Last of the Firewood

We had a couple 70-degree days (it didn't even freeze last night!) so we opened and cleaned off our balcony. There were only a couple rounds left of firewood, having given most of it away, so us "men" went ahead and chopped it up. Although we are still burning fires, I was just thinking that we will not be chopping wood again for a LONG time... Hovd, where we will be moving this August, doesn't have any trees!! Nope, next winter we will be burning dung and coal.

Note: no fingers were harmed in the capturing of these photos ;) But there were a few times I didn't care to watch! Saiah didn't look to thrilled either... until he got his own try. Does this story look familiar to any of you who have chopped wood before?...

Bangkok Birthday #2

Our second day in Bangkok was Isaiah's birthday! What does a 7-year old want to do? Go to the aquarium! So we went to another fancy mall - this time to the basement - where we found a very impressive aquarium with 7 aquatic zones. Zeke liked the otters, who did some tricks for us, and Saiah got to pet a boa constrictor. They also got their toes cleaned by minnows, but my favorite was walking THROUGH the sharks - a long tunnel that wound right through the aquarium. The boys even saw a shark feeding, with manta rays, which was pretty intense.


Finally the aquarium had a special 4D theatre with a short film about a sea turtle - our chairs rocked with the waves, vibrated to the machines, and we even got puffs of air in our faces... like when we were snatched up by an eagle! What a great 7th birthday!!

Of course, after all of that fun and excitement we got to go to the airport at 10pm, wait until 1am for our plane, and then try to get 5 hours of sleep in a chair. Not so fun... but such is the life of adventurers for Jesus ;)

Bangkok Birthday #1

We came back from the beach and enjoyed 2 days in Bangkok (which was dreadfully hot!). Our first morning we met some friends and went to the largest open market in Asia, which isn't too far from our guesthouse. It was pretty overwhelming, but we could stop for popsicles or iced teas whenever we needed to ;) It is still amazing to see all of this fruit and all of these flowers in March... especially since we haven't seen a leaf in Mongolia since October!





This just happened to be Eden's birthday - she has been with us 3 years now! Although a bit crabby, we enjoyed a walk through the park after that crowded market. We made our way to a butterfly pavilion - Eden's birthday choice. We took some good pictures of butterflies, but each picture of with a kid has a sour face! Like I said, it was HOT.






So that evening we snuck off to a fancy mall with a water park on top! Fun, fun, fun! We were the ONLY white people there... apparently all of the foreigners go to nice beaches in Thailand :)

Island Adventure

We rented a boat for a big excursion the other day. Actually, our first day we almost lost ourselves at sea with sea kayaks, so the next day we got a boat for the ladies ;) It was a beautiful day (it seems they all are here!) and we went down the coast past several islands - one we would like to go back and rock climb! Another island was "Monkey Island," where we fed bananas to swarms of little monkeys. They were pretty cute, except for the bully that tried biting Saiah's leg!

We landed on a nice beach that is acts as a "back entrance" to the Sam Roi Yot national park. After swimming for awhile and grabbing some lunch, we hiked up 400 meters of volcanic rock to a pair of sacred sunken caves. They were quit beautiful as the vines hung clear down to the floor and trees reached almost clear to the ceiling, surrounded by bright green rocks. A great trip and another great day!

Prune Hands

Here we are enjoying the tropics! Our week of CAMA World Retreat was really special - worshiping together and hearing what God is doing in some of the toughest places on earth. So many wonderful folks working with a great God! The Retreat also allowed us to gradually adjust to the heat and minimize the sunburning process ;) There was a gorgeous swimming pool, which the kids were in every spare minute, with a cool spiral slide.

Our next resort (right on the beach this time) also has a great little pool with a slide. The kids usually get in right after breakfast and swim and splash and dive until lunch! Here is Zeke trying something new with Uncle Larry... can you find him, he's kinda like a where's Waldo. The boys love diving for coins and we are surprised how well they are swimming (they get a lot more practice ice-skating over water than in the water!). It took Eden a couple days but now she is always in the water too... the goggles really help!

Cookie Monsters

It's the "White Moon" here in Mongolia, and that means food, food, food! Zeke made a plan several days ago for how many homes he would visit and how many bodz (meat dumplings) he would eat at each place. The first day he ate 24... and that was just between lunch and dinner! Saiah almost kept up with him, but paid for it in the bathroom the next morning... that didn't slow him down any the next day, though! My other favorite thing is the fried flat bread, which they stack in odd layers (and won't let you eat until AFTER the White Moon). So we got ourselves a stack-topper to snack on in the meantime. It's about the biggest cookie I have ever seen!

Eden is loving it too. She is up and ready to go with her boots on each morning saying, "when can we go, when can we go?!" She is a bit of twirp with her food, though, always snatching candy off of the bread stack and eating all of the meat out of her dumplings...

Toothless

Here's our little long-hair... sporting his ex-military hippy kind of style while showing off his first lost tooth. It took us awhile (and several threats) to talk him into yanking it out. He sure hopped out of bed this morning! And when his big brother asked if the tooth fairy left him anything he said, "yeah, 30 dollars!" Made his brother hesitate for a moment and go over to check for himself ;) Yup, he's sharp, and reading like a pro now with his first grade materials (if he can stay focused long enough, that is). The other day he was even making similes... like, "our house is as cold as a penguin with no feathers!"

Another day, another tooth! That gap just keeps getting bigger... but he's another dollar richer!

Rabbits

We didn't exactly pull them out of our stockings, but the boys each got a half-grown bunny for Christmas. This is
Saiah with "Casper," who is quite apathetic - usually sprawled in front of the woodstove gnawing on the silicone I used to seal our floor. Zeke's mischievious gray rabbit, JarJar, scampers around in circles and jumps up on the couch or chair to see what we are up to. He prefers chewing on the felt carpet. We have a little corner caged for them to spend the night, or when the boys aren't around to play... we're never quite sure how the cat feels about them in her house! They are pretty cute, but the boys are figuring out how much work it is to take care of creatures too!!

The Freezer

Did you know that our "crib" has its own fancy walk-in freezer?! It's true. Sure, it used to be a shower room off of our entryway, but now it is being used to hold sleds and hang beef and store my unused paraglider... there's no way I am going flying in -40!! We like to keep our entryway at a crisp -23C and, yes, that means our bathroom is also sub-zero (F). What can I say, we're tough for Jesus...

Merry Christmas Break

The kids just finished up their 2+ weeks of Christmas break and, wow, did they have FUN! There were plenty of new toys (actually so many presents that we forgot some of them in that bright orange chest!). They each got a homemade stuffed dog from grandma - a ballerina, a pirate, and a sheriff. And of course there were also legos to cover the table and carpet, with a few left over to wedge in the floorboards.

One of the biggest hits was a cheap plastic piano we found for Eden... loaded with a variety of disco beats and it even has a working microphone! Another big hit was two half-grown rabbits - Jarjar and Casper. On occasion we let them run around the downstairs... jumping on the couch, chewing our felt carpet, eating out of the cat's dish, rolling in the fireplace ash, and licking our chocolate wrappers.

As for Krista and I, we kept it nice and simple. I got some nice clothes and she got a song!

Showing Off

Speaking of performances, our boys are not to be outdone! At our recent MK School Open House they were able to strut some of the stuff they have been working on... no not math, not reading, not art or science... body-building! Here's a shot of Uncle Larry's Mighty Men after their first quarter of intensive physical training. Saiah demonstrated a weight-lifting technique, Eli did the splits, and Zeke did 30 push-ups. We were all duly impressed!

Don't worry, they have also been toning their minds. Our two fellas stood up and recited about 2/3 of Luke chapter 2 (we're working on that last 1/3 this week). They also acted in a play called "The Fourth Wiseman" which their teacher wrote and directed. Good stuff! Of course now they are on Christmas break and all they want to do is sit around and play the gameboy...

Our Little Teapot

Here's our newest performer, Eden Glory, singing "I'm a Little Teapot" during the recent Christmas Open House at our MK school. She already has her next gig lined up - a special English performance for her kindergarten's New Year's Eve ceremony! In the meantime she continues to refine her dancing and twirling around the house. I even caught her the other day singing into the brush, "I am little and I am cute."

Usually that is true, but she also knows how to push our buttons sometimes! I've never known a slower eater... or toothbrusher... or dresser... or bedmaker... or toy picker-upper. Her favorite song lately at bedtime is "Lord, You Are." Singing it night after night after night we have begun to play with it a bit, like "Lord, You are more beautiful than pink pajamas" etc. But my favorite part is the chorus, where instead of "exalt" she sings "I exhaust You" over and over. I have to admit that sometimes I am exhausted, but she sure is little and cute too!

Meatlovers

Some days it seems we are back in the Middle Ages... one neighbor pays us back with a cow, another friend gives us a sheep, and all I can do is take the rope, smile in a bewildered "what am I supposed to do with this" kind of way, and say thank you! Thankfully another neighbor is an expert at butchering sheep & goats (not a cry or a drop of blood!)... unfortunately he can't do cows. But somehow we round up a crew of young guys and manage to quarter it just after sundown, fingers frozen to our knives (we are already -30s and it is NOT even winter yet!).

The next stage is thawing a quarter at a time so that we can butcher it into steaks, roasts, hamburger, etc. (notice I gave all of the organs, head and feet away to grateful Mongolian participants!). Larry is our Head Butcher, but we all got into the action... some of us more than others ;) Our kids didn't even flinch. Nothing like the feel of good meat between your fingers...

Trick or Treat

This year we splurged and bought cool costumes while in the "big city!" Meet our lil' ninjas and sweet princess! We had a little get together after walking around to each of our teammates' apartments (that didn't take long). Then we enjoyed some cookies and watched "The Great Pumpkin" at the Cutlers' (the wonderful couple who is filling in for a couple months teaching at our MK school). That's pretty much it... and then wearing the costumes again and again for the next several days!

Kindergarten 1st Quarter

Our school has completed the first quarter and wow was it fast. We have gotten a good start on the year, letters and numbers. Uncle Nghia came into take school pictures and got a great one of our class. Note in the boys' hands are their names. We have worked hard to get the kinders writing their names well and for open house we made signs with our names. Everyones' progress is steady and good; it has been a good but challenging first quarter.

I am so pleased the way God continues to prepare me for homeschool my three next year once we have moved. Starting with kinders and 1st grade is a great way to feel out teaching and get familular with the curriculum since next year I will have Zeke in 5th grade, Saiah in 2nd and Edie in kinder!

and Mountain Tops

By the fourth day of paragliding we were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately it got REALLY windy so we couldn't fly... couldn't even do much ground training! We tried for awhile, but between the rocky ground and getting pulled backwards (yes, I did a few backward somersaults) we soon called it quits. Thankfully we were able to borrow a couple wings to practice our kiting up in Darhan. Hopefully in November we will have a chance to go back and tackle a small mountain or two!

It's getting cold (0F last night), but frozen ground means no upward thermals and smooth sailing for beginners like us. Someday, though, we will seek out those thermals and higher mountaintops!

Blue Skies...

Larry and I began "flight school" for paragliding this past week. There is a club in UB south of town, with a nice ger camp next to a mountain and small river. The first 2 days were mostly introductory theory and ground training - practice controlling your "kite" while on the ground (except when I flew over a guy in a really strong wind). It's harder than it looks! Kind of like trying to hold 30 kites steady over your head, with about 100 strings attached to 5 straps for each hand.

On the third day we started with some small hills. All together we did over 40 of these small flights - about 2 minutes of graceful flight followed by 470 steps back up the hill. Who knew paragliding was such a tough sport!?

O little town of Hovd

Hovd is only a town of about 30,000 (10% Kazakh?). We didn't spend a whole lot of time investigating the area. We were in the local market a couple of times, got to know the main strip through town pretty well, and even went on a small road trip to a countryside Kazakh town about 30km away.

We didn't even spend much time looking at construction and building materials... although I did hear that you can build a decent sized one-story house with about 2,000 clay bricks ($500). We didn't see a single bale of straw...








Most of our time was spent on the northern end of town visiting Kazakh homes and going to meet with local officials. We had lots of great contacts with leaders and teachers, met a few farmers and herders and business folks, and discussed all kinds of living issues with all kinds of Kazakh folks in Hovd.

The Long Way Across

Finally some pics of the trip! Here's a couple of our favorite shots from the road... that long, winding dusty washboard road! Actually it was kind of fun to drive... didn't really matter if you stayed on the road or not. Thanks to God we never needed helmets or seatbelts (since our van doesn't have any)!



It was kind of like driving across Alaska and back, but without any of the trees, rivers or wildlife to look at along the way. There were lots of camels though, and plenty of shades of tan...

We camped out one night - set up in the dark, fried up a couple burgers, and our director (Phil) even slept out under the stars! He was really cold, and had to chase away a few horses so as not to get trampled, but he did it!



We did see a couple nice perennial snow-caps (about 4,000 meters), but Larry didn't bring any of his ropes... maybe next time.



Coming soon - a few pictures of the town.

Schoolroom

Some how the time thus far teaching has flown by! We have just completed our 5th week of classes we all seem to be thriving! I am so pleased with how my classroom has come into shape and there is something for everyone. Here we are just this last Friday both working at our math and then having fun with science. The table you see us all over is full of sand, basically a sandbox inside. We used it to make our volcano, which was a success when it, not just erupted, but exploded upwards getting me with vinegar. What a hoot!!!