Marcie's Maniac Moments

Backwards Pricing

2012-01-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

How can gas be $3.07/gallon and still be cheaper than a gallon of milk? Something doesn't seem right when milk is more expensive than gas....

We went around last night for Family Night listing one of our New Year's resolutions. The kids all said nice things like do better in school, finish Eagle Project, etc. It took me a while to narrow down the long list of things I need to improve on down to one. I had to plug my ears and close my eyes to think because the kids were all asking me at the same time "What? What is it?" and even Henson was leaning over with his nose touching mine saying, "What's yours mom?"

That was a fun contrast to what Maren mentioned in her paper about her home. She wrote a paper on how her house is her favorite place to be and one of the reasons she listed is that it's QUIET! Now there are a lot of things I would've guessed she might write about our house, but quiet isn't one of them. Scott and I just smiled -- wonder what she'd think about a home with only 1 or 2 kids!! :)

I love our gas fireplace. It's doesn't have quite the same charm as a real log fire, but I use it WAY more than I would a log fire. I turn in on practically every morning to warm up the family room and the kids love to get dressed in front of it. It keeps me warm in the evenings and I never have to scoop out the ashes.

My birthday came and went without the world stopping because I'm 40. I guess that's the way it should be - so what.....I'm older......nothing is different and I still have a lot to accomplish so quit thinking about it and get to work. We went to the Symphony where we heard 'Rach 3' piano concerto. I've always dreamed of hearing it in person so it was a dream come true. On Sunday, the kids made signs that said "We love you" and they made a paper chain to drape on the mantle where every link was colored and said Marcie on it. It was fun to see them work together for a celebration. We had cake with the BEST frosting on it - Root Beer flavor!

Missing Hot Pot but Love the USA

2011-07-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

What happened to 2010? Oh, I guess it was spent:

deciding to move to Arkansas
family vacation to Australia
end of school year festivities
house hunting and packing up
moving
unpacking
starting 4 kids in 3 different schools
unpacking
getting called as Primary President
unpacking
taking my kids to their first High School football game in my hometown
and unpacking

I guess that left blogging forgotten by the wayside.

I miss Hot Pot in China.....

Actually, I miss the chatting of friends around a circular table more than the food. I'm so happy I got to return in May to visit friends and goto Book Club once more. Laughs, books, friends - what more could I want (besides kids who would go to bed on their own JUST ONCE)

But I love.........

....Bentonville, AR. Our home, schools, church, friends, 4 seasons (the kids freaked out when I went outside to try and spot a tornado), blue skies, 6 hour drives to family, patriotic concerts in the park and the friendly mid-Western folks.

Transition

2009-08-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

We packed up our house and put it in storage in China. We are currently in TX visiting family and will travel to Yellowstone on Wed. to go to a Bayles family reunion. We'll visit my sister in Spanish Fork, UT the 2nd week of August and then who knows after that. Scott has been interviewing at a few different companies and we think something will come of it this week. We'll see....

China Team Building

2009-03-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

Scott's office consists of one American (Scott) and about 20 Chinese. They did team building last August where they went on a river trip and then ended up at a farm with deer. There was a nice lady who gave a presentation about the incredible properties of deer products (all in Chinese, of course). This is the kind of thing that makes it so darn fun to live in China. Below are some comments that Scott sent to me from his Blackberry during the presentation.

"So we ended up at a farm that has deer. The lady is pitching the benefits of eating thinly sliced horns, how to tell which are good quality and things like that. She just said not to put them in the refrigerator. She said in the fridge they only keep a year and a half, but in the cupboard they keep 5 years. Wow, that's special stuff. Maybe we should put some in food storage.

"Next to discuss: Lu4bian1 -deer you don't want to know what part of the male anatomy. I guess they put it in alcohol like the worm in tequila."

He ended up learning that men love this last part because it increases their libido. :)

Depeng Fortress

2009-02-20T23:32:00.001-08:00

I finally found some historic places in Shenzhen that are interesting! Shenzhen is such a new city that it is hard to find old places that show the great China architecture and history.

Below is me at a Hakka Enclosure. The Hakka minority migrated to southern China hundreds of years ago. Their name means "Guest people" because of this. They are very numerous and have since migrated to Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US and many other places. It would not be surprising if some of the chinese people you knew were Hakka.

They built their homes in clusters. Some were round and some square. The round ones remind me of stadiums because they are 3-4 stories tall and are open in the middle to a courtyard. The one below is square and held many families. It had room after room of old tools and furniture: baskets to sort rice, simple grain grinders, typical chinese 4-poster-type bed, wooden wedding chair, and even a raincoat that was made of feathers and bamboo leaves sewn together in a cape to be worn over their shoulders.

Here I am at Dapeng Fortress. This is an ancient walled village with the arched entrances on each side with a tower and drum. I love the view of the roof tops from the tower.

Next, in true Chinese style, I wrote a wish down on a paper, hooked it to a mandarin orange for weight, and now am throwing it into the wishing tree. Only if your wish lands in the tree without falling to the ground does your wish come true.

I had a great throw. My wish went in towards the top of the tree, but continued to fall down through all the branches. Luckily, it caught on the very lowest branch! My wish is the one on the right (not the withered one on the left).

Here are two super cute girls who were running through the town playing. We stopped them and chatted with them for a while -- all in Chinese of course! The little one on the right finally smiled at me as we turned and left.

Some ladies in the town were sewing the tops of fabric shoes. I asked if they were for sale to tourists or for their own use. They said they were for their own use! So interesting. All in all it was a great day.

Interesting Chinese traditions in the Making

2009-02-12T01:24:00.000-08:00

Somehow you always come across some interesting Chinese traditions as you travel. This article leans a little bit too far to 'making fun' that I usually like, but it is still interesting. I've never actually been to the Hainan Island beaches, but we've thought of going.

http://www.chinatravel.net/feature/Gettin-Hainan-China-Beach-Fashion-Food-Fun/1678.html

Obsession with Cute

2009-02-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

Asia has an obsession with 'cute'. Or is it that we westerners have a complex about what is 'cool' or 'macho'?

This is from a blog I was reading but it captured my exact thoughts on the matter.....

"Do you all know just how darn cute everything and everyone is here in Asia? They all have a thing for what we would consider little girl stuff, that includes adults, teens, & kids of both sexes. It is a weird cultural aberration that I don’t get. Reason I bring this up now is the packet of paper napkins we received at the restaurant - they came in a plastic folder decorated with cutesy Hello Kitty characters. It is common to see, dangling from a backpack or purse, a colorful trinket or two. Truck drivers line up stuffed critters and toys on their dashboards. Good luck charms dangle from rear view mirrors. T-shirts abound decorated with spangles and ever so sweet sayings. Squeaky shoes for toddlers are hip. Restaurants have whimsical names like Dumbo or The Hystevical Wave or The Happiness Cafe. Are Westerners just too serious? Did the Puritans strip away our fun loving souls? I think I wear too much black. " http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-15376.html

Innocence

2008-10-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

I subbed 2 hours for the HS choir teacher this morning. When I came home, I had to laugh when I saw my babysitter's shoes on the front porch. (The Chinese always take off their shoes before entering)
It's so funny because she is the nice 40-something Chinese lady who I'M SURE has no idea it's a 'playboy' bunny logo. For all she knows, it's a cute little rabbit...And this isn't the first time I've seen this logo around. I've seen it in Wal-mart on a shoebox, on kids clothing, etc.
You just end up smiling to yourself and musing, "I wonder if I should tell them what that is?"

Zachary's Personality

2008-09-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

We went to the neighborhood Kodak Shop because we had to get Visa photos taken to submit with our application for China visa renewal. As always, we had onlookers as we marched in with our 5 small kids. The older ones went smoothly as they sat on the stool, backs straight, looked at the camera and gave a stiff smile. Then we got to Zach (almost 4 yrs old). There was NO WAY he was going to sit still on the stool and look serious on one side of the room, while everyone else was crowded at the other end trying to make him smile. I'm not sure he completely understood why we all stayed at the far side of the room, but it was like a dream come true for him to be able to have such a captive audience and do whatever he wanted to do. He noticed the more he acted silly, the harder we tried to motion, cajole, plead and beg for him to sit up straight and look normal. He had the time of his life! When all was said and done, the camera guy gave us a CD with a few of Zach's poses so that we can pull them out whenever we want to be reminded of his funloving, crazy sense of humor. By the way, I never knew he could cross his eyes until now! Enjoy the photos below..................

Typhoon

2008-09-26T02:18:00.000-07:00

We had a typhoon here a couple of days ago. Now when we Americans hear 'typhoon', we think of a massive storm with a possible tidal wave. Unfortunately, it's not quite that exciting here in China. The Chinese words for typhoon are "tai feng" which means 'big wind'. They rate these typhoons, or strong winds, from 1 to 8 in severity, 8 being the biggest. This means typhoons can range anywhere from regular rain with some gusts of wind all the way up to a hurricane.

This past 'typhoon' was a 3 which means it had strong wind. Maybe Californians would've been impressed, but being a Texan, it was nothing! (does this mean things are truly bigger and better in TX like the saying goes -- even storms?)

If we were in the mid-West, you would've said to your friend about this 'typhoon', "Hey, did you notice that strong wind last night with the (regular) rain?" They may or may not have noticed it or thought it noteworthy to even mention! I used to get excited and run outside to play in Texas during a 'typhoon' like this #3.

I (unfortuately) took Zach to Disneyland on Tuesday and they'd closed the outside rides because this typhoon was "coming in the next 24 hours". There was no rain and no wind, but it was 'coming'! They are very conservative here...maybe because so many people have housing that is more susceptible to the elements than our US houses? or maybe so everyone can rush home and get their laundry off the lines that hang out their windows and not lose their clothes? I really don't know.....

We are fine for those of you who may have heard about our 'big typhoon' and enjoyed a nice mid-western-style rain. It came down pretty hard -- you could hear it from indoors, you'd get soaked if you didn't use an umbrella. But it wasn't anything like the storms in Texas where I remember having the windshield wipers on as fast as they would go, rain coming down in sheets, and BARELY being able to see the car in front of you.

Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Nutcracker on Ice

2008-09-08T01:43:00.000-07:00

I missed the opening ceremony of the olympics when I was in the states this summer so I bought a DVD of it. WOW! It was neat even though there were a few slow spots. I was impressed how it appealed to my western taste, but had so many Chinese elements in it. I reminded me of many Chinese shows I have seen here, but was missing (thankfully) the loud MC blasting the dramatic chinese speaker.

I took my three oldest kids (10, 9 and 7) to a Russian troupe doing Nutcracker on Ice. Don't know why it was in Sept. but we'll take it anytime we can get it. It was different, pretty, and fun for the kids. Life is so different for the chinese now that it was 15 years ago. When Scott was here in the early 90s, he only saw gray and blue clothing without much variety. Now, here I am sitting in the theater thinking, "I am in China (although Shenzhen functions capitalist), watching Nutcracker on Ice with people wearing elaborate costumes and sticking their bare ballet legs into the air. This never would've been allowed back in the 70s or 80s. It would've been considered evil Western influence". China has come so far and the government seems to be trying to hold a balance between keeping things stable and letting the people take care of themselves.

They do block some internet sites, like Wikapedia and blogspot (although we can post, but just not see). These have been unblocked for the past couple of months (for the olympics?) so we'll see what happens when the ParaOlympics are over next month if they revert back.

Spring Break 2008 Photos

2008-08-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

We went on a Yangtze River Cruise in March 2008 and here a couple of photos from it. We had a great time!

Savannah having a relaxing read on the front of the boat.

Here's Zachary and I in front of the 3 Gorges Dam.

Our family and Ah Hua in front of City Hall in Chong Qing (pronounced Chong Ching).

Back to China after Summer Trip

2008-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Kids started school over a week ago now. I'm just now scheduling up all of our chinese, piano, violin, etc. Can you believe Jacob is in 5th grade now and Maren in 2nd. I'm planning on sending Zach to chinese pre-school in Sept. a couple days a week.

I was released as YW pres and called as SEMINARY teacher! augghhhh I'm excited to teach New Testament, but I've been frieking out about how to do the schedule. Scott is gone about 1/3 of the time and I just didn't feel right about having Ah Hua (helper/babysitter) have to leave her 3 kids and come get 4 kids off to school/pre-school. So I decided to hold seminary Mon. early-morning, but then Tues. and Wed. evenings from 8:30-9:30pm. That way we can have it at my house and the kids will be in bed by then and I won't need a babysitter. Today was our first day (morning) and it was tough -- no one feels like talking or participating -- me included. We'll see how the evenings go -- I'm hoping a whole lot better.