English Fun

Before our vacation, we had a few visitors from the States here helping out and teaching English to some of local friends here. I thought i would post some of the funny things they have taught our local friends

1. the use of "dog" to replace "friend"---necessary clarifications...you cannot use any animal to replace "friend". One man came up to Vip and said "what's up my cat?" (of course, you have to imagine this in a broken english accent).

2. fun rhymes to insult and later complement your mother---for example.."U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, yeah, yeah, you ugly. C-U-T-E, don't you wish you looked like me, I'm cute, yeah, yeah, I'm cute. M-O-MM-A, that is how I got this way, my momma, yeah, yeah, my momma". of course, you have to say this in rhythm, which always seems to be a challenge for the locals, but they got it down eventually. now, i'm not sure how beneficial this particular rhyme was to teach our local friends, but they definitely had fun learning it and we got a few good laughs!

3. how to roast marshmellows complete with a demonstration using a lighter, and a marshmellow stuck on a chopstick.

4. the difference between being "pasty" and "fair", which they really didn't understand since they think the whiter the better

5. the art of "good gaming" your friends during sports--this one kind of backfired on them though when they also saw this as an opportunity to comment on the condition and toning of the "good gaming" area. they later explained though that you cannot say anything except for "good game" when they "good game" someone.

and, here's some pics from their time here...

at the english school where they taught the students.
they were invited to a party with the english students and teachers and had fun teaching them some new games and trying out some of the tasty local food.

our hosts for the evening....one of the fun cultural things about this evening was that our hosts were in their pjs!! they said that it was too hot in their house to wear regular clothes, and they were right!! we were all dying from the super efficient heating system they had in all of of our winter layers!! so, next time you throw a party and don't feel like getting dressed up, just tell your guests you are doing things the asian way and trying to expand their cultural horizons!!

Highlights from our Unplanned Trip

Before we up and take off again (yeah, we know that we seem to be on the go a lot, but i guess that's just the way it is sometimes), i figured i would post some pictures of our unexpected and unplanned trip to Hong Kong. We obviously didn't get out too much since we were there for medical reasons and I (Carrie) was supposed to take it easy, but we did get out a little, or Vip got out while he went and fetched me wonderful delicacies like Starbucks (decaf, of course, plus a great source of calcium for the baby!) and California Pizza Kitchen. isn't he a great husband??

here's our favorite double decker buses!! gotta love the british influence here!

towards the end of our time there, we got out a few times together so I could walk a little and not go completely stir crazy or have too much back pain from sitting all day. So, here me and the bump are at the bus stop waiting to go to the mall (which was complete with a toys r' us, movie theatre, and many other wonderful treats!)

and, we figured that since we were there, and we had to eat, we would get a few dates out of this little trip as well. so, here we are at a very romantic Italian Restaurant, Amaroni's. We even got to eat at a Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill, which is where we had our second date!! how fun to be there after being married for 4 1/2 years and expecting a baby!!
and, one of the most exciting things was to get a hair cut where i could speak in English to the stylist, and got exactly what i asked for. we had been told that the YMCA had a salon that a lot of foreigners went to and liked, so i decided to try it out for that day's exercise outing. we got there and there was one older man in there cutting another older man's balding hair. i was a little concerned that he might not be used to cutting women's hair, but i figured that it couldn't be any worse than the haircuts i get where we live and went for it. the first great thing, was that he spoke English. the second great thing, is that he cut the bottom layer in one even length!! (here, they always cut the sides of my hair shorter than the back of my hair) and, the third great thing was that he didn't even try to use thinning shears on my hair, which they believe is the only way to cut layers here (which does not work very well on curly hair like mine!). anyways, it was just great!!

So, that is our trip in a nutshell. One hospital stay (which we never got around to capturing on film...wonder why?), one week of rest, a few outings toward the end of it, which we tried to make the most of (when life hands you lemons...make lemonade!), and one more doctor's visit to get cleared to head home (another thing we didn't catch on film...sorry, but it was rather boring). overall, we were blessed with a good week and a half of rest, some good time with each other, and a really amazing assurance that the Father was with us the entire time and working things out to protect us and our little one. Thanks again to everyone who was remembering us during that time. I seriously think that we would have lost our sanity without all of you thinking of us during that time. We clung to the promise found in the Word when He says "the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." (jn 10:10) the enemy is always trying to destroy things, whether it be something big and serious like this baby we are expecting, or something small like our joy, but the Father is the maker of life and has come to give all that entails to us. So, we chose to believe that the Father would continue creating this life inside me, and He did. We are so blessed to serve the Maker and Giver of all Life.

Christmas time!!

Well, i guess it's about time to post our Christmas pics. so, here they are!

We began the season's festivities with having our teachers over. Here's Carrie with her's and Vip with his in front of our Christmas tree.

And what Christmas season is complete without silly pictures in Santa hats? Unfortunately, Vip's ended up fitting a little bit more like a stocking cap than a santa hat. i guess they don't make them here big enough for our big western heads (which is not a comment on Vip having a big head for those of you out there ready to pounce on that chance to tease him!!)
and, then there were the Christmas parties with fun, if not a little strange, party games. this one was basically chicken except not in the water. the girls had to grab a piece of paper attached to the other girl's back in order to win. it was very lively to say the least!

On Christmas Eve we took a bus to another city where our friends live and celebrated with them. This is us at a local restaurant there on Christmas Eve. We got our own private room to celebrate and even had candles and birthday hats for our dessert time so we could sing "Happy Birthday" to JC.

And, here's the Christmas day feast complete with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, homemade croissants, and steaks grilled by our hubbies.
here's the guys out on the balcony grilling our steaks.
And, here the three of us are!! We personally think that the growing baby bump is the best Christmas gift ever!!

We definitely wish we could have been with our families during this time, but the Father still blessed us with an enjoyable holiday. He is continuing to teach us how to be "at home" no matter where we happen to find ourselves.

back home!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are back safe and sound. We've been without internet for several days, though, so I'm, once again, behind! I'll try and catch up quick and post some more pics and updates about life right now. thanks again for all those that remembered us during the craziness of the last few weeks!

Okay, i know that i am backtracking, but I figured I should go ahead and post some pics of our holiday adventures, especially while I have time and am just sitting around with not much to do (see the post below for more on that). For Thanksgiving, we packed our bags and headed to the big city near our's. We traveled in on the day of Thanksgiving and then met that night for dinner at the Holiday Inn with several other foreigners, where we actually got to eat turkey! yep, this was our first taste of that wonderful bird in 2 years!! Then, on Friday, we got together at a friend's house for a good old fashion Thanksgiving get together. We pulled all our resources together and had homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, roast chicken, green bean casserole, pumpkin cake, and lots of other goodies. I think the ingredients spanned the globe from America (several states between all of us), several different citieis within the country we live in, and maybe even a few things from Thailand and Hong Kong. It was great to be with our "family" over here when we couldn't be with our family in the States. After we stuffed ourselves, the guys played a marathon round of Canasta (sp??), and the girls just plopped on the couch with some hot tea and enjoyed spending some time speaking in English.

no holiday is complete without little kids trying to play with the grown ups. Do you like your monkey ears Uncle Vip??

Carrie taking a rest in the kitchen while she makes chocolate chip cookies to take on our journey. Like My little oven on the right?

When we got to the Holiday Inn, they had these little pecan pies in the dessert section, which we immediately grabbed up. unfortunately, there weren't enough to go around our big group. so, we asked them if they could bring more out, and they ended up making us our very own big pie!!

Well, what do you expect? We were very excited to arrive at the Starbucks on Thanksgiving day and find that the stores over here were finally selling a few of the holiday flavors! No pumpkin spice lattes, unfortunately, but we did get to enjoy a gingerbread and a toffee nut latte! yum!!

me and Vip after our big dinner

An Unplanned Trip

Well, we recently had to take a little bit of an unplanned detour due to some complications with the baby. Before I go into the story though, you can rest easy. Carrie and the baby are doing fine and getting some much needed rest. The short version is that they suspected a placental abruption while we were with the doctors in the big city near ours. So, we were sent to Hong Kong the next day, where they found and removed some polyps. So far, it looks like everything is okay, and we should be back home next week after resting up and some more doctors' appointments. Thank you so much to all of you who heard about this through the grapevine and have been remembering us!