Eclipse Catch up

 December 11 we had the privilege of witnessing a full lunar eclipse.   Mommy "accidentally" found out about it just before supper, and with a quick search learned it was supposed to be visible about 6pm.  So we hurriedly made plans to camp out down by the pool to watch.  

 

6 came and went with no sign of an eclipse of the gorgeous full moon.  The girls went swimming for an hour. The girls danced to Mommy's iPhone music. Still no sign.  Out came blankies and computers. 

About 7:45 our patience was rewarded as the earth's shadow became visible on the moon...

Lots of experimenting with camera, phone, video to try capture the  event was mostly a failure.  We got some interesting effects as the cameras tried to take night photos at maximum zoom though :o)

 The girls were fascinated at first, but things moved too slowly to keep their interest. We did manage to stay until the whole moon was eclipsed and vaguely red, and then went up to bed.

Happy Christmas!

Mommy was actually the first one up!  Just how she wanted - time to prepare the birthday breakfast before everyone got up. It was cold... about 20 C with a fairly strong breeze, so it was tough to keep it warm till everyone was ready to eat :o)
Then we had just enough time to get ready and go to church:  A meditative celebration with pictures for the Christmas story from all around the world, and a potluck lunch all together. Then a bike home with anticipation for the time-together presents we had planned.

On the way home, some guys on a motorbike came by and snatched Mommy's bag. Bye-bye iPhone, wallet, house keys, etc. And Christmas afternoon suddenly looked rather different than anticipated as we had to think through what had to be cancelled, replaced, done without ....

But we did get to the science experiments, cracker-house making (in place of gingerbread!), learning to bike with no training wheels as planned though - just a little subdued.

Hopefully a happier post tomorrow :o/

Being on Facebook has finally been useful

Monday morning's surf through the usual blogroll, I noticed a Facebook posting by some friends of ours in Cambodia - their daughter had fallen from a tree-house and broken her elbow badly enough to warrant a flight to Bangkok for surgery.  Through Facebook and Skype we managed to get a hold of them and arranged a visit on Wednesday.  The girls packed her a bag of presents, and Michael prepared to take her Dad out for the afternoon.  The girls connected pretty quickly, and soon had a story game going with the ponies and McDonald toys they had.  And, of course, Grace had a thousand questions about hospitals, surgeries, equipment, and routine procedures!

Found!

We found one!  Mommy searched out and asked at 7 different pharmacies around us - even one in a major international hospital! - for a nit comb without success.  Then, today, rather desperate, she decided to check the pet section in the Costco-like grocery store we use.  And there, in a package deal with an unfortunately large bottle of dog tick shampoo, was a proper metal nit comb! Mommy bought it. The comb has already proved itself much more effective than anything else we've used do far, but what to do with the bottle of dog shampoo, we are not so sure!

Nit Picking

Not looking forward to this week. We discovered this morning - in church! - that the girls and Mommy all have head lice...
So we picked up some lice shampoo on the way home and we had a family nit picking afternoon... only we didn't get very far :-( Grace got thoroughly picked over, Jasmin somewhat, and Mommy not even shampooed and that took all afternoon and evening (that's what it takes when you can't find a proper comb)! While Mommy was busy nit picking Grace, Daddy went through Jasmin's hair, got a start on delousing the girls' bedroom and made supper.
This is when Mommy began to dread the week:
fully delousing the household without easy access to any hot water, definitely no hot water for the washer, no dryer, no medicated shampoo declared safe for pregnant women, no proper lice comb, and three of us with a head full.... one one treatment of one head took 6 or 7 hoursit could be a very long week...
It's a good thing Mommy has properly passed into the 2nd trimester oasis of regained energy and well-being - we're going to need it!

This week we remembered -again - why we had decided not to go anywhere in the evenings here in Bangkok.  Wednesday evening we attempted to go to our first Christmas party/celebration.  It took us a full hour in a taxi (traffic, and missing the destination on a one way street so we had to make a HUGE round about u-turn) and about an hour and a half to get home again by train and bus (trying to avoid the stop-go traffic that makes Grace desperate with car-sickness).  This for a destination roughly 8 kms from our house! The hour and a bit that we spent at the party made it worthwhile for the girls, as they got to ice their own cookies, sing karaoke carols, and see a number of friends little and big.  But, arriving home after 10pm, we said again that we will stick to places within biking range.

It heightened our appreciation for those who weekly make the effort to come to our home for Bible study each week - often coming right from work and from further away than we have ever attempted.

It also makes us extremely thankful that God planted us in a place that has all we need and more within biking range: a park, friends, church, hospitals, ballet, shopping, dentists, lots of street food, even the guesthouse and hotel that our organization often holds meetings and conferences that we have to attend or serve at!