Flat Paul In Shanghai

Our great friends, Shelly and Burke Burkhardt, live in Dothan Al. Their son, Aden, is in 2nd grade and sent us a Flat Stanley project to help with. Aden's flat guy is named Flat Paul. I got the chance to run around Shanghai today on errands, so Flat Paul came with me. To get to my destination, I had to take a subway train during rush hour traffic. I think everyone will appreciate NOT having to take these trains everyday to work after checking out these pics!

This was definitely standing room only! 

After running my errands, Flat Paul decided that because he had such a short time to visit China, he would take a ride on a bus..

He couldn't figure out how to get on at first, but then the nice guy helped him out!

He saw lots of people riding bikes, so even though he didn't want to be like the guy carrying all the water on his bike, Flat Paul decided to give a bike a try.

Flat Paul was getting pretty tired from all his running around! So, when he passed this guy on the street, he wished he could take a rest too!

We passed a city worker, trimming the hedges. Flat Paul thought it was crazy to do it by hand, and wondered why the city didn't just buy some hedge trimmers! But then he remembered that hedge trimmers probably cost $75 and you can pay a guy to do it by hand for about $2/hour! That's just common sense! So Flat Paul just decided to accept the inefficiency of city workers, and he headed on his way.

Flat Paul also tried to take a taxi, but since he didn't speak Chinese, he changed his mind.

Flat Paul was hungry, after all his travels, so he stopped at a little convenience store. He made friends with a little boy, who wasn't so eager to get his picture taken!

Flat Paul was getting pretty worn out by now, so he headed back to the subway to get home for some lunch. He thought about picking up some fast food along the way, but thought better of it!

Since it was a little past rush hour, Flat Paul actually got a seat on the ride home!

There were still lots of people at the subway station. Talk about sandwiched like sardines!

Finally, Flat Paul was relieved to get back to his friend's house. Cooper was happy that Flat Paul was back too!

Thanks for visiting us Flat Paul! We had a great time showing you around Shanghai! Bring the Burkhardt's to visit next time!

Brescia's Extreme Makeover

We haven't really posted much about our new dog, Brescia. We got her in February, and she was just a tiny little fluffball. I went into a pet store close to our house and inquired about getting a miniature schnauzer. I hadn't really seen any around that had been bought in China, so I was unsure if it was even a possibility. We had done several internet searches on where to get puppies, with no luck. After several months of looking, I just figured it wasn't going to happen. So, when I stopped in our local pet store and asked the owner, I didn't have much hope. He said he would check and call me back. Two days later he called to tell me he had a puppy in the store, that he had brought in just for me. I was flabbergasted... we weren't ready!!! So we trekked into the store that night and she was just so tiny and so cute. She was only 50 days old, so I told the owner he should give her back to the mother until she was older and then we would buy her. He said he could keep her at the store, if we preferred until she was older. That just didn't seem like it would be healthy or helpful, so we took her home. 

For the first couple of weeks she was quiet and snugly. We thought it was so cute every time we coerced her into barking. Boy have things changed! She chews on everything in site: shoes, slippers, sweaters, pens. chopsticks, you name it! She also barks all the time! She's not as bad as she could be, but she's gotten pretty sassy. She's now about 4 months old. Here's some fun pictures from our neighborhood.

Lee was very adamant about getting Brescia's first haircut done. I thought he was right, but was in no hurry to rush out to the pet store. However, being eager to please, and of course, always hearkening unto the call of my husband (HA!!!), I took Brescia into the groomers yesterday for her first trim. I dropped her off at 2:30 and came back at 5:00. During those 2.5 hours I really didn't think about the dog at all. I was busy with children and life. Boy was I in for a shocker! I arrived at the pet store an

d patiently waited while they got Brescia from the back. When they brought her out, I thought they had brought me the wrong dog! I looked deep into her eyes, and knew she was mine. She is like a totally different dog! I am still not used to her. Ally doesn't like the new do, but the rest of us are pretty stoked. 

 

That night, the kids and I took Brescia to the entrance of the neighborhood to wait for Lee to come home from work. He has a company van that picks him up and drops him off each day for work. When he got out of the van I said "Look, we got a new dog!" Later he said he actually thought I 

was serious! He said he was thinking "What the heck?! I said get a haircut, not buy a new dog! Where's my dog?" Hilarious! This morning Ally came downstairs and did a double take. She said "Mom, when I woke up this morning I was expecting to see Brescia how I remembered her. I was surprised again!" I think it will take a few days. We have all commented on how big her ears are now. It's like they grew a few inches at the groomers! I want to point out that the pictures from around the neighborhood were taken 4 days before the pictures taken after her grooming session. Amazing transformation!

 

 

Eve's Piano Recital

Eve had a lovely piano recital in early January. I meant to post this quite awhile ago, but had some technical difficulties. So, here's a video clip of our little Eve.