Busy

We just tried calling my brother Jason with the kids to play a joke on him. We got a busy signal. Just for kicks I asked the kids what that noise was. They didn't know. 

Ben guessed it meant the operator sound. 

Ashlyn says, "Dat's the one dat someone's tired. When they wake up they can talk to Maddie."

Crazy that they have never heard a busy signal.

Coming Home from Scout Camp

Ben had his first Boy Scout campout last weekend. He had a great time and received the "Most Prepared Considering Experience Level" award. Because of security concerns they actually camped inside our compound. Because I'm on the scout committee I dropped in once a day to see how things were going but they seemed to have everything covered so I stayed home most the time and gave him his space to be a boy.

 

On Saturday around lunch time it was time to go pick him and his gear up. Because we can't drive here, we obviously don't have cars. My options to get his stuff home were:

a)      lug it across the compound (it's pretty far)

b)      dial zero and call the golf cart from the office to come get us

c)       be an engineer and come up with a way to manage my own problem with class

 

I chose "c". I used our electric scooter for myself then tied a rope on the kids wagon and hooked it on my shoulder. I think it was genius!

 

Fingers crossed we can try desert camping some day.

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Christmas Time Arrives

The tree is trimmed and the kids are all smiles tonight.

Flooding Funny

Heavy rains caused the house to flood tonight because the balconies couldn't drain water fast enough. 

This discovery made us laugh out loud. It's the Hooked on Phonics reading system. The story right on top of the wet box when I opened it to dry it out? "Rag Gets Wet." Ironic, don't you think?

Good Day

From Jacob at dinner:

"Mom I had a mostly good day. Only one not good part."

"That's great news. What was the bad part?"

"It was when Owen got really, really close and breathed in my face."

"Was he upset with you?"

"No. It's just that it was stinky. And you know...nobody actually likes stinky."

Funding Request

How do you ask your husband to stop at the ATM? Sometimes I say, "Hey, can you get me some cash today?" Other days I have a 20 minute drive to the school and 20 minutes back and a phone with email access in your hand. That's when you feel like livening up your compound living life and ask for cash like this:

Subject: Funding Request

Dear Sir,
I am writing to let you know about the balance issues I am currently experiencing in my wallet. I have therefore given it much thought and believe my only appropriate course of action is to solicit a donation from your personal account. As you consider my humble request and how it will impact your year end accounting please be aware that in addition to the daily expenses we incur on an on going basis my corporation will be taking all of our short staff to a charitable function wherein there will be multiple opportunities to unload any excess funds you may have accrued during this fiscal year.

Thank you kindly for your time and consideration in this matter. We look forward to facilitating the reduction of excesses this coming Saturday as you feel is appropriate.

Best Regards,
Your Wife

First Chill of the Season

Thursday night I was up until 3:45 am working to be ready for the next day and our year end program. The wind blew fiercely all night long and I could hear the trees hitting the house and the waves in the ocean all the way in the closed living room! On Friday morning I woke up to Ben slamming the door downstairs after he had run back and forth to the beach and he exclaimed how COLD it was out there. When we got home that afternoon I decided I wanted to share one of my favorite things with the kids - the warmth of a penetrating sun in brisk, cold weather. I had to explain it to them what I wanted them to feel. It was a tad hilarious that they didn't know already, but where would they have ever learned it through life experience in Singapore? It never got cold in three and a half years. 

I proclaimed that the winter clothes could officially be brought down from the upper shelves and they could actually wear them. The announcement brought loud cheers, particularly from Madison, and the fastest pitter patter of feet I've ever heard as everyone ran upstairs to get something warm on. I got mats and blankets and we took the kids outside on one of the upper balconies and I proclaimed it to be a reading afternoon. Everyone brought books and jackets and I brought some candy corn and M&Ms. We had a glorious time and Brian ended up reading a Magic Tree House book to them amidst interruptions, mostly from

Ashlyn.

Yesterday was even more chilly. We are enjoying it and wearing long pants for the first time in years!

Skin Tone Queries of the Night

From Jacob tonight:

"Do you think that there are any people that drive construction trucks that have white skin like us?"

Madison explaining how people ended up with darker skin than our family in response to Jacob's question above:

"One person worked outside and got tan. Then she had a baby. That baby got big and got more tan in the sun then they had a baby and it was even darker. Then that baby got tan and grew up and got a baby. That's how people got so dark."