“Hollyday” in Cambodia

Tori and I just got back from 4 days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It was a great trip! She bought a tshirt that says “Hollyday in Cambodia” on the back so that quickly became the theme of our trip.

I’ll be posting more soon but thought I’d post a few pictures that make me smile. Not in a “poking fun” sort of smile but an “I’m totally in love” kind of smile. The people of Phnom Penh smile a lot, which is amazing after their very recent and utterly horrific past, so I thought it fitting to smile with them.

The Last Supper(s)

Over the last few days we’ve gone out for dinner at Jakeb’s favorite restaurants for a string of last suppers in Singapore. We didn’t have time to fit in hawker centers so we told him he’d have to do that for lunches. I did get him some favorites from Bread Talk today.

Marche'

Curry Gardenn (not misspelled)

Din Tai Fung

Amber

 

Stunz Family 5 at Amber

Don’t feel too sorry for him. Soon enough he’ll be eating at Chipotle, Pei Wei, Sonic, Whataburger, Chick Fil A, BBQ and all of our favorite places in Texas and I know he will totally be rubbing it in.

Moving to Singapore

I’ve been compiling a few links for those planning to move to Singapore who are like I was a few years ago and digging for any information they can possibly get their hands on. Once you get here, be sure to keep this link handy, Helpful Singapore Information.

What we normally buy in the US when we go home for visits is anything we know we’ll use and have space for. Anything we can bring will save us money in the long run. That usually includes medicines (can’t get ibuprofen/tylenol, nyquil and such here), vitamins (they have them but maybe not what you like and it is sure to be 3x the price), deoderant, undergarments (cotton/moisture wicking if possible), pants/bottoms for all of us since we’re tall and/or large, makeup that I like (have here but pricey), electronics/cameras (again you can get them here but they are expensive and not always guaranteed), any food items/snacks that we’ve been craving (different every time we go home but usually includes gum-for personal consumption, of course!), blonde hair color (plenty of dark color here), bounce/color catchers for laundry (they have bounce here but it’s expensive and is a good hole filler in luggage and they have their version of color catchers but they don’t work), sunscreen and mosquito spray (although you don’t need mosquito spray very often but you’ll need it in certain areas of Singapore and possibly on trips, they do have it here but it’s expensive), certain spices and seasonings we are picky about, Texas pecans and corn tortillas.
 
Most everything you need you’ll be able to get in Singapore somehow and in some form. It might not be what you are used to and it might be two to three times the price you are used to paying but you also might find something you like better. Those things that we just know we like what we like are what we bring back with us.

http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/what-do-you-want/
 
http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/singapore-faq%e2%80%99s/
 
http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/if-i-had-never-moved/
 
http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/18-month-check-up/
 
http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/new-to-singapore/
 
This is a friend’s blog who is now living back in Oklahoma but her blog has so much good Singapore information on it and she was great about posting photos of her adventures and finds.  http://cajunsis.blogspot.com/
 
Here is a specific post she put together just before she moved back to the States. http://cajunsis.blogspot.com/2010/11/americans-moving-to-singapore-what-to.html although her list is specific to her, everyone’s list will be slightly different, it is pretty informative. When she talks about fitted sheets, they were for a bed bought in Singapore. US and Asian beds are different sizes so if you are bringing American beds, bring American sheets. If you like to bbq, for sure bring one if you can. You will have to get the fittings changed if it’s gas but it’s so much cheaper to do that then buy one here. A super nice grill in the US is maybe about $500 USD, it would be $3000 SGD if you buy it here. And like she said, if you can’t fit it in your new place, sell it. Someone will be glad you brought it over for them.
 
This is a sweet Australian friend’s blog who lives in Singapore for several years now. She’s amazing!! And knows everything about everything. She is super great about posting things to do and see and eat in Singapore. She, too, posts wonderful photos of her life here.
http://leonefabre.blogspot.com/
 
This is a good link for a brief overview of Singapore’s history.
http://www.singaporeexpats.com/about-singapore/brief-history.htm
 
This is a good link for what Singapore is like now:
http://www.singaporeexpats.com/about-singapore/about-singapore.htm

Dear Jakeb,

Dear Jakeb,

I don’t want you to leave but I suppose you must. I know you are excited to start this new phase of your life but could you please be just a little sad to leave? Just a little? You will miss me right???

I know God is protecting you because I’m praying for that. I know you are in His very capable hands but I will still worry. Because that’s what Mom’s are really good at. Just don’t do anything stupid. Ok, don’t do anything REALLY stupid. After 18 years of living with you I’m pretty sure that doing nothing stupid is way too much to expect.

Seriously, I am here for you. Night and day, whoever’s night or day it happens to be given the timezone differences. Call me, text me, email me anytime. You can call or text your dad too but if it’s in the middle of our night he won’t hear it. Just sayin’.

When you leave this house tonight with your life packed into two 23kg suitcases and carryon and your one way business class ticket across the ocean to Texas, you will leave an empty room in our house and an 18 year-sized empty space in my heart. Know that I am so incredibly proud of you, I am praying for you, I’m here for you, I will be sitting by the phone/computer waiting to hear that you arrived safely, and I love you. Until you have your own kids you will not be able to comprehend how much I love you. And even then, it won’t be the same because you won’t be a mom and mom’s just love more than dad’s. Just kidding. Maybe.

You’re ready for this. I know you are. I’m pretty sure I’m not but my vote doesn’t count at this point.

With all of my heart,
“Mama”

P.S. We’ll always have your back!

Bad things that start with ‘L’

Warning: this is sort of a venting post.

I usually try to keep things positive here but I feel I must post this in my efforts to help others who are moving to Singapore or even those who are already here. My previous post was a pretty positive post about having been here for 2 years now. Although most things are going well, today was a pretty frustrating day and brought out the claws a little bit.

So, the bad things in Singapore that start with ‘L’???

LG
Landlords
Leaks
Lizards 
 
LG is the maker of our washer and dryer. We spent quite a bit of money on them 2 years ago when we moved in and they have been in an almost constant state of repair over the 2 years we’ve had them. The washer has had one new motor among some other repairs. Thankfully, the washer had a 2 year warranty so we haven’t had to spend any money on it’s repairs. The dryer, with only a 1 year warranty, has now had 3 new motors and is currently dead forever because we aren’t going to spend another $300 to put it another one, which is what it needs. We move out of this place in 3 weeks and our new place has a washer and dryer so it’s just not worth fixing again. We have already invested over $1000 in that dumb dryer. We are now bumming friends dryers to dry our clothes for the next 3 weeks. We do hang dry alot of our clothes but I’m just not particularly “keen” on crunchy towels and underwear. Although or tv and microwave are made by LG and have been fine, I cannot recommend LG appliances. Not a fan. (Tip if you’re moving to Singapore: Get the LL to provide the washer/dryer if you can. Repair costs will be on him/her then. Or buy used off of of Craigslist or Gumtree. There’s a constant flow of expats moving in and out and selling things. We could have bought 3 or 4 used sets for the price we’ve paid for our one set and probaby wouldn’t have had to.)

Landlords: Although I know some LL’s are top notch, we didn’t get one of those. I hear horror stories all the time of greedy or lazy or just mean LL’s. Ours doesn’t really fit in any of those categories but he just is sort of complacent. He doesn’t really seem to care much about his investment and we suffer. I sure hope our next one is good. I’m feeling much better about our new LL. LL’s are unavoidable here for us transient expats. Try to find a good one if you can.  I guess my main reason for not liking LL’s is that we are used to owning our place, fixing things that break and fixing them properly (novel concept, I know!), and fixing things that… well this brings me to my next ‘L’.

Leaks: This house has SO many leaks. I think with all this rain we get in Singapore and the house not being built particularly “square (builders term), the leaks are just something most people have to deal with. It’s a pain and something we would fix if we were our own LL. Our house is old, for Singapore, so I’m hoping that our newer and newly renovated condo will be better. Please, let it be better!

Lizards: Because of all the cracks here and there, we get a relatively constant flow of lizards too. I know many people love lizards but I do not. I know where to strategically place my little white sticky things to keep them from surprising me on the sofa or in my bed. I know that trapping them is not humane but they are not human and humans belong in my house, not lizards. I do take a little bit of sinister pleasure when I see one stuck to a trap. I leave them alone if they are outside. They have all that space in the great outdoors, they need to stay out of my house. So… for those of you who don’t have the heart to ask, here is the type of trap I use. This way you can keep your lizard phobia a secret and no one will  attack you for killing those poor little cute things. ugh… IF my husband and son were ALWAYS here to catch them then maybe I wouldn’t need the traps. But they hide and they are fast so 9 times out of 10, my guys can’t even get them.

I buy them at the DIY/Home Fix stores at Tanglin, Jelita and Holland Village just next to Lim’s (upstairs above Cold Storage). I take them on trips with me to places we visit that are “not so 4 star” and they have always come in rather handy for lizards and other little critters. Judge me if you must. I can take it.

There is one really good ‘L’ word that I am working hard to instill in my frustrated being at this time.

Love: 1 Corinthians 13

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 ⁸ Love never fails.

2 Year Check Up

Today is the 2nd anniversary of our move to Singapore and the “dr.” says we’re doing just fine.

I wrote an update for our 18 month since we had so much going on for our 1st and I missed it. Here’s that one if you want to back track a little. 18 Month Check Up

So we’re still pretty darn busy right now and I don’t have time to write alot but I did ask each of the kids and Tommy to give an update on what they think after living this adventure for 2 years. Then I’ll give my thoughts at the end. Bet you thought you’d escaped my thoughts this time. Not so….. (insert evil laughter)

Tommy:
Singapore has given me …
 
… more respect for other people and cultures than I would have had if I still lived in Texas.
… the opportunity to see parts of the world that others only dream of or do not know that they should dream about seeing.
… the pleasure of watching my kid’s knowledge and attitude towards the world around them expand.
… provision for my at least two of my kids college.
… some of the best food I would never have put in my mouth otherwise.

Tori:
( She attends college in Texas so her vantage point is a little different.)
Explaining to people that when I go home for the holidays it’s to Singapore and that I live out of a storage unit instead of my parents house isn’t something most understand and it’s definitely not an easy life all the time. It’s been an experience that has matured me in a lot of ways and on top of that I have gotten to see so much of the world in my few trips over to visit and all of that makes it worth this crazy life my family lives.

Jakeb:
For the past 2 years, I have enjoyed the traveling that comes from living here. I’ve enjoyed the amazing and vastly different types of food found here. I got to meet some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life here. I learned to cope with the city life, but I will not miss the hustle and bustle and organized chaos that is Singapore. But all in all, Singapore is one of my homes on earth and has made me into part of what I am today.

Anna:
Living in SG has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are it’s hot every day (sometimes rains everyday) so I can go swimming alot. Disadvantages are again it’s hot every day so NO seasons. Overall I like SG but I want to move home.

So you can see that all in all, as I’ve said often, living in Singapore is “mostly good”. That is one of the things I say the most when asked how we are doing in Singapore. Here are a few others and a few of my thoughts for this 2 year checkup.

Living in Singapore is mostly good.
Singapore in the beginning was more frustrating than fun. After 2 years, it is more fun than frustrating.
Singapore is just Westernized enough to be liveable and just foreign enough to be frustrating.

*When we move back to the US, people will just have to put up with me always taking pictures of my food. It’s become a part of who I am.
*Staples in our pantry and fridge now include ginger, multiple different types of rice, sushi wrapper, frozen dumplings, and loose leaf tea just to name a few.
*Almost 2 years to the day of moving here, our son moves home to Texas and a week later our oldest heads back to college in Texas too. Living in Singapore has honed my coping skills. Rest assured that this mama’s heart will cry big ol’ crocodile tears but I will suck it up and move on cause that’s what we do.
*We are used to “cold” water being what we would call room temperature in the US. The water pipes are continually hot so cold from tap is just not cold. But I’m thankful it’s safe!
*I still rant about not having an a/c in our kitchen. I’m pretty sure I will never get used to that. Or Barbie sized appliances.
*We pay way too much for certain items without a second thought. Who in the US pays $11 for coffee cream??? Or $6 for a bag of pretzels???
*We are used to eating cold, hard chocolate. If it’s not in the fridge, it melts. Not even joking! We can either eat it cold or just let it sit out for about a minute and it’s soft again.
*We pretty much always know where to go to find something. Almost… Or maybe we knew but it’s just not there anymore.
*We can actually help people instead of being the ones needing all the help.
*We have washed passport, added pages to passports and renewed passports. And between all five of us, we have stamps in our passports from 12 countries and multiple stamps from some of those countries. Seriously??? Any complaints I might have are way offset by this crazy adventure we are blessed to be living.

We do miss home. We ache to be there when a family member or friend is sick or hurting or celebrating.  That is by far, the worst part of living overseas. We miss out on alot. We miss birthdays and adoption days and Father’s Days and Mother’s Days and Thanksgiving and… Neices and nephews are growing up not knowing us. Parents or siblings are hospitalized and we can’t help take care of them. Family members pass away and we aren’t there to grieve with those we love. There are definite downsides.

But… it is right that we’re here. We’ve know that from the beginning. God has made that crystal clear for us in his incredible protection and provision. We are blessed beyond what we could ever think or imagine.

So, all in all, yep, it’s mostly good. More fun than frustrating.

This is sort of like a time capsule. It’ll be interesting to read back over this update in a year.

Definition of a Daddy

The definitions I’ve found online of the term “Daddy” are:

Begetter, Father, Male Parent, an informal word for Father, the dominant male in a group; boss; top man.

This is my definition:

Me and my Daddy!

And this:

Ok, maybe not… How about this?

There’s just something special about a Daddy. Daddy is the person who you go to for advice, joke with, laugh with, cuddle with. Daddy’s is who’s lap you crawl into. And it’s comfortable there. You just sort of sink in. Although I haven’t crawled up in my dad’s lap in a WHILE – for his sake! - I still call him Daddy and my girls call their dad, Daddy. I think it’s kind of weird for a guy kid to call their dad, Daddy, so Jakeb is exempt from that and from crawling up in his lap. I’m sure he’s swiping his brow in relief right now. haha. Guy kids shouldn’t kiss their dad on the lips either. That is just too weird for words. Seen it and it’s gross. Kids in general, of any age, shouldn’t kiss their parents on the mouth. It’s just weird. My opinion. I digress…..

Happy Father’s Day to the two BEST begetters, fathers, male parents, dominant males in a group, bosses, top men……

DADDY’S IN THE UNIVERSE!!!

The Beginning of The End of The Beginning

Having just returned from New Zealand, the Koru symbol and its meaning is fresh on my mind. The image above is a double koru made from greenstone (pounamu) in New Zealand. The koru is a spiral shape based on the shape of a new unfurling silver fern frond and symbolizing new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori art, carving and tattoos. The circular shape of the koru helps to convey the idea of perpetual movement while the inner coil suggests a return to the point of origin. (Wikipedia) 

The double koru to me is a symbol of Jakeb’s new beginning as well as our family’s. Endings are necessary in order to have beginnings. Beginnings are a vital to the business of living life. The idea of perpetual movement, knowing where you began but being willing to move forward, offers hope and yes, as the Maori’s believe, growth, strength, and peace.

————————

Yesterday was the beginning of the process of the ending of Jakeb’s life as a resident in Singapore and the beginning of what will be a brand new and exciting beginning for him in Texas. The moving company came and packed up his things that can’t go in regular cargo on an airplane and shipped them to Texas. We watched. I took pictures cause that’s just what I do. I shed a tear. Ok, maybe two.

When Jakeb comes back to Singapore next time, he will have to fill out the immigration form as a tourist. No more thumbprint on the scanner, easy in, easy out. Can’t say I’m too happy about all of this but it’s right. This time in our life is definite proof that just because something is right doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Here is Jakeb’s most recent post on his blog. Times Like These

My son is amazing.

I will miss him.

That is all.

:’-(

New Zealand 2011 Trip Details

I’ve posted some random posts throughout our trip. They were more for fun. This one is more for function. I like to put our trip details on the blog for our own future reference but also because we are frequently asked for info and in case I’m feeling sort of lazy I can just pass along a link to this post. Read on if you will but unless you’re planning a trip to NZ you might not enjoy this post too much. I’ll post some pics too just to keep it a little interesting.

We flew Singapore Air. Great flight. Great crew. Great food. Great service. No complaints at all. Except that we did exhaust all good movies and tv shows between the flight there and back.

Our total trip time was 11 days. Last trip we stayed longer but we stayed in hotels and drove in an SUV. This time we didn’t have as much time to begin with but we drove and stayed in an RV. 11 days was enough of that. Not enough of New Zealand but enough of RV living.

We left on a Friday evening, flew about 10 hours through the night and arrived in Christchurch. We were picked up at the airport by Wilderness Motorhomes and taken to what would be our new home for the 11 days. We were impressed with the company. Not really so much with our particular motorhome. We got the one we got because it fits 6 people and we wanted space, however, it was an older model and was SUPER bouncy and rattley. We also had issues with our heater not working and it was cold. Luckily we were able to buy some heater fans to use at night. It did have a propane heater but the fumes from the propane were awful and I was afraid we wouldn’t wake up in the morning so we froze that first night until we got the heater fans. Anyway, if we do it again, we’ll get a newer model RV and sacrifice a little space if needed but we’d definitely use Wilderness again.

We immediately went to the grocery store and bought necessities like Speights, Pear Cider and Diet coke and milk and water, of course. Toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, and staple foods (bread, butter, peanut butter, fruit, sugar, coffee cream, coffee, hot chocolate, chips, etc.). I loved this part of RV living as opposed to renting a car. We ate out alot but at least we had snacks on hand and we could survive without having to stop. Loved having a built in potty too!

The first night, we stayed in a campground just outside of Christchurch since we were running/walking the Marathon/10k on Sunday morning. The campground was less than impressive since people actually lived there in campers so parts of it seemed a little shady, but it served its purpose and we even got a double rainbow out of the deal.

We pretty much assumed that if we stuck to Top 10 Holiday Parks, we’d have better luck. Those or the Kiwi Holiday Parks. We stayed in a Kiwi park in Wanaka because it was within walking distance to town and Top 10′s in Tekapo, Arrowtown, Queenstown, and Franz Joseph. We stayed in The Hermitage at Mt Cook which we highly recommend. It was a nice break from the RV after two nights and then we stayed at the Airport Delta Motel in Christchurch on our final night in NZ after we turned in the RV. Tommy chose Airport Delta because of it only having two floors, after staying on the 24th floor of the Grand Chancellor during our last trip and it now teetering after the earthquakes, and because they had airport shuttle service. He made a good choice. We would definitely stay there again. Plus it survived all of the previous earthquakes and even a good rumble during our night there.

Here is the listing of places we visited. Clearly we didn’t stay overnight in all of them but we did stop in all of them. Queenstown is the only place we stayed at more than one night. We stayed there for three night. The Holiday Park there gave us a stay 2 nights and get one free deal, which was fine since that was our plan anyway. We spent one whole day of that time driving to Milford Sound, leaving at 4:30 am and getting back to Queenstown about 6pm. Long day but totally worth it. There were other parks to stay in closer to Milford Sound, even one AT Milford Sound but it would have set our schedule off for the rest of our trip so we needed to get back to Queenstown and continue on driving from there the next day.

Day 1-2
Singapore
Christchurch
Lake Tekapo

Day 3-4
Mt. Cook (Eat at the Mountain Lodge if it’s open. It was closed for a month this time since the owners went on vacation.)
Cromwell (MUST eat at the Tin Goose Cafe!! We ate there twice and got food for breakfast the next day so we essentially ate there three times.)

Arrowtown (MUST eat at The Willows Restaurant and Bar! Stayed at the Born of Gold Holiday Park. Nice park and easy walk to town.)

Day 5-7
Queenstown (MUST eat at the Speights restuarant!! We also enjoyed staying at the Creeksyde Top 10 Holiday Park. Quirky and fun.)

Milford Sound (We did the 2.5 hour Southern Discoveries Cruise. Even cold and overcast, it was still amazing.) 

Te Anau (Our favorite $5 Venison Pie joint was closed until September. Oh my, the disappointment!)
Queenstown

Day 8
Cromwell
Wanaka (One of the most beautiful places we went to but the town itself was not very “traditional” family oriented if you catch my drift. Also, lots of smoking and skateboarding dudes and dudettes (yes, I’m totally stereotyping) but it was a good place to stop. We’re glad we didn’t spend more than one night there.)

Day 9
Fox Glacier
Franz Joseph (Stayed at the Rainforest Holiday Park)
Tasman Sea
Arthur’s Pass (MUST eat at The Wobbly Kea!!!!!)

Day 10
Christchurch

Day 11
Singapore

So it seems that since a few of our favorite places were closed for the winter, running a restaurant might be the business of choice in NZ. Work your tail off for 9 months out of the year and shut down for 3 and go on vacation. Works for me! It didn’t work so well for us this time since a few of our most favorite places were closed but alas, we found replacements without too much difficulty.

We highly recommend renting a car or an RV and touring around New Zealand. I would think it would be easier with young kids to have an RV since you could have snacks and a potty on hand at all times. NZ makes it so easy to navigate. Roads and highways are clearly marked and there are plenty of restaurants and gas stations and beautiful places to stop at along the way. And in an RV, the parks are amazing. NZ is very camper friendly. NZ is just friendly in general.

We feel like October, Spring, was a better time to go. Everything was open and it was still cool and snow was still visible on the mountains. In June, although it’s supposed to be winter and the weather was definitely cool, there was no snow and the weather just wasn’t as good overall and it seemed like alot of business were closed and alot was under construction. Maybe they were getting ready for ski season or maybe things are just slower in the Winter so it’s a good time to get stuff done. I honestly don’t think there is a bad time to go to NZ, though.

I hope we get to go again. If/when we do, we’ll have to explore some new areas. Maybe the North Island or other parts of the South Island that we haven’t been to.

Here is the link from our 2010 trip. New Zealand 2010

I tried…

Trying to get a picture of all three of them, acting normal, at the same time is just impossible. Perhaps it is because they are not normal. I know this is not a surprise, right?

This is what happened when I tried to get a picture of them at dinner in Wanaka with a picturesque view.

Yep, my kids are dorks.

They did surprise me on occassion. They seem to perform better when a stranger is taking their photo.

 

P.S. It totally annoys me that I can’t post an individual picture in the body of the post without it being in the gallery. Just ignore that the family picture is in the gallery. It doesn’t fit there but I don’t know how to take it out.