Gunshots, a Downpour, the Marine House, and a Pool Party

So yesterday was quite a day. It started off calmly enough with the 6K walk I've been doing most mornings with my neighbor.  There was a morning yoga class in one of the rooms near our pool, so after our walk we did the class too.  It was pretty intense, but I felt virtuous afterwards.

Young and I had planned to go to the plant store and to Makro, but we had to wait for Elena to wake up from her nap.  Of course, that meant she took an extra long nap.  I'm not going to judge though, since I fell asleep in my comfy chair during the wait.  We were a little worried because while we were waiting for Elena, the skies kept getting darker, but Young and I decided to go for it.

It started sprinkling a little when we got to the plant place, but it actually felt refreshing, so we forged ahead.  I mentioned already that the plant place was associated with the Thai military in some way.  Young explained (since she can read the Thai signs) that it's an army training facility.  Luckily, she explained this before the gunshots started.  The guy who was helping us seemed completely unfazed by it, so I concluded that people were just practicing at the shooting range.  Young and I checked on Elena, who also seemed unperturbed by the sound.  We kept shopping with one guy following us with a cart to put the plants on, another guy with a big, blue umbrella which he insisted on holding over me and Elena, and the intermittent staccato of gunshots.  Definitely one of my most unique shopping experiences.

As we finished up, the rain started to really come down.  Luckily, by that point we were under the tin roof on four poles that served as the check out area.  It was quite the torrential downpour, and our helpful umbrella friend picked up a shovel instead and worked on repositioning the dirt around us, so that the water wouldn't flood into our little sheltered area.  Our plants were totally soaked because they weren't under the roof, and I didn't think there was any way we could get them into the trunk without getting completely soaked ourselves, so Young arranged for us to pick them up the next day.  She also told me that the man she talked to said we should go home now because the roads were probably going to flood soon.

I put up my umbrella, which kept my head dry while the rest of me got all wet, got the car, and pulled it right up to the roofed area, so that Young could get Elena and herself in while still under the shelter.  The guy was right, and the roads were starting to flood.  I managed to stay towards the middle of the road to avoid the worst of it, but we definitely drove through some pretty deep water.  Luckily, the CRV handled it like a champ, and we got home safe and sound.

I had about an hour to recover before Viv got home, and we went off on our next adventure.  There was a welcome party at the Marine House for new and returning families, and the CLO provided a shuttle for Nichada families, so Jeff and I decided we should be sociable and go.  I gave Vivian a snack after she got off the bus, and then she, Elena, and I took the one hour ride downtown on the shuttle.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except that the shuttle was full of kids, at least half of whom were screaming at any given moment.  To maintain my sanity, I finally separated Vivian from her friends and made her sit and do iPad for the last part of the trip.

Once we got to the Marine House we had a good time and met lots of new people.  Elena was a big hit of course, but she's just started her "stranger danger" phase where she doesn't like new people to hold her, so there were a few tears.  Jeff and I passed her back and forth for most of the evening, but she kept going for our drinks, so we had to be careful.

The shuttle ride back to Nichada took an hour and half, but it was nice and quiet since the kids had been running around like crazy people at the Marine House and wore themselves out.  Our neighborhood was also having a pool party last night, and as soon as the shuttle pulled up, Vivian saw people at the pool, so of course she wanted to go to that party too.  We went home, got her bathing suit on, and headed back out again.

By that point though, Vivian was pretty tired, and so she had a little trouble with her swimming, which she is still working on.  I saw her struggling in the deeper water, so I got the attention of one of the older kids and asked him to help her to the side of the pool.  She was really upset that she "couldn't swim right", so I was worried she would have a meltdown, but instead she decided to milk it and have the older girls carry her around the pool.  She was having a great time, but at about quarter after eight I figured we should call it a night.

I thought for sure she would sleep in this morning, but nope, she was up at 5:50 am, which is even earlier than she has to get up on a school day.  Sigh.  To keep her busy, Young and I took her with us to pick up the plants.  We also took our belated trip to Makro where we got lots of jumbo sized bottles of cleaning supplies.  Vivian was complaining that she didn't like Makro until we found her a free sample of grilled pork on a stick.  She ate two and conceded that Makro had its good points.  We were going to buy a big case of beer for Jeff, but hit the alcohol no fly zone again.  You can't buy alcohol before 11:00 am and it was 10:30.  Eventually I'm going to figure out this alcohol thing.

It's nice to have the plants home.  I think Young and I are going to go back one more time to get a few more plants, but we've started positioning them inside and outside.  We got two that are little now, but that will eventually end up growing over the big open staircase.  We also got some for the corners in the living room and a few for outside.  They make me happy.