Sunday, November 1st, continued from last week, ended with us finally properly measuring Samuel against Terry. We've been eyeing Samuel's progress for months but after he returned from his compass trip, he seemed even taller (probably b/c he was wearing tall running shoes which he doesn't usually have on at home).
Terry is only about a quarter inch taller!
And this was actually from the previous day, Saturday, when Evie played tennis with some Morrison kids. She loves to get her tennis on.
Monday, November 2nd, Terry was officially sick. He had been working on it all the previous week and it got worse on the weekend. I left him to sleep in and went to workout by myself. This was me afterwards waiting for the elevator.
We talked to Noah about his three day fast he accomplished over the weekend and then Terry Ubered Evie and I to the next town over, Taoyuan (where the airport, Costco, and IKEA are) for us to get haircuts. Evie's has never been so long - it had been over a year since her last haircut...eleven months for me.
I was a little nervous but it turned out well.
A missionary friend strongly cautioned us against going into any random salon (there are many on every block) b/c of our blonde hair. She and her girls (also blonde) have had terrible haircut experiences until she finally found this Aveda salon with a woman named Kelly who had experience cutting blonde hair. Asian hair is a lot coarser and thicker than my skinny-stranded blonde hair. Mine is quite slippery.
She was adorable. Also she brought her daughter into the store to translate for her. She did a great job. Plus we were given arm and neck massages in addition to our head massage before and during a hair wash.
Afterwards Terry picked us up in the van and we went shopping at Costco. Evie was guarding our cart(s!) while I bought fried chicken for dinner. I thought her hair looked great.
I was really pleased with how our hair turned out, and we will for sure go back.
Tuesday, November 3rd
Tuesday was the worst day for Terry's cold. His voice was incredibly deep and he felt very chesty and sick. I left him at home and worked out alone. Was it just me or did the desk girls seem bummed to not see him with me...?
There's this little old man who walks in tiny steps around our courtyard most days. He's got the friendliest eyes and always seems eager to visit. I tried talking with him a little more the following day and got the impression his English wasn't as good as his greetings let on.
Samuel did some school, inside and outside. After compass he found that he feels better emotionally when he's outside so we encouraged him to go for walks and/or take his school to the table at the front of our building. It's lovely that the weather here permits that. Now that it's properly fall, it's mostly cooler (70s and 80s with high humidity).
Afterwards Samuel and Evie made a stationary store run...
...for some posterboard for a promposal! The student council was doing a challenge to record promposals so Samuel went for it, with Evie's heavy influence. Any promposal video was posted to their Instagram page, including Samuel's. At the actual HSB, the group watched all of the submitted promposals and voted on the best one.
Evie helped *a lot.* She helped so much that that he probably couldn't have done it without her. Thank the Lord for a sister! And a really good sister at that. She is the literal best.
Samuel had asked Eleanor to go as friends to HSB the previous week on their compass trip. Eleanor is a fellow missionary homeschool student and friend of (mostly) Evie's, but Samuel too.
Samuel was adorable.
Meanwhile at home Noah and Jared got up early and went for a two mile run together. It's been a long while since Noah ran and he was sore.
Later on that evening Evie accompanied Terry to EC Talk to help post a table for his lesson about travel. It was a smaller group but went well. They brought home more donuts for the following morning. Yum.
Wednesday, November 4th
Terry started feeling better today but did not work out all week. I went again by myself and before going to the grocery store I quickly walked through the clothing store called NET on a reconnaissance mission. I had realized Samuel had nothing to wear for a formal event so I went in search of a suit coat and slacks. I found some!
Evie has been contacted by a couple moms from a friend's church in Taipei to tutor for their elementary kids and she worked on a lesson that afternoon. I mean, she worked on it after talking it over with Porky to get his approval and direction.
That evening everyone but Evie walked down to the photo booth next to our gym to take new ID photos for our updated ARCs (alien resident cards). We saw this teeny weeny dog in a bag on our walk down there. As Terry was researching for his upcoming Taiwanese driver's test, he discovered that his/our ARCs needed to have at least six months left on them to apply for a driver's license. Our ARCs only had two months left, so before he could apply for a driver's license, he needed to update our ARCs. And we needed new photos to submit with all the paperwork. Job done.
Thursday, November 5th
I worked out alone early to try to get back in time to sign the ARC paperwork for Terry but he walked all the way down to the gym to get my signature anyway. It was on his way to the church where he needed a stamp. From there he went to Taipei with Mei to renew our ARCs. I went home and collapsed. Evie read her new silly story to us.
After the school work was done Evie accompanied me and Samuel to NET to try on the suit components. I felt like I needed Evie's emotional support and they were both heading to cross country afterwards so it worked out. Samuel tried on like a dozen different sizes but we got him fitted pretty well.
Meanwhile in Taipei, the paperwork was missing on additional stamp that they couldn't get until 3pm. Terry worked at a huge three-level Starbucks and Mei went to upgrade her phone. After they got the stamp they moved to the front of the line at Immigration and were done very quickly. Terry took the train home but was so engrossed in reading Evie's novel progress that he forgot to get off the train! So he had to take it all the way to the airport and back, adding probably 45 minutes to his commute and already long day. 😆
We enjoyed some rest together that night and then had Samuel model the suit for Terry before bed.
Throughout the day Noah kept sending me the same text instructing me to read his favorite book. But they were coming in the middle of the night for him. I finally figured it out after the first two that he had scheduled these texts just to be funny. He is genuinely witty and funny, something I could not see when he was in high school and I was so worried about him being rejected by the other boys. Plus he said that he loved me so much so I had to screenshot.
Friday, November 6th
I worked out alone while Terry talked to his folks. You can see the the proof in the minimized Faster Way leg day video on this photo that my sister send me of her new cat for me to share with the family. I received her photo while working out.
Meanwhile Noah and Jared were hanging out with my birthday cat, the traitors.
Terry used ChatGPT to make this picture of our neighborhood-eyeglass-store cat that Evie found outside and returned it to its shop.
We talked to Noah and watched a Wingfeather episode with him. I talked to my mom afterwards. Then Evie undertook a great challenge she set herself - making macarons. She's braver than I am. I am afraid to make macarons b/c they're so fiddly. But since she loves them that much, she was up for the challenge.
It was a massive success.
They were heavenly.
True, they cracked but that was most likely due to our high humidity. The chocolate ganash she put inside was life-changing. So good. Ridiculously good.
That evening we three went to bible study and left the boys home. I took our photo b/c it was the first time that I had left the house wearing an additional layer for many, many months. It's been far too hot for sweaters, even inside with raging AC. And actually, it turned out to be still too hot for sweater. I took it off halfway to Nanson's when I started sweating. 😅 It's always sweating in Taiwan.
At Nanson's we tried a new fruit whose name I can't remember. But it was very much like a lychee inside - almost identical flavor too.
Saturday, November 7th
We were so tired after our late night at bible study but had to get up early for Ezra's soccer tournament. Ezra biked himself there by 8:10am but at least we had til 9am. We also biked and got ourselves properly warmed up by the workout that we enjoyed sitting in the wind and watching Ezra play his first of five games. I met a new missionary mom that game too.
They won the first game.
Family shot. I was glad I brought my new Jiufen cat hat b/c it was crazy windy and the sun was still low enough to blind us.
I took this photo on our ride home, right before I slammed on the brakes one-handed and almost endo'd. Smart one, Eva.
It was such a beautiful morning and I was enjoying being outside altogether that I couldn't help but take a photo of it.
That feeling of well-being and happiness made me want to stay out of the apartment and do something fun, so we went to The Daily Collector, the shop in the side of our building. We called Noah back and talked to him for a while. We had the loveliest time talking up there laughing at old stories and old pictures (particularly one sour-faced Evie photo no one remembered).
We had to be back to the school by 12:20pm and didn't want to bike again so we took the van. Evie took the picture-taking into her own hands...
...and she made this face at me when I took a picture of her taking a picture. It made me laugh so much b/c of her sour face. 😆 We had already been laughing earlier at her grumpy face so it was even funnier.
Next we all drove back to NET b/c we realized Samuel had no dress shoes. We found some and then I took this photo of this ridiculous, but true, phrase.
Evie and Samuel biked back to the apartment and Terry and I back to the school for Ezra's third game. Evie had agreed to watch her friend Moriah's three youngest siblings while Moriah (and her mom) were getting ready for HSB w friends. Samuel ran {practically} miles around the ball pit playroom of our apartment complex to entertain the kids.
Afterwards he came upstairs to shower before HSB and hang out but ended up playing more with the kids when Evie brought them up. How sweet is Samuel?!?!
We stayed for games three and four and were going to leave when we decided to stay for the final game. I was worried about getting Samuel ready for HSB but Terry said we had enough time. And we did.
By the final game the sun was starting to western and the wind was still blowing like crazy, and finally, at long last, I needed a sweater. But I had left mine at home after being hot that morning. So, Terry gave me his at halftime. How sweet is he?! Finally, the cool fall weather had arrived. A week into November. 😜 And it was only like 70 degrees! The wind made it feel cooler...or I'm turning into a wimp.
Ezra's team lost to the #1 seed and got bumped to the loser bracket but won that so they got third place in the tournament.
As soon as Ezra's game was over we booked it home to get Samuel ready for HSB and then drove back to the school (for the fourth time) for the actual event. Here's Evie and Lydia while we were waiting for Samuel's date to arrive.
How handsome is Samuel?! I'll tell you - so handsome.
Samuel and Eleanor. I was particularly pleased at how Rachel and I communicated so I could do my best to match his tie to her dress.
Lillian had the brainwave to have him twirl her and then I took a screenshot. So pretty.
Evie was a bit sad to be past these fun milestones but it was also fulfilling for her to be able to see her friends all dolled up. Most of these girls are homeschooled but not all.
Not sure what Evie is laughing at but she looks so cute. Terry was talking to Samuel's Computer Science teacher, Gary, who we already knew from church.
Lillian, Evie, and I stole upstairs real quick to check out the MPR. I also talked to another teacher friend, Terri, who I had met summer 2025 at TMF.
We drove home and found Ezra happily enjoying Tomodachi and resting after his huge day. He did get somewhat sunburned, but not bad.
Sunday November 8th, we got this photo from Noah from my friend Sarah's coffee shop, Fireside. We'd encouraged Noah to go down there to study and he finally did.
And my dad sent this photo to the family chat of his updated beard progress. He hadn't had a beard since like 1994 when I was in middle school. He's literally always had a mustache, but discovered he doesn't need just a stache anymore. He said, "In my teens I was dangerously good looking. At 76 I ‘m still a menace." Dead. 😂😆💀
Our family had church setup so we got up early(er) and did that. Then we went to Starbucks afterwards to chill til church (and have breakfast, in me and Evie's case).
We are bad parents and let Ezra get the largest size Java Frap. 🙈
Pastor Nanson finished up his Genesis series. Terry preaches next week.
Evie and Samuel went to the burger truck with friends after church. They saw this harnessed and leashed cat walk by. It's tempting for Porky but we're sure he'd manage to escape and we'd never see him again. Hmmm, but then we could get a "gourmet, designer cat," i.e. expensive, but perhaps friendlier. Porky has been enjoying going out into our elevator hallway so perhaps he'd like a leashed stroll outside...
The day finished with blogging, Tomodachi, pizza, and the 2004 movie Troy (with the bad scenes, having been researched, covered up with a blanket). Onward into the next week.
