It's Been a Disaster of a Week!

Last week Grace was sick with a fever for a few days, she had a runny nose and a cough. I thought it was just a bad cold, so when the fever broke on Friday we thought she was okay and would get over the stuffy nose. So we went to the Science museum on Saturday and church on Sunday. Sunday I noticed some bumps on her feet, but thought that her shoes were rubbing them funny, but had a nagging thought. Around our apartment in the kids area are big signs warning of hand foot and mouth disease(HFMD). So that thought in the back of my mind was, hmm I wonder what it looks like, I wonder if Grace has that. Well, I looked on line and it said that there is no treatment for it so I decided not to take her to the Dr...... Until Monday while I was on the phone with Heather, Grace decided to rummage through my drawer and found a little baggy I hadn't put away properly with some sleeping pills in it. Don't worry, I freaked out and thought I was the worst Mom in the world and rushed her downstairs to meet my friend and we ran over to the Dr. Turns out she only ingested about 1/4 of the pill and would be fine. But she was tired/hyper/acting drunk the rest of the day. I was exhausted. Plus it turns out that she did have a mild form of HFMD. Well, Tuesday my friend and I decided to go to Institute and the RS Lunch. Someone volunteered to take us in their car so I thought, "great!". Well, not great. Apparantly her little girl is on steroids and very fragile and not supposed to be around anyone sick. (mind you I still did not realize how paranoid everyon is about HFMD, the Dr. didn't really act like it was a big deal) So when we get to lunch one of the ladies asks me about it and I told her that Grace did have a mild form of it and the lady that gave me a ride starts to freak out and is almost in tears. Wow, I felt really dumb and volunteered to clean her car. She ended up leaving the lunch early and I think I apologized a hundred time. So this morning I get an email that is sent to everyon in the ward saying that, "there is a confirmed case of HFMD, the parent did bring their child to church last week, and they will be disinfecting all the toys." Now I feel like the worst parent in the world. I had no idea I could infect all the kids. Apparantly a few years ago the Singapore Government sent out a notice that all cases of HFMD needs to be publicly reported so people can be warned. I feel like there is a huge billboard of my face splashed up for everyone to read, "BAD PARENT- their kid infects others..." Needless to say we won't be going to church this week, just so we don't get accused of infecting more kids. On top of that Ben has been sick and I have an eye infection. So we've been to the Dr's 3 times, and we were supposed to have some global Health Insurance, but now we don't so we have to submit everything out of network with our insurance back in Utah. What a mess!

Our Little Star

Grace has received a lot of attention since we have been here. Everywhere we go people are very friendly and smile at her, or point her out as they pass. They try to get her to talk to them (which she usually doesn't unless is saying bye bye), and they try to get her to share her treats with them (which if you know how possesive about food she can be it's never successful). I've had many people take pictures of her while she is playing, a few have asked permission, but most don't. I guess people just don't see a blonde curly haired, blue eyed baby very often around here. Especially one that can be as much of a ham as Grace (when she's in a good mood!). We went out to dinner tonight at Clark Quay (mentioned in the previous quote). Afterward we walked around and happened upon this Formula One press conference where they were promoting a race coming up later this year. They had a ferrari that people could see and an announcer giving away prizes. Well, Grace decided to check things out and ended up sitting right down in the middle of a raised platform. The next thing we know people are taking pictures of her. She just thought it would be a great place to sit and make friends. Little did she know...
that more people would be taking pictures of her than the car that was on display.
It was her very own photo shoot. It makes me wonder if I'll happen upon her picture somewhere. Makes me a bit worried, but at least she was being happy and posing for them.
This went on for about ten minutes and eventually the announcer came over and tried to talk to her. Of course she was to "shy" to say anything so he settled for a Hi-5 and asked Ben a few questions about her. It was a pretty fun night. I always knew I had a cute baby, but it's always good to have it reaffirmed by our very own paparazzi!

Restaurants

Singapore has sooo many restaurants. From what I can tell they have three different levels of restaurants. At least this is the way I keep track of them. There are the "nice restaurants" where you have the server, expensive food, etc. Then there are the "food courts" which I think is my new favorite, the food is cheap, but still sanitary. And then there are the Hawker centers. It seems there is one in about every neighborhood, the food is cheap cheap and it scares me a little. I haven't eaten at one yet, though Ben does everday for lunch. We have eaten out at quite a few restaurants since we've been here, but this week I have actually sat down, planned a menu and went grocery shopping. So hopefully we'll go back to the routine of saving restaurants for special occasions, or ultimate laziness. The first few nights we were here we went out. Grace was completely exhausted and still getting over the jet lag and fell asleep in the restaurant. This would NEVER happen normally, but here is the proof. I since have made Ben come home early from work if he wants to eat out so we don't have a holy terror on our hands and then the break down in the middle of the restaurant anymore.

There is a section of town called Clark Quay(pronounce Key). This is a crazy place with restaurants lined up in rows. The restaurants really compete to get the customers to come to their establishment, so as you can imagine this results in fierce competition of who can come up with the wildest theme. Here is one restaurant that thought of the brilliant idea of serving dinner on an operating table. Along with that you can sit in a wheelchair and sip your drink out of an IV dripline. We didn't actually eat there, but I just had to take a picture.

This restaurant, The Forbidden City, just peaks the curiosity enough to wonder what's so forbidden if you're brave enough to walk the corridor of guards watching over you.
There were many other restaurants "tempting" you to do various other things with their names, places I myself wouldn't dare venture. There are also the basics like Hooters, Irish pubs, Jumbo Seafood, and such. It is amazing how many restaurants thrive here, and they are all busy!

This is one of the places we went. They have all the fish on the menu swimming around in these tanks and when you order one they pull it out, whack it, and then cook it up. Nice and Fresh. Grace loves seeing the FISHIES! (which she loudly exlaims everytime she sees one)
This is Ben's fish that he ordered. So considerate of them to leave the head on!
I played it safe and order Kung Po Chicken, which was delicious. Grace loves the rice here and now has to try our chopsticks everytime we eat out. She hasn't mastered the getting the food to the mouth part, but she thinks it's fun to try.
The other cool part about this restaurant is that it is along the river and hangs out over the water. It was fun to watch the little boats go up and down and it was just a beautiful setting.

Whoops!

Ever wonder what the inside of a Curling Iron looks like? Well I learned on my first day here. Apparently it heated up to quickly (like within a minute it did this). So I learned my lesson and went and bought a new Curling Iron and Straightener, which were pricy! I am now plugging all of my american appliances into transformers instead of just adapters. Imagine what my Waffle Iron would have done!

Don't you love the hair? That's what happens when you have no styling tools.

Our Singapore Home

So I know that you have all been dying to see our place. :) So here it is..... This is our hall of a kitchen. I couldn't figure out why the picture is downloading sideways. But as you can see we have tiny oven, gas range, little fridge and Microwave. What else does one need when you have a maid doing your dishes right?

This is our dining table. The door behind it is a bathroom. Notice the Chinese New Year's Decoration? These are selling everywhere right now. Chinese New Year is the first part of February I think. We got ours in China Town.

This is the view out of our apartment. It is beautiful at night. This was taken right before a rain storm.

This is our Pool! (a view from our floor. We're on the 27th floor) We love being able to go swimming all the time. Grace loves the water!

This is the Family room. The couch is facing a TV. Lovely furniture isn't it? The first door you see leads to Grace's Bedroom, the second is a HUGE Storage Closet.

Our Bedroom. Ben's feet hang of the bed-it is super short and very hard! We have a bathroom through that door.
Grace's Bedroom. There was two beds in here, but we moved one out for more Crib space.
Our "Yard". This is through a door on the otherside of the kitchen. We have a mini washer/dryer and a garbage chute. Don't worry, I've already ruined some clothes in these awful machines.


So that's the tour. We also have one more bedroom with a full bed for anyone who wants to visit!

Our Christmas

After procrastinating for several days and busying myself by catching up on other people's Blogs I will finally buckle down and update my blog. Christmas, obviously, was a few weeks ago (it feels like months) but I thought I'd share some of our memories. We spent Christmas Eve and Day with Ben's family. Their tradition is to have Chinese on Christmas Eve. We went to a restaurant in West Jordan. It honestly wasn't very great food (especially compared to the local cuisine I've now had.) But Ben was pretty thrilled when he got this Giant Fortune Cookie.

After dinner there was a big snow storm that came through. Grace loves snow and wanted to go outside with Daddy. She kept trying to get down, but didn't have any shoes. After many failed attempts Ben finally gave in and let her walk around in her tights. He then had me take a picture of his bad parenting. It's a pretty cute picture though.
We of course had the traditional nativity reading on Christmas Eve. This is all the Harper kids dressed up in our makeshift costumes. There were many complainings, but it's just one tradition you can't give up.
Ben, Grace and I went home for the night and did our own little traditions. We were so excited to give Grace her presents. I have been planning to get Grace this little car for months but almost didn't because of the move. But I decided it was worth it because she loves our friend's car so much. She was so excited Christmas morning. "Wow, Wow" is what she kept saying. She didn't even want to open any of her other presents because she was busy playing with her car. Here is a picture of the haul of presents she received this year.
Ben and I also had a good Christmas. He got an Ipod, which he was totally surprised about, and I got a bunch of scrapbooking stuff, which I am so excited to start using now that I'm settled in here.

Since we have three families to celebrate Christmas with our celebrations usually last all week, but I'm totally okay with that... more presents to open! This is our gift opening with my Mom and siblings.

We also had a Christmas with my Dad & Deb, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Overall we had an amazing Christmas with wonderful gifts and the chance to share what we have been blessed to receive.

I know this post is super long, but I have to mention one of my favorite things of this past Christmas. I was in the RS Presidency in the Lehi ward and we had the chance to wrap and deliver bags full of presents to families in our ward. Not only was it so fun to see the gifts and think of all the families we were helping, but it was so great to deliver them!!!! The four of us loaded into a van and doorbell ditched all the houses. Yes, we did get caught once, but the exhiliration of ringing the doorbell and running as fast as you can without getting caught was so great! I will never forget that night and was such a fun bonding experience for us girls. I miss them and the fun we had!

Lights at Temple Square Round Two....

I sang in a concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square two days before Christmas. The concert was really fun, but even more fun was being with Ben and remembering 5 years ago him proposing to me there. Here is the best picture we could get with Grace being grumpy.

(Notice the leash? Ben made me get that for Grace, but it has come in handy here in Singapore. People look at us funny, but atleast she's not running away laughing anymore!)

This is Grace with my brother Todd. He left Jan 9 on his mission to Spokane Washington. This is the last picture we got with him and Grace before we left.

So much to say

I have so much to say; with Christmas, New Year's, Flying to Singapore, Exploring Singapore, etc.... Hopefully I will get to all of the posts and pictures, but today I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the Church! We went to church today and it finally felt like home. It was so familiar and so peaceful. It made this whole adventure not so daunting. People were so friendly to us, and the spirit was strong as we attended and participated in the lessons. I know the church is true, I have no doubt of that. Since it was Fast sunday we had a lot of testimonies today about family, I love my family and will miss them so much, but I am truly grateful for the Church family that opens their arms to everyone. I felt that in Lehi and I especially felt that today. With other people whos families are thousands of miles away. Hopefully I'll make some great friends. I already have plans to go to the RS Play group this week. It's great to have things to look forward to! I have so much more to say, but I forgot the cord to plug the camera into the laptop, so I need to wait for my computer to come to post pictures. Until then, all of you who read this know that I'm missing you alread and am so grateful for you!