Here's the New Car!

A friend here in China once said that you haven't truly experienced freedom in China until you own a car. I am in complete agreement. Lee and I discussed buying a car and I was sure that we were completely fine without it. We had our electric scooters and life was good. Between the scooters and the subway we were perfectly mobile and both are super cheap. Then, the weather turned cold. Our first day below 45 and I was on board with the car idea! There's nothing like flying down the road on your scooter with your hands (gloves and all) frozen to the handlebars, snot running down your nose from the cold and your eyes watering so badly you can't even see the road. Then add several bags of groceries on each handlebar and in the basket and a kid complaining on the back that's she's cold. So I gave in and away we went.


Lee is just the best at shopping and research. He is so thorough and patient. I let him choose the car with no strings attached. He chose a Chinese made knock off of the Toyota Forerunner. The company is called Great Wall. Of course, there is a Great Wall car company, Great Wall brand of liquor, Great Wall this, Great Wall that... so anyway, I cannot describe my level of enthusiasm for this car. It seats 7, has leather seats and is a turbo charged diesel. I am so glad to never have to set foot in another stinky taxi in my life! Wohoo! I really thought I would be diligent in taking the scooter, and maybe I will when it's not so stinking cold! Having a car is so nice, I can't even describe how lovely it is to come out of a store, put my bags in the car, drive to another errand, leave my belongings in the car and then when I am finished, go home. We take such simple things for granted in the States. It is so difficult trying to do more than one errand at a time on a scooter because you have to carry all your crap around. I am so happy!

Sunday Done Right

This was a Sunday to put down in my book as a 'Sunday Done Right'. We had a nice laid back morning with the kids (Cooper running around with a pair of underwear on his head for a hat), eating breakfast, getting ready for church and enjoying each other instead of fighting while doing it. Ally has pink eye, so she and I headed out to the doctor instead of going to church (we can exclude that from the perfect Sunday criteria). After Ally and I got back from the doctor we sat on the couch and I cross stitched and watched 'House' while Ally played her dad's new PSP. Then I taught Ally how to cross stitch on her own little project that I bought awhile back in the subway station. Lee and the other kids came home around 3:15 pm and we curled up in our warm apartment (it was cold and gray outside). Lee fiddled on his computer and played some math baseball games with Ally while Cooper and Eve played house. It was really relaxing. In the US, Sundays were always a day for me to rest, recoop and generally refuel physically and mentally for the grueling week ahead. I always took a nap, and truth be told, spent as much time in my bedroom away from the kids as possible. I am so thankful for China. I am so relaxed here that I am starting to unwind enough to spend quality time with my kids and actually enjoy teaching moments rather then begrudge them. (I know I am wearing my heart on my sleeve here.)

My favorite part of the day came in the evening. I decided to try my hand at Naan bread, which I absolutely love! So I found a recipe and got started. Ally and Eve wanted to help, so away we went. It's a yeast based bread so after the rising process finished was when it got fun. I thought I was letting the girls help because I was being a patient mom, when in fact I couldn't have made the bread without their help. Eve had her turn at the stove first and then Ally took over about halfway through. I rolled out the dough while the girls actually did the cooking. I was so proud! As I was rolling out the next piece of dough, one girl was stationed on her chair at the stove. I put the flat tortilla shaped dough in the pan while Ally/Eve basted the uncooked side with garlic butter. Then she flipped it when it was done and basted the cooked side. The whole time Ally/Eve was cooking I was rolling out the next piece of naan. When the piece in the pan was done cooking, the other daughter would carefully take the cooked piece and transfer it to a stone casserole dish in the oven to keep it warm and then would cover it with a cloth. I was so impressed with the clockwork procedure that was occurring seamlessly in my kitchen! Three Cannon females, baking and talking and working together without any squabbles! I have to say it was one of our finer moments. I sit here at my computer writing about success in my home and feel blessed with such simple yet incredible bendiciones from my Maker and I think "This is what Sundays are supposed to be about!" We set the table and everyone's mouth watered just thinking about the bread that we had made together. After all that work, I have to pridefully admit THE BREAD WAS AMAZING!!!! We each ate at least 3 pieces and the kids went on forever discussing the endless possibilities for the bread... Could they have it with jam or possibly nutella? Could they have it for lunch instead of pb&j's? Maybe it would be best all by itself for lunch... How many different ways could they work out to eat this great bread? And I just sat at the table, smiled, and thanked my Heavenly Father for simple pleasures in raising a family.

Of course, ten minutes later we were back to arguing about pajamas and who had the turn first at the sink to brush teeth. I thought I would pull my hair out before I got them all to bed. But now, I can sit and blog about a great Sunday and feel totally content.

P.S. I have to say that Lee was out doing his hometeaching and therefore missed out on the harmonious evening in the kitchen. The poor guy was out until after 8 and had to eat his naan and curry chicken all alone (of course I was there for good company and pry compliments from him about our bread).

Halloween in China

I was so relieved to find that, while Halloween is not celebrated by the Chinese, several of the foreign complexes have trick or treating every year. Our neighborhood really embraces Halloween, and I think the Chinese kids that live in our neighborhood are especially happy to have expats around to start a new tradition. We took out our Halloween decorations at the first of October. The kids were really excited and I was thankful that I packed them because it helped us all feel more at home in our new house and this strange country. The kids have been ramping up for a month now for Halloween. The school did not disappoint and did a great job of decorating and putting on class parties, which was also a comfort. We all got dressed up and were out trick or treating by 6:00 PM. It was totally dark by that point. We dragged our housekeeper along with us for her first trip trick or treating. I think she had fun watching everyone run around crazy. The management sent out sign up sheets earlier in the month for those who wanted to participate. When you signed up, they gave you a paper pumpkin to put on your door so all the children would know which doors to knock. Of course, the kids didn't really get a ton of candy, and it wasn't the GOOD stuff, just a little American candy, but they had a blast. We also had a ward Halloween party the day after which was tons of fun. One ward member brought over his cotton candy machine, which was really cool. We played games, ate too much junk food and then got rained on at the end. It was like we hadn't even left the states at that point.... seems like rain has a way of ending parties! Anyway, it was pretty fun all around.

The Best Date Night EVER!

Lee had a birthday! October 8th was Lee's birthday. Our tradition is to get a sitter and invite a few couples out to dinner with us to celebrate. We invited Greg and Tracey Butters and Emily and Craig Woll to go out with us and we left Ally and Eve and Cooper home with a teenage girl from church. Greg and Tracey have lived in China for 12 years (I think) so they really know their way around. Tracey sort of took over the planning for the evening, which was perfectly fantastic.

Tracey and Greg have 6 kids and a big van so we all piled in and off we went. We started out at a hot pot restaurant, which I had never even heard of prior to the night. Greg is very fluent in Mandarin, so he ordered for all of us. It's kind of like the Melting Pot, in that they put a huge pot in front on you on a gas stove. It's full of tasty broth and you just order whatever you want to cook. Since Greg ordered, we had no idea what we were getting into. The servers wheeled out this huge cart full to the brim with meat sliced thin like deli meat, a whole plate of just mushrooms (more varieties than I even knew existed!), lettuce, spinach, cilantro, some other green vegetable, and more and more meat. Everyone just threw in whatever they wanted to eat and then you wait for it to boil for awhile and then just hope you can find what you put in. The pot looked absolutely disgusting by the time we were done, but it all tasted great. I avoided the meat (of course) and stuck to the vegetables. It was fantastic.

Next we headed off to get foot massages. I have never ever been out on a group date where we finished off the evening with a massage. It was totally awesome! They brought all six of us into a room with eight recliners lined up along the wall. We rolled up our pants and started out with a short back, neck and shoulder massage and then had 30 more minutes of foot and leg massage. It was really cool. About 15 minutes into the massage another couple from church showed up. It was really funny to have all 8 chairs full of Mormons! :) So we have decided that we like this new lifestyle, right down to date nights.

Thanks for the Suitcase!

We are so thankful to Jon Spencer for bringing us a suitcase from my parents in Georgia. Thanks a million Jon!!!! Jon came to Shanghai for business last week and was kind enough to bring a suitcase full of goodies from the US! My mom and dad are so awesome. They packed cereal, chocolate chips, pop tarts, twizzlers and spree, brownie mixes, egg noodles, and all kinds of wonderful treats that are either hard to come by here or cost prohibitive. But best of all were the pajamas and slippers that my mother made for the kids. Before Jon left for Shanghai I got out the measuring tape to get measurements from the kids. Eve saw the tape and yelled "Yippee!!! Grandma's making clothes again!!!!!" Then when I measured her feet she yelled again about how great it was to get slippers made. That girl knows her clothes!

We had a heck of a time meeting up with Jon once he got to Shanghai, mostly because Lee and I didn't really listen when Jon tried to tell us he wasn't inside Shanghai. We were embarrassed when we finally figured things out. So Jon was kind enough to come to Shanghai and visit with us. He had lunch with us and then we took him to the Bund, which is a touristy site along the banks of the Huangpu River. We took a tunnel under the river which was kind of cheesy but fun. You get in a tram and go through a tunnel of different kinds of lights. It's supposed to be futuristic. The kids thought it was great. We walked around a little, took a few pictures and then let Jon experience the subway for the return trip. While we were on the Bund there were several weddings going on. One couple stopped us and begged Ally and Eve to be in some pictures with them. I don't know what it is about western kids, but the Chinese are always asking to take pictures with them. We usually let the kids decide if they want to do it or not. That day Ally and Eve refused, so I, like any good parent, paid them to be in the pictures! :)

We fed Jon some dinner and of course it was Lee's signature pasta and white sauce. While we were cooking, Cooper got in trouble for turning off the dvd player right in the middle of a movie that everyone else was watching. So Lee had Cooper come in the kitchen and sit in the corner. A few minutes later I asked Cooper how he was doing. He was silent, which is a big indicator that something's not quite right. I looked down and poor little Cooper was all tuckered out from a big day of walking. He was snoozing in the corner! We had to get a picture, it was just too cute.

New Addition to the Family

We were going into withdrawal. The symptoms were obvious: shakes, uncontrollable need to pet other peoples pets as they walked by, scanning the neighborhood for cats who might let us pet them. Yep, we needed a pet and we needed it NOW!!! Ally cried night after night wanting a cat to sleep in her bed so we finally made the move and adopted a kitten. We have long had the habit of naming our cats according to the place where we lived when we adopted that cat. In Athens, GA I had a cat named Finley, after a street in town which has a tree that owns itself. It was a famous street because there was a man who owned some land with a tree that he loved dearly. So when he died he left the land to that tree. Now all the land around it has been built upon except for this one tree which has a sign in front of it... I digress. In San Diego we had a cat named Jose because we lived in the barrio. So here in China we decide the new cat needed a Chinese name. So, we named him Joe. How is Joe a Chinese name you may ask. Quite frankly and obviously... IT'S NOT!!! For some crazy reason all the Chinese who work in the service industry that caters to western expatriates choose western names. It is so crazy to me. Our realtor's name is Joe and he found us this great apartment when two other realtors failed to do so. So, the cat is named in honor of our wonderful Chinese realtor who still helps us out when we are in a pinch.

Joe is tiny. As you can see from the picture he's just a little thing of about 8 weeks old. He has the loudest meow I have ever heard. He cries a lot right now, just walking around looking for his sisters and mother. In this picture he is sleeping on our CD rack.

We had to go to Puxi to pick him up, which is about 45 minutes from our house by taxi cab. The other picture I have posted is of the children squished in the back of the taxi.

Only in China

Ally came home from school a few days ago with a nice gash over her right eye. Upon further inquiry I discovered that she had been 'hit in the eye by a chopstick." Yep, you read right. Her friend was sitting next to her in the cafeteria. She was trying to open her chopsticks, which are wooden. You have to break them apart when you get them because they are disposable and that's how they are made. So while trying to break them apart, when they finally snapped apart one went flying and managed to hit Ally in the eye. This picture is about 3 days after it happened so it looked much worse than in the picture.

Dress Up Fun

There are so many benefits to having older sisters.... You can check out all her hot friends and they just think you are adorable. Your older sisters can pave the way for you in school, be your playmate at home and serve many other wonderful purposes. Saturdays can be pretty slow some days, so Ally and Eve like to come up with an assortment of fun games, the latest being 'Let's dress up Cooper!' I called my dad to tell him how hilarious Cooper looked and before I told him what was going on he just happened to hear me say "Put your dress down, Buddy". He did a double take over the phone. Anyway, just thought I would share the fun pictures of Cooper, living it up! He had a blast.

Tequila Samples at WalMart!!!!

So, every day is a new day here in Shanghai, ripe for new experiences. You just never know what you are going to get. A few days ago I took Ally's friend Emma home on my scooter. She and I were both in awe as we passed one guy on a bike with not one, but TWO airconditioning units strapped to either side of his bike. The next poor fellow we passed was pedaling along carrying a 15 foot metal pipe. Yep, you got it. Everyday is so exciting. My favorite so far was my most recent trip to Carrefoure (the French owned Chinese version of WalMart). Here I am, quietly wandering through the juice/soda aisle when an employee offers me a sample of orange juice and some sort of rum mixed in a little dixie cup. I just about fell out right there in the middle of the store. Wonders never cease! I really need to carry my camera around and get some good shots for the blog.

Computer Problems SUCK!!!

I am so tired of computer problems! Of course, before we left the US Lee insisted on getting a new computer. He said he didn't want to deal with computer problems in a place where we couldn't communicate effectively. Honestly, I was annoyed, to put it mildly. But, we struck a deal in which I was promised a piano here in Shanghai and he got a new computer and a snazzy new gun safe. So here we are, and I am having the worst computer problems! Now is the part where I have to admit Lee was completely right (I HATE having to do this!). Our household goods are still in customs, even though we have just passed the 2 month mark. Our wonderful new computer is sitting in a container in some port, just taunting me. I have been using Lee's old laptop since we have been here and it died almost a week ago. I am so frustrated and if we had our nice shiny new computer here I can just about guarantee that I wouldn't be without a computer all day. You have no idea how much you rely on your computer until you don't have one anymore. So, here's my tribute to my husband for being so right about the computer issue. Everyone please pray that our household goods will get through customs SOME TIME THIS YEAR!!!! :) I am thankful, however, and especially here where there is so much poverty, to even have this problem to complain about.

Here's a few pictures of the house. The first is a view of the kitchen, followed by the living room. The third picture is our third floor loft, which we affectionately call the "Cultural Hall". We plan on using this room as a guest room, movie room, craft room, toy room, etc. Hence the reference to the all purpose cultural hall! The last picture is a view of our stairs leading up to the second floor. The second floor has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Maybe I will put those pictures in the next entry.

Settling Down, Finally

I am pleased to report that we are finally settling down. After spending what felt like enormous amounts of money on things like sheets for 4 beds, towels, cleaning supplies, towel hooks, rugs, etc.... we finally feel settled into our new place. Our neighbors to the right are a rather loud Chinese family. We had to bang on their door within our first week here because the music was so loud that we couldn't even talk in our living room. We also had to put a note on their car asking to vacate our parking space. I guess there's really not that much difference in having neighbors, whether it's in China or America. Our neighbors to the left are wonderful. Magdalena and Faulk are from Bulgaria and Germany. They are very easy to talk to and have 2 children, a 6 year old boy and 3 year old girl. Cooper loves to play at their house already.

Ally and Eve love their school. The bus picks them up in the neighborhood at 7 am and drops them off at 3:45 pm each day. They have made friends and are really enjoying their school life. The school is very international, even though it is called Shanghai American School. It is a very big campus ranging from pre-k to 12th grade. The girls take mandarin each day and I am pleased so far with their progress. Our ayi, Ing, is very excited to practice both Chinese and English with them. The school bus is really nice. It is a chartered bus, like a tour bus with padded fabric covered seats and all. Plus, it actually has seat belts, unlike all the taxis. We have stowed Cooper's car seat in the storage closet because we just don't use it here.

I am settling into the school year rather well too. After the girls leave I go to the gym and then walk Lee to meet his shuttle for work. Then Cooper and I hang out for awhile. Tuesdays we have a scripture study group and Wednesdays we have a play group. Then one Thursday a month we have a relief society lunch date at a restaurant to celebrate the birthdays for that month. Also, there is a Family Home Evening group that meets on Fridays to make FHE packets to exchange. Every other Monday there is a lunch at someone's house where everyone brings projects to work on, whether it's cross stitch or quilting or scrapbooking or whatever. So, I can be busy busy busy if I choose. Also, the shopping here could make us go broke if I am not careful!

I think that's all I have time for right now. I will try to get some pictures of the new apartment posted soon. Also, if anyone is interested, I am on Facebook now and have an album from our Hawaii trip posted on that site. Keeping up with people is so easy with modern technology!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Lee and I bought electric scooters this week. We are having a blast scooting all over our side of town. They only go about 25 mph, but are great to take to the grocery store or to friend's houses. We put on kid on the back of mine, and one on the back of Lee's with Cooper standing in front of where Lee is sitting and we can all get where we're going (as long as it's pretty close). I'll get some pictures of that up soon too.

Home Sweet Home

So I really didn't think I would call China home so soon, but I am so happy to be home! What a wonderful blessing Hawaii was to our family. We had such a phenomenal trip. The beach has always been my end all fantasy trip. I grew up looking forward to our yearly trips to Panama City, Fl and then of course living in Florida was just an everyday wonder to me. So Hawaii was wonderful.

Now, thankfully, we are home and finally settling into our life here. For 6 weeks it felt as though our life were on hold. Searching for an apartment, being in limbo about our visas, having the kids home for the summer, all of these things have made me feel like I was stuck in a holding pattern.... just circling the airport for hours waiting for the go ahead to land. You know how that feels, when you've been onboard that airplane for 4 hours with screaming kids and all you want to do is just land and get home but you can't because a rainstorm has you circling and circling... you can see the airport but you just can't get there... Well, finally we're here!

We finally secured a townhouse and we are moving in tomorrow!!!! I don't think I could put too many exclamation points in that sentence. I went today to do the final walk through with the landlord and realtor. Our realtor arranged for movers to come pack our things and move us to the new place and it's costing less than $50, if you can believe that! Our new place is a 3 story townhome with a nice little backyard for Cooper to run around in. The girls are already talking about getting a puppy. It has 3 bedrooms, which are on the 2nd story, and the third story is one big loft. It is cedar lined, walls, ceiling and floors. It will serve as Lee's workshop, my craft room, and it has a separate little room that is the perfect size for a play room. I know the Lord has blessed us with this apartment. We looked at so many apartments and even put in offers on apartments and had those offers fall through. I never felt at home in any of them, but felt that we didn't have any other options. I know the Lord knew where we needed to be. Two different friends suggested that we look in the Green Hills Complex. When I inquired at the leasing office I was told that there were no units available. Another friend told me to not give up. She put me in touch with a realtor friend of hers who was able to help us find the unit. These units usually rent for 30,000 to 40,000 quai and our budget was only for 20,000 quai. This realtor was able to negotiate the price into our budget! I am so thankful for our Heavenly Father's ever watchful eye. He knows our needs and is loving enough to help us with even the smallest details.

The children started school today. They absolutely love their new school! The teachers are very kind and friendly. The bus drops the kids off just around the corner from our new house. Ally and Eve can hardly wait for tomorrow to go back to school. The school is 45 minutes from the house, so the bus comes early. We will have to get used to getting up early. Ah, summer sleeping in is over!

That's it for today. I'll try to come up with some pictures later.

Hawaii, Day 5

The first time I went to Hawaii, I was about 6 weeks pregnant with Cooper. Lee and I had planned the trip about a year in advance, so of course we took the trip with the hopes that I wouldn't get too sick. Hope is such a great thing, but not too reliable. I puked the whole trip long! Needless to say, my memories of Hawaii weren't all that great.

This time around I am determined to do things right. So far, so good! We got here Saturday Aug. 9th. On Sunday the 10th we went to church, which was really cool. We met at the Honolulu Stake Tabernacle. It was the single most interesting church building I have been to (that and where we meet now in Shanghai). I can't really adequately describe it. Basically imagine several buildings connected by lovely open breezeways which are bordered by all kinds of lush tropical plants. The chapel was the largest chapel I have ever been in. It was quite an experience. We left church and headed to the North Shore to look at a beach house that we ended up renting for half of our trip. It was fun to help the kids see the lush green natural side of Oahu.

Monday started out kind of rough. Lee went to FedEx to send off the documents for our visas. He called me just as the kids and I were about to walk into Denny's for breakfast to tell us that we had to come back immediately and get pictures taken for the visas. We thought we had all the paperwork ready, but apparently we missed that detail. So everyone was pretty grumpy about postponing breakfast. And to top it off, FedEx had technical difficulties so a 5 minute photo shoot ended up taking over an hour! Then after lunch the kids and I headed to the beach for a few hours. We watched crabs climb on rocks and basked in the sunshine. We headed out to the navy base a little later to buy tickets for the submarine and the Polynesian Center. Then, we got very lost and stayed lost for over an hour. To be clear, we knew where we were, we just didn't know how to get to where we wanted to go. Much to our dismay the map was in the hotel room and NOT in the car! So the day started off rough and ended kind of crappy too. Everyone was pretty worn out when we finally got back to the room.

Luckily,Tuesday turned out to be much better! We took the kids on a submarine ride. Of course, I got sick but luckily didn't puke (yeah!). To board the submarine you take a boat out to where the sub is waiting. I actually felt sick on the topside boat, not the submarine itself. Anyway, we got to watch the sub surface, which was really cool. We dove down to 111 ft. at the deepest part of the dive. It was really cool. The company that puts on the submarine tours has created several artificial reefs so we got to see sharks and sea turtles, and of course tons and tons of tropical fish. We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. Lee helped the kids build sandcastles and let me go back to the hotel for a little quiet time to try and get my motion sickness under control.

Today, Wednesday, was by far everyone's favorite day. We have been letting the kids stay up until almost midnight and we are all sleeping in until about 9:30 each morning. We aren't really attempting to switch to Hawaii time since the kids have to start school the day after we get home. So by the time we get going a good portion of the morning is gone already. So this morning we packed up our hotel so that we could move from the touristy Waikiki to the calm North Shore. We then drove to Diamond Head Crater to hike with the kids. Eve has been so assertive about going hiking. I have been surprised that she had such a strong desire to hike. So away we went. Both Lee and I were amazed at how much fun it was hiking up Diamond Head. The views were just spectacular! We had little mini science lessons the whole way up about things like erosion on the mountain, and the method of using switchbacks to climb mountains. It was really fun for everyone. The terrain was pretty steep at times. Cooper had the best ride of all. I carried him on my back up the mountain and Lee carried him on his back down the mountain. It was a phenomenal experience. When I asked the girls what has been their favorite part of the trip, the vote was unanimously hiking.

We are now here at our beachhouse. We rented the bottom floor of a two story house for the remainder of our trip, which is about 6 more days. We are in a neighborhood full of permanent residents, which is really nice and quiet. We are just 3 houses from the beach. The girls made friends with neighborhood kids within 10 minutes of arriving. I think we will like staying here the best.

I am including pictures of our hike as well as of our evening trip to the beach tonight.

Hawaii and the Flight Over

Ok, so I feel like I have won the lottery. I never win anything. Ever. So here we are on an all expense paid trip to Hawaii. It's surreal. My life, like most of us, is filled with constant thoughts of "How much will it cost?" Everytime we head out to dinner we are scrimping and saving and watching the pennies all dinner long. What a glorious feeling to not worry! Again, I feel like I won the lottery!

You might be wondering how this has come to pass... Well, because of some changes to residency visa requirements from the Chinese government, we had to return to our home country to apply for our visas. Hawaii is the closest and least expensive airline ticket to buy, so here we are. The company is covering our hotel, airline tickets, and even meals while we are here. Because of the limited availability of tickets at such short notice, we had to stay for ten days.... I know, we just had to stay for ten days.

So, we are having an amazing time. It's amazing how relaxed everyone is feeling. We are planning a day on the beach today, and during the week we plan on hiking Diamond Head, take a submarine ride, snorkelling, and visiting the Temple visitor's center and the Polynesian Center.

So, I'll end here, and include a picture or two from our plane ride over. BTW, the trip was long but not too bad. Luckily the flight from Korea to Hawaii was overnight and with a little help from Mr. Benadryl, everyone slept for most of the 9 hour flight.

Our New Helper

Yesterday was a very busy day. We had a contract for an apartment and it fell through at the last minute. So we basically had to start at square on on the apartment hunting front. We made an appointment to look at some units after Lee got home from work. We rushed to that appointment, then we had to run to get dinner, and then at the last minute a friend from church told me she had a maid/nanny that she wanted me to interview, and she wanted me to come that night at 8:00 pm! So, we rushed from dinner to my friend Suzanne's house.

Let me describe the maid/nanny situation. Here in Shanghai it is very inexpensive and a widely accepted practice to hire a helper who cleans house, does laundry, cooks dinner and helps with the children. For $300/month you can hire someone full time, M-F to come to your house and do all these things. The slang term is 'ayi' (pronounced ah yee). I had decided that we would hire an ayi, but not until we got into an apartment. Well, this friend wanted us to come interview her highly recommended ayi friend, so we did. We decided to go ahead and hire her right away, basically to 'reserve' her until we were ready to use her full time.

So, today was our first day with our ayi, whose name is Ing. She is great with the kids and wonderful around the house. Lee and I had to go apartment hunting so we left the kids with her. When we came home, the kids had eaten lunch, played at the park, and were quietly watching a movie when we got in. The house was clean, the refrigerator was organized, and the dishes were done. Our apartment was the cleanest it's been since we got here a month ago. Needless to say, I am excited.

We put in two offers on apartments today with two realtors. One of the apartments is a townhouse with a back yard and two patios. I like this one the best because it is set up more like a neighborhood. It is 3 bedrooms, with a huge playroom/shop/craft room upstairs in the attic. The attic is all wood paneled and is air conditioned and has skylights. It is neighborhood that I would be comfortable letting the kids ride bikes in. So everyone, cross your fingers!

The second apartment is an actual apartment on the 3rd floor. It is much newer and 4 bedrooms, but doesn't have some of the advantages of the other one. While it is closer to shopping and newer and we could actually pick our furniture, it is still an apartment and I wouldn't be comfortable just sending the kids out to play. We would still be comfortable in this unit, it just isn't my first choice.

So, that's the news on the homefront in Shanghai. I am including a picture of Ing and Ally and Eve in our little tiny apartment kitchen.

We've Arrived!!

Ok, so we've been here a month already and we haven't just arrived. But, I am finally learning how to blog, so in that sense, I've arrived. We arrived here in Shanghai on July 7, 2008 bleary eyed and dizzy from lack of sleep. After a full 24 hours of traveling we got to our serviced apartment and crashed hard. We are in a temporary apartment right now which is a cross between an apartment and a hotel. We have maid service that comes twice a week to change our sheets, mop floors and clean bathrooms. There is a service desk as well as a swimming pool and gym that we can use. I kind of feel like we are camping because we don't have our shipment of household goods yet. All we have is whatever we brought over in our suitcases! I have bought a few things just to tide us over until our shipment comes in August. The kids felt like we were having Christmas in July because we took them to Toys R Us and let them each spend $40. You would think toys would be cheap here, but they aren't.

Everyone wants to know what China is like, so here goes... We live on the east side of the river in an area called Pudong. Pu means river, dong means east. The other side of the river is Puxi (pronounced pu shee). Pudong is newer and much nicer. Most of the expatriates (foreigners) live here in Pudong. The streets are nice and wide and almost every street has a separate bike lane for bikes, scooters and mopeds. The area is very nice with lots of nice landscaping and greenery. There are also lots and lots of high rise apartment buildings. We live on the 17th floor right now.

We have been able to find most of the kinds of food that we like, but it is rather expensive. We are trying our best to try local brands and food so that we can experiment and find foods that we like and that aren't so expensive. I am pleased with the produce, yogurt, bread and inexpensive snacks. I just need to learn how to cook Chinese food!

Lee is very happy with his job. He works at a shipyard Wei Gao Cao (I am sure I didn't spell that right!) It's pronounced why gow chow. He has a van that picks him up each morning at the apartment and drops him off each evening. Because he has door to door transportation, we don't have a driver here. Most expatriates have drivers to take them everywhere. We walk a lot and take a lot of taxi and subway rides. We actually enjoy getting into the culture as much as possible.

Well, that's enough for now. I will try and post some pictures that we have taken from our apartment balcony so everyone can see what our everyday view is like.