More This Is Our Life in Singapore

Here's a photo with our whole, tall house in it with lots and LOTS of stairs. No worries about us thinking our house is anything special because then there's the house across the street from us. It's about twice as big as ours, with about 4 more bathrooms than us and a much bigger pool. I wouldn't want that house anyway. There might actually be a room big enough to make into a toy room, enough space for the kids to ride their bikes in the front room, room for an eat-in kitchen, space to park 2 cars in the driveway. Who in the world would want that???

There's also some shots of the kid's school which is about a 2 minute walk from our place. It's really more of a campus than a school. You can see the ECC portion which is where Carson spends his time and the middle school portion where Sammy spends her day. The other shot is the central Administration building.

The shot at the top is of Carson's soccer team, The Chargers. Hmmm. Wonder who implanted thoughts in his head that "Chargers" might be a great team name? (Carson is back left, next to the coach in green)

The team photo was taken on the beautiful grass fields on the campus of Singapore American School. Some of their fields are real grass and some are turf. It's just great to have somewhere close by to run around...another reason why we like living close to SAS. Sometimes you just crave GRASS.

This Is Our Life in Singapore

I thought it might be helpful for our friends and family to get a glimpse into our daily life in Singapore. Especially since the chances are very high that many of you will never make it here to visit us. We rarely get visitors so when we do it's a big fuss! Our most common visitor is a businessman passing through for work duties who we may know from living elsewhere in Asia or from the U.S. We would love more visitors but with the economy the way it is we understand why we don't! So, here's a glimpse into our home...There it is! It's a townhouse and we're very fortunate to be in an end unit so we only share one wall with our Vietnamese neighbors.

Our pool is in the front of the house, behind that wall. We're the only townhouse in our neighborhood with a pool b/c we had it put in ourselves when we moved in. Our landlord liked the idea...as long as we paid for it! We are so glad we did it. It is small but it is so refreshing when you are hot which is every day in Singapore!!!

Kiss My $#%!

I know that it appears that this blog all about Carson...but I remembered something today that I just have to write down before I forget...
I put Carson in time out recently for messing around at the dinner table. This is a common occurrence during the dinner hour. He acts up, I put him over on the stairs in time out, he comes back, the cycle is repeated, etc.
So, I gently escorted him over to the time out position when he says to me, "Mom, Kiss My Ass!" He said it loudly and clearly with perfect intonation for all to hear so I quickly looked at Sammy to find out where he could've learned such language!? She immediately said, "Don't look at me...he learned it from Hair Spray!"
I was busting up because first of all he used it in the perfect context and he was totally calm when he said it. Then, when Sammy knew immediately where he got it from I was dying with laughter.
I think we may need to cut our viewing time of Hair Spray in half for awhile...

Carson Daynes - Super Duper Model

I just got a few more photos of Carson the supermodel. (I'm sure he's going to love reading this when he's 17!) Here he is with his best girlfriend Estelle. She is my awesome friend Jocelyn's daughter. They moved back to Utah in December and we were all so, so bummed! Estelle was in Carson's pre-K class at school.

One day when I picked Carson up from school the teacher told me she needed to tell me something. She told me that Carson was sitting next to Estelle at lunch and kissed her! When we got home I asked Carson about it..."So where did you kiss Estelle?" With a sly smile he replied, "on the hair."

Sammy's reaction

It's so great to have a child who is babysitting age now. She can totally help me with all of the other kids. I am so lucky. Here she is reacting to my 3 hours of misery...

Boys who think they're funny...and they are!

So, I think I started putting my boys to bed at about 8pm but at 11pm they were still getting out of their beds every 3 minutes and running around like wild animals. It is the life of a mother with a 2 1/2 year old. We're on Christmas break so any schedule that was ever in place is totally gone. So, one day he naps, the next day he doesn't, and then there's the days that he naps that he then has enough energy to stay up until midnight. Apparently, today was one of those days where the nap just recharged his batteries so that he can stay up and drive his mother crazy. Where is the dad, you ask? Seoul first and then onto Atlanta to see the latest Monster Truck show.
Yes, for those of you who haven't heard...Feld Entertainment has bought Monster Trucks! And guess who is going to single-handedly (I kid you not) bring these beautiful monsters to Asia? That's the latest dream of none other than Michael W. Daynes so look for future blog posts of where and when "The Grave Digger" and all of his bad to the bone friends are and when they are headed to a town near you or...me.
Back to the naughty boys...I did have a good laugh (and had to bust out the camera) when I saw Jack & Carson run and hide as I came up the stairs for the 50th time to put them back in their beds. Pretty good hiding spot...

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (In Singapore???)

Every year in Singapore this mostly Muslim/Buddhist country decks out its downtown area for Christmas! It's great for us Americans (who actually celebrate Christmas) to add to our Christmas spirit. One of our traditions is to visit the SNOW. It's just bubbles coming out of machines but it really looks like the real stuff...especially in the photos. Just reach back into your memory bank for that old Brady Bunch episode where Marsha or Peter or one of the kids adds too much laundry detergent and the entire basement fills with bubbles...that's exactly what the Singapore snow is like!