We have a new blog...

For updates here on out, please visit us at http://dastrupsonthemove.blogspot.com


***Please change our address on your favorites bar, blog roll, etc.  Sorry for the inconveniences.***

Henna

We went back a few days after and Allison got it, too...

Just one hand, and just on the top of her hand and fingers.  She was very happy!

Twinkle Toes

The high school dance club has a fundraiser each fall to offer four dance classes, each on a Saturday morning, for very, very cheap.  I enrolled Parker, with his consent.  On the final class day, they have a performance at a big international festival on campus.  I thought his performance was actually rather good, because it is the dance that they learned on the one class he missed (while we were away on Sibu Island).  For some reason, I thought I had the whole dance video'd on my camera, but this is all that came out.  He still had a great experience learning all kinds of different dances and then performing one for an audience.

Little India

I finally made it to Little India.  I'd been avoiding it.  I knew why.  But, now I KNOW WHY.  It's fantastic, but even after negotiating prices down on everything, you've still either spent a lot of money because you bought A LOT of stuff, or left depressed because you didn't get everything you wanted.  Sometimes it's hard to choose which to do!  Jeremy had Monday off because it was an American holiday (Veteran's Day) and it was the day before an Indian holiday (Deepavali). 

 

Yes, that is Henna.  Yes, I got it.  No, I didn't buy much.  Yes, I did go back five days later and bought much more.  No, I still didn't get everything I wanted.  No, I really haven't been rummaging around the fabrics, yet.  Good thing we have three years...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  We "partied" quite a bit this year!  Here are some of our standard Halloween placemats, fake pumpkins, and Halloween signs we put up in the house.  We added some pumpkin lanterns and made Frankenstein dessert.

We also got around to our much wanted Pottery Barn signs that we copied for 10% of the price...literally.  And, we found a place to hang the last of our ghosts and pumpkins that used to float in trees of other houses.  Here in our neighborhood, your house actually stands out if you don't have decorations outside!

Our neighborhood is referred to as the "American neighborhood."  It's probably the largest concentration of Americans (other than the base) in one group of houses.  Because of this, Halloween here is phenomenally CRAZY!  To head this off, a couple nights (Oct. 29) before the actual holiday, they have an optional trick-or-treat night.  We took advantage of that, dressed up, got out, and passed out our candy.  Here's, in order of age, Snow White, Cleopatra, a witch, Optimus Prime (from the Transformers), and Cinderella.

 *Dear Wal-Mart, thank you for making your 360 count bags of Tootsie Rolls available on-line with free shipping.  I promise we will go through all 12 bags you kindly sent to us:

On Halloween morning, I took McKenna up to base where they have an annual work/office trick-or-treating event.  All the offices and businesses in the actual "office building" where Jeremy works decorate their entrances and hand out candy to the military and government "tots."  Here's the entrance to Jeremy's work...very appropriate:

Here's McKenna with one of her very good friends (McKenna had had it with the "sensory overload" at this point) who was born six weeks after her, also in Georgia.  Her dad was Jeremy's immediate boss there and we are thrilled to be able to hang out some more in another location.

We were invited to a co-workers house around the corner for pizza and snacks and such right before trick-or-treating.

 

And Halloween night...let's just say that the neighborhood "committee" has the police come in and shut all the roads and entrances from an hour beforehand to an hour afterwards.  They also bring in a medical crew.  The reason you need 2,000-4,000 pieces of candy is because you are going to hand that much out and you will probably still run out.  It's as though 1/2 of Singapore shows up...it's actually something you have to think about when considering living here!  I think we definitely had more than 4,320 pieces in those 12 bags.  I was handing out 2-6 pieces as fast as I could and didn't run out until an hour and forty-five minutes later.  There was still a crowd out for another 45 minutes after that...atleast.  Here's a picture down our street just at the beginning:

Happy Halloween!!!

Girls Camp--2

Here in our church in Singapore, they also do Girl's Camp.  So we stayed at our last house an extra week after school got out because that was the week for Girl's Camp there.  Therefore, Allison has been twice this year.  It's a little different, though...on MANY levels!  First, it is frequently held in the fall.  Second, it's done on a ward level.  And third, it's not really camping.

First, it is held in the fall because most Americans go back to the States for a couple months in the summer to visit family.  Second, it's done on a ward level for the American wards, because we are a "bit disruptive" to the local wards...our traditions, school schedules, leadership styles, etc.  Third, it's not really camping because we choose anywhere we want to go and, well, just see...

Maybe Allison can come back and place comments.  I had to steal pictures from her leaders to include them here.  We have a great ward and our two camp leaders chose Telunas Beach Resort in the Riau Islands of Indonesia.  Yep.  They took a ferry out of Singapore to Bintam and then a longboat to the resort.  Probably about 4 hours total.

Gamelan

A gamelan is a traditional musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Java and Bali, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, kendang (drums) and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included. For most Indonesians, gamelan music is an integral part of Indonesian culture.

At our school here, they have an actual room dedicated to be a gamelan room.  Classes take turns during their normal music class time to use this room.  Most of these instruments looked like old Chinese pieces of furniture.  They also invite all the parents in at the end of the gamelan lesson schedule to participate in an "Informance."  For some reason I didn't think that a camera or a camcorder was needed.  I was wrong.  Hopefully one of the other kids will rotate through soon!

Sibu Island, Malaysia

WARNING!  If you are depressed by long, cold upcoming winter days, itching to go on a vacation, or grumpy at seeing happy, relaxed people...this post is NOT for you!

The kids all had Thursday and Friday off of school for parent-teacher conferences.  I had Allison's on Wednesday, and had Madison and Parker's on Thursday morning.  Jeremy had just returned Tuesday night from a 3-week trip and was getting ready to head back out the following week, missing all other school breaks for the whole first semester.  So, we took advantage of getting out of the city and visiting Rimba Resort.

Leaving the Singapore checkpoint and heading for Johor Bahru, Malaysia and their checkpoint, just over the bridge.  And driving 2 hours north up the eastern side of the country, looking at all the plantations:

We then arrived at the jetty, where we left our car.  There's a picture of the local jetty and then the resort jetty.  Plus, our boat ride and the island (shorter one in front of the taller one):

What we referred to as our "hut."  It did have warm running shower water, running sink water, and a toilet...times two.  It had two bedrooms and a large dressing room.  It did not have any air conditioning, solid doors, or glass/screen windows.  It did have fans, mosquito nets, wonderful views and a really, really nice breeze.  We did enjoy some local "wildlife":

 

 

The food was set and inclusive of the room, but very, very good.  They made us some tuna fish sandwiches with cucumber, green and red peppers, onions, and lettuce upon arrival.  The bar area was where you ordered the milkshakes.  Once Parker figured that out, he was caught attempting to "order" his own from one of the barstools on a couple occasions.  They had a open-air restaurant where we ate most of our meals, with the exception of one day where the kids wanted to eat in the "gathering room."

We spent a lot of time just relaxing (the whole point of this trip):

 

We did a little bit of exploring by taking a walk down the rocky shoreline.  Throwing rocks and looking in tide pools were the highlights.  We found a stingray in one of the little water inlets:

 

 We did a fair amount of swimming and snorkeling out in the warm South China Sea:

We played a lot of games and did a lot of fun activities:

 

 

We had a fabulous, relaxing time!

Final price (Malaysian Ringgit) RM$2790, which is USD$912, for three-day/two-night two-bedroom chalet, all meals, any drinks other than water (milkshakes, iced Milo, juices), 60-minute massage, boat transfer for six, a couple snacks (french fries with those milkshakes) and three snorkel equipment rentals.