Happy New Year!

We're back!  It's been a month already since we left for our trip to the states, yet it really doesn't seem that long ago.  It has been a great month and, by the way, Happy New Year!


So, for everyone reading my blog for the first time I start with an apology!  I usually try to have my blog be fun and thought provoking, but today I just needed a place to vent!  I don't want to be the type of person that I always complaining to my "new" friends, so I decided to put out my frustrations here.  Oh well, again sorry.


First, let me start by saying that our trip to the states was great!  When we first got there it was cold and I loved it.  Hard to believe since I am the coldest person you will ever know.  Even here in Singapore I am wrapped up in a blanket when I watch TV.  The cool air was sooo refreshing.  It was so much fun wearing my boots and wool socks.  I just loved it!  It was also great seeing all of our friends and family.  That first week I realized how much I missed everything.  Conveniences, conveniences, conveniences!  I enjoyed my Target trips, Chick-fil-a, Taco Bell, dishwasher and just driving a car.  I almost got a little depressed thinking about the fact that it was so great to be back.  Singapore and the US just don't even compare!


The second week was all about seeing family.  We did our usual 6 hour drive to GA; remembering how long that drive can be.  Not to mention sitting in one place for that long after flying for 24 hours the week before wasn't easy.  My back was begging me to stop!  We had a great time visiting the hubby's family.  It was so nice having everyone around us.  Then it was 6 hours back to NC.  


By the 3rd week we were tired!  Driving and seeing everyone was becoming exhausting!  By that last week I was craving to be back home in Singapore.  Here we don't know many people and a lot of our time is spent just hanging out.  Since we don't have a regular sitter we don't do much as far as "going out".  I was amazed that I just wanted to get back and be back in "MY" life here.  


I think I am at a crossroads of really making Singapore my home.  I was just thinking the other day that maybe it is best to flexible and relish in the things that you have that aren't tied to where you are, but what makes things feel like home.  So this year will be about doing what I love to do.  Yes, there will be travel and new and exciting things, but with that there will be sewing projects and time together.  This year I am going to make bread!  Last year I had a bread maker, but this year I am going to do it all by myself!  For some reason it seems so intimidating to me, but I know it isn't that hard.  I have such wonderful memories of my Mom making bread every week.  I loved to watch her and be a part of it.  Those days are gone to most, but I really want that for myself and for E.  So, put that on my list of new years resolutions.  I also want to get back in shape.  If my painful back will cooperate, I think I can actually do this.  Might take me all year, but I will get there!


So, it is good to be back, but it is still hard some days.  Today is one of those days.  It is E's first day back to school (which you would think would be great).  I started the day with laundry.  E even said it was time as her laundry hamper was full.  So, I got started.  Remember, it takes several hours to do one load of laundry here.  I got the first load in and all went well till I put the machine on dry.  I must have missed something because before I knew it; it was washing that load all over again!  I caught it before it went too far.  Oh well, now laundry will take 3 days instead of 2.  I also began following up on all of our medical claims here.  Since we have been here E has had tons on asthma episodes.  She has been sick pretty much the entire time we have been here.  Yesterday the hubby brought home the rejection letters on our international insurance.  The max had been met on E's medication allowance.  We had only been here for 4 months!  Lord, what will the next year look like.  Thank God we kept our US insurance!  We will be carting back a bunch of meds with us from the US this summer.  With how the day was going, I decided that I would book a massage using a Groupon I had recently purchased.  Since the places here don't open until 11am or later I realized that I would never get to use it unless it was a weekend and the hubby was home or I got a sitter at $15+ an hour.  Oh well, yet another thing to work out.  Lastly, the hubby just left for Hong Kong today.  Then it is on to Bangkok and then London.  Another week and 1/2 as a single Mom.  Now I really need that massage!


Ok, I should feel lucky that we are all healthy and are having such an amazing opportunity, but I guess we all have days where nothing seems to be going right.  After writing it all down my frustrations seem petty and small.  I guess "life is just like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get."


Happy New Year everyone!  And if this is the first time you have read; please come back!  It really helps to know all of you are out there reading.  And feel free to comment!
Miss you all!

James 1:2-4
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.