2014 November 23 - Let's just call it Thanksgiving already

The kids and I survived Heidi's absence this week - but just barely.  She had a good time in the US with her parents and siblings.  She may have also single-handedly boosted the US economy by a couple of tenths of a percent, based on looking at our credit card statements.  She was able to stock up on a few necessities and to get a jump on some Christmas shopping.

We only ordered pizza twice while Heidi was gone (including the night she came home).  Although it was a busy week at work, the kids managed to keep track of each other and themselves, and everything was in decent order when Heidi returned -- yes, it helps that we have an Ayi to keep up on cleaning, laundry, etc.

Heidi returned on Thursday night right around dinner time -- we were all able to eat at least one meal together as a family -- but then Friday morning Grant and Luke were out the door at 6 AM to head to the airport for their trip to Taiwan for a swim meet.  We've been able to watch their progress at the meet this weekend through a smart phone app -- the results are uploaded in real time.

Saturday we went to a Christmas bazaar at the school -- tons of vendors selling all sorts of things, most of it stuff we were not able to convince ourselves that we really need (still feeling the burden of late August / early September as we unpacked our boxes and ended up tossing so much stuff).  We also did a few errands, went to a crepe place for lunch, and did some cooking & baking for today's Thanksgiving dinner (yes, we are having it early this week because Heidi and the kids will be in Taiwan from Thanksgiving Day - Saturday this next week.  I get to stay home and work).  The turkey is in the oven now, and we'll head over to our friends' home in about an hour to have the feast.

A few photos from the week:

I've got Tomsk (the city where Nash is on his mission) on my weather app - I'm curious to know what kind of weather "smoke" is.

We are more interested in finding out how he is going to survive tomorrow's high of -8 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as Friday's high of -24 degrees.  Certainly that is a mistake?

We had American-style Chinese food delivered on Friday night.  Mallory really liked the fortune in her fortune cookie (and yes, fortune cookies are just an American invention):  "The cookie wishes you had a splendid house."  Don't we all wish we had a splendid house?

A few photos from the Christmas bazaar at the school.

Our first Thanksgiving feast (we're having one next week, too, when our boys get back from Taipei).

We like the pomelo fruit that we can get here - reminds us of the same fruit we had in Jakarta.  You can buy it prepared and packaged at the grocery store, and if you do it usually includes two tiny chopsticks (they are really toothpicks, but Mallory mistook them for small chopsticks).  We also bought the whole fruit this week (in that net thing) - we'll try peeling it tomorrow...

2014 November 16 - Morevember, as in "More of November"

Heidi left on Wednesday to go the US for about a week to help celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  The rest of us have been hanging on here in Shanghai, keeping up with school, swimming, piano lessons, gymnastics, church stuff, etc.   Here are a few of the things that happened this past week:

We have a few stray cats around the neighborhood.  One of them, Tippy, hangs out at our back door, or at our front door, most days of the week, waiting for some attention or food from Mallory.  The management of our compound put some traps around the neighborhood to catch the stray cats.  One night as some friends were leaving, we walked outside with them and heard the sorriest cat meow we have ever heard - it was a loud, distressed-sounding meow.  Sure enough, about two houses down from us, we saw Tippy inside this cat trap (that's a dead fish dangling from the roof of the trap).  Grant figured out how the contraption works and opened the door.  Mallory and Heidi were able to finally coax Tippy out the door.  He/she (I'm not sure which) was spooked for quite a while, but Mallory finally lured him back to the safety of our back porch.  Mallory has been checking the trap every day to make sure Tippy doesn't fall for the same thing again.

They have some really interesting means of transporting things around Shanghai.  We often see the styrofoam recycler guy riding his motorized bicycle / tricycle thing.

Monday was Mallory's birthday, which started out with waffles for breakfast.

And then some presents after dinner (one of Mallory's favorites -- stroganoff).

A zillion markers made Mallory pretty happy.

Family photos - serious and not.

The "1" and "0" sparklers took the place of candles -- not sure if those are even be legal.

I love the expressions on Grant's, Mallory's, and Heidi's faces -- their reactions to this firework of a candle. 

"Hey, Shanghai.  The 1980s called and wants its candy bar back."

We found these Whatchamacallit candy bars at the Hershey's store in Shanghai.  Last time I saw one of these was in the 1980s.  Both Heidi and I remember when they were introduced, and we both thought it was the greatest new candy bar.  Then we forgot about them until about a month ago when we found them here in Shanghai.  I guess that's where they've been hiding all these years.

2014 November 9 - Almost Mallory's Birthday

 These next four photos were all taken within about 5 minutes after I got home from work, and they are pretty representative of what happened this week.

Heidi and I are still happily married.

Grant has been practicing and is getting good at what he calls his "scumbag" face.  His hair is wet, having recently gotten home from swim practice.

Luke was probably saying something like:  "Can't you see I'm trying to do homework, Dad?"

Mallory stayed home from school on Monday, but went to school on Tuesday.  She came home from school that day sicker than Monday, so she stayed home from school on Wednesday.  She is still getting over her cough.

This is a fairly typical sight around the streets of Pudong -- a man or woman on a bike or scooter, with tons of balloons hanging off the back.

Mallory and a friend with the Chinese dancers at the school's International Day.

On Thursday and Friday Mallory didn't have school because of parent-teacher conferences.  Heidi took her to the salon for a hair cut, and the guy ended up straightening her hair (I'm told it took 40 minutes).

Mallory loves the alternate look -- too bad it takes so long to do it.

Heidi and I were at the grocery store one night and found imported Norbest turkeys for sale.  Since we were travelling by scooter, the only way we could figure out to transport it back home was to put it in the under-seat storage in the scooter -- a pretty good representation of our expat life here in Jinqiao.

Not approved by Mom.

Not approved by Dad.

Mallory invited some friends over on Saturday to celebrate her birthday.  They played at the house for a while, then went to get pedicures, before coming back to the house for an ice cream cake.

2014 November 2 - Fall Play, Halloween, and whatnot

This week started out as a pretty normal week - school, work, etc.  A few new things have happened, though.

Swimming

Grant has been looking forward to the start of the swimming season at school.  He found out that the practices are in the mornings, Monday till Friday, from 5:45 AM till 7:15 at a pool near the school (their school, Concordia, doesn't have its own swimming pool, unfortunately).  He had to work things out with the coach to be able to participate, though, because it conflicts with seminary class on some days of the week.  Luke has been so busy with the Fall Play at school that we wasn't really in the mood to start a new activity, but I think Grant convinced him.  So on Thursday morning they both went to the first practice - they just ride their scooters to the pool a couple of kilometers away, which is fine right now with the weather still in the 60s in the morning (the high during the day has been in the 70s), but we'll see how they feel about when it gets colder or when it rains.  They rush home after swim practice, and still have enough time to shower, eat, and change, and ride their bikes to school before it starts at 8 AM.  On some days they will go to seminary, then directly to swim practice, then home to shower, eat, etc.  They will be busy during the mornings...

Mallory and I rode past the Shanghai Tesla dealership and charging station, which are about two blocks away from our house.

The girls made caramel apples.

And a ghost pizza for dinner on Halloween night (looks like a Pacman ghost to me).

Rainy trick or treating

Our compound / neighborhood sent out an email that trick or treating would be on Friday from 5 - 7 PM (as well as on Saturday from 4 - 6 PM, but that is a different story altogether).  The weather forecast for Friday was rain all day, then stopping at about 5 PM.  Perfect forecast for trick or treating, except that the actual weather was exactly the opposite - pretty clear and nice all day, then it started sprinkling and then raining harder from 5 PM and then for the rest of the evening.  Luke was doing the school play, but Grant and James handed out candy at our house while Heidi helped hand out candy at the Larsen's house.   I went around the neighborhood with Mallory, both of us with umbrellas in hand.  Mallory was enthusiastic for a while, at least until she could feel the water squishing between her toes inside her boots.  So we brought her back to the house for a change of shoes and a short rest, then she went out again for a while.

Avoiding the rain on Halloween night.

Cartwheels

Mallory came home from gymnastics this week extremely sore.  She was proud of the fact that during her 2 hour gymnastics class, she managed to do 220 cartwheels - most of them just during time when they were in between things and waiting to start a new activity.  I can certainly understand why she is sore.  I don't know if I could manage to do 220 cartwheels.

Garden tour

Heidi went with some women from church on a visit to a garden near us - I guess still here in Shanghai, about 30 minutes away.

Sights on Heidi's garden tour...

It wouldn't be a Chinese garden if you didn't seem someone doing Tai chi.

Two kids having fun on the standing swings.

Heidi tried to convince this man that it wasn't a real horse...

Fall Play

Luke had his final rehearsals this week for the fall play - Stand By Me.  Performances were on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.  Luke was happy with his role -- Eyeball Chambers (he wore an eye patch) -- and did a really good job at it.