Owenisms (again)

He always has something interesting to say.

Yesterday he asked me "Mom- do raindrops come out of buckets or do the clouds poop them out?"

A few days ago, we were walking across a parking lot and when he saw a car coming, he put his arm across me to make me stop. I instantly teared up at that one. He DOES care about me!

Owen had a HUGE breakthrough at swim lessons. He does not like to go under water without holding his nose, but by the end of one lesson, he was doing a butterfly stroke with his face under the water across half the pool! I was amazed and so proud. It's so fun to see him growing up and letting go of his fears. Unfortunately, I am the unprepared mommy who didn't have a camera. But it was exciting all the same!

Baby T Coming Soon!

Hazel and I got to attend Aunt Erin's baby shower today. Isn't her belly SOOO cute? :) Can't wait to see my new nephew!

The happy couple (ha! kidding! but seriously...don't they look like a couple?)

Me and Erin

Hazel wanted to open the present she got Erin (of course)

Erin with Baby T's monkey and Bjorn (from me)

These are Hazel's idea of cute poses

Poor Buffy

I was watching a friend's dog tonight while she went to a movie. Buffy has a broken leg that had to temporarily come out of it's cast because of moisture problems. So he is sedated and can't be allowed to walk on his leg- basically he needs constant attention.

While I was bathing the kids, he stayed in his crate. Hazel walked over to him at one point and cooed at him and kept saying "Poor Buffy." Then she said "Maybe this will make you feel better" and started banging on the door of his crate really hard. Of course I reprimanded her, but it was pretty funny. I wonder why she thought that would help!

Poor Buffy :(

So You Think You Can Dance

So- something is wrong with my DVR and it didn't record the ONLY SHOW I EVER WATCH! I am so ticked off.

Does anyone still have it recorded? Do you want to invite me over to watch it? I will bring snacks! :)

I'm sad.

New Friends

Okay- let me just say that I have plenty of people here that I consider friends, but I have really been needing someone who actually spends her day like I do (and therefore is easy and fun to hang out with). So... meet Bekah (and her little boy Jaxon).

I love her. She has many redeeming qualities, but my favorites are that she likes to go to the gym in the mornings with me, and she cherishes the occasional nap, and she has a pool. Ha. No, really. She has been so much fun to get to know and she is probably the sweetest person that has ever accepted me as a friend. :) And what's even better, she keeps introducing me to all these other great girls that I end up loving! On Saturday, she and her husband hosted a little BBQ/ pool party at their darling house and I just loved everyone that came. It was so much fun and I can't wait to get the same group together again soon!

The kiddos enjoying the cool water (and Hazel diggin a wedgie)

Me chattin it up with Jody (and baby Baer)

Even though most of the hubbies there were in some sort of medical profession, Nathan actually enjoyed himself as well! We felt very relaxed and at ease with everyone there, and that is a rare thing to find. So much fun.

Karaoke Memories

My first experience with karaoke was so fun. I can't believe I had never done it before. Even though there was nobody else there (except Billy Bob cowboy who kept singing sad, slightly off-key country love songs to his enamored wife) we still had fun performing to ourselves! I got extremely drunk on Diet Coke and did a few things that I am still ashamed of, but overall it was a blast!

Thanks for the fun night girls. I already miss you all!

Can you tell how lost we all were?

Props to Cindy for knowing EVERY SINGLE WORD to the 5 minute long song "Baby Got Back."

Catching up

Ok- I have some major catching up to do, so I will be posting a couple of posts every few days. I don't want to overwhelm you!

But, hey! I'm back! :)

Make sure to scroll down and check for any life-altering info you might not want to miss!

Another Graduate

I know I am so behind, but better late than never. Owen's school had no graduation ceremony (am I surprised?), but his teacher decided to do a little "ceremony" just for his class. It was very interesting and cute. I was a proud mommy. :)

Receiving the "Starburst" award for his bursts of star quality performances

Getting the 'key' to 1st grade...or the future...or something like that. I wasn't listening very well.

Group photo. Yep- Owen was in the minority in his class. Actually he was in the singularity.

Hip Hip Hooray! It's OVER!

Congratulations, Owen! You made it!!!

Look-a-like

We made Rice Krispie treats as our activity for FHE tonight. Of course the kids love any activity that involves forbidden acts (like standing on a chair next to the hot stove). We had a great time and I just had to show you the Krispie self-portrait that Nathan made. His artistic abilities astound me.

I wish you could see Nathan better so you could see the amazing likeness of the fros.

It worked!

Thanks for harassing Nathan. Did ya notice how quickly he posted after someone besides his wife nagged him?

Now what are you going to do to get me to post again? What is going on with me?! I have been working like crazy lately and I am now trying to catch up with the rest of my life that I have put on hold. Just haven't even been in that blogging mode (you know- the one where I think all day about what I should post that night). Or maybe I just haven't had anything funny happen to me lately. Either way, I have been admonished and I will try to do better....promise.

Today Hazel said "Mom...is 'what in the world' a bad word?"

This is a testament to that fact that I am cleaning up my language and finding some healthy substitutes for the nasty words I usually yell in the car (i.e. STUPID MORON! RETARD! and my all-time favorite YOU FREAKING IDIOT!...I know, I know. I'm really bad....but obviously getting better). All I know is I now say "What in the WORLD?!?" a lot. Meredith laughs when she hears me say this because she thinks it is very redneck, so it's a good thing she isn't here.

Speaking of Meredith, I never posted anything about my visit to Georgia, and now I feel like it's pointless. I'm sure most of you have already looked at all of Meredith's cute pictures- she pretty much told the whole story. Well- minus the racy night of karaoke that I will never let down.....

So, you know that time I went to China??

Well, I went. I don't think any number of photos or words can ever truly explain my experience or the intricacies that define China. It was life-changing. Many people may experience a similar feeling when traveling abroad. This was my first experience leaving the US. The only thing I know for sure about my future is that this has taught me that it is vital to see other countries. I think it's so important for my children to see some of the world. I think the reason that people in other countries dislike Americans is because we have it so good, yet we still find so many reasons to complain. I keep trying to tell myself that I've only seen the "big city" side of China. I still have no idea. I feel I caught a glimpse of the vastness of our world. I think it's amazing that most people in China have never been to America. They only know the America they see on TV. They know the Paris Hiltons and the Brad Pitts and the George W Bush's of America. They see our politicians fighting and our music videos. I think we must seem like make-believe. Anyway, I'm going to try to give a brief idea of what I experienced in my 12 days in China. What I did not include is the company visits I got to participate in. We visited Microsoft Research Park, Ericsson, Lilly, China Construction Bank, The Shanghai Deep Water Port, and a couple Chinese companies. It was really cool to speak with these Chinese business people and get a glimpse of the corporate world in China. The following photos are selected in an effort to briefly outline what my activities entailed in order of appearance. I hope you enjoy. Let me know if I can answer questions or delve deeper on any subjects.

So, I flew to China. We flew over somewhere cold and white. I think it's Siberia.

One of our first places of significance was our visit to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.

It's not forbidden anymore....they even let Americans in. I didn't tell them I was from Georgia though.

We ate several of these "traditional" Chinese meals. My only problem with the term "traditional" is that these meals are huge, and rediculously expensive for what the Chinese have to spend. So, I guess it's like if you plop down all the crap we try to force-feed ourselves on Thanksgiving and tell someone its a "traditional American meal". The food was awesome though. Except the baby eels dried with salt. I thought they were little french fries and stuck a large clump in my mouth. They were later featured in a thick clear soup. I don't mind eel, but these baby ones still have their eyes, and are tough like clams. I think it just caught me off gaurd at one point, and for possibly the first time in my life, I lost my appetite.

The Great Wall...It's pretty amazing. And the Chinese people that try to sell you crap atop the Great Wall....MAN!!! They must get up everyday and say, "If I'm going to put forth the effort to climb all the way to the top of the wall today, then I'll be darned to heck if I'm gonna let one tourist get off the wall without buying one of my 'I climbed the wall' plaques!"

Here I am as high up as the Beijing Olympics billboard that they stuck shamelessly on the side of the mountain. The Chinese are really proud of the Olympics. Actually, the Shanghainese are really pissed that Beijing is getting the Olympics. So, they made up some big event their calling the World Expo that is happening in 2010. They even made this really bad mascot for it that looks a little like a blue Gumby with a toothpaste swirl on his head. You can probably check it out if you Google "Shanghai World Expo." But, you shouldn't look it up. I say we ban the Expo.... Selfish Shanghainese.

These two photos were taken from the Summer Palace, a few miles north of Beijing. This was the most beautiful place we saw in China (In my opinion). Its a sort of vacation spot for the Chinese Emperors during the 18th and 19th centuries. From the tops of the hills, you could see an amazing view of the Beijing skyline. There were boat rides on the lake, but the wind was too heavy and the water too choppy, so we didn't get to take a boat ride.

We saw a Beijing night show that was a two hour summary of a complete history of Beijing. Pretty cool. The top one is Gingis Khan. The bottom one is three ladies...maybe concubines. They kept their clothes on for the show though. It was PG......13. :)

I thought this photo was important to express how much hotter the flight attendants are on domestic China flights. They also served us a huge, hot meal on our 1 1/2 hour flight from Beijing to Shanghai. What now Southwest?!? I think they were brainwashing us with Chinese propaganda on the TV screens.

This lady is scooping silkworm cocoons out of near boiling water. These cocoons will be unravelled into silk thread to make blankets, pillows, blouses, teddys, thongs, sensual bull whips....that's all I can think of that's made of silk.

I wish I had a picture to show, but I also got to see an alternative use of the silk-worm cocoons...they grill them on a stick. The only people I saw eating them were stupid American tourists that had been dared to do it. The Chinese so have us figured out.

This guy rows a boat down the river. I don't know why.

This is a view within the Humble Administrators Garden in Suzhou, a few miles outside of Shanghai. It was the second most beautiful place we visited. Beautiful Stone formations and Pagodas overlooking peaceful ponds and plant life. While the scenery was fantastic, the public restrooms were the most depressing thing I'd ever seen. The toilets were holes in the cement that you squat over. There was no water connected so nothing had been flushed in days...maybe weeks. Not pleasant.
Shanghai has a lot of cracks on their sidewalks. Toddler cracks that is. These are the pants that Chinese kids wear while potty training. They just squat and go where they want.
Yep. That's Bin Laden. And it's a pic of him smiling with the World Trade Center burning behind him. Thank you to my brave peer, Jolean, for having our guide explain to the salesman that he was offending people from all over the world. He took it down and apologized... but probably put it right back up after we left.

Some quick honorable mentions:

I saw a Chinese kid vomit out of the window of an Audi.

I saw a Chinese guy get in a fight with a cab driver. No fists, just grabbing and pushing.

I saw old people doing Tai Chi in a park.

So, that's China in 500 words or less....maybe 1000.

Nathan's Slackerness

For those of you who are wondering why Nathan hasn't posted about his trip yet, feel free to send him a harassing email to the following address:

nbwilliams78@gmail.com

Thanks. :)