The Things Caleb Says, Part IV

"Disobeying is not a good idea." :-) (We were discussing their Bible class lesson on Adam and Eve. Apparently he actually learned something!)


"Cool idea, dude!"

"Mom, you know why it's raining? Because God's spitting."
"Who told you that?"
"God-ey"(his name for God).
Then he looks up at the sky and says, "Spit, God!"



"Miss Val is a proomper-weeder!"

-Again, one of his made-up words. This one is a noun and just means something silly. We then discussed that he is never to use that word at school because they would not understand what he was saying and might think he meant something bad. We only say that at home. :-) Miss Val is his teacher.

Sentosa!

Saturday we took the boys to Sentosa Island, just to the south of Singapore's main island. We did the luge ride, which was tons of fun, and then played on the beach. Here are a few pics, including some of me! My cousin, Kerri, emailed and asked for more pictures of me on the blog. I'm usually very happy being behind the camera, and usually I'm the only one around to take the pictures, but Justin was with us and was able to snap a few. Enjoy!

Caleb on the sky ride to the luge...

Haircuts

We took the boys to get haircuts last Saturday. They have a great children's style salon here (much like Cool Cuts for Kids in the States), and after they are done they let the boys pick a colored hairspray. Levi got red hair, and Caleb chose blue. It was fun, and they looked cute. Justin has the pictures of Caleb's blue hair on his phone, but he's not here, so I'll have to update his pics later.

The Things Caleb Says, Part III

Saturday we took the boys to Sentosa Island. We rode the luge and played at the beach. Here's the conversation that ensued as we were walking out the door to leave...

Caleb: How do we get to the beach?
Daddy: Drive.
Caleb: Does the car turn into a boat?
Daddy: No...(stifling a laugh)
Caleb: (very emphatically) But we didn't buy a swimsuit for the car!

On the way home, we were telling knock-knock jokes. Caleb tried to get in on the action...

Caleb: Knock, Knock!
Us: Who's there?
Caleb: ummm...(long pause)...it was ME, Caleb!

:-) We love that boy!

I Guess This Means We've Only Got 31 Years Left...

Today Justin and I are celebrating 7 years of marriage. Anyone remember what he said on our 4th anniversary? I do love that man.

While marriage is never easy and difficulties arise just from living life together, it's surely not hard with Justin. (Out of the two of us, trust me when I say I'm the harder one to be married to!) Seven years ago when we got married, we never imagined the path God would have taken our family. We've been through a lot together, and the last two years with my depression and anxiety has been the hardest on both of us. But our marriage has never been stronger, and this time away from everything we are familiar with, aside from our little family of four, is drawing us closer together.

Justin and I have a great marriage. That's due to a lot of grace from God and each other, and a lot of work! Here are some things I'm so glad we've done:

-we did a lot of premarital counseling. I highly recommend it! We read books about marriage, but we also talked to couples at our church that had been married for decades about what made it work. Whether before or after marriage, it's always a good idea to get advice from godly couples who have marriage success stories. Just sitting and listening to them talk about each other and their marriages is enough to make you feel better!

-we say "I'm sorry" a lot. We're not perfect, so we sometimes snap at each other in moments of frustration or unintentionally hurt each other's feelings. We always say we're sorry. Maybe not right then, but always. And we say "please" and "thank you" and are just generally respectful of one another. It helps a lot.

-we don't intentionally hurt each other's feelings. We've been married a while now, so we know exactly which buttons to push that would make the other person hurt. We just don't push them. Justin is the person I love most on this earth, so why would I want to hurt him? It's not worth it. Hurting him intentionally with my words or actions is just out of the question.

-we've centered our marriage on Christ. He is what brought us together and what sustains us still. It's the most important thing. And we're committed to bringing up our children to know and love our Savior.

Justin won't write a post on here, so I wondered what he'd say about me if he did. ;-) Here's what I came up with (because he surely wouldn't be super sappy in front of you all!)

"She has a flair for the dramatic, she's surprisingly good with numbers, she has a crazy good memory, and I love her a lot." ;-)

(Did I do a good job, babe?)

I'm much more wordy than he'll ever be.

So, it's our 7th anniversary and we're living in Singapore. It's a roller coaster, babe, but I'm so glad you're the one on this ride with me.

I think I'll keep ya.

If you're interested in "Our Story" of how we met, fell in love, and how I almost totally ruined Justin's proposal...you can find those posts below. I wrote them a couple of years ago, so they're in the archives.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Update on the Ice Cream Flavor

The real flavor is toffee and butterscotch. I assumed it would be a rainbow sherbet or cotton candy type thing. At least it wasn't Durian or Green Tea or Yam (all real flavors here).

Good guesses, though, people! :-)

Can You Guess The Flavor?

Caleb saw this rainbow ice cream at the store and wanted to get it. I bought it without looking at the flavor. Can you guess what it is?

Registering for School

Updated to add: Hubby has already told me that Levi looks like a girl in that shirt...guess I'll be buying some smaller ones next week. :-)

I took the boys to register for school today. Here's the list of things we had to take with us:

registration forms (4 or 5, I can't remember)
immunization records for each child
copy of passport for each child
copy of birth certificate for each child
copy of dependent pass for each child
copy of my dependent pass
copy of my passport
copy of Justin's dependent pass
copy of Justin's passport

I think that's it. I guess they are serious about verifying that my kids are who we say they are!

Since I don't have the car during the day, we've been trying to figure out the best way to get to school. It's probably 1.5-2 miles from our place. The bus is the cheapest way (not the fastest or the easiest), so the boys and I headed out to the bus. I went ahead and took them in the stroller because I knew Caleb would complain about the walk to the bus stop.

In order to get to the bus stop that has a bus going in the direction of the school, we had to walk 12 minutes...yes, I timed it. (This was me pushing both boys mostly downhill in the stroller.) When we reached the bus stop, I got both kids out of the stroller and folded it up. We didn't have to wait long for the bus, but getting on the bus with two toddlers and a humongous stroller was quite a sight. It took a long time. Then had to go 5 stops. Levi tried to get off the seat while we were going, but then when it was time to get off, he wouldn't budge. I was already headed toward the back of the bus dragging the humongous stroller and trying to coerce my children to follow me. Levi still wouldn't budge. A sweet, older Singaporean woman got up and lifted Levi off of his seat. "Thank you," I said, still dragging the stroller. Ugh. This isn't easy.

We alighted (Singaporean/British for "got off the bus") at the Singapore Bible College, and then walked across the street, past the Adam Food Centre, down the street and around the corner to their school. It took us 25 minutes from our place.

It took me 10 minutes to stop wiping sweat from my face after we arrived. One of the classes was outside playing with the ride-on toys, so the teacher there watched my two so I could go inside and get the registration taken care of. This school doesn't have uniforms like a lot of schools here, but they have a school t-shirt that the kids wear everyday. I picked up a few of those, paid the fees, and then it was time to go. Neither of the boys wanted to leave, which is a good sign for later on.

Here are the kids wearing their t-shirts, and my oldest not cooperating at all. :-)

Are you thinking that Levi's shirt is really big? It is. The boys were outside, and I have no idea what size shirt they wear in the sizes here. I figured it would be easier to get them both the same size and not have to worry about separating them or getting the wrong shirt on the wrong boy. See...smart! I got them both a size 28...I have no idea what size that equates to in the US. He'll have lots of room to grow!

By the time we left the school, it was really hot, both boys were sweaty from playing outside, and I was just ready to get home. I hailed the first taxi I found!

They have a holiday programme next week, so the teacher said I could bring them in so they can get used to the school. Starting August 25, Caleb will attend school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (he goes to BSF with me on Mondays), and Levi will go on Wednesday and Thursday (he goes to MOPS with me on Tuesdays). We'll be pretty busy, but the boys are going to love it! The school is small, and the teachers are so sweet. I love the environment there. Of all the schools that I contemplated sending them, it was the only one without a waitlist of a year or more. We're thankful to get spots in this one!

The teacher that was helping me with registration commented on how hard it is with two kids to get anything done, get them to school, etc. YES! It is!! She said I needed to drop them off, go for a coffee, and explore a little.

I think I'll be taking that advice. :-)

The Transition

I've had a lot of comments here, emails, and posts on my Facebook account that all say basically the same thing, "I can't believe you're doing so well in Singapore!"

Trust me, I'm a little surprised myself, and it surely isn't because of me. My God is BIG, faithful, and has been preparing me for this time for many years.

My friends and family and long-time readers of this blog know that I suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of our second child in 2007. It took me 4 months to realize I had PPD, and then it was over a year before I felt like the fog had lifted on my life. Then this spring I started having anxiety attacks (severe nausea) about our upcoming move. That year and a half, from September 2007 to May 2009, was a hard time for all of us, the darkest time in my life, and probably the roughest time in our marriage (because Justin had to pick up a lot of slack). My prayer this past spring was that I would be in a healthy place emotionally when we moved because I knew moving to a foreign country with two toddlers was enough to make a sane person crazy! God faithfully answered that prayer, and I feel better emotionally than I have in probably years. It's such a blessing!

And here are come cool ways God prepared me for this time:

1. I was able to visit Singapore twice - years ago, so I at least had a picture in my head of what this country we were moving to looked like.

2. I lived in Thailand for 6 months during my senior year of college, so I knew what it felt like to live in a foreign country...being away from family, missing familiar foods, etc. I always thought my time there was preparing me for foreign mission work, but it helped me to move across the world with two small children.

3. An amazing family moved here at the same time we did! God gave me a sweet, godly friend to walk this journey with me. And she parented toddlers several years ago, so she's also a great mentor! You're such a blessing, Andrea!

4. Last fall I received an email from a friend that said, "Did you know Camille lives in Singapore?" Camille and I went to the same church during our time at Texas A&M, and even though we didn't know each other well, we had mutual friends. And she has a little boy who is just between my boys in ages, so we were very excited to know someone who already lived here. I'm still amazed that we ended up in this tiny country at the same time! God is so cool!! Camille invited me into her sweet circle of friends, and what cool people they are! It's such a blessing to have friends who are also expats and know what all that entails.

So, while I was just living my life, God knew this huge move was in my future. And for years now He has been preparing me step by step to make this transition as smooth as possible.

The love of my God amazes me daily!

"God's love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings"
~Psalm 36:5-7a, The Message

Things Caleb Says, Part II

"Mom, I don't ever, never want to go to the North Pole." (oooookkaaaay?? apparently he had a bad dream that included the north pole.)




"Mom, Levi just splayed the TV." (He's taken to making up words.)


"What does that mean, Caleb?"


"It won't play, and I can't hear it."



"You're the ticklers and we're the proompers." (Proomp is his new made-up word. It has lots of meanings.)



"I'm going to proomp you." (in this context, it usually means hit.)

Me: Caleb, what do you want for breakfast? A cereal bar? A granola bar?

Caleb: I want something that goes with chopsticks.