Redefining Home: WINNER!

We have a winner for last week's giveaway of Redefining Home: Squatty Potties, Split Pants, and Other Things that Divide My World!!

My thanks, first, to Carrie for allowing me to give away a copy of her book on this here dum-diddly blog. I'm honored to call her friend.

I had a willing helper, who took the phrase, "don't look into the bowl when you draw..." phrase quite literally! 17 names went into my bootleg Williams and Sonoma bowl...


Congrats, Michelle! Your (hopefully) very first book about split pants and squatty potties!! :)


Michelle won via Facebook comment, when she had trouble commenting on the previous blog post. Sorry to anyone else that had trouble!

Thanks to everyone for dropping your name in the hat bowl! Even if you didn't get a free copy, we still highly recommend reading Redefining Home!

Happy 4th of July... And a giveaway!!

Happy 4th of July!!

It was a quiet, rainy day in our part of the world. One of the most relaxed and quiet Independence Days I've every experienced. The kids and I made an American flag today out of construction paper. I discovered Eden already knows the Pledge of Allegiance...how did this happen without me being aware of it?!?! And we danced around the living room to some fun music.

We're living in a land where people lack many of the every day freedoms that we enjoy as Americans.
We're incredibly thankful to our fore father's for this gift and their sacrifice.

Above all we're grateful for a Heavenly Father that has provided us Freedom. Freedom in Christ, for it is by his death we have been set free!

In honor of America's Independence day...we're giving away a book! It's written by a friend who, like us, is living in that limbo state of being a "free" American, living in a communist country. It's called, "Redefining Home: Squatty Potties, Split Pants, and Other Things that Divide My World."

It's available on kindle and paperback version.

I couldn't put it down once I started because I identify so much with every chapter of this book.
If you love hilarious stories, this book is for you!
If you want more insight into our life over here, this book is for you!
If you want to hear heartfelt stories of daily struggles, this book is for you!

So if you want a chance to win a copy of her book, leave a comment below. We'll toss all the names into a drawing and announce the winner on Monday, July 9th!

Happy Fourth of July!!

It's all about the Food

Over the span of our 3+ years in Asia, we've made lots of trips to Thailand for babies births, visa runs, meetings, etc...
Somewhere in there our fascination with The Land of Smiles went from elephants and beaches to food and friends.  When I think about Thailand trips now, I don't think about sandy beaches, night safaris, or elephant rides anymore.  What comes to mind is food.

This could be why I always come home from there weighing an additional 5 pounds. And that's not in my suitcase.



It's not just the amazing Pad Thai, incredible fresh fruit smoothies, and my infatuation with mango sticky rice, it's all the other ethnic restaurants that have found their way to Thailand.
Among our favorites is a little hole in the wall Middle Eastern place run by a plump Jewish woman who pinches my kids' cheeks and treats me like I'm her daughter.



On our last visit she gave me step by step instructions on how to make falafel.



For the record: Hyssop is a very hard word to understand and could pass as a literal hiccup in the conversation, especially when spoken with a thick middle-eastern accent.
"Did you say, Yeeesoap?"
"No, Eeeesup"
"Oh....ok...." (I was totally trying to play it off that I completely understood what she was saying)


Mexican food, American burgers and fries, Brick oven pizza, Lebanese shawarmas, and delicious Indian food!



I'm just now noticing that I'm wearing the same thing in all of those pictures. Awesome. Now you know the secret to my packing...only bring one change of clothes.


Those 5 pounds are always so worth it.
Oh Thailand, we love you!

When Travel Brings You Blog Delays

Three weeks away from home.
Three countries.
One train ride.
Four plane rides.

Our life has consisted a lot of this the past three weeks:


It's not a great picture...I know. But someday when I think back upon this time in our lives, a blurry airport picture will be an adequate depiction.
Us and airports...we're bff though. Our kids are pretty great little travelers. Sure, occasionally they get in trouble for playing in the Buddhist Monk sitting area, or for disturbing the Muslim prayer room, but all in all, they handle it really well!

We made our first trip to Malaysia, which is Bahasa for "Hotter than the blazing sun."

I made that up.

What a fun little piece of Asia. It feels so far removed from The Big Chicken, yet every where we turned there were little reminders that we were still in Asia.
For Eden, there was no reprieve of picture taking. She was still constantly asked to pose for pictures.



While there, we dropped in on some friends. Between us, we've added 6 people since we saw them last.



Great friends + Gorgeous waterfalls = fun day.



"Why," you ask, "are you wearing t-shirts and pants while swimming in a place hotter than the surface of the sun?"
Ahhhh, yes. Good question. That would be because if the vast majority of the other women there are wearing this to the water park...



...we would feel a little uncomfortable running around showing off our knees and shoulders!



We fit in some time for good food too.
mmmmm, fried rice.



Even with all the crazy going on with 10 people under one roof, 6 of them being 4 and under, we had a great time with the Sungai family! Their BabyBird even let me sneak her off for some pictures and some conversation regarding her and Caleb's planned betrothal! Their brothers will have to work out their differences, as they thought pummeling each other was great fun, but they'll make good groomsmen one day.



Isn't she gorgeous? answer: mmm,hmmmm...


We spent a day by ourselves touring KL. Well, that's put loosely. We spent a day hitting up Krispy Kreme, Chili's, GAP, and the biggest playground area I've ever seen.



And took pictures with the tallest twin towers in the world.



Right after this is when we got in trouble for being on the swings. oops.



And we even got a family photo together. The guy I asked to take our picture told me he'd take "just one."
Yep, still in Asia!

Salem Luke is Three

When you're three, having 2 birthdays is obviously the coolest thing ever. So yesterday when we told Salem that his birthday was the following day, he was ecstatic. More presents, more chocolate cake, more blowing out of candles, more friends...all within a week. A three year old's dream.

He was excited about his chocolate cupcakes and was slightly disappointed that I didn't have them ready in time for him to eat for breakfast.



Sweet boy...where has the past three years gone?!



We've spent this past week in Malaysia with some dear friends so he got to celebrate with some more little buddies on his actual birthday.
He's spent all three of his birthdays in three different countries. What a fun tradition we've started for him! I'm already pondering where we can spend his fourth!



We are so blessed by you, Salem Luke!
Today you saw tire tracks on the pavement and said to me, "Look mommy, I see the car paw prints!"
Yes, three is going to be a fabulous age for you.
Looking forward to the next year with you, Salem!

儿童节

June 1st is a nationally celebrated holiday... Children's Day!
Most schools, offices, public work places, take this day off and people often take their kids to the park, to buy new toys, or do something extra special that day.
Eden's preschool decided to do a group outing to the Springs Park and put on a little show for all the preschool kids' parents.

We thought we were showing up to the park on time. But in fact, we were 9 minutes late. So Brandon had to jump rope 90 times. hilarious.


The teachers picked out cute uniforms for the kids to wear on this special day. Eden doesn't normally wear this to school, but I wouldn't mind if she did. So cute!!



We meandered through the park, stopping to take pictures here and there and let the kids feed some pigeons...where one deliberately tried to attack me. No lie.
Salem inherited a new giant pinwheel which he of course turned into a weapon to chase the pigeons with.


Then we reached a shaded area and the show began. Eden's preschool ranges from 2-7 year olds and they each did their own little performance, and then one group one at the end. We're truly blessed to be a part of this preschool, who her teachers are all Believers and most of the kids and their parents are part of a Sunday Group together. So when you hear the teacher talking in between songs, she's sharing about the Living Water, and lots of what the kids are singing or reciting are worship songs or verses from the word.



Did you see my little girl shakin' her hips? Yeah, apparently dancing runs in the family. :)
I was literally bursting because I was so proud of her. Not for the shakin' the hips part. But for the singing in a second language, for understanding what she was saying, and for following instructions and being a good example to her little friends. She was precious.

Her teachers love her. And the feeling is quite mutual.



Such a fun ErTongJie 儿童节 !!

Birthdays!

I married a wonderful man. He laughs at my corny jokes. Puts up with my need for a good argument every now and then. And doesn't make fun of my poor cooking skills.

He asked for a white chocolate oreo cheesecake for his 28th birthday. So that's exactly what he got.

Never mind the fact that I completely misjudged how much cheesecakes grow when they cook and how they spill over into your oven if you don't cook them in the right size pan and then make your house smell like burned marshmallows...
He was very grateful. So it may have been the weirdest looking cheesecake ever, but it still tasted great!

Happy Birthday to my favorite man ever.


We also decided to throw Salem a little pre-birthday party before we travel this next week. We'll be at a friend's home on his actual birthday and will no doubt celebrate again, but I thought I'd oblige his request for a tiger cake while having my own kitchen. (because that obviously helped so much with my overflowing cheesecake...)

For some insane reason, I thought I could just whip out my fantastic art skills and icing-paint a tiger on top of a chocolate cake. Brandon suggested I practice drawing it with pen and paper first. There's a reason God brought this man into my life.

Because it turns out my fantastic art skills make tigers look more like high, worried, grandpa lions.

Hey, don't hate. I didn't major in Art.

Back-up plan...tiger stripes. How hard can that be?!



Obviously, I didn't major in culinary design either, but it turns out, Salem thought tiger stripes on a cake was beyond cool. He keeps talking about his Tiger Stripe Cake.

What would a tiger birthday be without unwrapping a stuffed animal tiger wrapped with striped wrapping paper? (well...christmas paper wasn't going to cut it, so I had to get creative! I'm not exactly living in the land of wrapping-paper-abundance)


Rounding out the night he and his new favorite friend proudly displayed their chocolate mustaches.

Thrilled soon-to-be-3-year-old-boy...check!

Looking forward to his actual birthDAY next week!