China: Chinese Acrobats

We were able to go to the Chinese Acrobat show while in Beijing, and it was cool, beautiful, and slightly disturbing (see 5th picture down) all at the same time. A really neat experience!

Life with Two Crazy Boys

Living with our two boys is always interesting. The other day I had to run down to the basement and give some donation items to a friend. This is what I came back to...(soap and water were everywhere, but I figured at least they had saved us the trouble of giving them a bath that night!)

We were stuck in traffic the other day, in the rain no less, with two hungry boys. I tried to distract them by playing with the camera. This is what I usually get. Crazy kids.

Another night we were stuck in traffic, in the rain again, and I gave the camera to the boys. This is Caleb's view from the back seat. And, yes, that is a man sitting in the back of that truck. That's how we roll in Singapore. It's also how we roll in Texas, but the truck would be way bigger.

A self-portrait of Caleb. All those marks on his chin are from the various bandages he'd had to cover the healing gash in his chin. (If you're not friends with me on Facebook, Caleb tried to body surf down our hallway using his pillow. It didn't work out the way he wanted, and he busted his face into the tile. Not pretty. But true to his I-have-no-fear-whatsoever personality, he was in the ER with his Daddy waiting to get his chin fixed and wondering what he did wrong. "Do you think if I wet my pillow it will work, Daddy?")

They keep us on our toes for sure! I'm always saying that my boys dream up stuff that my sister's girls would never consider...it's so true!

Life with boys is like living from one Emergency Room trip to the next.

I love them so.

Play Area at 313 Food Republic

The boys and I met Andrea and Tori at 313 for some lunch the other day. They have a great play area on the terrace outside. It was a perfect place to play while we waited.

I had only seen one of these things on Ellen's tv show a few years ago. It was great fun trying to punch your colored buttons when they lit up.

I think my posts about our US trip are finished. My camera battery died before we left New Mexico, and my charger was buried someone in one of the many suitcases we left in Texas (which we later retrieved). I didn't get any pictures of the family get-together with my Dad's side of the family. *big, sad face*

Kelly and Sara's Visit

We were so excited that Kelly and Sara Davidson were in Singapore and able to stay the night with us! We were honored to have them here with us since we think the world of this couple. Theirs is one of the marriages on our list of "inspirational marriages," so we love to spend time with them. Justin and I met on a mission trip to SE Asia with Kelly and Sara in 2000 (which included Singapore!), and Kelly was the one who married us. We've got a lot of memories with these two! We met for dinner on Friday night with Camille, Blake, and Pierce at Villa Bali (where this photo was taken).

Saturday morning Kelly went into full "grandpa" mode! His grandkids are just about the same ages as our two, and our kids miss their grandparents a lot, so it was fun for all. Caleb was really sad to see Kelly and Sara leave. He kept asking why they had to live in Texas. :-( Kelly said it was weird for them to be overseas staying with us after we'd traveled in Asia with them, especially since they are the ones who were missionaries in Thailand for almost 20 years!

Here they are trying to see who can spin the football the most times!

Thanks, Kelly and Sara, for staying with us; we love your family so much! It was so fun to catch up with you; we've learned so much from the two of you over the years. Our guest room is always open (that goes for any of our friends who find themselves in Singapore!!)

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

Overheard

In the car this morning...

Caleb: "I so proud of you, Levi. That's a big spit!"

:-)

And, I keep a little girl in our Life Group on Tuesdays and Thursdays before and after Mother's Day Out. Is age 4 when the non-stop questions start? Because oh.my.goodness! I've never heard a child ask so many questions. "Why? Why? Why? But why?" is pretty much how our day goes. ;-)

This Means War!

Yesterday, Caleb and I were out in the yard playing while Justin was mowing the grass. Caleb looks across the street at our neighbor's house, where they have a small LSU flag in their yard and says, "Go Tigers!" I'm thinking, "what did he just say??" and "where did he learn that?" Then it occurred to me that while babysitting Caleb (graciously and I'm very thankful!), our neighbor taught him to say "Go Tigers!" :-|

Our neighbors graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU), the Tigers. Justin and I, as most of you know, graduated from Texas A&M University, the Aggies.



Apparently, as the story goes, there was so much Aggie stuff in our house that Shelley felt it needed something else. Like a toddler saying, "Go Tigers!" We told our neighbor that when their 6-week-old little boy is able to talk, it's war.


Just a little good-natured neighborhood rivalry. :-)