Happy Mother's Day!

I know 99% of you have seen this, but I thought it was appropriate for Mother's Day!

Update

Brent is doing well. Everything went as good as could be expected. Now the healing process begins.

However, you know that it couldn't be a uneventful day when it comes to the Hatchers!

The monsoon that began early Thursday morning did not detour us from getting to the hospital, but silly me wore flip flops. When we were walking out of the parking deck to the hospital, I slid down the sidewalk, ripped a whole in my jeans and busted my knee.....while it was raining. We then waited for an hour for them to call Brent back. Then, while we were waiting on them to take him to surgery, I accidentally told Brent that where we were going for his birthday surprise trip in June. Good job Rebecca! I didn't tell him what we were doing though, but the week is not over yet. Brent said that God gave me to him to keep him from being anxious about the surgery, because I was sure keeping his mind off of it.

Thankfully, everything went well the rest of our time at the hospital. Later in the evening when we were all at home I went in to the play room to find Reese hiding under the train table. Uh-oh! I know what this means, but even if I didn't, the evidence was on the floor. He had pooped in his underwear, and then it came out onto the floor. Since my children both have weak stomach's (which they didn't inherit from me) Reese had left a little pile of puke on the floor too. I wonder if he was ever planning on telling me.

So I have:
poop on the floor
puke on the floor
child hiding under train table
husband laid up in the recliner, in pain
and my knee is swelling and all scraped up like I was a two year old.

Just keeping it real!

Prayer Request

Please keep Brent in your prayers tomorrow. He will be having outpatient gallbladder surgery in the morning. It is minor surgery, but as they say, it is only minor when it is not happening to you.
THANK YOU!

Day 12, March 20th

We started the morning off at breakfast at the hotel. It was all open air and gorgeous. Our driver took us to another play called a barong, I think. Barong is a character in the mythology of Bali. Don't let this picture fool you, Brent had a flower in his hair too! They put them above your ear when you walk in.

This was the orchestra. They used a lot of instruments like xylophones.

This was their offering to the gods. You see these EVERYWHERE!!! In front of stores, in restaurants, at every shop at the airport. I MEAN EVERYWHERE!

We left there and went to a shop that made batik cloth. Here they are using a stamp to imprint a turtle image on the cloth using wax. They will then die the cloth another color and take the wax off leaving the orange turtle behind. They will continue this with numerous colors.

Here one of the artist drew on my shorts with wax.

Such talent!

This was all open air.

This was a temple I believe that we passed on the road.

This was where we stopped to eat lunch. It had an amazing buffet.

Brent and his basket of food.

Here was the view of a volcano from where we ate lunch. It is said to be inactive but not dormant. The smoke above is just rain clouds, and about 10 minutes after I took this picture it stormed!
We left there and went to a coffee plantation. We actually got to see them roasting coffee.

We got to sample 2 types of tea and 4 types of coffee. We bought one cup of the "special" coffee. You could buy it in the gift shop for over $50 and that is US dollars!

A coconut tree.

The view from where we got to sample the coffees.

We then went to a temple that had relaxed rules and was open to the public.
Even though Bali is very laid back, and accepting of tourists whom either don't know the customs, or know them and choose to ignore them, they still make men and women cover their legs before entering the temple.

Here was the sign at the front of the temple. But it gets better..Please read number 3.

Before going back to the hotel, our driver took us by the Bali bombing memorial.

The decorative circle in the road is where one of the bombs went off in 2002.

Here is the list of everyone who lost their lives, grouped by country.

and so ended that day with our driver. We went to Hard Rock Cafe and ate some American food! It was a nice change.

Day 11, March 19th

We began our last morning in Jakarta by meeting Brent's dad for breakfast one more morning at the hotel breakfast. We then took a car to the airport to both catch flights. We were flying to Bali and Barry was flying back to Lampung. Back to the domestic terminal we headed. We checked our luggage and went to pay our exit tax. Brent gave me the money and we paid and went and waited at the gate. Later, I found out that Brent had given me the money on purpose to see what the airport employee would do. I didn't notice anything but Brent told me later that when I handed the guy the money he looked at Brent with a "look." There is still a touch of "women are second class citizens" there and I think Brent wanted to test the guy and see what he would do. I was oblivious to the whole situation.

I got to take a picture of a volcano while in flight.
Here was one of the Hindu statues at the airport.When we got to the airport, our driver met us at the airport. Brent had used this same driver two years ago and he remembered what Brent and his dad had done on their last trip to Bali. We decided to head straight to the best fire dance on the island. It is on the side of a cliff, with a gorgeous view of the sunset. It is a traditional Balinese fire dance where everything means something. This is a holy man who was using some kind of oil and incense to bless everything.

I can't remember what all the people represented but I do know that the person in the green is supposed to be a boy god and the other is some kind of girl god. It was amazing.

This was looking to the right of where I was sitting.

And then the part where they actually use fire. It was quite amazing!

After we left there we went to a wonderful restaurant where you got to pick your seafood, literally! Here I am picking out the red snapper!

This is where they take it to cook it.

Our view of the beach. BTW, there was a singing group serenading people on the beach, singing American songs. We actually heard them sing "Sweet Home Alabama!"

It was wonderful!!!

Day 10, March 18th

We began this day by eating yet another buffet, this time at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta. It was wonderful. We then took a cab to Jakarta International School where Brent graduated from. This is the front of it where you have to go through security. Here is another picture of their security. You can't just drive on the campus. It is like a fortress. This picture was from inside the campus, looking back at where you would drive out.

Can you believe that this is a high school campus. Gorgeous fountain!

Here is one of the "hallways."

This was down by the track. I was standing in the "lunch room" when I took this picture, but it is all so open, that I don't know if you would even call it a room.

I just took this picture so you could see the fence that is around the whole school. Look how high it is!

After that, we went to a mall to do some shopping. This was the ceiling where the escalators were in the store.

Just a typical picture of the streets. I took this from the window of the mall.

Just had to include this one!

This was in the middle of another mall. There is stuff everywhere. We were on the second floor.

And this is looking up to the other levels. Most of these stores are electronics stores, and they seem to all have about the same things.

We took this picture for the boys. They love Buzz and Woody!

That night we met some family friends at a different mall for supper. We ate dumplings and they might have been the best I have had in a long time. Afterwards we went to a gelato shop and had some yummy dessert. I got strawberry gelato and it was so good! I kicked myself later for not getting any pictures of everyone together but oh well.