Lost and not found

Well the item of which we left at the airport was Miriam's brand new sock monkey, here is a picture for those of whom don't know what they are.

Her's was a girl one and had curly hair, nailpolish, braclet and lip gloss. I called the lost and found at the airport and also with United baggage and they don't have it. I called several times giving people time to turn it in. One of the workers said that when janitors see stuffed animals, often they will just throw them away because so many are left and so many people come through the airport and there is no way to tell what flight it was on etc. My opinion, however is that they should keep them for about a week, because of all things, stuffed animals are the ones that people might call back about!! It will be noticed right away and inquired about. They don't have to search for the owner!! Anyway, I am sad and am going to try to make another one but I am just not sure my abilities are that advanced. I thought it was a kit that you just put together, well I found out that you have a pattern ( I hate patterns) and then you have to find the socks somewhere and make it from that. We will see.
I feel so bad, because the night before we left Singapore, Nana, spent a lot of time and made that so she could take it with her. It was so nice of her and Miriam was so happy! I am sorry!

We still have the girls!

Well we are home. It is nice to come back and relax for a day before we have to get back to normal. Except for the fact that this weekend is another holiday! :) Anyway, the flight over from Singapore was very long, 36 hours, but very good actually! We had a layover in Hong Kong and wanted to take the girls to some of the places we had gone but being as it was right after Christmas, lines were long and we didn't have time. So it was basically just a stop to eat lunch and walk around and say that the girls had been in Hong Kong for about 4 hours! :) That flight to Chicago was about 13 hours, and actually went great! I don't know if it is because the girls understood what was coming this time or if it was the time of day and they were simply tired, but, they slept about 11 of those hours!! It was nice. When we landed in Chicago my uncle Johnny picked us up. We got to go to his house and eat with him and Nancy. We talked for a little bit and then went to bed since we had to get up early and catch another flight home! We had a good time there. It was fun to talk to them and the girls were good, and the food was yummy! I hope sometime we can go back there or see them again at another place.

I don't know if I can find one word that describes Carlos and I, however, one of the possibilities would be responsible...at least that is what I thought until the end of this trip!!! I am pretty sure we didn't forget anything at Johnny's house, so we got on the plane, and had a nice short flight. When we got to Norfolk, we couldn't see our luggage come off the belt...all the other people on our flight were gone and no luggage, so we walked around and finally found that it had been here already and was waiting at the offices. Now, this would not be a problem normally but when we were in Hong Kong we had tried to get our flight changed so we could leave to Chicago earlier, and they told us that our luggage was supposed to be on the same flight as us so we couldn't get that all changed in the amount of time we had. BUT after we got to Chicago I guess that didn't apply anymore and it went on another flight...I guess it just frustrated me a little since we could have been with Johnny and Nancy earlier. Anyway! We grabbed it and Carlos' cousins Stephanie and Johana (sorry if I spelled those wrong) came to get us and we packed up and left. We had a good ride home, the girls watched Cars which they love and we listened. When we got home, we discovered that our fridge at some point during our vacation had stopped working and not only were things defrosted but they were dry so it had been a while since it stopped working. The repair people can't come until Tuesday so what are we going to do? We will figure it out. Also we had been told by RM that our porch light was broken and it is still a mystery as to how that happened.

Oh and at the beginning of our adventure to Singapore we found out the the battery to the DVD player didn't stay on anymore so it didn't work at all and so we were left with that! In Philippines we lost our camera.
Then as we were unpacking souvenirs etc we realized that we were minus a bag.... So we made phone calls and it turns out that one of our bags is still in Chicago! So who knows when that will get here, IF it does, they started asking Carlos what was in it as if they weren't going to find it.... Anyway, we are hoping for that to get recovered.
Also when we got home we noticed we were without a certain beloved item that Nana made for a very happy Miriam.... we are making all attempts to recover it, however, I may have to make a new one and duplicate it to the best of my ability! :( So sad!
So...we had a great trip but all of a sudden it seems that things are falling apart. I hope we start to get put back together soon!! After all that, besides the fridge, I seem to be most upset about Miriam's item, which will remain unnamed, some of you will know and others will have to find out once we get it all resolved!!! Maybe I am sad because Nana made it for her and it was special! SOOOO, that is a nutshell version of our trip home and what we found when we got home.
AT LEAST WE STILL HAVE OUR GIRLS!

We thank Rose-Marie for making sure our mail got picked up and that no one ransacked our home and cars while we were gone! And Sarah for checking in every once in a while. Again thank our ride home who did so out of love and compassion on the last minute!! It is good to be home and we look forward to seeing all our friends and family that we have missed!!

Our Dec and Christmastime

Our trip to Singapore is coming to a close and I sit here to write my last blog entry from Singapore.
We had a wonderful and memorable trip here and to the other three countries. We have been so blessed to be here and also in the time we were able. Singapore is a great place and of course my parents were wonderful in helping this be the best time we could have had. I will leave with no regrets (except that we can't stay forever) and nothing but happy feelings and memories.

Christmas was great! We had a good church service Christmas Eve day and for dinner we decided to do something fun we read about and had "loaves and fishes" and read about that in the Bible. We read and agree that it is good to also talk about the life of Jesus at this time, not only his birth. The girls really liked that meal of fish sticks! ;) Then we watched a little movie, talked about why we give gifts and opened our Jammies! It was fun to have all matching jammies that I made! (with mom's help of course, and Sarah I will try to help you if you haven't made yours yet) The girls went to bed and we watched White Christmas and got things ready for the morning. It was a great day.

We didn't wake up until about 8:30, then sat in Mom and Dad's room to talk about Christmas and the story of Jesus. We had a lot of fun little stocking stuffers from 'Santa' and a few gifts exchanged among each other. The girls loved all their gifts and LOVED the candy and treats we got! We watched movies, made muffins, ate goodies, played games and ...went swimming!!Dad invited two people from work to dinner who were spending Christmas alone, Patrick, and Punam and they came bearing yummy food gifts. We were going to have a pork loin and a roast lamb, however the oven decided not to work, so we couldn't cook them. Luck for us Patrick brought a baked ham so we had that! It was a delicious meal and we had good conversation. We sang songs together and watched the Frog Song, which I meant to say is the official bedtime story here and we watched almost every night! It was a good comfortable day and we all enjoyed it! Punam told us that we can come back anytime and stay at her house and Mom and Dad will possibly stay for a few more years so who knows, maybe we will find ourselves in Singapore someday again.
Today Daddy had to be at work early and will be back late, we have a few things we need to do today have a LOT of packing and cleaning of mom's house! We leave very early in the morning and start our LONG trip back home. We have an 8 hour layover in Hong Kong and hope to take the girls a few places that we went to when we were there. The we have another 11 hour layover in Chicago, where we will see my aunt and uncle and sleep for a little bit before flying home early morning on the 28th!
It will be good to get home, but I am very sad to leave. We had wonderful weather, even with a lot of rain. We tried new foods and went to a lot of new places. The girls were great and learned new things and Miriam was really good at trying new things. The was the best experience and will stay with us forever.
THANK YOU NANA AND PAPA FOR A THE BLESSING OF THIS OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AND GROW AND EXPERIENCE LIFE HERE WITH YOU. FOR THE FUN, THE MEMORIES AND THE LOVE! WE WILL MISS YOU AND REMEMBER THIS FOREVER!
WE LOVE YOU!

Picutres of Christmas

Ok so after putting some pictures on here I decided to put the pics on my Yahoo photos and put a link to the photos. It is just a little easier.
Christmas in Singapore

Christmas in the Tropics

Merry Christmas!
From the Chacon Family :)

Durian Picutres

Miriam's new talent!

My little Miriam who has always been afraid of water and HATED to get her face wet has a new talent, which she loves to show off!! She has been swimming a lot since we got here and has gotten so comfortable that she started swimming under water!!! She kicks and reaches her arms and swims under water for about 2 ft. She doesn't go far but she does it and she is getting soooo good at it! We are so pleased with her!! She loves to swim!
I have a video but there is no sound and when I can put it up here, I will. Here are some pictures.


Elaine likes the pool as well but isn't as confident and so she doesnt' move a lot. She has been practicing her kicking and that is good! She gets cold fast which is werid in Singapore, however the wind blows and it gets chilly when you are wet.

Sentosa

Today we went to Sentosa Island. We went to an underwater world, one of those places where you walk through and the water animals are all around you. The girls really liked that.

Then we went to the main reason we went to the island...the pink dolphin show! My mom and I got to pet one of the dolphins and get a photo. I don't have one for the computer so maybe we will scan it and I can put it up. It was really neat and it didn't splash me! (old story)

Then we went swimming in the South China Sea! The water was very salty and it was easy to float. I have never been able to float very well before, but I could today! :) Miriam did really well in the water and had a lot of confidence that she would swim. It was fun! I know I look marvelous in this pic but OH WELL!
Tonight my dad, Carlos and I went out to see some of the night life in Singapore. We were originally going to do karaoke but decided to do other things instead. We went to the river front area and also the bay of the beach. The riverside area had a LOT of nice clubs and resturants. It would be fun to go there and hang out in the evening. We saw a statue of the famous Singapore Merlion. It was really a nice day and a fun night.

We ended our night with Durian which Carlos enjoys, and I can eat a few bites. Of course my dad LOVES it. (I will put pictures of this in another post from another night.)

It's SNOOOOOOWING!

Funny huh? It is soap suds! We had a lot of fun, got a little wet and stayed nice and warm!

Rain and Hair

The last few days have been quite rainy and we still have a lot to do outside that we are having to postpone, I hope we are able to get them in. Christmas is approaching and we won't be able to do stuff on those days. We are leaving soon after, so I hope we are able to get out!! It is really cool though to hear and see thunder storms all day!

The other thing I keep meaning to put on here is that while we were gone, the girls were here with Nana and like little children will do, while her back was turned....they found the scissors and... Miriam said she was tired of people saying her hair was getting close to her bottom and so she wanted to cut it!! Then after seeing Miriam do it, Elaine thought that was a good idea! WELL Elaine actually cut a LOT of her hair! Some of it is realllly short. It is not real noticeable, however she doesn't have a lot of hair to begin with so I was a little scared. BUT I knew it was just a matter of time before one of them did it! At least it wasn't the curls at the end, just some off the top!

Philippines

We had a great time in the Philippines. The people are very nice and the islands are beautiful! Manila is a city with all that comes with it. So it is a little dirty but has fun history and lots to do. Besides the temple, which is the reason we went, going to the volcano was the best part of our trip. We just did some fun stuff. We rode on little Filipino horses up a trail to the top of the volcano and down as well. My backside was a little sore from the trot up and down. We rode a boat to and from the volcano island. It was great! We forgot the sunscreen so I got burned a little. But it was just breathtaking and I was again reminded of Heavenly Father's love in His beautiful creations!
The drivers there are the scariest I have EVER been with. They follow NONE of the traffic laws! Except stopping for an officer. They drive so close together you could touch your neighbor and they swerve in and out and don't stop for anything. Even if you are in the road, they just honk to let you know they are coming and it is up to you to get out of their way!!
I am certain there is more to tell you and I will try to write more later, and put up the pictures we managed to get off the camera before it was stolen/lost! Thanks for reading and I hope this keeps you interested! :)

trouble in the tropics

Long story short...tonight we were shopping and after about 1 hour, realized....we didn't have our camera. Now normally you can go back to the place which you last had it...IF you remember where that was. We remember it in the store but after that...no memory. We are pretty sure that someone took it after we laid it down, however, just to be on the safe side, we gave the store our info and hopefully it will turn up. If not...at least we are still here and not hurt!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...somewhere!

It is still warm and sunny, however this weekend officially started the Christmas spirit for me. We had the ward party for my parents ward. Well it wasn't really a party, they set up the church and outside the church to look like the city of Bethlehem and in each room was a scene having to do with the nativity. Wise men, shepherds, angels, etc. It was very neat. Outside they had music playing and breads, nuts and dried fruit to eat on a 'napkin' banana leaf. It was very neat! They also had set out a lot of creches that people brought from all over the world. They have those in other places around this time as well and they are great!


Today before church we finally got around to decorating the gingerbread house that I brought here. The girls had fun and the candy was sweet.

Than at church they had the Christmas program apparently because so many people leave for Christmas that they do it early. It was very good. Ward choir sang a variety of 4 songs, there were 2 solos and 1 song by the primary. And some narration that was great. So needless to say the Christmastime spirit has finally caught me to its fullest!

Carlos and I are leaving for Manila,Philippines tomorrow morning so I won't be writing for a while. We will give you an update when we get back!

Quick Trip

OK I finally have some pics of my own!
Carlos and I just took a quick trip to Hong Kong and we had basically one day to do it ALL! So...Here is a brief run down of what we did. We got there late and walked around the outdoor night market and it was quite busy, even until 11pm.


Then we went to sleep at the YWCA Anne Black Guest House. It was a little hard to sleep that first night because there is so noise all night! There are two groups of people in Hong Kong, one that goes to bed like normal people and get up early and the other (which where we were staying is the greater of the two) stay up really late at night and don't start thier day until about 10am!!


We woke up 'early' and made our way to the temple for the 9 o'clock session. For breakfast we went to the nearby bakery and got yummy things there. Then the temple was wonderful, the spirit was peaceful and we felt relaxed and it was great! We had to wear head phone because our session was in either Chinese or Cantonese, I don't know which.




Then we did a site seeing explosion. We mostly used the MTR system but a few times got a taxi. We went to the 10,000 buddahs and on that mountain we ate a very delicious meal of fried rice with veggies! Then we went on a skyrail up to the big mountain where the Big Buddah was. That was pretty awesome! On our travels we saw a big Chinese graveyard and I loved it! Then we went up the Peak Tram to view the city at night. It was really windy, kinda chilly, and a GREAT few of the lights of Hong Kong. THEN we went on a ferry ride across the bay and that was also GREAT, lights everywhere and some great decorations of Christmas lights! THENNNNN we finally got to the shopping. They have a night market called Temple Street Market and it is a bunch of venders selling a lot of the same stuff but HUGE! It was fun and you can really barter and get good deals!! THEN Carlos' brain shut off and my feet were throbbing and so we decided to go back and go to bed! We got up the next morning and went to the airport. It was a whirlwind trip but great and if you ever get the chance to go, it is worth it!

Weakness

Well today we did normal morning stuff, ate, exersized, swam and then we went shopping. We went to another one of Singapore's many malls, and went to a store called Takashimaya. It was pretty nice and we got Carlos his much needed belt. We also walked through the 'food court' and saw that there were many different places to get baked good ans pastries. Now Carlos and I 9don't like to spend money on things that we don't REALLY need. HOWEVER, when it comes to food and pastries especially, we go soft! We wanted to stay there all day and eat some of the many foods to choose from!! It is really funny!
Then Carlos and I went without Nana and the girls by MRT (metro/subway) to Chinatown. I suppose it was much like Chinatown in San Fransisco, however it was just more authentic in my opinion because we are in an Asian country! There was so much great stuff there and when we have more time we are going back. As we stepped out of the MRT and walked home, we just had to comment again at how beautiful it is here, and actually felt like a Virginia summer on an average day!
Then we planned the rest of our time here and prepped for tomorrow. We are leaving for Hong Kong and won't be able to write. I will try to record what we do and then remember to tell you all when we get back. Alright that is all.

Everyday?

Hmmm, everyday, that might get a little boring, what if I don't do anything exciting or have nothing to say. Well I will tell you our day to day if you want me to! And I will TRY to get some pictures up. Yesterday, Sat, we went to MacRichie reservoir and that is when Elaine go too close to the monkey, then we came home and swam, then we went to this place close to the house that serves Chicken and rice. And it is reported to be the best place around to get it. It was delicious! And we had a dessert that was basically tapioca ball things with molasses and coconut cream on it. It was quite good as well!! Then we came home and hang out eating soup and grilled cheese for dinner and then went to see Happy Feet. Here when you see a movie you get assigned seats and we were afraid we wouldn't get seats it was sooo busy! We didn't have to pay for the girls unless they sat in their own seats, so we held them...Elaine was asleep to begin with and Miriam fell asleep half way through the movie!! It was cute but had a little of a political save the animals message, which is fine but unexpected! The theater had this deal where if you paid with your Citicard you got free popcorn, so we did and they have salty popcorn and sweet popcorn here, kind of like kettle corn or maybe corn with corn syrup on it, it was pretty good!! Anyway, then we road the taxi home with two sleeping girls and they stayed asleep even after we changed their jammies and put them in bed. We were all really tired!
Today is Sunday and church is from 2-5 so this morning we are going to do some Christmas decorating.
Ok and we are back from church now, and it was nice. Miriam went really well to her new class and of course Elaine was fine in nursery. It was ok being back in Sunday School, I actually like Primary cause you move more, not so much sitting LOL. Then we went to a fireside. There has been a couple from Utah here for the last few years doing tsunami relief and they presented info on the work they had done and showed pics. It was nice. I was really tired however. Then we came home and went to bed ;) That is all.
Sorry no pictures, Carlos has them on HIS computer, so I will try to put some up soon, however if you want to see some, go to his blog! It is better anyway! :)

Best time of year!

The weather here is always humid and when the sun is out, it is quite hot, however, this time of year at night and in the morning if there are clouds, it is realllly nice. Perfect weather. I don't know the actual temperature but when we are swimming and the wind is blowing it actually makes you a little cold! This is so nice! We went on a little nature walk today, Miriam got a bloody nose, Elaine came within 3 feet of a wild monkey and would have gone closer, but we had to hold her back. We went and did some shopping for groceries and had Pizza Hut last night ;). Tonight we might finish doing Christmas decos, and maybe some other things. We are enjoying ourselves!!