Sorry - been so long

Hi everyone -
Sorry it has been so long since my last update. We have been keeping busy with school and baseball. The kids have had 2 games each. Emily is loving softball and has so much excitement - she wants to have games everyday! Jacob is having fun but we may run into an issue as he has een playing ball for several years and understands how it is supposed to go and is playing with a lot of kids - some of which haven't played or seen baseball. He has a tendancy to try to make all of the plays instead of throwing it to the correct person. So we will see how it goes this season. Andrew pitched the first 2 innings of his second game and struck out 5 batters and no runs scored. Unfortunately they ended up losing by 1 one after 2 1/2 hours of game playing in extreme heat - Yikes we were very hot and we were in the shade.

I went to parent teacher conferences on Tuesday and all 3 of them seem to be adjusting well and making friends and doing well in their work. There are some things that Emily and Jacob hadn't done yet but we are working on those things. The 3 little guys didn't have school Monday or Tuesday so we walked and got lunch down the street and got stuck in the rain and came home soaked - as soon as the rain starts you cannot find a cab at all! We were carrying groceries and got all wet.

Our pool is closed at our complex for 5 months it will be great when the new pool is done but it has taken almost 2 weeks just to build the fence to block off the construction. We got our membership to the American Club last week so we will be able to go swim there. They also have a 4 lane bowling alley, a library, a teen room, kids room, 5 restaurants and a gym and the list goes on. I was in line at the little shop and met someone whose child also goes to the American School so I grabbed a bagel with her. It will be great to be able to go hang out there and meet new people.

Ryan just got back from Australia last night on a business trip to look at cotton. We are heading there Friday night to spend a week with Dave and Suzy and tour around Sydney.
Well it is time to get the kids off of the bus.

I will definitly get pictures up here after Spring Break - I will put up baseball pics and vacation pictures when we get back.
Meg

Quick update

Hi there -
I got a bunch of photos up today - hope you enjoy them. I think there are 3 separate blogs with photos so check them all out. :)

We are getting settled in pretty good. Still having trouble with our Air Conditioning. 2 weeks ago they came and said the themostate was broken in our living room it is either hot and humid or if we turn it on after a 1/2 hour or so it gets cold and you need blankets. Today topped the cake though - I turned on the A/C in our room (each room has it's own unit in it other than the big one for the main area) and it shot out ice - it looked like someone had thrown a slushie on my hard wood floor! So they are coming tomorrow so hopefully it will all get fixed tomorrow!

We are finally getting the money thing figured out - we haven't been able to get cash here except for using our ATM cards from the US which is a pain. But we are getting closer.

We have booked our Spring Break trip - we are going to Australia - we are going to go to Sydney and stay with my aunt and uncle and their kids. I am so excited that is someplace I have always wanted to go and never really thought I would get there.

We also have our tickets home for this summer - we will make it to Relay in Carroll and be in Nevada for the 4th of July and be in St. Louis the next weekend. When we figure out the exact dates we will be where we will let everyone know our plans.

The 3 little guys start ball tomorrow so we will start our Saturdays at the ball field. Andrew has practice one night a week and the twins have practice before their games then play a short game.

I better get going the kids will be home in an hour and will want to get to the pool I am sure - they are stating construction on our pool on Monday so we will be without a pool for 5 months we did find out yesterday that we got accepted into the American club so we will be able to go there to swim on the weekends and during the day in the summer.

Hope everyone is doing well back home - we miss you all -
Meg and the gang

Miscellaneous pictures around Singapore

Here are some different pictures that I have taken. Several are the different views from our apartment. We have had some crazy rain. The first 3 weeks we were here it rained 1 time the last 2 weeks it has rained all but 2 days. It doesn't alway rain a long time but it rains hard and gets dark quickly! There are also some pictures of the Singapore Flyer - it is the 2nd largest farris wheel in the world. Each car holds 30 people and it takes 1/2 hour to get around. We haven't ridden it yet these pictures were taken while we were driving to the Beach. The Hardee's at the beach has a drive thru - it is the first drive thru of any sort that we have seen since we got here. I almost wanted to get in the car and order from the drive thru but didn't. :)
There is a picture of a hotel where our college friend Mike stayed when he was here last week. His daughter calls it the pancake hotel so when we were driving by I had to get a photo of it. The very last picture is of HBD housing. It is housing that is subsidised by the government. There isn't any homelessness here because the government makes sure everyone has housing. There are usually 3-4 buildings in a grouping and they are all over the place - (not as many near us as we are close to downtown but as you get fuhe rout they are all over the place) They always have poles hanging straight out the windows with clothes hanging on them to dry. The ones in this picture are nicer than most and they all are painted strangely. I will try to get more pictures of other ones. The roads here are lined with trees and flowers.

Off to the Beach 2-28-09

We went to the beach on the east coast of Singapore. It was a bit of a rough beach but we had a lot of fun. We had lunch at Carl's Jr - before lunch we walked out to the water and took some pictures of the ships and the kids testing the water - then we went to eat at Carl's Jr and KFC and walked back to the beach and did some swimming. The water nice and warm - Jacob loved standing in the water and waiting for a wave to pick him up and move him. We got back home before the lighning storm hit. The storm had a lot of lightning and the huge merlion statue out by the ocean got hit and his ear fell off - major news here.

School Photos - SAS & County Fair

Here are some pictures from our new school. They had a huge county fair on Valentines Day. The kids had a lot of fun playing games. There are some pictures of the kids at school also. I went to help in Emily's class and stayed for lunch and Andrew had a concert the second week of school and did a great job.

Dani at the dunk tank! They had 2 or 3 tanks set up.

Andrew trying his hand at the tank.

Emily loved the boats.

Jacob worked really hard trying to hit the bell but came up a little short.

Emily and Jacob both rode the train set up on the baseball field.

Andrew and his teacher Mr. Kennedy. Mr Kennedy is from Iowa. What a small world!

Andrew dressed for his concert. It was the 2nd week of school and he was nervous about learning the songs but he did great!

Andrew's class had the USA as their country so we lucked out and he could wear his Cubs jersey and his ISU hat. Other classes had countries such as Jamaica, India.

Emily and Jacob at lunch with Flat Stanley. I was able to have lunch with them after I had helped in Emily's classroom.