Christmas: Part I

Yes, yes. I know it is February and I am just getting my Christmas pictures posted!  My bording school kids remind me alsmost daily that I have not kept up with the blog!  I could offer a thousand valid excuses, but who wants to hear them? ;) 

So I am going to break Christmas up in to 3 or 4 parts. In the three weeks we had with Marz and Ted during their Christmas break, along with my parents, it was non stop!

So to start off the late Christmas series blog post, we will start at the beginning (a very good place to start!) ;)

The Arrival to Tembagapura:

We, Gabby and Me, pick up Grandma, Grandpa, Marz and Ted in the lowlands and got the chopper up!! Yeah!!  That's always a good start!

Yeah we are all together!!  Let the fun begin!!

And so it did... With the first wrestling match between the brothers. I think they missed each other! ;)

And the first card game with the Grandparents!

Then of course all the sleeping... Teenagers and "old farts" alike. :)

There was a ton of other stuff I don't have pictures for... Like the tours of the open pit mine and the mines underground. All the pre Christmas parties we went to... Hot Stone dinner at the Lupe...  More card games... You name it, we were very busy those first few days with everyone in Tembagapura. 

Basketball - Teddy

If you want to look at another positive side to Marz having surgery and my spending two weeks in Penang, I got to watch a few practices and watch Ted play a few games of basketball. 

Ted's JV team is quite young. They have a few 9th graders but mostly 7th and 8th graders. So they are building and hopefully one day they become a great team!

So those were the crappy photos I took of Ted playing. 

Here are photos taken off the Dalat Athletics FB page of Teddy:

We're really not sure what Teddy was doing here...  Maybe he saw an ant on the floor and was going to try to save it! ;)

I believe the photographer for those last few photos was Jackie Steinkamp, to give her credit. 

So yeah, there is always a silver lining. I didn't think I would see Marz and Ted until the end of March.  I just spent two weeks with them!  I had a great time seeing in to their daily lives and hanging out with them. I am sure they are most grateful for all the yummy steak dinners they had!  

Silver lining... ;)

Surgery - Marz

Back when Marz was in 7th grade, her middle school took a trip to Bintan Island in Indonesia. While there, she bent to pick up a canoe, twisted and POP!  Something happened...  We never really knew the damage until 4 weeks ago when she re injured her knee at basketball practice. Her dorm mom took her to a very good orthopedic specialist in Penang. After an MRI the doctor found major damage to her femur and to a bit of her tibia. He was stumped as to what caused so much damag. He kept asking if she had ever fallen hard on her knee. No, we said. 

So I made arrangements to fly to Malaysia as we knew we could not put off surgery any longer. 

After a long day of waiting at the hospital, Marz finally went in (an hour late) and this what the doctor found...

They pulled 4 chunks of cartilage out of her knee. They all totaled about the size of a 50 cent piece. 

When the good doctor was in "looking" around he found that it was the patella cartilage, from the first injury, floating around doing the damage to the rest of her knee. 

The fix these days is to drill many spots on the affected bone area to regrow the cartilage. So he drilled in three spots to start the regeneration. 

She was still quite drugged! ;)

Marz is not allowed to put any pressure on her right leg for 4 to 6 weeks. She also can't bend it to walk with her crutches. It must hang straight. She is also doing physio therapy 3 days a week. Hopefully she beats the 9 month window for recovery! :)

On a positive note, I have been having lunch with Marz every day for the last 1 1/2 weeks!

Happy healing Marz!!  xoxo

Christmas Banquet - M & T

Wow, I am really behind!!

Marz and Ted had a Christmas banquet at school early December. Tradition was for the girls to ask the boys out, but I am not sure that is still going on. 

Here are the two, with their friends all dressed up. :)

Looks like they all had a bunch of fun! :)

Basketball - Marz and Ted

So it's been a while since I have posted anything. I don't even have a good excuse... 

Here are a bunch of pictures the kids have sent me. If you notice Teddy's team playing against a bunch of girls, it's because Marz's team doesn't have any competition around the island. So the varsity girls play the JV boys. ;)

(Sorry Teddy, I don't know where your team photo went...)

Goooooo Eagles!!!

Christmas Happenings

There has been a lot of Christmas going on here!  

We first started with the school's play "The Grinch". Because of visa issues for our music teacher, we had parents step up and produce a wonderful play for our kids. 

So I was a bad mom and didn't get the kids in costume...  Gabby was the mom and Gav was her son in the Who Family. 

Then of course no Christmas party is complete until Santa and Mrs. Clause show up!

Chris thought he would give Santa's lap a try... Pretty sure he was being a bad boy! ;)

Mrs. Clause came and gave me a snuggle during dinner. She is just the sweetest!

And then Mr. Clause got a little jealous. So he had to have his picture taken as well.

It was a great family night out at the Lupe!

On to the next party...

Gabby was asked to do the opening for the big Freeport Christmas celebration. 

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Well, this was a big post and I forgot to finish and upload.... So on to the next one!

International Travelers

Who would have thought?!?!  

I sometimes sit back and think to myself how life is so different from 5 years ago. If someone would have told me that I would be sending my two young teenagers off to boarding school, in another country, I would have told them they were nuts!  If they would have told me that I would let them fly internationally all by themselves, I would have told them they were certifiably INSANE!  

Well, maybe I am the one that is insane!  Here are Marz and Ted flying from SIN to PEN all on their own!  Eeks!!

Dad taking a picture of them, from a distance, while they are waiting to go through immigration. 

They are so grown up! :)

How do I get through this, you may ask...  Well, I pray A LOT! 

Prayers for their safety while traveling and peace for this momma! :)

xo 

PS. I all fairness, I have already let Marz fly from PEN to Bali on her own... But that was so last school year! ;)