In my own words....: February 2008

Can I tell you how AMAZING I think my child is?

Well, his preschool teacher tells me his drawing is advanced. But I am amazed at his 3-D abilities. He creates dinosaurs, cars, planes, trains, trucks. It blows me away.

And when I make something, he cocks his head to one side, and says, "oh that's good Mom." Pauses for a few seconds, and then fixes my creation. He tells me I'm a genius. I tell him to tell everyone he knows. Perhaps I can wow him with some genius abilities when it comes to math.

Dad can take care of art class.

Oh, I and I can take care of the fundraising, selling candy bars, magazine subscriptions. I'll begin immediate practice on overcoming objections.

Spring!!!!

When I returned from Shanghai on Saturday I was greeted by Spring. Wooo wooo, wippee, praise the heavens and God above.

It's outside time for us! The dogs and Reyde helped James work on the garage. Might go a little
quicker with a more mature and... ummmm... human workforce.

China Trip- Be Kind to Frogs

Quick buzz across the big pond last week. Watched 6 movies on the plane. Now let's see if I can remember them all...

Elizabeth- The Age

Michael Clayton

Eastern Promises

The Things We Lost in the Fire

Gone Baby Gone

The Assisination of Jesse James by Robert Ford

Good timing. So many of these had Oscar nominated performances. Fresh in my mind for the Oscars on Sunday.

Got to experience the Lantern Festival. It's the last day of the Chinese New Year, where families have dinner together and spend the eveing together. My co-worker Lily, was kind enough to take me to dinner with her family. We went to a temple in Shanghai where massive amounts of people gathered to celebrate and wave sparklers all over. I think I only have 6 or 10 burn marks in my clothes! (just kidding.)

Lily's husband and her friend that joined us were quite impressed with my chopstick skills; even more so because I am left handed. Cheers to that! Had wonderful spicy food. Even tried beef tongue...on accident. I asked what the food was and they said beef....so as I am putting it in my mouth, they tell me beef tongue! I now know to delay my bite until I am sure of the translation and that my friends have found the right English word!

Had a very odd, never would have thought, moment with my boss. We were walking to the mall to get some dinner. There is a pretty good size frog trying to cross the sidewalk in front of us. First time I've seen a frog in Shanghai, no less in winter. It was moving slowly. Boss says that he better get going quick, someone is liable to come grab him and eat him for dinner.

Then the boss grabs a piece of paper off the street, (he is an addictive instant hand sanitizer guy so this catches my attention,) and scoops the frog up and places him in the shrubs.