New Friends

Moving is hard on everyone. I worry about the kids making new friends and fitting in. I worry for Lee, hoping that his new work environment will be a positive one. I worry about settling into our house, about finding the right mix for our lives. Every time we move, the concerns are generally the same, with minor variations.

One thing that I struggle with personally is making new friends. I've found that men are less prone to need intimate friendships beyond their spouse. I hate to generalize and do not in any way mean to say that men don't need friends. However, men get much of their daily social needs met in the workplace. No matter what country, city or state we live in, Lee will always have interactions at work and will always be able to develop relationships in that environment.

Women are creatures of a different nature. We thrive on deep lasting friendships with other women. We need our 'girl time'. We need someone with whom we can talk and talk, even if it's not about anything serious or deep. When you relocate a stay at home mom, it takes a lot of hard work and effort to explore, find and cultivate satisfying relationships.

I think making new friends is a lot like dating. You meet someone you think might be a good fit for your personality and then one of you has to be the brave one- the one who goes out on a limb and makes an invitation to socialize - someone has to ask the other out for a first date, so to speak. Then, you try to find an activity where you can get to know each other, but you choose carefully. If you have young children at home it's a little easier because you can use them as an excuse to socialize, or to end the 'date' if things aren't clicking. After the 'first date', if it goes well, you are left wondering if she liked you as much as you liked her, or vice versa. Should I call her, should I wait for her to call me? How long should I wait? I don't want to be a stalker, after all! It's a precarious process and I've found that you can live in a place for years and never find 'Mrs/Ms. Right'.

I made a new friend today. We sat next to each other at the gymnastics gym, talked politely for awhile and I got up the courage to give her my phone number. She gave me her number but I was too nervous to call. Maybe it's just the action of stepping outside one's comfort zone. Lucky for me, my new friend was bold and called me, inviting me out to lunch. I was a little nervous.... what would we talk about, just the two of us, face to face with no children to hide behind? I couldn't even remember exactly what she looked like, having met her only once.

So I made sure to get to the restaurant a little early, so I could scan all the incoming patrons. I actually worried the night before about this lunch date. Usually I just rely on making friends at church, which is comfortable and safe. Much to my happiness and relief, lunch was so fun! We had plenty of things to talk about, we had a lot of things in common, and we spent over an hour and a half gabbing. Maybe she won't become my new BFF, but it sure was nice to get out of the apartment and make a new friend.

Just an Ordinary Day.... Thank Goodness!

Today was a great day. The weather was perfect! Lee has had a full month's vacation since we arrived in Tampa, using up his vacation time leftover from China. It has been wonderful, hanging out all day with Lee.

This morning we got up together with the kids and dropped them off at school. We then had breakfast together at a tasty little restaurant across the street from the school called The Brunchery. Then Lee dropped me off at a friend's house and he went off for a game of golf. My friend Allison and I took a 6 mile walk, which was invigorating and fun. I really needed some girl time. Lee has been a wonderful companion for the last 8 weeks, but a girl needs her girlfriends! After the walk Allison took me to the golf course so I could pick up the car and go get the kids from their half day at school. It was such a gorgeous day that I decided to walk the mile to the school instead. I had the dog with me, who was completely worn out from her 6 mile walk. She was a bit resistant to the idea of walking back to the car with the kids and actually sat down in protest a few times along the way!

We headed home to swim at the apartment complex. The weather was in the upper 80's - perfect for swimming without getting too hot. I cooked up my first tuna casserole ever, and it was yummy! The kids protested, except Cooper who loved the casserole until he found out it had tuna in it. Mind you, he doesn't even know what tuna is, but it sounded gross so he immediately changed his mind about the macaroni he was eating. It was funny, but also annoying.

After dinner I took Eve and Cooper to karate. Ally wanted to come watch so we each brought a book and sat companionably reading side by side. We came home, checked homework, signed folders, read a story, said prayers, did tuck ins, and finished up a great day. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as uneventfully blissful as today!

Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa FL

Last Saturday I declared that I would not spend another day cooped up in our stuffy little apartment. I did my research and concluded that a visit to The Florida Aquarium would be the perfect (and most affordable) solution to my apartment blues. We spent a lovely two hours at the aquarium and then proceeded to purchase a one year family membership (my affordable activity suddenly wasn't so affordable anymore!).

With our membership paperwork came a blue sheet of paper, listing reciprocating facilities where our membership would gain us various discounts. So for the last week I have been scouring that blue paper for deals. So far we've eaten at two restaurants which each offered a nice incentive and today we went to the Tampa Zoo for FREE. Wohoo! For the month of September, members of the Florida Aquarium receive free entry to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

I love this day and age because technology makes our lives so much easier. I was able to peruse the park's website and glean lots of useful bits of information, like the fact that the Zoo has two water parks for the kids to cool off in. So, we started our adventure with a little water play to get nice and cool before trekking through the forests of Asia, the prairies of Africa and the Florida Gulf Coast.





I was initially quite doubtful as to the quality of the zoo, given that our visit began with lots of unsuccessful attempts to find the animals in their habitats. However, as the day progressed, we found lots of fun and unique exhibits.

I think one of our favorite exhibits was Stingray Bay, where we got to hand feed stingrays and touch and feel them in the tank. For the low affordable price of $3, I purchased two shrimp and one small fish (same size as the shrimp) to feed the rays. It was so neat! They actually swam right up to us and took the food right out of our hands. They got really aggressive and splashed quite a bit, which surprised us all!













We also got to give the kids a little lesson on the facts of life.



Eve and Ally's responses were identical "Eeeewwwww!!!!"

We saw manatees, which I had never seen up close before.









We saw some interesting animal interactions:





The kids got to ride the log ride. Ally is my daredevil, through and through. She was ready to go again and again. Eve didn't quite think too highly of the her log ride experience and Cooper was on the fence.





We made friends with a giraffe:



And some goats:









Overall, it was a pretty good day at the zoo. And the best part was getting in free! (Ok, not really the best part, but it didn't hurt my feelings too much...)

There are still a few weekends left in September, so who knows... maybe we'll do it again!

Update on the Baby Deer

You might remember our wonderful experience with the baby deer in my parents' backyard this summer. It was truly a memorable morning for the Cannon kids. My dad recently emailed to say that our sweet friend is alive and doing well. I guess she/he is still paying regular visits to their backyard, but this time she's brought along her mother.











Thanks dad, for sharing these pictures with us. What a magical moment! I'm so thankful we were able to share it with two of my favorite people in the whole world!

Thankful

11+ years ago I married my handsome prince and left the world of unwanted roommates forever. I was SO thankful to never have to share my home with someone I didn't like ever again. For all you previous roommates out there (Tanya, Rebecca, Ernie, Jill, Brian, etc.....) I'm not talking about you.

Likewise, when I got married I left the world of apartment dwelling far, far behind, much to my pleasure. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I ever did live in an apartment.... with the exception of a few months in San Diego before we got married.

Just a few things I'll be thankful for when we move to our new home and leave our apartment forever:

• A kitchen with a pantry.
• A dishwasher that doesn't just move the food around, but actually cleans the dishes.
• Having an eating area big enough that I can get up from the table without moving the table to get out.
• Not having to store food in my linen closet due to the aforementioned lack of pantry.
• Not having upstairs neighbors, across the hall neighbors, or sharing a wall with neighbors.

In our new house I will be so thankful for:

• A safe neighborhood for my kids to ride bikes in.
• Having enough space to walk without bumping into furniture.
• Living one mile from the elementary school instead of 10 miles away.
• Not having groups of random teenagers hanging out near my front door at midnight.
• A garage, so our bikes don't have to be stored in Cooper's bedroom.
• Not having to carry groceries from the parking lot to the apartment.

Here's a few extreme luxuries I've missed in China and can't wait to have again in our new home:

• Water/Ice dispenser in the freezer door
• Deep freezer for food storage
• 3 car garage for all our toys
• A swimming pool in the backyard
• 2 cars
• A separate room for an office/guest room.

Brandon, FL

So here we are, living in Brandon, Fl ( just outside of Tampa), rudely displaced from our adventures in ChinaLand without even a how do you do. It's been a whirlwind crazy stressed out time that started early July when we were informed that we would be transferred from Shanghai to Tampa in 30 days time. Unfortunately, given that we were in the States at the time, with prepaid non-refundable vacations waiting for us, we couldn't actually start getting ready for the move until flying back to Shanghai, one short week before having to turn around and fly back to Florida, where we had just been vacationing. Exhausting. One word to sum it all up. Bone wearying exhaustion.

The kids and I began the summer mid June in Suwanee, Ga (northeast Atlanta) at my parents house. 10 days later we got the news about our transfer, so I had to go purchase a car, rather than plunk down WAY too much money on a rental car for the summer, as we had previously planned. We then travelled to Hattiesburg, MS to visit my brother and his wife. Usually, I just refer to them as my sister in law's family because she and I are such good friends I almost forget about my sweet brother! (No offense, Ernie) After 9 days in Mississippi Lee flew in to Gulf Port (one hour south) and then we headed to Tampa for some recon work. 3 days in a somewhat lacking La Quinta Inn left us feeling a little grimy (heat + humidity + air conditioner in hotel that didn't quite work= feeling grimy). 7 days of lovely bliss followed at Fort Myers Beach. 7 days of different, but nice vacationing in Pompano Beach ended our sojourn in south Florida. Lee had different flights than the children and I to return to Shanghai, so he headed out via Chicago (I think). The kids and I flew from Miami to Toronto, Toronto to Vancouver, where we spent the night and then finished the trip the next morning to Shanghai. Whew!

Our week in Shanghai was a complete blur of activity. We had a house to pack up, a car to sell, friends to say goodbye to, last minute 'must have' purchases to make, animal transportation to arrange and the list goes on. I struggled with whether or not to bring the kids to China for one last week, but in the end felt that they needed that time for closure. I am thankful that they were with us, even though it was a considerable amount of extra work.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon in Shanghai. Thursday morning at 9 am I had a 'garage sale' to give away/sell America food and China electronics. Mostly we just gave away a lot of stuff. Friday and Saturday were spent running around town getting things done. Sunday the movers came and we then moved to a hotel for the duration. Right in the middle of all this, our clutch went out on the Chinese car. It took 3 trips to the dealer to get it fixed. On the third trip, I had to yell and scream (literally, my throat was sore for two days) to get the car fixed properly. I had about 20 people gathered around staring at the wai guo ren (foreigner) screaming, yelling and throwing things. In the end, they finally fixed the car and thoughtfully delivered it to me at our hotel.

Somehow, only through the grace of our Maker, we were able to get the house packed up, get the car fixed and most miraculously, get the car sold in a week's time. We didn't even bother to try to adjust to Shanghai time. We all fell into bed exhausted each day at 7:30 or 8:00 pm and we were ALL awake every morning around 3:00 am. It made for a very interesting week.

Flying back to Tampa was also pretty painful. We took a 14 hour flight to Newark, NJ where we spent the night at a not so nice hotel. Luckily for us the hotel had a passable restaurant. Once again, we all fell into an oblivion of sleep by 8:00 pm and awoke at 3:00 am with nothing to do but wait for daylight to break. I can't even describe feeling so tired that you are so dizzy that you are worried you will fall over. We had to maneuver 10 suitcases through the airport at each on of our connecting flights. When you are that tired, dealing with the suitcases, customs, baggage claim, shuttles to hotels, dinner and tired kids is an actual nightmare....a living breathing waking nightmare. I shudder to recall the horror!

I took my first taxi in America in over 25 years when we arrived in Tampa. The nice gentlemen called us a mini van taxi, which we crammed full with all our luggage, two sleeping kids and one tired mom. Lee and Ally rented a car and met us at the apartment. My taxi driver was a Chapel Hill graduate, class of 1992, and immigrant from Africa. He was a crack up and at least he was nice and energetic the whole drive home. Eve and Cooper slept through it all and I ended up carrying them both asleep on my shoulder through the hot parking lot into our new temporary apartment.

Whew! What an experience this summer has been.

I'm still tired. I'm still worn out. I'm still not ready to be in Tampa. I'm still longing for Shanghai.

We've found a house, put in an offer and it's been accepted. We go to enroll the kids in their new school on Monday. School starts Tuesday. We've spent the last week house hunting, getting physical examinations done on all three kids so they can enroll, furiously faxing requests to previous doctors for shot records.We've shopped for school supplies, we've shopped for school shoes, more than anything we've taken the dog out to pee since we no longer have the freedom of turning her out into the fenced in yard.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I am looking forward to a day of rest in our little apartment. Looking forward to no realtors, no houses to view and no more online hunting through endless piles of real estate listings.

Trip to the Everglades

As much as I hate to admit it, I've been a fan of CSI: Miami for a long time. Granted, I stopped watching it two years ago when we left the US, but still. I know the characters are cheesy, the plot unlikely (and that's being generous) and the storyline incredibly predictable, but I like it. The biggest reason I love watching CSI:Miami as opposed to the other CSI shows is it's setting. I love all the scenery, love the beach scenes, love the helicopter shots of downtown and especially love all the Everglades scenery.

So, when we decided to take an airboat ride in the Everglades, I was pretty darned excited. We spent the week in Ft Lauderdale, which is on the northeast side of the Everglades. I researched, researched and researched some more to find the perfect Everglade tour for us. What I found was that because of our location, the tours within easy driving distance were all very, very touristy and designed to move the maximum amount of bodies through in as little time as possible. I think we would have really enjoyed taking a more in depth tour, maybe canoe rides and camping, but alas - it will have to wait for another day.

So, we piled into an airboat with 20 of our closest tourist friends and took a very well oiled 30 minute tour through the sawgrass rivers with a tour guide who repeated the tour, word for word at least 12 times each day.

Oh well, it was still pretty stinking cool! We saw 3 or 4 alligators, including a brand new baby about 2 weeks old. Our tout guide told us to keep our eyes open for the baby, that it was about 12 inches long and hard to see, and low and behold our own Ally was the first one to spot him!

All the alligators that we saw were within the first 5 minutes of the tour. They were 'tame' alligators, meaning that they have been trained to come up to the boats in search of treats. It was still pretty cool to see them swimming through the water up to our boat.

We had a tough time getting shots of the kids in the boat because it was crowded, and they are short. :) But Lee managed one of me!

The pen behind Lee and the kids had at least 10 alligators or so. There were some pretty big ones!

This bird was also trained to come get treats. He followed us around on the boat. He was sitting about 5 feet from where I was sitting on the boat.

It was so hot, we were all sweating by the end of our 1 1/2 hour time on the gator farm. After the boat ride Lee actually asked my if my shirt was wet from sweat or did I get splashed on the ride. Ha! I just sweat a lot!

Hopefully sometime soon we can go back down (in the fall, preferably) and camp in a less touristy part of the swamp. I found a few really cool 'ecotours' where you can have a guide go with you. I'd love to slink through the swamp on a quiet canoe! We'd better be sure to bring our bug spray!