Miscellaneous and Murder?

So we love our house...not just because it is totally retro 60s-70s (yikes!), but because it seems at least 4 times the size of our house in Virginia. The boys are having fun running around getting used to the space, but also finding out that falling and hitting your head on the tile floor is NOT awesome. Thank goodness for GSO who will install carpet in two rooms downstairs this week. GSO provides all things maintenance for the house...it's great. In two weeks we have had a new shower head installed, the grout fixed in all three bathrooms, a new vacuum delivered and the list goes on...you put your request in via email and they show up either that day or within a day or two. Sometimes the problem doesn't get entirely fixed, but hey, at least they are timely.

I can't say as much for the internet and cable services. Is there some written credo that spans across all countries and nationalities that all cable companies must be completely incompetent? So, we got our cable t.v. and internet installed, and I received a bill a few days later saying our first payment would be due July 15th. On July 9th our internet and cable went out. When I called to find out the problem, they said we hadn't paid our bill. Excuse me? We just had it installed one week ago! Thinking it must be some lost in translation mistake, I had our pembantu talk to an Indonesian customer support representative, and they said the same. Then I called again and they admitted that they had made a mistake on the bill and we were supposed to pay for the first month within 3 days of it being installed, and despite their mistake, we MUST pay before they can turn it back on. What kind of messed up policy is that? Anyway, of course we can't pay like in the states because here, if you pay over the phone, your credit card number is likely to be stolen, so we have to do most things like that via the embassy.

So now that is all fixed, life is mostly normal...if you don't count the call we received from our driver saying he needed pulsa (money to recharge his cell phone) because he was at the police station after he murdered a 10 year old at a school. Yes, you read that right! Tanner thought his Bahasa language skills were severely lacking and pulled out his dictionary just to make sure he had the word "MURDER" translated correctly in his mind. He did. It was all very weird since our driver is this nice older gentleman with grown kids and is very sweet to our children. I was seriously starting to question my ability to read people's countenances correctly. Then we started piecing together the fact that when this guy called, Tanner asked if it was our driver, and he just said yes, just wanting to keep Tanner on the phone. They talked for a bit, and Tanner, sensing something was amiss, asked to talk to the policeman at the station and they hung up. We ran over to our friends' house, who confirmed this kind of thing happens quite frequently here in Jakarta and that people get strange calls all the time from individuals trying to scam or solicit money. We called our actual driver and he was at home having a nice relaxing Saturday morning with his family. He laughed when we told him the story. What we still can't figure out is why this guy would think someone would want to give him money to recharge his phone if he had killed a 10 year old boy at a school. Seriously, couldn't you think up a story that might just be a little more endearing than one involving murder...think before you scam man! This story will forever be placed in our "Only in Jakarta" file.

In other news, we celebrated the Fourth of July and my birthday by going to an Embassy party and then swimming with the kids on Saturday. Our experiences at the pool have much improved since my last writing on the subject, particularly since now I can leave Audrey at home with our pembantu while I go with just the boys for a couple hours. They love it and are both jumping off the diving board with gusto. Clark is still in floaties and Andrew still wears a life jacket type suit, but they are doing great and hopefully we will have them in swim lessons soon.

Me and my boys on my birthday

Tanner and I also went and saw Eclipse together at the Premiere Movie Theater. Here you pay $5 to see a movie and you get a full on personal lounge chair AND a blanket! They will also bring you a menu to order food and drinks, which they will also have a waiter come and bring to you. Needless to say, we are big fans...but weren't such big fans of Eclipse, unfortunately.

Tanner started driving...I swear he tried to run me off the road a few times, but he just thinks I was being paranoid...

OR

maybe he forgot there was a left side to the car. Also, he sometimes turns on the wipers instead of the turn signal sometimes, but don't tell him I told you. We have only almost got into an accident once, which is actually great for Jakarta! He loves driving here in the chaos, and truth be told, he is getting pretty good...but I am glad he only drives on the weekends.

Audrey and I have been struck with some kind of bug, and I just barely managed to get through my talk on Sunday without losing my breakfast. The kids have been pushing the limits at church and you just can't get away with it when there are only 50 people in a chapel. So we came home, and we "practiced" church for the next 45 mins. The boys had to sit on either end of the couch without speaking or moving around. They did it, and it was quite peaceful. I am up for practicing church at home more often I must say. Anyway, I ended up taking Audrey into the embassy doctor today since her fever was at 101. They did a complete workup, and said she is fine, just fighting a bug, and that we should watch her fever. I have the same thing, so hopefully we will get past it soon.

In better news, we received our first surprise goody package from Tanner's brother's family last week.
Thank you!!!!! We loved everything in it and the boys have colored every day, and it has been a great activity for them, since we are still awaiting our air shipment, which hopefully will arrive the end of this week or next week since they have been doing a lot of this

while waiting for more toys to arrive.

Here are some pics from the last few weeks because obviously this post has not been long enough...My first local purchase. This is a ceramic pot decorated with painted dots. I can't imagine how long it takes the artist to make one of these (I should have asked him) but I think it is super cool. Tanner's first purchases were two dart guns and a bow and arrow set (shocker).

Nice fountain! My favorite so far. It's actually a big roundabout in the middle of the city...

Me and my little girl on my 29th birthday and her just over 3 month bday