Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

We posted pictures of our new house in our photo gallery today. Take a look!

Things are going well. We've been able to see the school, pick up keys, and do a little grocery shopping. School staff orientation starts on Monday, so we've got the rest of the weekend to finish getting unpacked and settled. Things are really going well so far!

We are now at our new home in Thailand!! It is a gorgeous house, and way nicer than what we've had in the states. We even have a yard and a hammock!! It is really a fabulous house and we are so fortunate to have it. It's close to the school, only a few minutes by car, and in a gated community. But like any house, it does have its nuances, and we've had quite the orientation to our new house. It sounds like we will have a good time! Here are some excerpts from the letter the house owners left us:

"There are many keys for the rooms of the house left in a small white pail. I never used them, so I don't know which keys are for which rooms, but some of the doors have a tendency to lock without you meaning to lock them."

"A/C unit in master bedroom works but the 'low' and 'high' indicators for the fan are switched."

"Apparently, the pesticide sprayers are supposed to come each third Thursday of the month; however, I only found that out because the man came on the second Monday of July and asked if he could spray or not...so I guess they just come whenever they can."

"The back passenger door of the car will open, but you must lit up on the door lock while opening the door."

"An anti-theft device is located in the glove compartment and can be triggered simply if door is shut too hard or if someone's knee brushes against the glove box door." This anti-theft device stops the car and won't let you start the car again until the switch is flipped back.

So there are definitely some fun quirks to things here. We're looking forward to discovering more on our own! We'll try to put up pictures of our new place tomorrow.

We made it as far as Bangkok last night. Our flight actually came in early, so we were through immigration and had all our bags by a few minutes after our scheduled arrival time of 11:50pm. I was so thankful to see all our luggage arrive still sealed and unpilfered by the TSA! We spent the night at Sam's sister's house, and this afternoon we're catching a flight up to Chiang Mai. Then we'll get to see our new house! We'll have plenty of pictures for you then.

We left Detroit on August 2nd (I'm not sure if that was today or yesterday!) and we are now as far as Tokyo. Our flight landed early, so we have about 3 hours until our flight to Bangkok leaves. We were able to meet up with Sam in Detroit and he is flying with us to Bangkok. We put up a few pictures on our gallery, and we'll add more when we get there. We're well on our way!

This past week has been spent riding roller coasters of all sorts! We started out leaving Chicago last weekend. We visited my grandma and went minigolfing in Chicago. Then we drove to Cincinnati and went to King's Island, a great amusement park. We followed that up with a drive to Sandusky to Cedar Point, the best roller coaster park there is. After a week of thrill rides, my dad and brothers headed to Pennsylvania for a board game tournament, and we came to Detroit with my mom. You can see pictures from a few of the rides in our gallery here.

Tomorrow we fly to Thailand! It is so strange and exciting that it's already time. This summer has flown by so fast. We're looking forward to going, but at the same time, it's hard to say goodbye here.

Our friend Sam managed to get on the same flight as us, so tomorrow we'll be meeting up with him and flying to Bangkok. We arrive in Bangkok late on August 3rd, and we'll be heading up to Chiang Mai sometime on August 4th. You can await news of our arrival in Thailand with great anticipation! We'll be there soon!