I think I wanna color some Easter Eggs......

Hmmmmm updates updates updates.....

Well, for starters, I was able to get my VISA application in the mail, all complete and everything. At least that's taken care of.....

As for Eri's birthday gift.....well that's on hold for the moment til his birthday gets a little closer. 

Right now I've just been working everyday, and now since it's April 5 my departure date is quite close, so I can go ahead and start lightly packing for Indonesia....or at least making a list.......I love making list I don't know why.

We got a new printer on Friday night...it's a pretty cool printer, not too expensive or excessive at all....it's a Cannon PIXMA MX330. Works beautifully so far....

Hmmm what else......let me think...... 

The one year mark of the passing of Eri's Mom is coming up this week. 

Well, I think that's it for the moment at least. I'm just working and getting ready for Indonesia.

Love you all.

CW

Checklist

While my list of things to do before I head back to Indo for the summer, the most important (to me at least, hehehehe) is my checklist for my VISA to get into the country, so I go ahead and get that in so I won't have to worry about it, unlike last time :-)

Ok so here's the list:

(And yes those are square roots....not check marks, but they do just as good as job as the others would)

• Valid Passport (at least 6 months beyond entry date) √
• Copy of Eri's Indonesian I.D.  (KTP) √
• Copy of Itinerary √
• Completed 2 Visa Applications and 2 passport photos
  
• Sponsorship letter from Eri√
• Proof of Financial Support (letter from my bank saying I have over 2k just in case I might be a burden to the Indo Govt)
  
• $45, in the form of a money order
• pre-paid self addressed return envelope 
  

I'm planning on having this done before the end of the week....and mailing it by Friday.....

So the list isn't looking too bad at all.......as for my other "to-do" list....yikes....is it long!  I'm not going to post it.....because it is long, and involves a surprise for Eri's birthday..... Plus he reads the blog so it might give it away, and we can't have that. He always knows what I'm doing because he sneakily pulls it out of me...but not this time.....he's going to love it! It will be a very memorable 27th birthday gift.  Let's see it's Monday, March 23 (Tuesday March 24 in Indo) at 7:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m. in Indo ;-)) that means it's just over 50 days before I leave....wow that sounds like a long time....but it's just a month and a half, lol. But yeah, I need to get started. So I can leave with a peaceful mind and enjoy my summer in Indo. (Yes I'm spending the summer in Indo, btw, I'm arriving in May coming home in August!!! Fun! Exciting! Can I board my plane already?!?!?! Please?!?!?!) 

What I am looking forward to is quitting my job!! woot woot! Can't wait.......it's not that I hate my job though.....just looking forward to seeing Eri again. By the time I get there it will be over 6 months we haven't seen each other!

I had a brutual work-out this morning....and I'm aching! Looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow morning. I am not very happy about my gym changing it's hours of operation...but I will learn to deal with it. 

I think that's it for the moment.....

Oh and btw, for Claude, that guy at the top is Ichigo Kurasaki, he's from the show Bleach, Eri and I love that show. The people in the sword are also people from the show.....  It's a great show.  Oh look at that, it's a clip of Bleach!! Woot woot check it out!!!

Oh speaking of totally awesome Japanese shows....you should check out this: 

it's Go-Onger- G3 Princess!!

Desperate for another? How about Kiva Kamen Rider.....very good too!!! 

Enjoy.

Bye for now.

CW

The ticket has been booked!

We booked the ticket this AM!!!!!!

Woot woot!

Traveling to Surabaya Wednesday 13 May 09
Atlanta (ATL) Depart 9:15 pm  Terminal SOUTH TERMINAL	to	San Francisco (SFO) Arrive 11:32 pm  Terminal 1	2,135 mi (3,436 km) Duration: 5hr 17mn	Delta Flight: 1079
Economy/Coach Class ( 36D ), Breakfast, Boeing 757 Thursday 14 May 09
San Francisco (SFO) Depart 1:05 am  Terminal INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL	to	Hong Kong (HKG) Arrive 6:35 am +1 Day Terminal 1	6,915 mi (11,129 km) Duration: 14hr 30mn	Singapore Airlines Flight: 1
Economy/Coach Class ( Seat assignments upon check-in , Meal, 77W Friday 15 May 09
Hong Kong (HKG) Depart 8:00 am  Terminal 1	to	Singapo*re (SIN) Arrive 11:40 am	1,594 mi (2,565 km) Duration: 3hr 40mn	Singapore Airlines Flight: 1
Economy/Coach Class ( Seat assignments upon check-in ), Meal, 77W
Singapore (SIN) Depart 3:40 pm  Terminal 2	to	Surabaya (SUB) Arrive 5:00 pm	855 mi (1,376 km) Duration: 2hr 20mn	Singapore Airlines Flight: 5226

Exciting News!!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm not too sure if anyone still keeps up with our blog, BUT I have exciting news! 

I will be going back to Indonesia on May 13th!

Yes, it's only March 18th, but I'm still so excited to go back and see Eri!

I can't wait.....I have so much to do, but I'm so ready to go!

This time my trip is going to consist of ATL->San Fransico->Hong Kong->Singapore->Surabaya. With no layovers this time....

My checklist includes:

Book my ticket (lol I know, I'm doing it tomorrow, but I already knowthe flight info)

Apply for VISA

And tons of other stuff!!! Including Eri's extra special b-day gift....it's taking some planning :-)

I can't wait!

Otherwise, everything is going good. I've been working and working out a lot, but mostly just staying busy.

Can't wait for May <3

I will start updating more frequently, especially since I'm leaving again for the summer. 

Love ya'll.

CW

Happy New Year!

I know, it's been awhile....but since I've been back in the US I haven't really had too much to blog about...but I thought I could do some now, since I have a few things here....so....yeah.

My Great Grandmother's 100th (Yes 100!!) Birthday was on December 28! So me, Janet, Mom, Patricia, and Bobby all packed into the truck and drove to Bedford, VA for her birthday!! Here are some pics: 

This is Great Grandma....and her daughter's - Betty and Barbara :-)

Opening presents!

Wow...she really is 100!!  December 28, 1908

This is everyone!

Her birthday gift...a carriage ride.....and a 2008 $100 Bill 

The sister, great grandma and myself 

Great Grandma and Bobby 

We made Ginerbread cookies for Christmas, and I made a pile of dog poo on some grass....

and I also made some other cookies....that's Eri and I on our wedding day :-)

Shout out for my cousins!  This is us on Christmas Day 2008, up in Chattanooga, with 2 of my cousins....some are missing though......

Ok that's it for now. 

Love ya.

I <3 Eri

Yes yes, it's true. Carle Wahyudi is back in the States....and sometimes it feels like I was dragged into coming back....lol. For real though, I tell ya what, saying goodbye (we call it goodbye for now....) to E was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever done.....because I absolutely loved every minute of my times in Indonesia and I love E sooo much....and I would go back right now if I could.

But anyway, this blog is to post some pics and tell you about my last few things before I left Indo.....

The Saturday before I left, they had a farewell party for me at this really cool resturant in Mojokerto. The whole family came except for one cousin (the one that likes me the most, hehehe) and we all sat around eating good food and singing karoake. It was quite fun, and the food was delicious. I tried not to cry.....because I really fell in love with E's family while I was there. But we took tons of pics with each family and said my "see ya later's."

On Sunday (I leave on Wednesday morning Dec. 4th I believe) myself, E, his Aunt, along with Eny and Erik finally got to go the mountains and ride the horses. But not before the car decided to break down....but it was repaired and we were on our way.....we get to the mountains, stop by and eat some Bakso for a snack, then finally make it to the horses. (It was a different driver btw, the other one couldn't make it up hills, remember? LOL) We ride our horses, all of us. Including E. There's the funniest story in this entire world about E and his horse....I think I will share it :-)

We each got a horse lead by a dude....Auntie gets on hers, Eny gets on hers, Erik gets on his (and it had to stop and pee right after he got started....LOL!!!) and I got on mine. E was the last one to get on the horse...(mostly because he wanted to wait for me to make sure I got settled on mine and translate what my dude was saying....I hadn't been on a horse in over 10 yrs!!!) So my horse started going on the path, then all was left for E to get on his horse. My guy started going, so I don't know what happened to E, and as we are going along, I could hear something galloping and it was getting closer and closer, then I started hearing E talking, and as I look over, here is E on a horse, as it gallops right past me....but he has no dude with his horse.....and E is just bouncing up and down, and then he passes Erik, then he passes Eny, and finally gets to the front of the line where his Aunt's horse is a it slows down. I could not stop laughing....E of all people gets the horse that has the auto-pilot function....it was so funny. I am not sure if I explained it well enough, but everytime I picture Eri galloping by on the loose horse, I just smile and laugh. Wow...good times.

After the horse riding we went around walking through neighborhoods getting some fresh air, and one the way home we stopped by a resort and checked it out. Then for lunch, we stopped by Sri Resturant, where the amazing tofu egg dish is.....and then came home. By this time I only had 2 full days left with E, so I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.

Wednesday morning finally rolls around and we have to leave wickedly early for the airport....I think it was 3:30 or 3:45 am....to be there by 5 for me to leave at something. I can't remember. It was hard, but we made it through, and I eventually got on a plane...went to Singapore....stayed there for 1 day, then the next day, headed to Japan, then to St. Paul/Minneapolis....then to Atlanta....freezing my butt off. I was greeted by my mom and dad....mom holding a welcome home Mrs. Wahyudi sign......

Well, I think I am finally over the jet lag....THANK GOD......I didn't have any arriving.....but coming back I sure did......

Yes of course I miss Eri, but he's got to do what he's got to do with taking care of that store. And he'll be back soon. I do get to talk with him quite frequently, and my Indonesian cell phone works here (everywhere I went EXCEPT japan strangely enough....) so we get to text, and thanks to Skype we talk for free!! Woot woot!!

We are going to keep posting this blog....so everyone please check back if you want to know the happenings with us.

--Mrs. W

Yummmmm-O!!!

Howdy....

I think I'm channeling my inner cowgirl here for some reason, cause it appears howdy is the greeting of the day....or Salemat Pagi or Salemat Siang or Salemat Malam. But you guys don't know those.....hehehe so it's howdy for the English speakers, lol.

Anyway, E & I just had a fabulous steak for lunch, and I am quite impressed with myself, that I could possibly make such a delicious thing......so let me start from the beginning:

Yesterday was E & I's "date day." Of course, what else is there to do other than go into Surabaya!! So we woke up at normal time (for E it's 6:35, for C it's 7:15) and waited for the driver and car to take us into Surabaya. There was mild traffic on our way in, and we had to make 2 errands before we had our time, and I was hungry by this point, cause I had already been up for 4 hrs and not a drop of food, so we stopped by McDonald's. A open 24-hrs, delivery available 24-hrs, McD's in the middle of Surabaya. We got a Double burger combo #5 with no onion and a coca-cola to drink. Now, it tasted exactly the same!!!!!!! Smelled the same too. Even inside the McD's was the same!! We did drive thru, but still I snooped around inside from the car...does that make sense? (I know my English is getting a little rough....like earlier I couldn't even think of the word for Exclamation Point ->!!<-) Ok point being, it was good, E and I split it, and it was enough to hold us over til lunch. After our quick bite, our first stop was Hi-Tech Mall, where we exchanged the headphones that we use to talk on Skype, for a different pair, and it was quite simple and easy. Then we hopped back into the car and headed over to our favorite place.....none other than Mal Galaxy!! When we got there we made a quick pee stop and decided to walk around and see what we wanted to do. We ended up getting these flavored potatoes up on the 2nd floor...you can chooses chili and cheese, spicy bbq, I can't remember this flavor, regular bbq and original. Which one do you think we chose? Spicy BBQ of course!! They were delicious, and E had been telling me about them since before he came back to Indonesia...so it was quite nice to see what he's been raving all these times. We also got a bottled water for me, and Pure Sugar Cane drink for E. (I tasted it.....and it's.....something I wouldn't ever desire to try again.....)

After our 2nd snack of the day (we sound like little piggies...but it's really not like that.....) we decided to dual it out once again in AIR HOCKEY!! We love this game. Or at least I do. E seems like he throughly enjoys it as well. We went into TimeZone (that's the name of the Arcade) and played a Zombie killing game, a few of those, then some other game. Then we went to the Air Hockey table.....we decided to play the best of 3.....so Game 1 winner is: CARLE (7-5)!!! Game 2 winner is: ERI(7-6)!! So all tied up.....and Game 3.....w...i...n...n...e...r...is: ERI (7-4)!!! Eri won, of course. Eri ALWAYS wins!! But we had a great time playing the Air Hockey. It was awesome. By that time, we were all worn out from Air Hockey, we decided to eat lunch. (It took a long time to play...since we are both so good ;-) ) We decided to have lunch at Wok. (No sadly enough, not Duck King....but I know they recognized me, and expected us to come in...but we didn't.) Wok is a good place to eat, Eri had something with dry hard noodles and pork, and I had Fried Rice Finny. Whatever that is...it was red fried rice with some kind of sauce in it, it was good. Then we went to the 2 toys stores in the mall, and looked at all the cool stuff. Then to BreadTalk to buy...what? BREAD!! And then to J. Co Donuts to buy Tiramisu donuts...and an iced coffee beverage...or if you're E, you buy Thai tea, which isn't that bad tasting...only if I liked tea more ;-) By this time it's 215pm and we have to leave at 245pm, so we are sitting inside J.Co deciding what for dinner....ohhhhh wait......I forgot something....before BreadTalk, we went grocery shopping at 99 Ranch and bought groceries....DUH..... :-) ok, so we decided to order a pizza from Pizza Hut and take it home for dinner, so when we got back, we could just relax for the evening......so we ordered it, waited for it, (and I finally have mastered the art of using the bathroom in Indonesia, thank you thank you!) and got it, and headed home. (Which after eating the Pizza, I think I told E, remember how we said we weren't going to eat at Pizza Hut anymore? Yeah...I think we must of forgotten that when we decided to order the pizza.....when we started eating it, that memory quickly came back....lol. The pizza we tried this time was wayyyyyyyyy better than the pizza we had last time, yes, but still wasn't delicious. Sorry Pizza Hut. I will be looking forward to your thin crusted pepperoni -self when I come back home, until then, no more Pizza for me...for sure!!)

Ok, about the steaks, we bought 2 Australian cattle steaks from 99 Ranch.....and we decided to eat them today for lunch. So we started marinating them last night. We cut off all the fats and soaked them overnight in this:
4 cloves of garlic
Worcestershire Sauce
A1 Supreme Garlic Steak Sauce (I'm not sure if they sell this in US or not.....)
All Purpose Seasoning
Cajun Spices
Rosemary
Pepper

And oh my god....it is like perhaps the best steak we have ever eaten!! We had it with grilled corn (wrapped up in small amount of butter and more garlic) and fresh grilled Squash and Zucchini mixture....it was soooooooooooooo good. You guys should try it!! And the best part about it, there was no oil!! Everything, literally everything here is deep fried in oil, so it's really good to have a meal with no oil!!!

Here's the picture of the Shark/Alligator statue I was too lazy to get last time.....
Oh, and here's the story about Surabaya, taken from Wikipedia....in case you don't remember the whole shark/alligator background info....like why it's there (and I really took these pics, by the way):

"Surabaya is commonly said to derive its name from the wordssura or suro (shark) and baya or boyo (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells of a fight between a giant white shark and a giant white crocodile. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling the city's monument, the Heroes Monument. This folk etymology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is somewhat dubious. Alternate derivations proliferate: e.g. from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger". Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya."

And here's a picture of us from last week....right after we took the pics of the Shark and Alligator:


Oh and yes, today is Thanksgiving...so Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! It's like the first time I've never been to Nanny's (Memaw to some....) for Thanksgiving in a long long long time....but no worriesNanny, I'll be back soon........and gosh how I miss that chicken casserole, and the corn, and the ham, and deviled eggs, baked beans, mac & cheese, ummmm all that stuff!!! Ok, enough day dreaming about Thanksgiving feasts....lol. And since it's Thanksgiving, I guess I need to share what I am thankful for, right? Well, let me think, it's like so obvious, BUT here I go:

I am thankful for being able to have the time to come to Indonesia and spend some months with Eri. Thank you Mom & Dad. Thank you Bobby for taking care of the house, my kitty, and my dog. I could never express my gratitude enough....and thank you for the support. Thank you for listening and understanding my want to go to Indonesia. I've never lost a parent, but I'm glad I was able to be here to help comfort Eri along the way with all his en devours. And my desire to get married abroad.....lol. (Wait til ya'll see the video, the wedding was amazing!) I am thankful for Eri....for being an absolute amazing host, making the transition for me smooth as possible. I'm thankful for being able to get married, to literally my best friend, (which that brings on a whole other topic, of which, before we even started dating, Eri was indeed my best friend, so I really got to marry my best friend.) At this moment, I am thankful for everyone and everything. Honestly. Thank you for your passion, your loyalty, your support. I love every single one of you.

Okies, that's it for now. Love ya.

Mrs. W