Open House

Last Sunday we spent our afternoon at our neighbor's house. At the end of Ramadan, it is common for people to have open houses to celebrate the end of the fasting month. Our neighbors the Awalls not sure on the spelling also have their grandson's birthday party on the same day. It is a huge affair. They came on Saturday to set up the tent, tables and chairs. As we were leaving for church the caterers were already there setting up for a party that started at 3:30. It is a huge affair. We think about 350 people came and went over the course of three hours. They serve a huge spread of traditional Malay food, including fruit, satay, sweets, and nasi lamak, noodles. You can eat for hours. Adam who was turning six had a spaced themed birthday party compete with crafts, science projects and an astronaut walking around. There was 38 children at the birthday party, and I have never seen so many presents for one child. They also had a ball pit and popcorn machine and a man passing out balloons. This little girl had so much fun playing with James and she was very protective of him and made everyone be careful of the baby.

This is the cut out you could have you picture taken in to go in the frame you were to decorate. James had to have his picture taken too. Even the torrential rain could not put a damper on the party. But I will say when the thunder started I was glad we were downstairs and not under the tent. Tomorrow I will post a picture of the Awalls house, it is beautiful from the outside. We moved in just after they finished a one year remodel. The inside is beautiful as well. We are well received by our neighbors and that makes us happy.

Just some Pictures for the People at Home

So on this Saturday evening while Carley and Brian are upstairs watching Mary Poppins, I decided to post some pictures that we have taken over the last week that I think are just cute.
Here are Carley and James playing office. Brian puts his computer here most nights if he has a meeting and our home lap top ended up next to it, because he was trouble shooting for me because the computer was giving me issues. James loves to type on the lap top every chance he gets and of course Carley can't be out done.

Here are my boys looking like twins. This is what happens when I do not pay attention to what Daddy is wearing when he goes off to work. The best part is that James has khaki shorts on too. They are pretty cute if I do say so myself. Next is Carley and James modeling there Black Dog T-shirts. In case you have not heard of the Black Dog, it is a restaurant on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. We did not get to the cafe this summer just hit the gift shop on another part of the island to see what was new. The black lab is their trademark and I just could not resist these cute Ts. Carley has princess dog and James is sporting the pirate dog. James knows what a dog is and pointed several times to his shirt and woofed.

This is what happens when you have had too much fun playing on a Saturday. We did not do anything exciting today just ran errands and getting crazy around the house. I hope everyone has a great day.

For us it will be a good night.

Blessings

Paige

OOOPS

On a funny note this is what happens when you do not get James undressed fast enough at bath time. Brian stepped away to tell me something and James decided it was time to get in. He was just following his big sister. She was already undressed though.

Carley wants to say hello to all of you:

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CARLEY

Out with the Old in with the New

Those words are much easier to say than do right now. This is our dining room table and our kitchen table. Brian got this table when he got his first job and had to set up his first apartment. It was originally the Baxley's. We have eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner around this table for 9 years. But we did not just eat around this table, Carley painted here, played with playdough, and many a cookie was eaten here during young life campaigners (bible study.) I ahve studied the bible here and we spent countless nights with good friends playing dominos. Our little table made the trip to Malaysia with out getting so much as a scratch. It has served us well over the years. But with the addition of James, and trying to have other families over to dinner it really is not big enough any more.

So we have been on a quest to find a new dining room table. We looked at so many teak tables. Teak is a local wood and used to make all kinds of furniture in Malaysia. We looked at so many that when I left for the US I told Brian he could choose. So here it is our new table.
It is beautiful. I love the tapered legs and beveled edge. It measures 210 cm by 110 cm. Brian special ordered it in June and it finally arrived in September. We can now comfortably seat 8 around our table with plenty of room for everyone. The chairs we have at the moment are not what we ordered so these are temporary until ours come. We wanted a table that did not look to Asian so that it would fit in when we make our way back to Texas. But now that our new table is here what to do with our old one. We do not have a lot of storage in our house here and no place to stash it. But when I think of giving it away. I get sad because we have made so many memories around that table. But we have found an answer that warms my heart. Our table will have a new home in Manila. We are having our table shipped home to the Philippines for Alma our helper. She is so excited to have a new table that is solid wood and good quality. It makes me smile to think that Alma will always have a piece of the Head family with her. We really do love Miss Alma and we feel like she is a member of our family, but we know that one day we will go our separate ways. So we will enjoy our new table and make many new memories here, and she can make her own in Manila. There is plenty of room if anyone wants to join us for dinner.

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Batu Caves

It is the weekend and today we decided to see a little more of the city we live in. We drove just north of KL to the Batu Caves.

This is a limestone hill and a series of caves and cave temples. It is the most important Hindu shrine to Murugan outside of India. If you have never been to a Hindu temple it is quite an attack on the sense. Hindu temples are full of brightly painted and odd statues of various gods. They have many different smells, mostly of incense and flowers. These guys make flower leis for you to take as an offering to the temple. They are so beautiful. Batu Caves has a giant golden statue outside but the main temples are at the top of 272 steps. We loaded James into the baby backpack and Carley put on her running shoes and off we went. This is the view from the bottom. We stopped twice for a little water but Carley made it all the way to the top by herself the only thing that really slowed her down were the monkeys. There are a lot of monkeys and they are always looking for a handout, and people are more than happy to give food to them for the photo op. We got to the top and did some exploring. This is one of the many shrines in the caves. You have a picture of the outside from above and the next picture is close up on the inside. Carley had her picture taken by several tourists. They are just amazed at this fair skinned blond headed child. Carley really does not enjoy having her picture taken especially when strangers try to pick her up. But she made a new little friend in an Indian little girl who was there for a blessing. She stood still and even held hands to have her picture taken. Here is James. He tried to chase the monkeys, but we would not let him. I was afraid they would bite or charge him. So instead he chased the birds which he thought was great. Carley was rewarded for her good climbing with a 7-up at the top of the hill, which she even shared with her brother. Here is Carley sitting next to the top step, number 272 We made our way down while I counted the steps backward. Carley commented as she and I were on our way down that she was glad we had gotten out of the house because "it can be hot." Brian and I are hoping to head back to the Batu Caves in February for the Thaipusam festival. On this one day over 1 million people flock to the temple. We will not be taking the kids, but what an experience. Well that is what our Saturday consisted of we hope you had fun too.

Chinese Wedding

Last night we had the honor of attending the wedding of Kai Li, one to Brian's coworkers to Pui Keong. We drove about 90 km north west to a town called Sekinchan. Sekinchan is located in the rural area of Malaysia. It was a beautiful drive through palm oil plantations and kumpongs (a rural Malay village) until finally we arrived in an area known for its rice patties. This town is all Chinese and the whole dinner was done in Cantonese. You do not actually attend the wedding ceremony it takes place in the homes of the family and at the local temple, only family attends. We attended the wedding dinner. It was a 7 course meal of traditional Chinese food. It began

with this large boat being delivered to the table. It was full of small bite size treats that we would consider appetizers

. I enjoyed the pork packets and Brian tried the crispy crab. The next course was shark fin soup, which is a real delicacy. I tried it and it was not horrible but not something I will be running out to have again. After that it was course after course of main dishes, chicken, pork and sea cucumber, shrimp rolls, abalone and mushrooms, this beautiful fish

and so much more I can not even remember. I stopped eating because I was so full at one point

just trying a bite to taste and see. In Chinese culture, it is a show of true hospitality to serve your guests beer and Cognac and keep it free flowing. The picture above is one of the "beer girls," her job is to walk around and make sure all the guest have plenty. There were also the Hennessy girls. Most of them looked like they were not old enough to drink what they were serving.
We could not understand most of what was being said but Brian's friends made sure that we know what was going on. Another tradition is these large toasts that they make at the table in honor of the lucky couple. The whole table stands up and shouts "yum seng," which means cheers and then empties their glass. The above picture is when the bride dressed in green and the groom came to join our table for a toast. The couple is expected to travel from one table to the next greeting their guests and join them for a toast if they are asked. I expect that the groom can get a little tipsy if he truly empties his glass at each table. You can pass your glass to your best man, but most of the time that would not be macho so it is down the hatch. Kai Li looked very beautiful in her modern gown. You like Carley are probably asking why she is not dressed in white. Chinese do not where white to their weddings it is considered bad luck. Kai Li wore traditional Chinese dress to the temple ceremony we saw pictures of the wedding couple dressed for the ceremony and this is the dress she wore for the dinner. Carley had a great time. She loved standing up and yelling with the toasts. She was the hit of the dinner since she was the only little blond girl and she was dressed in her silk traditional Chinese dress. She had her picture taken with many of Brian's friends from work and even the bride and groom. The traditional entertainment at a Chinese wedding dinner is Karaoke. Guests come up and sing songs in tribute to the happy couple. Some of them were very good, but you can imagine as the night went on and the alcohol flowed more freely it started to get a little crazy. Here is one of our entertainers.

Many traditions that you would see in an American wedding were present. Below is a picture of the car decorated to leave. They are much nicer to cars in Malaysia. It is wrapped in Colorful tulle and bows and have a pair of stuffed animals attached to the front dressed as a bride and groom. You can see they choose Mickey and Minnie.

The couple was toasted with beautiful words by family and friends. They poured a champagne fountain, that only they got to drink. They even had a small cake which Carley had been up to check out twice. But she was very disappointed because while they cut he cake they do not serve it for dessert. Instead you get fruit that has been stewed in this sweet soup and then chilled. Carley was not very excited when they served the traditional dessert. Because she will tell you that her favorite part of a wedding is cake followed by dancing and seeing the girl in the pretty dress.
One of the oddest things happened just before we left. This guy showed up selling newspapers and lottery tickets. As you can see he did not even bother to take his helmet off, since he rode up on his motor bike.

Just before we walked out the door to shake hands and give our well wishes to the bride and groom a woman in a yellow dress walked up and handed Carley a small box. It turned out it was Kai Li's mother and she was so taken by Carley and how cute she was about the cake. She had told Kai Li what a beautiful bride she was and how delicious her cake looked and she could not wait to have some. Kai Li's mother gave Carley the whole top layer to take home. We could not say no because that would have been rude. So with a huge smile on her face, Carley said thank you to everyone and carried her prize to the car. I made sure it was OK with Kai Li and she said it was fine. I guess they do not save the cake and have it on your one year anniversary.

But we were honored to be asked to attend. Kai Li was a beautiful bride and I am sure she and Pui Keong will have a wonderful life together and we got to experience something new and make memories that we will hold onto for the rest of our lives.

And after lunch today, with a huge smile on her face, Carley got to have a piece of wedding cake.

Blessing to all of you. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all our friends and neighbors who are picking up after Ike roared through Texas. As far as we know everyone is okay with just a lot of trees down and fences blown over.

Time Flies

I feel like I posted just yesterday and I look and it has been almost two weeks. Just to let everyone know we had water running in our pipes in less that 24 hours after my last post. But we have been with out water for about 6 hours twice more since I first wrote about having dry pipes, but it always returns by bath time. Needless to say the rain has not stopped. We have had two days where it has not rained at all in the last two weeks but most days we have at least a good heavy down pour in the afternoon. Last week we had a day where the rain lasted all day and after relentless please mommy please I finally gave in and this is what happens when there is rain but no thunder in Malaysia. We go out to play. Carley in her raincoat and boots ran around like a crazy woman. She went out and played in the yard, splashing in mud puddles and floating leaves down the drain. Yes she is jumping in the mud and yes she did need a bath immediately when she came in the house.

And of course if sister can so can I, James put on his new fireman raincoat and road Carley's tricycle out into the rain. He was not as keen to stay out and play with water running down his face, but he enjoyed it for a little while.
We celebrated Merdeka of Malaysian Independence day on the 31st of August. Brian was off of work and we went to the park and had a blast hanging out. We missed the fireworks because unlike in the US they are at midnight just as it turns the 31st. The parade was that morning but we ventured off to church instead.

We have fought off the usual respiratory junk that plagues us and won again. And now it feels like we are back in the swing of things. Carley is back in school, taking gymnastics and playing with friends. Tomorrow we have an ice cream date with Pete and his mom. Just to let you know Carley calls Pete her king and they have informed us that they are getting married when they get older. Sorry Misti it looks like we will not be in laws after all. Pete is Irish so we will have family in Ireland in the future.
James is starting his own gymnastics class this week and I am looking for a play group. I am trying to get him used to playing with kids his own age. He is a little rough since he is so used to playing with his big sister.
I am back to yoga, piano lessons, and weekly bible study. Brian and I are starting working out with a personal trainer at 6 am twice a week. We decided that we needed to work on our fitness and someone else telling us what to do would be good for us.
SO that is about it. I will try and finish telling you all about the rest of our summer travels soon, but tonight it is off to bed. Five thirty will come quickly.
Good Night and blessings to all.