A jiggly jing jok tail!

Day 97 (Saturday):

We've had an excellent and relaxing weekend!  After all the ant wars and being sick this week, it was so nice to enjoy the weekend!  I made a new recipe that I saw on Facebook, I think someone pinned it on pinterest. Anyway,  you take slices of white bread, roll them flat with a rolling pin, fill them with cream cheese/powdered sugar filling, then dip them in butter and cinnamon/sugar.  Bake for 20 minutes. These were so easy, and even better than anticipated.  I halved the recipe, and wished I'd doubled it, but at least I can console myself with the fact that if I'd made that many, I would have eaten that many and I'd be as big as a barn.  Kees called them "cinnamon buns" and he's already asking for more.  Next Sunday is the baking class day, so we're going to make these!

This was a great treat for little helping hands!  Kees spread the cream cheese, I rolled them up, then he dipped them in the butter, then sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Hot out of the oven. You must make these, you will not be disappointed.

Pi Tone and Pa Eiw came to visit while Doug was outside with the kids washing the truck.  I was in the house and no one even told me they stopped by.  Then I saw they had posted this picture on Facebook, sad I missed them!

In the evening Kees and I got a wild hair and decided to make a run to Tesco (a small convenient store).  Before we left we were gathering up our stuff, going to the bathroom and what not, when I saw a jing jok (lizard) in the door jam as Kees was closing the door.  I did my best to not overreact, but guess what happened?  That lizard's tail got stuck and AFTER it detached from it's body it was wiggling around, and then the tail-less lizard ran under the door into the bedroom. NOT. COOL.

I asked Kees to take a picture of the lizard (before it ran under the door, obviously), and he didn't want to, so he took this picture.

Apparently these cotton balls are non-threatening.

At Tesco, I bough ice, realized they hadn't given it to me, and walked right back to ask for it back.  I'm really proud of myself because I don't like doing that sort of thing in English in my home country.  But it came naturally and I'm thankful that Doug is often encouraging me to do stuff like this. Not that he was with me, but when he does that, he usually tells, "You can do it!  It'll be good practice." And while I mostly don't appreciate that, especially when he puts me on the spot in front of people, I appreciate his thought behind it and his faith me.  I often get down on myself and wish I could speak Thai better, but when stuff like this happens and I think where I was a year ago, I can't help but smile at how far God has brought me! :)

On our way home from shopping, I was being sweet to Kees, telling him how happy I am that he's my boy and that I love him SO much.  He replied by saying, "Yeah, I love you too, but could you be quiet, I'm trying to look out the window at all the stuff."


Day 98 (Sunday):

Does anyone remember how rough my Sunday was last week?  Well, this week was SO much better!  Still hot, even though it's rainy season and it's cooled down quite a bit.  I'm still a fat foreign sweaty pig every single week at church. I sit in the back with the kids where there are no fans.  I should really get an old school fan and just fan myself!  The kids were pretty good, Kora tests the limits every week and we have to keep re-establishing them. She spends a good chunk of time edging closer and closer to the door and looking at me to see if I'm watching. 

There were a lot of people at church today, and some new visitors.

Kees made a stool out of this tiny container.

Then he used this comb as a knife.  He's pretty resourceful.

He's getting so big, and he needs a hair cut.

Kora looking in the mirror.

Playing with a jump rope.

Look how close her hand is to the concrete.

Wish we had some books! Don't worry, he always shares.  I lose the mothering contest, my poor kids have to play with combs and tiny buckets, while other kids have trains and books and snacks.  I did bring Kees's connecty blocks, but I didn't have a snack for Kora and wished I did.

One of Luke's books we borrowed.

Kora resting.  It's hard work getting told "NO" 20 times for trying to run up to the stage.

Today was a special day. Our pastor kept saying how fun it was because we had Laap.  When Doug's pastor friends eat this at their Tuesday morning meeting they get so geeked out and giddy about it.  Guess what it is?  It's stomach bile, blood, liver, other various intestines, plus pepper and spices.  It's often served raw, the stomach bile allegedly kills the bacteria.  Let me start by saying, it really doesn't taste gross at all, but the color is strange and I know what is.  Therefore, I can't get passed it, and I just skip this portion of the meal. Doug eats it, but that's not saying much. Doug is a trooper and eats all kinds of oddities I wouldn't touch. Today's laap was cooked, but I still just tasted it.  There was another soup, and rice of course.  They also made some scrambled pork meat, that tasted like hamburger helper for the kids and I ate some of theirs.

Making laap. We brought pencils back from Phuket and we were handing them out while they were making lunch.  I was glad I got this picture! :)

Doug should really get paid by Apple. He's always telling people about apps we use and how great the iphone has been for studying.  We have an awesome Thai app that we use ALL THE TIME.  (I also use the converter app a lot to convert measurements and money)

Thai version of the kids table. They had a view of the TV too!

Cooked laap.

The soup I ate.

Doug brought me and the kids home and then went back for the bible study they are doing.  The kids and I took a nice Sunday afternoon nap, but I had a slight headache that rapidly turned into a full blown sinus pressure face hurting mega headache.  I have some pseudophedrine that Grandma Sheryl brought last time she visited.  I hoard that stuff.  It works wonders for my headaches, but sometimes I know I need it, but skip taking it because I like to save it for when I have other things I need to do or if I know we are going to be going somewhere.  I was planning to go shopping when Doug got back from his study, so I took some, and it worked! Yay! 

Doug at the study.

I did all my beginning of the month shopping. Stocking up on a bunch of stuff.  I went to two stores.  By the time I was checking out at the second store I was weirdly jittery and felt all ramped up.  Not sure if my blood sugar was low and I needed to eat or if the medicine was affecting me.  I also felt sick to my stomach, but just because I spend so much at the beginning of the month and I hate spending money.  I was thinking, I guess I could have waited a couple of days before I went to the second store, so it wouldn't feel like so much all at once, but in the end it would have been the same amount of money I just saved on gas and getting out in the heat.

Over $30 for pecans!  And a special thank you to my Daddy for sending me some.

Tomorrow will be major cleaning day!  Saturday our wardrobe finally got fixed, so I need to move all our clothes back into it. And I've been wanting to purge to get ready for a garage sale we're participating in near the end of July.  I also still need to divide my cheese into little baggies, but I didn't get home from shopping until 8:30 and after unloading everything and finally getting dinner, I just didn't feel up to it.  It'll wait. :)

Happy Sunday everybody!

The Plague of Rain Bugs

Day 96:

Now it's Friday!  So thankful.  The ants have rallied and my mental stability is waning.  Doug is a champion. He regrouped and came up with yet another "ant plan", love that man!  Looks like it's working, come drink this nectar and die ants, DIE!

Ant killin juice!  Bring your friends to the party, and DIE.

I didn't take a lot of pictures today, it's Friday and it feels like weekend.  I did study Thai, but man was I tired this morning.  I'm very thankful for my teacher, she makes studying fun and even gave me some "fun" homework for the weekend.

We went out tonight and had food with some friends. On our way home we saw some of the "rain bugs", these weird bugs come towards lights during rainy season in SWARMS and they all die.  It's weird and it's upsetting to Kees. He is terrified of them.

Waiting for Doug to pick us up with food to take to our friend's place.

I'm so curious about what is in that cage/box.

Rain Bugs

When we got home Kees played with his trains, and I was like: "Whoops, I haven't taken any pictures today!"

I decided today that I finally figured out that Kora is just like "Animal" from the muppets. Here's the comparison.  Enjoy!

Koranimal

jkjhj

The joy of whipped topping!

Day 95:

(Thursday)

My day started with spilled juice and ended with a pot holder on fire.  In between, we did a lot of home school and a lot of Thai study.  Starting to wonder about the merits of blogging because my life is boring. And when it isn't boring, it's because I'm doing or have done something stupid.

Kora had mangosteen for breakfast. Then she ran around the place because she is quite a cheery ray of sunshine in the morning. That was only intended with the slightest air of sarcasm from this NON morning person.  Kees woke up, not a morning person, and wanted juice and a muffin.  But I wanted him to eat something with his muffin and that caused quite the uproar.  I snuck peanut butter into some oatmeal, but he wasn't fooled.  He ate a little of it, but not much. At least I tried, right?

Mangosteen

Playing and running around the place

The juice I spilled

Kees inspecting the oatmeal, this is before he realized I had defiled it with peanut butter.

I finished off consonants today with Kruu Jeab and started reviewing vowels to do with her tomorrow.  The vowels overwhelm me a little, but it's much more manageable if you just take it in small chunks.  I also alternated studying vowels and trying to memorize what class each of the consonants goes in: high, mid, or low.

When I was trying to study in the morning, Kees got upset that I wasn't reading books with him, and decided to dump everything out.  It was a stand off of epic proportions when it was time to clean up.  It reminded me of the bean incident two years ago, but I guess if we only do this every couple of years, I shouldn't complain too much. The hardest part for me is NOT helping him clean up.  I like to tidy up and organize things and it's quite agonizing that he is taking so long and fighting every step of the way. But I warned him before he dumped everything out that it wouldn't be much fun to clean all that mess up and I had to "stick to my guns" so to speak or I don't think he would have learned those natural consequences.  Now I'm just hoping that next time he thinks about doing this, he'll remember how crummy it was trying to clean up.  I was so proud that he did it, it was a lot of hard work, and there were tears, but he did it, all by himself!

The mess, about halfway through the clean up process.

Almost done!

 We finally went to lunch, at this point I was ravenous, cranky, and ready to cry.  Bonus mommy points, I held it together.  Lunch was so good, and getting that food in my body changed my outlook on life.  Kees and I were twice as productive in the afternoon and I was so proud of both of us.  I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of us doing our letter work.  We have letter tiles and letter books. The Young family gave us these really cool books, they are small, and there is one for each letter of the alphabet.  I put down the letter tiles and Kees found the matching book that corresponded with each letter. Then we read the letter books.

These noodles saved my life and sanity!  Also, try not to look at my face, I'm making some type of weird expression.

Kees at a lot of meat on a stick.

We mailed some candy to a church to pass out for their VBS. There's a mobile post office near the place we had lunch.

Once we got home, Kees played with trains, while I worked at the kitchen table.

Vowels

Writing

Usually when I "help" clean up, it's by holding the basket.  Kees is happy with this arrangement, and so am I.

Using tools, Kees was the boss and he told me what to build.

I was asked to make a river, so I did this.

I made a list of 5 goals for us for each day we spend in the school room.  I hung them up and Kees "studied" them, so he'd know what we are going to do everyday. 

Our goals: Calendar, Letters, Numbers, Puzzles, and Reading.

 We finally "took off" work around 6 pm and came home for dinner.  Doug wasn't hungry and he is dieting, so the kids and I ate our obligatory "real food" meal, so that we could have some chocolate chip pancakes with whipped topping.  Oh, to live in America and have whipped topping options readily available and affordable....  Earlier this week, I was craving chocolate...remember the muffins I made. Anyway, when I eat chocolate chip pancakes I feel they require whipped topping. But heavy whipping cream and the canned variety option are both $5, a tub of cool whip is $10.  So none of those were viable.  I brought back 4 envelopes of Dream Whip from America last year. I attempted to make that by hand with a whisk and room temperature milk about 6 months ago, and obviously that didn't work. Since then, I have been given a hand mixer and read online that you should use cold milk...that seems so obvious, not sure why I needed the internet to tell me that.  My other option was coconut milk. You are supposed to be able to refrigerate a can of coconut milk and let it separate, you pour off the liquid then sweeten the cream that remains and whip it up.  Coconut milk is easy to find and it provides a non-dairy option...Doug is sporadically lactose intolerant.  He can do ice cream, and stuff baked with dairy, but straight up milk...not so much.

So, the other day when I was craving whipped topping, Doug bought me a can of coconut milk and I also refrigerated two small boxes of milk. So after 2 days, I attempted the coconut milk, but mine didn't seperate, at all.  Plan B, the Dream Whip, and thank you LORD, it worked!  Both kids loved the whipped topping!

She mostly just ate the cream.

After this, she just stuck her face right in the bowl.

Kees was explaining something to me...can't remember what.

While I was talking to Kees, Kora got a hold of my plate and licked it too.

Then, she stood up and danced.

Forgot to mention that while I was making Kees's quesadilla, I caught a pot holder on fire.  I actually calmly moved it over to the sink, and looked around for my ipod to take a picture of it, but I had left it in the school room with Doug and the kids.  So sad, that would have been an awesome picture!

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Day 94:

Since I'm sick today, I felt I should at least share this goodness. Here is the link to the original Sweet Brown interview. This cheers me up.  Kora likes it too!

Last night as I was blogging, I was feeling sick. It got progressively worse AND fast. I ended up huddled in a ball on the couch all night.  Not sure what is wrong with me, but I hate being sick and really don't have time for this!

Doug had lunch with one of our co-workers, so I was obviously home with the kids.  It's a miracle I fed them.  I did not feel well at all. I just laid on the floor next to where they were eating and kept telling Kees to please hurry and eat so I could go back to bed.

After Doug got home, he took both the kids and I was finally able to get some rest.  When I woke up this evening I was actually hungry, so that was good.  You know I'm sick when I don't want to eat, that's when it has officially gotten serious.  I'm still not feeling great, but I feel much better than I did.

Since we are missing our cell group tonight, Doug is showing our kids some cool lego bible videos!  Here is a link to the Creation story if you're interested.

Legos and Bible stories!

Hope you all have a great day!