To Phuket We Go

Sara and I, along with our entire office, are heading on a team retreat. Sara and I are actually headed to Bangkok first to have our own little vacation together, and then will join everyone else Saturday morning. Pictures will come soon after we get back. Sun, pool, and ocean here we come!

Things In Chiang Mai That Make Me Laugh

So yesterday I was driving home from the office, and a Thai person did something that, yet again, made me laugh. Immediately after you turn onto the highway from the street to our office, there is a u-turn. I take this u-turn everyday to get to the street that leads to our house. Yesterday was no different. However, as I was about to take the u-turn, I noticed that at the beginning of it the car in front of me was being forced to back up. In front of him was a Thai guy driving a truck, and he decided about halfway down the u-turn ramp that he really didn't want to take that u-turn. So, what does he do? Instead of taking the u-turn and then taking the next one that is about half a mile down, he just decides he's going to start backing up. Yes, that is correct, he begins to back up on the u-turn ramp, gets to where the ramp starts, and then slowly merges right into oncoming traffic to get back on the highway. Oh, and what makes it even better, he nearly kills this poor kid on a motorbike. Amazing Thailand, what can I say!

On a happier thought, we had our two Tibetan wool rugs from Nepal cleaned this week. Cost a whole whopping $18, including pick up and delivery.

Beef, that's what's for dinner!

Good friends of ours called us one night to find out the best place in town to have steak. Jacob prefaced his answer with, "Well, besides at our house..." Come to find out, their eldest son who was about to have his birthday had requested to go out for steak. After they tried steaks at a couple places in town, Stephen's new request was to have steak at Uncle Jacob's house and for Aunt Sara to make her homemade rolls. So, last Saturday we were honored to celebrate Stephen's birthday at our house. I was a little nervous because I know Jacob grills good steaks but they had never had them at our house before. However, the steaks were a huge hit! We had a lot of fun and it was really special to get to join them in celebrating Stephen's birthday.

Open House

When Thai people buy a new house or move, they normally have some type of open house. Like in most cultures, when anything like this is thrown it normally ends up being a big deal. One of the ladies in our office, Jiab, helps both Jacob and I out a lot. She is the one that goes to the printer with me and helps me get projects printed. She also helps Jacob and me with keeping our visas and work permit up to date. One time she even talked to a repairman that was at the house for me over the phone and then came over to look at the problem so she could better help me. Another time, Socks and I were having personal problems with our neighbor (he was throwing rocks at the house) and Jiab came with Jacob to talk to him and the lady across the street who is in charge of our neighborhood (like the head of a home owners association). Jiab's mom was Jacob's house helper when he was a journeyman and is now our house helper. Jiab bought a new house and a couple weeks ago had the WHOLE office over for lunch. It was a lot of fun. However, I was still having issues with certain foods. When I saw people with iced tea, it looked so good. I was aware that it probably would have lemon in it but didn't realize quite how strong it would be. Also, note I wasn't in line with Jacob because he had gone to meet someone on the street because it was hard to find the house. So, I get my tea and then I'm careful with what I put on my plate. I sit down and take a big swig of tea and oh my goodness!! Jacob sits down and I was like I need you to share your water. He was like yeah I didn't get tea for a reason, but suddenly he had my tea. We ended up both drinking Jacob's water! Then since Jiab's mom is our helper, she felt it her duty to make sure we tried everything. So I purposely skipped the soup because it looked like the base was coconut milk. Well, then she comes and brings Jacob and me some. Let's just say Jacob had 2 bowls of soup. Cultural experiences aren't for 1st trimester squeamish tummies!!

Sara's Parents' Visit to Thailand

At the end of February, my parents came to Chiang Mai to visit us! A couple days before they arrived, our electricity started "acting" up on us. We are so blessed to live next to our land lady and the first evening it went out she had somebody over right away to fix it. The next evening (the night before my parents arrived), we were out late and when we got home all of the lights were out but Jacob was able to get it working again after watching the electrician the night before. While I was taking a shower, the electricity went out again and I just assumed Jacob would be able to get it back on right away. Five minutes later, I realized that wasn't going to be the case! Right as it went out, our land lady turned her lights out for the evening. So, we spent the evening without electricity! The next day we found out what was wrong and they installed a new electrical box later that week!!

My parents arrived pretty tired but by the end of the week was able to stay awake until 10pm!! They brought us lots of goodies and it felt like Christmas!! The Senior Adult Sunday School class at our home church, sent a lot of goodies that we were really excited about. Jacob was super excited about the Reeses Pieces and Peanut M&Ms.

We tried to show them some of the sites around the city and went to an elephant camp, the Night Bazaar, a Buddhist Temple overlooking the city and the day market. We even spent a couple days in Bangkok and got to tour the hospital there where we will have the baby. We had a GREAT time and were sad to see them go. You can see more pictures in our album.

A New Addition

On December 31st, we found out that we are going to have a baby!! While we were in Hong Kong, I was feeling a little different and we wondering if I was pregnant. The afternoon we left, we had a wonderful buffet lunch at a nice hotel. The dessert bar even had white, milk and dark chocolate fountains. When I went to get dessert, chocolate sounded nothing but appetizing and that seemed a little weird!! Even after that, I couldn't handle the idea of chocolate!!

Christmas in Hong Kong

We had a wonderful Christmas with our friends in Hong Kong. The weather had warmed up a bit in Hong Kong, so it was similar weather as in Chiang Mai except that the evenings were a bit cooler. We enjoyed yummy sweet rolls for breakfast Christmas morning and Jacob even helped make them!
We had lots of fun watching little Jason, who's 1, check out the presents before it was time to open them and then when it was time open his presents.

We also did lots and lots of walking. We got to go to several of the different markets, saw the Christmas lights on the buildings along the harbor and got to look down upon the city from the peak. We had a great time and glad we got to spend Christmas with our friends in Hong Kong! Look at more of our Christmas pictures in our album.

We're Back!!

For those of you wondering, we are alive and doing well!! We have just been very busy and tired, but are trying to get caught up. I enjoyed doing the website, but I have some new things I would like to try out with my time and creativity. So here we are trying a new way of keeping in touch and both Jacob and I can keep you updated this way!!