The only things bamboo, a Thankful Tree and country music have in common is that they are all in Singapore and they all make me smile.

So our house has been leaking inside, all over, like enough to fill cups in the window sills and make small rivers on our floor, when it rains since January of this year. That’s a long time to have pink and blue and sometimes striped beach towels as your standard window and floor decorations. After much anguish and a trillion emails and phone call from me to our landlord’s agent and then finally turning it over to Tommy (thinking a man’s voice might help) and then a trillion emails and phone calls from him to our landlord’s agent and finally being able to get our landlord involved (he lives in London), we have this lovely bamboo decoration on the outside of our house. Tommy says it gives our house a real tropical feel.

It is safe for use, though. It says so right on the tag.

I think if I had little boys, there would be no keeping them off of it. You know, kind of like having a big dirt pile in your yard. Access Point… doesn’t that mean “come play on me”. It’s like a jungle gym built onto our house. If I had little boys, I might ask them to leave it there until we move out. I’m really surprised that Anna hasn’t been out there climbing on it. It’s been here for three days now. I wonder how long it will be here before the work actually gets started. It’s sort of a game now. A “not always fun” sort of game but we’re pretty competitive so I’m feeling the win. It’s just one of those games that lasts a really long time.

My friend, Jennifer and her boys came over on Friday while they were building this monstrosity of a contraption on our house and we made a Thankful Tree or as her three year old Levi calls it, a “Think Before Tree”. So cute!! We got the idea from the Hendrick family’s blog. I was able to procure all that we needed in one shopping area of Singapore which is REALLY a miracle. I spent too much money I’m sure but the process was fun and worth spending a little more for the convenience of one stop shopping. The people I bought all the fabric scraps from were so curious and very grateful that I was buying all of their scraps for way too much money. The wife at the shop thought it was so funny how picky I was being in choosing only certain colors. She just could not grasp the fall color scheme I was going for. (Remember where we live – no seasons!) :)  I’m planning on taking them a picture of what we made so they can see the fruits of their labor. As with everywhere in Asia, this little fabric/sewing shop is jam packed from floor to ceiling leaving only inches to walk around in, with fabric. The shop owners really did some digging to find me just what I was looking for. I would bet that they have as much fabric in their small bedroom-sized shop as they do in all of Lake Jackson’s Hobby Lobby.

Here is Jennifer’s ”Think Before Tree” in progress. Her boys were excited to see the finished product. They were so cute how they cheered their mommy on. In their sweet little boy brains, it was a race to the finish and, of course, their mommy had to win.

Here is our finished product. I like it. Anna does too.

Anna put the first thankful leaf on our tree. And mine was the second. So far we’re the only ones with thankful leaves on it. Tommy has been working alot and Jakeb’s been gone so I’ll give them a few days before I ever so gently and lovingly remind them that they need to be thankful and write it on a leave and stick it on the tree. Yes, gently and lovingly. Of course… (the leaves are removable so we’ll take them off after this Thanksgiving season and put new ones on next year when we pull out the tree again.)

One of my favorite and probably the funniest things I’ve witnessed in Singapore to date was in China Town last Friday. It really deserves its own blog post but I’ll give you a sneak peak now. If I can figure out how to convert my video files from my new camera, I’ve got some classic Singapore entertainment to share. 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. This guy was my favorite!!

He even did the cowboy whistle with the fore fingers in each side of his mouth thing every time a new song started. This one experience made moving to Singapore so worth it!

I’ll leave you with that. Bamboo, A Thankful Tree and Chinese Kicker Dancin’. I hope it made you smile too. I’m going to go write a thankful leaf for our tree that says, “I’m thanful for that Chinese guy with the huge belt buckle.”