A Silly Picture

Through the Open Door...

Last Saturday when we were up resting in the A/C, the door downstairs was left hanging wide open. Not really a good idea in this neighborhood we're told. But then, people who close up their hearts and homes for fear of the outside world miss out on blessings too. Right?

When we came down a while later, I noticed a huge bag of Makro groceries right inside that open door. Someone had anonymously left it there and we don't know who it is. Obviously farangs. But who? And why?

I had to ask myself if my last blog sounded like we needed money...hmm... I meant to just say, it was a full month with lots of expenses but months like that happen and such is life. Everyone has months like that, right?

But anyway, I decided it didn't matter. We were very thankful for that bag of groceries. It was a blessing. It was fun. And it was wonderfully practical. All stuff I will very easily use. Dru and I were very impressed at how practical everything was. And every little bit does help on a month like the one we just had. (You all know how that is.)

So thank you--whoever you are. God bless you much. Very very much.

Life Today...

It seems that I've developed a pinched nerve. I've had one before only it's generally in the other side of me. Now I've got it in the right and according to the snitch of research I've done, I could possibly be stuck with it until she comes out. Most unfortunate. I thought it was gone for a bit this afternoon, but then it came back after sitting with a leg on either side of the concrete bench out front of the house trying to get Jube to stand up, sit down, squat, wiggle around, etc., to alleviate his miserables...

He's constipated, poor guy. Things are moving very slowly and at times painfully. He was walking around complaining with his hands on his bottom earlier today. So I need to figure out how to effectively push the fluids. I think we'll get some orange juice on hand and maybe buy some of those little mandarin oranges that he likes so well. That should get things going.

My little boy will soon be talking. He's communicating using only one word at this point. And he's getting his point across. Yesterday he came to me and said something was "stuck." I wasn't sure what he was saying until he led me around the house and showed me where his little shovel had fallen down between some pipes and he couldn't get it out. Once I saw the problem I realized what he was saying and he used the word several other times then. So he knows when things are stuck.

Today we were leaving Mae Wahn's and an airplane was flying over, "Bin!" he insisted, over and over until I realized he was trying to say, "Kruang bin," the Thai word for airplane. He'll opt for Thai if he realizes it's easier to say. Thus, water is naam. If he doesn't want something he'll say, "ow," rather than "mai ow," which means, not want. But that's two syllables. So he just says "Ow," which is to say he does want it, but I know better.

His favorite place to be is perched on mom's kitchen counter with the mixing bowl between his legs and something going on in the mixing bowl. When mom's not cooking, he still likes to sit up there an watch me work and play with all the utensils in the canister. The other day we made cookies and he was only in is pamper. When I got him down I realized something had bitten him all over his back. Thankfully, it didn't bother him. I washed his back with soap and the redness went down.

He is no longer scared of creepy crawlies. He brings snails, of which there is an abundance, into my house. He carried a little dead gecko out by his bare little fingers for me the other day. He startled his dad by carrying a cockroach around by it's antennae. He's taken to trying to share his food with the creepy crawlies. He's a little leery of the little ants cause he knows they'll bite him. But he'll still squish them now and then. So far, we haven't had snakes in our yard. There is a growth of weeds on the the corner of the property that I'm worried could house snakes...and I don't really want Jube to find snakes, there are some quite poison ones here.

Can you believe it? I lost one of the hose extentions to my vacuum sweeper so I have bend way down to vacuum. I have searched high and low with no luck finding it at all. It's very stupid helpless feeling. Especially when I'm pregnant. I'm blaming Jube for playing with it...which probably isn't such a bad guess on my part. But where is it?

The neighbor man says the problem with our old car is that it had complications of the A/C. And he thinks its solved now. And Dru thinks perhaps he's right. I'm dubious, very dubious. Only it partly makes sense when one considers that sometimes when we'd turn the A/C off, it would start again. But now what are we going to do with two cars. And which one do we resell? I'm rather fond of our little pickup/car, but it's truly not as practical for children as the other one. But the other one is almost as old as I am, literally, which is quite old in car years. And it doesn't have a cool pickup bed on it so you can haul things like mattresses about in.

Oh, Frank, we bought you a mattress so now you have to come. Actually, we bought it cause we need to get at and get that one room turned into a real bedroom anyway. Looks like Jessica's coming too, and we like to have a place available for Mae Wahn every now and then. The wardrobe we're picking up on Saturday and that's going into that room too. That will get filled with storage stuff. Like suitcases and extra baby clothes, and all that good stuff. I walked into the room that will be the children's room and asked myself, "Now what can I just get rid of?" But you don't throw away boy baby clothes when you've only had one baby boy and some day may have another one. And you don't throw away your non pregnancy wardrobe. And you don't throw away empty suitcases or extra bedding... But it has to go somewhere because I don't have room in there for a baby crib and a bed for Jube. Thus the wardrobe. But where are we going to put the bookcase that we're getting with the wardrobe? Still pondering that one. Dru needs the book case but after agreeing to buy it he wished maybe he hadn't simply cause it costs money (imagine that!) and we're not sure where to put it at this point.

Anyway, it feels like we've been going through money like water lately. Like everything happens at once. Car problems, furniture problems, baby coming, etc...And on top of that we still have to eat.

What else to say? We're finally getting a bit of hot season. About a week of it now. I'm so thankful for my A/C. So is Dru. Only he's a snitch under the weather and draggy. He said a bit ago that he's not getting anything done at the computer, which is where he needs to be getting things done. The pressures on now to get the last lesson plans and worksheets, etc. finished up since we've started the children's English classes. But the dear man can't think down there. I went down a bit ago and the air was still and he had no water at his desk. He was pushing a chair around on his screen making a worksheet. (The chair Amy drew actually.) So I got him some water and turned on the fan and told him not to go on a guilt trip for not getting anything done today. He even had a nice long nap and he's still feeling yucky. I tried to get him to come work in the A/C but he's all set up down there and doesn't like to move. It's nearly 5:30 now and pretty soon I'm going to go down and try to coax him to leave his hole and do something he doesn't have to think about...like spend time with me. :) It's Thursday, so it's our night.

And Jube is sleeping, and sleeping, and sleeping...I've been waiting for him to do that. He has this thing of every once in a while he'll try to see how little sleep he can get. Until one day he sleeps way in in the morning, or takes a very long nap. Silly boy. He's pushing a four hour nap by now, but he's stirring beside me--or was. Maybe he's not feeling too well either, on top of his other problem. I don't think he likes the heat very well. I've noticed that he'll be fussy at times but as soon as he's playing in the water outside or comes up to the A/C, he perks up. Truly, this family is farang and heat is not our thing.

I just asked Dru if it was okay to share this, and he said it was so I shall. :) Right now we're thinking and praying about if the Lord would have us change our direction a little, again. Really, we've been quite involved in the CMCC church now for about a year. We love the people. Yet, we're beginning to see some very significant theological differences and realizing that they're eventually going to impact our family even more directly than they already do. One of these issues just came to our attention in the last several months. We don't know if the Lord is calling us to move directions or abide patently in prayer here, or what or what. We also realize that God can change the hearts of people, so maybe that should be the first thing to pray for. When Dru has an opportunity and open door, he needs to discuss some of these things with Pastor Kiat. For us, it's hard to believe that God could change someone's way of thinking in these issues, but God can. After all, we came here to be an influence in that direction. A light and a testimony. We came because we ARE different. So we don't want to run away from what we're called to do either. Anyway, we're not up and thinking...okay, time to go back to the USA! We're thinking, cautiously, about how the Lord might lead us around the next corner. (About the only time Dru talks about going back to the states is when he encounters large bugs and creepy-crawlies. He gets homesick around holiday season.) We don't feel like our time here has been wasted at all and we do see how the Lord has used us at CMCC, so that's encouraging.

So I guess all that tells you how to pray for us. Oh, and pray for Jubers with a sister coming. He loves babies...but will that really look like when he has to share Mom and Dad? We'll see.

And I don't have any pics on this computer to share I don't believe...so please bear with me, again.

Somebody should blog. I always want to, get started, then get frustrated because pictures won't upload. (People comment more if you upload pictures you know.) Anyway, here goes a shortish, photoless blog.

Rachel says that rainy season is here. I'm inclined to believe her by now I guess. I keep waiting for hot season to happen but it doesn't. It's pretty muggy, but not overly hot for those of us who remember last year's very hot April but especially May. All it does is rains every 24 hours or so and is muggy when it's not raining. The evenings are relatively cool. We are still using the A/C for naps and nights because it takes the humidity out of the air. Have I mentioned before how thankful I am for this new A/C unit? Well, I am.

We're out of water. Except for what we buy to drink and collect from the rain. So today I am commiserating with Rachel who at least was just out of water. Usually when this happens it means a pipe blew in neighborhood and they have to dig it up and fix it. I should have done a few dishes yesterday morning when it was still trickling but I didn't. I'm not very excited about using the water we collected last night either because it has dead rain bugs (that's what I call them because they come out in the rain) in it and Jube is splashing in something right now and I assume putting dirt in it too. His pamper is probably weighed down with water. He has no shirt on. Etc. But he's happy. The water he is further contaminating was only good for flushing toilets anyway. But Dru says he's feeling subhuman. Me too. A shower would be nice. Thankfully, I had a bunch of laundry done.

I'm also puzzled this morning as to why everything in the freezer melted and began to refreeze last night. This morning the ice cubes were still not quite "set" but were all in one clump. The ice cream is squishy. I don't know that the electric went out last night. Did we leave the door open? I don't understand. I think I'd know if the electric went out because the A/C would have turned off and then I would have been uncomfortable and woke up.

I did have a strange dream about light coming from odd places and someone opening our bedroom door a crack and then shutting it and Dru trying to figure out what to do. Very odd. And I couldn't see straight-everything was at odd angles... And it was one of those dreams where in my dream I woke up and told someone about my dream but then I woke up for real and realized I still hadn't actually be awake. But none of that explains the freezer having melted things in it.

We had a nice weekend last weekend. Mae Wahn was here and informed me that my kha needed transplanting so that I could watch Jube play out the window better. Then she set forth to do the job. And I don't know how she did it in just 30 min. but she did. We did have to finish up later that day, but she had it pretty much tackled. And the church people were very happy for all the gobs of kha that we brought them. Thai people use the root in their food and it's a bit expensive to buy. I had lots of it but it mostly all got taken. They didn't care for the flower bulbs with it though. Pii Phone had planted the kha 20 years ago and it hadn't been thinned since then I don't think. So that project is done. Except I want to put the flower bulbs in that flower bed that won't grow anything just to see if will after all.

Sunday was a farewell thingy for some of the English teachers that worked at IGo. Dru and I went until I realized I felt very lost and small and unsure of myself in all the noise and crowd. And we need to buy milk for Jube. (His all important night time bottle.) Anyway, I realized that I'm a bit like my dad when it comes to crowds. All the sudden I needed out of there. Sometimes I still don't know where I belong over here. Am I Thai or not or what or what and stuff? But I think I shall always feel lost in a crowd--sigh. Oh, but it was a nice party and Dru and I got to know the Strubhar (how do I spell that) family a bit. They're here as students and for one of their ministry trips they'll be helping us out...right over baby time. :) Not sure what that will look like in practicality but hopefully they can lighten the teaching load for Dru a bit so he's more available.

And Monday I had lots of get-up-and-go so I went. I went until I shouldn't have. And then the IGo students and the CMCC staff came to work on English Curriculum and I went until I couldn't. But it was so fun. I was afraid I'd be sick the next day. But I wasn't, only slightly tired. And today it's probably a good thing that I don't have water or I might work to hard again.

Anyway, I do need to go see what things I can make look a bit better around here even without water. See you all later.