i could say completely unpacked, but the kids still have boxes in their rooms. still, we’re pretty close.
we did manage to find the costume. an hour and 15 minutes before it was needed. it was discovered on a shelf. not in a box. after we’d tossed the contents of all the boxes onto the floor. not a recommended unpacking technique.
internet is coming to our house in the next few days.
c15 finishes finals today and that means he’s done until jan 4. a12 & s10 both finish friday.
the stockings are hung by the chimney with care by the front window. and this weekend we will be in search of something local to use for our christmas tree.
we have a smackdown winner, but i think i won’t announce it until i can get my pictures loaded.
we don’t have internet at our house, yet. it’s coming. for now – i’ll suffer through the wawee thing again.
we have no christmas decorations up and we want them up so we must unpack. which means i should be home and not here. but i really, really like it here.
oh, and a12’s in a play tomorrow. we packed her costume. and have no idea in which box we packed it… oops.
opening night of the kids’ school production of a christmas carol was tuesday.
he was very convincing.
we just found out we will be getting the keys to our house on thursday so we can start our move two days earlier than planned. hopefully, we will finish on saturday. i don’t think the new house has internet – but wawee is still close by and i’ve located another coffee shop with free wifi, so i’ll be around. just not as around.
thursday morning also conveniently happens to be a holiday - kids home from school. they’re gonna be so excited. but, i’m afraid i’ve inadvertently offended our mâe bâan’s husband. he’s been fairly insistant that he can move us. that we don’t need to get any other help. he has a vehicle and he can do it. but we’re doubtful. because here’s the vehicle.
so, i’ve managed to wrangle another family into helping. they have a truck – and, as is well known, owning a truck means helping out those in need of a truck. i’m thinking owning a truck might be a bit of a pain, but very glad they’ve got one.
so, i think we’re gonna have a bit of a smackdown. the truck bed vs. motorcy cart. which can move the most.
maybe we’ll be done on thursday.
there are an unknown number of 80 gajillion million classifiers in the thai language. (you can google to verify that if you like, but google doesn’t really know, because more classifiers are added every day.) and all these classifiers make things difficult – since if you want to be understood you have to be specific. take today for example, i was ordering some pad thai for a12 and i for lunch. and i was taking it home, since she’s sick – again. so i ordered pad thai, two plates, for home. i ordered in thai, but in that order. (you specify what you want then the number of what you want and then you need a classifier. unless you only want one, then you say the classifier before the number.) and what i meant when i ordered pad thai, two plates, for home was that i wanted it to go. which involves a to go container. which is not the same as a plate. it has it’s very own classifier. and because i didn’t use the classifier for a to go container (since i couldn’t remember it) i was served two orders of pad thai on ceramic plates. for dining in. and by dining in i mean eating on a stool on the sidewalk. but ceramic plates? that adds a touch of class.
it took 5 minutes to clear up the confusion. i said several times that i wanted it to go. and then i said i didn’t know how to say the right classifier, but i wanted it in a bag. but it took me explaining that i couldn’t eat two plates of pad thai all by myself and that my daughter was at home and she was going to eat a plate of it to make myself understood. and once the pad thai was transferred into take away containers i returned home to my sick child.
and the whole sick child thing is starting to worry me. part of me isn’t too worried because it is fairly mild, but part of me is running through any scenario where mild symptoms over long periods of time can be bad – i refuse to google that. she hasn’t been 100% since her first bout with this whatever it is. i was chalking that up to 2 weeks of sick takes a bit to bounce back from. but now i’m leaning towards maybe it wasn’t 2 weeks of sick, maybe we’re actually going into our 5th week of sick. it came back yesterday full force. fever and all. not a crazy high fever, but not low enough to classify as low grade. and it hasn’t gone away. even with medication. a doctor has been recommended to me and i’ve been told that if i go in and say i want something tested that they will actually run a test. you know like on her throat, or maybe do some blood work. right now i’m hoping to have her back at 100% for her birthday. it’s december 19, you’d think that would be plenty of time, right?
1) this might contradict what i thought 20 or more years ago, but it is far more difficult to raise a teen than to be one.*
2) when my youngest tells me, “wow, you’ve cooked almost every night lately, good going!” and i’ve really only cooked two nights in a row – that’s probably not something to be proud of. or to blog about.
3) i should never, ever, ever, never even look at a shirt that i might be interested in purchasing unless i am 100% (or more) certain that it will fit. or be too big. because vendors here have no problem with smiling, shaking their head and patting my belly while saying, “oh, too fat.”
*clarification – my teen and tween are both great kids. wonderful. lovely. amazing. but the minefield that seems to be teenage-dom? it’s treacherous.
again, i failed. the day before the last day and i miss posting. oh well. 1 out of 3 years isn’t too bad, right?
this morning i was reminded that the sidewalks in chiang mai are all wonky. no more walking around with my head in the clouds – that only makes for swollen and scraped knees and a bruised ego. but a british fellow came to my rescue – helped me up, saw that all my limbs still functioned and no blood was dripping anywhere and then he asked if i’d do it again – so he could get a picture for his blog. ha!
i’d post pictures of the disasters that are my knees, but michael has my – and our family’s only – camera in pakistan. he gets back saturday. hopefully there will be nothing left of the bruising that’s picture worthy by then.
upon returning home from a family outing to see a christmas carol (which i was so excited about because it has both robin wright penn and carey elwes in it and the first time i saw them in the same movie was the princess bride - which is movie magic. but even they couldn’t save a christmas carol for me. i think that fancy digital animation stuff is creepy) we found this…
some folks in our neighborhood have been setting off fireworks. they totally freak wăan out. and apparently he was trying to escape – into the house.
who knows how long he’d been stuck like that or if he’s tried it successfully before. he didn’t seem unhappy, just really excited to see us.
i’m sure i’ve posted a similar picture before, but every time i see something like this i’m dumbfounded. this picture was taken at rush hour on a major road. and, yes, there are ropes tied around all that stuff. he just must not trust his knot tieing abilities.
today, we celebrated our second thanksgiving in thailand. and i had a thanksgiving crisis. i’ve totally lost my family cook book. can’t find it anywhere. i’m sure it will turn up in the house shift. but it meant that i couldn’t make the banana pudding i was supposed to be making – the one that i always make. the same one that has been part of special meals since before i was born. i still took banana pudding, i found a recipe online. it was substandard. so very disappointing. i was also put in charge of sweet potatoes and broccoli salad. and for both i tried brand new recipes. the broccoli salad was okay – which is saying alot, because i don’t much care for broccoli salad. and the sweet potatoes. well, they’re now my new favorite sweet potatoes.
but even with out the banana pudding we still managed to share a lovely meal with friends.
due to space contraints there was no kids’ table. they were kicked out of the house. and yes, there was a kid shortage. one of ours went to the mall with friends. very unthanksgivingly like. two other kids were running around somewhere. hunting for swimsuits i believe, because they preferred the idea of a thanksgiving swim over thanksgiving dinner.
and s10 found the best seat in the yard. i was a little jealous.
this evening we have to do one of those just-doesn’t-feel-right things that happens occasionally here in thailand. we’ve got to get homework done and kids to bed, because tomorrow’s a school day.
