Shopping

Here's a little game. Guess which person in our family picked which "comfort" item when we went grocery shopping this last week. Double points if you can guess the price. We're slowly learning that sometimes it can be hard to find reasonably-priced items here that we're used to paying low prices for in America. (As a hint, these aren't priced as high as some items you can buy cheaply in America. Still more expensive, though).

 Ready for the answers? Troy picked popcorn. Niki picked the pumpkin, and Olivia picked corn on the cob. Hers was cheapest at under $1. The pumpkin was $9, while the three bags of microwavable popcorn were about $7. 

Haircuts, Beach & Deepavali

We had a busy Saturday last week. It was the first chance we have really had since we got here to look around and play without feeling the effects of jet lag, so we took advantage of the day. First on the agenda was to get our girlie a haircut. 

Not so sure at first, but after getting treats and a balloon and watching "Dora," we think she's a fan of haircuts. Had to include the bottom pictures. They're of Livvy in the "alligator" (what she calls the elevator) and also a shot of the millions of escalators you can ride in the mega-malls here in Singapore. 

 After a haircut, brief drive to Sentosa for the beach! How would you like your first beach experience to be in Southeast Asia? Seriously, our girlie has the life. I love the picture of her and Troy below. He's got a pretty cute little girlfriend there.

You'd think the beaches would have spectacular views here in Singapore, but it's funny, all you can see are cargo ships!

 After the beach, we decided to check out Little India. Right now, there is a celebration called Deepavali going on. It's commonly referred to as the "festival of lights." The streets in Little India right now are decked out with all sorts of beautiful light displays and everyone is wearing beautiful new outfits.

 A large and very hot tent where all sorts of goods and clothing are being sold in Little India.

 We were sweating like crazy. Poor Livvy was dripping wet. She feel asleep through most of our sojourn through the tent. I bought a cold water bottle just to keep on her neck to keep her cool.

Our girl perked right up, though once we got some water and food in her and showed her the "pretty" dress we had bought for her in Little India. She loves this dress. We had major tears when we tried to take her out of it. She wore it for three straight days and wanted to sleep with it at night. Made her daddy happy that she was so pleased. Wonder if he'll buy me a dress next if I act that way?! :)

From Sandy to Singapore

We finally have our computer! We only had a limited amount of space on our air shipment here, and one of the most important things we chose to pack was our computer. Now I can finally download pictures. So, for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures that show what we did the past three weeks. 

 In her room before we packed it up. 

 "Don't worry, I got it." We didn't get a picture, but this mover actually picked up the mattress with one hand and carried it to the cargo crate. 

 12 pieces of luggage, plus a stroller and car seat. 

 The view out our window the first morning (4 am.)

 China Town. Taken the first week before we succumbed to jet lag and decided to spend the rest of our nights...sleeping. 

 Little turtles at the Botanic Gardens. Livvy loved them!

 Botanic Gardens. 

 Olivia's mad organizing skills. You'll notice if you look close how all the animals are categorized together by species. Troy and I are in a fight over who gave our girl the type-A, OCD genes. 

 Major shopping center across the street, Ion Orchard. 

 Swimming at the hotel. Sorry all you Utah folks with snow. 

 Our temporary housing. It's actually serviced, which means the cleaning fairly shows up once a day. I think Troy might be in for a shock when we move to our new place and realizes the cleaning fairy only lives in serviced apartments. 

 Olivia has a new-found love for escalators and elevators. She calls them both "alligators."

 Pig statues in the food court. Olivia likes to pet them. 

 The children's section of the Botanic Gardens. 

 More mad organizing skills. Same animals, different location. And no, I didn't help. 

 Our air shipment! And it has toys!

Not so organized now. But we're in heaven. 

Bomb Shelters & Yuan

How much would you pay for a bomb shelter in your house?

For Troy and I, we decided it was worth a little extra than what his company allocated to us for housing to have the added comfort of a bomb shelter in our Singaporian home.

Not only are they good in the case of say, a bomb, but they also double as a great storage place. Some people also use them as a bedroom for their live-in helper/maid. Can't tell you how many real estate agents we had point out the fact that these bomb shelters, despite being fully encased in metal, and quite tiny, have ventilation  so they'd be appropriate for someone to live in. Yikes is all I can say.

Also, not quite 100 percent sure on the background of these bomb shelters, but one person told us they began being required after 9-11 and are not required in new buildings anymore. But, you can find apartments older than 2001 with the shelters, too.

Either way, we love the idea of the added storage space. There's not much in the way of storage for odds and ends here. We still aren’t 100 percent final on our apartment, but we’ve signed a letter of intent. Now we’re just waiting for a check from Troy’s company to seal the deal. If we get the space, we plan to use our bomb shelter to store about a year’s worth of diapers I smuggled into the country (don’t tell). Diapers here retail for about $40 for a box of 80. Compare that the Sam’s Club special of about 300 diapers for about $36. Other boxes and odds and ends are going to be in it, too.

We’ve been adjusting well here. Some days are harder than others. We miss the comforts of home such as family and our cars. It takes a lot longer to do things here. But we think we’ll really enjoy our time here.

Right now, we’re staying along the main shopping district in Singapore. We’ve made it our goal to eat as much exotic food (well, as exotic as my pregnant stomach can manage) as we can while Troy’s company is helping foot the bill. There is a massive food court across the street from us, so we generally eat there. Inside, they have all these cool statues of random creatures, including one by the name of Yuan.

Livvy is in love with Yuan.  I think he does something for her. He's basically a modern-art sculpture of some kind of buffalo. She passes him and says “Yuan!” Too cute.

Hopefully we’ll get our computer on Thursday, so I’ll be able to post pictures then.