Parenting Cubed

2011-11-07T09:06:00.001-08:00

Gracie’s Room is Growing and we need your help!

Due to delays in government funding and construction, XinXiang is not due to move into the new orphanage until October 2012.

Until then we would like to make the current room as bright, colourful and warm as possible - just as you would want your own child’s nursery to be. We want Gracie’s Room to be a room that stimulates the children’s senses for proper development, a room where they can lie on their bellies on a soft, clean mat, exercising and developing their muscles, a room where they are discovering sights and sounds with nursery rhymes and colourful walls, all the while having a figure encouraging, loving them and helping them to grow!

The current Gracie’s Room is in desperate need of upgrades. No improvements were put into this existing room as we were expecting to be in the new facility by October 2011. We instead focused on staffing and immediate needs of the children.

As the transition is now delayed by a full year, we need to double our fund-raising efforts to maintain the childcare and to make improvements to the existing room.

To accomplish this Dianjiang Kids International is launching our biggest fund-raising event ever:

Growing Gracie’s Room

Gracie’s Room now has a wish list on Amazon.com

Vitamins, cleft lip/cleft palate bottles, sippy cups, toys and wall decals are just some of the items listed.

Donations of baby quilts, hats, socks and mittens have already been offered!

Monetary donations will be used to replace the existing foam matts, repair broken windows and winterize the room.

Investments in growing the existing Gracie’s Room will be able to be moved over to the new building in 2012.

Please visit our link, do a little shopping and remember the children.

www.amazon.com/

Click on wishes and then type in Gracie’s Room.

Or click on:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=1KWZVU5KMYKQK

Monetary donations may be made through our website at

http://www.dianjiangkids.org/#!__donations

All items will be hand delivered to Gracie’s Room in March, 2012 by members of Dianjiang Kids board.

Thank you for all your support!

HALLOWEEN!

2011-11-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN

Lily's Birthday Cake

2011-10-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

It's Lily's birthday today! 7 years old! Man....where did the time go....

She is such a character. She has recently starting playing with Bratz dolls and wearing dressing and getting her hair done.
For the past 3 years, it has been all about Star Wars and Droids, and light sabers, and knights and swords!!
sigh...
So today for her birthday cake she has asked for a princess cake, you know the one I mean.. You bake a big bowl cake, and stick a barbie in it, throw some frosting on it and voila Princess Cake.... easy peezy and cheap right??? Heck how much can a box of cake mix and a Barbie cost? 12$ at the most??

Yeah right...

I wanted my "barbie" to have more of an Asian look to her..so I started to search for a Mulan doll...
After walking from one end of the mall to the other, (god forbid they put the toy store and the large deptmaent store next to each other) I came up empty handed, and had wicked sore feet!
So back to the other end of the mall to look for any doll that doesn't have blonde hair and blue eyes! sigh..
Why did I decide to wear my high heel fancy boots today?
oh yeah... they make me look tall...
I don't look hot but I do look 2 inches taller and that makes me smile, and I can see over the Starbucks counter when I order my coffee! That is worth the blisters.

After my $6.00 coffee fix, I managed to find something...that almost could pass for Asian.. at least it has dark hair!
I'm not a huge Barbie fan, my older daughters were never into that stuff so I really never paid attention to the price of them!

HOLY EXPENSIVE BATMAN!!
Geezz... 15$ later

So I cook up my upside down bowl cake for her dress, only to find out that the "usual" barbies used for these cakes actually have no LEGS!! WHAT??

I ended up carving out a honking hole down the centre to fit my nice new expensive non-legless Barbie, using a fluted Champagne glass.

It is now 10 mins before supper and I need to get this cake done pronto! I throw some store bought frosting, toss some sparkles at it and some gummies.... VOLIA!! The dress is done is less than 5 mins!

I wrapped the doll in plastic wrap. (It looks like she is on a body wrap weight loss program!) and shoved her into the cake! Only for her to fall right through... Those Barbies, legless or not, are pretty skinny!
Quick thinking in Abigail's part and we came up with this:

She's standing on a shot glass!!

We served her on the a foil lined tray that was sprinkled with sparkles!

Lily LOVED her!

The cost??

$111.00

Here's the breakdown:

Doll: $15.00

Coffee: $6.00

Cake mix and frosting: $5.00

New top I found while looking for perfect Barbie: $25.00

Champagne (can't use a champagne glass without filling it.. gasp.. faux pas..) $30.00

Tequila (can't use a shot glass without filling it.. besides by this point I needed the drink) $30.00

Was it worth it???

YOU TELL ME!

Plum Cake = YUM

2011-10-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend I needed a quick recipe to use up the plums from our tree in the backyard.
I searched the web and came across this website:
Got No Milk and I made the Plum Cake. WOW! It was so good, and so easy to make!
Of course I didn't take any pictures, I was dealing with Lily and her strep throat, roast beef in the oven and some yorkshire puddings that decided not to work, and washing the kitchen floor! All before our company arrived! whew!
I can't wait to really search the website for more recipes! I'm tired of coming up with dairy free things for Frank and I'm starting to make the same things over and over again. It's getting boring!
I'm pretty excited to find this site.

Front of the house is DONE!

2011-09-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

We'll get to the sides next year.. too cold to paint now!

2011-09-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Check out the FAT Racoon that was eating our grapes last night!

We had been wondering what was breaking our trellis!

2011-09-09T05:14:00.000-07:00

Finally First Day of School Pictures!!
but...the bus was coming and the the kids were rushing out of the yard, and I when I called them back into the yard to take thier pictures, in my house coat with my bedhead hair, they were NONE TOO IMPRESSED!

2011-08-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

NEW POOL!!

We got a new pool this year! We didn't have it heated at first, but we now have a heat pumped installed and we have a nice warm (85) 27.7 degrees right now~

After weeks of 19 degrees and the kids freezing in the pool, this is nice!!

It's 15x48 but we don't have it filled up the whole way. This way it's not over Hanlin's and Lily's head.

Lily is such a waterbug! Do you think I can get away without bathing her for the summer if she's in the pool everyday??

Mommy, Does this need a band-aid?

2011-07-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a great vacation at Parlee Beach!

We stayed with friends (Mary and Gary) at their cottage and as always had lots to eat and lots to drink and a crazy amount of fun!!

...did I mention lots to drink?

The first day we arrived, Isabelle managed to wade into a pile of jellyfish and got stung all over her legs! I think she was more shocked than hurt. I offered to pee on it, but she wouldn't let me!

Watching Isabelle's shock, Lily then went into full panic mode and refused to go anywhere near the water's edge! Abigail arrived a short time later and took her for a long walk down the beach and talked with her and by the time they got back, Lily was over her fear and had moved onto a complete obsession with Jelly fish and racing into the water, tried to catch and hold as many as possible, which sent me into a full panic mode, wishing she wouldn't go anywhere near the water!

Another bright and hot day followed on Tuesday, and Frank brought down his windsurfer and tried teaching the bigger girls. Abigail had a good couple of tries, but then managed to fall off the surfer and into a pile of menacing jelly fish that stung her. The stingers wrapped around her upper thighs and got her good! She managed not to show Lily what happened, so we avoided another panic /obsession attack with her! whew!

Honestly there wasn't very many jellyfish in the waters, almost none actually, but for some reason both girls managed to find the 1 "swarm" of them in a huge ocean!

The rest of the week was Sting free!

We had a long, hot day on Wednesday and the kids begged not to go back to the cottage to even eat! Mary (our hostess) thought they were going to get sunstroke! We threw on t-shirts and Frank ran back to the cottage and grabbed extra refreshments, (aka beer) food and sunscreen and we stayed a few hours longer! ...did I mention lots to drink??

I don't think my camera was out of my hands for more than a few minutes!

I love taking pictures at the beach!

Thursday started out calmly. The little ones were outside playing waiting for us to collect out things for the beach, and finish our coffees, when Hanlin came into the cottage and calmly said "Does this need a band aid?" I had my back to him, and yell.."shut the screen door" (he was always leaving it open), he turned shut the screen and asked again! I took one look, sat him down, asked someone to get some paper towel, thankfully, Mary came back with a towel!!

He had a HUGE gash on the top of his foot. He was playing around the fire pit and slipped on a rock and it sliced his foot. Frank, Hanlin and Gary went to a little clinic in Shediac. I offered to to go, but Frank said, "No, this will be a good bonding moment with the boys!"

Well, Gary left the room and the nurse offered Frank a chair when Hanlin started to howl while getting the stitches! yeah right, some bonding moment!! :)

For the first few hours, we thought he would be in lots of pain, and unable to walk so we set him up on the couch with movies, coloring and toys, and crafts (scissors, glue, boxes). He was in heaven!

... Notice the box around his foot?? yeah.. he kept hitting his foot or laying on it or rubbing it against things and although it didn't seem to bother him, I thought it couldn't be good for it, so I put one of his craft boxes around his injured foot to help him "remember" that he had, well..

a foot.

While he was crafting, he looked at me with this panicked look and a box in his hand. I asked him what was wrong and he giggled and said, "ohh, I thought I pulled my foot off!"

After a few hours he was definitely feeling no pain.

So since Hanlin wasn't allowed to go the beach we opted to do some touring. We packed everyone up and headed out to a goat farm. (Hmmm.. sand in fresh wound vs goat poop in fresh wound - we choose goat poop) maybe not the wisest choice, however....I digress..

We buy from this fellow, Patrick at our local market every Saturday. We love his cheese! (I'm sure he cringes when we show up at his counter, as the kids eat all the samples he has laid out).

The kids had a blast petting the goats and since they are bottle raised, they were super friendly!

Mary, we found out, is some sort of weird "goat whisperer". She would talk to them and they would follow her around like little lambs! This one tried to eat her coat!

That night we had a huge lobster and shrimp dinner and great wine!

ok, so every night we had great wine, but hey we're on vacation!

Friday was a cold and rainy day, and we even put a fire on in the cottage.

We visited the wharf and had ice cream and Hanlin had Frank do some daring diving off the wharf! **nice form Frank**

The girls were so excited to find starfish!

They were dying to get in more surfing and even though the winds were cold, and there wasn't a soul on the beach, and I had to wear a sweatshirt and long pants, they braved the chill and jumped in! fools

I wish I had of been able to get a picture of Mary and I sitting on the beach, jackets, long pants, hoods on and towels wrapped around us! Brrrrrr..... Meanwhile this was in front of us:

When I saw them running towards me, I thought "YES, they're finally freezing", but I was wrong, they grabbed goggles and turned on their heels and ran back to Abigail and the awaiting surf board! sigh...

They finally finished surfing and I got to go back to the cottage and a warm fire, and a glass of wine!

We left for home on Saturday with great tans, 2.3 million shells, 18 pet jellyfish and great memories!

Thanks Mary and Gary!!!

Your the hostesses with the mostesses!

2011-07-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

Our photo Shoot with our god daughter Lucy!

Blowing kisses!!

2011-06-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sponsorships to Gracie's Room and beautiful teacher necklaces from DJ kids for teacher gifts this year!!

2011-06-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dianjiang Kids is having a giveaway!!!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

2011-05-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

EWWWWW

Ewwwww

ewwww

1000times EWWWWWW

Abigail smacked her foot into a cement block yesterday and ripped the nail off the 4th toe!

now, I don't have a weak stomache for blood and gooey stuff, but even this grossed me out!!

It was one of those

Make my bum tingle, ewww, Hmmm..now what do I do with a half hanging bloody toe? moment

So off we went to the Emerg and sat and soaked her toe in a dish that looked like it was filled with pee to try to get the embedded teeny tiny bits of cement and dirt out.

After 3 hours, the doctor came in and frooze the toe (needle was way bigger than the toe itself!) Abigail tried to convince her not to freeze it, she figured the needle was going to hurt way more than the actual removal of the nail. But the doctor really had to cut around it and manipulate it and it was soo gross, so when the offer of valium came around, I freely accepted it!! I felt much better after that! Although Abigail did have to drive me home!!

We made it home in time for a late supper, with a frozen nailess toe and our (my) pockets stuffed with bandaids, oinment, gauze, an IV pole and a neat kidney shaped metal pan... you never know what you'll need!

2011-05-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday!!!!!

Which means I get to choose my birthday dinner!!

I've been thinking about this for months.........

Today's menu:

to start:

Margaritas

Hummus

Scallop and shrimp Cerviche with cilantro and peppers

Gravalax (that frank started 4 days ago..) yum

Red wine

Roasted fingerling potatoes

Duck confit

micro greens with Alan's famous dressing

Old fasioned layered chocolate cake with Expresso balsamic strawberry reduction and cream.

oh yeah baby!!!

2011-05-03T16:04:00.001-07:00

Ouch!!

Abigail gave herself a good smuck to the head tonight!

Doing this:

...a roundoff....

...back hand...

..spring...

...back layout..

something she's done hundreds of times I'm sure,

this time she landed on her back instead of her feet! Giving herself a good little bang to her head. She blacked out for a sec, but really thought nothing of it. The coach thought differently and called me to get her! lol

She's fine, she has a headache (go figure) and her neck is sore. She took some Advil, and has been icing her head.

She's all set to go back to training tomorrow as she is heading off to Halifax for the Eastern Canadian Gymnastics Championship on Thursday.

(the only reason I know the full title is because the forms are sitting here beside me! lol)

I'm at the "if your kid hurts yourself you can't sue us part"

oh..apparently she does that layout with a twisty thing added to it now!

Great.. let's add more dangererous things to it..lets add flaming torches...cause your mother isn't already stressed out enough!!!

2011-04-25T05:17:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

We had our Easter Egg hunt yesterday, Abigail (aka the bunny) did all the clues. She did a great job and the kids had so much fun.

There were clues hidden in the cat's cage, and in the cellar!

New Swords and new sneakers were found!

And new rubber boots! Notice the black thread attaching them?

and of course, what is Easter with out an elaborate Easter Cake made by the older sisters!!

They did a beautiful job.

They molded the eggs and bunny out of Rice Krispies and even

included bunny poop!

Happy Easter everyone!

2011-04-15T10:23:00.001-07:00

My god-daughter Lucy was diagnosed earlier this month with ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. she is only 19 months old!

While she was at the IWK, her brother spent about a week with us! He had a blast, and so did we.

Lucy is doing much better, and is home now. It will be a long 2 years, with Chemo, but she is so strong and has so many people praying and loving on her!!

I made this video for Max's parents while they were away.

Hey Erica and Alan this is for you!

2011-04-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to Five Chili Peppers! They are having a fundraiser to bring home thier sweet little boy, Toby. He is 23 months old is in Jiangsu China.

Go on over and show your suport!

2011-04-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

2011-04-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Georgia in the hood!

This cat is so weird!!

When she wants to cuddle, she wants to be in your face, carried and spoiled!

Abigail must of carried Georgia for about half an hour!!

2011-04-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hanlin lost his front tooth this weekend!!

He doesn't quite like the feel of it and asked me to "put it back in"..

ummm.. sorry, no can do..

He's a handsome devil!

With or without the front tooth!

Beef and Broccoli

2011-03-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Mmmm.. Beef and broccoli..

I’ve been making this recipe for years, taught to me by my best friend, taught to her by her ex boyfriend, taught to him by his parents, taught to them by their parents in China. It was the recipe that all the kids had to learned before they could leave home.

I’ve never actually measured out the ingredients before, I’ve always “eyeballed” it like I was taught and I’m going to show you how I was taught, but I'll be kind and post the recipe at the end of the blog!

So gather up all your ingredients:

Broccoli, flank steak, ginger, dark and light soya and cornstarch and oil.

You have to start with a nice piece of flank steak! Around 1lb for my family! My kids eat a lot! No really, they're skinny minnies but can put back a huge amount at supper!

*mental note* check for tape worms!

Slice it thinly across the grain, and pile it all up on a plate. A sharp knife is a must!

Sprinkle some cornstarch over the meat, then drizzle some light soya over top and then some dark soya.

Remember that dark soya is much saltier so be careful not to put too much!

Next chop your ginger... I love ginger.

Mmmmmm ginger! I always use way more ginger than I should!

If you don’t like ginger don’t use so much, just never used that dried powdered jarred stuff! YUCK!

There's nothing that can compare to fresh ginger!

Doesn’t ginger have some wonderful medicinal purpose?

Did I mention that I love ginger!

Set it aside for now!

Alright, next up is the broccoli! Chop it, wash it and set it aside! (I sometimes sprinkle extra ginger on the broccoli) Mmmm.. ginger...

Heat up your wok with some oil and throw in some ginger then your meat.

There is actually an ancient Chinese secret to beef and broccoli.

No no.. really there is!!

It's to keep your meat moving! Keep stirring, mixing. Your arm will burn, it will hurt, and you'll end up with a forearm the size of Popeye's, but keep that meat moving, and you'll see the meat slowly starts to release it's juices.

Set the meat aside, and add a bit more oil to your still HOT wok, and drop in the broccoli (you can add more ginger if you want)

Add about 1/4 c of water to the broccoli and cover it. Cook it the broccoli turns a nice dark green, but still has some crunch to it and add your cooked beef to the broccoli in the wok.

Now, here is another little secret... you might have some liquid left over from the broccoli you could just ditch it or...shhh here's the secret.. you can keep it aside and after adding your beef to the wok, you can decide if you want the dish a bit more "saucy", by adding the liquid.

Give the whole thing a stir to warm up the beef and serve it on a bed of rice!

This recipe can be made while the rice is cooking and usually be finished before the rice is done!!

So easy, but still oh so yummy!!

Here's the full recipe:

1 1/2 lbs flank steak

1 lb broccoli (about 3 medium heads)

2 heaping Tbsp fresh ginger

1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

3 Tbsp light soya

2 Tbsp dark soya

2 Tbsp oil

1/4 cup water

Cut the flank in half length wise following the grain, then cut across the the grain to make small, thin, bite size slices. Set aside onto a large plate. Sprinke with dark and light soya, and cornstach. Give the meat a quick toss to cover all the peices.

Chop the broccoli into even sized spears and wash it.

Chop the ginger and set aside.

Heat your wok on high, about 1 tbsp of oil, once hot add about 1 Tbsp of the ginger. Fry for 30 seconds to "flavor" your oil and add your meat. Keep stirring till the beef is cooked through. Remove from wok and set aside.

In hot wok, add the remaining 1Tbsp oil and as much of the remaining ginger you would like. Fry for 30 seconds, and add broccoli. Fry for 2 minutes and add water and cover until cooked but still firm.

Add your beef to your cooked broccoli and mix till warm.

Serve over a bed of rice.

2011-02-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

Couldn't you just eat her up?

2011-02-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

Our finished Valentines!!

I think they turned out quite cute!

2011-02-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a behind the scenes look at the making of our Valentine Card!

Here is Hanlin's finsihed Valentine card..

I'll cut 2 small slits on the top and bottom of his fist, and insert a lollipop. It's too cute!

2011-02-12T18:33:00.001-08:00

So, this Valentines day I've decided to make our own cards for the kids to bring to school.

Lily wanted to be a "rock star" (no surprise there) and put on her valentine card -

"Have a Rocking good Valentine"

So I did a little photo shoot with her, and WOW....

some of pics came out so nice! I just wanted something quick with a guitar and rockstar pose!

She had a blast and I was able to quickly take about 50 pics in just a few mins. She was singing and dancing and loved "rocking it out"!

But it was the pictures while she was relaxing that are so beautiful.

Here are her "Rock Star" shots!!

I'll show off the finished card tomorrow.. Still tweaking hers.

But I have Hanlin's all done!

He's a super hero!

Gymnastics - Doing a giant!

2011-02-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

Check out Isabelle doing a giant!

Then Check out her hands after she's done! OUCH!

Actually this one doesn't look too bad. Usually the blister is open and bleeding. It's always on the same wrist, same spot!

2011-02-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

HEARTS FOR THE KIDS FUNDRAISER

Make a donation to Dianjiang Kids in the name of a loved one and we will send them a Valentine's Day card from Dianjiang Kids. Here is a summary of how your donations can help children in Dianjiang and Xinxiang. A little bit goes a long way!

$10 will help us buy two durable plastic toys for Gracie’s Room

$20 will sponsor a child for a month.

$25 will help us buy 6 good quality blankets

$50 will go towards cribs for Gracie’s Room

$100 will buy a number of cleft bottles

$250 will sponsor a child for a year

Just click on the link of Dianjiang Kids on my side bar!

I just ordered my card for 2 special valentines!!

Cat Tree

2011-01-20T17:55:00.001-08:00

Check out the cool Cat Tree that Frank and I made over the holidays!

Sometimes I Pee .... Sometimes I Poop!

2011-01-08T06:12:00.001-08:00

ahhh, Christmas Eve at our house..for years now the kids have left out cookies and a Guiness for Santa! The kids thought that Santa could be allergic to milk (since at the time Abigail was) and thought daddy's favorite beer was a good alternative!

It's so hillarious, and it has never been questioned! This year the big girls played Santa and called the little ones to remind them to be good and to leave out the beer!

This year was no different, they grabbed a bucket of snow for the guiness (this time ice cubes - rain for x-mas for us), and cookies!

Lily and Hanlin were so excited, and Hanlin blurted out this sentence in the middle of telling us what he wasleaving out for Santa..

Abigail fell off her chair she was laughing so hard!!

Watch the video... let me know what you think!

Maybe Yes? Maybe No?

Sometimes I Pee... Sometimes I Poop

Gracie's Room Year in Review

2011-01-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I am a huge supporter of Gracie's Room First Hugs Program in XinXiang Henan, China! This program is run through Diangjiang Kids International.
All the people on the Board of Directors are volunteers and parents of children adopted from Dianjiang Social Welfare Institute.
I have been blessed to be so closely connected to this incredible organization. Not only have I been able to meet wonderful people and now have many new friends, I also have a great connection for my daughter and her beginnings in China.
I love being the Director of Gracie's Room. I love receiving the reports, seeing the babies, seeing them grow, get healthy and best of all be adopted!!!

Here is the "Year in Review for Gracie's Room"! This was sent to all of our incredible sponsors.
Don't forget.. If YOU would like to sponsor a child..please please let me know!!! Any amount helps these beautiful desevering children.

I wanted to write you this letter at the end of 2010 to update you on what has gone on this year at Gracie’s Room and what we hope to see in the future. Without you we could not run this program and these precious children would not get the care and love they need to thrive and even to survive. Together with the board of Dianjiang Kids International and the Director and the staff of XinXiang Social Welfare Institute, I wish to thank you for your support and the gift of your caring. It literally is the world to these children.

Children are chosen to go into Gracie’s Room based on their need for extra care. All of these kids have special needs and Gracie’s Room can help them thrive. In Gracie’s Room this kid get fed individually. They are held, nurtured and played with. They learn love.

When a child leaves Gracie’s Room, he goes to his forever family, to foster care or to the kindergarten room next door in the orphanage. CCAI (a US adoption agency) is encouraging and aiding the director in sending paperwork to Beijing so more children can find their families.

We currently have 15 children in Gracie’s Room. Eleven are sponsored so if you know of anyone else who would like to sponsor a child, please let us know. We use our calendar sales and other fundraisers to help fund this project.

In 2010 five children from Gracie’s Room went into foster care, one child was adopted internationally and another should meet her family in the next several months. Three children were adopted domestically. One child is blind and we are waiting for room for her at Bethel in Beijing where she will be in a school for the blind and learn to lead a productive life (See their terrific work at http://www.bethelchina.org/Default.aspx When she does go to Bethel, we will have to fundraising to pay for her to be there. This will be a long project as she is only two now!)

Sadly one child in Gracie’s Room died this year. He had a very severe heart condition and spent time in and out of the hospital before he died. We were so saddened to lose him but we know he experienced, love, comfort and care during his life. And that is so important!

Dianjiang Kids international Executive director. Moya Smith, and I visited Gracie’s Room in March 2010. We saw some great things there but we saw that there is more that we can do. Unfortunately we are a few years away from making more changes (we are thinking 24 hours care where the kids do not go back to the main orphanage after 8-10 hours, not getting the same level of care there.) The children are thriving and it was an absolute joy and honor to meet them. We know it is only through your generosity that we are able to run this program.

Director Cheng along with three other Henan orphanage directors and the vice director of Civil Affairs in Henan visited the United States in December 2010. They were able to see the children from Henan who had been adopted and how well they were doing. Moya said Director Cheng was almost unable to believe that the kids from her orphanage were so healthy and of course so very loved. We hope this means even more children’s files will be send to Beijing so they may be adopted.

The new orphanage at XinXiang is due to open in May 2011. Thankfully we have been asked to continue this program so Gracie’s Room will continue to grow and thrive.

Again, we thank you for you love and generosity. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Krista Dolan
Director Gracie's Room First Hugs Program

www.dianjiangkids.org
Sponsor a child in our Gracie's Room program
YOU can make a difference in the life of a child!!

2010-12-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!

2010-12-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs, Ni Hao Y'all is doing a great GiveAway!30 days of free giveaways for Christmas!!Gotta love it!

2010-12-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.dianjiangkids.org/

Here is the link to Dianjiang's Gracie's Room website. All donations (100%) go to either Foster Care in Diajiang or to Gracie's Room in XinXiang. You choose which you would like to donate to.

When we travel to visit the orphanages, we personally pay for all of our expenses. I used all my Aeroplan points for the flights and thankfully it's cheap to eat in China!

This way 100% of all donations go to caring for children. We help with medical tests, nannies salaries, toys, clothing etc..

The Director has told me that winter is now upon them, and they are finding that the children need extra blankets and warmer clothing.

Imagine, sitting beside a broken window, with the cold winter air on your hands and back. Not being able to move out the the cold.

Please consider making a donation this Christmas, warmth would be a wonderful present.

Thank you

Krista Dolan

Director Gracie's Room First Hugs Program

www.dianjiangkids.org

Sponsor a child in our Gracie's Room program

YOU can make a difference in the life of a child!!

My March 2010 visit to Gracie's Room in XinXang China

2010-11-26T19:30:00.001-08:00

I've posted this video for a mom whose daughter is presently in Gracie's Room and she is in the video!

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say which baby, but she is the cutest baby in the video!!

Ohh.. they are all pretty cute, and they all have my heart in the palm of thier hands!

Please keep all these children in your thoughts and prayers! There are 7 more children that need sponsors to stay in Gracie's Room, please consider sponsoring a child!

250$us will sponsor a child for a full year, and you will receive quarterly medical reports with photos.

2010-11-17T14:43:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite blogs, Ni Hao Y'all is doing a great GiveAway!30 days of free giveaways for Christmas!! Gotta love it!
I love her blog, and I love that she raises money for special needs children in China..(clubbed feet) and y'all know how special that is to my heart.I wish I could get the same sponsorship commitment that she has with Orphans Wish, for Gracie's Room First Hugs Program!!
I'll keep chipping away at it, every little bit counts to those beautiful children.

2010-11-01T10:12:00.001-07:00

BOO!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO Y'ALL!!

Man, we were completely unprepared for Halloween this year!!

I have no idea why, but it just seemed to sneak up on us.

I managed to take some quick pics of the kids before they ran off in separate directions..

Power Ranger Lily! She was so excited that I found a pink costume!

Isabelle... oh Isabelle.. The night before she went to a friend's Halloween party dressed up as a person caught in a wind storm, her hair was blown back, we had wires in her scarf and dress that held them straight back, she had an inverted umbrella and leaves stuck in her hair! It was a fantastic costume! Then another friend called last minute Halloween night, saying she didn't have a costume to wear, so Isabelle gave her the wind swept costume and in 30mins we threw together this Rubiks Cube costume!

of course I didn't manage to get any pics of the wind swept costume as I thought she'd be wearing it again .. ooh well..

but to add to this, she went trick or treating with this same friend, in her neighbourhood, and she ended up getting almost NO CANDY!! Even Lily and Hanlin got twice as much as she did!!

Abigail got dressed as Mother Nature with flowers and greenry in her hair, butterflies on her face, and shoulders and vines all alround her dress and legs. BUT, went out trick or treating with friends and got ready there so I have no pics of her either.... sigh...
Here is Hanlin! My Transformer!! Seconds after this picture, he fell backwards, jumped and ran around ready to go! What a riot. It was soo cold out last night, I put on thier winter coats under the costumes. Man, I had them stuffed in those outfits that they looked like little muscle men! Hillarious!

As he laid his head on his pillow last night he said "this is the best trick or treating day EVER!!"

Then 2 hours later woke up with a wicked bloody nose!

We finally have an appt with the ENT tomorrow!! YEAH

Hopefully we'll get some answers on his hearing loss.

2010-10-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

GASP!!!GASP!!!!

BREATHE..... BREATHE.....

MY BRAND SPAKING NEW 5 BURNER DOUBLE OVEN GAS STOVE IS BEING INSTALLED RIGHT NOW!!!!!

I'VE SAVED AND CRIED FOR 3 YEARS OVER THIS STOVE....

YIPEEEEEE

I'll post pics soon.........

meanwhile here is a picture just to hold you over...

2010-10-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

2010-10-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful Fall Day, spent Apple picking

Not sure who had more fun, the dog or the kids! (and by kids I include Frank)

Frank and Hanlin thought it was nice enough for shorts...

I had on 2 pairs of yoga pants and a sweater, obviously we have very different ideas of "warm" weather!

Abigail spotted this "perfect" apple..on the very top of the tree..then set out to try to pick it!

First Hanlin had a try...

Then Isabelle had a try....

Next Abigail tried...good thing we bought our own human ladder!

Then finally and reluctantly mommy tried..

I'm only about 2 inches taller than Abigail... but it was enough to reach it!

ohh that elusive apple..

wait, didn't Eve pick the forbidden apple?

OH OH..

2010-09-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

OUR GRACIE'S ROOM FUNDRAISER

WAS A HUGE

SUCCESS!!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED!!

WE HANDED OUT FREE TEA SAMPLES (donated by Adam at Classic Touch) AND TONS OF COOKIES, BROWNIES AND GINGER CAKE...(all baked by me!)

FROM 12 TO 5PM ..

WE RAISED $500.00

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME BY TO SAY HELLO, SHOW SUPPORT AND MAKE DONATIONS!

(oh,and yes, i took the older girls out of school for the afternoon to help me! shhhh)

2010-09-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

On this Friday (September 17th), from 12 to 5pm, I am having a fundraiser at Classic Touch in Kings Place Mall in support of The Gracie's Room First Hugs Program in XinXiang Henan.

This is an amazing program, providing one on one care to special needs orphans, and as director I see the benefits of this program for these disadvantaged children.

The goal of the Gracies Room program is to create a time and place when babies get *all* of their needs met. Babies in Gracies Room receive more individualized care and have the chance to develop a significant attachment to a primary caregiver. They spend time on the floor exploring their world and developing their muscles. In short, the babies get the chance to play, laugh, receive physical affection from their special nanny, and feel loved and valued.

The nannies work six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 8 hours daily. Each nanny is assigned three to five babies. She works with these same babies every day from the time they enter the program until they are adopted, enter foster care, or age out of the program.

Please come by and enjoy some Chinese Tea, home baked cookies and experience the spirit of the Chinese Tea Ceremony while listening to traditional Chinese musical instruments being played.

25% of all tea sales will be donated to Gracies Room.

I've hope to see you there!

I've uploaded more Gracies Room information to the Files Section.

Thanks

Krista Dolan

Director Gracie's Room First Hugs Program

www.dianjiangkids.org

Sponsor a child in our Gracie's Room program

YOU can make a difference in the life of a child!!

2010-09-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Summer with cousins

are the best summers ever!

2010-09-11T16:03:00.001-07:00

While I was away in PEI.. Frank decided he was "bored" and thought it was a grand idea to renovate our mudroom. Renovate to Frank means "rip apart a room and hope to heck Krista won't notice the missing floor when she comes home"!

Well.. I noticed!!

Actually, he has been meaning to get to this reno for the last 2 years. Our house is old.. real old.. about 130years old.. and we've always lost a lot of heat from this room. The floor had no insulation! It was always so cold in there!

So we've (well he) insulated the floor, adding extra boards etc.. for more support..but the fun news is that:

I GET TO DESIGN A NEW MUDROOM!!

I've decided to make 6 "cubbies" along the back room, floor to ceiling, each one 2 feet wide. Sort of like this except instead of hooks for jackets and coats, we'll have hangers. There is NO way my kids only have 3 coats each no matter what season we're in, and I'll have another shelf for shoes. (There are 4 girls and we do love our shoes!)

So that will take up the full length of the back wall.

Now for the rest of the room. I had a pantry there before, and I used it quite a bit, so I know I still want one, but I also need more kitchen space. So I thought of a "baking centre"!

I can take all my baking supplies, cookie sheets, rolling pins.etc.. and move it into this room.

Something like this:

So I'll have 1.5 walls with cupboards and counter space! We've picked out the hardwood floor for this section and the tile for the area by the door and where the cubbies will be.

There will even be enough space for an island!

We're moving the door and installing 2 new windows that are nice and long! I'll finally be able to see out to the back yard.

We are doing this all ourselves, so this is going to be one looong job.. especially with Frank working out of town everyday! But we'll chip away at it little by little..

Here are some more pics:

Abigail found some newspapers from 1972.. had a good laugh at that! We put the front page of the paper under the floor too. It was all about Hurricane Earl! lol

Hanlin was just dying to help daddy, but we wouldn't let him off this little island. Too many old rusty nails sticking out everywhere! Instead we gave him boards to bang on there.
At least there was some insulation in the some of the walls!!

2010-09-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ohhh.... gotta love the first day of school!!!

What a bunch of darlings!

The kids made out ok! Abigail didn't have school till yesterday but the 3 others did, and today Lily doesn't go but the other 3 do... sigh... I had to make a flow chart to get all of this straight. Not only did they start on different days, I had meeting with teachers and classes at the same time at different schools on the same day! Lots of running around yesterday!

Today the bus this morning was close to 30mins late and this afternoon it was 45 mins arriving home!

It will all be figured out by Monday I'm sure.

2010-08-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Isabelle had her 11th birthday last night!!

My pictures came out awful, as we had a evening mexican party for her and it was too dark for good pics!!

She had choosen a mexican meal, and we cooked almost all day! We took the menu from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/06/tequila-lime-chicken-with-all-the-fixins/

We made the whole meal, tortillas, refried beans, pico de gallo.. everything.. YUM!! Even margharittas for everyone.. (booze in the adults of course!)

The only thing not mexcian was her cake, she asked for a cheesecake, and boy was it ever good!

She ate so much cake that she had a belly ache that night!! LOL

2010-08-15T17:33:00.001-07:00

So, It's our anniversary tomorrow.. Not sure how many years..but I still know that I love him lots!!

We had a fun day today at the beach, all the kiddos swam in the ocean and played in the sand!

Heck, even I went in for a swim! Holy Land it was cold!

We got in late tonight, 8:30pm, but I had put on Osso Buco in the slow cooker, so we came home to a nice warm juicy stew! I've never tried it in the slow cooker before but it turned out great! whew!

As I was putting the little kids to bed, this was our conversation:

"you know, tomorrow is a special day..

tomorrow is mommy and daddy's AN N-I-V ER-SA RY...!" ( I pronounced it very slowly..)

Can you say this word??" With wide eyes they pronounced very slowly like I did.. ANN I VER SARY" lol

Do you know what an "Ann-i-ver-sary is??

They simultaneously said Nooo... with a mouthful of toothpaste and now completely engrossed in this word...

I said " that is the day that mommy and daddy got married a long long time ago it's called an Ann-i-ver-sary!" "Can you say that word again?? Anniversary??

They both slowly said.. Ann I Ver Sary proudly!

Then I asked them.. "Do you know what happens on our Ann I Ver Sary??

They both replied Nooo????? They were so curious and excited now about this word.

I said " All the little boys and little girls all over the world are very nice and kind and don't whine and fight on thier parents Anniversary!!" "Can you say that word again??"

"let's say it together" "ANNIVERSARY!!"

I said "It's such a special day, this anniversary, that all the children are really nice and kind to their mommy's and daddy's!"

By now, I had them changed into PJ's and climbing into bed.

As I kissed them good night, I thought I better recap. So I asked them..

"so what day is tomorrow?"

they said: Anniversary!!

and what happens on our Anniversary?

they said "All the children in the world are nice and kind to you and daddy!"

SCORE!! Now lets hope they remember this tomorrow!!

of course unless it rains.. then we'll celebrate Tuesday!

I'm hoping to make a nice meal with Duck confit, and pate and goat cheese and champagne with cherries and amaretto and the girls want to hang white lights on the trees and have candles and music but it's calling for thunder showers tomorrow night, so we might have to post pone it for a day..

I don't mind, all I want is a nice quiet day/evening where all the children in the world are nice and kind to me! LOL

2010-08-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Quebec, black and grey clouds suddenly rolled in and we had a huge rain and hail storm! It was so cool! The little kids thought it was amazing that ice cubes were falling from the sky! lol

The hail was so big and came down so hard that it dented the hood of our truck!

2010-07-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Some more pics from Quebec...

Abigail doing a Tsuks.. something twisty thing on a vault...

and Isabelle is doing some double tucky thing....

2010-07-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Trying to get the girls to take a picture together!! Almost impossible!

2010-07-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

Spiders in Hammocks!!!

2010-07-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Lily got sick while we were away. Fever for 2 days.. So we rested on the beach in a hammock! She must of slept like that for 2 hours, while Hanlin played on the beach making castles.

2010-07-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is MY breakfast....

Every single morning that I've been here...

an incredible cup of coffee, brewed nice and strong and layered with some steamy foamed milk and sweetened with sugar!!

(yes I do mix 10% with 15%.. you have a problem with that??)

Oh god... doesn't that look glorious.. I can't wait till morning...

A freshly baked croissant, you can't see it in the picture, but it's still steaming from the pasty shop!

(Frank runs to the store and gets them for me.. hell he's out for a run anyway.. might as well be productive at the same time. It's good for him to learn to multitask).

or sometimes I'll have a nice slice of freshly baked Apple Bread...

depends on my mood!

Then I sit and enjoy my wonderful breakfast,

while the 2 little creatures run around like feral animals screaming and fighting!

But while I have my coffee and croissants, I hear nothing... nothing but the sound of my ass getting bigger by the second..

and the first person to comment on the size of my butt when I get home will get a kick to theirs!!!

2010-07-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

They have Kayaks that we are able to use here at the cottage..

(oh some people e-mailed me asking where we are..)

we're in Quebec's cottge country, In the Lanaudiere area.. in some itty bitty place called St. Alponse-Rodriguez, which is next to St. Beatrix, St. Damien, or St. Matha!!

we're surrounding by so many Saints that I don't think we'll have to attend church for a long time!

I love going on the kayaks! Great work out on the arms!

sugar comes along with everytime and she loves it!

2010-07-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

I gave Abigail my camera, (with strict instructions to keep the strap around her neck), and told her to think about the angles and perspective of the image she was trying to capture.. then sent her loose!

and she came back with these..

Then she and her sister needed a rest!

Still Daddy's little girls!

2010-07-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

OFF TO CONQUERE THE SEVEN SEAS!

LOOK OUT WORLD.. HERE I COME........

As soon as my mom unlocks the chain!

2010-07-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

We got up this morning and Frank headed off on his bike in search of some eggs! Meanwhile, I gave into the whining and let the rest of them go swimming while we waited. He came back later not just with eggs, but with chocolate croissants and almond croissants...oh my god..

The older girls and I jumped into the car and took off for the pastry shop he found! Then we came back with even more!!!!!!! This wonderful magical small shop bakes their own bread (artisan bread) and croissants, makes all their own terrines, and pates, has the biggest selection of goat cheese AND sells specialty beers! I swear it was like it was designed for my family!

We didn't eat till almost noon, but my god it was good!

We had fresh berries, orange juice, lattes, croissants, danish, cheese, bacon, chocolate walnut bread, eggs.. and a bigger butt on me!

then we all headed back down to the beach for even more sun and water!! (and chocolate and wine!)

I got the "life guard" post.. aka..chasing after Lily when she tries to swim on her own! BUT it came with a glass of wine, so I didn't care too much!

well I guess the job came with some drawbacks...

spilled wine!!

This beach is beautiful.. soft soft sand everywhere you walk and its only chest deep at the raft! It's crystal clear and soo warm! Even I went in!

More pics to follow....

2010-07-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

We've arrived!!

..and no one puked!!

We had every back window covered for the whole trip (I was only planning on covering Hanlin's, but when 1 saw it.. they all wanted it!), I got eye covers for them and I downloaded Sesame Street podcast for Hanlin to listen to while his eyes were closed and he was relaxed.

Our cottage

After a quick swim, we had a very late and light supper and headed off to bed ready for the beach in the morning!

2010-07-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

..... And we're OFF..

11 hours.. 4 kids.. (2 that get car sick)..1 dog..2 bikes..a tulle..29-31 degree average driving temp and

NO AIR CONDITIONING

About 7 hours into the drive ..so far so good!

Doggie Air Conditioning

We figured out that if the sunroof and side window are opened at just the right amount, a wonderful breeze / tornado flows into the back to cool everyone down.

However, it misses the driver and his gorgeous passenger and instead lets the blaring sun beat down on our backs!!

2010-07-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

HIOLY HOTNESS!!

We are having great weather here!! (although the humidex is wicked)

and the kids have found a way to cool themselves off.. by attacking Isabelle! She loved it and they had a ball!

and Lily even found a rainbow...

2010-07-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Like always, we celebrated Canada Day with my sister in Grand Bay! The kids got lots of treats, and prizes and food! Then we headed back to my sister's house for more food, drinks and lots of swimming!!

The older girls are staying with Barb till Sunday... hmm...maybe that isn't such a good idea.. she is a very bad influence!! LOL

Lily is feeling a bit better, we ended with a tooth emergency earlier in the week!

She very suddenly started having an incredible amount of pain in the tooth that was still abscessed (her appt wasn't till July 7th to have it removed) but we had been hoping to get in on a cancellation.

I called our dentist and he took her in right away, and once he saw the tooth he said it needed to come out immediately! So after some fast phone calls to the Dental Association to find out who had access to Nitrous Oxide and how fast could she get in to see them...our wonderful dentist had an appointment for us in 2 hours with the Dental Surgeon.

They were absolutely wonderful with her, they wrapped her in a blanket, sang songs to her till she was well sedated, and while they worked on her, they sang songs. I almost cried! They were so kind and caring and knew that she had suffered so much trauma and pain already, and took every precaution to make her feel calm. She didn't even whimper!

She is still having some pain where the tooth was, but that is normal as the infection was pretty bad and it will take a few days to clear itself out. When she got home from the surgeon's she started to eat some soft foods, and by the time her mouth was not frozen, she had eaten 4 helpings of supper, pudding, ice cream and a fruit smoothie!

She hadn't been eating well for the last few weeks because it hurt, but she would never tell me that she was in pain. sigh..

I'm happy this has been taken care of and now we can have fun and relax the rest of the summer!

2010-07-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

The girls attended thier Annual Gymnastics Banquet last week. It is always so nice to see everyone with thier hair down, and all dressed up!

2010-06-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well!! Lily has ANOTHER abscess on her molar. She is back on antibiotics, which she hates, but she is taking it like a little trooper!!

We are on the dentist's cancellation list to get this one pulled out. We are going for the gas again this time.

I hope we won't have to wait too long.

Here are some fun pics from Sunday...

After supper the kids and I cranked up the tunes and danced around the kitchen to Lady GaGa!!

What a riot and a great stress reliever!!

Love the pointed fingers and the dirty PJ's!!

Hanlin on the Drums!!

Then he switched to the Guitar!

Lily on the Keyboard!!

Abigail was the photographer

Even mommy got into the dancing!!

Poor Daddy, who had just arrived after being at a conference all Sunday, was trying desperately to eat his supper while all the craziness was happening behind him!!

**Tifanny, we had your pulled pork sandswiches for supper**

(with fiddleheads and home made frenchfires!)

It was a big hit.

2010-06-03T08:23:00.001-07:00

JESSICA...........

(aka.. mommy.....)

WHERE ARE YOU...

AND WHEN ARE YOU COMING TO GET US???

WE MISS YOU...

2010-05-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

ON YOUR MARK......

GET SET......

GO!!!!!

GUESS WHO LEARNED TO RIDE HER BIKE SANS TRAINING WHEELS??

2010-05-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing better than Kitten Kisses!

2010-05-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Look what I'm fostering!! 6, 4 week old kittens.. well, 5 now, as 1 has already been adopted!!

They are just too cute for words!!

2010-05-13T16:47:00.001-07:00

Have you seen this?? It's fantastic!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8PAuvxCZuM&feature=related

$239 and a very weird love affair

2010-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

$236.00

A very weird love affair between a cat and a dinosaur!

I heard Georgia choking in the playroom the other night, and I ran in to find that she had swallowed the antena of the dinosaur remote! She was obviously in distress.. (no duh) and when I tried to grab her, she took off, dragging the rest of the remote behind her. As she was running, the remote pulled out and she vomited everywhere!

We finally caught up to her in the kitchen, where she was not looking too healthy. She was having trouble breathing and was curled in a ball!

Frank rushed off with her to the vet

(at 10:30pm on a Monday night)!

An hour and 236.00$ later..

x-rays, steroids and antibiotics...

She had aspirated on her vomit and had fluid in her lungs!

Thankfully she was going to be alright, but it took a few days.

It's strange though....

Whenever she meows, the dinosaur roars....

Weird......

Weekend fun!

2010-04-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

We were off to PEI for the Atlantic Gymnastic Championships this past weekend.

The big girls travel with the team, there and back. So we didn't have to worry about them. Frank and I decided to take the two little ones with us and make a mini vacation out of it.

We left Fredericton at 8:30pm Thursday night, after some last minute craziness. Frank worked a full day, I had left the little ones playing outside while I got the truck packed and the girls ready for thier trip. They played hard and had tons of fun! I would throw food at them every so often and by the time Frank came home, they looked like 2 feral animals, with dirt streaked faces, black nails, and dusty pants, with HUGE smiles on thier faces!!

Frank gave them a quick soak, while I finished packing the truck and we headed out for supper on the road! By this point we had decided to leave late enough that they would fall asleep for the full 3 hour drive!!

WHAT WERE WE SMOKING??

Hanlin wasn't too bad.. he feel asleep about 1 hour into the ride.. (this from a kid who can't stay awake when we drive to the store 5 mins away)

Lily stayed awake for hours...falling asleep after 10pm! She told us she was listening to the radio with us (cbc "Q").

We arrived close to midnight, and both kids were now wide awake!

I'm not sure if the hotel staff felt sorry for us....

dragging in at midnight with 2 bright eyed kids asking for directions to the pool, a load of luggage that would put most celebraties to shame, a dog tired from being in her doggie seat belt for 3 hours and wanting to run around and 2 tired parents, dragging feet and crossed eyed holding a Venti coffee each now cold LOL

But the wonderful staff at the Rodd Charlottetown took one look and bumped us up to a suite!!

(thinking about it now.. maybe they just wanted us as far from the other patrons as possible!)

It was gorgeous, the kids had thier own room!! Halle-flipping-lujah!!

Each morning we had marvelous breakfast, then we would run out to watch gymnastics, then run back in time for the little ones to swim for hours! We walked all around downtown, picking up treats (candies and goodies for them and wine for us ;) ) We dined at a sweet little Thai spot.. Mmmm bubble tea..and got in even more swimming! We would sit in the room and read magazines and do a little work and even planned our summer vacation!

Saturday night the little ones had popcorn and a movie for supper (I said this was a vacation) and were off to bed before 8pm! Frank and I decided that we were hungier for something more than popcorn and we ordered room service!

Something we never do!

Man it was amazing! If I could of kissed the cook I would of!

Crispy Duck with a Blueberry Port Reduction and Beef Tenderloin with 5 Onion Marmalade

both cooked to a perfect medium rare... with roasted asparagus, squash, beets...and a bottle of Organic Cabernet Sauvignon Cono Sur... OH YUM!!

Then to be able to leave all the dirty dishes outside the door and then have the "magic dirty dish fairy" take them away!

Whoa.. a little bit a heaven...

Here's a view into our weekend...

A little bit of gymnastics:

A little bit of swimming:

A little bit of Gracie's Room work:

A little more gymnastics:

A little bit of work for Frank: (aka fun for Frank)

A little more swimming:

A little bit of good food:

A little bit of good wine: (ok, more than just a little bit..)

A lot of rest, fun and relaxation:

While visions of swimming and popcorn danced in thier heads:

and the dog got the best bed in the place!!

Lily and her teeth!

2010-04-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you remember this post....back in February..

Mother of the year - Not me!!

But once again, Lily's teeth have been bothering her! After she finished her antibiotics last time, she had to have 2 root canals (pulpectomy). It was horrible, she was very good until close to the end of the appointment. The freezing didn't really take, because she had such a bad infection and she started to scream towards the end!! It is not something I want to ever put her through again.

When I got home from China, she told her teeth hurt. I thought they might still be tender from all the work she had done.. I watched her for a few days, her eating, behaviour.. and it didn't seem to change. I thought if her teeth hurt, she would be uncomfortable eating.

About a week after I got home, she came into my room at midnight (something she never does) complaining about her teeth. Frank went to get the Advil and I felt along her gum line...

OMG she had a huge abscess on the side of the last molar! HUGE

First thing in the morning, I called the dentist (at home) (It was Easter Weekend)!! and immediately got her on a strong antibiotic!

We went in to see him on the following Tuesday, and he referred us to another dentist that has Nitrous Oxide in his office.

Last Thursday, I got a call that the office had a cancellation and could bring her in that afternoon...I had to fast her for 3 hours, but I had already fed her breakfast, and sent her to school!

I took off for the school, grabbed her and took her to Star*Bucks.. (what did you expect.. go home and sit and think about the pain that was about to happen..NOT)!

We sat and had coffee and steamers and yogurt then started her fast. We talked about what was going to happen, about the mask on her nose, the gas and feeling funny.. (I had yet to tell her about the procedure as they had given me an appt for late in May..).

I'm so glad I did that, as we talked for a good hour, about all sorts of weird and funny "lily" things.. like.. "mommy, why do you take your boobies off"? and "Where do babies come from?" (ok, so we got off topic a bit)

Anyway, by the time we got to the dentist, she was calm and ready to go.. I on the other hand was nervous and starving!

The dentist started right away with the mask on her nose, and at first she tried to pull it off, but he held it on, and kept telling her to breathe deep. At first she said.. "No!" then 2 seconds later, she'd say "No?" but she would keep breathing in deeply..about 1 minute later, she was holding on to the mask, pushing her nose in it, snorting the stuff!! She even was giving it to her stuffed doggy! It was hillarious. She figured out very quickly that the more you breathe, the funnier you feel and she liked it!!!!!

She was tellling him that he had Magic Hands! (she thought the Assistant's Hands were his hands!) At one point she shouted "I'm Dizzy!! Look what I can do with my eyes" and proceeded to spin her eyes around in circles really really fast.. The dentist took one look and covered her eyes, and said, "oh, she has to stop that or I'm going to puke!" I had to leave, my stomache was turning and my palms were sweaty. Although it was funny, I hated seeing her out of control, with her eyes rolling in her head!

Even with the gas, and freezing she still gave a scream when he tried to pull the tooth, so he stopped and froze her again. He said he gave her more freezing than he would for an adult!

The tooth finally came out, and he couldn't believe the infection that came with it. The tooth was covered with stuff and it came out in gobs of gunk from where the tooth was and it bled soo bad! The pus came out for 5 days!!! YUCK

She seems to be feeling better today and seems to be in a much better mood!

2010-04-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

@@@@@@@CAKE-TASTROPHY@@@@@@@

ULTIMATE LEMON LAYER CAKE

Abigail and I made this incredible cake last summer for Isabelle's birthday!

It turned out perfectly!!

I mean, like something out a magazine!

It was so good!

So we decided to try to make it again this week!!

We made the Lemon Curd first and let it sit overnight in the fridge! Tasted Fantastic!

We made the cake the next night and let that sit in the fridge to cool. Looked Fantastic!

We made the Seven Minute Frosting. Looked and Tasted Fantastic!

We perfectly and evenly cut the cake into 4 layers!

We're Fantastic!

Umm..ok, so maybe we

got a little cocky..

We assembled the cake, 1 cup of curd then a layer of cake, another cup of curd.. another layer...etc.. Finally we added the frosting to the top and as we were spreading it out, the cake started to have a catastrophic event!

It started to break apart in different sections, on different layers, big chunks of cake like fell like calving glaciers!

We all started to scream, yelling at Isabelle (who was in bed) to help as Frank, myself and Abigail since we all had our hands in the cake trying desperately to hold it together!

oh yeah.. did I mention that it was 9:30pm on a Tuesday night - school night?? When we're supposed to be all in bed??

(lucky for them they have tomorrow off for parent teacher interviews!)

It was a loosing battle, and I said just grab plates and put chunks of cake on it!

It broke into 4 huge slices, (hmm..4 people...4 slices..coincident??)

We were all covered in frosting and lemon curd and laughing like fools!

I put the cake in the fridge to try to salvage what I could.

Hoping that it would start to chill and hold together.

NOPE!

Darn thing started to slide right off the cake platter! URGH!!

We had no choice...

We cut the rest of the cake in half and put it into 2 large bowls and made:

@@@@@THE ULTIMATE LEMON TRIFLE CAKE@@@@@

THIS WAS THE BEST DARN TRIFLE WE'VE EVER MADE!!

2010-04-05T17:23:00.001-07:00

HILLARIOUS!!

We were having supper the other night, and Hanlin devoured his.. very quickly without taking a breathe... and asked for seconds by grunting and pointing.. after reminding him of his manners.. I got up to get a second plate of food..

(Chicken Souvlaki, Persian Rice, Greek Salad and homemade pita! YUM) ( Took 2 of us all day to cook, but soo worth it!)

anyway, as I was getting his food, I hear Isabelle ask him.. Are you OK?... What's Wrong??

I turn around to find him holding his hand to his mouth with huge eyes! I grabbed a bucket.. (yeah, that is where my mind goes with 4 kids.. puke...) but he was still pointing for seconds..ok, so no puke!! whew!

So I stood beside him and watched for 15 seconds.. assessing..he made a little gurgle.. and gasp with surprise.. and I realized what was happening and brust out laughing!!

I said to him.."Hanlin.. you have the HICCUPS!".. "Watch... relax"....hiccup "see a hiccup!

I love having them! They're fun and they won't hurt you!"

How can some one not ever have the hiccups in 5.5years??

He relaxed and enjoyed his first case of the Hiccups! and his second plate of food.. which went into a third plate.. oh god.. the grocery bill we'll have when he's a teenager!!! OUCH!

2010-03-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

YEAH!!!! I'M HOME!!!!

...and almost over my jetlag!!! Man, I hate jetlag! Last night, by 9pm I couldn't keep my eyes open, and Abigail and Isabelle put me to bed!! But by 5am I was wide awake!! grrr...
Hopefully tonight I will stay up till 9:30pm and sleep in a bit longer.. fingers crossed!

My trip was AMAZING! We made so many new connections that will help so many children in the future. We're refreshed with lots of ideas and we will continue to make Gracie's Room a better place with renewed energy!!

Here are more pictures of the amazing trip!!

Skyping with my kids!! They could see me but not hear me, and I could hear them but not see them..

this incredible piece of technology was in our bathroom in Beijing!

The toliet seat cover lifted when you entered the room and it did things that I'm pretty sure is illegal in some states!!

Yumm...Fish with sprinkles... yes, sprinkles like the ones on a birthday cake.

It seemed that sprinkles are quite popular this year!

We went out for breakfast in Dianjiang to this little spot that makes thier own tofu.

This is a soybean crusher..

It is served hot in a bowl with water and you add your toppings to it.

Toppings included chives, chili peppers, garlic, MSG, goat ribs, sesame seed paste..

I did mention this was breakfast right???

Goat ribs just waiting to be cooked for breakfast..

Some babies just loved to cuddle...

others... not so much!! lol

I scared this poor little soul!

guess you can't win them all over!

this little sweetheart is waiting for her forever family to arrive this summer!!

She was blowing kisses!

The nursery at Lily's Orphan Care Centre at Luo He

Gorgeous!!

Homeward Bound...

2010-03-18T04:21:00.001-07:00

I'm killing time in the Starbucks next to our hotel, before my flight. I have another hour. Then it's off to give yet another poor chinese fellow a hernia while he lifts my luggage! I am starting to feel bad.

Not sure if its the time change or the 7 planes in 9 days.. but I have had some good falls here!! I mean, almost break a leg and neck fall! one I even managed to catch on video..(maybe that is why I fell..video and walking.. a lot like chewing gum and walking). Anyway, Moya has had a good laugh at my expense! Well yesterday I had yet another good fall here in China!! This time coming out of Starbucks (been to Starbucks everyday.. ahhh a little bit of home) I had my glasses on, and didn't even see the steps coming out of the cafe, missed them completely, went flying through the air, managed to save my coffee.. although it did splash a bit, and still landed on my feet, but without any grace.....LOL it was one of those arms flailing look of death on face falls...

there were 2 very cute german fellows sitting outside and as I was free falling I yelled.without thinking... OH JESUS!!!!!! they looked up and I groaned to them.. oh god... please tell me you don't speak english!! and they started to laugh!!so embarrassing!!

I think my luggage is very overweight, why would anyone put on a weight restriction on luggage is beyond me! I think it was my husband's idea. As you can only spend till 50lbs. Stupid rule!

I'm even trying to wear a couple of layers and my heaviest coat to help lighten the luggage, but I think I'll still be dinged. Maybe I will start a trend, the seven layered, sweating hard look.

Out of all my trips here, I never really bought myself things, (yeah yeah, I hear you, besides purses then..) but this time, I shopped for myself, clothes for myself, because everything here fits me. Instead of buying cotton tops in petites at Reitmans, I bought "silk" fun dress and fitted yoga pants (your welcome frank) and a gorgeous fitted "cashmere" jacket.(XL) that kills me!! 5ft nothing and 100lbs and I'm an XL..

The women are dressed so beautiful, high end fashion for sure, and the jackets... oh god the coats and jackets and wraps... This time I didn't buy any purses for myself, but I did get 3 jackets.. I just couldn't resist. Barb I looked everywhere for the claw thing for Calder, for 2 days at the market, and couldn't find it. Sorry. oh yeah, I had one girl tell me yesterday that if I bought my coat from some one else, she would kill me! nice!! (I did avoid her aisle for the next 2 days just in case! lol)

On the Good News front... Remember the little blind girl....

He Rhu Zhi's condition was much worst than I had imagined, her eye was actually swelling out of her eye socket and would have to be taken out and replaced with a fake eye. She will never see.

I left that orphange very sad that I wasn't able to do more for her, I held her as much as I could but it was still very hard.

Well, yesterday we had a breakfast meeting with a US woman who has lived here for 21 years and has many connections to charities in China. She has 2 daughters adopted from Hunan and Dianjiang(same as lily). Anyway, we talked about the Gracie's Room project and how we need to make it a 24 hour /day care and the costs and the needs of the babies... etc.. and she told us about an orphanage for the Blind, here in Beijing, that is run by a french couple and that they provide eye surgeries for children, and that we can arrange to have He Rhui Zhi transferred there. Not ony would they do her surgery, but she would be able to live out her life there, where she will be well cared for, and given therapy and even be able to have a career!!

We have already set the ball rolling on this, and hopefully will hear some news soon.

the other child a small boy, maybe 12 months old with a heart condition. He is very ill, and although he has a family in the states waiting for him, they are not allowed to travel here to get him because he is so sick. Anyway we found out about an organization that will do the surgery .. we'll have to look into it once we get home. (the surgery costs only 120$us) stupid eh??

Well, that's it for today.. Give me a couple days to adjust get over the jetlag..and I'll post again!

oh these 2 little gems are looking for thier forever families......If you need any information on them, please contact me.

Finally, another internet connection!

2010-03-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of post, we’ve had no internet for the past 3 days!! But wow, has soo much hapened in 3 days!

We visited the Lily Orphan Care Centre (LOC), a centre like Gracie’s Room, but runs 24 hours a day and is run seperate from the orphanage, eventhough they are located right inside the orphanage. They have their own room, with hard wood floors, they buy thier own food, do thier laundry and have a kitchen off to the side where the prepare the children’s meals. If a doctor is needed they will pay for it as well as any medicine. CCAI runs this program and it is making such a huge difference in the lives of the children. We’ve posted more about this program and our visit on the DJ kids blog site. The link is to the right.

After that visit we flew to Chongqing, and then were driven to Dianjiang. (Lily’s orphanage)

We checked in to the hotel and then taken right out to supper. We had supper with Director Jao(Gow), Director Dai (Die), Assistant Director Li Jiang Hong, and the foster care coordinator, and the office manager. We had an incredible hot pot dish, with each of us having our own pot sitting on an induction plate, you added your own ingredients, like beef strips, 5 different varieties of mushrooms, bamboo, tofu, goat, and cow’s stomache and greens! It was so good and I ate enough for 5 people.

The custom of the host toasting the visitors continued, and apparently my reputation proceded me, as the Director would smile and say “Cheers!” and Bottoms up! with a cheeky grin! Xia kept laughing They toasted us over and over again, each person taking a turn, from the most important down...

When we first arrived, I showed them pictures of Lily (then and now) and although they couldn’t really remember a lot about her, they recognized her name, and for the next 2 days instead of calling me by my name, (which is hard to pronounce for them) they called me “Yu-Qian’s Mama”. I can’t tell you how much that warmed my heart every time I heard it!! Amongst all tis chinese talking I’d hear “Yu-Qian’s Mama.. Yu-Qian’s mama..” and I would look up and they would smile, or toast me or put food in my bowl or if we were on the street, the Assistant director Li Jiang Hong, would hold my arm! We found out that she has a 13 year old son, that is a perfect match for Abigail, and by the end of the second night, she was calling me “sister by marriage” and she took Abigail’s picture to show her son!! lol. By the end of the evening it was like we were all old friends!! It was wonderful to experience this, so different from our adoption trip 5 years ago.

The following morning we met after breakfast and we were able to meet with a few of the foster families and the babies!! (All about this is on the other blog). They took us to the Rape Flower celebrations..(note to self..look up rape flower)..

We were then able to do a bit of walking around on our own, we had about 2 hours.. so we had a foot massage. The place ended up being..wel.. questionable.. and I’m sure it was actually a place of “ill-repute”.. anyway, I’ll send out another post about the rest of my trip to DJ later.. I think this is a big enough one for now!!!

Enjoy the photos.. lots more to come.. If you want the baby pictures check out the other blog, as this is blog is more about my own personal experiences on the side. The more serious part of the trip is on the DJ kids blog. We saw a lot of terrible things that I don’t want to go into here, here I want to smile and think happy thoughts!! Maybe later I’ll talk about them, but first I want to talk to Frank to debrief.. happy thoughts for now!!!

Hello from Dianjiang!

2010-03-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

We have had a very very busy few days! We still do not have internet connection very often, and my computer won't pick up any signal here at all. So I am using Moya's right now.

We leave this morning for Chongqing so I'll be back online then and will send lots of pics.

Yesterday we were able to visit with 5 foster kids with their foster parents. 4 of these children have families waiting for them. We took lots video and photos for them.

We also got to visit one of the homes. It was beautiful! I was really surprised. From the outside, you would never guess, but once you walked inside, it was spacious and clean and open and beautiful. The children were well loved and were happy sweet babies!!

The directors brought us out to lunch...again...more shots/toasts...again (my poor liver...) and the also brought us to the celebration of a yellow flower that is in full bloom all over the country side. 20,000 people walked through the fields just over the weekend..It was amazing. THat is where we had our lunch, in a little country side make shift yard, the people who live in the area, put tables out in their yards and transform their houses into mini restaurants.

It was incredible...very traditional food and awesome. One was a sweet potato dish, that was fried with sugar...yum and the other was a sticky rice dish that tasted like brown sugar, it had bacon and dates in it!! Yum yum.

We have really gotten to know the 2 directors and the assistant and also the woman in charge of the foster care program and 2 of the head nannies. THey are very fun loving people and love to joke around with each other and us!! You should see some of the photos...hilarious!

A Few Pictures...

2010-03-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

On Monday and Tuesday...

2010-03-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

...We, Krista from New Brunswick and Moya from Denver met in Beijing after close to 20 hours of plane travel, we've arrived in Zhengzhou Henan. We took a pass on taking the bus into town from the airport and took a cab to the Holiday Inn Express. (It was 10pm) There we found a note waiting for us, from the wonderful Xia, from CCAI, along with 2 much appreciated apples for a snack!

We were to meet Xia at 9am the following day to go to XinXiang. Up showered and down for breakfast!! We were starving after not eating well for the past 2 days! (Moya had choc cake)shhh!!! Xia arrived and we discovered that we would be staying at XX that night, and had to run to our room and quickly check out. We loaded up the car (and gave our driver a hernia trying to lift the heavy suitcase full of vitamins and toys..) and drove the longest way possible to XX. With a population of 6 hundred million, most of them must of been on the road this morning, as the traffic was bumper to bumper! and sometimes pedestrian to bumper..

After lots of new constuction and wheat fields we arrived in XX, a town of approxiamtely 600 thousand. We were met by the orphanage's assistant director, who after noticing we were cold, brought us into the board room and served us tea, and apples and lots and lots of candies!! The orphanage director was in a meeting and would be joining us after lunch. The Gracie's Room nannies were on thier lunch break so it was decided that we would eat first then visit. We had a great meal, in a private room in a small resturant which included fish, mushroom soup, and eggplant in fresh tomoate juice and deepfried and some dumplings stuffed with the local vegetable.

After lunch we check into our hotel, and got to use a western toliet!! whew!!
We quickly headed back to the orphanage to meet the director and FINALLY meet the babies!
We were greeted by the director and she gave a speech about how much she appreciates DJ Kids International and how our work with them has made the kids healthy and happier and many more kids are being adopted and also so many more kids are getting paper ready to be placed for adoption.

The Henan government is strongly encouraging orphanage directors to send more babies file to Beijing for adoption. Henan has gone from 8 international adoptions in 2006 to close to 300 in 2009 and re hoping for 400 this year. XX orphanage building is over 50 years old, they are currently building a new orphanage on the opposite end of town, where they will take all of the children currently in thier care, and from other local orphanages that will be closed down. they will also be able to take in more children. There hope is for more children to be internationally adopted.

We were invited to visit the new building later in the day and the director expressed hope to have a Gracie's Room there. We went up to the 3rd floor and through a doorway covered by a curtain, to see all the beautiful Gracie's Room kids!! They were sitting on a padded floor, crawling around. As we arrived, they gave them little crackers. We figured it was to get them to sit quietlty for our visit. The room was bright, and cold!! Their little faces and hands were red from the breeze coming in the open window! The room had 2 small bins of toys, but we noticed that many more interacitve toys are needed. We took time to visit with each child and talk about thier special need and whether they were available for adoption. We were delighted to know that many of them already have thier papers sent to Beijing. We were THRILLED to learn that one child already has a family waiting for her!! She was a sweetheart.

We were both impressed and how easy the kids were to smile and although they were timid at first, they were quick to warm up. They all loved having thier little red faces touch and stroked, and when we reached into thier sleeves to touch thier cold hands they would grab onto our fingers tight!!

the nannies were so proud to show a little boy that has cerebral palsey could walk. Another little one made us both laugh when she would imitate Moya shaking her head saying NO!! It was so cute. There was a little girl with Down's that would giggle everytime Moya would pretend to let her fall then quickly catch her again. One little girl, who is blind, sat on my lap and when the nanny called me mama, she laid her head down into my neck and cooed. She sounded like a little dove. A toddler who was developmentally delayed was curious and everything and loved to look at pictures of himself on the camera and he kept trying to eat Moya's watch!

Each one of the children in Gracei's room is beautiful, pictures can't capture thier spirits. The nannies care and love each and everyone of them. It was obvious. They knew everything about every child there and even some that were no longer in Gracie's room. There were 2 babies in particular that made us sad. One little fellow has been in and out of the hospital fighting an infection and the other has a very severe special need that will limit her developmet, but she is getting the love and care that she deserves in Gracie's room.

We distrubed the toys and every child received a new toy! Much to thier delight, but we noticed things are the same here in China as in the USA and in Canada.. the babies ended up playing with the boxes!!

We also distrubed vitamins (and careful instructions) and toothbrushes that were donated.
As we said goodbyes the nannies encourage the children to wave bye bye! It was very sweet.
We pasted classrooms with several children in each class, each at thier own desk, either learning math or music and we happened to see a Gracie's room graduate, signing and smiling and learning!!

We will post more tomorrow about the new building. It has been a long and exhausting day and it's almost 1am here.

Donkey in Traffic, Delicious Food and Precious Children

2010-03-10T04:16:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone,

we have arrived in XinXiang, after a 2.5hour drive.. I forgot how crazy the driving is.. I just love it.

We even saw a donkey pulling a cart! cool!

When we arrived we went to the orphanage and met with the directors, they served us tea and a pile of candy.. (which we pocketed for our kids) lol

Then they took us to lunch. Oh Lu, we had a dish that you would just love, a sweet and sour / and a little hot eggplant dish, that is deep fried first them sauted in a tomatoe sauce and veggies.. YUM YUM!

Instead of tea, I had beer with lunch! 3.3% acohol it was like juice.

After lunch they brought us to a hotel, to drop off our stuff, and we are going to the orphanage in 30mins.

We found out that about 3 of the children are paper ready and have parents waiting for them! Good News!!

But 1 is very sick and unless he gets better, he will not be able to be adopted.

We are able to take pictures of the children in Gracie's Room, but not of the other children in the SWI. (Social Welfare Institute)

We are also able to take notes on the children and then we'll meet with the staff and make suggestions and comments etc..

We are staying here overnight tonight. I check my e-mails oftena nd can read everyones comments and e-mails so keep them coming. It's nice to have a little bit of news from home.

Girls ! I keep looking around for things to buy for you! We are doing some shopping on the street tonight ofter we have supper with the directors.

Love

Krista

2010-03-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

Wow, Well here I am, on route to beijing! So for the day has gone really really well. The flight out of Fredericton was 40 mins late, and that made for a very quick stop in Toronto. I grabbed an outrageously priced chicken sandwich and some fruit juice.. (sorry girls, no Pumas for you anymore, spent all my money on the food at the airport) ;)

and then grabbed my flight to Beijing.

There is no one in the seat beside me! yeah, more leg space and computer space!!

Flying without children is very relaxing! Who knew?? I must really try this more often!

I know I should be sleeping right now, as its 6;50pm Canada time, but I’m not very tired.

The plane isn’t very packed and is pretty quiet so I’m going to sign off and get some sleep.

Girls I hope your had a good day today. Hanlin and Lily, how was school??

Daddy? are you keeping up to them??

Love you all

Mommy

I’ve arrived safe and sound!! I even got some sleep and feel really good! I actually think I’m on Beijing time.. It’s 6:10pm so 6am for you guys back at home. I am still trying to find Moya, I ran around the airport looking for the business centre for the wireless connection number, and after an hour I did find it, but good lord, it was about a 30min walk and now that I’m back at my gate, the darn thing won’t work... grr.. so I can’t get this onto the blog today!! Bummer!! I was really hoping to let the kids know that I’ve arrived.

I finally did find Moya, actually, she found me, I walked right by her, I was soo busy trying to get back to the Business centre!!

We headed the 30 min hike back to our gate, and I was able to send off 1 e-mail to frank before I lost my connection!!

Our plane to Zhengzhou was 1.5 hours long and pretty uneventful!! I read most of my book.

It is freezing cold here, and I’m now second guessing my decision to take out the extra 2 sweaters from my suitcase!! Oh well, I’ll just have to buy a new one!! lol

I’ve managed to find out that there is no Starbucks here in this city... grr..

We are now at the hotel, and we have internet connection in the room, but it’s very very slow..

I am taking my computer to the orphanage with me tomorrow and hope to capture some video of the kids to post! Although I’m not sure how to get it from Imovies to the blog???

Any one know how???

Krista

2010-03-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

GASP!!!!!

I leave for china tomorrow, and I forgot about the

SQUATTY POTTIES!!!

EWWWW

WELL, lots of hand sanitizers for me!

(this was a particularly nasty one!! We didn't use this one!)

I think the last 2 trips I managed to avoid these like the plauge, I hope to avoid them again!

My mantra is "My bladder is made of steel"

2010-03-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

GOLDEN!!!

SO PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaCU0nIs3k