Nihao, Cupcake!

Three Years Ago Today... Life in Beijing

Grabbing lunch with Mom & Dad at a Vietnamese restaurant in The Place (it closed this past summer 2012 just before we moved home).

Paul has a Vietnamese coffee to finish off his lunch.

A scrapbook page I made this day - probably the reason I forgot to frost my cupcakes - see below.

Grabbing a bite at the new outlet mall down the street from the school before their performance.

I totally forgot to frost my cupcakes this day - brain lapse! So at the last minute I had to grab all of my supplies, throw them and my 5 year old in the taxi and frost them in the school's industrial kitchen. Thank goodness we had to be there more than an hour early.

My lair of tiger cupcakes for the bake sale. They are red because it was the year of the tiger and red is the color of celebration and the program was in celebration of Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival.

Children in the cafeteria waiting for their turn to be on stage.





I remember loving this performance. This was back when I loved the school and thought it was a wonderful way to introduce my kids to the Chinese culture. One year later, my feelings had changed 180 degrees!

What a difference THREE years can make!

Check back later today for my PROJECT LIFE: Week 3 post.

Local Tourist Chinese Papparazzi {Day 12 of 31 Days of Blogging}

The local tourist papparazzi. The kids are stopped constantly at popular tourist landmarks and asked to pose with people. Sometimes they are in the mood, many times not. Our middle child is the best sport and 75% of the time is willing. We always let the kids decide those sometimes we strongly encourage especially when people ask nicely and don't sneak. I can only imagine how many Chinese FB pages and Twitter feeds our kids' photos have made an appearance unknowing to us. 

Making Qing Ming Pastries {Day 10 of 31 Days of Blogging}

Making Qing Ming Pastries in Beijing, China during the Qing Ming Festival Holiday.

Urban Life in China: Green Space at the Kindergarten {Day 7 of 31 Days of Blogging}

Our youngest son attended his Kindergarten year (by American scheduling) at a bilingual/bicultural school in the center of China's capital city. We loved the school. The administration did a fantastic job, the teachers were caring and amazing and the school offered a caring, stimulating environment that fully embraced (in a very positive way) all cultures in a very positive way. This being no easy feat in the Capital city!! We speak from a little too much experience at how many interational schools (local as well as foreign run) fail miserably in all three of these areas.

The one major weakness of the school was the inadequate outdoor space and free play areas available for the children. They did have a nice playground downstairs in the front of the school & many school pets (sheep, bunnies, squirrel, duck, etc), but this area was our son's class' dedicated space. Being a Montessori school, each class is meant to have its own outdoor space available to the kids so they did have that but as you can see it was sorely lacking. As we learned during our time in Beijing, every choice has its benefits and its sacrifices. Luckily, choosing this school for a year was worth this sacrifice. 

First Day of School 2011 in Beijing {Day 5 of 31 Days of Blogging}

I thought this picture turned out pretty cool. I loved the silhouette of my son walking down the dimly lit hallway with the school's sign & building out the window. This was orientation day 2011.

Ella Publishing May Take 12 Challenge :: Stepping Back in Time [China-Style]

It is time for yet another Ella Publishing Take 12 Challenge!!

CONFESSION: My twelve photos are not actually from May 12th. Shhhhhhhhh! I had a very special day on May 11th. I had a very special day on May 13th (Mother's Day). On May 12th... not so much.

Don't get me wrong. We had a fun day, but it was not a day that was conducive to good photos. Nor was I in the mood to force myself to take photos, as much as I tried.

I call myself "The Moody Photographer." And when the mood isn't there, I don't take photos.

So, I decided to do my layout with the TWELVE photos that did inspire me. On the 11th I went on a special tour with a group of other moms who live in Beijing. We went to a village just outside of the city. It is the one place in the world that makes the special glazed tiles (many 3 dimensional) that adorn the buildings at The Forbidden City, the city gates (including Tian'anmen Square), the temple buildings in the parks, etc.

It is a workshop where they mine shale in the local mountains. They turn that to clay and packing molds by hand, they create these amazing decorative tiles.

After which, they dip them in glaze (made from cobalt, copper & iron) and fire them in old fashioned kilns. 

 

I love these mock old Chinese coin brads I got from Michaels. They come with two other Chinese-esque brads that are equally as cool/beautiful.  

One reason this trip was so meaningful to me was that I have taken ceramics classes at various times in my life; for two years while in Japan, one summer in college when the visiting professor told me I should be an artist and in California with my kids at our local community center. [How cool that they had Mommy & me ceramics classes,no?!]

I chose this paper from the Far East (Die Cuts With a View) paper pack because the crackling reminded me of the dried mud turning into clay in huge troughs at the front of the workshop. 

 

I wanted the attention on my photos so I chose a sketch (Template 1 in the Template packet) from the Ella Publishing Take 12 Guided Inspiration Kit. And I LOVE how it turned out. The photos are definitely the stars of this layout. They tell the stoy.

There is more journaling I would like to add, so I might add a 6x12 insert and if there is space, I might add a few smaller accent photos along with my journaling.

I just loved this day. 

I loved interacting with the artisans, being able to be right in the heart of their workshop - literally stepping over the wet clay shapes waiting to go into the drying room (essentially a giant oven).

This is the drying room. Notice how the pieces are different shades of grey? The darker pieces are the wet ones and the lighter grey ones are almost dry and ready to go to the glazing workshop.

It was like stepping back in time to simpler times before over-litigation and the chaos of the modern world got in the way.

A day like this is one of the magical treasures that seem to happen or find you when living abroad. It's a wonderful surprise to find amazing things that still seem undiscovered. Hard to find any more!

Oh! I almost forgot! The best part was that we got to take home some of these amazing tiles. The lady who organized the tour is fascinated with the mythical creatures on the tiles that adorn the roofs of the Forbidden City. 

This is my lion.

It is this fascination that inspired her to arrange the tour. She worked on our tour guide the entire time trying to convince him to let us purchase a tile or two and he finally broke down when she told him, "My life won't be complete until I get to take some of those animals home!" With that, they opened up their storehouse and we had a great time shopping in the dark, dusty (such thick dust you wouldn't believe it) store house, picking out our treasures that cleaned up very nicely. 

This is my dragon.

To see all my Flickr photos from the outing, including photos of the village with a faded painting of Mao Zedong (I'm pretty sure that is who it is) on one of the walls and a train rushing past within mere feet of us as we stood on a bridge, click here.

To see all of my past Take 12 Layouts and the corresponding posts, go here.

More inspiration from the Take Twelve Design Team:

Like the Car
Janette Carter-Kincaid
Scrap Inspired
Scrappy Wife, Happy Life
Day by Day
Right Here-Right Now
The Scrapbooking Haven Diva
Scrapworthy Lives
People of the Scrapbook
My Little Blessings
Life is Sweet
A Swoop and a Dart
Endless Possibilities
Yeah, Write

Visit Ella Publishing Co. to link up your layout or photos for a chance to win this month's prize.

 

Week in the Life 2012 :: Day 3 Photos

Here is a photo from our afternoon (Day 3 was our Saturday). This post will be updated soon with the rest of the photos from the day. But there was something fun about this one, that I had to share now.

Week in the Life :: Day 2 Photos

 

I just lost the last 5-6 photos I was posting. Slow internet sucks! I've got to publish this and go to bed! Thanks for stopping by.

Week in the Life :: Day 7 Photos

 

 

 

 

My route on the way to yoga.

Passing by the set-up for the premiere of a movie at a local theater.

Yet another Starbucks opening soon. The second one in a 1.25 block radius. And the seventh Western coffee shop in a 3 block radius.

While I was on my way to yoga, Nicholas' class was watching this performance next to the city wall of Pingyao. I should have had every member of my family take a camera along with them today to see what each of us was up to.

Looking down from the city wall.

Pingyao resident.

Meanwhile in Beijing, I'm shopping for feta cheese. 60 kuai for a small package. That is over $10 USD!!

And back in Pingyao, visiting China's first bank.

A stop at one of my favorite import markets after yoga before I head home.

Sights on my walk home...

A statue the kids have noticed since the first week we moved to Beijing.

Sidewalk cafe, Beijing-style, at lunchtime.

The newstand on the corner.

What Nicholas saw on his walk around Pingyao.

No homework during Experience China Week so finishing up some arts & crafts.

Such concentration on the handprint dragon.

Middle school still had homework so this is a common sight every week night. Reece wears his house shirt for sports day today. He's in the blue house, Temple of Heaven. He thinks his team may have won the event. He'll find out later in the week.

Recipe for Mediterranean lasagne online.

Fun with the self-timer! I set up my camera to take 10 photos in a row. When this kid gets wind there is a camera in the midst, he insists on being in front of it.

Nighttime in Pingyao. Pretty good attempt at low light photography by my 11 year old. I'm one proud "enthusiastic amateur photographer mama"!

Well, that's it for Week in the Life 2012! The documentation period is over. I will admit that it was a tough week for me - some days I felt alot more in the mood to take photos than on other days. I've documented with photographs several times in the past and have one completed Week in the Life album (July 2011). I also feel like I am constantly documenting the details of my life with my passion for photography in addition to my Project Life albums from 2010-present and my participation on Ella Publishing's Take 12 Design Team (taking 12 photos the 12th of every month). So, I gave myself a break when I didn't feel like picking up the camera every moment of every day. I didn't save as much ephemera from the week as I did in July. But then I am constantly saving bits and pieces of life for my Project Life album.

I feel like I couldn't document any more than I already do. Would any one want to read any more detail about my life? Probably not. Every moment is not meant to save and relive. Some stuff is just meant to be lived in the present and never to happen again. Sometimes the documenting has to be paused so that life can be lived to its fullest.

The photos that I do wish I had taken, were a foot massage with friends (I still plan to get one of these taken and slide it in my album since this has become an almost weekly habit - they are cheap and good here), lunch out with friends at a fun restaurant and I was hoping to visit a gallery for a photography exhibit, but a bad driver and heavy rain kept me away.

I still hope to post my favorite photos from my Day 3, 4 & 5. I'm also going to tally all the photos I took each day and the total for the week. I definitely take more earlier in the week, but I think that is normal.

How did your week go? What did you find the most fun? The most surprising? The most difficult? Do you think you will make an album? And finally, will you be doing this project again?

It's Ella Publishing Take 12 Challenge Time Again!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, this month for the Take 12 Challenge I wanted to document ways in which our lives are different now that we live in China and not in Los Angeles. There are so many differences and I could only capture so many in just one day! This may become an ongoing theme. In fact, I've done a layout on this same topic before but I only used four photos and they were all from different days.

I used template #11 from the Ella Publishing Take Twelve Template Pack. It was so easy to use!

My journaling reads:

I wanted to capture the details of our lives that are different because we live in China. In this day I noticed: * friendly caricatures of police reminding me of safety rules * McD’s entrance near the freeway with DELIVERY mo-peds waiting out front * my view behind “the wheel” is very different * “my other car is a TAXI” * bilingual kids menus * distinctive highrises landmark my neighborhood * friendly comics hung around town remind me how to behave * parking my vehicle is a very different experience these days * eloquent translations give wonderful suggestions on what to do in case of an emergency * instant coffee replaces ‘real’ coffee for a variety of reasons * Titanic in 3D is big EVERY where!

And because the elevator sign is hard to read, I will share what it says here:

When eleveator breakdown please keep cool, rings the bell to pray for rescue.

I LOVE that one! My 13 year old noticed this sign for the very first time on the 12th (lucky for me, huh?). It is in the elevator that we ride up and down to our apartment multiple times a day but because it is posted so high in the elevator, none of us had ever noticed it.

 

DID YOU TAKE TWELVE??

Did you Take Twelve photos on April 12th and make a layout? Join the link party at Ella Publishing! There's a great prize. But hurry, you have to link up today (April 18).

Do you want to Take Twelve but didn't do it on the 12th? Not to worry, it isn't too late! (Link party for prizes closes today but feel free to link up next month and/or leave me a link in the comments [here and/or at Ella's blog] and I'll come see your page.) Angie Lucas even gives tips on cheating on the blog. I'm all for cheating in scrapbooking if it gets another story told and a memory documented! It all counts, right?

Don't forget to check out the Take Twelve Flickr group and post your photos & finished layouts.

To see all my Take 12 Challenge Posts including my layouts from past months, click HERE.

Check out the blogs of the other Ella Publishing Take Twelve Design Team:

Like the Car

Janette Carter-Kincaid

Scrap Inspired

Scrappy Wife, Happy Life

Day by Day

Right Here-Right Now

The Scrapbooking Haven Diva

Scrapworthy Lives

People of the Scrapbook

My Little Blessings

Life is Sweet

A Swoop and a Dart

Endless Possibilities

Yeah, Write

Ella Publishing Take 12 Challenge :: The Best Part Layout & Another Story from the 12th

I had so much fun with this layout. We had a party for my youngest son on the 12th of this month so it was easy to get 12 photos. There was more to my story than a birthday party. It was all about how the party came together. It was truly a family event. I could not have pulled it off without the help of my entire family especially my two oldest sons. 

I wanted a layout that allowed me to tell the story I wanted to tell and I found it in the Ella Inspiration Kit. The design you see was perfect! I could show the highlights of the party on the left and BEHIND the SCENES on the right. BEHIND the SCENES is also one of the themes suggested in the Inspiration Kit and I love how it inspired me to tell this deeper story of my son's party.

JOURNALING READs:

The best part of this party was behind the scenes. Even Dad remarked after it was over that this was one of his favorite birthday parties because we all worked together to make it happen. And now that it is all over, I wish I had more of those photos. If I could do it all over again I would take some photos of Reece drawing each treasure hunt clue in amazingly accurate detail (I did save the clues), Reece & Nicholas planning out the treasure hunt and planting each clue, Nicholas planning secretly to be the Birthday Santa, hiding in the ayi closet ready to give out the goodie bags at the end of the treasure hunt, Mom searching the internet for the perfect Superman “B” image to print out and trace for the birthday cake, Mom printing out Superman & B logos to wear for the “photobooth”, Reece helping mom set up the backdrop for the photobooth, our neighbor Kristin stopping into the store to look for balloons after mom texted all of her friends to be on the lookout, Dad cutting up the yellow paper for the scrapbooking we ran out of time for, Mom planning out the cake with Braden and making the design happen with chopsticks and frosting.

 

The journaling spot is also from the Ella Inspiration kit. Isn't it cute?

Visit Ella Publishing for more information! And don't forget to go to this Ella Blog Post to add your layout or 12 photos to the linky party and your chance to win (linky closes on the 18th - see end of post for exact time it closes).

Visit the rest of the Take 12 Design Team:

Alizia

Amy

Angela

Jennie

Stephanie

Van

Valerie

Monika

Lisa D

Janette

Lisa O

 

ANOTHER STORY FROM the TWELFTH

There was also another amazing story to be told on the 12th of this month but for privacy reasons I cannot share the photos. I had the amazing privelege of meeting the new family of one of the children I care for at the orphanage I volunteer at every week. The family who had just adopted her, was in town an extra week or so waiting for their new daughter's passport and they asked to meet with some of us volunteers. I was so excited. She had been away from the orphanage for only one week and the first thing I noticed when I walked through the door was how she was a completely different child. She was animated, instead of sullen, she was smiling instead of somber, she was affectionate, instead of crying, she smiled and laughed and giggled more in that hour than I had ever seen her do in the year+ I had known her at the orphanage. She looked at her new parents and big sister with such love and adoration, it was astounding. I couldn't believe a child could bond with their new family so quickly and that she could so quickly become the child she was always meant to be. I had always felt so strongly, if this little girl could just have her own family, she would blossom. But I had no idea she would blossom so quickly and that she had so much potential to ever be that child I met just a week later. 

Many of the children at the orphanage have special needs. We don't always know all of their details so we often wonder. We had said that she was so somber and rarely interactive in a distinct way that we wouldn't be surprised if someone said she had special needs and yet we wouldn't be surprised if they told us she was perfectly normal. After that meeting, it became clear to me that she is perfectly normal and she is now exactly where she should have been since birth! What an amazingly lucky little girl to be with a family so full of love! It warms my heart to think about her sleeping safely in the loving arms of her new family in her fresh PJs, squeaky clean hair and adorable rosy red cheeks.

If only her little friends still at the orphanage will be so lucky.

 

Blog Hop x 2: {FAMILY x 12} + {Project Life}

Today is another busy day at the blog! It is the 5th of February which means it is time for our monthly FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop.

Do you take enough pictures of you with your whole family? Neither did I until I started the FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop! We support each other in taking at least one photo of our whole families during each month. We then post them on our blog and visit each other to offer support and encouragement. Does this sound like something you would like to do too? If so, email me (link in sidebar) and I will email you the details.

(If you had emailed me in the last month and I didn't get back to you, please email me again as I had some problems this month and couldn't locate all of my emails. Thanks.)

Here we are enjoying our very favorite winter activity in Beijing, ice chairs. Our local park (only two large city blocks away) offers these to rent only a two or three short months out of the year. The little lake freezes over and out come the wooden ice chairs and the big dangerous looking stakes you use to stab the ice and propel yourself across. The boys had SO MUCH FUN! We hope to do it again once more before the ice begins to melt. We wanted to go today but it was too warm. Maybe next weekend if it isn't too busy.

To see everything FAMILY x 12 on my blog, click here.

Monica is next on the hop. She always has some cute photos to share of her lovely family.

Feb 5 FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop Participants

Margie  http;//xnomads.typepad.com/blog

Monica http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

Jill http://jillconyers.com

Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com

 

PROJECT LIFE

And now it is time for the Project Life part of the blog hop.

This is my latest spread. I am posting my current photos every Monday and then the following week I plan to post my completed layout on Tuesdays. I did not do that last week, so I am now a week behind. But I will catch up. 

I do not print my photos at home. I do not like the quality compared to using an outside lab and it takes up so much ink. Living in China, printer ink is outrageously expensive and high quality photo paper is non-existant, actually photo paper is non-existant, so if I run out, I'm out of luck.

Luckily, Snapfish is here in China and delivers high quality, matte finished (my fav) photos free to your door. That is the service I use but it does take a few days for them to get here. THerefore, I typically can't finish my layout until my photos arrive. That was until I came up with an interim solution! 

This week I started printing out photos in low quality black and white on regular printer paper to use as place holders - hurray! Pressure off ordering the photos and I can still do most of the work. 

Here is the other side of the spread. The label on the bottom right photo I placed on top of the page protector. The other labels/cards I plan to add directly to the photos, I will do that when my photos arrive (obviously). I usually staple them on or use adhesive depending upon my mood or what is available.

The Kavli crispy thin is a new cracker my oldest son has recently discovered that he loves and is actually fairly healthy (he typically only likes things that are really bad for you!), so it warranted being included! I do want to add journaling about that, but I have to figure out where - perhaps right on the back fo the packaging but it won't be visible. Or I may just leave it as is.

The number journaling card is a free download from Becky Higgins from three or four years ago. It is the original Project 365 KOTM design. AFter it was sold out, she was able to give some of the journal cards and other date cards away as free downloads. You'll see more showing up in my PL album in weeks to come.

I was hoping to share screen shots of my work flow for PL - mostly my photo work flow from camera, to blog & album, but I ran out of time. I think I will plan that for next month and start getting my screen shots now! So watch for that next time!

Thanks for stopping by! How are you doing with your Project Life album? Are you doing a 366 project or a weekly overview or an altogether different approach? Are you finding it easy to stay "caught up"? What is your best tip to stay current with your album?

Thanks Jill for hosting. I can't wait to see all the other Project Life eye candy on the hop today!

To see everything Project Life on my blog, click here.

Next on the blog hop is Donna B.

A complete list of participants is below in case you should get lost along the way.

 

Jill http://jillconyers.com/

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com

DonnaB  http://donnasprojectlife.blogspot.com/

Sharon  http://projectsofmylife.wordpress.com/

Noelia  www.noeliaevangelista.typepad.com

Jen  http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

April http://capturethememories.blogspot.com

Brooke http://everysnapshot.com/

Lynn www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Donna www.joyfullydonna.blogspot.com

 

Did you see that the instructors for True Scrap 3 have been announced? It's going to be another awesome event! Go check it out!

True Stories from The Jing {Bikes & Italian Food}

Tonight we rode our bikes to the new Annie's just south of Central Park & east of The Place for dinner. We parked our four bikes directly in front of the restaurant door & 2-3 meters from a guard box. The area had two security cameras pointing at it.

We had a wonderful, leisurely dinner at Annie's (a local kid friendly Italian place with consistently good food & reasonable prices - hard to find in Beijing) with impecable service including free make your own pizzas for the kids, fresh bread basket and extra special treatment to the kids.

The manager checked on us more than once, but the service was not agressive or pushy, just attentive.

When we left to get our bikes, the one bike that was locked to itself and not locked to a tree was gone. The manager at Annie's immediately came to our aid and accompanied my husband to the building's room with security cameras. After 20 minutes of looking around the lost bike area and talking with the security guards, it was determined that the camera was too dirty to find any footage of our missing bike.

It seemed illogical that someone could take a bike that had a lock around the tire past the two guards directly next to the bikes and make it past both security cameras without being seen. And funny that both security cameras were too dirty to view any footage.  Hmm...

The kind manager at Annie's never left my husband's side and they walked around the property to see if they could figure out what happened.

Just when they had given up, they spotted the bike, hidden behind a wall! Who knows why it was there or how it got there, but the lesson learned is:

1) Lock your bike to something when in the CBD (About 15-20 bikes weres stolen in broad daylight (all parked together) about a year ago right outside The Place.)

2) Eat at Annie's because not only is the food good, but the service goes above and beyond expectations. And in our experience, they look after their customers. A big thanks to the manager at Annie's!

 

I posted this story to our Yahoo group (for foreign passport holders living in Beijing) as a warning to neighbors and as a thank you to a local business for helping us out. I couldn't pass up a good story that we will want to remember so I copied and pasted for the blog today. Our oldest son is so excited that we found the bike. He loved the excitement and you could feel it when he came to report to me that they were checking the security camers to see if they could locate the bike. I'm so glad this story had a happy ending or else it would be the third bike our family had lost in Beijing!

I'm linking up at Sian's blog for Storytelling Sunday. She hosts it the first Sunday of every month. Do you have a story to tell? Post it on your blog and join us!

And since I totally forgot to link up last month, I wrote my story a couple of weeks later when I realized it. Here it is, if you care to read.

Using Up Scraps of Old Basic Grey to Make This Page for #LOAD212

I had fun creating this page with some scraps of old Basic Grey. I fantastic way to stretch your patterned paper and use up your stash! The journaling tag is a free download from Scrapbooks, Etc (I think) I have had on my hard drive for a long time.

I made this for Day 2 of LOAD.

Enjoying the (sometimes) Crazy Culture of My Host Country...

We have been living in Beijing China for over three and a half years now. That is half of my youngest son's life. In all honesty, I am ready to move home. I love where I am from and miss so many things about it. But never the less, one of the things I do enjoy about living abroad, even in Beijing with its horrible air quality (worsening by the day), chaotic streets, and lack of concern for safety, there are some things I really still enjoy.

New Year's fireworks is one of them. I love the craziness. I love the huge fireworks I get to see out my window almost every night for two weeks.

This is the firework that was let off the roof of the apartment building across our courtyard (not a big courtyard, mind you - basically a small park). It is on the top of the building where I used to live. You can see the windows of the penthouse apartment. Rumor has it they own the apartment complex and I am pretty sure letting off those fireworks is illegal. But that has never stopped anyone around here before.

They have cracked down this year and there are definitely less fireworks near our apt this year as we live in the heart of the central business district and near (two blocks away) the skyscraper that burnt down two years ago on during New Year's. 

If you don't worry about the safety issue, [those fireworks in the first photo are bouncing off the building right next to mine (in my same apt complex of four buildings)], it's really fun and exciting. So far I have not gotten burned or lost my home to a fire!

I've learned to appreciate the dragon dance, especially now that all three of my children have been involved in it on some stage at one time or another. It is exciting especially with this being the year of the dragon and all.

I also love ICE CHAIRS which are unique (as far as I know) to China. I've posted about them before and we went again this week during the New YEar's holiday, so you will see me post about them again soon. The boys said they forgot how fun they were. Dangerous, but fun. Give three boys sharp stakes to push themselves around willy nilly on ice and someone is bound to get hurt, right?

It's those simple differences that allow me to appreciate the unique life that I am living.

I'm linking up at Simple Things Sunday.

 

BLOG HAPPENINGS

*You might like to check out the Layout A Day Preparation Blog Hop from Friday here. It's a great challenge and begins Feb 1st - join us!

*Come back on Wed, February 1 for the One Little Word Blog Hop when members of Ali Edwards' Big Picture Classes class share their assignment from the month.

*On February 5, we will have our monthly FAMILYx12 blog hop where we support each other in taking a monthly family photo. Email me (link on the side bar) if you want to join us!

It's almost time for life to go back to normal...

So I might not be posting much over the next week. I'll try to post some Project Life completed pages before the chaos of preparing for a 13 hour flight with 3 kids and one me ensues. I got a few pages done tonight! I'm very excited since it is hard for me to focus on any kind of memory keeping while I am a visiting. But I finally did it so hopefully I can find some good light tomorrow to take a few decent photos & I can share with you!

It's almost time for life to go back to normal...

 

So I might not be posting much over the next week. I'll try to post some Project Life completed pages before the chaos of preparing for a 13 hour flight with 3 kids and one me ensues. I got a few pages done tonight! I'm very excited since it is hard for me to focus on any kind of memory keeping while I am a visitor. But I finally did it so hopefully I can find some good light tomorrow to take a few decent photos & I can share with you!

 

2012 Project Life :: 366 {Catching Up with the Photos}

I haven't posted any daily photos since we left Beijing on December 15, so I am catching up today! ENJOY!

 

December 10, 2011

This seemed to me like the sweetest horse. He was a bit leery of me but at the same time seemed sweet. Once I was close to him to take a few photos, I notice how tired, and mangy he looked. Then I noticed his back left foot. Do you see how he isn't putting any weight on it? Poor guy. It means his food is injured and he obviously has a long way to go to get home. This photo was taken at the very center of Beijing. It takes a long time to get out of the city from here by horse!

 

December 11, 2011

Looking over old drawings they have saved in their three ring binders especially for favorite drawings.

 

 

December 12, 2011

We decorated the gingerbread house the night before (and waited until morning for the good light, to take the photo). It is always a very fun family activity. We got the kit at Ikea. It was the first year they offered them at the store in Beijing. Christmas stuff gets more plentiful every year in the capital.

 

 

December 13, 2011

Braden has several friends who ride on his bus and who also live in our apartment complex. Therefore, we often have friends come over to play after school. If I have some extra cupcakes in the freezer, I sometimes let the boys do some DIY cupcake decorating. Braden's friend had already eaten his cupcake, and the one he is holding he made lovingly for his little sister.

 

December 14, 2011

The first grade curriculum included exploring other cultures so on this morning, they invited parents to come to the school and teach the children about their own cultures through games, songs and other activities. The morning was finished off with a huge spread of foods from all over the world. Braden asked me to bring Rice Krispy treats to represent America.

 

Photo #2

It was the night before we left for the month to visit friends at home in the States for the holidays. We HAD to eat the gingerbread house before we left. This is what was left after the three little pigs, I mean, boys huffed and puffed and ate their way through!

 

December 15, 2011

On the way to the airport after picking the boys up early from school.

 

December 16, 2011 - no photo

The kids took a ton of silly photos on the plane with their own camera, so I need to get one of those. I do think they took several photos of the very strange airplane food they served this time. It was true mystery meat!

 

December 17, 2011

Early Christmas celebration with Grandma. We were all going to Colorado to ski and most of what she got them was warmth and snow related. Here Reece is wearing his little borther's new hat and the "garish" (Grandma's words) Christmas sweater she got him for Xmas that he doesn't like at all. He says it is "geeky" or "dorky" - I can't remember which term he used. But he couldn't remove that sweater fast enough. How quickly they change. There are so many things he just refuses to wear these days. He often comes home off the bus with a short sleeved t-shirt on, his winter jacket stuffed in his backpack and it is 32 degrees F outside and WINDY! So glad I am not a teenager any more. Brrrr!

 

 

December 18, 2011

We got an early start and drove all day long (sun-up to sundown) to reach our destination of Durango, Colorado. The drive itself wasn't as bad as we were anticipating, but the mood of our children was a different story! Jetlag, 14 hour road trip two days after 12 hour trans-Pacific flight equals a lot, I mean ALLLLOOOOOOTTTTT of bickering, teasing and picking on the youngest brother.

 

 

December 19, 2011

The long drive was worth it when we woke up the next morning to find the view from our condo was this! THis photo taken by one of the kids using one of their digi cameras.

 

 

December 20, 2011

I have found myself surprised at home amazed Reece has been by the natural beauty we have seen on this visit home from Beijing. But then I realized since we live in the city 10.5 months out of the year, he doesn't get to see much of it. I was lucky growing up to visit Colorado at least every other year and as a young child we did lots of hiking and spent our summers at the beach. Although Reece's earliest years were spent mostly outdoors, hiking in some incredible national and state parks right in our own neighborhood (literally), I didn't realize how little he has seen of this in the past 4 or 5. He wanted to take photos of every gorgeous view and then when we returned to So Calif, he has taken photos of several beautiful beach sunsets already. Makes me want to move home even more so we can take this kid camping.

His one request on our trip was to take him to a National Park.

 

December 21, 2011 (I think this date is Beijing time so it is really 12/20.)

Our second day of skiing. Braden took a rest day and hung out with Grandma. He took this photo for us. Not bad, huh?

 

Photo #2

This cabin belongs to my father's cousin. My brother and I stayed here with some collge friends one year when we came to town to ski. This cabin is on the way into town from the ski resort.

 

Photo #3

We had to squeeze in our visit to Santa before it was too late! We found this guy at the local Durango mall. It was a fundraiser for the local 4H. Reece didn't want to visit Santa this year - it was the first time he had no interest. He really is a teenager.

 

December 22, 2011

It snowed ALOT during our last day of skiing. So much beautiful fresh powder. It was like skiing in powdered sugar. It felt exactly like powdered sugar under my feet. But the top of the mountain was FREEZING!

 

Photo #2

We skiied until the slopes closed, stopped for a yummy Mexican dinner and then it was back on the road until after midnight.

 

December 23, 2011

Our hotel in Utah, just outside of Zion National Park, touted that their restaurant had the "best food on Route 48" (I think that is the right number.), so how could we go any where else? Not to mention, the hotel and restaurant were run by a very nice family. The hotel was nothing fancy and slightly thread-bare but it was clean and had nice acoutrements, nice soap and lotion in the bathrooms (better than our hotel in Petaluma), a microwave and good TV, a family suite with two bedrooms and one bathroom, to boot. For only needing a 7 hour sleep, it was the perfect place. The food wasn't bad either, but I wish I took a photo of the fried bread they called a scone! All of my English friends would laugh. Despite that, everything else was tasty and nicely made. THey even gave all three kids free hot cocoa with a huge dollop of whipped cream on top! If we ever pass through that way again, we will be sure to stay again.

 

Photo #2

We spent the morning exploring a bit of Zion National Park, a lot by car and a little by foot. We even managed a visit to the visitor's center.

 

December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve dinner prepared by my brother-in-law who is a studied chef! The food is always delicious in this family. There is a professional chef, a dietician and two other siblings who love to cook (my husband included) at a close to gourmet level.

 

December 25, 2011 - Merry Christmas!

Despite playing with a hammer and nails when he wasn't supposed to and incuring these horrible injuries, Nicholas was all smiles on Christmas day. Lots of playing with cousins - all five of them were in heaven. My sis-in-law wants them all to come up in the summer since she said her kids were entertained the entire time we were there.

 

December 26, 2011

We stayed the morning and then it was time to get back in the car again to go see my 85-year-old aunt & 90-year-old uncle and some cousins before heading home the next day. Here Nicholas was saying good-bye to his uncle.

December 27, 2011 - No Photo

My cousin is sending me some. I did a terrible job of taking photos even though I carried both of mine every where I went. I just never used them. What was I thinking? I probably wasn't! :(

 

Dember 29, 2011

We had dinner at one of my very favorite places. The best part of this visit is that a branch of this restaurant opened right near my mom's house. It is so close, that we can walk there. Perfect! The other perfect thing is that it is in the same strip mall as Trader Joes and Yogurtland. Ahhhhhh! Angel's are singing. And they ahve THE BEST Shrimp Tacos EVER!

 

PROJECT LIFE INSPIRATION on the WEB

I happend upon this blog today and I really liked her style. Her album or her blog posts are not up to date, but I thought her unique style warranted a look. It is simple, engaging and attractive.

http://agnes-and-family.over-blog.com/categorie-11771067.html

 

I might update this post later today with some PL album updates, but no promises.

Classroom Volunteer

Here I am volunteering in my youngest son's classroom last Friday. We made ice cream in a bag. It is really quite fun if everything goes according to plan but it can also be quite chaotic which it was this time. We had 28 students, not quite enough ice and we started off not putting in quite enough salt to melt the ice. There are so many factors that can throw things off a little - afterall it is a science experiment/lesson. Though we did it as a cultural/food activity.

It was fun, none-the-less, and I always relish the opportunity to be with my kids at school every once in awhile.

And you probably wouldn't notice unless I pointed it out - like the patch of gray in my hair? That is due to the awful hair cut and color I got a few weeks ago. The colorist gave me the foreigner price for permanent hair color (almost 4 x what I pay at home) and yet the color is already coming out! Apparently it was actually temporary, not that he did a good job of covering my gray in the first place. Total rip-off! NEVER AGAIN! I have said that before, but this time I really mean it. My hairdresser at home is going to wonder what on earth happened to me this time. I already have an appointment made for the day after I land.

 

ProjectLife :: 365 - Weekly Photos {November 26 - December 2} & Finishing up 2011 to Be Ready for 2012

THIS WEEK'S DAILY PHOTOS

Saturday, November 26

We had friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was ultra-casual, embarrasingly so, but we pulled it off. We were the only Americans in attendance so the staple traditional foods, were ours to make (sweet potato casserole, cornbread stuffing, pumpkin pie, turkey, pecan pie, mashed potatoes). It was fun to share our traditions with people who had never experienced them. This is a photo of Braden while he was playing around with our neighbor's toddler son during the meal preparations. I have other photos, but I won't share them here because they have other peoples' children in them.

 

Photo #2 - cleaning up after all our guests had gone home.

 

 

Sunday, November 27

We had our very own shop in the playroom selling ice cream and toys.

 

Photo #2 - The signage

 

Monday, November 28

Reading my book club book for book club on Wednesday: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I enjoyed the story. I especially found it fascinating to get a glimpse of what life might be like to come from generations of uneducated people. I have never thought about it or imagined it to the degree that this book caused me to do so. I loved getting to know Henrietta and her daughter through this book.

 

Tuesday, November 29

Nicholas took this photo with his camera. I am going to assume he was so excited I let him pick out this peanut butter that he had to take a photo!

 

Thursday, December 1

This photo will have to count for Wednesday since we did our Christmas decorating Wednesday night. We decorated the tree and had some hot chocolate. Early Thursday morning you can see the storage boxes are ready to be put away.

 

Photo #2 - Nicholas read Braden his bedtime story tonight.

 

Friday, December 2

Today was the Upper Elementary Winter Concert. Here the fifth grade is performing a song from New Zealand. That's Nicholas on the left spinning his thingy on the end of the braided yarn that is twirled during this native song.

 

Photo #2 - Later that afternoon, I was invited to Braden's classroom to share how to make ice cream in a bag. Their umbrella unit studies different cultures and their foods, so this was the basis for the activity. I told his teacher we often do this activity at home as a science project in school or for fun in preschool or in summer school. This was the largest group I've ever shared it with - 28 students (two 1st grade classes) and it was quite an ordeal. We didn't have quite enough ice, the ice probably should have been crushed rather than cubed, our recipe didn't require enough salt and our large Ziploc bags started leaking half-way through!! But in the end, most of the ice cream did eventually freeze and the kids reported the taste was delicious! Luckily Braden's teacher was helpful, understanding and totally went with the flow! Phew!

 

Photo #3 - Later that evening, the kids and I walked the two blocks to China World to see their Christmas decorations and have dinner at Fatburger! We ran into another first grade boy that Braden knows and who was in the other class that made ice cream with us earlier in the day. He is from Pakistan. It was a pleasure meeting his family and chatting briefly with his parents.

 

PROJECT LIFE ALBUM UPDATE

I completed four layouts this week. They are all from the summer.

This one is the rest of the layout I shared last week.

 

As you can see, I'm keeping it very simple to speed up the process. I'm varying my handwritten text a bit for some variety and visual interest but I have not added hardly any embellishments. I've attached a few notes to some of the photos and tucked in a few bits of memorabilia. I have tons more memorabilia in a drawer that I will add at a later time. It will take me some time to go through it and organize it but I don't want that step to slow me down right now.

At this point, I would rather get the foundation of the album complete. If I never add any other memorabilia, I will still be more than happy with the end result.

 

Still keeping it very simple. What could be easier than punching a hole in the tag from a brand new sweatshirt and throwing it in the album? I didn't have a photo for the last day of the week so I tucked in the packaging for a book set I bought for my youngest earlier in the week.

 

Ideally, I would like more variety in each spread than you see here, i.e., a few 4x2 photos in place of journaling cards in every pocket and more ephemera tucked in the pockets or added in additional page protectors of varying sizes, but my priority at this point is getting the project done. And as I said before, this is a lot of great documentation as it stands, so I am happy with this layout as is if I never get a chance to return to this spread and add to it. (The BCIS graphic is cut from a shopping bag they gave to new students at orientation day.)

Well, that's it for this week. I haven't had a lot of time to search the internet for recent album inspiration. I will post later in the week if I find anything. And again, if you post finished album pages on your blog, leave me a comment and I'll link to you next week.

Thanks for stopping by! What are you doing to finish up your Project Life 2011 and/or get ready for Project Life 2012?

Preparing for ProjectLife 2012 & the Week in Photos {November 12 - 18}

Saturday, November 12

We went out for breakfast to Jamaica Blue at Central Park (not NYC, Beijing - it is the name of the apartment complex across the street).

 

Photo #2 - walking through Beijing's Central Park

 

Sunday, November 13

Mandarin oranges are in season! YUM! Delicious and so easy to peel. What could be better?

 

Photo #2 - while Paul and I were finishing up our coffees outside at Crepennini, the boys created a game called "Hostage." They used the Turtle Fur: easy scarf/turtle neck without the shirt, to cover one person's face, lead them around and see if said person could guess where they ended up before looking. They love this game so much, Reece asks almost everyday if they can go downstairs and play again.

 

Monday, November 14

I made these for a party at the orphanage preschool. We were saying good-bye to two volunteers and one teacher and celebrating one year of operation for the preschool. My 13-year-old son created a slideshow using iMovie and the photos as I have been taking as well as photos from two other volunteers who run the program. It was so fun to see the changes in the space and the children. They have come so far! I know I keep saying that, but it is true. They loved the cupcakes. Our theme this month is farm animals, so they were perfect!

 

Thursday, November 16

I found this English version of National Geographic at a market in The Place. I was so excited and the cover story was the perfect topic for me considering we now have a teen! He was even interested in reading the article.

 

Photo #2

Braden set himself up on two fabric covered storages boxes behind the brown chair and worked on this drawing for a few days. I love the characters!

 

Friday, November 16

Nicholas' birthday sleepover for his friends from his school last year. It is such a pleasant group of boys, all so polite. So nice for them to see each other again. We should do it again - just for fun!

 

Photo #2 - Birthday cupcakes: the boys watched the Planet of the Apes movie so Nicholas picked these for his cupcakes. They are supposed to be baby apes. We used thin apple slices for the bottom of the mouth, but I wouldn't do that again. The moisture from the apple caused the icing dye from the mouth bleed. THough it made them look more vicious, which pleases eleven-year-old boys! The ears are chocolate coins cut in half, the eyes are brown M&Ms, the mouth is made from Duncan Hines canned frosting I tinted with Wilton icing color and the nostrils are Duncan Hines dark chocolate icing in a can.

I was hoping to have some finished album pages to share with you today since I am determined to complete the album up to the day that we leave to go home for the holidays on December 15, but my photos haven't arrived yet! I received the phonecall today that they will be delivered this afternoon. So, keep your fingers crossed for next week.

In the meantime, I have jotted down some things I plan to do to help me keep up with Project Life next year!

 

PREPARING for PROJECT LIFE 2012

One of the things I have learned after doing Project Life for 2010 & 2011 is that preparation and having a plan are HUGELY important. Of course, logically this made sense to me when I started, but I am naturally resistant to plans and sometimes even preparing ahead of time. I have to experience the failure first hand from not being prepared and having a plan before I am motivated enough to put one in place.

As I have been looking around the internet for Project Life inspiration, I have noticed many peoples' last blog posts with finished album pages are from summer. What this tells me (and I am no different) is that the hardest times to keep up with a long term project such as Project Life are during times of transition as well as times of increased busyness. I don't think that is rocket science, but if one doesn't step back and recognize it and put a plan in place to prepare for the predicted stumbling blocks, the project, more often than not, will get abandoned. 

I will wholeheartedly admit that most of this year and much of last, I have been scrambling to keep up with Project Life and never quite hit my stride for more than a few months at a time. Now, I do have a very good excuse in that I live in China so doing many of the things at home that are a no-brainer are far more time consuming , expensive and often impossible here, but I keep hanging on by a thread optimistic that one of these days I will complete my albums.

Participating in this project for the past two years, though not complete, has still taught me a lot and this is what I PLAN to do (and am starting to set up NOW) for next year.

1) Create a space where my Project Life album can lay open at all times so I can slide in bits and pieces from the week. This took me several attempts and some rearranging to find a place where it wasn't in the way. 

2) Keep all my Project Life supplies together. I keep mine on a wooden tray with two inch sides. It contains several baskets that hold the cards and one that holds pens and stamps. Currently I am looking for a place in my home where I can keep the tray so it isn't taking up so much of my desk space. I would like to put my sewing machine on top of my desk.

3) Label each week well ahead of time so that it is clear where items from the week go. This way if I do fall behind, and a week doesn't get completed, I can still slide in things from the current week. (I lost my place this year and didn't have new cards labeled to mark the weeks and the weeks started getting away from me so I have a bunch of ephemera and it is not organized, so that will take some work to get that sorted.)

4) Get photos printed regularly. I am not sure yet how often I will get my photos printed. Ideally, I will do this once a week, but at the least, it will be monthly. At first I was printing at home using my own photo printer, but printing ink here in China is outrageously expensive, not to mention, I cannot get any photo paper so it must come from home (Calif). That means if I run out between visits, I'm out of luck.

5) I've purchased the Snapfish add on for Lightroom, that way I can set up a smart folder for my weekly Project Life uploads and it will make printing photos that much easier, more automatic and less time consuming.

6) This year I am going to WRITE THE DATE (or stamp it) on my memorabilia before I save it. This way if something happens to Plan #3, it will be easy to figure out which week the memorabilia belongs to. (This is a good back up plan for those unforeseen busy times when all the best laid plans go awry, i.e., kids are home for summer, winter holidays when we are busy, busy, busy, family vacation, extended trip home to the States for my family, beginning of the school year, etc.)

7) Saving stories on 100 Journaling Cards - 3" x 4" with Grid Design - I started doing this a few months ago when I started getting behind on my album. The kids would say funny things or I would notice something and I would grab a Journaling Card - 3" x 4" with Grid Design from my Project Life tray and a pen from the journaling basket that sits inside and jot down the antecdote, stamp the date and put it in my tray for the next time I work on my album. 

Do you have any great tried & true Project Life tips to share? Post them in the comments. I'd love to hear.

 

EDITED 11/28 TO ADD: 

BLACK FRIDAY PURCHASES

I was so excited to see that Becky decided to offer some discounts on PL products on Black Friday. Even I, living in China, could partake. Very exciting! Here is what I bought:

 

Project Life Core Kit - Amber Edition (I plan to buy the Clementine core kit when it is available. With both kits and some of my own patterened paper, I will be able to complete all 3 albums - 2009, 2010 & 2011)

Photo Pocket Pages - Big Pack of Design A (60 Pages)

Big Envelope Pages

 

6 x 12 Page Protectors

Not a Project Life/Becky Higgins brand product, but a totally great addition to a PL album. I can't wait to use these:

Photo Protector - 6 x 12 for 4x6 Photos - Horizontal 10 pk

Before black Friday, I had two boxes of these:

100 Journaling Cards - 3" x 4" with Grid Design

in my cart. But by the time, I went to purchase, they were sold out! Luckily, I still have lots but I don't want to run out because I love them so much. Becky's blog says they should be back in stock in January so hopefully that will be before I return to China in mid-Jan. Fingers Crossed. 

If not, though, my plan is to use the backs of journaling cards from the original Project Life kit that I don't like so much. I love having the mini blank canvas to play around with and make it my own. So much less intimidating than a huge 12x12 page.

 

Project LIfe Inspiration

Now that Becky is highlighting all of the Project Life albums around the web, I almost feel posting these links is redundant, partly because many of them I have found through her. But why not continue? There is a lot of inspiration to be found out there. It was hard to find just a month ago! So glad it is all being unearthed. I want to save these links as much for myself so that when the frenzy dies down, I'll still know where to find more inspiration. Complete pages are the most interesting to me.

Wild Blueberry Ink

The Jaquets

Nick Estes

Wendolonia (40th Year project) - love this!

40th Year, Part 3

Leanne Butler

Do you post your finished Project Life layouts on your blog? If you have any recent posts (the last month or so), post in the comments or send me an email and I'll link to you next week. 

 

To see everything PROJECT LIFE on my blog, click here.

A Bad Haircut Doesn't Dictate the Evening

I didn't make it into a photo this week, so I used one from last week. This was taken by people from the event (Chi Fan for Charity). They went around to each restaurant and took a photo of each table. I will refrain from the self-depricating thoughts I have about the photo and say that I looked better than I thought I would since two days before the event, I had the third worst haircut I've had since moving to China and I feared having my photo taken. Being able to put my hair up in a clip saved me. I still haven't worn it down and that was two weeks ago!

Haircuts in Beijing are worth an entire post to themselves. It is near impossible to find a decent hairdresser and they all, regardless of skill, charge exhorbitant prices. I pay more than double here than I do at home in LA and it is not because they use high quality product like at home. The other thing I can't stand is that I cannot find an efficient hairdresser to save my life! At home, to get my hair cut, highlights and low lights, I am in and out in two hours. This latest cut... want to guess how long it took (for the same treatment I get at home)? FIVE HOURS! Yes, it is true. FIVE HOURS. Contrary to popular belief, I do have a life out side of the beauty parlor. Apparently my latest hairdresser didn't realize that.

I was about to go insane. It took all of my will power, not to jump out of that chair and run for home. He just kept cutting and cutting and I kept saying to myself, "Please stop. I need to get out of here. Please don't cut off so much that it takes another year to grow it out." What made it worse is that he is an acquaintance of ours and extremely nice. It was painful for me at the end. And then he told me the price. It was ridiculous like every where else I have tried. Never again.

And the evening was fun despite my haircut!

Linking up at Anderson Family Crew Blog.

Chopschticks – Beijing {Chicago Improv All-Stars}

via chopschticks.com

We went to this event last night: The Chicago Improv All-Stars in Beijing at the Hard Rock Cafe. I wasn't sure what to expect because one never knows what kind of quality you will get in Beijing. Even if the price is high, that is never a guarantee the show, the food, the product will be good.

Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised. The show was excellent. The laughs were plentiful. And the drink prices quite reasonable. I'm so glad we went. Apparently many SNL stars come from their improv troupe (2nd City) in Chicago.

Last weekend, we attended the Chi Fan for Charity event and I bid on one of the silent auction packages. The improv tickets were in there. And I feel like I really lucked out. If I didn't have three kids who needed supervision, I would probably go again tonight! I LOVE a good belly laugh.

What makes you belly laugh?

The Broken Plate: Storytelling Sunday

 

As many of you know, our family has been living in Beijing, China for the past three+ years. When we first arrived we had the desire to expose our children to the local culture and were hoping to have them learn the language. My husband who used to fly back and forth for business before we moved here, found a local international school with a section for foreign passport holders. It seemed the perfect place for our two older boys to experience the culture and learn the language. They did learn the language and experience the culture, but that didn't mean it was a healthy place for them to spend their days.

Our oldest ended up being harrased by his Chinese teacher for not knowing any Mandarin (he was tested before entering the school, so they were completely aware of his level when he started), and our middle son who was only seven years old, was left without adult supervision at lunchtime with a bully who we found out later, hit him so hard in the head, his ears rang for two hours. When I confronted the school about this problem, their solution was far from adequate, so I removed him early and kept him at home for the rest of the year. 

We then found another school that was fairly new to the international school scene. We were very impressed. They touted themselves as a bilingual/bicultural school. Half of the day was in English, half of the day in Mandarin Chinese. They would learn PE (Physical Ed), art, math and language in Mandarin and everything else in English. They believed in respecting the child and teaching them appropriate ways to treat others. We thought this would expose them to the positive sides of Chinese culture and protect them from the local habits of shaming children and comparing them publically with their fellow classmates. Unfortunately, the school grew too big for itself and couldn't maintain its original goals. The staff felt overwhelmed and was not well trained. I remember clearly the day this first became apparent to me.

The school was having a fundraiser organized by the students to raise money for a charity. The community was invited for the fun booths and a bakesale. I was walking around with my youngest son enjoying the activities. I was approached by a Chinese woman I had never met before. She didn't speak any English, and I had limited Mandarin. We pulled over a parent who was bilingual to translate. The Chinese woman, who it turns out worked for the school, explained to me that Nicholas, my middle son who is very mild mannered and rarely gets into trouble at school, if at all, had purposefully broken a plate in the cafeteria. She had told him to bring a plate from home to replace the broken one and she wanted to verify that this solution was OK with me. If I hadn't already lived in China for 2 and a half years, I probably would have thought that I misunderstood her. I would have thought it was a strange request! Nevertheless, I was still half surprised by what she was telling me. "Yes," I told her, "I do need that plate." Coincidentally, many of my plates had been chipping and a couple had broken in the past month or two, so I really couldn't spare another one! 

I told her I had another plate in my cabinet that was white and would match the cafeteria plates better, but it was larger. She said that wouldn't do. It was too large. Funny thing about the plate from my cabinet, it was a grey, flat plate and the plate that got broken was actually a white, bowl, though they were of similar size. 

My other suggestion was that my son do some chores to earn money to pay for the broken plate. To me, that was the best option since it was a consequence that affected him. Taking a plate from my cabinet was a consequence for me. She told me not to worry and gave me my plate back. 

Before we ended our conversation though she wanted to request that I tell Nicholas he shouldn't play on the swings while he is waiting for the bus after school. Of course, I agreed. 

After the fundraiser, I had a chance to talk to Nicholas about the plate incident. He swore that it was an accident. Knowing his personality, he is much more likely to do something like that carelessly than ever break something on purpose, especially at school. He told me incredulously, with his older brother, Reece, chiming in in agreement, that not only did she insist relentlessly that he did do it on purpose, she took a photo of the pieces of the broken plate and put it in a Power Point presentation to show to the entire school as an example of how not to care for things at school. In addition, she announced it to the entire school at an assembly! My oldest son, verbalized quite clearly how much he, in no uncertain terms, hated this woman and it was not even him she was targeting in this situation.

I also asked Nicholas about the swings and he said that this woman already told him not to play on the swings several weeks ago and he hadn't done it again.

A week or two after the broken plate conversation, Nicholas came home on the bus quite concerned. This same woman told him that he wouldn't be allowed to take the bus the next morning. Shocked, I wanted more information. She was angry that he was watching another boy play on the swings and she didn't want him to do that so she banned him from the bus the next morning. Ridiculous, I thought. Another consequence that inconvenienced me and not my son. Surely, there were more productive ways to handle such a minor and arguably silly infraction.

This finally prompted me to contact the school. I told them everything that she had done. I hadn't mentioned the Power Point presentation or the announcement to the entire school before, because I assumed one of the administrators would have heard it and set her straight. But now that there were more incidents and I was feeling like this woman was targeting my son, even harrasing him, I was getting seriously concerned. 

The morning bus monitor never said a word that my son couldn't ride the bus so he rode the bus without incident. The school responded with a stock email that they were concerned too, would investigate and get back to me. Three or four days passed without a response. I was getting angry. I wrote back thinking maybe I had missed the return email. "Oh no," she wrote, "it had been a busy week and they hadn't had a chance to meet with the lady yet." I was livid! I am concerned one of their staff is harrassing my son or at the least using inappropriate and potentially damaging means to discipline him and likely the other children as well, and they are too busy to meet with her!? What!?

Absolutely not OK. This is not what I expected from the administrators whom had responded adequately in the past to much less serious concerns. I continued to wait for their response. In the meantime, my oldest son, aged 12, had a confrontation with the same broken plate woman. Whatever she did drove him to cuss at her! Totally out of character for him!

I received an email from another staff member, we'll call her Talia, who told me about the incident, not mentioning the name of the person who Reece cussed at. I had my suspicions, though. Talia wanted Reece to write a thank you letter and deliver it in person. Under normal circumstances, I would be in full support of the consequence, but since I felt it was largely the school's fault for not having addressed my concerns and hopefully, remove this woman from interacting with children, I had a hard time holding my son fully responsible. And sure enough when I got both sides of the story, asking for more information from Talia as well as my son, I had to agree with my son that he was treated unfairly. I would have felt powerless and unjustly punished if I had been in my son's shoes.

We talked about what he could do differently next time and frankly, he didn't have a lot of options. He complained that the few teachers he did trust at school were always too busy to help him, even during class time. And he was treated unfairly, the thing he (and several others) were punished for, had been approved by another supervising staff member. 

I told Talia and the school director that none of this would have happened if they took care of my other concerns promptly. I also told them that the bigger concerns were lack of appropraite supervision in the gym, one staff member undermining the other in front of the students, slow responses from the administration. I felt my son writing a thank you note, was the least of their concerns. 

I did have my son write the thank you note as I wanted him to know disrespecting another person was not OK regardless of their behavior. We emailed the note to Talia asking her to pass it on to The Broken Plate woman. I told Talia that I did not want my son to deliver it to her in person. I no longer trusted the school and I wanted to limit any face to face interaction between my children and this woman. Talia strongly encouraged me to have my son deliver the note in person, offering that she would accompany him. I refused and requested she respect my decision as his parent. I wanted to limit any face to face interaction between my children and Broken Plate lady to avoid any further problems.

These series of incidents, include many more details I have left out for the sake of length (can you believe that since this is soooo long already!?), made me lose all faith in the adequacy of the school's administration as well as many of the key staff members. Needless to say, we chose to move all of our children to a new school this past fall and we are much happier (so far). I have learned to reserve my judgement until we are really far into the year. But already, we are getting much more real communication from the teachers and have a more accurate idea of how our children are doing in school. And so far, no strange stories of shaming or inappropriate discipline.

 

Luckily, we can laugh about it all now and the Broken Plate incident is a family joke. We saw this ad in a taxi the other night and laughed that Broken Plate woman was still so upset by the incident, she paid to have this ad put in taxis across Beijing. I hope that even though my children have had to endure these difficult situations, they know that we love and care for them because we have made efforts to correct the situation once we realize what had been going on.

It has been quite a learning experience for me living here. There is so much we take for granted being from a developed nation. I have lived in three other countries besides China (including my home country of the US) and there is far less I can take for granted here than any other place I have lived. 

I'm linking up at Sian's blog for Storytelling Sunday. She hosts it the first Sunday of every month. Do you have a story to tell? Post it on your blog and join us!

 

To read more STORIES on my blog, click here.

Project 365/Project Life: Another Week in Photos (Oct 22 - 28) with Links of Inspiration

This week I didn't do such a good job taking a photo every day. The horrible pollution put me in a bad mood, didn't supply very good like, so some days passed with no photo, light Saturday, Oct 22. But that is OK. This first photo is from Sunday, October 23.

 

Monday, October 24 We had a parent teacher conference Monday after school. Once it was over, we stopped by the pool to see Braden during his after school swim class.

 

Tuesday, October 25 Braden's homework this week was estimating the mass of some kitchen items. He had to put them in order of lightest to heaviest. By this photo, you'd never guess we live in China!

 

Wednesday, October 26 - PE today

 

Thursday, October 27 - Passing by a mirror, a quick glimpse to make sure the hair is OK.

 

Friday, October 28 - International Day: this activity was England. They pretended they were spending the day at the seaside. They made these adorable pinwheels (easy paper folding activity - small ones could be put on a scrapbook page or card), built a sand castle in the sand and put the pinwheel on top. They followed it up with some ice cream.

 

PROJECT LIFE INSPIRATION

Check out the article at Write.Click.Scrapbook. yesterday. It's all about Project Life. Plenty of inspiration!

via www.writeclickscrapbook.com

 

SCRAPBOOK CLASSES

I'm seriously thinking about signing up for Lain Ehmann's Your Story Matters Class that starts Nov 13. I feel like I should be scrapbooking more about myself than I do. I have done a couple layouts here and there about myself in the present, but hardly anything about my past. Perhaps this is the time to do it - right before the holidays. Hmmm... Anyone else going to take it? It's only $9 so you can't beat the price!

I've signed up for the Christmas class at Big Picture and Karen Grunberg's class about making the most use of your time - the name is escaping me now.

What classes are you thinking about for the next few months? December Daily maybe? I've never been brave enough to attempt that especially with our international travel every holiday season. Even with careful planning I wouldn't be able to pull it off!