Third vs. First Tone

I am not a big fan of birthday parties. I am not a big fan of Chinese tones.
Both of these things got me into trouble today.

"Mom, I forgot to stop and buy a gan en kai pian after school!" Miriam said to me in tears as soon as we got home from school today.

"Honey, you know how I feel about going back out once we are back home." I said back (not very nicely to be honest) as we pulled the electric bike into the elevator at our apartment.

"Mommy, I need a gan en kai pian TODAY." Miriam said

So, I dropped her off, and headed back on my electric bike to the small stationary story next to the school.

The whole way there I kept going over in my mind what in the world a gan en kai pian was. I know gan= means to dry and kai pian = a card. So I just assumed it was some type of art supply for a craft she needed to do at home but bring to school the next day.

I parked my bike next to the bookstore and headed inside. The nice lady knew exactly what I needed once I said- I need the gan en kai pian for the third graders. She pointed me to a
collection of greeting cards. And then it hit me, gan third tone, not gan first
tone . Gan third with en= thankful. Gan first= dried. Miriam needs a thank you
card. (which we have A TON of at home!!!).

I asked the nice lady why in the world do the third graders need a thank you note?"

She needs to write you a thank you note for all the work you have done to get her to her tenth
year. Oh, and you need to write her a card for her birthday."

Suddently it all made sense. The tenth birthday party thing. Miriam had told me about this- but I had totally tuned it out as something I did not need to bother with. She had told me that her entire class would be "celebrating" turning ten this next week. Now, you might remember Miriam just turned nine, so why in the world are we thinking about ten? That is because in Shanghai you are born at age one. So really Miriam (and most of her class) are really ten.

So, Miriam will write me a card (in Chinese) telling me about how great a sacrifice I have made
to keep her all these ten years. And then I in turn will write her a card (Miriam says Enlish is fine for me) about how great a girl she is at age ten. And thus, her tenth Birthday will be celebrated.

So, I zoomed home and when I gave her the thank you cards I said to her "Miriam gan en kai pian is a thank you note!"Miriam replied with "Yes, Mom, I knew that!"

More tales from vacation- Burma

A lady I met at the end of our trip said this to me:

" Wow, you spent a lot of time in Thailand you must of seen some animals or gone to the zoo?"
"No," I responded. "We took the kids to Burma".

And we did! We took about an hour drive from the first hotel we stayed at and ended up in Mae Sai, Thailand. Here you are able to pay some money and walk into Burma. So we did that one day.

Above is one of many Buddhist Temples we saw.

Once we crossed the border Joab and I quickly learned there was not much to do for kids! So this nice store took us in. Gave the kids snacks, juice and could speak Chinese so helped us find a driver to drive us to some of the main sites in the town (you can walk into this Burma town but can not leave the town without a visa).

Their very funky green chairs at the computer place.

Us at the border - Asa is not thrilled. Overall, it was not as fun or easy to get to as a zoo. But it was fun to show the kids another country and culture. Joab Meyer loves a good adventure and in the end we all did too.

More tales from vacation- They layover

When you go from winter in Shanghai to summer in Thailand it is hard to dress your family for the plane ride. We dressed in lighter winter clothes and then I packed our summer clothes on the top of one of our suitcases. So that when we landed in Bangkok for our six(!!) hour lay over I would be prepared with new summer clothes and lots of snacks. But here is what happened when we landed...

-We get off the plane- kids start whining as they are too hot. So am I! -We go through immigration- but have the wrong forms so have to re-write the forms before we can go through. -We get through immigration. My kids are now hungry and tired and hot. -We have to rescan our carry on luggage. (not sure why since we just got off an airplane) -All bags scanned but they ask me to open Asa's backpack. At this point I start feeling nervous. As I realize I never looked at what Asa packed in his bag! It kept the kids busy for about two hours picking out what they were going to take that I told them as long as I did not have to carry their bag they could pretty much take whatever they wanted! - The security guy pulls out a pie server from Asa's backpack. I have to bite my lip from laughing! Asa then comes up to the security guy and says he really needs his pie server to dig up treasures while he is in Thailand. The security guy tells me it is "very dangerous" to bring such an item on board an airplane- but he will not take it away from Asa.

After all of that I was really so excited to put some shorts on! However, we did not know that our luggage was checked all the way and we would not see it until we landed in Chiang Rai. So we waited and waited and played in the airport in our winter clothes for six hours.....

The first picture is of a Buddhist monk. They are highly regarded and given VIP treatment in Thailand. Also fun is putting your two year old in a luggage cart and racing around the airport!

Tales of Mr. Kittipot and other stories from vacation

Hello from Northern Thailand! The city of Chiang Rai is where our family has been for the past four days. Today we took the kids on a trip out of town- and what a time it was! It started at a local waterfall- which we did not know took about an hour hike (we all had flip flops on and Joab had Salome on his back) up to see the falls. Here is the steam on the path.



It was so fun to see Asa and Mei so excited when we finally got there!

The spray was so strong we all got covered with mist at the bottom!

From the falls we headed to a local hot springs. I have been looking for a natural hot springs for 16 long years. This is because in college I took with some friends into the mountains of Arizona to look in vain for any natural hot springs to stop at with our little car packed with five girls!
Oh that trip was so fun and so crazy! This trip to the hot springs was a lot calmer- but I
had no idea it would basically be a huge hot tub and that my kids would not really like how hot it was! Joab was a huge sport to help the kids play while I held Salome who put it well when she just said "HOT" every time she went in!


Feeling hot hot hot. And happy that 16 years later I was able to take my three kids to the springs! Love you Laura Lynn, Kori and Laura! These are some of the girls who went on that car adventure so many years ago!

You may be asking how did you get to the falls and springs? And who in the world is Mr. Kittipot? Well this delightful and full of energy man was our driver to these places. We hired him to take us around on his huge motorcycle. Joab had reserved a van for the day but we learned in the morning we could only have Mr. Kittipot (this is what the sign on his bike said and what he answered to when I called out to him above the drone of the bike). This guy likes to party! He liked to play the music loud and drive fast and make us laugh with all the American music he put on. He also liked to stop along the way!

Once we all got situated on his bike (which is not very easy with three kids, a picnic , swimming stuff and a baby backpack) he stops about ten minutes after leaving our hotel at a hospital. I thought perhaps he was getting sick, having a heart attack , or thought we were sick! He parks and then take a plastic bag full of cooked rice and meat from somewhere in the bike and says "five minutes". And he races off to only come back two minutes later to get something else in the bike. We are now really confused when he comes back and zooms off fast until he stops in about five minutes on the side of the road. He turns the bike off and from under his seat takes out a huge water bottle filled with gasoline. He then "fills her up" and we zoom off again. Only to stop in about twenty minutes at a gas station (did we not just do this with whatever was in the water bottle?!). While he tops off the bike he explains that his wife just had a baby and he needed to bring some food to his wife at the hospital! With that we zoom off with music blaring. Another twenty minutes and we stop for some water for him. Our last unscheduled stop with Mr.Kittipot was after the falls hike when we see this sign all in Thai writing with a cement fish in front of a shop. He pulls in, shuts off the bike and says "come". Joab and the kids "come" and he gets some fish food and shows Joab how to feed the fish that live in the nearby river we are passing. Were we suppose to catch fish or just feed them? We are unsure and in the middle of eating our lunch on the bike (while we zoom off to the hot springs).

We enjoyed many laughs, singing old songs and a memorable picnic on the back of Mr.Kittipot's bike today! One of my favorite things in the world is to look over at Joab as we zoom around the mountains of Thailand on the back of Mr. Kittipot's bike ; thinking I love him even more than I did when we first came to visit Thailand over twelve years ago.

Our very hot children at the hot springs next to the bike that got us there!

Chinese New Year haircuts

Salome did not like the look of the barber coming our way! But since she was now two I decided it was time for a short trim. Salome did great sitting on my lap and watching Miriam get her hair cut at the same time.


I know I am biased. But this is gorgeous hair for a two year old.

The place was a zoo! I guess in China it is very important to get your hair cut before Chinese New Year (which starts Jan 23). So every chair in the shop was packed! I was thankful we got in.
Since most Chinese do not have naturally curly hair (not to mention red hair!) I have them wash and then blow dry Miriam's hair straight before they cut it. The cut is a lot more even and Miriam loves the straight hair look!

Miriam- the final product. She looks about 19 with her hair straightened! She has been so cute all week "checking" herself out in the mirror to make sure it is really her hair!

Party Party Party

My blog is not letting me upload pictures very fast today! So sorry these are the only ones! We hosted Miriam's class Christmas party again this year. We squeezed about 18 of her classmates into our house. Above are the kids hearing the Christmas story.


We were able to order these Bible story books through the Internet here in China! Most of these kids had never heard the real meaning of Christmas and were excited to learn more. Times, they are a changing....

Asa and I with the twins. I love these guys.

Miriam is Nine!

Miriam was happy to celebrate her ninth year with some of her good friends this week. We painted nails (see above) clobbered a pinata and played outside! We ate apple pie, potato chips and chicken noodle soup! Fun was had by all!

When I went to the party store to buy supplies I picked out an '8' candle for Miriam. Joab looked a me and said- "Em, that was last year!" I guess I forgot she is already 9! We love you Miriam Joy Harriett Meyer. And look forward to the good things God has planned for you in 2012.