Friendship

Today, Jan and I went with my kids and visited my friend, Aree. She had a baby two weeks after I had Adele. Mario is a big boy but oh, so cute! He was a whopper, especially for Thai babies (4.2 kilos; the same as Calvin). PJ remarked time and time again how cute he is and he and Adele enjoyed checking each other out.

Aree and her mother were so hospitable, as all Thais are. She ordered Jan and I somtam (a yummy papaya salad) and fried chicken.



I met Aree nearly two years ago on the family English retreat to Cha'am Beach. She lives a ways from us so I don't get to see her often. Please pray that that would change. =)







In this picture of Adele and Mario in his crib, Adele was fascinated with the ceiling fan. They held hands at one point in the crib...it was so cute!












Here's Jan with Mario, PJ and Calvin. I asked Jan to go along to help me with my kids...it was nice to have her there.





And here's Khun Yaay (Grandmother in Thai) with our Adele. This woman has six living children and two have already died. She was so grandmotherly to all of us.

Henry's Blend

Our team leader recently returned home from America. Dave, our team leader, often brings home goodies when he goes to America. And, Dave and Paul both have a mutual love for good coffee, so we often get coffee! Dave found this blend. Paul and I thought it was pretty clever. Thanks Dave! In case you can't read the fine print...it describes the coffee as "Balanced and with a nutty aroma with rich, complex flavor." I'm not sure if this is an accurate reflection of us but I think we are kinda nutty and definitely complex. And, on the side of the bag it says this blend was named after a cat...Henry, go figure! Apparently Henry the cat was quite the coffee connoisseur.

Siam Ocean World

We have Tuesdays off from work. For the past couple months, Tuesdays have not been true days off becuase Paul has been busy...so instead of staying home this past week, we decided we needed to get out as a family and do something fun. We headed to Siam Paragon's Ocean World. A very well done acquarium in the basement of the luxurious Siam Paragon mall in the heart of Bangkok. We made a day of it and it was a blast. We got to ride the sky train which is always a big treat for both boys and we even treated ourselves to Subway...yah know the restaurant that serves yummy subs. You may be thinking this isn't much of a treat, but for us, it really is. Subway stores are located in the city center of Bangkok and not in the outlying areas, such as Ram 2...anyway, it was good! I got to eat a turkey sub and Paul got his favorite..roast beef.
So, we headed to the basement and entered the acquarium. The most favorite creature of the sea that we saw was the nurse sharks and reef sharks that lurk throughout the acquarium. Of course, PJ and Calvin were fascinated when the scubadivers fed the sharks right in front of them in the big tank. We also learned what a shark "egg" looks like and we even got to see many baby sharks.
And, even Adele really enjoyed our outing. She had a lot of visual stimulation and wanted to see all the brightly colored fish and creatures and coral.
It was a great day off even if we were a bit tired at the end of it, at least we were together, enjoying some of God's creation together.

BBQ!

Thanks to all who were praying for our campus BBQ last night (the 29th). God brought the entire basketball team and a few of their girlfriends and two of Paul's English students as well as a couple of guys that the campus team is getting to know.
It was a lot of fun with a lot of good shishkabobs! Pictured to the left is Mi and Bow with Adele. Adele was a big hit as everyone wanted to talk to her and hold her. Actually, all of our kids were big hits. It always amazes me how much Thais love children! They are such a playful people.










Here isPhii Khieow with one of Paul's English students cooking some squid...squid anyone?




















And again, we have Adele with Nat. He is one of the basketball guys.






















And Yu has a new shadow! Everywhere Yu was, PJ was and vice versa! PJ really was at ease last night and even sang karyoke. Needless to say he was pretty wired. Notice his red mustache from the red soda he was drinking and who knows how many sweets he had (he didn't really eat a healthy meal last night!) but he wasn't bad and had a blast with everyone. One of Paul's students, Cat, wants to marry PJ! We told her she has to wait about 20 years and she said she would! So funny. =)

Please continue to pray for these relationships. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work in the hearts of the men and women who came last night and pray as the apostle Paul asked the church in Colossae, "and pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...pray that [we] may proclaim it clearly, as [we] should" (Colossians 4:3).

For Dana

This post is for our dear Miss Dana who left our team four months ago. It's easy to remember because she left about two days after Adele was born! Before leaving, Dana gave me this adorable little dress that she bought up north in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I told Dana I would take a picture of Adele in it once she got old enough...so here it is! Rhianna had the great idea of including the Thai girls that Dana lived with while she was here. I hope you enjoy this Dana. We STILL miss you terribly but continue to pray for you. From left to right we have... Tang, Ying, Adele, Khieow (holding Adele) and Yu.









A close up...






















And here's our little drummer boy, Calvin. Sorry about the binky in his mouth but I couldn't pass up this photo op. He normally doesn't have a bink in his mouth during the day but these things happen!

CARNIVAL!!!

The local international school (ICS) had a Carnival yesterday so Rhianna and I took our little ones to it to enjoy the festivities. Here they are hearing a Dr. Suess book being read aloud. Calvin and Asa had their faces painted as well. (See below)

Our beloved Aunt Catherine works at this school as a music teacher. Here she is with our Little Miss Adele.














Catherine played a strings piece with some fellow ICS teachers (I think). I thought it would be nice for you all to see Catherine in her environment.

All in all, it was a great day even though it took us nearly an hour to get home from the school (usually an easy 15-20 minute ride) due to Ram 2's University testing tacking place yesterday.

Team Retreat

We welcomed Preston Thomas last week (Thursday) to our team for a five month internship. Here Tim is presenting him with some "essentials" to living in Thailand, this is a mosquito racket used for killing mosquitoes.

And, we celebrated Melanie's birthday on Saturday...with yummy brownies Rhi made.

Nic Veldhorst building a sandcastle at the beach.


This past weekend MTW Thailand spent the weekend together at a beach town about 2 1/2 hours away in Rayong, Thailand. It was a lot of fun playing, praying. learning and just being together. God has really blessed us with a team of people who are fun to be with and we are so thankful for times like this when we can spend time together. Our entire team went on this retreat (including the Thais) so it was great fun to hang out with them. Ying and I were able to do some wave jumping and boogie-boarding (as you all know how much I LOVE to boogie-board!). A game of beach soccer got underway one afternoon as well as pitonk (bolles) and some frisbee and american football throwing. A lot of eating took place too as there is a Thai restaurant right on the beach. =)
We also had times of reflection of what God has done in and thru us and our team in the past year as well as times of prayer for God's leading for the future 3, 6, and 12 months.
Dave encouraged us to keep Christ as our treasure and not to be satisfied with other things of this world, even the good things of this world.
Enjoy the rest of the pics and please continue to pray for us as we serve here, pray for God to open hearts to the Gospel.

Team Retreat pay thalea

Adele almost asleep on her beachside towel

Calvin almost asleep in his stroller.

Sleep for PJ? Not a chance when the ocean is calling your name!

And, yes, even the beaches have elephants!!! =)

more beach pics

PJ and Becca playing in the sand

Adele's first trip to the beach.

Phii Yu and Adele hanging out

And Paul and Dave got to play a game of pitonk or bolles, whichever you prefer. =)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

This year, I made Paul a cherry pie (pictured above) and PJ and I made heart-shaped cookies...yum, yum! We also got Paul a red mug that says, "I love you." PJ is working on a poem for his Daddy to recite at supper tonight..we'll see if he gets stage fright! We hope your day is extra special thanking God for all those in your life to love and to be loved by.

This was taken a few days ago (Sunday, actually). PJ caught loving on his sissy. He adores her and she loves him too!

And our little Calvin...being sweet, as always!

Calvin @ work

Here are the boys playing with the new toys. I do need to state a disclaimer. At the end of this video PJ says, "Mommy, now we have three VMW's!" First of all, a VMW is PJ's lingo for a BMW and secondly, we do not ACTUALLY have three of them...these are, of course, toy BMW's! Enjoy the video!

Our birthday boy with his choo choo train cake...

His very own choo choo train!

And creatures of the sea...

And, more matchbox cars.

Two Years Already

Calvin turned two a couple days ago...I can't believe two years have passed. I keep thinking that he is at the age PJ was when we arrived in Thailand. PJ turned two about three weeks after we moved here. CRAZY! We tend to keep things pretty low key for birthdays, generally we have no big party and we usually spend a meal together as a family and open gifts and eat cake (it's usually a lunchtime party due to Paul being on campus at night). This year on Calvin's actual birthday we headed downtown to meet up with some fellow missionaries who were on there way to another country in SE Asia. So, we postponed the celebration until the next day. I made a choo choo train cake for him with PJ's helpful decorating expertise. We both had fun and Calvin really enjoyed it too! I got the cake idea from Family Fun (http://www.familyfun.com/). And then, he opened gifts. One from my parents (more wooden train track including a train for Calvin!) and then a couple gifts from us which included sea animals and matchbox cars. He was delighted, as you will see from the pics!

All in all, Calvin's day was great. He has a bit of a cold but that didn't damper our birthday boy! We thank God for Calvin and his flexible, fun-loving spirit. He is truly Thai in many respects.
He is also starting to say a lot more words though mostly it's still jibberish!