Batik

Through our school we had the opportunity to go to a Batik store and actually participate in making some ourselves!  It was a great experience for the girls.

Thai New Year!

Songkran is the Thai new year celebration.  It is basically a HUGE countrywide water battle.  We were so excited for Faith and Hope to experience their first here in Krabi!  Our friend Ong picked us up in his truck, with 3 big containers of water.  We picked up some friends and off we went.  Sadly, it was very overcast and somewhat "cool" outside so the girls got chilled.  It didn't help when people splashed us with ICE water.  All in all it was a great time.  I don't think the girls ever enjoyed a warm shower so much though when they got home!

Pit stop to fill up on water

The girls finally gave up because they were too cold!!!

US Friends Come to Visit!

In February we had 3 friends from the US come to visit for 3 weeks!  Our dear friend, Adam, brought his daughter, Isabel--a very close friend of Faith and Hope, and another mutual friend, Elise.  They really got a good taste of our life here, starting from day one!

I was hoping that we would not see any snakes while they were here; our neighbor had JUST run over a 5ft long cobra in our street a couple nights before they came!

Well, sadly, they saw one the first full day they were here!  The girls were playing outside, running around in the yard and driveway, and ran into this . . .

. . . just part of our life here in Thailand; you see them EVERYWHERE!  

Here are some pics of their time with us here . . .

Painting by the river

Walking on the boardwalk/ picture taking at the Black Crab

Trip to the beach

This was on "Middle Island"--a community batik project started by World Vision after the tsunami

We took a trip to a neighboring province called Phang Nga, where we have been helping.  We did a service project there for "Grandma and Grandpa."  We helped them clean their house, as their many disabilites have made this regular task very difficult for them.  Grandma had a stroke several years ago and is unable to walk.  She is a precious soul!

Next, we visited a rubber tree farm.   Some new friends of ours work here daily and call it home.

This is a bear they killed in the forest.  This man was drying it out and planned to burn it later on to make some kind of medicine that you rub on your skin to cure various ailments.  We'll send you some!

The girls made valentines for all the families in the church

We also took a trip to visit friends in Satun, a province that borders Malaysia.  The girls were a great attraction at the night market!

No trip to Thailand is complete without an elephant ride!

Their visit went by way too fast.  We had a great time and made a lot of memories.  Saying "goodbye" is always the hardest part.

Faith's Birthday!

There was no way we were going to top Hope's birthday and we knew that friends from the States were coming to visit in February, so we would have lots of opportunity to go "thiaow" (out on fun adventures) then.  So, we did a low key neighborhood birthday party for Faith's 8th.  It turns out that two other children here had birthdays within 5 days of Faith so we did a joint party!  We arranged it that morning and let people know where and what time-- very Thai!  We bought a couple pizzas and there was fried chicken, kabobs and noodles with curry.  One very sweet friend bought an ice cream cake from Swensens (a very nice ice cream shop in town)!  The kids had a blast.  It was very special to have Buddhists, Muslims and Christians all celebrating together!

After singing "Happy Birthday", Faith passed out cake to all the guests, starting with the oldest.  As she went about, each adult spoke a blessing over her.  We are so thankful for all our dear neighbors that have been so kind and welcoming.

Nong Muk making fried chicken

Baa Laan eating pizza

Aa Rak making balloon animals

Three birthday children... Faith in the middle back, Blaa Daow to the left and Sammi on the right

Our Kitty

So, I'm not so good at this blogging thing.  I am 7 months behind!  I really wanted this to be more like a journal for our family; so, I am going to try to "catch up" here.  But, before I go on, I wanted to share the story of how we came to have a cat . . . .

Chris has not really been excited about having a pet, at least not until the girls get a little older and can share the responsibility of taking care of it.  BUT, a neighborhood cat decided to give birth to kittens in our roof!  Yes, in our roof, right over our kitchen.  So, everyday during random meals we would hear the kitty jump on our roof and the little kittens crying for milk.  For some reason, we heard the cries becoming less and less, until only one little meow was left.  Mommy kitty was not coming to our roof anymore.  We saw her jumping on our neighbors roof now.  Finally, the lone kitty cry in our roof stopped and it was replaced with a TERRIBLE stench in our kitchen for a week or two.  We had no access to the roof; so, the only option was to cut through the drywall to get the little kitty out (we were not really wanting to do that--not quite sure what else we would find up there) or wait it out.  We choose the latter.

Soon, we saw little kittens climbing on our neighbor's roof.  Mother kitty was taking them somewhere one by one.  These ingenious cats give birth on roofs to avoid the dogs in the neighborhood.  Sadly, we have seen/heard of at least two kittens being mauled by the street dogs in our subdivision.  Well, one little kitty was left up on the roof.  Each day it would come out of the roof and cry and cry; mommy was no where to be seen.  This was agonizing for the girls, who were watching the kitty from their window!!!  Chris was not moved and stood fast in his resolve NOT to have a pet.  (BTW, our neighbor's roof comes right to our back porch and is on a lower plane, such that we can easily see and, even, touch it!)

On Thanksgiving morning things came to a head.  I started to give the kitty some food on the roof, since mommy kitty abandoned this one, as well.  The kitty was very afraid of me and would only come to the food, if I left the scene.  We had a growing concern that it would fall off the roof and get mauled by the dogs down below.  Well, it got too close to the edge, slipped and was hanging by its claws on the wall that separates our house from our neighbors!!!  As the girls screamed in horror, Chris rushed to it's rescue so it would not plummet to it's death and it, somehow, ended up in one of the girls arms.  :)  That was the end of that or should I say the beginning?!  So, we named our new kitty "Fiddler Fear";  Fiddler, for her singing (OK, crying) on the roof, and Fear, because it was terribly afraid of us and we had just read about the pilgrims and learned about a young child aboard the Mayflower named Fear.  Really, we simply call her "Kitty."

All the excitement added to the craziness of hosting a HUGE Thanksgiving feast!!!

This sweet kitty is very patient with the girl's excessive love and intrigues.  It has really become one of the family.

Holiday CRAZINESS!!!

     The last two months have been jam packed with lot of activities!!!  We have barely had time to take a breath.  For thanksgiving this year we hosted a dinner for a number of Americans (and some other nationalities as well) that we have met since moving here.  We provided the turkey and others pitched in with sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing and even pumpkin pie.  It was a great feast and everyone had a great time!  We had invited some of our Thai neighbors to join but they didn't come as the atmosphere was English for the most part and they didn't know any of the guests.  So, Chris and I thought we would host a Thai Christmas dinner with our neighbors in December.

      A few days after Thanksgiving, Chris went to Bangkok to find a car for us.  We had been looking here in Krabi but the prices out here were crazy expensive.  So, Chris ended up being gone for a little over two weeks.  During that time a number of neighbors helped us out with rides to school and grocery shopping.  We even had an invite to do the 4 Island Tour, which we gladly joined.  The scenery around Krabi is AMAZING!!!!

     As Christmas slowly approached we talked with one of our neighbors about hosting a Christmas party with those in the neighborhood that we knew.  She thought this was a great idea and began to invite some more neighbors!!!  It was suddenly getting too big to host under our car port so we organized it in front of another neighbor's house.  Altogether we ended up having over 40 people.  I cooked a turkey, made mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade applesauce and pumpkin pie.  The neighbors brought food as well (enough to feed an army) and we did a present exchange with the kids and played the game Gestures, which was the hit of the night!!!

      Since Christmas we have been invited to so many social events it seems like we are eating out with people every night.  We were invited to celebrate New Year's Eve with our friend Nam Kang and her family in Nakorn Si Thammart.  So we made the two and a half hour trip to visit with her relatives and brought in the new year with Luke Tung Karaoke and Thai dancing.  The next day we explored the city and returned home to make it back for a neighbor's son's birthday party-- which lasted till 3 am.

This is Nam Kang's Family.  She is one of 9 children, which is very unusual for Thailand.

      Our Thai neighbors are so sweet and we are so thankful for all the relationships we've made since we have moved here.  We are slowly adjusting to drop-in visitors all throughout the day and unexpected dinner guests.  You never know what a day in Thailand will bring!!!  We were looking forward to some down time after the holidays but it seems that the Thai holidays don't stop... There is a festival in our city that ends Monday night and then there is Children's Day next Saturday, which is HUGE here.  After that, Faith's Birthday.  We might just be living in "party" mode for the foreseeable future!!!

    On another note, one of our neighbors, Phii Daeng, sells pearl jewelry at the night market in town.  She has invited us (well really Hope) to go sell jewelry with her.  Hope has a blast being her little advertising tool by wearing the jewelry and inviting (in Thai) potential customers to try something on.  She even helped set up the display.  I've been helping Phii Daeng with her English and translated for her with some customers.  Phii Daeng has made Hope and Faith their own bracelets and necklaces too!

     Wish I had more time to write about the kitty that died in our ceiling, the kitty we rescued on Thanksgiving day, my 8 hour hair salon appointment or the m-80 that hit Chris on New Year's Eve but don't have time and this is too long as it is! :)  Hope you all had a great holiday and will have a wonderful new year!