Happy Moon Festival

Tomorrow the Chinese will be celebrating the Moon Festival or Mid Autumn Festival. This holiday is the second most important holiday behind Chinese New Year for the people here. The Moon Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, so it is different every year. There are many stories that go along with the Moon Festival, one is about the "moon lady" who lives on the moon. Another story I found interesting surrounds the mooncakes that are eaten during Moon Festival (by the way, Danny really likes these little cakes, but I'm not a big fan!!). The legend says that during the Yuan Dynasty (AD1280-1368) the Chinese were ruled by the Mongols. They wanted to overthrow the government so, knowing the Mid Autumn festival was coming, they made little cakes and put instructions for the attacks in the cakes. On the night of the Moon Festival the government was overthrown and the Ming Dynasty was born. Even today, people eat these cakes during the moon festival with their families and watch the moon. It is also noted that if you are away from your loved ones on the Moon Festival you can all celebrate knowing you are looking at the same moon!!!!

We celebrated Moon Festival a day early with a party at our compound. It was a wonderful night, the only thing missing was my husband!! There were lanterns hung all over, a band playing, performances by some of the children in our compound, food from all around the world, and new friends to get to know better!! I decided tonight that my kids have adjusted amazingly. They were running around dancing and playing with balloons like they had lived here their entire lives!! They especially love all of the attention that they are given by the staff at our compound and the Sheraton. Since we spend a lot of time eating and playing at the Sheraton, everyone knows the kids names and they are especially drawn to Cooper. I was watching the servers tonight take his balloon just so he would come and talk to them!!!! Coop loves to ham it up, so they were thrilled!! Some days (like when water is dripping from my ceiling for the third time) I question if we made the right choice living in this particular compound, but when I see how welcomed we have been and how happy my kids are, I forget about the water and am completely thankful we are here!

I celebrated something else today, I turned on my oven for the first time! Yes, I have been living here for almost 7 weeks, but I haven't needed the oven. Anyway, I made some brownies (from a bag - thanks mom!). They were interesting...rock hard all around the edge and had a little nut flavor since I had to use sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil! Thankfully my father in law had mentioned that the temp may be in celsius, or else they would have been as hard as cement!! Regardless of their little issues, the kids thought their mommy was the best because she made them brownies. It really is the little things....

I hope you all have a great weekend! We are eagerly awaiting Dan's arrival tomorrow night!! We miss him so much!! Only 11 days until we land in Chicago!!

We Have Definitely Made a First Impression!!

So, I decide that I will venture to the first PFO (parent faculty organization) meeting this morning at the school. Of course, I want to be involved in the school and be informed of what is going on since I do not physically go to the school everyday! I realize that I am going to have to bring Cooper because our ayi does not get here before 8:00. No problem, he basically follows me around everywhere I go anyway. I pack my purse full of different foods and books to keep him busy for the 1 1/2 hour meeting. I am feeling like for once, I am truly prepared!! We get to the meeting and mingle with neighbors and some other mom's and then we find a seat close to the door, just in case! Coop does marvelously through the first 45 minutes. He looks at books, colors, and eats. I'm enjoying listening to the directors and teachers when all of a sudden Coop screams, "It hurts" and points to his nose. I didn't think too much about it at first, because he always says, "it hurts" when the air is stinky. Then I looked at him and realize that this time it truly did hurt. Coop had managed to shove granola all the way up his nose!!!! He's screaming, so I take him into the library where I try to get it out, but there is a lot. I decide that I should take him to the nurse because I do not want it to go up any further than it has. The lovely nurse giggles for a minute and explains that her son stuck something in his ear that had to be surgically removed - I at least felt a little better. Then she very carefully removed all of the granola out of his nose!! I think I will forever be know as the mom who lets her kid stick granola up his nose at the PFO meeting!!

I'm off to Chinese lessons...wish me luck, I failed my quiz on Monday!!! Have a great Wednesday!

It's Beginning to Feel Like Summer!

We are finally beginning to have some 80 degree days in a row. It feels more like summer here than a sauna! According to the Lunar Calendar, we are in the White Dew mini season which will last until September 23rd and then we will enter the Autumn Equinox. Apparently, come the end of September we should have, on average, 70 degree days! I'm not so sure I believe the accuracy of this, but it is very nice to think of the possibility of spending more time outside!

Danny made it safely to the United States on Saturday! He spent his time on Sunday finding a Target (probably the store I miss the most!!) and filling up a suitcase with essentials like Wii Fit, Wii games, new Leapsters for the kids, children's tylenol and ibuprofen, swim diapers (you can't find them anywhere here!), razors for our friend here, and who knows what else!! I would have had a more extensive list, but I am waiting for our sea shipment to arrive to see what I packed 3 months ago!! He will be spending the rest of the week in meetings and I'm sure enjoying some American food!

The kids and I have been keeping busy since Danny left. Saturday Ellie went to her first birthday party here! She had a ball and I was completely impressed with my friend Jen's creativity. You can't rely on Party City or Factory Card Outlet to plan a party here so you have to create everything yourself. Rachel had a puppy party and they played all sorts of puppy games, had a fashion show with their stuffed dogs, and barked Happy Birthday to Rachel! How cute!! The boys and I went to a restaurant that serves Western food and has toys and games to play with! When we got home we browsed at my neighbor's yard sale! That is correct, our neighbor had a yard sale - I never thought I would see that here! Don't worry Jenny, it was not nearly as big as ours! It was more of a social gathering than a yard sale so it was fun to meet some new people! I was able to meet quite a few mom's from the kids' school!! After the exciting garage sale, we settled in to a nice night at home with pizza and a movie!

Sunday we went for our Sheraton breakfast - yummy! It's a treat we all look forward to during the week! After breakfast I took all three kids to church. The kids did great and I even got Coop to go to the nursery without too many tears! At the end of every service, they always ask people new to the congregation to stand up and introduce themselves. This week there were about 30 students who just arrived in Tianjin from all over the world, primarily Africa - it has been a wonderful experience to worship with people from such diverse backgrounds! You truly never know what to expect each week because all of the different components (music, sermon, Sunday school, etc.) are organized by different people. It is very unique!! After church, Jen (her husband is away also) and I took all of the kids downtown for lunch and ice cream! Of course we had our usual ordeal while trying to order...on this day, we ordered 5 children's meals and they didn't have enough food to make all of these - remember the one child policy here!! We finally ate and had ice cream and then went home to wait for our cable to get hooked up. Right now I am watching Wheel of Fortune - yea!!

Today, Coop and I went to IST to attend a coffee for the new parents. Once again, I am in awe of the different nationalities I am surrounded by daily. There are very few American expats in Tianjin so this is truly a learning experience for me! Today I met parents from Korea, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, France, and New Zealand. We are all bonded immediately by the expat experience so there is rarely a lull in conversation! One funny story that came out of this morning was when I was talking to my neighbor about the upcoming school picnic. She was telling me about it and completely serious she said, "There is no alcohol permitted this year." I thought she was joking, so I said, "Well then I guess I won't be going!" She looked at me for a minute and I could tell she was thinking, "Maybe I shouldn't go either!" Like I was serious, I mean it is a school function on a Sunday at the school. I guess they do things a little differently in Brazil!!!

We are in the midst of a construction zone here in our compound. Not only is there a hole beside our house, but there are holes all over - they are installig new water pipes (thank goodness) and doing it with pure manual labor. It may be completed by Christmas, but I'm not counting on it!!
These pictures are of what remains of our "back" yard and the playground (thank goodness the Sheraton has a park!)!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday!! We're counting down for our trip back! Only 15 days...

It's Too Quiet Here!!

This house is way too quiet without my El and Eens here! Coop and I pretty much just sit and look at each other and try to decide what to do next!! Coop has never had to play by himself, so it is almost like he is a first child and I am trying to entertain him! I'm pretty sure he is not overly impressed with my attempts!! Today we did go on a nice long walk along one of the 9 rivers here in Tianjin! It was very peaceful. There were quite a few gentlemen fishing (I'm not sure I would recommend eating anything they caught - the water looks a bit green!), women doing tai chi, a man practicing the flute, and lots of pretty flowers. I forgot my camera today, but I'm sure this walk may become part of our routine so next time I'll take some pictures! Coop also started his Gymboree classes today - he did great!! He will be doing a gym class and a music class there! I'm almost positive he will enjoy the music class after listening to him sing at the top of his lungs into his "microphone", aka straw, this morning at breakfast!! We both enjoyed ourselves and were also impressed that the teachers spoke both Mandarin and English throughout the entire class!!

I wrote a while back on some quality issues that have come up while we have been here in China. I just wanted to update you that we now have a huge hole beside our house covered by old doors. The problem was that we would only occassionally have hot showers! I absolutely love a nice long hot, hot shower so this has been difficult for me to deal with. At first I kept reminding myself that Jeannie had lukewarm water in Russia and she made it almost 3 years, but last Saturday I was going to wash a few dishes (I don't have enough to wait for ayi to come on Monday!) and the water was freezing. I called Grace at home and she sent an "engineer" over. Well, as they have done 8 times before, he turned on the water and waited for 30 MINUTES until it was a little bit warmer and claimed it was fixed!!! He did nothing!!!! Dan had had it also by this point, so he called Grace and had a heart to heart that went something like, if it isn't fixed in a week, we're moving. (I'm not sure where we were moving, but somewhere apparently!) So Monday morning, we hear banging outside. I go outside to find the "engineers" digging a hole to put in a temporary water heater!! So that is how we ended up with a huge hole on the side of our house! The good news is, my showers have been hotter!

On a different note, I have to say that watching Sarah Palin give her speech yesterday made me proud to be an American. I think she is a fantastic speaker and she handled herself with such dignity in the midst of being criticized so heavily by the media. I believe that John McCain made the race to the White House a little more of a contest by choosing her! Regardless of the outcome, I keep telling myself over and over how fortunate we are to live in a free country that is run as a democracy! A far cry from what the citizens here are accustomed too. As I cast my absentee ballot this November (or whenever I'm allowed to), I will be thankful that I have a voice in our great country!!

Coop and I are off to wait for El and Eens at the bus stop! If you could please pray for safe travels for Danny as he travels back to the US tomorrow we would appreciate it. He will be in Atlanta for a week of meetings. A prayer for my sanity while he is away would also be greatly appreciated!! Love to you all!!

A Diversion Trip to Beijing

In order to keep my mind off of the fact that 2 out of my 3 children are now in school full days, I immediately jumped at an offer by my friend Jaramee to go shopping in Beijing today!! It was the most interesting shopping trip I think I have ever been on.

First of all, being the wonderful daddy that Dan is, he wanted to go to school to drop Eens off for his first day. Great!!! On the way back from school we start discussing how we were going to get to where we needed to go. We first needed to get Cooper home so he could spend a lovely day with ayi, then Danny needed to go to work, and then I needed to go and meet my friends. We only had an hour to accomplish all of this and in a city of 10 million people, traffic is not moving too fast in the morning! After talking to Danny's assistant we realized that there was no way we could make it work, so Danny graciously allowed me to have the driver (which I have been reminded about several times today!) and he had a hotel car take him to work. I successfully got Cooper into the house and playing with ayi. She was thrilled to have Coop to herself!!! (I have no idea what she fed him, but he had 3 dirty diapers today!!!) Next our driver took me to my drop off point - the highway. Yes, my friends live about 45 minutes from me, so they picked a place on the highway that was 30 minutes from each of our houses and we met! The scary thing is, this must be common practice in China because we were not the only ones doing this!!

On our way to Beijing (by the way we were in an even numbered car because only even numbered cars can drive on Tuesdays in Beijing!) we had to stop and have a guard check all of our passports and check the car. Once we finally arrived in Tianjin, Jaramee had to call this "purse" shop we were going to to find out what floor they were located on today. Apparently, they have to keep moving to different floors every couple of months so they don't get busted by the government for selling their "designer" purses!! It was all very interesting and I definitely would never have found it without Robin and Jaramee!! Our next stop was the silk market which I had been to in May. It is a crazy place that is maybe 5 floors of "designer" clothes, watches, purses, jewelry, you name it and they probably have it there!! We even saw a sign on one floor where you could get a bikini wax in a stall with no door!! We had fun bargaining and finding more deals on clothes and purses. As you are walking down the aisles, the sales people are yelling "hey lady you want....." and occassionally they get a little aggressive and try to pull you into their stall. I had one lady almost pull me over!! All in all it was quite fun, but a Starbucks run was definitely in order!! It was in Starbucks that I realized how different expat life would be if we were living in Beijing (which is where Deere's China headquarters are) and not Tianjin. In Beijing you feel like you are in New York City - there is a lot of diversity and the majority of the people we spoke with knew some degree of English. Whereas in Tianjin, we are living in China, not a modern, somewhat westernized city!! So, if you decide to visit us, we will slowly ease you into life in China with a short stay in Beijing and then we'll show you how we live!!!!

It was a fun escape for the day and I am looking forward to going back soon!! I also was able to pick up a lot of fun stuff to bring back to the states in 2 WEEKS!!!

Make sure to read the next post - it's about Eensie's first day!!

My Spectacular Son

My sweetie pie Eensie started PreK today at IST!! He was so sure of himself, I couldn't believe he was the same little mommy's boy who typically doesn't let me out of his sight! He showed his daddy his cubby area, put away his things, and then grabbed the big box of legos and set out to build! After school I was informed that he LOVES school!!! He only had one minor issue, according to his account, a little boy was "annoying" him so he threw a little sand in his eye - oops. The teachers had Eens walk the little boy to the nurse so she could wash out his eyes. I'm pretty sure he won't be throwing any more sand, he was very embarassed! He also somehow managed to talk his teachers into allowing him to eat only his cheesecake for lunch. I can just see him with his big eyes and long eyelashes telling his teachers that mommy doesn't make him eat anything he doesn't want to!! He even took the bus home after school because I was in Beijing (I'll post on that later!)! What a spectacular son I have - I am so proud to be his mommy!! I sure will miss him during the day though!!

My Dazzling Daughter!!

I cannot believe my sweet "Bean" is in first grade! I'm not sure where the time has gone, but she now is a toothless little wonder ready to conquer the world, or at least IST!! I got tears in my eyes initially as we stood in the gym with her teacher and waited to walk her to class, but the chaos got the better of me and I pulled myself together. Ellie, on the other hand, could not wait to meet her new friends and start her day! With a quick kiss good-bye, she was off!

We couldn't be more proud of Ellie and now we are anxiously awaiting Eensie's first day tomorrow!!