Hello to all,
Well, I went back to work today. I took Shelby with me and she did great while I did the bookkeeping part of my job. But when it came to the cleaning part that was a challenge. She was asleep when I began. I got one bathroom cleaned. I found out that she does not like a vaccum. This I thought was alittle strange because she doesn't mind our two big dogs when they are barking or playing. Especially the one dog that we have is a Tennessee Walker Hound. He looks alot like a blood hound and even barks like one. Our lab has a high squeeky bark. But anyway, she didn't like the vaccum. So my husband went and picked up our other daughter Sofia from school and came to my work and helped me out the rest of the time. Sofia entertained Shelby which is so funny. Shelby gets a good laugh when she sees her. Tonight we were watching a Christmas movie and some music came on. Well, the girls and I danced to it and Shelby was reaching for Sofia and just laughing away at her. They are so cute together.
Oh, on another note. Sunday we went to my parents church because everyone was asking to see her. After that we went to lunch with them and when we got to the resturant Glen got Shelby out of the truck and she didn't cry. She didn't mind Glen carrying her into the resturant as long as I was close by. But when we got inside Sofia had to go to the bathroom and I had to take her. Glen said that she watched for me to return as soon as I did I heard her laughing and I looked at her and she had this big smile on her face. What a blessing children are. No matter what they do they still can melt your heart. Then once we finished lunch he carried her out. I was shocked and happy that she what I thought had latched on to Glen. This knowing that I was going back to work on Tuesday. But when Monday rolled around she wanted nothing to do with him. So we are back to where we started. Oh well it will happen when she is ready.
Well, it won't be long before Christmas is here. God has blessed us with two beautiful girls. He gave us Sofia 3 months before Christmas 3 years ago and now we have Shelby 1 month before Christmas. We have such a wonderful God who answers prayer. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Resturants
I think I have figured out how they stay small. When we went to the resturants you sit at round tables that probably sit 8 or more people. In the middle of the table is a turntable this is where they put the food. Everyone shares the food. Basically what you are doing is tasting different dishes. I can tell you that the food in China is really good. While I was there I lost 20 pounds. I ate but you had a small plate in front of you and you did eat very small portions and you felt full. We did get the hang of using chop sticks. You can get a fork if need but you have to ask. I did not find to much that I didn't like.
Now on to fast food. We here in the U.S. eat alot of fast food because we are on the go. Over there there are no drive thru's and they don't have the amount of fast food resturants that we have. What they do have there is McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. The food in these places are alittle different then here. They use more of their seasonings. The ice cream there is different. I heard some people say that they liked the McD's ice cream there better than here. The KFC instead of serving slaw they serve this vegetable salad with the colwslaw dressing. It is really good. I will have to make it here to get my fix. They serve some of the same things but also have some different foods to.
The Pizza Hut is a resturant. When I mean resturant it is like walking in a fancy resturant. The lighting in there is dim. When you order here you order a plate of pasta for yourself. But over there they plate of pasta is for both. Angela and I did not know this so we both ordered our own plate of pasta. The girl looked at us and said are you sure that you want both. I told her yes and she looked at us with this question on her face. Well, when they brought the first plate which to us is a dinner plate we figured it out that they plate was for both. This is because in front of you is a small plate and you serve yourself and eat off of that. When we left we just laughed about it.
I need to keep up the small plate. The size of the plate is like a dessert plate. Over there you don't get to pick out a dessert they serve watermelon after the dinner. The watermelon over there was good. They eat alot of fruit. Pork is one of the big meats that they eat over there. Noodles and rice are in the meal and tofu.
They have malls over there. The one mall that we went into was called the Grandview Mall. We probably have a mall like this somewhere but this mall is 7 stories high and they don't have what you call a food court. The resturants are scattered. The mall is not only 7 stories but it has what I call hallways that lead into another 7 story mall. You could get lost in this place and it is just over whelming. They 7th floor is an amusement park. I could not believe all of the stuff that they had up there. As we were walking they had some different looking art work one of the things that stuck with me was a statue of a thumb. That was really weird.
Sissy gave us a list of songs in chinese like twinkle twinkle little star and etc. I will post them for anyone who would like to give it a try.
I will say this. I was kind of nervous about going to a different country not knowing what to expect but I really enjoyed my time there. Angela and I both said that we would like to go back and I do know that I will make it back sometime hopefully soon. I don't want to wait 10 years to go back. I would like to go back within 3 to 5 years. If you get a chance go it is not what you think.
Now on to fast food. We here in the U.S. eat alot of fast food because we are on the go. Over there there are no drive thru's and they don't have the amount of fast food resturants that we have. What they do have there is McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. The food in these places are alittle different then here. They use more of their seasonings. The ice cream there is different. I heard some people say that they liked the McD's ice cream there better than here. The KFC instead of serving slaw they serve this vegetable salad with the colwslaw dressing. It is really good. I will have to make it here to get my fix. They serve some of the same things but also have some different foods to.
The Pizza Hut is a resturant. When I mean resturant it is like walking in a fancy resturant. The lighting in there is dim. When you order here you order a plate of pasta for yourself. But over there they plate of pasta is for both. Angela and I did not know this so we both ordered our own plate of pasta. The girl looked at us and said are you sure that you want both. I told her yes and she looked at us with this question on her face. Well, when they brought the first plate which to us is a dinner plate we figured it out that they plate was for both. This is because in front of you is a small plate and you serve yourself and eat off of that. When we left we just laughed about it.
I need to keep up the small plate. The size of the plate is like a dessert plate. Over there you don't get to pick out a dessert they serve watermelon after the dinner. The watermelon over there was good. They eat alot of fruit. Pork is one of the big meats that they eat over there. Noodles and rice are in the meal and tofu.
They have malls over there. The one mall that we went into was called the Grandview Mall. We probably have a mall like this somewhere but this mall is 7 stories high and they don't have what you call a food court. The resturants are scattered. The mall is not only 7 stories but it has what I call hallways that lead into another 7 story mall. You could get lost in this place and it is just over whelming. They 7th floor is an amusement park. I could not believe all of the stuff that they had up there. As we were walking they had some different looking art work one of the things that stuck with me was a statue of a thumb. That was really weird.
Sissy gave us a list of songs in chinese like twinkle twinkle little star and etc. I will post them for anyone who would like to give it a try.
I will say this. I was kind of nervous about going to a different country not knowing what to expect but I really enjoyed my time there. Angela and I both said that we would like to go back and I do know that I will make it back sometime hopefully soon. I don't want to wait 10 years to go back. I would like to go back within 3 to 5 years. If you get a chance go it is not what you think.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
I thought of some things that I didn't tell in the blog that we got to experience. The chinese teach their children to potty train at a very young age. They don't normally use diapers as long as we do. They start potty training them before the age of 1. What they use is called split pants. Split pants to some people are a style of pants for women. These are actually split in the middle and the children learn how to go to the potty this way. They just scuat when they have to go. In china it is not uncommon to see a child just go whereever when nature calls. A couple of families even saw it happen in a Walmart. They call someone to clean it up. While a few of us took a day and went shopping we came across alittle girl scawtting. If we did that here we would be jailed for it. But that is apart of their culture. You don't see alot of it. When we saw it I could see some of the faces of the people and they did not like what they saw. So some of the people don't approve this. I don't like the idea of seeing children using the street or sidewalk to go to the bathroom. But, I do see the plus side of the split pants. They will learn faster and easier. When they are training them the use sounds like a whislte for pee and a grunt for poo. We actually tried it with Shelby and she went pee. But just one time and after that she wouldn't do it. So for right now diapers then we will try it again.
Do you remember when people in the United States could smoke anywhere they wanted? Well, Chinese men smoke alot cigarettes. They can smoke anywhere they want. We did see a few women smoking but very few. Mostly men smoking. Everywhere you go there are people smoking. They only place that I did see a no smoking sign was in all of the taxi's. That surprised me. I figured that I would see the taxi driver smoking but everyone we had did not.
The people there are very nice and smiled and nodded as if to say hello. We did have some people who wanted to practice their english. That was funny. Try to talk with someone who is very limited or has not practiced their english in awhile and try to hold somewhat of a conversation with them. Even no they don't completely understand they still want to try. Angela and I came across several people in different areas. We went into a jewerly store and this one girl had pretty good english. She kept telling us that her english not so good. But she spoke it better then we did at times. Then we had some that understood alittle bit but with body language or pointing to things to let them no what you are asking we made out ok. When we went for our foot massage that was hularious. When we went in we looked at the board and asked for a foot massage the girl just looked at us and shrugged her shoulders and went and got someone else. This girl could understand what we wanted and briefly explained the pricing. So we took the VIP treatment. We went upstairs and they put us in one room together. The girl asked us boy or girl? We told her we didn't care. She was asked which we preffered. So Angela got a male and I got the female. Now when they came in they poured boiling hot water in a wood bucket that was lined in plastic. They asked us to place our feet in there. We did and I thought that they where boiling the skin off of my lower calf to my toes. The man that came in knew english but had not practiced speaking it for a long time. We kept pulling our feet in and out of the water several times. He asked what wrong. We told him HOT!!!!!!! need cold water. He realized what we were saying and they both went and got a bucket of cold water and added that in. It cooled it off alittle not alot. It was ok. Then they proceded to do the massage. Listen when I tell you that you have not had a foot massage until you go to China and have one. It is nothing like the ones you get here. They believe in reflexology and using every muscle in there body to give you a massage you will never forget. Angela kept telling the guy that it was to hard. I was tryin to use sign language. When I mean sign language it is not the same as what you think. There was this table in between us so I used that as an example and he got the idea along with understanding some of the english words that I used to explain. Angela was about to cry if he had not backed off. They use there knuckles and they press very, very, very, very, very, etc hard. They also use their fingers in pressing. While this is going on the guy was trying to practice his english. It was almost like talking to someone who is losing their hearing. Not loud but one word at a time done slowly. He would ask about how old we are? Why are we here? That was a good one. We told him the reason and he understood that then he started asking Angela about her children. That was funny. She was trying to explain about her kids and he would listen so hard to her and then look at me as if saying I don't understand. Then Angela would look at me and then I would try to explain what she was telling him. I don't know how but he understood it the way I was telling him. I just did it slow and basic. Then we asked both of them about boyfriend or girlfriend. They told us about them and theirselves. We left there laughing about the whole thing. Oh, they did give you a leg massage and up body massage before you left there. Before we left the four of us were laughing and just enjoying the time that we were spending together. I wanted to do it again but never found the time. Will post more stories later. Good night.
Do you remember when people in the United States could smoke anywhere they wanted? Well, Chinese men smoke alot cigarettes. They can smoke anywhere they want. We did see a few women smoking but very few. Mostly men smoking. Everywhere you go there are people smoking. They only place that I did see a no smoking sign was in all of the taxi's. That surprised me. I figured that I would see the taxi driver smoking but everyone we had did not.
The people there are very nice and smiled and nodded as if to say hello. We did have some people who wanted to practice their english. That was funny. Try to talk with someone who is very limited or has not practiced their english in awhile and try to hold somewhat of a conversation with them. Even no they don't completely understand they still want to try. Angela and I came across several people in different areas. We went into a jewerly store and this one girl had pretty good english. She kept telling us that her english not so good. But she spoke it better then we did at times. Then we had some that understood alittle bit but with body language or pointing to things to let them no what you are asking we made out ok. When we went for our foot massage that was hularious. When we went in we looked at the board and asked for a foot massage the girl just looked at us and shrugged her shoulders and went and got someone else. This girl could understand what we wanted and briefly explained the pricing. So we took the VIP treatment. We went upstairs and they put us in one room together. The girl asked us boy or girl? We told her we didn't care. She was asked which we preffered. So Angela got a male and I got the female. Now when they came in they poured boiling hot water in a wood bucket that was lined in plastic. They asked us to place our feet in there. We did and I thought that they where boiling the skin off of my lower calf to my toes. The man that came in knew english but had not practiced speaking it for a long time. We kept pulling our feet in and out of the water several times. He asked what wrong. We told him HOT!!!!!!! need cold water. He realized what we were saying and they both went and got a bucket of cold water and added that in. It cooled it off alittle not alot. It was ok. Then they proceded to do the massage. Listen when I tell you that you have not had a foot massage until you go to China and have one. It is nothing like the ones you get here. They believe in reflexology and using every muscle in there body to give you a massage you will never forget. Angela kept telling the guy that it was to hard. I was tryin to use sign language. When I mean sign language it is not the same as what you think. There was this table in between us so I used that as an example and he got the idea along with understanding some of the english words that I used to explain. Angela was about to cry if he had not backed off. They use there knuckles and they press very, very, very, very, very, etc hard. They also use their fingers in pressing. While this is going on the guy was trying to practice his english. It was almost like talking to someone who is losing their hearing. Not loud but one word at a time done slowly. He would ask about how old we are? Why are we here? That was a good one. We told him the reason and he understood that then he started asking Angela about her children. That was funny. She was trying to explain about her kids and he would listen so hard to her and then look at me as if saying I don't understand. Then Angela would look at me and then I would try to explain what she was telling him. I don't know how but he understood it the way I was telling him. I just did it slow and basic. Then we asked both of them about boyfriend or girlfriend. They told us about them and theirselves. We left there laughing about the whole thing. Oh, they did give you a leg massage and up body massage before you left there. Before we left the four of us were laughing and just enjoying the time that we were spending together. I wanted to do it again but never found the time. Will post more stories later. Good night.
Ok, I know I haven't written lately. Nothing as far as what is going on at home is the same. Shelby is making progress slowly but it will happen when she is ready. I will be starting back to work next week. We are trying figure that out as to what is going to happen. We spent Thanksgiving at home. My parents brought Thanksgiving dinner by that afternoon. Saturday we went Christmas shopping at Toys'R'Us. That was a mad house. I bought several things for Sofia for Christmas. I just don't know what to get Shelby right now. I am thinking. I do know what they both need it is just on the things that are wants. Sofia loves her sister so much. She does not want to be away from her. Her latest excuse to stay home is that she is sick. When I change her diaper she wants to be there and she wants to pick out her outfit for the night or day. Last night she was wanting to feed her snacks and bottle. So I let her do it and she was so excited. She is trying so hard to be a big sister but there are things that she does that could hurt her and I feel that I am constantly having to get after her. She is also getting into the agruing stage. We took away tv until she can stop arguing. We also told her that if she continues we will take more away. She is trying but as you know she is 4 and it is not easy. Will write more later and post more pictures. Go on to facebook and you will see pictures of China.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday November 25th Glen went to the office and Lisa came and got Sofia for the afternoon. Glen had asked if I wanted him to take Sofia with him to work. I let him know that I had asked my sister to come and pick her up. It was a good thing to. You will see in just a minute. I fed Shelby and put her down for a nap. I was working on putting things away when I got a call around 4:00 in the afternoon. Glen called and said that her was in a bad accident. Someone had hit him on the passager side just behind the cab of the pick up. This is were Sofia would have been sitting. She possibly could have been badly hurt. Glen was ok and so was the other driver. The other driver hit him so hard that it spun him around and he ended up hitting a telephone poll. I am so glad that he was ok and that Sofia was not with him.
Tuesday November 24th Shelby had had a bad cough and we were getting concerned about it. She started a cold and cough a week before we came home. Marting got her some medicine and it was working really well. But she still came home with it so I called the doctors office and they were going to be able to get her in around 12:00. We took her in and the doctor told us that her lungs were clear and that she did have an ear infection. We were so happy that it wasn't any worse then is was. She said it would take her 2 weeks or more to get ready of the cough. We just concerned that the cold moving down in her chest causing other issues. We went to Publix to get her the antibiotic that they prescribed her and a few other things. While we were there my mind was thinking that it was dinner time which it was only lunch time. I was wanting chicken. Glen asked me if I wanted that for lunch and I told him that it was dinner time. He told me no that it was lunch time. We did go ahead and get chicken and had that for lunch and dinner. Shelby is slowly letting him hold her as long as I am not in the same room with them.
Monday November 23rd Chuck (Glen's brother) came over and took Angela to the airport. She was really sad to go. I know it was hard for her being that she spent 2 weeks with Shelby. But it won't be long before her and her family will be back again. Glen tried to hold Shelby again but she was not ready yet.
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