Our Computer is on Vacation as We Prepare for Ours!!

Where have I been? Well I've got all the pictures to explode at you when our computer gets fixed. Argh! I hope everything gets uploaded before we leave this weekend... we'll need the storage on the camera because... DRUM ROLL (please):

TIM, THE BOYS AND I ARE GOING ON OUR FIRST EVER VACATION SINCE OUR HONEYMOON RIGHT AFTER WE GOT MARRIED!!!!!

We are so stoked! In the past have used every vacation dime to visit family (regardless if they visit us-- we love being with them, what can we say?!). So we have never once ventured out in the past 6 1/2 years to go anywhere except for Utah to see the Caltons twice a year, or to the westcoast to visit the Grannnis family once a year. Well, all except we once stayed in a fancy hotel for two nights in Denver over this last Christmas (half hour away from our house). We like to claim that one.

So wish us luck! And get some good rest, b/c you'll soon get over-loaded with pictures:).

PS. Katy and Erin I'm so excited to do your blogs... as soon as my computer with all my scrapbook papers gets fixed! I love doing this, so thanks for letting me :).

Stampin' It Up

Hunter and his Stampin' Up project.


Tanner getting the hang of it.


I was making Baby Shower stuff, and the boys wanted to help. This is a cute set on of my closest friends (Lisa Kochevar) got me before Tanner was born. I love this set, and have used it a million times... even though I didn't end up using it for my own birth announcements, LOL! Lisa was one of the first people I told when I found out we were expecting our little Tann Man. Miss ya Lis!

Hunter had it down. Loved it.


Tanner was outraged! He was so stinkin' frustrated and mad at the stamps. He didn't get why sometimes the stamp would make the color on paper and sometimes wouldn't.

Here he is still growling. I spent a good amount of time showing him how to impress the stamp into the stamp pad at no avail. He had just decided to be upset regardless. He is sooo funny when he's mad. His mouth looks like he's smiling and he stiffens his body and makes a loud "EEEEEEEE!!!!" growl sound through his teeth! It's hard for us to take him serious, which I'm sure spurs it on.

Hunter at School

I truly believe I hit a goldmine of a school! I could list 100's of reasons why I love Hunter's little private Chinese school. One being... they put the menu on a display case in the front foyer so you know what your child ate that day. They have around 6-8 things for them to eat! It's like a resturant. Okay, not really. But still.

Here's other things I love:

The kids laugh and chatter all day. I volunteer at the school (I paint) so I could listen in on the action. And sometimes I sneak by just to spy. They are always laughing and having a good time.

Each student swipes a card coming in and going out for attendance. Unless you have your student's card, they don't send your child home with you (they aren't strict with me or the other foreign parents though-- we forget sometimes).

Here are two of our 4 friends from are neighborhood that go to this school.

One of my favorites! Outside of each classroom there is one of these things. It has the name of each student, and having a card in the pocket represents that they are in that class. You don't see Hunter's name, b/c I had them switch it to Chinese instead of English.

Even better... when they come into the school building, they first have to wash their hands at one of the outdoor hand washing booths. Then each one of them has to be checked by the nurse at the door. If the child is 100% healthy, they are given a red plastick card to put in their little pocket (above). If the child needs a certain kind of attention (take medecine etc), they are given a different color depending on the status of the child.

And they change their shoes from outdoor to indoor shoes.

GOT MILK?! Uh... keep it.

I approached this man at the grocery market (shocked that the milk was even still being sold!!). I asked him (in Chinese) "didn't you know this milk has plastic in it?" He gave me a funny look and responded "no, they use the plastic on the container, not inside!!"

I felt bad that first of all, the milk was still being sold. Secondly, that not all of the local population knew!

This is what we were advised, by the US embassy to drink. Boxed milk.

So, I only bought the milk without Chinese characters on it, though they all claim to be imported.

I digress... They have these really cool escalators in the grocery store. They are flat, and the shopping cart wheels click into the grooves, so the carts stay stationary. Genius, eh?

Oh, and on a light note as well... China is trying to clean up their air pollution and "go green". Plastic bags are no longer free (though you can buy them if you'd like). Cool idea! So everyone brings their reusable bags when they go buy their boxed milk and diapers etc. Except flighty blondies as pictured above. Me.

That's one Shuai Car

Most Expats that have families have a Buick mini-van. It's considered a luxury imported vehicle here in China. They usually ALL are Navy, Silver, or light blue.

Except this one. And every time our driver passes it on the road, he shakes his head in envy and says "Shuai Che".

Shuai Che translates to:
"Handsome Car".

I told him I'd put in a word for him to Tim.

The Gals

Okay, so this is the part where I crack up. It's a joke that we run a Bed and Breakfast for these housekeepers. We help them find jobs with good American families. The tallest one is Holly, she was our favorite housekeeper, and now runs a housekeeper agency (wonder where that idea came from ?!).

Remember sweet little Zhenli? She's getting big. That's a dress I gave her. When the chinese babies hair start to grow out, they shave it. Zhenli's is just starting to grow out.
They come on foot, bike, scooter... One time I saw 4 of these rusty bikes/scooters outside of our house. They love it here. It's like the hang-out, lol! We have a guest room they all congregate in and chat. But we still miss Holly. Luckily she opened her agency just a couple miles away, she said she didn't want to be too far from home :).

My Hunk @ Work

Tim goes out of town a decent amount now-a-days. He came back with these pictures. I think he said this was the first ever GM vehicle in China. Unfortunately, he's out of town now (He left, came home for 2 days, and is gone again) so we'll have to wait for him to comment with any details:). We love our hard-working hunk!

We Went to The Olympics!!

We saw the Bronze Metal Game here in ShangHai. We loved it. The people even tried to do the wave! Tim was kind enough to get our driver a ticket too.

We had a date at Tony Roma's first... nothing like occasional American food.


They look like a 12 year-olds, don't they?!


Tim wanted me to sneak a picture of the Brazilian family sitting next to him. Funny how we've totally become like the locals. They are always sneaking photos of us Americans.


They had these huge statues around the outside of the building of all kinds of sporting events. I loved this one of female archery, and couldn't help but to think of She-ra (think He-man's main squeeze).


This is a picture of the streets. It didn't turn out all that well, it was dark out. But if you look closely, there are guards about every 25 feet. They stood incredibly still, their fingers stiff and flush to the side of their perfectly pressed uniforms. They looked ready to act at any moment of hostility! Pretty intense!


Another picture Tim wanted... of all the Chinese people exiting the building. So you can imagine how foreigners stand out in a crowd.

Tanner and Mickey

Hunter really is a super big brother. He is also a sweet talker. He always tells me "Mommy, you're the prettiest princess Mommy ever!" "Mommy, I love you so much!" "Mommy, do you know why I picked up my Starwars toys? It's just 'cause I love you so much!" He loves to sneak up to me and give me a kiss, and whisper the above. It sure is great. And I think Tanner is picking up on this sweetness too.


We recently went to a Birthday Party (for Ian, who is Lara's son, they live across the street). We saw Mickey mouse there... but with a Minnie mouse head. It's all good. Tanner was seriously star struck. He couldn't move away from Mickey/Minnie.

He was right next to Mickey's legs forever. It was a hoot. Enjoy the below pictures. LOL.


Tann has seen some old school Mickey Mouse movies here in ShangHai. He even calls him "Mi Lao Shu!" (Chinese for Mickey Mouse).

And of course, Mickey needs a hug. A really long one. One that would make it hard for Mickey to walk. Oh how I love to have little waist high children to love. I love knee high hugs when I'm in the middle of doing something. I don't know if Mickey knew how lucky he really was to have knee hugs from my little guy.

Jack and Paula...

Bring back memories??

A Korean Experience

Today Tracey and I joined my neighbors Lara and Jonna for a Korean Lunch. Lara (in green, and is having her SECOND overseas baby!! And nevermind that most of Tracey's are born overseas-- these daring women!), lived in Korea for 4 years and is pretty much fluent. She ordered some of the best food I've ever ever ever had. I never knew I'd like Korean food!!

Here we all are sitting on mats on the floor. I cannot describe how AMAZING the food really was. Tanner ate more than I've seen him eat in months. Tracey (top right) brought Dorothy and she played with Tanner. Jonna is front right.


Tanner and Dorothy found a little Korean friend to play with.


Tanner loving Dorothy.

Tanner loving Dorothy more. Tanner has a really soft heart. He is VERY active and doesn't sit much. He's the kind of toddler that likes to dump things out, but man is he a softy. We've had a blast together, one on one, but we've also missed Hunter. Those boys love each other. The other day I was talking with Hunter while he was in timeout, and reminding him to be respectful and say "yes mommy" (from the book PreschoolWise). For the whole week, every time Tanner gets a time out, he tears up and says "yes mommy" (totally out of context, but so cute).

Dorothy loves Tanner too.
Today, Tanner sat on Dorothy's mat. She wanted him to give it back. Then I told him to give it to her, so he went chasing after her to give it back. She was a bit startled by his abruptness. And gave her mom a sweet hug. Then I told Tanner to give Dorothy a hug. He started telling her sorry. It was a good mom moment. But what my friends don't know is that Tanner thinks Sorry is another word for Hug. Just like "Yes Mommy" is a way to get out of time out sooner. What a sweetheart. And Dorothy is such a good little girl. She was so cute, she was unfolding napkins and placing them on her and her mom's chest and saying they were swimsuits.


Purple rice. In Korea they grow purple rice. You only have to put in about 20% of it mixed with 80% white rice, and it comes out this color. Purple rice is said to have more anti-oxidants than red wine. This was a fun mixture of corn, beans, sweet potato, rice, and even Ginko (which resembled a white sweet fruit like thing about the size of an almond).

Con-Artist Translating Services

On Wednesday, I got a call from Lara, my neighbor, asking to translate for some guys that were at her door. They said they were from a telephone company and the rest she couldn't understand. So I came and translated. They were offering a killer deal to upgrade her phone service package. I translated for her. Lara laughed because she had a laundry list of vital things in the house to be fixed by the Landlord and here an upgraded telephone service at her door?? She politely had me translate something along the lines of "the phone doesn't work properly here either, why would I upgrade?" We also informed the two men (dressed in some sort of a workers uniform) that they would have to go through the front office. They gave us some uncomfortable looks when we said Front Office. I remembered that part.

Five days later our new Ayi (Ayi means housekeeper. Everyone in China has some sort of housekeeper) tells me what she hears from our security guard. There were some Con-artists going door to door in uniforms conning people into giving them money. This was 10 days ago, looks like they were making another round in our neighborhood.

So, yes, I translated for Con-artists. For free.

Luckily Lara was smart.

I was really interested in their package...

Chinese Babies

Aren't they adorable, all bundled up?! Who wouldn't want to have one to love ?!

So, as you all know, we are so ecstatic for our upcoming adoption, our dossier is already in and as soon as our local clearance is done, we will be in the waiting phase. So my big dream is to have the twins/baby by next Christmas. Wouldn't that be great.

Now before I go on, let me first say Holly (the old housekeeper/Ayi) is now starting a Housekeeper Agency. I'm so excited for her, I encouraged her to do this-- she's gonna BANK. So our new housekeeper comes in the afternoon and also makes us Chinese dinners, can't argue with that, right? Then she told us of her Sister-in-Law who's family members are earthquake victims. So I hired her for a couple of hours in the mornings. Then I find out she has a 6 month old baby. Culturally, around this age, the moms will send their babies to their parents or in-laws to raise while they work. I knew she loved her daughter, so I asked her how much she would have to make in order to keep the baby here (by the way, she brings the baby to work, it's great practice for Tanner to have a baby around the house other than him).

On with my story:
Then one night, a few Ayis were hanging out at our house (I love it when they stop by--reminder, only one is being paid to be here at any given time, see "***" below). They were just chatting and having fun being together. The Sichuan Ayi was chatting with the others while I played with her baby, ZhenLi-- the cutest little Chinese girl ever.

Then they tell me this. Hold on to your chair while you hear this. Don't tell me I didn't warn you...

"Suzanne, you want to adopt right? And you said the baby was going to be 6 months, right? Why don't you just take ZhenLi? She really likes you." And then followed by some other persuasive words.

Deer in headlights. I know they are not offering a baby to me?!! UNREAL.

I immediately handed ZhenLi over to the arms of the woman who loved her best. The mother who would lay down her life for this armful of one of God's finest creations--sweet little ZhenLi. I shared with them that nobody could ever love ZhenLi more than her mother, and her mother had everything in her to make ZhenLi's life exactly as it's blessed to be. ZhenLi's mother was sweet and kind and rolled with the conversation-- as if giving her baby to another family was an okay conversation for her friends to be having. I could tell that perhaps this was a conversation she'd heard before from her fellow roommates/family members.

But the next morning when the house was empty except for her, ZhenLi and I, she told me how much she loved ZhenLi and could never see her anywhere else but with her. Couldn't help but think of that song "You and Me Against the World" about a mother/daughter relationship.

Crazy that it was such a casual conversation her friends were having. I thought, it must be a Chinese Cultural thing. Of course, you'd never hear that topic being made light of in the USA. Of course not. Never.

Then...

Then, a couple of days later, I see this want ad on ShangHai Craigslist:

" We have been married for four and a half years and living together for over 8 and a half. We have one four year old daughter and would love to have another child. We know there is a problem with over population in China and that you're only allowed one child, so if we could we would love to help a child that may not be accepted. We don't have the extreme amount of money it normally takes to adopt, but can provide everything a child will need and an excellent education. Of course we have tons of love, care and experience with the best and healthiest ways to raise a child. If you would be able to bring your child here to Colorado, we could handle the process by simply signing your child to us in court. Please let us know if you or anyone you might know would need a wonderful family for your child. We would also be able to stay in touch with the real parents in reguards to the child, send pictures and could even come to visit or have them come visit us anytime. We beleive in this type of respect. We are very peaceful and patient as well when it come to handleing children. We always stay calm, don't raise our voices and are totally against using physical discipline. We find it very abusive and unjust! We hope to talk to someone soon! Thank You All!!! "

ShangHai Craigslist:
I can understand desparate measures, and I know I'm not seeing the whole picture. But really, I didn't think Americans would take it so lightly too.

What are your thoughts?



***Our house is also known as the "AYI BOARDING HOUSE"... really. At any given moment, you can find up to 5 Ayi bikes (rusty and taped together) out front of our house. I have helped over 8 of them find jobs, and it saves them alot of money (they usually have to pay for someone to find good American families to work for). So when they aren't working their jobs, they come back here to hang out.

A decorator's Touch

Hi Susan, This post's for you...
Blue floral for the curtains and a couple of the throw pillows (20X20). The stripe for more of the throw pillows. The chocolate velvet (it's a very thick fabric) is for the two sofas.

Also, the blue floral will be great for covering the dining room chair cushions.

Before and After: Magic Blanket Challenge Results!!

Copy and paste: Magic Blanket Challenge on your blog if you'd like to share these fun before and afters with your readers :). Oh, and please leave a comment on your favorites chosen from the link list at the bottom of this post (there are 17 entries to choose from). Get your friends/blogging buddies to vote for you (by commenting on your entry below).

So I challenged you all to a "Before and After Challenge"

It was called the Magic Blanket Challenge... fondly titled in honor of a Sister-in-Law, who, some time ago, momentarily almost under valued her influence on the world (she's gonna hate me for all this attention!!! So there, Mrs. Calton, look at how many people your blanket influenced!!). Click here if you didn't know about the inspirational Magic Blanket that she made of mere out-dated clothes.

And I thought of how we all love a good before and after. We love those sections in the magazines. They inspire us. So here's a documentation of some people who left their "I've been here" marks. The results of their fun/amazing/exciting/emotional/creative/ Magic Blanket Results!!

Don't forget.... PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT!!

Here's the link list to the 17 Before and After Entries (again, if I lost your entry, let me know):
-Click on any of the below to read their stories/see their pictures:

1. Husband Before/After

2. Christmas Card Before/After

3. Emergency Prep Before/After

4. Family Before/After

5. Picture Mat Before/After

6. Door Knob Before/After

7. Play House Before/After

8. Weight Loss Before/After

9. Diaper Bag Before/After

10. Adoption Before/After

11. Craft Room Before/After

12. Hair Style Before/After

13. Hair Style Before/After

14. Furniture Before/After

15. Photo Organization Before/After

16. Dreads Before/After

17. Published Book Before/After

Before and After Magic Blanket Challenge Results Are Here!!

Okay, It's sooo late, and time for bed.

Sorry you haven't heard from me, I'll explain on another date. Promise. You'll understand.

But, to make it up to you, I've decided to place all the entries I received for your entertainment. I've never been so excited to check my inbox!

To be fair, I didn't write any of the descriptions, I didn't want to appear bias, as I love all my friends! And I think after reading their stories, you will too. I simply copied and pasted their exact words into individual blog posts, so you could just scroll through them. Some friends said some very kind words, that I'm embarrassed to share, but once again, didn't want to change content. Just a side note, when you move over seas, you get the most kindest letters/emails/phone calls when you get in touch with people. It's like they know you are so far away, and know they won't be able to talk to as much as they used to be able to.

What else... oh, I want to make note that I'm still open to entries. Some of you started your projects, so please email me what you'd like me to post here for you (Katy, Megan, Cameron, Whitney etc). You gals rock my world, and I'd love to introduce your entries to the cyber world. And anyone else.

Please feel free to bring your friends on over to see your entries, and make comments.

Also, I'm totally up for suggestions on how to vote... here's a few I've heard:
1. I vote (c'mon, totally hard for me!!)
2. A neutral party/parties vote (non-participating friends of mine).
3. The cyber world votes (you send your friends here to vote, by putting a comment under your post entry).
4. Have all my blog readers vote.

I have something very sentimental (to me, anyway) to say about the overwhelming feelings that took me by storm as I saw these entries. I was floored. I was jittered. But mostly in awe. Isn't it great to leave your fingerprint on the world... showing that:

YOU WERE HERE (or rather, "_____ was here" (insert your name) ).

Because, truly everyday is a before and after. And I loved Megan's post about the challenge, and how she ran with what was put on her plate... though the odds stacked against her (send me an email of how/what I can post, Meg).

So please, delight me, and leave a couple comments for the brave souls who took the challenge.

They might be looking. And if you want to make any comments/corrections on your own, please comment. I'm so excited to share them with you!!