Changes

There have been some recent events in our lives that are expediting changes in our lives. Regis' father passed away this weekend and we will be returning to the states tomorrow for his funeral. Because of the cost and the distance, it will be the kids' and my final trip from Singapore back to the USA. While we have been planning and excited for our move back to the USA, the quickness of this decision makes it both easy and difficult. Pairing down your life into suitcases in two short days is both liberating and excruciating. Saying quick good-byes to good friends is hard. And missing some people altogether is even worse. But, as we know, the sun sets and the sun rises. While we go back sadly to remember and honor the passing of one special life, we also do so with optimism and hope for the next phase in our lives. To Singapore and the wonderful people we met here, thank-you and we will see you again sometime in the future. To those who follow this blog, I will see you again in the USA. Signing off for another 20 hour flight... Good night!

Frumpy

               My daughter called me frumpy today. Well, it was a little more cryptic and inadvertent than that but I got the general gist of it. It all started a few days ago with a purse. A very nice purse that my husband had given to me for our third anniversary. A year later when Adrienne arrived, I decided that the purse was too nice to be toting around with a baby who will likely poop and pee and throw up on it. So I stored the purse away in my closet to be resurrected at some unknown time in the future when it wouldn't be filled with wet wipes and half eaten boxes of raisins nor decorated with cartoon stickers and errant crayola marker markings. I suppose I should mention here that 'stored' means tossed the purse onto the top shelf of my closet. I am from Idaho, remember? Where the humidity is zero on most days. So when my mom was packing her suitcase to return to the USA on Monday and offered to take back anything we might want to keep, this purse popped into my mind (since I obviously won't be needing it in the next, say, five years or so). I went to get the purse from my closet and pulled out--I kid you not--the moldiest lump of leather you can imagine. It looked like a moldy block of cheese you would pull from the back of your refrigerator. No, worse than that because you probably would notice the cheese getting moldy and throw it out long before it was as bad as my purse. It is hard for me to put into words how disgusting it was. If I was smart, I would have taken a picture so you could share in my disgust. Instead, I held it at arm's length with two fingers, dropped it into a shopping bag, and made my husband throw it in the dumpster. That was the fateful end of my nice purse and both she (yes, I assume my purse was a she) and I wished that her death had gone the route of dirty children's fingers and spilled coffees rather than being eaten alive. 

            Now you might be wondering how this moldy purse and my daughter calling me a slob are related. Yes, well, since I pulled a moldy purse out of my closet on Monday, I have been leery of my closet and what is lurking in there. In general, the items in my closet fall into one of three categories: Items that I hate, items that I love, and items that I wear. Some things may fall into multiple categories, for example I may have a shirt that I hate but wear it anyway. (Call me crazy, I know, but why do I have clothes that I hate? Well, I have a hard time parting with things sometimes because I think there may be an opportunity in the future to use some of it. Lets not get into this bag of crazy now, OK?) The least worn category is the items that I love. I don't want to wear those clothes on a regular day while holding my bouncy five month old who has frequent yet surprising spit up sessions nor with my two year old who has started pretending that she is giving me a hug wherein she really wipes her nose and/or mouth on my shoulder. But after pulling that moldy sack from the top of my closet, I figured, to hell with it, everything in there must be ruined already so I might as well use my nice clothes as a wearable spit-up rag/napkin/kleenex. So this morning I pulled out a nice top to put on. And since I had a nice top, I figured I should put on a skirt too. Plus I happened to have showered that morning thanks to an extra long sleep-in by Nate and a working sling box application on my iPad playing Little Einsteins from my parents. When I walked into the living room, Adrienne glanced up (amazingly) from her Einsteins and started whinning, "No! No, Mommy! No!". "What, Adrienne? Whats wrong?" I asked. "No Mommy go to work today!". And hence her inadvertent message that I normally dress like a slob. Noted. I maybe should step up the beauty routine a notch or ten. On the plus side, my daughter apparently still likes hanging out with me after my fifth month at home even if I dress like a frumpy mummy. I have said it before and I'll say it again: I take my compliments anywhere I can get them! 

For the record, we are getting ready for bed here so my pajamas should be excused. Because most days I do change into normal clothes. Really, I do.

How Now Brown Cow

Oh, there are so many stories I have forgotten to write down in my vacation hiatus from blogging. So I may be back-filling in some of these posts. Sorry for the jump in the time line if you are one that likes things in chronological order.

Adrienne definitely has some Singaporean traits after having spent all of her two plus years growing up here. For example, her favorite meal is chicken rice, she has been known to say 'lah' now and again, and she is afraid to walk on grass, preferring the pavement instead (a trait that really concerns her father). In an effort to introduce Adrienne to some of the American greatness's and remind her of her true bloodline, my dad had several tricks up his sleeves for her month-long stay in Idaho. The first--root beer floats! It's hard to get more American than this delicious treat. True to her roots, Adrienne was a big fan. So much so that this was used several times to lure her from her much-loved bathtime (although it always warranted a bit of thought of whether or not it was worth prematurely ending a nice and warm bath). So score one for America. Here's the thing though--now my daughter wants 'Beer!' Should you hear her ask for it, I swear she is referring to Root Beer Floats. Maybe we should have gone with calling them Brown Cows...

Party's Over

Well, we have managed to get back to Singapore in relatively good shape and without any major disasters. A few minor disasters leading to an over night stay in San Fransisco and a 48 hour transit rather than 24 hours....with 2 kids, I might add. Ahem. But I have put that all behind me and will not be complaining about that further. So after all that, life is getting back to normal. Sigh. Not that that should warrant any sympathy, seeing as if you follow what we are up to I am just coming off a six week vacation. One could argue that returning to life after a six week hiatus is even harder than a shorter break. Especially when the current reality involves children and jetlag. It is like clockwork. Bing--3 am--all eyes pop open! Now I may or may not have mentioned this before but I have the best mother in the world. Seriously. The. Best. Because my mom willingly embarked as co-pilot for this crazy trip home for the sake of my sanity and my children's safety and happiness. So she commuted 48 hours with us to Singapore, to experience the jetlag for 5 days, simply to turn around and do it all again on the other side of the pond. Did I mention that last night she took the kids at 3 am so that I could sleep? And today, between playing with the kids and helping around the apartment, she was changing light bulbs and all the batteries in the ever increasing number of kids toys we have accumulating. I realize that someday I will need to pay this favor back big time for all this. I really can't imagine what that payback will involve, but I am sure it will have been worth it. Remind me of this, mom, when the time comes. Until then--THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU!!

Happy

Opps! I know I said I was going to be back blogging and, oh my, look at the time! I was messaging a friend this week and she asked, 'How can you still be in the United States??' Well, I must say this is a happy consequence of unemployment: 6 week vacations. And, amazingly, those 6 weeks are already coming to an end tomorrow as we start the long journey back to Singapore. For a while, we debated putting this trip home off until we move home for good because it's long and expensive and...well, long. I have to say that I am so glad we didn't wait. I don't think there will ever be an opportunity like there was now. The past 4 weeks the kids and I have been at my parents house (albeit with a few side trips). It has been wonderful. Relaxing. Joyful. It has been special to see the relationship between my parents and my children develop and strengthen. It was great to have low-key days together, just to be, and not to feel the rush of time passing too quickly. Adrienne has just recently come in touch with her feelings. I find that in various points in our day, she will stop and say, "I feel happy, mommy". No matter how many times she says this, it makes me smile every time. Who wouldn't want this for their child? I love the innocence and simplicity of this statement--to stop in the moment and just feel happy for a bit, to not let it pass without cementing the feeling with words. We should do this more in our lives as well. Stop. Breathe. Feel Happy. I feel like I have been doing a lot of that the past 6 weeks. And as we had back to Singapore and to a large amount of unknown, I hope to remember to keep stopping and feeling the happiness in my life.
So, to our USA friends and family, it has been great seeing you this trip--I miss you already. To our Singapore friends, we will see you soon. And to anyone who happens to be reading this, I hope you have a moment today that makes you happy.