When Daddy's away...

Day 48:

Dear Lord, please keep all the mice at bay.

I've never seen a mouse here, but chances are if I ever do, it'll be when Doug is gone.  Thankfully, thus far, it hasn't happened.

Plus also...

Not sure if you've noticed, but I like ellipsis....(which by the way, I thought were called ellipticals for some reason, glad I looked that one up, you can check out the meaning here.)

Doug left yesterday to head to a wedding "up the mountain". I have no idea where he is or what exactly that means.  Despite the fact that I asked him multiple times and he answered and either I didn't listen or I've forgotten.  Either way, blame my ADD. I text-harassed Doug last night until I knew he was safe.  I'm prone to over-dramatization, so my mind could not and would not rest until I knew he was safe.  In the meantime, I put the kids to bed and did some reading.  I read the first part of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan, and then somehow got distracted and started surfing the interwebs...bad idea.  I started researching the story of the 3 women in Ohio, I'd seen a few people mention it on Facebook, but since I don't live in America, I don't see news from there unless I look it up online.  Did I mention this was a bad idea. 

I'm home alone with my kids and I started imagining what I'd do if someone came in and tried to take us.  I was comforted by a few facts, number one, we stick out, big time. So we aren't easy targets, lots of people would notice us. Number 2, I've never heard of a Thai person holding someone in their home for an extended period of time like we hear about in America, keep in mind I watch zero news, so if it IS a prevalent problem, I'd be the last to know. Anyway, Thai people typically live with a lot of family and neighbors are very involved in each others lives, so it be hard to hide 3 foreigners without someone noticing.  Okay, I know, way too much thinking late at night, which is why I decided to search random funny youtube stuff until Doug confirmed he was safe and sound. A little after midnight, they finally made it and I could rest easy.

All this increased my desire to have my little lovies sleep in. They woke up at 7:30, I was irritable for the first couple hours and finally broke down and used the only 3 in 1 coffee packet in our house to make myself an iced coffee. Good idea, very good idea, it almost makes up for the stupid idea from yesterday.  The kids ate breakfast, got showers, played inside a while, and then we went outside for a snack and our daily pool time.  (This afternoon, we have no water...hope that's not our fault.) 

I added extra sugar and cocoa to my drink, mmmm, good stuff.

These grapes had seeds in them, I had to bite each one in half to de-seed them, and when I ran in to check on the bread I was making, Kees was the grape monitor because Miss Sass thinks she should eat 20 at a time.

Getting swimsuits for the kids and found this spider....where is Doug????

Trying to teach her to wear and enjoy her hat, so when we go to the beach we can protect her money maker...that snow white skin. (This joke is in reference to the fact that Thai people love white skin and it's usually one of the first things mentioned when they see Kora, along with the color of her eyes.

Tell me you don't want to take them home, now you know why I couldn't sleep...

Playing with the Christmas car from Gramee and Grampa, they gave her that swimsuit too. (Mom, I told my friend Noi what a good deal you got on this swimsuit, and she was excited too!)

Kees loves emptying the pool just as much as filing it.

Kora got dirt in her hair. 

My bread did not explode or overflow, YES!

After we finished playing in the pool, Kees was ready to come inside, but I didn't want to come in because I had 15 minutes left until I needed to hang laundry out.  It was also lunch time, so we went for a walk up our tall tree road, and had Ka Moo for lunch at a little stand nearby.  They had a little boy there, who was quite interested in Kees and Kora.  Kora almost fell and cracked her skull, but I caught her just in the nick of time. I had put her on top of two stacked chairs to eat, and she decided to get down...rather suddenly I might add.  When she tried to get down the chairs tipped over, I splashed ice water all over my face, but managed to grab her.  She has no inkling of fear when it comes to falling.  Later, on the way home, she kept standing up in the stroller while it was moving!  Kees never tried stuff like that. Some days I really wish his fear and her lack of fear would mix together and even out, but I guess that's why they make a good pair.  Sure do love them both!

Leaving for our adventure!

This boy was so cute!

When we get to Thai places to eat, a sure fire way to entertain those Tomlinson babies is to give them a piece of ice. Perfect, and if it melts all over them...good, it'll cool them off and trust me, it'll dry in no time.

Sweet boy!

She loves to eat! Kees loves riding in the stroller, I know he's 4, and everyone's probably thinking what a terrible mother I am for putting him in the stroller and not making him walk, but he calms Kora down and trust me, he exercises at home in the SHADE.

What's in there? (Doug's family, remember when little Alex asked me that question...)

She was about to take off and try to run out into the street, we left VERY soon after cause I did not feel like chasing her around.

We stopped at a shop on the way home and then I posed my kids next to one of the tall trees on the main road that leads into our neighborhood.  I love these trees, so stinkin' much. We've lived in our same area for 2 1/2 years now, Kees was only a little bit bigger than Kora is now when we moved to Thailand and most of his life has been spent here.  When we came back to Thailand, after having Kora, I almost cried when I saw these trees again. They are familiar to me, they are home.  They are beautiful in their own right, but my little bits in front of one of them puts them over the top.

This shop has tons of stuff. I try to walk around all the stores we shop at because you never know what they might have and if we run out of something this place is really close. Today, we found this waffle for 5 baht (that's like 15 cents!), who needs Eggo??? They also have sugar, all kinds of Thai seasonings for cooking, laundry detergent, eggs, medicines, finger nail polish remover, and batteries.

My home away from home, my favorite trees anywhere!

On our way home, we stopped by a little coffee shop that I have dubbed "Fat Falong Coffee".  If you've read all my blogs, you'll likely remember that "falong" or "farong" depending on who you ask, is what Thai people call white foreigners, not just from America, but from Europe as well. Anyway, one time, we stopped by this coffee shop and the owners mother was there, she usually is, and she felt it necessary to exclaim, about 5 times to ensure I understood her, how fat I am.  She kept looking right in my eyes and repeating herself, I told her in Thai that I understood, but it was like she just couldn't believe how fat I am and HAD to make sure I knew what she was saying.  Needless to say, it's been a while since I've been brave enough to go back.  I should also mention, in Thai culture, discussing weight is normal and expected. It's in no way rude or offensive, they often ask about your weight and age very soon after meeting you, and if you have recently bought anything, they want to know the price so they can either celebrate the good deal you got or scold you for paying too much.  Kind of hard to get used to, that stuff just doesn't fly in the good old U.S. of A.

"Um, please sit down!"

Fat Falong Coffee shop

Kora gets doted on quite a bit.

You'll be pleased to know, that today, she kept telling me how beautiful I am and that Kora is beautiful like me.  Alright, Grandma, you redeemed yourself, guess I'll come back more often now. :)

We came home and now the babies are napping and I am typing away.  I've been text-harassing Doug today as well, but so far, not sure what time to expect him tonight.  I'll be so glad to have him home.  We work much better when we are all together.  Thankful I get to share my life with such a great partner and that he puts up with my spazzy insanity, can I claim I have just been preparing him for how to deal with our youngest?  Cause, even if you say "no", I'm doing it anyway!  Forgot to mention I may have eaten all the "Mikes" while my kids are sleeping.  If you think that's wrong, I don't want to be right.  They got plenty the other day. ;)

Lovely lady

Kora fell asleep first and Kees played quietly for over an hour. He put himself in this laundry basket.

Kees slept about 30 minutes, then started squirming, I escorted him to the bathroom. When he came back to lay down, he was just too tired to get any further than this.

Okay, if you have 15 minutes, this video accompanied my reading last night, and it's good stuff.  The part about his daughters made me cry.  So funny how much I have learned about God through parenting. (Here is the clip.)