A proud moment

Often times being a parent is HARD! You feel like you spend all of your time feeding and cleaning them and they still complain and whine. You really wonder when you will have time for the important stuff you should be teaching them when you are just trying to get them to keep things out of their mouths and noses.
Then there are those moments that make your heart swell with pride! And you realize that maybe, just maybe some of the important things are getting through.

I had one of those moments the other day. I was cleaning up the desk in the office/school room. I found this index card.

Hallie got a bracelet for Christmas that has a locket on it. The card with the bracelet says you should write a prayer and place it in the locket. This what Hallie wrote, but she could not fold the index card small enough to go in the locket. I guess we will have to help her with that. I think this prayer from an 8 year old could be one all of us could pray! Just thought I would share. Now I have faces to wash!

Christmas Party Chinese style

We had several parties we attended this holiday season. This one was a lot of fun. It was hosted by the local Family at a school for autistic children. The party went on for hours and hours. It began around 3 in the afternoon and we left about 8pm! They really enjoy fellowshiping with each other. It was well planned and everyone had a good time.

What party would be without making Jaozi ( or Chinese dumplings) You make them, then you get to eat them! yummy!!

They asked Jon to dress as Santa. This costume was not that great. We are thinking about investing in a good suit, that he can use for years to come.

no party would be a party with out people singing!

During the entertainment these guys sat watching a DVD wearing flashing hats! They cracked me up!

At the very end we played "dirty Santa" Oh, so much fun. I can't wait to go back next year!

making ornaments and building relationships

Even before I came to China I had wanted to have an ornament party during the holidays. Things were pretty crazy and I almost did not have one, but I did go ahead and plan one. This was my first time doing something like this, so I kept it small and simple. I invited two students that are apart of the student fellowship and then two students that I would like to influence. One girl could not make it so I only had 3 come. We had cookies and hot chocolate and I taught them to make a simple ornament from paper strips. We listened to Christmas music as we worked. I was worried that things would get too loud. Ha Ha. They were concentrating so hard. Everyone ended up making two ornaments. I will definitely do this again next year. I may even have more than one of these parties. Everyone seemed to have a good time.



everyone hard at work.... The finished products!

Happy Hallie

I mentioned that Hallie was much happier in the thanksgiving list. I thought I would elaborate. She was not really unhappy to be in China, but sometimes she thought she was. When she was very tired and something happened, she would sometimes say “I wish we were back in America”. Sometimes she would complain and say she missed America. It was starting to rub off on the other kids too. She was not like that all the time, most of the time she was a normal 8 year old girl (that lives in a foreign country). We had to talk to her about her attitude and how important it was that she at least seem happy.
Thanksgiving Day was hard on her. She cried because she missed the Annual Hardin Thanksgiving breakfast (never mind that they did not do breakfast this year). We have had to talk to all of the kids about not dwelling on what we don’t have or are missing, but being thankful for what we DO have. Sometime after that she had a turning point. When we had our Thanksgiving celebration, she said that it was a “great Thanksgiving”, (it might have had something to do with the 5 rice crispy treats she ate).
She has two friends now. One I already told you about, and the other I will write about in another entry.
The other day on the bus, some students asked if she liked China, and she said yes! Before she would only say, it was ok. She says now she is used to China. We are very thankful that she (and the other kids) are adjusting and feeling “at home”.

A picture of Hallie and her friend

This is a picture of Hallie and her new friend. Her English name is Vanessa and even though she is a month younger than Hallie is is a good head taller than her. They had (or at least Hallie did) a good time this past Wed. during English corner. I hope they can spend even more time together.

An answer!

I have been asking all of you to remember several specific things. One is that Hallie wants a friend. There are times that she really does feel lonely. This past Wednesday night we went to the required weekly event, "English corner". Sometimes the kids really like this time, but lately Hallie has really dreaded it.
The teacher in charge of English corner was there that night and she had her daughter with her! Her daughter is only about a month or so younger than Hallie. She stayed and they played together. There were a few awkward moments, but they managed to find a few games that they could play without really talking. I tell you, it was so great to hear Hallie laughing and giggling with a friend!

They just moved to an apartment close to campus. Michelle said her daughter has been feeling a little lonely too because most of her friends are in the city. She invited Hallie to come and play with her sometime. I really hope this works out. It really seems like an answer to a prayer!

Also we will probably do something with a nearby school and our kids will be able to participate too. He is really REALLY good!

I got tagged! I am supposed to pick out the 4th folder of pics, the 4th pic. and then tell 4 things about it. Did you know that in China the number 4 is bad luck? Seriously...the word for 4 (su) sounds like the word for "death" (which I don't know). But I will do it anyway....

1. Hallie took this picture with her camera.

2. This is Piper Harris and Eryn

3. This was taken at a send off party in Milan before we left the US

4. Piper is the one person that Eryn keeps saying she misses!

I am not sure if I can tag anyone else...like Steph I don't have that many folks on my list.

Sunday we had our church Thanksgiving meal. We planned it for Sunday because most of us have classes on Thursday and Friday. Saturday, we went with the ……on a trip down the Grand Canal. We did not even try to find a turkey this year. We figured that goose and Chicken would be much easier. We did need to find a place to cook the goose because our oven would NOT be big enough. Jon took a student and arranged for a restaurant to bake the goose. Sunday morning dawned and Jon went to the market to get the goose. Yes, it was alive when he picked it out, but they did butcher, pluck, and clean it for him. Then he took the goose (head and feet connected) to the restaurant. However, they said that it was too big to fit in their oven too! We got someone to help us and they ended up frying the goose for us. They did have to chop it in half first. We also ordered some chickens from that restaurant. The meat was really delicious. I made corn bread dressing, rice crispy treats (no leftovers) and chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies. Cecily made red jello salad, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pies (yum yum). The Beamons ( a family that lives in the north of the city and worships with us) brought green beans, corn, and mashed potatoes. Josh and Yan brought the drinks and some Chinese short ribs. There were no left-overs there either! After the meal we sat around and drank some hot cider and nibbled on desserts before and after our regular Sunday meeting.
This all sounds normal and not that amazing, but to us a large real Western meal is a huge treat!

Hallie said that it was a great Thanksgiving! ( she did eat FIVE rice crispy treats!)

We are thankful that we are in China but we are also thankful for a taste of home.

The spread of food!

The meat, chicken and goose!

Desserts!

Pumpkin pie

chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies

rice crispy treats (covered)

One hundred days!

We have been in China 100 days now. It is a little strange that I know that, but I counted it! Does it seem that long?
Not long after we arrived, I was chatting with the kids and somehow 100 days came up. Some schools have a special day when they have been in school 100 days, so I thought it might be fun to plan something special for our 100th day in China. I counted on my calendar and today Friday, November 28, 2008 is the 100th day since our arrival. I had plans to do a bunch of things today, but with my teaching schedule the only thing we did was count 100 chocolate chips and put them in cookies. We also stirred the batter 100 times. The kids wish that they could eat 100 cookies. Maybe we should count another 100 and have another celebration again in the spring.

Rats!

I am pretty scared of rats. In the past I have had nightmares after hearing people just talk about rats. Why anyone would want one for a pet was beyond me. When I lived in China 10 years ago, I would occasionally see one, alive or dead. I did not like it, but I did start to get over my fear and was just thankful that they were outside and not in our building. Since being in Hangzhou, I have not seen a rat. I am sure they are here, but I have not seen one. We live next to one of the school cafeterias, but there are often cats and even sometimes some dogs that hang out after dark. I am thankful that I have not seen one. I might scare the kids if I screamed.

We have been preparing for winter around here. Jon has been plugging holes and drafts and things like that. He said that he needed to find steel wool. We were looking for something like that in the store and I mentioned not seeing any rats or mice. Then Jon admitted that the other day he heard a noise in the kitchen. When he went in the kitchen, he caught sight of a tail! The tail was disappearing through the hole that the washing machine drains. (the machine that we rarely use, since we use the one in the other “kitchen”) The hole is larger than the drain pipe, and we know that mice and rats can fit into very small areas. Jon plugged the hole with some aluminum foil, but that didn’t do any good.

Well, I am sure you can guess what is coming…

A couple of nights ago, I heard a noise and thought that one of the kids was up. I got up to check on them, but everyone was sound asleep. I kept hearing the noise, and could not go back to sleep. The door to the kitchen was closed (thankfully). I knew that I was hearing a mouse or rat. Now, often people will call mice “rats”, but do you know the difference? Mice are tiny, and rats are NOT tiny.

There was no way I was going to go into the kitchen! Finally I thought that the critter was on the counter (it wasn’t, but I thought it was). That was when I woke Jon up. He made some noises at the door and then went into the kitchen. He wanted it to run away so he could plug the hole and have it trapped in our kitchen. It worked. We figured out that it was indeed a rat!

How do we know? Well, because it got into my Pop Tarts! Yes, I know that mice probably like Pop Tarts too, but could they get a package off a shelf and then drag it all the way across the floor? The rat ate about half of a package of chocolate Pop Tarts, one bite from a brown sugar Pop Tart and part of an apple. I really hope that it had a bellyache!

Jon plugged the hole at about 4 am, and so far we have not seen or heard anything.

When we were at a large store the other day, Jon thought that he would ask about traps or rat poison. We have an electronic translator feature to our cell phones, so he typed in “rat” and then made some gestures like a trap and then dead (drawing his finger across his throat and then sticking his tongue out) to a store worker. Without much hesitation she pointed to the large cleavers and knives! We all laughed at that, and then she told us she did not think that they had anything like that. I am sure we can find some thing else, but in the meantime, my Pop Tarts are in a locked container!