God is making our lives complete as we place all the pieces before him. We get a fresh start every day so we are watching our step as He rewrites the text of our lives by opening our hearts to His eyes.
Paraphrase Psalm 18:20-24
does anyone know where this photo is taken? :D ha my son paul, was looking at my malaysia pictures and instantly said, "oh! i know where this is! ikea!" he is totally a short fan of ikea...born into it! yes...now i have been to ikea singapore, and malaysia...besides the 3 in LA :D
twin towers in Kuala Lumpur...this is my friend marie holding up a paper doll...my flat nephew noah...he sends him to me and i take him around like a tourist :D and then send him back home
four ladies from salatiga went to KL for 4 days. we paid under $40 for a round trip ticket and drove around in this very tiny 4 door car...what a hoot!
i have always wanted a picture of this sign but don't offen carry my camera in the bathroom...but here it is..."for your safety, please do not squat on toilets" but alas there are always feet marks on the seat...ha!
our team...and extended team from bandung...got together for a weekend to enjoy each other.
these guys are a pretty penny cuz i guess they are using them in the fight against aids. if you can get one that is pretty large...they are worth $10,000 right now. we have one living in our roof and we are hoping he keeps growing...for another 10 years...
butterfly fish
exotic kids :D playing exotic bowling :D and yes...hazel really did win!
We try to start birthdays with a favorite breakfast...and they actually had fruity pebbles imported at the store! so this was considered a "present" as the cost was crazy! but they all love love love this cereal and its fun to watch the sugar rise in the morning...hahaha
and we typically throw confetti and that foam spray stuff at the person right when they wake up as well...it's become tradition thanks to our paul! we can't even see straight but we are partying! and you might notice out our window...it's still dark...
after school we took all the kids in his class to the coolest pool in town and they lived it up
you can tell it's a bit cold...everyone is just a little chilly
The kids really enjoyed these new candles i found...probably not the safest things ever...as i think they are more in the category of fireworks! ha! but it was a show for all :D
a happy 8 year old
when you have hazel and paul...you won't have any problem getting your presents open within a couple of minutes...no matter how tough they are wrapped!
The kids really enjoyed these new candles i found...probably not the safest things ever...as i think they are more in the category of fireworks! ha! but it was a show for all :D
Kids crawling on one of the 7 wonders of the world...borobudur temple.
our whole group poses for a shot...so many indonesians were asking for our pictures that day so we decided to get our OWN done as well :D...and our friend Pak Agung is in this shot with us...he travels lots of places with us :D
Here is our friend Rob, he is interning here for several months...he is on his last days in indo
Paul's kindergarten class poses with flat "NOAH"...something my nieces and nephews have sent me in the past and still do...we enjoy takin flat Noah with us to different spots and getting pictures of where we live...and then we send it back to his classroom and they learn about the pictures and where we took him...sort of a vacation in a box...ha!
Kids got a new MP3 player with money for their birthdays thanks grandpa, grandma, and mike and carrie :D
i just went to malaysia for 4 days with ian. greg stayed back with gavin, paul and hazel. everyone did a fantastic job but we had a few good stories to share from the time apart.
+ hazel got her dad to take her on a 'date' and she wore a new dress for him and put on lipstick. :D she picked out his clothes and then they went to the resturant and had a smoothie drink. while they were there, greg did the amazing...he painted hazel's nails...and then she painted his! i never thought greg would do this, so there must be some LOVE. i laughed when i got his text cuz i KNEW we didn't have fingernail polish at home so he would have to wear the nails to school the next day. but oh so sweet!
+ian was enjoying all the people while we shopped for like 12 hours a day! he is such an extravert. but every so often i had to let him down to get out of the stroller or my arms. we were in the apple store, very clean. so i let him down and he went right over to a family who was looking at a lot of gadgets on the wall. he crawled through them and stood up on the little ledge and turned around and said, "ha!" in a bit of a growl as if to say "i have arrived, what do you need?" and a 10 year-old boy standing near him nearly jumped out of his pants in horror and kept jumping until he was about 10 ft away from ian...the baby monster...the poor 10 year-old was frightened because he had never seen a white baby and thought it had to be a doll or something!!! i am so happy i saw this happen because it was halarious! the family thought it was funny as well...except for the 10 year-old.
+ greg took the kids out with "uncle steve" for a sunday lunch at a new spot. the kids were all excited cuz you could fish and play on a playground. playgrounds here are only of metal...kind of like what kids in the 70's played on i suppose??? so gavin, paul and hazel were playing on the teeter tooters and because they don't play on these too much cuz i don't even know where else i have seen one here...they don't know all the "rules" that go along with them. greg was eating and suddenly hazel has blood all over her. somehow the story goes that hazel and paul were on the same side and gavin on the other. hazel stood up when they were up in the air and paul jumped off causing hazel to "fly"...she hit the spot she ALWAYS hits...her mouth...sooo...she knocked out a tooth that was already dead and we had just gotten a small root canal done on it...but the other teeth and gums seemed to be pretty beat up as well. i didn't come home until 24 hours after the incident and her face was swollen and gums brusied. she looks older with the tooth gone. the dentist says the other tooth has been moved/tilted but is not damaged...we will see how this goes. this isn't so funny...but you know these things have to happen while mom is away to play. and dad survives so well through it all. hazel gave paul a good talkin to and NOW they know the rules of the teeter totters.
+ we took a taxi one night after ikea back to our friends house cuz we lasted shopping MUCH later than our friends :D and the taxi driver liked us cuz his wife was from indonesia. and he said in the middle of our conversation, "you have to watch out for all the 'bombs' in this city." and we both looked at each other and mouthed "bombs?" and then said it outloud, "BOMBS?" and he said, "ya, they are all over the roads here." and then it dawned on my friend that he was saying "bumps" ha ha ha! gotta love english translation.
+ we ate at an Indian resturant. amazing food! naan bread is one of my favorite foods...anyway. we were served by a pakistani man. surrounded by all sorts of nationalities and when we walked out to our car, there were 3 nigerians leaning on it because it's such a small little "mr bean" sort of car and they were using it as an armrest. i only tell this really to show you that Kuala Lumpur is quite the mix-up of nationalities and i LOVED it :D we didn't know what language to speak most of the time. made it feel more like good ol bellflower! we were still noticed in KL by our white skin standing out but not stared at like we are in Indo...it was so nice to just be ANOTHER foreigner fittting in to all that were around us from all over the world!
+ the kids drew me pictures to take along and i couldn't open them until i got on the plane. hazel of course writes her name all over her papers now (and even on our walls...when asked who did it...she shrugs her shoulders...couldn't be her!) but anyway...she likes to make the same pictures over and over again and then she folds them up really small and puts them in an envelope and gives it to you. soooo cute! and so i loved my little hazel picture...full of color and butterflies and mommy and hazel hugging :D paul drew a picture of plane and he was flying a kite all the way up to the plane and pulling me down...he also had a big tree with an owl on it. gavin didn't get one done. maybe next time...but it's great to have their little notes tucked away for when i miss them and i drew them pictures once i saw they were giving me some...sneaky mom...and hazel informed when i got home, "mom, you know we didn't care that you were gone cuz we looked at your pictures you drew and the pictures of you on the wall...so we didn't care" and it's funny cuz i know she didn't mean the word care...but in some sense...it works :D
+ laughing is great for the soul and we did so much of it with the ladies i went with to malaysia. i recomend it to anyone...laughter and malaysia...it was sort of like going to america just 2 1/2 hours away. and air asia has great deals in that we got there round trip for $40! and stayed for free at a friends house...it was a blessing getaway! we ate at carl's jr and nearly cried cuz the hamburger tasted soooo good. kept me full for a full 8 hours! we ate at subway, papa john's pizza. and of course indian food twice :D IKEA was there and we lasted 6 hours just walking around and taking it all in...amazing really! this world is amazing! and halarious!
