Pictures Say A Thousand Words

Tommy and I just flew in from Bali last night. More on the trip soon but our flight back to Singapore was packed out with mental pictures that I took and I wanted to jot them down before my brain purged them for other more useful data. I should have pulled out my camera but it was in the overhead bin cause we were seated on the exit row and can’t have any bags down and I was too lazy to get up and get it. I’ll try to describe the pictures I “took” in less than a thousand words.

Note: I only mention nationalities to give you a better picture of what I saw. NOTHING is intended to be derogatory towards the culture mentioned and any comments made in a derogatory tone towards any culture will be deleted. That’s not the point of this post. Ok, now that we’ve got that settled… 

*I’m sunburned and starting to look more and more like a tomato by the minute.

*Two really cute and really boisterous little Indonesian boys sat in front of us. They were too cute to be annoyed by all their racket. They were obviously excited about flying in an airplane. We could tell by their hand expressions and universal “boy” sounds, like zoom! zoom! and Woosh!

*An Asian guy sat next to me and immediately fell asleep, before we even took off, with his ipod blaring through his headphones. This noise is up there on my list of biggest pet peeves ever.

*An Asian girl pulls out her math book and her mega smarty pants calculator and does math for the entire 2.5 hour flight.

*”Music” from another ipod or Nintendo DS is blaring in front of us somewhere, without headphones. ugh….

*Tommy and I smile. Cause if we didn’t smile and laugh we’d have a miserable flight. Gotta love Asia!

*An Indian couple stand right next to our row, not anywhere close to where their seats are and have a VERY loud conversation. Really??? I’m thinking that the people around them asked them to be quiet so they moved.

*Tommy and I smile… and wished we spoke the language they were speaking. I’m sure it was a really interesting conversation! They were really into it.

*Remember the kids sitting in front of us. SO cute! Well, they order some food and the youngest takes one bite and we think he must have choked. He puked all over the place. It was rank! Poor little guy. The parents were SO calm and I was SO impressed to see the dad lovingly care for his little guy. The mom was sitting next to the little boy and his brother so she couldn’t really leave him. The dad took care of everything. It was refreshing to me to see this dad be so attentive to his son. This was early in the flight so they pretty much had to sit in the puke for 2 hours.

*Remember the girl doing the math? She was sitting directly across the aisle from the puking kid. She paused for a few minutes during the incident. I think it was a little out of her comfort zone. She recovered and got right back to her studies in no time.

*Remember the sleeping Asian ipod guy sitting next to me? He immediately turned green after the kid puked and plugged his nose. It took him about 3 minutes to find another set. I have to admit that I am a little bit happy that the kid threw up.

These are a few other “snapshots” that I took:

*The flight attendant obviously wore a wig. She was a very attractive Asian girl and I’m sure her own hair would have been attractive too. Asians have great hair!
*The sky outside of our window was amazing. Dark and ominous below the clouds and the sunset beaming through other clouds in a distance.
*A Western guy, probably 20 something, had MAJOR bedhead. And I think he meant it to look that way.
*Asians have such a great talent for sleeping anywhere and in any position. It’s really quite impressive.
*Any and every possibly form of fashion statement imaginable. And much too much exposed. Usually it’s the Westerners who expose too much. blech…
*As I pop open my “brought in from outside” can of pringles, the flight attendant announces that food from outside is prohibited. ooops… (yes, I ate them anyway.)
*One of the pilots walking around the aisle chit chatting it up with the flight attendants. Ok, this makes me a bit nervous. I want to tell him to just go to the toilet and get back to his job of flying us safely home.

There is no shortage of adventure living and traveling in South East Asia. Adventure is at every turned corner and often every blink of the eye. The things that once frustrated us have become humorous – for the most part. I have grown very fond of learning about “the ways” of the different cultures we are living with. It’s one of my favorite parts of living in Singapore. I could do without the loud earphone ipod noises, though.

Ponder the loving deeds of the Lord…

This Psalm is perfect for me to reflect on this year at Thanksgiving. I could be really wordy on this but I won’t. I think the Word speaks for itself.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever! The Lord has gathered us from the lands, from east and west and north and south.  He satisfies our thirst and hunger with good things. Let us give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

THIS is what Thanksgiving is about folks!

Thank you, Lord, for everything; whether it be what we hold in our hands or at the end of a fork. Help us to know everything is a gift from you and be thankful. Help us to ponder your loving deeds. Amen

 

Psalm 107

 ¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever.

 ² Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—
   those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
³ those he gathered from the lands,
   from east and west, from north and south.

 ⁴ Some wandered in desert wastelands,
   finding no way to a city where they could settle.
⁵ They were hungry and thirsty,
   and their lives ebbed away.
⁶ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he delivered them from their distress.
⁷ He led them by a straight way
   to a city where they could settle.
⁸ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
   and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
⁹ for he satisfies the thirsty
   and fills the hungry with good things.

 ¹⁰ Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
   prisoners suffering in iron chains,
¹¹ because they rebelled against God’s commands
   and despised the plans of the Most High.
¹² So he subjected them to bitter labor;
   they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
¹³ Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he saved them from their distress.
¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
   and broke away their chains.
¹⁵ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
   and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
¹⁶ for he breaks down gates of bronze
   and cuts through bars of iron.

 ¹⁷ Some became fools through their rebellious ways
   and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
¹⁸ They loathed all food
   and drew near the gates of death.
¹⁹ Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he saved them from their distress.
²⁰ He sent out his word and healed them;
   he rescued them from the grave.
²¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
   and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
²² Let them sacrifice thank offerings
   and tell of his works with songs of joy.

 ²³ Some went out on the sea in ships;
   they were merchants on the mighty waters.
²⁴ They saw the works of the LORD,
   his wonderful deeds in the deep.
²⁵ For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
   that lifted high the waves.
²⁶ They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
   in their peril their courage melted away.
²⁷ They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
   they were at their wits’ end.
²⁸ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he brought them out of their distress.
²⁹ He stilled the storm to a whisper;
   the waves of the sea^[b] were hushed.
³⁰ They were glad when it grew calm,
   and he guided them to their desired haven.
³¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
   and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
³² Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
   and praise him in the council of the elders.

 ³³ He turned rivers into a desert,
   flowing springs into thirsty ground,
³⁴ and fruitful land into a salt waste,
   because of the wickedness of those who lived there.
³⁵ He turned the desert into pools of water
   and the parched ground into flowing springs;
³⁶ there he brought the hungry to live,
   and they founded a city where they could settle.
³⁷ They sowed fields and planted vineyards
   that yielded a fruitful harvest;
³⁸ he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased,
   and he did not let their herds diminish.

 ³⁹ Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
   by oppression, calamity and sorrow;
⁴⁰ he who pours contempt on nobles
   made them wander in a trackless waste.
⁴¹ But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
   and increased their families like flocks.
⁴² The upright see and rejoice,
   but all the wicked shut their mouths.

 ⁴³ Let the one who is wise heed these things
   and ponder the loving deeds of the LORD.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Last year we had what started out to be a very solemn but ended up being a very joyful and thankful Thanksgiving. It was our first holiday after moving to Singapore away from our oldest daughter, extended family and friends and everything we knew holidays to be. I had a couple of major meltdown moments but we ended up pulling off a very nice and traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the Stunz Family 4 with at least one of each of our favorite treats.

Thanksgiving 2009 Singapore

Being trouble shooters by nature, this year my husband and I discussed how we would approach Thanskgiving and Christmas. We’re going home to Texas for Christmas this year. Last year we went to Vietnam and spent Christmas with a few million of our friends in HCMC. But for Thanksgiving we decided to take a slightly different approach. Thanksgiving is unusual overall here in Singapore. They don’t celebrate it, obviously. Columbus didn’t sail here in 1492. Tommy goes to work, Jakeb goes to school and it pretty much is like every other day. But starting at 6:30pm and for a few hours after, it is Thanksgiving all the way!!

We knew of a few Americans here who are single and a few other families that would be missing their traditional Thanksgiving feast with their families as well so we invited them all! Jakeb and Anna also invited a few of their friends who have never experienced a Thanksgiving meal before. This will be fun! We have about 25-30 people coming over this coming Thursday night and I couldn’t be more thankful. As a part of Anna’s homeschool, we’ve brought in the Home Economics subject. She is helping me plan, organize and prepare as much as she is able. She recently took a count of chairs in our house. Including table chairs, desk chairs, card table chairs, folding lawn chairs, patio table chairs, we have 38. Crazy!! That doesn’t even include the couches. I think it’s hilarious that we have 38 chairs in our house. Yesterday, Anna put some pretty ribbon around baskets we’ll use on the tables. She’s been quite crafty lately. Today and tomorrow we will begin some of the cooking. I’m excited to teach her how to use a blender and how to make a pecan pie (not in the blender).

This week is all about food prep, trying to figure out how to stagger the cooking in our tiny oven and unairconditioned kitchen. I’ve also had alot of fun picking up decorations for tables. I had no plan, because often a plan here in Singapore is futile, so I started picking up anything I saw with fall colors. Most Singaporeans don’t understand what “fall” colors are, btw. I have ended up with American, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese and African items for the tables. It’s going to be cool! The food, however, will ONLY be from one country – America.

Here’s our menu. I am making some and others are bringing some.

Turkey
Ham
Dressing (stuffing)
Cranberry sauce (jellied and homemade)
Gravy
Rolls
Green Bean Casserole
Rotel/Velveeta Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Yams
Fruit Salad
Deviled Eggs
Corn Casserole
“Candy Corn” Vegie
Blueberry Salad
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Pecan Pie
Buttermilk Pie
Fresh Cranberry Poppers (no real name for these so I made that up)
And whatever else we end up with.

Yum!!! Are you hungry yet? What’d I forget???

I’ve put some of these recipes already on my recipe blog, Around The Table, and I’ll be putting others up as I have time. But for now, I’ve got some cooking and cleaning to do!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for!

^{Psalm 107 8 – 9}
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,  for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

————————————-
I recently wrote this post about the History of Thanksgiving if you missed it and are interested.
And this one about Holiday Madness – the price we pay for holiday traditions.
And this one post from 2009, Happy Fall Y’all. I thought I had posted more about 2009′s Thanksgiving than I did. Guess it was harder on me than I’d remembered. It really was an emotional time. I will not lie. The next time we went back to Texas, I stocked up on as much fall decor and ribbon as I could carry.

Singapore – Texas Style

I’ve got some classic Singapore entertainment to share with you. Imagine a whole bunch of Chinese people doing LEGIT country and western line dancing to Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” song. In LEGIT cowboy boots and belt buckles and Wrangler blue jeans!! It was mesmerizing. I could not tear myself away. Nor could I stop smiling. It was like being back home – sort of. 

A couple of weeks ago when our friend, Randy, was here visiting on a layover, we happened upon this performance. It did this Texas girl’s heart a world of good.

http://vimeo.com/16990098

And a few photos…

This guy was my favorite! He definitely stole the show. What a great experience! When I’m having a challenging day because living in a foreign country is getting the better of me, I will come and watch this video. It’s a classic!

Torture!

My daughter, Tori, and her boyfriend, Austin, went to my sister and brother-in-law’s house for dinner tonight. As if not getting to eat with family wasn’t torture enough, my sister sent me this picture.

PURE TORTURE AND TOTAL MEANNESS!

Tori, the reason they are all smooshed together is because you were impatient and didn’t refrigerate them overnight. Serves you right to get smooshed spice cookies. I am not feeling bad for you AT ALL!

Edie, thank you for feeding my kiddo yet again! And for sending the picture. I think…

Kitchen Mart Singapore

Update again… A friend recently went to Kitchen Mart and they had shoved all of their stock into a small garage type space across the street and it was impossible for them to find anything. I’m sad to say that it looked to her like they were shutting down. So, the hunt for a replacement kitchen wonderland begins… Typical Singapore, now you see it, now you don’t.

Update: I’ve since met Laurel and she’s awesome!! We have become fast friends and she promises me she’ll move to Texas someday and be my neighbor there too. :)

I have decided that any store using “mart” in its name is going to be good.  Kitchen Mart did not disappoint!

My new friend, Laurel, whom I haven’t even met yet, recommended this place to me. She has been in Singapore for about 6 weeks now and is telling me places to check out. I love it!

It’s basically a huge, big, spacious MART full of water tumblers, all sorts of dishes, pots, pans, baskets, steamers, plastic storage bins, appliances, cockroach houses (yep!), utensils, disposable kitchenware, etc. They didn’t have an oven thermometer so don’t go there for one of those.

We went for a quick run to get what we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner and take some photos so I’m sure we missed something good. I’ll have to go back. We got two huge plastic bags full of goodies for $51 SGD.

Here are some photos for you.

 

See… water tumblers. Told ya’.

These pots were HUGE. You can see Tommy in the background to get an idea of the size. He’s 6’2″.

And there’s the cockroach house.  They even had real photos above them to display just how good they work. Even a lizard can live in them.

Tommy closed his eyes in this shot but only after he created one of my most favorite quotes to date. “Look at this one. It’s big enough to wok your dog.” (Simmer down all you animal rights activists… we love dogs to play with, not eat. We volunteer at the SPCA.)

Now, go to www.gothere.sg and put in this address:

1039 Eunos Ave 3

It’ll get you there by bus, mrt or car/taxi.

We drove our car there on a Saturday morning. There was plenty of free parking right in front when we went.

We miss these people!

The other day I got an email from my friend, Jenny, in Texas. She told me she and her son emailed some pictures to my daughter, Anna. This is what they sent.

It’s little “nuggets” like these that we cherish when we’re so far away from these crazy wonderful faces. We love these people!! We miss these people!! And they must have thought we missed their hiney’s too.

Thanks guys! True friends!! :)

Marina Bay Sands Sky Park

Last night, my husband and I went out to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. He had made dinner reservations at a new place for us, Flutes at the Fort, http://www.flutesatthefort.com.sg/about.php. It was delicious! A little pricey for us country bumpkins but perfect for a special occasion. I think 22 years qualifies.

After our wonderful dinner and some New Zealand Pinot Noir, we taxi’d over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel Sky Park, http://www.marinabaysands.com/SandsSkypark/Sands_Sky_Park.aspx, to go up into the sky and see Singapore. We planned to go up once before on our regular date night but it was rainy. Singapore is gorgeous on a clear night and we definitely got one of those clear nights last night. We’ve been on top of the Pinnacle @ Duxton, http://www.pinnacleduxton.com.sg/,  as well and I highly recommend that. Quite a bit cheaper, ($5) and super great if you have guests in town who aren’t afraid of heights. The views aren’t quite as amazing though. I still need to blog about that one. Another day… 

The Sky Park is on the 56th floor of the newly opened Marina Bay Sands Hotel & Casino.  It is a spectacular public observation deck that can host hundreds of people with a 150-meter infinity swimming pool, the world’s largest outdoor pool at that height. It is 12,400 square meters of space big enough to fit three football fields. There are restaurants and bars as well as concessions and gift shops. It is beautifullylandscaped gardens are home to 250 types trees and 650 types of plants. It is an architectural masterpiece and a serious money making machine for Singapore.

So, just tell your taxi driver to take you to the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park. It’s very obvious where to go but you actually have to go down before you go up. Buy your ticket(s) ($20 I think), get your complimentary audio tour guide wand thing (if you want one) and follow the well oiled machine of a process to the top.  It was smooth elevator ride, 1 to 56 in no time flat! Spend as much time as you like up there. I think you can even pay money to swim in the pool if you’re not a hotel guest.  We were actually surprised that it wasn’t too crowded on a Friday night. I think they limit the number of guests that go up anyway. We took our time and walked all around, took lots of photos, and soaked it all in. It was a perfect ending to our anniversary day.

The Sky Park opens at 10 am and closes at 10pm. No tickets are sold after 9:30pm. They recommend you call ahead if you have limited time for your visit. They occasionally will close off the Sky Park for private functions. (65 6688 8868)

Here are a few shots we took last night with my Sony DSC-HX5. Not too shabby for a point and shoot!

The quality if this one is not great but it’s Tommy and I on top of Singapore. It had to make the post.

This man…

This man…

has put up with me, been patient with me, held me, protected me, cared for me in sickness and in health, taught me to laugh, allowed me to cry, taught me to live, provided for me, loved me, made me coffee almost every morning since I started drinking coffee in my 30′s and poured me a glass of ”grape juice” almost every night since, well, for a while now.

This man…

helped me make 3 amazing kids and is helping me raise them to be even more amazinger.

This man…

has shared a lifetime of memories with me already with the promise of many more to come.

This man…

has given me the world and has experienced it with me.

This man…

has loved God, lived God and shared God for 25 years now.

This man…

has now been married longer than he was single. (to me!)

This man…

is a hunk.

And This man

is mine!

I have spent 22 years of wedded bliss (ok, minus a few days here and there) with this man. Way cool!!!

“Thank you, Lord. How could I ask for more?” (song by Cindy Morgan – How Could I Ask For More)  This song still makes me cry.

——–
If you’d like to read previous anniversary posts and see some really hilarious photos, click away. We’re like wine. We get better with age.

21 Years

20 Years - The video on this post is one I created on a lesser video making program. I made a new one in a more technologically advanced program and it is below. As I was remaking this video, I just had to laugh, again, at the many “looks” we’ve had over the years. It’s ok for you to laugh with us. I suppose you can laugh at us too.  Yep, definitely better with age…….

(if you’re reading this on facebook or in Reader, you might have to go to the original blog post to see the video)

Just For Laughs

These are a few things that have made us laugh recently.

My Thanksgiving recipes all have US measurements. For example, a 12 oz can of evaporated milk is called for to make my pumpkin pie. The can here, same brand, is 400 grams.

We have two printers stacked. One is a Canon from the US. The other is a Canon from Singapore. They look identical but looks are decieving.  A perfect example of the famous Asian phrase, “same same but different”.

We made some queso the other night with velveeta. Prized and precious velveeta. It burnt. We only thought it was funny because we have more velveeta. I probably would have cried if it was my last block.

Friends visiting from HCMC who used to live in Singapore, Steve and Jenny, took us to eat at their favorite Indian place for dinner. It was closed for Hari Raya. Jenny whined a little and after we wiped the stunned “oh my goodness I can’t believe we travelled over here through traffic and paid for parking” look off of our faces, we had to laugh… and then move on to Plan B. Plan B’s, C’s, D’s and Z’s are very popular here. Lucky for us there is no shortage of amazing Indian restaurants in Singapore. This is classic Singapore and is always good for a laugh.

I got a text yesterday, or an SMS as they say here, completely in Chinese characters.

I just called my son who is upstairs to tell his sister who is upstairs to come down and get her phone cause I tried to call her first and she didn’t have it up there. That’s probably more sad than it is funny. They live in the nosebleed section of our house.

The other day we experienced one of the craziest lightening/thunderstorms in Central Singapore since we’ve been here. Anna bolted downstairs, towel in hand and says to me, “hold these” (her glasses thus no metal to conduct electricity, she says). And then exclaims, “I’m going out!” I say, “NO WAY! Absolutely not!! Are you crazy???” She says, “oh yeah, it would be slippery, huh?”

We bought a whole chicken last weekend at the grocery store…. It was not an American chicken. I’ll save the pictures for another blog post. It deserves the spotlight.

There’s a media ad on a few taxi’s here promoting a musical pantomime called “Cinderel-lah” . I think it’s basically a Singlish version of Cinderella. I think I’d like to go.

I bought a couple of tshirts recently. My favorite says, “Meat is murder. Tasty tasty murder.” I can’t really wear it out of the house because I don’t want to offend anyone (there are lots of religious vegetarians here) but it makes me laugh so I wear it to sleep in. I have my meat standard and limitations but I’m certainly not a vegetarian. Don’t judge me and I won’t judge you. I might wear it out in Texas. I don’t think anyone there would mind.

We went to Ikea the other night with a list of things cause I knew we’d find everything we needed there. We left scratching our heads once again and came home with ginger snaps and two wine glasses.

There was a really clean and seriously water logged gecko in my washing machine the other day. Ok, that wasn’t very funny. That’s just gross. I regret not taking a picture, though. Now, that’s funny. Ok, maybe not.

I think it’s funny that my 11 yr old daughter brings out the word ‘lorry’ in casual conversation and she knew what she was talking about.

Anna and I waited for a bus for almost 20 minutes today. We were not in a hurry but 20 minutes??? We are hot and dripping sweat by now so I told her that if the next bus wasn’t ours we’d catch a taxi. We no sooner sit our bums in the taxi seat when we look behind us to see 165 is on our tail. We had a nice taxi driver though who laughed with us. I think we convinced him to go to Texas some day. 

Guess that’s it. For now.