May 10th

Here's our day in pictures:

9:00
Roman eating breakfast.  And yes we do have a sink in our dining room.



10:00
Roman helping me with the housework



11:00
bowling on the back porch



12:00
leftovers - garlic chili shrimp and greek spaghetti with feta



1:00
D & E building a fort



2:00
what I'm reading



3:00
dinner prep



4:00
Drew building a ladder



5:00
waiting for daddy to come home



6:00
watching a lightening storm in the backyard

April 10th

Here's our day in pictures:

9:00
Getting ready to play "warrior" with Drew



10:00
Organizing Ella's hair accessories



11:00
Ella drinking chocolate milk from KFC. It was one of her classmate's birthday and they bought KFC for everyone.



12:00
Leftover Mexican



1:00
Current read: Erasing Hell by Francis Chan



2:00
Getting a head start on dinner: pizza bites



3:00
jumping on the trampoline



4:00
at the orphanage with my teammate Mary



5:00
Ella playing dress-up



6:00
Lego talk after dinner

Derawan

You know those pictures that have been going around Facebook, that go something like:  "What my family thinks I do...What I think I do...What my friends think I do....What I actually do."?  Well, I think Derawan, which is an island only a 3 hour boat ride from Tarakan, probably fits in the category of "What I imagined living on a tropical island in Indonesia to be."  This tiny little island has lovely coral reefs and perfectly clear water, where endangered turtles come to lay their eggs by night and you swim with them by day.  That's what Derawan really is like, and what I imagined Tarakan to be like when I found out we were moving to this little tropical island off the coast of Borneo several years ago.  The two islands, although they are both Indonesia and both share many similarities, also have some striking differences:  Tarakan is crowded, noisy, and doesn't really have a great beach or great snorkeling to speak of.  Derawan (and the surrounding islands) has pristine beaches, great snorkeling and diving, with coral reefs everywhere and a very diverse marine life. Sea turtles, manta rays, moray eels, and of course all the other little fish you see in Finding Nemo are common sightings.

The only problem with Derawan is that, like most places around here, it's not that easy to get there.  We normally have to charter a boat for the weekend, and because that's fairly expensive, it's normally better for a group of 10 or more to go in together to split the cost.  I had been looking forward to going to Derawan ever since I'd heard about these trips several years ago, but hadn't been able to go until last month.  Heather gave me the go ahead (she didn't want to go with the kids at this point), so after living in Indonesia nearly four years, I got to finally experience the "tropical island" I thought we were moving to.  Although Derawan did not disappoint, nearly continual rain and overcast skies for four straight days did put a damper on things.  But it was still a good time, and I'll be looking forward to going back again.  I don't have any kind of underwater housing for my camera, which is disappointing because it truly is the kind of place where it's more beautiful under water than it is above.  But it has some pretty good scenery above the water as well, I think.



We got to see them release some of the endangered, just hatched sea turtles (I believe these were Green Sea Turtles) into the sea.  They collect the eggs because monitor lizards (cousin to the infamous Komodo Dragon) love to eat their eggs.  It was very common to spot turtle egg shells on the beach with monitor lizard tracks all around.  The eggs are pretty easy meals for the monitor lizards.  Unfortunately, less than 5% of these little guys will ever see adulthood:





One of the infamous places is nearby Kakaban Island, which is famous for its lake that dominates the center of the whole island, and is filled with jellyfish. The water is so brimming with jellyfish that it's impossible to swim without bumping into them. Good thing they can't sting!





Several of my fellow MAF pilots, notably Dave Forney and Paul College, have talked with some of the officials about getting an airstrip built on the island. It would be a relatively short airstrip, but very doable for a Kodiak or 206. Unfortunately, I don't think they need the airstrip as much as we want them to need it. :-(





Anyone wanna come for a visit?

Happy Palm Sunday!

Lately we've been acting out different Bible stories for the kids.  Today, being Palm Sunday, we acted out Jesus' triumphal entry from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem.  Ella played Jesus, Drew and Roman played the two disciples who went and got the donkey, and I played the donkey (I have always been a bit of an...nevermind).  Heather narrated the story.  Luckily for us, we have palm branches right out in our front yard!

March 12th

Here's our day in pictures. I didn't take any pictures on the 10th like I normally do because that was the day I took Ella to the hotel for her birthday. All our pictures would have been of us watching The Sound of Music and painting our nails!

9:00
Roman reading his "Bible"



10:00
coloring - the new favorite activity



11:00
Drew helping me get all the pencil/pen marks off the outside of the house



12:00
my new addiction - spinach quesadilla



1:00
my calgon moment. And it really was just a moment



2:00
the kids' fort - notice who isn't taking a nap



3:00
pumpkin bread getting ready to go in the oven



4:00
D & E drinking their mud soup



5:00
on our way home from a quick visit to a friend's house



6:00
our messy eater

Birthdays

We've celebrated 2 birthdays in the last 3 weeks. Roman's birthday was on the 13th of February and Ella's was yesterday on the 5th. Tripp already posted some pictures of Roman's new bike we got him here but I wanted to share a little bit more.



I rarely pass up an opportunity to create something and make fun decorations and birthdays are certainly no exception. I know Roman doesn't appreciate it now but it's something I love doing for my family and I hope once he gets older it will be something he cherishes on his special day. I made a simple heart cake for my almost Valentine's baby and a garland that I strung from a picture frame.



Here are a few of the things our new 2 year old is doing and saying:
*he can say a few 2-3 word sentences
*he has a handful of Indonesian phrases he can say
*for breakfast and most lunches he doesn't sit at the big table with us, but at a little kids' table looking out into the backyard. He reminds me of an old man eating all by himself at the retirement home.
*he sings when he rides his bike
*he is in full swing demolition mode these days, knocking down everything in sight from puzzles, legos, plates, cups, etc.
*since our return from the States he's had a rough time getting back into a sleeping routine
*he loves to wrinkle his nose
*in the book if you give a cat a cupcake, there is a picture of a cat doing karate and I always say, "Hi-ya" when reading it. Roman is the cutest thing when he tries to imitate me. He has moves to go with it too.
*he still cuddles with me, mostly after he wakes up from his naps

As I type this I can hear all the kids giving Tripp a "performance" as they like to call it. Drew on the drums, Ella behind the mic and Roman doing whatever he can to fit in. I can hear Roman belting it out trying to be the loudest of the bunch. He has such a fun, lighthearted personality and we are so thankful God brought him into our family.



Ella turned 4 yesterday and we had such a fun time celebrating her life. I found a picture of a cake on pinterest that I thought was super cute and tried to re-create it. Well, it didn't turn out quite like the picture but Ella absolutely loved it and that's all that matters.



She has been asking for a cash register for the last 4-5 months and she finally got one (thanks Grandma and Grandpa). She also got a rapunzel dress because she LOVES to dress up and she loves the movie Tangled. I am planning on taking Ella to the nice hotel in town for a night of mother/daughter fun. When we told her about it she got a huge smile on her face and gave me a big hug. I'm really looking forward to spending some one on one time with my Ella girl.



Here's what Ella's been up to lately:
*she loves Happy Kids (Indonesian preschool) and we're thinking about enrolling her for next year
*she is quite the perceptive little new 4 year old. she asked me the other day why a certain person's nose was "skinny" compared to someone else's not so skinny nose
*she is really helpful when I ask her to clean up
*she knows so much Indonesian. she doesn't really speak it to us when we ask her to but she understands a lot. she's taught me quite a few words
*she has such a motherly spirit and can't wait to be a mom. she's informed me that she's having 6 kids
*she loves to perform, hence the aforementioned performance. give that girl anything resembling a microphone and she will sing her heart out
*she must be wearing lipgloss at ALL times

I see a lot of myself in Ella but I see so much more at the same time. She is so smart and full of life. She has such a sweet spirit and she LOVES to laugh. Her understanding of the Word of God is humbling and I pray that it will lead her to her Savior soon. She is a true blessing in our lives and we love her so much!!

Happy Birthday Roman and Ella!

here's a picture of the kids all dressed up for our Valentine's dinner. Drew requested a tie.

From the Flight Line

A few portraits and pictures from the flight line.

Long Padi





Buduk Kubul



Mahak Baru



Craig, aka "Big Cheese"



Tinan Kule (literally means "mother of Kule"). She is one of the airstrip agents in Mahak Baru, and also sort of an adopted mother to all the pilots. She always has fried rice and tea waiting for us when we go into the village of Mahak Baru.



Chris



And Chris on the ground in Long Lebusan:



Isto