Look out Kora, Momma's got a brand new baby!

Day 10:

First of all I'm tired and "I should be sleepin' instead of keepin' these late hours I've been keepin" (It's a country song). Anyway, with that being said, I am not responsible for typos and such.  Try to ignore them.

We had a normal morning, but we helped a friend move this afternoon and finally got home around 9:15.  As we were leaving to go over and help him sort stuff, I decided to throw in a load of laundry.  Doug was sort of waiting on me and I wouldn't come right out and say it, but I might have been making us later already.  So I was trying my best to hurry.  I threw the laundry in and even programmed it to start in 6 hours, that way, when we got home, I would just need to hang it out to dry.  I know, I'm genius, sometimes I scare myself.  As I was moving stuff around I saw a frog and I was a little sad as we were pulling out of the driveway that I didn't have time to run in and grab my ipod so I could take a picture of it for you all.  Because frogs and various other critters are blog worthy in my opinion.

We got to our friends place and had no idea what was in store for our day, but you know me...adventure finds me or is it drama, or is it accidents/clumsiness?  Ah, well...you be the judge.
First off, the kids explored the giant yard.  I was in charge of sorting some sewing/quilting/cross-stitchy stuff and posting pictures online so his wife could decide what she wanted to keep.

These babies are so wonderful and curious...a lot of work, but I wouldn't trade a minute.

Doug left his phone at home, I barely even own a phone and who knows where it is, if it's charged, or if we've put any minutes on it. (Pretty much all phones are pre-paid here).  So, our friend Mark (the one we were helping) let me use his.  It's some sort of pricey smart phone, samsung maybe, anyway about 30 minutes into my job I lost his phone.  Not like, oh where is it, I'll check a couple places...no, not like that.  Like, let's unpack and re-pack 3 times and make Doug go ask a neighbor to call the phone so we can actually find it.  Yep, that's what kind of helper I am...the kind that brings two small children...one of which is known the world over for getting into and destroying things. Yep, I'm the kind of "helper" who loses very valuable personal items and makes all of the work take 3 times as long as it should.  Pretty much felt like crawling in a hole at that point. We did eventually find the phone UNDER one of the boxes we packed and unpacked 3 times, not sure why I didn't think to look under it, but I didn't.  Moving on, so I felt like crawling in a hole, but instead, Mark asked if I wanted to go through some boxes "upstairs".  I don't know about you, but where I'm from "upstairs" means actual stairs, like safe, sturdy, perhaps carpeted with a rail nearby.  When Mark said "upstairs" he meant, "climb this ladder propped against the wall".  I'd already agreed to the job before I realized a carnival act on my part was required, so I pretended like climbing ladders is something I do on a regular basis and that I am not in fact clumsy.  Big mistake...huge, epic, life-alteringly ridiculous mistake. Okay, okay I'm exaggerating, once I got up there it wasn't that bad.  But the space I was in was basically an unprotected loft.  And guess what, my day would not be complete with out jing joks right.  I moved a painting and BAM a jing jok moved and I jumped back.  Luckily (or by divine province), I did not plummet to my death.  I have never in my life been so happy to descend a ladder.  Not that I've climbed that many ladders, I do remember when I was a kid my dad decided we should all climb on the roof of our house, eat popcorn, and watch a meteor shower.  I didn't like the ladder then either, but once I was up there it was worth it.  In this situation, not quite as rewarding.

Doug sorting.

My view from the top. ;)

Kees fell asleep like this, but just for a minute, Kora woke up from her nap crying and startled him, just after I took this picture.

After a pretty full day of sorting, Mark, Doug, and Kees went to disperse the leftovers and Kora and I stayed behind since there wasn't quite enough room for us in the truck.  Mark had asked if Kora and I would be willing to run down to the little shop nearby to pick up trash bags.  Doug had gone earlier in the day and been told to come back after 4 because they would be re-stocking.  We found the shop no problem, I had a nice chat with the owner lady, she showed Kora off to all the passersby, and she sent her husband around the corner to who knows where to get the bags.  On our way back to the house, we saw the sun setting and met another nice lady. Then we played in the yard till the boys got back.

Interesting items from the shop: top left: palm sugar, top right: dried fish (yum), bottom left: individual sized laundry detergent, bottom right: rooster...maybe? 

 

The nice shop owner went around the corner to get these bags for me.  In their neighborhood you have to use these specific bags, the emblem on them indicates you have paid for them to be picked up. (In our neighborhood we pay for trash pick up with our water bill and just put the trash out on the street the night before)

Kora's many adventures!  She is quite the crowd pleaser.

Kora loved picking up the flowers in the yard.

Helping Mark out paid off in two AWESOME ways, number one, he paid us in sushi for dinner, number 2, I inherited a KITCHEN AID! Yes, you heard that right.  My precious baby was delivered into my loving arms, April 3, 2013.  When we finally got home tonight, Doug said he was going to unload tomorrow...he is NOT a night person.  There is no way I was letting my baby sleep in the truck, so I brought her inside to her new home and polished her up a bit.  "Oh the places we'll go!"  Cannot wait to try it out!

This Momma loves her some sushi and THIS sushi place is the best one in the universe!  (Chiang Mai people: Sumo Sushi does NOT disappoint!)

    My new love!  Love, love, love...I'm accepting ideas for what we should call her...it has to be a "K" name, and they better be good because if Doug Tomlinson gets his way this will be my LAST baby. And I should mention that Kitchen Aids are around $800 here, since the are imported and we use 220 voltage, so it's a different thingy that plugs into the wall.

  

I almost forgot to mention that we stopped by 7-11 on the way home.  Kees LOVES 7-11 and we promised if he was good and ate his dinner we'd stop by there.  Kees and I went in, we weren't quite done making our selections when I saw him doing the bathroom dance.  So we made a mad dash to the restrooms outside.  I've included a picture, because guess what? One near death experience (almost falling after being startled by the jing jok) just wasn't enough for one day.  Kees went to the bathroom, he just sits on the squatty. You are actually supposed to stand on the squatty and then squat to use.  Which I did, successfully, and I was even feeling little prideful, like, yeah, I got this.  And guess what, pride really does come before a fall.  I slipped when I stepped off of the squatty and almost fell. The floors are usually wet in these type of bathrooms and apparently my flip flops don't have the best tread.

I'm fairly certain my mother is thinking, "Kellee Ann, that is TMI (Too Much Information)"

7-11 rarely has gas here, it's mostly a convenient store. Check out the burgers with rice buns instead of bread.

And guess what else, the frog from this morning hadn't moved very far and I got a picture, just for you.  You're welcome.

The frog!!!

And I guess my good word of the day is a quote I read on someone's facebook page yesterday, which was a quote from Adrian Rogers: "The way to find God's will for the rest of your life is to always do God's will for he next 15 minutes."  Doug and I were just talking about this very thing last night, about following God and how to really know what his will is, then I saw this and decided perhaps sometimes we are going about it all wrong.  We want the 15 year plan and refuse to accept that God has that covered and truly just wants us to live in the here and now.  Which is almost exactly what Doug said to me yesterday...it's just now sinking in...I sure do hate when he's right, (cough), I mean, he is a man of wisdom and I was wise in choosing him as my mate. Well technically God chose him for me.  But anyway, Doug said something to me last night along the same lines... here's my paraphrase, "We don't need to live in the past or the future, we just need to serve God right now and walk with him."  The truth is, I do a lot of dwelling on past mistakes and future what ifs, but the past is gone and tomorrow may never come, right?  This journey of life sure isn't easy, but I have been blessed by God in so many ways.  Today, let's choose to walk in HIS ways.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to you from all of us!