Accomplishing lots of things!

Wow!
What a great and productive weekend!
(picture me doing the happy dance here)

I got 5 loads of laundry done, I'll finish the last one tonight.
I did a little bit of reading each day.
I fixed and delivered a meal to some friend.
Continued crocheting on an afghan that I'm working on.
Almost finished a full-size quilt top while finishing one book on CD and starting another.
Packed up two boxes to start resending stuff to my parents that was supposed to have gotten to them about 4 months ago!
And I even watched a movie and some TV and did an entire 500-piece puzzle over the two days!

I feel so good about all I got done and enjoyed doing. I'm always really glad when I'm done and have put my nose to the grindstone, kept on keeping on, etc. I just wish I would convince myself to do it more often. On my way home now to continue this roll I'm on. Not sure what I'll work on tonight. Probably some crocheting since I'll be calling my parents in a couple hours.

I challenge you all to work on something you've been putting off forever - you'll love the feeling when you are done and it's accomplished!

Bits 'n Pieces

So.... I've jumped off the cliff,
walked the plank,
(insert your own favorite cliche here).

I've decided, with much help from some very close and very wise friends and family, that this manager position at the office is really an open door from the Lord and that for His own reasons... which I may or may not ever know and don't need to know... He wants me in this position. And I've given my decision to my boss this week - he was very glad to hear it!

It's a little scary, but I'm going to do it. I feel better having made the decision.


* In other news, my grandmother is now home and staying in the town house and they have got arrangements made and have the hospice care as well. She is glad to be home and more comfortable being there. She still tires easily and doesn't have a lot of energy.


* I've just about got things cleared up with the house. I've replaced everything that I needed to buy and there is a gentleman coming tomorrow to repair the door frame. Then all I have to do is send in the final receipts to the insurance company so they will send me the remainder of the money.


* The long lost boxes that I sent to Mom and Dad last fall with things they were needing, that were subsequently refused at customs and being returned to me.... they have finally arrived!! The postman brought them to me (postage due, of course) on Tuesday night during Bible study. Much praise resounded, because we weren't really sure they'd ever make their way back. All the contents appeared to be there and in good condition. So now I will have to begin packaging them back up again (in smaller boxes this time) and send them one at a time every few days. I'm hoping that I can make it in 4 or 5 shipments total. I'm intending to start the first one tomorrow.


Well, this has been some random hit and miss stuff today, but I just felt like I needed to tie up some loose ends. Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Results of Christmas craftiness...

Ok, I'm a little behind, but here are some pics of the Christmas creativity that I'd mentioned before.

Remember I took my nephews to make pottery for their Mom and Dad for Christmas... Well, they did an excellent job of keeping the secret. The day before Christmas I took the pieces over and we hid in the back bedroom so they could each wrap the gift that they did. Then these two pics are of the opening on Christmas morning. Mom got a bowl, painted by Elijah and Dad got a mug painted by Ethan. They really liked them and the boys were thrilled that they had surprised them.


This is the piece that Aunt Debby painted while we were there. I thought it turned out pretty well.


Now here are a couple shots of my Christmas gifts for friends and co-workers this year. I combined my love of kitchen/baking type things with my newfound love of scrapbooking. Each gift was two jars - one of beef stroganoff mix and one of cocoa brownies mix - decorated alike. I used my scrappy scraps for bands on the jars and printed the directions to paste on top of the pretty paper. Then used ribbon for bordering the bands. I also put a little square on the band as the gift tag. It was fun, and simply done!

Day-to-day... half a world away

We spent most of the week just following Mom and Dad's normal schedule, which was exactly what I wanted to do. It's the part I miss the most of having them so far away in a place I don't know. Those every day things, details, the places they go, the people they encounter and have become close to... We did a few special things, but just being there was special for me!


Here's mom hard at work in her new office upstairs in her roll as field treasurer. I did quite a bit to help her out with some organizing and a few small tasks. I know, you're thinking, "but you were on vacation!" Yes, I was, but it was good for me!



Here's Dad downstairs in his office, he is still working as a volunteer coordinator administrator - he even had on one of his new shirts this day!

These are my new friends. There has to be a certain number of Thai staff working in the office and these are the ladies that work in the office. Mom and Dad go to lunch with them most days as well. From the left are: Khun Nuk, Khun Beer, me, Khun Duen and Khun Aoy.

This was my absolute favorite Thai dish. I don't know what it's called, it's one that Mom had just started eating recently and she hasn't learned the name of it yet! We had to have one of the girls write it out in Thai for us so we could order it. It is delicious with tofu and snow peas and mushrooms and carrots and chicken! Once Mom learns the name in phonetics she will send it to me because I'll need it for my scrapbook!

And this is the most amazing thing! It's called Iced Boom Chocolate! It's similar to a chocolate shake here in the US but different. It's not very sweet at all compared to ours and a much stronger chocolate flavor. We get them at the Wawee Coffee shop - Starbuck's should look into this!

Learning to cook... Thai!

It was a full day deal. We started be being picked up at the apartments and then getting a tour of the market. It is the same market that Dad goes to about once a week for fresh veggies and fruit. They've not attempted to buy meat there yet though.

This is our driver/guide and one of the chefs that taught us. He pointed out some of the differences of things that you don't get in the US that they use there and some of the things we would be using that day.




Yes, these are really bugs (the middle ones are grass hoppers)! Yes, they are really fried! Yes, they really do consider them delicacies! And no, I didn't try any!!

These weird looking fruit in the middle that are red are called "dragonfruit". I did try some of it and it wasn't bad.

Here we are actually cooking (Mom, me and Dad). All the prep work was done for us, so no slicing, dicing, etc. We sat at a big table in the middle of the open air kitchen and they talked us through the recipe, then we all went to one cook station and they showed us how to do it, then we all went to our own cook station with our ingredients ready and did the cooking for our own dish. There were a total of 8 dishes for the day - we did before lunch and ate them, the 3 in the afternoon we took home with us for dinner!

These are the 5 dishes prepared and ready for eating lunch. The top left corner is fish cakes, the dish to the right of that is chicken with cashews (this was my favorite of the lunch dishes). The bowl to the left is Tom Yum soup (not sure if I spelled that right) which is normally very spicy - one of the nice things about cooking your own, leaving out the "spicy". Next to the left is sticky rice and on the very bottom running off the pic is the fish souffle, with the last bowl to the right being the chicken curry.

These are the spring rolls we did in the afternoon for taking home (mine are the third from the left in the top row)!

This dish they told us about and showed us how to make but we couldn't do individually because there are no small squash to do them with. It's steamed custard in pumpkin (it's more like squash than our pumpkins) and it was very yummy. The last dish we did and took home was Pad Thai and I didn't get a pic of it. All and all a very excellent class and really a lot of fun!!

Home Sweet Home...

... outside and in! I don't know yet how to turn them sideways, so you'll have to turn your head or your monitor, my apologies! This is where Mom and Dad now live, their building is just a partial block back from the main road (where the pic is taken from).

Beginning of Thailand

Sorry it took me so long, I've tried putting these up several times with no luck, so I've made some changes and will also put them in a few different posts.


These four are scenes from the Sunday Market. Brian and Lena picked me up from the airport, took me to their place so I could shower and get into clean (and cooler!) clothes. Then we went here for the afternoon. Mom and Dad got in that night.

Some Trip Pics...

So I thought I'd share a few pics with you from my trip at Thanksgiving, I finally got figured out how to get them from camera to computer to CD to computer to blog! You are all familiar with how much of a technical genius I am - so a month is not too bad :o)

This first one is a view from my bedroom window of our condo in Le Mougins, France. This is looking south and the Mediterranean is just over those far mountains.




This is getting ready for our bus tour in Nice. You can just see Dad's backpack in the background in the doorway - he's paying the driver so we can get on. We sat up on the top in the open air and it was really a gorgeous day for the tour.


This is a view from the middle of the coast of Nice looking west to all the homes in the outskirts. Mom was really surprised that there isn't much level area for beach, most of the coast is the mountains coming right into the sea.



This is from about the same spot, but looking east along the coast of Nice. Alot of those buildings along the front edge are large hotels and restaurants.




Here's the family pose on the coast of the Mediterranean in Nice, France! Dad, Phil, Susan, James, and Mom - I'm, of course, taking the picture!


These next several are Thanksgiving dinner. We drove into San Remo, Italy and found a nice little restaurant so we could have "real" pasta, requested specifically by my nephew James. Here he is eating his! That's my gnocci in the bottom right corner of the pic.

My cousin Michael and my brother found two pizzas they both would like and each ordered one. Then they cut them in half and shared them. Smart guys - that way they got to taste two menu items. The one that Michael got had an egg fried on top!

Mom had pizza and Dad had some pasta - Cioppino I believe - I know it was seafood!

My cousin's wife Tina (on the left) and Susan both had pizza also. It was a really nice place and as my Mom said. All the family who were out of the country (the US, that is) got to spend the the holiday together!