weekly (ish) letter

so, i am going to start writing my letters on the blog, as sort of a journal entry, too.

this week........

mostly uneventful.  hmmm. that might be the first time i've been able to say that since we've moved here!

well, i DID get epically and utterly and dismally lost last sunday when i tried to go to a church presidency meeting at another church building.  my gps got me to within a couple of blocks of the church, but then it became stubbornly unhelpful, and left me all on my own.  this is the thing i have realized about malaysia.  if you do not already know where you are going, nothing will help you get there.  i drove around and around and around and called loren (who had driven there once, and gotten lost also, but had found it eventually) and maybe got a bit frustrated with him that he couldn't help me out......not his fault......SO, i finally stumbled upon the church, which is not a church building at all, but a building stuck onto the edge of a bunch of other buildings in a strip mall.  i was 30 minutes late, but thought that would be okay (just missing the opening prayer and spiritual thoughts and such), BUT the door was locked, and the intercom/doorbell wasn't working.  the church is like 3 stories high, and nobody was on the ground floor to hear me pounding away at the door.  after standing outside for maybe 20 minutes, trying all sorts of ways to get inside, i decided it probably wasn't safe to be hanging around a scary-ish part of town all alone early on a sunday morning in a dress, looking like i was lost.  so, i got back into the car and drove home (only getting mildly lost twice).  i should be fired from my church calling, for sure.  but now i know where TWO churches are (mine, and this other one).  too bad that for my calling i have to visit/find six other ones.  when this guy at church found out that i had to find a church in the charas area of kuala lumpur, he laughed, said "ha--good luck", and told me that he'd driven around for 3 hours the first time he'd tried to go there, and had finally driven home without ever finding it.  so if you never hear from me again, i am probably trying to find some church somewhere.

also, speaking of church, somebody swore during their testimony, which was exciting and a bit tense for the rest of us.  good times.

in other news, wellsy learned how to say "hi, my name is wells"!!!!!!!! this is huge, even though it might not seem like it is.  we have been practicing this for, oh, like a year.  he has never, ever, ever said his name.  he would get close, and say "my name is................truck" or something random like that.  all of sudden this week, he made a break-through and said it.  now he says it to everyone we see, and then says "yeah!  high five!"  because he is very pleased with himself.  the kids say that now he has at least 5 little mice running on their wheels in his head, helping him to be smart.

he still does not know that he is "two".  he never knew he was "one", either.  and he is almost "three".  sigh.  someday, someday.

oh, one kind of exciting thing happened yesterday.  loren had the day off work, but the kids still had to go to school, (that is not the exciting thing, but it was kind of exciting, actually, to have just me, wells, and loren all day......)........so we went to the bird park here.  it has lots of birds of all sorts and that was fun, but that is not the exciting thing, either.  the exciting part is that i was bending down helping wells in the stroller, and suddenly, i got landed upon by a green parrot.  but i couldn't tell it was a green parrot, because it was right on my back behind my head, walking all over the place where i couldn't see it.  i gave a little shriek from surprise, but i was not super alarmed because i thought it would fly away, BUT it did not, so then i gave another little shriek from surprise/alarm/uneasiness because it was climbing all around and pecking and sort of digging into my back.  loren was laughing so hard, and i was like "help me! help me!" and other people saw and were laughing, too.  loren eventually got the bird shooed away, but it was very funny.  then i was all hot and very sweaty from all the excitement.

also yesterday, we had an open house at gretchen's school for fourth grade (last week was high school's, tonight is pace's, and thursday is madeline's..........good heavens!).  anyway, gretchen had made us promise that we would go to the gym to see the "mission impossible" course that is set up there.  it this really fun course with all sorts of different "missions" that you have to complete to pass it.  balancing, climbing, ladders, rope swings, rock walls, etc.....all done without setting of the "bombs" (stepping on the line, dropping the ball, and so forth).  loren and i did the whole course (well, loren did--i opted out of one climbing-through-a-tunnel one, and one rope swing one)......it was very fun, actually, and very hot and sweaty again.  it was very much an i-am-feeling-the-heat-in-malaysia sort of a day.  most days, i am inside or at the pool, so it is not too bad.

today i walked to hok choon for groceries again.  i was much more controlled about what i bought this time (no watermelons), and did not nearly collapse on the way home.  we might be buying a second car soon, though, so my days of walking out for groceries are nearly over!  actually, it is not something i mind, it's just that i have to go several times a week, because i can't carry enough home to last for more than a couple of days.

the kids are enjoying school, i think.  liesel, gwyneth, and madeline are all taking a rock-climbing class. that is fun.  gretchen will be taking gymnastics (starting next week) and pace will be doing soccer, i think, but now i can't remember for sure what i signed him up for.  hmmm.  better figure that one out.  the schools here offer all sorts of after-school programs, which is fun, but i only had the kids sign up for one each (except for madeline, who for some reason got to sign up for rock climbing and arts & crafts.....i guess i am not a fair mother?).

that is all for now.  the school bus is coming soon, and i have to go out to the guard house to meet it.

love, laura