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26 days ago
Out of the mouths of babes. Sojo gets her picture taken a lot. I mean a lot. Her mother is always looking for pictures to document this child’s life and then there are the blog opps that she looks for. That doesn’t count when Popo and Gong Gong are around and we are putting flashes in that poor child’s face. But, who can resist this adorable face: She isn’t one for posing, but sometimes she gets funny and gives you one of her “funny faces”. Or she finds something she is excited about and wants to show you. Or when she is occupied licking off the spoon for birthday cake icing, she doesn’t notice getting her picture taken. But, sometimes we get a bit too close and she puts her hand out and says, “Stop…you are too close…you are going to poke my eye out.” Now, I am sure she has heard this from her parents when she has a toy in her hand or a friend has a toy in their hand and someone is concerned for someone’s safety. Obviously, our having a camera an inch from her ...
31 days ago
Well, we are sitting at Suvarnabhumi (Sue-wanna-poom) Airport in Bangkok, awaiting our flight to Hong Kong and then on to LA with an overnight there before heading out to Tucson the next morning. Very long day/night, arriving home on the morning of the 26th. It never gets easy to say goodbye…especially, when you are saying goodbye to a 3 year old. I have tried over the last 16+ years to overcome my “blues” as the day approaches and I have done a pretty good job. I shed only a few tears as the taxi drives away and I quickly stretch to get my head out the window that Ron has rolled down to wave one last wave. Many years ago, I promised myself that I would not dwell on what I do not have…I choose to celebrate what I do. And so, I celebrate and celebrate and celebrate some more the joy that comes when we are together. I offer thanks for the opportunity to be here when we can. I celebrate moments like this… At Erawan Falls near Kanchanaburi yesterday: Chasing “mariposas” or ...
34 days ago
We did a side trip with the E family and the newlyweds on their honeymoon. Matt and Cathy were celebrating their 1st or 13th anniversary…depends on how you look at it…13 years together on the 19th or 1 year married. They say it is 13. Whatever…we all enjoyed ourselves…leaving them alone on the evening of the 19th for a champagne toast delivered to them by the staff of Baan Krating (house of the red bull) and we were all in bed when they had dinner alone. Other than that…they were stuck with the rest of us for a good time in paradise on Phuket. We stayed two nights the Andaman Sea in Patong Bay. A little too “busy” for us, so we followed Matt and Cathy down to the tip of the bay to the jungle beach of Baan Krating. What a beautiful place. Little bungalows nestled in the jungle with beautiful ocean views and little patios to sit on and gaze upon the amazing views. This was our first night from the Andaman Beach Suites at dinner time. The ocean was just over those palm ...
40 days ago
Or, what’s a Catholic couple to do in a Buddhist country? Or, when in Rome, do as the Roman’s do. The other day, we decided to venture off on our own without a designated driver taking us like we did earlier in the week (I will blog on that one later). This time, we leave the compound of Nichada Thani and Samakee Gardens where the E family lives and walk into a Thai neighborhood where we “hail” a guy on a motorbike who then goes to the main street and brings a taxi to us. We tip him and get in and ask to be taken to the Nonthanburi Pier. We arrive at the pier and after a few questions, we figure out which “river taxi boat” to take us to the Grand Palace and Wat (temple) Pho. Along with a lot of locals we make our way down the Chao Phraya River…the main river in the city (I think) which takes you into Bangkok. It was a lovely morning and the coolness of the river as we sped down it felt good. We knew we were in for another hot and humid day. A couple of tourists on the ...
45 days ago
I vividly remember the day Tara suggested that we might want to consider being called Gong Gong and PoPo to our Chinese grand-daughter when she arrived. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. I had long thought that Nana and Papa were good names for us. Ron didn’t seem to really care one way or the other. Our friends who were or would be grand-parents had similar names and others, like Gigi and Grandy or Grandma and Papa or simply Grandma and Grandpa. The adoption process took so long that after much thought, I realized that it really wasn’t going to matter much what she called us…we would be happy with whatever, so I was prepared for PoPo. Or so I thought. The first time I heard her say PoPo my heart melted. Being PoPo is really special. There are not many PoPo’s and Gong Gong’s around Tucson. It gets even better. Last summer when she started her little, “PoPo?”, just staring at me and not saying anything else, I was gone, gone, gone. She has this little question in ...
