The balloon bandit

Day 123 (Thursday):

The second and final thing on my non-creative Thailand bucket list was to visit the new mall, the Promenada.  It's grand opening was at the beginning of the month, and 3 weeks later, I'd say there's still 1/2 to 3/4 of the place yet to be finished. But the parts that were open were really nice. They have an import store here, called Rimping, and there's one inside the new mall. It was very well done, pretty upscale...which makes me feel weird to be in there. We also went to see a movie in the new theater. We paid for a ride to the mall with a van that sits outside where we've been staying. He said we could just get a taxi to bring us back. After walking around the outside of the mall we finally found a taxi and they wanted to charge almost double what we'd paid to get there, so we decided to call our original driver back and wait. Well, we waited 30 minutes, and he never came, so my American pride was bruised a little when we had to go back and pay the taxi guy anyway.  All that waiting made us late for dinner at the retreat place too.  Just by 10 minutes, so I guess it'll slide.  After all that, I was worn out, and spent the evening chatting with family, then went to bed fairly early.

Leaving to go to the mall, I quickly regretted these wafey pieces of hair. Not sure what made me think it was a good idea in the first place.  No worries, I fixed them about 7 seconds after I took this picture.

Kees and Daddy racing to the van.

Doug is in the background arranging our ride. Kees is running back to us, so we can chase him.

So ready for this phase to be over, so I can strap this kid in a carseat again.

The new mall, the kids loved those giant balloons.

Kees covering his ears because....

They were popping these balloons one by one and he hates that sound.

Doug thought these wires hanging everywhere were pretty funny.

The mall has two buildings and they are adjoined by these bridges.  The kids loved riding over the construction crew.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the mall was to buy Kora new shoes, none of the stores that would sell her size shoes was open yet, except the Crocs store and those were nearly $60. I refuse to pay that kind of money for shoes, especially knowing she will likely outgrow them in a matter of months.  So we came home shoeless.

As many pictures as I do take, there are quite a few times I'm so busy wrangling or chasing Kora that I miss stuff, like the way she got this balloon. The optical place at the mall had them hanging outside their store, Kora ran over and ripped one off the wall, then cried, when I taped it back up and told her she couldn't have it.  The next time we walked by, one of the employees gave it to her.  She knows how to work people, look at that face.

Kees entered the mall with shoes. He kicked them off twice and I told him if he did it again he wouldn't be able to wear them.  Hear me out, some kids would love that, but Kees does not want to have to walk without shoes on. So, we carried him into the taxi (his shoes were in my purse in the trunk), then when he asked for them on the ride home I reminded him why he got them taken away. When we got back to the retreat center he asked very nicely if he could have them back and I gave them back. Hoping he'll remember this next time and not kick his shoes off. :)

Took this one while we waited on the van that never came.

Day 124 (Friday):
Today, the only thing we had scheduled was to pack and swim with some of our friends so we could say good-bye.

Sleepin babies.

 I spent most of the morning, packing, weighing, unpacking, repacking, and weighing our stuff. Most of our stuff is set to go, but the stuff left in the room we are staying in, we are trying to fit into one large suitcase, one rolling carry on, and a back pack.  (Oh, and when Doug was getting the scale out of the truck he found Kora's other shoe, glad we didn't buy any yesterday!)

There are two tiny Tomlinsons hiding under that blanket...giggling.

Watermelon at lunch! We love watermelon, and I feel the need to say the coke was not Kees's, but next week I know Mamaw will be giving him a 44 ouncer if we don't watch her.

Kora went into the kitchen to talk to the ladies that work here.  She also investigated a few things.

Giant wok filled with delicious Pad Thai.

It was nice that our friends came today because I was able to give them some of the stuff we won't be able to take back with us.  I keep reminding myself, we're almost there!  Just keep doing what you can when you can. Doug ended up being able to go run some errands this evening, getting money exchanged and transferred, delivering a few more things, etc.  So that'll make less work for tomorrow.  Okay, there's more pictures, I figured I better throw these in before ending this thing...so here they are:

Poolside nap.

Walking around the pool.

Eating our ice cream on the front porch.

Tell you don't want to hug her and I'll call you a liar.

Pudgy hands with drippy chocolate, these are the moments.

She knows how to turn it on, she says, "eeeze"

She loves feeding people.

Cuties.

That puddle keeps growing..

She loves her bubba.

She got the full treatment after that sticky mess, Kees had me keep her in the sink longer so he could prepare the spaceships.

Those are spaceships in those trees. It's Kees's job to land them, and then Kora's job to destroy them. He made this game up on his own and found a way to include Kora. Giving her the job to destroy is always a good idea.

She's satisfied with her work.

Kora destroying dessert.

Kees was so tired at dinner, he kept trying to eat the noodles, he was just really slow and kept his eyes closed.

Silly sleepy boy

Yep, he's making his point.

I'm thankful we are staying at the retreat center because they provide all 3 meals and have been doing our laundry...even ironing every. single. item.  I've been able to focus on packing, processing, praying, and reading.  I thought this week would drag on forever. Hard to believe, this time tomorrow we'll be sitting outside our gate, ready to board a plane to leave.  This was a mutual dream for many, many years.  We never thought it would end after only 2 1/2 years, but we know that stepping out in faith and trusting God is never wrong. I've come to terms with us leaving, but I don't think it will make it "easy". There's still a lot of emotion involved with saying good-bye and a time of transition, seeking God's direction for our next steps.  There have already been so many encouraging things and confirmations.  Each time I struggle or doubt, right around the corner, God lifts me up. He has provided just what we've needed when we've needed it and I know he's not about to stop. He's just getting started! Feeling excited and hopeful.  Ready to hug so many of you that have been with us every step of the way!