We've arrived

We arrived in Singapore Sunday morning at about 12:30am and managed to get our heads on a pillow just before 3am. The kids couldn't have been better. Parrish colored, played with her ponyville, watched movies (Peter Pan about 3 times!) for our first 10 hr flight. Sabrina slept and was entertained with a wet wipe for awhile during the first leg. The wipe was a wash cloth, then a blanket, then a fan, and then something to throw around. She managed to sleep the entire 7 hr second flight on my lap. The crook in my neck was worth it.

We are supposed to be checking into our apartment today and there are many unknowns. We're not sure when we'll get broadband service or when our air shipment of belongings will arrive, but it has been really easy to get around Singapore and the kids are having a good time. I'm really glad Sabrina loves her stroller so much. This is a really easy city to visit. There are all the comforts you would find in the US, but you also have the choice to go to more local places for eating, which I can't wait to explore.

Getting to this point has been quite a challenge. The amount of work it took to pack up our household, separate things into what we're taking, what we're storing, and what goes on the plane with us was a huge challenge. We have been working on this move since February, and we still weren't ready when the packers showed up a week ago.

But for some reason, despite all our lack of sleep, lack of exercise and lack of wits, we have all managed to stay healthy and not get sick. I think this is somewhat of a miracle given all the illness that has been going around. I hope this doesn't mean things are going to be crashing down on us after we've settled in Singapore. A place where the warmth and humidity is a breeding ground for bacteria. I'm going to remain hopeful and positive!

Another little miracle is that despite our stress, our family hasn't taken any of it out on each other. We have all been very supportive. The girls have been amazing keeping themselves independently entertained during some really busy times. I even managed to stick pretty close to our house rule of only an hour of TV a day. Ok, sometimes it stretched to two. Hiring a nanny for a few days of move week was the best money spent! I'm really looking forward to getting into a routine that is more family centered.

Toaster oven quit, trash lid is broken....time to move......

I think our home knows we're moving. It's behaving badly. Here's a list of things we've been dealing with over the last few months.

• A complete shower remodel because tiles were falling off the wall due to mold - oh, didn't I mention this already in a previous post.......
  
• All the sudden a bunch of light bulbs are burning out
• Porch light quit working
• Dining chair started to fall apart
• Our hot tub in Bella Beach sprung a leak and shorted out the pump
• One of the burners on our gas oven wont light

But.........there's always a but.......

• Rob has a job
• The kids are healthy (and getting along)
• We've managed to plow through our food storage pretty well
  
• Lucy is healthy
• Mother's day was nice
• We'll be selling one of our cars tomorrow
• The other at the end of the month
  
• All the above has been fixed
  

Taking a break

So we just got back from a week in Hawaii and it was a much needed rest. We had such good family time on Oahu. The weather was great, the activities were mellow and we were lucky to have a spectacular view from our room. Here's a picture and some video of the kids goofing around before bedtime.

Singapore or bust....

Ok, we got the news straight from the top. We are moving to Singapore for sure. Depending on how long it takes Rob to get his Visa we are planning on moving mid-May.

So my brain is full of things we need to do to get the house ready to rent. We already renovated the master shower which had tiles falling off the walls. Need to replace a section of fence outside, pressure wash mold off shady side of house, replace a shorted outdoor light, patch sheet rock holes from renovations......ahhhhh! Add packing up the house, finding property management, selling our cars and taking time to say goodbye to friends and doing all this within a month. I should re-title this post as "drinking through a firehose".

But this is going to be fun. :) The work of preparation will be worth it compared to the adventure and cultural experience we have to look forward to. Please start planning your visit now. We will have an extra room in our apartment for guests that we hope doesn't stay empty.

Zai jian for now.

Housing found, schools narrowed, trip put on hold.......

Our week long house hunting, school hunting trip may be for not. Xerox is digging their heels, I'm sure economy has something to do with it, but we may not be going to Singapore. They strung us through a few glitches while we were over there, so it's not a surprise to get this news after we came home. Time will tell. I have prepared myself for this possibility and we still haven't canceled our June vacation! Just wish we could make plans and get on with whatever is in store.

The trip was hectic but fun. Found some great local eateries and open markets. Talk about warm climate! It's like living in Hawaii but warmer because it's less breezy. You just walk around and sweat. No moisturizer needed. Thank goodness for the afternoon thunderstorms to cool things down. What a great city.....so clean and easy to get around. You wont find any chewing gum, guns or rude people. But it's expensive. Wow. Would love to rent my house out for what prices are in Sing dollars.

Having the girls go to school there would be a dream! To get a global perspective and quality education that is offered in the international schools would be fantastic. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

I'm in a good mood so I'll only vent this one thing. The glitches Xerox has been putting us through is pretty ridiculous especially since this whole process started in early February. You would think they would have had things figured out before sending us over there to look for housing. The faucet has been turned on and off several times in the last week. If we don't go, we're wondering what Rob's job will be???? He already has a replacement!@!

More later......

Mandarin anyone?

Does anyone know anything about Rosetta Stone software for teaching foreign languages? Rob and I are going to take some Mandarin while living in Singapore and wanted to know if this "as seen on TV" kind of product was worth a try.

I'm leaving for Singapore this Friday to join Rob on a house and school hunting trip. This is our 3rd week without Rob and we are ready to have him around the house again. He's been busy this week setting up appointments with schools and securing a car for us for when we move over, perhaps in May.

Parrish seems to be embracing the idea of moving to a foreign country. She is talking about this more and more with her school friends and teachers. Her excitement just might be because I told her there were a lot of swimming pools in Singapore. :)

Things are really moving along and we're getting pretty anxious about the move. We still have a lot of issues to work out with relocation and schooling. Hopefully everything will work out over the next month so we can enjoy our vacation to Hawaii at the end of April. Ahhhhhh........

February?

Where did January go? Usually January is the slow down, catch up time of the year. How did I miss it? I think I might have a clue......

Big news. We're moving! We're going over to live in Singapore for a year and a half starting sometime this Spring......probably May. We're very excited and anxious at the same time. Right about the time we heard this news we had completely demolished our master bath shower. This started one day when Rob went to put something on the soap dispenser and it fell off! We discovered the tile in the shower was glued to drywall and plastic sheeting. Thank goodness no dry rot discovered yet, but what a headache.

For about 10 years Rob and I have tried to think of ways where we could do some expatriate work in some foreign country. Rob has put his name in a hat a few times at work when the possibility came up. Although nothing came of it at the time, some managers remembered this so when the opportunity for going over to Maylasia/Singapore came up, they thought of him first. There is also a big possibility there is contract work for me if I want it. We'll see.

We we're off to Singapore in March for a school and house hunting trip. Rob will be gone the entire month of March and I will join him for the last week. We have very little time to prepare, but we are getting things done. We'll be renting out our house while we're away and will soon be looking to sell a car. Lucy is going to stay with my sister and we know she'll be in great care.

More later.....I need to go pick up Parrish!