One night in Bangkok...I mean, Pattaya

Since it has been a solid week since my last posting, I figured it would be easiest to break down the week by person in the family. The beginning of this post will focus on Scott's  trip to Thailand. I feel as if I suck up too much of the content of this thing, so I am showing how I can share.  (Please note my song dedication to Scott that is currently playing for your listening enjoyment. Please note that Pattaya is much more frightening than Bangkok!)

SCOTT:

Scott left for Thailand Sunday evening. He flew into Bangkok, and then had to take a three hour cab ride (yuck!) to get to Pattaya. That whole situation seems strange and awkward...driving with a total stranger in the dark for three hours. I am always glad when he has made it safely to his hotel (I am always concerned that some looney is going to kidnap him). When Scott got to his hotel he called to tell me about a problem he was having. His trip was for three days and so he packed two pairs of work pants (trying to save on space). Of all the pants in that boy's closet, he somehow packs the one pair that has had all it seams fall out. So he was not too happy to be stuck with one pair of pants for the next three days. Scott then informed me he was going to find the tailor who made the pants (luckily they had been made in Thailand) to have them fixed and to have another pair made.

Scott was excited this trip he was not forced to go out to a business dinner every night. He was excited to go to his choice of restaurant, at his choice of hour, and stay for his choice of time.  Scott decided to eat at the restaurant in the hotel for convenience. When he called that night, he said that the entire restaurant was empty except for three other businessmen.  So here is a picture for you: four booths, back to back - each with one, solitary man sitting in them. Scott said is was quite pathetic looking, yet hilarious at the same time.

On his last night in Thailand, Scott decided to hit a Thai boxing match (his current favorite sport). He sat down at a table closet to the rink to get a good view of the fight. To begin, he is singled out by the two boxers and asked to come up into the rink. The boxers shake his hand and then offer to take some photos with him. Scott had to rely on a local to take the pictures and well, you can see the results for yourself below.

An older lady kept trying to sell Scott alcohol while he was waiting for the game to begin. She finally got the hint that he didn't drink so she asked, "Do you want to bet me?" Scott thought, Alright. Why not. So he bets the lady 100 baht (about $3 U.S.) on the guy in the red shorts. It turns out that the boxer in the blue shorts winds up sitting right next to Scott's table. After the first round, the guy leaned over asked Scott to give him $300 baht if he won. Scott said, "But I placed my bet on the other guy!" The boxer in blue responds, "Okay, 500 baht and I will throw the match!" 

Scott is now disillusioned about the purity of the sport.

Scott got home late on Wednesday night and was at work bright and early on Thursday. When I picked up Jacob from school that day and he found out that Scott was at work he said, "Dad doesn't even get the day off after he has been gone all week!?" That's the real world, son.

CATHERINE:

On Monday I was completely hoarse from the illness and party I was forced to suffer through the previous weekend. I was supposed to go finish that quilt at that lady's house, but she told me to wait until I felt a little better (because she didn't want to get sick too). Well, since I couldn't work on the quilt, and since Scott was out of town - I took myself out to a movie!  

When I was finally able to make it over to her house on Tuesday, she had almost finished the entire quilt! Talk about the world's nicest person. Here I am - a total stranger who asks for her help and then ditched my quilt on her without showing up again for a week. She seriously saved my life. I may actually have this thing done by the end of the year.

JACOB: 

Jacob's blurb isn't so much comical, but more us being extremely proud of him as parents. I had a chance to talk to his teacher on Friday afternoon and she was going on about how Jacob has just taken off with his reading. He jumped four reading levels in the past two weeks. I am so proud of him. he has been working on his reading every single night and it is really starting to pay off. In fact, Jacob has become our official scripture reader every single night. 

ANDREW:

Andrew had his theatrical debut this week. His little pre-K class wrote a story together

a couple of months ago entitled, "Verdi, the Colorful Snake". The story is about a little green snake who come across various animals in the jungle. As he meets each animal, he realizes what beautiful colors they are, and how he wishes he had such beautiful colors. The snake attempts to change his color by painting himself. Sadly, the snake winds up in a rain storm and all his paints wash away. Verdi is very sad until all the animals tell him that they like him for who he is and it doesn't matter what color he is.  During the past month, they turned their short story into a play. Andrew was cast as "Roary the Tiger". All week he came home very excited about the costume he was making and the set they had constructed as a class. 

On Friday, Scott, Jacob, and I all went to Andrew's school to see the performance. I seriously was expecting very little in the way of decor. When I got to the classroom I was completely blown away. The room had been completely transformed into a jungle. The kids had worked all week and making vines which were strung all over the place. They even made a lake for the jungle and had a three tiered mountain. (Very impressive for a group of 4 year olds!) 

The play begins and Andrew comes bounding out in his Tiger costume - which was a colored tiger mask (that went down to his nose) and an orange table cloth he had painted

with black stripes. His three lines were: "Hey there Verdi!", "If you want to have orange and black stripes, you will have to paint them on!", and "Bye, Verdi. I have to hunt for my food now." I was very proud that he remembered all his lines. However, one of the classic moments of the play involved a tree. Three kids were cast as trees (so sad). Anyway, the lead character, Verdi, was very hard to hear. Finally, about half way through the play after Verdi had delivered another inaudible line, one of the trees shouts, "He said, 'I am going to go paint myself!'" Totally hysterical

Alright, one last story and I will free you from this eternal entry. 

The past Saturday was the boys' baseball games. I had received an email earlier on in the week saying that one of the 3rd graders was going to be running a bake sale to help raise money for the cyclone victims in Myanmar. I see the table with the bake sale for Myanmar, when suddenly, a group of four kids wearing advertisement boards come marching by the Myanmar table. These kids are not advertising for the Myanmar bake sale. No! They are running their own bake sale to raise money for the China earthquake victims. Both a great cause, but the competition was so blatant it was almost awkward. It felt like I was in a bad episode of "The Apprentice" where all the contestants were little kids.

All right, all right..... one more story.

Jacob's game is about to begin and I am sweating like I have run a marathon. Well, there is one mom who helps out on the field every game. However, this woman is extremely concerned about protecting her skin. It was about 90 degrees outside and this woman has on full length jeans, and a long-sleeved denim shirt. She then proceeded to place elbow length, black cotton gloves on her arms. I became dehydrated just looking at her. She was helping out on first base and when Jacob made it to base after his hit, she went to give him a high five. Jacob eye-balled the glove for a second and then tentatively gave her a mild high five. I think he was about as confused at the attire as I.