I dreamed in French last night. It's been a REALLY long time since that has happened. I really miss speaking French. I might have to start practicing some more. Or maybe I'll just have to plan a trip to France. Hmmmm, that sounds like a great idea!

I love Haley

This morning when I was leaving for work, I said, "Bye Haley! I'll see you at lunchtime!"
And she said, "Can you just fast forward to when you'll be home?"

Too cute.

More funny things from Haley

This morning when Haley woke up, she walked into the livingroom and we had the following conversation:

Haley: Mom, did you find all my Barbie movies?

Me: No, I didn't know I was supposed to look for them.

Haley: Okay, then, I won't kill you, I'll just send you bad luck.


Seriously, where does she come up with these things?
I hurried to find her movies just in case she does have power over my luck.

You know it's bad when...

one of your students asks you if you drew in the dark circles around your eyes!

I'm not even kidding. A boy in my class came up and just stared at my eyes. Then he asked that. I told him no and he responded, "wow, amazing!" I guess I'm looking as exhausted as I'm feeling.

But, on the bright side, another student the next day told me that she thinks I should be on "Next Top Model" because I'm "so beautiful".

I guess the two comments sort of cancel each other out.

A big 6 year old!

Yesterday Britton turned 6! Happy Birthday, buddy! I love you more than anything!

Restaurant Pictures

Last weekend we went to the restaurant street here in Clifford to go to dinner at the Thai restaurant. A lot of the restaurants have fresh fish, lobster, etc. out in tanks in front of their restaurants. They always have some really crazy things that I can't believe people actually eat. Here are a few pics.
Snakes:

Eels:

Alligator:

Another alligator:

They also have turtles, frogs, beetles, and other strange things.

Britton

I wanted to record a couple of things about Britton that I want to remember.

#1 The other day Britton and his friends were outside playing with some frogs that they had found. Later on, Britton asked me if frogs cause warts. I said, "No, warts are caused by a virus inside your body." Then Britton started laughing really hard and said, "Mom, viruses are for electronic things." It was pretty funny.

#2 A couple days ago, I took Britton and Haley outside during lunchtime. Britton said he wanted to go see if there were any frogs. There is a small rectanglular fountain closeby our building. It isn't running right now, but it fills up with some rain water and then the boys have been finding tadpoles and frogs in it. So, we headed over towards the fountain. Britton got there first and after looking around, yelled, "There aren't any frogs, but there's a rat." I told him not to touch it and I figured it was dead. But, when I got there, I saw it just swimming around, struggling to keep its head up. Now, I am no animal lover, and, rats are probably pretty far down on the list of animals I could care about. But, even still, it was very sad to see that little critter struggling, knowing it would just end up drowning when it ran out of energy to hold it's head up. It must have accidentally fallen in. I told my kids that I wanted to help it out, but that I didn't want to touch it. We looked around to see if there was a bucket or something, but there wasn't one. So Britton and Haley went and found some sticks. At first try, the rat just swam away from the stick. But, then, Britton gently put it right underneath the rat's stomach and the rat actually wrapped its legs around the stick! Britton lifted the rat out and it just sat there exhausted on the edge of the fountain. It must have been in there swimming for a long time. I thought it would scurry off and soon as it was out, but it just laid there, breathing heavily. We left it there and went to play at the park. On our way back in, we checked for it, and it was gone. I know that most people would want rats dead, and normally I would too, but it just seemed so wrong to see it struggle like that without doing something. Britton was so proud of himself all day long. He kept saying, "I'm really glad I saved that rat, he probably really likes me!"

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday (or today for most of my readers) was my 32nd birthday. So, how does it feel to be 32? A lot like it felt to be 31.

I had a wonderful day. It started out with a great surprise of Jason getting up with me at 5:45. If any of you know him, he is NOT a morning person. He made me breakfast while I jogged the stairs. I made it all 20 flights of stairs for the first time ever. Woohoo! When I got home, I got to enjoy a nice breakfast.

At work, I got the best present ever--an email from Jason with a list of all the things he likes about me. It made me laugh and cry. It was awesome.

It was a really low key birthday, but it was great, nonetheless. We had a small birthday dinner with my family. When I said it was my birthday party, Britton said, "Why didn't you invite your friends then?" So, I said, "My 3 favorite people are here, so that's enough for me."

I got to play Dr. Mario and Tetris and watch some episodes of the Office and talk Jason's ear off and watch my kids playing so well with each other. It was pretty much perfect.

Britton's School Open House

This morning was the open house at Britton's school. It's a chance for parents to come and watch a class. The idea is that parent's will be observing what a "regular" class is like, but it's far from that. Everything is very scripted and well-rehearsed. The teachers plan and practice for weeks before. It's more like a show. I find it a bit cheesey but it's still tons of fun. I feel for those kindergarten teachers who have to put on a "show" for the parents with all those little ones. My open house is next week and it's so much less pressure at the secondary level. I just plan it out so that my students are doing some sort of presentation of a project and then I don't really have to do anything except watch them. They do it all and really that's what the parents want to see--their child up there speaking in a foreign language that they can't even understand. Teaching secondary does have some benefits. Anyway, here are some pics from this morning.

Britton got to sing the "Good Morning" song.

Reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (Notice Britton's blond head in there?)

Watching the mini-play about a butterfly birthday party. It was really cute. At the end, Britton yelled out for everyone to hear, "It's not really their birthday!" It was pretty funny.

Britton's teacher is from Australia, so it's fun to hear all the Chinese kids speak with an Australian accent. It's really cute. And Britton has been learning a few different words and things just because they say things a bit differently.

My Cuties

Bug Hunting

Last Saturday, I took my kids with me to the track so they could look for bugs while I jogged. Previously in the week, I had seen so really, really long worms and I was hoping that they could see them. Unfortunately it was dryer on Saturday so the worms were not out. They did find this giant snail though. We took it home for a day and then let it go.

I love that my kids are so fascinated with things like this. Haley is not grossed out by anything and she doesn't mind holding bugs or other things. But, Britton is the one who has a real passion for it. He really has a good eye for finding things. While at the track he also spotted these really tiny, vertical, cylindrical ant hills. They were really neat. He was happy just observing the ants. We also found a few mushrooms and a ladybug. I could really see him being some sort of field scientist. He has the curiosity, patience, and eye for it. He also has a love and compassion for all living things. Yesterday I was playing out in the field with Britton, Haley, and the two neighbor boys. They discovered quite a few different ant colonies. At first everyone was just watching the ants. Haley tried to ruin part of the ant hill and Britton got really upset with her. He kept saying, "Do you know how long it takes them to build that? And you just messed it up? They are so small." Then he scooped up some dirt and tried to put it where the ants could get it easily. I don't know if it actually helped, but it was so cute that he was trying. Later on, Owen and Jackson started throwing rocks and bricks at the anthills, just for fun. I was surprised to see that Britton didn't join in (he really looks up to Owen and Jackson), but instead he told them not to hurt the ants because they are so small. Maybe I have a future entymologist on my hands.

This Morning

This morning Haley was drinking some juice. She put her cup down with just a little bit left in the bottom. I told her just to finish it. She said, "If I finish it, it will kill all my blood and then my arms will kill me." What?

I guess it's a good thing that she didn't finish it.

Picture with the Clowns at the Circus

The Farm and the Circus

Everyone went to the farm one day while I was at work. The farm here is one of our favorite places.

Jon, Chloie, Haley and the Ostrich

Jon and Chloie going horseback riding!


The Monday night before they left, we finally made it to the Chimelong circus. It was amazing! So much fun. We got front row seats. The kids were a little scared at times because they did some effects with fire, but it was still really cool to be up that close. At one point they made it rain on the stage and we were so close that we got wet from the mist. There were so many acts that were so neat. There were some really neat acrobatics things. They did some neat effects with people swinging and hanging covered in lights with the lights out. My very favorite thing was the guys that spin around on the big circle things. They get the wheel spinning and then do tricks inside it. It was really fun. They also had lots of animal tricks and an act with a white tiger. Jason loved that since white tigers are his favorite animal. I was very impressed with the circus. It was a lot of fun. We weren't allowed to use a flash during the circus so we only have a few, not so good pictures. We also have some video of us with some of the clowns, but I can't load video here due to the incredibly slow internet. (It always times out before it will load)

Next we went to the Mausoleum of the Nan-Yue king. It is a tomb that was discovered recently when they were excavating to build a hotel. It was really neat to see all the artifacts and go down into the tomb.

Guangzhou Sight Seeing

Jon and Mijoung have been gone for a couple of weeks, but I haven't had a chance to blog about some of the things we did right before they left. The Saturday before they left, we got a babysitter for the kids and we went to Guangzhou to see some of the touristy sites. We haven't really had a chance to do that since we've been here, so it was really fun. Here are some pictures.

Sun Yatsen Monument

In all the parks, you can see a group of people doing Tai Chi, but this group was actually doing the Macarena! It cracked me up so we had to take a picture. Some of them were really getting into it.

A park bench with compartments to sit in.

The statue of the Five Rams.