Home Improvements

Sam, 16 months, hanging out on the patio.


We have been in our new house, it's hard to believe, for a year and 4 months! Over the months we have been making progress, not steadily, but in spurts. Lately, lots of exciting things have been happening...



This is our front patio area. Pun put down concrete tiles and we added a table and chairs. We sometimes eat breakfast or lunch out here. It is very well shaded so it feels sort of secluded and cozy. Most recently, Pun "planted" this stump in the flower bed and then put in flowers.



We put down rocks in all the little areas where there was only dirt and then planted creeping vines to grow on the walls.



Ok, so don't look in the planter here. Look at the planter. It wasn't there before and it represents several hours of sweat and back breaking work on a very hot summer day for Pun. This wall runs along the back of our yard. The kitchen window faces it. When I do dishes this is what I see. Before we put the planter in a couple weeks back we had been throwing all our "compostable" garbage here and it was looking pretty ugly! I hated staring at it every day. But, in all that we threw out there to compost, several plants began to grow on there own including a nice tomatoe plant which has already given us 8 tomatoes (and we didn't do a thing!) What you see is what has grown up on its own, except for a couple little plants we stuck in there to see what would happen. This will be a little vegetable garden as soon as we go pick out our plants.

Our bedroom has been the last on the "honey-do" list for so many reasons, but lately we have begun to tackle it and I am so excited about this room! We have it almost all the way painted. It was supposed to be red, but when the red paint that we chose actually went up, oh boy, it was a mistake:


So we changed to a brick red terracotta sort of color. It is beautiful! (the picture really doesn't do it justice)




I would say we are 70% done. I am waiting for Pun to help me move some heavy furniture so I can finish.

This last weekend Pun put up wood shelves that he made for the two recessed spaces on either side of our balcony doors. I have been waiting and hoping for these for weeks (months, actually!) and I couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out. Now the hard task of organizing them to be beautiful and functional awaits.




We are planning to work more this Saturday...I can hardly wait to see what we will get done!!

So we have been busy getting stuff done around here (as I mentioned a few posts ago). We aren't as far along as we had hoped we would be but it's coming along. I keep telling myself, it's coming along. Just today, I nice gentleman with a very tall ladder came and painted our stairway. Done. That was a task neither Pun or I was looking forward to. Tomorrow someone else will come help Pun put up all (I hope!) of our curtains. A huge job drilling a hundred holes into solid concrete. The addition is all but done, a few little things need to be fixed, but we have already moved boxes in. We have done a little work out side, but have big dreams for it and little time. Pun keeps telling me it will happen. Or he will change his encouragement tactics and say, "someday we won't even be here!" with a smile, of course. Wherever we are at in this process of making a house our home, I am so thankful to be here in my home. I truly love it!

As I have mentioned before, I don't get out much, at least not on my own. It's just to difficult to commute, especially with 3 little ones. The other day, it was time for a yearly visit with the immigration office. To do this as efficiently as possible, we asked Pun's parents if they could watch Helen and Daniel while we took Sam with us. We left our house and drove to Pun's work where parked the car and walked to a nearby bus stop, caught a bus which we rode for 45 min, got off and immediately hopped into a taxi for another 5 min ride to the immigration office. After we finished (well, not really, because I have to go again on Monday!) we caught a song-taow--a pickup truck with two rows of seats in the back and rode it to a shopping area where we could catch the subway back up to meet one of Pun's co-workers, who, after they finished their business, drove us back to Pun's office. Does it tire you just think of it? I was wiped out! So I don't go out often. About the only form of transportation we missed was this one:


We don't have TV connection, which I like except when the Olympics were on... But I was beginning to feel in the dark about all that is going on. Maybe you have heard, but if you haven't, Thailand is struggling once again politically. It's been heating up and I was completely unaware until one morning as Pun was leaving earlier than usual he told me in a nonchalant tone that the government might be dissolved that day so traffic could be bad. I had no idea. Like I said, I am pretty isolated here. Apparently it has been rather ugly in the areas where they protest, but it seems to stay right there. We live quite a safe distance from these hot spots. But we appreciate your prayers for peace, discernment and understanding here.

In light of my ignorance about Thai politics and for that matter US politics as well, I have gone a bit crazy with my RSS feed. Do you know about these? I love watching blogs but spent too much time going to each sight to check to see if they had written anything new. I had no idea that I could be informed when they did. Now my Google Reader tells me when there are new posts. (If you would like to set this up for yourself, my friend Brian has an excellent tutorial. If I can do it you can, too!) Then I saw that I could add all the top stories from the Bangkok Post, Fox news, and other interesting news sites. I even added the word of the day to help increase my vocabulary! Now, I am in the know... Of course, I rarely have time to actually read the articles, but if I do, they are there! I love the internet.

Lets see, what else is new...oh yes! We started home school. And I love it! I was a little worried. I have only thought of and prepared for this since Helen was born. It would be a shame if I didn't like it. But we are having a great time. Daniel is joining in and doing quite well. And Sam is even cooperating for us, at least for now. I will post more later about what we are doing.

One other thing, about my last post, my mom asked me if I was having a bad day then. I don't think it was really a bad day so much as I was catching myself not being thankful for right where I was, even if it was less than what I would wish for. I was thinking about what I didn't have, or how I wish the kids would behave, or...you know what I mean. Making the mental shift to embrace what God has allowed in my life right now to transform me right where I am and bring Him glory in that moment, and be grateful for it, this is my hope.

And my hope for you as well. Miss you all.

Home Tour

Ok. I have had several requests. It is time, I can't put it off any longer. I realize that I have been waiting for my house to be all done, painted, decorated, cleaned, you know, looking like a magazine spread. Well, I have decided to be vulnerable and show our home as it is, a work in progress. So, come on in folks!

(If you can't remember what our house looks like from the outside go here)

As you walk in the sliding glass doors, here is what you will see:

our living room


to the right


and to the left


We have painted it yellow, but this will change. Eventually it will be brown so it will match the dining room in the back. We have finally ordered curtains which will be coming soon. This room is essentially enclosed by windows. Very nice views. I will do a yard post later.

Step through the living room into the dining room:


(Behind the piano is our play room which I thought I had taken pictures of but can't seem to find, so I will show that room in the next post)

looking to the left (again, the entire back wall in this picture is windows over looking our side yard!)



and looking to the right. Here you will see the front door, which we rarely use, the stairs, oh, and the boxes of ceiling fans! Back under the stairs is our one tiny little closet.



On to the kitchen. This is one of my favorite rooms. I think I like it so much because of the color. I had to convince Pun, but it is gradually growing on him. Our kitchen is divided into 2 parts. This is the "prep room." Food is prepared here but not cooked.


To the far right in the picture above, you will see a glass sliding door. This divides the prep room from the kitchen where food is cooked. It really reduces the heat in the house to have the room split this way. Here is the kitchen:

It is pretty small, and it doesn't help that it is so cluttered. I have lots of plans for this room, and in time it will come together. Right now, my pantry is in the cooler and totes on the left as well as stashed under the sink on the right. I will post more later on cooking in this kitchen.

And here is the downstairs bathroom:



This is the first floor. We have almost finished painting downstairs, but still have some organizing and lots of decorating to do. We have barely touched upstairs. You will see what I mean in the next post! More next week...

Our House is Finished!!

I have been feeling like I should have posted something more by now, but really all we have been doing is waiting and waiting...waiting for this baby to be born, waiting for our house to be finished so we can move in. We haven't been able to go check the progress for three weeks so when Pun went out on his lunch break yesterday, he got quite a surprise. It is basically finished, with full gardening and a lawn around the outside! As he walked through he was impressed by the workmanship and eye to detail that was given. Only a few minor problems were spotted! To say we are excited is an understatement!! But we will still wait to move in until the first of December. As soon as we can get out there and get some pictures we will post them, but we'll post just 1 photo here from Pun's cell phone. So for now, we are praising God for such a wonderful gift of a beautiful new house and waiting for a precious new little life.

And 50 days...

...until our little baby's due date! Some days I think it can't get here soon enough. Of course if this one is anything like Helen and Daniel, it will take its own sweet time coming. I am praying for an early delivery, though. Lately I feel as slow as a turtle and really am looking forward to the return of my normal energy level.

Helen and Daniel and I have been working on getting a little more routine in our life. Now that they are home from preschool, I have so many things I want to do with them and teach them, but as I have mentioned the energy is just not there. We are taking it slowly. We have started a little "circle time" each morning after breakfast where we read a short devotional or Bible story and talk about how it applies to us that day. Then we pray and sing songs together. Helen still loves to sing and is continually memorizing new songs. Daniel has just begun to really try and sing with us and is surprising me with the words he is learning. I am beginning to add in memory work as well. This will include Bible verses as well as other things I want them to memorize. Today we let Helen teach us the Thai alphabet using flash cards. It really works well, because of course, she loves to be "the teacher" and it reinforces her memory of the alphabet and Daniel and I are hearing the letters over and over and repeating them back. We really have fun with this. Sometimes we draw pictures of what we learned and hang them up to show Daddy later and then we might read a few books together. Usually after we have finished the kids play together in their room for awhile. This has been great for training them in obedience from getting along together to following the rules I gave them for their play time.

They are both excited for the new baby to come and have lots of ideas about what to name the baby as well as how they will help me take care of it. :)

I realize I was a little short in the last post about our new house. I was trying to get the kids bathed and ready for bed while working on it, so it came out brief. Here is some more info:
It is a 4 bedroom 3 bath house. It is not extremely huge, about 2000 square feet, but a good size for our family now. It has 2 kitchens (Thai style), one for prep and one for actual cooking. This helps keep the heat out of the main part of the house. We also have a little yard (also typical--land in Bangkok is pretty expensive) but it is just the right size for the kids to run around but not give us too much extra work. The location seems pretty ideal as well. Pun can get to work in about 30 minutes and hopefully get home in the same amount of time. We will be living in a subdivision which provides security guards (nice to have since Pun will travel overnight occasionally) and a park with a swimming pool.

The pictures we have of the actual house aren't that exciting for a blog yet so here is a drawing of the finished product as well as a layout of the house.

73 Days And Counting...

until we move here!


Yep, that's right! We are officially homeowners again. Will you thank the Lord with us? We fill so blessed to be moving into a new home so soon. Right now it is still being built, so we make regular visits to check on the progress. It is supposed to be ready on the first of December. I just can't wait for Christmas this year! :)

By the way, this means that we will be ready to have visitors soon!!! (for all those who said they would come see us :)