Millers in Shanghai

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Letter: 17 February 2008

17 February 2008

Our friends the Wadley’s left this week. We had a great time with them and were very sad to see them go. We had looked forward to their visit for several months and now none of us can believe it’s already over. We are thankful that they took the time to come see us from China. We hadn’t seen their family for two years. Rachel, the oldest, used to baby-sit for us before we moved here. She is now 15. Mallory was in heaven being surrounded by three older, beautiful girls. She wishes they were still here. Jay and Eli were great additions to our three boys. Their family moved to China with Ford the same time we moved here. We were both in the same ward in Canton and spent several Thanksgivings together.

We met the Wadley’s in Bali and stayed for 5 days with them there. We enjoyed the Kecak / Fire Dance, Uluwatu temple, river rafting (which was a huge highlight), the Waterbom (water park), shopping, eating Krispy Kream donuts and Roti Boys and hanging out at the beach and the pool. One night in Bali the Wadley girls watched the younger kids for us while the adults enjoyed a seafood dinner on the beach at a nearby restaurant. In fact it was so close to the beach that we had to move tables twice to avoid the incoming high tide!

We then flew back here to Jakarta with the Wadleys and spent another 5 days together. We even cooked a turkey on Sunday and had a Thanksgiving dinner in February! We went to Taman Safari, did more shopping and went to some outlets. We enjoyed playing the Wii (by the way, Lonnie is a pro at Wii Bowling. She also killed Mike in Boxing. Look out!) and swimming and the kids put on a production in the pool for the parents. Nicole makes a great German lifeguard (tee hee) and Nash was the perfect David Hasselhoff…I’ll just let you use your imagination as to the rest of the production.

We were sad to see them go and hope to get together with them in the near future again…somewhere.

We celebrated Grant’s birthday on Monday while the Wadley’s were here. I can’t believe he’s 10! Where does the time go? He enjoyed having a few friends over yesterday to celebrate. Creed took them to the mall for dinner and then they came home and had cake. I splurged and bought him a Cold Stone Ice Cream cake. Yes, for those of you that don’t know, Cold Stone opened here in November at a nearby mall and we have been totally enjoying it! We are spoiled here.

Nash is practicing pretty hard for the middle school musical. It is called “Nights on Broadway” and they are doing several numbers from three or four musicals. Nash is in the Grease numbers and also Oliver. The performances are in March.

Luke is doing really well with his cello and piano. He’s very good at practicing and picks up new songs pretty easily. I realized this week that he’s got a talent for composing as I heard him making up several songs on the piano. His cello teacher said that Luke is progressing quicker than most students his age. The only bad thing is the cello we bought is terrible. It’s going through strings quickly and doesn’t stay in tune at all. We just want it to last through the next few months then we can sell it and buy a new one where ever we end up next.

Mallory is loving preschool. She is constantly singing the songs she’s learning and talks often about her new friends. It’s been a good thing for her. She now asks every morning if it’s a school day (she only goes 3 days a week).

We are still waiting to hear where we will be going. There are a few possibilities available in Europe, we just need to wait to see if it’s the right place for Creed and if the people want him. Who knows how long that will take? We were hoping we would know by now but we’ll just continue to wait….

Photos: Feb 2008 - Grant's birthday, Thanksgiving dinner

Mallory in the clothes the Wadleys brought her from China.

Our Thanksgiving dinner with the Wadleys.

Grant's birthday with the family and the Wadleys.

And Grant's birthday party with his friends.

Photos: Feb 2008 - Bali waterpark & hotel

Waterslides (above) and the lazy river (below) at the Waterbom in Denpasar, near Kuta Beach.

Various photos around the Intercontinental Hotel.

Photos: Feb 2008 - Bali Photos: River Rafting

One afternoon we went river rafting - it was a lot of fun.

Mallory was a bit scared at first, but by the end of the trip, she was having fun.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful - steep, green hills with many waterfalls.

At the end we got out of the boat and floated down the river for a little bit - Mallory even got in for a while and actually liked it.

Photos: Feb 2008 - Trip to Bali with the Wadley family

Monkeys at the Uluwatu temple.

Kecak dance, with the Uluwatu temple in the background.

One day we at lunch at Warung Ibu Oka - a small place in Ubud. The restaurant is known for its roast pig. We saw it reviewed on some travel / food show on TV. Its not a glamorous place - you eat on the floor - but I though it was pretty good. Not everyone was enthusiastic about it, though.

Photos: February 2008 - Luke's Birthday

Luke's 8th Birthday.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party with Luke's friends -- it was a "Backwards Party."

Family photo on the day of Luke's baptism, at the Orton's home.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Letter: 21 January 2008

On January 14th we returned to Jakarta from a wonderful holiday. We had so much fun celebrating Christmas and New Year in the States this year. We were so happy to be able to go and the boys and Mallory loved playing in the snow and having a truly white Christmas. That is something we really miss while living here in this tropical place.

We loved spending so much time with our family (don’t know if they loved it as much as we did) and eating out at our favorite places, drinking our very much missed egg nog for Christmas, eating and making fudge (doesn’t turn out here in Jakarta because of the humidity), seeing movies, playing in the snow, building snowmen and snow forts, hanging out with cousins as much as possible, having cousin sleepovers, helping my parents around the house (have to keep those boys working so they remember how) and many other great things.

Now that we are back here in Jakarta, reality has set in. So did a rat! Creed called while I was in the States and told me he had heard something in the middle of the night, some kind of chewing noise, apparently. He got up to investigate and saw a ‘shadow’ of something moving. Then he saw it dart out of the bedroom. I freaked when he told me and said, “That’s it, I’m not coming home!” After speaking to our maid, he called me back to say that she was sure it wasn’t a rat because rats are messy and they leave their ‘marks’ everywhere. I was relieved and so was Creed to know that I would actually return to Jakarta.

The second night after we returned from the States, I awoke to a crunching noise. I bolted straight up in bed and knew exactly what it was. THE RAT! I woke Creed up and we both sat and listened for awhile. Then Creed, very stealthily, got his flashlight out of his nightstand and crept over to the TV cabinet, where the noise was coming from. He quickly switched on his flashlight and looked behind the cabinet and found a small rat…a little larger than a mouse… looking right back at him. The rat had collected a few things that had been thrown in the trash earlier that day and stashed them behind the TV cabinet -- Mallory’s discarded toast crust and a small piece of chocolate cake.

The next day, I was determined to find him and put an end to this. After all, I can handle seeing the huge rats outside and around the neighborhood. I know they are there. That’s fine. Just don’t come in my house!

Arti, Wawang and I went to work the next morning, searching everywhere in the room for the rat. We found lots of evidence that he was around, but didn’t find him. I told the boys about our new friend and they decided to name him Pip.

The next day, I looked everywhere around the TV cabinet to see if he had returned. I couldn’t find anything, but later in the afternoon, I noticed a Hershey’s kiss that Mallory had thrown on the ground (out of anger) the day before. The rat had carried that Hershey’s Kiss up into the TV cabinet by the DVD player. PIP LIKED CHOCOLATE! I started to look in my primary bag and he had been in there! How did I know? Because Nash was given a small Toblerone for Christmas from his Sunday School teacher. I never took it out of the bag, but Pip had obviously found it because it was chewed through and half gone! I laughed, telling my maid that this rat had expensive taste. She said, “Miss Heidi, it must be a bule (white) rat. Only bules like chocolate.” We laughed and laughed.

Later that night, our driver went to the market and bought a rat trap. Now this wasn’t your ordinary, kill the rat when it falls for the trick, trap. It seemed a little too friendly to me. It just baited the rat into a cage and let it sit there. We hooked a Hershey’s Kiss, since we knew that Pip liked chocolate, to the hook and set the trap. Our gardener put it by our TV cabinet and we went to bed.

The next morning, Luke said, “Did we catch Pip?” and went over to the trap. There he was. A small little rat. Arti wouldn’t go near him, I was happy to have him caught and the kids wanted to keep him as a pet. Ummmm, NO!

I was too afraid to know how the driver and the gardener disposed of the rat seeing that he was still alive when they took him. Cartim laughed and said he was too small to eat. Kind of freaked me out.

We deep cleaned several closets and rooms on Saturday and found out that Pip certainly made himself at home here. He found the good places to go--every place that had chocolate. Smart rat.

We hope he’s the only one. We don’t have any more reasons to think there are more. We set the trap upstairs just in case, but still haven’t caught another one so I think Pip just got in by accident and then thought he was in chocolate heaven for awhile. So long Pip.

Creed moved into his new office and we love having him so close. A 10 minute drive to work beats a 70 minute drive any day. Mallory started preschool today and came home completely exhausted but had a wonderful time. It will be a good thing for her. The boys are back into the full swing of things with school and music lessons. Nash started practices for the middle school play and Grant is on the verge of almost joining the swim club. His name is on the board at school as being one of the fastest swimmers in 4th grade. Luke is happy to be with his friends again and is excited about his upcoming baptism. We can’t believe it’s almost February. Time flies!

Photos: Jan 2008 - New School, New Office

Mallory on her first day of school. She insisted on posing this way, so that her back pack was in the picture.

After Mallory's first day of school, I met Heidi and Mallory at the mall for lunch, then we walked over to my new office building. It is great being so close to home. Heidi also took a couple of photos out the window so you can see what the streets and neighborhoods of Jakarta look like.

On a clear day (very rare) you can see the mountains that are south of Jakarta.

Photos: Jan 2008 - Back in Jakarta

Last weekend Luke ran in to the kitchen looking like this to excitedly tell Heidi and me that his head was bleeding. I thought he was joking at first and that he just put something with red food coloring on his head. Turns out that he really did hit his head on the corner of a bookshelf. It looks worse than it actually was - no stitches required, just a small cut that bled a lot. He wanted us to take a picture of it so that he'd remember it.