Baby Shower

There are few occasions I love more than Baby Showers.  I have probably thrown 7 of them while in China.  I can’t get enough of them!

When Tami Dyer found out we’d been ‘officially matched’ to the girls, she was ON it!  She called me over and over to nail down a date.  She was more than persistent.  It meant the world to me.  I remember throwing Ginger Blake’s baby shower when she was matched to her sweet Chinese daughter.  It was my favorite baby shower.

For adoptive moms, we go through nesting  just like the rest of you.  We knit booties, we daydream of the arrival just the same.  Except sometimes the wait is much longer.  So I am so appreciative to Tami for loving our family enough to think to offer to throw us a baby shower.  It still makes me tear up to think that she planned this for us. 

I didn’t get enough pictures, was too busy talking with my friends.

Here I am with Karri and Meredith, my neighbors.  They made this cute ‘clothes line’ of clothes for the girls.  AnnaLeigh fell asleep, and Sharly looks like she is right about to.

Here are my little girls.  Barely got a shower in that morning.  Notice the wet hair. 

My friends loved putting the bows into Sharly’s hair.  So cute.

On The Move

This is me trying to get a good shot of Tanner.  He loves sports and as you can see, he’s prepping for a big golf tournament in the cul-de-sac.

Just a couple of days ago, he got the swimming noodle out and a real baseball.  When I pitched it to him, he hit it, and hit it far!  At 4 years old!  He is quite the athlete.

There’s my guy.  He has so many facial expressions that remind me so much of Barry.  He is such a softie too, just like Barry.  I’m sure they knew each other well before Tanner came to earth.

This is my favorite shirt.  Hunter wore this shirt when he was 4.  Now the shirt is covered in paint from Tanner wearing it to school.  Oh well, at least I got these last few pictures of him in it.  Taking his picture is like chasing a moving target.  He is so fun and happy, this kid!

New Hair Bow Website Photos!

Here are the new photos on the Skoose.com website!  I loved how they turned out!  I’ve got some pretty cool friends with some serious mad photography skills going on!!

Registration Packets

I have a new found respect for the ‘registration packet coordinator’ for Youth Conference.  This year it was an All Asia (including Beijing youth) conference, unlike the smaller ‘district’ conference Tim and I coordinated last year..

Here are the registration packets alpha organized in the luggages behind the registration counter.  When we unzipped the luggage, a small swarm of security officers rushed up.

 

They took apart one of the packets, and searched every inch of it.  For some reason, the packets (only holding t-shirts, pens, journals, name badges and schedules) looked threatening.

Here they are taking the T-shirt apart.  They even had those wands they use at the airport to check all the items.  Funny, no?

Anyway… side note:  I honestly, in all my life have never been so exhausted in any church assignment in all my short 31 years as a member of the Church.  Each of my counselors (& secretary) put in about 6 hours.  Some even way more. 

When at the end of the night 2 nights before the conference (Tanner had surgery the day before for his ears, so I wanted to finish a day early), we were working on them from morning ‘till past 1:00 AM.

Weak measly me was so overwhelmed at the extremity of pushing to finish it, that I felt my eyes fill up as we passed the midnight mark.  Right at that moment, the counselor, Tami, that was with me said “it will all be worth it, because one day, somebody else will do this for your children”.  And that was just what I needed to hear.  Thanks Tami D!

Uniform Bows Fundraiser

I am helping out Hunter’s school by making Hair Bows for fundraising.  I’ll be honest, it was a real pain in the toosh to prepare the below picture for parents as an order reference point.  For those of you that have done any sort of digital photo editing (Photoshop or Digital Image Pro… Thanks again to Tami Christensen for teaching me), you’ll know what I mean.  Lots of sizing and moving around to get it all to fit on one page for the school newsletter.  It will be fun!  I’m excited!

Our Serious Artist

 

This kid is so funny.  He will draw something that he knows is great, and bring it to you to show it off.  He will hold a straight face as long as he can while he waits for the praise to come rollin’ in.  This piece is called “Me, Mommy and Mrs Leary”.

He loves this magna doodle, because he can keep drawing over and over and over until he’s filled up his little cup of praise for the day.

 

Look at that face, he is just holding in the giggles.  He is trying so hard to be modest, yet inside there are gleaming lightening bolts and stars.  He knows he’s a good little artist.

Well done little Tanner.  Well done. :)

Water Boy

I am sure Tim doesn’t miss mowing his own lawn.  Positive of that.

Here in China, mowing the lawn only takes a few minutes when several people do it at once.

They are a well oiled machine of precision!

I remember in Castle Rock how the boys loved to be outside when Tim mowed the lawn.  I remember all those outdoor projects Tim would take on (retaining wall, tree planting, putting the fence in, planting flowers, laying sod, putting rock in etc). 

And our deal was simple: I do the inside stuff, you do the outside.  I remember making trips  to Sonic for their crushed ice that was oh so delish in their  Cherry Lime sodas.  YUM.

So when our sweet friends come (always wearing these heavy suits, no matter how hot), we do our best to give them a drink.  But it amazes me how fast they work from house to house without drinking any water!  Super human powers… they cease to impress!

Fresh Strawberries

The neat thing about China is that you never know what’s for sale on the streets. Sometimes it’s house plants. Sometimes it’s DVDs. Sometimes it’s books. Sometimes roasted hazelnuts. Sometimes breakfast foods. Sometimes fresh cut flowers (a dozen roses for $3 USD!).

Today it was strawberries. Plump fresh strawberries. Usually the ones here in China are very small, and light pink. When you bite into them, you expect them to be sour. But not to worry… many fruits in china, like strawberries and watermelons are injected with sugar water.

I didn’t think it was true until I finally realized that in my time of 2.5 years here in China, I have never once had a sour strawberry or a flavorless watermelon.

Now these sweet berries from heaven looked just like the ones I have come to love from back in the US. So I bought 3 full sized bags of them. For a size reference, this is the floor board of my van, next to the inverted cup holders.

Side note: I have heard from people in the states that produce is now being outsourced to China, is this true? Hmmm.

I opened one of my micro popcorn packs (from Walmart in the USA) and was explaining to the Ayi how microwave popcorn works. I was simply trying to show her the ‘this side up’ part; and low and behold: directions in Chinese!!

There were only two languages on the brown popcorn bag: Chinese and English. Sure enough, it was Chine popcorn!

Anybody else hear about this?

Environmentally Conscious Play

I guess eco-conscious habits start young! Here the boys are- being resourceful in their building of homes. And yes, at any given moment the doorbell will ring and this is what people walk into. But the fun is all worth it. There will be a time for a well-straightened house. For now the laughter and fun way out-weighs the pristine fixtures of model homes.

And they carpool too.

Somebody tell me why I think it’s sooo funny when they go around the house in this thing. Hunter will say “c’mon Tann, it’s time to go now!” and Tanner will stop whatever he is doing to get on the car, as if Hunter will take off without him. It is too funny.

Hunter’s Chinese Award!

Perhaps there’s nothin’ more fun than surprising your kids at school.  They love having their moms on campus at this age.  And I love seeing their reaction to spotting me in the crowd.

Nothing like the pointer finger “hey look!  It’s my Mom!”, followed by a handsome little wink.

         

Today Hunter knew I was coming.  It was not a surprise visit.  Today he got a Chinese award.  He truly does love the language.  In fact, I think most kids here in China do.  Hunter loves to make his Dad proud.  It’s moments like these that soften the blow of 45 minutes of homework each night from this school… and he’s just a kindergartener!  These International schools have loads of homework, just like the local schools!

Congrats to our little Chinese man Hunter, good job buddy!

Speech Therapy

Our sweet little Tann has been taking speech therapy ever since his tubes got put in last fall.

Here he is with his Speech Therapist, Oranit.  She is from Israel, and occasionally will say something sweet to the boys in Hebrew.  Another thing to love about living overseas, so many cultures of people coming together.

Here is Oranit teaching Tanner steps to making something for one of his speech therapy appointments.  They are making chocolate truffles.  She is describing and encouraging language around the process of making something.

Her specialty is ‘Play’ therapy.  She lets the children direct the focus of play, and she squeezes the entire lesson while ‘playing’ with Tanner.  He just thinks she’s pretty cool.

She is moving back to Israel, and we are down right SAD!  It was great to have someone on my team in helping Tanner catch up on his English, and she became a great friend of our family’s.

But this is the life we chose living here in Shanghai.  We knew that people who we’d become close friends, who have deeply impacted our lives… would one day be at the end of their contract.  They would go home, or we would.  Inevitably, one side of the friendship would have to leave before the other, and it’s heart breaking.

We love you Oranit!  You’ve left us better people!  We will be forever grateful for your lessons and friendship!

Rubber Necking

We were driving by the scene of an accident.  It was a fender bender.  That’s all.  But here in China, it is perfectly okay for a huge crowd to gather and wait for the verdict of the accident. 

 

Rubber Necking taken to the next level.  Why not just stop what you are doing completely, and hang out?  This is all part of being a community-oriented people here in China. 

Where we are from, we want to know what happened and love to know the details too.  But there is a sense of ownership, or sense of family here in China.  If the accident happened on their block, people here take it personally.

I love living here in China.  Have I told you lately?  I surely do.  The other day a repairman came to fix the neighbor’s broken basketball hoop.  He had a little tool chest.  So I told him “A friend gave my kids this tricycle, it is an expensive US brand.  Can you help me fix it?  If you can’t, I’ll just give it to you”. 

He started working on it after he finished the basketball hoop for the neighbor.

My phone rang and I forgot all about it for 5 minutes.  When I came outside, Tanner hopped on the trike and started pedaling it.  It was fully fixed, and the kind repairman, that could’ve been the owner of a nice toy was nowhere in sight. 

He didn’t even stay to ask for money as I expected him to.  I’ll probably never see him again, but be so grateful for his humility in ‘'Practicing a Random Acts Of Kindness And Senseless Act Of Beauty' in his little community.

Uncle Trent

The saddest part about living out here in Shanghai is seeing close friends go.  When Tami left that was the first time I think I cried my guts out in a long time.  It was really hard on me.  We served together in Young Womens.  She was the first to show me how to ride a bike in Shanghai (though she got hit by a car once, she was still the best teacher ever!!).  She taught all the women here how to make dinner rolls.  She taught us all how to digital scrapbook. 

But you already knew this about her.  It’s just funny to note how some people leave more than just a piece of them behind when they leave.  For example, my blog.  She is the one that got us all fired up about blogging.  She taught us how to make the headers for our blogs with digital scrapbook papers.  Every time I write on my blog I think of that piece she left with us.

Every Sunday when I am in YW at church, I’m always asking myself ‘what would Tami do?’… because she left a part of herself there too. 

She took a professional picture of the temple that now hangs in every branch members home.

She loves my boys.  No, wait, she LOVES my boys.  That’s the part she left with them that they will never forget.

So, I should call this post ‘The Christensens’, rather than Uncle Trent.  But as of now, we are so so so grateful that we still get to see him.  Twice already we’ve had him over, and it’s been great!

Tami sent him over with a huge bag of Happy Meal toys.  This means a lot to us.  While many of you might over look them.  We cherish them for their ‘lead-free’ qualities!  LOL, seriously, it’s true.  I could probably re-sell them out here.

Thanks to this family who keeps on giving, even when they have moved back to the US.

Side note: Tami—I packaged up the extra toys and mailed them to AnnaLeigh’s orphanage!  How cool is that?  They will be thrilled!

80’s Night at the Shangri La

For one of Tim’s work events, we all got to eat at the Shangri La for Dinner and a Charity Auction.

Here we are.  Luckily, my friend Elizabeth pulled through for me last minute with a ‘little black dress’.  I personally don’t own a single formal gown… and haven’t since High School!  I wonder how long I can go w/o having to buy one.  This is the 2nd time I’ve needed one, and avoided buying one.

 

Fun theme, no?

Love what Tom Cruise Glasses can do to people at parties.

Now that’s hot.