Montana Furlough

What a summer!  What a whirlwind!  We had a blast!!  Highlights include:

• Amy's family all together for the first time in 4 years
• Rietema Roundup 2010 -- Family Reunion
• Playing with cousins
• Connecting with Friends & Supporters
• Games
• Four-wheeling
• Swimming in Flathead Lake
• Barbecues
• Camping
• Garage-saling
• Glacier Park
• Fair

A few photos:

Returned from Down Under

We are back in Taiwan!

We had a great time with family, were able to catch up with friends, & had a nice restful break while in Australia for 6 weeks. :-D

Our kids are going to go through dessert withdrawals, Michael & I might go through tea withdrawals ;-), and though we will definitely miss everyone, it will be good to get back into the swing of things here too.  Thanks to family & friends for a great time Down Under!

Photo highlights here!

Culture Shock?

We have arrived in the land of Oz!

We haven't been out of Taiwan for 3 years, so the first couple hours in Australia, Michael & I both realized we were having a bit of culture shock, or something... lots of things so normal once, but now so different... it felt a little weird as everything hit us all at once:

• being able to read ALL the street signs, shop signs, window adverts, etc. -- everything was in English.
• Brown and blond-haired people all over the place.
• Driving down the street -- we kept checking the side mirrors whenever we turned -- but no motorbikes ever tried to whiz around us.
• No motorbikes! (Well, a rather rare sight, anyway)
  
• Driving to Clare -- traveling at 100 k's felt so fast. And switching the lights from dim to bright... (In Taiwan, you never have a long enough stretch without oncoming traffic to ever get to turn your brights on)
• Footpaths (i.e. sidewalks :))
  
• Variety of cuisine -- I couldn't wait to find a Yiros shop!
• Car seats for 3 of the kids -- (and following the car seat rules strictly)
  
• ...plus several more that escape me right now...

It's definitely good to be back & we're looking forward to lots of fun with family & a good rest/break. :-)

Countdown & Carry-ons

The countdown is on! Only 3 more weeks today before we take off on furlough to Australia! There is definitely excitement in the air! Nathan walks around the house multiple times throughout the day, pointing his finger towards the sky and looking up, saying in a 2-yr-old way, "Big aih-pane! Big aih-pane! Sky! Go Ah-seh-yah!" Yes, Nathan! We are all going to Australia! :-)

Elise & Kenna both packed their carry-ons several days ago, and Kenna has been sleeping with hers on her bed! Last night, she had special permission to sleep in Anaya and Nathan's room on the floor, and she wheeled it in there with her, put her feet up on, and laid down! :P (in photo: Elise & Kenna both asleep on Kenna's bed)

Honestly, we are looking forward to this upcoming six-week break... It has been quite the season for us recently... Absolutely non-stop since... wow, I don't know how many months... I'm counting... back, back, back...!

This past month, I (Amy) taught Psalms in SBS, re-did the Titus website (starting from scratch, and I'm a total newbie so have to learn everything as I go!), plus went to Germany for a week (leading 2 days of Titus meetings and attending 3 days of SBS world-wide consultation). Since I can't really work on teachings or Titus stuff during the day much, my "work time" starts at about 10:00 at night, after the rest of the house has (hopefully!) gone to sleep. So, for about a month, my normal bed time was 2:00 am. I did pay for that later, getting rather sick in Germany, and according to what the doctor I saw the morning after arriving back in Taiwan entered into his computer, suffered "acute bronchitis". But, he said, "Don't worry -- at least it's not pneumonia, just a common cold!" :-)

Michael has just finished teaching 1 Corinthians in the SBS, and now we are trying to catch up on the house, organizing, etc.

So, we'll all keep at it: SBS staff, grading (Michael), some Titus stuff (Amy), house (Amy with Michael & girls help :-)), school (Elise & Kenna) and making messes for the rest to clean up (Nathan!) and then, Australia, here we come!!