Marathon Trip

Tonight Kyle left for a marathon trip to the US. There is an important client meeting at the GE plant in Cincinnati and the client requested that he go. So off he went. His flight leaves KL at 11:00pm on Wednesday, he arrives in Ohio Thursday afternoon, has dinner plans that night, the meeting on Friday and then on a plane back home Friday night. He will arrive in KL on Sunday night at 10:00pm. So in total he will be gone 4 nights and only sleep in a hotel one. He has meetings the following week in KL so no way to even see family. What a bummer.

The only blessing of the trip is that I sent an empty suitcase and list for Target! Ok, a blessing for me and a chore for him.

Send him "sleeping on the plane" prayers.

Proud Papa

Kyle is now the proud daddy of a Weber gas grill! I was at the coffee shop one day and ran into our neighbor who happened to be organizing a new gas grill to be shipped in a coworkers container (our new neighbors). I then asked if they have room for one more? Lucky for Kyle they did.

Many thanks to Jared and Leisha for picking it out and arranging all the details. Their container arrived on Friday, so now all the neighbors on the street have sweet grills. I think a bbq is in order. Now Kyle has to go on the quest to find the gas tank and convertor valves. Hope to be up and running soon.

You might ask why we need to have a grill shipped from the US? Believe it or not they are SO expensive here. A small gas grill goes for about $800 and one like this Weber would be more like $1500. Crazy.

PS - the girls had to get our their tools and help daddy. Some assembly required.

Port Dickson

We were looking for a quick beach weekend so we chose Port Dickson which is an hour and fifteen minutes southwest of KL. Not know for the prettiest beaches but certainly convenient. Since we grew up on the Gulf of Mexico I knew we wouldn't be disappointed. With all the crystal blue oceans and white sand beaches around here, people have high expectations.

We stayed at Avillion which we had heard was a good family resort. Our room was up on stilts over the water. However when the tide went out we were over sand. The room was nice and had an outside shower. The girls thought that was super cool. The grounds of the place were beautiful. They also had a bird sanctuary and petting farm. The few peacocks on the grounds were amazing. Samantha was even brave enough to pet the bunnies. Emily was not so sure, especially when the chickens approached her.

I have to say the favorite part for the kids was probably the water slide and the sand. Samantha probably went down the slide 50 times. The beach was also nice. It was very well groomed and perfect sand for building "princess" castles. I recently found the princesses from Samantha's birthday cake and they have turned out to be great pool toys. Samantha dives for them and Emily just loves putting them in and out of the buckets.

The most exciting moment was when we put Emily to bed and the three of us went out on our small balcony to eat dessert. Shortly after we shut the doors we see Emily on the inside playing with the knob. Shit, shit, shit. Could she really be smart enough to lock us out? I tried opening the door but couldn't. I start to panic because we are on stilts over the water and our neighbors are not within climbing distance. Luckily Kyle had his phone and started to look up the number to the resort. I tried wiggling the doors again and they finally opened. Crisis averted, although poor Emily was scared inside all by herself.

We made it home relatively sun burn free and everyone was in bed early tonight. Samantha is so excited to go back to school tomorrow. She told me "Mom, we have to get my school bag ready." So she got it out and packed it up tonight. I think she even loaded it in the car. After a two week break I too am ready for school.

Enjoy the pictures.

Malaysian Music ala Samantha

This group was at our hotel playing traditional Malaysian music. We listened to a few songs and then they invited Samantha to come play. She took off her shoes and climbed right up there. He offered her the sticks to hit the "bonang" but she went right for the pink tambourine. Not too bad huh?

More from Port Dickson to come...

Bepa's Birthday

Kyle just got home from Norway and I mentioned that we need to do his dad's birthday video. Then he informs me we are two days late. I have it on my calendar for the 15th. Sorry Bepa!

We hope you had a great day!

Ordering Pizza

Some days you are reminded that you do indeed live in a foreign country. How hard can it be to order pizza one might ask? Especially from Domino's, being an American company and all. Pretty soon after we arrived Kyle called them and was on the phone probably 30 minutes trying to order a cheese pizza with olives on half. What a process to give them our address and figuring out what kind of crust we wanted. When he got off the phone I was making fun of him and how long it took. At the end I think we were happy it arrived at our house and was pizza because Kyle was unsure what would come if it came at all.

So a few months later I call to order the pizza. I soon see how challenging this task is. I am not exactly sure why it is a pain in the ass, but it is. Certainly the language barrier is a problem and although they can speak English the accents are difficult on both sides. Plus everything here is all about the promotion. So trying to order specific pizzas not following a promotion is tough. So after about 10 minutes I tell the lady just to give me exactly what we had last time. Now I am appreciating Kyle's ordering skills. Once it arrived I think I paid 70 ringgit and on the box are all the coupons for literally half the price and more food. I got ripped off.

This week Kyle and our neighbor across the street have both been traveling so we have been hooking up with Leisha and her girls (Clarie and Catherine) for play dates and combined dinners. Tonight they were at our house and we decided to order pizzas. I call and surprisingly the conversation flows right through the order no issues. I order two large pizzas. She asks if I want extra cheese and I say no. So at the end she tells me 65 ringgit and 30 minutes. Then I remember the promotions. So I ask what kind of promotion they have now. She says "the promotion is with extra cheese". I say "well how much is it if I get extra cheese?" she says "50 ringgit mam". Duh, I say "well I will take extra cheese after all." She says "you also get cinnamon or garlic bread". I say "okay cinnamon bread". Now why they couldn't have explained that who knows. In the end we got extra cheese and bread for 15 ringgit less.

Promotion, promotion, promotion. Have to remember that.

Side note - this reminds me of when we went to turn in our rental car. Kyle called the guy and told him we were going out of town for the holidays and they could come pick up the car early. We rented by the month and used about 2.5 weeks. The guy actually tells Kyle that the weekly rate is more expensive and it would cost him "x" (I can't remember the amount) to turn it in early. Kyle tries to explain that if we turn it in early he could rent it to someone else but to no avail. They insist we would have to pay. Kyle then is annoyed and tells them we are NOT paying more money to give it back early. The guys says okay sir, we will pick it up at the end of the month. Boy, that was a tough one.

Cannon Ball

Lara's Birthday

Once again Samantha is on a two week school holiday so we have to pull out all the entertainment. So another baby birthday party was in order. This time it was Lara's 4th birthday. She invited Claire, Kathryn, Maiya and of course Emily. All the girls had a blast. First they had to put on dress up clothes and then the party could start. They played babies for a while, then with the balloons (which all popped at some point or another), hide and seek, then we decorated cupcakes. All the girls left with new little baby bottles and feeding bowls. I found them in the real baby aisle which ended up being much cheaper than the toys r us versions.

Nothing like 5 girls running all over the house screaming to get your day started!

Easter Weekend

Once again not much hoopla for the Christian holidays around here. A few cadburry eggs in the grocery store and that was about it. We decided to be very American and have a "chili fest" on Saturday night. We invited our new neighbors from across the street who are from Lake Charles, LA and another couple we know from Houston. I made my fail proof chili and it somewhat failed me. I guess with the shift in chili beans and also from jalapeno to a different green pepper caused it to be not very spicy. I even made a spicy and mild version, but the spicy was embarrassingly not spicy. Oh well the beer was cold.

Before dinner our neighbors invited Samantha over to decorate eggs. They have a 5 year old and 2 year old, both girls, so it is really nice for them to all play together. I have posted a picture of Samantha and her masterpieces. Of course with all the showing off she did, they were all cracked up today and we had to throw them away.

Then tonight we went to our English friend's house for a proper Sunday roast. Brett cooked us a fabulous roast of beef, roasted potatoes with parsnips, some green veggies, gravy and Yorkshire pudding. Kyle and googled the pudding before we went so we would be prepared. It was basically like a popover but you eat it with gravy as well. All of the above was delicious. Emily smothered her little penne pasta in the gravy and loved it. Then Samantha ate two slices of roast. I asked Brett if he was available for hire. It is funny because they call dinner - tea and dessert - pudding.

What a nice weekend.