March Update

Asa lately MUST create. It is like he has to- very interesting to see. So two nights ago he made, cut out and colored a pirate robot (to the left). After that he had to take two paper cups, tape and markers and create a spinning top thing. He knows exactly what he wants to do! Also the morning is not complete if he does not come to breakfast with this knight helmet on. He keeps us laughing and creative. Thankful for that!

Salome still loves her baby dolls! And she can not put them into the baby stroller and walk all over the house. She can take a few steps without hanging on to anything and will be full on walking/running soon!

The World Expo (used to be called the World's Fair) was in Shanghai this year. It is over but the main attraction - The Chinese Pavilion is still standing. We braved the 40,000 person a day crowds last Friday to take the whole family there. This picture is not the best but when thousands of people are behind you in line you do not have a lot of time to snap photos!

Here are some of the crowds. We thankfully, had a stroller so in most lines we could just go right to the front. However, that meant that all these people are behind you in line!

A quiet moment in front of some Water Lilly Plants. Miriam also for the first time in her life chose to wear ribbons in her hair.

Here are the waiting cues just to buy tickets. Thankfully most of these were not used anymore! During the World Expo most people had to wait up to five hours to just get into the Pavilion!

Inside the Pavilion we saw many things on the history and culture of China. All in all I am glad we went- but I never want to go back! Yikes, too many people!

"Mom, this is the best year yet" - A Chinese New Year Recap

Happy Lantern Festival Day! This day marks the end to Chinese New Year. Tonight the fireworks are LOUD! My kids running to the window (and not to bed). Thankfully the baby sleeps through it all!

WOW- what a Chinese New Year! I hope to capture some of the highlights in this very long blog post! Mei had finals and then was off school for almost a month. We caught up on English homework, had play dates and watched movies. It was fun to just be together.

Our dear Chinese friends asked if they could come over and cook a meal for us for Chinese New Year's Eve. We said, please do! Above is the whole fish being fried in peanut oil. It was so yummy!

Here is the chef!

Here is the 13 month year old

So I made some Christmas cookies to celebrate and put them on a Christmas plate! They were very good and somehow made me feel more "in the spirit".

Asa wanted to wear a tiger costume all night. Which was pretty funny since we were changing from the year of the tiger to the year of the rabbit!

Fireworks all day- and lasted to about 2 in the morning. Then they started up again about 5 AM and lasted until noon the next day. Again, so thankful my kids can sleep through this. You can buy fireworks here that look like a 4th of July display at home. It is really amazing to see (and hear).

Then it was off to bowling a few days later. Friends here (mostly girls, but sometimes boys) hold hands if they are good friends. Here Mei is holding her Chinese friends hand.

Us in front of the bowling pin! Kids not too thrilled about this picture.

The bowling alley is really a bar at night. Here is Joab one second later stepping right in a huge pile of you know what. SO gross. It was not the best way to start out bowling fun!

Our friends we went bowling with said there wiere stretches we needed to do before we could start!

A pink bowling ball for Mei!

Chinese New Year drum, advertisement thing

At the end of the holiday we gathered up 12 orphaned children and brought them to the sea. No, just kidding...these are the twelve kids of the three couples who ventured out to the far eastern part of the city where the ocean is! We wanted to have a little break from the city (and the fireworks). We had a blast. I think the kids did too!

Little kids in the front, a Daddy per bike and bigger kids helped to peddle in the back. We raced around and around the mostly abandoned park! It was so fun.

Daddy Bowman trying to find a ship at sea

Trying to look big

Yes, she is from the USA

No park in China would be complete with out a jumpy castle thing. The kids played and played on this.

Mommy Madson loving on Salome

Good vs. Bad Spider man at the hotel

I tried to pack us up (while Daddy took the kids to the pool). But every time I turned my back the baby was in the suitcase.



So, we get back from the hotel by the sea and my dear friend calls me. She said she has some chickens for me! The last time she went to her hometown she brought me back some very good semi organically raised local chickens that were FROZEN. I told her the next time she went home I would gladly take some more! So, when she calls me to say she has my chickens she also tells me this time they are ALIVE. And need to be killed ASAP.

I am shocked as I had not ever thought she would give me LIVE chickens. Thankfully I remembered a place at my veggie market that sold chickens. I walked over to the guy and asked if he also killed chicken. He looked at me like, duh...they have to die to eat them!

So, here are the four chickens. All in one bag.

Also, this is my veggie market go here about three times a week. They know me, love me, know my kids and generally make my life easier.

My friend's son wanted all the chicken blood for a soup he likes. Here is the blood collection.

So, bird is killed then thrown into this huge turning vat where boiling water is thrown into it. The feathers come out on the lower left.

I told him no thanks for the head and feet. All internal organs given to my friend for more soup? Not sure.

All in all it was not that bad to watch it all happen. Pretty cheap too! Cost about four dollars for him to kill, clean and chop four chickens.

The end of Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival (think Tangled Movie- Birthday Party Lanterns). Well, it used to be really Lantern like a long time ago. Now they sell these really LOUD and corny lanterns on the street and light off a ton of fireworks. Asa gets to pick one out each year to take to preschool to show off. He LOVES this.

Thankful for great friends to share this holiday with and you for reading about it! On our Eve Dinner party Miriam turns to me and says "Mom, this is the best year yet". And I think she was right.

Chinese New Year 2011

My "minivan" with groceries this weekend. With most of my egg/rice/veggie/ and fruit vendors heading back to their hometowns for a week (or more) I needed to stock up this weekend. When I told my veggie vendor to "keep the change" and "Happy New Year" when I bought my veggies she decided to gift me the two pumpkins you see on the left side of my handle bars. I had so many bags and backpacks full of food I almost called Joab to help me get home. But I just biked really slowly and made it!

I struggle to love Chinese New Year. Okay, if I am really honest I struggle to even understand Chinese New Year. First, they are celebrating for a whole week the start of a new lunar new year. Number one, when at home do we celebrate anything for a week and secondly, who even pays attention to the moon. Well, China does. And this city of 23 million people loves this holiday.

I struggle to understand what people eat on Chinese New Year. The grocery stores change from their mild usual craziness to a place where, if you do find a cart to use, you can not even push it down the aisles as their are too many people in your way.

I struggle to understand what they are even celebrating. Is it really the moon? No. Is it really their families? No. Is it really food? Probably.

I struggle to understand the fireworks. The fireworks who will keep my children up until 2 or 3 in the morning on the Eve of Chinese New Year.

I struggle to understand the glee and wonder my children feel for this holiday. How they are thrilled to stay up until 3 AM watching in wonder fireworks displays that will put any Fourth of July show to shame.

I struggle to understand how businesses and people take a whole month holiday in the middle of the year.

This will be our fourth Chinese New Year here. I thought by now I would look forward to this holiday. But I find myself as I get closer to understanding what people are saying to me more questions about what they are doing/buying/choosing/eating and thinking.

I don't struggle this year being alone on Chinese New Year's eve. Dear local friends have asked us to eat with them on New Year's Eve. I hope to stop struggling a bit this year and to just enjoy it. I am getting there....slowly.

Cheap Winter Fun

It snowed! And it was cold enough for it to stay on the ground for a few days. In fact, they say it is the coldest winter in 30 years. My kids could not be any happier! I say: pass the coffee, tea, hot cocoa, boiled water, long johns, electric blanket and/or cuddling on the couch!

My kids were itchy to get out and play in it! Here is Mei making her snow angel.

Miriam has been dying to get her hair straightened. One of my good friends here Amy does this a lot so we went with her to check it out! Here is my eight year old going on eighteen....

She could not be happier with her hair. Today we had some friends come over to play. I could not find Miriam because she was in the bathroom finding the right earrings and lip gloss to match her hair I think!

Salome Turns One!

So you get pregnant and then find out your baby is due on Christmas! This has been me twice! Yikes this keeps you busy during the holidays. But oh! So fun to have two Christmas babies (Salome is Dec 23rd, Mei is the 28th)

I also went to America this year on Dec 26th and was trying to get so much done before I left. So our dear friends the Crandalls invited us over to celebrate Salome's birth day ON her birthday. We had a wonderful time and Salome loved her cake!

What a joy to have a little red headed girl to love and get to know this year. We love you Salome Grace Elaine!!!


You can not tell here but she finished off most of the cake!

She first had to take all the sprinkles off.

MINE!

Yes, it does happen! All three kids playing today with Asa's Nerf Gun!!

Oh Salome! You make me laugh!

Both Asa and Miriam said Da da first. Salome was pretty quick to say Ma (not Ma Ma) to me at about 11 months. She does say Da Da sometimes (when Joab gets home from work pretty cute!) but her new and most often used word is.....MINE.

Like this morning when Asa was eating an orange she wanted........MINE.

Or at lunch when I had a piece of chocolate she yelled .....................MINE.

It is so cute it is hard not to laugh really We are trying our best to make her use her signs for: please, thank you and more. But instead she just wants to shout MINE and point and cry for whatever she wants. Then Asa (or Miriam) give it to her! I guess the beauty of being the third.

Miriam and Asa wrapped up another: eventful, busy, challenging, amazing, faith building, homework mastering semester at Chinese local school! The semester here end right before Chinese New Year (which starts on Feb 3) so for me it feels like they last forever. To celebrate the end we went out for Chinese food (they picked this) and there we told them how proud we were of them. They kind of looked at us like, what was the big deal as if to say "great, pass the rice" and then Asa asked what his "prize" was. So we took them to Tom's World (an arcade) where they could have as much fun as 10 yuan would take them!

Again, so thankful for a school option that are kids love and allows us to be part of the community here. I got to the school gate early to pick up Miriam today. And as I was chatting with the Moms they started to correct when I said something wrong! This was a huge step in them feeling comfortable with me (the only white Mom there) enough to say I was saying something wrong!

Also this week as I got air in my bike tires before school. (Which Miriam totally took care of as my words were too slow getting out of my mouth to the bike guy and Miriam was stressed we were going to be late to her Chinese final) The bike guy was hanging his mouth open that I was getting two kids on my bike. When he then saw my baby seat on my bike he asked where my baby was. When I responded at home- he said.....congratulations! It was so nice to have a Chinese person happy for me and my three kids. Again, not a huge thing. But it is the little things that make taking your kids to school when you can not feel your feet worth it!

So now on to almost a month off from school! Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

One week in America

Nate and Laura Jennison!


The main reason I packed up Salome and myself and headed to the other side of the world is that my dear friend Laura got married. MARRIED. I could go on and on about how great it was to see her wed Nate Jennison. It was amazing to see God's hand on them both.

Here are some highlights of my trip.


The plane ride there:

I had just gotten the baby to sleep about four hours into the twelve hour flight. Finally decided to put on my headphones and watch a movie! When the lady sitting right next to me across the aisle starts to freak out. Turns out her daughter was having a serious allergic reaction the the bread United served on the flight. Her faces, hand and whole body was swelling up. So the Mom starts demanding the captain turn the whole plane around (we were right over Russia and headed towards Alaska). About ten flight attendants swarm around her. Start yelling at her to calm down! The paged for a Doctor to help. But the only medical professional on board was a Chinese nurse. And the flight attendants ask to see her medical license before she can start to help.

At this point I am freaking out!First for this woman's daughter as she was looking pretty scary. Also I do not want to land in Russia! I got people to see and places to go in America! Well, the Chinese nurse was of no help. As the United Doctor they called (via Satellite phone) could not understand the Chinese nurse . So a very nice flight attendant takes over and basically decides the girl (age 2) needs an epi pin. Well, the Mom refuses to give the epi pin. As she is scared about side effects (like heart problems it can cause). So Mom still wants to turn the plane around. Flight attendants saying NO and to use epi pin.

Finally they just give her a huge doge of Benadryl and she goes to sleep. Which was kind of dangerous as she could stop breathing! But Mom seemed better and by the end of the flight the kid was fine!

I was pretty shaken up by this (as were all the Flight attendants) and did not sleep at all the rest of the flight. But Salome slept right through it! I was very impressed by the United Flight Attendants at the end of all of this. They kept the Mom from really going nuts and kept the daughter safe.

My Parents house:

SO nice to be in my Iowa home. We pretty much just hung out, saw family and ate good food. Thanks Mom and Dad! And Dan the dog :