Sweet Sweet Corn!

We have very high hopes of having genuine Missouri sweet corn late this summer or early fall! I can't wait to invite friends over for a "corn party"! yay!

Earthquake

Thank you all so much for your prayers and concern for us! We are all safe and sound up here in the northeast . . . however, our friends in Changsha have not yet replied to our attempts at reaching them, there has been no company wide alert, so we must assume they are OK, but still reeling a bit from the quake. (they are in the next province over from the epicenter, about a 1 hour flight)

Please continue to pray for this country and the many many families who are suffering such loss.

Thanks!

thoughts from a friend . . . & me

Ok, fact: we are about 20 months into our first "making life work in another culture" phase of life and well, as you may have noticed (and I am not asking for confessions of this!) we have been less than exciting bloggers . . . less than informative regarding our new home, surroundings & friends over the past 8 months or so.

I have several excuses to give, but to save you the boredom of reading them, suffice it to say that we have been in survival mode for some time. There have been many adjustments mentally, spiritually and physically and some days it is all we (read "really it's just me, but sounds better to speak for our whole family" . . . you know, when mama aint right, aint nobody right!) can do to make it to dinnertime in one piece.

So, to remedy this, I have pirated our friend's blog. (when in Rome . . . )

but first, some thoughts from me . . .

My friend Tash (who's husband wrote this entry) and I were taking a girl day while her family was out of town and we walked the WHOLE day. It was refreshing...the weather was clear, sunny and surprisingly clean after a nice spring rain, so we walked . . . from 10:30 am through lunch on to about 5 in the evening. As we walked in one particular part of the city, we realized that there were tons of people alongside the rode with items for sale laid out on large blankets or tarps. At first I was excited . . . it was like a huge garage sale and there were tons of old, very interesting looking items. What a find! But my excitement quickly turned to sadness as it became harder and harder for Tash and I to hear one another . . . over the blaring loud speakers overhead shouting out "NOW is a good time to move" over and over and over again. It struck me that where I come from, those loud speakers would have been shot down after the first hour, or at the very least, the first time I was trying to get some sleep and couldn't! But these people were sitting quietly at the edge of the street, many of their belongings strewn about on a blanket, some playing cards, enjoying the weather, some napping, some eying the two foreigners strolling the street . . . but all seemingly oblivious to the blaring voice overhead telling them that it was time to move . . .

here is our friend's thoughts on it . . .

In a previous post I wrote of my unhealthy obsession with demolition. Around these parts there’s plenty of it going down and the character/word chai, as pictured below, is plastered over every part of the building within reach of the aerosol wielding “artist”. Chai means demolish.

For me the word chai has begun to symbolize my city as I see it multiple times every day. I’d become a little too fascinated with it. I had plans to turn it into art. “Chai art”. And then of course plaster it on T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and anything else that might sell. So I set out to make myself into the famous and rich artist I deserved to be.

I started by photographing every chai (demolish) I saw on a local six storey building only to discover that the neighbouring building was also covered in demolish and the next and the next… two entire city blocks. In all about 15 buildings each containing at least 48 homes and multiple small businesses. That’s about 720 homes. The ground floors of these six storey buildings were tagged with demolish and professionally painted propaganda slogans stating, “Leave early and stay safe” and “Live peacefully move soon”.

Demolition companies are contracted to flatten the old buildings and encourage the locals to move soon, stay safe and live peacefully. They achieve this by first knocking down community facilities like bicycle sheds, add-on storage rooms and small private markets that are out of “building code”. Once flattened the rubble from these illegal annexes is left awkwardly strewn across the common space. Then to make the environment more peaceful, loud speakers are strung up high and turned on full with a polite reassuring voice firmly reminding the locals from early in the day until late into the evening that, “NOW would be the best time to move”.

These looped announcements are so loud that it’s difficult to hold a conversation. I had some friendly yellversations with a few of the locals who explained there’s nothing they can do stop all this. They thought my country must be better than theirs… I felt sad, and they humiliated. They were losing their home.

To begin to understand, imagine a developer sending in some slack-jaw-yokel to tag demolish all over your house because they planned to buy it off you. Then to help you "understand" signs are placed all over your front yard explaining why it’s best to take the money and leave now. And then your house is blasted with a friendly looped message that reminds you to move before they cut off your water, gas, electricity, telephone and public heating pipes before the sub-zero winter sets in.

As I continued on from the demolition site a young guy handed me a flyer encouraging me buy a beautiful new apartment to be built in the same location. It was full of thesaurus English in fancy script font, which made little sense, “Harmonic living style”, “Passivity abode”, “Jubilant exist delight”.

I’m not so chai any more.

so, an interesting, albeit not so uplifting, look into our world . . .

But as I thought about it while writing (pirating) this entry, I remember a time in Decatur when the Swendsen's Florist on Water St. would not sell their property. Everyone around them had sold and had been knocked down, ready to begin the building of a strip mall that now houses my beloved Panara Bread, I thought how different it was. Then we often thought: "oh you silly people! sell it! they are already getting ready to build . . . you're not going to really stay, just sell already!" but now I see it quite differently, I suppose. I know the circumstances are not the same, and no, Swendsen's was not being threatened with loss of power/water/heat . . . but when you have settled your life in a place for years, who wants to be "bought out" so that all your memories can be concreted over to make yummy lunches for the likes of me?

It may sound, smell and taste different, but it's all still life, isn't it?

A hobby for mommy . . .

Ok, so . . . I've decided that I need a hobby. Not that sweeping gads of dust from the construction site right outside our back door twice daily from our faux wood floors isn't exciting enough, but I've found myself lacking GOALS (well, attainable goals . . . the dust just will not go away!)

I used to love to go to the scrapbook store, what was that called? Some last name or something . . . anyway, I loved to go there for a day and scrap away, and coming home with so much accomplished . . . GREAT feeling. It was so therapeutic for me, and if I needed a therapeutic hobby in Decatur, IL . . . then I would say it'd be a good idea to have one here too. . . but I don't.

Scraping here is just too much drama. I have all my stuff, but I can't get more if I run out, so I don't even want to start a project . . . I've tried figuring out the digital scrapbook thing, but so far, have had no luck with being patient enough to learn photoshop and then all that other stuff that goes into it . . . so I have decided that I will start with learning more about photography with a really cool website that has like 11 lessons for beginners and then maybe I will be motivated enough to really learn the photoshop stuff.

There are assignments at the end of each lesson . . . my first one was "take really close up pictures of something around the house" . . . here's what I came up with. . . it made us laugh.






Well, at least it is keeping my mind occupied and is giving me some attainable goals amongst the harried pace of life . . . and it's good for laugh . . . bonus!

April Showers . . . bring new rain gear and lots of puddles!

I've been so excited for the rain to come simply because I found the cutest new rain boots for Ra at zhan lan guan (john lawn gwan, like swan, but with a g:) I was seriously torn as to weather to buy the plain pink and green ones or the cute pink ones with white polka dots . . . and I couldn't believe that I had such a choice! Usually the choice is something more along these lines . . . "do I buy the pink ones with the strange japanese anime cartoon shooting guns on it or the blue ones with a goofy frog and horrid English on it?" but this time, oh THIS time it was an amazingly wonderfully hard choice to make for real! At 35 yuan (about $5 US) I should have just bought both, one a size up for next year so I can avoid the cartoons and bad English for another year. . . hmmm, not a bad idea, there may be a quick trip back to the store scheduled soon!

Anyway, she had tons of fun when she got off the school bus and there had been a whole day of rain for puddle-making in our courtyard . . . so we took the long way home and hit all the good puddles. When we got home and took off her boots, about 2 quarts of water poured out of each one! EEK! But it was fun!



What a fun day!

Field trip to Ocean World

So we had our first field trip. Rachel was SOOO excited for the entire week before the trip. Finally, like two days before, I realized she thought they were going to the OCEAN . . . ah, a little different, sweet girl, but still pretty cool... she wasn't too disappointed, at least when she found out she would be able to see lots and lots of sea animals we'd never see at the ocean. It made up for the loss of beaches and sandcastles I guess :)



Ra posing with the giant penguin outside the entrance. Really great, except she was quite disappointed when we saw the actual penguins inside . . . she thought they were baby penguins.

Not a great shot, but she was being enchanted by the walrus doing "nose stands" for all the folks.


I remember seeing my first seahorse and being amazed at how small they are! Loved it!

She love, love, loved the tunnel! how exciting to see sharks, stingrays and seals swim overhead! We had an absolutely fabulous day. I love this part of being a mommy. . . she still wants me to come with her on field trips and hang out with me the whole time. Soon this will not be so and I will need to cling to these memories to get me through . . . She is such a blessing . . . such a joy.

Christmas . . . in April?

Yeah, well, yesterday morning it was cold enough to still be December here (OK, maybe not that cold, but it was stinking COLD for it to be April!) and that was kind of fitting as we just got a long-awaited, highly anticipated Christmas present...



We are excited to be able to 1) use fewer taxis, 2) stop on the way to a destination when we see something of interest, and 3) have a way for Jerry to process things! He really misses driving as it was his "down time" to process things that got stuck swimming around in his head...now if you've visited us here (mom), you may think "down time??? while in that traffic?" But in reality this is just a glorified bicycle with a battery attached. We ride in the bike lane most of the time, but we get there way faster than our biking friends, which is nice considering the air in the bike lane is often caked with exhaust and occasionally sand from the northern desert.

And I love the guiltlessness of requesting trips to the market while cooking something because I have forgotten an ingredient!

Merry Christmas!

eye check-up

Ra has been complaining lately of headaches (read: hedecks) so we decided to get her eyes checked to see if there were any problems. None were found, thank goodness...as cute as she would be in glasses, we weren't quite ready to deal with that at 4 years old. Although she could have been blind for all this "push your forehead against the bar and look at the little red house" test knew....she couldn't even push the bar forward, and when I asked if she was looking at the little red house? "there isn't any, mommy, just desert!" But when she read the eye chart from 5 meters away, she did great, even calling out the shapes in Chinese...so we're pretty sure they're right...no eye problems causing the hedecks. sigh.

a week of parcels!

I'm not usually one for rain, but they do say "when it rains, it pours" and this past week we found this to be quite true . . . three parcels arrived safe and sound after several failed attempts. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hinten, Grandma Alice and Grandpa Gene and "my girls" . . . we had a GREAT week enjoying all the wonderful treats you sent our way!


Daddy showing Ra what googly eyes are for . . .

yummy yummy Fruity "Petals" . . .



Feety pajamas just in time for the heat to be turned off for the year! Yay! I can be warm all night long!

The Catepillar's Voice

The Kindergarten /JK and the first grade class worked for *weeks* learning this little play that they shared with all the parents and the rest of the elementary aged kids. Afterward we all went down to the cafeteria and had a little "Easter Tea". The whole rest of the day in my head I was singing "stomp, stomp, crush, crush, elephants and lions beware...stomp, stomp, crush, crush, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah" well, you know how it is, they're so darn cute you don't really listen to what they are saying/singing anyway...

This week, on Monday we will be going on a field trip to "Ocean World", which Rachel has very sadly misinterpreted as a field trip to the ocean... she was very sad when I explained to her that it would only be a place where you can see animals and creatures of the ocean...not the actual ocean. She's her mamma's girl...we love the ocean! Should be interesting!

Chinese New Year or Chun Jie (Spring Festival Holiday)

Since we are just trying to "catch up" with you here....i will not droan on and on about Chinese New Year and what an amazingly different and beautiful and culturally deep time of year this is for China . . . but I will share a couple of pictures from our hua yuan (apartment complex) and our cute darling of a girl dressed up in her Chinese New Year outfit for school. (It's kind of like the "easter dress" tradition we have in the States . . . kids get new Chun Jie clothes to wear on the first day of the new year.)

Enjoying family

In January we were able to make a trip back to the States for a week to attend Jerry's grandpa's funeral. Even though our hearts were filled with sadness, we were terribly blessed to be able to see so many friends and family in such a short time! And Ra was amazingingly enough, able to get completely spoiled in just 10 short days! :)

Ra with Grandpa Gene, Aunt Jo and new cousin Lycan

Ra with Grandma Alice and Grandma Hinten

and Grandpa Hinten

Strawberries the size of your HEAD

yeah, so strawberries have come into season... we'd had a few batches of them and like last year, we found that even though they were greenish looking, they were some of the sweetest strawberries we'd ever tasted. Well, then the other day at the market I saw these monsters! They were, no kidding, the size of a large plum or small necterine! HUGE . . . and they were RED! bright shiny red!

Ra loved 'em, as you can plainly see! yummy!

The newest member of the jonesesinchina

well, there are so many things to catch up on here in blog-world, however before we go back and catch you up too much, we would like to introduce you to Lexi . . . well, "snuggle bug" if you ask Rachel, but officially she is named Lexi. (my childhood dog's name was Lady, Jerrys was Max...and we thought combining them might be fun...but "Laxy" ? well...a little too close to "laxitive" and we really didn't want her to live up to her name in that respect...SOOO....Lexi it is)

She's been with us a week now. We have wanted a pet for some time, but just have not done it...until last weekend. A friend of a friend took us to a "shelter" like place for street dogs which was quite the experience, and you wouldn't believe the change in her if we could get the before picture to load onto the blog... she was a grey/black shaggy mess of a dog...but now she's our beautiful little Lexi!

Fairy Princess brings Double Happiness

Once again we were blessed by a visit from Miss Kathy over the Christmas holiday. . . and as always, Miss Kathy never comes empty handed. She brought along with her the encouraging cards, family pictures, letters and wonderful treats you all sent our way this season. It's always "shuang xi" ( meaning "double happiness" which a very famous/common chinese character often used at wedding celebrations and the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday. It has come to be seen as a wish for good luck or fortune... FYI) when Miss Kathy plans a visit. We are blessed with so many friends who send their love via chocolates and holiday treats, books, magazines, art supplies, fun kitchen gadgets, yummy spice mixes and other assorted treasures to be hand delivered by our very own "Fairy Princess".

We are so touched by your lavish acts of kindness towards us . . . we are quite blessed. Thank you.

(and a special thank you to all of you who sent MINT chocolate!!! you are too sweet to remember that! i wasn't even selfish, i opened all the bags and poured them into a bowl to sit on the coffee table . . .)

(and an "oh my word, you are the best ever, i can't even believe how awesome you are" thank you to my dear Kiley who sent SIX cinnamon crunch bagles from PANARA in a ziploc baggie! YOU ARE AMAZING! Confession: I woke up in the middle of the night . . . the night they arrived and couldn't sleep . . . so I ate TWO! i wish i could say i savored every morsel, but no, i just inhaled them to the last crumb.)

doublehappiness.gif (GIF Image, 400x400 pixels)

Snow Day!

There's Mommy's idea of fun in the snow . . .

And then there's Daddy's . . .

Snow Angels

Take note: it really helps to make a great snow angel if you close your eyes real tight and concentrate hard!

more fun in the snow . . .