Friday, July 30, 2010

A Tribute to Sisterhood


Well, the visit by my sister and her family has come and gone. We had a great time. Their visit was short but we tried to fill our days with good time together, eating (as usual) and seeing lots of everyday Thai culture. There's never a dull moment with my brother-in-law Gary around, he never meets a stranger. They say the people who learn the language the quickest are those who aren't afraid to go out and use the vocabulary they've learned, Gary would have the language in no time. He was trying to speak Thai the minute they got off the plane.

Hailey and Emily were so sweet, just glad to be here, going wherever we took them and eating whatever I asked them to try. They colored endlessly with Sophie in all her new coloring books. They watched Pooh. Hailey even shared her i-touch with Sophie whenever she asked. They are great cousins.

Melissa, however, was such trouble, more trouble than it was worth to have her here. I hope you can hear the jest in my typing. If I could wrap her up and stick her in my pocket to have with me all the time, I would. She's adorable. She's sweet. She's as easy to talk to as the day is long. She loves her family. She can make a cheesecake better than Paula Deen and the Pioneer Woman put together. She's addicted to sugar- I mean BAD. She's got extreme maternal instincts- (she still tries to mother me and I don't mind a bit :-). She loves Jesus and loves to talk about Him. She loves to cuddle with my baby Sophie. She thinks my husband is funny. She flew 1/2 way around the world to see me. And best of all, she loves me like a big sister should. I mean she really loves me. She is at home trying to slay the jet-lag beast because she loves me so much. I absolutely, positively cannot imagine not having sisters. I'm so sorry to all of you out there who don't have them. I'm sure having a brother has its perks. Having one sister is a great thing, but having two sisters is, is... extra great. I have a friend with 3 sisters (you Lute girls are blessed) and I can't even imagine the joy and the fun. Its in the works for my oldest sister and mom to come along next time. I will have to send out warnings that the Marechale sisters are in town and in full effect. My dad has graciously declined an invitation to ever visit us in Thailand again. He says he enjoyed his trip last year but he never cares to get on a plane for 27 hours again. I don't blame him.

So, anyway, that's pretty much all I can talk about right now. I will go and make something chocolatey so that I can think about my Sissy some more. Until next time. Sawasdee Kha!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

New Friends and Other "Tidbits".


Life is good here in the Lewis house. The schedule has picked up quite a bit with the arrival of our summer missions team, which has been a positive thing. Sophie and I have still been enjoying doing some school together. This girl loves cutting and gluing. I could give her a pair of scissors and a stack of scrap paper and she'll be happy for hours- ok, maybe only 45 minutes, but still. Its fun to hear the new words and expressions she picks up- from who knows where. We were walking through the grocery store, the stinky meat and fish section, when she covered her nose and said, "Mommy, something smells horrible, no actually, something smells terrible." I could only agree and laugh. Then, yesterday, while I was cooking dinner, she came to me and in her most bereft voice said, "Mommy, I don't know what to do with myself." What!? Have you ever heard me say that? I know she might get the dramatic and animated facial expressions from me, but these expressions have got to be someone else's fault. :-)

We also made some new friends this week. Sophie and our friend, Blaa, met some little girls at the neighborhood playground when Marc and I were on a date. They are several years older than Sophie and really loved playing with her. The oldest one, named Ice, asked if she could come and see Sophie again sometime. Well, Monday night Sophie and I were finishing up some coloring and about to head upstairs to bed when there was a knock on our front glass door, scared me to death. All I could see were four tiny faces pressed against the glass. The next thing I knew there were four precious neighborhood children running and playing in our living room at 7:30 pm. I let them play for about 20 minutes when I finally had to tell them it was time for Sophie to go to sleep. They, to my surprise, quickly starting neatly putting away all the toys they had played with and got on their bikes to leave. It was sweet. It was especially sweet because I was just thinking the other day that I wish there were some little kids in our neighborhood. I had never seen these children before. I knew children lived here but our street is all older, retired people and the kids on the other side of our neighborhood generally stay at school until at least 5 pm, sometimes 7-8 pm- hence the reason they were strolling in at 7:30. We were delighted to hear their voices in the carport the next evening calling Sophie's name. They came in again, played "enthusiastically", asked lots of curious questions about why my and Sophie's hair color was so different and then cleaned up all their toys at the first mention of Sophie's bed time. We're hoping they stop by again soon.

I had to stop this blog post to start dinner. Sophie came in to help. I sat her on the counter, her normal seat, and she said, "Guess what Mommy, I cut my hair and Chok Chai's hair." (Chok Chai is her stuffed horse's name) "What?!"I couldn't immediately see the missing chunk of hair but she showed me the evidence, black hair in the bathroom trashcan. Once I tried to reapply her hair in a ponytail, I could see her new and extra thick sideburn. Lovely.

So, the last exciting tidbit is that my sister and her family are coming to visit in exactly 13 days. They will be here for about the that long exactly, 13 days. I will anticipate their arrival obsessively, and savor every moment of their visit emotionally. :-) Its just the way I do things.