Catch Up Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Ours was quiet... too quiet.  I will just say I am a family person and expat living does feed my need...  lol... I tried to act a bit Eastery, but it wasn't in me.  No regular church to go to... I hate trying out new places... and in a foreign country?  Yikes!  My heart tells me I must, but my body does not go forward.  I pray a lot about this and God works with me.  I tried buying decorations... but there are not any.  No Easter candy to speak of and no dying of Easter Eggs.  No hints of reminders of new beginnings, Jesus' or ours - and no real reason to celebrate.  

I did visit with Raelee on Skype and that makes it easier.  Kim surprised her by 'answering' Skype and Raelee was speechless for a few minutes.  She recovered and talked our legs off.  I wish we could talk to the boys this way... why is it never convenient?  I think Raelee makes it convenient - she calls often.  She makes it her business to talk to us - and we love it!

Even facebook was depressing... people mocking Jesus' sufferings and my beliefs - yes, I took it personally.  Even if someone doesn't believe, I have no comprehension of how they can mock what I feel (and others) feel so strongly about.  As a Christian, I don't jam my beliefs down others throats as I think it pushes them further away, yet, when someone mocks Christianity, I am heartbroken.  Yes, I pray for them... but gosh, I have to wonder why they think this is 'funny' when they know how deeply it cuts...

I made some deviled eggs and as I was cutting them open, even they did not cooperate:

Or did they?  Anyone ever seen a white egg yolk?  I think it was my sign.

So I stood on our balcony, wishing to be with the kids and contemplating the facebook stuff.  After a bit I relaxed and I noticed our view had changed.  This morning I felt like taking updated pictures: 

This view was taken July 16, 2008:

This one soon after:

This one today:

And the casino is coming along nicely:

July 16, 2008:

Today:

As you can see, it wasn't even started good when we first moved here.


July 16, 2008:

Today:

So the weekend is finally over and I am moving on again. 

A few updates on life.  My side is hurting again like heck.  I was honestly only better a week or so.  I have no idea what I have done wrong.  I was thinking yesterday, I need to start journaling what I eat and what I do every day and see if I can find a link.  I only did the gluten free diet a few days, so I don't know if that was the key or not, but I need to figure this out.  Most days it is just a gnawing ache, but some days it just grinds at me.  I must say, I am honestly beginning to worry and I have no idea where to go next.  I am sick of Drs blowing me off and sick of the landslide of pills they have me on.  The say if it is not on a CAT scan and it did not show up in an upper or lower GI that I have nothing serious wrong.  But.  It.  Hurts. Like.  Hell.  It hurts like when I had ovarian cysts and endometriosis.

Tell me this would not drive you insane:

This does not include my normal 3 meds and vitamins  :-(

Oh, and I am sure you are wondering where the pill bottles are.   We don't get meds here in pill bottles, we get them in boxes like 'sample' packs at home.  I get confused with dozens of boxes, can't figure out if I am missing anything, so I dumped them all into bowls.  Yeah, things are different here.

And my hair!  My hair is breaking and falling out like crazy!  I wish I could figure that out.  The thyroid test came back better; still on the low end of normal, but she says that is ok.  So she thinks it is the iron.  It is not 'binding' to my blood - whatever the heck that means...  any ideas about that?   I am still on iron pills.  I did start drinking orange juice this weekend, supposedly it helps bind the iron.  Ok, I have no idea what I am talking about, I am just repeating what she has told me.  If anyone can help me understand this, I would be a happy camper.

Now on the brighter side.  Steve and I are trying to plan a couple of trips.  We are thinking about going to Phuket, Thailand at the end of the month.  He has a 3 day weekend and it is close... so we will look into that.  Also, we were thinking of going to Hawaii and my sister is going with her family.  We decided we would try to meet them in June, then head over to San Francisco to see our guys.  We have gone with pR to Disney World a couple of times and thought it would be fun to take the boys to Disney Land.  As soon as Steve gets the tickets, we will start making those plans - early this week I hope  :-)

Saturday, we went with some friends to St John's Island (the Asian one) and Kusu Island.  We had a great time and I will share that later this week.  We came home after a very fulfilling day, grilled and played a new game, Spinners.  Yep, we need to get that game - it is fun!

So that is how I get through the days - looking forward, planning fun things and spending time with friends.  Some days are great, a few days not so great, but we make the best of it and try to make it an adventure.  All in all things are great and we are doing fine.  

I am going to find something to do today, but let me share this picture:

Just a fun shot of some of the beauty in my life.  Yes, I still see it.  And I still love it.  Singapore has lots of it!

Big hugs to everyone, and happy spring  :-)