Where to Begin?

First, Thanks to Erin for designing our cool new blog! I really love it. Thanks Erin.

We have been very busy here at home and at school...and at work. We ended the holiday week for MKIS with a much anticipated trip to the KLCC Aquaria. Bill was traveling so I took the kids and Beth. Reid had been waiting to go all week. Turns out I think Georgia enjoyed it more than Reid. I made the mistake of telling Reid about the conveyor belt that takes you on a tour of a huge aquarium so he practically ran through the first part of the aquarium saying "where is the conveyor belt". "Come on lets go to the conveyor belt." Unfortunately we had to take a trip through the snakes, spiders and other insects which made Reid freeze in his tracks. Did not like the creepy crawlies at all. After the aquarium we headed to the KLCC park. I've shared pictures before of this huge park. We only stayed for a little while as it was very hot.

Next up is just some pics from family time at home. Georgia is hilarious. she keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing. She was playing peekaboo on the balcony. We also had Bill's coworker and friend staying with us in between his travels. We went to Chinatown for a little shopping and then out to a tapas restaurant called El Meson which is in Bangsar Village.

At MKIS we had UN day in October as well as the Halloween Carnival. The week of UN day there are lots of activities, but the week concludes with an elementary assembly in which all of the students participate in a performance for their country. It was nice to see all of the countries represented at MKIS and the mix of students. Of course for the US, everyone dressed in their football gear. Reid was a hit in his full UT football costume. Thanks to Mary and Gabe for that gift from a couple years back. During the Canadian performance the fire alarm went off so we all had to exit the school. That made UN day interesting and ...long. The following week (this week) was Halloween. The kids got to do some arts and crafts and had a costume parade Friday morning. It was cute to see all of the kids dressed up. A friend here passed down a bumblebee costume for Gigi and Nana also sent her a tinkerbell costume. Georgia is getting picky about what she wears and threw a fit with Tinkerbell (sorry Nana - we'll save it for dress up). Luckily the bumblebee costume was more like a onesie so once I got it on she didn't mind it too much. She wore it to the parade since I was not taking her the carnival. The parents assocation put on the Halloween carnival at the school for the elementary kids. I volunteered to do our classroom table and chose Witch's treasure. I filled the sand tables with rice and buried lots of toys and candy. The kids really did love it and some did not know it was rice. It did look kind of creepy like little bugs or worms in the dark. There was also a trick or treat trail through the school. Each grade decorated a hallway and had a "treat" station for the kids to get candy. I was surprised as Reid went through the "Haunted Hallway" twice. He was more scared by the spiders than the people with missing limbs with blood all over them. NICE! In all of the Halloween craziness this week, Beth got stuck in Thailand. It's been a trying week to get all of these things done carrying around the little princess. Luckily I was able to able get Lorna, our previous maid, to come back and watch Georgia during the festivities Friday night. Oh and I dressed up as a witch...greeen face and all. Will have to see if anyone has a picture to share! Reid was a little frightened by my green fingers with long nails...until he got to wear them. Happy Halloween to everyone. Next post...I hope is an update on where we live and pics of some places I frequent.

Settling In

It seems hard to believe that it has already been a week since we visited Hong Kong. It was our first vacation in our new home country. We visited one of my best friends, Mollee, and her family. They are expats as well and moved there when we moved here to KL. It was unreal that both our families were making this life altering journey at the same time. With everything being so close in Asia (travel wise) we took this opportunity to see how the other half lives. I can say without question that we absolutely loved it. Arriving in Hong Kong after a quick 3 hour flight, the first thing I noticed was all of the smog. I know that the weather forecast was rain all weekend so that didn't help, but it definitely was not clear. We took a shuttle bus (1`like a tour bus) to the hotel. This was nice because I was able to see some of HK and take a few pictures. Of course Reid heads to the back of the bus. Bill, who can get car sick, decided to sit somewhere in the middle so I sat in the back with the kids. I tried to take some pictures of Reid and me on the bus, but you will see he was not interested. It wasn't long before both kids were asleep. I was able to see the huge, and I think the largest, container shipyard in the world. It was actually very pretty for lack of a better word. All of the different colored containers stacked on top of each other for what seemed like miles. All of the landscaping and plants reminded me a lot of KL, but with a little Colorado added. They had more trees resembling pines like in Houston. It was very beautiful seeing all of the hills and mountains right up on the coastline. We stayed at the Trader's Hotel in the Western District which is older than than the more hip Central area. After settling in we met Mollee and Carson in Times Square for dinner. Reid was so excited to see Carson and I was sooo excited to see Mollee. I took a picture of the moment I saw them. We ate at an interesting place called Star Seafood or something like that. It was decorated like something out of my big fat greek wedding....lots of fake flowers. The kids loved it because as with most Chinese places they have live seafood for you to choose from. Thankfully the kids are old enough to make the conenction that someone was going to choose "Nemo" for dinner. It was neat to see some of the huge crabs they had. We attempted to have a dim sum dinner, but they only had a few kinds to choose from. We chose shrimp and they were pretty good. Georgia was a pill after traveling all day and we couldn't drink wine fast enough. I'm sure we were quite the site as the only non-Asian with kids screaming and talking loudly. We snapped a few photos on the way out. Reid and Carson seemed to hit it off and we headed back to the hotel. Times Square seems like a very cool place to be without kids. Bill and I put HK on our list as a couples trip...very much like New York. Georgia had a terrible night sleeping and I was so afraid she was going to crawl out of the baby crib the hotel let us use. The mattress seemed bery high and she has started to climb EVERYTHING! Friday in HK was Disneyland day. We took a taxi which was about 200 HK dollars (ok maybe 300). When we arrived Bill and I wondered if it was even open. It looked like no one was in the parking lot and it was eerily quiet. We joked about "Sorry folks. Park is closed." from Vacation. That gave us a good laugh. Sure enough we just hadn't wlkaed far enough to start hearing the music. It was exciting to begin our first family vacation and Disney one at that. The weather was perfect and it was a weekday so there were hardly any lines. We got to ride all but one ride. Mollee brought her helper, Gena, so we could leave Georgia and Marlo with her when needed. It was a really great day. To top the day Mollee made reservations at the Disneyland hotel for the character dinner. It was a buffet and some of the characters came to visit. We were little disappointed as we expected more characters, but it was Mickey, Minney, Pluto, Goofy and maybe one other that I have forgotten. The buffet wasn't too bad. Tons of seafood so if you could eat a ton a raw fish you would definitely get your money's worth. After a long and fabulous day we took a taxi back to the hotel got everyone bathed and ready for bed and crashed! Thankfully Georgia slept much better. Saturday we headed to Discovery Bay where the Mongori's live. We took a 25 munute ferry which was very nice to their little get away. It was such a wonderful day. We got to see their house and have lunch, play at the park on the beach, play in the plaza with all of the other DB'ers and have dinner there. It felt so good to be Mollee. I have been homesick. Just needing some real life hugs from someone. Mollee filled that just fine! I was happy to get to hang out with Joe as I really have had the opportunity to spend any time around him. They certainly seemed to have settled in well and Bill and I both agreed that DB would be a yes on our list to expat. Something about living on the water makes you feel at ease. I had to say good-bye to Mollee that night in Discover Bay and it was very difficult. We didn't make a big deal, but said our goodbyes and thanks and got a great big hug. I had tears on the way home as it was so great to see her.
The next day just seemed like a long day of traveling. It felt good to get away from KL for a few days, but felt great to be home..to our new home. Going away to Hong Kong put the travel bug in me. We are too close to too many things in Southeast Asia and we should take advantage every chance we get.

Since that trip I feel like I have a life here now. We've made a vacation, we have help around the house, we have friends, our kids have friends... I feel happy here. I actually love living here and I hope it only gets better as we travel more, find other places to eat and hang out, develop lifelong friends who, like us, will probably move on to some other place in the world. What would make our stay perfect? If I could have a hug from home! With my parents traveling the last couple weeks I haven't been talking with them much. Now that we are finally catching up I soo want a hug from my mommy. I know she feels the same and we ALL look forward to our trip home December. How nice it will be to not only catch up but get a great big hug from everyone!

Bill is off on on another trip. He arrived home yesterday at noon from Singapore with a coworker and they left eraly this morning for China. I'm hoping he will be home quick as he leaves again next week for Jakarta. Beth our helper is fabulous. She is a huge help and we are so thankful to have her. It makes my life so much easier. She keeps a very clean house, the kids are warming up to her, and is genuinely a nice person. This week she washed my car and did all of Jason's laundry for him. Ahhh...I don't want to lose her ever!!!!!

Next up...our 5 year anniversary, signing up for pilates, finding a wine spot to meet the girls at night, and planning our next vacation. We would like to make a trip to Langkawi in November.
On our way to Hong Kong











Off to Disneyland Hong Kong today. Bill and Reid tried to swim in the morning and nearly froze in the rooftop pool.










Headed to Discovery Bay today.

What's new?

The latest news from since my post last Wednesday is that we now have a live in maid. They are called maids here vs domestic helper or helper. I like helper better, but maid is the correct terminology in KL. Her name is Beth. She is from the Philipines and is 33. Bill and I both think she looks much younger than 33 and has two kids back in her home country. She arrived on Tuesday and it was a little awkward at first. I gave her a long list of rules of the house/contract (thanks to Mollee) and a daily, weekly and monthly chore list. She seems to be doing a great job. A few tweaks here and there are needed, but I hope it will all come together soon. It was odd seeing her this morning when I came downstairs with Gigi. I already bought a cute asian-ish robe here so at least I was covered. I had crazy hair and I'm sure crazy breathe. I don't brush until I leave for school. :) She was busy sweeping and opening the curtains, etc. When I went back upstairs (to brush teeth and get dressed) before taking Reid to school she had already made our bed and cleaned the bathroom. I think she swept too. I made dinner tonight and she is in the kitchen right now doing the dishes. I just kind of pick them up a little, like scrape the food in the trash and take the plates to the sink. That's one area I'll have to adjust a little. She disappears while we are eating dinner. The first thought is that she isn't helping, but she is probably trying to give us our privacy and her previous employer probably didn't want her around. We have young kids though so having someone clean the kids up or at least help will work out better for me. I'll talk to her about that tomorrow. She is eating our food...at least I think. She eats at different times so I've never seen her eat or drink around me. She asked what cups to use and I told her she can use ours. I think some people do have different things for the maids to use. She said she liked the mexican rice I made, but she didn't think it was done. I did. I made rice tonight as well and I actually ate this rice and thought it was delicious so we'll see what she says about it. Maybe she just likes it really mushy. I didn'tlook to see if she ate any meatloaf from the other night which was sooo good, but you know meatloaf. It doesn't look too appetizing left over. So tonight I made a salad with the japanese ginger dressing like at the cooking tbale restaurants, baked chicken and basmati rice. It was yummy! Tomorrow is a busy day, but I really want to get a cake made. The chocolate almond fudge cake is top of the list. Today a new friend (Trang - we had dinner at their house last Thurs - the bbq) took me to TTDI which is a another wet market. She showed me where she buys her pork, seafood, fruits and veggies and spices. It was really neat and much less crowded than the last one we went to. My absolute favorite part about the market was what I have deemed THE BAKE SHOP. THey have everything baking. all kinds of nuts...ground, slivered, sliced, whole, chopped. They have all kinds of flour, sugar, vanillas, extracts, sprinkles, cake pans, cake cardboard things, cake boxes! I was in heaven! I'm so excited. THey also have all of the mini and regular sized muffin papers! Now I know why the grocery stores don't have any - THE BAKE SHOP has them all! So that was really fun. I bought almonds for the cake. I think and I hope that is all I was missing. Let's see what else. Tomorrow I'm going to a house which is actually a store on Thurs an Sat to look at Chinese furniture. Heather (sugarland friend) invited me. Then we have a parent teacher conference and then another haircut for me. Trying a new place for the haircut. Hopefully they will do a little better job. I alreayd like them better. THe last place I went offered me the middle of the line stylist (here they have junior stylist, senior stylist, and then an art director) and this last palce said well assign you to a top stylist which turns out to be an art director...I think. I miss Juan Carlos! Well busy day tomorrow and I think I'm coming down with the crap everyone else has here. Some mix between cold and allergy sypmtoms. As long as it stays just that I will survive!

Another holiday

Tomorrow is another holiday. There seem to be many Muslim holidays. I am thankful for them as it seems to be a nice break from the normal hectic schedule of carting the kids around. I prefer those that make it a long weekend, but I'm not complaining. I'll have Reid and Bill home tomorrow and we are going to a bbq. What's that I say? A bbq in KL? Yep! A couple has invited us and a few others for a family swim and Texas bbq. I'm curious about the bbq, but it will be a nice get together regardless. I'll be making a new dessert recipe...something like mini truffle bites. They look like mini chocolate pies and seem to be super easy...that is if you can find refrigerated pie dough. Come to think of it I should probably stick to the Texas theme and make mini pecan pies.
Today was a great day. Last night Reid learned to swim while pooling it with his daddy and today was a super day for him at swim lessons. He had so much fun he wasn't listening to what the teacher actually wanted him to do. He kept saying "I can do it all by myself". We had a tlak about that. But in any case, he did terrific! There is no fear any longer. We are very proud and "owe" him a toy.
Aside from Reid's super accomplishment today, I bought a new camera (and two new chairs for the living room!). I am so excited to finally have a "good" camera. I've been in awe and so envious of the beautiful pictures that Jen and ADP could take of their families. I told Bill when we moved here that I wanted to buy a new camera to capture all of the new places we would see and all of our experiences together. I've used it a little today taking pictures of G and of Reid swimming. I also got some good pics from the Kelly's apartment. They are on the 40th floor and have a great view of KL. It would be even better without the 2 buildings that are being constructed out their window, but that is KL. Tons of construction everywhere....mostly highrises. I can't wait to see the view at night.
Georgia is jabbering a ton. Always trying to tell us something. I think she is getting at least 4 teeth with 2 of them being molars. That's just on one side. I can't tell on the other. We've had a couple of rough nights with sleeping, but that is life. She is really good during the day and has really been an angel considering.
Our chairs for the living room get delivered tomorrow and they are green....very green. I'm hoping they look good. They don't do returns here and rarely do exchanges. It is such a pain. I'm still inteviewing maids and i think I've found one. The work permit/visa is a head ache and I 'm trying to figure out how that works. Hopefully soon we will have a live in to help us out. That's when we will really get to explore KL a bit more. Ashley and I are already dreaming of getting out more at night with our men. We need a little escape and a lot of adult time!

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