Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Hello to all our friends and family!
NO massage stories this week! Yea! Hope this finds each of you doing well. First of all, let me say I really do appreciate the emails you send. Sometimes I feel like this computer is my lifeline to "the real world"! I love being able to stay in touch with what's going on back home. We've heard about Hurricane Ike, the threat of a recession, the price of gasoline, the OSU football team, Flower Mound Homecoming (including the banana and monkey running down the field; sorry we missed that!) and just love receiving your emails. Wesley and Kasey got lots of emails from friends this past week regarding homecoming at Flower Mound High School. They were happy to read the emails but sad they weren't there to experience it with their friends. Last week Wesley asked if we would send him to Dallas for his 16th birthday. That is so NOT going to happen! I guess we're all a little homesick. We've been here almost three months now and the realization has set in that this is permanent and not just a short vacation. One day this week we all named things that we miss - and that list got pretty long! It started out with friends, family, neighbors, Creekwood Christian Church, and went on to include food - LOTS of restaurants like Sonic, Wingstop, Olive Garden, Ihop, Chilis, Taco Bell, Cracker Barrel, anything Mexican (okay I'll stop already), not to mention - American radio stations and TV shows, and some college football wouldn't hurt either! We're even craving the cool mornings that remind you that fall is just around the corner. But we know that we are very blessed to have this incredible experience, that God is good, and we are here because we are supposed to be here for now. So keep those emails coming please! :)
Our highlight of the week last week was a visit from three U.S. Sailors on the destroyer USS MOMSEN, which was here in Singapore for several days. We hosted a barbecue at our house along with another family, and took the sailors to the high school football game afterwards. At halftime it was announced that we had special guests from the USS MOMSEN, and everyone clapped and the guys were embarassed - one of those "feel good" moments for sure. We really enjoyed getting to know them. They were deployed on March 15 and are on their way back home to the state of Washington. One of the guys has a four months old daughter whom he's never seen. Another is a newlywed. Another guy's nine year old son is meeting him in Honollu to ride the ship in with his dad the rest of the way home. Pretty cool! I've attached a photo.
Also attached are photos of some birds I saw at the Jurong Bird Park. My favorite part was when the parrot counted to ten in Mandarin and in English, then sang Happy Birthday! He sounded like a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz...The next photo is of our pizza delivery man. I know, how odd to take a photo of your pizza delivery man -but in Singapore they deliver pizzas on a motorcycle! So much to my son's embarassment, I took this photo. And by the way, the pizza here is definitely weird. I can't figure out why they want to put a fried egg on top of a pizza?
I did go see my first movie in Singapore this week. Finally! Those of you who know me, know that I love nothing more than watching a movie and having popcorn for lunch! I took Kasey and some of her friends to see "Mamma Mia" which I loved and they didn't. Chick flick musical, as my sister Susan called it. It had music from the group ABBA - remember ABBA? Well don't go see the movie unless you want those songs stuck in your head for days. The interesting thing is that in Singapore, when you buy your movie ticket you also select your seat in the theater. They have assigned seating in the movie theaters here!
This afternoon Kasey's volleyball team played the German International School. Last time the Germans beat us, but today we ruled. There was some conflict during the game about the rules - evidently the German rules allow the players to KICK the volleyball over the net! If their girls missed the ball and it bounced on the court, they would just kick it over to keep it in play! Something I've never seen until today...
Shelby is working in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia for three days this week. While I'm not crazy about him traveling and being gone, it sure is nice when he comes home with gum for the kids and duty-free Baileys Irish Cream for me! He has also started playing on a mens softball league. They play double-headers on Sundays. I don't know how he does it in this heat and humidity! He left me his car to drive this week while he's gone. It makes me so anxious to have to think about driving on the left side of the road. I'd really rather take a taxi, which is what I do most of the time (when I'm not walking). The Singaporean military has a sticker on the back of their vehicles that says "Driver under Orientation". I'm thinking I need to get one of those stickers!
Going to bed now! And you're probably eating breakfast!
P.S. Oops! I forgot - the picture of Sugar! Today is her birthday and she is five years old! :)
