Whittakers in Singapore

2011-11-07T15:56:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures that Daddy took of Aaron. Some are silly, and some are fun. We hope you enjoy them at home or on the run!

Daddy's Tie on Little Boy

The Monkey on the Playground

"Daddy, shouldn't it be These Ways?"

A New Way to Climb!

Math Boy Working in Daddy's Classroom

The Play-Grid

Slides Are Good for Ladders Too.

Hello, Way Down There!

Mommy In the Orchestra at Church

Catching Up

2011-11-07T14:56:00.000+08:00

The Growing Boy

Aaron's First Day of Kindergarten

ICS Carnival

Aaron's favorite game: Fishing

Every year, the International Community School (ICS) has a carnival to raise money for the school. There are always lots of games and prizes. The most popular game is always the dunk tank. As usual, Danny took his turn awaiting a wet morning. It wasn't long until he went in! Aaron even took a turn trying to dunk Daddy. He missed but there were many others who hit the target!

Aaron attempts to Dunk Daddy!

In he goes!!

Mrs. Kennedy is Aaron's teacher this year. He tried his hand at knocking her in, but she stayed dry. So, we waited around until someone finally dunked her as well!

A Day With Friends

We recently got to visit with some good friends who live in Indonesia. They came over to Singapore, so we spent the day together a couple weeks ago. It was a public holiday, so we searched for something that was inexpensive but that would not be filled with fellow citizens. We met at the Asian Civilizations Museum. It was calm and cool, being air-conditioned. And not very crowded. It was the perfect place for our families. Aaron and Jonathan discovered all kinds of new talents in the children's areas. Here they learn about Chinese culture and eating with chopsticks. The goal was to pick up fishball sized round, slippery stones with the chopsticks as quick as they could. But we all know that fingers work much better! Next we traveled to the Middle East and learned about nomads living in tents. Aaron liked the hat and pillow!!

Boys playing in China

Our Little Nomad

Betsy's Trip to Vietnam

Last May, Betsy got a chance to visit Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam (formerly Saigon). She went with the orchestra from the International Baptist Church (IBC). It was an opportunity to minister to churches with music. We were so pleased to be a blessing. However, we were also blessed by the many people we met during our 4 day visit.

Our hosts took us to a unique quilting store where local women sell their hand-made items to support their families. It is a great help to many people. I saw this pattern and thought Mamma Whittaker would enjoy this Asian flair to a beautiful quilt. Unfortunately, I could not get the quilt as well.

Street Vendors Bring in Their Food to Sell

I was impressed with the mix of old and new architecture all over the city. Some of the buildings were so narrow, yet so tall!!

New Construction and a Coming Storm

The most common mode of travel other than your own feet.

The Saigon River

Home Sweet Home

Here are just a few pictures from the construction site next door. It is the rainy season now, and you can see for yourself just what it does!

When new housing is slated to go up, the first thing that happens is a building is constructed that gives an example of what each unit will look like, called a Show Flat. It happens that the show flats for the new site next door opened on a public holiday last week. This is from our window on opening day. You might just be able to see the small, dark forms hugging the shelter in the distance. That is the queue (British for line) of people there to get a glimpse of the show flats opening day. It started outside, but once the deluge commenced, there was a press to the scanty overhang on the only building in the area. That parking lot is the result of all the construction we posted previously. In spite of the downpour, the weather, as always, remained quite warm. In fact, the best way to dry off quickly once the rain lets up is to just let your feet get wet. Most people stay in sandals or flip flops even in the most severe weather. So the next picture will show you the best defense for the parking attendants on opening day.

Flip Flops and a Raincoat

In between rainstorms, we have some beautiful weather! Perfect for getting the laundry dry.

Our Neighbor's Laundry

Sunset behind the Singapore Flyer

First Day of School

2011-08-11T20:28:00.000+08:00

School started up for Aaron on Wednesday. He was very excited to be starting in kindergarten. Betsy was really excited to have some quiet around the house. Danny, not so excited as he had to go back to work! But then again, Danny IS excited about his new math courses for his Master's degree. So, it is a good August. We are all enjoying the closer proximity to school, only about 20 minutes on average to get to school! (Instead of 50 minutes last year).

"Where's Aaron?"

2011-07-06T19:45:00.000+08:00

To introduce our new space to all of you, we decided to play a little game called "Where's Aaron?" Enjoy these fun pictures from around our home.

Picture 1: The Living Room

Here you see our new, and much smaller living room. We are not exactly sure why there is a big hole in the coffee table, but we thought of some ideas.

Picture 2: Aaron's Room

Now that Aaron has a big-boy-bed, he has more space to lose toys under it. And he has more space to keep all his buddies on it!

Picture 3: Aaron's Room

The other side of Aaron's room is a wardrobe with a full length mirror. Lots of space and funny faces!

Picture 4: The Storage Room

Yes, our storage space has been reduced by over half. However, God gave us wisdom to use the space available. Yeah, it is very full!!

Picture 5: The Kitchen

Mommy is very happy with the new kitchen space. It is small, but the overhead space is more clear than the old kitchen. She doesn't feel like she has to duck under the drying rack to wash the dishes. Another plus: Piped in gas for hot water at the tap!!! That includes the shower as well!!!! No more flipping switches and heating dishwater in the tea kettle!!!!!! Yeah, this makes her very happy!!! Can you see Aaron? He is there!

Picture 6: The Kitchen

The stove top is a bit of a puzzle. Mommy is guessing that maids like to stirfry more on their level. So even though the counter tops are low, the range is even lower! But Mommy is using every bit of the high space for storing the appliances! Also, the kitchen can be closed off from the rest of the house, which can be air-conditioned! Mommy discovered a very important reason to close the kitchen doors: The clothes dryer. She ran it twice in one day (Wah!! Soooo hot lah!!!) Yeah, that is a last resort. Expensive too!

Picture 7: The Dining Room

Family meals are much more efficient now that we have a proper dining room. What you can't see is the cabinets and counter top Marvin. Setting the table is a breeze. Having the extra table will be handy when we have guests. Can you see Aaron?

Picture 8: The Master Bedroom

Here we have the room with the "Man-eating Bed". Yup, most of the room is the bed. It is almost like everything else is an afterthought. But we also have a big wardrobe like Aaron's, and at last we have a working air-con unit. Yeah, they fixed it yesterday!!! Nighttime is quite comfy-cozy.

Picture 9: The Study/Guest Room

This is the best angle for the study. It has so much space for computers (yahoo!) and even scrapbooking (wahoo!!!) Are you a scrapper? I am going to be again!! Gigi, can you see a bit of the Narnia poster? It looks so cool in this room!!! Oh yeah, the red rolling chair is cool too (a gift from the previous tenets). Out of the frame is (you guessed it) another big wardrobe. No more clothes on a little flimsy rack!!

Intermission Story:

The view from our windows has been most extraordinary! The first day we came to view the place, rented at the time by some friends of ours, Paula, wife and mom, showed us this beautiful, scenic, open, grassy park. The prospect was gorgeous (a little Jane Austin there)! We seemed miles from the nearest apartment buildings. What a lovely view each morning. Paula said, "This whole area is slated for development. We've enjoyed the view the whole time we've lived here. I can't imagine that they would start developing for several years."

Each time we came to see the place, meet the landlord, check on furnishings, etc., we enjoyed our grassy park. Even the landlord proudly claimed this unique claim upon rare open spaces.

This is absolutely true. The day, I mean the absolute DAY we moved our furniture in, a construction crew walled off the entire space and began loud, obnoxious, heinous, assaults on that fine park. And they mounted this attack right under our window!! Oh, the humanity of it all. But there is a silver lining. Aaron has always been fascinated with giant machines. His view has expanded greatly in the last few weeks. Even Danny has had a touch of nostalgia. Today, these fine wielders of expansion and destruction began cutting down almost all of the evenly spaced trees. Chainsaws can certainly bring back memories for one who grew up in Roseburg, OR.

Without further ado, our final shots for today:

Picture 1: The Leaning Tree

The tree in the middle is not reaching for sunlight. It is falling. Another one bites the dust (or turf as the case may be).

Picture 2: Construction Orange

The excavators greet us each morning at about 8 am. They take a break for lunch for an hour in the middle of the day, then they rest for the night at about 6:30 pm. There is also construction blue and a lovely sea green as well.

Picture 3: It Used to Be Green

We think this is a washing station for vehicles exiting the site. They dug a huge hole, let it rain for a day, dropped bricks into the pool (huh??) and put a grate over the top. All I have to say is they better not be breeding mozzies! This is a dengue free zone!!!!

Picture 4: All is not Lost

The good news is that there are plenty of great playgrounds in our new neighborhood. Our little monkey loves flitting from one to the other. You can see the MRT tracks in the background. More good news, we are very close to Clementi MRT. Yeah, that is important. Green line!! Gets us a lot closer to everything! Less waiting for buses and trains!! Only 3 bus stops to school. About 15 minutes, with the wait!!! Or Danny can walk it in 25 minutes. That is about as long as it used to take him to ride a bike.

Closing Argument:

Okay, so I guess since we just had devotions with Aaron, and it talked about not hating, but loving your brother, I better not start an argument now. In short, we are blessed beyond measure at the grace God has poured out on us repeatedly. Here He has once again shown His provision by providing us just the home we need, at just the right time, and gave us a Christian landlord as well. What an honor it is to serve the Most High God!! Thank you all for your prayers and support!

My camera has video!

2011-03-25T12:36:00.001+08:00

This is a video I had Daddy take on my camera a couple weeks ago.

Aaron is 5!

2011-03-25T12:20:00.000+08:00

We are back! Our site is going to have some alterations in how we work. We've added a new editor! Aaron celebrated his 5th birthday in February and received his own camera. He's been having lots of fun with it and will begin to have his own pictures to post and talk about. Here are a few of our pictures from the past months.

Aaron's birthday

I wrapped a huge box.with a small box

with a picture inside.

The next day we all went and picked out his camera.

It has been fun having Aaron at school with me. He spends a couple afternoons with me in my classroom after school, it's fun to be able to see a bit more of him during the day. Another fun thing came with spirit week. This year one of the days was twin day. We had fun being twins!

Sorry about the pictures, something got messed up when they posted. They are rotated on our computer!

I got a camera for my birthday!

2011-03-25T12:02:00.002+08:00

This is a picture of the building outside our window.

This is in my bedroom when my bed is made really good. Look at the funny snow globe on the shelf.

My tower with Pooh on top and Fuzzy Wuzzy beside it. It's funny because I took a picture with my garbage can too.

I took a picture of my airplane and my American flag and the picture I drew at school, it's a picture of me. I laid down on the paper and my art teacher drew around me.

I took a picture of me and Mommy together on Daddy and Mommy's bed.

I love you everybody!

An Exciting Summer

2010-08-09T13:24:00.001+08:00

It is hard to believe how fast time can fly by. This past summer has been full of wonderful adventures and we plan to fill you in on some of the details over the next few days. Today Aaron and I are going to share some of the excitement in his life.

On August 4th, I took Aaron to celebrate the coming change in his life as he goes from a little boy to a school boy. We had some other guys come to help mark the occasion with us. Between games I gave Aaron this name tag for his school bag and talked with Aaron about the significance of growing up into a young boy. I told him how Betsy and I had chosen his name because we hoped he would be a light to those around him.
He's only four and a half years old, but I think he kind of understood what was happening, and hopefully this will be a time he will look back at in the future as we continue to mark his journey to manhood with little ceremonies.

It is fun to see him growing and to hear evidence of what he is learning. A couple nights ago I had a sleepover in his room, I brought a couple mattresses in and slept on the floor in his room. It was fun. The next day at nap time he decided to sleep on my bed. I asked if he was pretending he was a Daddy in his little boys room. Then I asked if he wanted to be a Dad when he grew up. He said, "Yeah, I think so. When I'm older I'll ask God what He wants me to be and then I'll be what He says." AMEN!

Here are a few pictures of the bowling adventure:

Here is Aaron practicing his writing on a new drawing pad he just received (not sure why it is rotated, but couldn't get it to rotate back, oh well!). He can't wait for school to start in just 7 days!

China Trip

2010-05-04T23:17:00.001+08:00

We have finally recovered from our week in China. Everyone is healthy again. All of our things are unpacked. All of the laundry is finished. Here are some pictures from our lovely week.

No sooner had we cleared Chinese immigration, then one of our students climbed aboard his suitcase and took a snooze.

Here is the city we visited. It is extremely large. In the three years we’ve gone, we still have not seen even half of it.

The Mandarin teacher at ICS has a home near this lake. It is the biggest lake in the area, and if someone took all of Singapore and plopped it in this lake, the entire country would be submerged and barely make a dent in the whole size of the lake.

It seems that this fresh water has an abundance of seaweed. These people are harvesting it and there were miles of it piled all along the shore.

Our first real cultural experience was a Minority Village, displaying all the variety and color of the local indigenous tribes. There are over 50 tribes just in the province we visited.

There were statues, mock villages, elephant shows, horseback riding and so much more to experience. Aaron especially liked climbing on everything he could.

Warning signs were courteous enough to have English translations. We got the gist of it.

All the villages looked so different. Some were merely huts on stilts. This village was magnificent in its stone heights.

Betsy has always considered herself lucky anytime she can be on a horse.

Our second day started with the work we went to accomplish. We went to a local university and taught English classes using fun activities. The idea is that the students would be out of their normal routines and have a chance to practice English with English speakers. Here are the basketball students. Most of the Chinese students have played basketball before, so they were quite competent.

Here is one of the students I enjoyed getting to know.

Dodgeball was a totally new experience for most of the Chinese. Some were a bit fearful to attempt something so new. It didn’t take them long to join when they watched their schoolmates take to the sport with much enthusiasm.

Our students also taught card games and Pictionary. Everyone from ICS did a great job and made good friends.

Aaron spent his days learning new Chinese words like ni hao (hello), zai jian (goodbye), and bu yao (I don’t want). That last one was his favorite because every Chinese student who saw him wanted to touch, hold, pick up, and get a picture with him. After a while he just wanted to be left alone so he could explore the area in peace. We taught him “bu yao” in hopes that it would help fend off his admirers. Sometimes it worked. He also found new ways to entertain himself. In the picture above, one of the ICS students is helping him discover wind force and gravity. Specifically how much fun it is to blow an empty water bottle off another. Betsy and Aaron also took an afternoon to explore a park in the university. The flowers and walkways were amazing!

The new university library.

Another beautiful sunset over the city. This shot was from our hotel room.

On our last day we went on quite a hike. We climbed hundreds of steps up the side of a cliff. Every so often there were shrines and temples built onto the steep hills honoring various Taoist deities. The views of the lake and city below were awe-inspiring. There were two goals. The first goal was to hoof our way to an archway called the Dragon Gate. The engineering needed to carve the gate and the steps to get there boggled the mind. You can see it below.

The Dragon Gate:

The last goal was to make it to the top of the cliff and the last of the “endless” staircase. Here are Danny and Aaron triumphant at the very top. Shortness of breath and keeping up with Aaron were the greatest enemies we had to conquer. Singapore is basically sea level. This part of China is thousands of feet above sea level. Whew!! We made it!!!

There are many more pictures we could post. But we hope this gives you a taste of our journey. God was very good to us and gave us many opportunities to live His love.

Aaron & the Zoo

2010-03-25T20:53:00.001+08:00

Thought we would share some pictures of our wonderful child. Also included are pictures from our recent trip to the zoo. We got some great shots of the animals. Bonus points if you can name all seven of the animals included!

A month of adventures

2010-03-14T21:16:00.000+08:00

Over the past month I have had a renewed vision toward helping kids and teens better understand how the Bible fits together. A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of teaching the counsel time at AWANA and created this presentation to show where everything fits together. Many of the kids know the order of the books of the Bible and know many of the stories, but they were shocked to find out that the books are NOT ordered chronologically. It was fun teaching them. One of those students came to me this morning asking for more information. I love seeing that passion in this 6th grader!

Here is the presentation that I've created, it was created at prezi.com, I like the way you can zoom and flow around the presentation instead of breaking things up with slides.

Bible Timeline on Prezi

Last week Betsy and I were able to take part in OCBC Cycle Singapore. Many of the roads in downtown Singapore were closed while over 9000 riders took part in different races. We both road in the 40km Challenge (24 miles). It was a lot of fun being on the roads without having to worry about cars!

Please continue to pray for us. We are in full swing gearing up for our trip to China with our Week without Walls team from the school. We leave 4 weeks from today!

The Big Boy Birthday Bash

2010-02-10T21:40:00.001+08:00

Aaron turned four years old on Saturday. The first thing in the morning, he came into our room and said, “Daddy, Mommy, I’m four today but my pajamas still fit!” We think he was under the impression that as soon as he turned four he would suddenly shoot up. That was a great way to start the day.

After breakfast, we brought out the presents from Poppa and Gigi (Betsy’s parents). Aaron’s favorite was Annie and Clarabelle from the Thomas and Friends train set. He ran over and attached them to one of his Thomas trains as soon as we got them opened. “Thank you, Poppa and Gigi!!”

Things settled down a bit after this. Aaron went down for a rest while Mommy and Daddy began to set up for Aaron’s big party. We had invited many friends, Mommy had baked a cake, and Aaron had picked out party favors with Mommy at the store. Lots of good friends came and celebrated with us!

To the right is a picture of Aaron with the crown he picked out for himself.

All of our friends brought gifts. Aaron could hardly wait until we said it was time to open all those wonderful packages. The boy in the background of the picture below is one of Aaron’s good friends, the son of some staff members at ICS.

Daddy enjoyed the gifts too. Aaron ran to him each time he needed to get into a new box. This one is a new remote controlled race car that blinks and makes great racing sounds!

In short, we all had a wonderful day. Aaron is so happy to tell people that he is four now. What a blessing!

Sunset

2010-02-02T21:00:00.001+08:00

Here are some pictures of Singapore’s sunsets, always involving the vast harbor.

Growing Up!

2010-02-02T20:53:00.001+08:00

Yes, we are still alive and well in Singapore. We are so sorry that we have not been updating you lately. Here is the latest news:

Aaron turns four years old on Saturday, the 6th of February. Our present to him is a brand new bicycle. Last Saturday we took him out to eat lunch at a nearby hawker center. After lunch, Betsy told him about our plan to go to the bike shop and find a bike just for him. She wished she had the camera. His face lit up from his eyes to his jaw-dropping surprise. He was so excited. The shop owner was very helpful and chose just the right size and style for Aaron. Daddy helped him ride it home, mostly Daddy pushing and Aaron ringing the bell.

Sunday morning Aaron promptly asked to ride his new bike to church. We told him that was too far, but later we would ride around on the first floor of our building, called a void deck. After his nap today, he said, “Mommy, can we go down to the void deck with my new bicycle and practice?” So we did. Mommy didn’t realize just how difficult it is to pedal a bike. He’ll get it!

My Son is Now My Brother

2010-01-02T21:34:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since we've posted. Life has been crazy with Disneyland, Grandparents, Christmas, fondue parties, and a 3-year old.

This evening something happened that I just have to share, and since currently all of the people I really want to share it with are sleeping, I'll do it this way!

For Christmas this year Aaron received a little Bible and we started reading through it to start the new year. The first entry is Creation, then today we read about Adam and Eve and their sin. When we finished the little story I asked if Aaron knew what happened because of their sin. He said, "God had to die." We talked about what that original sin as well as each of our individual sins means, and most importantly what Jesus death and resurrection means for Aaron. Then Betsy led Aaron through the sinners prayer. Now, my son is my brother! What an awesome thing! We are all smiles here. What a way to start the year!

God bless you all in 2010!

Fun in the Sun

2009-10-10T22:44:00.001+08:00

Today was our annual carnival at school. Many fun times to be had. I always look forward to my opportunity to dangle above the water and make fun of my students as they miss the mark. Of course, I also enjoy getting drenched by them!

Here I am taunting them by solving the rubik’s cube while I wait to be dunked:

And here I am being dunked!

Of course Aaron enjoyed watching me get dunked and even took a throw himself

(he missed, but my “assistant” hit the bar for him).

He also loved the balloons to see and bouncy castles to bounce in!

On another note, Aaron started Awana last month and has been enjoying his time with the kids and especially his special Cubbies vest! It is fun seeing him get this great foundation in God’s Word.

For His Glory

2009-09-23T21:35:00.000+08:00

Last week was Spiritual Life Week at ICS. God used the week to work in the lives of many students and staff.

What is Spiritual Life Week? In this case it was a chance to focus the whole week on God. The students attended chapel twice each day. These chapels were lead by a group from the NICS school in Korea, five students and two teachers. The students lead the times of worship while the teachers (John and Ben) did the actual speaking.

The theme for the week was "For His Glory". Each day John helped us to see a better picture of God's story in the world around us. Ben made things more practical as he shared his story and the way God has been working in his life.

It is so easy for us to get caught up in how every little thing affects our life. We lose sight of the big picture. Sometimes our whole life experience rotates on a single decision or action. God is orchestrating something great in each of our lives!

As humans we tend to look at people and ourselves and center our value upon what it is that we do. But God is not interested in what we do, He simply loves us for who we are.

We make terrible messes sometimes; often we look at our life and think that there is no way that God can use our situation, whether because of sin or because something HORRIBLE is happening. But God is using even those messes and difficult times to create something great.

Ben shared with us how five years ago, the week before they were to follow God's call to serve Him in Korea, they found out the child growing in his wife's womb was not going to survive. The doctors said she just needed to get an abortion. They refused. Over the last four months of the pregnancy they prayed and prepared, but the child, little Benjamin, lived for only 47 minutes after birth.

The next day Ben told us how God used that mess to orchestrate something amazing. Instead of collecting flowers at the funeral they asked people to donate funds to a mission in Russia. Over the course of the next few months, $10,000 was raised. That was enough to buy a home for a Russian family working to adopt orphans and train them up to know God and serve him.

God's story is SOOOO much bigger than we can imagine; He is doing amazing things!

Our life must be lived to bring glory to Him, but the only way that can happen is by letting Christ live in us and through us.

On Thursday and Friday students were given a chance to share what God had been communicating to them. It was awesome to hear many students share, some of which were making major changes in their lives.

Please pray that the commitments made over this great week will be kept. Also that students will not just return to the same old lifestyle, but that they will take away something from this week.
Pray the same for me and the rest of the teachers as well!
Praise God for the part we each get to play in God's story!

Summer Fun in the USA

2009-09-01T20:23:00.001+08:00

Here are a few pictures from our adventures in the US. In June, we had lots of fun with the Whittaker clan. Aaron is one of six cousins, all under 4. It was great seeing him interact with his cousins.

Our first week was spent at the ocean, all 18 of us! Such excitement. Here are all the cousins with their grandma and grandpa, from left to right:

Beniah – 8 months
Donny – 2 years
Everlyn – 2 months
Katie – 1 1/2 years
Jack - 3 1/2 years
Aaron - 3 1/2 years

This was Aaron’s first time in the COLD Oregon ocean. He had fun.

Here is the whole clan.

For the 4th of July he had his first Smore. He wasn’t so sure about the mess, but boy does it taste good!

He also had fun playing with Danny’s old toys (so did Danny and Grandpa!)

In July we made the trip to Eastern Washington to spend time with Betsy’s family.

He LOVED the farm and all of the machinery:

He had a few more firsts:

Swimming in the middle of a lake (first for Danny too)

Horseback ride

First Parade

First Steam Train Ride

All in all, it was a great summer!

Back to School

2009-08-25T20:19:00.002+08:00

Hey everybody!

Welcome back from the summer. The past three months have been wonderfully busy and crazy.

It started with the long flight across the Pacific on June 15th, and three weeks with Danny's family in Portland and Vancouver. It was a lot of fun letting Aaron interact with his five cousins aged from 2 months to 3.5 years. Most of these we had never actually met.

After our time in Vancouver we made the drive to Othello to spend time with Betsy's parents. This was another wonderful time as Aaron got a chance to ride on all sorts of machinery (tractors, trucks, motorbikes, and a dune buggy). Our trip ended with a couple weeks at Deer Lake, swimming and boating and otherwise relaxing.

It was a refreshing time and was wonderful seeing so many people that we haven't seen in a long time.

We returned to Singapore on August 3rd. It was nice to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore. The last three weeks have been spent trying to get back into a normal routine at home, while at the same time getting a new school year started.

The school year is going well. At the end of last year enrollment was down by about 15% (from 400 to about 340), causing the board and adminstration to need to make some cuts and plans. They set a budget based on 360 students and told us to pray that God would bring them in. It was close, but on the Friday before school started our enrollment hit 361! Praise God!

Please continue pray for the school, we are in the midst of some negotiations with the government regarding coverings for our outdoor basketball courts. We have been waiting for final approval since last June and continue to wait. Please pray that something will happen quickly so these coverings can be put up quickly to allow more places to play and have PE during rainy days!

Thanks for praying! Sorry there aren't any pictures today.

Day 2

2009-05-19T20:57:00.000+08:00

ICS students prepared lessons for the university students to help them engage in fun activities and practice speaking English. Our 19 students split into four groups, and for one day they taught lessons in the morning and the afternoon.

It took some time for the Chinese students to feel comfortable playing volleyball. They got a chance to practice various hits and defences, then we split them into groups and started a tournament. In the end, everyone had a great time.

Next is Ultimate Frisbee. This game took some time to explain. I think the Chinese were less familiar with it. But, once the teams were selected and everyone faced off, there was no stopping it! Ultimate was a huge hit! The ICS students were panting by the end due to the high altitude. We just weren’t used to 3,000 feet above sea level.

The Music group had a challenge. They needed to define a series of very specific types of music as well as instruments. They were fortunate to have someone to translate everything for them. They also used PowerPoint slides incorporated with instrumental sounds. Yes, even hand motions sufficed to demonstrate the woodwinds. They topped off the class with a generous round of musical chairs.

Finally, the Card Playing group. They also faced an audience with little understanding of English terms like “spades” or “queen”. This team did not have the benefit of a translator, but they did have Mr. Whittaker. Since Danny taught this class last year, he stepped up and taught it again. You will notice that everyone is scattered around the floor. Apparently there was a miscommunication and the class was held in a computer lab with no movable tables. Ah, that wonderful creativity called improvising.

And what was Aaron doing during all this? Why making friends of course. He had a great time running around and playing with the menagerie. The menagerie, in turn, had a great time trying to get him to sit still for a picture. “So lovely!”

Rural Life

2009-05-12T20:44:00.001+08:00

On our first full day in China, we got a taste of something that can never be found in Singapore: A Farm! A Singaporean family started an olive farm in rural China to educate the local people in farming techniques and to bring hope. They wait for the first harvest of olives which will occur in October. As they anticipate the bounty, they have branched out to other crops as well. ICS students roamed the arid hills with a mixture of awe and disbelief. A special treat awaited the end of the tour, fresh strawberries right off the vines. We joined in the excitement as one after another, students stepped from the green house munching strawberries and licking sticky fingers.

After a home-grown, home-cooked meal, our group migrated to a nearby village to teach English with crafts, songs, and games. Primary (Elementary) children practiced saying the names of animals as they drew pictures, sang “If I Were a Butterfly” and played an animal version of tag. The tigers got to tag everybody. The mice and pigs had to run the whole time. Dogs and cats could tag those who were not tigers.

Time melted away as the children began to come out of their shells and make some friends. Even Aaron found some common ground with those he didn’t share a language with.

The school gathered everyone up to say “Thank You” and “Goodbye”. What an excellent time for a picture. Tired ICS students piled back on the bus, happy to have been a part of the school for a day.

Home again

2009-04-22T02:01:00.001+08:00

Just a quick post to let you know that we made it home. We are still trying to get rested though. Betsy and Aaron are both a bit sick. Enjoy some pics until we can talk about it more later!

Off we go!

2009-04-13T20:11:00.001+08:00

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for the airport to begin our week long service trip to China. Please pray for safety in our travels!

ICS Family

2009-03-31T22:07:00.001+08:00

We recently took an all school picture. See if you can find Danny.

Aaron

2009-03-31T22:05:00.001+08:00

Just thought I throw a few pictures of Aaron up. No particular order:

Photo shoot for China visa.	Playing in the sand.
A new friend	The carousel
Dinnertime in Asia.
Five months old	Four months old
At the Science Center
The Elephant Boy	At the playground
	Sleepy Boy
	Ready for School?

March Goings On

2009-03-24T22:02:00.001+08:00

Life has been full here in Singapore. God has been blessing us richly. One of the greatest blessings He has given us recently is a new church family. We have truly been thriving in our new church. Aaron loves his Sunday School class and enjoys the 2-3 hours he spends there each week. Betsy and Danny are really enjoying the teaching in both the sermon and in our Sunday school class on the book of Romans. On top of these Sunday activities, Danny has begun attending a Monday morning men’s group that is really helping him to see his Biblical role as a man, husband, and father. Please pray with us that we will continue to grow in our knowledge of Him!

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks:

On March 7th the school had a fun run to raise money for scholarships. It was a 5 km (3 mile) run through a park near the school. Danny helped out by riding his bike around the course and making sure everyone was ok. After the race our family went for a walk by the sea, then sat down to watch the boats.

It was neat seeing all the small little fishing boats and also the big harbor ships. Including one of these ships lifted high above the water.

Here are a few more shots of Aaron playing.

Aaron is beginning to really enjoy the dirt. He likes to have his tractors in the sand and dig around. He also likes to just play with his hands!

Of course, ever present with Aaron are his Thomas trains. Recently his collection of trains became long enough that he can create a never-ending train to drive around in circles.

Today Danny used Aaron’s blocks to make risers and a looping hill. Aaron had lots of fun with this, until one of the towers was knocked over and they all fell like dominoes!

Fun with a tape measurer.

And drum!

Another blessing of our new church is that Betsy has been able to use her talents with the oboe to share in worship. This is actually taken at a recent community event involving many of the Baptist churches in Singapore.

Last Saturday, Danny and Betsy went on a wonderful date. We simply got on a bus and rode till the end. Then we transferred to another bus at random and continued to ride until we felt like getting off to wander a park we happened across. Betsy had her camera and had a lot of fun taking pictures. Here are a couple of the incredible sky shots that she got.

Here comes the storm! We had to take shelter for about 30 minutes as a huge thunder storm rolled through. It was amazing to watch the clouds roll in, the lightening flash, and the rain fall.

As we walked home we saw this beautiful rainbow as the sun was setting. God is good!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

Danny, Betsy, and Aaron

Week Without Walls

2009-03-10T22:22:00.000+08:00

This year the high school at ICS has added a new event to the yearly calendar. In the middle of April we will be taking a week away from school to travel to different locations in south east asia to perform some form of service to the community. We will have a total of about 100 students traveling to 7 or 8 different locations. Students will be helping with orphanages, basketball tournaments, teaching English, construction projects, and many other activities.

Our family will be returning to China to follow up on the trip we went on last year. Danny is actually in charge of organizing the group this year and is working hard to finalize all of the details. Thankfully we have a few friends who are helping with the details now and will be meeting us in China to help us with the translation there. We will have 19 students teaching English classes to university students. The goal is to teach English through games and hobbies. We will have classes focusing on playing cards, music, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee. We will also have an opportunity to work with some elementary aged students in a nearby village and to put together an Easter party on the university campus.

Please pray with us for the planning of this trip!

Birthday February

2009-02-24T23:35:00.001+08:00

Aaron and Betsy both have birthdays in February. Here are a few of the things we have been doing in celebration. This is a month's worth of pictures! And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm more than making up for the last 4 weeks!

The biggest present Betsy and Aaron received was a visit from Gigi & Poppa/Mom & Dad.

Aaron received many presents from many different people, so in order to increase the fun we spread the gift giving over many weeks. This way he was able to enjoy each new toy for a while before becoming overwhelmed!

This is a toy that we have been looking forward to playing with for a long time! Aaron is becoming quite the handy-man, taking apart his car and tow truck, then putting them back together. He picks out the proper tool, flat-head, philips, socket, allen wrench, or hammer, then puts them to work!

Gigi and Poppa didn't want Aaron to question where he is from. Proud to be an American!

Aaron also got his first chance to go bowling. He loved it. We had to help him with the ball at first, but by the end he will collect it, walk to the lane, and roll it himself. He even got one strike!

Aaron's favorite gifts were Thomas trains. At Christmas he received a couple of engines, but no track. For his birthday the lack of track was taken care of!

It started with a simple figure eight set from Mommy and Daddy.

Then a package from Grandma & Grandpa came!

Then Gigi & Poppa got him a bridge.

He LOVES playing with the track. And most of the time we love it too!

Another thing we did quite a bit over the past month was swimming. Aaron is becoming quite a little water dog. He loves every aspect of being in the water!

Flying

Jumping

Sliding

Dunking

Aaron talked over and over about the "big green bucket with the elephant dumped water on my head."

Learning to drive.

Playing with his excavator at the beach.

Oh, some more swimming, this time at the ocean!

And, with all this going on, Betsy and Danny also got a bit of time to themselves while enjoying the free babysitting!

Love you all! Will fill you in on school next week!

Return to "Normalcy"

2009-01-20T20:18:00.000+08:00

The three week Christmas vacation was a great time for me. I really enjoyed all of the extra time I was able to have with Aaron. I miss him now that I have had to return to teaching for the new semester. Here are just a few pictures from our last outing of the holiday.

"Oh don't you see, there's a bird on me."

Aaron LOVES trains!

We planned on swimming in the water park, but it was closed, so we played on the obstacle course instead:

It was a lot of fun. I can't believe that he is almost three years old already. He has grown so fast, and every day he gets to be more and more fun!

Love to you all, hope your January has been splendid!

Tis the Season

2009-01-02T21:09:00.000+08:00

We've celebrated many Christmases. This was one of our favorites!! Aaron was so much more involved in everything this year. He helped to decorate the house, hang the ornaments, and even put presents under the Christmas tree. Daddy showed Aaron one of his favorite things to do before the tree got full of presents. When Daddy was a kid, he would crawl under the empty tree and look up at all the twinkling lights.

Aaron's favorite part of Christmas day was the unwrapping. Only he called it wrapping. So, here he is "wrapping" a couple of gifts.

He was very meticulous about handing us each scrap of paper to put in the trash. No mess to clean up when he was done!

This was one of Aaron's stocking stuffers. He really likes Thomas and Friends. He would use stickers of Harvey that his Gigi (Betsy's Mom) sent to help his toy trains to get back onto their track. Now he has a real Harvey the crane to do the job!

This was truly a memorable Christmas. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

A Father's Disneyland Adventure

2008-12-09T19:53:00.000+08:00

I thought that this week I would share my look at our time in Hong Kong (Disneyland). It was a blast! What follows are a few of my highlights:

The Buzz Lightyear ride was my favorite. It was basically a big video game! Each car had to laser guns and a joystick to rotate the car. Betsy would hold Aaron so that he could control the spin of the car while I got to shoot the evil emporer Zurg and his minions! I think I rode this ride about seven times (including by myself a couple of times while Aaron was napping or riding a different ride with Mommy.)

Thankfully, on both Tuesday and Wednesday, some of the other ICS staff members were also at Disneyland, so we were able to pass Aaron off to a babysitter so we could ride Space Mountain. (Incidentally, this was the only ride that Aaron could not ride.) The best part about this ride was the line. Note in the picture how many people were in front of us. There were none behind us! We typically had a five-minute wait!

Of course, I also had a lot of fun with Aaron, I loved watching him watch and study things. Here he is watching the clock on the "It's a Small World" ride. He loved watched the face tick-tock back and forth.

We also enjoyed Tarzan's treehouse.

And of course, the train. I was able to ride next to Donald (he is my favorite) for 7 of my 8 rides on the train!

Of course, the trip wasn't all fun and games (for me). It also included the conference. I really enjoyed the chance to connect with other Christian math teachers from around Asia and share ideas about curriculum, computer aids, and Biblical integration. Plus, I enjoy the puzzle of figuring new things out, so the 6 train, hour and a half commute each direction wasn't really that bad! It meant I got to see some of Hong Kong, I got to people watch, and I got to spend a lot of time reading from the Scriptures.

OK, here is one last picture. On our last night in Hong Kong the three of us went to a nearby area and road these cable cars over the water and into the hills (I almost called them mountains). It was wonderful to actually see mountains and hills unlike anything we have seen for a long time. (I'm pretty sure that the highest elevation in Singapore is one of the banking buildings.)

Now we are back into normal life with 8 more days of school until Christmas vacation! Love you all!

Trip to Hong Kong

2008-12-03T20:38:00.002+08:00

Danny needed to attend a teaching conference in Hong Kong last week. So, we just had to stay at the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel so Betsy and Aaron could visit Disneyland 4 days. Yeah, we got to go to Disneyland 4 days in a row! Danny joined us for the first two days. Then he commuted into the city for his conference. Here is our hotel!

This fountain was just outside the entry into Disneyland. According to the math-brained husband, the fountain did a little show every 12 minutes. What a fun "Hello" from Mickey!

So, what was Aaron's favorite ride? Well it was a toss up, but the carousel won by a nose (no pun intended). He spent most of the rides on the carousel alternating between talking about how fast it was going and watching the mechanics and attempting to figure out how it worked.

After the carousel, Aaron asked, "Can we ride the elephants?" Danny was happy to oblige. We told Aaron that the Elephant's name was Dumbo. He would ask to ride Dumbo from then on. He discovered the joy of being able to control his ride. "Go up and down!" Yeah, that was tons of fun!

Next ride? Teacups please. Mommy said, "If you want to ride the teacups, you better do it today and tomorrow with Daddy. Mommy doesn't ride the teacups. Ever!" So Aaron got to ride with Daddy a couple of times! Mommy happily stood outside and snapped pictures!

The last ride of the first day: The Carousel.

The Small World ride was a cacophony of all things mechanical. Aaron had to study them every time we rode. Smiles and excitement outside the ride quickly faded as he tried to take in all the mechanical dolls and scenery. You can just see his little brain working, usually going on overload.

This Disneyland was perfect for Aaron. All the lands were very close together which made it easier for Aaron to get around. Most of the rides were geared for his age, so he could enjoy them repeatedly! This picture is of Main Street. We enjoyed all the various, spontaneous events. For example: The Disneyland Band, and even some Christmas shows.

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Danny commuted into the main part of Hong Kong for a teacher's conference. The public train system there is very similar to the trains we use in Singapore. But the first leg of the trip was on a train that only serviced Disneyland. Boy was it a nice train! It made him spoiled to the rest of the packed commuter trains. The windows were Mickey shapes, and statues of the various characters were stationed periodically throughout the cars! Danny's favorite is Donald Duck!

Stay tuned for the next set of pictures. We have many more to share with you!

Favorites

2008-11-18T19:49:00.000+08:00

Aaron made some new friends at the zoo last week. A family of lemurs gathered right by us in the butterfly exhibit. They were calm and quiet. So Aaron gently touched the closest one. He just looked at Aaron like, "So what? I'm just hanging out!"

This little guy even helped Aaron with an early bath. Aaron turned around and said, "Mommy, he eating me!" I checked for tooth marks at warp speed! No, just a friendly little lick. Aaron giggled at that. He talked about that one for the rest of the day!

Boredom set in amongst the lemur group. So they decided to go raid the butterfly sugar water. Aaron thought it would be a good idea to go try to corral this "unruly mob". Not a chance! Instead, Mommy found a "Kodak Moment".

The new area for children has some great landscaping! Aaron really wanted to ride the "grass train" as he called it. Mommy had to break the sad news that this train did not take passengers.

Mommy's favorite moment of the day was Aaron's first pony ride. This is Rosie. She was kind enough to do a lap around the pony trail toting Aaron, plodding beside her wrangler. Aaron was excited to try this new form of transportation. Mommy wasn't sure if he would be brave enough to get on Rosie. But, he reached out to the man leading Rosie. ready to hop on and see the world. Rosie's leader said Aaron was so clever as they traveled. He was busy pointing out all the sights along the way. Mommy even convinced Aaron to touch Rosie's soft nose. Brave little guy!!

Here a a few pics of the Elephant show. It is called "Elephants at Work and Play".

Work:

(knocking logs into the water, a logging task)

Play:

"Hey, wake up! No sleeping on the job!!"

As evening approached the other day, so did a thunder storm. Betsy grabbed the camera and started shooting. As luck (AKA God) would have it, she captured this strike!

Sometimes, the evening lights remind me of Christmas. This is one of my favorite skyline shots!

A New Website

2008-11-13T21:01:00.002+08:00

We have long been Veggie Tales fans and today we want to share with you a new website that we've just been introduced to: www.jellytelly.com. This is the newest creation of Phil Vischer, the founder of Big Idea and Veggie Tales. It is not connected to Big Idea in any way (in case you don't know, Phil Vischer had to sell Big Idea). It is an amazing site with a great vision for reaching children with the message of God.

You do have to register for the site and after a one month trial, have to pay a small subscription fee, but that fee will go to helping this ministry to grow. Check it out!

OSIM Corporate Triathlon 2008

2008-11-04T19:42:00.001+08:00

Last Saturday Danny and Betsy took part in the 2008 Corporate Triathlon. One of Danny's co-workers has been involved in many triathlons in the past and introduced the idea to the school. In all there were ten of us that competed. Thankfully it was set up in such a way that we could sign up to run the race as a relay. We had three relay teams (a swimmer, a biker, and a runner). Betsy did the swim leg for one of the teams (the mini relay: 200 meter swim, 10 km (6 mi) bike, 2km (1.2 mi) run). Danny did the bike leg for one of the sprint teams (750 meter swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run). It was a fun day.

Here is a photo of the transition area, each runner or team had a spot to park his bike.

Here is Betsy after her swim. She had fun, but felt the 200 meters was too short! She plans to swim the 750 meter length next year.

Betsy's team:

Notice on the number bib: RX100, but if you zoom in you will see the team name: 1.6868055555555556. We're not sure what happened there, the team name was supposed to be 40:29 (from Isaiah). Apparently the computer took that to be a time and converted it to days (40 hours and 29 minutes is 1.6868055555555556 days)!

Here is another look at the transition area as some of the men's individual triathloners are getting ready to go out for the bike leg. Tim (in blue) is the one who introduced us to the triathlon.

Here is Tim on his bike.

There was also a handicapped category, it was neat to see a few riders biking this way (he is pedaling with his hands).

Here goes Danny, not quite as nice of a bike, or as good of form. But very happy with his final time of 46:06 (average of 16 mph).

The triathlon was run at East Coast Park, nearby was the beach with this section dedicated to sand castles.

Upon returning home and a shower, Danny received one more souvenir. Note the sunburn line!

If you follow the link at the beginning of the post you can see our results: Betsy was in the Mini Relay Non-Profit Mixed. Danny was in the Sprint Relay Non-Profit Mixed. As a warning, the biker on Betsy's team didn't realize he was supposed to ride two laps, so he only road one lap and the team was thus disqualified.

This is from a couple of weeks ago, but thought we would throw in one picture of Aaron as well.

Four-Day Weekend!

2008-10-29T20:54:00.001+08:00

Living in Singapore is a lot of fun. Singapore has a vast cultural diversity and the government works hard to be very tolerant of the different cultures and religions. For this reason, it seems like every other week we are celebrating some holiday or festival. Monday we "celebrated" Deepavali (Indian New Year). Basically this meant that we got a four-day weekend! It was wonderful, though not quite as fun as we were planning. Betsy was sick the whole weekend and is only now beginning to recover. As a result, Danny and Aaron got to spend a lot of father-son time while Betsy rested. Danny really enjoyed all the time with Aaron.

Some of our activities:
Church
Walk to the store
Watch Horton Hears a Who
Play baseball

Play in the ball pit

It is amazing how fast he is growing up! I loved getting to see his growth up close. Tonight we had a couple of funny moments as it neared bedtime:

After Aaron's bath, as I was getting ready to dry him off, I pointed to the ceiling and said, "Aaron, what is that?" (I was just trying to get him to look up so that I could tickle his neck.) As I pulled the towel away, he continued to look up and said, "I don't know what it is." I tried to tell him I was just teasing him, but he wouldn't give up. He finally concluded that I must have been pointing at a gecko and declared, "The gecko is all gone." When we finished drying him off he ran to Betsy to tell her that the (non-existent) gecko ran off!

Later, I was working with Aaron trying to get him to quote Deuteronomy 6:5. (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.) I had showed him hand motions for heart, soul, and mind. As he quoted he said, "Love God with your soul, heart". Then he stopped, so I pointed at his head to get him to say mind, but no, he says, "and ear."

Racing fever
Some of you may have heard about the big F1 race here in Singapore a couple of weeks ago. If you didn't, it was a big deal here and was the first night race in F1 history. Because of this great excitement in the city there have been many different things emphasizing the race. One of these was an exhibit at the science center. Betsy took Aaron to see the displays that were set up. Here is one of the cars in the display (no, it is not an F1 car).

Seeing the Sights

2008-10-22T19:45:00.000+08:00

It is the rainy season here. We find this to be a mixed blessing. With the rain comes all the blossoms on all the plants. The island is a riot of colors! The rain also brings somewhat cooler weather (30 degrees C instead of 32 degrees!!) Ok, so I never thought I'd notice a 1 or 2 degree change in temperature. Sometimes I wish for a sweatshirt in the windy rain. (I know, I can't believe it either!)

Unfortunately, rainy weather also keeps away the sun. It has been several days since we had a bright, sunny day all day. When Aaron and Betsy went to the zoo the other day, we had to sit under shelter for about 45 minutes while the rain pelted all the trails. But we can't complain because of all the other great things about rain.

So, enjoy the rainy season with us!

Danny got a great idea using the computer program to alter this picture using another picture Betsy took of a flower. Betsy worked to bring out this unusual art. I call it "The Flowering Butterfly".

The orchids are blooming all over the place. Betsy really likes this one.

Aaron is having a great time despite the rain. There is a new children's area at the zoo with a huge, shallow pool. It is dotted with all sorts of fun fountains! Aaron discovered the fun of pushing his hands down on the spouts on this fountain then jump up and watch the water splash!

The white tigers enjoy the cooler weather too!

Even the shy tapir went for a quick dip in his pool!

At a restaurant recently, the waiter offered a booster seat instead of a "baby chair" as they call high chairs here. Yes, Aaron has graduated. However, it took him some time to decide that the booster seat was a good thing. So, first he crawled out and sat beside it.

Ok, he finally felt ready to try this new contraption. He enjoyed it by the end of the meal.

The bonsai trees in the Chinese Gardens here are beautiful. Aaron just enjoyed running around all the displays and following Daddy's lead. Daddy said, "Raise your arms up high, like this!" Aaron did just that.

A rare picture with Mommy. Usually Mommy stays behind the camera. Oh yea, he really likes this froggy hat!

Remember that great Disney cartoon, Mulan? This is a statue of Mulan. Doesn't look exactly like the cartoon, but it is a great statue. Yea, it had been raining here too!

Fun Days!

2008-10-15T20:06:00.000+08:00

Here are some random pics of fun times we've been having:

Aaron came into our room, plopped his little blanket on his head, and said, "Mommy, take picture of Aaron?"
Umm....sure, ok!

There was a break in the recent rainy weather, so Aaron and Mommy went to a couple of playgrounds. The sun made the slides too hot for Aaron to slide, but he drove his truck all over and it went down the slides several times! For a while, a boy who was on his way home from school joined in the fun and would send the truck back up the slides for Aaron to catch!

Aaron really liked playing with these gears!

Daddy emptied out the legos bucket and Aaron decided to fill it himself!

Oh, and the snowman had to join in the fun!!

Daddy and Mommy had a day off while Aaron played with a babysitter on Saturday. We joined some friends and played frisbee disc golf. There were several beginners learning the art of putting!

Danny just sent a disc flying off to a distant target!

Ok, now it is Betsy's turn.

Lastly, today, Betsy watched the sky transform from this:

To this:

(Yea, rain followed soon after, complete with crackling lightning and rolling thunder!)

New Shutterbug Goes Berzerk!!!!

2008-10-08T20:42:00.000+08:00

We have been saving for about two years for a new, professional camera. Well, we finally saved enough to get one. I (Betsy) have been enjoying its many features!

Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks. Believe me, we have many more!

I took Aaron to the zoo the other day. It was a great day to be there. Partly cloudy skies helped keep the weather somewhat cooler. Even the cheetahs liked it!

A lot of plants are in bloom right now. This one intrigued me greatly!

Aaron's favorite place is the playground. He took a car down this "roller" slide until he was a sweaty little guy.

So, after all that fun at the "dry" part of the playground, we changed him into his swimsuit and moved over to the "wet" side. It is not deep, but very wet and cool!

Danny is teaching me about a computer program that lets you select color regions and make "art" out of any photo. I call this one "The Floating Leaf".

We recently received two packages in one day! One was from Auntie Jo and the other from Poppa and Gigi. Auntie Jo sent Aaron Lightning McQueen shoes. He put them on and took them off all afternoon. They are still a little big, but he'll grow fast!

Poppa and Gigi sent lots of different things, mostly our favorite snacks that can be hard to find here. For example: Cheerios, Kix, Gold Fish. A few surprises as well. The hit was a toy truck that looks like Poppa's real truck from the farm.

Thanks Auntie Jo and Poppa and Gigi! It was so much fun to laugh over your wonderful gifts!!

Scriptures for you

2008-09-28T22:13:00.001+08:00

Here is a quick video for you. This is Aaron from last night quoting some Scripture.

Sunday Adventure

2008-09-24T19:36:00.001+08:00

Sunday afternoon we went on an adventure. Of course, we started our day with church, Danny taught Sunday School, Betsy listened to the sermon while keeping Aaron occupied in the cry room.

After church we took a nice walk to the nearby mall for lunch. On the way to the mall we discovered this beautiful little park with a great pond. Betsy loved the flowers and turtles so she got a few pictures for you.

After lunch we headed downtown to go to a 4:00 basketball game. We were very early, so we were able to take a leisurely stroll by the river. Near the stadium we stopped to watch the kayakers.

Aaron couldn't understand all these pictures that didn't include him! He said "Take Aaron picture?" and moved about three feet from Betsy. We told him to backup and got a few good pics of him!

Then we made our way to the stadium. The game was between the Singapore Slingers and the Philippine team Air 21. I think there were more fans from the Philippines than from Singapore, but it was still fun. At half-time Aaron got a kick out of meeting the mascot. He is a merlion, the symbol of Singapore, half lion, half fish.

All in all, it was a great day!

Today, Wednesday the 24th was the annual "See You at the Pole" day. We had students gathered in different places around the school praying.

As a school we have had many things to pray for lately as two of our staff members are having serious medical conditions. Please pray with us for:

Tina Ong - She delivered twin boys about ten days ago and has been in serious condition since then. She is finally beginning to recover, but still has a ways to go. Tina finally was able to move out of ICU into a normal ward today; this also means that she will finally be able to see her sons! (She hadn't seen them as of this morning). The boys are doing ok. They were born a few weeks early and thus have had to go through extra treatment. They are now both very near 4 lbs!

Bob Brosius - He is our IT director and has had to have a couple of surgeries recently. Things have not gone as smoothly as was hoped and it seems there may need to be more surgeries. Pray for wisdom for the doctors to determine what is going on!

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Family Fun Day

2008-09-22T21:36:00.001+08:00

We had our annual Family Fun Day carnival at the school this weekend. Here is a video one of my students took. Enjoy!

Bossy Neighbors

2008-09-16T19:02:00.000+08:00

Having children apparently gives eveyone free reign to pass on any and all words of child-rearing wisdom gained over the centuries. If you have kids, you know what I mean!

We get advice spanning not only the ages, but also cultures as well. Anything from sanitizing the world to the dangers of 2 year old thumb sucking.

However, the pinnacle, the most amazing, the greatest piece of advice came from a neighbor sharing a ride down the lift (oh, I mean elevator). A fatherly-looking gentlemen flashed Aaron and I (Betsy) a huge smile as we entered and guessed that Aaron was about 1 year old. I kindly corrected him that actually Aaron is 2 years old. He got a very thoughtful expression on his face and replied, "Oh, he is much to short for 2. You must make him grow more!"

Well, what could I do? I smiled and said a sweet, "Thank you." All the time thinking, "Huh??? Is this guy for real???? OK!"

Yeah, gotta love all the very free, helpful advice from everyone!

Aaron's New Joys

2008-08-26T19:20:00.000+08:00

Thought we would simply share some of the Aaron's excitement this week.

Aaron's favorite movie is about a little race car that meets a rusty tow truck. This week he received a new blanket in the mail. He was VERY excited!

Here Aaron is enjoying story time with Grandma. He loves watching DVDs sent by his grandparents.

This was a new treat. Can you tell what it is? Aaron had a hard time at first, but it was fun watching him PPUULLLLLL at the little gummy worm in order to bite it off.

Finally, this evening we got a new tool for cleaning up the toys! Aaron didn't want to clean up, so I asked if he wanted Daddy to pick him up by his feet while he cleaned up the toys. He loved it! I got a GREAT weight-lifting session!

Love to you all!

Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

Staff Orientation & a New Year

2008-08-19T18:53:00.000+08:00

School has now been in session for seven days. We have had a good start to the year. I am starting to get adjusted to my class schedule, and am enjoying meeting and getting to know my new students. This year is a bit more difficult than the past couple of years because I am teaching classes that I haven't taught recently. But, I am looking forward to rising to the challenge and relying upon God to help me through!

The pictures today are from a recent staff bonding trip to Sentosa (a small island off the coast of Singapore with a few different tourist attractions). While there we took part in an race through many of the attractions. It was a lot of fun and allowed us a chance to see some of the things that we don't normally see and to learn a little about Singapore history.

One stop was in Images of Singapore. This attraction has a bunch of wax figures depicting scenes from the history and life of Singapore. Here are four pictures showing weddings from different cultures.

Next stop, the insect garden. We got bonus points for this picture! (Our fearless art teacher Sharon.)

Here is a picture of my team. We had a lot of fun. We were first to finish the race, but missed some of the points and received third place.

Here is the view from the top of the island. You can see the beaches, and in the background you can see the ships in the harbor. It is always amazing to me how close these huge ships are to the beaches!

Thanks again for all your love and support.
Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

The end of summer vacation

2008-08-05T19:55:00.000+08:00

Danny reported back for work this last Friday and has been working to get ready for student arrival on the 11th of August. It is hard to believe that the summer is over! Please pray for Danny in his preparations, he is teaching two classes that he hasn't taught recently (Physics and MultiMedia) and needs to do a bit of work to prepare for them. Pray that God will give him wisdom in how to teach these classes.

Please also pray for Aaron and Betsy as they adjust to not having Danny around all the time. The whole family has enjoyed Danny being around and it will be an adjustment for all of us.

Here are some pictures of what Aaron has been up to lately:

A few months ago we bought this outfit for Aaron, but it is just now starting to fit in it nicely. (Sorry, his blankie kinda covers it up.)

A few days ago we forgot to close the gate at the top of the stairs. In the morning we found this:

There is a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood right now and Aaron just loves it! He spend about 10 minutes looking out the window watching the digger work.

Then he got his own tractor out to do some digging of his own!

Aaron also loves his "Big Car" and is learning to control it somewhat. He can at least go forward and backwards, hasn't figured out steering yet, and mostly just stops when it slams into a wall! He has fun though!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures! We love you all!

Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

A Day at the Zoo

2008-07-29T20:31:00.004+08:00

The three of us met some friends and spent the day at the zoo today. Aaron had a blast. He kept running ahead saying, "Go see something else?" We had a hard time keeping up with him!

Here is Aaron with Caleb. They were both doing a wonderful job of sharing their raisins. They each had a pile, but would hand raisins to each other!

Aaron loved the butterflies.

Though he wasn't too sure about this one that landed on him!

This is from a few days ago. Aaron took a break from playing with his new car track to help Daddy sort his change.

Love you all, and God bless!

Summer Excitement

2008-07-22T22:19:00.000+08:00

Sorry that we didn't update you all last week.

We have been enjoying our last month of vacation. We went to the science center last week and have spent many mornings or afternoons on our bikes. Three different times we have ridden our bikes to visit new staff families that have just moved into Singapore. It has been fun getting to know them. While we are dreading the end of our time as a family, we look forward to meeting lots of new people!

Please pray for the new staff as they are adjusting to life in Singapore as well as to new jobs. Pray for the administration as we still are missing a couple of positions (High School Science, Music, & at least one secretary position).

Thanks for loving and praying for us!

(Sorry we don't have any pictures, we've been too busy playing and keep forgetting to bring the camera along!)

Happy Independence Day

2008-07-08T21:44:00.003+08:00

Wow, already July!

We had the opportunity to go to an Independence Day celebration put on by the American Association this past Saturday (yes, the 5th of July. We don't get the 4th off, so the celebration was postponed until Saturday.)

It was a lot of fun. It felt almost like being at a county fair with food booths, activities for kids, and exhibits. The best part, of course, was the fireworks. Here are a few pictures from the event.

On the court directly beside this were a bunch of kids playing basketball with some of the players from the Singapore Slingers (the local professional team). Aaron was too little to play with them, but had a blast playing on his own!Here is a little collage of some of the fireworks. They put on about a 10 minute show.
Aaron really enjoyed it!
A week earlier (the 27th-29th of June) we took a trip with some friends to Bintan. Most of the group are Indian.

To get to Bintan we take about a one hour ferry ride. Aaron loved being on the boat and still talks about it. Today in his bath as he played with his little boat he commented that we rode on a boat on Friday!

Hey, I found a train track Mommy! Aaron spent about 15 minutes driving his train back and forth with Sam in the seat in front of him.I don't care if the ball is in a bag, I still want to play with it!
In the morning we went for a walk. Aaron enjoyed running around and touching all the lights!

All in all, this has been a great summer. Danny is helping out at the school with getting computers up and ready for the new year, but we've also had a lot of time to ride bikes around and to simply relax. God is good!

Later this week we are looking forward to welcoming some of the new families into the country as they make the move that we made 4 years ago.

Thanks for all your prayers for us.
Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

New Adventures

2008-06-24T21:15:00.003+08:00

Our church here in Singapore has been renting space in a complex called the Girl's Brigade because the congregation outgrew the old church. However, the Girl's Brigade is no longer available to us. After much prayer and discussion among the leadership, it was decided to remodel the existing property, in a building called Public Mansion. Well, we are excited to share with you that on June 22st we worshipped for the first time in our newly remodeled space. Here is a picture of the sanctuary. We are so grateful to God for providing the funds that were needed to complete this project. Haleluia!!

Aaron continues to show us new creativity each day. For example, pictured below: the "parking hat".

Now that Danny is out of school for the summer, we have been able to get the bikes that some friends gave us up and running. What an adventure that has been! Here you see Aaron proudly putting on his own shoes (a new development) and wearing his helmet to go for a bike ride.

Aaron and Mommy patiently waiting for Daddy to snap the picture before we can go for our ride.

Daddy just loves cycling around with Aaron on behind. Aaron just loves pointing out all the cars, busses, motorcycles, and just about anything else that moves.

On our bike ride today, we discovered two great parks. Aaron played peak-a-boo from this train.

"Peak-a-boo, Mommy, we see you!"

At a nearby park, Aaron found a playmate who brought a ball with him! What fun!!! Aaron worked so hard just to throw the ball to the other boy. Sometimes it even went the right way!

Another new skill: crawling up the slide. "Why can't boys ever just use the stairs?" chuckles Mommy.

After an exhausting afternoon of bike riding and sliding, Aaron is ready for a bath and bed! His car friends like to join him in both. "Hmmm, how many can I fit in my arms and still make it up the stairs?"

Kid's Camp 2008

2008-06-17T20:00:00.005+08:00

First just a couple of photos of the construction that continues in our area:

Not sure if you could make out what was going on, but those men are pouring some form of concrete framework, using a bucket-brigade. The man on the bottom right is using a shovel to fill a bucket which is passed up to the man at the top who pours it into the mold!

This past Thursday and Friday the children's ministry department at our church put together a Kid's Camp. We had 17 kids show up at around 10 am on Thursday and leave at 5 pm on Friday! The kids ranged in age from 6 to 12, though most of them were in the older range. It was a wild, crazy time! We had a house that we used for many of the activities and for eating, but we were also directly across the street from a big park. We played lots of games in the park, and we also slept out in tents for the night.

Our theme was, "Where is God?". We made use of the kid's senses to enjoy the wonderful creation that God has made and to teach them more about that creation. Enjoy some pictures:

Here is Danny, the Camp Commandant, introducing everyone to the rules.
Carolyn, the head of the children's department, teaching the camp verse, Hebrews 11:3.
Kid's making play-do to form animals.
Working in their groups.
Betsy and Aaron came for a couple hours on Thursday afternoon. Danny was able to take a break and throw frisbees with Aaron. Aaron has a great arm! David Feldberg look out!

Aaron is also very neat. He did this all on his own, with no help or prompting from either of his parents!
The kids exercise their sense of taste, attempting to identify foods.
The kids sharing the things they found while walking the park.
Our tents. We actually had just enough tent space for the kids, so the adults slept out under the stars (I think there were at least 5 out that night!) It was an interesting night, nothing like the camping I remember though. Singapore stays hot all night (maybe dropping as low as 70 degrees) so the only reason to use a sleeping bag is to keep the mosquitos off.
Before bedtime we took the kids on a walk blindfolded. They were supposed to use their sense of hearing to listen to the sounds of God's creation. It was an interesting exercise trying to keep them walking in a straight path without running over each other!
At the end we led them up into the playground and sent them down the slide while still blindfolded!
The park we were at was at the far north of the island right beside a shipyard. I have seen many large cargo ships during my time here (like the ones on the right), but this ship on the left was simply enormous, and covered in cranes and other things. I'm not sure what it is for though.
On the second day the kids took part in a scavenger hunt. They had to solve 10 clues and run all over the park to get to the proper location. It was raining at the beginning, but by the end the sun had come out again.

They were very tired by the end. I think they probably had to cover between 3 and 4 miles by the time they had solved all the clues!
Here we are finishing our time with a bit of a debrief.
Here is the whole group. We had a lot of fun, but were all ready to go home by the end!
Oh, one last note, this was another moment of culture difference for me. I went for this little camp out with my thinking of camping. "It's only one night, I'm going to stink a bit by the end, but we're roughing it, so everyone will stink." But, when it was nearing bedtime the schedule called for bath time! Everyone at the camp took a quick shower and cleaned themselves up. So, by the end I was the only one who hadn't. I didn't really care, but they all tried to stay as far from me as possible!

We love you all, thanks for your prayers.
Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

Aaah Summer Vacation

2008-06-10T19:14:00.002+08:00

The last couple of days have been a lot of fun as Danny has been home and able to spend lots of time with Aaron and Betsy. First order of business this summer has been teaching Aaron the great American pastime. Danny picked up this baseball kit from someone who is leaving Singapore. Aaron and Danny both love it!

Lots of fun!

A Grand Week

2008-05-27T20:10:00.004+08:00

Aaron is continuing to value his independence. Here he is following a friend from church (J.D.). The two of them had a lot of fun playing together.In a couple of weeks Danny will be helping with a kid's camp through the church. This Sunday we went to the park to get some ideas and see the area we will be working with. Please pray for the team as we plan for how to best work with the kids.
Aaron loves playing with shapes. He recognizes all of the shapes in his game as well as things like hexagon, heptagon, and octagon! (sometimes he gets the gons confused though!)
A tree at the park.
Earlier this week we had a visit from a bunch of cockatoos at the school. We don't see them very often here, but a lot more than we did in the US!!
Another construction photo for you.
Aaron enjoys this box as a parking garage for his cars. On this particular day he was working on parking skills as well as social skills.

He would drive a car into the garage and line it up with the side door.
Then, he would knock on the door.
Then he would open it to reveal the car inside and drive it out!

Love you all!

A Week in Singapore

2008-05-20T19:49:00.005+08:00

We had a relatively normal week here this past week. Aaron continues to grow and enjoy his surroundings.

Here are Danny and Aaron in the taxi on the way to church.After church Aaron had some fun at a local mall playing on all the rides.

Last Thursday Betsy and Danny got all dressed up for the annual staff banquet. It was a wonderful evening.
Over the past year we have seen a lot of construction in our neighborhood as the local town council is working to make the area "barrier free". The largest portion of this work is upgrading all of the elevators to stop at all floors instead of just the even floors (some buildings they only stop every four floors!) That construction has finally reached our building. Thankfully there are two lifts in the building and they are only working on one at a time, but this construction is supposed to take close to a year to complete!
Aaron is really enjoying newfound freedom. He loves to run off ahead of us while walking to the hawker for dinner. But thankfully he is also very good at waiting for us before he attempts to cross the street.
A random building seen on an outing last Saturday. This is one of the many mosques in Singapore.
Aaron and Mommy at the MRT station. Aaron loves walking on the bumps!

Thanks for caring and checking up on us! We love you all, drop us a comment to let us know you were here!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-14T20:37:00.004+08:00

Just a quick post to share some pictures from the last couple weeks and to wish all you Mother's a happy day!

The English as a Second Language classes finished for the year. Here they are celebrating with a potluck.
We took Aaron for another day at the Science Center. He had a blast!

His favorite is still the play house though!

China Trip Volume 2

2008-05-06T20:05:00.005+08:00

Most of our time in China was spent working with the English classes. However, we were given a day to do some sight seeing . We took a trip to the Stone Forest. This natural wonder is a popular tourist attraction outside the city. Apparently many years ago this area was under water. When an earthquake rumbled through the land, the soil sank and limestone was exposed to the elements. The weather has been eroding the limestone into fantastic and amazing shapes ever since. The Chinese call this place the Stone Forest because many of the limestone formations look like giant trees.

We had a guide who told us about the history and legends surrounding the Stone Forest. She cautioned each of us to stay with her and with the group. There are a vast amount of trails leading all over the park, and it would be very easy to get separated.

From the first moment we set foot in the park, Aaron was the star of the show. There were tourists from all over China, and even other parts of the world, there to explore the park. As soon as these people saw Aaron, they wanted their picture taken with him. I (Betsy) was afraid we would lose our guide if the other groups kept hemming us in. So, I had to step in front of the cameras and push us past Aaron's new fans.

Well, due to all this "press" attention, everyone in the Stone Forest that day knew our group. They all knew that the cute little American boy was with us. Now, unfortunately, one of our group did get separated. He was at a loss to know how to find us with his very limited Mandarin. Finally he struck upon a grand thought. Perhaps he could find us with Aaron. So, in his halting Mandarin, he began to ask every person he saw "Where's the American baby?" Each person would point him in the direction of our group until he finally caught us! Aaron saved the day!!!

Enjoy these pictures from the wonderful Stone Forest.

Below: "Stone Forest" carved into limestone in Mandarin. Underneath is Cullen, the man who found our group with the "American Baby" questions.

Aaron liked looking at all the flowers and naming colors.

Aaron did a great job hiking all those trails.

The Stone Forest

There were ethnic groups selling handcrafts and demonstrating ethnic dances and art all over the park. The people below were obviously on a break. We liked the incongruity of the native costumes and people on cell phones.

An ethnic dance group.

China Trip Volume 1

2008-04-15T19:22:00.004+08:00

Our new computer is up and running; we think most of the kinks are worked out; so we can finally share a little with you about recent experiences in China.

There were 15 people (not counting Aaron) in our group. An organization called Factor Learning asked us to teach English to students at a university in China. We were given the opportunity to step into classrooms and teach English using some fun and exciting methods. Our team split into three groups: one teaching volleyball, one teaching card games, and one teaching an Indian folk dance called Bhangra. This was an amazing time for our entire group. The schedule changed daily, but we learned to adapt. Our motto was "TIC" or "This Is China". God gave us strength and grace each day. There are many English classes at this university. However, most of the students do not speak English well. They can read and write English, but are at a loss when it comes to conversation.

Danny was in charge of teaching card games, and I (Betsy) taught Bhangra, learned here in Singapore. We hit our first road block before the first class even began. Each group planned a computer presentation for the classes. When Danny went to inspect the rooms, only one room had a projector. Everyone in our group wanted a projector. However, my Bhangra class absolutely needed one. We had pictures, video and music that we couldn't reproduce on our own. So the other groups graciously gave us the room with the projector, "TIC". No sweat. The first class was a big challenge, but lots of fun! Each time we taught, we felt more comfortable and confident.

The organization that brought us to China came to us the first day with a request. Because this time of year is the Easter season, they planned two Easter parties, one Tuesday night and one Thursday night. We were not allowed to mention The Father in any classes, but we had free reign to share any and all American traditions around Easter at the parties. Our hosts assured us they would run the party, and we would only have a small part to play. After each class we invited everyone to the parties. We had a room that could hold 120 people set up for the party. Well, that first night about 100 people came. Our hosts were overwhelmed. They expected at the most 30 people. So, we took over and did our best to teach the fun and the serious sides of Easter. We ended both parties with a drama about Christ's death and resurrection. That first night was a huge success! All of us begged our hosts to find a bigger room. We knew we could easily max out the current room on Thursday. Well, apparently, the process for getting the room we had was such a big thing that our hosts did not think they could go through all the right channels before our next party.

Thursday came and we all held our breath and repeated "TIC". By all indications, there were at least 200 people crammed in the room. Yes, 200. And all were completely silent as we acted out the story of Christ. Most had never heard this account before that night. We know of one person who joined the family as a result of Tuesday's party. What a great God we serve!

There is much more to tell of China, but we will save that for another time. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures we have to share with you now.

Below: Our group of staff and students from ICS sitting on the front steps of the building where we taught our classes.

Danny teaching a version of the card game known as "whist".

The young boy with the green coat is one of our group. He was the youngest, besides Aaron, who came along.

Sam and Danny running games at the Easter party.

James, a student, and Sam portraying Christ's death on the cross.

After our drama of the Easter story, we split into small groups and discussed what the students had seen. It was a great time for our group to make some new friends. Here is Sofia and Nicole with their group.

Sam, Tim, Ben, and Ryan in another group.

Here you can see just how many people we can fit into a small room. I kind of felt like I was in a really big clown car, but still with way too many clowns!

Some of the students got to decorate Easter eggs. They thought my stories about cracking them open and eating colorful hard-boiled eggs were quite funny.

I think the highlight of fun for everyone was the Easter Egg hunt. We hid them in people's clothes, behind file cabinets, and even on the lights.

Home again

2008-04-02T15:42:00.004+08:00

WOW! God is good!

We had a great time in China and were constantly amazed at the way that God uses us. The weather was cold! Danny loved it, Betsy hated it (she got sick towards the end of the trip), Aaron was confused by his sweatshirt! With the hot weather in Singapore, this was the first time Aaron has worn a sweatshirt for any length of time.

Unfortunately as we started to make a post yesterday our computer decided it didn't want to work. We have been planning a new computer for a while and I guess it is time. I'm posting this from school. We will have more stories later, but thought we would just share a few pictures right now.

Prepping for China

2008-03-18T19:59:00.003+08:00

Praise God, all the finances have come in for our China trip!

Life is crazy right now as we try to get last-minute details prepared. Please pray for us, that we will have wisdom in the tasks we need to complete!

ICS Family Fun Day

2008-03-11T19:21:00.004+08:00

Once again ICS brought the families together for a great Saturday of food, games, and entertainment. The morning started off with the annual walk-a-thon charity fundraiser. This year's event raised money for the scholarship fund, providing tuition help for families who need it.

Students performed various acts on the stage throughout the day. And families moved about the soccer field handing off tickets to play various carnival games.

The highlight, as always, was the dunk tank. Students were given the opportunity to dunk their favorite teachers, well attempt to dunk anyway. The line never ended. Danny got throughly drenched, and as it was a sunny day, thoroughly enjoyed it. Aaron and Betsy watched from the shade of a nearby tree. Aaron kept a running commentary such as, "Daddy wet again!" Or, "Daddy finish cube." Yes, Danny did take a rubik's cube with him in the tank this year. It held up surprisingly well!

We praise the Lord for all the wonderful people at ICS!

February Holidays

2008-02-26T20:24:00.003+08:00

On February 13th, Betsy celebrated another birthday. Danny surprised her with a party. Many friends from school came over for pizza, movies, fellowship, and games. It was a lot of fun.

On Valentine's Day, Daddy and Aaron went for a walk through the neighborhood to give Betsy a chance to rest. Aaron enjoys playing with all the exercise equipment that is scattered throughout the community:
He also enjoys the more natural playground equipment.

Living in a very dense housing district, we are amazed by the number of playground areas that are scattered around. Almost anywhere we go out walking Aaron is pointing to the "ide" (slide). He loves to slide!

He also enjoys walking in the grass.
Aaron's new car has been having some alignment problems, he decided to try to do some repairs!

Happy New Year!

2008-02-12T19:54:00.000+08:00

This past Thursday the country of Singapore basically shut down in celebration of Chinese New Year. This time of year is a crazy time here. Many of the people that work here only get one or two days off in the whole year: Chinese New Year's Day and the day after. Most small shops shut down for at least two days if not three or four days. Chinese New Year is a major family holiday in many of the ways that Christmas is to Americans. They spend the first day with family, then the next two weeks with different family and friends visiting. We just enjoyed a four day weekend!

Just before the New Year we celebrated Aaron's second birthday. It was a fun time.

One of the teachers at the school gave Aaron a bag full of hand-me-down books. He was thrilled as he loves to look at books.

Here is Aaron's new favorite, Junior's Colors.

Aaron's fingers are getting quite nimble at tearing paper.

Aaron is also very neat. He took time to line up all his new cars before opening his next present.
Daddy and Aaron have had lots of fun with this one, a remote control car! All weekend Aaron was saying 'Drive car again?' The batteries died quickly, time to get rechargeables!

Aaron at Play and Rest

2008-02-05T20:29:00.001+08:00

We had a bit of a scare last week. On Friday evening our external hard drive suddenly stopped working. We used this drive to store our photos, videos, and documents. Unfortunately (and unintelligently) we had not created a backup of any of the files on the drive, so we were a little upset at the thought of having lost all of our data. But we were hopeful that it was simply a minor hardware problem and not the hard drive itself. Praise God it was only the enclosure and the drive is working splendidly again! Now, to make that backup!

Tomorrow we celebrate Aaron's two year birthday. He has grown a LOT, it is amazing to see the changes each day as he adds more words to his vocabulary ("All done Cat Comes Back" as he hands me his Dr. Seuss book or "Purple car go up stairs" as he drives his car up the stairs).

Here are a few pictures of him at play:

He loves to "go under" things.

A few weeks ago we discovered this great little playground near our home, Aaron loves the slide!

As you can see, he also loves his purple car and carries it with him everywhere!

The car slides.

Then Aaron slides!

At the end of the day, Aaron is usually very tired and sleeps well. In the morning though he will wake up and get out his books. On this morning he got his books, read them, lined them up, and went back to sleep before we got to him.

Have a great week! Remember our little two-year old in your prayers.

Videos

2008-01-16T22:59:00.001+08:00

Just a quick note, we've been working hard and have a few video clips for your enjoyment:

September 2007:
Aaron in ball pit dial-up
Aaron in ball pit high-speed
Just more of Aaron throwing balls.

January 2008:
Aaron in lego fort dial-up
Aaron in lego fort high-speed
This video has a lot of Aaron talking as he is playing. His vocabulary and sentence structure is pretty good for a 23 month old!

December 2007:
Indonesian Wedding dial-up
Indonesian Wedding high-speed
This is the wedding we mentioned in an earlier post.

Our Final Adventure of Christmas Break

2008-01-10T19:34:00.001+08:00

Christmas break is nearing a completion. While many of you have been back in school for at least a week and others have been back to work for almost two weeks, I am preparing to head back to school on Monday. This week we have had the opportunity to go on a couple more adventures. On Wednesday we went into Little India to get an Indian suit for Danny and Aaron. Then today we went to the Singapore Science Center. It was a lot of fun learning more about the world God created, and watching Aaron learn about it too! Enjoy the pictures:

The pagoda at the Chinese gardens. We had a bit of a walk from the bus stop to the science center. Betsy was enjoying the clouds so she took a couple of pictures.

Some of the housing in the same area.

Constant construction in this country. Not sure exactly what they are doing here, but we found the banner to be ironic. Maybe they are digging up sidewalks to put in trees?

The Science Center was incredible. Before we even entered the building we came to this little park with many different experiments. Here you can see Danny at one sound dish. We were able to talk to each other in our normal voices and be heard by using the parabolic principles of the dishes.

There were many sections devoted to young kids with hands on things they can do. Aaron enjoyed this little triangular mirror room; we had to crawl under the mirrors to get in, but then we were surrounded with ourselves!

Here was a small little room built for toddlers! In the wall were all kinds of little creatures, mice, gerbils, and a leopard gecko that had been confiscated from someone who was keeping it illegally.

Aaron also loved the little houses. He likes going in and out of doors and opening and closing windows. This was a great chance for Mommy and Daddy to rest!

Aaron's favorite part was pushing buttons. There were buttons all over the place that he could push to make amazing things happen. This one was showing how different materials (steel, nylon, rubber, iron, etc.) react to being pounded by a sharp hammer. Aaron liked the BANG!
"Do Again?" "LOUD!"

There was a whole section of optical illusions, including this one. Aaron just liked the fake banana!

Even waiting to head home Aaron was playing with his car. It is amazing how much energy a little boy can have!

After a long day of play, little boys need sleep!

Thanks for all your prayers and support throughout this past year. Pray for us as the second semester begins and life goes back to "normal".

A Festive Christmas Season

2007-12-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

WOW, this month has gone quickly. We want to apologize to you all for the long delay between posts, but we have been having a wonderful time with family and with friends. This post should give you a glimpse of the many adventures we have enjoyed! Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all!!

Danny works with the children's Sunday school program at our church. Due to the extra time off from teaching this holiday season, he volunteered to do an overview of the Old Testament with the Sunday school. He has been learning so much about God's hand in the history of Israel and the world because he is developing his teaching materials on his own. Our prayer is that the children discover the reality of God's power, not only in history but also in their own lives!

Betsy just finished a great Bible Study focusing on Psalm 46. During this study she was challenged to get her focus off of herself and back on the God she tries to serve. Now, she is doing her own study on all the different Hebrew and Greek names for God used in the Bible. This will be a long study, but has already been quite rewarding! Please pray that God will break through her pride and be glorified in her life!

It is our greatest desire to bring our Lord the glory He so richly deserves. Thanks be to the God and Father of all creation for His amazing love!!

Without further ado, here are some pictures from our many activities from this month:

A surprise birthday party for our pastor's wife.

Fellowship with our church family.

Celebrating Christmas with the ESL program at IBC

Decorating our new tree! Yes, it is fake...try finding a live tree that will last more than 2 days...(ha ha ha!!)

Playing with Papa

Such a big boy in his new bed!

Enjoying the ICS Christmas program (Danny ran one of the spot lights)

Reading books. Aaron has many of the letters in this book memorized:
D: Daddy
A: Aloha
M: Mommy
I: Ipu
R: Rain
B: Baby
It is amazing how fast his vocabulary is growing! He speaks in sentences:
Aaron Apple All Gone
Going Up Stairs
Ni-Night Mommy/Daddy
I Love Daddy/Mommy
Excuse Me
Please
Thank you
Big Bus
Nummy goldfish
Rock truck go under

Opening presents, first with Gigi and Papa before they left.

Eating!!!

Playing with presents

"Going Up Stairs"

Celebrating the Advent

Reading some more:
Aaron has many of his animal sounds figured out:
Cat: "Mou"
Dog: "Woof Woof"
Cow: "Moo"
Duck: "Kack Kack"
Pig: "Oink"
Horse: "Moo"
Bird: "Kack Kack"
OK, so he still needs to work on a couple of those!

Building Walls

Driving Cars

Watching this amazing wedding processional! On the 23rd, soon after returning from church we started to hear excessive engine noises from our parking lot. We looked down and discovered that a huge group of motorcyclists were entering our lot. They sat around and randomly revved their engines for several minutes. We also saw a car decked out with wedding bows idling at the end of the lot. "Ah," we said, "must be a wedding!" However, that was only the beginning. Some time later, we heard drums and xylophone-type clangs. They were getting louder and closer. Another peek out the window showed the parade pictured above. The first figures are men dressed from head to foot in monkey costumes (can we just say....so hot lah!). They were followed by several dancers and the groom and his father. They moved through the parking lot and disappeared. "Quiet at last," we thought. Oh no, about 2 hours later, here they came again, this time with the bride. We could hear the celebration for several more hours. We are not sure what the nationality was of the wedding party, but we think they may have been Indonesian or Indian. Just another one of those, "not ever has happened where we grew up!!"

Christmas unwrapping #2: The three of us opened most of our presents on Christmas Eve. Aaron understood what he was doing a bit better this time.

Solving the Rubik's Cube!
Aaron has seen Daddy playing with his rubik's cube since Aaron was born. Now he has one of his own and loves to twist it. Give him a couple years and he'll be solving it too!

So, that is our month in review! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Season and wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!