Where has the time gone?

Well - I am extremely disappointed in myself and this was my fear about starting a blog. Once I get behind - it gets overwhelming and the thought of catching up is so exhausting that I simply give up. But lately I have been wanting to get back into it. It is hard to not be frustrated some days with the different lifestyle and the language barrier (did anyone watch the last episode of The Amazing Race?? Telling taxi drivers where to go can almost lead you to a violent act!!!). Blogging was like my outlet for the frustration and so now I am missing my therapy. So I have decided to quickly paraphrase the last 6 months and then move on. I hope to someday come back and put in photos and more details, but for now--here goes.

My sister, her husband and my cousin Daniel (who lives in Taiwan) came for a Thanksgiving celebration. I actually cooked a frozen(thawed before baking of course) Butterball Turkey (that I had to store in a friends freezer because mine was not big enough) that cost me over $100 dollars!! Now at home I usually buy enough groceries at the Shoprite to receive 3 turkeys free!!! So to pay over $100 for a turkey seemed crazy, but necessary. Overall our Sunday (the kids had school on Thursday and Friday- no British Thanksgiving) Thanksgiving was pretty good - including the cheese grits - which had to be supplied from the US (thanks Kim!). Also during this visit Mark completed the Shanghai Half- Marathon - his first ever!! And he ran so fast we almost missed him!! We were trying to find a good spot to settle in and watch for him when Ian yelled "There goes Dad!!" So no pictures of the runner in action. We were all very proud of this amazing achievement!! (1 hour 46 minutes - top 20 of Americans).

In early December we took a long weekend trip to Hong Kong for a little Western style living. We did Hong Kong Disney one day and explored the city the other day. We enjoyed some American food at BLT steak and had a great laugh at the wax museum! This picture won Ian 1st prize in the "Read a book in a strange place" contest.


We did manage to get a real Christmas tree!!! Our friends had left us an artificial tree and I just could not do it. In the past 12 years of marriage we have never had a fake tree and I was determined to get a real one. SO - I think these were flown in from Holand, it only live one week, and cost us a fortune, but it made my Christmas!!! No tying to the top of your car here - bicycle carrier transport!



Also in December our wonderful driver Mr. Xu told us he had medical problems and could not work for us any more. We are not sure what his medical troubles were or if he had any (the Chinese are known to tell "stories" instead of the truth when it comes to things like this), but we were very sad to see him go. He had been with us for the past 11 months and we had all grown to love him. He would play soccer with the boys, he lived through all my last minute adventures -i.e.- Wal-mart, and he and Mark developed quite a friendship on the rides to and from work. We outfitted his entire family (he, his wife and daughter) in Yankees shirts last summer and always enjoyed our Chinese lessons with him. There were tears shed (only by me) and he will be greatly missed!

Our next round of visitors arrived on Christmas Eve - Grandma and Pop. And they looked like Santa Claus when they arrived! Suit cases stuffed to the brim and a few special carry-ons. It was really great to have family with us for Christmas- made us feel not so far away from home. We had a nice time showing them around Shanghai and they took a long trip around China exploring Harbin, Beijing, and a Yangtze River tour. Then back to us for a few more days of shopping, eating and photography. They were already planning their next trip before they left!

On January 29th we moved from House 158 in Vizcaya to House 2 - still in Vizcaya. Our old house was OK. Our visitors would say it was good, but our new house is GREAT! We were fed up with the difficult landlord and the mold growing up the walls in many rooms. So our lease was up and House 2 here we are. The new street is just nicer - I can't help but sing the Jefferson's theme song every time I come home - "Well were moving on up....". Anyway - life is better in House 2!!

In February we took advantage of the Chinese New Year holiday and headed South to the Phillipines. We had a great time in Cebu - snorkeling, boating, finding shells and coral, and just relaxing. WOW is the sun hot there!!


Our next visitors arrived just in time to celebrate Ian's 5th birthday. Uncle Tom and Aunt Vicky came to Shanghai after a work conference in Beijing for Uncle Tom. It was great to visit with them and show them our city - I should say it was great for me and the kids to visit with them since Mark was away on business. He did return just in time to share a dumpling lunch and Ian's birthday dinner with them. It was great to have them and I think they enjoyed our new 3 wheeled mini- van.

"Hold on Uncle Tom!!" Thanks for coming to visit us!!!

Our most recent visitors were Nana and Papa Jo. They came only because we live here - my Dad has said many times "Visiting China is not on my bucket list!" But I think in the end they enjoyed their visit and went home with a few fun souviners. Nana even said she might come back alone sometime. We all made the trip to Xi'an together to see the famous warriors and they headed to Beijing to see the magnificent wall. Overall - it was a great visit for all!!

So now it is May and we are on countdown to coming home for summer vacation!! School is out in 36 days and we are hoping to be on American soil for the 4th of July!! YIPEEE!

Our little Model

Mark was at our local import grocery store one day with Nicholas and Kyle and a woman stopped him and said he had the most beautiful boys and she would like to take their picture for modeling. He gave her one of our cards and said "Call my wife". Well after much bothering and many calls I finally decided to summit a couple of photos of all 3 of the boys to this agency. We took them all for a little group photo shoot and thought that would be the end of the business. Well they decided they really loved Ian with his light hair. His agent Sophie now calls for weekend photo shoots asking for "The lovely Ian". Here are some shots from his first gig -where he earned himself $100 in 2 hours for his college fund. Not too bad for a 4 year old! Still not sure if these clothes are high fashion in China???

Halloween Party

I love Halloween! I loved Halloween in Briarcliff! I have always loved Halloween and spent every year as a kid searching and trying to come up with the best Halloween costumes I could think of. Luckily my Mom is very crafty and my dad is an engineer. Great team when you decide you want to be a shower! OK -so it was kind of a copy cat from the movie The Karate Kid, but it was a fantastic costume! My dad built a harness to hold the shower up and my mom decked me out with a cool shower curtain and fake water - I have to say I looked really cool! I think I even sprayed my already very hairsprayed wings (feathered hair) blue to look wet. Anyway- I decided we had to throw the best Halloween party to show those not so familiar with Halloween (our Dutch, Australian, and British friends) how we do it in America. So I whipped up some of my best scary snacks - I'm looking at you dip with witches nails, Candy Corn pizza, Brains in a cup, Worms in the dirt, etc, we played our favorite scary music, and had plenty of fun games - bobbing for apples, Halloween BINGO, Scavenger Hunt, cookie decorating and more. We hosted about 50 of our wonderful friends and had a great time!! And because we were hosting the party we had to have some good costumes - so we were all Mario guys. Mark was Mario, Nicholas was Wario, Ian was Luigi, Kyle was baby Luigi and I was Peach. With the fabric market and some major help from our tailor friend Mr. shang we looked pretty darn good. I am sure you would love to see some photos of the fabulous event, however, the person in charge of photo taking ( I won't mention any names) snapped pictures all night long and was so proud of himself to announce at the end of the night that he took over 100 photos! So I turned the camera on to scroll through the fabulous photos and the message popped up "No CF card"- hhhmmm so 100 photos became no photos!!
Here is one pulled from Facebook - it is all we got.

The little guy turns 1!

Wow- I cannot believe my little man is 1 year old! I am sure I would be saying the same thing if we still lived in Briarcliff, but with everything we have been through in the last year - I really cannot believe it!! This guy has sat on The Great Wall of China before his 1st birthday! He has become a true China man over these last 9 months - he loves flirting with the Chinese girls, loves eating dumplings (he once ate 20 in one sitting) and eggy rice (fried rice) and loves watching Teletubbies in Mandarin. Many years from now I think he will have a fondness of all things China and not even know why - who knows! Anyway - we had a nice quiet night celebrating his BIG day!

On The Great Wall - 7 months

1st Birthday

UN Day

Every year Dulwich celebrates United Nations Week with International activities, a food festival, and a dress up day. Nicholas dressed up in his Yankees best and we tried to make Ian into an Uncle Sam , but he was not too thrilled with his clothing choice. Thanks Uncle Ben and Ashley - I think he looks pretty cool in his Polo duds!!

Superheros

Ian and our new neighbor and friend Reeves love to dress up as Superheros and they love to fight evil on our trampoline!!

School Camp Out

One of the main events for a Year 3 student at Dulwich College Shanghai is the Year 3 Camp Out. All Year 3 students(second graders) sleep in tents overnight on the school playground! A few days before the big event we headed over to the sporting goods store to get his supplies - sleeping bag, yoga mat, and a torch (flashlight to we North Americans). Nicholas was soooo excited for this that the night before he decided to practice by sleeping on his bedroom floor. He got to share a tent with his good buddies Matt and Dylan and had a fantastic time! They slept over on a Thursday night and got out of school early on Friday at noon. I have asked him many times what all he did, but not much information was divulged. I just know he was taking a nap by 2 so I think it was a late night!