I'm a Cover Model!

Something really unexpected happened the last few weeks that we were in Penang. I got an email from Expatriate Lifestyle, a glossy print magazine in Malaysia, asking the kids and I to be on the cover of their July 2014 issue. A sane person in the midst of ending the school year, preparing to visit the Philippines and Italy, AND moving the household across the ocean that month might have replied, "Sorry, I'm busy." I am not a sane person as my hubby will attest. He constantly tells me, "You're crazy," to which I retort, "Well, you married me. So, who's the crazy one?"


That is how I found myself chatting with my friend on a school bus while chaperoning a field trip and saying, "Guess what? I'm doing a magazine cover photo shoot tonight!" I still couldn't believe my good fortune. It kind of felt like the first time a guy asked me out on a real date. What? Someone likes me? How can that be? Is someone pranking me? 

Like a first First Date, I spent a ton of time doing my hair and makeup. And just like when I was growing up in hot, humid Houston, my hair fell and I started sweating like crazy once I stepped out into the Penang outdoors to meet the magazine team at the Gurney Hawker Center.

Only two of my three kids got to come along as my oldest had semester final exams the next day. "Grades before fame," I told him. To say that he was bummed out would be an understatement.

The photo shoot was fun. There were photography lights and reflectors along with a big camera. I'm sure that the hawker center customers walking by were wondering what was going on.

OMG, I'm on a magazine!!

What it looked like from my side of the table.

July is the annual Penang issue. In addition to myself, they also interviewed both my good friend Penang Momma about her fitness lifestyle as well as the director of the school that my kids attended. He grew up in Penang as a Third Culture Kid and then returned to raise his own family here. Finally, since food is such a big part of what there is to enjoy in Penang, they interviewed Robyn Eckhardt from the blog Eating Asia.

Here's a Behind the Scenes video of Expatriate Lifestyle's time in Penang.

The thing is...

I'm no longer in Penang.

So, I have to wait until someone from Penang comes to Texas and brings me a copy to hold this issue in my hands. This is much faster than relying on the snail pace international mail system.

Perhaps it's best that I'm not there. Otherwise, I'd be embarassing myself pointing it out around town. I'd be at the Borders Bookstore Starbucks in Queensbay Mall hanging around the magazine rack hoping that someone would recognize me on the cover.

"Why yes, that's me. Well, I guess I could autograph it for you."

All in all, it was a rather fantastic way to end my time on the beautiful island of Penang.