Quote for Today

"Lay aside your everyday thoughts, your ego, your fears, and make way for inspiration and clarity. Inspiration goes wherever it is made welcome."
Robert Holden

This quote jumped out at me today and really spoke to me. I hope I can make inspiration more welcome in my life.

I Heart Jellyfish!

Jellyfish are one of my new favorite things. We took these pictures at Ocean Park a few weeks ago. I would love to have a huge tank in my house full of jellyfish and colored lights. I could watch them for hours.

My Three Loves

Chloie trying out Haley's shoes!

3 Cute Kids!

Jon, Mijoung, and Chloie are leaving tomorrow morning. We sure are going to miss having them around!

Where does she come up with these things?

The other day I told Haley not to do something and she said, very seriously, "If you don't let me, I'll break all of your hair so you will be bald forever and ever."
We were trying so hard not to laugh.

Even More Ocean Park

More Ocean Park

They loved this little mermaid.

Two of these kids are not like the others!

"Shark! Shark! Shark! I like shark! They so big, I so small!" (Taken from a song one of my students made up, my kids think it's hilarious because of the bad grammar and they sing it everytime someone says anything about sharks.)

Kid's World

The Mine Train Rollercoaster

This is my favorite ride at Ocean Park. The rollercoaster is right on the edge of a huge cliff so when you are on it, you have the most amazing views of the ocean. At times, the track goes sideways at the edge of the cliff and all you can see is the ocean below you. Really cool. Mijoung and I went on it first, but the boys didn't take any pictures of us. (I guess because I had the camers, oops!)

The Log Flume

Ocean Park

Princess Haley

These pictures made the whole trip more than worth it. Haley has been wanting to meet Belle for so long and we've never seen her in our other Disneyland visits. So, she was thrilled when we spotted her. She was so cute taking the picture. She just stood there with a big smile, not moving or talking or anything. She was too excited.

I have to admit that all the parts about Disneyland that I used to just skip over (the parade, meeting the characters, etc.) are really so much fun with little kids. I think Britton and Haley are the perfect age to really soak in all the magic of Disney. It's been so much fun being able to watch them experience it.

Disneyland Fun

Mickey Mouse Waffles and Ice Cream

Holding up Saturn (don't mock my clothes, it's all I had after being thrown up on)

To Infinity and Beyond!

Just Another Manic Monday

This was my morning yesterday:
5:15 am--Alarm goes off in our hotel in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
5:20--Trying to wake the unwakable husband and kids
5:30--Check out of hotel
5:55--Get on the subway at Causeway Bay
6:00--Switch to the Red Line at Admiralty
6:05--Get off at Tsim Sha Tsui and walk underground to the East Rail Line
6:20--Get on the Train to Lo Woo
7:30--Cross the border at Lo Woo and get to Shenzhen
7:40--Wander around looking for a bus back to Clifford
7:54--On the bus heading home
8:15--Sleeping on the bus
9:00--Panicking because the bus is at a dead stand still on a bridge for at least 20 minutes
10:12--Arrive at Clifford bus station
10:15--On bus to Dynamic Garden
10:25--Walk in the door to my apartment, change my shirt and shoes, and back out again
10:28--Pedaling my bike as fast as I can to school
10:34--Walk into the school right as the warning bell rings for my first class
10:35--I begin teaching class.

We had a CRAZY weekend in Hong Kong. I was rushing to get back to work only because I tried to go back Sunday night with Britton and realized that we took the WRONG passports. We had Jason and Haley's passports and he had ours. We had to jump off the train and head back to the hotel. By the time we got there, it was too late to go back to China. And this was the end of a weekend full of crazy things. Here are some of the lowpoints from the weekend:

• Britton throwing up on me twice on the bus (and I only brought one change of clothes since we were only planning on being there one night)
• Chloie not being allowed through the border to Hong Kong, so they had to go back to Clifford to get some paper
• Me crying in front of the border people, begging them to let us back through to help Jon, Mijoung, and Chloie
• Not being able to find them, so just heading to Disneyland without them
• Trying to meet up with Jon and company later that evening at the Mongkok Subway station (There are 2 different Mongkok subway stations--who knew?), we wandered around looking for them for about an hour. This alone could merit a whole post. It was quite comical I'm sure if someone would have been watching us. We were both in a few block radius looking for each other. At one point, Jason's phone died and we got out the charger, found an outlet on the side of the road, and plugged it in to charge. We must have looked pretty silly sitting there on the sidewalk with a phone plugged in, trying to figure out where they were. This would have worked, except that then Jason's phone ran out of minutes. So, it was back to wandering to look for a pay phone. When we did finally contact them again, they were seriously, right around the corner from us. We hung up the phone and they walked around the corner.
• Sleeping on the top bunk with Haley (Fun, but not the most comfortable night's sleep)
• Jon, Mijoung, and Chloie needing new visas in order to get back into China so we had to stay until Monday
• Trying to find another hotel for 2 more nights
• Buying new clothes at the market, then having none of them fit me, so I still ended up wearing the same shirt for 3 days (at least it wasn't the one that got thrown up on)
• Then, worth being mentioned again, taking the wrong passports when trying to go home--Where was my head? It was such a fitting ending to crazy few days.

The weekend actually was so much fun too, but EVERYTHING went wrong. Luckily, we are all back safe and sound. I'll be posting some pics of the GOOD things that happened over the weekend soon.

Celebrating Haley

I want to attempt to write about some of my feelings for my precious little girl. I cannot even begin to express how blessed I am to have Haley in my life. She is full of passion and energy. She does everything with conviction. She has such a great imagination and a big a heart. It's so much fun just observing her. She really is one of the funniest people I know. She is strong-willed and determined and independent. She wants to do things her way. But, she also has a very sweet, grateful heart. Lately, whenever we tell her about something we are going to be doing, even if it's something small, she gets so excited, gives me a hug and a kiss and says "Thank you, Mommy". She says, "I love you" all the time and it just melts my heart. Another phrase she says quite often is, "I'm so exciting!" instead of excited. It's so cute and she says it with such emotion while jumping up and down.

It's been really hard for me to have to work this year and not get to spend everyday playing with her. She's a morning person, just like me, so we get to spend some alone time each morning while the boys are still asleep. But, that makes it harder for me to leave. She tries to block the door every morning and hangs on me saying, "I want you to want me" (We have that song on our itunes and we always sing it and dance around to it). It's so cute when she says it but it makes it that much harder for me to leave everyday.

I think back to when I was waiting for Haley to come. She was a week late and I didn't think she would ever come. Now I can't imagine life without her. I was looking through my journal, reading some things about right before Haley came. I found a poem that I wrote 3 days before she was born. Here it is:

Waiting
and
waiting
and
waiting
there's no distraction good enough
to take my mind off of what
I want most
to see my child
hold her in my arms
touch her face
look into her eyes
and be in heaven for an instant.

I still love to hold her in my arms, touch her face, and look into her eyes. And I'm always in heaven when I am with her.

Another Picture

Here is another picture from Haley's party. It's not a great picture, but it shows Melanie's cute new baby, Naomi. She is so beautiful and all the kids adore her and want to hold her and be with her, including the boys. It's so cute.

Pink Princess Party

Haley's birthday party was so much fun! Haley requested that everyone wear pink, if possible. We played her favorite game, the animal game (charades). Then we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Then everyone hung out and played. It was just perfect for her. She loved having everyone over just for her. Here are a few pictures, sorry they are a bit blurry, my camera was on a weird setting--I hate that.

Most of the kids plus Jon and Mijoung

Haley opening her presents (with a little help from her friends)

A new shirt from Maddie and Brianna

Haley and Chloie in their matching outfits