Shutting down the blog

After close to 5 years of blogging, I've made the difficult decision to shut down the blog (and become a facebook lurker as opposed to poster). It's something I've been pondering for quite some time due mostly to privacy concerns. What really set me over the edge this week was a series of articles regarding online tracking and how intrusive these services can really be...frankly, it freaked me out.
On top of that, I've been wondering about the digital footprint that I'm leaving for the kids. Are future employers going to read about their childish exploits and ding them? Have I somehow ruined their chances at the university of their choosing? Will their photos be used without authorization for something that we clearly do not approve of???
So...dear blog readers, what was old is now new again. We're going back to weekly emails. I'm pondering format and delivery dates. Zip me an email if you'd like to be included on the list.

Just Believe

It's been an unseasonably warm and beautiful fall. We loaded up the car, drove to a trail, and took the girls out today for an afternoon bike ride. In our typical "formation", Jim and Lolo are on his bike and tag-a-long. I'm pulling Norah behind my bike in the chariot trailer. Norah looks after our cooler full of drinks and snacks.
At one point in our ride, we go down a very big hill (for Minnesota) and I'm dreading the return trip the rest of the way.
On our way back, I warn Jim that I may not be able to make it back up the hill with trailer in tow.
Our Norah pipes up "Mama. You can do it if you just BELIEVE. I believe!" And so she continues to chatter with support to give me "power boosts" so I can make it up the hill.
And so we tackle the hill with GUSTO!
Until my legs can pedal no more and....we start going...backwards...back down the hill.
I end up pushing the bike and trailer up the hill.

Our little schemer

Last night at dinner, the girls were in rare form. I said something about how I was thinking about shipping the girls off to Gramma Peg and Pop Paul....wondering if they would take such wild girls.
Norah look at me and says "We're ALWAYS good at Gramma Peg's house."
"Really?" I reply.
"Really." says Norah. "They have lots of toys. So we're always good. We might be really good all the time at home if we had more toys."

Stay at home day

Norah goes to school tuesday, wednesday, and thursdays. The rest are stay-at-home-days. Norah has been having trouble with a boy named Truman at preschool this year. As Norah puts it, "Truman is the mean boy." Anyway, she has been trying to talk me into all stay at home days and no school days. The other day, she says "How about if I have 5 stay at home days?" I say "How about 4?" She's good with that. Clearly, math skills and negotiation skills have a ways to develop.
We have had a nice stay-at-home day today. Norah had dance class. We came home, played a game, and baked a red velvet cake. We also cut the rest of the sage and basil and brought in the remaining tomatoes. We're supposed to get our first frost this weekend. Norah was very excited to hear about the potential for frost. As our little Minnesotan puts it "When it frosts, that means we're getting close to Halloween!"
We're making pesto tonight from the remainder of this year's basil. The girls always have such definite opinions about making pesto. I feel like I'm raising a couple of true foodies :-)

Fast forward....

So fast forward to current times....
Norah's got a whole new closet of clothes. Yahoo. She's going to look good tomorrow!
Here's one for you...the other day we were talking about the girls' weekend with Dad. They went to Dave & Busters. Played lots of games. Won a lot of tickets. Redeemed tickets for the requisite prizes. Norah elected to get a cup with a "crazy straw"....you know, one of those impossible to wash clean without spending a gob of time deals. I said something about how I would not have let her pick that prize out. Norah looks at me and in all seriousness says "Boy, I'm glad you weren't there!" Then cracks a huge grin as she takes a deep drink from her crazy straw.

Almost caught up....

now, just 2 months behind in posting....
Will try to do more next week. I've got to clean out closets before the girls get home. Norah has suddenly sprouted up and all her pants are too short. I've been guilty of letting her go to school wearing floods.

Now...back to Minnesota

And a little summertime swim/sail action in Minnesota.

A few more panda shots

Just found these extra shots and I couldn't resist posting them too.

Insanity

Our good friends, Rebecca, Ernest, and their boys Willem and Michael (who used to live across the alley behind us), flew into Taipei from Singapore to play with us. We were so tickled.

While planning the trip from our air conditioned homes many miles away, we thought....hey, if we're not meeting in Bali in Indonesia....why don't we go to Bali in Taiwan? So, we got on the MRT, headed out, rode a ferry, rented bikes, and sweated our brains out along the river. Nothing short of insanity. But still a very good time. Amazingly, it's like the kids didn't miss a beat and picked up playing as if they had never been apart.

I'd post pictures from our trip to the Taipei Zoo, but it was so darn hot that I couldn't muster up the energy to get my camera out. As the kids kept reminding me "Mama. You were wrong. This is really the oven of china."

Dinner with the family

A visit to Taipei is not complete without a big dinner with the family and cousins. Come to think of it. No trip to Taipei is complete without eating, eating, eating, and a little more eating. Oh. Did I mention eating?

Taipei 101

A trip to the Taipei 101 aka Norah's dream home due to the most excellent cream puff shop in the basement food court. Cream puffs, a toy store, and elevator rides. What more could a girl ask for? Yep. Even mom would agree that this place is worthy of a stop just for the cream puffs.

Museum days

Due to the heat, we did pick some indoor activities. Very fun science museum...although very crowded with school groups. The girls really "got into" the giant bubbles (pun intended).

The True "Oven"

Now, onto our trip to Taiwan....or as the girls call it....the true "oven". Yes, we about roasted our brains out. July in Taipei is no picnic. What were we thinking?!

Luckily, the hotel had one of the best rooftop pools we've ever experienced. Sweet views. Very kid friendly.

And, the view from our bedroom window was quite nice as well.

Birthday in Chengdu

I celebrated my birthday in Chengdu with the girls. Can you guess what we ate?

Leshan Giant Buddha

Another tourist spot. Intriguing project started in 713. The giant buddha is 233 feet tall. You can climb a gajillion steps and actually "climb" the buddha, but we picked a crummy rainy day (and I wasn't really interested in carrying kids on a million slick stairs)....so we bought tickets on a tourist boat. This was one of those, "gosh I hope nothing bad happens" moments....rickety old polluted dirty boat, cruising the river with tourists, and ill-fitting lift vests. Hmmmm.

Alls well that ends well.

Chongqing

We did manage to get in a short trip to Chongqing to visit more family. I had told the girls that we would be visiting the "oven of china" but luckily while we were there, the weather was quite nice. Slightly windy and foggy. Reminded me of a warm version of San Francisco (because you know the summers in San Francisco are never warm)....beautiful city built next to two rivers, buildings built seemingly right into the hillside. Loved it. Extremely charming. This is a place that we're going to have to go back and explore at length with Jim.

Of course, this place really satisfied Norah's penchant for pirates. As many of you know, Norah loves to play pirates with her friends at school. This place was right up her alley.

Another interesting part of this trip was the train ride. Chaotic and crowded train station, but relatively clean train (will be interesting to see how it wears as time goes by). Apparently, just a few short years ago, the train trip would take a whole day. Now, it's a high speed rail and we made the trip to Chongqing in 2 hours. They are slated to upgrade the train and in a couple of years, the goal is to make the trip in just 1 hour. Amazing. But the return trip was another story. Power outage. 20 minutes away from our station. Stuck for a couple of hours until the power got restored. Major bummer. We could have walked to the station in less time.

More pandas

We seem to be on a world panda tour. We've seen pandas at zoos in San Diego, Chiang Mai, and Taiwan. In each of these locations, there might be a couple of pandas at most and frankly, they seem a little lonely....on top of strict "quiet" and sanitizing shoes, hands, etc. And the hoopla that surrounds the difficulty in getting a panda on loan from China.

This panda refuge was so refreshing by comparison. A bunch of pandas munching on bamboos in various enclosures. And crowds of loud chinese people gawking, jockeying for photo position, and snapping the requisite panda shots (yes, I'm including me too).

Yes, here at the panda refuge, there's a stocked lake and after we ate ice cream, we stopped to feed the fish and black swan. Kind of made our earlier fish feeding exploits seem tame.

Pandas, pandas, pandas

This is right up there with playing with baby tiger cubs...but perhaps slightly more intriguing because there are so few places in the world where a person can actually hold and pet "baby" pandas (albeit with a sizeable cash contribution.) This one was 10 months old and surprisingly hefty. The original game plan was to let Lolo hold the panda. But the bear weighed more than she did and since it had pointy speared bamboo in it's hands (and it's teeth and claws were far scarier than I had originally imagined)...we revisited the plan and I held the bear. Norah was uneasy here...she had a similar outlook when it came to tiger cubs in Thailand. When we were done, both girls complained that they couldn't really feel the panda very well because they had to wear the silly gloves. Major eyeroll.

Dujiangyan Irrigation Project of China

We took a day trip to Dujiangyan to see a very interesting irrigation project built in 256 BC and is still in use today. Hard to believe the ingenuity that went into this project...especially considering that gunpowder hadn't been invented yet.

The girls were more interested in the snacks, the wobbly suspension bridge, and non-irrigation water features. Figures. But I will say...it was hot and buggy. Ice cream was not a bad idea.

And goodness, I do like that fountain! If we ever win the lottery, I'm going to get one of these turtle/dragon spraying fountains. Is that not one of the coolest things ever?!

Unrelated to China

A break in the China postings to provide a tidbit from this evening....
After dinner, we have a little bit of time to mess around outside for a few moments (enjoying the crisp fall air)...
Norah says to me in all earnestness "Mama, did you know I can count faster than a ladybug?"
"Hmmm. Really? That's fantastic." I reply.
Norah cackles with glee "Yes! Maaamaaaa....Lady bugs CAN'T COUNT!"
How bad is it that Norah finds it side-splittingly funny to say things that provide a "Duh Mom" moment in her mind?

Eating breakfast in China

YUM!

Still in the tourist district

There was a photo shop where tourists could get dressed up and have their photos taken in old timey clothes. I decide to get the girls dressed up. Wow. We caused quite a stir. People saw the girls getting dressed up and a crowd appeared. Folks with very sophisticated cameras, snapping photos. I half expect to see an unauthorized photo of the girls in a chinese advertisement.

Shopping in Chengdu

Here we are shopping in a touristy old "alley". Crowds, touristy knick-knacks, and lots of food. We stopped at a stand where a man was making sugar spun candy. You'd pay him a coin and then spin a wheel, where ever the wheel lands, he makes the candy for you. Lolo went first and spun a little chick. Then Norah spins the wheel and gets the lucky dragon. So much candy for such a small little girl. Luckily, our girls are sweet. Norah ended up sharing with her sister.

Resuming China Trip Posts

In a blink of an eye, summer was over and here I am....about 3 months later, just getting around to posting the remainder of our pictures from China. The goal is to get the rest of these pictures up this week. But I must warn you...I've got power-washing on my to-do list this week too. So, here goes.

One of the things the girls really loved to do in China was feed the fish. Here, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. Since our attention span was short, the girls and I snuck out to feed the fish. There was a restaurant chef there too...he gave the girls some noodles to feed to the fish.

Chicago

I'm headed to Chicago for the weekend with a few of my girlfriends from law school. The girls have been eagerly awaiting my absence. Norah kept asking when Daddy would be "in charge". When she found out it was going to be soon, she could hardly contain her glee...joyfully singing "Party, party, party!"

A little sunshine

Struggling

In other news, our Norah is really struggling in preschool this year. Not really sure why....other than the fact that her good friends from last year have moved onto kindergarten. She's been coming home with big tantrums, unhappiness, and not wanting to go to school. She just wants stay-at-home-days. Strange. Maybe we had too much fun this summer.

#7

Lolo lost tooth #7 this morning at school. I was at recess today and when Lolo's class came out...there was out girl....a big gap in her smile. First grade is funny. So many of her friends all have big gaps in their smiles right now. Very sweet. She was still glad to see me at recess but already I can tell a difference. She didn't hang out with me the whole time. Ran off with her friends. Yep, it won't be long and she'll be asking me to PLEASE not volunteer at school anymore (or at least do something where she and her friends don't have to see me). The big question is when will this happen? Third grade? 5th grade? Next year?

A rotten problem

As some of you know, Norah is really looking forward to Christmas this year. While we were in China, she spied a Strawberry Shortcake house in a toy store. Of course, it was huge and we couldn't bring it home in our suitcase. So, she decided that she was going to ask Santa for it.
She's still obsessing about this house. She's convinced Santa will bring her this house....despite our warnings that she better be good if she wants Santa to bring this house. According to Norah, she knows Santa will bring toys to rotten kids because she has been rotten and still received toys.
Clearly, I should have put some coal in her stocking last year. Maybe this year??? Wouldn't that blow her little mind?

A tidbit

Bet you thought I'd forgotten about blogging. Just a couple of months behind. But here's a tidbit I couldn't let pass...
Last night we were reading a Little Critters book. One critter was half rabbit and half turtle (mom was a rabbit, dad was a turtle). Lolo thought that was strange. So I said something to the effect of the girls being half chinese and half white. Lolo took immediate offense. "I'm not half white. Daddy's Tennessee." That means she's "half-orange."

The Slacker Travels Again

We made it back from Tennessee and our kayak adventure. And since I haven't had much computer time to speak of, clearly, there have been no blog updates. Once again, we're heading out. This time we're heading up to Canada for a week and a half. Going to a cabin outside of Montreal for some fishing, swimming, and hiking.

Break in Updates

Another break in the China trip update. It's been a busy couple of weeks. I haven't had as much uninterupted computer time as I would have liked. We've been outside....riding bikes, swimming, playing hard.
We're heading out tonight to Tennessee. Will update when we're back....

Chengdu

The girls and I arrive in Chengdu on a great direct flight from Beijing....but first a word about the Beijing airport.
The girls and I get to the airport early because Jim's international flight leaves an hour before our domestic flight. We all have early morning flights. I figure, we all check in....get through security and get breakfast. Wrong. Despite all of us being at Terminal 2....international quickly gets separated from domestic. Bummer. The girls and I get in line to check in....wait....get out of line because they have to potty....Mom has to start throwing elbows in the bathroom because the concept of waiting in lines and kindness towards children who really have to "go" appears very elusive...get back in line to check in....get in line for security...get through security....and then realize there are no restaurants to speak of. MAJOR bummer. Thank goodness for the emergency rations in my carry-on bag.
OK. That was my venting for the evening. So, we get on a direct (hooray!) flight to Chengdu. Thankfully, it's not Delta (double hooray!). Any airline these days seems to be better than Delta. The girls and I camp out at my mom's apartment for the next 2 weeks. Here's the night view from her apartment window. It's such a shame the city is seemingly just as polluted as Beijing (and mosquito infested). Never saw the sky here either....but the night view is quite nice. (Mostly because you can't see the polluted air as well at night).

Below are the girls in front of the bridge (lit up in the picture above). It's quite pretty and has a very nice restaurant on the bridge. Do you like their newly acquired chinese sun visors (complete with solar powered fan and sunglasses)?