Outsourcing

Finally getting to some way old stuff. Watched this movie in Shanghai with Fred. Very odd moment. Watching a movie with the boss. Nothing I have ever done in the last 10 years with him.

Very funny movie. I highly recommend it. For an insight into the Grantham's Philippines experience check out:

www.outsourcedthemovie.com

Kingston Beach Fun

It was just so special to be with family at Grandma Betty's this year.

Gotta be safe and wear your life jacket in the boat. Meanwhile Reyde is pretending to be a dinosaur with the driftwood as his horn. Reydeasaurus.


"Mom, come in the boat with me!"


Kaden, Reyde and Tyler. Ahhh, the memories of playing in the sand.

Oh my goodness. Yes, sand EVERYWHERE. And life got busy. No bath until Monday night. Euughhh. Bad mommy.

4th of July Parade

This year was pretty special. James with his cousins and their children. Enjoying the cheesy small town parade. Family is so important.
Me, Reyde and Kaden (a cousin of a cousin 2nd or 3rd or once removed.)


James and Reyde waiting for the next parade entry to come down the road. James has been working so much that Reyde wanted to be close to his Daddy. Had to wear a hat just like Dad.


We all need a goat walking the parade route right?

Biker chicks, as far as I know, no relation.
The clan. From left to right as best as I can. Triena, baby Katelynn, James, Reyde Kaden. Back to the back row, Nicki, David, Jesse, baby Ashlyn, Tyler. Back up to the back row, Chris, Caleb, Ryan, Miranda.

Reyde's Last Day of School

I choked up a bit when I hugged Mrs. Hardy and said thank you for all that she has done for Reyde. I might be crying the day he goes to Marvista.

Had fun, went to the Cove for a great end of year picnic. Then we came home and he made "pillows" for dinner. So excited to roll out the frozen dough and put it in muffin tins. Throw some cheese and ham, and more dough on top. Nut don't fall far from the tree here. Plenty of bread, oohie gooey dough, melted cheese. Yummy. He set the table too. And made sure Dad was coming to the table. What a joy.

The next patient

Turbo just the week before....




It's a toss up as to who was the better patient. Although I had much more control over the dog. And while I didn't have to wrap Nancy's pills up into pieces of ham... well you know. You pick.

Something was wrong with Turbo last Monday. For the amount of money we just spent, he should feel like he went to Hawaii. (Cuz that's the amount of money we spent!) Ended up having a tumor and it was cancerous and so we don't know how much longer he'll be hanging with us. He's so stoic, it's gonna be years.

Glad he is back to his old antics.

Drawing Dinosaurs

This is for you Auntie Joan and Amy!!!! See I have finally found my artistic niche. Remember when Auntie Joan invited us all over to use up her arts and crafts supplies in her Puyallup garage? We all picked out baskets; chose ribbons and artificial flowers, to create this most beautiful holiday basket???

I remember mine looking like a 2nd grader's art project, failing miserably with wisps on glue overlapping the pretty things that were supposed to be affixed.

But alas, with all the dinosaur books and coloring books, I perhaps might have an inkling of artist in me.
I drew this dino baby on the back of the paper placemat at the VFW hall in Westport, waiting for breakfast. I'm so darn proud of it, I had it laminated at work. Reyde can treasure it for a lifetime.


And here is Reyde's baby dino, in chalk.

My little boy is growing up...

He comes in from his room tonight and says "MOM, my tooth came out of my MOUTH!!!!" Eeeeuuhhhh...so glad he did this on his own. Cuz I don't think I can handle this part of parenting. And God knows James can't. We'll have to rely on Uncle Roger to work with the ones that don't come out so easy.

So we said that we would get the tooth ready for the tooth fairy and he freaked out. Goodness knows we don't need to add fuel to the fire of the "I don't want to go to bed" so we left it that we'd learn about the tooth fairy and when he is ready we can write a note to the tooth fairy and let him know it's ready.

Now that's a run on sentence.

Supposedly we bought it for Reyde

An Observation and Confirmation....

of the observation. My mother in law and I discussed the Dali Llama's visit to Seattle on Sunday. About how we must be peaceful on the inside, and that contentedness will project on the outside.

"You know Wendy, you are much more calm now that when you and James got together."

"Really?" (my favorite pause word to gather my thoughts.)

"Really."

"Hmm, that's an interesting observation. Because my stress level has only increased throughout the years."

"Well, that's not good, you're not supposed to be hiding that from me."

"Hmm."

So I asked for a reality check with my sissy la-la and she concurred. Wild, so looking up the antonym of calm I find:

—Antonyms 2. tempestuous. 3. agitated.

Really.

A commitment to lotion

As part of my travels, I feel it's my "value added perk" of hotel stays to abscond with all the travel bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion. Over the last trip to Salt Lake City and Chicago, I came home with a crapload of the bottles.

1) Hospitality suppliers must get with the ball on recycle. Where's my triangle to recycle the darn things? Hello?????
2) While the rectangular bottles may seem fancy and cool, the plastic they decided to use is so rigid you can't get the product out of them.
3) James doesn't like glycerin soap.
4) I appreciate the "at cost" salon quality shampoo and conditioner that has been part of my entire life.
5) The shampoo and conditioner empty much quicker than the lotions.
6) I have never in my life been so committed to lotion.

For the first time in my life, I can't say that I've done my good ol kid trick of licking my hands to moisten them.

Aren't you proud of me Amy?

The Patient and the Surgery Site

Mom's doing well, 5 days after back surgery. She's back to looking like herself. And yes, she knows that I am posting this photos SANS MAKEUP.

Modern medicine at it's best. Back surgery site, 4 bandaids and you're good.

Chicago Deep...

Dish pizza and Lake Michigan.

More later. But I must admit. Even for this bread lover, the Chicago deep dish pizza I ate had too much crust for me!

And holy cow batman. The shuttle from the convention drove past Lake Michigan. The enormity of that body of water took my breath away. AMAZING.

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.

"I think he's hurt Wendy." A whole new side of a person I've known for almost 10 years.

Can you guess what this is....

Went to a microfiber towel factory in Shijiazhuang China. (a few hours drive east of Beijing.)

This dish was served at lunch. And you know it's disrespectful to not partake of food offered...so I did ask. It was black mushrooms.

Quite tasty indeed.

Sometimes I think I take really good photos...

Not that reptiles are my favorite subject...but it's a bit artsy fartsy don't you agree?

Really, is that what is holding you back?

I mean really. Wendy, can you think of a better LAME ASS excuse for not writing your novel? How many more hints must be dropped before you write?

2 of my classmates from highschool have followed their creative dreams.

http://www.frayedthemovie.com/

http://www.magicboxmusic.com/

2008 is your year.

All things Chinese....

The things you see in China. Hmmm...let's just keep building up the road. No worries if we build completely over the top of the fire hydrant. Love the resolve. Let's just put a sand pit in front of the hose fitting. The fireman can dig it out if there is a need to use the hydrant.

Got Reyde some "training chopsticks." Started practicing with potato chips when I got home on Saturday. Headed out to dinner with family at Bucca di Beppo's Italian that evening. Reyde wanted to bring his new sticks to practice. I had to tell him that we don't use our chopsticks at Italian. We can practice at home, at the Vietnamese Pho Noodle restaurants and of course Chinese.....

Seattle

My bad. Oh so bad. Took my camera to China and found a ton of photos I haven't saved nor printed.

Went to Seattle a couple different times. Always take my camera. Got some good "touristy" shots of Reyde.

And gotta love the one on the bottom. Woops. Shot too wide and you can see how I got the photo of Reyde in the orange tube.