Four Continents... One Month...

november 12th-december 1st 2009: home leave number two

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA... you are so sweet!


wow this home leave really took it out of us... it was so busy and jammed packed with seeing everyone plus thanksgiving... it was nice to be home but nicer to have our own place, our dog, and not being pulled in 20 million directions when we arrived back to singapore. i know! you think poor poor dunlaps... it is great to have so many people to see and that want to see us! the life of an expat is hard work!

HOUSTON!

our first stop every time home is to pappasitos mexican restaurant and then to little woodrows for happy hour! you know, important stuff first! we were lucky enough to stay with the bruce family for the first two days which allowed us to readjust to the time difference and to catch up with all our houston friends! in the first couple of days we were able to see so many people... i attended ashley moses baby shower and caught up with all my sorority sister. we even attended our friends farah & patrick armstrong's house warming party... they just moved back to katy from singapore. we miss them so so so much here!

so here is a run down of the whole trip...

ashley moses' baby shower
me, dayna, jenn, leah, katie, caroline (back row)
lane, ashley, ginger, and amber

ashley invited me to her baby shower in houston which was absolutely lovely. i miss seeing these girls and being apart of their lives. ashley and rj are having a little girl (campbell- love it, it is a family name) and lane is pregnant with her second baby (lucy- i hope, also a family name).

SAN ANTONIO...

we spent a couple of days in houston just seeing friends then headed to san antonio to see dirk's family and highschool friends. in san antonio we were able to take in a spurs game and hangout with the sa crew. we were able to hangout with dirk's sister but unfortunately dirk's younger brother, zach, had just moved to san francisco.

dirk and lela (his sister)

the sa crew at stone werks

the mills, the dunlaps, the boreckels, the kripners, and the woltersdorfs

andy boerckel, ryan kripner, and dirk

COLLEGE STATION...

no trip home during football season would be complete without taking in an a&M football game and tailgating party. dirk and i took a break from seeing family and friends in san antonio and went to the baylor vs a&m game. we were also able to see the texas game too... that one didn't go so well.

nothing like a game of flip cup to know you are home in the u.s.a

our friends in houston have season tickets to all the a&m games and put together this awesome tailgate. every tailgate is themed based on food. baylor was the annual fish fry... they have a big screen tv, margarita machines, kegerator with tap, and surround sound music system all under one huge white tent. they have a great setup and keep adding to it every year.

the fmc tailgate at the baylor game

we haven't been to the fmc tailgate in two years and let me tell you it is HUGE now! i couldn't believe how big it has gotten. dirk was able to meet up with some work friends but since most of our houston friends work for fmc, it isn't hard not to see everyone without even going into the office.

catherine helle

hanging out with my cat on northgate... miss this girl very much! she came to the game without her boyfriend (bonham was in africa) just to hangout! i am thinking it was for me! hehe

BROTHER!

we went to college station to see the game but more importantly to see my brother dunk his aggie ring. he is finally getting closer to graduation with a major in industrial distribution-engineer field. he also got a puppy for his birthday from his girlfriend, kelly.

meet doobie & ryan

matt lewis was another friend that made the voyage to college station to hangout. i miss this guy so much! he and dirk kept me in stitches all weekend! everyone needs a matt lewis in their life :)

THE DUNK!

17 seconds... enough said.

ryan & ring

proud sister

kelly & ryan

CONCAN...

ok... so back to san antonio and then onto uvalde, texas and concan, texas... are you tired yet? we were in the car SO much! we were able to see all of dirk's lovely extended family, help put up his grandmother's (jo bill & jo jo) christmas lights, plus finally make a walmart run. the river was beautiful at this time of year... i just love all the colors!

we looked into some property by the river as well... thinking of a river house that will help pay for itself by renting it out while we are in singapore... we will see.

the inlaws
me, dirk, doug, and marge dunlap

dirk, me, chelsea, and ryan

dirk's aunt has a house right next to his parent's river house and we got to see his cousin chelsea and her fiancee ryan while we were there. they are getting married may 1st up in concan by the river. so sad to miss it.

PARTY IN THE u.s.a!

back to HOUSTON...

i got to meet up with some of my friends in houston. we of course all met at a mexican food restaurant and then went out for drinks. i am so proud of all my friends... we managed to break away from our hometowns and really start lives outside of our realm of comfort in katy. sarah is in tampa, florida doing her medical sales gig, ashley is in residency in charleston, north carolina, and beth is in houston finishing her optometrist schooling... love them to death and so glad we have been able to keep up with each other.

i remember mom telling me "the people you meet in highschool will be friends for life" then thought that possible until now.

me, sarah, beth, and ashley

dayna joined us for dinner as well

the gang- ashley's husband was still in north carolina doing his residency as well

back to COLLEGE STATION...

for thanksgiving we were able to take in the infamous texas vs a&m game. in the end the game didn't turn out in our favor but the first couple of minutes sure were exciting!

back to KATY...

quick lunch with a very special person! FARAH! miss her so much in singapore, but lucky that she lives very close to my parents so we will keep in touch :)

HOUSTON finally leaving...

michelle bruce, melissa lewis, me, catherine helle, and anne duermeyer

the last night we joined friends for dinner and drinks... i miss these girls very much! we are all connected through our significant others due to their friendships made in college. i love spending time with them.

bonham lienweber, cody reynolds, preston bruce, dirk dunlap, matt lewis, and phillip gay

all the boys on the last night! some aren't in the picture (mitchell martin and kevin simpson) we were at a new bar on washington called taps.

funny thing... they all work for the same company in houston... that is how close these guys are.

HELLO SINGAPORE

this is what happens when you have a 14 hour time difference... you wake up to see the sun rise for a week.

at sentosa with otto.

we had a great trip but it really took it out of us. we were also able to see our wonderful neighbors... the only people that will actually come visit us besides family and dirk's friends that come to singapore due to work... which has happened fairly often to far... it is good to have friends that you work with :)

so ONE continent down... three to go!

now before you delete me from your "blogs to follow" list.... i am here!

well actually we have been everywhere... i should be a gold class member of singapore air in no time at all... the miles are racking up. probably why we got bumped to business class this last flight from sydney!

i promise i will get right back on the blogging train as soon as i can unpack, do all the laundry, and up load all the pics.... i am thinking there will be some BIG changes in 2010. so keep in touch and i hope everyone had a blessed holiday season and a joyous start to the new year!

for now, i will leave you with this........








yes... yet another picture of our dog. who wants us to have a baby just so you can stop seeing otto in all these outrageous pictures?

i tried to pack him in our suitcase for home leave in november... he told me he would rather stay with yenni "the pet sitter"... she takes him to the dog park and even found him a girlfriend (another brindle boxer female-8 months old)

yes... another post about my dogggg.....

I can't believe we are leaving this little guy here in singapore for so long... i wish we could take him with us....

he was really tired this day...

i think he takes after his mother... she likes to sleep as well!

the dunlaps will be in texas soon! minus one important family member :)

our kid

just a quick update.


dirk just got home from work. 9:36PM Monday. otto has been waiting by the door since 7PM... his usual get home from work time.

otto brings dirk a bone and starts to throw it around the room while dirk undresses into "bum around the house clothes"... they do their usual greetings

otto continues to throw his bone around... now just entertaining himself.

at this point dirk turns to me and says... do you think kids will be this easy? just happy with a piece of leather and throw it around the room by themselves?

oh dear... my husband is going to treat our"nonexistent child" like a dog just because he doesn't know any better... i think i am just going to let him keep thinking it is going to be that easy. HA!

so... this gives you the answer to kids anytime soon... or don't be surprised when you see our child playing with a piece of leather...

my little devil turns two!

october 31st: happy halloween & happy birthday otto!

he was less than thrilled in his devil ears but he is such a good sport and a great dog! i am so glad we were able to bring him with us to singapore... he will be a well traveled dog. maybe he is even picking up some mandarin while he is here... he does that a singaporean dog sitter.

deepa vali

october 21-20th: deepa vali

the festival of lights is the indian holiday of deepa vali. we took a trip down to little india and were enlightened with a cultural experience. i think we were actually in india for a moment. it was great to see all the lights and even taste some great indian food, it is one of dirk's favorites. (farah: you would be proud of me, i took dirk to banana leaf for dinner... he LOVED it!)

so we were suppose to go to bangkok, thailand this weekend but our trip was cancelled due to dirk's work schedule which also got cancelled at the last minute... oh how i love this business. again, i wonder how they make any money with the great planning they put into projects....

so we re booked bangkok for march... our next free month for travel.

november=home to texas
december=brother comes to singapore & we scuba dive similan islands in thailand
january=sydney, australia celebration of new years & 2nd wedding anniversary
feburary= chinese new years... either new zealand or palua

i will have to say that living over here is a major bummer without family and really good friends around.... but the travel is great.

happy deepavali!

not quite sure what this store was selling but it was a huge hit...

so many types of NAAN! yummmm :)

MONKEYS ON THE ROOF!

september 17-21st: gili islands & bali, indonesia

dirk came back from one of the many perth trips in august & september and we decided to get away for a long weekend to indonesia. i got an idea from a friend at work that these islands off the coast of lombok, indonesia were amazing and a great place for scuba diving. so i booked our trip which included 2 nights in bali and 2 nights in gili air. you can look here for more information on the islands : http://www.gili-paradise.com.

we stayed on gili air which is the smallest of the three gili islands. it was known for being the quiet island with a more laid back atmosphere... boy were they right on the laid back part. we could barely get food within a 2 hour time span. but it was so nice not having tv, internet, moblie phones (they didn't work on the island and it was great for dirk). there weren't even any cars, just horses to get around.

we managed to dive both days that we were there, getting in 5 dives total. we saw so many turtles and up so close. one turtle was sleeping the while we swam around him in aw. the dives were really great and the snorkeling was even better. we literally walked out the front door to our bungalow and to the beach to snorkel. the reef was amazing all around the island, turtles and fish everywhere!

lombok is the island next to bali and is known for its trekking. you can see the moutains in the distance from gili air. next long weekend will include lombok, we got some great recommdations from some people and its just as cheap as phuket, thailand!

the water was amazing! i loved all the colors.

so this is a random picture, out of place, but i am too lazy to correct it. this was one of the days we were in bali on it's famous beach in kuta. kuta beach is known for the surfing and when we were there some sort of surfing competition was going on so all the hotels were fully booked. i am really glad we planned ahead and got a hotel room.

ok... back to gili air! dirk & tina enjoying the water and probably waiting for food.

oh the water... just gorgeous!

so many colors!!

our bunglaow: included open air shower, haven't seen one of those since our honeymoon in costa rica!

Bali, Indonesia

back to bali in 2009... still not that impressed with bali. maybe we aren't going to the right places. it is great for shopping and indonesian massages... they are the best massages we have had in all of asia.

while we were in the gili islands bali had an earthquake. it was one morning really early and the sun was not up yet. i felt the whole bungalow moving but when i went to wake dirk up he proceeded to tell me it was just the monkeys on the roof. i thought for a moment... then decided that if it was an earthquake and there was a wave... we would die anyway because the island is too small and flat to even get to high ground. monekys on the roof... i just love my husband sometimes. needless to say we just went back to sleep. found out that it was a 6 on the richter scale and bali had some major damage.

all the surfers in the morning waiting for the perfect wave!