#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