Learning Thai

Sunday was Claire's graduation from kindergarten. Just like last year, it was quite an event! :) Four hours of watching kids dance and receive diplomas gets a little long for all of us, but we were very proud of Claire performing her dance- a tribute to the King.

The picture quality is extremely poor because our camera battery chose this day to die on us and had to take pictures with Tom's cell phone. :( So, squint your eyes and do your best....

Claire and her friend Dua Lek. For the record, I'm not the one who put all that eyeshadow on her!

Worn out and winding down.

Another special friend, Dang Gwa.

So, she's got one more month of school to finish up and then everyone goes on school holiday and we get back to full time home school (we had our school holiday this fall in America!).
-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're currently hosting a team from the Rosedale Business Group. They're here to explore possibilities for starting a coffee-related business sometime in the future that would complement the ongoing work here. Yesterday we had a busy day in Bangkok and Samut Prakan. Now this morning we'll fly north to Chiang Rai to see the area where coffee is grown. We'll also spend a day and a half in Chiang Mai and then return on Friday evening.

We'd certainly appreciate your prayers for the trip - that we would make good connections and have safe travels. Also, pray for Candice and the kids as they remain at home - that everything will go smoothly and that our wonderful children won't be too much trouble!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It looks like we're back in a blogging slump! I think it's mostly because life feels so "back to normal" that it doesn't seem like it's very interesting to talk about! Here are a few recent pictures.

We've started homeschooling Claire again with our new Sonlight curriculum. She's finishing up kindergarten right now at her Thai school (her graduation ceremony and dance is on Sunday- I'm sure there will be pictures! She'll actually go until the end of February though). She's doing a great job with homeschool and seems to be really enjoying it- especially all the new books! We're just doing day or two a week right now and will start in full time when she's finished with Thai school.

Tom's new humpy-head fish- it's huge if you can't tell!

Silas has been busy tearing the house apart- he loves to climb the stairs, spill water, dig in kitchen and desk drawers, and pull down dishes and washcloths in the kitchen- oh, and touch cords and outlets- all NO NO'S! We sometimes feel that we say "no" to him all day long. Other things he enjoys are: looking at books- especially with pictures of animals (dogs) and running up and down the soi (street) in front of our house (under supervision, of course!). He also got a new haircut.

Some of the boxes from the trip have been put to good use. Claire uses one as an airplane and found a pilot costume to go with it (including her wing pin from the flight).

The large business group that is coming to investigate beginning a business in Thailand is coming on Saturday night. Tom will travel with them to Chiang Mai for most of next week. Hans and Joelle (a former Reacher) will be staying at our house part of the time. So we're looking forward to a pretty busy 10 days!

C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As glad as we are to be home, we're missing our homes in America too. It was so good to get reconnected and caught up with our families and church family.
A few more notable pictures from our time in Delaware that didn't quite make it on the blog before the chaos of packing and leaving took all our time and energy.....

Family donut making day.

There was a whole lot of finger licking going on!

YUM! Is there anything tastier than a hot, homemade donut??

Cuddles with Gramps (that's Allison on the left by the way, who we think looks a whole lot like Claire!). Claire and Eliza each enjoyed individual breakfast dates with Grandpa too!

New Years Eve somehow turned into Wig Nigh (couldn't quite bring myself to post the one of our family in wigs!....so here are the cousins! :) .....followedby lots of snacks and Black Rook and watching the ball drop (while the kids got repeatedly out of their beds and got into other beds....managing to stay up till about 1:00)

Cousins.

Good-bye hugs.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two girls who are still super happy to be home.

Kooky girls

Claire started back to school today. We were so proud of her positive attitude and excitement to return. She had a great day and came home excited about her upcoming Thai dance performance.

Silas was happy to see her when she got home. She also got a new haircut today, more appropriate for the muggy, hot weather that we're all adjusting too.

After several days of jetlag and waking up in the very early morning, we're now settling into a better sleep routine and most of us are staying asleep until 6:00 or so, so we're very thankful for that.

These bags are unpacked and we're settled back in. It still feels SO GOOD to be back.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hurray and hallelujah for being home and having that long flight behind us!! The flight and all the connections went super-smoothly and we had very short layovers which was a blessing. Of course Silas got cranky and times, and threw up right after our bumpy landing in Tokyo (leaving Tom with a vomit-plastered shirt. So thankful for the kind man in the row behind us who gave him a new shirt!).
We are all so happy to be home. It feels good to be back in warm weather and in our house again. We're still not sleeping very well- most of us are still pretty jetlagged and waking up way to early in the morning, but we're able to take it easy through this weekend and have plenty of time to rest up.

Some of the things we're enjoying again....

1) Warm temps- high 80s during the day, 80's at night. We're back to dirty bare feet and sweaty heads!

2) Thai food! Our first meal of sticky rice, papaya salad and grilled pork was heavenly! Even "ordinary" food like fried rice and bananas taste extra good.

3) Not wearing coats, gloves, socks, etc!

4) Seeing our long lost teammates and Thai friends. We're looking forward to our first team church tomorrow and Claire is excited to return to school on Monday.

5) Our house! Our beds! Our toys!

6) Watching Silas explore his new/old surroundings. He's wreaking havoc of course and loving it! Every time the door opens, it seems like Silas sneaks outside and Lewis, our rabbit, sneaks inside!

7) Normal life, normal schedule, being in one place as a family.

We're all feeling very excited for all the new things coming up. Candice is preparing to start teaching a new homeschool curriculum, Tom is gearing up for teaching English and hosting a business team, and we're looking forward to getting to know our new Reach team and helping them with getting started teaching and planning upcoming trips. It feels like life is full in a good way and we're looking forward to lots of new beginnings.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today we are packing all of our stuff and preparing for our trip back to Thailand. We're very grateful for the past three months and all of the wonderful experiences that we've had. We feel reconnected with family and friends and we've enjoyed the unique comforts of life in America. But it does feel like it's time to leave this home and return to our Thailand home. Having multiple "homes" certainly has its advantages - we are so thankful for all of the people who make Thailand, Ohio, Delaware, and Virginia home. But we're also feeling the pain of leaving. Today I said goodbye to my grandfather for what is very likely the last time. It was hard to do, but I was reminded again that his true home - and mine - is not here.

We plan to leave early tomorrow morning for Ohio. On Sunday we'll be re-commissioned by our church and on Tuesday morning we''ll leave for Thailand. If you think about us on Tuesday and Wednesday we'd certainly appreciate your prayers for safety and sanity in travelling. Thanks!

-Tom

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