Family Photo Session

Notice our theme? Yes, red, white, and blue...we love America!!

Which bridge would you choose?

Yesterday we finally made it out of the house, just in time for lunch! A new McDonald's opened not far from us, and even though we could have had it delivered, we chose to walk to get some fresh air and also take the opportunity to get some new DVDs! We walked around this little park (not so sure that is what I would call it, but the locals would probably describe it as a park!) and watched people fishing. The fishing here is interesting, in the fact that, rarely do they have a casting fishing pole, instead they use a long pole with fishing wire and a bait. They are extremely patient just sitting there waiting for the fish to bite! We got to witness several catches while we were walking. The locals were very proud to show off their fish to us - some of them were quite big, but I don't think you could ever convince me to eat one!! Especially when we walked further down the river and caught sight of this...

All those white spots are actually dead fish - obviously something is not right in the water!

As we were walking we ran into this bridge...

And then we saw this one further down the river...

I'm sure you know which one we took, but we were the only ones on it. The locals, of course, being adventurous on a lovely Saturday, were all on the quickly constructed, barrel and wood plank, with netting for sides bridge!

Once we chose our bridge and made it to McDonald's, the kids were grumpy and hungry, and we were a bit frazzled from getting a little lost in an apartment complex!! We ordered our food triumphantly (anytime we order here and they get it all right is a huge accomplishment!) and then we looked for some place to sit and there was nothing. Everyone was staring and smiling sweetly, but no one was about to move - many had brought cake from elsewhere or were just sitting talking - they were there for the long haul! Danny took our food up to the counter and asked them to put it in bags to go. We went inside the "mall" and figured we could at least find a bench for the kids - no such luck. We rarely do this, but we decided to use our foreignness (probably not a word, but oh well!) to our advantage. We ignorantly sit at a table inside a restaurant and opened our bags and passed out the food. The other customers stared at us, this time in disbelief, but we just smiled back and pretended that we didn't realize we were supposed to be ordering the food here. About halfway through our meal, the waitress finally decides that she should tell us that we are not at McDonald's - no kidding. I felt bad so I urged Danny to order something and this is what the kids each got! It is ice with red beans on it - not very good according to the little ones!!

In the end, we paid $1.20 for our table - completely worth it!!

We did have some fun this week!!

Is she bored??

I couldn't help but giggle tonight when I opened my closet to grab a t-shirt and found my pajama shorts nicely pressed and hung up!! I'm beginning to wonder if my ayi is a little bored...

Thoughts on Distance Learning

Or we should really just call it homeschooling using someone else's lesson plans. I really believed that I would be a really good "teacher" for my children this week while we stayed quarentined due to the swine flu. I realized yesterday that I pretty much stink!! I have all of these great ideas of how to make learning fun for the kids, but it seemed that the minute I started one of them on something and then started a different activity with the other two, child 1 would need assistance, and it just kept going in a vicious cycle. Homeschoolers must be extremely organized and have a very structured routine because if we got off schedule, I lost focus and the kids were off playing, not to be seen for about two hours! It probably didn't help that I was arguing back and forth with my travel agent about her price for our October holiday trip (in the end I had to semi-fire her - she booked the airlines and I booked the hotels!). See here I go - completely not focused! How in the world did I ever teach a class??!!

I must say that the lessons plans provided by the teachers were fantastic. I was amazed that they could put together appropriate work for the children after only having them in class for 1 week. They tried to stay on track with their plans, but at the same time they added fun things for the kids to do! One day we made playdough for Coop's class, we took a nature walk for Eensie's class (all we really found were some crazy looking bugs, but that's okay), and today we made pancakes in a cup for El's assignment!

We made sure we went outside at least twice a day to play with some of our neighbors, which was a refreshing break for me also. By today I was seriously craving some adult time!! Thank goodness Karen had the same thoughts as me and we were able to wind down with a bit of a happy hour while the kids rode bikes and played water guns!

I believe I have earned my pay this week!!

On a side note, as far as we know, all of the children who had swine flu have recovered! I was able to have a small chat with my sweet little neighbor yesterday (through a window, of course) - he looks great and can't wait to get out of the house!! Thank you to all who have written and been concerned. We will continue to pray that this flu stays mild!!

Be careful what you wish for...

I'm pretty sure last week in a couple of posts I mentioned how much I missed my little ones being home and how I thought I would dapple into my old teaching profession this year. Well, I am no longer missing my little ones during the day and I am getting to practice teaching three (if you include nursery) different levels all at the same time due to our school closing for the week for cases of swine flu!

On Sunday, while enjoying our day in Beijing, I started getting phone calls from all of the kids teachers saying that school would be closed on Monday due to one confirmed case of swine flu and several other cases being tested. At first I was so stunned by the news that I neglected to ask which grades were affected, and when I finally asked and found out it was in the upper elementary, I relaxed a bit. It wasn't until I arrived back in Tianjin that the situation hit a bit closer to home - quite literally. Our dear, dear next door neighbor was enroute to the hospital for a blood test. This is the same neighbor that my children "love on" on a daily basis, including at a cook out on Friday night! In the end, the test did come back positive, but thankfully it was a mild case and the temperature has subsided.

After spending the summer in the US and knowing full well that there were swine flu cases all over the place, my fears about it disappeared. In my mind, it is a flu and it can be quite serious, as can the seasonal flu, but I didn't cancel any trips this summer due to the fear of catching it. Here in China, it is an entirely different story. Immediately after the first case was confirmed our school administrators had to meet with the CDC of Tianjin, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education to decide on an action plan. That plan was to close school until next Tuesday, to help contain this outbreak. As for anyone that displays symptoms, they have to go through quite the ordeal. Many expats use our SOS clinic here because the doctors are from abroad, practice western medicine, and speak English, so the first place we go when we are sick is there. Now, if you present with a fever, they can do a preliminary H1N1 screening there with a throat swab. If the swab comes back positive you are sent (via ambulance) to one of the local hospital's which has been designated as the "fever clinic". Here you are ushered back by nurses and doctors completely covered from head to toe in protective gear to have a blood test and another throat swab. After this is done they do now allow you to go home (last month they would have quarentined you in the hospital for 7 days regardless of the severity). The blood tests take about 1/2 a day to come back and if they come back positive they will prescribe medication.

Now that we are aware that it is in our little community, we will keep a close eye on the kids for symptoms and I'm going to do my best at "mommy" school.

Carnival Games!

After we discovered the bathroom, we made our way to Pinnacle Plaza which contains Jenny Lou's (import grocery store), Starbucks, a Mexican restaurant, Subway, Dominoes, Foreign Bookstore, a toy store, and on this particular Sunday, a mini carnival. The kids were thrilled because there was a huge bounce house and they couldn't wait to get inside. The only problem was that I had not anticipated a carnival, so I didn't bring socks. The sun was shining bright and it was in the mid 90's, so the bounce house was wicked hot. Coop and Eens lasted about 2 minutes and rushed out in tears (as you can see below) and Ellie lasted about 5 minutes when she finally came out sweating like crazy!!

After our short lived bounce house fun, we went over to check out the five games that were available to play! Ellie and Eens decided to play this game which was quite simple, you pull a string and whatever is on the other end you win!!

Cooper and Danny decided to play, what I would call, the impossible to win game! The goal was to throw a ball that was bigger than the cups into the opening. They gave it a go, but it just wasn't meant to be!!

Who said there aren't pretty bathrooms in China??

On Sunday we were in Beijing doing some grocery shopping and eating bagels from our favorite bagel shop when I stumbled (thankfully not literally!) upon this "pretty" bathroom!! Of course, the toilet didn't work and there was a huge tub of water with a scoop that was maybe used to add water to the toilet - I'm not sure and really don't want to find out, but regardless, someone spent a great deal of time on this...

The toilet even contained flowers on the inside of the bowl - I couldn't take a picture of that because, as I said before the toilet was not working (it wouldn't flush), and Coop had just went to the potty!!

How Much is that Doggy in the Box?

Tonight we were "downtown" going to our regular Saturday night dinner spot, Papa John's, when we noticed that the foot bridge was more crowded than normal. Our curious minds took us over to the bridge to see what all of the commotion was about. It turned out that the foot bridge had been turned into a mini market, where there were people selling handbags, underwear, socks, jewelry, and the cutest little puppies you can imagine. Ellie really wanted to take one home, but of course, that was not going to happen because we are gone too much. When I told her this she said, "Well mom, ayi can just take the puppy home when we are not there." She makes it sound so easy which makes it even more obvious that she is not responsible enough to get a new puppy!

The puppies were very cute and looked healthy, but when I saw these little kittens stuck in the cages, my heart broke. They were miserable. I hope someone adopted them and they found a nice home where they are free to roam.

What in the World is this??

I couldn't believe my own eyes when I woke up on Thursday morning to this beautiful blue sky! Before we left for the summer we were having gorgeous, blue sky days. But, since we have been back, I think I have been able to see the TV Tower 2 out of 8 days due to the "fog", otherwise known as pollution! The Sheraton just renovated the entire front lawn and fountain area.

Danny and I had to go back and forth many, many times with the management company during our house contract negotitation to get this little play structure added to our garden. We would have loved a bigger set, but I feel so much better now that the kids have something to play on that is not covered in rust!!

So many things to be thankful for!!! Have a great weekend!

It's Coop's Turn to be a Big Boy!

On Tuesday Coopie started his full day schooling adventure. This year he will be in the full day nursery class at the same school as El and Eens. He was anxious to start school because he really wants to be a big boy, but he also really wants his mommy! I'm not complaining that he stills wants me, he is my "baby", but I also know that after last year there are not enough social opportunities for him if he is not in school. Last year we tried Gymboree classes and they did give us something to do together, but since we were unable to communicate with anyone, we both grew a little bored. Also, because Coop obviously stood out in his classes, his teachers refused to discipline him or encourage him to try new things. They seemed to be in awe of the "laowi" (foreigner) in the classroom and they did not want to disrupt his spirit! Now he is in an international setting and therefore given no special treatment (unless you count Miss Joely and Miss Kerri - Eensie's teachers from last year - loving on him for me!!)! After his first week I can see that he thrives with the routine, he loves when he gets to "help" his teachers, he has already made friends that he talks about, and he is probably going to gain some serious weight because he eats everything that I pack for snack and lunch!! I miss him terribly during the day, and yes, if we were in the US I would be completely satisfied with two day morning preschool, but here, I think it is best that he is with his peers and not at home bossing around our ayi. An added bonus is that my friend Karen's youngest is in the same class, so we can shed tears about missing our little ones over cups of coffee!!"I'm so happy I have my friend in class with me!!"
"It's a roller coaster mommy!" "Mission accomplished...thanks for the help mommies!"

Ice Cream has fantatstic healing powers!

On Monday Coop and I made a trip to "town" (meaning our downtown area of Tianjin) to pick up some groceries, get mommy a much deserved Starbucks, and check out what, if anything new had sprung up over the summer.

I bribed Coop with some Coldstone ice cream if he could just behave himself in the car. There was a lot of traffic and it was raining, so it was not a quick trip. Coop's problem in the car is that if he sees something he finds particularly interesting (which is basically everything) he needs to share it with you. If you are unable to spin your head around within 1 second so you do not miss the very interesting thing he is pointing at then he gets extremely mad. We solved this problem in the states because I was driving. He understood that mommy had to watch the road, but here, I'm sitting right beside him so in his mind, there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to or want to see the world through his eyes!!

The ride was actually quite painless, so I delivered on my promise to provide the boy with ice cream. Luckily, I thought in advance and knew that there was a Starbucks in the same food court, so I would get my coffee and he could get his ice cream and then we could sit and have a lovely chat!! Well, my plan veered off course when we discovered this...

Yes, dear readers, Dippin Dots (or at least the Chinese version) has arrived in Tianjin. Now, we actually have a choice between two different ice creams. We don't usually have many choices here, so it took several trips back and forth between each store, for Coop to decide on Coldstone. He was very excited at Coldstone because they now carry cotton candy - his American favorite!! We had our lovely chat and I unintentionally ate half of his ice cream - I think maybe cotton candy ice cream is underated! It was a perfect treat on a rainy, grey day in Tianjin!

It's official - he's in kindergarten!

On Monday Eensie had his first day of kindergarten. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry, I mean he went to school all day last year, this year wouldn't be much different. Apparently I was wrong because the tears were flowing out of both of our eyes. My brave little boy walked quietly to the proper line in the gymnasium and as I turned to go, thinking all was well, I saw the tears in the corner of his eyes. That did me in and I had to look away so he wouldn't see me cry. He asked me to stay for a bit, so I held his hand as tight as I could and together we made it to the classroom. We were both on the verge of tears the entire time we were saying hello to friends and getting his locker organized. We finally discovered his class turtles - they brought a smile to his face and I knew he was going to be just fine!!"I'm not so sure about this kindy thing!"Ahhhh - the turtles save the day!!!

My Favorite Second Grader!

Ellie Ling has officially entered second grade this year! I cannot believe how big my little girl is. She was so excited to go to school that we didn't really follow the seven day quarentine procedure that is loosely in place at the school now. (Basically, if you leave the country you should consider a home quarentine for 7 days after you have returned to China. We are waiting to see if the government will enforce this policy stronger in the next few months.) She has many familiar faces in her class from last year along with 6 new children. One of the most difficult aspects of an international school is the transient population - there are constantly students and teachers coming and going. Ellie was very fortunate this year and she only had to say good-bye to two of her friends, so she was welcomed back by a sea of smiling, familiar faces!!

Ellie and her dear friend Soo Yoon and her new teacher! I'm so grateful that she happily went off to her classroom with no issues!! Now the boys, they were a different story!!

When you're dealt with some lemons...

turn them into lemonade!! That's what I plan to do with my six lemons that are growing on my lemon trees!! I was excited to come back after our summer holiday and find that not only did my sweet little lemon trees survive, but they are thriving!! I may be exagerating slightly, but I'm so proud!! I just had to share this picture with you all! It's the little things that make my day!!

Bye Bye Blue Skies!

Last Wednesday we loaded our luggage and made the long flight over the North Pole to find our own beds once again!! The flight was pretty uneventful (we were very thankful for open seats so that the kids could stretch their legs and have a nice rest!). I was only able to sleep for about 2 hours the entire flight, so by the time we got home, I was counting the minutes until I could go to bed!!

This is the "big" cart at the airport!! We had a "small" one with our carry ons also!!

We have been very busy readjusting to not only the time, but the lifestyle here in China. One of the most difficult things for me is to look up and see grey skies. I was spoiled all summer with blue skies dotted with wonderful, puffy clouds! Here in Tianjin, we have had a lot of grey and a lot of heat (the other day it was 95 degrees at 8:30am)! Thankfully, I have been busy getting unpacked, playing with the kids, filling the fridge, and visiting with friends, so the grey skies have not brought me down yet, but I need to see the sun soon!!

Coming back this year was so different than when we first arrived last year. This year my ayi had the house completely cleaned and the towels were folded just the way I like them. She had bought milk, juices, fruit, bread, bagels, and even cream cheese! She had fresh flowers (thanks Karen!) in vases! And best of all, when we saw her, she was a familiar smiling face! This year we had friends that we had truly missed over the summer who we were excited to see once again! This year we had our "stuff" in our house, so when we walked in the door the kids immediately ran to the third floor and pulled out all of their beloved toys! This year, there was not nearly as much fear of the unknown because we know that it's not always easy, but, it's an adventure that we are all on together!!

Jet Lag got us again!

I apologize for the lack of blogging, but we were struck down once again by jet lag! It really wasn't as bad as it was when we first arrived in the US at the beginning of the summer, but I have been going to bed around 8:00pm every night since we got back! Tonight I'm forcing myself to stay up so I don't wake up at the dreaded hour of 5:00 tomorrow morning!!

On top of jet lag, Coop ended up with a double ear infection on Saturday. My poor little man was in so much pain, he couldn't eat and then the medicine he was put on made him sick to his stomach! It's been a rough few days, but he seems much better and even a cough that he had had for about 2 weeks is almost gone!!

So here goes on catching up...

Departure Checklist

1.  Over 600 pounds of "stuff" (I'm not sure what I bought 8 weeks ago!!) successfully placed in 11 suitcases and 6 carry ons - Check

2.  Passports safely in the backpack - Check

3.  New cold sore from stress - Check

4.  Anxious stomach and insomnia - Check

5.  More shots to tide us over for another year - Check

6.  Fever reducing drugs for all to take halfway through the flight - Check

7.  Praying for a safe and quarantine free flight - Check

8.  Many tearful good - byes (does this ever get easier??) - Check

9.  Excitement brewing to see dear friends - Check

10.  A smile on my face knowing that we can make it through another year - Check

Wacky waterslides

and anything else wacky you can imagine, can be found at Wisconsin Dells!  For the past five years we have been going to the Dells for a weekend over the summer with Danny's family.  My family came for a few years, but they have needed a break lately (new jobs, new baby, weddings, new houses).  I miss them going and hope next year we can find a date that works for everyone!!  But, the Dells trip must go on, so off we went this year, back to our favorite resort, The Wilderness.  

We lucked out with the weather on Saturday and ended up with a gorgeous sunny day.  We spent close to 5 hours in the water - which was enough to wipe me out!!  I thought it would be easier this year because the boys are so much more independent in the water.  I learned over the weekend that there is such a thing as too independent, especially when, as Danny's dad says, "they swim backwards instead of forward" making it impossible to watch all three kids at the same time.  They loved all of the little waterslides they could find.  Coop ventured out onto the bigger ones, one in particular I found really fast and a bit scary, but by the time I was at the bottom, they had already sent Coop down.  As he came flying out at the end, I thought I had ruined his whole weekend and he would be traumatized of the water forever, but not Coop.  He looked at me laughing and asked to do it again!!  Ellie took Danny, Uncle Mike, and I on all of the really "big" slides - she loves every minute she is in the water!!  

There are certain things that have become tradition over our years of going to the Dells and one is Danny and his caps.  He has taught the kids to hit the little strips of paper with rocks until they go off.  Safe, I'm not so sure, but completely loved by all of the kids!  Plus, we need something to do because inevitably as we are walking out the door, Michel decides he needs to do something inside so we are always waiting!

Another tradition is time in the inside play structure and arcade area.  This year the kids were more interested in the games than the slides - except maybe Ellie who went down the same slide over and over again!!  The boys tried out bowling, which was somewhat successful just for the fact that no one dropped a ball on their foot!

As the kids get older, we are able to venture out of our resort and try new things.  This year we tried out the go-karts and a ride on the Ducks - the vehicle that goes on land and water!

Our annual trip was a great way to spend our last weekend in the US!!