When: November 11-18th
Where: Thailand
Why: Because we need a break from the Tumbleweeds
How: Divine providence
A few months ago I won two return tickets to anywhere that Qatar Airways flies. When my family and I found out, we looked exactly like Drew Barrymore jumping up and down in the library with her friend saying"I'm the most popular girl in school and Billy Prince is asking me to the prom!"
After procrastinating the booking of the tickets, we finally went in and told them we wanted to go to Thailand. There were obstacles to that decision which had to do with dates and the type of ticket we had won. We almost went to London, Kuala Lumpur, the Maldives, and Istanbul. But in the end we stuck with my desire to go to Thailand. Even though we had to fly stand by on the worst possible night in Doha International Airport, we still managed to get on that plane. Gosh! That plane ride was fantastic! I watched movies like a giddy school girl. And some of the movies were really lame too. After flying with a load of kids for so long, a nice 7 hour flight was no problem! A breeze! A delight! A luxury! A pleasure!
On our taxi ride from the airport we quickly quizzed the driver on what kinds of wildlife we could find there. Tigers? Snakes? Sharks? Crocodiles? I didn't understand much. He did manage to tell us that we could go see James Bond Island if we wanted to. Cool, but not my kind of cool.
Sorry, I'm not going to give you detailed info on my trip because I can assure you, I am not the same kind of traveller as you are. And I'm not trying to sound superior. I admit, I'm a bit hermitesque and more interested in animals and books than people, food, and sights. Here is what we did in Thailand in no particular order:
1. Read, read, and read. Our hotel room had a "nook" in it. I am absolutely enamored with the idea of a "nook" in my future home someday. Some women dream of what kind of furniture they will have, what molding they will choose, what art they will hang and where, or how many rooms they will have. Well, I will have my "nook"! A "nook" and a front porch. A "nook" is exclusively used for reading. Reading only. Not the reading of silly magazines and such, but the reading of books. Paper books. Not those electronic screens that are a blasphemy to my tactile sense. (Forgive me friends) We read in the nook with a silent candle burning. What pleasure! Even when we were out on a tour we had our noses in our books. I'm sure people thought we were the biggest nerds ever.
2. Mangoes. I love mangoes. The first time I ever tasted a mango was when I was 21 and a friend of mine made some mango salsa. That didn't do it for me. I think my sister in law got me into eating mangoes. She loves to read Sunset magazine and Better Homes and Gardens and make the recipes that you find in them. They almost always include a fruit or vegetable that could not be found in your backyard. Or even in your country. So, thanks to her, I love mangoes. Especially Thai mangoes. I ate about two every night. I peeled off the skin, then I cut off the fruit from the pit (if you would call it that). Then I would clean off the pit, getting all the flesh possible while scraping it with my teeth and the juice would flow down my forearm onto the napkin leaving me sticky. But that fruit was oh so good! So sweet. Never any bruises. Never green. Always perfect. I'll miss that.
3. We enjoyed the animals. Jellyfish, crabs, sandcrabs, crocodiles, tigers, monkeys, mudskippers, and dragonflies. I know you can find dragonflies everywhere, but I've recently become quite intrigued with them. Sadly, you will find no snakes on my list. We saw some massive red jellyfish on our island tour. We also got our fill of Sieamese crocodiles at the crocodile farm in Phuket. You always hear about crocodiles being endangered. Well, the wild siamese crocodile is endangered. There are a few hundred of them left out there in the jungles. Then you go to a farm where there are hundreds and hundreds of these crocodiles. There were about 5 or 6 of them that were tremendous. The rest of them were in huge pens ( if you would call them that) according to thier size. Right down to the 1 to 2 year old crocs. We tried to find babies but they must keep them somewhere else. It was really fun to observe these practical animals. So frugal with their energy, so deliberate in their movements, so patient for their meals. They must be really smart or have done something pretty special to have outlived the dinosaurs. I'm glad we have them around to be in awe of.
Here's a mudskipper. What a funny creature! It's like he's caught between two worlds. So wanting to hop and jump like a frog, but swimming with those huge bulbous eyes and lacking that steamlined figure.
Here is my precious dragonfly picture. Did you know that all dragonflies are carnivores and how they catch their prey is by catching tiny flies on their wings while in flight or while perched on a stick in the wind? I still haven't figured out how they get the prey from their wings to their mouths though.
Is there only one?
I guess when your children are young, everything is soooooo busy. There is so much to do in life. There are so many things I want my children to experience, and a lot of these things they can and should only do when they are children. Really, can they go trick or treating when they are big teenage boys? Would they really be interested in starting piano lessons when they are teenagers? Maybe, but will we have money for the lessons in ten years. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I feel like I'm racing against the clock to make sure my kids do all they can while they can. I try to not be overly stressed about it though. There is only so much we can afford, and only so much we have time for. We took the kids out past Delta, Utah to dig for trilobites. We were quite successful but we found out that one of our children didn't like it. He wasn't too good at perservering, especially when he saw that other people were finding more than he was. I was so mad that we'd drivin so far so he could have this experience and he ended up hating it. But of course my husband talked some sense to me and reminded me that our job as parents is to expose them to things. If they like it, great. If they don't, they don't. There's nothing we can do to force them to like something. I hate shrimp! There's nothing anyone can do to make me like it. I wish my son liked hunting for trilobites, but he doesn't. Oh well. I'll live.
This particular child received a rock tumbler last Christmas. A really nice rock tumbler. He finally pulled it out and threw some dusty rocks into it. You can see them at the beginning of this post. I couldn't figure out how to move the picture down to this part. Anyway, I was really impressed with how they turned out. At least he likes to tumble rocks. Who wouldn't? They turned out so nice and smooth and pretty. I remember the yearly road trips my family and I would take from California to Utah every year. We'd have to stop for gas several times throughout the trip. In the Sierra Nevadas and in Nevada. In the gas stations and casinos, where my dad would sometimes stop to throw away his money, there would almost always be a big box of gems and geodes and things of that nature. You could fill a little leather bag full of the "treasure" and feel like you owned a bit of the Old West. I saw my kids burying their hands in piles and piles of polished rocks at the "This is the Place" monument in Salt Lake City. I understand that desire. I used to love the feel of smooth, polished rocks.
Halloween came finally. After four years out of the country, we were finally able to celebrate this holiday in the USA. My husband told me, "If you go into labor on Halloween, I'll be so mad!" I was a bit worried that I might screw it up for everyone. Fortunately, our baby stayed put and I was able to experience the stress only a mother feels, the day before Halloween. I think I should now be grateful that I've been out of the country for four years. It's saved me from having to scramble around finding costumes for my kids who become more demanding every day. I think I bought my first Halloween costume this year because I didn't want to "deal with it". I did, however, make my four year old's costume because he wanted to be R2D2 and I saw a really cool R2D2 helmet that a girl made online. I copied it and he was very pleased. They got tons of candy and I guess in the end I was happy for them. I remember the day after Halloween when I was a kid. My brothers and I would always get together and have a big trading time in front of the TV. I'm sure most American kids whose parents let them eat candy did too. Why keep a Baby Ruth if your brother wants to give you his skittles?
Our baby girl finally came on the 2nd of November. I won't bore anyone with the whole story. In short, she came on her own, she came quickly, and we have all adjusted nicely to this new addition. Her name is Helen Kleio McCollum. I know, it's not unique enough. But for us, it is. Helen of Troy is pretty unique, and Kleio is the Muse of History. Google it.
Plus, Helen of Troy and Hector of Troy were brother and sister in law (if you consider Helen and Paris husband and wife, which they weren't really) Hector, as you see above, is growing nicely. Especially in the chin area. He and his little sister will get along wonderfully we hope. Here he is reading train books with daddy. His favorite word is "Choo choo".
What a pair! Atticus and Sherman started piano lessons back in September and they are learning so much. They had their first piano recital last week and did great.
Helen made her first friend around her three week mark. What she likes about R2D2 is that he's soft, he likes to beep, and he stays in one place. Cinci is nice enough to share him with her.
Here's my nephew eating by himself at Thanksgiving. All the other kids were running around the church playing games and trying not to scream too loud. For the last four years we've celebrated Thanksgiving abroad. I think while we were in Turkey we didn't even celebrate it once. We were so poor I didn't have the energy nor means to do anything different than we normally did which was make a meal with what we already had in the little fridge. I don't even think a bird the size of a turkey would have fit in the fridge we had at the time. In Qatar the first year we celebrated famously. I remember I was pregnant with Hector, the kids wove placemats, and we bought orange plastic chalices to drink from. I made two whole chickens instead of a turkey and we drank shirley temples. It was very fun and the kids enjoyed it a lot. We actually talked about what we were grateful for before we took our first bites. Then last year in Qatar I made our family eat only the things they had to eat on the Mayflower for three days before Thanksgiving. Then we went to the meal that the church planned and had Thanksgiving dinner there. My kids didn't enjoy it as much as the previous year but I think they were grateful they could eat whatever they wanted again. This year there were so many festivities going on that I couldn't arrange to have the three days before Thanksgiving be devoted only to the Mayflower diet. We only did one day and that was enough. I made up another batch of hard tack, we ate our oatmeal made with water (yuck), and instead of frying fish fillets for everyone, most of us had fish sticks. I even splurged and let those who wanted lemon have it on their fish. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with our family. Aunt Wendy, who isn't really my aunt but my sister in law, went all out as usual. She loves to cook and try new recipes. Every obscure word involved with cooking or names of foods that are rarely eaten in the United States I learned from her. I suppose she deserves a special nickname. Perhaps "Sunset Lady" would be okay. I'll have to consult my husband for more ideas. Anyway, because of Sunset Lady, we did not have to slave away in the kitchen that day. We arrived at the church, which is where we had our meal, and everything was already there. Perfect! It was nice to be around family for a change. 
Here's Great Grandma Hill with little Helen. There are 92 years in between these two ladies. Words can't express what thoughts come to mind when I look at this picture (and I'm not trying to be sappy). I guess I'll let the picture speak for itself. 
Then I finished up the top triangular part with sugar cookies because I did not want to make a whole other batch of gingerbread. My husband is not partial to gingerbread. 
Thanks guys! We love you and we really loved the messages and drawings.
Another big reason why yesterday is memorable is that my muffin/jubba lubba made it to the six week mark. He weighs 13 pounds and doesn't like to fall asleep until at least 11 pm at night. He also loves to bathe with his big brothers. The first time I bathed him in the big bath tub I had Atticus help me. Then Sherman got a turn. Unfortunately, Hector decided to poop while Sherman was holding him. Sherman freaked out and started screaming. It was so funny. Hector just looked around and was calm as can be and Sherman was standing up with a look of horror on his face. Here's a picture of the second bath, after the poo.
For all you families that are graduating from a five seater car to a seven seater to accomodate your growing family, I have a nugget of knowledge for you. Just because there is more space does not mean that the contention will stop. Atticus still opts to sit right next to Sherman in the back row of seats instead of having his own window seat. You can see why in the photo above. On Valentine's Day we decided to give our kids a small token of our love. Candy. Candy in the form of gummy hearts. The really cute kind with text messages on them. Atticus decided to stick about 15 of them in his mouth at once and then spit them back out into his hand just to see how pretty they looked all shiny and glistening in the afternoon sun. When I saw this I yelled, "Put those back in your mouth!" and he got about 5 minutes of lecture from Dad and I about not taking food out of his mouth ever! While we weren't looking, which is most of the time, he proceeds to style Shermans hair with his sticky hands. I looked back when I heard the Sherm giggles. That's the tell tale sign for our family that something naughty is going on. The Sherm giggle. I looked and was immediately reminded of my days as a child growing up in the 80's. This picture doesn't do Sherman's hair justice. You can't feel the crispiness of the hair from the photo. Also, this photo was taken after Atticus de- furred his sticky hands. At least they looked like they were covered with fur. Nice long yellow fur. Yuck! Thank goodness for baby wipes!!!
