Pictures I usually miss, part 3: life is just a bowl of cherries

I think I'm going to have to buy a mammoth telephoto lens or something, because I'm way too bashful about taking people's pictures. I hate getting all up and obvious in their face. Maybe I'll just plop down the big bucks so I don't have to be embarrassed.

Lucky for me, fruit seller dude caught me taking his pic and gave me a nice smile. thanks, fruit seller dude.

I caught up with him later down the street, taking a little breather I guess:

Pictures I usually miss: Part 2

Please do not park underneath live, hanging wires. For that matter, you probably shouldn't walk under them either. Or let your children walk under them. Thank you.

haircuts

My hair has been too long for a while. It gets nasty when it's too long. And tangly too. Time for a haircut. Barber: Josh

Emma's hair has been too long for a while. It gets nasty when it's too long. And tangly too. Did I mention tangly? Time for a haircut. Barber: Me.

Should I be referring to ourselves as stylists? Just wondering.

Results:

Not the best, but at least it's done.

You thought you'd get to see mine too? What are you...crazy?! :)

I'm not quitting my day job...at least, not yet

I couldn't think of anything to teach in my class today. I racked my brain and came up with nothing. So, I brought my fancy camera to school and took pictures of all the kids. I tried to "english-ify" it a little bit, so we practiced polite and mannerly phrases like, "May I take your picture, please?" (This is me trying to influence a tiny fraction of the billion people who don't ask before they paparazzi all over my children...) We talked about how to politely decline - no, thank you - and how to accept. It worked out ok. I definetly wouldn't want to have been judged as a teacher by my class today, but hey, in an hour it's all over.

That's the beauty of my little english class. I teach two 30-minute classes twice a week. Yep, that comes out to a whopping two hours a week. It's not much, and Emma gets to go to school for free. Seems good to me.

I really truly enjoy teaching. The kids are funny and refreshing...when they're not being super annoying anyway. They make me laugh, especially this one class that Emma is usually in. They're the younger of the classes but have lots of little kids that are so eager and cute.

Just last week, we finally were able to have four of the teachers over to our house. My pride and sense of self was wounded a few months ago when I invited all the teachers over and the principal totally brushed me off about it. I really like several of the teachers and hope it can be a good opportunity for me to make better friends and share more deeply.

so, without futher ado, here's some pics from today's lesson (mostly just the kids I like who didn't decline my very politely worded question):

Emma's favorite teacher:

ray-ray: the girl who ALWAYS corrects my asianese - I don't know why she didn't smile...


this is emma's best friend ever at the kindergarten. I'm not sure why her best friend is a boy, but it is. She always comes home and tells me stories about chase games and slide games with this little guy. Apparantly, she can never catch him at chase.

So those were from the class I really like. These are from the class I like when half of them are gone... :)

No, they didn't plan it that way...

This is Peter, the other teacher emma really likes. I didn't like him at first - he came off sounding a little bit of a know-it-all - but now I really like him. I liked this picture: the little kids watching from above while the big kids play basketball...

those summer nights...

It seems the last few weeks, the after-dinner activity 80% of the time has been to swing on the little swingset behind our apartment complex. It isn't much to look at, but the back of the building gets little direct sun and it catches the breeze just perfectly, so even if it was 97degrees (like yesterday) it still feels great after dinner.

Pictures I usually miss: Part 1

I'm starting a new segment on my show...um, I mean my blog...and it's about pictures I never take because I never have my camera with me. Because I always have my children with me.

BUT, there are a few times when I am childless and so I therefore have resolved to try to take more pictures because sometimes, there are just funny things that I want you to see. Sometimes it's not funny, but I still want you to see it.

Today I'd like to introduce you to my favorite street. It's really only my favorite street in the spring and summer, when the trees are at their peak of leaves. This is the street I walk down almost every day; it takes me to McDonalds, the grocery store, the bank, my kindergarten class, our friday afternoon picnic spot...you name it, I probably use this street to get there. I love this street because it always makes me feel like I'm walking through a big, fat leafy tunnel. I like that. (there are no nice leafy canopies over the actual road, only on the sidewalks, so you don't get the same effect if you drive.) They're still doing all sorts of nasty construction on my most fave street, to make better sidewalks and bike lanes and such, but I still like it.

What do you think?

happy birthday, holly!

nothing says "happy birthday" like saying it in public, right?

just want you to know we love you and are so thankful for your life!

looking forward to many happy times!
josh, rach, emma and mantha

excited...

...that's how emma and samantha felt when the doorbell rang last week. A package had arrived, and the girls always know that packages are good things, very good things. They didn't know that I had requested loads of antibacterial soap from my parents. I didn't know my parents had packed so many goodies in there for them. Everyone was happy.

You may have heard about a little virus that's spreading around the country (the country we live in, probably not the country you live in!). Just to be on the safe side, we've taken emma out of preschool for a while and I have transformed my usual laid-back self into a very freakish handwasher. I appealed to my parents to support the cause, and for my efforts I received large quantities of fab smelling anti-bac stuff. (some of it was that heavenly bath and body works stuff....aaahhhh!)

anyway, package-opening is usually an after dinner affair. In typical fashion, after dinner the girls got to see what was in the package. In addition to my soaps, the girls got new swimsuits, and some other fun matching stuff. Most of you know that my two sisters are also close in age, and they spent much of their childhood parading around in matching outfits. I am so a fan of matching outfits now that I have kids old enough to wear them. Tell me this is not cute -

Anyway, the swimsuits were a big hit. Rumor has it john and rachel's new apartment complex has a nice pool - hopefully we'll get some pool time this summer!

funnies...

- Now that samantha is older, she finds herself with many opportunities to get in trouble. I recently decided to give her the choice of receiving her punishment on her hand or on her bottom. Her answer: "I don't want a punishment on my hand! And also, I don't want a punishment on my bottom!"

- I think we did a good job of picking out samantha's name. We love how easily it rolls off the tongue and has such happy sound. We often call her by her full name - samantha kate - and not just when she is in trouble. But recently, she has been correcting us: "I'm not samantha kate!" she'll exclaim. "I'm Samantha Ca*****!"

- Several weeks ago, we were at a friends house for dinner. Locals are notorious for offering children food, without a thought in the world if the child's parents would agree. Because of samantha's allergy to egg, we are trying to instill in her a habit of asking us before she eats anything people give her. At my friend's house, she was given a wide array of things to eat, but I specifically told her "don't eat the mangoes". (Note: not because of allergy reasons, simply because of cleanliness issues. I wasn't sitting near the mangoes, and I didn't want her sticking her fingers in them and getting mango juice everywhere.) A few moments later, another lady at the house asked her, "Do you want some mangoes?" Of course, mantha happily agreed.

I casually took her to the bathroom to have a talk with her, and remind her of what I had told her. During our heat to heart, I said to her:
"Samantha, if someone says to you - here, mantha, eat this mango! here, mantha, eat these grapes! here, mantha, eat this chocolate! you need to come ask mommy first. You may not eat things without asking mommy first."

So samantha, the bright girl that she is, asks me, "Mommy, can I eat the mangoes?"

No, I tell her, you may not.

"May I eat the grapes?"

"No, samantha, you may not."

" I can just eat the chocolate then, ok?"

- On the evening of mother's day, we were preparing for bedtime prayers and we were talking about how blessed we were by mothers. I talked about my mother, josh talked about his mothers, then we talked about all the mothers of our parents. The girls are getting more and more familiar with my parents and josh's parents, and are trying hard to work on our grandparents.

Anyway, as we started to pray, we listed out the mothers by name who we would thank God for. At one point, emma realized we were leaving someone out of the mix. "Who's so-and-so's mom?" she asked us. We told her, and we all commented on how this persons' name sounds exactly like the word "cat" in asianese. Her name, directly translated in asianese, would be "cat-cat". It sounded funny to us. We all laughed. We clarified whose name it was to the girls, and then we prayed.

Samantha's first words out of her mouth: "God, thank you for cat-cat, mimi, gigi..." I guess some things will just always stick! :)

- Looking out the window at the pouring rain several evenings ago, emma asked me why it rained. I told her that God sends the rain to help things grow. "God sends the rain," she summarized to samantha, "to help the rice grow, to help the chickens grow, and to help the ketchup grow."

"And," samantha added, "to help the barbecue sauce grow."

we live to play

Ok, it seems like all we do is play. It's really not that way, but play-pictures make better blogs than random, day-to-day stuff pictures. Every year around International Labor Day (which my local friends were surprised to learn that America does not celebrate International Labor Day in May, but rather in the fall), the sports stadium in our city hosts a big, inflatable-type carnival. It's actually very un-carnivalish, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.

We went last year, and then for the big National Day celebration last fall they had another one that we went to. Usually, these types of activities are prohibitively expensive for locals. The $5 admission per child is actually fairly expensive for them. (For us, it's great because it means we have the place mostly to ourselves!)

This May, however, admission was only $2.50 (or four yellow poker chips!) and we were all over that. It's funny comparing pictures from last year and seeing how much they've grown and changed. Emma was WAY more interested the more physical part of it this year and really enjoyed it. Mantha kind of bounced around and went in and out of tunnels, but got tired and disinterested pretty fast.

Looking for emma...

...we found mantha!At this time last year, emma did not yet have the coordination to actually jump...so she loved the feeling this time around!Playing hide-and-seek with the camera - also known as running from getting your picture taken. But, alas, we are sneaky parents...It was H-O-T that day; you can see the redness in their faces! To our extreme delight, the weather has suddenly gotten cooler (as in, we had to wear layers one day last week!) but this day was way hot. Mantha tried her best to make friends and be nice to the other kids......but really she just wanted that ball!Emma tried a few more difficult toys - this one with the rope was so hard, I couldn't even do it! But, a few days later we went back with all the little friends (clara, chloe, peter, alex, savannah) and emma was encouraged by the bigger kids' abilities and was able to do it!This one was a little easier - and she had help from behind......whoa, easy there......princess emma, making it up the ladder, over the bridge, and finally into her little "castle" overlooking everything...ok, all I know is that if I were a kid, this would scare me. Big googly eyes with a red snout? I think not. and then you slide out the back? ok, wierd. But I love thic picture of mantha's flying hair....take 2...We had a great time, and a few days later (as I said earlier) we went back with all the other kids we know.

It's always easier to be adventurous when you're not alone! (and since baby christin was unable to play with these toys, emma was delighted to spend all her time with clara anne!) And I'll leave you with hilarously funny picture of samantha actually being willing to pose in the red snout of the freaky dragon...