Stake Conference

Jack had Monday off. Yay! I LOVE when he doesn't have school some days, and it is making me even more excited for summer when we don't have to plan our days around a fixed time table. Pretty much everyone here is leaving for the entire summer, so I'm sure we'll all miss a lot of our friends, but it will be fun to spend time with those who are here, hopefully get away for a few long weekends, and enjoy some fun activities with just us!

So, with Jack's free day, we met our friends Heather and Scarlett at the new IPC clubhouse. IPC is the name of Jack's school, and they just opened up a new branch that is turning into to somewhat of a community center. They offer gym classes for kids and adults, a fun playground, a small library, and of course a salon and massage parlor. Jack has started going regularly on Tuesdays after school for a gym class and he LOVES it. It's now his favorite day of the week. We decided to check out the new facilities and see what they wanted to do. It was fun to visit while the kids played on the playground, Heather got a wash and blow, Jane got her toenails painted, and they offered an impromptu gym class for the kids who were there, so we splurged and let them do it.

Jane is such a girly girl sometimes. I didn't even think she was going to do it, but she just got in line and the next thing I knew she was getting painted RED! Good thing things like this are so dang cheap here!

I usually don't get to see Jack in his gym class, so this was a treat for me. Because it was a little less formal, they let the parents in, and the class was all different ages. I felt like it was the perfect day to spend the money on this because it is probably the only time Jack and Jane could do it together, which they both loved.

They did tumbling, games, singing, and they loved the parachute. I wish I could do that with my nursery kids! This was during one of the courses they set up around the room. Jack was coming off the balance beam, as Jane had just done, but instead of moving onto the next station, she decided to try and catch him. I love my kids!

I went to pick Jack up from his Tuesday class, and Jane decided she was up for a haircut. I never know what to do with her curly/not so curly hair in this humidity. But, as I've discovered with my hair, less is better. She thought this was great, and they even give her a treasure when she's done!

Spent a little time with Brandon this week. These two are two peas in a pod.

A while back, we decided it was time for Jack to finish out the night in his own room. He would always go to sleep in his room just fine, but for some reason, always ended up on our floor by morning time without waking us. When morning time started to get closer to evening time, we decided it was time to make this a priority. As soon as we talked to him about it and told him we could go see a movie if he started staying in his room, he's been a champ. He just likes to sleep on his floor now. No complaints here.

Our friends, the DeJesus family, stayed with us again last night. We absolutely love when they come to stay. They are fantastic company, make themselves right at home, and help around the house more than I should probably let them! We woke up to a hot breakfast and kids happily playing this morning. I didn't even hear Jane wake up, Crisse just got her out of bed and let us sleep. Wow!

Off to Stake Conference this morning. I don't think Jane knew what to do with all this energy these boys had this morning.

As we were walking out of our apartment complex, Jack and Curt just put their arms around each other. This was our best attempt at a picture of it as they were exiting the guards station.

I love Stake Conference. Jeff was able to attend the Priesthood meeting yesterday afternoon, and then I went to the adult session in the evening. This is always my favorite meeting of the year, and this one wasn't a disappointment. Elder Rasband was presiding and his talk was phenomenal. I was so glad that he shared that this was also the same talk he gave in the October 2000 conference, shortly after he was called to the presidency of the Seventy. Sunday morning, we all went together to the Amari Watergate Hotel for the general meeting. We arrived an hour early and got fantastic seats which made a huge difference in how much we could get out of the meeting while keeping Jack and Jane entertained! This is as the ballroom was filling up.

Many of the talks for all 3 meetings were by our area authority, Elder Wong, Elder and Sister Rasband, as well as the Hong Kong Temple President and his wife, Brother and Sister Goo. This is me, Jane, and Preeya with Sister Goo. Her daughter's family were the first people Jeff got to know in the Bangkok ward when he was here on business. They invited him over a few times, took him out to eat, and made him feel really welcome. They went above and beyond the usual, "welcome!", and as a wife at home, I was happy someone was taking care of him! They are awesome! When we found out we were going to move here, they passed along several items we would need, and shared their most valuable Thailand find, Preeya! Preeya worked full time for them and got to know the parents well too, so when Sister Goo was in town, Preeya was thrilled to be her guide. I was happy to get to know Sister Goo a little too, and can see why her daughter's family was so generous, and why Preeya adores her so much. Preeya has worked part time for us since we moved into our apartment and she is fantastic! It's so nice to have help around the house, and someone to help with making calls to random Thai places I normally couldn't communicate with. She has been priceless, and a fantastic part of our Thailand family! I was so happy she wanted to attend this meeting with us to listen to President Goo's talk. It was fun to mesh those two parts of our life.

Jack and Jeff playing while waiting the hour for it to start. My boys, aren't they cute? (taking pictures at Stake Conference probably seems weird, right? It is/was totally normal here. I regularly take my camera to church, of course only using it at appropriate times, but I am certainly not the only one! I'd hate to miss moments with our church friends, just because we mostly only get to see them at church!)

These kids certainly do have fun together! I love having Curt over, and I still can't figure out where he gets all his energy. He was going, going, going, then, when the meeting started, I looked down the row to see him passed out on the chairs. He slept through the entire two hour meeting! We weren't so lucky, but they kids did do well, especially with Ashley, Vibushen, and Preeya sitting by us. Plus, people around us just kept handing us food for the kids. We were in survival mode, so we thought it was fantastic.

Jack was SO tired at the end of the meeting. I could hardly stop laughing because he was reminding me of that Seinfield episode where Jerry's girlfriend cries about every little thing. "My frankfurter....". It really was that ridiculous. Anyway, we insisted he take a nap, and he happily agreed, except this is what we found him doing instead. He said he took a nap in his tent, but no, he didn't. He was having fun though, so what can you do?

Finally, I got the music to our video added in. It's always the last thing to do for some reason. Thanks for the recommendations. The ones I didn't use for this one, I'll definitely use for another. My videos are all pretty similar, but I continue to make them because it's such a great way for the kids to be able to go through photos and remember so many people we love, yet don't get to see very often. Jane's spent the majority of her life in Thailand now, and won't remember seeing Grandparents for Sunday dinners, or having a cousin come to stay for the weekend, or even walking across the street for a playdate. But, she will remember fantastic trips to Utah where we crammed in as much Grandparents, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, fun and LOVE as we possibly could. We absolutely loved this trip, and are already counting the days until we can celebrate being together as a family again!

Farewell, Harry.

When American Idol finished a couple of weeks ago, I remember seeing psychologists on TV discussing how people might react to it all being over. Some will feel a huge void in their lives, some may go into a state of depression, and many will feel a huge sense of loss. I thought that sounded so ridiculous. These are people you see on TV for crying out loud! We don't really know them. We don't have a relationship with them. How on earth could people ever get so attached to someone who we will probably never even meet?

Now I know.

Jeff and I finished reading the final book in the Harry Potter series last night. My hat goes off to Ms. Rowling. She is absolutely amazing. Her imagination is endless, and her way with words is so natural and creative. I couldn't get enough of this magical world. I think reading it so slowly (which is to be expected when you can only do it when you are together) made me even more attached. I remember when book 6 came out, and our good friends, Ryan and Tamie (love you guys!), were SO excited about it. They bought it the first day they could and sent their kids to Provo to spend some good, quality time with their grandparents, while they locked themselves up in the house alone to devour the book. Jeff and I both thought they were nuts. Well, now I get it.

We read the entire series, and all but #3 together, but now, it's all over. After the end, I was left feeling so excited and satisfied, yet craving so much more. More answers, more details, and more of their world. I've felt that way after each of the other books, but there's always been another one to look forward to. Now there's not. I'm not feeling like I'm going to be needing therapy sessions or anything (at least not any more than I may have needed them before!), but I miss Harry. I feel a void. But, I'm trying to move on. So, my question to you is... what's next? What can we read that is as fantastic as Harry Potter? What will we love to read together? What are your absolute favorites that would be fun to read aloud?

O Canada

After confessing my weakness of forgetting my camera (time and time again) last week, I have now made it a strength once again. I took my camera out with me almost every day this week, and I was glad I did. We had a fun filled week, and we captured a good part of it.

We saw Anutra and Bird this week for the first time since our trip to Utah. We were happy they could come over, and Jane was SO excited to see Khun Bird! She was jumping up and down yelling, “Khun Bird, Khun Bird!” I don’t think she left his side the entire night, except when Bird was giving Jack superman rides. He’s such a good sport!

One of the major highlights was being invited over by Ashley for his birthday on Wednesday. He’s been reminding me of this for a couple of weeks now, so I knew this was something he was really looking forward to. Jeff and Jack had been to visit, but Jane and I hadn’t gotten a chance until now. As my regular readers will know, Jane and Ashley have a special bond. Even when she is extremely tired and clingy, he can always win her over. He loves to chase her around, give her as many sweets as she wants (something I’ve come to accept since we don’t see them too often), and show her off to everyone else. He’s really just a sweet “big brother” to her, and I’ve loved having him there to help me out when I’m running around church like crazy trying to arrange this, organize that, and keep other people’s kids happy! So, we knew that we couldn’t miss an opportunity to celebrate Ashley’s birthday with him.

Ashley and Vibushen are in the process of completing their paperwork to head to Canada soon. This is a BIG step for these sweet brothers, so they are ecstatic! We thought a Canadian flag cake was fitting. They laughed like crazy when we took the lid off. I told him I was bringing a cake, so I don’t know what he really expected. What do Sri Lankans usually do for birthday cakes? Didn’t Jeff do an awesome job on the maple leaf?

We thought we were the only ones that Ashley invited over, so we were excited when we had a chance to visit with the Elders as well. Even if we could all hardly fit in their little room! This was the first time I’ve gotten a chance to visit with Elder Davis, and although Elder Zufelt was with us for Christmas Eve (he was brand new to the area at the time), I still didn’t know him as well, so this was a treat. We had homemade fish balls (by Ashley), fruit, a few Thai dishes, cake, and because Jane started melting down for some reason, Vibushen took her and Jack both down to Family Mart for ice cream. Can you say SPOILED?

I show you these pictures so you can get an idea of how a lot of people live here. This is really common to have a room, a “kitchen” and a bathroom. I wasn’t sure if they’d have a western toilet, but was happy to see that they did, just in case. Ashley wanted to show me where he prepared the fish balls. Although I’m sure they just purchase most of their meals at food shops as they need it, he still has a lot of spices for when he wants to cook. He fried them on a propane canister that lets out a little flame. I thought it was hilarious that all the spices came in little tiny jars except the chili powder. This container was HUGE! They use it a lot over here! Oh, we will miss these guys!

Jack and Jane were extra cute together this week. This picture was in the elevator taking Jack to school one morning.

They love to take turns being a dog lately. They’ll be doing their own thing, then suddenly, one of them will get on all fours and start barking at the other one and immediately the other will go into “owner” mode. They’ll feed out of hands, go for walks, lap up water out of a bowl, and apparently this morning, Jack was even helping his doggie get dressed! I think this is a great game. They always get along and take great care of each other. How could I lose?

Jane’s been hilarious this week. We’ve been noticing that she sings a lot lately. She will sing one tune and put whatever words she wants into it. She sang “I’m a Child of God” start to finish, while saying nothing but “Jam” (we were making her lunch at the time). Also, she’s started to sing all of Jack’s violin pieces with random words, or she tries to sing the fingerings like Jack. She’s not quite as accurate, but I think it’s hilarious that she picks up on this stuff just from wandering in and out of our practice sessions occasionally. She doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.

Jack had school off on Friday as well as tomorrow for his mid-term break. Having a more relaxed morning and having him with me for most the day really made me excited for summer. He and Jane always do so well in the morning when we can have a little more time to play before rushing out the door! We met Jack’s friends and their mothers at the mall at the play area. If Jane has ever had a best friend, Brandon is it! These two have some great connection and have since their first day together. I love watching them together.

Afterwards, we went to lunch at the food court, and Jack loved being with his current best friends, Sasha and Kazuya. I love these kids too. I’ve had them both at my house at different times, and they are genuinely good, well mannered kids. Not to mention, I get along with both their mothers really well. It was a fun morning out!

Jack’s such a climber. He loves to climb poles lately, and he’s pretty good at it. This one was particularly easy because it’s all padded, but he’s pretty good at just the metal poles at his school too. I think he about gives some of the teachers a heart attack when he does it.

I think I mentioned last week that we were moving to a new church building. It was a big ordeal, and so well worth it! I spent most of Saturday at the new building unpacking nursery/primary stuff and figuring out how it was all going to work with Alice and Crisse. These two women are so awesome! Jack came with me this day and it was SO fun to have him be such a good helper! He really was an asset when it came to getting things done!

Alice ordered pizza, which was heaven sent since there was no end in sight at that point. Have you ever seen pizza like this before? It’s pretty tame compared to what you see on their ads. You should have seen what they advertised as the American special several months ago. It looked disgusting. This was actually quite good!

As soon as Jack and I got back from the church, we headed off to his friend Omer’s birthday party. He was SO excited for this party, as he is for all of them. It was at a family fitness center, and they had drummers and a dance teacher doing activities with them. It was fun and different, although Jack tired of it after a while and was more interested in throwing the fit balls and sword fighting with the foam rollers. He and Dylan loved being together, as always!

Our first Sunday in the new building was a success! Our meetings changed from 9am to 11am, which I thought would be awesome because then we don’t have to leave as early, right? Wrong. We left around 8am, so we could attend the baptism of a Sri Lankan family. I was asked the night before to speak at it, and although I’m not a fantastic speaker, I really enjoyed the opportunity to think about baptism and why it is so meaningful to me personally.

This building is SO GORGEOUS! It felt gigantic compared to our other one. We had more than 2 stalls in the bathrooms, a huge chapel (although there aren’t pews, just chairs), we doubled the room size for most classes, and there’s a beautiful, grassy courtyard that I got to take my nursery kids out to play on! We also had a “linger longer” out here afterward, and it was fun to visit with new members, say goodbye to some, and let the kids play with all their wonderful church friends they don’t see often enough! We all felt so spoiled!

Ashley took this one while Jane was running one of the races the kids put together. They were loving it!

Jack found Stephen Griffiths and for some reason decided he wanted to beat him in an arm wrestle. Jack was undefeated, I hear.

The heat was almost unbearable after a while, so most of the kids ended up playing in the overflow (no gym, but yes, we have an overflow!). Christopher, on the bottom, was such a good sport! Is it obvious he comes from a family of 9? I’m pretty sure he’s used to kids piling on top of him.

Jack loved getting a horsey ride from Shannon. She’s another one that is so good with kids! She and her brother just started the violin with me a few weeks ago, and I’ve loved having them come each Monday for a lesson and play!

Personality differences are so fun to watch in these kids. Emily Quan (Alice’s daughter) is also amazing with my children, but she usually has them completely involved in a book. She explains each thing and reads with so much personality. Jack and Jane both adore her.

So, it’s been a good week. We’ve enjoyed some nice evenings home, and some nice afternoons out. I also realized one of my FAVORITE things this week. I LOVE when my kids ask me questions where I can answer “Yes!” I feel like too often, I have to tell Jack he can’t climb on that, or Jane can’t color on this, or we have to wait for this, or we can’t go there today, etc. It gets so exhausting some days. I love when Jack asks, “can I give some to Jane?” SURE! “Can we play this game?” You bet! “Can we read this book?” Of course! It’s so nice to answer in the affirmative. I’m determined to figure out how I can answer “yes!” more often! It feels so good!

You can even ask me if I’m going to have my Utah video done this next week. Yes!