the most wonderful time of the year...

The most wonderful time of the year IS Christmas, if you ask me, but now that it's cold and almost Luke's birthday and Thanksgiving and everything, I keep thinking that we have entered my favorite two months of the whole year!!! Johnny has stayed up a couple of nights to watch a football game, I have transitioned into warm drink heaven, and it's just generally a wonderful time of year. If we could travel to the mountains and see pretty changing leaves, it would be PERFECT!!

And in case you think we have to miss out on ALL of the fun fall festivities that happen in the states (well, we do miss a lot), there is one thing we have not missed---crafts and Halloween dress up!! Yesterday Luke got to miss school because of a craft day--he got to make 3 paper crafts (that turned out so very cute, in my opinion), got to decorate cookies, AND trick or treat for candy!! He was in heaven, since he loves to make stuff so much (and eat candy so much)!!

Here is our little dinosaur (after decorating cookies, I might add, in case you can see the white icing on his belly)...

And I have been up to my eyeballs in homemade circus party stuff. Here's a picture of the invitation (inspired by invitations from Hobby Lobby--we can't get stuff like that here, too much) :

And the practice caramel apples. We can't buy caramels here, but I found a recipe for homemade caramel apples on one of Luke's Mickey Mouse DVDs. Really easy--I can't believe we haven't made them before!!

Love from us, Shannon

what we've been doing lately

It's been a while since we posted anything, but we have been busy in the meantime.

Johnny finished some bunk beds for the boys. And as of today, we may have to move Jace into the bottom bunk--he climbed out of his crib and bumped his head on the floor. So it's pretty good he has a little home to move into.

the tent is finished now (we don't have a recent photo) and there is a leaf banner hanging up between bunks, just to accent that it's supposed to be a fun tree house bunk bed...

We have been about town in our bikes and bike trailers. So fun, and it makes it easy for me to get around a really big city. I went downtown one day and bought an 11 pound block of cheese (it is so much cheaper that way), and then felt pretty good about myself riding 15-20 miles on the bike with the boys. We call it the "swagger wagon--Asia style". Another such outing: the track at the university where Jace got to play soccer for a while. He was so happy. And there's Luke up in the tree!

We, as always, have also been eating lots of hot pot/stick pot. Some pictures of the boiling pot of spice as well as the sticks that have fish and lotus root. Just some fun things that we don't see in the west too much...

hot pot from our favorite restaurant. It's still in the solid state before it's boiled...yummy!

fish on a stick--anyone? Luke LOVES this!!!

lotus root

We have all been planning and working on projects for Luke's birthday party next Saturday. He wanted a circus party, so that's what he's getting--a circus/carnival. The party IS his birthday present for the most part!! Tonight, actually, Johnny is working on a PLINKO board for the party. Pretty awesome. I kinda want to play carnival games every day right now...

And, in case you're wondering, we're going to have the party in the morning, and then we'll have our bi-monthly game night and use the carnival games as the games for game night. So we'll have young and old, locals and whiteys all playing carnival games in one room. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!!

Also today, Luke's preschool had a program for moms and dads to go crazy taking pictures of their kids at. It was a bit of a cultural experience, since there was no order to the parents and their picture taking. Johnny got a few snippets of video, but I feel that there is no way to capture the experience if you're not feeling the pushes firsthand. But here's a couple of pictures that try to capture the experience. Sorry for the grainy-ness of the pictures--it's been really hazy here the past two days.

This is only one of four sides of parents literally crowding around to see/photograph their child

Can you find Luke? He's the one with yellow hair...

Doing their morning exercises (dances)

So, coming up, we plan to travel south (actually not one of our official areas, but...) to visit one of Johnny's best friends--we really hope to just connect with him there so that we can know his mom and family and friends and the place where he lives. It's not like we're going to be toughing it too much, though, it seems. There is rock climbing and caving and bamboo forests and lots of other stuff to explore down there. The weekend may go really fast!!

And, of course, there will be pictures from next week's circus shindig coming!

one day in tower town

Last week was a huge holiday here in this country--National Day. So we thought since Johnny is out of school, it would be a good time to travel. Plus, our friend was here in town and he wanted to travel to tower town to visit some of his classmates from college, so we tagged along with him.However, on our way we got a call from adoctor who was concerned about Luke. Luke (on Thursday night--3 days before) had fallen from bunk beds, bumped the top of his head, and then woke up the next morning with a black eye. So the dr. was concerned about the black eye appearing without him hitting his eye. We were about 9 hours away from home and had to really think about what to do. So we didn't turn right back around, but we did cut the trip short.

We got one full day in our land of towers that we've talked about before. And we got to meet some new folks that we fell in love with: Jordan's classmate and her mom. They took good care of us, feeding us lots of yummy meat and serving lots and lots of butter tea. And when we weren't eating with them, we were playing. We went

up to this farm that has a place to stay and let the boys play in the cornfield for a couple of hours, and then we went to the actual place that has all the really old, really tall towers. Who knew playing in a corn field could be so much fun? That was definitely the highlight of the boys' day!

So here are some pictures:

At their store in the mountains. We bought a leather wallet and two embroidered headpieces that I want to cut, sew together, and frame. They are like what the Mama is wearing on her head except white and hand-sewn.

L and Daddy were making a video in the cornstalks

Just the fam

Playing in the cornfield in the mud. Hours of entertainment!!

New and old friends are awesome!

the mundane

Sometimes it's hard to write blogs because we do so much of the same things every day. Class, take the boys outside, try to go to the market or grocery store while Johnny's home with the boys, cook, clean (sometimes--although our house helper really does most of that)...

And that's really where we are right now. Johnny just started class at the university with a new teacher--we hope it's a good relationship. Luke is in preschool, and while he doesn't love going every day, he comes home saying something new in Chinese every day. Today it is, "I love you" (wo ai ni)...It's all good stuff!!

So today's post is all about three of our favorite places:

For Johnny it's the construction market that we found a week and a half ago. See, where we live the philosophy for business is a bit different--instead of spreading out and putting a store that sells, say, wood, the locals like to put ALL the stores that sell wood all in a row. Same for lights and other things. There's a section of town that is known as the construction market. And there are rows and rows of little shops that sell wood, and wood cut outs and door handles/bathroom fixtures, paint, etc. We've heard about this market for years now and never known where it is--so we looked for it Saturday before last and FOUND it! We drove in and it was like angels were singing soprano notes behind us--it is Johnny's new candy shop (figuratively speaking)!! We bought wood cut outs for behind our couch (it has been sorely in need of SOMEthing for a while!) and wood for Johnny to build bunk beds for the boys. So he's had this really fun project to do in his spare time (which has become less now that classes have started).

The second place is in the same section of town, nowhere near where we live (which is good because if I lived near there I would go every SINGLE day, I think). It's called the wholesale market. And it's not like a market like we're used to in the states. I think it covers almost a half of a square mile or something like that. I can buy fabric, crafty stuff, stuff for the house, jewelry, clothes, toys, school supplies, and if I wanted to buy 10 pairs of the same shoes, I could buy them wholesale there...It's MY wonderland. And everything is CHEAP. Like I bought LOTS of material for a tent I want to make for Luke's circus birthday party he wants to have 6 weeks from now. I needed about 15 meters and got it for 6 bucks. I love it. I even try to think of what I need from there next. Right now my list includes cheap toys for prizes for the birthday party and some bead necklaces...I wish we could take everyone to shop at the wholesale market...

And, last but not least, the other favorite part of town is the IKEA section of town. Where there's an IKEA, and import store, and a sports store that sells everything sports related except, alas, American footballs. We go there sometimes just to get coffee (it's so cheap from IKEA) and cheap candles--it's mostly an excuse to sort of escape and be somewhere clean with a whole separate room for changing babies (it's a little taste of comfort sometimes).

So, those are three of our favorite places in town, not to mention the massage place and the Indian restaurant and the place that does awesome pedicures for a little over 2 dollars. I guess they would have to be the honorable mentions. Simple pleasures go a long way! I'll add pictures next time I post--I don't have any as of now.

new adventures in the ol' city

Luke is in preschool. And he loves it and hates it, all at the same time. He woke up really early this morning to go to school, but then he kept saying, 'I want to hang with Mommy and Daddy...' It'll be interesting to see how it went today!

We had a new experience, in that we looked for the pres

chool with a former house helper. She had scouted the preschools that weren't completely full for the year (apparently we were a month late in the hunt--surprise surprise), and we went to look for schools and then ate us some hot pot. Now

, to some people hot pot is a boiling pot of spice and yuck. But we love hot pot. And we enjoyed eating the meal, but then when it got time to pay, it got ugly a little bit. It's often a bit of a fight to pay when we are out with our local friends. But this time, there was pushing (Johnny got pushed pretty hard at some points) and arms were flying. We got to pay, but Johnny said that next time, we'll just let our da jie pay!!!

But, nonetheless, we found an awesome preschool that has puppet shows and lots of art projects, and the kids learn to dance, and they play with

blocks and all sorts of fun stuff. So, we feel like it's a successful venture! We are excited (and a little

sad) that Luke has the opportunity to learn the language here. He wants to so badly!

We'll leave it at that and just post some recent pictures of the boys!

The boys were watching t.v. together and we caught a rare picture where both are smiling!

Luke is riding his bike in the mountains. Just in front of our hotel. (We had an awesome view)

Jace gets to cruise in the Jeep while Luke is riding his bike. Someday soon he'll be riding, too!

Tower town

One of our favorite places to go right now is this place called Danba. It's really so pretty, and the leaves turn in the fall and it's been sunny every day except one that we've been there, so it's pretty much charmed its way into our hearts. The best thing about DB is that the houses there have these really cool towers that come out of the houses--it's kinda medieval looking, and we think it would be so cool to have kids in a house like that. Can you imagine being a girl growing up in the tower room? Anyway, welike it there.

So, when the road collapsed and they made u

s close the guesthouse, we took an overnight trip to DB. We drove our friend there as a favor to him, and we also stayed in a hotel and took a much needed shower, and just enjoyed being in the sunshine. When we were getting out of our car (we had been there less than a minute), we met some really cool folks who were in their early 20s, and they saw us getting out of the car, saw the white boys, and then took about a bazillion pictures of the boys (totally common). We were chitchatting with them and found out they are dancers, and that they dance sometimes in the hotel where we stay. So, me being a big lover of dance performances, we asked if we could see them dance sometime. Coincidentally, they WERE dancing that night, so we made plans to see the

m. We were excited to have a contact in this place that we really like!

Next we walked around and talked to pretty much everyone in town, it seemed like, as we looked for a place to eat a late lunch/early dinner. We were invited to sit down with some older ladies all dressed in their really cool garb, so we sat and talked and ate popsicles.

After we ate, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the big dance show (we were thinking something kinda like a nightclub performance or the like). Then, both boys bathed, full, and ready to go, we traipsed down to

meet our dancer friends. They took us upstairs to a theater/stage that looked really professional and told us to wait a few minutes. So, we're having to totally adjust our thoughts of what this performance will be like.

About an hour and a half later, the dancing starts...and it's this really awesome show (see the picture to the left). We were so excited about it, we pulled out our video camera to try to record the show for everyone to see. And here's where our cultural experience starts. See, we weren't the only ones invited to the show--there were also some guys who are probably really important who were sitting in the first row. And they came in late and really drunk, and as soon as the show started, they wanted to stand up and start talking and taking video right in front of Johnny as he was videoing. After a few songs, they decided to join the dancers right on stage and dance with them and laugh and have a great time. We were really uncomfortable with the whole experience and left early, but we do hope to see our new friends soon!!

We get to experience new experiences every day, almost, but this was something that we'd never experienced before, and may never experience again. It was a really fun, beautiful trip, and we hope to get to go back in early October during the big national holiday here...

the road collapsed...

We were driving out to the mountains last Monday (we are still here), and I was thinking while we were driving how normal everything seems here now. Things that used to feel so weird are so ordinary. I think we thought we would never get used to them! Such as the delays that happen every time we travel (lots of landslides and road construction), and the odd "semi" trucks that look more like huge blue dump trucks, and the crazy way people pass each other--even if they are on a crazy sharp mountain curve, etc. Anyway, the point is, it's all become somewhat normal--we don't really think twice anymore about the stares and the dirt and everything here.

So, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that we were going to get to have an adventure two days after arriving at the guesthouse. We got everything set up--it's nice because we have room to spread out and put out the crib and mat on the floor for the boys in sorta separate rooms from Johnny and I. And we were in for the week and a half/two weeks that we were supposed to help out here. Our second full day in the guesthouse, the boys and I walked down the mountain--we do that every day for supplies (if I get too many in one run, I can't carry them back up by myself). But our little neighbor saw us leaving and pointed out this area of the road that had a huge crack in it and said, basically, 'be really careful--walk fast and get back in a hurry!' So we did. We just got our daily drinks, fruit, and yogurt and got back up the mountain. Next thing, the power went out because the village officials were concerned about the power line that was in the middle of this cracked road. Not to0 unusual, and the boys and I like playing outside anyway, so we went for a while to play with the dog that's downstairs, and suddenly, a crowd had gathered at the road--also not too unusual here. BUT then the crack got bigger as the road fell down the mountain...

So we had all sorts of folks coming into the guesthouse telling us to evacuate--it wasn't safe. Too many landslides. We had to get everyone out, including ourselves . Picture a really well dressed woman standing in front of our bar and saying over and over again, "you have to get out. It isn't safe. You can't stay. It isn't safe." So we stayed two nights with our friends. It's defini

tely something different than we have ever experienced before!

And they absolutely won't let the guesthouse open, since there's too much danger of foreigners being caught in a landslide.

Notice the electric pole--it used to be in the middle of the road, and even though it's hard to see, it has completely fallen over!

The picture below was taken the day after the collapse (the guesthouse is the cute house on the left). All the dirt showing under the houses used to be road--I wish we had a before picture but we don't. They aren't letting anyone open the guesthouse for a while. We took the opportunity to take our friend

up north 4 hours and spent the night in one of our areas--that was really fun, but it will be fodder for another post.

Since all the excitement happened, we have been shuffling around from friends' apartments to hotels. And while we have been enjoying our time here, it is about time for us to get home and get showers and clean clothes and into different rooms to sleep.

Classes should start next Monday or the one after, and it sounds nice to be in a routine--our poor boys are really tired and we think they're ready for a bit of normalcy again...

It really is always an adventure around here--even just when I think everything seems normal...