These are a few of our February things.... :)

So, I'm writing this after posting the Chinese New Year blog. As I type, I am being surrounded by a cacophony of fireworks and moped alarms. It's 9:15 pm on the last night of CNY, day 15. This day is known as the Lantern Festival. The legend goes that a god was angry that his favorite goose had been killed (not making this up) 2000+ yrs ago in some village and so he decided to destroy the village by fire. A magical fairy (not kidding) warned the villagers of this and told them to light lanterns throughout the village, making it appear that it was on fire. Looking down, the god saw that the village seemed on fire and so he was satisfied that his goose had been avenged. :) Yup. However, now people just see it as another excuse to light off more fireworks!!! :/

Ok, I digress. I'm embracing the suck (a quote from a dear friend here), and enjoying my last CNY experience. What I'm here to write about tonight are a few things we did in February. We've had days of massive (for here) snow and others of gorgeous sunshine. It almost feels like I'm in Michigan again! ;)

This was a day that will live in my memory, hopefully, forever. I can't remember the circumstances around the day, but Ben was home and Soph wasn't. It was an afternoon and Ben was needing to get some work done so I brought Coop into our bedroom to wrestle. He likes to be flipped and do barrel rolls and such on the bed. On this day, however, he was really mellow and he crawled under the bedsheets and just layed there. I was singing to him and he was looking at me, just content. I was doing some brushing with him (part of his therapy). After doing this for about 30 minutes he flipped himself out from under the covers and just slowly fell asleep while I sang and gently brushed his arms and legs. For most people, a quiet, still 3 yr old can be something that gets witnessed often. We never see this. To see him so still and content to the point of falling asleep... it was a gift given to me from God and I thank Him for it. I just layed there next to him for another half hour loving every second of this little man that was given to me. This is my son and, oh mercy, am I crazy about him. :)

The day after the GE CNY party, Sophie had a birthday party for some Dutch twin friends of hers from school. What's it about this girl and her addiction to Dutch twins?? (Only Christy will probably get that one :)
The party was held at bakery (yes, please!) and, as I am still unsure of the "rules" of kid parties (do I, the parent, stay or go? Drop her off or stay to help out? Etc...), I asked Sophie if she wanted me to stay or leave. She said she wanted me to stay ("in case I get hurt, Mommy") so I did.

This bakery had a huge playroom for kids- tons of fun!
Here's Soph with Jenna (the 'toe-head' and one birthday girl), her BFF, Rachael (in the stripes, from New Zealand), Floortje (partly hidden, next to Rachael, and the other birthday girl), and Rubin (another New Zealander).

The group got to bake and decorate cupcakes- a brilliant idea! There were little hats and aprons...so cute! Here's Rachael, Soph and Jenna-

It was all I could do to get her to stop eating the raw cupcake batter. :) She is SO my daughter!!

Here's Betty, Jenna, Soph, and Floortje-

While the cupcakes baked, we headed outside to the play area where there was also a little petting zoo! My favorite animal there-

 Her little tail was wagging a mile a minute bc the kids kept feeding her bread and lettuce!

After the baking was the frosting and decorating. She was licking the knife, eating the candies... that's my girl. :) She really liked it! Her finished products-

After a massive lunch of chicken nuggets, pizza, spaghetti, egg rolls, fries, fruit and cake, it was time for the pinata before heading home. Soph whacked that thing like her life depended on it. :)

After way too long, someone beat it to death enough that it spilled forth it's goodness. The children pounced like lions on prey and we packed it up and headed home. :)

This was something Soph brought home from school one Thursday. The kids had been studying houses in school and at the end each child made a house. Here's Sophie's. On the left you'll notice her gate (it did actually swing open). The windows had "glass". There was a "stone" walking path  in front, a pool on the right. The chimney on top complete with a popsicle stick used for smoke. :) She was SO proud of it.

Another fun thing we did in Feb was have a little stay-cation during the Chinese New Year break. Many of our friends had fled town for warmer climates and here we sat...with the fireworks...
So, we booked a hotel over in Pudong on the other side of the river for a few nights to break things up. We've made a few new friends since Christmas as new people have come into town. They were also trapped in Shanghai and therefore decided to get out and about as well.

Here Sophie's running to lunch- literally. She was so hungry! With her are Luca and his brother, Niels. They are the kiddos of our new friends, Isabelle and Herwig from Belgium. We were skating off to Element Fresh for some very tasty American food. :)

After lunch we headed to the hotel's indoor play area. Oh my goodness, this place was crazy!! Stuff for any age child from 1 to 15.
Here's Grace (eldest daughter of new friends- Alice and John from the UK) plopping herself down this super steep, super high slide. She did it with the greatest of ease. I never did it. Too scary!!! My self-preservation warning bell was gonging like crazy!!! It was a straight shot down, people!

Sophie going down the easier slide. You sit in this sack and slide down the bumps. Cooper really liked it as well!

On a different level there was a smaller kiddie climbing thing. Cooper was happiest in here bc the kids were smaller, they moved slower, it was less busy.

3 levels of climbing for him. Lots of good gross motor work. :) He loved it!

A break for ice cream and sweets. :) Here's Soph hanging with Isabelle and her boys, Luca and Niels.

Late on the first day, Sophie got up the nerve to try the medium blue slide. Still a decent drop down but it ended softly into a ball pit. She was mostly motivated by the ball pit, really. :) Cooper also really wanted to go into the ball pit so I lifted him up and over the side and let go. He did NOT appreciate this and stopped himself halfway down and then started to climb back up the slide. Whoops. :) Therefore, guess who else got to try the slide? Me! :)

The next day was more play area, eating out, wandering the attached mall, going swimming, eating out. :) It was raining so a good excuse to stay indoors.
Our last day was gorgeous so we headed across the street to Century Park. Yes, it is a play on "Central Park" (well, I hear it is) bc it's a big park inside the bustling city.

That's Isabelle on the left, Alice on the right, as we walk to one of the entrances of the park.

Inside- my pretty little lady on a bridge

The 3 eldest of the 3 families hanging out- Luca (8), Soph and Grace (8)

We all decided to rent some "yachts" (as they were advertised) to go down a river a bit but we were told we would have to wear these "life jackets" if we wanted to go.
They were such a joke! Truthfully, they wouldn't have kept a buoy afloat.
Here's Cooper modeling for us- he loved it.... :)

Ben felt like we were going on a duck hunt...

Here we are in our "yacht" trolling around. :) Ben is driving here with Soph while Cooper and I hung out in the back. He actually sat there really nicely just looking around. :)

Cruising around. We actually did make it under that bridge... :)

After yachting about, we let the kids burn some energy climbing some walls

Here's a pic of these 4-person bikes we saw all through the park. Ben and I had last seen these in Santa Barbara, California back around 2001!

Soph and I in the park. Those are apartment buildings in the background.

Just a walk through the park... :) I liked the set up here- I'll bet it's really pretty when the trees are full

On the way out we hit up the "Head Statue"

We decided to take the easy (but expensive) way home and do the taxi thing. Thankfully we were blessed with one that actually had seatbelts. The kids were ah-ma-zing, which is SO rare in a taxi!

The other thing I have been doing in February is oil painting. I have been going to a friend's house for 3 hours, once a week, working on my first piece since highschool. :) It's been a definite 'work in progress' but I have enjoyed the chatting with new people just as much as the painting. Of course, I think it's terrible and looks nothing like the picture. But, as my friend reminded me, I will not hang this with the picture next to it. This is my own interpretation.
So, as many things in my life are, it may not be perfect, but it's mine and I'm proud of it!

Week 1- started with a brown canvas. With white paint, heavy on the thinner and oil, I drew in the outline. Then started the background shading.

Week 2- started the background color and the green

Week 3- started with the purple and did more background coloring.

Week 4- more background tweaking, more purple

Week 5- more work on the green and the purple. Attempting to do some shading so the background flowers look fuzzy like they do in the picture.

I have 1 more week to finish. I feel like I have so much more to do! It really could be endless but I am glad that the end of the class will cause me to stop and appreciate that I made this! The girl who makes a sketchy stick figure did ok. :)

I know I haven't been posting any prayer requests lately but there have been several things going on here and I would love if you helped me lift them up to our Creator.
-I have a friend, Kris, who is in her early 40's that was recently diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
 It has metastasized to her lymph nodes and her spine. She is an amazing woman that is battling this
 hard, however, this amazing woman is also an atheist. Please pray that I may be a light to her and
 that I may show God's glory to her and that this situation brings her and her family to Him.
-I have another friend who has a 4 yr old daughter, Reagan. They just moved here from Ohio last
 month and 2 weeks ago the girl was diagnosed with severe ITP, a virus that attacks your platelets
 and leaves you at great risk of bleeding. The normal platelet count is over 150,000. Hers was 1. It's
 hard to even imagine!! At the advice of the docs here, my friend and her daughters have returned to
 the US to figure out what the next steps are. Pray for healing, answers and comfort as they also deal
 with being far away from their daddy/husband.
-Please pray that the right job opens up for Ben back home for this summer. Our plan is to move
 back in July but my desire is also for Ben to find a job that is challenging and rewarding for him.
 There are great jobs here and in Florida but Sophie and my heart's desire is to be home, in
 Michigan. Pray that answers come and doors are opened. However, I do realize that it is most
 important that all things are done in His perfect timing and that His will is best!

Thanks again for reading. We're heading off to Guilin, China, next week so I hope to have another blog of amazing Chinese scenery for you in a few weeks. :)
God bless!!

Xin Nian Kuaile (Happy Chinese New Year)

It was hard for me to believe that we have celebrated our 2nd Chinese New Year!
We have been living in China for more than a year. It seems so long and yet it also seems to be flying by! It still is so odd to say that I am living in China. How many times have I said- "If you'd told me that I'd be living in China with 2 kids, one of whom is autistic, I would have told you that you had been poorly informed". :)
And yet, here we are. Our simple, yet odd, lives of school, work, ayis, workouts, painting classes, Chinese lessons, searching for good ground beef for weeks at a time, etc. It's so not a normal life! :)

Case in point. GE (Ben's employers) held a Chinese New Year party on Feb 1 that all employees were invited to. Now, this joint venture between GE (the American company) and Avic (the Chinese company) has merged to become Aviage. Most of the employees of this new company are Chinese, with some expats thrown in. Since it was a Chinese New Year party, and most of the employees are Chinese, there was ONLY proper Chinese food offered. I wish I could have taken more pictures but felt it was rude as the guests we were seated with were delighted with the selections, whilst I was horrified. Like, HORRIFIED. Fried jelly fish (I thought it was pad thai), crispy pigeon, baby octopus, snow frog soup, this fish thing that kept looking at me, pork knuckle. The only thing I ate? The spicy cucumber. And even then I only ate 1 slice. :)

Here was the grand ballroom we were in. We were asked to wear traditional Chinese dress. However, I think only the CEO and the expat wives really took that to heart. Most of the Chinese were in pants and a sweater. :)

Our table. Sad Chinese wine and the traditional Tsing Tao beer. Orange juice was flowing like water. :) I know what you're thinking- the food doesn't look that gross. Well, you should have seen it close up, ok? Even Ben barely ate and he'll try almost anything. :)

A close-up of the baby octopus. Piles of suckers just waiting for your chewing...ugh. :/

There was this "amazing" show put on by the uppers showcasing the birth of Aviage.
Everything began in the Year of the Dragon (2012).

The idea is that the official contract with Comac for these planes will be signed in the Year of the Snake (2013). I thought this looked more like a seal, but maybe that was the Tsing Tao talking...

The motto- 'we will spring into flight in the year of the snake'. See the airplane in the symbol? Tricky, right? Sneaky sneaky! (insert rolling eyes here :)

Then the higher-ups came into the ballroom doing a dragon dance (closest to us) and a snake dance (along the far wall- it's blue). Come on now, everyone say "Oooo!" :)

This is me with a friend, Robyn (her husband works with Ben and they live by us), and Liz's son, Riley. Isn't he adorable in his little Chinese outfit?? :) Notice how I embraced the culture in my XXL Chinese dress whilst Robyn refused? Mmm-hmm. Only for my husband would I ever put on something that has a tag labeled XXL. It was rude. :)

At one point in the evening there were awards given out for 'best dressed'. My Ben and Riley (represented by his daddy cause he was asleep) were a few of the men chosen and Liz was one of the women! That's right, I only keep company with the best dressed people. :)

Now this was a sight to behold. Several of the expats volunteered to do a dance during the evening. "Lowai Style" was set to the tune of the Gangnam dance. 'Lowai' is a term for a foreigner. :) There were lyrics with the dance as well. I was crying with laughter through most of it! :) And yes, Ben Lawler was a part of it! There he is on the right-

Here's the actual dance. Above was a repeat performance at the end of the night. Ben Lawler is hard to find bc he's just behind the main front guy on our left. Another friend, Russell, is the guy second from the right, and Ben's other coworker, Albert, is on the far right.

The end of the party- Liz with the hit of the night. :)

 

Other CNY celebrations included parties at Soph's school where they dressed in traditional clothing. Soph was SO happy to get to wear her dress to school. :)

One of the crafts they did for CNY was to make and decorate a snake. Here is hers-



If you recall, last year there was some pretty impressive video we posted of the fireworks going off around town. We have been amazed at the lack of them this year! I have been warning my newcomer friends about the "joys" of CNY fireworks- how they are really neat the first night but on night 13 you just want sleep. However, this year there have been only the standard 2 nights of fireworks- on New Years Eve and 4 nights later when they light off fireworks as an offering and request for wealth in the upcoming year. We've been hearing around town that the government cracked down on the fireworks this year bc the pollution has been really bad- which it has been!
I was wondering about the pollution problems this winter and if they were really that bad. For instance, what is New York City's pollution and is it any better or worse than here? So, I looked into what NYC's pollution levels are on a given day. Using the same measurements (the PMI 2.5 reading), NYC had a pollution level of 50 the other day. Ours was 248. Rarely do I see ours under 100. This winter I've seen it get up to almost 500 twice. :( Another reason I'm ok with moving home in the summer! A big part of the reason why the pollution is so bad in the winter is bc China uses burning coal to heat the country in the winter. Of course, they have no "clean coal" burning here. :)

Month 2 of the inlaws' visit- that's right.

So, where I left off was with Danny and Jodi leaving us on Dec 30. Donna and Claude were staying with us until Jan 29th so I knew we had 4 more weeks to fill with sight-seeing and also getting back into the routine of school and work.
But first, it was New Year's Eve! Liz and I had decided a while back to hire a chef to cook for us and celebrate the evening together with our families. What a fun night! Definitely different than how I've celebrated NYE in the past but, hey, I'm not in a traditional place for celebrating any American holiday anyway. :)

Here is Chef Li preparing our dinner. He and his wife showed up around 6 pm with the intention of serving a 9-course meal at 8pm. Ah-mah-zing, the spread they put on!! Liz and I had selected the menu the week prior. There were fresh prawn crackers, spring rolls, dumplings, chicken satay, a thai salad, peking duck, a few beef dishes, spicy chicken, noodles, sweet and sour pork, and more. We had WAY too much food and it was all really good!!

 

 A view of the spread halfway done-



 

 My ayi had helped me purchase some fireworks a few days prior and we were ready to see them fly!These fireworks are SO illegal to privately own in the US. I thought we were going to get busted setting them off here but we were going to try anyway.

 

Here's Ben's brother-in-law, George, and Ben with our loot. :)







 

I took some pictures of the fireworks but none of them really turned out. Just picture the 4th of July, but smaller. :) So instead, I'm posting a picture of our little crew outside enjoying the show.



 

So we ate, we chatted, did fireworks, ate some more, played with the kids and soon it was midnight!

Unbelievably, all of the kids made it to midnight (except Coop- he had gone to bed much earlier). They were so wired and, at the end, totally crashing, but had so much fun all night.

We ended up finding a channel on tv playing the countdown celebrations in Singapore. Never thought I'd be counting down to the New Year with those in Singapore!



 

Happy New Year!! Champagne for the adults and fizzy grape juice for the kids. We were in the tuk tuk by about 0030 (Sophie was so tired she actually fell totally asleep on the way home in the freezing cold!) and all were asleep by 1. So glad we could ring in the New Year with these fantastic people.



We took New Year's Day off to just recoop and relax. Slept in, went for a swim, etc.
On Jan 2 we hired a driver again and headed to SheShan Sculpture Park. Yes, I know. The last time we went was in January and we swore we wouldn't go when it was cold again and yet, here we were. Why?? I would love this place when it was hot out and yet I keep going when it's freezing!
Anyway, just like last time, we had fun but it did get quite cold.

Here's Coop, Donna and Soph hanging around some sculptures...

Soph and I being artsy. :)

A few pics on the jumping bubble thingy again. Always our favorite part of the park! Coop had SO much fun on it this time. He was laughing hysterically the whole time. :)
Daddy and Coop jumping together-

Soph sliding down a bubble head first. :)

 

 Even Claude and Coop were having fun on it together!



Another attempt at me being artsy. Coop and Daddy checking out the outdoor auditorium with the weird gigantic wire person thingy in the background. :)

My gorgeous family hanging out on the climbing nets-

Coop and I did not go up into the treehouse- we couldn't be bothered (to quote my Brit friend, Liz), so we went and had a snack while everyone else went. Soph came out, saw we were eating, and made a beeline for us. :)

Sophie was still obsessed with these stone statue people. She was hugging them and talking to them. That one has a very active imagination. :)

We ended our trip there in a small coffee shop where we thought we were going to have to pay $10 a coffee but they ended up being free! Soph was toast after running around in the cold all afternoon :)

So, I'm looking through my pictures and I'm not seeing anything else that I took while Donna and Claude were here. What???
Given, a few days after we went to SheShan, the kids were back in school and Ben was back at work so we pretty much just went back into our daily routines.
On the 12th they left and flew to Hong Kong for a week. They loved it there. It was warm and they saw pretty much everything they wanted to see and do.
After they came back it was more routine daily stuff.
Ben took one more day off of work and we went downtown to the World Financial Center, also known as The Bottle Opener. It is currently the 4th tallest building in the world and they having a viewing deck on the 100th floor. The smog was pretty bad that day so we couldn't see very far but it was still really neat to experience. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, AGAIN, so no pictures! :(
We went out to dinner with them a few more times and really just enjoyed our time together.

Donna and Claude left to go back to Michigan on Jan 29th, a Tuesday. This was Donna's birthday and we talked about how this was the longest birthday she'll ever experience being that she was flying "back in time". :)

A few favorites they had of their visit:
-Claude loved to go on walks and would often end up in Zhudi town exploring the VERY local
  people and stores. Also the wet market. He liked it there too (ick) :)
-Another favorite Claude had was our clubhouse library. He would go there almost daily to read and
 catch up on the local news.
-Both Donna and Claude fell in love with the egg tarts from our local bakery. This was an almost
 nightly treat for them, especially once the local grocery store ran out of their tapioca pudding. :)
-I think their favorite place to eat was Luke's. Donna couldn't get over the pumpkin penne and Claude
 liked this indonesian fried rice they have.
-By far their favorite place for a cup of coffee was Cafe Du Village. I think they went there almost
 every day for a mocha and something sweet to eat. It's a great place to read and run into people!
-Donna loved reading to and with Sophia every night. She also liked helping Soph with her
 homework. She was so patient with her!
-They both really enjoyed going swimming with the kids. We did this every weekend and had a lot of
 fun with it.

As for anything else, you'd have to ask them. :) I think they enjoyed their time here and were a bit torn about leaving. It's nice to go home but hard to leave the grandchildren. ;)
We felt the same. It was great having them here but also nice to have our house back to just our little family after 7 weeks of having visitors. It was also so weird to think the next time we see them (in person) will be when we get off the airplane having moved back home.

I get so torn when thinking of that. I find myself wishing to pick certain parts of my life here and combine them with parts of my life in the US. Never fully satisfied and at peace with where I am, always wanting to change something. It's not a great thing to feel and I'm working on it. In my current Bible study we are doing Breaking Free by Beth Moore. An intense look inside of myself finding the things that are keeping me from the relationship God intended me to have with Him. Whew, do I have a lot of work ahead of me! Good thing He's patient with me. :)

So, anyway, that was January. Almost caught up! :)
Thanks for sticking with me. God bless!