friends

just liking this shot of me, brookie, and hazel and how symbolic it is of friends going the distance...with each other. i am really feeling that lately. we are settling in more and more here but i am finding that i am missing the friendships more and more of "good old friends"...God speed!

Michael's photo

paul

Miss Ashley says, "Paul, i need to hurry up and find a husband and get married so that you can be my ring bear."
Paul replies, "But i don't have a wedding dress yet!"

soccer coach

Greg is enjoying the soccer season. the guys (33) seem to like him as a coach so that always helps. they are working towards their first game. the one down fall is that they hardly have any games to play because of Ramadan...season of fasting here for the Muslims starts Sept. 1 and goes for one month. in that time people are pretty lethargic because of the obvious. so they hope to accomplish team building and more foot skills this year and hopefully next year they will have more "game" time. none the less...it's good for mr. copeland to be out there!

Gavin's first day of 1st Grade

i think it's a little obvious that brother and sister are going to miss big brother as he goes to school for a whole day. but they said good-bye to him and everyone is adjusting to the new schedule. you can pray for gavin as he is doesn't like this change yet. he wants to be home playing all day and he is still having ear problems. pray for his ears to be healed completely and that he can hear 100% and that he doesn't mind the new strict diet of getting rid of all the yeast in his body. we are doing everything we can to help him out!

Independence Day for Indonesia! Aug 17

There are certain games everyone in each neighborhood plays every year for the celebrations of Independence Day. the day is actually the 17th but they play games throughout the whole week. i was gone to Singapore so Greg and the kids went and had a great time carrying marbles on spoons, eating krupuk from a string, having bike races, being blind folded while swinging at a plastik bag filled with water. then the grown ups played ping-pong and greg came in a winner! i missed not being there but i did find out some great things from the doctors in Singapore. i am completely healthy...i just need to allow my body to catch up to the shock of the past year! so thanks for your prayers for our family...as you can see...we are adjusting better and better and life is going to continue to get better and better! enjoy the pictures!

17 Agustus 2008...night time

the night festivities were all done on a stage and everyone that performed was all dressed up to do their dances. the women of the neighborhood made food for everyone...called "soto" and it's one of my favorite meals here. the party lasted until 1am and it was fun to be "the official photographer". here are a few shots of the night.

i was the official photographer

the night before the wedding, the father of the groom came to ask greg if he could drive the bride and groom around for the day. greg had to decline cuz he had to teach at school, but he offered me to drive...so of course i said yes! but then i realized i had no idea what the cultural obligations were! so i began asking and i had to go get some fake flowers and ribbon and dress up the car for the day....putting a bunch in the front, on the back and on the doors with ribbon tying them all together. so that morning i was talking with my ibu and she said that she had never heard of a woman driver before. she thought it was a little funny that i was driving. so i thought maybe i should hire a man to drive. so she went over and asked the family what to do and they said they have a whole family of drivers (it's actully a job here to drive for people) so they would be happy to drive for me, but they still wanted me to come and take pictures. but i didn't even know that i was to be taking pictures! the groom had forgotten to ask me... but because i have a camera...it works like that...that i would be asked :D !!! so i quickly got dressed for a wedding and took the camera and the whole grooms family met at his house and we ate food. then we piled in two cars (ours had 15 people in it) and maybe 10 motorcycles and we all drove to the church where her family was waiting on us cuz the groom was 'late' and the ceremony began immidiately with only family there (and me) and this was a christian wedding so it seemed pretty typical of what we would see in the states. even the lighting of the candle. then after the ceremony we all jumped back in the cars and on the motorcycles and drove to the brides home where the whole neighborhood was waiting under a tent. we arrived and the bride, groom and parents sat in front and we all sat in chairs looking at them. about 4 guys got up and talked for a bit and then we ate and left again. they were married. but rituals will go on this whole week and not until saturday will they come together to live in the same house. and on saturday we will have another party with more people and more driving and more pictures! but here are a few pictures of the day. they don't like to smile for photos but i did manage to get a couple of people grinning (i know only a few words in 'javanese' which is the island language and i would say those words and everyone would laugh so i would take the picture cuz they think it's so funny when we speak 'javanese'!) :D i took 247 pictures in 4 hours. it was a great day and i felt honored to be apart of the family experience. it's great to know our neighbors in a time like this :D we love to help and it seems they are always having to help us!

We are going to miss you

and it won't be long before you are back here...we know it!

Gavin, Paul and Hazel will cry when they need their hug-a-bug hugs from you and we will cry when we want someone to play games with...or eat more food with...or...

Brookie and Michael contributions to the copelands

Brookie bought Blue and Purple hair dye for the kids

Brookie and Michael took the kids to McDonald's one night in bali...and it was a huge story of mishaps...but greg and i got to go eat out on a DATE at Hardrock Cafe and have REAL food!
(and no mishaps)

Borobudur. but something was added this time :D Michael is so funny!

Brookie and Michael laughed as they took about 10 pictures of paul cleaning out the inside of his nose. he had no idea anyone was watching...and now the world gets too!!!!

We found this really cool bug. it's GOLD...all over...and just like a button! we were so impressed by it and wondering how come we have never seen this in a book or something???

Martha's 4th - 29th Birthday

Brookie and the kids made me a special chocolate cake with a GREAT frosting!
it was almost like marshmallows...(thank you to Susan...Brookie's mom)

i THINK more got on the cake but who knows?
aunt Brookie tends to like to spoil the blue mouthed short people in this house

awe...thanks kids...i love you too!

Greg made for a special day as well...
breakfast, gifts all week long, and then supper out with friends and family...
after we put the kids down to bed we went back out to play cards...up and down the river...
in which Michael has become quite the card shark while being here...:D

Happy days

we went to a new water park in Solo. it was truly a water park and we had a great time! the whole teacher staff and all their families went...a great way to start out teacher meetings!
i was impressed with the kids...they did all the rides...even the darkest dark tunnel i have ever been on! this is the only picture we have from the day cuz the battery died...

this is "Uncle Greg" to those in the elementary and "Mr. Copeland" to those in the H.S. taking off for his first day of school. isn't this a great picture of a stud muffin?
this is livin' the dream of being a teacher overseas and driving a motorcycle to school!
thanks to Nate for letting us borrow it for the six months he is gone :D

Shots from inside the car

a traditional Javanese style house

but a "not-so-traditional" satalite dish on top of the house :D

a typical site of a woman selling produce on the side of the road

i just shot this picture out the window of the car and caught a woman showing her only tooth

important finds at the waterfall

a little dragonfly???
it had purple wings and landed on brooke's hand...
she loves purple...this was an important moment :D

Paul opened a peanut shell and found 3 peanuts...
Greg opened a peanut shell and found 4 peanuts...
this was an important moment!

Hazel found these purple flowers on our way up.
they cheered Gavin and helped him to stop crying from his legs hurting...
these were important flowers

Greg found this caterpillar to help Gavin get his mind off the hurting legs as well...
and then we saw that this caterpillar had a baby...
just behind him on the leaf...
a little "fuzzy" :D ha ha ha...
and this caterpillar too was an important find

the waterfall

the great adventure of being outdoors and having leaf races in rivers.

Mommy and Hazel...having a rest before climbing again

Brookie and Michael chillin' under the waterfall...
what great friends to troop all over with us...
and have a good time doing it! we love you guys!

the stairs we hiked...
we counted this time...
849 down and then 849 back up...
everyone but hazel accomplished this feat!

Waterfall

kids trying to look up to the top of the waterfall...
and hazel nearly falls over because of the height of it.

Paul is loving the freedom of playing in the water, rocks, mud, and fresh air

it didn't take long for gavin to take all the clothes off

and get serious about making a better waterfall out of the remaining rocks

We Loooove the Beach...and Bali has plenty to go around