Zhujiajiao (Gesundheit! or God Bless you!)

No, I did not just sneeze. What I just said is pronounced Zhu-ja-jao, or, close to that.
It's the name of the water town we went and visited today with the Winklers and the Lawlers in an attempt to fill our now defunct Hangzhou weekend. :)
It was about a 35 minute cab ride to the west of where we live (only cost about $18!) and we were there. Now, given, we had to endure a cab ride that was filthy, had no seatbelts and he was going about 100 km/hr, but, we got there. Our guardian angels are so busy with us here! :)

Anywho, we got there around 930 or so and it was already packed! That's what we get for going to a touristy place on a holiday weekend. To be truthful, we were a bit disappointed with what we saw.
The town was basically on a river which was in the shape of a cross formation. There were restaurants and shops along the walkway and a lot, I mean A LOT, of stinky tofu. For those of you who have never smelled stinky tofu (yes, it's actually called that), there are few things in this world that smell worse. And I'm a labor and delivery nurse and a mom. And I used to work in a wound care clinic. So. Stinky. It's considered a tasty treat to the Chinese and I just can't figure out why.

Ok, I'm going off on a tangent about the stinky tofu. I'll get back on track.

So we walked through the town, over a bridge, went for a boat ride, back over the bridge, had some coffee, bought a few souveniers and went home. :) Here's some more detailed descriptions...

Ben and Coop. Cooper was absolutely amazing today!! Very little stimming or whining. He just seemed to be observing it all.

 The entrance to the "town"

Patrick and Quinten just inside the entrance

Sophie getting a good whif of the stinky tofu while observing some prawns or crawfish or something

Ben and Isaac with Ben and Cooper

Sophia and Mia- she really didn't like the stinky tofu  :)

A boat used to pick up trash from along the walkway

Aubrey (8), Sophie (almost 5) and Mia (3). Really good Shanghai buds!

A view down the walkway. It looks really empty here and I'm not sure how bc it really was SO packed there!!

The gang's all here!

One of the bridges that connects the two sides of the street.

Ben with Isaac- Isaac was very popular with the locals :)

This woman gutted a chicken right there then threw the inards into the river, rinsed the bowl out in the river, put river water back into the bowl, then placed the remaining chicken pieces into it. Ewww...... There are no words for what we saw floating in that river, either. Ugh.

A few of the shops had really pretty things- this one had wood carvings. Really intricate work but they wanted a fortune for them. Wonder how many locals actually buy them?

A view of the buildings on the other side of the river once we'd turned the corner

The local street food. Oh, I could go on forever. Well, you already know about the tofu. To the right you'll notice the container of frog parts, may have been turtle, hard to know. The wrapped meat things, I cannot even imagine There was meat on bone wrapped in leaves and twine. Supposedly another delicacy. Uck.

Those in the middle are pig's feet. Mmmm.... (gag)  :)

See, this gives a better idea for how busy it was. Good thing I have this tall blonde guy I can easily spot all the time. :)

A Winkler family photo. What it doesn't show are the 6 Chinese people behind me taking a picture of them as well. :)

A view from on top of the bridge- these are the boats we took a ride on.

Sophie was really excited to take a boat ride. :) Girls in one boat, boys in the other!

Mia, Sophia, Aubrey, Laura, and Liz on the right.

The boys' boat- ours was way more fun. :)

A local building we saw on our boat tour.

We got a ride through the part that we had walked through earlier.

Turning around mid canal...

Did I mention she liked the boat ride?? My little blonde beauty.

That's the super tall bridge we had walked over to get to the boats.

After the boat rides we fought our way back the way we came then decided to stop at a local coffee shop and get the kids some snacks. Ben and Ben decided it was a good time for a man date. :) Cheesecake and coffee, anyone?

And yes, how we spent a lot of our day- with people constantly taking our picture... Oh, they think it's so funny and that it's not weird at all. SO never want to be famous!!

We bought a nice wind chime and Sophie got a flower windsock thing. Then it was really time to get away from the stinky tofu. :)

We had to endure another harrowing taxi ride home- this time the guy had seatbelts but was going 120 km/hr down the shoulder of the highway, narrowly avoiding blown tire bits and trash. But, again, we arrived safely. Thanks again, God!

Tomorrow we're heading to the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology downtown.
More adventures, here we come!
I'm exhausted and need a nap.  :)

Change of plans

So, this was going to be a fun blog about our super fun long weekend in Hangzhou.
It's a place that the Chinese refer to as "Heaven on Earth". It has a beautiful lake with pagodas and temples, tea fields that go for miles.
It's the May Day holiday right now. I swear, the Chinese take any opportunity to take a holiday. :) Ben had to work Saturday to get Monday off. Tuesday is the actual holiday. The kids had both Monday and Tuesday off of school so we thought it'd be a great chance to see something "close" to town (it's about an hour away).
We were all set to go with our friends the Lawlers and the Winklers until Ben and I discovered something at 4pm Saturday. The website of our hotel had placed it one block from the lake. That's why we had chosen it. However, we discovered that it was actually had 25-30 miles outside of town in the opposite direction. All the other hotels in the area were booked and then they wouldn't refund our money bc we were canceling too late and bc we had booked through Expedia, etc etc etc.
Everyone had an excuse why it wasn't their fault and why they wouldn't refund our money for the first night. So frustrating!!! We were also out the money for our train tickets as well...
Ben worked on the phone from 430pm until 11pm trying to get our money back and is still getting the cold shoulder. People keep telling him there's a chance, though, so he's still working on it.
So, we're staying home.

Today we went out to Decathalon (think MC Sports or Dick's) and Sophie picked out some rollerblades for her birthday. We also got her some pads and she loves it! Still very hesitant but getting the hang of it pretty quickly.

I thought I'd also put in some pics of our new ride! Because we don't have any car here I've been having to lug all our groceries by bike, which can be difficult at times, especially in the rain. Think of all the milk, laundry detergent, toilet paper, eggs, etc etc. It was getting old. :) Also, we wanted a way to get around town with the whole family when it's raining.
So, we got ourselves a tuk tuk! Think ricshaw but electric. We charge it every few days and it gets us pretty much everywhere we need to go in town here. And now I only have to drag the groceries from the tuk tuk to the elevator!
There's my little seat in the front- why the basket? Who knows. I put the lock in it when driving around... :)

Inside is the little bench. We can fit me and the kids when Ben's driving, but it's a tight fit. Ben even retrofitted it with Coop's old highchair straps so now we have a 5-point restraint to keep him safe while driving around! So nice having an engineer for a husband... :)

Lights, a horn, mirrors, brakes...what else does a girl need?

Here she is. Now I just need to come up with a name for her. I'm open to suggestions!

We had a nice day last week and were enjoying the terrace. Sophie decided she found a good place for her artwork- the wall seperating our balcony from the neighbor's.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet here. It's starting to get warm- in the high 60's to low 70's every day. It rains about half the time then is sunny. On the sunny days we play at the park after school and  dip our feet into the outdoor pools. Those aren't heated so I may be waiting until August to really partake in that. By then it'll be in the 100's and a non-heated pool will be fantastic.

Sophie's still enjoying ballet and loves school. Cooper is making good progress at school- still not talking but is usually very social with us, great eye contact, and is even initiating play with some other kids at times. He has quiet days and days with more vocalization. He's stimming less, which is great. He's moving more and exploring more and getting into trouble more, which is good and bad. He's obsessed with water still so it's been hard bc we can't lock the bathrooms. Mealtimes are hard bc he won't sit still so it's hard to get him to eat. The more restrained he is, the more he fights the restraint. However, when he gets really hungry he sits and eats so I think it's balancing out ok.

As for me, I've been playing tennis about once a week (not serious, just for fun bc I'm pretty sad), I have my Bible Study which is ok- nothing like my awesome group back at Brookside. I'm still reading at the school with the kids once a week. My ayi, Tai Ping, is now only coming twice a week. It's weird. When you don't work and don't clean your house all the time, it's not as nice as you think. It sounds like a great life but it's hard to feel worthy. It's hard to feel like you have much worth, when you're not doing the things you're used to doing.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to a water town not far from here with our friends. Hopefully I'll have some good stories from our day of fun!

Prayer Requests:
-Some good friends of ours back home had a real scare last Sunday- their daughter, Alanna, fell and required 14 stitches in her forehead and upper lip. Thankfully she was not injured worse but I can only imagine how frightening it must have been for her and her parents! If you could please pray for complete healing of Alanna's face.
-We have been feeling very seperated from the church here lately. We have not been feeling fulfilled there at all and it's really sad! I've always been the kind of person that can take something out of a service that uplifts me and fills me- but here we haven't had that. It's not good, but we're not sure what to do about it right now. So, we need prayer for direction. For a way to get closer to Him again.
-Our family can use your prayers to help us communicate more and be patient with each other better. Life is weird here. You would think it's very carefree and easy but it's really not. It's hard to describe unless you're in it. But I know we could use better communication and more patience!

Thanks again for reading and keeping up with us.
Hopefully I'll have another update after our outing tomorow!

Easter (I know, I'm late) and other activities

Hello again!
So, the blog about Cebu took it out of me for a bit so I had to take a break. :)

But, now I'm back because two days after we got back from Cebu, it was Easter and I really do need to post about how China (well, at least the Racquet Club) celebrates this most holy of holidays.

We got back from Cebu on Friday evening so Saturday was pretty much doing laundry and unpacking. We also put Soph's training wheels on her bike and headed out for our first family bike ride. We headed across the street to the Forest Manor development that has the gigundo, humongous, ridiculously huge marble houses. It also has flat, quiet streets- perfect for bike riding with a 4 yr old. It was great to get out and do a normal family thing here. Sometimes it's so hard to feel like that's possible with the pollution and crazy traffic.

I got a text from a non-Christian friend that day asking me about our church. She had a baby a few weeks ago (her third) and said that, even though she wasn't religious, she was feeling this deep need inside herself to go to church on Easter with her children. I mean, hello!! Can we say, God is speaking directly to you and you are just seeing it as a 'hmmm, I wonder why I'm feeling this way'??? Why is it so easy for me to see that it is God speaking to her, wanting a relationship with her, but yet she cannot? I guess it's all in what you choose to see.

Anyway, Easter. What a day!
Ben and I had hidden some eggs around the house and then made some really ghetto, makeshift Easter baskets. Thankfully my parents and sister had sent a few Easter things and Ben had also brought some stuff back from when he was in the US.

Soph came down the stairs and immediately saw the baskets and eggs. We had a FAST egg 'hunt' with Coop and Sophie basically running around and getting eggs from windowsills and corners and then had some French breakfast puffs while Skyping with family. So nice, so normal, good stuff.
Part of the egg hunt had these eggs my mom had sent called Resurrection Eggs that told the story of Jesus and what he has done for us. We ran out of time to go through them before church so I said we'd do them after church.

Then it was off to church where 'packed' was the ultimate term to describe the scene. See, our church is much too big for its britches already (which is awesome) and then you tack on all those who come on this day. Soooo crammed! I was working with the 4 and 5 yr old kids that day and we had about 20. Guess what a big part of the class was?? The Resurrection Eggs! Couldn't believe it! Here we are in China, doing the same things we'd be doing at home. That was pretty cool for me. My 'non-religious' friend came with her kiddos and her parents. Her daughter was in my class with Soph and just loved it. After church she told her mom she loved it and asked if they could come back next week. From the mouth of babes... :)

After church we had a simple lunch so we could head out to the celebration that the Racquet Club was putting on for the kids.
We had already missed the crafts and face-painting but made it in time for the games which consisted of egg-in-a-spoon races, grab-the-tinfoil-eggs-with-a-pincher races, and other races. Then came the acrobats.
You heard right, they had acrobats. Very bendable, painfully bendable, acrobats.
The show went on for about 40 minutes. And I just couldn't keep my poker face on. It just wasn't natural. They didn't seem like they were in pain, but...I'm still not sure. :)

Here's Soph standing in line for a game with her friend, Colin, in front of her.

 Me and Coop hanging on the sidelines...

 The kids getting ready to watch the acrobats-

 "I'm going to get you!!"

 These girls were about 10 yrs old...

 So...no one should ever be stacked like this. "They're bendy!" Sophie declared.

While this was going on, other volunteers were dispersing paper eggs all over the soccer field and surrounding area. When the tortuous bending was over, the kids hauled rear to go get some eggs. It was a really brilliant way of doing an egg hunt. The kids got all the excitement of picking up as many paper eggs as fast as possible and then they brought their eggs in to either the girl booth or boy booth and each child got a gift bag. So each child got an equal gift. There were some candy-filled eggs, wall stickers and a stamp. I just loved the idea that each child, no matter the age, got the thrill of the hunt and the gift!

That's me and Soph in the back. We always go to the back and make our way forward. :)

 Soph showing off her egg "booty".

 Soph and I checking out her loot-

After the hunt there was a tug-of-war that was supposed to be just for the kids but many parents couldn't help joining in. :)

It was nice to be able to put together an Easter that was fun for the kids and meaningful for all of us! Still confused how the acrobats fit in, however...

So, a few days after Easter it was pouring rain and I heard a weed wacker outside our apartment. I thought it was a bit odd, but, it is China and they constantly do things here that make no sense to me whatsoever. Here's what I saw out our window-

The man is mowing the lawn with a weedwacker in the pouring rain with his poncho on (of course), whilst his buddies sit nearby smoking cigarettes (again, in the pouring rain). Honestly, sometimes I wonder....

Ok, what else have we been up to? Oh, so, we also put Sophie into a ballet course here at the clubhouse. She'd been asking to get back into it for a while so we signed her up and she's really liking it! The teacher is totally hardcore, though. I had to be super sneaky to get these pics- sorry they're blurry...

She's 2 weeks in and learning all sorts of new things!

The elementary kids at Sophie's school had Book Week last week. It was a week where they focused their learning on books by various artists and then at the end of the week, instead of wearing their uniforms, they got to dress up as their favorite book characters for the day. At the beginning of the day there was a big assembly where all the kids got to parade in front of the other kids and parents in their costumes. It was a mad house, but really cute to see all the kids dressed up.

Here's Sophie coming in to the gym-

 The 2 girls in the pink dresses are some of Sophie's good school friends- on the right is Ciana, on the left is Rachel.

 A picture of the gym from the viewing balcony where a bunch of us moms watched-

 I could tell Sophie and Colin were getting a bit bored with the event...

The lady on the right is Sophia's teacher- Ms. Kristina Hafseth. On the left is Colin's teacher, Ms. Harries. Both are leaving next year- the first to Vietnam and the other to Budapest. Wow.

 Sophie was so distracted doing the parade wave that she never looked up at me to get a proper picture. She had a lot of fun that day.

Last weekend I was getting breakfast ready when I looked up and this was what I saw. Soph was quietly coloring and the whole picture with the development in the background just looked pretty to me.

You will only occasionally get me to admit that some parts of China can be pretty. You see, when it smells like diesel outside and there's trash everywhere you go outside the development, when people are peeing and spitting in the street and everything is so dusty and dirty, it's hard to see what China can give. It's a weird life, here, but we're doing alright. Especially now that we have a grill. :)

Prayer Requests:
-Cooper has really been struggling lately. Crying and acting out a lot. Screaming and thrashing during meals, not eatting well. It's weird because it doesn't seem to be related to any event or issue. He just got over a bout of GI issues that he had for a few weeks so I don't think it's that. It's hard on Ben and I for the obvious reasons. We just wish he could communicate what's wrong.

-I have been struggling to feel fulfilled out here. I am used to working, maintaining my own home, having kids around all day. Now I'm not working, someone else cleans my home, my kids are gone half the day. I'm volunteering at the school, exercising, going to Bible Study, but I'm still struggling. I'm considering not having an ayi, I dunno...

-Praise that the food thing feels solved. Having a grill has made life A LOT easier and I feel like normal eatting is occuring everywhere. Some of it has been embracing the higher prices of 'safer' food and some of it has just been taking chances.

Ok, bed time!! We had the group over tonight for a cookout after a day of shopping downtown and I'm toast. God bless you all and thanks again for reading!