Hamster Update

 These are our Christmas hamsters, Darth Vader on the left and Luke Skywalker on the right.  By the way, if you or any of your children like Star Wars, you MUST go to You Tube and search for "bark side"-it is a hilarious video! 

I am pleased to say that they are still with us-we had heard horror stories from people whose didn't live long at all.  ***Sad to say that since I typed this post, we are down to 1 hamster.  Darth Vader died sometime during the night of January 29th.  We had no idea anything was wrong with him and Luke thankfully seems fine.

 They are doing well, growing-they can now jump and hang from the edge of the box, trying to climb out.  They love to run and climb and like cheese and broccoli in addition to their scoop of hamster food every day.

 Here is Scott with DV

 Told you they liked to climb

Here is Luke running in the hamster dragster-we turn the car part on its end to make another wheel and we don't have to follow the rolling car around to make sure it doesn't roll down steps or a ledge into a bathroom.

Ashley and what we have been doing lately

I had been very frustrated trying to be a part of several really worthwhile charity projects/volunteer opportunities and for some reason in spite of my best efforts it wasn't working out-something came up at home one Saturday, twice times or meeting places were changed or I missed the announcement of the new one. 

Then I just really felt like the Lord was saying to me-remember that as a wife and mom your first ministry is to be to your own family.  Not that the activities I was trying to get into were bad but I felt the need to really focus on particularly the extra time that I have with Ashley now.  Next year she will go to preschool 5 days a week, though from  only 9 am to noon.  So I have been putting more effort into making time with her special.

One morning recently I let her plan our morning.  She loves to ride her Hello Kitty bike so I walked and she rode her bike.  I got Greg to look at the map when he got home that night to tell me how far we had gone-it was over 1/2 a mile-no wonder she said she her legs were tired.  When we got home she wanted to go swimming so we did that too.

One morning she seemed a little tired and draggy when we got home from the bus stop so we mixed up some blueberry muffins and sat down to watch Sleeping Beauty.  She loves a princess movie.  I paused to go check on the muffins and she jumped off the sofa, ran ahead of me to the kitchen, and I found her bent over looking into the oven door window.  She said "they're turning into muffins!"  so excited-it was like they had been rocks when we put them in or something.  We also had a breakfast picnic of cereal while watching Sleeping Beauty.

Funny side story about the muffins-I was making them to take to our BSF fellowship-time we meet early for a sharing time before Bible study begins.  Everyone asked if they were homemade.  I laughed and told them that I tore open a package and added water but that my little girl helped.  They thought that was funny and all the muffins were either eaten or taken home.

She is getting to be such a big girl and is so proud of the things she can do "by herself"  She still loves to trace her name and is getting better and better at writing it by herself.  This past Saturday she swam the length of our pool without any flotation assistance! 

She loves helping me in the kitchen.  She got an apron just her size for Christmas and is quick to pull a chair over to the counter any time she thinks that she can help with something.  I miss the refrigerator section in the grocery store with canned biscuits and bread dough, crescent rolls, etc.  I can buy the break apart cookies here but instead of bread nearly everyone eats rice.  Greg casually suggested that I make homemade biscuits-I love him so much, but he knows practically nothing about cooking.  I explained that that was going to be interesting since I can't buy self-rising flour and  have to "make" my own buttermilk by adding vinegar to the regular milk.  Ashley had a great time helping though-she loved rolling out the dough and helping me cut out the biscuits.  Still haven't hit upon a great recipe that everyone likes though.


Here is my little "baker girl" as she calls herself

 This is her class at school-the boys in green shirts were moving back to Korea, so I took a picture of the class for them to have-from left to right Bjorn, Jun and Chan, Andy, Ashley, Lia, and Yanna

 This was Sunday morning before church-wearing her new dress that I picked out for her on Aunt Emily, Uncle Jake, and their girls' behalf for Christmas.  She loved it because it was pink, polka dotted, and twirly!  What better combination is there?

 She looks so big and grown up to me in these pictures.

This is so funny because I PROMISE I did not tell her to pose this way-she did that totally by herself!

Last Friday, we went to the boys school and went to the library to check out books.  She loves their reading loft and I think would sit there all day if we could (they prefer for us not to be there when classes are having their library time) bringing me book after book to read to her in the super cool reading loft!

I did a monumental thing with my little girl last week-we began watching (but didn't have long to get into it that day) Anne of Green Gables.  I love that movie and had some of the music from it played when Greg and I got married.  My maid of honor, Kim, and I have always said that someday we want to visit Prince Edward Island and now Ashley can go too.  She loved Anne's red braids-likes it when I have time to braid her ponytail or pigtails.  I look forward to watching ALL the hours of the movies with her and sharing other "girly" things like the Little House on the Prairie books-she already loves the short picture book versions, and American Girl books.

Fort Santiago Tour

 We went to Fort Santiago Saturday (Jan 13th) to do an interactive history tour.  It was designed for kids and our older 2 did great paying attention and learned some things-it was focused on Jose Rizal but also talked some about the history of the Philippines.

 Riding a calesa or carriage-Ashley's class talked about these in their unit on transportation so she was very excited about getting to really ride in one.  Her teacher told them that it was like the carriage Cinderella rode in.  We have refrigerator magnets with calesas on them.

 This is the entrance to the actual fort.  The whole area is called Intramuros-a walled city

 Another colorful calesa

 Scott and Ryan-being boys!

 They had beautiful gardens

 Some more calesas

 The kids saw a playground and of course wanted to play-they went running over and as I walked up behind them the kids already playing said "oh look American kids!"  It is still funny to always be the oddity!

 Walking with Daddy

 Our tour guide was Jay, in the white shirt and backpack

 This is the Pasig River-used to be prettier before dumping from industry polluted it

 Ashley found flowers that she wanted to wear in her hair

 We were supposed to ride in a jeepney to this nearby museum but the jeepney was late so we crowded in the back of a truck-it was enclosed.

 The museum was neat-a guide talked about and pictures were lit up as she talked about the Philippines

 a model of Intramuros

 The view outside the museum as the sun was starting to set

 We did get to ride a jeepney-our first one (except for Ryan's field trip one that he got to ride)-back to the fort.  It was cool but I am sure glad that I don't have to try to do that with all 3 kids all the time and groceries too.

This was the outside of the jeepney that we rode

Afterwards we went to the Mall of Asia for dinner-I thought these bushes were funny.  They are trimmed to say "I heart MOA"

More Funny things

1.  We had a friend over on Friday for pizza and a movie-his name is Simon, he's in Kindergarten and he is from Chile.  We ate pizza for dinner and then got ready to watch Cars 2.  Simon begged to watch it in Spanish because he is still learning English.  So we listened in Spanish and our boys read the English subtitles-it was funny.  McQueen still says "KaChow" in Spanish-

As you can see, all the boys were really into the movie-Please pray for Simon and his family, he, his older brother, and their mom ended up sick and in the hospital with a bad stomach thing later in the weekend-oh and her husband was gone on a business trip too!  So sad-praying they are all feeling better soon!  Since I actually wrote this post, they are home now but still recovering-very tough!

2.  They're back-some of the lizards at least-this is kind of like a where's waldo? book-do you see the lizard?  I didn't until I went to hang my towel back up on the hook-

The day before this, I came into our room that night to get ready for bed and saw something move out of the corner of my eye and it was a lizard on the floor.  Before we came in from the pool to get our showers where we found this little friend, Ashley and I saw a lizard sunning himself on a rock by the pool-that's where the lizards should stay-outside!

3.  I saw something for sale on the register counter at the bookstore last week that I have never seen before-toilet seat sanitizing spray and the brand name was "holy seat".  I had to laugh just a little.

4.  On a similar note, at the mall closest to our house, there is a "fancy" bathroom-meaning a public one with seats, soap, and yes, even paper towels to dry your hands, and toilet paper.  What's the catch you ask?  You have to pay 10 pesos to use it-that's about a quarter.  They also have a family lounge area for nursing and a small playroom for little ones.  The first time I went in there I was taken by a friend and someone else that was with us asked if you could "save" your bathroom ticket and re-use it next time-we all got a good laugh out of that.

5.  A friend of mine was going with her family to Korea for Chinese New Year-they got a really good deal on their airplane tickets.  She realized why the deal was so good when she realized that the tickets were for leaving at 1:30 am instead of pm.  I had to laugh when a mutual friend told me about it but can't wait to hear all about their trip.

6.  I had lunch last week with a lady named Pat who is new to Manila-her husband works at Fluor and they moved here from Perth, Australia.  She is making adjustments to a new life here.  We had a laugh arguing about who drives on the "wrong" side of the road.  I have another Greenville friend (whom I wished Greg had introduced me to in person before we both moved halfway around the world) who is adjusting to a new life in Perth with her husband and 2 young children.  She finds things different and hard in Perth whereas Pat was at home there-it's all what you get used to.

I have also been following the blog of a friend of a friend who was in China with her husband's job assignment with their 2 daughters.  He was just offered a new job (coincidentally with Fluor-but he didn't work for them in China) and they are within 2 weeks of finding out about the new job-packed and moving back to Greenville.  They made the most of their time in China-traveling and learning about life in a new place.  They also had to deal with life someplace where not many spoke English and life was very un-Western (ie. not many western restaurants at all).  I need to count my blessings, even though I do still miss Chick-Fil-A! 

Greg and I have talked about how this gives a whole new perspective to how to treat people new to or unfamiliar with an area-what you are comfortable with can be very strange and challenging to someone else.

Christmas Cards and Greg's new Office

Thank you so much for the Christmas cards-it has been fun to hear from you and see pictures of children who have grown up so much since we left.  We have received several recently-The mining and metals group moved to some new office space over the holidays so we think our mail was slowed down even more than usual (just getting here) while someone figured out that Greg Elliott didn't sit where he used to but was in a different building.  We still have some cards at our mail forwarding address because we are waiting on one more thing to arrive before we have them send us a package of mail.  Just one of the funny things about living here!

I should have taken my camera when we went over the holiday because Greg would have been less embarassed about me taking pictures when very few people were around.  We took his mom to see the office as boxes and furniture were being moved in.  I didn't think to take pictures then and may not get to now unless I sneak in sometime when Greg doesn't know I'm coming!  Anyway it is funny being in new office space-never been occupied before.  Greg had some good stories when he got home the first day-they had dry erase boards, but no markers, sometimes the elevators work and sometimes they don't, sometimes they remember to turn the air cons on and sometimes they don't.  It will be months yet before people's nametags and labels for conference rooms, etc will be ready.  They saw a mouse one day-ran out from under Greg's assistant's desk-she was not thrilled about that.  It is a very nice building-in spite of all the stories and the mining and metals lobby is really neat with lots of cool pictures of mine sites and equipment.  If I am "allowed" to take pictures sometime I promise I will post them.

A few things from way back last year!

We had fun at a dessert party with a few people from Greg's office and I had to post some pictures after talking about my baking and getting ready.  Marcos and Jaime getting some dessert-above.

 Racing cars on Mario Kart on the wii-we had fun with racing and bowling!

 Below is my short pound cake-don't know why it turned out short!  It could have been that my oven seems to run about 50 degrees too hot so I have to estimate and turn everything down so it doesn't burn or that you are supposed to have all the ingredients at room temperature (but I forgot to let my flour sit out and warm up-I have to keep it in the refrigerator here or it gets bugs in it) who knows?  but it tasted good anyway!  I was a little sad because I wanted to serve the cake with whipped cream and strawberries.  My mixer here is so sad I knew it wouldn't whip cream to make the good homemade kind so I bought the squirt kind in a can.  I waited as long as I could to squirt it into a bowl and because of the humidity here it deflated and looked like white mush in a bowl really fast!  Oh well!

 Scott is really enjoying piano lessons!

 That is Ashley inside her pillowcase from her princess sheets-the things Daddies do to little girls!!!

 I enjoyed having a place to put breakable Christmas things-so glad we brought my parents dining room furniture with us!

 These are 2 other things Greg brought us back from Chile-an Easter Island statue and these cute little lapis lazuli penguins.

Another funny thing that dads like to do