Watch, Read, Listen

August 19, 2012-  Dear Jennifer said that she would like to eat some smoked ribs- those are Magic Words for someone like Mark who likes any occassion to make smoked ribs!!! Both Jennifer and I ordered a set of pork back ribs from Aaron's Kitchen.  All I can say is it's a good thing that…

August 24, 2012- TGIF!!!!  Let's have an after school play date with friends! The girls each have one friend invited today.  After day like today a play date sounds like a great thing!     Annika, oh Annika! I'm glad you're smiling! After being bumped by an electric bicycle/small scooter this morning and then smacked…

July 4, 2012- Help us celebrate our first fourth of July in China! I should be honest with you- I nearly let the 4th of July slip by without doing anything.  Sometimes it's easy to forget those kinds of things when you're living in a foreign country.  I did print out some coloring sheets for…

July 3, 2012- Check out the cute little happy plants we found at the plant market today:   Hair Man Plant! Sadly, the grass on his head never grew. Bummer!     Hee hee hee….check out the face choices! We got two- one winking and with the hearts for eyes.     Made in China…definitely!!!…

August 23, 2012- Debbie and I both decided that we needed to restock our art supplies.  The kids kind of plow through some kinds of art supplies.  Not that I'm complaining.  I LOVE the fact that all four kids are creative and want to do arts and craft projects!!!!  Painting?  Yes, please!  Creating things out…

August 24, 2012- Friday evening. My, Friday has been a long day!!!! How about a lovely dinner with our friends – Debbie, Croydon, Marko and Juandre- at Aulare Urban Latin Restaurant in AoCheng: Nachos!!! My empty mojito glass and Ava with her ginger ale. Marko is ready for his meal! Annika and Ava happily munching…

August 24, 2012- Thank goodness for friends!!!  After the "interesting" morning we'd had I wisely decided to cancel my Chinese language lesson and go out with friends. After all, I would have only wanted to learn to say nasty words in Chinese which is probably very inappropriate and childish of me.  Like I said, thank…

Hmmmm….. What could I mean by a "very Chinese smoker"???????  It could very well mean people smoking cigarettes- as sadly many Chinese people do smoke. But that's not what I'm talking about…..I'm talking about smoking meat!!!!  Mmmmm….tasty smoked ribs!!!!!!! (apologies to any vegans or vegetarians out there.  We clearly aren't.)   Several of Mark's Chinese…

June 26, 2012- Sorry…this photo was taken waaaaaaaaaay back in June and I'm just now getting around to posting it: 26 RMB for not even a half pint of blueberries. That's over $4 USD!!!! Ouch!!! I did manage to find more blueberries later at much better prices- cheapest I've seen was 8 RMB at Metro…

August 24, 2012- Today is the day that Mark has been waiting for ….years.  He finally gets to go on a long-awaited week-long fishing trip with his Dad to Alaska.  He's been talking about doing a fishing trip like this for several years.  I'm soooo happy for him but in that same breath I'm also…