Halloween Thai Style

October 31 is just another day in Thailand. We farangs (foreigners) always find a way to have some fun.  Halloween was celebrated at a neighborhood close to school where many of our friends live. 

Pumpkins are a luxury and one we do without. That's about $100 US. Yikes. 

Last night was all about the trunk or treat. We were a very popular car giving out American candy that I brought back from the states. 

It's 90* so our army boys really can't be to bothered to fully costume themselves. Oh and that cool age of 12 and 14 might have something to do with that too. 

Andrew, Jack and some of their friends 

Send the kiddies home and the adults will play. After party with a very cool ice bar. 

Walter loves a good ice bar. 

Cheers from the other side. 

M 😘

Thailand adventure ending soon

6 more weeks and we will no longer call Thailand home. We are moving back to Michigan. 

This is one place I will miss, the Amari for lunch with Thai noodle soup, a cold San Miguel lite and a beautiful view. 

Oh the places you'll go

She's off, she's flyin, she will move mountains!  Oh the Places she'll go!

Erin's graduated. My baby girl how is that possible. When she was little I always sang to her You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. The words ring so true for her. She really can make make me happy when my skies are gray. Everyone loves Erin. Her name in Gaelic means peace maker - so fitting for her. Jack and Andrew will miss Erin and Ryan, well, he is luckiest of us all, he gets her close by. The boys talk to her about everything. She is strong, sensitive and so smart. How did I get so lucky. 

When we moved to Thailand she was so full of doubt but she was all for our move. She was able to see the future and know what the endless benefits it would bring her. How right she was. She was scared of IB. Many times I had to talk her off the ledge of uncertainty. I knew she had it in her to take on the challenge. She persevered and was more successful than I could have ever imagined. Awards, honors and a true respect from the entire faculty, she has earned her diploma. 

Isn't this why we have children, we want them to be better then ourselves and have a bright future. We want them to grow, be happy, independent and successful in whatever they chose. I am so excited for her but I also feel the loss. I will miss her. The house won't be the same without her.  Walter and I couldn't be prouder of her but for us it is bittersweet. For the last month she is with us I will just enjoy her company and relish in the fact that she will no longer bury herself in her room for hours on end studying. I will spend time with her and just try to whoop her a$$ a few times in cards as we just talk, hang out and enjoy the last few moments we have together. 

Her future is bright!

From preschool to high school graduation

Loving having her brother here. 

Cheers and a little tears from the other side

😘 M

Maggie's Milk Money

Wear white that's all I wanted. Come, lets get together have a glass of bubbles or two (coffee or tea for those who prefer) and maybe shop. If you want you can donate a box of milk. Simple invite yet so effective. Who knew that at a coffee morning held at my house would raise an earth shattering 40,000 baht ($1200 US) and enough boxes of milk to give over 2000 children a cup of milk. WOW!!  

I belong to a Women's Group called RLC (Rayong Ladies Club). Monthly we host a coffee morning (usually more bubbles are drunk then coffee), hosting is on a rotation basis and a local charity is our focus. We invite vendors to come and sell their wares and the ladies who attend chat, shop and maybe drink a few. Who hosts gets to pick the lucky charity. All expat women in our local area are invited and usually between 40 to 60 women attend. Everyone chips in by bringing a dish. Raffle prizes are a huge hit because the vendors donate to the drawings. A significant amount of money is raised each month for worthy charities. 

May is at my house for Maggie's Milk Money - wear white in honor of milk, bring a box of powered milk, drink some bubbles, chat with your friends, eat some lunch, shop and have some fun. Sounds like a good day for most women. For me it was the most amazing day. I'm deeply humbled by the amount of support I have received for something I feel so passionate about. 

Milk. Such a simple idea but one that many like myself take for granted. How many times have I thrown out almost a cup full of milk from my children's cereal bowl or the cup from dinner that they just didn't want to finish because they were FULL. 

Maggie's Milk Money started because of my trip to northern Thailand in Mae Sot. My sister and brother in law helped give me a foundation, now I'm just carrying it through.  I have grown Maggie's Milk Money because of so much support I have received. The CDTC school in Mae Sot will now have milk 3 times a week for a year. Seriously though could I just sit on my extra funds and not do more. Mae Sot is 9 hours away, I felt a strong urge to do something closer to home so I could really get more involved. Picking 2 organizations here in Pattaya I decided to step into uncharted waters and figure out a way to help more. I now support 2 additional places with my milk. 

Sanuk Day Care Center is a day care for non Thai children.  Google Sanuk Day scare Center in Pattaya and you will see an incredibly heartwarming but very sad story about a mom and her daughter filling a need here in Pattaya. These kids have nothing, no education and no possible future. The day care center provides these kids transportation, education, food, and some fun Monday through Friday from 8 to 3pm.  Some 30 - 50 kids call this place their second home. The center is solely dependent on donations. With this coffee morning I am able to donate to them 10000baht ($300 U.S.) and weekly milk for the next 6 months.

Haven Children's Home is my second cause. It is a home for disadvantaged children who need a safe haven. This is an orphanage who tries to find these children's families and bring them back together or find them a suitable family who will adopt them. This home houses between 30 to 40 children at a time. They are solely dependent on donations and I am able to help them the same as Sanuk. 

You can't imagine the feeing I have about the amount of money raised and the powered milk donated. 

What an amazing feeling to be able to provide something so simple as milk. These women who came to my house were extremely generous, forever I will be grateful. 

I'm humbled and thankful for this opportunity to do something worthy. 

A few fun pictures of this superb morning.  The milk mustaches were a huge hit!

A girlfriend made this change bucket for her house that she has been filling for me. Can you guess her nationality?  Lol

My famous group selfie

Maggie's Milk Money

Strong, Smart & Healthy

Milk, it goes a long way!

Cheers from the other side

😘 M

Can not resist

I am soooooo way over due in posting anything and everything. 

Today though I was sent a picture and was immediately reminded that I need to share more often these incredible experiences we have.

Walters job continues to mostly be in India. Okay who am I kidding it is all in India these days. This plant that is being built while mostly a thorn in his side is beginning to smooth out and start to resemble a real Kellogg plant. Today marked an important date because flakes were being produced. It has been a long road but today was a celebration. The Indians called it a Puja Ceremony. Walter was honored in this Puja ceremony. 

Puja is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honour and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honour or celebrate the presence of special guest.  The word pūjā comes from Sanskrit, and means reverence, honour, homage, adoration, and worship.

This is to bring him good luck in the future. 

The India Kellogg team

They were surprised Walter could sit like that. 

And this was his extra good luck on the way home. He would not get off the road. 

Cheers from the other side 

😘 M

You think you've seen it all then......

Seriously I have become so immune to living in Thailand that nothing can really shock me anymore and then life throws a curve ball and once again I'm put back in my place to let me know that Nope I really haven't seen it all. 

Today I bought meat from a man wearing only his undies. Yep you read that right. Seriously I have pictures to prove. Got to love an iPhone with no sound so you can snap away without people realizing your taking their picture. Im sure that I was breaking some sort of law somewhere by doing that but I could not pass up the opportunity to share this absolutely hysterical situation. 

I have eaten this mans sausages before. Even typing that doesn't seem right. Let me give you the back ground story. 

My Aussie girlfriend is married to a South African. He loves his Boerewors (sounds better than me calling it sausage when I've bought it from a almost naked man). Boerewors is what South Africans call sausage.  He cooks it on the braai (grill).

You find most good things here through word of mouth and this guy was recommended to her. At her house for a barbecue she served Boerewors and they were delicious. I had asked her when she went again I wanted to go and buy some myself. 

Today she and I were out and she said she had to go visit her sausage man and did I want to go. Always up for an adventure, Of course I wanted to go. Oh was I in for a treat. She warned me a little but when someone tells you he will be in his underware selling us the sausages you don't really think he will be in HIs Boxers with no shirt. Thank goodness they were not tighty whities. 

It took everything in me to not giggle the entire time I was in his shop. Could barely understand the man with his heavy South African accent. 

By the way he was a lovely man who of course after the meat transaction I gave him a big hug and a kiss on his cheek. Gotta a love a man selling meat in his undies. 

Excuse the finger in the pic. I was trying to be discrete. 

He's weighing our purchases 

Very very clean shop

My girlfriend giving him a quick cuddle before we leave. 

The street where he lived. Who would know a very successful meat distributor lived here who supplied Pattaya and Bangkok with South African meat. 

Let me tell you Steff and I had a huge laugh after we left. 

Cheers from the other side

😘 M

Feeling the Love

Overwhelmed by the amount of support I received in December for Maggie's Milk Money. I don't even know where to begin to thank those who "blindly" supported me. I don't have official numbers yet. Accounting needs to be updated but I know that I have surpassed my goal by huge numbers. How lucky for me to have people who trust my experience and are willing to donate their hard earned money for children who tugged at my heart. I will now be able to up my milk donation from 2 days a week to 3 days and for longer than a year. My goal was 90000 baht (baht is Thai dollars) roughly $2750 US dollars. Early indicators have put me at just in December alone roughly around $5000 US dollars / 164500 baht!!!

WOW!  I almost doubled my goal can you now understand my overwhelming gratitude. I wish I could personally thank all that donated. But hopefully people will pass along my blog so everyone can see how incredible you are for supporting me. My appreciation runs over. 

The women of Women With a Mission are dumbfounded. I just told them I had awesome people in my life. How lucky am I. 

Thanks to my parents who supported, donated and encouraged but also asked their friends to donate and thanks to my extended family who also donated. Thanks to All that wrote letters expressing encouragement. Never have I done anything like this before but wow how great it is to be supported and encouraged, the emotion I feel is overwhelming. 

The biggest Thanks goes to my sister Betsy and Matt without them this number would never have been so big. To be honest I have to give them all the credit. The amount of money that was raised really says nothing of me but of them. I feel completely honored that they trust and chose what I felt so passionate about to be the receipient of their fundraiser but it really shows their character and how much their community, neighborhood, friends and family feel about them. They are definitely loved and respected. Matt and Betsy hosted a "Got Milk?" Holiday Party before they came to Thailand. They had over 180 guests come to their home. Betsy and Matt provided appetizers and cocktails then asked their guest to make a donation in my honor. It was a smashing success with over $4000 US dollars raised in their very own home and I think a little fun was had by all. Wow now that is impressive. This was all presented to me at Christmas as a surprise. I was speechless and I do believe some happy tears were shed. I was needless to say a bit overwhelmed. 

As for now I am working on details on how all this money will be properly distributed. I'm closely working with WWM on making sure the funds and milk storage is secure. I will also take a little bit of the money and buy mugs so each child has one and no more drinking out of the silver dog bowls with spoons. I'm trying to find a weekend to go back up there but it's not easy with 3 kids in school plus activities and a husband who travels for work constantly.  Rosy from WWM will be heading up there in February and will give me an update plus take all the milk and cups I have bought here. 

Thanks again to all who supported. None of this could have been possible without your help. Hopefully one day when back in the states I will be able to personally give everyone a great BIG hug but for now remember you have a made this girl smile BIg!  

Maggie's Milk Money has been a SUCCESS!  Thanks for making that happen. 

         GOT MILK?  Yes I DO!

Much love

Cheers from the other side

😘 M