Look at this smile! He just spent his birthday AND Christmas money buying a phone watch! Before you panic (all of you who were called in the middle of the night when he was younger and took daddy's phone), he can only call people that I have entered into his contact list from an app on my phone. Also, no one can call him unless they are an approved contact PLUS it has GPS so I always know where he is ;) So, I think this one is a win win (so far anyways) :)
Benjamin has been saying for a while how he really wants to take guitar lessons. He was even willing to take from a local teacher (which told me how much he really wanted this because he doesn't like speaking the local language). As we were looking, we found a store that just opened up. The guy was really nice, and his flyer said "International students welcome. Lessons taught in English." Plus on top of that, he was having a grand opening sale and the lessons were much cheaper than normal. He's only had one official lesson, but can already play well.
These two puppies love to practice "sit" or should I say they love to try and earn a treat.
Well, this is the most ridiculous thing ever. How are you supposed to shop when every aisle looks like this? This is not a store poorly restocking. No. The shelves behind these boxes are completely full and they even started putting signs up on some of the boxes so that you knew the price. I could barely get through the aisle let alone running into another person in the same aisle or trying to find what I was looking for.
I did finally catch a glimpse of what I was looking for. I was out of the country and knew that this store sometimes carried imported chips for a good price, so I thought it would be fun to talk some Cheetos back to the kids (and for myself..haha). No Cheetos that I could see, but I managed to move all these boxes and find a bag of Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream. = Happy surprised kiddos at lunch the next day.
I guess with crowds like this leading up to CNY, that store will probably sell out of all of their items?
Speaking of CNY...Jonathan had a work party at one of the factories. They had a raffle and gave away lots of prizes and he won a rice cooker!!!! We are SO EXCITED about this!! I know many of my readers will not understand, but when in Asia, you NEED a rice cooker. We have had a small simple one for 7 years. For the past year and a half Ayi has been tell us that we need a new one because the old one would work then not work and you had to fiddle with it. Also, the old one only held 5 cups of rice and it was overflowing. Many nights it just wasn't quite enough rice and some people were still hungry. THIS one is all fancy and the rice tastes great (yes, it makes a difference) An added bonus is that we can now cook up to 8 cups of rice :) YEAH!
Yeah, not very pretty, but it's just part of life these days. This is as we were making a turn toward some better days. Our levels have been around 235 "hazardous, close all windows, stay inside" as my phone said. Today is all the way down to 58, so much better :)
Katherine's science...she's been studying about earthquakes. Her project was to make two house out of marshmallows and toothpicks, one that she felt could withstand an earthquake and one that might not. She then set them in her Jell-O and lightly shook back and forth (small earthquake) then she shook it faster and a bit harder. She was right. Her tall one fell quickly while her other one with better supports held up under both "earthquakes"
It's time to get the puppies their first haircut! Poor Scout was running into things because her couldn't see.
Oh, they don't even look like the same dogs!
Aren't we cute?
Before
After
Scout likes to sit up on Regan's shoulder :)
Ok. Now just check out this bowl of soup! Yes, this is supposed to be a large mixing bowl, but someone said that she was starved and fixed a double portion of soup! She was so excited...and no, she didn't finish it :)
Lauren wants to take lessons to learn how to play this instrument. Hmmm. I'm glad that they all love music and want to learn, but this thing is a bit big. The lady let her try it and of coarse a crowd formed soon after :)
The kids got a surprise Valentine's package!!
This is a picture of what have been hearing constantly for the past 2 weeks. They are building a bridge and the methodical banging day and night (meaning middle of the night) is getting old. I'm hoping that it's been so much because they are trying to finish before the new year? I hope anyways :)
Lauren got a free ping pong lesson :)
Woohoo! Look who just passed his red belt test!!!
Great job Benjamin!
Regan also got an award for excellence in taekwondo! They chose a few kids from all the different centers and she was picked!
Good job, Regan!
Polly is my little English student. She has been coming over every day during her winter break. She really is good!
So the weather went from 72 to 45 overnight! Brrrr! Our complex said that people from the south don't know how to handle the cold weather so they gave out hot drinks. They posted this picture on their website...haha!
Doing school by the fake fireplace :)
Regan is going to taekwondo camp for the next 2 weeks. The first day she came home for lunch, but these two girls were so bummed about it that Regan stayed today. They went out for lunch.
These two girls just love Regan! Cute picture!
I'm so excited for her! They presented Regan with her black belt certificate today!! It finally came!
I didn't get to see it until she got home :)
This is her official first degree black belt card that allows her to coach anywhere in the world!! So cool!
