"Say It, Mom!"

Brian's latest article

2010-10-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

I am a little late posting the link to this one. This is an article about Brian's recent trip to Mexico city. Another wonderful article. Keep it up, Babe!

http://www.concretenetwork.com/international-projects/mexico.html

Ode to Diesel

2010-08-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

We lost Diesel this week on Thursday. He finally gave up and called it quits to his life here on this earth. We have been really sad, although we knew it was coming. Cannon keeps praying that Heavenly Father will hurry and bring him back soon. Kya has started look for him all over the house, and Mya (yes, I named my daughter and dog almost the same name,) keeps saying Diesel and putting here hands up like I can't find him. He had a seizure on Wednesday afternoon and was done after that. He held on til early Thursday morning and passed in his sleep. He has had Addison's disease for almost four years now and we were surprised that he has lived this long. I am so grateful that he has been released from his little diseased body and now gets to chase birds in Heavenly fathers back yard. That was definitely his favorite thing. We love you Deez. The picture was pre-Addison's, remember how handsome that little bugger use to be.....

Brian's next articles

2010-08-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

These ones are my favorite, there are three this time. They all tie into each other. They are beautifully written and inspiring (for concrete, well maybe for life too.) I loved them! Look for "Ideas for imprinted concrete." You can follow the links to the other articles. Really Beautiful!

www.concretenetwork.com

Another Article by Brian

2010-07-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Check out Brian's latest article on the Concrete Network. Awesome job again. I didn't understand a lot of the lingo, but still great job! We love you! Look for Ready Mix in Southeast Asia. So Cool! www.concretenetwork.com

Home

2010-06-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

We are home and safe. Happy to be home in America! We are still really struggling with jet lag, but hopefully getting better everyday. It is so good to see friends and family. You were missed!

To the End of Malaysia

2010-06-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, we are packing up and getting ready to leave Malaysia. I am going to have to buy an extra suitcase to get home. Can't believe that it has been two months already!!! Crazy how fast it went by. I am ready to get back to Colorado and our Family and Friends. We are going to be sad to leave here and I'm sure there will be some tears, not only by the kids either. We said goodbye to our church Friends on Sunday and we are going to especially miss Sister Kaitlyn is the Primary President, who also taught the Sunbeams Class. She brought Cannon the cutest frog mug for his milk, and two really sweet outfits for Mya.

We are going to miss Joanne and Cho so much as well. They have really become like a 3rd set of grandparents to the kids. We are going to really miss Lyn the most. We have spent so much time with her and have really enjoyed getting to know her and having her around. Although we couldn't understand each other all of the time, we all will be sad when there is no MyLyn around, as Mya calls her.

I will miss all the culture here and the new things that I have seen every time I leave the house. I am also going to miss the pineapple. Oh, it is so good, and the way they cut it here is so beautiful. I thought it was only for show, but they do it to cut the eyes out. Brian's going to miss the food. He will be so sad to leave the Hawker stands here and come home to American Fast Food, when he needs a quick bite. Oh, the Roti Canti. Poor Brian. I will miss the people here who take extra time to say hello to my kids and pat their faces and hands. I won't miss the people who grab Mya out of my arms so they can take pictures with her.

I am not going to miss the squatting toilets, I haven't figured out how to use them without removing all my clothes. Cannon's pants get wet every time he uses one to go to the bathroom and I won't miss that either. I won't miss the red face I get every time I go outside. It will be good to not start sweating the moment I leave my bedroom.

I am looking forward to going the grocery store and not having to pay to park, and the store having the same things that I need, since the last time I was there. I am looking forward to a green salad with Ranch dressing, cold.... not wilty cause its so hot here. I am looking forward to ice water. Cannon's looking forward to Taco Bell. He asks everyday if we can go there for lunch. Mya's looking forward to her own room, without noisy people sleeping with her.

The thing I am looking the most forward to is having my feet on the ground. You can hardly go anywhere here without being up at least a few stories. I will love being able to send my kids out the back door and letting them play in the yard. I have absolutely loved the views, being up so high has offered. I have found that I am not a city girl. It's true you can't take the country out of a city girl.

Malaysia has been an absolutely fantastic experience. We have grown closer as a family. We have experienced things I never thought I would. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to come here.

Brian is a Writer!

2010-06-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

Brian is a publisher writer! Congratulations to him. He has been asked to write some articles for the Concrete Network online. You can read his first article online at www.concretenetwork.com look for Colored Concrete in Malaysia. We are proud of him!

Durian

2010-06-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

I finally tried Durian. Smells like hell, and tastes like hell as well. GROSS!!!! I know why it smells so bad now, because it tastes bad too. Just the fruits way of warning you not to eat it. The office ladies sent some home with Brian so we could taste it. They wrapped it in two plastic mailing envelopes, that were taped shut and in two Tupperware containers and a Safeway sack on top of that. You could still smell it when he brought it into the house. The smell is so overwhelming you can smell it when someone opens the fridge. Durian is totally banned from hotels here. Like a dog, if they catch you with one they will fine you. There is no way to hide the smell. You can even tell when your neighbors are eating it. Lyn says it is an acquired taste. I definitely have not acquired the taste. She said she had to eat it a lot before she liked it. I don't think I will try it again. Brian on the other hand want to try it all different ways to see if there is a way that he likes it as well. Good luck Brian, just don't breathe on me. :)

The Bird Park and the Ferry

2010-06-09T00:29:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday we took Cannon and Mya to the Penang Bird Park. It's not on Penang, but they still call it that. Cannon has been asking since we got here if we could take the car boat (the ferry.) Since the Bird Park was on the main land I thought it would be a great idea to combine the two. The Ferry was pretty cool, they have like four ferry's running and so you never have to wait that long. It's free to take the ferry to the mainland which I thought was interesting. The same to go on the big bridge to the mainland. You have to pay 7.70 ringet to come back, which is a little over two dollars to take your car on the ferry. I thought that was a pretty good deal, cause when we have taken the ferry across it Lake Powell, it's always over $50.00. Granted we are usually pulling the boat, but....

We got out of the car on the way over and back, most people stay in their cars and just ride across, but Cannon wanted to climb all the ladders and go to the bottom level of the Ferry and on the very top, which I didn't let him do. But he raced all over and scared me the whole time. He thought it was awesome. He has become quite the picture taker as well. I thought the one he took of Brian and I was great. Mya thought the ferry ride just okay. She all of the sudden is very frightened of loud noises. The ferry was loud so she held Brian most of the time. She is a little tired of people asking to hold her all the time too. If she is holding on to one of us, she just puts her head on our shoulders and says, no. There is quite a bit of loud thunder here and a helicopter that flies really close to the ground, and right on the shoreline and is very loud. She will run around and yell, "Copper, copper," if she starts to hear any noise that she thinks is going to get loud. Then she wants to be picked up.

We got lost on the way to the Bird Park, cause we were following the same map, I need to get a better one, but it said we were to drive off the ferry and go in a straight line and we would be at the Bird Park. I think Brian is going to stop taking these outings with me if I don't get better directions first. He gets pretty upset and grumpy with all the driving around.

The Bird Park was pretty cool. We watched a Bird show right when we got there and they let these hawks, and eagles fly right over us. Mya loves, loves birds, so she was yelling and pointing the whole time. When Mya wants you to see something she is looking at and you're not paying attention she will slap you face and say, "look, look."

After the bird show, they let everyone come and hold all the bird in the show, which was pretty cool. They had tons of different kinds. Cannon and Mya each held one bird and then they were totally done. Mya loved to look, but didn't want them close to her. They had some little bay owls that you could pet with your finger and when you did, they would dance. It was cool, it took Cannon the whole time at the park to work up the courage to touch one, and when he did, finally, he didn't want to stop, he thought it was so funny. I am glad we went there, Cannon has been asking for a bird for a pet, and now he doesn't want one, cause they are so noisy and stinky. I agree. No birds for pets. He has been looking for another cockroach though....

The Snake Temple

2010-06-07T00:21:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to the Snake Temple. We watched one episode of the Amazing Race before we left, because it was in Penang. Everyone kept saying you have to watch this, and we did, and Cannon wanted to go to the Snake Temple ever since and just because he saw it on TV. On the show they made the Snake Temple seem like it was crawling with snakes, and this really creeped me out, cause snakes creep me out. I was not very excited to go. I asked Cannon what he wanted to do one day and all he wanted to do was go to the Snake Temple. So when Brian got home from work we went.

We had a map, the kind you get from the mall that tells you all the fun things to do around town. SO I didn't have specific directions, so we got lost. I knew that I had seen signs for it while we were driving to the airport, so at least I knew the vicinity it was in. If you are not careful and watch the signs you shoot off the main highway here and end up heading the totally wrong way. Total side note, one night we were driving to Tesco, (which is similar to Wal-Mart except it makes Wal-Mart look like a nice place to shop.) Brian was driving and took what he thought was the off ramp to Tesco and all of the sudden we realized we were on the big bridge to the main land. Once your on there is no way to get off and change directions. Cannon was freaking out and saying, "Mom, Dad where are we going?" I told him that Dad was taking him to see the big bridge. He was like, "Thanks Dad, this is awesome!"

Anyway, the Snake Temple on the amazing race was crawling with snakes. The Snake Temple in real life has 6 plastic snakes, with all these signs saying they are pit vipers and are very poisonous. Needless to say Cannon was extremely disappointed. He kept walking around saying, "Mom, where are all the snakes." There was a beautiful garden in the back of the Temple that you could walk through. We stayed fro about 15 minutes and that was that. But every time we see a Chinese Temple Cannon says, "Look there's the Snake Temple, we found it more easily this time."

My new favorite dessert

2010-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Brian has become the hawker food connoisseur. He loves the local food and will try anything. The people in the Bomanite Office insist on bringing him all the local food to try. Me, on the other hand am not so food adventurous. I stick to the things I can pronounce or at least know what it is I'm eating. Brian doesn't care, he's to the point now where the food is in his mouth before he asks what it is. He has tried goat intestines, sheep brain, cow intestines, all kinds of squid, a ton of different kinds of fish, (head, brain, eyes, bones, scales, everything still attached.) and every kind of curry you can imagine.
One thing he has fallen in love with is an Indian bread named Roti Canai. It is a pastry like flat bread. They start out with a piece of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. The man flattens it out with his hands with ghee (which I think is melted margarine.) Then he starts to flip it around in his hands until it becomes paper thin and round like a circle. He spreads it out on the counter and folds it in onto itself, and then, folds it again into thirds and the pushes the air out with his hands. It ends up flat like a pita and he frys it on a grill til its cooked and brown like a pita. Then he takes it off the griddle and slaps it to fluff it up. That part makes me laugh! It is chewy, but it is flaky similar to a croissant, but not dry like a croissant. They serve it to you warm with a spicy lentil curry to dip the bread into. It's pretty yummy, not my favorite though.
My favorite is the same dough, they flatten it out the same way and they cook it. Then they put it on your plate so its like a tepee, and they drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top. It is called Roti Tisu, like tissue paper. Cannon and I would have eaten this all night. I was a little full cause I had eaten tandoori chicken, which is chicken they cook in these big clay pots, super hot! The chicken is bright reddish, orange. I don't know the spices they put on it, but its yummy and they serve it with a yogurt and mint sauce to dip it into.
Cannon has grown a taste for soy sauce, which he likes to dip french fries into. They also have a lot of chili sauces here, which they serve with french fries instead of ketchup. Its spicy, Brian and I like it but Cannon and Mya can't stand it. It difficult to get regular ketchup here as well. They have it at McDonald's, but most places serve this stuff they call tomato sauce, which is suppose to be ketchup, looks like ketchup. But taste like tomato and vinegar. I don't care for it very much.
McDonald's is like an upscale restaurant here. We have only found one that has a drive through. But if you buy Hawker food, we can feed our family for like 5 dollars. If we go to McDonald's, we pay like 15 to 20 dollars. They serve fried chicken here and also a rice porridge. The hamburgers are more expensive then the chicken, and you can't get anything grilled, everything is fried. You also also get a Big Mac with 4 patties and chicken sandwiches with two. They call them chicken burgers here. You can also get it delivered, they have men on motor scooters driving around. They have KFC's as well, that don't taste anything like at home. I ate there once and that was enough for me. They have Pizza Hut as well. We haven't tried it yet. We walked past it the other day and they were advertising a pizza with fish sticks on it. Yuk, I will be skipping that one as well.
One of the specialty's here is the chicken satay. Which I didn't like very much at first. But then I realized that you have to eat it with the peanut sauce and then it's pretty good. They cook a ton of Chinese food here, which isn't like American Chinese food, which I definitely prefer. Oh yeah, here's another strange thing, they eat beans for dessert. I made chili one night and they were so surprised, because they don't eat beans in savory dishes, only for dessert. They put kidney beans, and corn on their shaved ice, and its called Ice Kacang. I haven't tried it yet, but I will. They also eat noodles for dessert. I had one a couple of weeks ago, they cook the noodles in Pandan leaves (which they use pandan, like we use vanilla,) and then they serve it with brown sugar and shaved coconut on top. Nothing is very sweet, like we like it in America.

Cannon said to me the other night,"Mom, I hear a Mosque, He's calling everyone to come have a prayer with him."

Monkey Beach

2010-05-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

We made it to Monkey Beach. We got up Saturday morning and there was a 90% chance of rain. But the skies where pretty clear (relatively speaking, they are only really clear every once in a while.) So we decided to risk it. We drove out to Batu Ferringgi where the beach is that we went to last time. Then we drove to the National Park on the island. That's when we hired a boat to take us to monkey beach. You can walk there, but it is a two hour hike through the jungle.

The Hinton's who are another American family in the ward invited us to go with them. They have quadruplets (three girls and a boy) and have tried the hike before. The kids are seven almost eight. They said the hike was miserable and they only made it an hour up the trail. They never made it to Monkey Beach. So in lieu of carrying all the kids through the jungle, while being eaten by mosquito's, we paid 50 ringet, (which is like $16.00 US) and took a seven minute boat ride around the coast of the National Park. You could see the trail because it followed the coast line as well, and it was covered in a canopy of trees. I'm sure it's very beautiful, but probably not so much with two kids, hanging on your neck.

The view from the boat was incredible, and the boat ride was a little cooling! I am looking forward to Lake Powell!!! It made me anxious to go! The boat was just a flat bottom boat with about 8 seats and a bench in the back. Only 10 per boat, so we had to take two. Another family from our ward the Muilenburgs came with us as well. They have two kids, similar in age to Cannon and Mya, only their girl is older. Both families are from Eugene, Oregon and here working for Intel. The Muilenbergs are here until the end of July and the Hintons for another year. We also had the Hinton's helper (that is what they call someone here who helps with kids, housework, shopping, etc, I don't love the name, but...) with us, whose name is Tina from Cambodia. She is here for two years and was working for a Japanese family also in the ward. She joined the church while living with them, and when the Japanese family had to return to Japan, the Hinton hired her on. She has about six months of her contract here left, and then she will return back to Cambodia and hopes to be able to go on a mission. She is great with the kids and has such a happy face. I don't understand her very well, but her English is improving.

We got to the beach and they have some great picnic areas, and little shelters set up for you to use, which was great. The sand was white and soft and the water was warm. We saw a jelly fish pretty soon after we started swimming and Cannon was pretty freaked out. He found a spot where the the water was just starting to come inland because of high tide and the water was very shallow and fun to play in. There were tons of little fish and he spent an hour trying to catch one in his bucket. He wanted to show me the fish and when we got there Esa (one of the Quads was face to face with a monkey.) She very smartly stood up slowly and walked away, til she got past me when she started screaming and running. The monkeys were laying in the water and cooling off it looked like, and she hadn't noticed they were coming. All of a sudden the monkeys just started running in a line towards our picnic area, and Cannon and I were like what's going on. We walked back and realized Brian, Tony, and Rob were feeding the monkeys, and just like geese they don't go away when you are done feeding them. I have mentioned before that I'm not to crazy about the monkeys, even the cute little babies. But these one started to get a bit aggressive when they weren't getting any more food.

The men had to chase them off when they started stealing our stuff and getting into our coolers. They would growl right back at you when you yelled at them to go away. I would have let them have everything, cause I wouldn't have risked it. But the men were running right at the growling monkeys and having growling, staring contests to see who would back down. Rob was chasing them with a big stick, and growling and proving who was more fierce and bigger. They backed down after that. What's monkey beach without the monkeys right? Silly Men...

The boats came to get us about 2:30, after a big round of thunder, we thought we were going to get poured on, but the rain never came. We had a quick boat ride back and washed up and headed home. Mya was asleep in the car within minutes and Cannon kept asking if he had to take a nap. I told him he could skip it if he stayed awake all the way home. He said he wanted to be awake for the whole day and within minutes he too was out.

It was a super fun day at the beach, even with the crazy monkeys, and the hairy ones too.

Taking Buddha for a Walk

2010-05-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

This last Friday was a Buddhist holiday. The office was closed. Brian, Joanne, and Cho still went to work. It made a long weekend for some people, those that took Saturday off as well. I really don't know anything about Buddhism except that they don't kill anything. I should probably do some research. I know that a few of the Chinese people in the Branch converted from Buddhism. I also know that you want to buy a Buddha with a happy face, so he will bring happiness into your house. If you buy one with a mad, or sad face he will bring those emotions into your home.

Friday evening as we were making dinner, I started to hear these bells ringing, and then I started to hear music. When you "live with the doors open" (as they call it here, when you don't live with AC on all the time,) you don't miss out on much. I started to look around and because the condo faces the ocean it's hard to see behind the building. Joanne and Cho also own another condo on the 16th floor that faces into the mountains. So we ran down there and there was this huge "parade" going on. Joanne said the holiday is "taking Buddha for a walk." Which is the maybe the literal translation. Probably not what the Buddhists call it. They take the Buddha from their temples walk them around town, on what I would call floats. The floats were lined with flowers and offerings. The parades that I am use to are joyous and loud, and they throw candy. This was way more subdued, but at the same time you could feel that it was a happy holiday. The holiday I think celebrates the day Buddha got his "enlightenment." But I could totally be wrong, hence why I should learn more.

There are temples everywhere!!! I am beginning to be able to tell them apart, but there are the mosques, then the Chinese temples. The Indian temple, which are so ornate and gotty. Then the Buddhist temples which are more subdued and beautiful. There is an Indian temple right next to the playground by the mall. Cannon thought it was a carousel. It has these plastic jumping horses on the outside, they look just like carousel horses, I will have to take a picture.

The parade was pretty interesting to watch. There were a lot of floats and tons of people march along. We watched for probably 20 minutes and went back up to finish dinner. But you could hear it going on for a long time afterwards.

It was super interesting to watch and I'm so glad that I am having this new experiences. I think I was a little to sheltered in my life back home. It's good to have my eyes opened to see how truly blessed I am.

The Tropical Fruit Farm

2010-05-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

We got up on Saturday morning with the intention of going to a place called Monkey Beach with another American family from our ward. We planned to leave at 10 and as the morning progressed the clouds started rolling in and by 10:15 it was pouring rain. So beach plans got cancelled. We took advantage of the cooler weather and drove to the other side of the island to go to the Tropical Fruit Farm here. It is 25 acres of area where they grow everything you think of when you think of Tropical fruit. I have to say that I think I like the pineapple plant the best. I think it is so cool! I learned that Dragon Fruit is a blossom of a cactus. That Durian goes really high up in the trees, they have to climb them to harvest them. (still haven't got up the nerve to try it!!) The man that was giving the tour said this about Durian, "Smells like hell, tastes like Heaven." I have smelled it several times and it really stinks, like B.O. but everyone says it tastes delicious. One of these days!!!

The fruit farm was on the steep side of a mountain. They had carved out steppe of land to grow the fruit on. Surrounding the Farm was a Durian Plantation. We had a tour guide show us around and then when the tour was finished, we sat down to a giant fruit buffet, where you could eat as much as you wanted. We tried lots of new fruits yellow watermelon, a couple of different kids of guava, papaya, pineapple, the mangosteins again (yummy!), a water apple, a custard apple, rambutans, and I can remember the rest. We were also able to get some fresh juice. It was so good! After we left the Tropical Fruit Farm, we started to drive around towards the other side of the island. It was time for the kids to nap. So we were able to see the parts of Malaysia that are not so urban. We drove around a small fishing village and through this really windy, curvy two lane road. It was like driving in Atlanta where you can see through the trees, and at time the trees even covered the sky. We found a beautiful waterfall and right by it was this little market. They had two monkeys in a cage, we took Cannon to see them and when we walked up to the cage one of the monkeys started peeing and almost sprayed all of us. I felt sad for them, they just stared out into the jungle like, let us out of here!

We cut through the center of the island to get back and we drove by this absolutely giant statue of the Chinese God of Mercy. It was huge! It looks like they are just building it. We didn't realize we can see it for our Condo til we got back. You can't tell what it is from far away. I would like to go and walk around it. I am not sure if we are allowed, but it would be cool to see up close! I also put a pistue in of the traffic. The Malaysians can always turn a two lane road into a four land road, with the scooters going in between. :) Crazy! It was a really fun day, not too sad the beach got rained out!

2010-05-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

This is Brian, not sure I feel comfortable posting on here as this page is covered in pink flowers but I do own a pink tie... maybe I am somewhat partial to pink. Anyways Julie will never say this so I will. What an amazing wife, friend, and mother she is. Julie consistently amazes me every day. She has the natural ability to give of herself without seeking praise or looking for anything in return. Julie truly looks at the good in all things. This trip to Malaysia has not been an exception. She continues to push through the daily challenge of being in a strange land with two highly active kids, no car, and a crazy husband who is very needy. I love you babe. Thanks for an amazing 7 years. Who would of thought our little family would travel the world.

Thanks to all those who have helped us along the way friends and family both. A special thanks to our parents we sure love you guys. Your example of love, hard work faith and sacrifice drives us to be better.

It been a long strange trip...but we would not have it any other way.

Time to jump ON THE TEBOW BANDWAGON!!!!! PS Julie loves his legs;)

Brian

Funny!

2010-05-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

At church the man who was asked to say the prayer said this, "We are thankful to be in church today. Especially me, cause I am so sleepy today." It is so the culture to say what ever you are feeling in your prayers!!! I leaned over to Brian and asked him if I had heard the man right. We both just sat there giggling!

Odds and Ends

2010-05-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Mya loves to play in the shower in our room. She goes in and closes the door and plays and plays and plays. We are all missing having our own space, and I think that she thinks that Cannon won't take her toys if she goes in there, Notice the feety pajamas, the kids have to wear them at night, so we can run the AC in our room. The only time we are cool. The kids are extra cool, cause neither one will sleep with blankets on. It is usually between 85 and 95 here in the day and usually about 80% to 100% humidity, so it feels like its 101- 114. The nights do cool down to about 82 and its usually breezy which is a nice break.

Mya as a Mus-a -lum. She pulled the arm of my shirt over her head and Cannon said, "Hey, Mom, Look Mya's one of those Mus-a-lums." He thinks that Muslim as an A in it.

We had a 2 (with the antennae it's about 4 inches) GROSS!!! inch cockroach in our bedroom. Lyn the house keeper caught it for us. Thanks Lyn! Cannon insisted on keeping him as a pet. He crawled around in a bottle for 2 days, before we convinced Cannon to "let him go." He ate holes in 2 of Cannon's shirts and a pair of Mya's shorts before we caught him. He was in the kids clothes drawer. I wasn't aware that they ate clothes, but Lyn said they do. :(

Rambutan another local fruit. Not so fantastic, But at least I tried it!!

The space on the island is so limited that they are "reclaiming" the land. Meaning they are piling sand over rocks and more sand over rocks and pushing the land out further into the Sea, making the coastline of the island bigger. There is not much room where we are, although the east and south sides of the island are not as developed. They are still jungle and not really inhabited. But there is a chance that your ocean side condo will not always be an ocean side condo! The hotel next to us has a beach volley ball court above their parking garage. Another building has two tennis courts on top of it! Pretty good use of space!

For My Mom, these are the guards that check every person that comes into the building. The whole area around our building is fenced in, and the only way through is past these guards. They have guards there 24, 7. They are very friendly and the kids love waving to them as we leave and come back to the building. We also have key cards that are only programmed to work to the floor we're on. So we stay on the 19th floor and that is the only floor we can go to. If we want to go to another floor to meet someone else, we have to go down to the first floor and meet them and go back up in the elevator together. Lots of security measures, so I feel very safe here!

Pictures of the Church Building

2010-05-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the Church Building here in Penang. It is a cool little building. I think it use to be a home. It has a pretty good size chapel and about 7 rooms in the upstairs. It has a second building which houses the Relief Society room and the Young Men's room. I taught Mya's nursery class last week, cause the teacher didn't come. And when Priesthood starts in the Chapel downstairs you can hear the hymn the men sing so loud and clear. It is so cool, because everyone is singing so loudly! The nursery toys consist of a set of big Lego's and a box of McDonald's toys that you get in Happy Meals. Just another thing that reminds me how lucky we are in the US. They would die if they saw all the toys in the nursery at home! Mya had fun and being the only Nursery kid she gets them all to herself, until Sunday School lets out and all the kids from Senior Primary come in and play, (all the kids means two!) Junior primary has a few more because there is an American set of quads, three girls and a boy. Otherwise there would just be three kids in Junior Primary.

Cannon made his teacher laugh so hard this week because she gave him an Oreo, and he licked the frosting out and gave her back the cookie. She thought that was the funniest thing ever! They call cookies here biscuits. There are not very many children here, not only in the church, but period. It is very rare to see a pregnant woman, or children.

Brian was talking to one of the men here he is working closely with this week, and found out he has a son. Brian suggested that he and Cannon could play together, and the man say, "Yea, can, but on the weekend." (Malaysians use the word can here, like we say Yes. So everything is can, can, can if they are saying yes to something.) Brian asked him a little bit more and found out, that it is common here to drop your child off at Daycare Monday morning and pick them up Saturday afternoon. The child stays in the daycare overnight, all through the week. It is very, very common here that both parents work. The man asked Brian if I was retired and Brian said no, she works in our home, and takes care of the children. He said, "Wow, that's weird!" I can't even imagine! My heart would break if I only saw Cannon and Mya on the weekend. I am sooo BLESSED!! I am so grateful to live in a country where it is acceptable for a woman to stay home and take care of her children. That I don't feel looked down upon because I don't have a career outside of the home. I am grateful for a husband that works hard to make this possible.

Hard Rock Cafe

2010-05-18T23:15:00.001-07:00

We took a evening this week and left the kids with Joanne and Cho for the night. We went with Damian who works with Brian and is from England to the Hard Rock Cafe. It is up the crazy windy road by the beach. We had a great time, ate a lot and got to look at a lot of cool memorabilia. They have a big statue of Michael Jackson sitting in a throne in the front, so of course we had to have our picture with him. It was pretty cool. We stopped at a night market on the way home and looked at all of the stalls of things to buy. Lots of watches and purses with famous labels, but I'm pretty sure they are all fake! All the sellers yell, "Look at this, pretty cheap!" We didn't stay long, Damian really struggled with the heat. He said he has never been anywhere where you walk outside and take a breath and it is the same temperature the air coming out of your body. I would like to go back they had some pretty cool costume jewelry and some great dresses for Mya. Sorry a lot of the pictures look blurry, but when you take the camera out of the AC the lens fogs up! :)

At the Beach!

2010-05-16T07:07:00.001-07:00

We finally made it to the Beach! We have been wanting to go and Brian starts to itch when he's around water and he's not wet. The Malaysians do not use their beaches. Period. End of story. When we said we were going to the beach the people we are staying with just said, "Umm, Okay." Almost like why would you do that? We drove out to Batu Feringgi, which is the very Northern section of the island. The coast line is rocky and the Beaches are few. The road driving out here is just two lanes and very curvy. Almost like driving out to Corb and Michelle's old house, without the drop off. We found a long stretch of Beach and a place to park. So we stopped.

We got out there about 9:30, which in America if you wait until 9:30, you miss out on the good spots. The beach was deserted and I almost started wondering if there is a reason, health wise that they don't go to the beach. Although I did see a man the other day as we were walking to the mall drinking the water from the sea. Just scooping it up and drinking it in his hand. Gross!! The water along Gurney is very dirty and very littered with trash. Which is amazing to me, because they pay men here to sweep the streets. Every morning we wake up to the sound of sweeping everywhere. They have the craziest brooms too, I will take a picture so you can see them. Almost a cross between and broom and a rake. They even have men that sweep the side of the road to the beach, skinny road, two lanes of traffic and the scooters and motorcycles weaving in and out going by. I think they take their lives in their hands to sweep the side of the roads.

The beach was beautiful! The beach was clean, free from trash and so was the water. Cannon ran right in and jumped right in the water and then got out, and asked what kind of animals live in there. They had a big sign posted to watch out for Jellyfish, so we told Cannon to watch out for the Jellies. Good thing for Finding Nemo, he knew exactly what we were talking about. He was a little hesitant about going back in. But about 10 seconds later he was right back in. He loves laying down and letting the waves push his body around. He thought it was great.

I really thought Mya would eat the beach up. But she cried when we took off her shoes to get in the water. She didn't want anything to do with the water, or the sand. She got some sand on her hand, held it up to me and said, "See, See. " and then tried to shake it off, and then started crying cause it wouldn't come off. She was very happy to sit in Brian's lap out of the water and out of the sand. She wanted her shoes back on, and would not take them off, thank goodness for Keen's that can get wet. She and Brian started to experiment with a little sand just pushing it around with their hands, and she was soon okay with that. Pretty soon she was walking around and playing in the sand and finding shells with Cannon. She helped bury Brian in the sand and then realized she was all sandy and just said, "Oh, no no no no no no no" I took her in the water to wash her off and she started to think that was okay too. I think she will have more fun the next time we go.

We were able to find some crabs, mussels, and a GIANT grasshopper. Some pretty cool shells with the animals still in them, and lots of cool rocks. We had some fishing boats come and were our audience for a while. Strange, but I think they thought the same of us, playing in the water. We were there for a couple of hours and alone most of the time. We are looking forward to going again!

The Floating Mosque

2010-05-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

When Brian got home from Saudi this week, we decided to hit the town and see some sites. We went to dinner at Chili's, even in Malaysia you can't get away from them. It looks exactly the same on the inside. The menus are the same and the servers uniforms are the same. The chips and salsa taste the same except the chips were stale, as are most of them here if they are an American brand. The burgers were huge!!! Much bigger then the ones in the States. We couldn't believe the size. At McDonald's the burgers cost more then the chicken and Chili's is pretty expensive (comparatively). I guess beef is harder to get here then chicken. We see chickens on the side of the road all the time and a rooster wakes us up every morning. It's strange because it's like living in Downtown Denver and seeing chickens like stray cats.

After dinner we decided to drive around to see what we could see. We thought we might try to find some real ice cream. As we were driving we saw what they call the Floating Mosque. Brian was very intrigued by the Muslims (or as Cannon calls them the Mus-a-lums.) and their Mosques during his visit to Saudi. There are a lot here and it is extremely common to see the women here with the scarves over their hair, not as common to see the all black with the scarves over their hair and faces. Although we have see some and Brian said that is how all the women are required to dress in Saudi. They are extremely friendly, and they are the ones who want their pictures with the children the most.

Brian said that in Saudi the call to pray (I do not know the correct name) happens five times a day is so loud that you could hear it everywhere. It starts at 4 in the morning and continues all day. He was tired of being awoken at four in the morning, so I think he was glad to leave Saudi, for that reason. They were being a pray when we arrived the the Mosque and there were people hurrying to get inside. Just like at the temple when everyone is hurrying to catch the next session. They wash their feet before they go in and they have separate rooms for the men and women to go into. The prayers I think are beautiful and are all live, never recorded. Joanne says they have contests here to see who can hold their breath the longest and they do this while they are singing the prayers. There is a small Mosque down the road from us and we can hear them every once in a while.

The Mosque itself was beautiful and sits right over the water. It has a viewing deck you can walk on and see the water below. I love the moons, where Moroni would be on our Temples. They are such a great shape! All Cannon wanted to do was go inside and see, just like our Temples, if you are not of the Faith you cannot go in. It was definitely a reverent place and a place of worship.

The Swimming Pool

2010-05-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

We have a great swimming and playground area on the fourth floor in the building we are staying in. Actually it is on the 3A floor, because the Chinese do not like the number four. I guess it looks like the symbol for death. Kind of like how Americans don't like the number 13. So all the floors that should have four, all are 3A, 13A, 23A etc...

The baby pool is only two feet deep, Perfect! The big pool is 4 feet deep all the way across, which is great as well. They have a law in Malaysia that if the pool is more then 4 feet deep, you have to employ a lifeguard. We have been spending a great deal of time in the swimming pool trying to waste energy and stay cool at the same time. They have a small playground next to the baby pool and when the kids are wet they can actually slide down the slides. The building is so tall that it blocks out the sun until 11:30, so we are in the shade. No good for sun tanning, but perfect for keeping the kids from getting sun burns. Cannon and Mya both have discovered back floats. They love them, Cannon can almost do one on his own. He isn't scared cause if he sits up, he's right on the bottom of the baby pool. Mya won't put her legs flat down, she likes to keep them up against her chest, so it will be a while for her.

Cho found us some great floats and the kids are having a great time with those. Mya just likes to throw every one's shoes in and then gets in to get them out. She walks around saying, "shoes, shoes." She is starting to talk so much!! This evening as I was putting her into bed, she said,"Ba-ba PEEEEES." It is so much fun went they start to put words together! She is also starting to put "I" in front of everything. Like "I go." Love it!

Brian gets back from Saudi Arabia tomorrow, We are very excited to have him home. The pictures of him and the kids were taken right before he left. The Board of Directors for Brian's company are all coming to Malaysia tomorrow for their annual meeting. It has been a flurry of activity around here getting everything ready. They are coming in from all over and it will be nice to meet everyone Brian talks about. He knows them all and has spent time in all of their facilities, so I will be glad to put faces with names! It will be a busy week for Brian, Joanne, and Cho, I hope we get to see them a little this coming week. :)

Our first trip to the Emergency Room

2010-05-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Well, leave it to Mya to make sure we visited the hospital before we left Malaysia. I took the kids to McDonald's this week to get them out of the house. I am alone this week, Brian had to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for a business trip. He is safe and the trip has been successful thus far. I was trying to find a place for Cannon to play that was air conditioned, so that he wasn't so hot. We have a small play area in the building we are staying in, but it is outdoors and the kids just sweat, and stick to the slides.

The play area in McDonald's is nothing like what I am use to in Parker. It consisted of 5 steps up to a platform, and two slides down. Needless to say, Cannon was a little disappointed. He and Mya were going up the steps and trying to figure out how to slide down without sticking to the slide. Anyway, Mya was going down the steps to climb off, and on the last step she stood up and stepped off instead of going on her butt like she usually does. She fell, and hit her head on the edging that separates the soft flooring from the hard wood. When she looked up at me, screaming of course, she had a giantantic goose egg on her forehead.

I was worried because it had swelled up so fast, so I had Cho take us to the emergency room. They wanted Mya to see a specialist, so we had to wait for him to come to the hospital. I thought I would be filling out paperwork the whole time like in America, so I settled in for the long haul. In Malaysia, they want your name, birth date, your address, and that's about it. One half sheet of paper later, we were done and left to wait.

The Doctor came about an hour and a half later and Mya was fine! Except for the goose egg on her forehead. She was playing, eating, running around, and wanting to ride the escalators in the lobby. The doctor wanted to admit her over night for observation, and I said, "Can't I just observe her at home?" He said, "Oh, okay, you don't want to stay here." and I said do we need to, and he said, "umm, what ever you want." Asians are very brisk. So I took her home.

About a hour later I was in tears on the phone with my Mom asking her if I had done the right thing. I am brave in the moment and then second guess myself for hours afterwards. My Mom calmed me down and I checked on Mya every two hours in the night and all is well! The pictures were taken when we got home from the hospital and they seriously don't do the lump justice!

She saw the doctor the next morning and He said she was fine, all that worry for nothing. The next afternoon she did the exact same thing on the other side of her head, climbing into a Lego tub. This time I didn't even flinch. I brushed her off, kissed it better, and on we went. She has two matching yellowy, green bruises on either side of her forehead. Beautiful! :)

The Wet Market

2010-05-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

The other morning Joanne (the lady we are staying with) took me to the Wet Market. What a busy, Crazy place. It is similar to a farmers market at home. With fish, beef, chicken mongers thrown in. I think you might be able to buy what ever you want there. They have a lot of different stands selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Most of with I have never seen before. So many crazy fruits that I have never even hear of. My favorite so far is called a mangostein. It is purple on the outside and on the inside it has a bunch of, well, I don't know but it seriously looks like garlic. Like six cloves all turned together in the middle. It's juice from the purple outside is used to stain cloth, and if you get it on your clothes it never comes out. The inside is soft and very sweet, and it doesn't taste anything like mangos. I have discovered that I am allergic to dragonfuit. They also have two fruits here called Jack fruit and Durian fruit, both are extremely smelly. Almost like B.O. I haven't have the opportunity to taste either one, but I have heard they are both very delicious, once you get past the smell. :)
I was very taken back by the fact that you can come to the Wet Market and pick a live chicken from a crate, they slaughter, de feather, and cut it up right in front of you. GROSS! I can't even imagine, I like going to the grocery store and picking out a package of chicken and being very unaware that until recently it had a head. It was very, very smelly too. They have all these people standing around with cleavers ready to serve you.

Another thing that has really been weird for me it that they do not refrigerate their eggs. Even in the grocery store they just sit out on a shelf, by the bread. You take them home and put them in the fridge. It is so hot here, I just don't want to think about it. I can say though that my egg consumption has seriously decreased. I tell you what too, we have not idea what Soy Sauce is suppose to taste like either. I am not sure what I am going to do when the stash I am bringing home runs out. It is soooo good here. They have a truck at the Wet Market where you can make your own Soy Sauce to your own taste. What ever your own special recipe is. So cool!

The beef hangs from hooks and the fish are still flipping around, but they are so happy to cut you what ever you desire. I think I walked around with my mouth hanging open the entire time. The apples come from the US and are expensive. Its extremely hard to find strawberries and grapes that you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. I have yet to even see a peach or nectarines.

Here something else, at the grocery store, well the mall even, you can not get plastic bags Monday through Thursday. You have to bring your own. So everyone waits to do their shopping until the weekend and boy, is the supermarket and mall busy. Its hard to find a trolley (shopping cart) those days. I think I have mentioned as well that the grocery store is in the bottom of the mall. So you take your trolley out into the parking garage to load up your car. If there are no trolleys in the store it is because the men who are paid to collect them are on break. :)

I am so enjoying these experiences so much and giggle a little in my head when I learn about these crazy things!

The Butterfly Farm

2010-05-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday morning we drove to the Butterfly Farm on the other side of the island. To drive the entire island it would take you about two to two and half hours. We drove North and then East. The airport is on the south east part of the island, so I have seen most of it but the south west. The middle of the island is very hilly and all jungle. We might take a hike there sometime, but after some of the bugs I saw at the Butterfly Farm I might stay to the edges! Saturday was also a holiday here so there were a lot of people out and about. It was Malaysia's Labor Day. The work week here includes Saturday so it was considered a long weekend, (they work until one on Saturdays.)

In front of the Butterfly Farm there was a huge row of all different kind of Bonsai Trees for sale. They were huge! Corbin, if I could bring you one home, that would be my present to you. You would have loved see them. Cause there is no way I'm bring you a monkey! So this picture is for you. It is not dead I guess they are hibernating. The farm was a jungle inside, not a huge area, but has the most amazing Butterflies. I assume it is like the Butterfly Pavilion at home, but I have never been. They had these wire tables set out with hibiscus flowers all over them so the butterflies would just swarm them. I have never seen so many different kinds in my life. They also had a lot of different kinds of "bugs" and reptiles. They had a live scorpion pit and a couple iguanas and a kimono dragon. They also had a lot of bugs that were dead and pinned in a display area. I would not like to run into the spiders they have here, alive and in real life. Yuck! They are huge! They also had a lot of the native vegetation in the Farm as well, including a tiny pineapple growing on it plant. I've never seen one growing in really life.

Cannon's greatest wish was to have a butterfly land on his finger. But every time one got close he would scream and shake his hands. I kept telling him to hold still, but he just couldn't quite do so. I finally found a butterfly that had just hatched and was still gaining his wing strength and put it on Cannon's shirt, he was thrilled. He walked around with "his" butterfly on the rest of the time we were there. Mya was running around all over saying, "see, see" and pointing to everything. They had a waterfall and a fish pond inside as well. Mya loved the fish! She would have watched them all day. See, See! The man holding Mya is Cho, (pronounced Joe, but with a Ch.) our host here in Malaysia. He has been showing us the all the sites, and has been a great tour guide.

We arrived right in front of a bus of High School kids and they all wanted their pictures taken with Cannon and Mya. Cannon got a little fed up and told them to let him alone. (He was busy chasing Butterflies.) Mya loved the attention and even let a couple of the girls hold her. I felt like a famous person being followed by the paparazzi, every time I looked up someone was taking our picture. SO CRAZY! I'm glad its Mya and Cannon's picture they want and not mine!

We almost lost Cannon to a Monkey and Mya to Ants!

2010-04-28T23:50:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the picture says it all. I can't believe that Brian caught it! We traveled to the Botanical Gardens here in Penang. This is what I pictured Malaysia to be in my mind. Not all of the buildings where we are staying. It is a jungle when you travel outside of the buildings. We went to the gardens because we were told you could see monkeys there. Great, monkeys in the US are in cages, great. Not in the Botanical Gardens in Malaysia, they roam freely as if you were seeing squirrels in Colorado. People feed them too just like the squirrels. They sit up in the electrical wires and we found one that had a mohawk. SO funny! They were everywhere!! Cannon was wary of them at first but soon got very comfortable walking around with them. I never got comfortable and was scared of them the entire time!!! Mya is Mya, never scared and wanted to chase them.

Cannon got to close to one and he bared his teeth at Cannon and growled, I thought he was a goner! He screamed and everyone turned to look and he ran away faster then I have ever seen him go. (Vicki, it was worse then the alligator in the Wild Life Experience.) He wanted to ride on Brian's shoulders the rest of the time! When we got back everyone kept asking him if he loved the monkeys, and he just said, "No, I didn't like them at all." End of story. By the time we left he was crying because he wanted to see more Monkeys, so I think we will have to go back.

Mya fell down one time trying to go down a hill when she stood back up she was covered in sugar ants. I thought it was just dirt but when I looked closer she was swarming. I am so glad they were just sugar ants and didn't bite her at all. I wonder what all the people were thinking when the crazy Americans were stripping the clothes off of her and beating them on the ground. We must have been a spectacle.
The Gardens are a very popular place to go and run. There were people exercising everywhere. Running, walking, and do Yoga, and Ti Chi (spelling?). I don't understand how people can work out here, I was dying and we were only sauntering around. Notice the kids hair, soaked like they just got out of the shower. The line from that movie, Fools Rush In, keeps going through my head, "The white people are melting!"

It's getting better, I just have to remember to carry something with me to wipe the sweat away. The Gardens were beautiful and very well maintained. We found a tree called the Cannonball tree. They were so cool! Also, this tree with this amazing root, huge!!! It looks like a wall but its the tree's root. I wish everyone was here to see it, the pictures don't do it justice!

When we were driving home we drove through this Indian market, there were so many people you could hardly drive down the street, we are going to try to go back tonight to see if it's there again. I want to walk around and see. They were selling everything under the sun! It might only be a once a week thing, but something I don't want to miss out on. I feel like my eyes can't take it all in. Notice the little girl standing the the blue dress, BEAUTIFUL!!! The clothes are awesome!! Love it!!

Thunder Storms

2010-04-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

They have the most incredible Thunder Storms here. They are beautiful and amazing! You can see the thunder heads rolling in off of the sea and it blocks out your view of most of the land around us. They have a lot of thunder and they shake the house. It gets really warm before it rains and then cools off considerably when it stops. It clears out the air as well. It is always hazy here and I am missing the blue sky. The hazy is from Indonesia, where they are burning down their jungles to clear the land for building. It smells really smoky here in the mornings. I can't believe that the smoke travels all they way to where we are! Its strange to think that we in America are so concerned with clean air, but here its fast to burn the jungle then to clear it out with earth movers. I saw my first semi truck here today, kind of crazy, but I hadn't thought about them until I saw it and then, Wow that thing is huge! Cars here are extremely small. The family we are staying with has a Camry and it is considered big! Wonder what they would think of my Tahoe.

Church in Penang

2010-04-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

We attended a small branch on Sunday in Penang. It was in a beautiful building about 10 minutes away from where we are staying. Brian drove! The roads are crazy! First of all they drive on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car. But there are motorcycles that weave through traffic like crazy. They are so close to the car that you could reach out and pat them on the back, and they come up on both sides of the car. They also don't require car seats here, so I saw a boy about Cannon's age riding on his Dad's lap while we were driving. Our car seats are so big and the cars so small that only the kids can ride in the back seat. So if we have more then two adults, we can not take the car seats. The kids are trilled, especially Mya who doesn't like riding in her car seat any way.

When we got to church guess who was there to greet us, but Elder Vance, who is serving in his first area here in Penang! Crazy small world. We were greeted by almost the entire branch before sacrament started. The branch president, (at least I think he is the branch president) sounds like he is from South Africa. Then church started and we found it was exactly the same! Except the music, sorry Castlewood Canyon Ward but the small branch and I mean small branch puts our hymn singing to shame!!! Everyone sings as loudly as they can and fills the entire building, it was awesome. They don't worry about who has a good voice and who doesn't, they are all singing and as loudly as they can. I loved it!!!
Mya attended nursery for the first time ever and did fantastic. There was one other little boy with her, but she had the attention of Sister Chrissy for the whole two hours. I think she loved it. Cannon was a little unsure about going to Sunbeams alone, so Brian stayed with him, but he was quickly okay and told Brian, "See ya later Dad." Sunday school was small and in a separate building, I was a little unsure about leaving the kids in the main building to go to Sunday School. But the Branch President said everything is great, and get to Sunday School. I had Sunday School and Relief Society lessons without any kids, Crazy!!
Next week is District Conference and all the members will be traveling to Ipoh (e-poe) by Coach.
(bus) It is two and a half hour bus ride to get there and the meeting starts at 10. Then the Ipoh branch will be serving lunch and a two and a half hour bus ride home. I think the members here are more dedicated, because they seem excited to go, and Brian and I looked at each other and thought, all that time on the bus with Cannon and Mya, No Way!!! I didn't take any pictures at church, but will post some next time we go...

11 Gurney Drive

2010-04-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

Sunrise at 11 Gurney Drive. We have been seeing a lot of them! Gurney is a very busy street that runs right along the North coastline of Penang. Penang is a small island on the North West side of Malaysia. There are a lot of people who live here, and major mix of people. Mostly Malays, and Indians. I am not sure if that is the correct term, (people from the country of India.) There are also a lot of Australians, Philippians, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and English.

Malaysia is a vacation spot for the English and Australians, we are only six hours by plane from Australia. The building we are staying in is right next to the Gurney Hotel which is huge! Down the street a little ways is the Gurney Plaza which is a giant mall. I think I counted five or six stories of shops and restaurants. In the bottom of the mall is the grocery store, which kind of reminds me of a Walgreen's, except with food. There is a great walking path that is on the other side of the street and right on the water's edge. If it wasn't so warm all the time I think I would like to run there. ha, ha,ha, run yea right! I see a lot of the people who are staying in the hotel running there. I am sure that we are going to get use to the heat. I think it will just take a while.

The "current" is very expensive here, (electricity) so they do not run the air conditioning in their homes. There are room Ac's in the bedrooms, so its not to warm to sleep, but the main area of the home is open and the windows open to invite the breeze in from the sea. (It is a soothing warm breeze, and very welcome!!) It feels so tropical. The home we are saying in is lined with sliding glass doors, and a balcony that goes most of the way around! Beautiful!!!

The area of the house that houses the washer and dryer has an open wall that doesn't have a door, its always open. I asked Lyn, the housekeeper what they do when the rain comes and she just looked at me like, What are you talking about," so I suppose it doesn't get wet. The woman that we are staying with, Joanne is short like me, and she had her her counter tops and stove custom made to fit her size, its really great to be able to look into a pot without standing on your tiptoes. It must be how everyone else feels:) We do not wear our shoes into the home and there is no carpet anywhere, my feet are achy! I am sure I will get used to that as well. Lyn couldn't believe that we wear shoes most of the time, or slippers. She says bare feet are best. Here they most definitely are.

We are here!

2010-04-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

We made it to Malaysia! We are settling in on Gurney Drive, in Penang. It is SO beautiful here. WARM, WARM, WARM! I don't think I have stopped sweating since I got here. Cannon who sweats a lot normally has not had dry hair since we got here, and sweet Mya has beautiful rosy cheeks. We flew out of Colorado Monday evening the 19th. We flew to San Francisco. As we took off in Denver Cannon was yelling, Mom, I can see Africa from here." He looked out the window the entire time. He loved the airplane ride. As we were landing, Brian asked him what he thought of flying and he said, "Flying makes me hot." We thought that was a bit of a strange answer and then he started yelling, "I'm going to throw up." Brian who is a quick thinker found the barf bag in the seat and caught it as it was coming out. We had a four hour layover in San Francisco.

We met a missionary who was on his way to Singapore while we were waiting. He thought he had found someone to share the gospel with, poor Elder Vance will have to wait. He was traveling alone and was the only missionary in the MTC going to Singapore.

We had a fourteen hour flight to Hong Kong. That is a long time in an airplane! The kids really did fantastic. Mya got a cot on the airplane, which is a bassinet strapped to a board that pulls out of the wall, I kept thinking she was going to fall out, so I did not sleep much while she was in there. Cannon crashed out the minute we got seated and slept for about seven hours. Mya slept a little bit longer. I kept having to take her out of the cot because she couldn't be in there if there was any turbulence. Cannon watched movies the rest of the time. Luckily the airline offered about twelve kids movies and a lot of tv shows. I didn't even have to break out any of the puzzle books I brought for him. Mya was another story. She wanted to walk the aisles. So I was up and down with her, most of the flight. She did play with some toys and coloring books, but not for long. I think the stewardess' where happy to see us off the plane.

We had an eight hour layover in the Hong Kong airport. We ate Burger King hamburgers at six in the morning, cause it felt like the afternoon to our bodies. We walked around a lot and they had a couple of play places for the kids, so it really wasn't bad. I felt like we were still in America. There were a lot of shops, and places to buy clothes and purses, so it really felt like we were in a huge mall. I haven't met anyone yet that does not speak English. We Americans are so behind! Mya and Cannon are celebrities here, especially Mya with her big eyes. Everyone wants to touch them and talk to them, its really crazy. Asians do not have personal space, they put their hands all over the kids, rubbing their hair and their cheeks and arms. It really freaks me out! I have had people ask me if they can hold Mya, and I don't even know them. Lucky for me, Mya doesn't want anyone to hold her but Brian or I. But the people are so friendly!

We got on an airplane to Penang about three in the afternoon and Cannon fell asleep as soon as the plane started moving. Mya fell asleep about an hour later. They both slept through landing, getting off the plane, customs, baggage claim, loading the cars, (yes cars, we brought so much stuff that we had to be picked up in two cars.) and the drive to the condo. I have never seen them that dead to the world in my life. We all went to sleep very quickly after we arrived here. The kids slept until about 3 in the morning, and got up for milk, a quick look outside and some stories and then were back to sleep by 4 and slept until 8. The time adjustment has been the hardest on Mya. She falls asleep where ever and though what ever were doing. She is still sleeping at night, and for that I am grateful. We haven't made it all the way through the night yet, but this morning they slept until six, so we are getting there!

Halloween

2009-11-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

Halloween was so much fun this year, because Cannon was so into it. He wanted the front porch decked out in lights and pumpkins. Thanks to Nana, he got his wish. For his costume Cannon wanted to be Max from, "Where the Wild Things Are." He wanted to have terrible claws, that was the most important thing to him. He wanted Mya to be a Wild Thing. It took me a while to make it, but it turned out great!!

Cannon and Mya

2009-11-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

I thought I would put some pictures in of Cannon and Mya they are so cute with each other. (Most of the time!!) They do have their moments. Cuties!!!

Mya's Birthday

2009-11-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it! Mya is one! The year flew by so quickly. She is walking and is cutting 6 teeth at the same time. Oh, the joys of the first year. Cannon decided that she needed a butterfly birthday cake. I had already made cupcakes, and so we turned the cupcakes into a butterfly. I think it turned out alright. She got a stroller walker to push around her baby. She is so sweet with the baby, feeding her and carrying her around. She is not extremely careful, but very sweet.

Mya's Favorite Thing

2009-11-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

Mya's favorite thing is to put everything on her head before she eats it. It makes for very messy meals. She grins from ear to ear when she get things to balance on her head. Then getting it off and into her mouth is when it get squashed! Yuck!

Cannon's Birthday

2009-11-08T15:12:00.000-08:00

Cannon turned three this year. He wanted to have a birthday cake that was chocolate and blue. This turned into, I want Pablo for my birthday." For those of you who don't speak Backyardian that is Pablo the Penguin from the TV show The Backyardians. His only other request was that everyone wear party hats. Thanks to everyone who came and donned on the party hats. Cannon received lots of great presents including his first two wheel bike. He is in his own words, "Gettin' big."

Camping with the Howards

2009-11-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

We have friends named the Howards. We took them to Mom and Dad's house and slept out in the woods. Well, they and Brian and Cannon slept outside. Mya and I slept in the house. It was a little to cold for Little Mya! We had fun having a camp fire, eating marshmallows.

Cannon's First Day of School

2009-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Cannon started pre-school at the beginning of August. He goes one day a week, Tuesday morning from 9 to 1. He LOVES it! His teacher's name is Ms. Bobbi and her assistant is Ms. Carmen. He always looks forward to Tuesdays.

Few Summer Things

2009-09-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

We spent a little time at the lake this summer. It never got warm enough, for long enough. This is Cannon "pushing" Gene and Brian into Chatfield. He had a hard time getting into the cold water after Lake Powell. He asks when we load up the boat if we can go back to the hot lake. Oh we wish!!!

Cannon loves to help his Dad. Whatever Dad can do so can he. I am always amazed by Brian's patience. Things that would take him thirty minutes take hours with Cannons help. Like Father like Son!

Cannon traded in his binky (Be-be) for a red scooter! Congraulations Cannon!

Lake Powell

2009-07-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Lake Powell was once again awesome this year! It is Cannon's new favorite place to be. I have asked him what he wants to do for the day and he says,"go to Lake Powell." He is potty trained (yea!!!) and spent most of the time on the boat running around without pants on, cause "he needs to pee!!" He successfully peed off of rocks, the houseboat, the speedboat and the beach. He is such a man. He was pretty stoked! Cannon and I also took a spill off of the Ion, which he told everyone, "he shot off like a rocket!" It was really not a big deal, but way to hold on Julie. Needless to say I'm not sure how long it will be before he goes again. Mya was fabulous! and even took naps in the houseboat in Jack's bed. She slept GREAT at night. She loved the water as long as it didn't come above her knees. But was mostly happy to stay in the houseboat and chill out under the swamp cooler. Thanks to Mom and Lindsay I even got out to wakeboard a couple of times! Brian is awesome on the wakeboard and loved the trip, he is already trying to plan another trip for later this year. He just can't get enough.

Cannon's Big Boy Bed

2009-05-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

Don't you wish that the little things in life still made you so happy you couldn't go to sleep. That is happening to Cannon right now. A week ago when Brian was out of town Cannon walked into my room at 6:00 in the morning and said, "What ya doing Mom?" I of course was dead asleep. After I climbed off the ceiling, I said, "How did you get in here." Cannon said, "I climbed out of my crib, Mom!" Like duh what were you thinking! So tonight Cannon is sleeping in his very own big boy bed. Not just any bed but a Lightening McQueen race car bed! Who knows if anyone will get sleep tonight!

Super Cute Mya

2009-04-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, can I tell you I understand the blog idea. I told Lindsay that I was never going to be able to find things to blog about. But, I have kids and so therefore I have something to blog about. Can I show you my Mya. I think she is probably the cutest little girl there will ever be. The first video is of her playing peek-a-boo. Don't you love the arms straight over the head! The second is her grabbing things. She is fast as lightning. Anything that gets even relatively close to her gets into her teeny tiny hands! I love her!

Go fly a kite

2009-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

We decided that we would take advantage of the WINDY days we have been having, so, we got Cannon a kite. It looks like a really cool fighter jet. Well, we took it to the park to fly it, not pulling it out of the box before we got there. Needless to say an hour and a half later we got it to fly. It was the hardest to assemble thing in the world. Leave to the box to say,"quick and easy assembly." Cannon was so bored of being at the park that he flew the kite long enough for us to get a couple of pictures and he was ready to go.

2009-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Mya has started eating real food, well gross baby food. Anyhow this has been a big puzzle for Cannon. He has not figured out why she keeps getting all these cool new things. Not new, but new to him. I got the bumbo out to start feeding Mya in and Cannon insisted on having one for himself as well. Luckily we have two, (one at Nana's and one at home.) He has to have his bumbo touching Mya's bumbo and he talks to her while she eats. This is great except for when he taught her to blow raspberries while eating. It was only a matter of time before she taught herself. He also like to sit in the high chair now to eat. He has a booster at the table, but the high chair is so much cooler. I am hoping this wears off soon so that Mya can start using the high chair. I'm sure she would enjoy it!

Mya is rolling, rolling ,rolling

2009-03-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Mya is rolling off of her stomach. The words "tummy time" is like swear words to the Farnsworth children. They have both figured out how to get off of their stomachs as fast as they can. Cannon likes to roll over the top of Mya, while showing us that he can roll over. We will be waiting a while for her to want to roll onto her stomach. ENJOY!

Where "Say It, Mom!" comes from

2009-03-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

"Say it! Mom" is a phase that is shouted often in my house. It is then followed by a "Say it slowly," then a "Say it faster", then a "Say it louder." Cannon likes to have you repeat to him what he has said to you, and then it becomes a game. This equals me saying a phase like "There are clouds today" about a hundred times slowly, faster, and louder. When we are driving in the car and Cannon sees something interesting he will say, "Look, there is a school bus." and I will say, I see it." That is followed by a, "Say it, Mom!" shouted loudly. Then I will repeat, There is a school bus." and so on. Brian and I have started doing this to one another to make sure that we hear what the other is saying.