12 DAYS BEFORE I LEAVE FOR CHINA!

GRACIE'S ROOM FIRST HUGS

BEIJING - HENAN - DIANJIANG - BEIJING

Whew, it will be a whirlwind for sure! But I'm so excited to see all the kids and the progress they've made thanks to wonderful sponsors like yourselves!

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Gracie's Room Trip 2010

I am just addicted to Oatcakes.. you know the ones, the thick, moist, chocolate chip ones you buy from the muffin store.. YUM!! I've been trying for a while to find a recipe that matches those dip in your coffee, delicious round treats!!

I was given this recipe, and although they are very good, they seem to be missing something.... so I added Chocolate chips.. but still, not quite there yet..

So why don't YOU give them a try??? Whore them up, change them up, put in a pinch of this and a smackeral of that and let me know how you made out. Share your recipe!

Here's mine:

OATCAKES

3 cups rolled Quick oats

3 Cups flour

3/4 sugar (i used brown)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 1/4 cup lard

2/3 cup cold water

1 cup Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375

Sift together oats, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder with fingertips, work in lard.

Then stir in just enough water to make firm dough. (I had to use all of the water and a bit more)

Lightly sprinkle the work surface with oats and roll our the dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch 2 inch circles.

Transfer to greased sheet

bake 20 mins

**update** Yes these are Frank Friendly, meaning dairy free.

Stephanie e-mailed me another recipe that I will try and I'll let you know how they taste!

Well, I don't think there will be any "Mother of the Year" Award arriving in my mailbox any time soon!!

Lily's molar has been slowly falling apart, and last July we had to fill it. It was a very hard trip to the dentist, and she was slightly traumatized from the whole experience. Although she was a trooper, and didn't require to be drugged, she made sure to tell us that she NEVER wanted to go through that again.

Well, over the weekend, the filling fell out, and the inside of the tooth and the one beside it, was black!!!!

ohh my heart sunk when I saw that. I took her yesterday to the dentist and he said to me, "so she has been saying that she is in pain?" and I said "no". She only mentioned once that her mouth hurt. then he pulled me aside, and showed me the x-ray. OMG... There is an infection all through the 2 teeth right down through the nerves. OUCH

He said, "she should be screaming in pain right now!!"

I said that she has been in a nasty mood lately, but has never complained to me.

She is now on Amoxil, and Advil for 10 days and then he'll try to fix both teeth. He said it is a very big job. OUCH!!

I got her medicated right away, and a few hours later while I was making supper, she was super uber happy and singing, that she loved her family and she came out from the playroom with a little note to mommy and daddy:

She read it to me:

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

I am so sorry for yelling, crying and whining all the time! I feel much better today!

Love Lily

OUCH!

I felt like a heel! She has been giving all of us a run for our money, and we've been very frustrated with her. NO wonder, If I had an infection through 2 teeth I'd be a royal pain too!

Poor thing!

GOOP!!

WE LOVE IT!

I haven't made goop since teaching preschool a few years ago! The kids had a blast with it and it kept them entertained for hours! Even the big girls got involved!

Thanks to M3 at Salsa in China for reminding me about this goopy-goey stuff!!

WOW,

I just read that this is only the 3rd time since 1900 that Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day!!!

It won't happen again till 2030!!!

So in that case:

Happy Valentine's Day

AND

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!!

Ohh, poor Abigail caught the flu on Saturday night! Just as Frank and I were about to go out for a nice evening.

Frank had his coat on, and was going to start the car, when Abigail said, she wasn't feeling great.

I told Frank to head out, and give me a shout in an hour. I figured things would have settled by then, and she probably just had indigestion. She ate a huge supper, her favorite, sweet potato curry and rice!

Well, before Frank could even get out the door, she started to vomit! Oh the poor kid!!

I still sent Frank out to meet up with our friends, not much he could do here, and I took care of Abigail.

She vomited every 10 to 20 mins and by 10pm, I called Frank to come home as she was getting weak and if she needed to be carried back to bed, I couldn't lift her! She was sick every 20 mins till 4am!!

But boy, what a trooper! NEVER, not once did she complain! No moan, no groan, no tears. Even as she was retching so strongly that her little body was lifting off the floor, she didn't complain! WOW! I wouldn't of been so nice! I hate puking, and would make sure everyone knew! LOL

She never had a fever, or chills or aches..

She finally ate yesterday and has gone to school today.

oh.. and Sweet potato curry is no longer her favorite!! LOL

I was going through some photos, and videos etc.. and found this video that Abigail took, teasing her sister, one evening when they were supposed to be in bed!!

You can hear me in the back ground yell.."girls, go to bed!!"

Then Abigail tells her sister that she looks like a pimple!

ohhh... sisters!

We traveled to PEI this past weekend for a gymnastics competition for the older girls. Daddy got to stay home with the little ones! hee hee hee

We traveled through a wicked snowstorm, but got there safely and in time to relax a bit before the competition.

Here are some photos of the 2 days: ** my FotoFusion isn't working, so no quick collages for now!**

It seems that I was in a better seat/angle for pics for Isabelle's comp than Abigail's and I think I was off on my timing for Abigail's pics. grr The lighting in there is miserable! I missed the good jumps and tricks or else they are blurry!! Darn!

WOW, a quick call to LumaPix, and ta-dah!! My fotofusion is now working.. Now I have to remember how to use it!

The picture is so grey.. hmm.. that is not the way I hope it would look...

this is the original...