Here Comes the Elephants...

Well, the Ringling Bros Circus is coming to town. We have tickets to go this Friday and I'm pretty excited. This will be the first circus for the whole family. So, there was all this talk about these circus animals that were going to walk about 1 mile through town. The walk was suppose to start at 2 pm. Since DD was sleeping, I wasn't going to take the kids. Well, a friend of ours called and said that it was postphoned for 2 hours and so I decided to take the kids. Well around 5 pm I loaded the kids and we set off to find a place to watch this parade. Well, finally after waiting around for 2 hours, the parade started. I kid you not, the parade lasted around 2 minutes. A few elephants and horses walked by and that was it. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours and $20 (eating at the Chum Bucket aka: Long John Silvers....not my favorite) for 2 minutes of elephants and horses. It all wasn't bad though. Derek showed up after work and we had a couple of friends that were with us. Also, the weather was beautiful. The kids really liked the animals and that makes me even more excited for the real thing on Friday.

You are my sunshine....

Finally, the sun is starting to shine out here. We got to 75 today and it was so beautiful. I started going through the kids' clothes and pulling out all their sweaters and winter gear. Mya wore capris for the first time this year and DD put on some pretty slick denim shorts.

I'm really looking forward to Spring. I have a couple of things I want to try to learn. First, I want to successfully try to grow some flowers and second, I want to learn how to can. I want to

can some pickled green beans and spicy asparagus. The only pickled foods I have seen here are pickled eggs and beets. The eggs look really scary. I suppose they taste better than they look. Please feel free to leave me tips or recipes for easy canning. I'm really into spicy, pickled stuff.

Oh The Places We Can Go...

Thought I would blog about living overseas in Penang, Malaysia during 2003. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had. After a couple months of homesickness, I truly enjoyed living there. One year wasn't long enough. I really wished we could of stayed another year. My favorite thing about Malaysia, is the friends that I made. It's amazing how nice everybody was. Most of these people don't have much, but would give you the shirt off their back with a smile. It really made you appreciate the things you have at home. I still keep in touch with a few friends from there and we are hoping to go back and visit one day.

Here is where we called home while living in Penang, Malaysia.

My friend Ivy and I at Penang's Octoberfest Celebration.

One of my favorite festivals we went to was Thaipusan. It's a huge Hindu celebration where they have this god that arrives by chariot to the temple. To get the chariot to the temple, they must cleanse the road. So, as the chariot slowly makes it's way to the Temple, thousands of people smash coconuts to cleanse the path. After the coconuts are smashed, a bulldozer comes by and clears a path. This goes on for miles. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had. I have never seen so many coconuts in my life. Many big companies donate hunderds of thousands of coconuts.


Derek getting ready for action

Yummy, Yummy, this was my favorite meal. Lobster Thermidor.

My friend Rebecca who came to visit all the way from Oregon. Here we are at The Golden Thai Restaurant.

This was my oven for a year. I made everything from cookies to chicken in here.

Ahhh, our little car the Proton. We had a couple of funny experiences in this car. On the way to Kuala Lumpar, we had to pull over every half and hour to let the engine cool down. A 3 hour trip took us about 6 hours and we couldn't use the AC.

We did tons of snorkling.

Here I am with Sheela in a sari

Here is the whole gang

Learning as I go....

Ok, I am going to try blogging. It seems like one of the best ways to keep all our friends and families in the know. You will have to bear with me through this, as I am learning this as I go.

Well, we are almost closing in on our second year in our house here in State College. We've been trying to keep sane through the cold winter. The kids and I have cabin fever pretty bad. The winters here really drag. As a matter of fact, Mya made her first snowman on Easter day this year.

Another big highlight that happened in the family, was the little guy turned one on December 27th.

Also, the kids got to see their big brother again. We had a great visit with Trevor.

Also, the kids got to see Grandma and Grandpa again. Well, it was the first time for DD. Here are a couple of my favorite photos of the kids with GMA and GPA.