Pattaya Orphange

Recently Esso awarded money to employees for safety accomplishments. The group of employees that won decided to contribute all their winnings to the Pattaya Orphanage along with some personal donations of toys. It was a privilege to be at the orphanage when the gifts were presented to the site. Esso also cooked and served dinner to all the children. An amazing giving day!

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Royal Barge Procession

Yesterday I was excited to attend The Royal Barge Procession to celebrate the King's birthday here in Thailand. It consisted of a flotilla of 52 traditional style barges arranged in 5 columns, based on a battle formation from ancient times. There were 4 major royal barges. A total of 2,311 sailors from within the Royal Thai Navy served as oarsmen.

Once a year these amazing boats are taken from the Royal Barge museum to participate in this amazing ceremony down the Chao Phrayo river through Bangkok. The King presents robes to the monks at the Temple of Dawn. This year because the King's health is so poor, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn did the honors.

It was a beautiful day, the riversides were flooded with people witnessing this parade. The barges all look brand new which is amazing considering some of them were built in the 1800's and all are still sea-worthy. All the oarsmen, chanters, signalmen, Royal Regalia bearers...were outfitted in traditional costumes.

I was thrilled to be able to take Khun Nok (my housekeeper) and her mother to the festivities. They have always watched the procession via TV and were so excited to have front row tickets to the event! Before the parade there were several performances. At one point a performer was playing the mournful sounding flutella and I was looking across the river at the Thai landscape, the Thai flags flapping in the wind and I became all teary. We know our time is winding down here in this amazing country and there are so many things that I will miss. So happy I was able to witness this special event before moving.

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Chiang Mai

Picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox Our last two days were spent in Chiang Mai as we begin our drive south towards home. It's really appropriate too. We spent our first October break over 4 years ago in Chiang Mai with the Clarkson family. We don't see them as much since they have moved to Bangkok and we miss them. It was great to be travelling some with them. It was different because all our older guys were not there with us this time. Drew and Dustin stayed at home. Dustin is incredibly busy trying to finish all his course work for IB and college applications and of course Nathan is in Virginia at the military academy. So it was just our younger guys. We reminisced about how much all our boys have grown up in the last 4 years. When we moved here Ethan was 10yrs. old, the same age as Carter now-such a difference!   Knowing that our time here is drawing to a close we spent a lot of time shopping for remembrances of Thailand. Mark finally found an elephant carving that he was happy with. Dave Clarkson commented on the number of trips they have been with us while Mark was looking for that illusive carving. We also purchased some other specific things that speak 'Thai' to us. We have a large elephant bell that is mounted, what a conversation piece. We also bought a Celedon elephant to put with my Celedon nativity set that Karen and Mary purchased for me when they visited here last Spring. I just googled this short explanation of Thai Celedon.    "Behind this modern stoneware from Thailand is a story that goes back more than two thousand years in time.  Celadon is known as the aristocratic Oriental ancestor of the pottery family and takes its name from the elegant glaze developed by the master potters of China to duplicate their beloved jade.This exquisitely glazed Celadon was known only to the Far East until the 9th century A.D. when a few pieces found their way to Europe to be displayed with the most priceless treasures on the continent."   Those were our main purchases. It was so fun to be back travelling with the Clarkson family, it feels like we have come full circle. We even stayed at the same hotel, The Tamarind Hotel, na rak-lovely!   

We enjoyed our short stay in Pai and yesterday made the 5 hour drive to Mua Suai and then on to Chiang Rai last night. What a day! We met our friends, Kirk, Suzi and kiddos yesterday in their little village. Suzi and Kirk came to Thailand over 20 years ago with Wycliff ministries for Bible translation. They have been diligently working with the Bisu people in their tiny village of about 200 people ever since. They inspire me to the max! They originally started working with the Bisu people and for 7 years only knew of a handful of people that spoke the language, pretty much just their small village. They were discouraged and after 7 years only 2 people had come to Christ in this very superstitious, amniest tribe. They began to question their life work and then through some very strange circumstances learned of a group of Bizu people in Burma and then shortly after that found a community of Bisu people in China, the suddenly found 1000's that were in need of the Bible and so excited for their language to be written, recorded, remembered for all time. If you think of them pray for the Bisu people, they have seen 6 people come to Christ in 20+ years, the first being a blind woman-the blind will see!!! The Bisu people cooked for us and we loved their food, you eat everything with your hands, or use the sticky rice as a scoop. It was fun. Afterwards, they showed us the Powerpoint presentation they show churches and I cried through some of their testimony. They are my unsung hereos. Suzi is from Baylor and her parents live in Ft.Worth. So humbling and challenging to see how slow their work has been but how God has encouraged them and sustained them at just the right moment. They have lots of those 'goose pimple' stories!!! They took us in to Burma, and they were sooo helpful, they speak Thai, Northern Thai, and Bisu-great to have as tour guides. It's so funny, we were in the middle of no where and there is a pie place about 20 min from the Bisu village. A Thai lady who lived in Los Angeles at one time has set up this Pie place near Mua Suai, what a treat!!!! We went there and all had old-fashioned chocolate, lemon, apple, coconut....pies with meringue. Too weird to be in the middle of no where eating pie with flaky crusts!!! Our driver enjoyed it too. Suzi says it was weird to have us in their tiny village, surreal meshing our lives together. Texas girls in a hidden Northern Thailand village together. The Bisu people cooked for us and we loved their food but you have to eat everything with your hands, or use the sticky rice as a scoop. It was fun. If you think of them pray for the Bisu people, they are strong in their animists beliefs, they have seen 6 people come to Christ in 20+ years, the first being a blind woman-the blind will see!!!

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Driving Thailand Oct.2012

One thing that we have not done during our time here in Thailand is drive to Northern Thailand. I've taken an overnight train ride to Chiang Mai, I've flown up to Chiang Mai a couple of times but driving up to the mountains of Thailand has always been on Mark's 'to-do' list. Songkran, our driver, agreed to drive us and Ethan, Mark and I are taking advantage of the half-term break this week at their school to do just that! Dustin stayed at home to work on course work for his IB curriculum while Nok, our housekeeper looks out for him. We drove about 9 hours our first day to reach Sukhothai, the first ancient kingdom of Thailand, where the original Thai alphabet was born. We spent the morning exploring the ruins of the ancient temples of the city after enjoying our lovely, Thai, hotel before driving to our next destination of Pai. Mark and I figured it would take approx. 4 more hours to reach Pai. After 11 (!) hours of terribly, curvy, mountain, roads that were at some points not paved; we finally arrived. We LOVE our driver, Songkran, but we were so lost yesterday!! We definitely were on the non-tourist track which I usually enjoy so much, but we had planned to meet some friends in Pai for dinner-we rescheduled for breakfast. Having a driver is an experience, it is quite a blessing for Mark at times, he gets tons of work, phone calls made... while commuting back and forth to work. We only know one other family that has been here as long as we have that have their original driver. We have friends that have had over 25 drivers in 4 years. We are so thankful for Songkran, he has never had a sick day, he has requested a couple of days off to visit his sick father, he has only been late two times in over 4 years. He has a great personality, he likes to laugh-sometimes at inappropriate times but is just a jolly, nice guy. He initially was unsure about taking a week away from his family and driving us up North but eventually said he wanted the work and extra pay. He said he had driven North many times. When we initially set off he handed us a map to follow along and never once have I seen him reference it in the car.I was impressed-at first. Mark was reading, watching the sites, dozing and I occasionally was trying to figure out where in the world we were. I just couldn't figure out the route Songkran was taking but was trying not to fret about it and leave the driving to him. Most of the road signs were in Thai only. It is a weird thing having a full time driver, I never tell him how to drive, I don't screech when we almost run in to someone, I set in the back seat and for the most part am oblivious to where and how I'm being driven around-I wish I could do a better job of that when Mark is in the driver's seat. After driving 8 hours out-of-the-way I wish I would have stepped in and said something earlier. It was a most trying day but we saw lots of things that most tourists will never see that is for sure!!! I was about ready to scream/cry in the back seat by the time we found our resort but am thankful that we arrived safe and sound FINALLY. One other note, we try to speak another language, "Codespeak" when we are all in the car and don't want Songkran to understand what is being said. Our Spanish is very limited so we try to use a 'BIG' vocabulary. It can be hilarious. Yesterday I am saying stuff like, "I think we may need to reference the atlas, as our route seems to be muddled." It can be pretty funny, yesterday, Ethan would say, "What are ya'll talking about?" and I just have to say, "Codespeak" and he knows that we are trying to talk about Songkran without his knowing. Man! I wish I knew more Spanish!but we are working on increasing our vocabulary while having a driver!

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Summer 2012

We had a very busy, hectic summer and I was just terrible in taking pictures, not many memories captured on photo:( I've got to do better! But I did want to post the few that I have stored in our files. Someday this blog will be my photo album/journal and the only stored memory I will have of Summer 2012! Lots of things happened this summer. Dustin spent the summer serving as a music intern at Cornerstone Church in Jackson Hole, Wy. He is worse than me in taking photos and thus I have none from his entire summer:( Nathan participated in two short term medical mission projects. One with FAME ministry and he was working along side a medical team in the Dominican Republic. The second was stateside in Pennsylvania working with Joni and Friends. There are just a few pictures on his facebook page to commerate those experiences:( Ethan attended Camp Travis in Austin and otherwise travelled around with me all summer, lugging our suitcases everywhere! We spent the first two weeks of the summer with Aunt Lola in LaPorte, TX. It was so fun to be able to so many friends from when we lived in that area. Nearly every morning I took a long bike ride in old LaPorte, to Sylvan Beach, past our old church, just thorougly enjoyed the cooler temperatures and down time. We then flew to Los Angeles where Mark was auditing a refinery in Los Angeles for two weeks. During that time Nathan was in the DR. Ethan and I enjoyed checking out LA-Universal Studios, we took a Hollywood tour-thought it was amazing that Billy Graham had a star on the Walk of Fame?! We went to a Cirque-Soliel performance that was awesome. Dustin flew down for one week and we toured colleges with him. USC, UCLA, UC at San Diego, Biola, Master's and Pepperdine. What a busy week! He is busy applying to Biola (1st choice), Master's, UCLA and UC at San Diego. Then Mark, Ethan and I flew to Denver, Colorado and met my parents and Nathan there. My parents had been to the Calgary Stampede rodeo and were driving home. Nathan flew in from PA. My parents actually got to spend time with Dustin in WY, visit the church he interned at and spend time with his host family. We then ALL (it was quite crowded with 6 adults in a pick-up-my boys are all man size now!)drove to Clovis, NM to spend time in their home. We celebrated Nathan's 18th Birthday there and all the family that lives near helped us honor him. Sadly, it was the first birthday that Dustin and Nathan were apart from each other:( signs of the times! they are growing up!!!! Nathan, Ethan, Mark and I then drove to Houston for MD Anderson appointments. Both Mark and my Mom had good reports. My parents flew to Houston and met us there after attending Bob Herndon's funeral. Ethan stayed with my parents in Houston while Mark and Nathan flew to Virginia for college tours and Dustin flew in and we flew straight to University of Michigan for Dustin to visit their music school. Nathan is wanting to attend a Nursing program. He has already been accepted to Liberty but will also apply to University of Virginia, VCA and James Madison. So many big decisions for our family in the coming year. Dustin and I had a wonderful time in Michigan. The weather was just perfect! We stayed with friends of ours from Thailand that had just relocated back to Michigan. They live in the most peaceful town of Holly, MI. We had fun trekking with them and we also took a two hour kayak trip through some beautiful country. Dustin and I flew back to Houston to retrieve Ethan. Mark enrolled Nathan in his final year at Fork Union Military Academy in VA, two weeks early for him to attend Officer's Training. He is heavily involved in leadership at the Academy this year. He is over a platoon and is serving on the Honor Council, they hear all cases and decide if cadets will be dismissed from the Academy for infractions. He is also President of the Interact Club and on the Rifle Team. Dustin, Ethan and I then flew to DC and Mark met us there and we returned to Thailand. It was exhausting!!! I was so ready to get out of our suitcases and be home in Thailand. Any way, I'll post the pitiful pictures I managed to take this summer-sad!

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Bangkok Flower Market

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To blog or not to blog that is the question? I have been unmotivated to blog over the last 6 months but as we know our stay here in Thailand is coming to an end sometime in 2013 I feel hardpressed to have a go at it again. I want to continue to document our time here in Thailand, if for nothing else but our family's history. So I'm going to try to be more diligent again in the blogging realm. I'm going to clean up my invite list and re-invite some folks. I'll be back with a posting in the next day or two, I don't want to recap our busy, crazy summer travelling all over the United States. I don't want to relive Dustin and Nathan's last first day of school...I think I'll just pick up like I never left, that way it doesn't feel too overwhelming. I want to be better about 'taking-in' Thailand afresh. We will see what I come up with....

JoRonda's 50th

I'm having a hard time keeping up with the blog but here is a slideshow of my 50th birthday. I was quite surprised by a party held in my honor a week before the 9th of April, they got me!! It was so fun and I am so blessed to have so many sweet, thoughtful friends to help make turning 50 less painful.

We had already planned to celebrate with a diving trip to Sipadan, Borneo. It was such a great time and would have been perfect if Nathan could have joined us but it's just too far for a week long trip. Sipadan lived up to its' expectations!!! We had 15 dives during our stay, only one day were we allowed to enter the actual island of Sipadan, only 120 permits are given/day. It's a protected, dive, environment.

I've just included a few of the 900+ pictures that Mark took underwater. He LOVES fish, always has! We had such a nice, relaxing, dive week. We stayed on the island of Mabul, it's about a 20 min boat ride to Sipadan, in a water resort. It was a most memorable birthday. I feel so blessed!

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Regent's International Day 2012

I love that Dustin and Ethan attend an International School, it is so diverse, with over 50 countries represented. One day a year they celebrate that diversity with a parade of countries, an International cafe, country performances, and country rooms.

All the little ones are given a fake passport to visit each country room. I loved our theme this year and not just because it was Ethan's idea either! We had a North American Innovators room (we have to include Canada because they only have about 4 students at the school). It was like a mini Smithsonian of Innovators. Our family contributed displays for Walt Disney, Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs. I think our room really reflected one of the things that makes America so unique and wonderful-our innovation and how creative thought is encouraged. Can you imagine our world without just the three guys we presented on??? Did you know that Benjamin Franklin invented swimmer fins? besides being our first postmaster, establishing the first library, the first firehouse, inventing bifocals-I wouldn't even be able to see the screen right now without that!!! Besides the whole electricity thing! Ethan sure can't imagine the world without Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Lion King.....and Dustin can't imagine it without the Apple computer!

The International Cafe is always a huge hit, we all enjoy trying food from around the world. It's a huge parent effort and fundraiser for our community partners. This year the American table sold French fries and snow cones. It was a hot day and the snow cones were a big hit, over 200 were sold in 4 hours.

There were country performances and other musical groups all day. The USA presented about some of our innovators and then sang the 50 states song, Dustin accompanied on the ukulele. It was so great because it was a Thai holiday and Mark was able to be there the entire Wednesday. A fun family, student, cultural day at school.

My only regret? That America doesn't have some cool, clothes to wear like the Russians, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Thais....it just seems so boring wearing jeans and a t-shirt!

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Ethan turns 14!

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Sergeant Northcutt

Happy to report that we received news from Nathan this week he has been promoted to Sergeant at Fork Union! We are so proud of him and how hard he has worked since enrolling at the Academy. He has managed to go this far in the year with ZERO demerits, what an accomplishment! He has also been elected the Interact President for the campus, finished his Rescue Diving requirements, is currently working on obtaining his lifeguard certification, sings with the Praise Choir, is in the Praise Band, the Marching Band and his favorite band with two other classmates. We are awaiting their recording of 5 original songs! He also was a member of the rifle club and appealed to the FUMA President for an air-soft team to be formed on campus, which will start after Spring Break. We purchased a Fed-Ex package at a recent American Chamber of Commerce silent auction in order to get all his air-soft gear shipped to him. Over spring break he will be skyping us all the instructions on how to take apart guns for packing! He is so excited to be flying to Houston to spend the week with Uncle Mike, Aunt Kristy, Hunter and Avery for Spring Break. Then it feels like no time until he will be here again with us the end of May-we miss our Sergeant Northcutt!!!

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February in Korea

We volunteered/paid to go with the Regent's School on a school ski trip to Muju, Korea in February. What a trip!!! Exhausting! I have never skied so much in my entire life. 37 kids went from the school, 32 had never skied before, 5 had never even seen snow before. There were only 5 skiing chaperones-thus all the skiing! I had to stay up with some teenager boys, thankfully they were beginners but still dare-devil newbies!

We were excited because our friends the Whitcombe's were also attending, they are our friends from New Zealand who had never skied before as well. Sadly on the second day, Gerard broke his leg very badly. He had a twisting break inside his boot! Muju, Korea probably isn't the best place to break a bone. The clinic was used to seeing broken bones near the ski resort, they reported they see about 12 a day! They were very prepared for a broken bone but Gerard's was more serious than most, not a simple, casting, break:(

After ambulance transfer to Seoul and then a 5 hour commercial flight back to Bangkok he finally had surgery on Friday morning, he broke his leg on Tuesday! Say a prayer for him if you will, the Dr's worry that it won't heal well enough to support his body weight. Dr's orders were 1 month with absolutely no weight bearing on the leg.

We carried on at the resort with all the kids, praying that there wouldn't be any other injuries. Thankfully, the rest of our group returned intact and ready to go again next year!

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Segwaying Ancient Siam

Ethan and I spent his last day of holiday break taking a Segway tour of Ancient Siam with some friends. Ancient Siam is a replica of the country of Thailand. The whole park is laid out like Thailand with replicas of the most popular sites located throughout this huge park, it's really an enjoyable tourist site.

The best part was learning to navigate around on a Segway. They were cool! Ethan and I both commented we would like to have one for our own but then we heard the price of one!! A great way to end his Christmas break.

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Pattaya Praise 2011

great to be a part of this wonderful event in Pattaya. If you look quick you might catch a picture of one of us!!

New Year's Eve 2011

We had such a blast this New Year's Eve. A friend and I planned a New Year's Eve, Family Sports Day. We began the day in the afternoon and planned several competitions for all family members along with a progressive dinner or should I say grazing marathon!!

We began the day at the Whitcombe's for nibbles and lots of fun games. America would be proud of our representation in the baseball game, except the one point where Ethan threw the ball to get someone out rather than tagging them!!! He has been in Thailand too long! We also had a good ole-fashioned barrel race there. Mark and I both came in 2nd in our heats, and Ethan and Dustin won their heats easily! We then had a trivia contest with Mark and Dustin racking up the points, it helped a lot that it was an American version! We didn't do as well in the darts game but enjoyed the chips/dips, shrimp cocktail, grilled squid, and cheeses.

We then moved to our home where the friendly games continued. All teams were greeted by Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam. We had a very intense ping-pong tournament and Australia was the big winner there, Dustin dominated the basketball game and the Northcutt's also captured the charade win! We enjoyed a set-down dinner at our home while we reflected on goals for 2012, which were all sealed and kept by family members for reflecting on next New Year's Eve.

For our dessert time the party moved on to the French representative's home. We had a blast doing some Congo dancing and much laughing before enjoying Chocolate Mousse, Apple Crisp, among other tasty treats while the points were tallied from the day.

The Northcutt's were able to prevail in the first New Year's Eve, Family, Sports, Day taking home the huge, gaudy, pink, traveling, trophy. Hopefully, next year more families will be here over the holiday and we can have even more join in the fun. We are going to be busy practicing our darts!!! We won't want to hand that trophy off to anyone else next year! Just a blast!

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