Auntie Becca

At this point i'm dying to get to WA. can you blame me? look at her! my plan is all summer. all summer with my baby niece. Auntie Becca. is that too long a name? but i dont know what else to make it. i refuse becky, so dont even mention it. but i'll be open to others, possibly. any good ones?

ps. i love her face in this picture.

Baby Lily!!!

MY BABY NIECE IS HERE!!! She was born on September 18, 2009 around 7pm WA time. 8lbs 15 oz, 20 inches, perfectly healthy. Minus the fact that she was sunny side up and stuck, and they had to do a C-section. She's beautiful, and mom and her are doing great. Lily Camille Fletcher. All that hair already! She's GORGEOUS!! (she looks like me already!)

Daddy ^

and Mommy ^

Malaysia-People

Malaysia #1-The People. I've decided to split it up in parts since theres absolutely no way i can explain Malaysia in one post..and all the pictures to go with the explanations. I love the people, though. They are so humble, so happy despite having basically nothing. I felt like a rich snob there. I want to do so much to help them now. What I really want is to live like them for a year or so, see how it goes for me. but i suppose that wont happen. these are the people that eric taught and served with while he was on his mission, and he took us to see some of them. but, one thing before you see these pictures : it was hot. soo hot. so were all sweaty and gross. its nasty, but get over it. thats how it goes. oh and these pictures are actually backwards. these are the last people we saw, and the picture at the bottom are the first people we saw. i'll name them as i go. (the name is under the picture)
a note about the people in general: they are small, and dark. my family is big and white. that was almost always a topic of conversation, how big we were. they always wanted to take pictures with us..at least the people at church were always asking if they could have a picture of us. i have no idea what they wanted with it, and it started to irk me, but whatever. i felt a little bit like an elephant at the circus. but i love them still. the people who would pass us in a car-the five of us jammed into a five person car with my father driving on the wrong side of the road- would often point and nudge their neighbors to see too. its just how they are.

Lihot (the woman on the far right holding the baby) and her daughters family.

Migan and us. Migan was adorable..spoke no english, but could understand us pretty well. She just laughed at everything. eric says she's super funny. i laughed even when i didnt know the joke.

Robin and Rhodea's family. They're adorable..the little boy making the peace signs understood some english, and he would try to talk to us so hard..and the mom, Rhodea, right in front of my dad..she was adorable. her english was really good. but mostly they just talk to eric in malay.

Sister Nora (right behind me) and her daughter and husband? i think it was her husband. But sister Nora was the most adorable..although she fed us some green pea soup that was really sweet and rather gross..really gross. but i ate it, all of it. she made a necklace and gave it to me actually. its actually the one my mom is wearing in the picture below us.

This is Iban traditional clothing. or the decorations really, no one just wears that. but the pom poms and everything. the necklaces too. its all intricately beaded-sister Nora's daughter made them i think. i now have the blue and yellow necklace from her-she is so sweet. ps. it was really hot that day.

Missy and Jelawai's family--the girl with her arms around me is Crystilla. She was 18 and had a three year old son, and a baby. she and i got a long well, even though we didnt speak the same language. she would just look up at me and smile when everyone else was talking. i think it was the age thing that made that happen. this was the hottest place yet, though, so its the most unflattering picture of the sweaty white people ever.

Juen and Rosalind's house. they live in flats, i think they're called. like apartment housing. they gave us sprite in wine glass looking things..i think thats like a real treat. it was sweet. Juen told us of his conversion story, and then we talked about the politics of malaysia and US..it was informative.

John and Allan's family. John is the only person in malaysia that i saw smiled in a picture. but he's just like that..always smiling and laughing. he speaks good english, because he works in singapore. Allan (pronounced Ellen) is so sweet. her kids were amazing too. this was the first family we met. and we learned how to eat like malaysians, with a spoon in the right hand and a fork in the right. its actually very effective. the picture right above my head on the wall is a picture of their whole family in white with eric getting baptized.

And thats that. We missed a couple of families when we were taking pictures..we missed Brother Chen's family, and i think one other but i dont want to open my journal to remember again. These people are fantastic! I love malaysia!