There’s No Place Like Home

In the words of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz "There is no place like home". Particularly because you don’t spend half your time wonder where such-and-such was packed. Yes, we are home and I obviously don’t have as much free time because it’s been nearly 4 weeks since our last post.

Sunday, April 29th we boarded the airplane headed for home. It was a grueling 27 hours before we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale but thanks to the time change it was only 10:30 pm on the day that we left. Karl occupied his time taking pictures and some of them are quite interesting. Karl got this one of Mt. Fuji as we flew over.

Even after getting a good night sleep we were still dragging the next day. It didn’t matter to me because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my sister and her family before they had to leave. That evening we went to the drive-in at the Swap-Shop and enjoyed a movie in the back of their truck. We had the great idea to sit on an air mattress. It lasted for about 5 minutes before all the air leaked out! It didn’t matter we had a great time watching “Meet the Robinsons” and munching on popcorn and licorice. The first picture is Dallan and the second is Ruth and Allie.

















Tuesday, we went to the beach and it was so much fun that we didn’t notice how badly sun burnt we were until several hours after we returned home! When we first arrived, we were a little concerned because we saw jellyfish in the water. After learning from the lifeguard that they didn’t sting, Dallan had fun gathering them up off the beach and throwing them back into the water. In the picture, Dallan is showing off two big jellyfish he found. Allie seemed to like the sand and some how she got sand all over in her hair. She also found it amusing to play peek-a-boo with a seashell. Allie would hold the shell so the inside was facing away from her. Then she would turn it over and say “Boo”. It was really cute. Dallan had a lot of fun with the boogie-board we brought. We showed him how to use it to ride a way and with some help from his Dad he caught a few good ones. Brent got a little creative and had Dallan ride the boogie-board against the waves. Doing that Dallan caught a little air as the board came over the wave. Ruth and I got Dallan to stand on the boogie-board and try a little surfing. After the picture was taken, we waited for a good size wave to come along and then we let go. Dallan rode for a short distance before he fell off. Good Job Dallan!

We went home in the afternoon after spending a few hours. For dinner we made some Panang Curry so that Ruth and Brent could try some Thai food. They really liked the curry, but it was a little spicy for the kids. It wasn’t until that evening that Karl and I started feeling our sunburns. Ruth, Brent and the kids were fine, they had learned from their first trip to the beach back in January to spread the sunscreen on thick.

I had told Due’s family that I would wear the dress his Aunt made for me on my first day of work. I was glad that the skirt was short because Wednesday morning my legs were bright red. I had been transferred to the Purchasing Division at Broward County so I was actually starting a new job. It was a usual first day where you meet so many people that your head is spinning by lunch time. The rest of the day was spent getting used to where things are in the new office. As promised to Due’s mom, Noy; here is a picture of me in my beautiful dress on my first day of work.

I was glad to get back home because Wednesday was Allie’s 2nd birthday. After dinner, we had cake and ice cream. Allie got her own little cake to eat which she enjoyed very much. Next, Allie opened her presents including a little doll that we had bought for her in Thailand. Taking pictures turned out to be a challenge. With limited light on our patio and a little girl who was always moving, most of the pictures were blurry. Here are a few that turned out nice. In the last picture, Dallan is holding up the toy we brought from Thailand for him; a squishy mouse that goes splat when you throw it, then slowly returns to its original shape.




Thursday we said goodbye to Ruth, Brent, Dallan and Allie. We spent the morning with them getting everything loaded into their trailer and taking last minute opportunities to spoil the kids. I don’t think Ruth and Brent appreciated the homemade kazoos I gave the kids. That’s OK, they don’t have to worry about me doing it again for awhile. When everything was ready to go, they loaded up the kids and were off to St. Louis, Missouri. Ruth wrote a bit about their trip on her blog. We really enjoyed our few days with Ruth’s family and hope that sometime in the future they will be back in South Florida for dental school. I know they made a lot of friends here that are hoping the same thing.






From that time until now, I can recap our activities with just a few words: work, eat, sleep. Ok, it’s not that bad. Karl went to the doctor and found out that he has a broken collar bone from the motorcycle accident in Authaya. There is no ligament damage and it is healing well. We have been getting resettled into our house. We had packed some things in a closet to make room for Ruth and her family and we’ve been unpacking that. We really like the new closets that Brent built for us. Karl is particularly happy with the master closet because now there is enough room for my clothes and his. I am happy with it too because I now have a nice shoe rack for all my shoes! We are now wishing we’d had him do the other two closets as well. So, Brent you have plenty of work if you decide to come back! Even though our days have been full, the everyday stuff just isn’t as interesting. So, we are looking forward to our next adventure. We are not sure when that will happen. In the meantime, we’ll do occasional updates on the blog. We have lots more pictures from Bangkok that I’d like to put on our photo gallery when I get the time. Also, you never know when we might have an adventure in our own backyard! We’ve already had the first named storm of the season (subtropical storm Andrea) and technically hurricane season hasn’t started yet. However, we are hoping that we don’t have too many adventures involving storms. This last picture that I am including is of the rose bush I received as a goodbye gift from the development team I managed at my former division in the county. They are a good group of people. It was planted right before we left and I was so happy to see it blooming.