Summer of 2011

I can't believe it's already the end of August! I haven't written anything on here since MAY! There are a couple of reasons for that: 1. June and the first part of July were pretty boring - so who wants to read about that? 2. 2nd half of July and August have been crazy, and I haven't had time to blog.

O.k. Let's start with the easy part: June. Looking back at my calendar I can see that the boys started taking Wu-Shu (aka Kung Fu) in June. They are enjoying it. I'm sure it will come in handy what with O planning a career as a ninja and all. ("Ninganeer" to be precise. That's an engineer by day, ninja at night.) I was tempted to take the class too since I really enjoyed the Karate classes that Erin and I took 20+ years ago. Instead I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for an intensive (and expensive) private Mandarin class. So with the expense of the Mandarin class, I didn't want to fork over the dough for an adult Wu-shu class as well. The boys have been going for 2 1/2 months now and recently passed their first test or handset. They were deservedly quite proud of themselves.

My intensive Chinese class went well. I really hit it off with the teacher. She is also a polyglot. She is from Beijing and we've enjoyed conversations about the differences between the Beijing accent and the southern China accent as well as New York vs. Tennessee English. :-) I learned a whole lot of Chinese in my 4 weeks. She taught me how to read and write the characters for the words I was learning. I got to where I could read an entire paragraph in Chinese characters. I am quite proud of that actually. It is so hard, but fun at the same time. I've always thought of learning a foreign language like learning to crack a secret code. The longer you work at it, the more of the 'code' you can crack. Now I'm watching American movies and looking at the Chinese subtitles for characters I recognize. (You know, words like "I", "You", "he", "eat", "go", "tomorrow", etc. - hey ya gotta start somewhere!) I am hoping to join one of her group classes after she returns from a trip home to Beijing.

In the last week of June Erin and I started P90X. For those of you who've never heard of it, P90X is a workout and diet combo. It is very intense. The workouts are on DVD and last about an hour each. One day is weightlifting, and the next is cardio or yoga. Each day targets a different muscle group. You workout 6 days a week. The diet starts off as almost no-carb, but lets you add a few carbs back in during 'phase 2'. We started this because although we'd been exercising together for a couple of years, we'd stopped losing weight. Since we started P90X, I've lost close to 10 pounds, and Erin isn't far behind me. But better than that, we've both lost several inches off of our waists, and we are definitely stronger than we were. We're almost 2/3 of the way through the 90 day program (we modified for a couple of weeks while I was in the States.). I'll let you know the final weight loss and inches lost totals.

July was a good month. We started the month by going to a Fourth of July party put on by the American Club. (Warning: Sidetrack rant coming! skip ahead now to avoid the rant.) You don't even want to know what it costs to join that place!! O.k. I'll tell you - it's $20,000 per year!!!! What?!? I can't believe people spend that kind of money. There are people starving just 2 hours from here!! On top of that, we went in there yesterday, and I'm not very impressed. The carpet was old, the hallways were cramped. I'd want a whole lot more for MY $20k! If someone granted us a free membership I'm not even sure what we'd use it for. They have a pool, a cafe, a teens' room where they can play video games, and oh, yeah wait a minute - they have lots of high society cocktail hours - You know, wine and cheese parties where you are seen talking to the 'right' people wearing the 'right' clothes while consuming fermented (i.e.pre-rotted) drinks. Wow, I wish I had $20k to spend on THAT! I hope I'm not sounding bitter or jealous, 'cause I'm really not - I'm just astounded that people pay that to join a club. - Particularly a club that seems to have very little I'd be interested in. Now a club with free language lessons and all the trail rides you could stand..... Nah, I still wouldn't pay $20,000!

O.K., Rant over.... As I was saying. We went to this wonderful (free) party put on by the American Association. They had lots of booths with information on how to vote overseas, insurance agencies, etc. and a long line of good ol' Fourth of July type food vendors. Several booths had hot dogs and hamburgers. There was even a Louisiana themed booth that had Jambalya.
We monkeyed around trying to choose what we wanted and finally got in a long line for a hamburger booth. By the time we got up there, they were out of food! grrr. On to another booth. By the time we finished eating, it was only 30 min. or so 'till the fireworks started. The kids played some games at a few booths and then we watched the fireworks and caught the bus/mrt/bus home.

On the 14th we saw Harry Potter 7.2 aprox. 12 hours before it was available in the States. Bwa ha ha! It was good. Other movies we've seen this summer include The Green Lantern - which was o.k., The other 4 saw Captain America. They seemed to have liked it. We recently saw Cowboys and Aliens. We all really liked it, except the aliens scared a certain kid who shall remain nameless. As a side note, the American films are frequently edited here to get them down to what I'd call a pg-13 or pg-10 rating. So we are a little more lax about going to see movies here than we were, or will be, at home.

On the 16th I took Erin out for a date night. We started at La Touche for a massage. (I felt like I owed him one since he stayed with the vomiting kid on Christmas Day in Cambodia while I took the other 2 for a massage.) O.k. it's not quite as romantic as all that because: 1. I had a coupon for 80% off, and it can't be real real romantic if a coupon is involved. 2. I thought we'd be in the same room and we weren't. So much for that. 3. It turns out that my son gets his "I don't really want strangers messing with me" gene from his Dad. I came out of my massage very relaxed. Erin said, "I don't get as much out of it as you seem to." But in any case we headed off to the Brazilian Churascuria (sp!) for an all you can eat meat night. (Our P90X diet is all about protein - so we were livin' large and still staying on our diet!) They also have yummy yummy grilled pineapple. sigh.

On the 18th of July after about 4 hours of sleep, I left the apt. at 3:30 a.m. for the airport. I arrived in Knoxville about 3o hours later. I spent a great week at my Dad's house getting to visit everyone - including my little sister and her family. On Saturday my not-so-little-anymore nephew married the love of his life. It was a most gorgeous ceremony and very fitting for the two of them. He jumped the gun a bit when the preacher said, "Do you take this woman..." Z. jumped in and said, "I do!!" we all laughed and the preacher had to say, "I wasn't finished yet!" :-D I think he just loves her that much! So sweet. I cried 'cause I was sooo happy for them, and I cried because my Mom would've dearly loved to have been there.
During my stay in Knoxville I got to spend more time with my nephews and niece than I think I ever have before. It was great. We went to Dollywood together on Monday and I think I would've bought them anything they asked for. But as it turns out they're too polite to ask. So I settled for cotton candy and stuffed animals for them.

But as usual, the time in Knoxville went by all too fast. I left on Tuesday for Baton Rouge. I needed to pick up my truck and horse trailer and take them to Fort Bend Co., TX to be re-registered. It's a long story, but unavoidable. It was a long long day - including a stop to have the brakes worked on after I got out on the highway and didn't like my odds. But I made it to Houston, got registration and inspections done and even made it to church on time! I was soooo very relieved! The next morning, a good friend went with me to take everything back to Baton Rouge and spend a few nights at the Bed and Breakfast in Amite, LA. She spent the time walking in the woods or reading while I rode Speedy down the trails. I'm so very glad she went with me and we just had a blast. The horse therapy did wonders for me. We drove back to Houston on Saturday. I got to visit with everyone on Sunday and then spent Monday running errands and taking care of business. I did go by to see Rosie (my cat who still lives in Fulshear). She was happy to see me.

Tuesday I flew back home. This time it didn't seem so weird to fly 'home' to Singapore. Home will always be East Tennessee, but Singapore is feeling like where I belong for right now.

A week after I got back we started up with soccer and scout season. I'm the new registrar for Troop 07, and they've been giving me the royal introduction (i.e. trial by fire). I think I've spent 30 hours per week the last 2 weeks just answering e-mails about scouts. Whew! I brought some of it on myself by sending out a recruitment e-mail to the local homeschool group. I didn't realize how unfamiliar folks were with the American system of scouting. (Should've known better!!!!!) I got so many e-mails like: "Wow that sounds great! What time and where do they meet? Do parents have to be involved?" (Notice that they didn't say how old or what gender their kids were.) I'd write back and ask and they'd write back and say,"10" I'd write back and say well, if it's a girl - girl scouts, boy in 5th grade -cub scouts, boy in 6th grade -Boy scouts, and they all meet in different places and times depending on what den/troop/patrol they're in. On top of those e-mails, I had adult volunteers in Troop 07 whining mercilessly about being asked to fill out 3 minutes worth of forms. "I just filled that out last year." "I've never had to fill out that form." "Can't you just run a copy of my form from last year" etc. etc. Hey, you needed a volunteer to do this registration job. If you didn't want it done right, you should've said so before confirming me for the job! I tell you, the adults are 1000x more whiney than the kids!

Hopefully we're almost finished with the worst of it. The first weekend in September is the first scout campout as well as a BBQ dinner at the US Ambassador's house. The same weekend Ed Brand arrives to spend 5 or 6 days with us and preach for the Northwest congregation. We are looking forward to all of that.

We have big plans already made for a trip to China in October, and a small driving trip to Kuala Lumpur in November for an Answers in Genesis conference. The homeschooling Mom in me is going to be pretty busy teaching about China in the next few weeks!

Plus there's another surprise in the pipeline that I can't talk about yet. But it's keeping Erin and me both busy. There. How's that for a teaser?!? Don't worry, you know I don't keep much information to myself. I'll tell you when I know something definitive. And no, it doesn't involve moving anywhere. :-P

I checked, I haven't taken any pictures lately. Well, I did take the "We got your back, Pat" picture last night. You can see it on Facebook.