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.

For Mimi, Granddad, Poppa, and Grandma

We miss you so much! With love from Caleb and Levi.


If you're having trouble viewing it, go here.

A VIDEO!!!

I'm finally posting a video. The quality is not good and neither is the lighting, but I figure the grandparents won't complain! This phone of mine is good for so many things. :-)

Daddy was late coming home from work, and dinner wasn't going so well. Life with little boys is always interesting. And loud. (Oh, and "proomp" is Caleb's new word. It has lots of meanings. In this context it obviously means "hit." Joy.)



If you can't view it, go here.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

Now that we don't live near an MRT station, the bus is the best/cheapest way for us to get around. This book comes in really handy...(especially now that I know how to read and use it!)
Last weekend we had to go down near Little India to pick something up, so we decided the bus was easier than trying to find a place to park the car. One of the bus #s that comes by our place...

You can search by street name, and it shows all the buses that come to each stop. Ours is at the bottom..."Holland Gems."

We scored and got a double-decker bus. Caleb was super-excited to ride on the top, even though he's giving his angry face here.

Levi looking down on people at Plaza Singapura

Just had to take a picture of this, since some people think that's where we got Levi's name. (Although a Jewish woman at Holland Village the other day said we need to pray and ask God if we're Jewish since both our boys have strong Hebrew names. She was really sweet, and pretty persistent about us being Jewish.) :-)

It's always an adventure getting around the city. I had coffee with a sweet lady yesterday (who's a friend of a friend of ours in Houston), and I picked her up in our car. We drove to Starbucks and had to wait about 10 minutes for a parking spot to open up. It felt like I was in school at A&M again, sitting in my car and waiting for a parking spot to open. Except here, there were only about 20 spots in the lot.

Indian Food

We went to an Indian place tonight...CURRY GARDENn (spelled just like that!), and Caleb was not too happy about the choices for food. There was a pizza place just a couple of stalls down that had chicken nuggets, but we wanted them to try to eat the food, so we didn't mention the chicken nuggets.

LOOK! He ate it. He's super picky, so this was quite a feat. (It may have involved a little bribery.)





And another thing...we found a FREE parking lot next to this place, and a FREE parking lot right in front of Giant (Singapore's Wal-Mart). We pulled right up there, did our shopping, loaded the car and went home. It was almost like we lived in Texas. A great find, indeed!

All Moved In

We moved in last week. It's been a long process to unpack everything and find a place for it. We're so blessed that we were able to bring things from home; it helps a lot. I still haven't washed all the dishes. I wash as many as can dry at one time, and then we eat and use those up...then I have a kitchen FULL of dishes again. :-) It'll get done, eventually, right? Good thing I'm not type-A...it would drive me nuts.

The boys got all their toys back! They haven't seen their toys in two months, so this was like a HUMONGOUS Christmas morning. (By the way, humongous is Caleb's new favorite word!)

Here they are enjoying their "new" toys in their playroom...

This is the new bookshelf I bought them at IKEA. We could open up a children's library out of their playroom. Makes this former English teacher really happy. :-)

I'd like to tell you it doesn't look like this all the time...

They take turns hiding in the toy box their Granddad made for them, which of course means all the toys end up on the floor. What are playrooms for, right?

Today I asked one of the teenagers whose dad works with Justin to watch the boys while I did a bit of grocery shopping and had some time to myself. I walked to the bus stop on the other side of the street (about a 10-min walk...down and under the overpass) and headed down to Holland Village. My first stop was Starbucks. A vanilla latte and a blueberry muffin later and I was on my way. Saw a foot reflexology place that had been recommended, so I stopped in. They had a special for "first timers" that included a 30-minute foot massage and a 30-minute back and shoulder massage for S$38 ($26 US!). I couldn't say yes fast enough. It was wonderful! After that I headed to get a Brita water pitcher (the water here doesn't taste very good, but it's perfectly safe) and then to the grocery store for bread and milk and bananas.

I'd like to write an open letter to the Singapore radio stations. It would go something like this:

Dear Singapore Radio Stations,

As an American citizen, I appreciate good American music. You play a lot of American music from the 70s and 80s, most of it not the best from that time period. I am often puzzled as to why you have chosen those particular songs. Do you know that decades have passed since then and lots of new music has been played? There are thousands of songs, millions maybe, that you could choose from.

Please, I'm begging you to find something new.

Thank you very much.

Monkey Wrench

Caleb came over to me holding his tool box that he had put some of his daddy's tools in.

"Wanna see?" he says.

"Sure."

He opens the box, and I look in.

"Do you know what that one is?" I ask.

"No."

"It's a monkey wrench."

"Is it for real monkeys???"

Quirks

I'm starting to learn all the quirks of living in this new apartment. You know that saying, "you learn something new every day?" Well, when you live in a foreign country, you learn about 10 new things every day. On Wednesday when we had to take a taxi to Ikea, I learned that in Singapore you don't pronounce it "eye-key-uh," you pronounce it "ick-ee-uh." Good to know. The taxi driver and I had a hard time communicating about where I wanted to go. I wanted to scream, "It's the BIG BLUE BUILDING on Tampines Rd." Except you don't pronounce Tampines "tam-peens," like I thought. It's "tam-pin-ess." Good grief. Are we speaking the same language or not? Definitely not.

Here are some things we're learning about our new place:

1. If you go outside the front door and it closes, you're locked out even if the deadbolt isn't locked. There is a button you can push on the door itself to be able to use the door handle from the outside, but as soon as you've locked the door, the button releases and you've got to do it all over again. Luckily we've only been locked out when an adult is on the inside.

2. The doors on the elevator close very quickly. I'm the only one who's been crushed by them yet, but I've put the fear in the boys that they've got to hurry when we're getting out. No dawdling, Levi!

3. There's not an air conditioner in the kitchen. During the morning and early afternoon, it's not too bad if you leave the door open and let some air in from the dining room. But by late afternoon and with a gas stove going, it gets HOT! We're definitely going fan shopping this weekend!!

4. We only have one plug in the laundry area, so only the dryer OR washer can be used at one time. The ladies who turned our apartment over to us said we could just get one of those plug adapters that allows you to plug in two things at once. However, the men at the electronics store said you cannot plug a dryer into one of those plugs because they pull too much electricity and we'd need to get an electrician out here to create a double plug. So, for now it takes all day to wash and dry two loads.

5. I'm going to wash every dish we own by hand today (no dishwasher) because they're all dusty from the packing paper and have been touched by two sets of movers. I went in there earlier to get things organized and realized we have no drain stopper.

6. I bought a coffee pot in Houston before we left that I could use here without an adapter. It's a Black & Decker. When I opened it up a few days ago, I realized that everything printed on the pot is in Spanish. It's a good thing I know a little Spanish and coffee pots aren't too difficult to figure out! I still laugh every time I look at that coffee pot, so it's good in the mornings when I'm not in a very good mood. :-) It tells me where to turn the lid to "servir" and how to "abrir or cerrar." It's a hoot!

7. We have 7 air conditioning units in this apartment. They are sort of like window units in the States because they only cool that space, but they are actually installed into the walls. We've been experimenting all week with which ones to leave on (there are 3 in the main living space) and what temperature is comfortable.

8. There are quite a few kitchen cabinets, for which I am very thankful! My big dinner plates even fit nicely, so that is a plus. The only thing lacking was a pantry space. All my cooking stuff and dishes took up all the cabinets, so I was lacking space to put food. I found two bookshelves at Ikea that were the perfect size to go against the wall in the kitchen and serve as a pantry. And they were only S$29 each. (Thanks Tori, Jakeb, and Andrea for helping put them together! And thanks Anna for keeping the boys occupied!)

It's fun getting to know a new place. I've been able to navigate two taxi drivers here from various locations, so that was a relief!

In this week's episode of "What My Kids Have Broken," we add one laptop. (Before you freak too much, Justin was able to fix it!) Levi decided it was a good idea to put play coins from his cash register into the DVD player of the laptop. Daddy was NOT a happy camper when the computer wouldn't even turn on at all. He took it apart, and was finally able to slide them out with a rounded knife w/o hurting the computer at all.

Let's just hope next week's episode has to be cancelled for lack of material. *fingers crossed*

We Found A Preschool

We looked at two preschools today for the boys. One was a local preschool, which was nice and very structured. It was a 5 days a week program. I just couldn't put Caleb (let alone Levi) in school 5 days a week from 9am-3pm. That's like real school! I'm not ready for that and neither is he.

So, we checked out one of the more affordable international preschools and really liked it. We got a very quick tour and some information to take home, which I was thankful for because I wasn't feeling well (more on that later). Caleb and Levi will be able to attend the same school, so I'm very thankful for that! I wasn't sure how I was going to manage getting them to different schools without a car. I'd lose my mind for sure!

Caleb's tuition is included as part of our "expat package" because he's school age here. For Levi to go we'll be paying about 4 times what we paid in the States for Caleb to go last year and that's still very reasonable by Singapore's international preschool standards!

So, I've had a stomach virus this week. It's been awful. For three days I only managed to choke down 6 saltine crackers, 1/4 piece of toast, 4 bites of Rice Krispies cereal, and 5 grapes. I drank enough 100 Plus (the closest thing to Gatorade here) to keep me just barely hydrated. I was finally feeling hungry this evening and knew my weak stomach could not stand the smell of local food, so we headed to Chili's. We had the skillet queso and it was awesome! I needed a little taste of home for my sick tummy. My stomach shrank quite a bit this week, so I only could eat about 1/4 of the chicken breast I ordered, but now we have leftovers. I lost 6 pounds in 2 days, so that makes my total since we've arrived here at 16 pounds lost. Not the best way to lose weight, but I'll take what I can get!

We drove to Chili's tonight! I cannot tell you the pleasure I had at taking the elevator down to the carpark in the basement of our building, driving to Chili's in the mall (of course it's in a mall!), parking in the basement, and riding the escalator up. Very little walking. No waiting. And NO sweating! It was glorious!! We definitely took our cars for granted in Texas.

My mom sent me a package that arrived today. It included Bounce dryer sheets, decaf family size tea bags, a Bible study workbook I wanted, some CDs for the kids, and a few other things. Everything smells like Bounce! Our whole apartment smells dryer sheet fresh. I'm hoping it didn't soak into the tea bags too much. One thing I don't want is April Fresh tea. :-)


Our first family outing in the car...

Chili's! Yummy!!
Check out these steak prices! They fly everything in from the US...

We get the keys to our place on Saturday and our stuff arrives on Monday, so we're really close to not living out of suitcases!!

Prices in Singapore

I took this picture tonight at Cold Storage because I still can't believe Haagen-Dazs costs this much! S$15.65 for a PINT (US $11.18)! I refuse to pay those prices (until I'm really desperate), so we buy the local store brand for about S$5 for 1.5 Liters. A much better deal. :-)

4th of July Weekend and Things On our To Do List

I'll start with the pictures. These first few are of our new place. It was previously the show flat, so this is not our furniture...

Looking from the dining room into the living room...at the far end are the bedrooms.
Entry "hallway" and bedroom doors...(the lady in the pink skirt is our realtor, Ann)

Jack and Jill bath between the boys rooms...there's a shower behind the doors

Master bedroom (you should see the built-in closets...quite big for here in Singapore! Not walk-in or anything, but a whole wall of closet space w/ a built-in light.)

The pool (office/gym/lounge area is in the two-story building).

Our unit is on the 4th floor and we asked them to install plexiglass on the iron railing on the balcony so our children cannot climb up on it! There are locks to the balcony with keys, so the keys will be hidden from the kids for sure! My mom was so concerned about us living in a high-rise building w/ our boys who like to climb! (So was I!)

I'll post new pictures once our stuff arrives and we're unpacked.

Here's Caleb upset because there were too many kids playing on the bouncy house at the 4th of July celebration.

There were people everywhere at the American Association's 4th Celebration...can you spot Justin in the background? This picture doesn't do justice to the thousands of people at this place!

This is as far as Caleb would get in to the bouncy castle. The other kids were running into him and knocking him down, and he kept getting upset. Plus it was really hot and humid!

We've had a great holiday weekend...although the 4th of July is obviously not a holiday here in Singapore!

I started the weekend by getting a pedicure with my friend, Andrea. It was much-needed (the pedicure and the girl time!). It was a tiny place with only two chairs, so it was just the two of us. I mostly understood what the girl was saying to me, and definitely understood when she asked if I wanted to add the scrub as part of my pedicure and that it would be an extra $20. Ummm...no thanks!

We had a BBQ Saturday at lunch with the other expats from Justin's company here at our temporary housing (where almost everyone is still living). We ordered meat from a butcher that Andrea had heard of, and it was SO yummy! Even with very few seasonings on hand (salt and pepper), the steaks/hamburgers/kebas was really good. We'll definitely be ordering from that butcher again, and they deliver, which is ALWAYS a plus! Andrea also got the number for the "Chicken Man," who delivers chicken breasts to your house at a really great price. Once he's delivered to you, you can just text him your future orders (or SMS him as it's called here). Cool, huh? I'm definitely finding all the places who will deliver instead of dragging the kids everywhere.

Saturday night we headed to the Terror Club (named after a British ship, the HMS Terror) for the American Association's 4th of July celebration. They had bouncy houses/castles/slides, face painting, hot dogs, balloon animals, etc. It was SO hot and there were SO many people that we didn't enjoy ourselves very much. Caleb wouldn't even lay on the bouncy things because there were tons of kids on each one...they were regulating how many kids were on there. We also waited in line for an hour and 15 minutes for a nasty hot dog. Then a balloon popped and Caleb thought it was fireworks and he started freaking out! We hadn't told him there would be fireworks because we were trying to test the waters and see if his fear of fireworks was still there. Apparently, it is. So, we promptly left before the fireworks began.

This morning we tried church #4. :-) It was great! The pastor and his wife are from South Africa, so we loved listening to their accent. It was a wonderful church with very authentic worship and great Bible teaching. We haven't made a decision yet on which church we'll attend on a regular basis, but this one seems to be a great fit for our whole family.

The next thing on our list is preschools for Caleb. It's quite an undertaking to find a preschool that is close to where we'll be living, or at least close to a bus stop w/ a short walk after the bus. Sometime this next week Justin and I will be visiting preschools to find the best fit for Caleb. There is a Christian preschool close to where we'll be living, so I hope that one will work (I'm afraid they have a long waiting list, though). Levi is too young to attend there, but I hope to find a good place for him to attend a couple of days a week as well. I love that they will be going to school with children from other countries!

We now have a car, so I'm hoping that will help in getting to some places and with trips to the grocery store! Justin will have it at work most of the time, but if I need it he can ride with someone else.

And next week we move to our permanent place! We'll get the keys on Saturday and then the movers will bring our sea shipment and unload it on Monday. We are SO excited to not live out of suitcases anymore! And we're excited to sleep in our OWN beds!!! Asian beds are really hard.

That's it for now!

Were You Wondering, Too?

A friend emailed me recently and said something to the effect of, "Your blog sounds like you're doing great, but how are you really doing?" (Thanks, Lisa!) I emailed back and told her that was definitely an email from someone who's lived on the other side of the world before, and someone who also currently lives away from her family. :-)

So, in case you were wondering how I'm really doing, too, here it is.

I'm actually doing well. :-) I do have a tendency to protect my family from any sadness and hard times I might feel by not going into tremendous detail, especially when they are so far away and can't do a thing about it!

I do have moments/sections of days that are really sad. I miss my family so much. I miss my friends so much. I miss loading my kids in the car, driving to Target, strapping them both in a basket, and walking around getting the things I need. And knowing where those things are in the store.

I'm tired of carrying Levi on my back everywhere we go (unless Justin's with us, then he does it). I'm tired of going to the grocery store and only being able to get as much as I can carry with a child on my back and chasing after a straying 3-year-old.

We're finally moving out of that stage where it feels like a vacation. We've been here for 3 1/2 weeks now, so the reality of it all is starting to sink in.

But, overall, I'm really glad to be here. Honestly. I'm in a very healthy place emotionally and mentally, which is what I prayed for so often last Spring when I wasn't. And what so many people have been praying for me!

Do I wish I could call my mom 4 times a day and ask her any number of questions and tell her random things the boys are doing? Yes! Do I wish I was going to be there when my sister goes into labor sometime in the next few weeks? Of course! Do I wish I could go get Sonic Jr. Candy Sundaes and go hang out with my friend, Kim, and her sweet kids? You betcha!

But that's where we're at right now, and I'm okay with that. God has really blessed us and given us friends here already that care about us and are going through this experience at the same time. We definitely feel protected and loved. And we are!

So, thanks for all your concern, spoken or not. I'm sure things will get harder in some ways and easier in others. There will still be sad times about things I'm missing back home, and there will be special things we'll experience here that never would have been possible there.

And did you know that you can fly from Houston to Singapore for under $700. It's true. :-)

Come see us! We have a guest room that we'd love to fill anytime!

Outings and Our Crazy Kids!

Blogger is putting the pictures in backwards order, so these are all messed up as to when we did stuff. But, here's what we've been doing lately.

Levi playing in the fountain at Clark Quay. We ate at "The Tent" Mongolian restaurant with our friends, The Stunz's. It was so yummy! Our kids adore their kids who are 18, 16, and 10. And they've been babysitting for us, which we so appreciate. There are so many things here that it's just easier if the kids are not with us, like shopping for tvs!
Caleb picked out his own outfit...could you tell? He wears his Batman cape that Mimi made for him ALL.THE.TIME. He got A LOT of attention with this get-up, so he eventually ditched the hat. The cape stayed on, though!

Sign in the MRT station. Don't jump on the tracks, people!

After church this morning, we headed to Holland Village for lunch. There was a group of kids there and one girl stopped and told us they were playing a game and asked if they could take a picture with our cute kids. She called them cute, so we couldn't refuse. I wouldn't let them leave until I had a picture, too. The kids didn't know what to think!

There's a koi pond here where we're staying, and one of the guys let the boys feed the fish the other day. The fed the fish and then threw big rocks at them. No matter how many times they get in trouble for that, they keep doing it.

Our family on top of Vivo, Singapore's largest mall. Not a great picture, but the only one we have of all of us so far. Caleb wouldn't stop moving, so he's blurry. Notice the cape. Again.

Singapore is having its River Festival right now. Justin and I had a date the other night (YAY for date nights!), and we walked down by the river. They had a strange float parade going on that we didn't exactly understand. All the lights were pretty, though. And there was a cool breeze, too, so that was nice and unexpected here.

So, that's what we've been up to. We're so ready to move to our permanent place and have our own furniture and belongings. Today I was scrubbing crayon off the wall here with laundry stain remover. It worked really well, but we need to get out of this place before the boys destroy everything!

And, lastly, here's how a conversation with Levi goes lately. He's really picking up sentences...using two and three words together. But he's also asking lots of questions.

Me: Levi (calling to him)

Levi: Wha? (what?)

Me: Come here

Levi: Why?

:-)

Random, Unconnected Thoughts

Sunday we ventured out to church again. It was about a 15-minute taxi ride, which was MUCH better than the sweaty, long walk we had to church the last time! This one started at 9am, then at 10:30 had a fellowship break (snacks, drinks), and resumed for the Lord's Supper at 11:00. The break was too much for the kids...they thought it was over and they became very hyper. They had been good until that point.

When we went back into the service for the Lord's Supper, someone was up front reading a Scripture passage and Caleb took off from our seats at the back of the auditorium, ran up the side aisle, up onto the stage, jumped off, continued running across the front, then ran down another aisle. All this time Justin is chasing him to no avail. Caleb finally came back where we were sitting and was headed up for another round when I was able to reach out and grab his shirt to stop him. Justin and I were mortified!



We went to a waterpark recently called Wild Wild Wet, and it was "Transformer Day," apparently, because this guy was walking around. Caleb saw him and ran around the corner. But this was as close as he'd get.

Levi's learning to ask questions. His favorites, which he repeats all.day.long are:

What?

Where'd it go?

Why?

Really. Another why child. Caleb asks enough questions for 5 kids, and now Levi's asking questions, too. Pretty much all day long I answer the same questions over and over and over.

We got to see my friend, Bui, at church on Sunday. She and her family were on vacation in Singapore (from Thailand). I hadn't seen her in almost 8 years, so a lot had changed in my life since then! We're hoping to make it to Thailand in October, so we'll get to see her again!

Blogger isn't letting me upload any more pictures right now (and for the past 2 days), so this will have to do.

Oh, I wish you could have seen me

I got my workout in for the day. Just a little while ago the boys and I returned from lunch and the grocery store. I had Levi strapped to the front of me in the carrier, two grocery bags in one hand, and holding Caleb's hand with the other. And then it started raining.

It was a LONG walk from the grocery store to the MRT, then from the MRT to our apartment. Needless to say I was soaked with sweat (and a little rain, too), and my arms are still shaking from carrying almost 30 pounds of Levi and two heavy grocery bags. Probably should have taken a taxi home! (My husband would be proud of me for trying to be thrifty.) :-) I've already lost 8 pounds since we got here from all the walking and sweating, so maybe today will help a little more!

We're going to a Mongolian BBQ place for dinner (SO yummy...surprise, Justin!), and Caleb has been asking for a week to go to the restaurant with the fountain you can play in. Better remember to bring a change of clothes for them!

I'm wondering if my friend, Andrea, who just arrived in Singapore this morning has realized why I only wear mascara and lip gloss now. The rest just sweats right off my face. Plus, the heat and sweating gives you a nice "glow" and "rosy" cheeks naturally. At least that's what I tell myself.

Bad News & Good News

The bad news is that I dropped my camera tonight and it's not working. I'm hoping it's able to be fixed. *fingers crossed*

The good news is that when I signed up for cell service here in Singapore I got a really expensive phone for a not-so-expensive price (about 1/4 of the original price). That phone has a great camera and I'm able to upload from my phone to the computer. Ah, technology is great.

Here we are walking to dinner, and Caleb is giving his "face." It's pretty common these days. I love age 3.

"Singapore Litter Free" :-) It IS clean!

Here's where we're headed for dinner...The Newton Food Centre, aka "The Newton Hawker"

Here we are. This is one of the nicer food centers, and, therefore, more expensive. Our dinner was S$29 for three plates of food and 4 bottles of water. Not too bad, but expensive for local food.

Our yummy food..chicken fried rice, sweet & sour chicken, and fried buns (not pictured). Levi LOVES rice. Caleb is our picky eater and won't try anything that looks "suspicious." Once he takes a bite, he almost always likes it. Getting him to take a bite is hard work.
This is the stall where our food came from. What you can't see inside that little cage are live crabs. Fresh seafood, indeed!

And just for fun...Caleb asleep with his sock monkey. I was testing out the flash on my camera. :-)

Levi in the Baby Hawk baby carrier at the train station. I really need to get a Beco or Ergo Baby Carrier because this one ties on instead of snaps on and it's hard to get it right.

Vocabulary and The Swine Flu

Caleb has a whole new vocabulary now that we're living in Singapore.j

"Are we going to take the MRT?"

"There's the Newton hawker."

"Where's your hand phone?"

And he knows that we tell the taxi drivers that we're staying at "The Orchard Scotts on Anthony Road."

:-)

Even Levi has a new word, "taxi." And Levi has three new teeth.

They are VERY serious about the Swine Flu here (H1N1). There are signs in the taxis and MRT stations and just about everywhere warning that if you came from an H1N1 infected country or are going to an H1N1 infected country that you should avoid large crowds and take your temperature regularly. Oh, and if you have a fever plus cough/congestion, call and ambulance. When I'm in the taxi with the kids by myself the drivers who speak really good English will chat with me, and one of them asked where we were from and then also asked about the Swine Flu and the economy. (It sort of feels like when I was in Thailand in 2001 and all anyone would talk to me about was the World Trade Center. Now it's the economy and the Swine Flu. I guess they're just trying to make conversation.)

We went to view a condo last week and at the guard's gate they had a sign that said all visitors and contractors must stop at the guard gate to have their temperature taken before entering the complex. They didn't make us, but I thought it was funny.

They were serious about it on the airplanes on the way here, too. When we stopped in Japan, they had fully masked inspectors come onto the plane to determine if anyone was sick. We had to fill out little health questionnaires that asked whether or not we'd had a fever in the last 10 days.

Well, we found a condo that we really like and have submitted the LOI (Letter of Intent) to the owners. We should find out today or tomorrow if they have accepted our offer. They are replacing the air con units in the whole complex, so they don't want us to move in until July 15, but I'm hoping they'll let us go ahead and move in a couple of weeks when our furniture arrives. We're ready to sleep in our own beds and have our own stuff!

The boys were up late last night, so it's after 9am and they are still sleeping! They have finally returned to their normal sleep habits, so we are thankful for that!

The Other Earth

Caleb: "Mom can you buy me one of those pools in the other earth?"

Me: "Is Texas in the other earth?"

Caleb: "Yeah. Can you buy me one of those pools when we get back to Texas."

Me: "We'll see, Caleb, when we get back to Texas."

You've seen the pics of our corporate apartment, and now for a few pictures that are distinctly Asia...

These are light switches, a water heater switch, and the big thing controls the air con in the master bedroom. Each room has its own air con unit, and you only cool the rooms you're in (otherwise you're electric bill is HIGH). The two sets of switches on the right are for the sink and toilet areas. I can never remember which set goes to which, so I'm always turning on the wrong ones.

If you can tell, the kitchen is enclosed behind a door. In most cases, you don't cool the kitchen. It's gotta be lovely to cook in a hot kitchen with no air conditioning!

Shoe rack. Our temp apartment has a little closet for shoes right inside the door. You always take off your shoes when you enter someone's house. The maids, delivery people, and anyone else leaves their shoes outside our place when they enter.

And our air shipment arrived today. They asked me if I wanted them to unpack it, but where in the world would we put all this stuff??? (and Levi's giving you his "cheese" face)

That's about all for now. Its quite an adventure living here! We haven't ventured to local food too much because of the boys. We're trying to get them adjusted to living in a new culture before we go places that don't have spaghetti without sauce (Caleb's favorite) or chicken nuggets. Caleb's a pretty picky eater, and we've found that if they don't eat a good dinner they won't sleep well.

The Things Caleb Says

I'm seriously going to start writing down things Caleb says, especially now that we're in a foreign country. And, for future reference, if you have a child that asks about 1000 questions a day, DO NOT take them to a foreign country. You cannot imagine the number of questions that child has. Naturally, of course, but I think I'm going to start counting and limiting him. There's only so much a mama can take! :-)



Here are some things he's said recently:


"Is Singapore in the world?"


"Can we take a taxi?" (he's really tired of walking everywhere!)

"When we were at our hotel in the world..." (he means the one in Houston)

And Mr. Independent wants to do everything himself. He wants to scan his own MRT card, ride the escalator w/o holding anyone's hand, and JUMP off of every surface he can find!

Our First Worship Service in Singapore

This morning we went to church for the first time here as a family (since Justin and I have both been to church here in years past). We took the walk to the MRT station, rode the train, and then walked to the church. A walk Justin had advertised as a 5-10 minute walk. Oh, he has a lot to learn about being in Singapore with a family. About 15 minutes and two VERY cranky kids and a VERY sweaty wife later, we arrived at church. We were late, but thankfully they do not start on time.

When we sat down and started singing, I was so glad to be back in an Asian church. The singing was beautiful and we even sang one of my favorite worship songs, "In Christ Alone." Their voices were so full and beautiful and the room just echoed with praise.

And then all chaos broke out as our two kids started behaving like we haven't seen them behave in a long time. They were AWFUL! They whined, cried (both of them), screamed a little, and just generally ruined the worship for most everyone around us. And if you don't believe me about how awful they were, here are the comments we got after church (from some of the sweetest, most gracious people you'd ever meet):

"Don't worry. We all (the people in the two rows behind us) have two boys. We understand."

"How old is he (Levi)? Yeah, I thought he was in his twos." ;-)

"Are they jet-lagged still?"

So, needless to say we didn't stay for Bible class since it was 11:15 and Levi had been up since 6:30 (AGAIN!). We tried to get a taxi, but couldn't find one that would stop, so we made the sweaty walk back to the mall to grab some fast lunch and GO HOME for naptime. The kids and I all took naps, and if you know Caleb, you know he doesn't nap EVER. We're all pretty tired.

Even though the kids were cranky, I loved being in church today. It was a small church and the people were incredibly sweet. We had so many offers to help in any way...keep our kids, help us find our way, etc. Hopefully our next church experience will be better for everyone involved.

Going To Breakfast...Quite An Adventure

(Click on the picture to make it bigger. This is the best way I could get all these pictures on the blog.)

Top Row: We start walking to breakfast, walking, walking, Levi takes a detour, we arrive at MRT station (note the stairs)
Second Row: See that white building across the street--that's where the elevator is, take the escalators down, walk, wait, ride train
Third Row: Get off train, ride escalators up, come out of station and this is what we see, eat breakfast at Burger King, view across from Burger King
Last Row: Repeat process...escalators, view outside MRT station by hotel, walk, arrive hotel, Caleb looks longingly at pool that he cannot swim in today because he got in trouble so many times yesterday.

Whew. I'm tired. Are you?

Singapore, Day Two

I'm going to start with something positive because today has been a really hard day and it's only 3pm.

Our boys get lots of looks here in Singapore. While we're walking around people are always craning their necks to see them. More than a few people have stopped to ask us if they are twins. We tell them that the younger one is just big. :-) We're also very aware of just how LOUD Levi is! You can hear him from a mile away...probably why people are always staring at us.

Caleb now knows who President Obama is; apparently it took us coming to Asia for that to happen. We never really discussed it with him before, and we don't generally watch the news with him, but here in Singapore Obama is on tv all the time! (and there are tvs everywhere...sometimes even beside elevators.) Apparently this part of the world is very interested in his recent trip and report on it all the time. At breakfast this morning, the tv was on and it was showing Air Force One arriving in Germany. President Obama got off the plane and Caleb said, "Obama." I was shocked that he even knew who that was.

Levi woke up at 3am this morning. Caleb quickly followed. Both of them were so tired from jet lag last night that they didn't eat dinner and were cranky beyond belief. We had planned to go to the grocery store to get a few snacks but decided against it because they were spent. At 3am when they were both hungry, we were wishing we'd made that trip. So, in the middle of the night, my children were eating rice krispie treats (thanks, Kimberly!) and fruit snacks. The grocery store was definitely high on our list of things to do today. So, from 3-5am, we had a little party. The boys wanted to watch cartoons, but we don't get any of the cartoon channels here at the hotel. We tried to get on nickjr.com to watch them, but apparently you can only watch those if you are in the US or its territories. Big bummer.

Going to the grocery store (Cold Storage) was a reality check, too. We'd taken the MRT up one station to get there, so we could only get just a few things (whatever we could carry back with us). We got some fruit and a few snacks so we'll be prepared if they kids wake up in the middle of the night hungry again.

It is quickly becoming apparent to me that unless the boys and I take taxis everywhere, we won't be venturing out much without Justin. Singapore is a walking city with great public transportation. It's ideal and pretty easy if you don't have small children, but trying to get two kids (that get tired easily and must be in a stroller most of the time) up and down out of the MRT stations where only one entrance has an elevator is difficult. It seems like the elevator entrance is always across the street from where we want to be and crossing the street is not always easy. Just going to McDonald's for lunch was a huge undertaking. First, we went to the wrong building. So, we had to go down two escalators (balancing 60 lbs of children on one escalator step in the stroller) to the underpass, walk through the underpass, repeat balancing of stroller up the escalators to the street level. Walk down the street to McDonald's. Realize that there are about 20 steps down to the McD's. Get kids out of stroller. I hold Levi while Justin carries the stroller down and Caleb walks on his own. In McDonald's, Levi threw a huge fit and literally threw his box of chicken nuggets and apples across the restaurant. Then he threw his toy and nearly hit a lady.

Later, he threw my drink on the floor in another building while Justin was taking Caleb to potty.

We're so proud.

And I thought getting in my car in my driveway in Houston, strapping the kids in their carseats, driving down the street to Target, parking close to the door, getting them in the cart and walking inside the store was hard. I'm so naive.

So, we're finding our way around and trying to figure out how it's all going to work. Thankfully Justin has been here enough to know where some things are. We're all tired still and hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight.