Need a prayer today - and a hug...

We just finished shipping boxes to Jeremy and to Singapore. The boxes to Singapore are the manuals Steve needs and 3 books I wanted. It was $1200!! YIKES!


Jeremy will have his toybox, trucks and Lego's that he grew up with. I hope he gets to step on a few like we did when he was little. That only cost $200 to mail - the rest was Steve's Singapore 'stuff'. And he says *I* have stuff.


Now that we are down to being together the last few hours for more than a month, I am starting to get weepy. Our lives are changing. I am not good at change - and I am really not good at it alone. I have tons to do before my trip to Seattle and then on to Singapore, but that does not change what is getting ready to be the biggest change of my life. 


I have never been outside of the USA (except Juarez Mexico - does that count?) and I am getting ready to go halfway around the world to a new country, with out my hubby, clearing customs, not to mention a 20 hour flight. Trying to make sure I have nothing that will get me in trouble in another country terrifies me. Yeah, I am scared right now. Yes, I miss him already. We are supposed to be settling in now for 'the good times'. 


Can someone tell me please - when does that happen?

The Motel Room - Broke :-(

For years we used our camper regularly. Since Steve has been working this job, we can never plan a vacation, because his jobs are so intense he cannot plan dates for taking a job. So our once very used camper has become an extended part of our house - a motel room. When we have a huge amount of people come and we cannot put them all in the house, we open 'motel Bryant'. 

This visit, as the guys went to open it - it did not open. Jeremy and Steve were doing it together for old times' sake. However, it has set so long it broke when the guys went to put the top up.

Sooo.... they improvised. They took 2x4's (see them on the corners?) and inched it up until they had it at full height, then stabilized it with the 2x4's. Steve decided after the family left he would fix it. Yesterday we worked on fixing it. *sigh*

I walk in the camper and I can *smell* all the vacations and adventures we have taken in it. It has been so many places with us that is makes me sad to see it sitting - or even being used as a motel room. Anyway, we nearly have it fixed and working again, but the rain has set in. We cannot put it down until it is dry. Steve leaves on Tuesday morning for his new adventure in Singapore. I hope we can get it down and secured before he leaves.

Anyway, it is sad to see it sitting, not vacationing with us - and more sad that it is deteriorating while we continue to hope we will eventually get to go camping again. Maybe it will happen. Until then - I hope someone uses it.

Off to get some more things ready for the adventure - packing the safe with important papers. Steve has assured me that he will help since he has anchored it in the concrete and I cannot drop it on him again. 

UGH! Men!

Learning Asian Countries

Well, since I am going to be living there, I decided I need to know the countries surrounding me. I went online and got a map to give myself a test. Whew! Did I need work! I started out with 48 of 96, but after much practice, I just got 93 of 96! I might get this yet! I took the test about 10 times and tomorrow - I am going to ACE it! lol... what a goal!

Here is a link in case you want to try: http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/asiaquiz.html

If you take the asiaquiz.html off, you can get a chance to try all the different countries of the world! Yeah... I will try that SOMEday. I need to figure out where I am going to be living for now.

Steve and I had some great news today! He went for a chest/lung CAT scan with/without contrast and WHOOO HOOOO! Very little signs of Emphysema - and they said it was so little, the considered it a 'normal' CAT scan! 40 years of smoking and after 6 months NOT smoking he is LOOKING GOOD! I am so darned proud of those results it is crazy! He is going to be with me a very long time :-)

Except... I almost killed him today. See that safe above? We went and got this huge 850 lb safe to store some important things while we are overseas. While offloading it from the truck, I was scared to death it would fall, so, I had the cell phone in my pocket just in case. Thankfullly it didn't. Two women even stopped walking to come ask us if we needed help. We did, but said no thanks. We needed 4 good sized men. We had us. We left after we (him and I) got it off the truck - yeah THAT was fun. While we were gone, I put the cell phone in my purse.

We came back, and were in the process of taking it off the pallet and lo and behold the pallet broke. THE SAFE FELL ON HIM! He was on his knees working with the pallet, and saw it coming. Thank GOD he thinks quickly, because he turned for it to fall on his back. 850 freaking pounds on him and I had to manhandle it with no phone, no way to let go, nothing in reach to help me prop it so it didn't fall more - and no way to pick it up.

God gave me the strength to lift it enough for him to help, because there is no way I could have done it myself. I am SO thankful we made it through that incident to get that good news phone call.

It could have been SO much worse! I can just see me calling 911 and telling them my husband is a pancake - he has a safe on top of him - send LOTS of people :-( Thankfully that did not happen. Gosh, it was so terrifying!

God is with us - watching over us and giving us blessings. I will take that as a good sign.

Saying Goodbyes :-(

It is always difficult to say goodbyes. Cheyenne, Jeremy, Marcus and Aedan left today. We loaded in "papa's Dodge Ram - BIG Dodge Ram" as Aedan calls it, and headed for the airport. Once there, we casually visited and let the children play with a wire and bead toy they had. When it was time to get in line, all was ok - until Aedan realized he was leaving granny and papa here. He raced back from the line and was bawling! When he looked up at me with that sad face, I wanted to snatch him back and take him back to granny and papa's.

He loves home though and once he gets back, he will settle right in again - until he sees a "DODGE RAM! That is a little Dodge Ram - papa has a BIG DODGE RAM!"

Ahhh, the memories! When he opened our DVD drawer when he first got here, Aedan screamed "THEY HAVE CARS!!" Papa says he will never think of Aedan again without hearing him scream at the top of his lungs "THEY HAVE CARS!!" like he thought we lived in the dark ages.

Surprise, we don't!

Mmmm Good!

There is something special about looking at all three of your grandkids at one time - and something even more special looking at them enjoying papa's bbq. Papa makes his own BBQ sauce - a little from a recipe and some adaptions here and there for his very own flare! It is the best bbq sauce - evah! It takes him a few hours to get it made, but it is well worth it!

Can you tell the kids love Papa's BBQ sauce as much as we do?

Singapore Average Temps

For a girl that doesn't like heat, here is what I am loooking at:

Singapore Monthly averages


January Avg Low: 76° Avg High: 86°
Avg Precipitation: 7.77 in


February Avg Low: 76° Avg High: 88°
Avg Precipitation: 3.23 in


March Avg Low: 77° Avg High: 89°
Avg Precipitation: 5.02 in

April Avg Low: 78° Avg High: 90°
Avg Precipitation: 4.98 in


May Avg Low: 78° Avg High: 89°
Avg Precipitation: 5.41 in


June Avg Low: 78° Avg High: 89°
Avg Precipitation: 4.01 in


July Avg Low: 78° Avg High: 88°
Avg Precipitation: 5.13 in


August Avg Low: 78° Avg High: 88°
Avg Precipitation: 4.46 in


September Avg Low: 77° Avg High: 88°
Avg Precipitation: 4.99 in


October Avg Low: 77° Avg High: 89°
Avg Precipitation: 4.82 in


November Avg Low: 76° Avg High: 87°
Avg Precipitation: 8.19 in


December Avg Low: 75° Avg High: 86°
Avg Precipitation: 8.88 in


Sucks to be me :-(


I keep telling myself, "one island surrounded by lots of little islands" and I get to island hop! Since I have always wanted to see the deep blue sea, I hope there is lots of deep blue sea surrounding it.


I talked to a man the other day that said Singapore is like the Carribean. Steve and I were going on a cruise to the Carribean for our 30th anniversary but it didn't happen. Now we are going to live in a similar place - so maybe that is a gift. I hope it works out that way.


Still very nervous. Still trying to see the bright side of it all. 

Not working.

Who Eats Marshmallows?

Jeremy, Cheyenne, Marcus and Aedan are here! We went on a swamp tour with them - a nice relaxing time. I took extra marshmallows - just in case!
Jeremy and Cheyenne did not eat them :-(


Marcus, Raelee and Aedan loved to eat the marshmallows! But they found out soon why we had to save them so we had LOTS or marshmallows :-)


Because GATORS LOVE THEM! Gators will break their necks trying to get to the sweet puffs! The kids had a blast feeding the gators and boy did we get to see gators! Lots and lots of them out on this hot Louisiana summer day! Great tour Antoine - we had fun! Thanks for taking us to 'gatorville.