Thursday, April 28, 2011

Welcome to the Land of Smiles!

Bangkok Thailand, Day 1

Well, all that needs to be said about our first two days on this trip is that we traveled for 28 hours! However, when we got off the plane at 12:30 am in Bangkok we were greeted by the warmest smiling faces: some of our hosts from the rotary club of the city here. They were waving these Thai flags and they gave us each a handmade lei made of jasmine and roses. So beautiful and just what we needed after our long journey.
 Here we are with our leis!
 Jer carrying some of our luggage. Can you believe that's not all of it?! AND our personal items only include a 25 lb pag each plus our carry-ons.
 Here's me with the rest.
 At our hotel (Tawana Hotel). The beds are extremely wide, like, I'm talking 4 people could fit across this bed, but they are pretty short. Even MY feet hang off the end just a bit. :o)

Well, promptly after heading to our room we decided to try and get our power strip plugged in so we could e-mail family. We blew a fuse. Of course. All the lights in our room, off. LUCKILY we followed the packing list and brought a flashlight which I was positive we wouldn't need. It was 2 am and took two helpers from the hotel 30 minutes to fix. Oops! We'll know better next time.

By 4 am we were asleep and got up again at about 7:30 to get ready for the day and head out for a wonderful day of sight seeing. Breakfast in the hotel was really good. I'm actually loving trying all the new food, and its only the first day! I feel like these will be really long posts but hopefully you will enjoy them. My favorite new thing I tried for breakfast was called wax apple. It is a delicious fruit that is very crisp yet juicy. Its so refreshing especially in 100% humidity.

Our first stop sight seeing was the Grand Palace or, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. I loved every minute of both places we visited today. The pictures do not do this stuff justice but we will try.
 This palace is covered in tiny gold leaves. They were each placed by hand. Can you imagine? I apologize for the pregnancy-looking shot.
 Some of the guys.
 These tall statues represent different characters from the Stories of Buddhism, each one has a different name.
 Here is where people bring offerings, burn incense, and worship.
 Here Jer is blessing himself with a Lotus blossom dipped in holy water.
 I don't really know what's going on with me here but these wall paintings were incredible, so intricate. We couldn't take pictures inside but it was amazing to see that every square inch of these buildings inside and out are covered with intricate hand painting and embellishments.
 The rotary club gave each of us an umbrella, or in my words, a parasol. Jer thinks its pretty funny that I call it that but I think ladies use parasols to protect themselves from the sun not umbrellas. ;o) Oh, and did I mention that it was like 100 degrees today?
THIS, ladies and gentlemen, was our lunchtime meal. We ate in a restaurant by the river and the food was delicious. These rotary club people are spoiling us! The fruit is TDF (to die for in the words of Katie H) but I think my favorite things I had at lunch were the fried rice and egg rolls. The rice definitely had squid in it which I politely avoided but the other stuff in it was awesome.

At lunch we had a wonderful missionary experience. Two of the members of the Rotary Club sat with us and through our conversation they asked us some questions about the church. They asked us a few simple things like, what is prohibited in our church and then some more poignant things like, what sets Latter-Day-Saints from other Christians sects. The 5 of us sitting at the table we able to answer their questions pretty well and I felt the spirit really strongly. Jer and I have been praying for the last several week for the Lord's spirit to help us know how we can share the gospel with those in the countries we are visiting. We asked for missionary experiences and what do ya know? We have an awesome one on the very first day we are here. I have some pass-along cards in my wallet so before we leave Bangkok I am going to give one to each of them and hopefully they can get more information on the church in their own language. 

We visited the Teakwood Mansion next. It was SO cool, it is the summer home of Kings Rama the 5th-9th I believe. Very beautiful and many of the things in it came from Europe because, if you've ever seen the King and I, King Rama the 5th had a soft spot for the Europeans.

We had a nice rest and then left for our evening dinner cruise on the Grand Pearl.
 Here We are outside right after we got off the boat. I'm definitely glowing, but I think its from the sweat.

 Our little dinner group.
 Traditional Thai dancing
 Our sweet hosts presented each of the girls with a beautiful pin made with a real flower that was dipped in the lacquer it is covered with.
 Us at dinner
 
 There was live music, and after dinner they played some fun upbeat music and we all got up and danced.
I can't help but feel so grateful for this opportunity. It is so wonderful to be here with my spouse and have people taking care of us. This chance will likely never happen again. We are having a blast!



Thursday, April 14, 2011

Books!

So, I asked for book recommendations on my Facebook status and I'm going to extend it to my blog as well because I really want some good books to read on our trip to Asia and also throughout the summer. The last book I read was "The Help" and I could not put it down. That is my kind of book! Any suggestions? I only have a week and a half to get them!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Out With the Old in With the New!

The semester is coming to a close and true to tradition, we had our closing social for the BYU Ballroom Dance Company tonight at Aspen Grove. It's always a fun event where we dress up, give out silly awards, eat great food and watch a slide show. I was caught off-guard when Curt (one of the directors) approached me and asked me to be the new Company president for 2011-2012. The fun thing is that my former dance partner, Caleb Merrell was the president this year so he can give me lots of pointers and help. At the end of the social we always take lots of fun pictures. I guess ballroom dancers love pictures of themselves when they are dressed up. Here we are!

 Me and the hubby
 The Bobbsey twins (nick named by Lee Wakefield)
 Some of our closest friends Trev and Liss. Jer is selling pest control with Trevor this summer!
 The Mictendo monkeys!
 Plus mario
 Love all these girls.
 Me and Amers.
Best partners for two years, old president and new, sure will miss you Caleb. :o(

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Dandy Girl

Here's a little taste of what I did for 4.5 hours today. I'm hooked. No pun intended ;o).

Apparently Jer likes them too. :o) I'm sending off my first shipment tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Flowers n' Frills

Well I've done it! I've opened an Etsy shop. It is still in the beginnings but I'm pretty excited and i'm having a lot of fun. You can check out my shop by going to:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Flowersnfrills

OR there is a little link on the top right side of my blog you can click on. :o) Enjoy!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Oh What a Beautiful Weekend!!!

We had an awesome weekend with my family!! I was so so so happy that they came to visit for a few days while my little sister was on her spring break. My sister Katie made a detailed blog post about a few of the things we did while they were here. Her blog is http://mshouston.blogspot.com. Conference was so spiritually nourishing to me. I felt like for the first time ever, I was able to really grasp at least something from each talk. Jer pointed out that this could be a result of my calling I have had this year as a Relief Society teacher. I have definitely been thinking in a different way for the past several months and it has really helped me grow spiritually. My mom and I worked a little on getting me back into crocheting because I really wanted to learn how to make those cute flowers people wear in their hair. Here are some of the things we came up with. I'm pretty excited about it to say the least.
 This was my first attempt while watching a video tutorial on Youtube. This one I gave to Anna and she had it pinned in her hair today. :o)

This is one I made for Katie. I like the two-toned look.
 After my family left I was kind of on fire wanting to learn more so I found another tutorial to make crocheted headbands. These are newborn headbands. I think they are just so cute. There is something about crocheted accessories that looks so vintage and cute.
 Love these colors together.
This was our girls night in project. I orchestrated the craft because I was really wanting to make one of these the second I saw my friend Alison's hanging in her house. She is my crafty inspiration. Her whole house is decorated with things she has made. One day I will be as good as her. :o)