One Month!

We have been posting pictures to our Project 365 for one whole month!  I have to admit it is a bit challenging sometimes.  Tonight for instance, I took a shower and was ready to go to sleep when I remembered that I hadn’t posted today’s pictures.  I am pretty sleepy and not feeling like blogging tonight but here I am doing it anyways.

Today I took Katelyn to preschool.  I did a bit of shopping at Pondok Indah Mall.  I bought some rolling duffel bags for an upcoming trip.  I also bought some new make-up.  Tonight we also met with someone to look at some investment options.  The kids entertained themselves pretty well during the meeting.  They are really good when they want to be. 

Joseph: #31/365

Cool wood carvings.

 

Julia: #31/365

You don’t want to know how old most of my make-up is…lol.  It is time to start replacing some things.  I broke down and visited the Revlon counter at the department store today.  Surprisingly, I found the prices were similar to U.S. prices and that some of the make-up is even locally produced in Bekasi.

The Pizza Man

Today was Wednesday again.  I taught preschool in the morning and then had to head over to the school for Joseph’s soccer practice.  On the way home from soccer practice, Joseph and I both took pictures of the Senayan traffic circle. This crazy intersection is where I spend a good deal of my life.  In the middle of the circle is a statue of a muscular man carrying a dish of flames.  It is supposed to be a tribute to youth.  The statue and flame are supposed to represent Indonesian youth and their “never ending spirit to serve the country.”  Apparently everyone calls it the Pizza Man since the dish looks like a hot pan pizza…lol.

 

Joseph: #30/365

The flaming pizza man.

 

Julia: #30/365

View of the traffic around the Senayan traffic circle.  The base of the Pizza Man is in the upper left hand corner.  There are fountains around the statue that sometimes function and sometimes not.

Japanese Restaurant

I didn’t take Katelyn to preschool this morning since I had a lunch date with some Taiwanese friends.  We went to Sumiya Japanese Restaurant at STC Senayan.  I had no idea there was a nice restaurant in that building.  The food was really good.  We had a good time. 

We also had a fun evening.  After dinner we got snacks at the little food mart in our apartment complex.  Then we went up to the 23rd floor to look at the view and eat our snacks.  After that we took the kids to the indoor play area.  Joseph and Doss played ping pong.  Then the kids played Hide and Seek with Doss.  I was an iPad junkie this evening.

 

Joseph: #29/365

These are the city lights.

 

Julia: #29/365

The lunch I ordered at the Japanese restaurant.  I got a tofu hot pot, some other kind of tofu dish, and a chicken dish (not pictured).  It was yummy!

ASA

The school’s official after school activities (ASA) started today.  Every Monday from here on out I will be going up to the school to take Joseph his cello.  After cello class, both the kids have gymnastics. 

 

Joseph: #28/365

On the way home I saw these three towers that were so awesome!

 

Julia: #28/365

Audrey really wanted a new leotard.  The ladies that help run the gymnastics program at school had ordered a shipment of leotards from the U.S.  Audrey picked out one that she really liked.  It was a bit pricey, but  I think it suits her…our wild child.

Sunday Surprise

Normally traffic is not too bad on Sundays.  Today as we were headed home from Church, we found ourselves stuck in traffic for quite sometime.  It took us about an hour to inch our way home.  We saw Policemen blocking cars from the toll road from exiting onto the street.  Then we saw buses weaving in and out of the bus lane.  Then all the cars from the leftmost lanes started veering towards the right.  I thought maybe there was an accident.  Well, we finally figured out that all that traffic was due to protesters that were blocking at least one full lane.  I am all for free speech, but I don’t think they should be allowed to block a major road.  Traffic is bad enough as it is without these little surprises.

Other than having some problems getting home, we had a good Sunday.   Joseph gave a nice talk in Primary this morning.  Singing time went a lot better than I anticipated so I was glad.  The kids seemed to really enjoy the song review I had prepared.  We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight and they shared a message with us about the Restoration.  Then Doss and the kids played Blokus for awhile as I was cleaning up from dinner.  It was a pretty good day.

 

Joseph: #27/365

I played this game with my family. This is what it looked like at the end of the game.

 

Julia: #27/365

These protestors are what caused the huge traffic jam as we were coming home from Church. 

Full Day

We had a pretty relaxing morning.  The kids let us sleep in til about 8am.  Around 11 am, we dropped the girls off for a birthday party.  Then we headed to Gandaria City mall to have lunch at a place called May Star.  My friend said they had really good and reasonably priced dim sum.  I had been wanting to check it out.  After lunch we met up with the birthday party at Lollipops, a play place inside Gandaria City mall.  The kids played all afternoon.  We stayed longer than I had anticipated.  Afterwards we went and looked around a shop called Toys Kingdom. It was a huge toy store.  The kids each got to pick out a small toy.  I was tempted to buy myself a Monchichi…these cute little monkey looking stuffed dolls.  I had one when I was little and I just loved it.  Sadly I lost it at some point so seeing the dolls just brought back lots of memories.  They were crazy expensive though so I decided against getting one.  The kids were pretty happy with their toys.  Joseph picked out some small legos and Audrey and Katelyn each picked out a My Little Pony.  We thought we were making good time getting back to the apartment until we were told that the through road was closed and we had to take a detour.  All in all, we still made it back in a decent amount of time.  You never know what the traffic will be like in Jakarta.  The kids were bushed and fell asleep as soon as we put them down around 8pm…too much fun!

Joseph: #26/365

We saw Chinese New Year decorations at the mall.

 

Julia: #26/365

You never know what you might see in Jakarta.  On the way home we saw a bunch of young guys packed in an old Kijang.  There were probably more people riding on the outside of the car than on the inside…lol.  I think they were heading to the horrible heavy metal concert that is playing at the stadium.

Stayed Home

Katelyn and I stayed home pretty much all day today. I thought about going grocery shopping, but I decided I could do that tomorrow.  I just did work around the house…cleaning, laundry, etc.   I also finally finished the leotard that Audrey wanted me to make her. The kids had art class this afternoon.  Today’s theme was animals.  The teacher tried to show them how to sketch out the animal using basic shapes and then adding in the details.

Everyone else has bailed on the art class.  I would feel badly about having the kids quit too so I think we are going to continue.  I feel like the teacher is very good and patient with the kids.  Plus, Audrey and Joseph seem to enjoy art.  After art class we went to the monthly apartment party and had some Indonesian food.  They had soto ayam and some miscellaneous finger foods.

 

Joseph: #25/365

I had art class today and this is a picture I drew.

 

Julia: #25/365

I made Audrey a shiny leotard as she requested. She said she really wanted a pretty leotard for gymnastics class.  All I could find when I was in the U.S. were plain ones.   I made the leotard from a shirt that my mom gave me. It was a cute shirt, but I think it is a super cute leotard on my Audrey. It took me a little while to make since I had to hand sew it. 

No School

Today was an Indonesian holiday so Doss was off work and the kids did not have school.  In the morning we took a walk around the grounds on our complex.  Audrey wanted to look for tadpoles and caterpillars.  We found a small frog but no tadpoles and no caterpillars.  Later in the morning we decided to go bowling at Pasaraya.  Sadly, the bowling alley was no longer in operation.  We did a little shopping and had lunch at Burger King.  Then we decided to take the kids to an indoor play area but it was booked for a birthday party and was not open to the public.  We found a little arcade place downstairs and took the kids there.  The kids had fun, and we even took a few prizes home. 

 

Joseph: #24/365

We found two dragonflies in weird poses.

 

Julia: #24/365

Katelyn found a pretty pink flower on our walk. She loves flowers!

Rain

It started pouring down rain as I was leaving to meet Joseph and Audrey at the school since Joseph has soccer practice on Wednesdays.  Doss needed to go to the main office this afternoon so the driver just dropped me off at the school.  Doss was supposed to come pick us up after he went to the office.  Well, the roads apparently were all like parking lots so Doss couldn’t make it back to the school.  The kids and I tried unsuccessfully to hail a taxi.  This always seems to happen when it rains.  We decided to walk back to the apartment.  The walk itself isn’t that long, but it is a bit of an obstacle course to try and cross some crazy intersections and also to avoid all the potholes, pitfalls, people, vendors, etc. that are on the sidewalks.  You also have to be cautious of the crazy motorcyclists that will ride on the sidewalks and sometimes going against the flow of traffic.  We had to avoid one such nut on a motorbike on the way home.  An Ojek (motorcycle taxi) stopped to see if we wanted a ride.  I politely declined.  Taking one of those things is like a death trap.  You see them weave in and out of traffic.  I would be crazy to get on one, especially with 2 kids in tow.  No thank you!  Poor Joseph collapsed as soon as we got in the door.  Audrey was whining the last little bit til we reached the apartment.  I was just glad to be home.

 

Joseph: #23/365

This is a gate to the stadium near our apartment.

 

Julia: #23/365

The kids were really hungry so we stopped and got some chicken bao from a roadside vendor.  The kids have totally gone native…lol.

Les Miserables

I have been dying to see the new Les Miserables movie that opened in the U.S. on Christmas day.  It was playing at the Premiere Theater in Plaza Senayan so Doss took me to see it today.  I totally loved it. The kids were sad they couldn’t go to the movies, but I made them cheese pizza for dinner so I think that made them feel a little better.

 

Joseph: #22/365

This is our new iPad.

 

Julia: #22/365

Since I dragged him to a movie that is basically a musical, I guess it’s only fair that Doss is comfortable.  Here he is looking all nice and relaxed in a big comfy recliner.  He even ordered baked banana with ice cream.

Forgot

 

Joseph and I took pictures for the blog yesterday.  I just forgot to post them.

Joseph: #21/365

This is black pepper beef.

 

Julia: #21/365

We had a couple of errands to run after gymnastics.  We stopped at Rice Bowl for dinner.  Audrey ordered roasted duck.  She really loved that duck!  In the picture, it’s all gone.  She asked for more duck after I snapped the picture.

Jakarta

As much as I complain about the traffic here and various frustrations related to living here, overall, I love living in Jakarta.  I do miss my friends and family back in the U.S.  In fact, over Christmas I was feeling quite homesick.  We found out recently that the job transfer to Duri is not going to happen.  Doss asked the kids what they wanted to do…stay in Jakarta longer or go back to Texas.  All 3 kids said they wanted to stay.  I was surprised since Joseph and Audrey especially have been quite vocal at times about wanting to move back to Texas.  Doss and I said that we would think and pray about what we should do if the Duri transfer didn’t happen.  Today we both  got impressions at Church that we should stay.  Doss said that he had been thinking and praying about it and just had that impression today.  I had been thinking and praying about it but was really having a lot of conflicting emotions.  Today as I was waiting for choir to let out, I was standing in the hallway.  I wasn’t really thinking about anything and I just had this thought with a strong accompanying emotion of how much I love Indonesia. As the Indonesian members came out of their meetings, almost all the ones that passed by me shook my hands and said hello. I love how polite, friendly, humble, and content the people are. Despite their poverty or any other difficult circumstances, most of them are happy. It just strengthened that feeling that I love living here and I love the people.  As crazy as it sounds, I think I fit in better here than I have anywhere else I have lived.  So, the short of it is, I think we will be staying a little longer. 

Joseph: #20/365

This is the sunset today.

 

Julia: #20/365

The Pancoran statue is what we see as we are driving to Church each Sunday.  Apparently it was commissioned by the first President Sukarno to represent “glory in aviation.” He had hoped that Indonesia would develop a sophisticated aeronautical industry. The bronze statue is 11-meters and points toward where Jakarta’s first airport was located.  A friend of mine brought me an article about the landmarks in Jakarta which is how I know anything about the statue at all.  Before, I just thought it looked like a gargoyle. 

Lazy Saturday

Since Joseph's soccer game was cancelled due to flooding, we were able to have a nice, lazy Saturday. It was nice not to have to be anywhere. We slept in until 7:30am! Mostly we hung out at the apartment. Later, Doss took the kids out to play tennis while I took a nice nap! Once in awhile, it's nice to have a day that's not too busy!

Joseph: #19/365

This is the camera that I use to take my pictures.

Julia: #19/365

I've been craving shrimp brochette for awhile now. We made some to go with lunch today. The jalapenos were a bit spicy, but overall, it was yummy!



No School

School was cancelled today because of the flooding in Jakarta.  It actually did not rain much today so hopefully the water will begin to subside.  Joseph’s weekend soccer game was also cancelled because the fields are flooded.

Today was a fun day for the kids.  We had lunch with Doss.  Then Joseph had a classmate over for a playdate.  We played inside and then went outside and then came back in.  The kids played bey blades, nerf guns, soccer, wii, some made-up zombie game, etc.  It was a fun day but Audrey and Katelyn especially were really tired so there was a lot of crying and a few tantrums at the end of the day. 

 

Joseph: #18/365

This is my big pillow I got for Christmas.

 

Julia: #18/365

While we were outside, I tried practicing taking some action shots while the boys played soccer.  I decided I better not quit my day job to become a sports photographer…lol. The pictures were all really awful so I ended up deleting most of them.  The girls were playing with sticks and running back and forth building a little stick house.  I took this picture of Katelyn as she came towards me.  She is so beautiful!  I love my little Nunu, but I am sad that she is growing so quickly.  She is definitely not a baby anymore. 

 

Flooding

It has rained pretty much day and night for several days in a row.  Much of the city of Jakarta is flooded.  Today a lot of businesses were closed.  I probably should not have ventured out today in retrospection.  However, at the time I left the house, I did not know that the city was essentially flooded.  The last 2 years, the rainy season was pretty mild.  Apparently every 5 years, there is a heavier than normal rainy season.  The last one was in 2007 where heavy rains caused widespread flooding and 350,000 people were displaced from their homes.

Joseph:#17/365

My castle is finished!

 

Julia: #17/365

This is definitely an awful picture.  My excuse it that it is hard to take pictures from the backseat of a moving vehicle.  This is a picture of Jalan Sudirman.  Normally it is packed with cars and motorcycles.  Traffic is even worse when there is rain.  I expected Sudirman to be jam packed today, and I expected to be stuck in traffic for hours.  I was in Kemang when the school notified me that there was early dismissal today. I was sure it would take hours to get back home.  There was not much traffic in Kemang and when we got to Jl. Sudirman, instead of being packed, it was almost completely empty.  The reason was that most people were not able to get to work because of the flooding.  We feel very blessed that there was no flooding in the area where we live.  Just a little further up the road, the whole area was flooded.

Long Day

Wednesdays are pretty long days for me.  I teach preschool in the morning and then have to turn around and head up to school for the rest of the afternoon.  Joseph has soccer practice every Wednesday.  Today traffic was pretty bad because of some labor protests. Jalan Sudirman was totally congested.  It took almost a half hour to get to the school.  Normally it takes less than half that amount of time.  Luckily, the roads were pretty clear on the way home from soccer practice so it did not take long to get home.

Joseph: #16/365

This is our school tree. We call it the Pattimura Tree.

 

Julia: #16/365

Katelyn was outside on the balcony blowing bubbles after we got home from soccer practice.  I like this picture because I think it shows how excited she is about the bubbles…simple pleasures.

Rain

It was raining already when we got up this morning. We all slept in later than usual because it was so much darker than normal. It pretty much rained off and on all day. It was pouring down rain when I walked the kids over to a friend's apartment for their weekly art class. Their teacher is a really nice Indonesian man. This week the teacher had them draw a cityscape.

Joseph: #15/365

This is my drawing I made today.

 

 

 

 

Julia: # 15/365

Joseph and Audrey have art class with 2 other kids from our apartment complex. 

Virus

I guess the virus is making its round through the family. Joseph vomited early this morning so he stayed home from school.  He seems to be better, but his stomach is still bothering him some.  He said he wanted to make up his own game.  I gave him some cardstock, paper, and markers and he went to it.  He even wrote up instructions for how to play the game.  We played it for FHE.  It was fun.  Today was Monday so I normally go up to school to meet the kids.  I met up with Audrey after school let out. We went to the school library and checked out some new books.  Then she got dressed and went to gymnastics. Later this month Joseph will start up cello again.  He will have cello lessons and then gymnastics.  We usually get home around 5:00pm so Mondays are busy days.

 

Joseph: #14/365

This is the game I made.  It is called Crazyville.

 

Julia: #14/365

While we were waiting for the driver to pick us up at the school, a rooster and hen came walking down the road.  Audrey was pretty excited to see them and asked the driver not to run them over after we got into the car…lol.

Ping Pong

 

The kids like going down to the second floor rec room to play.  The girls like playing in the ball pit or running around the mostly empty space.  Joseph and Doss like to play ping pong.  We went down for a little while tonight the let the kids run around.  I was really feeling sick yesterday and today so I had not left the apartment at all.  It was nice just to leave the apartment for a little bit.

 

Joseph: #13/365

This is where I play ping pong at least once a week.

 

Julia: #13/365

My little Joseph loves being active.  He likes to play go swimming, play soccer, play ping pong, play tennis…etc.  I wish I had that kind of energy!

Sakit

“Sakit” is the Indonesian word for sick.  Audrey vomited in the middle of the night on Wednesday.  She stayed home from school Thursday complaining of a stomach ache.  Friday she felt better and went to school.  Friday night Katelyn started vomiting in the middle of the night and did not stop until this morning.  Now she seems to be better too.  I have been feeling pretty sick since this morning so I think there is something going around.

I was unable to go to Joseph’s soccer game today since Katelyn was sick.  He did really well.  He scored the first goal and almost scored another.  The final score was 2-0 so his team won their game.  After the game, Doss and Joseph went to our driver’s home.  He has to miss work after any big rainstorms because he needs to fix his roof.  We thought that maybe we could help him get a new roof or have it properly fixed so that he does not have to fix it all the time.  They also seem to be sick quite a bit too…probably from getting wet or maybe from mold.  Doss and Joseph went to take a look. Our driver will get some estimates for how much the work will cost.  Hopefully we can get him a decent roof and fix the ceiling in the master bedroom that is falling down.  He’s a really good driver and a super nice guy.  We are happy to help him out.

Joseph: #12/365

These are my driver’s chickens.

 

Julia: #12/365

Since Katelyn was up all night vomiting, I was awake when the sun came up. I was hoping to get a good sunrise picture.  It didn’t happen. There were too many clouds and the sky was a bit hazy too.  This is the view from my balcony. At least the picture was in focus.  I had been thinking there might be something wrong with my camera because a lot of the pictures I have taken lately have been really out of focus.  Even when I blow this picture up to 200%, it still looks pretty sharp so clearly the camera works.  All those blurry shots must be user error.  Oh well…that is part of the reason I want to do a Project 365…to improve my photo-taking skills.

It’s Friday

This week went by fairly quickly. Sadly, since school and soccer have started up again, there are no more days to sleep in.  The kids leave for school at 7am each morning.  Virtually every Saturday, Joseph will have a soccer game.  The one this Saturday is at 7:30am which means he needs to be suited up and ready to go by 7am!  Sundays we have 8am church so again, we have to be up bright and early.  Still, I’m just glad it’s Friday since other than the early soccer game, we don’t have a rigid schedule.

Joseph: #11/365

These are large Indonesian masks!



Julia: #11/365

I am still playing around with my 50mm prime lens.  In this photo I was focusing on Katelyn’s hand as she was putting together a puzzle.  I like the effect of the shallow depth of field.  Only her hand and the immediate area around it are in focus.  Everything else is a blur including the foreground.  I also liked the colors.  Katelyn was wearing a multi-colored Batik dress and the alphabet puzzle pieces are also brightly colored.

Funny Faces

Today’s theme is funny faces.  It just kind of worked out that both our pictures for today are about the expressions on the faces of our subjects.  We didn’t plan it that way at all.

Joseph: #10/365

This is my crazy little sister.

 

Julia: #10/365

Joseph’s reaction after tasting a sour mango-flavored piece of candy.

Rainy Day

It pretty much rained all day today.  It was my day to teach preschool in the morning.  Then I headed off to school to meet Joseph and Audrey. Joseph has soccer practice after school on Wednesdays at 3:00pm.  There isn’t enough time for the kids to come home and then go back to school so I just meet them at school at 2pm.  We went to the library and checked out some books.  Then we headed to the cafeteria for some snacks.  The field was too wet to play on today so soccer practice was upstairs in the gym.  During the scrimmage, Joseph scored 2 goals for his team.  He loves soccer!  When we got home, Audrey discovered that a caterpillar was the culprit that had been destroying our chilli pepper plants.  She asked Doss not to kill it so he threw it off the balcony.  I don’t know if a caterpillar can survive a fall like that…maybe.

 

Joseph: #9/365

This is the real-life very hungry caterpillar. 

 

Julia: #9/365

Soccer is so fun!

Hope

So I’ve only been doing the Project 365 for a week now, but I can already see how it will take perseverance to finish the project. I hope that I will be able to continue it.  Now that the kids are back in school and we are getting back into the swing of things, I feel like there is less time to do extra stuff like photography and blogging.  We just got the kids to bed and I am really tired.  Honestly, I feel like doing absolutely nothing.  Anyways, here are our pictures for today.

Joseph: #8/365

These are my Hero Factory Legos.

 

Julia: #8/365

This is my view every weekday morning bright and early at 7am.  The bus stops in front of the apartment to pick up the kids for school. 

Driving Range

For FHE, we took the kids to the Senayan Golf Driving Range.  It is just across the street from the apartments where we live.  We got a bucket of 100 balls.  Joseph and Audrey have both taken golf classes at school and were actually pretty good. 

 

Joseph: #7/365

Look at all the balls at the driving range!

 

Julia: #7/365

My little golfer!