Early this month the ball really started rolling for our move to Singapore. It was all a lot of hurry up and wait until the trigger was pulled then it was time to move very fast. There is a lot of emotions going on for the whole family but I think that it is just going so fast it is hard to keep up with it all. When Mike first told us about the move we were excited but probably more nervous about what the next move would look like for us. The boys seemed to be very exited about it...at first, which was good. We didn't actually spend a lot of time talking about the move initially because even we didn't have any idea what it would look like or when it would happen. We had an idea that it would happen quickly but how quickly we were not sure.
Lino - this month must be really tough on you and we are just not able to understand it. We have had a lot of ups and downs with your mood and while most of it is normal some of it is just out of the blue. At school it seems like you are getting into a lot of fights with the kids we thought were your friends like Nedis and Paddy. There have been a lot of notes coming home from school over the last month which is way more than the past few months. This can't be easy for you and with both of us distracted with the details of the move it doesn't leave a lot of time to talk to you about it. This is something that we both have started to pay a lot more attention to and we have made more of an effort to sit down and talk about it with you. I think it is helping but there is still something there. When daddy talked about the move with you the other day you got really sad. We didn't realize how sad until I talked to you and you went to your room crying!!! Of course I didn't let you just go and cry yourself to sleep so we had a nice long talk about it. Come to find out you are really going to miss your friends and I figured that would be an issue. Your close friends that you will miss the most (you told me) were Donovan (you very best friend in the whole world of all time), Paddy, Cathal, Jamie V, Killian and Hami. You told me how much you were going to miss them and asked why daddy couldn't just go to Singapore without us. I told you that he could but then we wouldn't see him very much because it was a long ways away. That didn't seem to bother you much but after a few minutes you agreed that that wouldn't be good either. So we talked for a while about what we could do to make it better...we talked about writing a letter to your friends which you were not interested in, or talking to them with video calls which was a possibility then I suggested a sleep over or a afternoon play date and that seemed to win! So we decided to make a plan to invite your best friends over for one last play before you left. This must have been a satisfactory decision because you were able to go to sleep after that...but boy did it break my heart when you were crying. Mike and I talked about this for a long time after and we were very worried that we would be causing more pain for you than good by moving. But we also knew that we wouldn't be staying in Ireland anyway so one way or another we would be leaving. It is such a hard thing to consider because it is not easy to say goodbye to your friends but it is also not easy to have the chance to live in another country like we are doing now and will do next. Daddy is not convinced that the benefits out way the drawbacks but I don't agree. I know it is hard but I also know that it makes you a stronger person and the world will be a lot tougher when you are older and you will need to be stronger than we were in order to be successful. Right now you are such a friendly and outgoing kid I couldn't see you lasting more than a few weeks in Singapore before you make friends...it will probably be less than that! Even still, we can't forget how hard the move will be so we will have to make sure to do something with your friends so that you can have some sort of closure with them...
In the last 2 weeks I think you have started to come around to the idea of moving. We went for a quick visit to Singapore so that I could see what the place was all about. Daddy showed you some pictures of the different apartments and you got pretty excited. I am super nervous about these apartments!!!! The tallest building that I have lived in was a 3 story apartment complex! We looked at a place that was 33 floors!!! That wasn't even the worst part about it, the windows do not have any sort of child locks on them so the whole time we are looking at this apartment I was thinking about my boys opening a window and falling to their death! I know this is not very likely or else they would have some law for the windows but I just can't help but think it. So while this is very exciting to you I am shaking in my boots thinking about it. So we have a very serious conversation about not ever opening these windows because the ground is so far down that you will not survive that fall. I even go so far to say that I don't think we can live in one of those places because I don't think you or Shaun will not open the windows. This didn't seem to bother you too much until daddy showed you the pictures of the pool at the apartment and then you were promising me left and right that you would NEVER open those windows. hahaha While I like the enthusiasm I still don't trust you so I am going to have to find a middle ground somewhere. The good news is that you are starting to get excited about the move and don't seem to sad to leave your friends because it is going to be so much warmer, we will probably live in an apartment that has a pool and we will be riding the trains/bus every day. It is such a simple thing but it makes you so happy.
Last week we had a parent teacher meeting with Ms O'Driscol and it was as we expected. You are such the life of the class and such the center of attention that it gets you into a lot of trouble. You really enjoy to read and want to read all the time...especially when it is not time to read!! She also told us about your lack of focus when it is time to do work which we know about but can't decide if it is lack of interest due to the work being to hard or not challenging enough. Daddy is convinced that it isn't tough enough which he is probably right but I also know that if you get work that is to hard you won't do it either...it is such a hard balance. Overall, you seem to be pretty average which is great! You get into trouble a lot but it seems like you are equally as good at work so the issue is more so frustration with you...how could a kid so smart and well able also at the same time be so difficult to manage??? Leave it to you Lino to test all the boundaries. This is a good thing!!!! We know this but it is a hard trait to manage as a kid but as an adult it will help you tremendously.
Daddy took you to Pepsi for science day and you were so excited to go! You almost didn't go because you got into major trouble at school and your teacher called me for the first time to complain about your behavior!!! I didn't even know what to do you with because I was so mad so I made you run around the house 25x! I saw somewhere that making boys do physical things as punishment was better than most other discipline...I guess it makes since because its like being in the military I guess. So you did your laps and we talked about it and there was to be no more getting in trouble or science day wasn't going to happen...luckily for you there were only 2 more days left in the week so you were able to pull it together and go. I'm glad that you were able to go.
Shaun - This move doesn't seem to be a big issue to you at all and that is to be expected due to your age. You can be super excited one day and sad about something random like leaving our car the next day. I wish you could remember all the things that we did while in Ireland because it was amazing but most likely you will only have a few memories from here so we will have to remind you of the stories when you are older. Singapore on the other hand you will likely remember a lot which will be amazing so we are exited to see how you take this experience. For the moment we have to remind you all the time that we are leaving and every time we explain it I think it becomes more clear to you. I think the move from our first house here to the house we are in now helped a lot with this concept. I don't even know how a 4.5yr old can understand such a concept but I guess in bits and pieces you put it together. The first time we talked about the move you thought that we were just getting a new house in Ireland. After a few days you understood that it was not in Cork but still thought it was in Ireland or New York for some reason. I guess that is understandable because sometimes when we say we live in Ireland you correct us and say we live in Cork which is also true...how to explain living in a city within a country to a 4.5yr old??? Anyway, you are getting it and it is making you a little sad to think of the things that we will be leaving. You are sad to leave your best friend at school who also happens to be your girlfriend who you also happen to love...Wendy. What a cute little relationship you have with Wendy. I am sure she will be the first of many loves in your life but for the moment I think not seeing her on a regular basis will be pretty sad for you. Also, all the kids in your class really seem to love you so they will miss you a lot as well. Just like Lino we will have to make sure to do something special in your class before we leave so that we can at least have the memories and have a proper closure for you.
This week we started to clear out toys and you did not want to let me get rid of any of the toys!!! I have not be doing my duty and clearing out the toys after Christmas. Lino & I have been doing this together for a few years but we didn't do it last year when you would have remembered it so to get rid of your toys seems wrong. We did talk about it for a while and you were able to pick out a few that we could donate and some that I tried to donate you said you wanted to keep so that was fine too. We are trying to keep the toys to a minimum but at the end of the day if we have to take a bunch of toys so that you and Lino are more comfortable with the move then that is what we will do. But I will also have to use this time to cull a bunch of toys that are broken too!!!
Mike & Renee - What a stressful time this has been. Mike is going to be in Singapore for most of the time we have left in Ireland so I have a lot of stuff to do. I guess I really don't have that much but the thought of it is enough to make you want to drink! There is a lot of coordinating and planning what can go and what can be stored but sometimes it seems to difficult of a task to manage. Just this past Friday you only just arrived back into Ireland and took the boys to Smyths to get toys (thanks to your work colleagues gift to the boys). When you arrived back home the people were doing the survey on the house and we realized that the size of our shipment was going to be dramatically smaller than we had expected. We had spent weeks trying to figure out how big the shipment was going to be. See the thing is that we either have the choice to ship all of our good over to Singapore in a large container or we can air ship a smaller portion and the rest of our good can go back to Texas. Well since we will likely be in an apartment and the size wouldn't be nearly as big as a house we were pretty sure that we would have to ship all of our goods back to Texas...well most of the big stuff anyway. But after the survey we realized that basically our clothes and the boys toys would be all that we could take! Man what a shock! I think it took us both by surprise because based on our guestamation of the shipment size we thought we would have more room than that...I guess that is why we are not engineers (oh wait you are an engineer Mike). It really didn't matter at that point because the size is what it is so we had to do some serious reconsidering...which in turn creates a lot of stress. In addition to that we were preparing for Thanksgiving dinner with our friends and a night out with my friends so there just wasn't enough time to do anything about it...except get annoyed. That is the 2nd hardest thing about moving...the 1st is uprooting our kids...the stress is unreal. Even when you don't think you are stressed and even when you are not normally a person who gets stressed you can't help but be stressed about this. So I feel like I am in a constant state of stress and I can't imagine how you feel...you are working in Singapore spending more time over there than with your family and when you are back it is all go go go. It isn't easy I know. It is just another thing for us to manage which we will...but man can't it be a little easier?
Mike & I took a quick trip to Singapore to check the place out. It was a little bit of a shock compared to Ireland!!! The country is so small but so busy and there are so many sky scrapers its crazy...I can't believe this Kansas girl will be living in this hopping city! While we were checking the place out we checked out a few places to live which was good because now I know the limited size that we will be dealing with when we are here. The apartments aren't that small but they are not houses. We also are pretty sure we will not have a car because it is pretty expensive. Something like $2000 sing dollars a month for a car (tax, insurance, etc)...so it looks like we will be utilizing the trains and buses which the boys will be exited about. I don't think I was able to fully experience the city because I was just so overwhelmed by how different it was. The big thing to get use to is the cost of everything. I had no idea how expensive it was there and I really need to figure this out quick but going out for a drink is like high way robbery!!! Some of the places will charge you $15-$18 for a pint of beer which is just unbelievable to me. Apparently the groceries are pretty expensive too but we didn't get a chance to check that out. In my head I am just trying to work out the logistics of doing grocery shopping for the week when I don't have a car? How am I going to get my bags of stuff from the store to the house without killing myself in the process?? I know it can be done and I know it is not as traumatic as I am making it out to be but I have never had to use the trains for my main source of transportation...outside of being on vacation. It will be a very interesting adjustment to make...I guess we will just have to shop for a few things at a time. Otherwise, the city is just so busy and full of things to do...there was so me sort of cycle or rowing competition on while we were there and there were tons of teams out drinking and celebrating. They had also just celebrated Diwali which apparently meant there were a ton of things on and now they are preparing for Christmas and the Chinese New Year. It is like one party after the next...this would be a great place to live if you are single!!! I do like the fact that so many different religions are celebrated here...it will be a great cultural experience for all of us.
In addition, we checked out a few schools while we were there. Since we are not locals we have to send the boys to a private school so this means picking a school that works for you. We had picked 3 to see but one of them we couldn't get into, the Singapore American School. We were a little bummed out that we couldn't see it but after some discussion it was a little to far out of the way for us and Mike's job...it didn't really make sense to send the boys there unless we lived out there or had a car. Either way it would have meant a long commute for Mike which we didn't want. The other 2 American International schools were nice and we ended up seeing the Canadian International school which wasn't on our list but we really liked it. It is going to be a hard decision to make...all the schools seem to be pretty good and offer different things so now it is a matter of deciding what is the most important factors.
This trip was like a mini taster and now there are so many more questions to be asked and answered...I guess TBC....
Dinner and games night with Michelle! After a long day of sports for the boys we went over to Michelle's house for dinner and a game of pie face. Well poor Lino had the worse luck because I think he got pie in the face at least 3 of the 4 turns that he had. He loved every moment of it!!! I had to take Shaun's turn because he didn't want to have anything to do with having pie in his face...neither did I but I was forced to do it. Of course I get pie in my face on the first turn so that was the end of my game of pie face. It is all good and fun until someone has to go to SouthDoc!!!! Poor Shaun was having such a good time laughing at all of us get pie in the face and ended up crashing into the corner of the table and putting a whole in his mouth. Of course since it was his mouth it was bleeding bad and scared me half to death so I ended up taking him to SouthDoc to make sure it didn't need to be stitched. I don't think it was that bad but the doctor did say that he needed to go to CUH to have the side stitched because it was a rip in his mouth but I didn't want to wait in the hospital for 1 stitch so I asked him to glue it instead which he did. I doubt that we really needed to go but I wold have kicked myself if I didn't check it out. The poor kid must have been so exhausted from all the exitement that he slept in until almost 9:30 the next day which he never does. To add insult to injury the poor kid looked like Shauny Balboa...my poor baby is so accident prone.
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| Lino's rugby club - Old Christians |
Thanksgiving!!!!
This year Thanksgiving for my family is being hosted by TT! I so wanted to go to it but couldn't really justify going back and I am glad that I didn't because with the move it would have been to much. But a lot of the family did make it so it was definitely a great event. Family from Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri and Indiana all made it to Kansas. This was TT & Pierre's first Thanksgiving in their new place...I hear it was an amazing time. Even though we were not there at least I have the pictures to remember the day by.
The day after Thanksgiving we had the assessment of the house to decide what stuff we could take to Singapore and what we had to store. Lets just say it was a very traumatic exercise...we knew that we wouldn't be able to take much but what we can actually take is even less than that. Mike only just came back from Singapore today to be here this weekend for our Thanksgiving and is off again on Sunday so there is just not enough time. We just have to make a decision quickly and go with it but that is just not easy. I know it is just stuff but stuff starts to take on a shape in your heart so it makes it much harder to get rid of it. I guess in the long run it is all replaceable and we shouldn't be so attached to it but for the moment it is a lot to take in. So after going through all of it with the people and finally understanding how big of a shipment we have it looks like we will be able to take our clothes and a few kitchen appliances the rest will need to go to storage or just go away. These are the facts...no need crying about it...we just need to get on with it. There is just so much to do and so little time...
There is always time for drinks tho! Going away is all about celebrating your departure...several times with your friends. This is one of the few celebration nights that just so happen to be the night before our Thanksgiving dinner. The girls and I got together for dinner and drinks...it was a really nice night out. These would be my go to girls in Ireland...they will be missed.
And because I love to punish myself and didn't have enough drinks to begin with Martha & I decide to continue the night of drinking. I am pretty sure by the end of the night we drank a bottle of gin between us! Man did we have fun but whew...that was a lot of gin. So much fun...I can't believe this is the first time I have went out drinking with Martha...I must do this again before I leave...such a good drinking/dancing partner!
After a long long night and morning of drinking I had to pull it together to make the few items that I normally make for our Thanksgiving celebration. Miraculously I was in pretty good shape in the morning and was able to accomplish all my task and get to Lino & Shaun's rugby. We were only about 45min late but I can't even say that was late when the invite said party starts at 4 dinner served at 6:30...we got there well before that but of course Ha Eun is on the phone yelling at me seeing if we were coming or not. If I wasn't so hungover and slow I would have told her no we weren't coming just to see her reaction :-) It was a great night and amazing food as always...Ha Eun and Gernot put on a nice party...can't believe this will be our last Thanksgiving here...so sad :-( I do feel really blessed that we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Kai too because she has a special part in our lives too. Even though she lives so far away from us it is always like old times when she is around. She just brings a different type of energy to the group...love ya Kai!
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| Kids Thanksgiving tables!!! |
In the mist of our move to Singapore Cara is also in the process of a move herself...well not a real move but a very very long trip over to the states. She has been talking about this trip for a long time and it is finally here. The really bad part is that it happens before we leave which is really sad. So we had to get in a few more moments together and with the kids before they were off. Dinner and entertainment at Cara's house!!! These kids have a ball together...the 5 of them and now 6 with Tadgh.
Then there is Shaun and Freya...what a duo these two make! They have such a sweet relationship...it is somewhere in between brother and sister and old married couple. They are just to cute together. I can remember the first time we met Freya...she was only a few months older than Shaun. They were both small and now look at them...a rock band in the making!
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