pak sate!

we love sate.  sate is chicken on a stick with a delicious peanut sauce.  we found a guy that makes it near our house and it's probably our favorite place to eat as a family.  it's fast, extremely casual (obviously) and delicious so the kids eat happily.  win, win.  and, there are no options.  it's just chicken and rice.  4 portions chicken, 3 portions rice and 2 sprites every time.

the other big win is that now we know the guy and he loves the kids, especially luke.  luke pretends to make sate all of the time.  he sees a cereal box or cookie tray and automatically starts waving it (like the fans pictured below) and says "make sate."  pak sate, as luke calls him, sees luke coming and runs in the back to get an extra fan for luke to use.  it's so sweet.  here is luke helping him make our dinner.

yummy sate!

 after dinner luke even got to sit in pak sate's chair and fan the chicken.  he was so excited!  oddly enough, this little hole in the wall is going to be one of the things we miss most about living in malang.  praying we quickly find another sate place near our new house in surabaya!  :)

gak mati, yesus hidup!

mary had her little school performance last week.  it was really cute to see her up there with her little friends... even though she hardly whispered her "lines."  but, she did have some gusto when she was singing her song!  "gak mati, yesus hidup... ya hidup di dalam ku" was the sound track of our house for the last few weeks... luke even learned the song and motions with her.  a direct translation: not dead, jesus lives. ya, lives inside of me" 

mary and her buddy eli had their performance part together.  they mixed colors together... mary was silent and eli was the talker.  here he was saying "come on mary, say it!" 

danny snapped this photo of the kids and their moms posing for the class picture.  don't we blend right in?  ;)

i watch him, i promise.

luke often makes buddies when we are out and about.  his primary criteria for a friend is whether or not that individual is in possession of a ball... and is willing to share it.  in the case below, this little boy was sharing a ball with luke and they played together for a good 45 minutes.  it was really cute.  then they went to the playground and the boy took really good care of his new little buddy, luke.  

people here are generally more protective of their children playing... independence is not a value here.   this evening i stood on the ground and watched luke as his little "protector" followed him around.  if luke was on the grass heading towards the stairs the kid would immediately look at me like, "aren't you going to do something?!?" and then run after luke to assist him.  it was so funny to me.  luke can climb the stairs by himself.  i wasn't worried.

i also had luke on the swing, and his buddy was right there with us.  the boy kept reminding me not to push luke too hard because he might fall (it was a big kid swing).  i just thought it was so funny and cute and such picture of the different cultural ways to view safety of kids.  the odd thing about this is that there are very, very few children that wear helmets when they ride motorcycles here.  to me, that is a safety issue worth worrying about.  don't' worry, my kids always wear helmet when they are on the motorcycle... and they are in their five-point harness carseats too.  :)

also today i went to the mall with the kids and our babysitter ended up coming along (miscommunication in timing so the kids were too excited about the mall to change the plan on them... so we all went).  :)  every time luke would get near an escalator i could see Ibu Sri's blood pressure rising.  she kept saying, "i'm scared, i'm scared, lisa."  she was terrified that luke was going to slip when he walked on and off.  i was right beside him incase he did, but he didn't want anyone to hold his hand.  he was fine.  it was just so funny to see her fear build every time and then every time he successfully rode the escalator she was so proud and giddy.  

i watch my kid, i promise. :)  

MARY, photos of our four year old

soon i will write an update about the wonderful and quirky things about mary... but for now, here are her four year old photos.  :)  mary, we adore you, our beautiful girl!

instagram and sideways trash truck

here's the day to day of our family lately... 

mary and luke in the front seat together... that was a bad decision though it was for about 3 minutes.  luke enjoys pushing her head with his.  

underdog on the swing!  

mary's class field trip

my little helper, with her baby in the cart (of course)

my girl... love her.

family basketball time.  

afternoon finger painting

luke loves to wash the dishes!  he can easily be there for 15 minutes.  :)  

mary telling her "donkey" that she has come to fight in the name of the God of Israel.  :)

luke is ready for a little ride.  he can finally keep his head upright with his helmet on.   :)

ready for a swim in mary's new hello kitty goggles

downton abbey.... the amazing thrasher film!  and, can you tell me when the golden age of thrasher films was!?!  didn't know there was one.  

lastly, here is a photo to show the craziness of the streets here.  usually it's pretty easy to follow the flow of traffic here... motorcycles can be anywhere, people don't usually look before turning onto a main street and just follow the car in front of you (not the rules).  i'm totally used to it and feel very comfortable driving here.  but, when some kind of wreck or road damage happens here (there are OFTEN large potholes)... well, it's just handled very differently than it would be in the States. photo example above.  this is a two lane road that we travel on everyday... just down the street from our house.  to the left is the area garbage sorting station, and then big trucks come and take it away or something.  well, one of those big trucks tipped over in the middle of the road a few days ago.  this is what happened.  cars coming toward me snuck to the very small space to the right and continued driving.  cars going my direction just drove off the road, onto the garbage sorting area and also continued driving.  as you can see, the little black honda couldn't make is over the ledge so random men just pushed it right over.  no police, no one stopped traffic or tried to help get the truck out of the road... people just continued as if there wasn't a massive truck laid out sideways across both lanes of traffic and trash all over the road.   anyways, there's a little glimpse into the streets here.  

oh and i meant to take a picture of the hole on our road a few days ago.  unfortunately it's already fixed.  all of the sudden there was a massive hole in the street that clearly continued under our neighbors driveway.  it would have been really dangerous for a motorcycle.  but, don't worry.... they put a piece of bamboo in the hole sticking a few feet up and put an empty potato chip bag onto so that everyone would beware.  some traffic officials might think that's crazy... i prefer to think that indonesians are very resourceful.  :)

happy birthday mary!

mary's big day started out by going to school.... which she was super excited about because she knew i going to bring cookies at snack time.  i came in just in time for their little celebration of mary.  it was really sweet.  

they all sang happy birthday and mary's teacher prayed for her.  i love mary's school. 

that evening we gave mary her present... a "new" bike!  she was so excited.  here she is on her first ride with danny.  then our team came over for dinner... and we forgot to sing happy birthday to mary.  but, everyone said it.  :)  

then today we took mary to the international school gym to let her practice on her bike some more (the street in front of our house is half rocks and full of pot holes... she can't really ride on it).  she did so great and LOVES her new bike!

then today we had a few of her girl friends over for lunch and playing.  it was pink theme.  i realize every time i do something like this... well, it just not my thing.  :)  i also realized that she didn't care at all that the table was color coordinated and i made pink sugary popcorn.  note to self... order pizza and sit on the floor next year.  

mary and her cute little friends 

confession: we forgot to sing happy birthday again!  so, we never sang it to her this year.  luckily she didn't notice... though this picture kind of looks like she's mourning the fact that there is no candle on her cupcake.  in reality, she was exhausted and needed to nap (which of course she never did today)... she was just "be right back" as i call it.  

i'm going to write more about my wonderful four year old soon... but for now, here's the record of her celebration!  we love you, mary!!!

i love boston.

i have nothing new to say about the events that happened at the boston marathon yesterday, but i feel like i must mention it.  while living in boston, the boston marathon was one of my favorite days of the year.  i've never run the whole thing (but i intend to one day) but have run many miles helping friends accomplish an amazing goal.  it makes me so sad for the runners, spectators and the many people whose lives will be forever changed because of these terrible events. 

it makes me long for our Savior to return... to conquer sin and death, to bring His people to the new heavens and new earth, and to restore all things... including the many broken hearts and bodies.  praying that the God of all comfort will meet the many people hurting today and that they will know His presence and peace that is beyond comprehension.  

to end on a note to celebrate boston, my favorite city on earth.

i love boston because...

the life and activity that surrounds the charles river

the friendliness of people in difficult events

the short talk and strong accents of locals

the church culture that longs to show Jesus to their city

the amazing restaurants

the free events that the city holds for its residents

the boston common and everything about it

the red sox, celtics and patriots

the way the people love their city

the four seasons (though winter is too long)

trader joes and two buck chuck

community of faith christian fellowship

the way neighbors help during blizzards

driving on storrow drive

the weekend hay market

the parcel 7 parking garage

my dear, life long friends that live there

the running community and many road races

and lastly, that i got to wear winter clothing  :)