September Part 3

Well this one got delayed a bit.
Sadly we had some supper small ants invade my external hard drive.  It's looking real bad for getting stuff off of it.  Losing a hard drive is a bit like having a fire in your home.  We had bought our first ever picture frames for our house but we can't fill them now.

So I delayed this post in hopes of having some pictures to go with it.  I've got to say a big thanks to Facebook because I've been going around most of the day pulling pictures posted and shared over the past.

September a busy month for us was completed with our 2nd annual teacher conference put on by HOPE GLOBAL out of Australia.

All Photos Credited to Ivan Tarlton from New Zealand.


I believe we had 5 school represented this year. I believe the final day of the conference there were 65 teachers present 30 of them from our school.

I believe my father in-law had 20 of his own teachers there as well.

We'd have to say it was a wonderful success with everyone quite happy with what was taught this year.  So thankful to have the Amanda, Neil and Ivan to return with Tamara.  Teacher of teachers pretty powerful opportunity.








We opened with worship and a short word.  Actually my first sermon ever, Ream says my dad's not coming, say something.  So during the 10 minutes of worship turned out to be just a enough time to prepare.





Teacher engagement was awesome.














A time to share with each other what they've created.










All in All I think they had a great time as well.






Also this year we had a women's health education day.  That went extremely well.


We're really looking forward to next years conference.

September part 2

After the school carnival mentioned in the last post.

We celebrated 11 birthdays that occurred over the past quarter.















This will be Sothy, Sreywut and SengHua's last birthday with us as they graduate next year.

We had to skip out on the dinner with the kids and head to town as we had to catch a flight to Thailand in the morning.

We were to take our three children this time but hours before we left I checked everything to make sure we were ready to go.  I found that Joe's passport had expired since we bought the ticket and that Sam's passport had been expired for 2 years.  We had gotten their first pass port renewed it was my understanding that I wouldn't have to do it again for 10 years but I was wrong that it is every 5 years with kids.

I tell you I was pretty ticked that AIR ASIA sold us tickets on expired passports.  It's the first time I've ever paid for a service I couldn't use.  Sadly they have no intention of refunding our money and on top of that I was told it was my fault and was hung up on after waiting on hold for 20 minutes.   Heads up if your traveling with them that customer service gets a zero from us.

Anyways this was our second trip to Thailand for Calvary Mission Conference.
It was a pleasant time.  The teachings were great again as always on topic and timely meeting our needs.

I remember my first flight when we moved to Hawaii in the 70's.  I got to go in the cockpit and was given an American Airlines wing pin.  I think I was 3 or 4 and I still remember that.  I also remember watching Rocky on the screen but that's off the subject.  I thought this would be cool for Adah.

We did still get to take Adah on the trip, who had a blast.  My mother in-law paid her own way to go with us.  It was her first ride on a plane and her first time in another country and for Chenda as well.  The school was able to cover her trip.  Chenda get's extremely car sick so for her cars, planes and buses for a day was way too much for her.


Crazy Adah

They enjoyed the worship, seeing the gardens and despite not speaking English Chenda made a few friends.  I think mom and Chenda overall enjoyed going.  

Two people we met there one was someone I've always heard about but never thought I'd met was Rose Martinez who's a Calvary lady who's been working in Thailand and Cambodia for nearly 40 years.  So she was a bonus highlight for myself.  Also Jiai a lady from Japan who's stayed with us in Cambodia a couple times was at the conference, that was a pleasant surprise.
We met a man I quite enjoyed from China.  I loved his British accent, yes British. he spent 10 years in USA and I think he said 40 years in Britain but now lives back in China.  I can't share his name or photo but he's someone I'd like to know better in the future.





We met a man from Korean doing missions here in Cambodia.  He's working in the North, East part of the country which is pretty far and a pretty difficult place to live.  I love to hear of his works there.

So we supper thankful for the support we had to get there again this year.  It was quite nice and we really appreciate it very much.  Thank you.

  


Crazy Adah

My Friend



The biggest grapes I've ever seen 2 and 3 inches long.

Crazy Adah








































If you want to know Adah here is a good example of who she is.
This was our date night while mom got a massage with her mom.  (By the way mom's never had a massage before either.)
For dinner Adah gets a chicken, ham and cheese, she's eating the whole thing and loving it.  
So I go to take a picture of our moment and I get the "cheese" face.
Followed up with her "I know how funny that was"picture.

Adah is one of the most delightful creatures I think God has ever created.  Truly love that God gave us such a wonderful final gift.  Our boys would argue other wise.

September part 1

For us September is crazy so I'll have to break this post into 3 at least.

We're in our last month of school covering testing, seeing who's failed and who moves forward.
We're advertising changes for next year schedules, teachers, classes and tuition.  This year we had to add a supply fee and in stead of raising a $1 on tuition we had to raise it $2 to cover rising costs.
Thankfully the changes have been received fairly well and we still registering children for November.
The budgeting for November has already begun.

We are still praying about the Kusanone Grant funding from Japan.  We should know October if we have been awarded it or not.  We are competing with 7 other schools so we'll see, it's in God's hands.

A round the first week of the month we start preparing for the End of the Year school carnival.  I think we added 6 new games and refurbished the older ones.   This project was off to a real, real rocky start.  With my workers not really cooperating on the build, by avoiding it, not listening, calling in sick and when we went to the city they accomplished pretty much nothing.  After a week of 18 hour days a number of my boys started pitching in, so very thankful for that.

On the last night before the carnival, we were setting up everything, tents and games, it rained again big time, it flooded the yard.
Some of the games were not finished.  The big rental tent we got was erected in the wrong place while I was at school.  That night we spent hours in the rain I think until 9 at night trying to wiggle the tent to where it was suppose to be.  It was 21 meters long and we all picked up a pole and carried it.  We got it over the swings in the way and past all the trees. We took down part of a fence and then it would not go.   Though the distance between the building and the tree was enough it was so long that we couldn't get it past the trees and swings again to get it on the pad.  It was physically tiring, it was real late and we were done, but the tent wasn't, we didn't make it.

With, mud and rain and exhaustion I really felt discouraged thinking we might have to cancel the day.  I felt sad to cancel but I felt more shame that so many people worked very hard to end up short and not make it.

The house woke up at 4 am and I got up I think 5 or 6 am and when I could finally pull myself from the bed.  Looking out over the yard it was somewhat dry.  The sun was shining and the tent had been moved.  My kids and the staff broke the tent into sections and moved it to the cement pad.  By the time I got downstairs they were finishing up and didn't really need my help.

The kids at the house always, always come through for me.  I am quite thankful we had their help over the years.  I've had a couple chances over the years to compare our children to guest teenage kids and I personally very proud of them and their level of responsibility.

1st grade shared their blessing dance with us which was very, very nice.

One of our new games this year was our Little John pugil stick challenge.
Padded sticks, helmets, life vests and an 8 inch board over the pool.

Joseph had the first victory of the day, though it was because the other child swung, missed and fell off.  Joseph celebrated like a pro.

Also new we made huge connect four boards


Lightning Alley ball roller


Toilet toss.  While I wanted to use brown play-dough we ran out of time and stuck with tossing rolls or paper in stead.


Also new was the CLAW mystery box.  We used a couple trash pincers and a drop slot.

Ball tosses

secret what's in the bottle pick

Water races

Lollipop tree

Plinko

Loose Tooth

Ring Toss

Ball Toss

Basket Ball