Blog Written -- CHECK!

Being here in China with an Ayi who takes over most of the tedious chores around here, I frequently get asked the question "What to you do with all that free time?"  Well, apparently the answer is not "Write in my blog!"  Sorry about the 4 week hiatus I had there and I'm not even going to promise that it won't happen again.  But trying to keep this up while attempting to run every morning (I am training for a 10K but I don't think my knees are supporting me in this endeavor), and taking Chinese classes and coming out of the fog that both running and speaking Chinese puts me in is a lot harder than it sounds. Not to mention my dropping of everything when a Chinese adventure presents itself. Take today for example.  I started writing this blog post at 10 am and it is now 7:30 pm and I'm not even sure I will finish it up because I am waiting for some of my friends to come pick me up to go out on the town tonight to shop at IKEA.  Not as exciting as it sounds, but the fact that I'm ensuring I won't be the only Asian there by bringing some white friends with me and also the added incentive that they have ice cream cones will make it a very pleasant girls' night out.  And don't get me started on how unpredictable this internet thing is here in China.  I get all ready to sit down and write a blog and the whole thing just seems to freeze and the one moment I had to write is swallowed up by my frustration. 

Here is what we've been up to (in no particular order):

 

We've done some painting!  We found a perfect shade of blue that is imported and lead-free!



We took the kids and our friends to Wangfujing -- anything you want (or don't want) to eat on a stick!

One of us liked the squid on a stick, the other looks like he's going to lose his cookies!

Crickets on a stick, anyone?  How 'bout some beetles?  We passed on these.

Cory getting into the spirit of things with a Peking duck wrap in one hand and fried squid in the other.

I found my favorite thing to eat here in China (NOT at Wangfujing). 
It's called Bao Bing and it's shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk topped with fresh mangoes.
Delicious!!

 

When Alex isn't catching poor defenseless creatures he is eating them! 

 That's a gecko in the plastic container and snake on a stick at Wangfujing. 

 

 

Claire has lost 3 teeth in the past 2 weeks.  We have discovered that it takes the Tooth Fairy 2 days to get to China.
And Claire is making bank!!

Buster has joined a gang of some rough neighborhood hoodlums!

And he plays so hard that his playdates usually end like this.

 



And Baby Cal is still our content little kid who just goes along for the ride.

 So now it is 1:15 am.  The shopping trip was successful, the pictures finally downloaded, and I am drying my last load of laundry as we speak.  Things get pretty crazy around here but at least I can mark off "write a blog" off my to do list.  Goodnight!



How's the Weather?

For All Those Who Care:

The kids are watching Tangled so peacefully downstairs (that's because the crankiest of them all was put to bed an hour ago) and my most favorite song from a Disney show is wafting up to me as I sit in a makeshift desk area in our front room.  "At Last I See the Light" and I am changing the words to "and it's like the smog has lifted" and it echoes my sentiments here exactly.  I might have been hiding it a little (or those around me wished I would have) but if you could read between the lines of my last blog you would know that I have been having a hard time adjusting to our life in China since our return 1 month ago.  But something wonderful happened last weekend -- it rained!  And suddenly the smog that was covering the sun and making the pollution index skyrocket lifted and we were left with the best week ever.  The index was in the teens and there was a balmy breeze that seemed to blow the tension out of my shoulders.  I am back!!  (I think I might be a tad bit weather-sensitive.)  I even ran over some dog poop on my tuk-tuk this morning and it didn't phase me at all.  Too bad Cory has been in Sacramento this whole week so he has not benefited from my new and improved attitude but hopefully the weather will hold out and so will I. 

So what have we been doing in this wonderful weather you ask?  Well, not much. I essentially gave the driver the week off and I have been having a lovely time tuk-tuking back and forth from one neighborhood to the next.  And I remembered to charge the dang thing because last week I got stuck halfway between neighborhoods and had to put poor Buster in the driver's seat while I pushed from behind yelling "RIGHT! NO! RIGHT! NOW LEFT! NO, THE OTHER WAY! NOW JUST GO STRAIGHT! THAT MEANS DON'T TURN THE STEERING WHEEL! I MEAN STOP TURNING! OKAY, NOW TURN!" all while having Cal strapped to me in a borrowed baby carrier until some Chinese guard had pity on me and pushed me home.  See, last week was a tough one. 

And I have started to run.  I mean really run this time.  That's the problem with making new friends -- they make you do things that your old friends figured out long ago that you can't do.  But she wants to prove it to me that I can run a 10K in 8 weeks.  She has got her work cut out for her and she is well aware that this might ruin our budding friendship.  But I have run everyday this week and now can't walk down the stairs with any sense of pride at all.

Speaking of pride -- I started Chinese lessons this week!  I have had it with not being able to communicate and am determined to learn just enough to not be laughed at at the fruit market and to be able to tell the driver to stop taking the slow way home.  I have a very kind and patient teacher named Cindy Laoshi (laoshi means teacher and is pronounced like "lou" [as in loud] and shi is pronounced like "sure") and my homework this week is to practice and be able to introduce my whole family to her and my one classmate. Cindy Laoshi also teaches Bradley in preschool and I'm afraid he is the better speaker of the two of us. 

Other than that life has kept on rolling and I have survived another week of being a single mother and just hoping Cory made it on the plane with my shampoo and an American griddle.  Next week my letter will be written on location!  I am traveling to the southern China city of Shenzhen and meeting Cory there while he is on business and then we will go to Hong Kong.  I am so excited!!  It's about time I saw something other than Beijing.  Wish me luck!

Love,
Kelli

#3 -- I'm on a roll!

For All Those Who Care:

Another week has gone by so here comes another letter.  3 letters in 3 weeks -- I might be on a roll. This week has gone by so slowly that I feel that I have lived 5 weeks since my last post.  It feels like we've already been back in China for months now and it feels like the kids have been back in school for at least 3 weeks and not just the one.  This is typical of how time flies in Beijing -- ploddingly slow.  It's hard to describe but I can hardly remember what our old life was like back home in the States.  Did I really used to clean my own bathroom?  Did I really just hop into a car and run to Target when I needed some Scotch tape?  Did I really not need to use my Google translator or, worse yet, pantomime what said Scotch tape is?  Did I really just walk outside without first checking the pollution index/air quality app on my phone to decide whether I could go for a jog or take the kids to the park?  This has been a tough week full of "China Moments" that made me miss the comforts and conveniences of the good ol' USA but it was also sprinkled with some good moments like:

 Alex turned 9!!

 He combined the birthday money that he got from Marmie/Bapa and Nana/Papa to buy this remote control, fastest-looking car in the store.  He loves it!  Thanks, guys!

Alex and Claire started school -- YAY!!  And now that we live a little farther from the school they have upgraded from our little tuk-tuk to this sweet ride.  Kind of plush school buses, don't you think?

 

 

And on good air quality days we get to hang out at our neighborhood park complete with a mom-powered merry-go-round and a security guard that stares at you the whole time you're playing.  Wish I would have taken a picture of him. 

 

 

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the time this week that the tuk-tuk ran out of power when I was halfway home and had to make Buster steer while I pushed from behind with Cal strapped to my front.  But trust me, it was a sight!

 

Lots of more sights to see and adventures to be had!  Wish me luck and wish me a better attitude!

 

Love,

Kelli

Letter #2

For All Those Who Care:

I said I was going to write and write I will!  And I might just point out that it is 12:53 am at the moment here in China just to prove my tenacity.  This letter has been no easy task.  I have been thwarted on all sides: my lack of computer prowess and the reading of small print has led to my losing all the precious photos I have taken since our return to Beijing and the losing of my mind in the process of trying to retrieve them. The whole iCloud thing is so temptatiously confusing because I know the pictures are out there somewhere and if I were smart enough I could find them. Well, I have been trying to do so for the past 8 hours (off and on) and I have resigned myself to the fact that they are gone.  When you add my tendency to destroy all things digital to the unreliability of the Chinese Internet you have a recipe for disaster.  Thank goodness I had uploaded (is that the right term?) some pictures to Instagram so I am able to share with you a few things that went on this week.

Here is our new house Claire says "looks like a castle" (which I think might be because of the balconies or the dungeon-like basement) which means that either she has low expectations in life or she is quite optimistic.  We are still working on the quirks that all Chinese construction brings to a home so let me tell you it's far from being a castle.

 

But it has a great backyard complete with a peach tree that Alex was so excited to tell Papa about.

 

 Buster started preschool!! And he is loving it and giving us all a little bit of peace because the older kids don't start school until next week.  This has been the longest summer EVER!

And someone in our house just turned 1!!  Our celebration included waking him up from a jet-lagged-induced slumber, not bothering to change him into party clothes, shoving a lighted, over-sized, dilapidated cupcake in his face, and singing until he could take it no longer.  So those of you who have never seen our Angel Baby cry, here it is....

 

 

But happy or sad, poopy or pooped out -- we love this little guy!

And, boy, has he grown!!

 

Hope this finds you all well.  Until next week (where hopefully I have tales of how much I got done with the kids being in school).

 

Love,

Kelli



A Letter to You

I have done a terrible job keeping up with this whole blog thing.  My last post was in April!!  I have yet to write about any events in the last 4 months.  We have just arrived back in China from our 6 1/2 week vacation to the Land of the Free and the knowledge that we will not be returning as a family there for another whole year makes my lack of blog posting UNACCEPTABLE!  So while on the 12 hour flight to China (not the 2 hr 5 min flight to San Francisco, or the 2 1/2 hour layover, or on either of the rides to and from the airports that total almost 21 hours of travel time!!) I came up with an idea.  Yes, it's true, most of my well intentioned plans never see the light of day, but since I'm not going to be putting superhuman pressure on myself to fulfill this plan, then I think I just might be able to accomplish it.  And seeing that nowadays I consider cleaning a toilet a superhuman feat you will know I don't expect too much of myself.  So this is it: every Friday (or maybe Saturday, or if I've had a particularly busy week, maybe even an occasional Sunday) expect a letter from me.  Not a witty post of the crazy hijinks we find ourselves in while living in Beijing (although I plan on keeping that up too) but just a simple, sometimes deeply personal letter to those who care.  For all those who care what my little kookies said/did/accomplished/destroyed that week; for all those who care to see how the little ones change and the milestones they reach; for all those who care about my emotional rants about living abroad; for all those nanas and papas, marmies and bapas, the aunts, the occasional uncle, the cousins. and the friends that we can't believe we left behind -- these letters are for you!

For all those who care:

We made it back to Beijing! I am still tired from the flight and this blasted jet lag even though I religiously applied acupressure to myself every 2 hours as prescribed by an acquaintance's friend's in-laws' acupuncturist.  So I've been up since 4:00 am, the kids got up at 6 and I am currently breaking up fights brought on by extreme tiredness.  But at least it was a better night than the one before -- no one threw up:)

So let's answer the questions that I know you are dying to ask:

How was the flight?

Well, let's just say that I think we get better each time.  The kids, except for Alex, actually fell asleep this time.  And we were even more prepared with pre-downloaded movies on the Kindles, snacks that I am sad that we ate all of now that we are in a land where they don't exist, and the money we spent on the extra 3 inches of leg room was well spent.  Poor baby Calvin wasn't quite done with the food poisoning we all contracted on the trip back from Utah so I had to change 6 very smelly diapers in a very tight space.  But the kids were so good that I had a chance to read the last 3 chapters of the book I started a month ago and watch almost one complete movie of the 4 that United Airlines decided to show.  I am still dying to know how "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" ends.

How is our new home?

I am a little overwhelmed from all the things that need to be done here.  Even though I had someone to move all our stuff over, unpack the kitchen, put beds together, and organize our closets, the fact that we weren't able to keep all the furniture I hunted weeks for from our old house makes this an empty shell waiting to be filled.  Add the quirks from poor Chinese constructed homes and the repairs that were not made despite our insistence, and you get an atmosphere of a constant electrical charge of mild chaos.  But the space is really good and I love our complete finished basement that the kids spent all their time in yesterday and I couldn't hear a thing -- for better or for worse. 

What is on my to-do list?

Glad you asked.  Even though I said that the first thing I was going to do was spend a day (or at least half of it) at the spa, sadly, that is not possible.  Don't you feel sorry for me?  I have to hunt down someone to do all the repairs that were supposed to be done before we got here: a new shower head, no light in Claire's room, fix the trampoline that was set up wrong, get the outside of our house power-washed (if they even do that here) and move all the unwanted leftover furniture into some remote corner of the basement.  I have to set up the deliveries for water, for bread, and now that Cal has turned 1 and we don't really trust the local milk, I have to locate WonderMilk.  I have to figure out how we pay all of our utilities here in our new house before they automatically turn them all off. And I have to figure out how to celebrate Cal's birthday that we missed and Alex's birthday that he won't let us miss.  Maybe next week when one of my 4 kids starts school I will be able to sneak off and get my nails done. 

How was it coming back to our Ayi?

It was a glorious reunion and I'm glad to report that Baby Cal has ended his 6 week hunger strike and gobbled down a big bowl of blended up rice and broccoli beef -- YUM!  We are so lucky to have someone to take care of us!

If there are any more questions just let me know and I'll try and work it in to my next letter. 

Thanks to all those who made our trip to the states so memorable and worth it.  For those of you who we didn't get to see or didn't get enough time with we are so sorry.  We miss you all and so glad we get to share these adventures with you!

Love,
Kelli

The Lama Temple

It is a very rainy spring day and I am stuck here at home -- reluctant to make the 5 minute walk/2 minute tuk-tuk ride to the clubhouse gym just to get there drenched. And I REFUSE to ask my driver who is just waiting at the complex office (probably engrossed in a game of ping-pong with a fellow driver) for my call to take me there. Lately I have been spending my limited free time on the treadmill trying to work off the leftover-from-four-babies weight and the newly acquired Beijing pounds. Whoever said I would lose 10 pounds in 10 days just from being here was sooo wrong. No one factored in the amount of comfort food consumed in the adjustment period and the sheer delight one gets at just seeing anything HOMEmade American. The first time I was offered cinnamon rolls I ate three thinking I would never get the chance to eat them again. And I think I have even surprised myself on just how many OREOS I can eat in one sitting. (Chinese Oreos are widely available, affordable, and taste slightly different than the original -- oh know! I have become an expert!) I had to put myself on a no dessert diet for the whole month of March so I could reduce my dependency on anything overloaded with fattening, carb-filled sweetness. It was somewhat successful but now I'm addicted to dried fruit, which I didn't count as dessert, and I have discovered something that they call "coffee nuts" which is a very bad translation for the homemade slightly sweet and salty version of corn nuts. Delicious! So hence my new dedication to the gym. I haven't seen much of a change in my physique but it is very nice to weigh yourself in kilograms -- I haven't been just 2 digits since elementary school!

So here I am with some free time and thought this blog needed some updating. I haven't even finished our Spring Break trip account and April is almost over!! Okay here we go:

MONDAY:

In an effort to really feel like we were in China we decided to visit one of the many temples around. We went to the LAMA TEMPLE. (My kids were disappointed that there were no llamas thanks to their frequent watching of Go, Diego, Go!) Since it was during the Tomb Sweeping Holiday we had the added treat of seeing this still practicing temple all abuzz with the worship of the locals. Incense was being burned along with fake money and food was being offered up to the big golden statues of Buddha and other idols. Cory, who is a rule follower, obeyed the signs which warned against "filming" inside the temples even though I pointed out the many Westerners who gave no heed, so there are no pictures of the golden statues, the monks that guarded them, or the 26 meter high Buddha carved from one single sandalwood tree. Boooooo!

At the Lama Temple with lions and turtles

Kind of like at a carnival but without the prize, you throw coins and try to get them to land on the roof and you get your wish.  Ever an example of what not to do in a foreign country, Claire threw one rather ambitiously, missing the entire structure and hitting an innocent bystander in the face.

Can't you just smell that incense burning?

You could pay money to go inside the fence and strike the bell with a mallet 3 times for good luck.  We opted to stand really close and hopefully the luck would just hit us in the face!

Cory posing with 3 out of 4 kids on the OUTSIDE of one of the many temples.

The highlight of this trip came as rather an unfortunate accident.  I was standing nonchalantly watching the bell being rung and Alex came over to give me a hug.  He caught me off-guard and off- balance and down I went over a low fence that guarded a very old tree and landed flat on my back at the base of it still clutching Alex. The back of my leg is bruised from the impact of the fence 3 weeks later.  We don't have any documentation of that event but many a Chinese camera was pointed and flashing in my direction and I have a sneaking suspicion that it is a big hit on youku (the Chinese equivalent of youtube). Who wouldn't want to see a foreigner humiliate themselves in public?  I laughed and cried at the same time out of embarrassment and the pure humor of the situation.  At least that trip won't be forgotten.

Fortune Cookie Say:

Humor usually works at the moment of awkwardness

Spring has Sprung!!

Finally the days of bundling up in my down coat and winding my 45 foot wool scarf around my face are over!! Last weekend I went with some friends to an out of the way furniture market and got pelted with dust and fumes and all things that can be thrown around by a mighty wind that sounded like a train and one of the women looked at me and said "Welcome to Spring!" But as I look out my window this morning I see clear blue skies (thanks to the wind, the pollution has retreated for a while) and from my 3rd floor window I can see the magnolias and the cherry blossoms lightly swaying on some nearby trees. Quite fittingly in our backyard we only have dead trees growing along with the dead bushes with the perpetually dusty stone patio and fence that has a mangy, feral, born-white-but-is-now-environmentally-reduced-to-a-pale-gray cat slinking around our property. But at least I can enjoy the spring blossoms from afar. And as I've been told spring doesn't last long around here -- approximately 2 weeks of fair weather and then it turns unbearably, humidly hot. But all the stars have aligned and we are enjoying this weather as the kids are off for Spring Break, Cory has work off due to the Chinese National Tomb Sweeping Holiday, and it just happens to be my birthday week. So we have been using this time to get a little bit more acquainted with our new country.

SATURDAY:

The official Tomb Sweeping Day is Wednesday -- the day that all people should tend to the graves of their dearly departed ancestors -- but the holiday is observed Monday through Wednesday. But the government would never grant a superfluous 3 days off without requiring something in return. So people may have work off for 3 days but they are required to work the Saturday and Sunday prior to the holiday. Yes, ridiculous. So Cory had to work all of Saturday. I thought he was kidding about this until he woke up early on Saturday morning and headed off to work (in our basement, but with a huge, although invisible DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door.) Now what in the heck was I going to do with my 4 kids on a Saturday at the beginning of their Spring Break? My original idea of heading out to the city to enjoy some in-your-face culture was dashed. So what do you do with 4 kids that need to get out of the house? You go to the PARK! And what do you do when the wind is blowing so hard that you think it might lift your 7 month old baby away if you stay outside for too long? You go to the play area at the mall! (I know this from many a hot summer afternoon spent play-area hopping in Arizona.) And what do you do when the Chinese equivalent is an eclectic assortment of rundown toys that would never pass an American safety test? Well, you go of course! Too bad I found out they charged a whopping 60 RMB (the equivalent of about $10) per child after I had raised the hopes of my too-bored-for-home kids. In they went and we had a surprising good time.

Fortune Cookie say:

Spring is sprung. Life is blooming!