My little niece turns 1 year old in two days (I had to post my most favorite pouty face of hers when she was only 3 weeks old). My goodness I sound like my mum when I say – my how time has flown by. A year ago my sister was pregnant and I was waiting to see when she would deliver. I go for a jog one night and when I return –boom I’m an Aunt. The easiest delivery I had ever heard of (thanks Ericka for not ruining it for the rest of us – might have been scared to death had you gone through 45 hours of labor) and the most amazing lil creation landed into my life. She has grown so much (3x’s her birth weight) but still a lil pip of a thing. I think the part of all this that warms my hear the most is my Grandma got to know she was a great grandma. She got to see pictures of Bailey; she could not have been happier for the Grappe family. Her very first great grandbaby ever! Little Bailey Rae Grappe. Grandma died soon after, exactly two months, almost to the day. But she knew…all that time she knew she had a great grandbaby.
Happy birthday Bailey Rae. I honestly wish you continue to laugh like the free spirited child you are. I wish you many, many instances where you wobble a bit, but find things to hold on to while you learn to walk. I hope you continue to love and kiss on your mama the way you do. I wish you decades of running to give daddy a hug and kiss hello when he comes in. I hope you find hundreds of turtles that spark your interest and make you smash them down when they stop playing. I hope you keep those big brown eyes turned towards Jesus with the smile you have that is so captivating. You’ve stolen our hearts little one. Happy birthday….

Hong Kong Trip Post 2

I should have known better than to use a platform like a blog to help me fight jet lag last night. When Tim called me at work to point out my typos and spelling errors (or as he described it “spelling like a toddler on cold medicine”) I was mortified (sorry mom!!). Oh well…
Caffeine; the most abused stimulant in American and so very helpful when trying to get through the first day back at work. Gotta love coffee (sorry Bri—I cheated on the detox. That can start next week!)
So back to Thailand Day 2! There were three basic elements to this day. Eating, Relaxing, Swimming. Put those three in any order, rinse and repeat. Throw in some terrific fruity drinks (only at the beach can a grown man get away with a beverage containing a pastel colored umbrella) and massages and you have life in paradise. Sabrina had a special encounter with a tiny jelly fish, but like the trooper she is – she laughed it off. And as the true friends we are – we laughed AT her. Speaking of laughable-- white hand prints seemed to multiply on my body as my sporadic sunscreen application met day two of the harsh sun.
All the above is the perfect recipe for great conversations and catching up with the very best of friends.

Hong Kong Trip Day 1

I’m just a girl who…
Is currently fighting severe jet lag from a 16 hour flight from Hong Kong. I’m serenaded by the world news which I avoided for the past 14 days (when did the world implode?) and my husband’s melodious snoring—he has clearly given in to the death grip of jet lag. I personally think all this napping will be his demise. We currently have a bet to see who’s method of beating jet lag works-- althought I’m unsure what the prize is. I’m just crossing my fingers that I do not fall asleep at my desk tomorrow!
Our trip to Southeast Asia was truly amazing. Nothing like escaping to the other side of the planet!! Everything is so different over there; the culture, the language, the attire, the people, the smells (oh the smells!) that it is hard to imagine we all share the same world!

The flight over was fine. I’m the type that could literally ‘die’ from boredom. Nothing is worse than a Bored Melany and like a hyper 4 year old, I brought lots of activities. I only got thru half of them. You know you are in Asia as soon as you step off the plane. I’m 5’10”, white as a piece of copy paper and blonde. Frankly, I could not be more different than the average local. Ever have that feeling when you get off a treadmill that you are walking on air or perhaps the ground is still moving under you? That is similar to the feeling you get walking after sitting for 16 hours and emerging with a 12 hour time difference. Seeing our best friends from the distance brought my feet back under me. Bri and I ran to embrace – I had been so excited about this trip I could not believe we had finally arrived! We were now on their territory. We lost a day due to the time change so it was night by the time we arrived to their apartment in Midlevels Hong Kong. Bri instantly put together a restaurant quality cheese, fruit and cracker plate topped off with champagne to toast our arrival. By 6:30a.m. we were up and headed back to the airport for our trip to Phuket, Thailand. I want to take a moment to applaud Bri and I for our packing abilities (the boys get no kudos-they are boys) we crammed 4 days of all needed supplies & attire into a single duffle each. 3 more hours of flying and another stamp in the passport and we were in a cab driving thru Thailand. What a mix of colors, smells and people. We pasted shacks and resorts. Hindu attire and Buddhist temples. Outdoor huts roasting meats and high class restaurants. Fancy cars and bike rickshaws. The arrival at the villa took our breath away. Infinity pools surrounded the villa; glassy water spilling over the edge and foot stones leading guests to the front outdoor lobby. Long trails of viney plants hung over each level providing a feel that you were involved in some type of Thai garden fairytale. From the moment we arrived, everyone shed watches, turned off phones and we moved with lanky ease. Although when someone would occasionally pipe up with “Hey what time is it?” it was almost comical for each of us to look at the other until someone would give an educated guess. The hotel apartment was beautiful, but it was the outdoors that was calling us. Lunch proved to be amazing and with fully bellies we trotted down to the beach. Ahhh the beach. Gorgeous. Lush mountains jut up from the sea with a very protective, noble presence. In stark contrast to the flat Caribbean; Thailand is defined by many shapes. Since we were all pasty, we took great pains to apply sunscreen—well they all took great pains to apply sunscreen. I was quite distracted and dabbed/slapped on sunscreen in random places while trying to take in everything at once. I would not recommend this strategy to anyone, especially in the blazing sun. I had a solid white handprint on my shoulder to testify that a little time spent rubbing sunscreen in is probably worth it. But one cannot blame me from being distracted in a place like this.
The beach day turned into beach happy hour at, where else, but a beach bar. None of us expected the sunrise that seemed to burst in front of us. We must have taken hundreds of pictures but even with the speed of a camera shutter, the sky would change, thus provoking another shot.

It was like a brilliant water color that continued to introduce new pinks, new blues, and a sun you could literally see sink into the blue inky ocean.

Jet lag hit Tim and I just a bit on the way to dinner, but the tanks of fresh seafood that greeted you at the front of the restaurant snapped us out of it. To be seated, you must walk past about 10 giant tanks of what would later become dinner. A lobster the size of a cat stuck one of his “feelers” out to make sure I was awake. Bloody scary. The silly ‘Pissing Shrimp’ were just floating around wondering where their friends were disappearing to – but it was the sea bass that had the right idea. About 12 fish were all lined up straight along the back wall facing everyone. They seemed to have a sense what was going on and wanted nothing to do with it. We tried lobster, fish, prawns and other seafood delicacies. The restaurant was adjacent to the beach and balloon lanterns were being lit and released.
Dinner was moving along fine when we noticed Tim’s face turning a very deep shade of red and his eyes watering up with lightening speed. He choked down two glasses of water with the urgency of a dying man.
“Pepper. Hot pepper. Up my nose.” He croaked out. OK, I’m sure it was quite painful, but the entire look was quite comical. We took great care to mock him, until a decent amount of time passed and Tim was still crying and wheezing. We later deduced that a flaming chile pepper must have been lodged in his nose. This was apparently more painful than the time Tim and I stuck wasabi peas up our nose on a bet. The pepper almost put a damper on the evening, but Tim suffered through “The Pepper Incident of 2009” and we rallied to see about the well known nightlife of Patong.