Already 2 Wonderful Years Together

Hey Everyone!

To celebrate our anniversary this year we extended our teachers retreat in Sihanoukville by two nights at the Sokha Resort.We told them it was our anniversary and they put flower pedals on the bed, in the bath tub, and baked us a cake. Even though the date on the cake was wrong, and it didn't taste that good it was still fun. Gideon was treated to a massage and I got a pedicure and a french manicure. We worked out at the gym, swam in the ocean one morning, it is raining season here so it did rain most of the time, and ate the best buffet breakfast. It was wonderfully relaxing and we did not want to come back to Phnom Penh.

The night before our actual anniversary we celebrated by going out to a nice restaurant here in Phnom Penh.

We started a bit of tradition where we remember our favorite memories from the previous year while we celebrate our anniversary. We are truly blessed with such great memories together!

Cambodian BBQ

A few teachers went out a couple of Saturdays ago to celebrate with Sophorn, Gideon's TA at Heng Heng which means lucky lucky. It was Sophorn's birthday. We ate beef, shrimp, lots of veggies, and some ate squid, but not me. They bring it all to your table and you cook it on the grill. It was delicious for only 3 dollars each and you are stuffed! This is the kind of restaurant that you don't go to unless you are with a Khmer person. There are no menues and you have to be really loud in order to get one of the wait staff to bring you what you want. Sophorn is in the middle in the very first picture!

Getting A Little More Settled!

We have moved apartments again! From our last post you will know that when we arrived back in Phnom Penh or driveway became an ocean. We decided that going through the puddle everyday was not worth the stress it created. Our friends Elaine and KT who are still in the States are allowing us to live in their homey apartment until they return on September 23rd. Elaine had to have surgery on her pancreas and her liver, I believe. She had a cyst that the doctors were worried about. After her surgery she found out that it was not cancerous, and that her pancreas is working just fine so there is no need for her to take insulin. Elaine's surgery was the reason that they did not get pack to PP at the beginning of the school year. They love the Lord and when we emailed them asking them if we could stay in their apartment they responded, " We have been praying that God would give us a way to serve Him even while we are still in the States so this is a blessing that we can serve Him by serving you in this way."

Unfortunatley that does mean we will be moving one more time at the end of September. Another co-worker is returning home to Canada on Sept. 23 and we will be moving in to her apartment when she has left! Please pray for us that we wouldn't be stressed with all of this moving and settling in over and over again.

We had to break the news to our landlords that we were moving and it was a bit hard. We did not know how that conversation would go. We told them that we love them. We appreciate everything they have done for us, but the flooded driveway is too stressful to deal with. They completely understood and said that they were worried for us. We know they are

understanding, but our relationship with them does not feel the same. Whenever we see them at school or if we have to run by and get some of our belongings we had left behind we do not get the same friendly and outgoing vibe from them. We are hoping that us moving did not hinder their view of Jesus. We hope that we can continue to build a relationship with them by inviting them to school events or out to eat. Please pray for our interactions with them. That we wouldn't read too much into their attitudes, but we would continue to be an example of Christ for them in whatever ways we can.

Picture Above: This is Metfone our internet service guy hooking up our internet at our new apartment He is standing on the roof outside of our balcony.

Picture Below: This is our old driveway and as the car turns left the ocean continues. This pictures is when it hasn't rained for a couple of days. When it rains the whole driveway is completely submerged.

Whirl Wind of a Start

We've gotten back into some of our old routines here in Phnom Penh. The guy who watches our moto while we buy groceries didn't recognize us for a few seconds, but as soon as we pulled off our helmets he walked over and said, " You here all the time, but not for long time." We told him we went back to the US for 2 months and he nodded his head and gave us a big smile.

Since we got back we've had to get used to an even bigger pond in our driveway, pictures to come. I haven't been brave enough to drive through it, but Gideon does a great job and making sure we don't crash. It really is quite dangerous. They, Cambodians, think it is helpful to put semi-crushed up bricks on the the bottom of the pond. Their hope is that if they put enough the pond will go away. It only makes it worse for motos because we can't see what we are driving over and makes the moto swerve back and forth. Our pond will only get worse as the rain gets harder and harder these next couple of months. We are hoping to move into a new apartment where there is no problems with flooding.

We are done with our first week of school. I have 9 precious children in Pre-K3, and out of those 9, 5 of them cried off and on for the first 3 days. On Friday they seemed to be a little more comfortable and were starting to be themselves and were having fun. The kids in my morning class have such different personalities then the kids in my class last year so it will be fun to get to know them. I still get to see my kids from last year in my afternoon class. One of my highlights from the week was at afternoon recess; I was pushing Vathana on the tire swing. He asked me to push him high. I told him, "I will, but not too high." He continued and responded, " No, Five High! Then we had a conversation about how high is one high, two high, three high etc..... :)

Gideon is enjoying his new 5th graders very much. Every day at lunch his old 5th graders come down to say hi and tell him how 6th grade is going. After the first day of school Gideon was telling me about his old class coming down and he said it felt awkward. I didn't quite understand why it would be awkward and he described it as if it was his ex-girlfriend catching him hanging out with his new girlfriend. :) His old class keeps asking how is your new class? Are they as smart as us? Are they as fun as us? Gideon's highlight from the week was surviving the week. He came down with a head cold on Wednesday, but he made it through the whole week.

We have already been back for almost two weeks, but it does not feel like 2 weeks has gone by. We have been so busy getting ready for school; and ready or not here comes week 2!

A Glimpse of What the North Rim of the Grand Canyon Has to Offer

We went on a three day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my parents, Ron and Robin, and my younger brother Colby. We tried to pay for most of the trip because it was a thank you to my mom and dad for helping us sell our jeep, but it never works out the way you want to. They are too generous sometimes!

After seeing a little section of the Grand Canyon from the top it makes me want to see all of it from the bottom from the view of a raft. Maybe some day that will come true. We had a great time. We hiked a little ways down into the Canyon on the Kaibab Trail. That is the trail where you can hike all the way to the bottom and up the other rim if you wish. We went 2 miles down but the 2 miles up were not easy. We sat in on a ranger talk about the history of all the layers of rock formations. My mom wanted to stay and listen to the ranger talk about the Condors, but we had our own little educational session on those birds back at our cabin thanks to the iphone and wikipedia. We cooked out for breakfast and dinner. We also made my dad who is extremely afraid of heights drive us close to the cliff edges so we could get a view of the Colorado River. Please enjoy some pictures from our trip!

Colby, Kristy, and Gideon on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Robin and Ron on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Gideon found a really high rock to stand on!

Colby and Gideon had to keep going down the Kaibab Trail and at least get to the bridge before they turned around. So they hiked a little longer than the rest of us.

A cool plant that we had never seen before. Is it related to the the silver sword that we saw in Maui? That is our question! Please leave a comment if you know the answer.

Some more flora from our hike.

Angels Window with the Colorado River behind.

A gross squirrel digging the mule poop to find grain.

The mules only go down two miles into the canyon too!

My mom loves the mules, but not the smell of mule pee.

In front of our cabin we stayed at for two nights!

Where Is Home?

We are a little over halfway through our summer break back in the States and we are starting to truly miss our life in Phnom Penh. We have loved being in the States getting to visit with family and friends, gorging ourselves with food we had been depraved of, running and not being completely drenched in sweat after the first 10 minutes, spending time in the outdoors, and catching up on American culture (who knew that the game Angry Birds was so popular). While we were in Cambodia we dreamed and talked quite a lot about doing all of these things. We couldn't wait to get back "home." Now that we have been here for over a month and moving from house to house we are ready to be in our home in Cambodia. We really feel like we are on a really long vacation and can't wait to be back in some routine.

We miss seeing all of our c0-workers and friends in Phnom Penh. We miss driving our moto. We miss our students. We miss being in our own apartment. We miss the yummy mangos from our landlords. We miss the guy who watches our moto while we buy our weekly groceries. Yet we know that when we return to Cambodia we will yet again miss the people and things that we are leaving behind here. Through the transition of going back and forth from one side of the world to the other we get to really experience the truth that our home is not here

on earth at all. In neither place do we feel completly comfortable and at home because the only place we should feel that will be in heaven. All we can do is enjoy the places that God takes us to.

Enjoy some pictures of our summer adventures so far. We have three more weeks of adventures here so expect more pictures!

Gideon with our niece, Leah!

In Vail, CO for a couple of hours!

Bowling with Kristy's parents, Ron and Robin!

Our First Meal in the States!

There it is, our first meal. My little cousins, Kenzie and Reece, came with my parents to pick us up from the airport. My parents neighbor Lawrence came up and we ate chicken noodle soup, (Gideon got sick and was throwing up on the airplane on our long flight), watermelon, mango cheese and crackers, and bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. We ended up sleeping for 14 hours the first night we got here. The second night we only slept 4.
The second day here we took our dog, Filos, and my brothers dog, Kali, out to the desert for a little walk. We are loving the weather here. Its around 90 degrees but not sweating all the time. My dad comes home from work turns on the air-con and freezes us out though.
Filos followed Gideon everywhere. If Gideon ran he would run.
Our third day here we ate this beautiful chocolate velvet cheese cake my mom made for us. I had asked her to make it for us way back in December when I saw it posted on my facebook home page. She practiced one time before we got home to make sure it tasted good, and she said this second time was even better than the first. It was heavenly!

We are loving being here. We are always comparing Cambodia to the US. I asked my mom today if she gets tired of hearing all the things we don't have in Cambodia or things they do differently in Cambodia. She told me she loves it. Of course we miss all of our friends in Cambodia. Hope you all are enjoying your summers!