Java for 6

Monday, June 13, 2011

Post #220

I started this blog on August 28, 2006 as we were preparing to say goodbye to our Houston family and set out on an adventure to Indonesia. Two hundred and nineteen posts later, I am writing to bring an end to this chapter in our lives.

On June 2, 2011, Justin received a call from Houston to take on a new assignment there. And now only 11 days later, I sit at my computer desk typing my final farewell from Jakarta as the kids and I will board a plane back to Houston this evening. Justin will join us at the end of June. Everything has happened so fast that it is really hard to comprehend the change that is about to take place in our lives but I am comforted by a verse that Justin shared with our church congregation this past weekend...

"But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard." Isaiah 52:12

This move is all a part of God's plan. He has already gone before us to Houston and has our next big adventure waiting. And while things might seem to be moving fast for us, it is all a part of God's perfect timing.

We have been tremendously blessed by our time in Indonesia. We have had some amazing experiences and developed some lifelong friendships. In the coming months, I look forward to reflecting over our time here. God has done some amazing things in us, through us and around us. I will cherish the memories.

Now on to the next adventure...

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Do I Dare??

Yikes! Just saw that my last post was on December 1. Do I dare start blogging again? Is anyone still reading? Well, for my own sake and in order to preserve memories for the future...I will blog on!

A lot has happened since December 1. We traveled to the US to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with our families. We had an amazing time. Some highlights include...

Justin and I's mad dash through our favorite stores rounding up Christmas gifts; a Pappasitos feast for Christmas Eve; Christmas morning with fishing Grandpa, Grandma Sandie, Uncle Brett and Aunt Brittney; spending time with my extended family on Christmas Day; 7am day-after-Christmas sales at Target with Candace and Justin (Justin even brought us a Gingerbread Latte while we were shopping! You know how Justin feels about Starbucks. He was in the spirit of things - and Candace gave him a gift card to use!); ski trip to Squaw Valley, Tahoe with Justin's fam!; watching the kids' faces light up as they threw their first snowballs; hangin' with Nana and Papa in Galveston discussing our summer Disney plans

I really could go on and on. It was one of the best holidays ever!

Once returning to Jakarta, I set my sights on planning our Spring Break trip in March. (Which has become like a full time job!) With only a couple of months before the break, I had to get a move on. We debated back and forth between Egypt and New Zealand and finally settled on Egypt as Justin really wanted to go and we had some friends who were going to come along and share the adventure with us. So once we had our destination picked out, I started researching to figure out the details and logistics of the trip. After a week or so had passed, word got out about our trip and I found myself planning for a group of 18 people! So fun! In all of this, I think I found my second calling as a travel agent. Things were progressing and the details were starting to come together. We were all really looking forward to the trip. Until...

the unrest. If you have been watching the news in past few weeks, you have seen the protesting and, at times, choas that has broken out in Cairo. The first couple of days went by and we thought surely things would settle down and our trip could continue as planned. I became glued to FoxNews and cnn.com. I have learned a lot about Egypt and the Middle East through it all. Well a couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and the situation still continues. So, needless to say, Egypt was nixed. I have filed away all the research I did and know that it might come in handy in the future but for now I was back to square one.

So since our decision about a week ago to cancel Cairo, I have been spending my days (thanks to slow internet) putting together another trip to New Zealand. Our group is a little smaller for this one, only 11 now and maybe 13. Things are really coming together and it promises to be an adventure of a different kind. I am so looking forward to seeing all the natural beauty that New Zealand has to offer. Now just need to brush up on my photography skills so that I can capture some of it and share it with you all.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

2 Posts in One Day!!

Man, I must have extra time on my hands. I am doing 2 blog posts in 1 day!

I was going through pictures today and I came across this picture of my Christmas helpers. Just had to share. At this age the boys still like to help me put up Christmas decorations. Some more than others but I will take any help while it lasts :). With each passing year, they are able to help me with more tasks. This year they helped me put up the Christmas tree and then they decided to try their hand at "fluffing" the branches. I am kind of a perfectionist when in comes to perfect branch placement, a luxury you have when your tree is fake. But I gave them some pointers and let them go at it. It was just Isaac and Luke at first. They made their way around the tree and lets just say they had interesting technique. In order to let me keep helping and distract them while I fixed their handy work, I suggested that they fix the very bottom branches. Well, the kids took this to mean that they should climb under the tree and fluff from there. "Great!", I thought. They found this job very amusing and before I knew it, all 4 boys were beneath the tree working away probably for a good 15 minutes or so. There are not that many branches under there, so I don't know exactly what they were doing but having fun! Here was my view of the affair.

December is HERE!!

The countdown to Christmas has officially begun! Yay!!! I love this time of year. Christmas is probably my favorite holiday. Shopping, decorations, traditions, time with family, good food, Christmas carols, giving gifts, celebrations with friends, candlelight church services and, most importantly, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ...what could be better!

And this year we are also looking forward to a Christmas in the US. In just a few weeks, we will be boarding the plane to head back to Texas. We all can't wait to see our family and celebrate the holidays together. This year we are even taking a ski trip with Justin's family. So fun! My kids have never even touched snow before! I am sure they will be snowball making experts by the end of the trip.

Now to rewind a little for an update...

Soccer season has ended and we are in the midst of baseball now. Jack is playing T-Ball for the Texas Rangers and the triplets are playing machine pitch for the San Francisco Giants. Justin is coaching the Giants as well. It has been an exciting season so far (when the games/practices have not been cancelled due to rain!). Everyone is having fun.

The boys are all wrapping up their first semester at school. The triplets are taking a field trip to the Insectarium (Oooooo!) this week and Jack's class is having a workshare on Friday. Then we have the annual Festival of Lights concert next week. Always lots to do before the holiday break!

You know, I was just sitting here thinking I never posted about our trip to Universal Studios in Singapore. Man, I am behind. Maybe I will get some pictures up from that soon.

Well, here's wishing you all a very merry December!

Friday, November 12, 2010

What's On Your List?

Last Christmas, our family received an Apple TV as a gift. Since then our kids have learned how to use it to play music on our TV. Jack has even become a master at searching through our song library to find the music he likes to listen to.

So after almost a year of owning the Apple TV and the kids persistent use of it, Justin finally decided that the kids could use their own playlist so they didn't have to keep searching through all the songs for their favorites. So they worked together to come up with the "Kids" playlist. I thought I would include it here as you might get a kick out of what they picked. I have listed them in order of "number of plays" with the most popular being first, down to the least popular.

1. If You Are Gonna Play in Texas - Alabama
2. Ohio (Come Back to Texas) - Bowling for Soup
3. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
4. Rock Monster - Veggie Tales
5. Super Mario Bros Theme - Ringtone Mania
6. Deep In The Heart of Texas - Moe Bandy
7. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
8. Aggie War Hymn - Fighin' Texas Aggie Band
9. Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler) - Alabama
10. The National Anthem - Fightin' Texas Aggie Band
11. When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Fightin' Texas Aggie Band
12. The Devil Went Down to Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band
13. Happy Jack - The Who
14. Mexico - Citizen Lane
15. Super Mario Bros - Andrew Chae

Friday, October 08, 2010

An Update

So after a little prodding from my bro-in-law and husband, I have decided to give you all an update on things in the Indonesia Bethancourt household.

First of all, let me apologize for the appearance of our blog. Since I have not looked at the actual blog lately, I did not know that my cute background had disappeared, again. That is now on my list of things to do after I get this post finished.

So what has been going on around here...

All 4 boys are smack in the middle of soccer season now. The triplets are playing for Team Italy in the under 9 division and Jack is suited up for Team Netherlands in the under 7 division. The boys are all having a great time playing. The triplets are enjoying the challenge of more heated competition in their new age division. Jack is enjoying finally being on his first official team. And Jack has really surprised us with his soccer talents. He is one of the youngest and smallest on the field but he has great field awareness and doesn't shy away from getting in the action with the bigs guys. His talents have even led him to be one of the top scorers from his team and in just 5 games, he has scored 6 goals.

This weekend is baseball tryouts. It is nonstop around here! The baseball season starts as soon as soccer ends at the beginning of November. I know Coach Justin is ready!

The boys have also been busy practicing for this year's USA UN Day performance. This year the USA students at their school will be dressing up as football players and cheerleaders to share America's love of football through cheers, skits, song and dance. It is a high-energy 3 minute performance and promises to be a memorable show. I will try to catch some pictures and video to share. It has made for a busy couple of weeks, fitting in these practices with our regular schedule of sports and after school activities but it will be worth it. One more week to go!

Which reminds me...we sure do miss going to our Aggie football games! Our hope now is that they Aggies can make a bowl game during the Christmas holidays that we can go see. Wouldn't that be a great Christmas present. Poor Jack. At 5 years old, he hasn't been to 1 football game!! And the triplets haven't been since they were 2 or something. Crazy!

As well as carting my kids around to all their activities, I have been enjoying a new Bible study called One In A Million by Priscilla Shirer. I am going through it with a wonderful group of ladies and it has been a huge blessing. Life changing even!!! If you haven't done this study and your womens' group is looking for something to do, I would definitely recommend this one.

Well, I hate to write and run but I need to go get ready for my Shanghai afternoon with my friends. Hopefully, I will keep up the updates more often. Still waiting to write about my break through golf game when it comes...I had a good one this week so we'll see!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pictures Posted

Just an update to say that I added pictures to the PHUKET! post. So take a look.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

PHUKET!!

We have just returned from another fun vacation to Phuket! More adventures to tell about...

We left Jakarta on Saturday around lunch time and landed in Phuket at about 2:30pm, thanks to the new direct flight from Jakarta that AirAsia started flying since our last trip to Phuket in March 2008. Yea!! We were at our hotel shortly after and still had the afternoon to do some swimming before sundown. Since we had such a great time at our hotel on our previous trip to Phuket, we decided to stay at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club again. It was just as fun as we remembered and we quickly made ourselves at home.

The biggest adventure of our trip took place on Sunday. We joined the John Gray Sea Canoe staff on their tour titled "Hongs By Starlight".

Since the tour didn't start until the afternoon, we spent the morning at the pool and the kids even took a break from swimming to do a little Batik t-shirt making. They had fun painting their shirts and were very proud of their creations.

The bus picked us and 2 other couples up at around 12:30pm and we headed to the dock to meet the boat. it was a double decker. The bottom had a kitchen and a place to store all the infatable kayaks we would use for our tour and the top carried us and the other 30 or so passengers joining on our trip.

From the docks we took a slow cruise to a small island off the coast of Phuket for our first stop. Since the ride took about an hour, we were treated to our first meal of noodles, spring rolls and fruit. Plus, all the soft drinks you could drink :). You bet the boys were excited about this! We were also given the low down by our boy, Sonny, about what to expect on the tour and some safety tips. We were also paired up with the Thai guide who would be paddling our kayak for us. Since we were the only family on board, they took extra special care of us. So Justin, Luke and Alex were paired with the head guy, Sonny. Jack, Isaac and I got a burly Thai guy named Pung.

First stop...Hong Island. Turns out the word "hong" is Thai for lagoon. At this island, we would paddle (or should I say our guide would paddle) our kayak through a cave into a shallow lagoon area in the middle of the island. Once inside, we caught a glimpse of the craziest little creatures. I don't know what their technical name is, but we called them walking fish. Yes, did you know fish could walk? As the tide rises and falls, so does the water level in the lagoon. At low tide, the lagoon may have no water in it at all. So these little fish creatures swim in the water but then can use their fins to "walk" on the muddy sea bottom which is exposed when the water level goes down. Craziest thing I ever saw...walking fish! So they can live in and out of the water. If someone knows the real name for these little guys, please fill me in.

We left Hong Island and headed to another island while being fed meal #2, banana muffins, fruit, coffee and tea. A smaller meal for a shorter ride but I could definitely get the feeling that they wanted to make sure we were WELL fed!

Second stop...The Bat Cave. Here we paddled deep into a cave where insect eating bats live. With only a flashlight to light our way, we manuveured through the cave and spotted the bats hanging from the ceiling.

I think we might have seen one other cave in this area and then paddled around the outside of the island to meet the boat and have a little free time. During free time, Alex, Jack and I went for a swim and Justin paddled Luke and Isaac around in the kayak.

The next part of the program would take place after dark, so while we waited for the sun to go down, our Thai guides taught us how to make some floating flower boats (part of a Thai cultural tradition). The kids had fun folding the banana leaves. It was like making paper airplanes to them.
Next was dinner, a Thai feast...Tom Yom soup, grilled shrimp skewers, chicken kebabs, stir fry vegetables, a chicken and peanut dish, grilled fish and some special fried rice. YUMMY! We all chowed down. For dessert, we had a piece of birthday cake as one of the other passengers on the boat was celebrating their birthday.

Finally it was dark and we headed back out in our kayaks, flashlight in hand, to go explore one more cave and float our flower boats in the water. The water level had risen by this point, so we had to do a lot of ducking inside the cave. Once we got to the middle of the cave, our guide asked us to turn off the flashlight and run our hands along the top of the water. What did we see in the total darkness?! Tiny "fireflies" dancing in the water! It was the phosphorescent glow of the plankton in the water and it was amazing! For the rest of the time out on the kayaks, the boys couldn't keep their hands out of the water! They definitely saved the best for last!

We ventured the rest of the way through the cave to a lagoon where we lit the candles on our flowers boats and set them in the water, along with the other 10-15 other kayaks on our tour. It was neat.

And so ended the tour and we headed back to the docks after returning to the boat. It was a great day out on the water!!

After all the excitement of Sunday, Monday we just chilled at the hotel, hanging out at the pool and the beach. Not a bad way to relax :).

Tuesday was a rainy day. It pretty much drizzled the entire day so we stayed inside for the morning and then decided to take a taxi and head south to the Patong Beach area. Our hotel was on the north end of Phuket in an area that is kind of secluded and quiet, away from all the major developments. Patong is where all the action is at or so they say. We didn't do a whole lot of exploring since it was raining outside. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then checked out the local mall.

Our last full day in Phuket, Wednesday, we stayed at the hotel again. It was a beautifully, perfect last day. The weather was great. We had fun at the pool and beach. I had a $13, 1 hour massage by the beach. (No trip to Thailand is complete without massage by a big Thai lady!) And Justin and I enjoyed a dinner out while the kids went to Movie Night at the kids' club. A great way to end our trip.

No snorkeling this time :(. Not the best time of year to do that. With the rainy season, the seas can be kind of rough so it is kind of a gamble to schedule a snorkeling trip. Guess we will just have to go back :)!

Now we are back in Jakarta with a few more days off before Justin heads back to work and the kids back to school. It is the Idul Fitri holiday here in Indonesia, a Muslim celebration. All the locals head back to their villages to be with family. So the town is very quiet. We are without staff. And I am not sure how many places are open for business. Another adventure...