Malaysia at Last!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to those of you who followed my last blog, Oman? Oh My!!  The Holmes family has just moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and we are looking forward to lots of new adventures.  For those of you who are new to my blog, let me tell you a bit about myself.  I am an American wife and mother (and brand-new grand mother).  My husband and I, along with our two teens,  just spent an amazing two years living in Muscat, Oman.  We plan on spending the next three years living in KL.

My four children-- Austin, Amanda, Savannah, and Jared.  These pictures were taken on our summer trip home.  Amanda and Jared live back in the US.

I took a summer break from blogging, in between Oman and Malaysia.  But I just want to share the newest member of the family.  This is me and my husband, Joe, and our brand-new grandson, Cooper!  We are in love.

Seth, my son-in-law, Cooper, and Amanda

Just threw this one in.  These pictures were taken in Amanda's New York City neighborhood.

The whole Holmes clan.  Consider yourself warned-- it won't be the last picture you will see!

But now back to Malaysia!  We just arrived a few days ago, and have been busy settling in.  Unpacking our suitcases and air shipment, figuring out where to buy groceries, and learning our way around our apartment complex.  We have never lived in a high-rise apartment before, and it takes a little getting used to.  

The view from our living room helps!

But let me just tell you about today.  One of my later blog posts in Oman about was about the driving.    Most people in Oman complained about how other people drove.  I too, complained, but oh, what I would give to have that now.  Being a Sunday, and a supposedly easier day to drive in KL, my family set out to go to church.  It was supposed to be a 15-minute trip.  Well, 1 3/4 hours later, and after being pulled over by Malaysian police, we returned home, never having found the church!!  We had Google maps and another GPS system 'guiding' us, to no avail.  Either the road we needed to turn off was closed off or under construction.  Or, when the GPS system was recalculating, it didn't do it quickly enough for us to take the correct turn.  Or there was the time when the highway was on two levels and the GPS system assumed we were on the lower while we were on the upper.  Or the fact that there are so many forks in the roads or multiple lanes.  One time we took our exit at the last minute, just in the nick of time.  Joe said, "I don't know if I was supposed to cross that solid white line."  About 20 seconds later, we see flashing lights behind us!  Joe pulls over as soon as he can, and two policemen walk up to the car.  They asked Joe for his passport, which he didn't have with him.  The policeman was very perplexed.  He didn't know how to fill out the ticket, which clearly asked for a passport number.  The thought did cross my mind about being hauled to a police station.  But, the policeman just said, no ticket today!  Whew!!  They were actually very cordial and gave us directions to the church.  Which didn't help us, but they tried. 

When I anticipated our new adventures in Malaysia, being pulled over by the cops is not what I had in mind.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day.  It will be the first day of our full-time driver!  Hallelujah!