last week we....

A few of the major (and minor) events of the last week that I missed posting ....

In the "minor events" category :)

I tried to really engage with my kids, despite what (at times) seemed like chaos swirling around me.  We started reading again in the Little House on the Prairie series, we went on a few adventures around the neighborhood, and made several different little crafts like this one....

Isaac with the paint brush (washable, thankyouverymuch)

 and all three with the finished product (caterpillars)

We had three days of incredible weather and spent loads of time on our front porch and in our yard.  I will probably never stop loving the yard!  So incredible that my kids can slip on shoes and walk outside and play play play.  It's small, but so are they :)  It's fenced in and I can watch them through huge glass doors.  One of many things to LOVE about our new apartment. 

In the "major events" category, we bought our car.  First time since 2000 that either Matt or I have owned a vehicle :)  It is such a TREMENDOUS blessing.  Oh my, what a blessing.  We are so grateful to have it, and so eager to see how God will use it to bless others as well. 

It's kind of a miniaturized version of a US minivan.  We opted for a middle row bench seat (that folds down for access to the back row).  Technically, it is a seven passenger vehicle but we've already used it to carry 8 :)  It's plenty roomy for all three kids to sit in the middle row. I've been driving it quite a bit and love it - the size is perfect (small enough to navigate big city, big enough to hold our family plus some). 

Another major event - we hired a house helper!  She will be with us for a least a month, maybe longer, and I CANNOT tell you how huge this is for me!  Life here without help is challenging.  We live far from any 'easy convenient' food options.  These past weeks I've been taking the kids to the market, buying the produce and meat, coming home and starting the washing, cutting, chopping, cooking process.  Most of the produce is straight from the farm - pretty much the exact opposite of baby carrots, or prewashed lettuce, or bagged apples.  Add to that the bazillion loads of dishes I've washed and dried and.... well, let's just say I'm grateful for help! 

She will be here 4 hours a day (mostly afternoons) to help with cleaning, marketing, kitchen chores (think hours of dishwashing!) and other odd jobs.  Today she is going to help me find someone to change out the lock on our mail box.  The key is MIA, the landlord is not in a position to help, the apartment management company recommended I find a locksmith.  So I went looking.  I remember seeing a locksmith at the market last week, but now I can't find him anywhere.  (He's got a cart attached to a pedal bike, so he's mobile!)  Anyways, me and the kiddos traipsing along don't cover much territory quickly, so the four of us looking for a mobile locksmith is kind of a joke.  I explained the problem to our new helper and it's on her list of things to do today :)  yay! 

Oh, and I finally got my oven working!!!!  Another big yay!  The first thing I cooked was a big batch of granola (our favorite breakfast!) and then I moved on to bar cookies, birthday cake and cinnamon rolls.  For supper we're having bbq chicken, sweet potatoes and beer bread.  If you've never gone a few weeks without an oven, well.... I don't recommend it! 

Honestly, I feel upbeat now, but this past week was really discouraging.  There are so many things I don't know how to do/find in our new neighborhood.  So much new to learn.  Each day I felt like I was falling farther and farther behind.  It got pretty yucky. 

But today I have renewed hope. 

On top of all that, today is Matt's birthday :)  We went on a fun adventure this morning.  We have friends coming for cake (and hopefully ice cream, I'm getting ready to run out and check a few stores and see if I can find some!).  Pictures and stories to come .....

long time no internet

So I spent most of the week without internet access :)  Not sure why I didn't have internet, but that's the way many things go around here! 

It was a big week in many respects, lots of news to report .... like a new car, Matt's birthday (tomorrow), and I have house help (at least temporarily) starting tomorrow afternoon! 

I was just about at the end of my rope (Matt might even argue that the proverbial rope was long lost and would possibly never be seen again) trying to keep our family afloat, so I am grateful that starting tomorrow afternoon I will have a little help getting meals on the table and dirt off the floor.  It's amazing how much effort it can take to just feed a family.  Gee whiz. 

That's it for tonight friends.

heading to school

Today was the girls' third day of school.  All in all, the transition has been really smooth.  It's a great school with a nice facility, small(er) classes, outdoor play space, etc.  The girls really lost a lot of their Chinese language ability when we were in the US, and we are eager to get them back in an environment where they are using their second language consistently.  

Julianna occasionally complains that her Chinese is not as good as it used to be, or bemoans how much she has forgotten, but she is improving so rapidly and feeling really encouraged.  It helps that her little neighborhood playmates are all Chinese speakers as well.  Just this evening as we were with friends I was noticing how easily she is communicating, much more so than even a few weeks ago.

Lydia did not have nearly the foundation that Julianna did before we left, so it's been tougher on her.  Today she told me "I don't like when my teachers talk to me because I don't really understand what they say."  I can certainly empathize.... there have been a lot of moments in our years here that I didn't like when people talked to me because I couldn't understand what they were saying :) 

Lydia is a motivated learner, and so committed to communicating that I think if she can push through this first month she'll be golden.  Her teachers do lots of singing, crafts, games, and other activities that are right up her alley, so it's a great environment for her.  And her teachers are really encouraging too, they think she is doing great.  But as important as communication is to Lydia, it doesn't surprise me that this particular situation drives her crazy. 

Isaac and I are establishing our own little morning routine without the big sisters around.  He only asks about them once every fifteen minutes or so :)  "Where did Julianna and Lydia go?"  "Julianna and Lydia at school?  Why?"  [Yes, already hearing lots of "why?" from the little guy.... loves to say "why mommy why?"]

He is definitely excited to go pick them up (in part because he gets to ride the electric bike).  Here he is all loaded up and set to go, that's our fence and front porch behind him. 

Last spring I was still carrying him on my back a lot, but he's gotten bigger and is a much better fit for the kid seat.  Which means Lydia graduated to the "standing in front" spot and Julianna rides behind me.

Isaac and I leave our complex and turn right, heading for the underpass beneath the airport expressway.  You can kind of see it in the distance in the photo.  You can also barely see an imposing looking building at the far end of the road - the street dead ends at the front gate of the College of Information Technology.  

Passing under the expressway.... 

Then just a few more blocks and we're there (the school is at the far back end of a larger apartment complex, a great location).  Julianna's class is on the third floor, Lydia's class is on the second.  There are about 120 total students, which is 1/3 the size of their previous school!

I get everyone loaded on and we head back the way we came.  It takes about seven minutes (if I'm not stopping every few blocks to snap a photo!).  Here's our view as we approach our complex.

And I attempted this "self portrait" of me with all the kids on the bike -  our reflection in the glass on the doorway to our stairwell (and the camera's flash makes my face look like a burst of light!)

We'll do the whole scene again, three days a week this spring (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday).  So proud of my little ladies and so thankful for this great school that is just a short ride from our house. 

treading water

Most days I feel like I am treading water as fast as I can, furiously paddling away just trying to keep our family afloat.  It isn't really the best feeling ....  but I am trying to remember that this is a season, transition is hard, and doubly so when I am outside my home culture. 

That's about all I can think about right now :)  Just treading water. 

out my kitchen window

 So I'm cooking supper (a few days ago) and look up out my big windows (love them!) and who is walking by?

Someone else's supper :)  Seriously.  It was kind of hard to keep track of them but I think there were five or six of them (hens and roosters) scampering around.

About fifteen minutes later I saw an older lady running after one of the hens with a stick in her hand and a growl on her face.  Not sure what all expired between them (the hen and the lady) but I'm sure it would make a good story!

And I'm certain at least one of the roosters lived to see another day because we heard him again this morning (but I never seem to hear him before 8ish, it's been so cloudy and rainy that he might be confused about sunrise!).

come right back and check on me

Isaac is definitely still adjusting to his 'new room'.  He is excited to be in there during the day and spreads his cars, trucks and trains everywhere.  And on Sunday night when we had some friends over (grand total: 6 little girls and only one little boy - Isaac) he came to me and said, "Tell those girls to get out of my room."  In other words, he feels a little ownership over the place :)  

But he misses the girls too.  One night last week he asked to sleep in the girls' room.  Tonight he asked to sleep in Lydia's bed :)  The bedrooms in this apartment are a bit smaller than our old apartment, so I'm not even sure three beds would fit in one room, and I KNOW he likes having his own space.  And he had his own room in America and it was never a problem.  I think that on top of all the transition, and then sharing a room with the girls for a few weeks after we left America, he's decided he'd rather just sleep with them. 

It sounds cruel, to not let him sleep with them, but right now I'm just not prepared to re-arrange the furniture.  So the first night he asked I said, "sorry buddy, but you are sleeping in your room tonight.  You are ok.  I'll come right back and check on you."

Which is now his absolute favorite thing to say as I walk out of the room every night.  "You come right back and check on me?" he asks in a voice so precious you would never dream of saying No.

"Yes, buddy, I'll come right back and check on you."


I think he decided he likes this little evening-ending-conversation and it gets longer every night.  Not sure where it will end up, but he is now into tacking on little bits and pieces of information and even assigning me tasks. 


Last night we read a few books before bed (including a few about farms/tractors) and I left with him instructing me "Mom, you come right back and check on me and tell daddy that I want him to ride that tractor." 


Tonight he added a new twist:  "Mom, Mom, you tell him [Matt] I want two daddies to come right back and check on me." 

I think he means that he wants Matt to come check on him two times :)  But he's got his words a little mixed up.  He also added something about Matt and the tractor, but I didn't follow the whole idea (this is the first time he's mentioned the tractor since last night).   

Now I'm wondering what tomorrow night holds!  And, Yes, I do go back and check on him :)

On a totally different topic, yesterday we took care of this little sweetie pie!  Her mom (our friend and neighbor) needed to go to the dentist (a last minute thing) so my kids spent a good chunk of the day fighting over who got to hold Le Le. 

I'm not sure she had ever been so stimulated in her entire life :)  A few minutes after this photo was taken she yawned three times, fluttered her eye lids and sunk into a deep sleep.  She was a delightful little guest, and we were thrilled that her parents entrusted her to us, but she liked to be held and definitely added an additional layer of complexity to my day!

Precious. 

marketing and other tid-bits

We are slowly figuring out how to do life in this new home, new neighborhood, new city....  Lots of new to learn :)

Almost every morning I wake up with that cruddy "it's morning and I am so tired" feeling.  Hoping to get rid of that soon with my new go-to-bed-regardless-of-the-yet-to-be-done-list plan.  We'll see how successful I am :)

It's been chilly and rainy for the past few days.  We wear lots of clothes (indoors and out).  I've been riding our electric bike with the kids.... a slight drizzle plus plenty of wind makes it a VERY cold ride.  The kids don't seem to care, especially Isaac who wakes up talking about riding and grins the entire time.  The kids all got a good bit bigger during the six months we were in the US and I can really tell when I take all of them on the bike.  It is heavier and more difficult to maneuver, but still a great option for quick little trips in our immediate neighborhood.  Buying a car is near the top of our to-do list, but I'm not sure when it will happen.  Matt will probably go out shopping a few times, then take me to look at the final choices, then we'll make the decision.  He's thinking about trying to go this weekend.  We did do some preliminary shopping last spring and there are not a ton of options in our size-range, so it shouldn't be too complex. 

Our market is a short walk away and taking the kids along makes it into quite the adventure.  Depending on the attitude of yours truly, it can be very stressful or just moderately challenging :)  On this particular day I was hanging in there, mostly excited about picking up some fruit and introducing the kids to my one of my new friends (who sells fruit and does minor mending jobs at a foot pedal sewing machine in her free time).  I had a pair of Matt's jeans that needed patching in the knees.

Here we are just setting out, Isaac sporting his rain boots and pushing his own stroller, girls up front with umbrellas just waiting to do major damage to themselves or others.  

We made it out to the market (a back street that becomes an impromptu market when the fruit/veggie/meat vendors show up).  Everyone brings their own little tent or tarp or tables to showcase their goods - everything from bananas to bunnies, and no, I am not kidding... we walked past fresh skinned rabbits just waiting for the cooking pot (not mine!)

We opted for pork instead (the guy in back with the cleavers is grinding my pork - I picked out the cut of meat first and then he started chopping away). 

Dinner?  Sloppy joes :)  Still no oven, but I am cooking on the stove top and crock pot and it's going okay - though I am getting desperate for some good bread!  Hopefully we'll have the oven set up within the week. 

We are hopeful that we found a good school for the girls... they start on Wednesday morning.  All of us went over late this afternoon to check it out and Julianna is especially ready.  Lydia, well, we'll just have to see how it goes :) 

Signing off now, my mandatory bedtime is approaching :) 

highlights

Thought it might be fun to write down a few highlights from our first week back!  It has been busy, and difficult, and tiring... but also full of joy-filled moments, funny comments from the kids and the like.

Isaac is one pretty hilarious little boy and he can deliberately make fun of his sisters when he sets his mind to it.  He definitely keeps us laughing.  The other night it was getting late and he said "Ju-janna and Lydia really really really need to go night night.  I need to drink water..... (dramatic pause) .... in my bed."  He busted out laughing and the girls did too.  Not sure what was so silly, but the three of them were a mess of giggles.  Even Matt and I couldn't help laughing. 

Earlier this week we were at a home improvement store and I was on kid patrol while Matt shopped.  It was about ten in the morning and the store was almost empty, so we were attracting a lot of attention from the floor staff.  One lady who was particularly charmed by Isaac fumbled in her pocket, got out a pack of tissue, pulled one out and wiped his snotty nose.  It all happened in a flash and I was left thinking, "my gracious, a stranger just wiped my kid's drippy nose".  It was a happy China moment.  I love the way people here can be so gracious, so generous, so serving. 

We haven't done as much reading as usual, but we are starting to get back to a more normal, consistent routine ... today we got out markers for some 'craft time' and played a few games too.  

I am craving a semblance of normalcy, so it's fun to be able to start to do simple things like this... even though there are huge reminders that this is not yet "home" - like this evening when Julianna repeatedly referred to our apartment as 'this house', not 'our house'. 

We know two families in our new neighborhood (via previous friendships) and we are eager to really spend time with each of them.  One family has four children (which makes them very unusual - we were outside with them one evening and they were getting as much attention with their four children as Matt and I were getting with our blondies).  Their oldest daughter is 12 days older than Julianna and then they have twin girls that are two months older than Lydia.  The little brother of the family just turned one. 

Yesterday afternoon at our house it looked like this:  

... all decked out in dress up clothes, sorting through accessories.

Matt and I are still up late most nights, which makes us both a little loopy and prone to say funny things and laugh out loud at comments that would normally only merit a smile.  Mostly, it's been fun.  Although an intense amount of work. 

Still nothing hung on the walls, still no usable oven, still looking at a depressingly long 'to do' list... but grateful for all the progress we've made.  Grateful for a warm, cozy apartment to call home.  Grateful for the friends we know and the ones we've yet to make.  Grateful for Jesus who leads us all the way. 

We are grateful. 

night #2

Heading into night #2 at our new apartment and it's going very well.  We have phone and internet already!  For those of you who prayed for heaters I thought you might like this picture of them being unloaded onto our porch and ready for installation. 

The porch (that you see behind glass doors here, opening off one end of the living room) is every bit as cool as it looks.  Even better, actually.  Once we really get things settled and moved in I'll take photos and post a little photo tour of the whole place.  The porch is quite possibly the best part of the entire apartment. 

It seems that Matt spends most of his days fixing things that were incorrectly installed or plumbed or wired when the apartment was finished last summer.  It is SOOOOO frustrating that so many things are already "broken" or were never working correctly.  Six months in America and I conveniently forgot how almost everything here is designed to leak :) 

Matt has re-plumbed part of the hot/cold water piping, changed hoses on the bathtub faucets, caulked the bathtub, re-hung curtain rods and ..... well, the list goes on.  We've learned from experience that Matt's workmanship is more reliable than the local fix-it man, so he does most of it himself. 

He's also called the landlord about the kitchen light fixture (doesn't work) and the door to Isaac's bedroom (permanently closed) and a few other problems.  The first day we were here we closed the door to Isaac's room and it hasn't opened since.  And Matt has tried EVERYTHING except take the door off the hinges!  The locking mechanism in the door knob is broken.  Argh. 

Luckily, Isaac's room is the only one with two doors - you can also access his room from the utility porch.  The photo below is him standing in front of his bed at the house we lived at for the past week.... the family has four girls and Isaac slept in this girly toddler bed :)  Lydia was in the bunk beside him and Julianna up top.  Perfect.  Except maybe a tad too feminine for our little man! 

Speaking of sleep, check out this shot of Lydia napping in her bed at the new place.  Our days have been long and hard and she's not gotten as much rest as she needs, so we were all grateful when she took this nap :)  Do you see her curls?  She ALWAYS sleeps like this, totally buried under the covers. 

And one last photo... the playground at our new apartment complex.  We live about two minutes away (walking).  Today Matt fixed the child seat to the back of our electric bike while the kids played at the playground and I unpacked the final three suitcases!  Then he took the kids for a little ride before we headed to supper at a neighbors house (that we knew before we moved in). 

On the list for tomorrow?  A trip to the market (we emptied our cubbards before the big move and are starting from scratch - the other night I bought basics like flour, rice, oil, noodles, diet coke .... but I'm dreaming of a day when our children once again eat vegetables and once we get the oven set up and ready to use I'll be on my way towards cooking once again!)

We may even get some stuff hung on the walls if we can borrow the neighbor's drill.  (Our across-the-way neighbors are a hip young couple with a four month old little boy whose English name is Tiger.  I mean, seriously.... what do you say when someone introduces their child and says 'his English name is Tiger'.) 

Matt starts work this weekend, and I am eager to be mostly settled before he heads off to campus.  We're also hoping to get the girls enrolled in local school for a few mornings a week.  Schools are all closed so we haven't been able to do much looking around yet, but it seems there are at least two potential options. 

One of these nights I'm going to collapse into bed at 8, but for now adrenaline keeps me going..... so I'm off to work again!

tomorrow

We're moving.  Tomorrow!  At least I hope it turns out to be an exclamation point kind of a day :)

Sunday afternoon Matt bought heating units (his engineering mind and great Chinese language ability means that he now knows more about electric assist heat pumps than I EVER hope to know!).  The store said they would deliver them on Monday and install them on Tuesday but..... the delivery crew arrived early this morning and they were installed by 6pm!  Yay for a warm apartment!

We are still without hot water, but Matt did get the part he needed and was able to finish installing the washer (super helpful with all the mold clean up).  We are still FAAAARRRR from done, but we decided tonight that we have made enough progress to make it live-able, so we are moving in.  

I took more "in progress" photos today and left the camera at our apartment.  Rats.  Matt also spent an hour at the phone company today, and our phone/internet should be set up within 7 days so I'll post them when I can. 

Lest you think Matt did all the heavy lifting today (phone, washing machine, working with the installation crew, etc) I got a few things off my list too.  The kiddos had a great day - one of our new neighbors (who is a friend of ours from our old city) came by.  She and a friend took all three kids for a walk this morning.  She came back this afternoon while Isaac napped and disappeared with the girls for another long outing.  It was TERRIFIC! 

So, tomorrow we are off.  Not sure when I'll be online again, hopefully sooner than later :)  But when it takes an hour to do something as simple as set up phone service, and the office worker says everything will be installed within seven days, well.... you don't hold your breath!  I've made up my mind to be pleasantly surprised whenever the phone guy happens to show up! 

the "before" of the before and after photos

I'm looking towards the day when these will be the "before" photos and we'll be busy living in the "after" version of our new home.  

Cute, aren't they?  I only wish I could say that their attitudes looked like this all day long.  Matt and I have pretty much decided we are just going to have to move in, regardless of the situation with the heaters and/or gas.  Moving furniture, cleaning up mold (there is WAY more than we first thought) and other moving-in tasks just take FOREVER when the kids are awake and needing some level of parental involvement!  We think our best bet is to move in and have the after bedtime hours to work like crazy-cakes.  We'll be tired, but it will be worth it.  I think.

Above is the dining area/kitchen.  The speck of yellow wall on the right is the living room.  We've moved the furniture so it doesn't look exactly the same, but you get the idea.  The big windows over the kitchen sink are awesome. 

Photo from the exact same spot, but turned 180 degrees.  Our sofa covers are being dry cleaned which is why the sofas look like they are white.  Matt is walking in from the porch which opens onto the front yard. 

After waiting almost 45 minutes the other photos are still not finished uploading, so I am going to wrap it up for now.  We are taking tomorrow off.  It's been a lot of work and our kiddos are in need of a break.  We all are, actually.  Matt will go shopping for heaters in the afternoon.  And also hopefully find a part that he needs to install the washing machine.  And something to rig up the shower head and curtain rod and.... well, the list is long :)  But heaters are the biggie.  

It's off to bed I go :)  Good night.

from the middle of a move

So we are here.  Wednesday seemed to last forever, and I'm not sure why since both our flights were pretty much on time and travel went quite smoothly.  Maybe because I am just tired of traveling.  On the way to luggage claim we walked past a huge bay of windows looking out on to the tarmac and Isaac asked "are we going to ride more airplanes?"  Oh man was I grateful to say that there are NO MORE AIRPLANES in our immediate future :)  [At least not until late April, but that's another story for another post.]

Traveling on Chinese New Year turned out to be pretty cushy.  It seems that the Chinese would rather be at home celebrating because there were plenty of empty seats on both our flights.   Added bonus: we could see fireworks exploding as we landed.  Pretty cool.

Finding transportation from the airport to our temporary housing was a little tricky, but God provided (a hotel bus that was sitting idle with no customers - certainly not our typical mode of transport but it worked).  We got to our friends' apartment (they are not in country right now) and it was freezing.  The outside temperature was 45, and inside a concrete apartment with no insulation the temperature was ..... drumroll please..... 45!

We bundled our kiddos, cuddled them into bed and turned off the lights.  Chinese New Year is the noisiest thing I have ever experienced, and it's no secret that I am not a huge fan.  But this year was such a pleasant break from the norm.  It was noisy, but a muffled, muted version of noisy.  In previous years we have lived outside city limits and there are few regulations on where firecrackers can be lit - which means they get lit inside the apartment complex, right outside our windows all night long.  This year we were inside city limits and no one is allowed to set off firecrackers in the apartment complex.  The closest ones were about a half block away in a large park area.  Wow, what a different half a block makes! 

Our new apartment (more on that later) is outside city limits, and I already proposed to Matt that when the New Year rolls around next year we'll have to move into the city and live with friends :) 

By Thursday morning the inside temperature was on the rise and we were all rested and ready to head out to see our NEW HOME!  It's about a half hour drive from where we are staying, and as we pulled into the complex the kids were peeking out the windows, so curious about our new place.  Matt (who is the only one in the family who has ever seen the complex, and even he had not seen the actual apartment) yelled "hey, there it is, those are our windows".  The very first thing the girls spotted?  Their treasure baskets, sitting in their bedroom window.  Awesome.  They were pumped. 

On the whole, it is in much better condition than we anticipated - it's clean, not too moldy, and nothing seems to be broken (a relocation company packed our things in our old city, trucked them 500 miles north, and moved them into our new apartment last August when we were already in America). 

But we still have a LOT of work to do.  A WHOLE lot.  Honestly, it's really overwhelming.  And having the kids underfoot all day long does not make for fast or efficient progress.  Today we did get the girls' bedroom furniture arranged and I even made up the beds, so it looks move-in-able (although there are no clothes unpacked and lots of little details left to finish).  We started in on the living room too and I even spent an hour or so in the kitchen.  It seems like every time I attempt to complete one task I discover ten more things that need to be done along the way. 

We did grab some unused space heaters from a friends' apartment which made it nicer to spend the day there.... we all wear plenty of layers, and I wore Matt's fingerless gloves all day long. 

In addition to all the furniture moving and unpacking we have two big obstacles to mount before we can move in..... First, we need heaters (not just space heaters, but wall mounted units and a large heater for our living room).  We have checked two stores already, and only one had the heaters we want and the installation workers are on vacation until Feb 12th (this is a big holiday and many stores are not even open, most workers get at least a week vacation, some get two weeks off). 

Second issue is that our gas is not hooked up yet.  The earliest we can do that is Feb 8th (again, due to the holiday).  Gas heats our water and runs our stove so it's pretty essential. 

I took some photos yesterday but left the camera at our new place, so I can't upload them now.  I'll try to remember to put them on my computer when we are out there tomorrow. 

It really is a cute place, the living room is a bright sunny yellow and our little front yard is going to be really cool when we get it cleaned up.  One day at a time, one foot in front of the other, and we are going to make it a home. 

meeting Bangkok

Since Sunday afternoon we've been living with our friends Chris and Jacci (and their two kids, Max and Siena).  Although we've spent quite a bit of time in Thailand, we've never really seen it from the perspective of "people who really live here", so it's been fun.

Monday we walked to Lumphini Park for a picnic lunch and saw lots of monitor lizards - big ones - just lazing in the sunshine, walking across the grass and swimming in the ponds.  Last year in Indonesia we saw one (they are also called comodo dragons) but I think these were bigger, the largest one was about three feet long.  They are pretty intimidating looking creatures, kind of a cross between an alligator and a lizard and they don't seem like park-friendly animals to me, but no one paid them much attention.  America's parks have squirrels, Thailand's parks have monitor lizards.  Same same, but different :) 

Last night Chris and Jacci's helper (who has been graciously washing two weeks worth of our dirty laundry!) cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  My kids had been asking for "English food" and dinner certainly met their standards!

After the kids were in bed Matt and I walked down to the Vertigo Restaurant at the Banyan Tree Hotel (click for the link) which is one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok.  It was SO COOL!  The restaurant is on the top of the roof - totally open air with just a railing, nothing else.  60 stories above the streets of Bangkok. 

This place is now on my 'must see' list for Bangkok.... it was amazing.

This morning we went to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) on the bank of the Chao Phraya River.

Julianna and Lydia dressed up like Thai princesses :)  

and then we took a family photo too

Isaac loved riding the boat across the river, and these fried bananas were a hit with all three kiddos (and their parents too!)

Tomorrow is the big day.... noon departure, two flights (each less than three hours long) and we'll be landing in our new HOME!  Big stuff for our little family.  Next update from there!