Wedding Anniversary

We've been married for 9 great years! Time sure does fly when you're having fun :)

Vaccinations

Poor us...today was our second round of vaccinations for living/traveling in Indonesia. We started our Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies vaccines a week ago. The Japanese Encephalitis vaccine for children wasn't available in Houston at the time we went to get our travel vaccines. We were going to forego the rabies vaccination but we were told that the rabies shots one gets after being bitten are often not readily available. Audrey loves animals and Mommy and Daddy have had a hard time keeping her away from stray cats. We have a friend whose daughter was bitten by a stray cat so she got the painful shots in the stomach.

The rabies vaccination is good for 10 years. The Japanese Encephalitis vaccine is effective for 4 years. Mommy is sure the kids feel like pin cushions. They dread each visit to the doctor. Audrey is by far the worst one when it comes to shots. She really puts on quite a show. The cost for vaccines is cheaper here than in the US. They were$60.00 per shot here so $600.00 total for the whole family. In the US it would have been roughly $200 per shot and for Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies it is each a series of 3shots. Still, even with the discounted rates, the cost for the vaccinations for our family of 5 is shall we say maybe more painful than the shots! We do get reimbursed eventually, but we have to pay for everything out of pocket first.

Now that we have a plethora of vaccines under our belts, we could probably travel anywhere in the world with the exception of Africa since we have not been vaccinated for yellow fever. Daddy did say he wanted to visit Africa sometime so maybe we will end up with yellow fever vaccinations at some point...not anytime soon though :)

Easter Activity

We took the kids to a member’s home this morning for a Primary Easter Activity.  The kids participated in all sorts of fun games. Then they had an Easter egg hunt.  Each kid got to find 10 eggs.  Afterwards, all the kids emptied out their plastic eggs so that the containers could be used again next year.  The girls ate all of their candy before we even left for home.

After the Easter egg hunt, the kids got to go swimming.  We had a fun morning.  The house we were at was beautiful!  It also had a lovely pool and a super nice big backyard.  The kids really loved running around and swimming. 

For lunch we stopped in at the Burger King at Plaza Semanggi.  Having a whopper really hit the spot.  The kids enjoyed the spicy chicken sticks and the french fries.  It was definitely not the healthiest lunch, but it certainly tasted good.  Mommy was convinced the whopper would not taste like a regular whopper one might get in the US, but Mommy was wrong.  It was great!

Lollipops!

Both Daddy and Joseph were off for Good Friday.  The kids have been asking for a long while now to go back to Lollipops, a play area on the top floor of Senayan City mall.  Mommy and Daddy decided that we would take the kids to Lollipops.  We got there early before it got too crowded.  It cost roughly $40 US for the entrance fee.  It was quite expensive last time, but the fees go up on weekends and holidays. Plus, they charge admission for parents even though adults don’t use the playground equipment.

The kids had a great time.  Audrey loves the fishing pond.  She got to take home 3 fish although sadly, one died before we even left Lollipops.  Audrey also had fun on the bungee.  The other kids weren’t really interested in jumping.  Katelyn enjoyed the fishing pond, but she didn’t catch any fish.  Joseph spent most of his time running around on the playground equipment.  Lollipops is an impressive place.  There is also a zip line that older kids can go down.  There are all sorts of rides in addition to the playgrounds.  There are also bounce houses and slides.  Kids really love Lollipops!

Panoramic views from our Apartment

So Mommy tried playing with the photomerge panorama option in Photoshop elements today.  It worked out pretty well.  Mommy took a series of pictures from 2 of the 5 balconies at our apartment.  Only 2 of the balconies have views of the city...the other balconies just have views of the other apartment building.

Our apartment is located in Senayan.  There are alot of nice malls and businesses in this area.  We are close to all sorts of shopping areas.  Mommy hates the traffic, but it is also nice to be relatively close to anything we need considering how terrible the traffic can be. Too bad Mommy is not that keen on shopping as Senayan could be considered a shopper's paradise.

Here are the panoramic images that are visible from our balconies. One image shows the Hotel Sultan to the left and Plaza Semanggi (a huge shopping mall) in the center of the image. Our apartment is located in the Hotel Sultan Complex. This is the view from the balcony in the master bedroom.  It's not a balcony we can spend much time on since that is where the air conditioning units are installed so it blows lots of nice hot air. It's also rather noisy.

The other panoramic image is from the balcony in the front living area.  It shows the huge stadium that is just in front of our apartment complex.  There are all sorts of events at the stadium so it is often noisy and of course the traffic is just a million times worse whenever something is going on over there.

Our new (to us) ride

Before we came to Indo, we thought we didn't need a car or driver. We were quite mistaken. After many frustrating taxi rides where the driver didn't speak English or know where we wanted to go, we decided we should rethink our transportation situation and buy a car. From cruising around on the internet, I knew that the Toyota Kijang was the most popular choice for expats with families. A new one was not in the cards since getting a loan here is not so easy for "bules" (foreigners). We also know we'll only be here a couple years, and then we'll have to sell it. We didn't want to take the depreciation hit, we started our search for a Kijang in good condition that we could pay cash for.

In the beginning, the Kijang started as a humble, straight panelled truck and people mover. Over years, it has been redesigned and improved to offer more features and a smoother ride. We didn't want one of the primitive, old ones, but quickly realized that Kijangs hold their value extremely well (much better than in the US). We wanted to get one from the most recent generation, but even a 2004 model was over the budget.

Luckily, some friends from church told us they were moving to India and had a Kijang for sale. It was a 2001 model with about 80,000 miles on it (and untold hours idling in traffic). He purchased the car from an older, Indonesian gentleman, and knew the car had been well maintained and never in a serious accident. And the price was right. Just one problem: Although it has seats for 7 (or more if you are Indo), it only had 4 seat belts. Since there are six of us, including a driver, we almost thought to continue looking elsewhere. Apparently the sellers were motivated as they offered to add more seatbelts before delivering the car. Perfect.

What sealed the deal is that he also had an experience driver, Hartoyo, that we could hire. He is an older Indo man that is a careful driver and also watches out for the kids he he's not driving. After some negotiations about the driver's compensation and transferring funds to the our new friend, we had a car and driver.

So far, so good. The only issue with the car is that the radio doesn't function, but that is not essential and can be fixed down the road.

Little Man is 6!

So Mommy is a little late in posting about Joseph turning 6 years old. Last wednesday Mommy and Daddy threw Joseph a little pizza party. Joseph wanted to invite some of his friends over to the apartment. Mommy was pleasantly surprised that everyone Joseph invited said they would come despite the horrific traffic in Jakarta.

Joseph said he was so happy! Mommy and Daddy were very glad. One of the things that Joseph was upset about when we left the U.S. was that he wouldn't be able to have a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's with all his friends. Unfortunately, there is no Chuck E. Cheese in Indonesia, but Joseph was happy with having a pizza party.

The kids all had a good time. It took poor Daddy several hours to arrive home with the pizza because of traffic. Some of his friends had an hour's drive to and from the party because of traffic so it was very sweet of them to come to the party and on a school night too!

Time sure flies. Mommy and Daddy have a hard time believing that our little guy is 6 years old! He is quite a complex little fellow, but Mommy and Daddy love their little man.

Here are some pics of Joseph through the years...