You Better Shape Up

My first Marine Ball.

The Marines like to celebrate their birthday by getting all dressed up.  We got invited to the party, so we went.  Actually we just bought tickets, but that doesn't sound as cool.

The Marines prepared a ceremony, there were speeches, a video, and then they cut the birthday cake.  Everything is a huge tradition and everything symbolizes something.  It was really cool, I just can't remember all the details.  I didn't get to see it, but they cut the cake with a sword.  There was a lot of standing and sitting.  We all had the same thought at the exact same time!  It reminded us of somewhere else where there is a lot of standing and sitting.  

 We went crazy that night!  When we ordered drinks, we got our pineapple juice MIXED with our guava juice.  It was pretty wild.

Seriously though, love the CherDog XS and Lo Momma.  It was fun sharing a night of mixed juices and sober dancing with them.

Oh yeah!  Nate was there too.  He was the best looking accessory I had.

He isn't a big dancer, but I made "You're the One That I Want" memorable for him.

It is fun to remember that I had my dress made.  I found a dress online that I liked, showed a tailor a picture, and she made it.  She came 4 different times for alterations.  All for about $50.  It was impressive she could make something based on a picture.  It was fun.  The same seamstress made Nate's tux.  His cost a little (a lot!) more, but it looked awesome.  It fit him so perfectly, and he got exactly what he wanted.  I was amazed.  

All The Nations Like Bananas

On Thanksgiving day, we spent the morning at the kids' school for a UN concert.  It was a little irritating, but they said they "didn't realize it was scheduled on Thanksgiving."  Yeah right.  Anyway, it wasn't too big of deal, we just didn't have a relaxing morning.

UN Day at school is where the kids dress up in traditional clothing from their home country and sing songs.  The U.S. doesn't really have traditional clothing so my kids wore red, white, and blue.  Mostly white and blue because we have little red.  The girls wore little red ribbons in their hair.

Mads shaking the crap out of that thingy.

Dare banging the crap out of that thingy.

Rhon kicking that shuffle's butt.

BA waving those thingys around like nobody's business.

The spread.

Our Thanksgiving was pretty traditional.  We ate all the same things.  We had to improvise with the cranberries, and the sweet potatoes weren't quite the same.  They were especially weird because the marshmallows wouldn't melt.  Travel is hard on those marshmallows.  But all in all it was an awesome dinner, and we were super happy to share the evening with the Ns.  We had pie and Rock Band to finish off the evening.  We kicked those new songs' butts.

PS - That was one good turkey.  Beep beep.

  

Super Smash Bros upstairs.

The Inquirer

I am a procrastinator.  I embrace it.  It doesn't get me down anymore.  Okay, it does, but not as much.  Anyway, I didn't get Dare's presents in the mail until a few days after her birthday.  So we had another mini celebration after we got the gifts in the mail.  She didn't want cake, so we had raspberry soda floats.  When we saw frozen raspberries at the store for such a great price, we couldn't pass it up.  So we had the Abs over for dessert and presents.

We nailed it!

She was so excited about her presents, and so were all the other kids.  She got a doctor's kit, with a real stethoscope, neck brace, bandages, blood pressure monitor, etc.  It was fun.

In Dare's eighth yerar, she went to school in DC, and Jakarta.  She moved across the world, got to hold a baby orangutan, and started playing violin.  She swam in the Indian Ocean, and got about 6000 mosquito bites.  She had to say good bye to great friends, and has made new great ones.  She became an awesome basketball player, and played badminton for the first time.  Dare is awesome.  She's our entertainment.  She is super active.  Loves to fight with BA.  She has a smile that can light up a room.  Her favorite thing to do is swim, go to the zoo, go to the beach, play outside, and play with friends.  She loves to eat ribs.  There is never a doubt what her favorite meal is.  Ribs are pretty hard to come by here, so we'll have to make up for it when we are in the States.  She also loves to eat fresh fruit.  She is the only kid who loves every fruit we have.  Really loves them.  It's awesome.  She is still very difficult to wake up.  In fact, if I don't go in her room 5 minutes after I wake her up to wake her up again, she'll sleep all morning.  I usually make her sit up before I leave.  But she's happy.  She's not a grumpy kid.  She always has to be talking!  She either makes you want to laugh or scream.  I love her.  

3rd

 Just about every family in the ward has at least one member in a presidency somewhere.  So this is what it looks like after church when it's one of those Sundays when there is a ward council meeting...

Dare's Eight

On Dare's birthday...

We had T-ball first, some outdoor games with friends, and then we decided to stop by this diner (the term 'diner' is used loosely - Indo version) on the way home for lunch.  You can get American breakfast-type food all day.  So along with burgers and fries, we had omelets, and pancakes, etc.  It was a great birthday meal.  Since we spent a certain amount, we were able to spin their 'Wheel of Fortune'.  We all let Dare spin it because it was her birthday.  A lot of those spaces are for free fries, or free shakes, but if you look at the space right behind her left shoulder, it says 'Jackpot'.  Yep, that's the one she landed on! So we won 500,000 rupiah to spend there again!  It was crazy.  That's like a whole other meal for all of us.  It was pretty funny.  I felt kind of guilty taking a gift certificate for that much money, but the employees seemed even more excited than we were.

Then we went swimming, cleaned up, and this was next...

Dare's baptism was really wonderful.  The PGs were nice enough to let us have it at their home.  Mads gave an amazing opening prayer, and Nate gave the talk on baptism.  The spirit was very strong.  We worried a bit because it was in a pool, but everyone was reverent, and it was perfect.  While Dare was getting changed, everyone there wrote a little message to her.  Sister Abbe gave a awesome talk about the Holy Ghost, and then she was confirmed.  Rhon gave the closing prayer.

Afterwards, all the kids there lined up to give Dare a hug.  They were so happy for her!  None of our family was able to come, but she was surrounded by great friends and a super supportive ward.  It was a very special day.

I am so proud of Dare.  She doesn't show it a lot of the time, because she's all about fun, but she is very spiritual.  She wants to do what's right and there was no question about whether she would get baptized or not.  I know it was a big deal to her.  You could tell she thought about what it meant for months before it happened.  She is such an awesome person, and I'm glad we had a whole day that was all about her.