Pictures from the last days of school at Twin Chimeny's

Now that we are getting more settled in
we are going to start working on our
books that we took the pictures for at
school and put the notes from the kids'
friends into them.

This awesome poster was given to Andrew by his teacher on his last day of school at Twin Chimney's. We miss all of you guys!

Andrew and Mrs. Wiant

Andrew's Class

Jacob and Miss. Lackey

Jacob and his class

Emily and Mrs. Strong.

Emily and her class

3 weeks of school done already!

Hello everyone -
Can't believe we have been here for over 3 weeks - the kids have completed 3 weeks of school already! We are getting better at a school routine. It is still hard after school everyone is so tired and hungry but we are getting there.

This week we have been trying to be around home more and shopping for "house" stuff less. I am so tired of hunting for things. We are on a scavenger hunt all the time. I have found just about everything we are used to except a few but we are getting there. We found the stuff to make Jami tators, buffalo chicken dip (both are staples around here!) Although I had not seen a beef roast in any store until Friday - It was an average size roast and it cost 90 Sing dollars so that would be about $60 US. So for a heads up to those we will visit this summer we will want a lot of beef and good pizza! They have Pizza Hut which is OK but it was only OK in the US as well. :) I am also thinking I will want to just wander around Target for a long time - to go to one store and find all of the things you are looking for will be wonderful!

Last night we went to Clark Quay - which is like San Antonios River Walk with restaurants and bars. We ate at Hooters right on the river. It was nice to experience a little of our area. It was about a 20 minute walk from our condo. The kids had fun watching some musicians and magicians that were entertaining the crowd. I will upload some pictures tomorrow it is getting late tonight but I wanted to get an update out since I haven't been on here in a few days.

Andrew had baseball tryouts yesterday and Jacob will be starting in a couple weekends. We have been very laidback without any activties - it will be interesting once we start adding in more things. I tried to take the MRT (their subway/train system) to the school on Thursday and it took me an hour and a half and I still took a cab for the last part - I took a cab home with the kids and it took about 30 minutes but cost $20 so I don't know what to do about that. I did find out that I got off a stop to early so I wouldn't have needed the cab if I would have gotten off at the right place so I am going to try it again on Wednesday when I go help in Emily's class and then stay and have lunch with Emily and Jacob. I had a conference with Dani's teachers on Friday and they all said she is doing well and seems to be adjusting well and she seems very comfortable with them already also.

Andrew also had a music concert this week which was wonderful - I was heading there when I had the MRT issues. I took some video that I will also try to get on here tomorrow if I can figure that out.

Today we had guests over for the first time. One of the past teachers from Sunrise preschools niece and nephew and their 3 kids just moved here the week after we did so we had them over for supper and some swimming. Their kids are 5, 3, and 1. The kids had a lot of fun playing with them and helping them swim. It was wonderful meeting them (Heather and I have been talking a lot to vent our frustrations through this whole process) and having some people over made it feel like we were more settled into home.

Well it is about bedtime tomorrow morning will come early and back to school routines! The kids don't have school on Friday so we are thinking about heading to a beach resort to get some R&R - we have been so stressed for several months that we would like to just sit and do nothing and enjoy the area.

Have a great week - and I will try to get photos up tomorrow or Tuesday.

Week 3 of school.

Thanks to all for the well wishes for Jacob - He did much better yesterday - and today he was actually excited to go and do his book talk. It was so nice to see him happy this morning. He was running around and ready to go. It was very strange for him to have such a nervous stomach last week but we are all affected differently by this big move. His teacher was also gone all week last week so I don't think that helped him adjust. But Mr. Mike is back and so is happy Jacob!

We went to the School's County Fair it was amazing and huge. There were 3 gyms full of stuff to do/eat and a baseball field full of outside stuff and another area that had local vendors selling stuff also. I couldn't believe it - the kids had fun and it was nice to do something other than shop for house stuff on the weekend. Although we did run and shop afterwards. I got a new computer so I am not sure if I will be able to upload more photos until I get more help from my IT guy to add the software to this computer.

Ryan is traveling Wednesday - Friday to Jakarta Indonesia this week I will send the camera with him and hopefully we will get some photos from there.

Andrew has baseball try outs this Saturday - all kids make a team they just do tryouts to try to balance abilities - we haven't played catch with him at all yet so hopefully he isn't too rusty. Once baseball starts our calendars are sure to fill up!

Hope everyone had a great Presidents Day and I will try to get photos of the County Fair added and I have also taken some pictures of the view from our condo that I will try to add.

Week 2 of school almost done.

Hello everyone!
It has been a crazy week. Our shipment came yesterday so we will now have our vonage phone! It is charging getting ready to get used as I type. We have most of or stuff has even been put away. The movers brought up 43 boxes and had them all unloaded in about an hour and a half. Then I got to put it all away. Something we have been waiting for!

It has been a rough week for Jacob. He complained of a little tummy ache Monday then Tuesday said it was really bad so he ended up staying home with me and being fine in about an hour. Then the rest of the mornings more tummy aches. I talked to the counselor this morning and she was already on top of it and had been keeping an eye on him but was glad that I called to let her know about the tummy aches each morning. She had talked to him at the playground and was trying to help him find friends to play with. His teacher was in a bike accident so he has been gone all week so I think that is hard on Jacob also he likes his routine and we have completely screwed that up for him! His substitute teacher was also on top of it and noticed one little guy that he seems to like so she was going to move desks around so they would sit by each other. I hope it will help and he will be happier next week!

Emily of course has a lot of friends and is a little social butterfly and Andrew made friends with another new boy and has talked about several other kids as well. Dani has also made friends with some girls on the bus and some in her classes as well. So hopefully Jacob will come out of his shell a little and make some friends and will be happier! I am very happy that when I called to talk about it they were already helping him and new about it right away!!! Of course at an International School they are used to kids coming and going a lot and know what to watch for.

Well I better go and put some more things away and make a journy down the hill to the store not sure what is for supper tonight. The kids have been eating like crazy so much more activity and so many more snacks at school the 3 little guys each have 2 snack times plus lunch each day at school and then they are still starving when they get home. Boy I wish there was a Sam's club around here nothing is sold in bulk lots of boxes of Nilla Wafers, and packages of grapes.
Have a great weekend!

An afternoon at the Singapore Zoo

Here are some pictures that we took at the Zoo today.

This is a bright red bird that was with the flamingos so I think it is also but it was hard to see. I took this picture for Joe - Dani says he loves Flamingos.

Here is a picture of the elephant ride - the kids and I voted that Grandpa Don would love to do this and the kids can't wait either!

There were Ben and Jerry's stands all over the zoo and a bunch of Holstein cow statues. We had to partake before we left.

Here is a momma orangatang if you look closely she is holding a baby. It was amazing how fast she could go without dropping that baby.



The polar bear we were there just before feeding time so there was a lot of commotion.

Here is a great picture that Andrew took (well he took almost all of them except the pic of the Lions that I took) of the zebras eating.

Here are the 2 lions. At one point they both got up and did some sniffing around - Emily and Jacob thought that was gross!

Here are some ISU flowers. I have seen these all over around here so I am thinking I need some on my patio.

There is a wonderful Orchid garden to walk through.

Dani's project was on the chimps. There were 3 little babies in there. They were having a great time and were fun to watch.

There is an alligator that is at the entrance that tried to eat the kids but luckily they were able to save each other. :)

We had fun at the zoo and signed up to be members so we can go back and back. It will be a lot of fun when we have more time to stay and ride the elephants and get there when you can feed the kangaroos. We missed feeding time.

Our New House

Here is our office. It has a patio off of it.

Here is our master bathroom and our bedroom below it.

Here is the boys' room.

This is Emily's room. She also has a balcony but no bathroom.

This is Dani's room. She has a bathroom attached which she has to share with Emily.

This is where the washer and dryer are and where the dishwasher will go. It is on a covered porch that also has the maids room and bathroom and a little closet. We won't have a live in maid so we are using that room for storage. It is a strange feeling going outside to the washer and dryer but at least they both work the dryer didn't work at the temp apt.

This is the Kitchen. That door is the door out to the laundry area.

This is the living room/dining room. There is a balcony off it as well. Just out of the picture to the right would be where the office is. All of the other rooms are off to the left. We have 6 bathrooms in all if you count the maids bathroom. It might be hard to adjust back to our 2 1/2 bathrooms.

This is the view of our apt from by the pool. We are on the top (9th)floor. If you start on the left you can't see the patio door but that is our room, then Emily's door (you can just barely see it) then the boys' window. Then the window that is set back is the boys' bathroom window and the 1/2 bath in the living area. The next window is by the dining room table then the patio for the living room and then the patio for the office.

This is a view of the pool from our living room patio. I am majorly freaked out by the height and don't want the kids out there at all! We locked the patio in Emily's room so she can't go out there. Something about being 9 stories up!

This is the sign outside the main gate of our complex. Inside our complex we have a little mini grocery store that is much like a small town store - lots of stuff in a small area but you can find a lot of what you need. There is also a dry cleaner and a hair salon.

First Day of School

Here are the kids by our little van at 6:15 leaving our temp apartment to go to our apartment to catch the bus at 6:50. We made it although on day 2 we missed the bus and took them directly up to school. We got the boys signed up for baseball while we were there and picked up more uniforms.

More pictures Chinese New Year

I am not sure how to do a slide show but I did figure out how to put pictures in a posting so I am going to do several postings so you can see more pictures. I am sure I will get things figured out sooner or later but I know that you have wanted to see photos.

These Photos are of the dragon dancers (not sure what they are really called) - since it was Chinese New Year last week we saw a lot of these. The bottom picture is from when we were at Ikea. We were shopping and all of a sudden the drums started and a big parade went through the store. Jacob didn't like them at all. The other 2 photos are dragons at our temporary apartment. They came and did a dance with 2 mandarin oranges (a sign of good luck) in the lobby then went up to the pool and did a dance around it.

Pictures are Here and weekend update.

The above pictures are the kids enjoying all that First Class Flying has to offer. They loved it and did great! The other picture is a wonderful view out of the plane window as we were flying over Alaska. It was breathtaking and boy was I glad that I was inside the plane and not out!

This weekend flew by. Yesterday we did some work around the house and then sat by the pool and enjoyed the weather. The kids had a lot of fun playing! Saturday night I made a meal - it has been a while since I did cooking. I even did it again tonight. Spaghetti and tacos felt like home. :) Today we went to the Singapore Zoo. Dani had a field trip there on Friday but didn't get all of her stuff done so it made us go there. It is very nice. The kids were bummed though cause we didn't do the elephant rides or get to feed the Kangaroos. We will go back and do those things we also went back to Ikea for what seems like the 100th time. I am going to put some pictures on here also tonight. Have a great week everyone.

Day 4 of school

The kids are on Day 4 at their new school -
Emily came home last night so tired that she fell asleep about 5 and didn't want to wake up at 6 AM to get ready for school.
Dani is on a field trip to the mall where they are going to do Math tomorrow she goes to zoo to study primates.

The rest of our furniture is coming today but we found out our shipment isn't getting to Singpore until Friday and then through customs so hopefully by next Friday we will have our belongings and can start cooking meals instead of eating out or eating rubbish.

I am hoping to be able to figure out how to upload photos this weekend with some help from my IT guy -

Have a great night!

We are in our Apartment!

We slept in our new beds (except Emily whose bed comes tomorrow) and walked the 3 minutes to the bus stop. It was nice to be able to spend the night at our house and roll out of bed to get the kids to school. Most of our furniture is here the rest is coming tomorrow. So we are down to needing to get a dishwasher which will have to be outside (the washer and dryer are out there also). It will be interesting taking the dirty plates from dining room through kitchen outside and put in the washer. But much better than hand washing all of the dishes we create!

The kids had a good second day. Dani has made a friend that rides the bus with her and Andrew made a friend with someone else who is new also. Emily loves her teacher and is friends with the girl sitting next to her.

OK so the funniest thing that has happened was we were at Ikea shopping last night and this Mom says excuse me I think my daughter knows your son. Well it was someone from Jacob's class that has started since Christmas as well and is from Austin Texas. I was amazed that that happened with as big as this city is to run into someone the 2nd day of school!!

Well I better try the washer I ran a test wash with some bleach to clean it out and to make sure it wasn't going to flood or anything and it worked so here goes. I finally got some groceries last night and thank goodness for Procter and Gamble and Clorox being international brands - it helped me at the store last night.
Have a great night.

Furniture is here

Hi
As I am typing Ikea is putting together furniture so we will be able to stay in our apartment tonight! Our shipment should be here in Singapore so depending on customs we could have the rest of our stuff by Friday!!!
The kids are at school for their second day. They came home so exhausted yesterday! After not going to school at all for more than a week and having to get up at 6 their little bodies were not happy. Within a minute of hitting their pillows they were out cold. We won't have to get up quite so early now that we are in our apt we just have to get to the bus stop downstairs by 6:50.
Have a great Tuesday in the US and think happy thoughts that customs will let us have our stuff by Friday - the kids need their new Wii. :)