Sabotage

Our family lost an angel today. Found as a stray on the streets of Nashville our girl had quite a life. Boy will she be missed. Rest in Peace Sabotage.

Sabotage (Sabbie)
1996-2009

A day at the Beach

Thought I had better get caught up on the blog since we are getting ready for visitors & will have more to say soon! Julia arrives this next Saturday after Thanksgiving (yippee!) & Sydney & I will meet her in Kota Kinabalu. Sunday we will take a boat to Gaya Island & stay at the Gayana Eco Resort in an ocean front chalet until Tuesday when we return to Miri. Check it out!
http://www.gayana-eco-resort.com/gayana_site/index.html

Then Ken's mom is coming to spend Christmas with us & my folks are coming mid-January to celebrate Sydney's first birthday. We are excited to have everyone & get some travel in as well.

Here are some photos from a Sunday afternoon at the beach by the Piasau Boat Club we had last week. Good times. :) The doggies love it. So do we.

Crash & Wolfie chasing crabs

More Halloween 2009

This photo is not Halloween but who cares - Go Texans!

Sydney was not sure about Halloween once she saw the adults dressed up!

Our fallen angel.

Daddy the hotel guest & his angel.

Kenny's angels.

Pictures from heather

Click here to view these pictures larger

Hi Sydney!

She learned to wave last week & I was lucky to catch it the first day.

Last Few Weeks Every Day Stuff

This blog should now be called Life with Sydney (in Malaysia). :)

Here is her first pancake breakfast. Yummy!

She has 2 bottom teeth that have broken the skin & another 2 on the bottom getting ready to come in.

A day on the boat on the Miri River with friends

Right before attending her first birthday party for her friend Sebastian.

After her first birthday party - sleepy baby!
The Halloween costumes I bought last year for 9-12 month olds from Target (while I was pregnant) don't fit her - she is too long! Tall baby! Happy Halloween anyway. :)

Back to the boat - yes we know she doesn't have on a life vest but they don't make them here. We took good care of her.

On her way to the boat! Yippee!

New iphone

Trying out my new iphone!

Sydney is growing like a weed & our trip to Mulu

Our Trip to Mulu

Syd & Ken ready for a hike in the rain forest

This photo cracks me up - she looks so tiny!

Sydney is not sure of these tribal dancers!

We had a great time. Come to find out the caves at Mulu are not like the ones in Texas that you just park & walk into, these are a minimum of an hours hike away. So Syd was a bit young for this trip. We enjoyed the hotel pool & a nice boat ride though. The boat ride took us to a long house that was not what we imagined either. It was just us & the boat driver & tour guide & the long house was crazy poor & sad. It was nothing like the television ads with the tribal people all dressed up & weaving baskets & smiling. This one was just hot, wet, dirty, poor & had tons of little kids playing with sticks and dirt. And we saw a puppy with a huge head wound. Not what we were hoping for.

Ken had more fun than I did overall. Imagine that.

Here is the link to more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28275582@N08

Sydney is 8 months!

Please stop the time from going by so fast! Our munchkin is already 8 months, saying momma & dada - maybe not knowingly to us but she says it. She stands up & loves walking along the couch or anything else she can get her hands on including us. Her favorite things to play with are the pets (oops) & shoes. And she is getting her first tooth on the bottom right. She can eat bread & Cheerios & other little things we put on her tray.

She is a hoot & we are loving every minute.

She sits up strong now.

I was not going after the kitty!

She got a new car seat for her birthday! Yippee facing forward!

Sydney is crawling

Here are a couple of crappy videos of our little munchkin crawling. Why are they crappy? The only video camera we have is the one on my cell phone. Anyway, Sydney's pretty cute so enjoy.

Good News & Bad News

Well the good news is that we have an upcoming long weekend to celebrate Hari Raya - the end of the Muslim month of fasting Ramadan. We are taking Sydney to Mulu about a 1/2 hour flight from Miri & visiting the caves & rain forest. We are staying here at the Royal Mulu Resort - we hope to have photos to post but have to find a camera to borrow - which brings me to the bad news (http://www.mulurainforestresort.com/home.htm).

Tuesday night we went to sleep like any other night. Roslin had watched Sydney so we could go to dinner with friends so she & her daughter Emily stayed the night in our amah's quarters. We woke to find out that we had been robbed. In the middle of the night. While we slept.

They broke in throught a downstairs window & helped themselves to my macbook, Kenny's personal computer, his work computer, my video camera, 2 digital cameras, my ipod, a fair amount of cash, some diamond earrings & my watch. They rifled through every piece of furniture in every room, including Sydneys. Luckily she still sleeps with us! They opened our bedroom door but must have seen the tv on & decided not to enter. The dogs were sleeping with us & must have slept through it as well.

Sad thing is that the alarm beeped when the window was broken but we turned it off thinking it was Roslin leaving. Also sad is that we hadn't gotten around to getting renters insurance yet.

Needless to say we now have insurance & will slowly but surely replace our lovely things we had worked so hard for. We have also tweaked our alarm to make it much more sensitive & will know if anyone breaks in again.

Good news is that I am the proud owner of a new MacBook so I can keep up with the world & Skype again. :) I miss Black Sabbath but am sure this new one that I have yet to name & I will become close as well.

Toodles & remember the lesson to my story - get insurance BEFORE you need it. We are kicking ourselves.

A Day at the Boatclub

A Day at the Piasau Boat Club!

Photos thanks to Leonard Leong - thanks Len!

Ashley (Leonard & Alisons girl) & Sydney

Sydney you are a little young for beer!

A day with Daddy.

Hellooo!

Hmm.

So at this time Sydo is 7 months & is eating like a champ (avocado, bananas & chicken with peas & basil & garlic are her favorites). She is sitting up by herself & learning to crawl - right now she is doing the belly drag but man is she fast! She is pulling up on anything she can get her hands on, including mommy & daddy when they are laying down. She is babababa & mamama & dadadadaing & it is music to our ears.

Trip to Houston - Part 3

Our Trip to Texas Part 3

Getting zerberts from "uncle" Brian

Syd & her "aunt" Deby

Syd with the newlyweds Robbie & Clair Kimpel

Syd with Anna & the triplets! Hudson, Skylar & Tobin.

Syd meets Jake Ryan & falls in love

Syd & Gina Gerram

My college roomie Leigh Anne & her pooch Apollo

Syd & Christian Gangi

Syd & her wacky Auntie Julia

Trip to Houston - Part 2

Trip to Houston Part 2

Sydney loved her cousin Justin!

Build a Bear with her cousins Kristin & Amanda

Grandma Albrecht - pulling on the ear means getting sleepy!

Aunt Janette & Aunt Pam

Cousins Gillian & Katherine

Trip to Houston - Part 1

Syd & Grammy

Syd & Poppy

Sydney Lands in Houston!

Sydney & I survived a 30 plus hour trip from Miri to Kuala Lumpur, KL to Singapore, Singapore to Moscow & finally Moscow to Houston. We stayed with my folks for a couple weeks including a trip to Ft. Worth until Kenny arrived - then we had a week at his moms house followed by a weekend in Austin & a couple days at Julia & Brians.

Sydney had a great time on our trip home - her first time to Houston & other towns in Texas. It was a whirl wind tour & she met a slew of family & friends. She ate her first rice cereal in preparations for Whataburger & Mexican food on her next visit. There are over 200 images I am uploading to Shutterfly now & I will post the link when they are ready. Until then here are a few!

Great Uncle Steve & Great Aunt Janice

Ohhh second cousin Rebecca - her face says it all - LOVE!

She had a great time with her Great Grandma Nanny

4 generations