yesterday we test drove a car, it was good, bigger than what we are renting right now - but most important it was automatic. no more driving stick! we also made a trip to the store to look for fish sauce, the right fish sauce, the real fish sauce, and while there here's what we found for the kids to do...

and, yes, i did find the fish sauce...

then we test drove the car.

then we went to a ginormous mall, the central airport plaza. here's a picture of just one of the motorcycle parking lots - and it's not the whole lot - at this mall...

michael had to get a new fancy schmancy cell phone for work and chan needed new tennis shoes for pe. tennis shoes that will never, ever touch another surface other than the brand new gym floor at the school. while we were there we found this...

but we didn't have any :(.

then home and to bed.

today, i woke up and decided to get back on the horse... i cooked a thai meal. my confidence was renewed because i had found the fish sauce, and this recipe called for fish sauce. here's how it turned out.

and it was tasty. no one had yogurt.

yesterday evening i went nuts and volunteered for all the volunteer opportunities currently available at the school. thankfully, right now that is only 2 things. one is international day - they group us by our nationality, and i would think i could come in handy - fresh off the boat from america and all. and then they are getting ready to hold parenting with confidence classes. i volunteered to be a hostess - which really means hand out name tags at the school every tuesday evening a for 4 weeks. just glad they weren't looking for a volunteer grounds keeper cuz i would have been all over that...