Easter Dinner

What a privilege to celebrate Easter with family.  This may not happen for quite some time, but we were sure grateful for the delicious Easter dinner prepared by grandma and grandpa.  It was YUMMY!

Bunny cake was a big hit with the kids.

Birthday Girl

The birthday girl had a nice, low-key party over Spring Break.  The Bouwens came over and there was cake, playing in the park and some silly faces. 

Oh yea, and some presents!

Inskeep Reunion!

Doug had ambitious plans of diving with Brian and Brenda and getting a dive in.  Given the traffic in Bali and the challenges of getting to the South or the East coast to find a decent dive site, we stayed in Seminyak and tried our hand at surfing.

Let’s just say that a) It was great to see the Inskeeps and b) Doug is no surfer!  While Brian and Brenda had good luck getting up and balancing on the board, Doug just couldn’t quite get the balance right and spent many times tumbling in the waves.  Some sore knees, elbows and even a mysterious hint of a black eye were results of being tossed and turned in the surf with one fall after another.  My surf instructor, Oman, did not have much luck with this student. 

Goodbye ADE

As the conference came to an end, we had a marvelous dinner poolside and a fun conclusion to an intense and inspiring week.  It is unlikely I’ll have the chance to be at Tana Lot again, though it was an inspiring opportunity.

What a Setting!

Of course, the conference was held in one of the most picturesque and beautiful settings you can imagine.  At a resort near the ancient and famous temple, Tana Lot, the grounds were immaculate.  The 18 hole golf course made for lots of open space and it was fun to just walk around the grounds seeing some pretty impressive beauty. 

Port Dixon

While Doug was away at the ADE conference, the family made their way to Port Dixon.  It was a fun trip. Some miniature golfing, a kids carnival, a great pool, some ping pong and dinners out.  It was a short little stay-cation for a few days, but a chance to get out of KL over Spring Break.

Halloween Poem on Spring Break

Will they ever be this age again? A blast from the past and a poem committed to memory.

Sunrise Photography

 On Wednesday morning, Bill Frakes and Laura Heald volunteered to meet at sunrise for a Balinese processional that was scheduled to happen early in the morning, while giving some photography tips.  The morning was stunning; the procession didn’t quite follow the conference schedule.  Given the chance to hear Bill talk about photography, there was quite a large crowd!

Balinese Dance

Thanks to some cooperative weather, we had a wonderful dinner, complete with Balinese cultural dances, including some fire dancing.  It was truly beautiful. 

As noted in the obviously high quality of the pictures, Daniel Woo gets the photo credit.

Unbelievable Experiences @ #ade2013

Without a doubt, the inspiring experiences from the conference were a result of the incredibly talented speakers.  It was an absolutely thrill to have BillFrakes, the Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, come and be part of the conference.  Not only did he inspire us with his photographs, which are stories full of creativity and ingenuity, but he was also willing to spend countless hours taking our pictures so we can use them as part of a professional mug shot for future events.  He and Laura Heald.

Rebecca Stockley, aka the improvlady, was also a delight to meet and it was fun to hear the unbelievably quality presenters and the challenge we have as educators.

On the last day, I fished out the SI sweatshirt that my dad had given to me, and made sure to get a picture with one of Sports Illustrated’s great photographers.   What an amazing experience.

Again – the awesome photos are from Daniel Woo. 

ADE 2013 Reunions

Coming together for the conference, it was fun to catch up with a number of other people from around the region.  It was especially fun to catch up with Charlotte, who is now in Hong Kong.  We sure created a magical team with our 5 years of working together, and with transitions, there are always new opportunities. 

Thanks to conferences such as this, as well as all the social networking tools, it is nice to be able to stay in touch.

There were too many other meaningful contacts that are too exhaustive to list, but I enjoyed catching up with other IASAS folks in a similar situation, especially Miguel and Chris from ISB, Rod from JIS, as well as meeting some new friends from IASAS. It was also great to reconnect up with Jeff from UWC and also see Steve, with whom I spent the last week as part of the accreditation team. 

Again, credit to Daniel Woo for the quality pictures.

Taylor Reunion @ #ade2013

It was pretty wild that both Robin Vergoz Montgomery and Doug Woodward were selected as Apple Distinguished Educators for the class of 2013.  The wild part is that we were part of the same freshman orientation group when we entered Taylor University as freshmen in September 1988.  Nearly 25 years later, we were reunited again on the other side of the world looking at ways we can empower students in education, in part with the powerful technological tools at our disposal.

Robin is now teaching in Korea, and it was fun to catch on Taylor memories, hear about how our families are doing, and enjoy some time together.  Our latest ambition is to see if we can send in a little blurb for the Taylor Alumni Magazine; it sounds like something worth pursuing, especially since we took advantage of the good picture (at the top) from Daniel Woo, the ADE photographer for the event. 

KL Aquaria

We hadn't been the aquarium in a while, so we went with a good friend of Reeve's and had fun touring the very well done, but small and manageable Aquaria. 

The otters were not quite as playful as always, but we found two funny creatures under their enclosure. 

The shark tank is always lots of fun.

Accreditation to Manila

It was quite the strange event in the history of the world when I got to participate on an accreditation trip with my mom.  She was a WASC representative and I was a CIS representative for a joint accreditation process for Brent Manila.  One week of the most intense and impressive professional development you can imagine and it was such a privilege to work with an awesome team of really, really skilled educators. 

Lots of work and plenty of laughs to go with the experience.  The smallest team meeting room I’ve seen on a trip was a minor challenge, as were the parties, weddings and celebrations in the open air facility just outside much of the hotel.

We definitely did not go hungry, with some of the best food that we could imagine.   It was a privilege to be invited into the Brent family for a few days. 

Night of the Notables

While Doug was away for Accreditation, it was a busy week back home.  Reeve had Night of the Notables, a big grade 5 tradition.  Reeve's notable was John Muir, and Tracy and Grandpa were able to attend the presentation and hear all the work that Reeve put into his project. 

Flat Tire

Unfortunately, we came outside and found our Volvo had a flat tire.  Thankfully, the jack was quite handy, and I thought it would be quite a simple, easy fix. 

Alas, unfortunately due to all the rain, lesson #1 was learned: make sure you place the jack on a flat surface.  The wet mud caused the jack to slip just as the spare was going on.  Ouch. 

I did manage to get some boards underneath and put the spare on.  Lesson #2:  make sure that the spare is good.  Unfortunately by morning, the spare was flat.

Lesson #3:  Be very thankful for an amazing mechanic, who came and took the spare on his motorbike to repair it so he could return it.  Two new tires later, and we're in business. 

The Hole in the Wall

We are still trying to figure out the cause of the leak, likely from the neighbor , that is causing this one section of wall to bubble and mold.  Hopefully we can get these things fixed and no longer have a hole in our wall.  Sigh – the challenges of maintaining a house in the tropics, while negotiating with landlords and repairmen. 

The riddle to the cause of the leak is made more difficult when the neighbor’s house is left empty. 

Car. Glorious Car.

The 1987 Volvo is looking for a new home.  Cars that have names get special treatment in the lexicon of cars  “Beast” is looking for the new beauty to care and love.  Super cool air conditioning, 2000 RM engine overhaul, new tires, the car is old, but looking pretty good.  Hopefully beast will find a nice home. 

KLIFF Hangers

On Sunday afternoon we got together with the group of expats that go to our church.  It doubled as a first birthday party for Mikaela.  The taco theme made for some absolutely delicious food, though the thunder didn’t cooperate so well for swimming.  After some tag, soccer and hide and seek, the storm clouds and loud thunder (being downtown we got the extra bonus of having the thunder reverberate between the tall buildings) abated and the kids got to swim.  It is always fun to get together. 

With Amanda’s baby, we can remember the time that seems so long ago when our kids were so tiny.  It seems like a different world now!