This One Time in Bangkok

So my sweet dad always says "You can never have too many friends".

This is especially true in the expat world when your friends become your family.

Over the past few years I have made some amazing friends and sadly have had to eventually bid them farewell....

Sigh.

Oh well, sometimes when your friends have to "repatriate" (love that word) you get to go to BANGKOK!  Girls trip in order to bid them farewell and celebrate one early 4-0 for someone.  Not me.  Nope.

Look out Bangkok we have arrived!

Okay, okay Bangkok we will try your local brew en route to hotel.

Pink taxi ready and waiting to take us for thai massages.

Time for some culture!  Temples, palaces and a reclining buddha today!

Strict dress code for the Grand Palace.
Hmmmm.....this basically excludes my entire wardrobe.

The Grand Palace, Bangkok.  AMAZING!

There is some serious discussion going on here...probably about what's for lunch...
Or how HOT is was....or where we were eating...or how sweaty I was...

Here Sarah, let me hold your umbrella.

Again IT WAS SOOOOOO HOT.

After the Grand Palace we ventured off to see The Reclining Buddha. She is over 140 feet long!

I really have no words for how A-MAZING this was.

Okay, maybe the word BIG

I have no words but I do have a ridiculous selfie of me and her feet-

Did you know that the word "selfie" was just added to the dictionary?

Getting sidetracked....that happens to me alot lately...No, no not turning 40.

What else did we do on our short trip to Bangkok?

SHOP!!!

After shopping with these chicks you might need to pool

together your unused baggage weight and check a giant rain drum.

Thank you AirAisa!!

We took lots of selfies in tuc-tucs. Or should we call this a "groupie"?

Weeeee....well, I don't really know what Sarah is doing-

Moving on.

My lovely friends made me wear a moo-moo and back comb their hair.

Apparently now that I am old (I am not 40 yet) I have to wear a moo-moo.

I came out of the bathroom to find them all in these moo-moos.

I have never laughed so hard!!! 

Out of the moo-moos and out to dinner!

(Sarah would like to recommend the durian pudding) not really 

I was born in January people.

We hit the bars...well, not really.  We went to the rooftop bar where they filmed

The Hangover 2, took a photo and moved on.  We are crazy like that.

Hangover 2 bar.

We took more selfies.  These two are leaving me in December.

I won't think about that now.  I'll think about that another day.

We saw buddahs in the back of trucks....

Terry King is right.  You can never have too many friends- Even if 

you eventually have to tell them good-bye.  It just means there

are more girls trips in my future!  Right?

Luckily they gave me these three replacements to keep 

me company in Singapore when they leave.  I am thinking 

these guys wont wear moo-moos and take selfies with me.

Sigh.

Cheers from Singapore!

Oh So Grateful

As this year wraps up I have so many things to be thankful for!!!

Thankful that Sunday I ran a marathon! My first marathon!

Thankful for the BEST RUNNING BUDS EVER!

These two did not let me quit during the months of training-

And believe me, I WANTED TO QUIT.

Here is our 4am line-up selfie.

We started at 5am on Orchard Road.

Can you say body heat and smelliness?

And we're off!  This is the best photo I could get...
It was pretty amazing running through a tunnel we drive through
all the time- This was the last photo I managed during the race.
Taking photos while running not one of my talents.

Thankful though that there were photographers along the way.

At this point I had to look down because I could not

bare to look ahead and see how far I still had to go...

I like to call this photo:

"which one of these is not like the other?"

Don't let the thumbs up fool you

Finally the finish!  5:28 minutes.  I was proud.

SO HAPPY to see these faces!

WE DID IT!
Thank God it's over!!!!!

NOT thankful that I had to walk to the MRT station for a ride home.  Ouch.

We did manage that night to gimp out to CELEBRATE!


More thankfulness....

Super thankful that Deric and I pulled off another Thanksgiving
dinner for our expat pals.  This year we had 22 adults and 27 kids.

It's not a proper Thanksgiving without costumes.

Dessert table!

Thank you American Club for the bird!

Man Talk-

Luke did a great job reciting a Thanksgiving poem.

Kid table!

Buffet line!

Let's Eat!

After dinner the kiddos gathered around for a Christmas movie.

Thankful for all our friends willing to wear my costumes!

Did I mention there was a play?
It's not a party these days if the the kids don't put on a play.

And rainbow looming- Its not a party if there is not rainbow looming going on.

That was not our only Thanksgiving...Luke's class celebrated too!

This was our first time living overseas to have a feast at school.

There are not enough words to describe how much I love Luke's 

teacher.  She makes everything extra special.

Must prepare a turkey to bring to the feast.

Must bring one set of proud parents.

Must set a nice table!

Let's feast!

 I will now use my "thankful" theme to share some of my favorite

November moments.

Thankful that I did NOT have to go to the boy scout campout

and Deric did.

Thankful for my beautiful friends who surprised the holy

you know what out of me with an early birthday celebration.

Thankful that the beday is getting some use..

Perfect toddler sink

Thankful for playdates.

Thankful we got another year out of this dress!

Thankful for Canada, India, Spain and the USA!

Thankful for fun-runs with the husband!

NOT so thankful for bed invasions every night...

(okay..so maybe a little thankful)

How do you give this the boot?

So thankful for my sweet little First Holy Communion class...
(Who sometimes make me want to drink alcohol.)

Thankful for Delia who turned 50 yesterday!

Who always has a smile and a positive attitude....

Who always stays calm when I am not....

And SO THANKFUL for the community we live in who helped me
make her birthday special!

My AMAZING friend Dina made her this cake!
Dina moves to the USA in a few weeks.
(Not so thankful for that)

Thankful that in 

12 days we'll be home for Christmas....

CHEERS FROM SINGAPORE!