Anna’s Birthday

My baby girl is officially 12. In Singapore and in Texas.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? (rhetorical question…) Do you realize that this is only one year from teenager age???!!!??? I sure do! Oh my… I’m about to go all cliche’ here but it’s my blog…. I can’t believe she has so grown up so fast. Where has the time gone???

There’s SO much I could tell you about Anna but in a nutshell, she’s funny, loving, merciful, creative, tender-hearted, generous, fun, fun, fun! She has an unbelievable voice and can do great imitations of other people’s voices. She is gorgeous on the inside and the outside. She loves to read. NOT! She does love TV, though, to the point of addiction. She is very athletic. I can get her to do almost anything with our Dr. Pepper incentive plan. She loves God and has a passion for serving His creation.

She is the coolest 12 year old I know and I’m so blessed to be able to call her my daughter!

Below are a few pics from her birthday weekend. On Saturday we made her zebra cupcakes. We made 24 and gave most of them away. Sugar rush in one bite! And we celebrated with those on Saturday night since we were going to Sentosa on Sunday, her birthday day. In our family, you get to choose the meals on your birthday. We ate lots of bacon on Sunday. Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls from a tube are a treat here since they cost $15/tube. Tommy actually found them on sale for $9! haha… great sale, huh? We ate lunch at her favorite Sentosa spot, Coaste’s, she loves their french fries. We even went back for more fries before we left for the day. We had french toast and more bacon for dinner. And she even got a Dr. Pepper with all of that sugar and lard. Made for a super healthy day.  We got our exercise at Sentosa, though, between the walking and the luge’ing and the zipping. A perfect ending to a perfect day was made by a nice long Skype call with her Texas bff, Reagan.

We had a good weekend and I think she really enjoyed her family birthday party. Except the part where one of our family members was missing. (the pic with Anna talking on the phone is her talking to Tori) I still can’t get used to Tori not being with us. They will get to celebrate in May when she comes to Singapore so that just extends the festivities.

Anna, the day you were born was a GOOD day. And every day you are still on this earth is an even BETTER day. The BEST part is that you will always be my baby whether you’re 12 or 112. You’re kind of stuck with that. I love you, baby!

A Home for Cici – Yours Perhaps???

We will be taking the Ceester back to the SPCA very soon. It would be so nice to have a home already set up for her. Is your home that place, by chance???

We got Cici when she was just 4 weeks old through the foster care program through the SPCA. We got her and her brother, Buck at that time. They were both so fragile and young and unfortunately Buck got very sick and even after dr. visits, round the clock bottle feeding, etc., he had to be put down. Cici has managed very well and is super fun and very healthy now. Although we spent many hours bottle feeding and lots of TLC with her, she never got sick and has just come through her unfortunate beginning like a champ.

A little bit about Cici -

At the time of this posting and the pictures below, she is 2 months old.

She loves to nibble on toes if we let her, give kisses (although I do not let her kiss me, blech), and she LOVES belly rubs.

She eats well and is not picky but she certainly prefers the canned puppy meat. It’s gone in about 2 seconds and she smacks when she eats it. The ONLY time I’ve ever thought smacking was even kind of cute.

She eats at 6:30 or 7am and then lunch at 11:30 or 12 noon and then dinner at around 6:30 or 7pm. Depending on the timing of her feedings and how active she’s been, we may give her a little snack in the middle but the more she eats, the more she poo’s so we do control portions and feedings.

She gets treats for doing her business outside. She will always go outside if we take her out often enough and are patient to give her the time to find that perfect spot. She is not fully potty-trained yet but she is still very young. She will need a bit more training from her new family.

She doesn’t love her baths but she tolerates them well and I think she must think of it more like it’s a massage. She is so fluffy! We think it’s hilarious how skinny she looks when she’s wet.

She is a morning puppy! She has so much energy in the morning and is SOOOO playful and then she calms down throughout the day and is more content to sit in your lap and cuddle. Then we try to get as much energy out of her at night as possible so she’ll sleep well.

She sleeps through the night in her kennel. She tends to poo if she’s in the puppy pen area but she won’t poo as much if she’s in the kennel and will let us know when she has to go if we pay close enough attention to her body language and whines. It’s like having a baby. You get to know their mannerisms and cries and barks and know what they need after a while. She is not a barker either. She normally only barks when you are in the room with her and you don’t play with her or if she needs to go out.

The SPCA will probably label her as “not HDB approved” because her mommy was a larger sized dog so she will probably need to go to a home that is a condo complex with a place outside for dogs to go for walks and such or a landed/terraced house. She is still quite small and we really don’t think she’ll get that big but she’s still very young as well so only time will tell.

If you adopt her, we’d LOVE to have visiting rights.

She has received TONS of TLC in the 5 weeks we’ve had her now and she is SOOOO cute!!! Look at this face…..

And to show you more of her size, this is her with our daughter, Anna.

Please feel free to spread this post link to anyone you might think is interested. It really would be nice to have a loving family to take her. SPCA has told me that if we know of someone who wishes to adopt her, they will simply need to come with us to the SPCA when we bring her back and fill out the paperwork at that time. I don’t know exactly what is involved in that part of the process, though, sorry. There’s a fee to cover medical expenses but you can check with the SPCA online or give them a call. Most importantly, though, be sure to count the cost of the commitment you are considering before jumping in. Cici and all animals deserve a home that will be committed to caring for her well.

Then, if you’re interested, you can email me at (email removed by author) and send me your phone or email if I don’t already know you. Then we will go from there. All comments on the blog coming from new commentors are moderated before posting so no one but me will have your contact info. Of course, if I already know you, you know how to contact me. Please only serious interest. Strange or spam-like comments are always deleted. And just to clarify… we are in Singapore so if you don’t live in Singapore you obviously can’t adopt this sweet puppy. To bad, so sad for you…  :)  BUT, you can go to YOUR local SPCA or animal shelter and I’m sure there’s one there waiting for you that is just as sweet as Cici.

Don’t Miss This… 2

My friend, Esther, who is Singaporean living in Arkansas sent me this info a while back and I actually forgot about it until I wrote the previous post. This is precisely why I keep emails – all 2,000 of them. Yes, I have that many in my inbox. I should probably clean that up, huh? But I am always needing something and then I go search and it’s there. And Gmail doesn’t seem to mind storing them all for me. Thanks Gmail.

Did I ever tell you how Esther and I met? I’m not sure I have but it’s a really random God thing. One of those big small world things. And another post for another day…..

Back to the post…

This is a listing of things we should do while in Singapore from Esther, who knows Singapore. There are a few things on her list that are definitely on mine and a few that I had forgotten about so just like the previous link I posted about, Don’t Miss This!, this one needs to be kept handy for future reference. There is absolutely no reason anyone should ever be bored in Singapore.

Esther’s List of  Things To Do In Singapore

Singapore Tourism Board – https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/index.asp

Heritage Trails – http://heritagetrails.sg/

Bukit Timah Trail

Balestier Trail

Jalan Besar Trail

Queenstown Trail

Singapore Islands – http://www.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/singapore/islands

Sentosa

Sister Islands

Kusu Island

Lazarus island

Pulau Ubin – Chek Jawa

Pulau Sekang

Pulau Hantu

Sungei Buloh – http://www.sbwr.org.sg/

Changi Museum – http://www.changimuseum.com/

Changi Boardwalk – http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cbw.htm

Pasir Ris Park – http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/prp.htm

Singapore River Walk – http://www.planetware.com/do-it-yourself-tour/singapore-river-walk-sin-sr.htm

Fort Canning – http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=16&Itemid=73

MacRitchie Reservoir – http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/macr.htm

Tree Top Walk – http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/ttw.htm

Run/Walk trail from Bukit Timah to MacRitchie Reservoir – http://www.runningmaps.eu/spip.php?article55

Lower and Upper Peirce Reservoir, Seletar Reservoir – http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=naturereserves&id=51&Itemid=75

Sembawang Park – http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=32&Itemid=73

Bottle Tree Restaurant/park – http://www.bottletree.com.sg/?page_id=46

Little India

Chinatown

National Library – Bras Basah Road

Esplanade – http://www.esplanade.com/index.jsp – you can sometimes catch good shows during lunch times

Don’t Miss This!

Following along with our quest to not leave Singapore having missed out on anything, a couple of friends recently recommended this website. It’s pretty cool! Whether you live in Singapore or are visiting, this will be a great resource for you.

I could go to the trouble to list all of the holidays and events I think you shouldn’t miss but why reinvent the wheel. Just keep this website handy. They update it as new events, shows, holidays come up. It’s a great site. Did I say that already? No, I think I said it’s pretty cool.

I’m keeping it handy for sure. I don’t want to miss a thing. We are jokingly saying now that we may leave broke but we won’t leave with regrets.

Outta Sight, Outta Mind

It is so easy when living in a country other than your own to lose sight of your country’s specific holidays, politics, current events, etc. Much of media is censored here, which I’m often thankful for, but we get a mostly one-sided view of what goes on in the US political system.

Today is President’s Day in the US. No mention of that in Singapore. Go figure. So unless we make an effort to keep in touch with what’s going on, it is outta sight, outta mind.

I’m fortunate to be a part of an email group that reminds me of such things and even sends me holiday helpers to use with Anna for school. The US has had some awesome Presidents. And, granted, some not so awesome. But George Washington was one of the greats and we love our country and need to keep his vision alive as much as we can. Plus, we love birthdays so any birthday we can celebrate makes for a good day! I remember when we lived in Brazil when I was a kid, we moved back after being gone for 4 years and I had no idea who Jimmy Carter was and what in the heck was this peanut stuff all about??? We’ve tried to be careful to make sure Anna and Jakeb get a healthy view of what’s going on in their home country so they won’t be so clueless when we move back to it someday.

Recently, I quizzed Anna on the Pledge of Allegiance. She bumbled a bit in the middle but it came back to her after a couple of seconds. I was relieved. It was just clear to me that although it is incredibly important to open our eyes to the world we are getting to see, we cannot forget where we came from.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.



Happy President’s Day!

Catching Up

I’ve got two major posts that I’m working on and I really need to finish our New Zealand trip book (Shutterfly). While I do some catching up, I’ll catch you up with a few photos of our slice of the world.

Sing Post moto delivery. How almost everything in Singapore gets delivered.

Dempsey Hill. Beautiful and right out in the open.

The Singapore Flyer and the Marina Bay Sands have to be two of the most photographed structures in the world.

Your search is over. This is where you can find your Gardenwarelies.

Anna and Master Jacob

Okonomiyaki – Japanese Pancake with Salmon. Yum!

Darius and Linda gave us this playpen for our foster puppies. Anna likes it too!

An amazing Japanese feast with Darius and Linda!

Valentine’s Day Came A Day Early!

A little Stunz Family Valentine’s history…   We normally don’t put too much emphasis on Valentine’s Day. Birthday’s are our BIG days and of course Christmas and Thanksgiving. We normally give cards, make cute heart-shaped pancakes and pink milk and I prepare our meals for the day with as much pink and red as is realistic. I didn’t even remember what we did last year for Valentine’s Day so I had to go look it up. Turns out the CNY trumped Valentine’s Day last year. Recognized but uneventful. That’s pretty much how it normally goes for us.

Well, yesterday was NOT NORMAL.

Tommy had told me earlier in the week that he wanted Sunday to be a veg day. So, we go to church, go out for Teppanyaki for lunch, get home, I sit down to post a few recipes on my recipe blog and he barges in the living room holding a wooden stool that matches our dining table and says “Valentine’s Day is coming a day early so let’s go find something to match this!” WHAT??? I’ve been wanting a buffet piece to match our dining table and tall cabinet that we got last January. I figured it would be a while to give time to save up. Turns out, he’s been saving up. Yipee!! We’re on our way to Just Anthony’s!

Then we get home and I walk in the door to a dimly lit dining room with paper heart cut outs all over the floor and dining table. A candle was lit and the table was beautifully set. Chef Jake and Hostess Anna and Tommy and been scheming all week. It was so funny to hear how they pulled this off. They definitely surprised me. I sort of knew something was up because Anna called twice to see how long until we came home “because she missed me”, yeah, right… but I had no idea what. And I certainly didn’t expect this! Anna had been punching out paper hearts for days. They told me how they’d hid groceries in Jakeb’s room for the day before because I rarely go up to the nosebleed section of our house. Jakeb had been cooking the meal and Anna had been setting up the table and setting the mood while we were buying furniture! Awesome!! Tommy gave Anna very little instruction on how to place the table. She did fantastic! She even made us a wine list from our “special occasion” wine we brought back from New Zealand. I do know it’s not right for an almost 12 year old to be serving us wine but we live in the land of “making do” so don’t judge us. Chef Jake made an excellent meal. Pasta with roasted red peppers and capers (or at least what Tommy thought were capers, turned out they were green peppercorns), grilled chicken, salad and bread and a delicious strawberry and whip cream topped chocolate/vanilla pound cake. Super delicious!!

It was an amazing afternoon. I am so blessed. There really is no feeling like the feeling of being loved. I love being someones Valentine!

Oh, and Tommy even bought me flowers. Well, A flower. While we were getting the piece of furniture, we got a red lotus flower lamp. I love it! And it won’t wilt and die any time soon.

 

I pray all who read this will feel loved by someone on Valentine’s Day. Really, as awesome as my piece of furniture and my surprise romantic dinner was, there is nothing that compares to the love of Christ. He is the ultimate Valentine.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

B.C. (Before Chingay)

Before there was Chingay, there was River Hongbao. Well, maybe not in the real calendar like timeline but for our Friday night, that’s how it was.

The evening we went to the parade (Post 1, Post 2), we went to the Esplanade early, ate Japanese food and then walked around Marina Bay. It was raining when we got to the Esplanade and rained the whole time we were eating dinner so we were really getting anxious to see how this parade thing was going to go down. We had a “small” chunk of change invested in our tickets and would have been super disappointed if it had been cancelled.

In typical Singapore fashion, it rained for about two hours and then stopped. The sky cleared and aside from a little bit higher humidity level, the climate was very pleasant. I don’t think I broke a sweat all evening. Nice!

We walked on the floating platform which was totally cool and took pictures, of course. The first time we saw the floating platform was in July 2009 for Independence Day, I mean, Singapore National Day rehearsal. Just happened to be on July 4th so we got our fireworks.

July 4th in Singapore (in case you want to read about that)

I’ve said it before, several times, but this is an amazing time to be in Singapore or anywhere with Chinese culture. There is always sometime interesting to see or smell or take pictures of at every turn. CNY is coming to a close so it’ll be back to normal soon. Until the next holiday. Which won’t be that far away since there’s always something to be celebrated here.

Chingay Parade Two

A few random thoughts first and then I’ll get to the pictures.

*It was incredible!
*I hope we get to go back next year!
*It was a REALLY LONG evening!
*I will take both camera batteries fully charged next year.
*I LOVED all the colors, noises, people and culture!!
*We will go early, drive (instead of taxi/MRT) and park at the Esplanade next year. Walking to the MRT from the parade grounds (Promenade/Pit), probably the equivalent of about 2 miles, at 11pm = no fun. Ok, Tommy says it was only about 1 mile but it felt like 10.
*It’s amazing how many people are in the MRT in the middle of the night and how rude some of them can be. Guess they were tired too but still no excuse to be rude.
*Roasted corn is awesome when you’re starving at 11pm and don’t even think about cutting the q in front of us.
*I will not wait so long next time to tell the guy in front of us to sit down. We did not pay $200+ to see his backside. I was actually surprised at how many people had to be asked to sit down. I’m sure they were just as excited as we were but it’s just common sense. One would think anyway. 
*We will get tickets earlier for 2012, like in September of 2011 and sit smack in the center, about mid way up of the red section of Promenade.
*I could not believe how many people were in the parade. Singapore must have been a ghost town outside of the parade area.
*As exhausted as we were, the people that were in the parade had to be beyond exhausted and they still have one more night of it.
*It had rained for a couple of hours before the parade. The pathway to our seats was a muddy mess. We were prepared with our Singapore rain proof gear but others were walking as if they had a brand new pair of Jimmy Choo’s on. Goodness people, take them off and go barefoot!
*A little mud never hurt a Texas girl.
*If anyone is planning to travel to Singapore, come during Chinese New Year and stay long enough for the parade. It’s an amazing time to be here.
*We are so blessed to get this experience!
*I took a whole bunch of pictures so only posting about 40 of them on the blog is quite an achievement.
*Turns out that dragon breath is not so bad.

Chingay Parade

Tonight we are going to the Chingay Parade. I’m pretty excited. Who doesn’t get excited about a parade with colorful floats and fancy dancers and people on stilts and drums and music and crowds of people celebrating their culture???

Now, what is the Chingay Parade all about???

Glad you asked… 

“A dazzling extravaganza of colours and cultural diversity, Chingay Parade Singapore is known for its resplendent floats and multi-cultural local and international performances that are an insight to our festive traditions and delight the hearts of many Singaporeans and tourists.

The word Chingay is from the Hokkien dialect, of which the Mandarin equivalent is Zhuang Yi (妆艺), meaning “the art of masquerade”. The festival began as a neighbourhood parade with only Chinese elements in 1973. Today, the Chingay Parade has evolved to be the grandest street and floats parade in Asia, showcasing the rich, vibrant multi-culturalism of Singapore and exciting cultures all over the world. To all Singaporeans, the next Chingay Parade is a parade of our people, our dreams and our pride!”

Here is another link to more history about the parade.

This is apparently what we’ll see tonight while we’re there.

 

I mentioned in a previous post how we’re sort of feeling the urgency to fit everything in since this is probably our last year here. We know that the time will fly. This will probably be the only time we’ll get to go to this event and we think this will be a great stop to add to our adventures. We got our tickets weeks ago and most of the good seats were already sold out. We got decent seats, I hope, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll post pictures tomorrow. Our friends, Miki and Ruri, Japanese mother/daughter, and a few others from Anna’s school last year are in the parade so we’re pretty excited to see them. 

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P.S. If you live in Singapore, note the road closures in the area of the parade. And plan to use public transportation if you’re headed down there tonight or tomorrow night. Some taxi’s might even tell you ‘no’ because it’s such a mess when they close off areas. We got that during the F1 race.