Passin Time in Fiji

Wow!   We are feeling sooooo loved right now.  I've always heard that the longer you are away from your home country, the less care packages, cards, love that you get from abroad.   My friends and family are proving that wrong.   On Tuesday we got THREE valentines packages in one day!!!  The girls repeatedly said, "This is the best day of my life!"  Thank you so much Kate, Fred, Anne, Colin, Mom, Dad, Shirean, Michael, and Reid!  You truly brightened our day, our week!   Another way I've tried to shower some love on my family this Valentines month is by putting a heart on the girls' door and Warren's door stating one reason why I love them.  It's been awesome!  It's not too late if anyone wants to try - you could have a Valentines week! Both girls received an award today for being awesome communicators.  So proud of them both!  Andie also performed in a play for the whole primary assembly.  She...

Guess what?!  The girls decided after many nights of consecutive sleepovers that they wanted to be roomies again.   As I mentioned previously, they had decided they were too old to share a room, but the decision has been reversed.  It makes my heart want to explode! We told them we weren't going through the whole rig-amoral of moving again for at least one year, so for at least another year....these two sisters who adore one another but also have their fair share of arguments will be roommates!  Heart melted.

Since we've been back from Asia, the kids have gone back to school and I'm back to work.  Andie is now in Year 3 and Zoe is in year 1.  They both have fabulous teachers and are mostly happy to be back (although Andie is seriously missing Lainie).   Obligatory first day picture below: They must have had an exhausting first day back, because both were nearly asleep before we even got into the front door after school! The Sunday before school started was when the Women's marches were taking place all over the world.   I felt like I had to be a part of something....so a few friends and I marched up the beautiful Mt. Koro in solidarity with women around the world.   The girls were still jet-lagged, so they chose to sleep in instead.    Tiny but Mighty!  Also, after many years, the girls finally decided they should get decent hair cuts!   They both cut off nearly 6 inches.   It looks so much better! ...

My mom loves bathrooms in foreign countries.  Our toilets are so different in the world.   I can see the fascination now.  The toilets in Asia were certainly different than what I'm used to!   Some of the toilets are squatting toilets, like in the picture below.  The first one I entered, I had to walk back out and ask Uli how to use it.  She explained that I should take off my shoes, use the bathroom shoes provided and just squat.    Ok..... I did it and it worked out fine.  (Asians must get great thigh muscles!)   It does feel sort of weird putting on the bathroom shoes though because I kept thinking, "Have other people accidentally peed on these shoes?"   Also, there was hardly ever toilet paper in the toilets in Thailand but all of them had a hose next to the toilet.    Instead of wiping, you spray.   I like the idea of the fresh, clean spray....but then you are wet.   I think a combo of spray and toilet paper...

After Chaing Mai, we took an overnight trip to Chaing Rai in northern Thailand.   On the way up, we stopped at a little hot spring and tried boiled duck eggs with fish sauce.  OMG- Yum!  I love fish sauce with eggs!   The drive itself was beautiful.   We hurried to get to the Opium Museum before they closed for the day.   I'm not typically a big museum person, but the Opium Museum was fascinating.  The golden triangle area (Laos, Mynamar, and Thailand's borders meet here) used to be a HUGE growing area for opium.   The museum really showed you the impact of opium on the world throughout history and even now.  I couldn't help but think about the opiate problem right now in the States.    Two tired girls on the trip to the north. Can you see the dog out of the window? Yum!  Duck eggs with fish sauce! Eggs boiled in the hot spring rolled ice cream with cornflakes and honey At the trian...