~can't leave home without it

This is my FAVORITE backpack in all the world.  I got it at Hill Cumorah from Tami and Richard King and I use it for everything. It has traveled with me all over the world!!!  I’ve had it for over 10 years and the zipper was finally wearing out.  
I figured while I was here in Thailand I could get it fixed real cheap!

(Best photo shot of Me and Mr Moto (1 out of 7) taken by the sweet security guard)

I hired a Moto Taxi and he took me all over the city looking for a seamstress even though I knew there was one right outside the gate ~ language barrier :0.  After we traveled around for about 25 minutes (without any success) I asked him to take me home by a different route.  Lo and behold, as we turned the corner I spotted  an upholstery shop and had him stop.  The man said he could put in a new zipper for $3 and it would be done that night at 6pm ~ Yippee!!  So, Mr Moto took me back to Barbara’s and then proceeded to charge me $10 for his services.  Normally this would be outrageous but he agreed to go back and pick up my backpack 
(without me) and drop it off at the guard house!  WIN/WIN!

A big shout-out “Thank You” to Tami and Richard King 
for their generous hearts and kind souls!!! 
~Hill Cumorah Forever~

Boxer the most Expensive Hamster

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 ~ Another Adventure here in Thailand! Monday night Timmy came in and said that he thought Boxer (his 'boy' hamster) had a baby (miraculous conception) and was eating it. I went in and checked it out and it sure looked like a little baby hamster was inside his mouth - but it wasn't, it was like some sort of growth that was attached inside his mouth to his cheek. So after Timmy went to school Tuesday morning, Billy and I took Boxer to the Pet Store. She had no clue what it was but told us to take him to the Vet - we just asked if maybe she could just put Boxer to sleep - she looked horrified and said he needed to see the Vet.  Soooooo, Billy and I took Boxer to the Hospital and signed in (hindsight we should have used an anonymous name and number); they took Boxer back and then a few minutes later invited us to join the Doctor. He had no idea what it was, other than it was some sort of tumor that needed to be removed. He took another 5 minutes trying to determine the sex of Boxer. SIDE NOTE: Over the last year we've had a number of Hamsters and we never could figure out the sex of any of them. We started with just two and after the numbers jumped from 2 to 7 to 13 in just a couple weeks we weren’t sure if we started with a boy and a girl or if we bought 2 girls that were both pregnant. We kept separating the hamsters and ended up having 5 cages and 21 hamsters. Finally Timmy had separated Boxer away from everyone else and he remained his favorite. After a couple months we gave all the others away (mostly to the pet store) and Timmy just took care of Boxer.

Well, according to the Vet it turns out that Boxer should be called Boxett, as he is not a boy but a girl after all (explains a few things)! So after this discovery the Vet told us that he would need to get a consultation, and then if the Surgeon (yeah, I know, SURGEON) needed to operate they would then send the mass to the Lab and determine if it was malignant or benign and proceed from there. We said if it is malignant will they put her to sleep? They hemmed and hawed for awhile and said 'they would see'. We asked how much it would cost for this operation and he said he would need some time to talk to everyone involved and let me know in 5 minutes. I then boldly asked if he would mind just putting Boxer to sleep ... now? He said, "No, we can not do that." I asked, "Why not?" He said, "Because I don’t agree with you." - Yes, it is true that most of the Thai's are Buddhist and even if a dog were hit by a car and was suffering they would not put the dog down. I think that they somehow think this would be active euthanasia which is condemned by the Buddhist.  Anyhooo, they did all the consulting and then told us it would be around 2000Baht - this is about 60 US Dollars - FOR A HAMSTER!! What were our choices? My neighbor offered to throw it off her 16th floor balcony into the lake below, another one suggested we take it across the road where a new little batch of kittens had been born, and of course the easiest solution would be to inject it with a large does of insulin. But being the good parents that we are we told the Vet to go ahead and do all they could to "Save" our little Boxer! Actually we just want them to put her to sleep and we are hoping that the surgery is an easy out - we can't take her back with us to the states in December and will anyone really love her as much as Timmy has all these months? AND on top of that ... what IS the life expectancy of a Hamster?? Two or three years MAX? - She has already had the best year of her life!

Last night after we got home the Surgeon (very personal and one on one service) called and explained that she would be the one to do the surgery and that there might be complications and they would keep Boxer overnight so that she would have some undisturbed recovery time and they could keep an eye on her. I told her that I had full confidence in her and that I would be by tomorrow to pick her up. We hung up and a few minutes later she called back very distressed - I thought perhaps Boxer had keeled over (no such luck), she explained that I hadn’t signed the consent forms and could I come down and do that now???? Ummmmm . . . "NO" - I told her that I had already given my permission and that I would just as well put the little creature out of her misery and put her to sleep right now, so whatever the outcome I would not sue her and I would trust that she would do a good job. I told her to please just take care of it and I would come in and pay and sign the papers tomorrow morning!  Wednesday - I will go and pick her up today at ten - I am sure even if she didn’t make it through the surgery they don’t want to tell me until after I pay the money and sign the consent form.

Well, I am back from the Vet so I thought I would finish the story since I know you must be in suspense waiting to see what happened! I went down and, low and behold, they bring our little Boxer out to me. She looks great and much better than before. She is a little puffy on her right check, but there is nothing hanging out of her mouth. The Surgeon explained that sometimes food gets stored in their cheek pouch and it stays there too long and somehow the skin manages to detach from the cheek and then the hamster try's to chew it off. So they just snipped it and Boxer has 4 tiny stitches - how cute is that?? The Surgeon is a sweet little Thai gal and she asked if I would like to give her Boxer when we move? (I know she was worried that we would still somehow manage to put Boxer to sleep). I was like, "Yeah, do you want her now????" - then I realized that I better let Timmy keep her for a couple more weeks so he can say goodbye properly to her (and I can get some pictures for his scrapbook - I somehow did not take any pictures over these 6 or 7 months of Boxer's life - how in the world did that happen??)

Anyhoooo, the receptionist hands me the bill, Are you ready for this?????? 3,688.61 Baht that is exactly $105.31 this for a HAMSTER - what we do for our children - although even Timmy was thinking that $60 was a bit ridicules to pay for Boxer.  Oh well, my life was getting a bit boring over here, so this was just one more good story to have from our stay in Thailand.

Did I mention that this little fellow, I mean 'gal', can scale the top of her cage traveling from one side all the way across to the other, hand over hand with her legs dangling down below? - A very talented one at that!! 
(see above video for preview).

UPDATE: Now I am off this morning (Thursday, November 13, 2008) 
to take Boxer back to the Surgeon to give Boxer to her. We said our goodbyes 
(and most importantly we got our pictures) and spared one more little 
creature on this earth from disaster!!!!!

Funny Truck

Mon, 13 Oct 2008: Embassy Truck – Journal Entry
I sent off the first batch of mail Thursday and I know there will be a number of other trips I will be making. Of course the funniest thing happen on Thursday. Everyone knows how hard it is for me to do things by myself. Going to the grocery's stores here, commissary, post office, cleaning, scrapbooking - well just about everything. I tend to want to just stay in bed and watch TV, read, play spider solitaire, etc. So when I finally have a deadline to do something it takes all the gumption that I can muster up to actually do it -- even the Thursday post office trip - I was planning on going on Wednesday and miss scripture study.
So I start getting the packages ready. I had 10 boxes to mail. I found the boxes, stuffed and packaged them, taped them up, printed off labels, carried them down to the car, put them all in the front and back seat (my trunk is broken so Billy has it strapped down). Then realized that I had to finish the 8 poems and 8 riddles for mutual that night and so I just decided to go Thursday morning - which I actually thought it was Thursday already so what a nice surprise when I had this extra 'free' day!!
So I finished off everything for mutual, had a great night, then finished up the rest of the things for downtown Thursday morning and went to the post office,
Well nothing is easy - once I arrived up the back alley (they are redoing the front gate and putting in a big guard gate like the one here in back) there was a little delivery truck waiting to go into the two guard gates (you go between these new gates and that is where they now check you out for bombs and such). These two guys looked like they wanted to make a little delivery but kept having to talk to one of the inside guards. So I kind of motioned for them to move over or back up so that I might go through since there wasn’t much clearance. The main guard pointed to inside the two car gates ... There was a humongous semi truck STUCK inside the gate. It was hilarious!! Me and all the other little Thai guys started giggling! How in the world were they going to get that truck out??? But more importantly how was I going to mail off MY packages (tee hee)??? So, I sat and thought "there is no way that I am going to go home with these 10 boxes shoved in my front and back seat. So I eased my car up behind a van (there were 8 cars squished into about the space where 8 cars should not be) and got out, went into the walk through and explained that I would be carrying these boxes one by one to the post office - which was the distance from my apartment guard gate to the turn off of the villa parking lot. The 3rd guard was going to stop me and I said "no, I will need to take these over to the post office (as I was handing him my car keys) because I cannot come back down here this week and these packages need to go out today” - I realize I am usually not this aggressive, but with everything that has been going on it was like "don’t mess with me" attitude. So the guard #3 went and talked to 6 other guards and then gave me my keys back and took my cell phone number and told me, in sign language, broken English and some Thai that they would call me when the truck was moved. I was fine with this. So I took the first box (with my 30# purse and hauled it over to the post office. Dropped everything in the first batch off and went next door and asked to borrow his little metal box carrier. He graciously said yes, because I also in the same breath told him that I would be taking the 55# box that has a cute little wooden elephant in it that I had him box up last week that he was hauling into his little shop each night that I was leaving it there!!
Sooooooo, I went and made another load and finally when all my boxes were over and I began filling out all the green overseas labels, low and behold my phone rang and the truck actually got out. They had to put a bunch of 2x4's under the front 4 tires to raise it so it would be even with the middle of the truck so that it was no longer slanted and hitting the roof – Bravo!!! I left all of my things, including my purse, on the floor of the post office and ran back, got my car, waited for 2 cars to go through and then I sailed through, parked and went in and finished up the boxes, paid, got the Eli box out and loaded it in my back seat and went over to the commissary to shop for grocery's. I think it was uneventful from there on out! What a day!! Weird, funny and entertaining as usual!

My next thing to concentrate on, (besides the Halloween Party that the Mia Maids are over - which now I have lost my cute invitations and have looked everywhere for them to no avail), are all our relatives and kids Christmas presents even for the boys in Utah, since I can't take them all back on the plane. I can't even begin to think what the next weeks will bring.
We listened to President Uchtdorfs talk on hope yesterday, but it must not have sunken in because I am feeling much despair over this moving back to the States. It is like I had 3 full years to work on my scrapbooks and I did squat. I sort of stayed current, but not really. So now I am thinking if I couldn't do it over here -- where life is easier and a lot slower -- how am I ever going to do it back in the states? And as much as I am trying to practice de-clutter - it is just not happening. YIKES!