from activities, I’m pretty busy. I also am still teaching online for Grand Canyon University, and that definitely fills in a lot of time.

Rick is really liking work a lot. He’s getting busier and busier and more involved in a broader range of activities the longer he’s there. His commute is really the worst thing, overall, of anything here in Thailand. He leaves at 6:15 am and doesn’t get home until about 6:45 or 7:00 pm (later on Fridays because the traffic is so bad!) But he enjoys working with his group of engineers and has made some friends amongst them and with the other Americans at the facility, which makes things go much more smoothly for him day to day.

We also celebrated Leah’s 5th birthday this past Wednesday! It was a pretty quiet celebration here at home. She took cupcakes into school for her class that morning, then had Phad Thai for dinner (made especially for her by our maid, Goon), and more cupcakes for dessert. We’re going to have some of her little girlfriends over to swim at our neighborhood pool next weekend and have a little party for her then.

Here’s a few more pictures of kids, etc.:
(Leah’s topless because I didn’t want her to get chocolate icing on her school uniform shirt. The other pictures are taken in our carport and on the street right in front of our house!)