Pictures

Most of these pictures refer to my last post. So if you’re curious, go back and read. This is the truck piled high with vines and tree trunk after we took it down. We are more thankful for this little truck. We knew having a bed on our vehicle would be handy, but we didn’t know how handy. It’s become a necessity.

Sunday afternoon picnic on Mom and Dad’s bed. We had talked about going up the mountain and having lunch, but we copped ouet. I was worried Jube would protest the change of plans but he was very tickled about setting up a picnic on Mom and Dad’s bed. We threw together a pizza and it turned out very yummy.

Below, our planted pumeria tethered to an old stump until it gets better established. You can also see the vines climbing on the fence in the back. they’ll climb all the way over to the rose bush in the tire very rapidly. The rose bush is pretty sad looking right now. It was rather neglected while we were in the states and I chopped it way down yesterday.

Flowers on the plumeria tree.

The moss roses. I’ve always liked moss roses. I remember once Grandma Graber took me to see Aunt Pearl and she had beautiful moss roses along the side of her trailer. That may have been the beginning of my love for them. Dru told me today that he’s still trying to decide if he especially likes them.

And below is my center piece with all my seeds (in the ugly pots on the cardboard) trying to turn into plants in the background. That green thing is the mango off of my tiny little tree. I brought it inside to ripen. It hung low enough to the ground I was a little worried about critters, and just plain bugs, getting it before I did.

Home Sweet Home. I found this shopping with Melinda at a gift shop in Indiana. I was so homesick for my house in Thailand that I bought it and brought it home. The bird is from Bargain Bills in Rice Lake.

 

Have a happy day.

A Happy Day After All

It did not start out so happy. Almost first thing this morning I washed a blue pen with the white load. It wouldn't have been so bad, but two of Dru's white school shirts were ruined. It doesn't matter whether it was my fault or Dru's; the shirts are dead. We didn't even have a discussion about it. We just bought shirts. Thankfully it was a much faster process this time cause we know what size of F&F shirt he wears at Tesco.

After the shirt buying, we went plant shopping. I chose two pots of moss roses, and then as we strolled from there, I said, "Let's buy a tree." So we did. I was thinking small, and probably a fruit tree. But we spent a little more than that and bought a plumeria. It's a white one. I like all plumerias, but I think I like the classic white one we see the most here in Thailand the best.

I've told Dru a couple times that we needed to buy a tree. With our rose apple tree threatening to die on us, there's less shade. The bees left the old stag that was outside the front door. It was covered with vines and offered more privacy and a bit of shade. But the vines were holding up the tree for the most part. It was leaning precariously towards the house. Dru pretty much pushed it over. Then we trimmed back the vines--they can crawl along the fence for privacy. The plumeria was planted close to where the old dead tree came down--only not quite so close to the fence. I don't want it to be overtaken by the vine.

Actually, it's a pretty vine with this flower on it. I picked most of the flowers and put them in a vase on my table where they promptly wilted. But I think maybe they're going to pick their heads up after all. They are extremely sweetly fragrant as well.

I made pasta for supper and dug out the parmesan cheese I brought from the States.  I'd been hiding from Dru. I was going to save it, but I decided it would be wisest to enjoy it before the humidity makes it yucky. He was very pleasantly surprised when Jube brought it out to the table because he'd just been thinking that parmesan cheese would be good with this supper.

I did dishes and did dishes and did dishes for about 40 minutes while Dru babysat and bathed babies. Now it's bed time and we're winding down. Btw, Havilah is learning to go to sleep all by herself at night without fussing, and is finally, for the first time in her life, starting to sleep all night.

Oh, and speaking of Havilah, I left her out in the sun too long. She burned. I put A&D ointment on her and hope she feels okay. She seemed to like it when I put it on. Dumb mom. She goes all over the yard, through the grass that Jube always thought was pokey and uncomfortable at her age. Her legs are all bit up, but it doesn't seem to bother her. Precious little girl.

Oh, and more on Havilah. Michael and Lia are back from the States and we saw them on Thursday. Lia always reminds me of how pretty my baby girl is. Ever since Havilah was tiny, Lia would tell me that my baby was pretty. She told me that, now, Havilah is even more beautiful than before. I always am thankful to her for reminding me. Yes, I do have a beautiful little girl. I forget to think about it in the business of life. Thanks, Lia. May your baby girl be as sweet, precious, and beautiful as mine.

My blog is turning into an online journal of sorts. I know my mom will enjoy it, and I hope the rest of you do too. It's sadly lacking in pictures, but I will try to get some pictures up soon. Please bear with me. Shall I start telling you at the beginning of each blog whether or not it contains something of general interest?

A Few Thoughts From Today...

Havilah has decided to walk. When it's convenient. So about half the time.

Havilah had a live snail in her mouth yesterday. It was very gross. Don't even bother to process this. Jube plays with snails, but has never tried to eat them and I just try to make sure he washes his hands before he eats. Boys will be boys, right? But this morning I told him that today he couldn't play with snails because I don't want Havilah eating them. He was fine with that. Thankfully.

Today I made Jube an aligator out of blue play-dough. "I'm going to go get some people so he can eat!" He said gleefully. He couldn't drop the idea of alligators eating people until later when I told him, "Alligators that eat people are bad. Alligators that eat people have to be killed. So, if your alligator eats people, I'm going to squish him all up and put him back in the container." "Okay," he said. And I heard no more about alligators eating people. Maybe I'm silly, but his intrigue with the gruesome did not impress me. Sure, he's innocent and didn't think it through. I think he probably heard about people eating alligators somewhere or something. Maybe we watched an alligator video on youtube? But I can't handle that kind of thing. I mean, I am seriously upset when human life is not respected, and there is something terrifying about wild beasts... Enough said.

I've been thinking about Thai class today but not sure how I'd practically do it. Need a babysitter. Need someone who can come to my house. Need time. So that's still in the prayer stages. Right now the important thing is getting my man into the school groove. If I can take Thai classes full time when Frank comes, that may have to be good enough. And truly, that much Thai would give me a tremendous boost. 

This is my very good looking husband all ready for school on Tuesday morning, posing with his two very adorable children. I love my family.

So far, so good, with Dru in school. I like this schedule much better for family life. He's happier doing this than he was the past several years developing curriculum. Although he enjoyed that, he became very frustrated sitting behind a desk all day. This is more up his line. Oh, and he has to wear black pants and a white shirt to school every day. So I get to iron...and make sure he's spiffy on his way out the door. So far, this has been fun. 

I realized tonight that I need to be praying more diligently for all my neighbors, but most specifically, Pii Fone and her daughter, Dew. I need to be asking the Father daily, to call them, show them his love, and shine through me. You can join me in praying for them.

Goodnight. Have a good day. (Because most of  you reading this are on the other side of the world.)

Pictureless blog with lots of words.

I need to blog. It's been three weeks since we've been home and I've said nothing. So I'm here again.

It's so good to be home! I was looking forward to being home again since before we left, literally. Not that it's not good to be home and see everyone, reconnect with family, etc. But Dru and I have both realized that Thailand really is where we have made our family and put roots down in so many ways. But anyway, enough with that.

We did make some good memories in the States. I think for me, two of my most special memories, the ones I've thought about often since, are my conversations with my two best friends from childhood and teenage years. I got to spend about three hours with LeeAnne. It always amazes me at how we pick up and talk just like old times in a lot of ways. Our world are so different, but, oddly, we're starting to have common ground and share some of the same friends again.

When we were in Indiana, Melinda and I stayed up late Sunday night and talked. I had no clue it was as late as it was, but it was wonderful to catch up. Again, it was interesting for me to discover that, well, I don't know how to say it, but suddenly, we have a lot in common again. I felt like we got where each other was coming from, and, well, it hasn't always been that way. But all the sudden we're both married and have at least one baby. So we've walked some of the same ground and there's so much in common again. And then there is Melinda's infectious laughter. Like the time I bumped her cantankerous ironing board down and yelled, and then she started laughing and so I did...then there was the giggle party on the couch that I have no clue what that was about anymore. So good to laugh with her again.

So those two conversations are way up on the list of my most treasured memories. There were of course the fun family times. It was interesting to notice the tensions and good stuff too, that comes from the Elv Graber family now being 4 family's rather than one. It was interesting to me to see how my loyalties personally, have changed from my parents to my man. But yeah, this was all good in the end and I'm so thankful for my family back in the States. Now if I can only figure out how to get Gabe and Jenny over here to visit...

I had some worries about coming back and settling in. One of those being Jube and how he was going to handle life. How was he going to handle the communication barrier, especially with Mae Wahn, since he seems to have lost so much of his Thai?

When our airplane landed in Chiang Mai, we went through immigration, then picked up luggage, and were headed out of customs. They asked us to scan one bag, but we could see everyone beyond, waiting for us. So I told Jube to run to Mae Wahn, rather than wait. When he picked her face out from the crowd, he ran to her, then just smiled and smiled. Happy to see her but not sure what to say because really, he couldn't communicate. Finally, unable to contain it any longer, he spilled forth in English telling her all about his trip to America.

Now he's entering the language learning stage all over again, but this time consciously, and he seems to enjoy it. He and Mae Wahn exchange language lessons, as much as is possible to do with a 2 year old, of course. All of this is a huge answer to prayer. Havilah too, loves Mae Wahn. We are SO thankful and blessed by that woman. There is a deep ache in my heart when I think of ever having to leave her, and I hope we don't ever need to part with her for a long time.

We did take a flying trip to Laos to get the proper student visa that we couldn't get in the US due to time crunch issues. But it went super well and we couldn't have asked for a smoother trip, thanks to all the many prayers that went up on our behalf. It was really fairly uneventful.

The first bit after we got back (from the US and Laos too, I guess) I felt like I was being attacked on all sides in all areas of my life. My motherhood wasn't good enough to bring my naughty little boy back to a good little boy after 2 months in the states. My wifehood wasn't focused on my man like it was supposed to be. And my Bible was dry. All bad, bad! And then Dru prayed and everything got better overnight. I will never cease to be amazed at the power of that man's prayers over his family. :)

Jube did have a big learning curb to deal with when we got here. I'm not sure why and all that, but it's getting better. Poor guy has had so many changes to deal with in the past three months. He too is glad to be back.

Havilah is nearly, nearly walking. Also learning how to go to sleep when Mom says so. And pushing teeth, little by little. Can't wait 'til they all pop through. How much pain killer can you give a baby anyway? I hate to have her on it all the time, so I don't. Yet when she's not on it, she's half miserable half of the time, poor dear.

I have pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, mallo seeds, 4 o'clock seeds...and I think that's it, in pots on my table. I'm going to get them very well established inside where I can keep a beady eye on them and the birds don't eat them and bugs devour them without my supervision. And then when there quite big, I'll plant them outside. I hope the pumpkin seeds from Louisa make nice plants and big pumpkins. I long for big orange pumpkins, but I worry it's a pipe dream too. We shall see.

My man did a whole bunch of yard work...basically reclaiming the corners of our property from the weeds and vines that overtake everything so easily. So now he's my hero big time and I can dream about what to do to make those corners pretty.

Okay, gonna go to bed now. My man's first day of school is tomorrow and I want to get up with him in the morning. I'm so excited for him. Anyone who knows Dru knows that he likes to study. There's part of me that hopes that taking a full load like he is won't be too much for him. And then there's part of that hopes his classes won't be terribly easy and not stretch him at all. Which is probably silly--but still, a lot of his classes are geared towards people using English as a second language. Anyway, I'm still happy for him. It's going to be a good 2 years.

Life in America

Pictures prove that we’re enjoying ourselves. It’s fun to see Jube learning to know his relatives. I can finally show my baby girl off. We’re really not taking enough pictures, but here are a bunch of what we’ve gotten so far.
 
To sleep on Nanna’s lap. He was feeling pretty pretty crumby on this picture. My children, Jube mostly actually, have been seriously battling every illness that the US of A could store up for him while he was gone for 2 years, or so it seems. I’m so tired of a sick little boy!

Hannah and Hallah. Havillah looks like Hannah did when she was a baby.    Here are Tim and Emily.



Ben is, hands down, Jube’s favorite Lattin uncle. Ben was gone most days when we were up there but came home from work in the evening. From then on, Jube was where Ben was until bedtime, and nobody even dared to interfere.

Thai class. Teaching them to count from one to five.

Hannah and Jube and the “looster.” The “looster” had the nerve to bite his finger, right after we took this picture.
 
I’m taking orders for my Mom. She made me this lovely neck scarf. You can have one for $25. Mittens to match for an additional $30. They’re more complicated to make. I don’t have a picture of those right now.

Gill came up to Mom and Dad’s cabin, where we were staying, and brought supper with her.

We made a trip to Canada and I got to see where Jessica lives.

 
The slide at the Bemidji Church. Dru helped him hop in and Japheth caught him at the bottom. We’d have loved to spend more time with Japheth and Amy—maybe next time.

 

At Mom and Dad’s again. I found my men at my mom’s always beautiful table enjoying hot chocolate and coffee together.

 

 
Dad came home Tuesday night, raring for a party. So he grilled and we had s’mores and talked around the fire into the evening time.

 
It’s all very well to put up the train, but supervising is another story. I finally got tired of having to tell Jube not to play with it without help and initiated the putting away of it.


My man bought me a tortilla press (After a few purchases he’d made, he decided that I deserved a couple gadgets myself.) Here Jube and I were mixing up a batch of tortillas.

In Wisconsin

We’re here. Finally. Already. I remember telling Jube that “in six weeks we’ll go to America.” Here we are. The time went so fast right up until we boarded our first plane. Then time crept along until we found ourselves in Wisconsin. Travel actually went really really well for us. I don’t think we can complain about it at all.

Sadly though, Jube came down with something bad. I think the cold he had before we left moved to a secondary infection. By yesterday morning when we took him to the doctor he had a double ear infection and a goopy eye infection in both eyes and a fever. He’s on antibiotics now but still rather grouchy today.

He’s loving the snow though!

This last picture was taken while we were still in Thailand, on our first official anniversary. After four years, we finally get to have our first anniversary, seeing that it’s finally leap day again. We weren’t able to do a lot but we spent the day together doing shopping for the trip. We like to shop together, so this was great. Mae Wahn babysat all day long. It was a special day for both of us in spite of how crazy our lives were at that point. We’re still hoping to finish celebrating sometime while we’re here in the States.

I’d like to blog some while we’re here, but don’t count on it. I’ve got tons of visiting to catch up on with family and friends here. If you’d like to catch a glimpse of me or my family, go to our family website to see our schedule. This Sunday Dru’s going to be preaching and sharing about our lives at our home church, Grace Bible, in Stone Lake. Morning he’ll preach and in the afternoon, probably around one thirty, he’ll be giving a power point presentation of who we are and what we did and will do and all that good stuff.

Today’s Projects

First I made play dough for Jube. Soon before we went down to the beach, we set Jube up with a rolling pin, little cookie cutters, and clay. Since then he’s gone through about three sets of store bought clay (it’s cheap) and I was thinking that I’d like to see how he liked home made play dough. So a while ago already I had Dru buy me a bunch of salt for the project.

Today Jube was looking at pictures from when we were at the beach and came upon one of himself playing with his clay. He promptly came into the kitchen and pointed to his clay and said, “I want that thing.” I gave it to him but it was starting to dry out on top of being dirty and hairy. So I made him some play dough. I hadn’t made it since I’d made it when I was in labor with him over two years ago. But it turned out beautifully and he is very impressed. He didn’t complain at all about throwing the old stuff out.

And I tackled the flower bed project. I know it’s not level and I know that I didn’t have enough of the top bricks to go around. Tomorrow I’m going to go out and switch those two at the right to be around the back so you don’t notice them so much. But it’s still fun and pretty. And I did it all by myself except to have Dru come put the petunias up there. That is a very heavy flower pot.

Do I need to turn to petunias to a more flattering angle?

Dru likes these a lot and so do I. I hope they do well.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t really be the one to enjoy these flowers. I’m wondering if they won’t be at their most beautiful while I’m in the states.

All of these new flower I planted so we’d have something we could pick and put on the table eventually. My dear son was picking the begonias and the impatiens now and then, so maybe this will be a better option.

Havilah and Jube were very helpful as I was doing this. Jube threw scoops of dirt in the air in an attempt to do it like was and Havilah wasn’t content until she was allowed to sit right in the middle of the project and be worked around. Then she proceeded to taste various dirt clods.

I’m also going to mark my “pat grapaow” as holy basil so that it doesn’t get mistaken as weed and disposed of by the family who will live here while we’re in the states. So now you don’t have to ask me about the weed I’m carefully growing—I’ve already told you, it’s not a weed. I do need to cut it so it branches and gets nice and bushy now. Maybe I’ll root the cuttings and plant them too.

Dru could have done a way better job at taking these pictures, so maybe he’ll take some for me and post them himself.