Bamboo Squirt Guns

On a hot and balmy Saturday, after moving chunks of bamboo for hours, my husband employed one of his many talents and made a squirt gun out of bamboo; one, he says, like he and his brothers used to make growing up in the jungle. and it worked, very well. He only needed a rubber band, some cloth, a stick, and some bamboo. It works like a syringe. Ty played with it for hours.

Christmas Season

Here's some Filipino culture for you. The Philippines boasts the world's longest Christmas season. Beginning in September (the 'ber' months), one can begin to hear the sweet sounds "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" and "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and, on occasion "the Night Santa Went Crazy" (by the esteemed Weird Al). The stores put out their decorations, all the while also having the other holiday decorations out (currently, the grocery store has a 'merry halloween' sign posted). This will build over the months, and in December, carolers hit the streets, singing house to house. Usually, they are rewarded with a few pesos or food. We often give candy to the kids who come. The season does not end until the first week of January, when they celebrate the 'Feast of the 3 Kings.'

You may ask, have you been sucked into the Christmas joy when it is merely October? I mean, after all, many back in the states get pretty feisty if those twinkly lights go up before Thanksgiving. I admit, I have. I have my twinkly lights up and even put up snowflakes. It's wishful thinking, but I think I feel a little cooler in this tropical heat when I look at my sparkly snowflakes...

A new picture

Working for a new family picture for a new card. Family picture means no Pez dispensers (sidenote: they didn't know you put candy in those things...). No pez dispensers means no smiles. Blast!

Why aren't you smiling, Ty? I want my buzz lightyear. Yes, the bean got her pez dispenser, after all, but the mood was already set. and her right hand: that's the 'don't tickle me, mom' movement. It didn't work either. Maybe next time we do this...in 2 or 3 years...

A change of engine

It's time for the old girl to get a new engine. That would be the airplane I'm speaking of. And since she is a part of the family (Ellie kisses her goodbye every time we leave), we thought we'd get a picture of the airplane in process.
Ben gets to work outdoors in the humidity and sun...
I get to work indoors, in the humidity....
During out trip to Manila, we got to go out with our friends :) and try fried fish. Literally, they are little fishies, fried to a crisp, bones, eyes and all! Scrumptious...if eaten with a lot of vinegar or ketchup. Okay, maybe their edible with a lot of ketchup. Scratch that, ketchup tastes okay with a little bit of the fishies.

At the Store

Standing in line the other day (it’s an art form here), listening to “joy to the world’ play over the loud speaker (because it is Christmas season after all), I noticed an unusual product for sale. It was called ‘placenta soap’. Guaranteed to stop the signs of aging. Yeah, yuck. But it sells. Then again, so do chicken guts and feet. Oh, and I was shopping in the meat section and came across a couple rows of foot long squids. Do you know how funny that looks? Squid on ice; yeah, yummy. And lest it become boring, I also noticed big golf ball sized fish eyes for sale…and this at the fancy grocery store, not the outdoor market, mind you. Put that in my soup, baby.

A breakdown of the month *SNORT*

We spent two weeks up in manila in August. Ty rediscovered his love of escalators and Ellie discovered the fantastic trick of keeping everyone up at night when you all sleep in the same room. We all got spend time with the missionary aviation personnel and meet a newly arrived pilot family.

Beginning during our time there, stuff started going haywire on us. First, our laptop kicked the bucket, completely and resolutely. When we got back to Palawan, we lost a motorbike tire to a long nail; our desk top was rendered unusable due to a worm infestation (hence no emails or updates); our bathroom sprung a gusher, or in other words, a sizeable leak; we've had a 5 or 6 brown outs (aka, black outs); and, my current favorite, the ring...

Of all the 10 fingers I have, a critter would choose my wedding ring finger to take a nibble at. And, of course, my finger doesn't like to be nibbled at, so it swelled up in protest. And I woke up to a finger so swollen I couldn't get the rings off. I had to get them cut off. I hear, on the brighter side of it all, that they are fully fixable. That makes me happy.

On the sunnier side of things, Ben has been flying a couple missionaries into the tribal locations and lots of cargo to go with them. In 'one more sleep' (kid time talk), we will all be flying in to visit some other missionaries, bringing in their food order and spending some time with them. That will be great!

Butterfly Garden

We took a trip to a butterfly garden a couple days ago. While not edge of your seat excitement for those over the age of 5, the kids sure enjoyed it! And what cutie-patootie kids they are!