Life is Good

We have a new internet provider, it is supposed to be much faster than anything we have had in Jakarta before now. So far so good. I have been unable to get streaming audio until now. The connection was just too slow. Now I am listening to Y100 San Antonio's country music station while I am typing this post. I am happily getting a much needed country music fix, however I must say Dwi seems unimpressed by the "new" music. She came in this morning, cleaned the kitchen then scooted Grayson outside in short order.

Where are we going next?

This is where we are going next. The first person to leave the correct location will receive a free beer when they come to visit us.

Wordless Wednesday-Happy Halloween

Wordless Wednesday-Pizza Man

Happy Birthday Grayson

If you listen closely at the beginning you will hear Grayson singing a solo “Happy Birthday to You!” He was a little tired of waiting while the adults made sure everything was ready: candles lit, plates ready, camera on, party guests all present…he wanted his song and his cake and he wanted it right now!

The party went very well. It is the first kids party we have thrown here at the house. Until now we have been letting the very competent party planners at the American Club handle all the details, but that just seems impersonal somehow. This time we decided to do what we have always done, throw the party at home. It turns out to be a bit harder to organize a party if you don’t speak the language of the country where you are living but we managed somehow. I made the cake, David ordered a bouncer and Cody designed the invitations. David BBQ hot dogs (does that count as BBQ?), Cody kept the little ones busy and I chopped fruits and vegies to add something healthy to the table. It went so well I can hardly wait until the next party.

Like Riding a Bike!

OK for me, maybe easier than riding a bike considering that I broke both arms flipping my bike a few years back. This is the first cake I have decorated since we have moved to Jakarta over a year ago. The American Club makes really good cakes and I admit to being just plain lazy. If you want to see the finished cake you will just have to check back tomorrow to see the party pictures. Me I need to finish this cake so I can go to bed, it is getting pretty late!

oleh-oleh

There is a custom in Indonesia that when you travel you should bring a gift of food or souvenir from your travels. This gift is to show gratitude and thanks for everything that you have done for the individual that gives the gift. This gift is referred to as oleh-oleh. Tonight I received a call from Pak Haryono who asked if he could come over. I wasn’t sure what to think. He came to our home with his wife and two young boys. They were bearing gifts from their kampung. They brought us Bakpia from Yogyakarta and battered fried peanuts that Haryono’s wife made. His kids and our kids overcame the language barrier and played for an hour. Then sadly it was time for Pak and his family to head home. I am deeply honored that Pak Haryono shared his family with mine and that he gave us oleh-oleh.

Wordless Wednesday-Our Backyard Fence

Fear Factor Indonesia

Monday evening Alonzo asked if he could bring home some mealworms to show me what they are doing in science class. I said "Sure, why not?" Oops My Bad!

Today he showed up with a small fish tank filled with hundreds of mealworms. It turns out that we are babysitting all of the mealworm larva and beetles from the science center for the entire Idul Fitri holiday. Suddenly my house has turned into Fear Factor Indonesia!

I asked Alonzo what he has learned about the mealworms. Here is what he has learned:
1. Mealworms are stinky.
2. When they turn into a beetle they cannot fly.
3. When they are a larva they do not have wings, and they have sections, and they have a big bum.
4. When they turn into beetles they are called Darkling Beetles.
5. Those little things are called pupa.
6. They are super super super stinky and they are "non-cat-eatable" because they are super stinky .***
7. When you grab the pupa’s tail it will wiggle around.
***Mom says we will keep the lid on anyway because I do not want to explain to the entire class why Fluffy ate their creepy crawlies.

tiny frat boy strikes again

Carrot cake this time! Carrots are good for your eyes, right??

While I was loading his brothers on the bus one morning last week the tiny frat boy got a butter knife (thank goodness it wasn't a steak knife), dragged a chair into the kitchen, climbed up, opened the cake dome, cut a slice of cake then took just the top layer with all the frosting to the table to eat. He is getting too smart for his own good.

tiny frat boy

Grayson escaped down the stairs this morning while I was getting dressed. By the time I finished dressing (don't want to flash the driver) and ran downstairs Grayson had helped himself to breakfast. As I came around the corner looking for him he ran by shouting "PIZZA" and waving a half eaten slice of cold pepperoni pizza. He must be practicing to be a frat boy.

Being the good mommy that I am I decided cold pizza wasn't so bad as a breakfast. After all millions of college students eat it all the time. Pizza has bread, dairy, and a meat, so I added a few strawberries and a glass of milk to balance it out and sooth my guilty conscious then made him sit down at the table. Can't have pizza prints on my pretty walls David painted this summer.

Ahh!! The breakfast of champions! Life is good.

karambol

Karambol is a game the drivers play while waiting for hours in the embassy parking lot. Today Pak Haryono and I went to Pasar Santa (pasar means market) and bought a karambol board. When we got it home he showed Colin how to play. It is similar to a game of pool except on a smaller board. You flick a disk with your finger to try and knock other disks into the holes on the corner of the board. Later Dwi played a game with Colin and Alonzo. Fun!

FInal List

Our final list was submitted to The-Powers-That-Be in DC Monday morning. Now all we can do is wait and see where they will send us. When you receive the bid list, the Career Development Officer (CDO) reiterates that you can be sent to any post on the list, regardless of how you rank the posts. In practice however most people get one of their top ten picks. So here’s our top 10:

The Hague, Netherlands
Frankfurt, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Vienna, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Lima, Peru
Mexico City, Mexico
Santiago, Chile
Toronto, Canada
Managua, Nicaragua

The next step is to hurry up and wait. The CDO will submit his three choices from our list to medical and get a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether we can go there. This is because we have a class II medical clearance in our family. After speaking with medical at our current post we do not anticipate any problems with any of the top 10.

In selecting these 10 from the 35 posts on the list given to us, we had many factors that we had to take into consideration. They include but are not limited to: adequate schooling for the three oldest kids, outdoor activities, the actual job description for Dave, the ability for family and friends to come and visit (and for us to go home), availability of medical care, and most important NOT ASIA.

After we submitted the list to the CDO he told us that we should know our next post assignment in early December. But we will not get the official cable from SECSTATE until Dave has what they call paneled. That will not be until early January. Therefore we cannot make any plans for next summer until we get the cable and our next post has approved Dave’s summer schedule.

Please feel free to leave comments. Let us know of the top ten, which one is your favorite.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Once again a major Earthquake rocked Jakarta today. The last time was early morning August 8th. I slept right through it, although I had a friend who said she was awoken by the sound of her chandeliers rattling. I figured “No chandeliers! That's why I didn't wake up.” This time I felt nothing even though it happened in the middle of the afternoon while I was wide-awake. Hi-rise buildings here and in Singapore swayed and were evacuated. I think the height of the buildings must amplify the effects of the earthquake. Maybe if I was sitting at the table staring at a glass of water I would have seen the water move. I'm not complaining though, I am perfectly happy to have lived through a 7.9 magnitude earthquake and felt nothing.

There are tsunami warnings this time affecting the Indian Ocean, for those who are geography impaired that is the south side of the archipelago. Jakarta is located on the north side of the island. While we are discussing geography, the epicenter of the earthquake was located in Bengkulu Province, Southern Sumatra, several hundred miles away so it wasn’t really in Jakarta. More the distance of San Antonio to Lubbock.

UPDATE - Thursday morning



The earth is still restless. Aftershocks all evening and into the morning. Any one of the aftershocks would qualify as a pretty major earthquake. This morning the news is reporting yesterdays earthquake as stronger than originally thought, as high as 8.4 magnitude. The news is also reporting some pretty major damage, injuries and casualties, but how bad it is depends on which channel you are watching. I don't have enough Bahasa Indonesia to watch the local news so no help there. I am probably watching the same CNN broadcast here that you are in the states.

There has been another quake in excess of 7.0 this morning and another tsunami warning for the Indian Ocean. At what point is a quake a quake not just another aftershock? Is there a magic number? Things that make you go hmmm...Still haven't felt a thing here, thank goodness.

Everything Old Is New Again

Today Dave and I saw Rush Hour 3. We have a special fondness for the Rush Hour movies since it was after watching the original that David proposed. We were supposed to see something romantic that day, but romantic didn't work out. One of the best thing about our relationship has always been our ability to laugh together, so it is appropriate that Rush Hour became "our" movie. We enjoyed laughing at the antics of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as much today as we did 9 years ago.

This evening Dakota came to me with an assignment for his English 2 class. He asked me to listen to the lyrics of a song and make sure he had them written down correctly. He explained that they were starting a unit on poetry and Mr. Hara had asked the students to bring in the lyrics to their favorite songs. I put the headphones on my head, turned on the ipod, and smiled. Coming through the head phones I heard the very familiar refrain "Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree..." In a strange twist of fate Cody had chosen the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from my high school days, of course back then it was sung by the Eurythmics. I can't believe I am saying this but I like at least one song by Marilyn Manson, he did a good cover.