Yellow Noon Mommies

Paisley is in "little kindergarten" this year and she is in the Yellow Noon class.  Because of this, I am part of a group called the Yellow Noon Mommies.  Indonesia has a tradition of women's gatherings called an arisan.  It started as a way for women to get together and lend/borrow money.  At monthly meetings, each woman brings a set amount of money and one lady gets to take it all home with her.  As it ends up, you give and receive the same amount each year, so I guess there's really no point in it.  But, for one month, you feel like you hit the jackpot.  These days, the money tradition still continues, but most people use the arisan as just a time to get together and enjoy being with friends.  Our Yellow Noon Mommies arisan started a couple of weeks ago when one mom invited the whole class over for a pool party.  The following week, another mom had a birthday and invited us all to celebrate with her.

 Another tradition I got to be a part of at this party involves food!  We placed a line of banana leaves on the floor, piled rice on it, and then surrounded it with other traditional Indonesian foods.  All the moms sat around and ate.  So fun!

 At the end of the party, all of the moms had to get together to take pictures.  It was a little embarrassing when the moms all decided we should take a picture with everyone looking at me!

 These are some pictures of the birthday lunch.

This past week, the teachers had a workday on Tuesday, so the moms got together and decided to take the kids to Pizza Hut for a cooking class.  These are the words I heard to describe the day . . . nightmare, chaos, disaster.  Yep, that's what it was!  The kids were just running around the restaurant (while other customers were trying to eat), yelling and blowing up balloons.  Most of the moms were just sitting in a room off to the side.  Oh, it was loud and crazy!  Then, they took 6 kids at a time back to the kitchen and let them put toppings on a pizza.  It took about 5 minutes and they were done.  Back to running around and screaming.  

The day before the "cooking class," the moms sent a message around about the dress code.  Now, not a dress code as in what we are allowed to wear, but what we should wear to match.  So, I thought we were supposed to wear a polo and jeans.  That's what the message said, anyway.  Well, I don't own a polo and had to go buy one.  When the kids and I show up, NO ONE else is wearing a polo.  Oh goodness!

 This is the mom who won the money at this meeting.

 

The things we see

There's not too much on here today, just a couple of pictures and a funny story.

I saw this bottle on the counter in the bathroom at the hotel where our church meets.  At the time I took the picture, I didn't realize we were having communion.

 

So, sate (satay) is a great meal that we love.  It's basically a grilled chicken kabob with peanut sauce.  It's really tasty.  However, this was NOT tasty!  Actually, I didn't eat it, maybe it was tasty, but it's chicken intestines!!!

Any takers?

Funny story . . . 

The other day, Paisley wanted some water, but our water dispenser bottle was out of water.  I told her that she had to go upstairs to get some water from the dispenser up there.  She wasn't thrilled about having to go all the way upstairs to get water.  I told her that we go to America, she will be able to drink water right out of the sink.  Oh, she was so excited!!!  When she told Truett later, he was excited because he realized that meant he could get a cup off the drying rack and use it even if it had water droplets left in it.  Since we use sink water to wash dishes, we don't drink from the cups if they aren't completely dry.  So, if that wasn't exciting enough, I told Tru about the miraculous box in the kitchen that has drawers in it where you put dirty dishes, close the door, and the dishes get magically clean!  Woah!!!

Pacitan (Pah-chee-tahn)

It seems like our family goes to the beach often.  Well, we do live on an island and there are plenty of beaches close by and, well, our kids love the beach!  This past weekend, we took a group of about 30 young adults for a beach retreat a few hours away.  We piled in two big vans and headed off at 7:00 on Saturday morning.  We got there in time for lunch from a little hut on the shore and in perfect time for the tide to be in and the clouds to cover the sun.  It was wonderful!  Perfect weather, perfect water temperature, and a great group of friends.  Our accommodations were pretty typical for this part of the world.  There was a traditional wooden house/building with some walls built from unfinished drywall, not even all the way to the ceilings.  There was one main room with four rooms off to the side.  Each had mattresses on the floor that could be easily moved from room to room, depending on how many people were staying in the room.  No decorations, no side tables, no lamps, but perhaps a fan.  There were two bathrooms, each with a squatty potty and a bucket of cold water to shower with.  We actually had more people than could stay in just that place, so we had to get another one down the road.  We stayed in the other place with our family since the kids go to bed earlier than university students and wake up earlier than university students.  Oh, and there was a/c in our room, too.  Maybe that's the real reason we stayed there!!  

So, there aren't many pictures of our family, but lot of our friends.  Please meet the people that we spend so much time with here.  There are some fun stories about each of these people.  We are so glad they are in our lives!

Here is our lunch on the beach.

Dinner was an adventure.  We drove about an hour and a half.  After we all ordered and got our food, we were still waiting for Truett's food. From the time we ordered his spaghetti until they brought it out, almost two hours had passed?  WHAT??  Spaghetti???

 It was such a long night that this little one fell asleep.

Lunch on the way home.

 And at the beach . . .

Outside our room, some sellers came buy with fish.  The kids were so interested in watching them weigh the fish.

 And this is the group.