A review of some of the unexpected...

Number 1: Buying hair clippers was more complicated than we expected. It's easier to just give the boys a bad haircut than to drag them to a barber to pay for one. (Toddlers and young boys are known for their ability to sit perfectly still during haircuts) So, we went to the store to buy hair clippers... cheap ones. OK, so on the signature line of Geoff's credit card is says, "CHECK I.D." And no, 'Geoff' is NOT a nickname for 'CHECK I.D.'. A few managers later.... we were the owners of a cheap Remington hair clipper set.

Number 2: Upon return to the U.S.A., we needed to reprogram the kids to put the used toilet paper in the toilet, not the trash cans.

Number 3: Felicia learning to count to ten in Thai by watching pirated Garfield VCDs. But she's already forgotten.

Number 4: Hearing Turner yell, "OOOO Squid! I LOVE squid!"

Number 5: That smell in the air after a few days of rain... The sour smell of everyone wearing clothes that never really finished drying on the line.

Number 6: Child abduction fear adjustment... It seems that it's common (at least for the restaurants that we've been) for your waiter/tress to pick up the baby of the family and walk around the restaurant showing the baby off to the staff and patrons. Really freaky at first... but ya know what... it gave us a chance to eat :o) No one ever took a child out of sight.

Number 7: Thumb suckers beware. Wherever we went we could count on a random Thai woman to detour toward Ronan and pull the thumb right out of his mouth. It was a swift and efficient maneuver. Before Ronan knew what hit him the thumb was out with a 'pop' and the woman had already disappeared into the crowd. After a couple months Ronan got pretty good of seeing a woman coming to try and avoid the removal of his permanent pacifier.

Number 8: Bathing suit differences in Asia... at least where we went... most females were bathing in a T-shirt over their swimsuits(if they had one).

Number 9: Now that we've spent the summer in Asia our body-thermostats have been adjusted to better tolerate the heat of Maryland summer! As of the 4th of July we've only run the AC 3 days :o) We've never seen better electric bills for the summer...