"A Man's Best Friend"

"A Man's Best Friend", when you see this quote or hear it from someone you automatically thing Dog(s). Now not everyone is a dog person or owns a dog but they know what it is like to own a pet. I don't know about you all but our dog Bandit has become our son over the past two and a half years we've had him.

What really inspired me to write about this was our friends Dave and Colleen just lost their German Shepard Sieben whom they have had (Dave mostly) since he was a puppy. Siebes was such a great dog, well behaved and just a big bear of love! Bandit and Siebs went on many a camping trips and chased many tennis balls together with Siebs brother Jack. These three dogs together was great and entertaining! I am truly sad knowing that when we get home Siebs will no longer be there but know he is in a better place now.

Dave said it best, Don't take any time for granted with your best friends and loved ones. He is so spot on with this comment. This is comment is not only for humans but for our pets as well. Pets have a special place in our hearts. Honestly if you are a pet owner you know what I am talking about. Our pets listen to anything we have to say. I know I found myself talking to Bandit when it's just him and me at home (Now I talk to myself here in Singapore and I think Dustin is thinking I am crazy and that I was covering it up by saying I was talking to the dog when I was really talking to myself lol). Our pets are there for us when we need to cry and don't have a human to hold us, they are there to sit in our laps or lay a head on our legs and show that they love us. It is said that our pets are very sensitive and know when a person is depressed, sad, happy or about to (to some) have an epileptic episode.

Pets are loyal. They do something bad, you yell at them and then ten minutes later they are loving you again. When we first got Bandit he was really scared and sad because to him we ripped him out of his home that he had known his whole life and brought him to our house that does not have any other pets. Once he warmed up to us, he has never left our side. He has eaten stuff he should not eat and had accidents in the house (not his fault, Dustin was sleeping and I was late getting off work) he's been a typical dog and has won our hearts over.

You all know being away from home has been hard for us in different areas. The absolute HARDEST thing we have had to deal with is not having our Bandit with us. If you all have been keeping up with the blogs you know that Bandit got really sick and had to have surgery. We were so thankful that Dustin's sister Emily, her roommate Krystal, her boyfriend Justin and our neighbors Jason and Rob were there to help care for him. Knowing that he could have not survived made me miss him even more. Luckily he survived and healed well, but if we would have lost him while we were away, I don't think I would have forgiven myself about being away.

When we heard the loss of Mr.Siebes we took it hard and really truly miss Bandit and can't wait to get home and see him. My fear is that he has forgotten us, but I am staying positive that he has not because when we skype with Emily we ask to see him or she calls him over, we say hello to him and he doesn't make the connection but just seeing him eases our feelings. I have never taken our boy for granted and never will. I can't wait to play ball with him and take him on long walks when we get back.

My heart hurts for our friends who lost their best friend, their son, their Siebes. Nothing will ever replace him and no one will ever forget this wonderful dog. If Dustin and I were home we would be right there with our friends helping them heal the gaping hole in their heart. We know that if the roles were reversed, they'd be there for us. I know they will heal but they will never fully get over the loss of their pup. Dave and Colleen, stay strong and know he will always be missed. It is really tough right now, I am sure but soon the wounds will heal (never completely) and with each passing day you will remember him without being so bummed out compared to right now. We love you guys very much and can't wait to be home with you two!

To all of you out there reading this. If you are a pet owner take five minutes to love on your animals. They love you unconditionally, show them how much you love them. You never know what will happen, live every day to the fullest and love unconditionally. Don't get too upset with your animals when they do bad things, just enough so they won't do it again because trust me, you will laugh at the things they do when time has past. I know Dustin and I still laugh at Bandit when he ate an entire pan of jalapeno corn bread that was resting on the counter, he only ate the middle, not the edges! Yes we were upset, but now we look back on it and laugh, and never leave the kitchen unattended when there is food within Bandit's reach (we usually baby gate the kitchen so he can't get in) Laugh off the animals mistakes and enjoy the ride of being a pet owner. I know we have and when the time comes, I will be a mess but know I will have people there to be by my side. (including friends animals). I know I have said it a lot but I do miss my boy and am lucky to come home to such a sweet and wonderful dog. I can't wait to give him LOTS of hugs when I get home. He may even get to sleep on the bed the week before Dustin gets home, just don't tell Dustin I said that ;)


Bandit boy Camping
RIP Siebes, we love you!

6 Months already

St. Patrick's day marks our 6 months in Singapore. A lot has gone one in the past six months and I can't believe our adventure here has reached the half way point. It really seems like yesterday that we landed here and started this crazy time.

I look back and realize why (for the most part) the first couple of months were so slow for me. The first couple of weeks were entertaining because I was getting to know the area and learn how to live the city life. But as life slowed back down and we were settling into the life I realized that, in the beginning, I didn't have friends and so I was lonely for the most part because our friends here work during the day and I was not working or volunteering yet. (This by NO means is a pitty party for myself, I am just explaining how I feel/felt because it is about me and adjusting to living here.) Not to mention that the Holidays were approaching and it was the first time I ever spent holidays away from all of my family.

I think that after the holidays was when things started to really speed up around here. We were booking trips and I was really settling into the life around here, making a lot of friends though volunteering and not being shy when our friends (you know who you are) invited me out on nights that Dustin was working, I just accepted that I need to live here like I would live at home and go out with my friends even though Dustin can't make it (That was huge for me too). I have tried and failed at Dragon Boat racing because my shoulders can't take it, but I have made a lot of friends from the team. RDA is also helping with friends and as you all know, I always look forward to Wednesdays because I not only love the kids I work with but the volunteers and our girl catch up time at the polo club after for lunch. I am considering stepping it up to two days a week. I have also started rock climbing again with friends who do that as well and am looking forward to once a week with possibly Rich and Will if the are interested (already climbed with both, looking for a once a week thing)

We are also booked up with visitors from now until we come home for the wedding. We had our first visitor, Jinsoo, in Feb and it was absolutely amazing. I am looking forward to my high school friend Nicole and my college roommate Sara to come in visit in April. Dustin and I are going to Vietnam and we come back two days before Nicole and Sara get here. Dustin's dad is coming to visit us from April 20 to May 2. Now this is no vacation for him, he and Dustin work for the same company and his dad worked out a business trip. I can't wait for him to come visit!

After that in May we are having our Neighbors Rob and Jason come with Jason's friend (now our friend) Matt and we just found out that our friend Todd will be coming out here on business in May as well, such a great surprise and we can't wait for him to come. After them it's my Co-workers the Jen M and Jen F and Jen F's daughter for two weeks, The girls and I are planning on going to bali while they are here so that should be fun. After they leave, a week later my friends the Jacobs (Kara and Gavin) are coming to visit. They will be in Singapore for a week and then they are taking a trip down to Bali. I go home three days before they come back to fly out of Singapore. We are so blessed to have so many people to come out and visit us, it truly is amazing :)

I have a feeling the next six months are going to go by fast (too fast if you ask me now), with visitors, us taking trips in between visitors, our trip home, before we know it October will be here and we will be heading home. I have said it to our friends here, it will definitely be bittersweet to head home. Dustin and I will be excited to continue the life back in the states that we put on hold but we will be missing our Singapore life as well.

Dustin will be coming back to Singapore for work about once a year and I am hoping to save up money every year to make the trip back with him so I can see our wonderful Singapore family. That's just what our friends out here in Singapore have become, family. We have celebrated/will celebrate holidays with them, birthdays with others, house parties, rugby games/celebrations and an engagement (yay Will and Sophie!). With each day that passes I feel so blessed to live the life that we do and to have the opportunity that we have over here.

Thanks so much for reading! Until next time!

First full session of RDA

As you all know, I have been doing Riding for the Disabled for awhile now. This past 8 weeks have been so wonderful and have gone by way too fast. Being in the special education field back at home I know that the kids can teach you something new every day and make you really appreciate the life you have.I really do look forward to my Wednesdays with the kids and the other volunteers, it's such a great day!

Though the weeks we got the kids to not only learn how to ride a horse but about horses and riding. We saw the kids improve and grow as riders and knew that if the term was longer than 8 weeks we would have been even more impressed with their abilities.


We set up zig zag courses for the kids to learn how to steer with the hopes that by the end of the 8 weeks that they would be able to steer the horse with no side walkers and no leader. Some students didn't get to reach that point but they did reach it to where the side walkers were watching at a distance. We went on trail rides or the Jungle walk, it is shared with the polo club. The kids really do love this walk, and to be honest, so do I. We usually took the short route but the last walk we did was the long one and all of our riders were amazing. Sophie, Kathy and I only had to tell our riders (girl and boy) once how to sit while going up a hill and down a hill.

It wasn't all sunshine and butterflies, we met challenges with both the riders but were able to work them out. Keeping one of our riders focused was a challenge in the beginning, yes a lot of it had to do with the child's disability. Between the three of us we were able to get him to focus more on the tasks at hand than what was going on around him. It was exhausting because we had to constantly say the his name and make sure we had his attention. But with that, at the end this he made great progress.

From what we found out this child was in the program last year and all he did was sit on the horse and was just there along for the ride. Knowing that and seeing how he ended this term was amazing. He knew the different parts of the horse, the different equipment that goes with horseback riding and he also knew how to steer the horse but the student wasn't ready to meet that task with out us and the leader Kathy. I am sure that he would have gotten to that point if the program was a little longer. Just to know how far this he has come made me smile. What also made me smile is on the last day there his parents were there encouraging him and happy to see him on the horse. At the end of the session he ran up and gave us hugs saying thank you to us and said that he would see us next time, such a sweetie that I won't forget.

Our other rider had come very far as well. This girl was not interested in the games or the naming of the different parts of the horses/equipment. All she wanted to do was ride the horse. Her skills were amazing but we did also run into challenges with her as well. When she didn't want to do something and we had her do them she would get upset. We let her know it's because she has to be involved in all of the program, not just the riding part. We did calm her down and got her back on track but it did take some convincing. But at the end she did very well, to the point where she was steering the horse by herself down the path.

It was so amazing considering last year she was in a wheelchair. I will say that her mom was there and her mother was just as determined as her little girl. She was taking pictures and tearing up at the sight. We did get to talk to her because the little girl does not talk and we asked the mom if the little girl was going to talk. The mom answered and said she wasn't sure because the doctors said that the little girl would never walk, and she is walking, this makes you believe that anything is possible.

The last day was nice but sad because we knew they were leaving. At the end the students got their progress card and a picture of them on their horse. They in turn gave us a poster that had every one of them on it with horses in the background. We thanked them and told them we hoped to see them next year. There were tears of sadness, some was because the parents were going back to work and the children wanted to go home with their parents. Some of the kids were crying because they didn't want riding to be over. It was definitely sad for me because it is most likely that I wont be seeing/working with these kids.

We don't realize it but these kids can teach us a lot about life. They are just so sweet and amazing and I know how lucky I am to have been able to work with them. I look at the different challenges they have over come and realize that the tough days that I have, aren't as tough as their tough days could be. They are very inspiring and I know that when I meet challenges ahead in my life, I will think of them and what they had/have to over come and realize that I can handle them.

I do look forward to the next session and what new students we get to meet! :)

Our First Visitor!

A lot of you know that Dustin and I were graced with our first visitor from the US, Dustin's friend Jinsoo. We got an email about a month and a half ago letting us know that he wanted to visit us and of course we said yes. Jinsoo is a guy who has traveled to different places and has the luxury of a great work schedule. He had a layover in Hong Kong so he decided to stay there for four days before he came to visit us.

Of course knowing a person was going to stay with us I went into clean mode. I was so excited I couldn't really hide it. He arrived on a Wednesday and I knew that I wouldn't beat him to the apartment because I had RDA that day, lucky for us Dustin was off of work that day. I had a good bye lunch to attend after my RDA session to say good bye to our RDA mate Kim. She was moving back to the UK with her family and I wanted to thank her for being a wonderful person even though we have only been friends for a short time.

After I left the lunch I got really excited so instead of taking the bus I took a taxi home. Once home I was so excited to see Jinsoo because it was a familiar face in Singapore. We haven't seen him since the beach in Aug. I hurried to the shower and was just excited to go out and show Jinsoo what this City has to offer. The one thing I was appreciative of was that he brought a care package with him, the only thing I asked him to bring was pepto because I have stomach issues with some of the food here. He not only brought that but he brought food that we haven't gotten since we were home. (Yes Sophie, Kathy and Ester, I am going to Tanglen mall this weekend! LOL) I couldn't believe it and was so thankful for the package.

We wanted to show him everything about Singapore. Unfortunately Dustin could not take off work so the days that Dustin was working I tried to play tour guide the best way I knew how. We gave Jinsoo books that we accumulated about Singapore and told him to look though those and see what he wants to visit. We asked what he wanted to eat and he stated, the craziest thing Singapore has to offer. Well Singapore does have some crazy foods, especially at hawker stands so we were up for the challenge.

We took him all over. Him and Dustin walked down Orchard road, we took him to Marina Bay and Marina bay sands sky park (that was the first time we went up to the sky park) and from there we could see all of Singapore, it was beautiful. We walked to a street that was mostly Muslim because he wanted to see a Mosque, he wanted to see if we could hear the call to prayer. Little did we know that we went to the Mosque at the right time, once we got there the call started. It was the first time I heard it in person and was in awe, I thought it was so cool to witness.

I am not going to go day by day with what we did because well that's boring to read. We took him to all the spots, Chinatown, Little India, down town in the Colonial district, Orchard Towers and even the zoo. We wanted him to experience the city how we did (some times).

The food that he ate was interesting. He ordered curry fish head. Yes it is exactly what it sounds like, fish head cooked in curry. We did take away and he didn't get rice so I made some for him. I almost threw up from watching him eat the eye of the fish! It was something I will never try. The next dish I saw him eat was mixed pig organ soup. Yup, he ate a mix of pig organs, from liver to intestine. I can't believe his guts to eat what he did. When him and I went to Chinatown he decided to get frog legs. Now I use to live in Florida when I was younger, so I was familiar with frog legs, I have eaten them before but honestly have no taste for them anymore. He ate pig organ congee, pig brain soup, satay prawn, head and everything! He definitely concord his goal of eating interesting food. He did eat some things that was normal but some times not so much, but when's the next time he is going to be here? I am glad he was eating 'outside of the box'.

We did fun things like wake board, ride bikes on the east coast and him and Dustin did the extreme bungee with Dustin at Clark Quay. He also enjoyed the zoo, I enjoyed the zoo. It was one of the coolest zoos I have ever been too. They believe in natural barriers between you and the animals. The animals were beautiful and we lucked out with the weather. Jinsoo and I went out during the middle of the day and if it is bright and sunny, you are toast if you don't have proper sun protection and water. Thankfully for us it was over cast and we weren't feeling like the sun is pounding on us. But we do know that even though it is over cast we can still get burned by the sun, we are only 50 miles from the equator so I always make sure I have the proper sun protection on.

I am glad that Jinsoo came out here. Yes he did go out on his own on some days and I was kind of thankful for that because I do enjoy my 'me time' which only lasts about an hour or so, then I am ready for some company, call it selfish but I am sure there are some of you out there who enjoy their 'me time' every once in awhile too.

Having Jinsoo here reminded me of home. I don't know what it was but it made me more at ease and made me feel more at home here in Singapore. I do have to say that I have come far since the first month of arriving in Singapore. I think it had to do with the Holidays. But I am enjoying Singapore more and more, and having Jinsoo here really made me realize that. I have made lots of friends here and it makes me realize that it will be bitter sweet when we go home. I will be happy to be home but I will be leaving my Sing family behind. I know that all of us will be keeping in touch and Dustin will be making it back to Singapore for work so I am hoping that we can save up enough money to where I can tag a long with him as well so I can visit our friends.

I am looking forward to our visitors coming up. Trust me there are a lot coming. March is the month where we have a break from visitors. April we are having my high school friend Nicole and college roommate Sarah visiting us for four days (they are visiting Bangkok first) then the day they leave is the day Dustin's dad may be coming to visit us for awhile, yes he will have to work and he's been to Singapore before (D's dad works for the same company D works for) but it will be amazing to have family here. After that in May our neighbors and Matt are coming to visit us for two weeks, My co-workers and friends Jen M, Jen F and Jen F's daughter are coming in June, then Finally my co-worker and friend Kara J and her husband are coming in July, they leave for Bali two days before I leave for home. So needless to say, we are going to be busy and I can't wait to see everyone and introduce them the Singapore I have come to know and love :)

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!