Good Morning Hong Kong!

We made it to Hong Kong!  It is 8:00am on November 3rd and we just survived about 17 hours worth of flying so far. 

We had a very nice flight to Los Angeles where I had lovely conversations with a kind Australian man who had great insight into world traveling and had some amazing tips for traveling in Thailand.  His name was Jack and he travels all over the world for business.  Although it sounds glamorous to me, Jack has similar feelings as myself that...you get over it really quickly, especially when you are gone more than you are home.  So here's to you Jack...safe travels getting back to Sydney and your family and thanks for the tips!
                                              View of LA

                                             Flight 1 of 4 for today

The 15 hour flight to Hong Kong was easier for me than it was for poor Natedogg.  After we walked through 1st class and Business Class to get to our ghetto seats on our plane, we sure wished we were rich and could have afforded those nice pods in 1st class.  They have quite a sense of humor over there at Cathay Pacific.  Natedogg was pretty much needing about 15 more inches of room for his legs.  He didn't sleep much and therefore is delirious and slap happy.  Geez - I thought he was just appreciating how much being married to me was awesome!  :-)

The mountains are super close to the airport.  They look magnificent...even thought it's super foggy.

                                            

We are now chilling in the Hong Kong airport drinking some pretty strong coffee. 

It took me 5 minutes to figure out how to change Yahoo back to English.

And now we are off to Bangkok...
We'll holler when we arrive there.
Love,
Shorty & Natedogg

Thailand

I've been a total loser and haven't blogged in forever...I know!  But for those of you who are not on Facebook and would like to follow our travels to Thailand, this is the place to be.

We leave November 1st and I can't tell you how excited we are!

So stay tuned...

Have you ever felt like your heart could just burst with too much love?

Tonight I am overwhelmed with so much emotion...I feel like my heart could just burst open. Tonight was Isa's first band concert, she plays the trombone, and I didn't think I could love anything or be as proud of anyone/thing as I was of her tonight. She is so beautiful and so talented and just such a great kid which is a testament to her parents and their love for her and how they are raising her. I looked at her through a camera lens and saw a collage of her short but sweet life and how much she has changed mine. She has the best parts of both of her parents! :-) I am truly so blessed to be her aunt.

Tonight, my heart felt a contentment and a peace that I have not felt in so long I didn't think the feeling would ever come back. My family, and our wonderful "better halves" all gathered together, happy and watching this child who has us all wrapped around her finger. I looked at my father and said "Thank you" to the Lord for him...for his renewed presence in our lives. For how Isabel has Shawnda's smile which is just like his. How magnificent to see these traits in each one of them. I looked at our new friend Sandy and am profoundly grateful for her sharing her time with us to come to a band concert and eat ice cream with us. I looked at my sister and see what a beautiful, strong woman she has become. I see wisdom and a spirit in her that inspires laughing and joy. I look at my brother in law and see in his eyes the love of a father. His face shines so bright when he is near her. It has been such a treat to see him teach her to throw a football. I am constantly amazed and humbled by how much he gives and gives and gives. I look at my best friend, Nate and I am brought to my knees with gratefullness for him and his love for me. His heart and his capacity for thoughtfullness is inspiring to me. I finally found someone who values family as much as I do...it's awesome!

I also had the opportunity to babysit my friend Melanie's child, Adison, tonight and I brought him with me to the band concert. For so long, I felt that I did not have anyone in my life to rely on for help so I just became accustomed to doing everything by myself or for myself, and tonight, I saw my sister, my dad, Sandy, Nate and Javier help me with this child because my arm hurt. I didn't even have to ask...I really can't express in words how this very simple act brought such a warmth to my heart. Here is where God has to help me...to accept the help and not feel guilty. I think sometimes...if I can't do it all myself, then I am less or not enough.

This amazing child brings us all together and allows me to be a part of something so wonderful.

I guess I've put enought mushiness out there. I am grateful and amazed.

NateandIsaPalooza! Party #2

Nate and Isa's birthday are 2 days apart so we had all the families over for another birthday celebration. We had a ton of fun! We had all of Nate's family and our family AND we had 2 special guests, my cousin Michelle and her friend Cristil.
We took over the 3 Margaritas restaurant for some fine Mexican food. The didn't know what to do with us...our poor waiter Javier was excited that our Javier could speak Spanish to him. It was super cute.

The birthday kids!

Natedogg and Isa

After dinner we came back to the house for presents and to play some cards.
Isabel was about to get the surprise of her life. We made her put on a blind fold. Tee hee.

And here comes the surprise...wait for it....

Her very own Razor (which is like a smaller persons version of the Vespa...super cute). I think she liked it. :-)
Natedogg got lots of cool clothes, lots of Broncos gear and we got him the tint for the windows on our new Toyota.

Isn't he handsome with his new blue shirt?

Oh my - another fantastic submission to The Funny Face project!
Natedogg and our nephew Jason. Jason looks a bit aprehensive, doesn't he?
He's wondering why he didn't get any presents.

Javier is proud of all the hard work that went into putting the Razor together...notice who is in fact doing the work at the bottom of the picture! :-) Jason gets his turn to ride the Razor. That's kind of a scary look on his face. We may not want to let him ride motorcycles in real life. Ha Ha!

The puppies were feeling extremely left out. Louis begged Grandpa to let him ride the Razor. So he got the first ride. He's in heaven...such an adventerous puppy! Notice that Jada is now feeling very jealous.

So now it's her turn to have a ride with Grandpa!

Isa got her customized plates "IsaRks"

(that's Isa Rocks for those of you who have a hard time with customized plates, like say...Gudgi)

Just playin' Dad.

And finally...the birthday boy could not resist taking a ride on the Razor.

He look like he's ready for a road trip.

Ever the generous young lady, she gave everyone else a turn on her present and it was finally her turn to hop on. She could not wait for that thing to charge so she could take it outside.

Dad and my cousin Michelle. We were so excited to have her and her friend Cristil with us for the week-end.Dad, Michelle and Cristil

2 very pretty ladies - Isa and Shawnda

Everyone wants a picture with the Princess!

Michelle and Isa

The Princess and her Daddy

Me and the baby. I am so stinkin' blessed it's sick!

Nate's parents, Big Dogg and Sharon with Jason

Most of Nate's family - Nate, Big Dogg, Jason, Sharon and his sister Emily.

We really are so grateful that we live so close to our families...and that Michelle and Cristil came for a visit. We love you guys!

Isa is 11 years old - Does anyone know how to make a kid stop growing? I need to know ASAP!

My little baby turned 11 years old on September 18th. I took a ditch day from work and went to her school to surpise her and take her out for her birthday. Turns out she was having Field Day AND she had made donut holes for her class...so I kind of felt bad that I was taking her out of school. But we hung out for a bit at her school and I got to meet her teacher and see her new classroom and her pod mates. Then she was able to pass out her donut holes and we were on our way. We went to JumpStreet to do some jumping on the trampolines. It was soooo much fun but let me tell you...it gives you quite a work out.

Here is the squirt getting ready to go in. She isn't excited at all...can you tell?!?! We went there in the middle of the day - so there were hardly any people in there. This little kid came and started playing with us. At first - he seemed harmless, like any 6 year old would...then he decided it would be HILARIOUS to start pegging me with those seemingly soft balls. It turns out, while lying helpless with no protection in sight, that getting pegged repeatedely with those balls actually kind of hurts. I know...I sound a bit like a wimp...but look at that smug look on his little devil face. And Isabel was not doing much to help me...unless you count falling over backwards laughin at me...as help.

Here are the little monkeys climbing all over the trampolines on the wall.

You see now why I must make her stop growing. She is so beautiful and growing up waaaayyyy too fast!

This place is an entire warehouse full of trampolines both on the floor and the walls. It was so fun pretending like I was young again. I was actually able to do my front flips and walkovers...not so much on my back flips. I was scared I was going to land on my head and paralyze myself. The front flips alone were hilarious. I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Isabel on the other hand was amazing. She has so much energy!

Nice face!

Hour 2 of jumping. She's still jumping.

Don't you just want to squeeze all the cuteness out of her?

One of the main reasons I smile everyday. I thank God for bringing this blessing into my life.

Happy 11th Birthday baby girl. I love you soooo much!

I really like the birthday letters that Rhonda and Jen have been writing on birthdays, but I still need to upload some pictures...so maybe I'll get around to that soon. In the mean-time read theirs. They are amazing!

I haven't given up...

On my blog...I have become a foster parent! A dog foster parent! I got my first foster dog last week and boy has my life become EXTREMELY busy! I haven't had a chance to blog at all because my first foster dog is a 12 week old red heeler/beagle mix. He was abandoned and abused so the first few days were a big challenge. I named him Max and he sure has come a long way in a short 5 days. We still have a long way to go but seeing the progress in him has made me feel so good. So...anyway...I know I've been slacking on my gratefuls (and I have so much to be grateful for) and I haven't posted anything on all the stuff that has been going on lately...I'm hoping to get that done sometime this week! More details to come...

Happy Birthday Isabel - I love you up to the sky...and HIGHER!

Sssshhhh...don't tell a soul - but I took a ditch day from work today and I'm going to go pick up Isabel from school early today for her birthday. She doesn't know...so I hope she's surpised!
...more detail later!