The kids and I are back and Kel makes it back later tonight. We stayed at one of the oldest hotels in Bangkok, it just happens to be right by our office on Soi 2. I have never even really noticed it before. Anyway, it had the FIRST real hotel swimming pool ever built back in the 1950's. It had some very fun aspects about the hotel pool--like several ledges and roofs that you could dive off into the pool. The hotel was OLD...quaint and had that musty cat litter smell...except for when they covered it up with air freshner. There were cats everywhere but not in our room and since it was just regular floors and walls, we did fine with that. The toliet stayed stopped up about half way through the days but it would manage to clear out sometime--that was the grossest part. The rest was fine...clean beds, clean sheets each morning and we spent little time there.

As we were walking down the soi the first morning (small street) Savannah said, "I've been thinking about writing a book titled, LOST IN BANGKOK," which made me smile.....Sometimes it seems like we are lost there, although we're usually not lost...just trying to figure out how we are going to get to the next place. (6 of us barely fit in a taxi and traffic is horrible!) Savannah later said this was her best vacation ever! :> She liked the pool and she liked the fact that we decided to spend a little extra money and go see a movie with the big recliner type hairs and blankets. She thought that was a very special treat! We saw several good movies...I can't remember the one in the special theatre or the name of it...it was about a young boy who is a Ceasear..

My favorite was StarDust...don't know if you've seen it but I thought it was a clean, fun, fairy tale. Both boys were bothered by the ugly witches in it, though. The kids and Kel also saw "UnderDog." I shopped while they watched it. Didn't get to really shop like I had hoped. Since we had dr. appt's scheduled in at various times, I just wasn't allowed the shopping time I wanted. I would still love to buy an outfit for the girls that they could wear in public....they chose one outfit...with those gaucho type things and they look ok but they can't wear them everyday (although I think Malia did and Sav. wore the bottoms daily)--oh well, that's what the Europeans do when they are on vacation! The kids and I went to the IMAX theatre and saw "Dinosaur" I thought it was enjoyable if you can get past all the evolution stuff.

Malia's muscle weakness is some of the side effects from last yr and her other illness. A friend asked me how it was and I told her it was like taking a teenager to the dr. The dr would say, "what seems to be the problem?" She would not answer. Then he would say, "does your legs hurt?" She would say no. It was like pulling eye teeth to get the answers. Later she would say, "my legs don't hurt, it's my knees... he wasn't asking the right questions." I finally said, "I am not speaking, if you want to tell him what is wrong, then you can tell him, i will say nothing. And I will not bring you again..." She started talking a little more. I, also checked on that intermittant leg pain and it is a tendon. I have shoots of pain periodically that have been mistaken for leg cramps. I know it is the tendon because after he pushed around on it, I was limping for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, it only gives me trouble when I have the shooting pain episodes....they don't last long and most of the rest of the time it doesn't hurt. I, also, had my mamaogram and ultrasound which I detest greatly. I know they are very thorough here an I don't think I could go elsewhere since they are so familiar with my br--sts but I have so many cysts and it takes such a long time I HATE it. I have started doing some reading about HRT and am going to research the topic to see if it is time to get off the hormones to get the cysts to go away. If any of you have any info on that, send it my way.

Well, that is enough for now. We are home and all glad to be here. Kel will join us tonight--yesterday and today he has been in a meeting. I will say it IS stressful trying to corral all 4 children, attitudes and transportation in BKK!

Blessings!