A Photo Dump

These aren't exactly in chronological order... but this is my baby and where he sits to watch the world go around. Thanks to his Grammy Graber for the money for the chair.

The pumpkin project. Of course, I discover after Thanksgiving that it works better to only cut the pumpkin in half when you put it in the oven. Goes faster that way.

Dru teaching English to the children at CMCC.

Grading papers from his class at IGo. Here he's actually working on grading the tests. He had a lot of fun with this. (Both the grading and the teaching, yes.)

Me and my little fatso.

More teaching at CMCC.

I might eventually add Thanksgiving pics, but until then, go to the "Wildflower Days" link and see Rachel's pictures of that day.

Thoughts and Teapots

Hans Mast, the famous person himself, brought me six boxes of mint tea. Now he is my hero too. But I didn’t start this post to talk about Hans Mast. It’s about tea. Since being over here I haven’t really had real live mint tea. I’ve had mint flavored black tea which just isn’t the same at all. So when Hans asked Dru if he could bring anything over I ordered up some tea. I wasn’t really expecting six lovely boxes of it but here it is and I’m not complaining.

I miss my tea pots and cups back in the mini barn in Wisconsin. When my sister, Frank, along with some friends hosted a tea party at my mom’s house a while ago, I told them to go out and get my tea things and use them. I really don’t want them hauled over here because they might break and that would make me sad. So if my mom and sisters pull my things out to use every now and then so they don’t get lonely, it will make it okay.

I wonder if my little sister-in-law realized that she was using the tea cup I got from my step-great-aunt Ruthie Schrock for my graduation present.


Around the time I turned sixteen I was at a hockey game and couldn’t figure out why Mom wanted me to come home so bad. But I came. Here she had bought me my birthday present of a tea pot and four cup and saucers. They aren’t china, but they’re me, and I suppose that set is what I miss most. They will be facing a long cold winter alone in the mini barn.


There was one set they couldn’t seem to find. It was a tea for one set—the one I got from Shilah when I was in Idaho teaching school. I guess that would have been for my twentieth birthday. That one is also a beautiful set. I wonder where it is—probably in a bin somewhere.

Pastor Kiat came over and drank tea this morning out of my set from Fern. It is a different sort of tea set. In fact, I had it displayed on the top of my cabinets for a long time and this is the first time it was actually in use. I had Dru crawl up and get it for me and now it is down where I can put it to use. So if you come to my house I will serve you tea from an orange and green tea pot.



Shouldn’t every woman have a tea pot in use? Maybe when I get big I will have a tea kettle too, but not today. I will just boil water in a regular kettle and pour it into the tea pot. That will work for now.

All my pots and cups have stories. I didn’t show you the two tea cups from Pastor Kiat and Mae Pahn (his wife) either. When I am old and grey, I wonder how many stories I will have to tell. I suppose not all of my tea set stories will be happy ones. There will be bitter-sweet memories and maybe even sad ones. But that’s okay. Life is like that.

Oh, and not all of my tea is going to be made to hot tea. I’m enjoying iced tea. Thailand is a warm country most of the time, so I like drinking my tea cold for now.

Purple Smiles...

Of course, the first smile I capture would be when he has a purple mouth because of the Gentian Violet because of thrush.

Dru comes home from teaching and relaxes with me and the baby to get his breath back. Then he hits it again in preparation for the next day.

Loy Krathong

I was feeding Jube on the couch last night when I saw and heard fireworks RIGHT outside my kitchen window.  Upon investigating later, I discovered holes in the screen and the tell tale red stick on the window ledge.  It had gotten caught between the window slats and the screen. There was ash dust on my counter this morning.

It seems everything about this holiday involves fire hazards.  Fire works go off all over the city for nights in a row.  There doesn't seem to be any rules about who is allowed to light what size of fireworks.  They send up lanterns, hundreds and hundreds of them.  They make pretty, red lights in the night sky, but they come down and get caught in the high lines.  And they float these pretty little boats down the river with some sort of flame on them.  

So it's pretty enough--but oh, the noise!  Our neighbors out the back don't only let off lots and lots of fire works, they also play their music so loudly that we can listen to it comfortably, whether or not we want to.  But like Dru says, "I really can't complain, it's their holiday."  So it is.  I'm not complaining either.  

When the Thai people play, they play hard.  It's lots of water at one holiday and lot's of fire at another.  At least nobody can say they don't know how to have fun.  

But oh, I severely dislike bottle rockets!