Dada is home!!!

We’ve spent the past 18 months living apart from each other…hard times…tough on all of us in every way…but now, Jimmy is back in Phnom Penh and has been here for almost 2 weeks…it has been WONDERFUL!  We have been running a few times together, don’t know how many “date nights” we’ve had, taken the kids to do fun things and even had our morning Sunday run (8 miles, thank you) with a stop for coffee, a snack and the paper…we haven’t done that in over 4 years!!  It’s good…REAL good…to have Jimmy back home.  I have missed you…your laugh, your OCD, your drum playing, your air guitar jamming, your singing voice, your morning hugs, rubbing one foot and then you passing over the other “because it’s not fair to that foot”, your chasing around Zachary, cooking good food for you, sharing beers & tasting wines, laughing about dumb things and just plain old waking up next to you.  We ALL love you and appreciate you…you work hard, make so many sacrifices and all because of us…Thank you Dada!

a photo of me taken by my budding photographer…ZJK

Making a tent in Big Brother Z’s room…one of these days, Zachary will join a picture again…he has a mind of his own these days…not sure where he got that from…hmmmmmm???

Our most handsome wonderful dada!!!

Almost there…

Trevor took a bit to get off the ground and get the crawling down…but he knows what he’s doing…Brandon has crashed quite a few times because he didn’t have the coordination to stop himself!…Trevor didn’t crawl for almost a month after Brandon…but Trevor rarely crashes!!!  Now he’s doing this…things are going to be crazy here VERY soon!

…as you can see, he is THRILLED with himself!!! (so is mama!)

Z

Somebody can write his name…and let’s just say it starts with a Z…Mama is finding these all over the walls & floors!!

Sort of reminds me of a story about my brother Carl…he had learned to write his name and was writing it all over the floor in dad & mom’s new room before the carpet was installed…when they asked who was writing on everything, we all said, “Not me. Not me. Not me.”…to which we were told, “Whoever is drawing on the floor should quit writing his name!”…

An evening for me!

I’ll be the first to admit…taking time out just for me…me with a friend…me with Jim is hard.  I like putting my babes to bed every night…I love their clean little peaches and good night kisses…but every so often, this mama needs to take advantage and have a mojito at 4 in the afternoon with a girlfriend and THEN meet her hubby for some wine & food…yes, I left my babes at 4 yesterday, met my mama friend Arminda at Le Raffles, ate some yummy food, visited and met her hubby…THOROUGHLY enjoyed my time at the Elephant Bar there…listened to some piano music and felt like I was in the good ol’ US of A!!!

Me and Arminda…tried to get a picture together…let’s just say it didn’t work out!

…then I tuktuk’d off to my next destination…Metro with Jimmy!  Found out our wine is 35% off during happy hour…BONUS!…got to visit, enjoy their HOT chips and head off on a moto down the street…

Our moto had no foot pegs…so we rode together holding our feet off the ground…good thing it was only a couple of blocks!  We finished our night at Pacharan (if you are in PP, you should check it out there on Tuesdays!!  Yummy Tapas, Passion Fruit Sangrias at $12 a LARGE Pitcher and PERFECT music!~)…and let’s not forget…DIEGO makes THE BEST mojitos in town on special for $2.50 each!!!…We were finished and home by 10:00 pm…now THAT’S my kind of night!!!  (you know I’m not a night owl!)

---

…and here are us girls (and Diego…smile Kim!!!) on Pacharan’s First Loco Tuesday…

More fun times…

We are always looking for things to do here…the weather is not hotter than where we come from, but whoever said that the “dry heat” is not as hot is DAMN right!  We all sweat like men around here…”we” meaning this mama and my 3 boys.  When we are in our minimal amount of clothes, beads of sweat on our brows, clothes stuck to our backs, hair drenched not only at the neck but ALL over our head; our nannies are wearing jeans, a long sleeved shirt AND a sweatshirt.  I don’t get it…I guess my “Alaskan Genes” are having a hard time “evolving” into a tropical girl (although I’m pretty sure there would be no problem if this said new tropical lifestyle were in Hawaii!  )

We decided to try one of our new favorites the other day, but it’s not open during the day…so we drove to another favorite…not open…and another favorite to feed the birds on the river…we couldn’t because it was some holiday/festival…so we ended up across the road from Sambo the Elephant and played in the VERY empty park.  We found some shade, ate some mangos and crackers, and 15 minutes later, packed everything up and headed back home!  Hey, at least we got out!

Later in the day, the boys were playing with my “girlie” drawer and found these…

…and then we headed to the Gasolina for a concert with Mr. Andy.  All of Zach’s school friends were there, we sat on the grass under a tree, had a light breeze, sipped a mojito and let the kiddos run around!…on the way home, Brandon figured out a new trick:

I am in love with these boys…I really cannot get enough of them!

The Perfect Little Restaurant…almost

So I’ve seen this darling little Italian Restaurant I have been wanting to try since January.  I don’t know street names (for the most part) over here, so trying to explain to someone who doesn’t speak the same language how to take me to this restaurant at night just hasn’t appealed to me…well, Wednesday, I took my boys and myself to the Dr. and realized we were all hungry and decided we would try that restaurant that day:

It has a pool in its quaint little courtyard, open air, lovely little paintings AND a place to sit on cushions on the floor so the wee ones could enjoy themselves (there are no highchairs in restaurants here).  Jackpot!~  Zachary happened to have his swim trunks with him because it was swim day at school, he jumped right in while I enjoyed a cappucino and my boys and ordered our wood fired pizzas!  We enjoying our fabulous little lunch date together…took some pictures:

TELL ME…HOW PERFECT DOES THIS PLACE LOOK!?

We loved the food, chatted with each other, watched Zach swim and let the twins dip their toes!  It was THE perfect restaurant, until Zach ran out of the pool and yelled, “Mama!  I saw a BIG RAT!”…What?  Then Khamary says, “Oh, yeah, I saw it over there too, behind the flowers.”…WHAT?  Mama looks and sees a little dude scurrying about his business behind the bougainvillea.  We did not pack up and RUN out of that restaurant (although I wanted to)…but here is what followed:

• I thought to myself, “I have not seen a lot of rats here, but I am usually out during the day.”
• We called the the waiter over…at Zach’s request…to tell her about the rat.  She said, “Oh, yeah.  There’s one that lives over there.  He went back home.”
• Zachary did not want to get back in the little pool…although if you look at the picture, you can see the bougainvillea in the VERY back…that is where the rat was.

• Zachary & I had a discussion about rats.  About how they do not like water, blah blah blah.  To which Zachary says to me, “Mama.  Do you see sidewalks around that pool?”  Me, “Ummm, no?.”  Zachary, “Right.  There are no sidewalks, which mean that rat has to SWIM in the pool to get back to his home.  I do not want to go in the big pool!”  (Pretty good thinking on this 3 year olds part!)

So, I’m sure you all have the heebie jeebies…(because I sure as hell did)…and although I loved my food, I’m not sure I could go back.

I tried explaining to the nannies that in the US if someone saw a rat like that…the place would be SHUT DOWN. LOCKED OUT. CONDEMNED.  They just smile and laugh at me…(I mean, we are talking about a girl who told me that in her old house rats were running across her at night in her bed.  She didn’t mind the big “mouses”…but the “baby mouses” who were all pink scared her…and she had an expensive rent of $50 per month…of course, this is when I said, “WHAT?  Just move into our back room!!!”…which is how Leak & To came to live with us when she only worked 2 days per week for us!…)  I have seen a lot here…experienced a lot…seen a lot of determination. 

I mean…I guess if the rat is only hanging out by the pool…maybe the kitchen is safe?!  (Let’s hope…)

Just can’t get enough…

These boys make me smile…I have THE cutest little boys in the world.  Just ask me, I’ll tell you!

Nap time…RIGHT!

Something you shouldn’t hear at a restaurant…

We were at a lovely little restaurant, enjoying pizza & antipasta, cappucinos & bubbly water with Zachary swimming in their courtyard pool…and Zachary runs up to me and yells this: