Rainbow Fruit

From left to right. . . Persimmons, star fruit, dragon fruit. Avocados are not great here we are looking for a substitute! Maybe dragon fruitamole! I will keep you posted. Persimmon salsa? Star fruit chips!

Pool Closure

Having a sad moment of silence for the time of year the pool closes! I wonder when it opens again. . .February?!

The Dogs at Stanley

Today I noticed signs all over Stanley saying they are going to try to set the a record for the Guiness Book of World Records. Something like the most dogs getting their teeth brushed at once. Who thinks of these things? So anyway, afterward I went for some highlights at the only salon I have noticed. It was really nice! They even gave me a scalp and kneck massage. I have noticed some other things about Stanley. They have these sculptures Along the water front in a sort of art display. There is this big mountain looking metal thing that is made of what looks like pieces of foil. I have wondered about it. Today I figured it out while I was at the salon. . . It is a dog getting highlights! What do you think?

Library

I think we broke lots of rules today. Photo taking is not allowed at the library-- sorry!
Also, you have to do school work at tables not on puffy seats that are scattered so nicely around in locations just screaming-use me! No one was sitting on them but I did not see a sign. I think we grated on the nerves of the multiple attendants there. Maybe the library is as strict as the schools here. Anyway, it was difficult to get school work done. We will try the ice skating rink tomorrow. It was pretty empty last time and as long as we pay admission they tend to ignore us!

Power Outage

Today the power is off. We are at the public library. This is the coolest library I have ever been in. There are books going from place in buckets hooked to tracks on the ceiling.

Day:

Sunday November 25

Usually when someone says white-out in November I expect snow! Today it is fog!

Day 72: The sun did come out. . . .

Monday, November 19, 2012

Tim did come home!  The sun came out and each moment is better than the one before!

Today on the playground we found out that these kids are from rough areas of town I think(Tim says spoiled--I say ghetto.)  There was a little boy who was trying to pop another little girl's balloon.  Jason said, "Hey, don't do that!  That is not nice." The boy hauls off and pops Jp in the nose!!!  The helper who was watching the boy made him apologize.  JP said, "That's ok, I forgive you!  Want to play?"  Off they went and had a ball.  Mom is still smarting.  Pure forgiveness!  The kind that Jesus grants--wow!  Conviction on my part!

Day 71:Sunday . . .Me Without You!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Feeling sad missing everyone today.   The weather is not helping me out here.  At least it is not freezing cold.  Tim is on his way back from Orlando.  It is a two day trip.  He left Saturday and was delayed in Chicago.  He is on the 13 hour part now and I have no idea how it is going.  I am praying he will make his Tokyo connection. He only had 40 minutes there and had to go through security.

Update:  They were waiting for Tim at his gate.  Passed him through security and put him on his flight.  He was the last one and they were waiting for him!!! Praise the Lord!!!!  He made it home around 11:30 pm.  The sun will come out tomorrow!!

Day 70: About Mexican Food. . .

Why is it my family has to love about the only kind of food that is difficult or expensive to get here?  Why is it that the only food I can make is so expensive or difficult to buy?  So we are learning to make it ourselves because we have to have it!

Discovered that freshly made tortillas are amazing!  Unfortunately, this means no one will like the packaged easy to buy in the States ones any more.  Remembering to put the beans on to soak the night before is also a huge challenge, not sure why but it is.  I am just not a night person.  I wish I was--I have a child and husband who is but 9pm hits and I am gone!  So if I am to get beans soaked I usually have to remember when I make dinner.

Now meat is another issue--it is expensive in the grocery stores and down right nauseating to buy at the wet market.  Do you know why they call it the wet market?  The floor is wet.  Do you know why the floor is wet . . . . I am stopping there!  Yep, going vegetarian whenever I think about it.  I like buying my meat in a square white plastic container.  I do not want to be reminded that it was a living animal once.  Moreover, I like to buy it in large quantities at Costco and freeze it.  I hate touching it, looking at it but I have 2 kids and a husband who love to eat it!  So, I buy it here in miniscule quantities at the grocery store and put brown rice in it to make it go further. 

Cheese is another issue.  There are no cows here.  I think they milk rice so JP is good.  So it is expensive and comes in itty bitty blocks.  Where is Costco when we need it?  Don't you know we go through bricks the size of well. . . bricks.  I am sure we could make a skyscraper with those bricks if we ever went back to see how many we use in a year.  Well, here I just add a sprinkle or two and make sure things are well seasoned.  We are learning to skimp on cheese too!

Salsa--that is another issue.  We tend to go through buckets of this stuff.  Luckily I bought a food processor and since no animal was harmed making salsa that is what I do.  Expensive? Definitely but you have to live right???

So, I have salsa, beans, rice and tortillas--who needs meat and cheese (don't ask my carnivorous kids! They have already put beef jerky on the Christmas list.)  My Christmas list is a tortilla press!

Day 69: Food

Lets talk food! We found the world's most awesome food court. There is a Pepper hot pot that is amazing and comes sizzling. There are flavorful Chinese dumplings. A more traditional Chinese restaurant that Jp loves the sweet and sour pork. But hold tight for the Thai food. Wowwweeee that is the most flavorful food I have ever tasted in my life! I had the best soup and I ordered a salad that was unbelievable. Their Pad Thai was much loved by Tim but that soup! I saw someone order it and was next in line so I pointed at it and told them through gesture I wanted that spicy. I am not a soup fan. I hate soup normally so I do not know what came over me. It was so great I cannot even describe the flavors other than rich broth, lime, lemon, garlic, fish sauce, ginger(not the normal kind ) peanuts, red pepper. And some unknowns. This was my second round today. I tried to recreate it this week and we all enjoyed it but mine was a poorly done attempt and that is a lot to admit!

Day 68: Space Museum

Thursday
November 15, 2012

Went to the Space Museum.  It was interesting because it was mostly US space missions and such. However, it was also disappointing that we did not get to compare the Chinese or Russian space program, uniforms, missions and such.  The kids had a great time.  I think Alexis almost lost her flip-flops on the anti-gravity walk!  She would wear flip-flops on the moon! Emma loved learning how the astronauts wash their hands in space to avoid flying water droplets.  Everyone got to crash a hang glider simulator.  And some missions were aborted due to the inability to control their laser--good thing the real astronauts are good at their jobs.  It was really funny watching them eat and work out too.  We ended by trying Neopolitan ice cream and chocolate chip mint ice cream dehydrated outer space style!  Yuk!  The kids loved it!

Day 67: Wish you were here!

November 14, 2012
Wednesday

This morning I woke up at 5:30 am. Whoa! I sleep better when Tim is on the same continent with me! Grabbed some Starbucks and sat down to blog. Found an app on my phone which is good because Internet on my computer keeps disconnecting. Look who got up looking for her favorite food? New food alert: Chinese dumplings or pot stickers!

Something I notice here is the school buses start pouring in to pick up their mass minions at 6:30am! Wow! We have all sort here-- Canadian International School, French International School, Hong Kong International School, Singapore International School. . .many more. It is very intimidating. Each school has their own bus and their own uniform. People love uniforms here. I wonder if there is a California International School here? I can imagine my kids getting behind that uniform! Ratty jean shorts, tank tops and flip flops! Anyway, gotta run Emma wants pot stickers!

Bring Your Own Bed Party

Wednesday,  November 14, 2012

Last night whoever folded the most clothes got to sleep with mom since dad was gone. I just did not realize the runners up would sleep on my floor!

Day 66: Rubee

Today Rubee came over! There were a few paper work changes from immigration. She is so sweet. She has a green thumb and is going to miss the yard in New Territories a lot! She helped me put together her bed. It was a ton of work and I was glad there were two of us. I have put together nearly everything else.

Day 65: Stranded in a foreign land. . .

It is 7:30 am.  Tim is in Orlando and I am sitting here being really quiet and sneaky--enjoying my coffee in a "Seattle" cup and loading photos onto the computer.  It has been nearly impossible to get away from the hub bub of life and work on this Blog.  I apologize and do hope you will forgive me my dear friends!  I think of you often.  Many days I just write on Word and need to transfer those brief thoughts to the appropriate days.  The problem here is that the internet will only work in the living room due to the cement walls and the living room is filled with a sort of rambunctiousness that is always looking for something or needing help on something.  I sit down and get up 20 times then I give up because I forget what it was I originally sat down for!  Not this morning--yet anyway!  Well I had better start loading photos while I may!  (I wish blogger had an app that I could load photos and comments from my phone. . .I might need to look for that!)

Day 64: Sunday School

Today we will bring our slumber partiers to church because they are the girls who invited my girls in the first place.  They have been here as long as us and come from Seattle and then New Jersey so we understand them! (Especially since they speak Washington!)

Jason is the trouble today.  Tim headed to Orlando and I told JP that I would take him to Sunday School.  Big 4 is too big to be a baby anymore and he needs to make friends.  So when we went to the room I said--I will stay in the room but you have to stay with your class and not talk to me.  He did really well.  I observed and he happily interacted with the teachers and other kids.  I know the teachers thought I was crazy and should leave but we all know JP!  He would have come 5 minutes later crying.  I told him that next week I will drop him off at the door and pick him up.  After church we hit the Newcomers meeting!  Jason ended up wearing everyone's name tag.

Write your name on your paper. 

Day 63: Slumber Party Bloopers

Saturday

November 10, 2012

Girls Slumber party today.  Talia and Kezia are coming over to celebrate Alexis 13^th birthday girl party style!  Wish my IKEA was all put together and somehow filled without my effort in the activity.  Oh, well!

Today on the party activity list: walk a couple blocks and go swimming.  Wish it was always this simple!  It is a perfect day--hot and humid so they will not be too cold walking home.

I walked to the grocery store to purchase ingredients for dinner.  I should have known when there was a line 15 deep for taxis that the evening might be rough.  I decided to take my bags and walk home because the Pacific View bus was a 20 minute wait.  Yep, when I was across the street from the apartment it passed me--a no win!  Then the food processor broke.  I know that is not a big deal to some of you but that is a tool that I use constantly so I nearly cried.  Birthday cookies were next--what a mess, more like happy birthday crumbs!  The party goers never complained.  They just said how great everything was and ate their cookies in bowls with a spoon!  Oh, yeah--I am still not used to the gas stove or anything else around here.  What a mess!

Day 62: Rip Stick Trouble

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Friday

November 9, 2012

Alexis, Emma and JP getting ready to take rip sticks and trike out to ride. . . Ummm, Emma cannot find her rip stick.  Look down to court yard and see boy riding bright blue rip stick…..hmmmm.  Run down and catch boy leaving in elevator  …grab rip stick while saying, Oh thank-you for finding Emmas rip stick!! She has been so sad.  Yep, Ems name in silver on the bottom. . .. Note to self—we are not in Kansas!  Those toys that were spread from one end of the street to the other in Kansas disappear here.  At home someone may have tried it out but it would have been relatively in the same block as when the owner had it last.  Guess we had a life lesson!

Day 61: Trend Setters

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 Thursday

November 8, 2012

Today I looked out the window and saw a young boy on a bright blue rip stick just like Emma’s!  Wow, they are catching on that is the first rip stick I have seen in our apartment play area excepting our own of course.  It was obvious he was new to it but he was doing pretty good!

Today was also the day that Devon went to Lamma Island to visit his friend Oliver for the afternoon.  I was pretty pleased by the responsibility he showed.  He hopped on the bus and got off at the Aberdeen Fish Market then caught the ferry to Lamma.  On the way home he made it on the 8:50 pm ferry and had to wait 30 minutes for the next bus (fooey on just missing it!)  Then he caught a taxi home from the bus terminal.  Wow, long day but he made it.  My only complaint was that he did not charge his phone and it was dead on the way home!

Day 60: Blender Blunder!

Wednesday

November 7, 2012

Devon decided to make a wonderful vanilla milk shake in my new blender today.  He carefully measured out all the ingredients.  Blended until it was just the right consistency and then opened it . . . Dump right into my baking utensil drawer.  He is now banned from the kitchen. 

Day 59: About dogs. . .

Thursday, November 6, 2012

Just noticing some things about city life and dogs.  Let me illustrate my point:

When grocery shopping with Fido, please keep in mind that the parking spaces might be full.

Also, note the location of the "toilet" in case Fido needs a break. (Note that there is an illustration in case Fido does not read. Some dogs doo and are not civilized and do not know how to use these high tech toillets!)

check out the dog parked next to you

   Finally, watch to make sure the people walking by hand you snacks!  Talk to everyone passing you just in case!

Day 58: Rock Wall Climbing

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Monday

November 5, 2012

Today I took the kids to Tsim Sha Tsui YMCA to take a rock wall climbing course with the homeschool group.  At first I feared some major sibling wars especially when it was boys against girls racing to touch the other side.  Then they had to do rock, paper, scissors to pass and whoever lost had to drop off.  Actually, the competition may have released some pent up emotions!  I loved how by the end of the session they all pulled together to cheer each other on and help Emma climb a really difficult piece of wall higher than anyone else had climbed!  The atmosphere was really wonderful!

My kiddos looked extremely comfortable being strapped to a high rock wall.  I am not sure the implications of all that!