Halloween

Hi everyone, Happy Halloween!
We went to a big party last night and the kids went trick or treating. Right after school, Lauren had to go to a birthday party, and then we rushed home to get to the Halloween party. It was alot of fun. I was surprised at the number of people who gave out candy and also the number of Chinese kids who went also. The party was for adults to dress up also, so Todd and I went to a costume store here at 4:00 on Halloween... it was slim pickings. The best costume there was Sarah Palin, she handed out campaign pins for everyone to wear, and her husband dresses as Todd Palin. They both really look like them naturally.
On Thur, I went on a field trip with Lauren's class to the Temple of Heaven. It was a fun day, everyone brought a lunch and afterward, they all got to fly kites.
Not much else going on, hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

The Brownie Hike

This past Sat, Lauren and I went on the Girl Scout Hike on the Great Wall. It was an actual hike and was kind of hard. I was sore the next day! Girls were twisting their ankles and crying, but it was fun anyway. Everyone brought something to make a "group" trail mix. It was a little cold that day, but everyone had a great time. In the spring, I believe they camp up there, so we will have to do that too. I think she will really enjoy Brownies. Todd and Marshall had a fun day together as well, they went on a little hike called Backpacker's alley and did some fun exploring after soccer.
Last week, Lauren starting getting little sores on her face, by her eye and cheek, and nose. I wasn't sure what it was, but was putting neosporin on it. I showed it to a friend who is a pharmacist and she said it looked like impetigo, which is a staph infection on the face and gave me some cream she had, which really helped it. We went to the doctor the next day, and that is what she has. She is on antibiotics and using the cream. It is pretty gross looking. I was pleasantly surprised by the hospital though. It is pretty much like an office at home, although, we did go to the "foreigners" hospital. It was nice.
This week I am going on a field trip with Lauren's class on Thur to the Temple of Heaven. They look around and then fly kites after it. It should be fun. Then we are going to a Halloween party on Fri and trick or treating. Apparently, they have it in the neighborhoods up here. Lauren is Gabriella from High School Musical, and Marshall is a transformer. Lauren can wear her costume again to Brownies on Sat.
Not much else is going on. Todd is working alot. Lauren continues to have her sad moments, but I also think she doesn't feel very well. She really does not like her Chinese class and says she doesn't understand anything and often cries about it so I e-mailed her Chinese teacher and am going in to talk to her. I feel bad for her, it has just not been as easy adjusting for her as for Marshall.
Anyway, she is doing fine and so is Marshall. He has a ton of little friends and is doing just great here. He says NiHao to everyone and all of the guards know him and tease him.
Hope you are all doing well, we miss you!

A Fun Visit

I think we can officially say that we are now tired. We had such a good time showing Todd's parents and Grandma around Beijing. What a busy but fun 10 days. You guys were definitely troopers. We saw alot of the sights including Forbidden City, Great Wall, the hutongs, the Pearl Market (3 days), dirt market, Sunni Gold, and had some good meals along the way. I think everyone's favorite was actually the German restaurant. Lolo even took a boat ride while the kids drove the boat. I also think Meng will probably sleep all day today. They left on Monday, and then my friend Carrie spent the night. She left today to meet up with Greg in Tianjin. We went to the market and did some bargaining, and also rode our bikes to eat. We thought about all of you Bunco girls! Had some trouble with taxis the whole weekend, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was great to see her! Thanks for the care package!
We decided to go to Hong Kong after Christmas this year, and will also go to DisneyWorld Hong Kong for 1 or 2 days. I'll let you know how it compares.
Gotta go pick up the kids from the bus stop. Hope everyone is doing well in the US. We miss all of you!

The Gwillim's Visit

Todd's parents and Grandma got here Sat. afternoon. We grilled that night and stayed in. Lauren had her induction into Brownies Sat morning and in 2 weeks her troop is taking a hike on the Great Wall. She is excited about that.
On Sunday, the kids had their tennis lessons and we walked through the school a little. Then we had dinner at the Pomegranate restaurant where the kids got to pick a real pomegranate, they did try it, but didn't like it much. We went with Todd's parents to the Diana Krall concert that night.
On Monday, the kids went to school and we did some sightseeing around Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and stopped at the Silk Market for about an hour. Not enough time for Judy. Tomorrow, we are planning on spending most of the day in the markets while Todd is at work. Tuesday afternoon, we took the kids out of school and went to the Great Wall followed by dinner at Annie's Italian restaurant.
Everyone has been having fun and doing just fine. Gram has had alot of people staring at her and taking her picture. She says it doesn't bother her though. The markets should be fun tomorrow!

More pictures

Hi everyone,
Things here are good. Lauren has a friend over right now and is really happy. Even though they are only playing their DS's, it is a step in the right direction. She is still getting sad at night, mostly, because she misses her friends. Marshall is doing great and plays with Zach, across the street everyday.
The kittens are fine. They start out sleeping with the kids at night and then make it into our bed, usually right on top of us. They are scratching everything in sight, though, so we need to get them declawed.
We are getting ready for Todd's parents and Grandma who come tomorrow. The kids are so excited. I went today with Miss Geri and Meng to try to rent or buy a wheelchair. It would have been only $50 for Chinese people, for me it was $75. Oh well, it could be worse. And now we have a wheelchair in case we ever need one. My friend Carrie is also coming to Beijing with her husband on a business trip, so I can't wait until then. I put in an order for candy corn and kids chapstick!
My Chinese class is going well. Miss Geri tries to talk to me in Chinese, she has to repeat it SLOWLY about 6 times with some charades for me to understand. She is nice though and says she can understand me. Meng too!
I found a great new store called City Shop which has alot of American products. It is near the American Embassy and believe it or not, it has GRAPE JELLY! The squeezable kind no less. I was so excited and spent way too much money there but I really felt like I was in an American grocery store.
Well, better go and make dinner. We miss all of you!

Our week in Thailand

Well, we just got back yesterday from our vacation in Thailand. We went to Phuket and Bangkok and had such a great time. They have also more "American" things there than China and almost everyone spoke English pretty well. The resorts were beautiful and both had kids clubs that had neat kids activities every hour. Lauren and Marshall spent alot of time there playing and made some neat things like towel animals and necklaces. They showed movies all day and the kids could just go and play if they wanted. It was a nice break from the sun at times. It was a 4 hour flight from Beijing to Bangkok and then another hour to Phuket. We got there in the evening and they greet you with a flower lei and a drink while you check in. Marshall took this opportunity to toss rocks into the serenity pond, probably not what it is intended for, but fun for a 4 year old. Lauren did some dancing. The rooms were really nice and they had some good restaurants there. The kids ate pretzel bread almost everyday, and they had a huge American buffet breakfast. Lauren and I walked down the beach the first day and she got some braids in her hair, we had to talk her out of doing her whole head. She kept them in today to wear to school to show everyone.
The pool had a waterslide and the coolest thing was everyday, an elephant would walk by. If you gave the elephant some money, he would take it in his trunk and give it to the owner. You could feed him bananas and the kids even got to ride on him. They were so excited, it was all they could talk about.
Todd did some scuba diving, and we hung out at the pool everyday. We took a taxi into a little beach town but there isn't much in Phuket except resorts. We did go to a show one night called FantaSea, which was like a Las Vegas type show with dancing elephants, magicians, fire shows and it was cool. The kids rode on an elephant and held a baby tiger. Again, they thought they were cool.
We were really glad we stopped in Bangkok for a couple of nights. We went to a HUGE market which is only open on Sat. and they sold everything you could think of from food, to clothes, to animals. We knew it would be dirty and busy so we make the kids wear old, dirty clothes. We were getting out of the elevator if front of alot of people, just as Marshall asked very loudly. "Why do we have to wear dirty clothes AGAIN?" We got some funny looks.
The market was CRAZY. It was better than the ones in China and things were much cheaper and were a better quality. We bought a 3ft Budda statue that weighed alot- and Todd carried it around on a backpack for the whole day. We took all kinds of transportation that day, the subway, a boat, and a tuk tuk which is what we were in in the picture. I wouldn't recommend it, you breath in exhaust fumes the whole time, but it was fun. Lauren waved to everyone during the ride and most people waved and smiled back.
We flew back yesterday and they were happy to get home to see the kitties yesterday.
Take care everyone