After School Activities

After school activities are in full swing for the boys. Dustin stays for High School soccer on Mondays, Jr. High basketball on Fridays with Nathan and Jr. High soccer on Thursday. Ethan plays soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nathan plays basketball on Mondays and Fridays. There is transportation for after school activities that are from 3:00-4:30. If there are games on any particular day they begin right after school and are usually completed by 5:00. Because 90% of families attending the International School have drivers all activities are over in time for drivers to deliver families home and get back to pick up husbands. This schedule has been a blessing for us in that we are home every night by 5:30 and Mark is usually home about 6:30. We have been able to spend more time as a family, when Mark isn't traveling out of town since moving to Thailand. Every morning, Mark is able to have breakfast with us and participate in morning devotionals-that is a first in our home life. In the past he has always been out the door before the boys got out of bed. It has been really great having that time together as a family. Because of the driver situation, Mark is home earlier in the evenings allowing our driver to be home with his family too. Thus we have more time in the evenings as a family too since leaving the states. No more sport practices or games in the evenings-that would require overtime for drivers. It's an unexpected benefit of having a driver. Once the driver brings Mark home-we are home for the evening. Mark will be in the states in 3 weeks and may be applying for an international driver license to allow him to drive here some. He has ventured out to the infamous 7-11 a couple of times to meet the Pizza delivery guy, that's about 1 mile from our house and the extent of our driving in over 6 weeks. I'll post a couple of pictures of Dustin and Nathan's first basketball game, they lost 28-6. Neither one of them have ever played basketball, it looks like no one on their team has either! I told Dustin he looked like he was hoping they wouldn't throw the ball to him down in the center position and he said, "That pretty much sums it up!" He's the tallest guy on their team and they really need him to step up. We purchased a basketball goal last weekend and have to get it put up soon for some Mom training sessions! When the moving trucks departed our house in VA we realized the basketball goal had been left behind. It cost $300 at the only store in Pattaya that has basketball goals. Mark was trying to haggle with them and telling the sales clerk, "In the states, I bought a basketball goal for $100." They really didn't care, realizing that they have a monopoly on basketball goals in this area. We had to pay the $300 and haul that thing home in our SUV, the first thing that hasn't been delivered here.