6 MONTHS LATER!

Where does the time go? I can't believe that we are back in Texas and preparing for Christmas. It's been an incredibly busy six months to say the least. I have had such good intentions to update the blog with our Europe stops we made this summer on our way back home, but keep finding little projects that have kept me busy! All this to say, my goal for the New Year is to finish out this blog with our Europe vacation photos in early January. Stay tuned! :)

GOING AWAY PARTY

This summer finds many expat families moving back to the U.S. or moving on to their next international destination. Our good friends Buddy and Jody are retiring in Mexico, and Keith and Dianne are moving back home to Seattle. We have such a fun group of friends to hang out with, and will miss them terribly. Buddy and Jody hosted a party so that we could all be together one last time. Of course the Singapore Sling was the cocktail of choice for the welcome drink! We all emptied our liquor cabinets (can't ship liquor back!) and had quite the party! Saying goodbye is hard, but as my friend Kate quoted, "Don't be sad because it's over; smile because it happened".

Christine, Jody, Helen and Dianne

Keith and Buddy with friends

Donna and I yakking as usual!

Shelby and Dennis after 1:00am

Shelby with Dennis Creech and Ken Fay

Teresa Peck and Holly Kreutter

Shelby with Teresa and Ken

Nora Creech and Susan Fay

Dianne, Teresa and I

Jody is showing photos of the retirement home they are building in Mexico to Johanna

Shelley, Donna, Kate and Lauren

Jody and Dianne

Shelby and I with Anne and Greg

CHINESE GARDENS

Visiting the Chinese Gardens was one of the things on my bucket list before leaving Singapore. Today my friend Debbi and I decided to do just that. The Chinese Gardens are beautiful, and in such a quiet peaceful setting you almost forget that you are in noisy crowded Singapore!

Ok this has nothing at all to do with the Chinese Gardens, except that this truck was in the parking lot with the driver taking a nap. This is such a common sight in Singapore that I had to take a photo! Most days you can spot groups of workers lying in the grass, on the concrete, under a tree, anywhere and everywhere taking an afternoon nap! Most of them are from Bangaladesh or India, they have come over here to find work and live in dormitory type housing. It's also not uncommon to see them with their arms around each other walking down the street, or sitting close together-even sharing a bicycle -they are not gay, they are just very open about displaying their friendships!

Beautiful temple at the waters edge

The gardens were perfectly manicured and some bushes were shaped into dragons

The sign says this is MULAN.....could it be Mulan from the Disney movie? :)

Check out the tiny little bananas growing at the top!

This is the Bonsai Garden

Chinese soldiers are very popular here

Confucius!

Chinese Gardens with the Singapore skyline in the distance

Love those Chinese lanterns! The color red is everywhere in Singapore. This was the entrance to the turtle display (home of the giant freshwater turtle, not too exciting)

My friend Debbi and I by the rainbow bridge

I'm not real crazy about Buddha statues in general, but I do like the "happy Buddhas" in all their poses :)

BREAKFAST WITH THE ORANGUTANS!

Today was a holiday (Vesak Day, a Buddhist holiday) so we decided to go to the Singapore Zoo and have breakfast with the orangutans. I LOVE orangutans! They are just so fun to sit back and watch.

We spotted a monitor lizard crossing the deck. Monitor lizards are plentiful in Singapore; in fact, I saw one on the walking trail during my morning walk not long ago, and it was between two and three feet long! Creepy!

The trainer was making faces at the orangutan, who mimicked him

Kasey and Elizabeth

Check out those nasty black teeth!

The babies are fun to watch

HOUSE HUNTING IN DALLAS

In April Shelby and I made a trip to Dallas to look for a house. Not an easy task! The best part about the trip was eating Mexican food night after night,(and waffles in the shape of the state of Texas at the hotel!) and seeing friends and family. The worst part about the trip was coming home without a house (and also breaking my toe in the DFW airport!) Two weeks later Shelby sent me back to Dallas to try again. The best part about my trip was flying first class(Shelby upgraded me! Sweet!) and shopping at Target. Twice. And spending the night with my sister-in-law and also my friend Amy in Flower Mound. And eating ice cream at Braum's! It was quite a stressful experience, and I am sad to report that I once again returned to Singapore without finding us a house in Dallas. Who would have thought that house-hunting would be so stressful?

There's not much to do in the Tokyo airport, unless you like sushi or watching Sumo wrestling on television! That was a long layover!

Dinner at LaSierra with my friends Lisa and Laurie

Dinner at Fireside Pies with Shelby's brother Jeff and sister-in-law Kit

Dinner at Cristina's Mexican Food restaurant with our friends Sean and Kathy

WHERE THE HELL IS SAS?

For those of you who are familiar with the "Where the hell is Matt?" videos on You Tube, the Singapore American School students decided to make a similar video this spring while on their various interim trips. The video is really neat, and shows SAS students in India, Egypt, Jordan, Australia, Japan, Turkey, and the list goes on and on and on......

To view the video, go to www.youtube.com, and in the search box type in Where the Hell is SAS. It's the video with the most hits. Enjoy!!!

PROM 2010

Kasey got invited to the prom by a senior named Max whom she met during rugby season. They double-dated with her friend Brooke and boyfriend Brandon and had a great evening.