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My Passion
Autobiography Part 4
I have been dancing since I was 3. However, I have been clogging since I was 4 years old. I love clogging and I am really good at it! My mom taught clogging and took me to my first competition in Tennessee when I was 5 years old. At that competition, I got third place in my short solo. After that I went to lots of competitions with my team and I loved it so much.
Then 2020 covid happened and the studio closed which made me really sad. I just knew I wasn’t done clogging. My mom told me that there was a studio in Lincoln that we could look into. I knew which studio she was talking about because I had seen them a competitions, and I loved that idea.
I went to LUXE Dance Academy which was four hours away. The instructors had recognized me from competitions and said I could join the team. I took private lessons with the teacher for about two months on zoom to learn the dances and then went to my first class. Most of the girls recognized me and were really excited to have me on the team. My first competition with LUXE was Nationals! I was so nervous, but I also had lot of fun. After that season my mom asked me if I wanted to keep doing it and I said “yes, for sure!”
The next year we got new dances and I also had two duets and a solo. We went to two dance competitions (which are different than clogging competitions because there are all different types of dance). I did really well and they even called me back for one of the competitions to go to their national competition. I was the only one who went, and I got 1st place in my solo.
Next, my whole team went to Silver Dollar City in Branson Missouri to qualify for nationals (to qualify you have to 1st,2nd,or 3rd). I got first in almost everything and so did my team! Since we qualified, we got to go to the National Clogging Competition in Nashville!
My team and I knew that this was going to be my last competition since my family had been called to Thailand and so we knew we had to do the best we could. We worked super hard and when Nationals came around I felt really good about how we did.
I always say that I like to set and achieve goals. Dancing is my passion because being a good dancer is a goal I set and long time ago, and I got to achieve it. All of my teachers and friends have pushed me to be the best dancer I can be and now I am a National Champion Dancer and always will be.
It was really hard to say goodbye and I miss dancing with my team so much. I still keep up with dance here in Thailand and I hope that someday I will be able to dance with my team again!
I made a video slideshow with some of my favorite dance memories. Click here to watch the video on our YouTube channel.
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Cousins In Thailand
Recently, our cousins, Avery and Jaxon, came to Thailand!
Jaxon and I are like best friends. Selah and Avery are also like best friends.
They brought us American candy. It was sooo good.
Jaxon ate a cricket! Can you believe that?
We took them to our favorite pool, to our favorite restaurant, and to Sticky Falls. (P.S. My sister made a blogpost about Sticky Falls.)
Next we took them to a hot spring, Art in Paradise, and a temple that was really high up. (PS. I wrote a blog post about that temple before.)
Also, we went fishing and it was so fun!
We also went to Elefin Cafe.
Then the adventure was over…
the book was read…
and they had to leave.
See you next time,
Jeremiah (:
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Prik Pao Cheese Chips
Hope you had a good Christmas Break! Since it was Christmas Break, I haven’t made a chip post in a while so I am fixing that today. Today isn’t my first day trying these. The first time I saw these was when we were eating dinner at ZOE with the short-term team that was there last November. They had a table full of Thai treats and our friend Ben pointed these out as his favorite. My dad was impressed with these and got them again. Today, I tried them again in order to write a critique for you. And here we are.
Jeremiah and Tallulah really like these. In fact, as I write this, Jeremiah is waiting for me to give him the rest of the bag. Now, for the flavor: Prik Pao, for those of you who don’t know, is a spicy-sweet relish or paste type sauce that is made with charred chilis, shallots, and garlic mixed with dried shrimp, fish sauce, tamarind paste, palm sugar, and–in keeping with Thai tradition–lots of oil then cooked in more oil. If you don’t know what cheese is: your loss. With these chips, it is very hard to pinpoint an exact flavor, but you can get both the Prik Pao and the Cheese at the same time. The cheese tastes like swiss (which is what the picture shows) and the Prik Pao tastes like every ingredient I have listed. I love the spiciness of the Prik along with the garlic and shallot flavor. I can even get some of the dried shrimp. These chips would be one of my favorites if it weren’t for the cheese flavor which I feel shouldn’t be there. Without the cheese, these chips would for sure be on the podium for favorite Thai chips.
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After 12 Days of Christmas: Epiphany!
As a grown-up, I don’t think I’ve ever taken the Christmas decorations down before today, and that was true before I knew Epiphany was even a thing. At first, I’d say it was just me dragging my feet about allowing the “most wonderful time of the year” to end. As far as it depended on me–I declared by lingering decorations–we would have our full 12 Days of Christmas even if the rest of the world around us was ready to move on into New Year’s Resolutions involving less clutter and fewer cookies.
The New Year celebrations in Thailand overshadowed Christmas, almost swallowing it up: the numbers 2024 were displayed in red and green almost as if it were synonymous with “Merry Christmas.” There are plenty of Christmas decorations around Chiang Mai, in keeping with the city’s intercultural flair. The last time I was anywhere a Christmas tree had been erected, it was still up…and I like that. 2024 is the year of the dragon, a tradition Thailand shares with other Eastern cultures: the red and gold New Year décor blends right in with the glitzy glittery sort of Christmas décor that seems to be favored here. [Sidenote: I’ve probably seen more of the puffy sort of tinsel garland this year than in the past 20 years of Christmases in America combined. It reminds me of my Grandma’s Christmas tree in the late 80s/early 90s…you know, around the same time in history that we rolled our jeans at the ankles so they poofed out like MC Hammer pants.]
Yes, our Christmas tree is still up. Christmas was truly lovely in all the most important ways for us this year. We had a joyful celebrations with the ZOE family, and hosted a Christmas party for the ZOE Child Rescue Team.
At our international church service, we heard scripture read in a multitude of languages I didn’t know existed and worshipped with believers from all over the world. We took our annual Christmas church service photo in front of palm trees instead of a Christmas tree, void of fancy dresses or sweater vests.
However, I admit the coziness of the days between Christmas Day and News Year’s Day left me wanting. I still snuggled under my “Joy to the World” blanket, drank my coffee hot (even though iced is more appropriate to the climate), and tried to bask in the glow of the Christmas tree in our living room for some heavy hours of reading and reflecting. But I missed my fireplace, the snow outside, the sound of the wind howling, and reddiwhip to put on my coffee.
I was today years old when I really realized just how culturally bound my “feeling of Christmas” has always been. Snow wasn’t a part of the first Christmas. There was no bedazzled Christmas tree beside the manger. Stockings weren’t hung by the chimney with care on the night Jesus was born in the stable. Of course I knew that … and yet those things have always been a part of how Christmas “feels” to me. Realizing that, Epiphany carries new weight for me this year and is more beautiful than ever before.
Traditionally, Epiphany is the day the church has set aside to remember the wise men coming to Bethlehem to find “he who has been born king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2). The wise men came from the East. I am a Westerner, I think according to Western ideas and have been shaped by my Western culture. I now live in the East and am daily becoming accustomed to Eastern ideas and the deep-seated customs of Eastern culture. The men who came to find Jesus came from this side of the world. Buddha walked the earth hundreds of years before Jesus and so I wonder: were the wise men schooled in Buddhist thought like the kids here in Thailand are today?
The wise men were astrologers or magicians: wealthy men who accurately discerned a message written in the stars. They came to worship, but they were not Jews waiting for their Messiah: they were Gentiles from a foreign culture, with totally different ideas, practices, traditions, and culture. A lifetime of astrological study, a very long cross-country journey, and their diligent search for one bright star culminated as they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” over finding young Jesus (Matthew 2:10). They bowed in worship to a tiny king and lavished gifts upon him (Matthew 2:11). This wasn’t at the manger, but I am glad the wise men are a part of our nativity scene anyway…we need them in this story.
After the gifts were given and received, the wise men’s part in the greatest story ever told just ended: in a quiet, anti-climactic finale we are told they chose to “return home by another way” (Matthew 2:12). The wise men’s experience of Christmas brought exceedingly great joy and—also—complex feelings of a darker nature (fear? Anxiety?) that caused them to act in caution and secrecy. When they chose to “return home by another way” they were choosing to disobey the local government official’s direct orders (see Matthew 2:8). This, in part, led to the “Massacre of the Innocents:” the tragic deaths of so many innocent children at the hands of a power-hungry government. And so Matthew’s account of the Christmas story ends with weeping and lamentation that could be heard miles away (Matthew 2:18).
I scanned the Christmas accounts for emotive sort of words that give us clues to how that first Christmas may have “felt.” Here are a few of them, in no particular order: shame, resolve, contemplation, fear, rejoicing, great joy, warning, lamentation, weeping, refusal to be comforted, greatly troubled, fear, power, holy, wonderful, blessed, rejoicing, exaltation, mercy, great fear, great joy, haste, wondering, pondering, glorifying, praising, peace, marveled, give thanks, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul.”
Christmas is beautiful, as we celebrate our God who took on flesh in the most extraordinary way through the most ordinary of miracles. Christmas is complicated, for all the same reasons and more.
The celebration ends, after 12 days of Christmas, with Epiphany. Epiphany recognizes that Jesus is a gift not only to a specific people, but a gift unto all the world. The celebration of the coming of our LORD is one that transcends culture, and it has done so from the very beginning. Upon entering the world, Jesus radiated love so bright and so bold that the whole world could see. Those wise men from the East traveled far in search of the glory of God with lavish gifts and hearts of worship. Jesus came for the children of Israel AND for those in the East. He came for you. He came for me.
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The Big C
We go to The Gathering Church here in Chiang Mai. The Gathering and several other churches meet at Payap University which happens to be really close to Big C Extra. So almost every Sunday, we go to church and then leave to go to Big C for lunch and shopping for the next week.
The closest thing I can compare Big C to in America is a big Walmart, but it is completely different (like everything else in Thailand). There are several little businesses in Big C, such as, Pizza Hut, Swenson’s, Dairy Queen, Black Canyon Coffee, KFC (which is very popular here for some reason), and even some non-food related businesses, such as phone stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores, Watson’s (like Walgreen’s), and a couple small toy booths. I guess I could have compared Big C to a small mall but Big C itself is like a Walmart with a food court, and I don’t think any malls in America include a Walmart.
When we go to Big C (I am seeing how many times I can write Big C in one post), we always go straight to the food court and get our cards, each with 100 baht. In the food court, there are several booths along the side, almost every one with its own dish that the other places don’t and several individually owned booths in the middle. While my parents often get food from the middle booths, the rest of us have one or two main places or dishes we eat. Tallulah has a favorite place with a really nice lady working there. It has lots of sushi and other Japanese and Korean food, but Tallulah always gets Yakisoba, which is a dish with very thick noodles, vegetables, meat and a sweetish sauce made of soy sauce, ketchup, and other seasonings (according to Google). If you have met Tallulah, you know that she doesn’t really speak many words, but she gets Yakisoba every time so when Tallulah walks up to the booth, the lady smiles and confirms with me that she wants “one Yakisoba.” The answer is always yes. Almost nothing makes Tallulah happier than handing someone her card and bringing food back to our table.
But that’s just Tallulah. I always help her order, which works out because the yakisoba booth is in between the Pad Thai stand and the Khao Mon Gai Thot stand. My favorites.
I may have told you before, but Pad Thai is the national dish of Thailand. It is a saucy rice noodle dish with dried shrimp and always comes with bean sprouts, chives, chili flakes, sugar, and a lime. Usually it is also covered in an omelet. ข้าวไก่ทอด translated is “fried chicken with rice” and it is actually, drumroll please……..fried chicken with rice! Except the rice is cooked in the chicken broth for more flavor and I always cover the dish in a sweet chili sauce.
Jeremiah always gets BonChon chicken which I believe is Korean sweet and spicy chicken and rice. Nothing more to say there, really. Selah loves a good Pad Thai (as long as it has no dried shrimp: she has this thing about not liking to see little eyeballs on the food she’s eating. I know right? Weird.) Dad likes to get ส้มตำ or ข้าวซอย. I have told you about ส้มตำ in an other post, so check out the link. ข้าวซอย is spicy noodle soup usually with a drumstick and some crispy noodles on top, as you can see from the picture below. And mom changes everyday so she doesn’t have a usual. Although, she does like the fresh samosas that one of the middle stands make.
Now, every Sunday we have a 100 baht budget to buy whatever food we want (100 baht is about $3). All the meals above are around 45-70 baht. Unless I decide to change it up, my usual meals are both 50 baht. This means I always have 50 baht left over, which is perfect for my dessert. After we return the cards and get our cash back, I go to the smoothie guy’s booth. I do this every single time we go to Big C so, of course, I have a usual smoothie and the guy knows it. Whenever I walk up there, the man smiles and says, “Lemon-Coconut, no milk,” then I smile and nod and he makes it faster than lightning: check out the video! He has two blenders and a huge cooler full of ice behind him, along with piles of coconuts and other fruits. He also has two clean garbage cans: one full of water and the other for dumping water into. After he is done making a smoothie, he will clean the blender by quickly dipping the blender in the trash can with water, giving it a swish, then dumping the fruit residue water into the other can. That way he can make smoothies without them tasting like the ones he made before and it is super fast. My lime juice (Thai people call both lemons and limes “lemons”) and coconut water smoothie only cost 30 baht and is full to the brim so it always lasts till we get to the car. However, smoothies aren’t the only thing we can have as dessert. And I still have 20 baht left!
There are two mini waffle stands, one on the top floor and the other on the bottom. While I like the ones downstairs better, especially the cashew and and cranberry ones, they are more than double the price of the ones upstairs which has more variety. The ones upstairs are only 10 baht, no matter if you get a plain original, strawberry jelly, or chocolate filled one, while the ones downstairs are all 22 baht with no filled waffles. At both places, after you pick your waffle, they put it back into the waffle iron for a few seconds and then put it in the bag: nice and hot.
Selah’s favorite dessert, over all other Thai desserts, is Roti. There is a Roti stand right next to the smoothie stand and he is great. Roti is a kind of like a crispy crepe with countless different toppings, such as chocolate, sweet and condensed milk, bananas, sweet corn, pandan custard (made from coconut leaves and coconut milk), butter, peanut butter, etc. Roti is hard to make, but the guy at Big C is a pro and kind of a show off. I think Selah has a video of him tossing it till it almost brushes the ceiling and then folding in up on a really hot, oily pan.
There is one other dessert option that we indulge in every trip that I should mention: Ice cream! While there is a Swenson’s (which we never eat at), Dairy Queen is a cheap easy way to fill your hankering for ice cream. A small one scoop cone is only 12 baht. Upgrade it even farther and get a two scoop cone for ฿20 or a huge three scoop for ฿25 baht! Pay a little more and you can have the cone dipped in chocolate! There are also 5 different sizes of blizzard but they are a bit pricier so we only get them on special occasions. Dairy Queens are very common here but they don’t sell meals like they do in America. While some locations may offer hot dogs, the only reason to go there is for the ice cream. We always stop at Dairy Queen on our way out, but often we need to do some shopping first.
Like I said before Big C is like a Walmart. That is because it is. A big store that sells everything from clothes to food to toys to bikes. Usually after we eat we head to the store part of Big C and grab a cart which Tallulah sits in until we get to the produce on the other side of the store ’cause by then she is bored of the cart. Since we usually have Homeschool Co-op on Monday we pick up food for our picnic lunch the next day at Big C. Apples, bread, eggs, little pomelo salad kits, mama noodles (Thai ramen), etc. There are also displays of stinky raw meat like pork is but it also has tons of fish, shrimp, crab, and squid/octopus (very common).
Big C is one of our favorite places to go to eat because all the options. As a bonus, we also get all our groceries at the same time. Definitely one of my favorite places in Thailand.
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My Adventures
My Autobiography Part 3
In our family, each cousin would get a turn to go on a trip with just them and Grandma and Grandpa. When I was young my older brother Josiah got to go, I was so upset, and I was waiting for my turn to go. Spoiler alert: my turn sort of got skipped. It wasn’t intentional it just worked out that way because of other summer plans we had. When it was Avery’s turn, my grandma said that we could go together since Avery and I are best friends. I think that some people would be upset that they had to share their grandma and grandpa trip with their cousin, but we were so excited. We agree that since we went together our trip was extra fun.
Grandma showed us this place called Turner Falls (which is a place with rivers and waterfalls), and we knew that is where we wanted to go! We lived in Nebraska and Turner Falls was in Oklahoma, so it was a long drive. But time flew because we were singing along to songs and making up dances the whole way there! Finally, we got to Turner Falls.
Most of the river was only knee deep but we found some places that were so deep we would dive in the water and do flips off our grandpa! We explored the entire place just following the river and swimming along the way. There were some places that were so deep that we had to wear lifejackets. It was worth it though, because there were diving boards and slides you could go on. The slide was soo fun. It was a drop slide which means that the slide ended before it touched the water leaving you to drop into the water. It looked scary at first but it was soo fun.
Playing in the river was awesome, but the river wasn’t the only thing to do at Turner Falls. There are also castles at Turner Falls. There is a big one and a small one. They look really cool and are fun to explore. There are also caves to find. There were supposed to be like three caves but we only found one. The one we found was really cool. Turner Falls had one main waterfall and the cave that we found was on top of the waterfall. (Kind of) We were so high up it was actually scary. But the view was so worth it. It was so cool and all of the people playing in the river looked like little ants!
Turner Falls was soo cool and if I got the chance to go again I would take it! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us on the awesome adventure and thank you Avery for bringing me with you!
That year for Christmas Grandma gave us a book of our adventures together at Turner Falls and its is one of the very special things I brought to Thailand with me.
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Lantern Festival
My blog post is about Loy Krathong. Loy Krathong is a lantern festival in Thailand.
We made our own krathongs that float on water. Khru Em taught us how to fold the banana leaves.
Afterwards, they made us traditional Thai food called “pink noodles.” They are called pink noodles because they are pink.
After we ate, they taught us a dance.
We put our krathongs on the canal behind our house. We didn’t put incense in it, because we are not buddhists.
Also, we saw floating lanterns in the sky.
We didn’t float a lantern up, but we did find one that came down. When a buddhist person sends a lantern up, they are floating their sins away. I don’t believe that we can float our sins away, I think the only way you can be saved from your sins is by believing in Jesus Christ. So I didn’t mind that someone else’s “sin lantern” fell near me and I was not afraid to touch it.
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Getting Nudged When I Can’t Be Trusted With The Truth
There’s a memorable scene in Avengers: Infinity War where Dr. Strange is floating in the air, a green ribbon of light swirling about him while his head is shifting about frantically in a trance like state. After several moments, the trance ends and Dr. Strange drops back to the ground and reenters reality among a group of other would be heroes awaiting an explanation.
- Dr. Strange : I went forward in time… to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.
- Peter Quill : How many did you see?
- Dr. Strange : Fourteen million six hundred and five.
- Tony Stark : How many did we win?
- Dr. Strange : …One.
Against all human logic, reasoning, and wisdom, Dr. Strange does arguably the most asinine action, giving up the very thing staving off humanity’s destruction. Dr. Strange willingly gives the Time Stone to the ultimate antagonist Thanos, ensuring the Avengers defeat.
The movie ends with Thanos having all the infinity stones and with a single snap of his fingers, half of the world population turns to dust, including Dr. Strange. The audience, as well as all the remaining Avengers, are left with a profound feeling of loss, failure, and tragedy.
Fast forward to the next movie, Avengers: Endgame, all the way to the end. A moment comes when Dr. Strange looks at Tony Stark in the eye and holds up one finger, flashing back to the scene in the previous movie that out of over 14 million possibilities, there is only one way to win. It’s in that moment that the audience, as well as Tony Stark, realizes that Dr. Strange’s seeming betrayal was actually a step on the singular path for global victory. And the bigger point, is that if Dr. Strange had told Tony Stark about the only option to win, Tony would have never followed through. Tony could not be trusted with the information at the time when he thought he needed it most.
While I’ve never been involved in an intergalactic, all-of-humanity-at-risk conflict (yet), my mind is drawn to a situation many years ago where I thought I was smart enough, mature enough, and wise enough to be told the solution, but in reality I wasn’t.
I’m not a rancher. Neither is my dad, though he owns one and loves it immensely. One of his favorite joys is building fence while walking over rolling hills of his Nebraska Sandhills prairie. One afternoon, I was building a stretch of fence with my father that was maybe 1/2 a mile long or more. A fence must be straight, so getting all the posts in alignment is critical. Yet, due to the rolling terrain, we were unable to see from one end post to the other. With two hills between the end posts, my father and I each on a hill, we could see both the other person and the end post behind them. Both of us could align 3 of the 4 posts needed to make a straight line.
Think of a crooked line with four points; two end points and two spaced somewhere between. The points in the middle were my father and I. I knew where I was, could see him, and the post behind him. Likewise, he obviously knew where he was, could see me, and the other end post behind me. The strategy was for us to help line up the other person so that all four points were in perfect alignment. Dad had this ridiculous method, complete with silly hand and arm gestures to direct me where I was supposed to go, which happened to be west. But he was wrong, and I knew it. I made sure he knew it and I argued with him. Without engaging in my muted tantrum, he simply kept directing me west. I was hot under my collar. I had devised a little method (without him looking) that clearly showed we needed to be going east. But he kept moving me west. West and west I walked. Further and further away from where I knew I was supposed to be. Then all of a sudden, we stopped. I looked over my post, over him, and he was exactly in line with the end post. He looked over his, over mine, and I was exactly in line with the end post behind me. We had made a perfectly straight line, and yet, I was about 50 yards west of where my supposedly perfect, but clearly incorrect line was.
I don’t know why that moment on a hot Nebraska afternoon has been seared into my memory. But I’ve reflected on it often. The take away I keep coming back to was that dad never once explained his method to me. He just kept nudging me in the direction I was supposed to go. I used to get irritated that Dad didn’t try to explain his reasoning, because gosh darn-it, I’m like smart and stuff.
The reality was, I wouldn’t have listened. I turned off my ears to actually listen because I was too convinced he didn’t know what he was doing. If you’ve followed any of the Avenger’s movies you know Tony Stark wasn’t about to let anyone tell him what to do. He was the smartest guy in every room he entered. And while his character was based on his extreme brilliance, the truth was, Dr. Strange knew Tony couldn’t be trusted with the truth.
My family is in a season of trusting God in immeasurable ways. Somedays it feels as if we have no direction and are left to figure it all out on our own. There is no doubt God can make everything easier for us by simply wiggling his pinky toe, yet He apparently hasn’t. The point is not God’s ability for solving the problem, it is His reason for not doing so. He is not punishing us. He is not distant. But at the moment, He is silent, while gently nudging us in a direction often feeling counter intuitive from my standpoint.
I’m slowly realizing that, as smart as I am, and as strong as I think my faith is, the uncomfortable reality is that if I was really as smart, wise, or faithful as my mind believes, God would’ve trusted me with the reasons for his apparent inaction. Since He hasn’t shared his wisdom, the problem is my lack of faith and responsibility, not His withholding action or explanation.
God is so much more than some guy with green light and the ability to see the potential future. God is both in the future and ever present with my family now. Nothing is beyond His control, power, or dominion. God’s ways are not my ways, but His ways are always good, right, and purposeful. While I find myself in the season of wondering why God isn’t explaining his reasoning, I guess the best course of action is to just watch, take the small steps in the direction I’ve been given, and trust the paths will be made straight.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
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My Cousin
My Autobiography, PART 2
My cousin Avery is like my best friend. I love how Avery and I enjoy doing the same things. We like to stretch, talk, tell jokes, build forts, and listen to Matthew West songs. Once, on a car trip, we were listening to songs and making up dances the whole time. At one point of the song, we did the same dance move without even planning it! We laughed so hard. It’s like we share the same mind.
Avery and I like to listen to funny songs, tell jokes, and watch funny YouTube videos. Sometimes we would get into such a goofy mood that you could say something that wasn’t even funny, and we would laugh as if it were the funniest joke we had ever heard.
Avery had a basketball hoop game in her house. Whenever I would go to her house, we would build a fort underneath it and then sleep in it that night. One night, Josiah scared us while we were in the fort and from that night on we couldn’t even say his name in the fort without laughing so hard! If there is anything that we do the most it would be laugh!
One special memory we have together is going to the Matthew West Concert! I was the one that found the concert and I told my mom that if we were going to go, we would HAVE to bring Avery along. One night our dads told us that we were going on a daddy daughter date, and I knew it was on the same night as the concert, but I didn’t think we were actually going to the Matthew West Concert! But then my dad gave me a clue when he said that he used to live close to here. (My dad used to live in Omaha and the concert was in Elkhorn.) Immediately, I told Avery and we started screaming inside! We didn’t want our dads to know (though they probably did since we were whispering like crazy and the back seat)! We loved Matthew West, and he was by far our favorite singer of all time. That might have been the best night of my entire life, and I couldn’t imagine going with anybody else!
If we could, we would do everything together. We don’t get to see each other very often any more. However, I will get to see her in three weeks! I am so excited for her to come visit us in Thailand so we can make more memories together!
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Double Whammy
It has been quite a while since I last made a post, and these chips were in our cupboard forever waiting for me to try them, so I thought I would make a double-post today.
Stir Fried Shrimp with Chili and Garlic Flavor
As soon as you open a bag of these Stir-Fried Shrimp and Chili and Garlic Chips, you are blasted with an unappetizing aroma. Selah knew what they smelled like right away. She said, and I quote, “Ew! Those smell like fish food!” She is one hundred percent correct. They smell horrible, but the taste actually isn’t that bad. These are the spiciest chips I have eaten so far, but not too painful to not eat them. Not even close. I immediately get a lot of strong shrimp flavor and a decent amount Thai chili, but I barely taste any garlic.
So not the worst and not the best. 7/10
Boat Noodles Chips (ก๋วยเตียว)
I didn’t know what “boat noodles” were until I read ก๋วยเตียว. The Thai characters are saying Guay Tiaw, which is a clear soup with the pork, chicken, or beef bones, and is seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic, cilantro, and some sugar. The picture on the chip bag makes Guay Tiaw look disgusting because it shows the kind of Guay Tiaw with blood broth. I haven’t tried that kind, and I am not sure I ever will. I have only had ก๋วยเตียว with clear broth and duck meat. Duck meat seems pretty popular in Asia, I saw it a lot in China as a meal option and I see it a lot here in Thailand, too.
I haven’t eaten Guay Tiaw in a while so I didn’t know what to expect when I tried the chip version. They smell like all the other weird flavors of chips. Gross. They aren’t as gross as they smell, but they don’t taste very good either. There is a little spice from the pepper and a brothy taste.
Not the best. Not the worst. We still have seaweed chips keeping the last slot. 6/10
