Mulitple Choice Test

OK, this is way too cute not to share immediately...

As I was trying to get the kids ready for bed, Ben went downstairs to get a specific book for bedtime. He came back happily with a Cars book from Pete and Melissa:

Ben: Guess when I got this book! Your choice is...Christmas.

Me: Umm....Christmas?

Ben: Yes!

and he ran off so excited that I had guessed correctly.

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

I just got back from a lovely two weeks in the US. I had to attend leadership training in Washington, which was probably the best State Dept training course I've been to thus far. And I also pushed hard to get to spend both weekends (before and after) in the US. It was well worth the push!

The first weekend, I stopped in Minnesota and got to see my new nephew Simon! Oh, and his mom and dad were there too. I was so excited to see him I got all choked up when I spotted him in the airport in his daddy's arms. Here's the newest member of the Pleuss family:

Simon and Andy

Simon and Jess

I know that people only see the cute photos of kids, and Simon seems to be a pretty good-natured kid most of the time, but here's proof that Jess and Andy are earning their parenting stripes just like the rest of us!

Wail

From freezing Minnesota to ice storm Washington, I went to class, worked on the computer at all hours due to jet lag (hmm...sort of like now...) and caught up with Scott and Michelle. They were the only DC friends I even told I was coming to town, because with just a few nights in town and a crazy schedule of training and State Dept meetings I just didn't have time to see many people. Hope you two feel special! Oddly, I found out later that my sister Liz and I had both been in DC at the same time but hadn't realized it as neither expected the other to be there. She was visiting her boyfriend, and the only night we overlapped was Valentine's Day, so maybe that wouldn't have been the best night to get together anyway!

After training, I stopped in California on the way back and caught up with some old grad school friends. I hadn't seen Gene in four years, but here he is, now doing the urban dad thing with Max:

Gene and Max

And here's the whole family, Max (celebrating his first birthday), Gwen, and Gene

Then it was off to see more grad school friends--Erin and Bryan and their not-so-new addition, Liam. Liam will be two in a few months, but I haven't seen Erin and Bryan in six years (wow!) so we hadn't met before.

Smiley Liam out for a walk

The whole family enjoying ice cream

The energy level of our kids

So while Jen is away, I don't have a still camera. I do, however, have a video camera. Thanks to Jess and Andy's posting of video of Simon (that is a fantastically cute kid!) I realized that I can break some new Immingpool ground and try some video footage. So, here goes. Let me know what you think of it, if the quality is decent, this could become a more frequent event!

For those of you who don't know, the kids playing with Ben and Ellie are Srey Lea and Natalie, Sinen and Somany's kids.

Random cute kid photos

After all the recent event-related photos, it seemed to be time for some random kid cuteness. So, here we go.

In the midst of a "mural" painting. Note that things start with a blurry Ellie...

...continue with a blurry Ben...

...and end up with a blue naked Ben.

Just in case his technique wasn't immediately obvious, we have documentation.

The kids both decided to take ballet lessons this year.

Ben gets some help with his positions. He loves this class!

Friends visting from Shanghai

Today we said goodbye to our friends Josefine, Chris, and their toddler Karel. These are the same folks we visited in Shanghai in September, and we had such a great time then and now that we greatly regretted waiting so long to get together again.


While they were here, we had a birthday celebration. Ben's birthday isn't until Friday, but Jen will be back in the US then, so we decided it would be best to celebrate a bit early. It was also Chris' birthday, but we celebrated differently for him.

Hunting for tiny toy dinosaurs in the yard with Ethan, Lucca, parents and siblings.

The cake (not cupcakes!) eagerly awaited by Ellie, Karel and Shelby.

For Chris we did things differently. His primary goals were seeing interesting things and eating good Khmer food. We took him to two of our favorite Khmer restaurants and ordered in from a third. The food taken care of, we went to Udong together and saw the stupas there. Ben and I had a bit of a rough time with the heat and climbing.

But the rest of the gang fared a bit better. In the end we all had fun, and were happy to have gone, though exhausted.

Wedding of the year

One of the interesting things that comes with Jen's job is contact with high-level government officials. Although in Cambodia there are certainly some reasons to be troubled by some officials, one of her most important contacts, the Minister of Commerce, has turned out to be a wonderful host and lovely man. After Jen went to a boat race in Kep at his invitation (work thing) he invited all of us (Jen, me, kids, and my parents) to his house for a Christmas party. We went, had a lovely time, and were very impressed by how friendly and gracious he was. Huge party, loud music, lots of food, but he had a table reserved for us, seated near people Jen knew, two tables from him, and both he and his wife came over to make sure we were having fun during it. Lovely.

We were then invited to the wedding of his youngest daughter. She was marrying the son of the deputy prime minister, so needless to say this was a big event. Jen and I went, and had a remarkably good time. Jen particularly enjoyed getting up and dancing. The event was outdoors, at night, and enormous (several thousand guests) so it was difficult to photograph well, but we got a few shots of the couple that might be enjoyable.

The bride and groom, with the bride's niece and another
unknown family member. They really seemed thrilled
to be getting married. Seriously.

The bride and the little girls doing a Khmer dance.
Jen and I joined in a few dances after this, and the
cameramen (one of whom is in this shot) loved getting
her up on the Jumbotrons blasting the event to
the full gathering.

Visiting the Essex

One of the cool things that we got to do around Christmas time was welcome a visiting Navy/Marine vessel, the USS Essex. This is an amphibious assault craft, meaning it can take over a country as long as it has a beach. It also carries a bunch of helicopters and jets, just in case some air support is needed. Big ship. Jen and I left the kids at home and spent a night to work the reception on board. Very cool.

A view of the helicopters on deck

The jets (Harriers) from a distance

A sense of the whole beast

A better shot of a Harrier, much closer

Those jets don't need a runway, for the record. That's why they aren't on an aircraft carrier. Some of the 3000 or so Marines on board just jump in, and they take off straight up. Land that way too. Hover if they feel like it.

The inside of the ship also contained a full level 2 trauma center. Very impressive.

Christmas!

I am ashamed to say that we are still so far behind that I haven't put up a single photo of Christmas with Grandma Beth and Grandpa Dick yet. So here we go, the first in what I hope to be a bunch of belated entries tonight.

No Christmas would be complete without some baking, and this year the kids decided to make Surprise Cookies (recipe from Cookie Monster himself) with Mom and Grandma. We will not give out the recipe to anybody who has not come to sample them in person, so don't bother to ask.


Part of our time was spent visiting the beach, in both Kep and Sihanoukville. This fantastic shot was taken in Kep, during a lovely picnic on the shore. Cambodians love their rest, and in a hammock before, during, or after a picnic seems to be the favorite time, so all picnic spots come equipped with at least one hammock.


Aunt Liz made her own gift bags this year, and the kids had a great time finding many different uses for them.

We didn't limit our time away to Kep and Sihanoukville. The shot below was taken on the bridge over the rapids near Kampot. One of many great but simple attractions that we've managed to get to in our time here.


Well, that's at least a few photos for now. More to come!

My first meme

Well, once again we haven't been very regular in blogging. Life has been busy. Nathan's parents were here for Christmas and we travelled to the southern coast, Nathan and I went to a celebrity wedding--the Deputy Prime Minister's son marrying the Commerce Minister's daughter, the kids have been saying cute things, Nathan and I have been working hard for two weekends in a row at going through old papers and getting our office in order, I taught Sunday School a couple times, I briefed FBI Robert Mueller on the drug situation in Cambodia yesterday (he's visiting Cambodia and Vietnam), and I have generally been working long hours.

In a few hours our friends Josefine and Chris from Shanghai will be arriving for the weekend. Yeah! We're having Ben's birthday party tomorrow. And he's chosen today to decide that he's officially done with diapers, not willing to do training pants, and ready for some (already very wet) big boy undies. What timing! It could be a messy weekend.

And I leave for the US on Thursday.

Hopefully, we'll have pictures from some of those things up on the blog sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I had a really interesting conversation with a colleague about social class, and she told me about a great book, which led me to an interesting blog, with this interesting meme, whatever that is. Anyhow, you're supposed to take a step forward (or in this case, bold) every statement that is true for you to show how many advantages you had in your background. Seemed like an interesting exercise, so here goes:


Father went to college
Father finished college (and law school)
Mother went to college
Mother finished college (and grad school)
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. (Boy, not only is my dad a lawyer, my sister is an adjunct professor!)
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (I would say same, but I never really thought about it then)
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home (Probably. We had lots. Mom/Dad, what do you think?)
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (Gymnastics, dance, plus t-ball, girl scouts, soccer, etc.)
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs*
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs*
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18 (sort of--for about 2 months so I could take a SAT achievement test in Chemistry and get in to Rice U. Set it up myself and don't think my parents really got it.)
Family vacations involved staying at hotels (not usually, but once when I remember we went to the Grand Canyon when I was a teenager)
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house (usually, except for a year or so in Chicago)
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home (yes, assuming you mean that they had a mortgage, not that they owned it free and clear)
You had your own room as a child (usually, though in Chicago I shared a room with one or both sisters, and when my family lived in TN there was no room for me when I came home from college!)
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (yes--I remember when there was a great airline sale and we got to fly to visit family in WI rather than driving. I was about 10 and it was a huge thrill. I took lots of photos on my little kodak disc camera.)
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (museums yes, art galleries, no)
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (although I also remember having to put things back at the grocery store when we didn't have the money to pay for everything we had chosen)