A day in Nashville

 Last week we had to go to the airport to pick up my mom. We decided to take advantage of the drive to Nashville, so we stopped at two of our favorite place.

First we went to the zoo to see the monkeys and to have a picnic lunch. Rosie loves to sit and watch the monkeys. She also loves eating outside.

 Then we went to Trader Joe's. Our very favorite store.  It was the first time that Rosie got to push her very own cart.  She looked so adorable walking through the store shopping with her Nana.

She look very carefully at the milk and other things she thought we needed. She was definitely the cutest shopper in the whole store. 

I can't believe how big my baby girl is getting. She's growing up so fast.

Questing 140/365

 Yesterday was a day of quests.(That's nerd talk for ... doing stuff)

After a wonderfully lazy day of playing computer games, taking naps and watching bad TV we all decided to walk out to the back fields and look for William's iPod that had somehow disappeared.  That quest was a great success when I found it laying on the ground in some weeds about half a mile from the house.

Since we were all hot and sweaty after that we decided we needed some ice cream. So we went on a quest for ice cream.

 Except we started at the wrong end of the store and ended up with a few extra things...

Like Pop Tarts!
I was horrified when William told me he'd never had Pop Tarts. That's like saying you've never watched Saturday morning cartoons... which he didn't, or that you've never had a twinky!  So I made him buy some because you can't live in America without trying these wonderful little treats sometime.

And yes, William, you have to toast them.

Shopping with Baby Girl 126/365

Last weekend we all spent the day "in town" shopping.  There are some good stores in the town about 25 minutes from us including a Peebles with a really great baby section. Baby Girl not only enjoyed browsing at all the pretty dresses she would look amazing in, but was very excited about kissing the stuffed animals and dancing to the music that was playing in the store. It was the best (and most productive) shopping trip ever.

PS. So sorry for the crazy camera action there... I hope none of you get motion sick.

Markets and Smiles 75-76/365

Saturday we went to Nashville's Farmer's Market. It was raining again so that meant no crowds. It was so much fun to see piles of fruits and vegetables for sale by local farmers. It kind of reminded us of the markets we went to in Shanghai.

We also found an Indian market there. So many spices and rices and flours and food imported from India. The whole store smelled like Indian food. It was wonderful.
They had the biggest bag of rice flour I had ever seen!

They had a whole isle of rice. "A proper rice isle" as I called it. With large bags of rice, very much like what we were used to in China. Not like in the states where the largest bag of rice you can find is only 1pound.

After the Farmer's Market and the Indian market we when to Trader Joe's for our much needed Gluten Free Waffles and green salsa. We had 4 things on our list and we came out of there with a trunk full of goodies. Some good for us and some just good.

Down the road from Trader Joe's is a Whole Foods. I'd never wandered around a WholeFoods before and I wanted to see if I could find some sugar free candy for Baby's Easter basket. I didn't find any candy that I wanted for Baby but I did find this!

Whole sections of Gluten Free foods of all kinds! It was so exciting to find so much Gluten Free food in one place. Some of it I didn't even know existed! As you can see Mom and I were giddy about it.

They even had Gluten Free English Muffins! I was just saying to William last week that I missed English Muffins the most. But look at those prices! $6 for five muffins! We didn't buy anything from Wholefoods because it was all so expensive, but it was fun to look at everything.

It was a long day of shopping but it was fun to get out and see what Nashville has to offer. William bought me a really beautiful rose at the Farmer's Market and Bonnie Rose really loved smelling it. She really loves flowers.

Sunday was a lazy day. The only picture I took was of Baby Girl sitting in church with her Daddy.

The rest of the day was spent with naps and watching Cleopatra, in memory of Elizabeth Taylor who recently died. It is a long movie so it took all day watch it, but I'm glad I finally got to watch it. I've been meaning to for years but never got around to it. 
Beauty, drama, glamor, scandals, compaction, love, passion... Whatever your opinion of her, Elizabeth Taylor was a presence in Hollywood that will definitely be missed.

Fun in the Grocery Store31/365

We're on a road trip. I'm writing this from a hotel room while William watches bad TV and Baby Girl walks in circles and sings. We have sitting-in-a-car-too-long tiredness.

We drove for about 4 hours tonight. It may have been longer actually. We had to drive pretty slowly since it starting snowing just as we left Nashville. For a while it was a little difficult to see the road but luckily William grew up in the mountians so it was no problem. Plus there were really cool big trucks that were spray a salt like substance on the road.

Like Father like Daughter

Since it was cold and snowing we decided to make our dinner and restroom stop at a Kroger's instead of a rest stop. It was warmer and we could let baby walk around.

This was our first time going to a store with Baby girl since she's started walking on her own. It was SO much fun!





Baby was so cute walking around the store that people actually stopped to watch her. She brought a smile to everyone's face.

She had so much fun pushing the cart.

We walked up and down almost every isle, hoping to wear her out, and when we got to the Valentine's isle she squealed with delight and then ran to kiss all the stuffed animals.

We had such a hard time getting to come away from there. Every time William would walk her away she would turn and look for the isle again. At one point she ran from three isles away and found the stuffed animals again. She gave them all kisses again before we left.

It was the most fun I've ever had in a grocery store before. She's the cutest thing in the world.

Krogers

Grocery shopping is a lot more culture shocking than you’d think

By Michelle and William

(picture borrowed from the internet)

This past summer we got to go "home" to the US for a wedding or two. It's always exciting to go "home". We always look forward to familiar food, and ordering that food in English. We look forward to things being predictable and to not walking around in a permanent state of confusion. We look forward to clean air and to driving.

During the course of wedding festivities we were given the easy task to drive a mile down the road and get snacks for a flower arranging event with the bridal party.

So off we went, a quick trip to the grocery store.

First of all the parking lot was huge. We didn't even know where to park because there were so many options. We don't have parking lots in China. Just allies between buildings that people try to cram their cars into and than have to crawl out their passenger side door because they’ve parked right up against the wall.

We walked up to the store and a door big enough an elephant could walk through slid open before we even got there.

We were immediately hit with clean crisp air with hints of fresh flowers, baked goods and clean vegetables. But mostly, just the smell of clean.

Then, the open space. Holy Crap! There was so much open space in this place. I could drive a Shanghai car in here, the aisles were so wide.

We didn't even know where to start so we wandered over to the produce section. The vegetables were neatly stacked in pyramids of green apples and oranges and peaches. Piles of leafy greens smelled as fresh as rain. The red and yellow peppers almost sparkled they were so clean. Then there was the packaged and pre-cut produce. Salad in bag any one?

Everything smelled so good and ripe and clean and was so well organized!

I didn’t have to dig through rotten fruit to find the good stuff. I didn’t have to get my hands dirty from the mud clinging to the vegetables, and there were no live chickens in crates waiting to be killed for dinner while I marveled at all the salad options.

The produce section alone was the size of the entire grocery store where we shop in Shanghai.

We knew we had to get food for everyone and be back at our event in under an hour but it was all so overwhelming. I know you don't believe me, but have you seen the rows and rows of breakfast cereals? We had forgotten most of those even existed.

Next we got lost on the juice aisle. Have you ever marveled at all the different juice options we have in the US? There's apple juice and cranberry juice and grape juice and a bazlilian other options. And that's just the single flavor juices! Then they start combining them into apple-grape or apple-cranberry or cranberry-grape… so many choices! On top of all that, each flavor comes in three or four different brands and labels.

We couldn’t decide on just one juice so we got a few. I did notice that while there were so many more flavors than I’d ever remembered seeing before there were a few missing that we often see in China. Like Aloe Vera juice or mixed fruit with tomato juice or lychee fruit juice. I was not sad at all to be missing these juices. They are nasty.

I could go on and on about all the overwhelming things we saw that day; but let me just say, Dear Lord the cheese aisle. Cheese is NOT popular in China. They think it smells bad, tastes bad and they say foreigners smell like it. Living in Shanghai we are lucky enough to have some cheese options, but when I saw the cheese and meat section in the United States Kroger Grocery store I was giddy. Literally Giddy.

There were several kinds of cream cheeses and spread-able cheeses and sliced cheeses. Brie and gouda and swiss cheese. Hard cheese and soft cheese. And did I mention there were NO live chickens waiting to be killed for dinner and smelling the place up?

There was so much I wanted to look at and try and BUY!

William was overwhelmed enough to be stunned speechless but mumbled something about time and cash and limited supply.

When we finally made it to the cash register we had way more food than we needed (those ridiculously large shopping carts came in handy) and spent way more than we planned. But we had cheese! And several juices, and ice cream, and a bunch of other packaged and overly processed things we didn't need to be eating but were totally excited for.

When we checked out someone put our food into plastic bags for us instead of having to do it ourselves. Boy, were they liberal with those plastic bags. I think one of the bags only had one thing in it!

In China plastic bags are not free so everyone carries their own shopping bag and you have to put your own food in it. If you do have to buy a bag you try to get as much as you can in it so you don't have to buy another one.

We then rolled our very handy shopping cart to our car and put all the food in the trunk and drove the very short mile back to our hotel. I felt so spoiled not to have walk back carrying all that stuff home like we usually do.

Later on that week after all the festivities and craziness of the weddings were over and we had some free time my mom asked me if there was anything I wanted to do before we left.

"Yes, actually," I said, "I'd really like to go to the grocery store and just walk up and down every aisle."

Baby Steals

A few months ago I was tipped off about this site called Baby Steals. They offer baby stuff from hats, clothes, and even gear at hugely discounted prices.
But only ONE deal per day. And once the thing is sold out or the day is past the "steal" is gone.

It's a really fun idea and I now check their site every day. Even though I've only bought one thing from them it's still kind of fun to check and see what new and surprising thing they have on sale that day.

Most of the time I miss the steal. Everything is sold out by the time I wake up (they are located in Utah,USA and the "Steal" is posted at 9am local time). Sometimes the fact that I live on the other side of the world saves the pocket book.

Anyway, I WAS able to grab a "steal" when they had a huge Ergo sale. I ordered a brand new PINK ergo for the price of a used one. It shipped to my mom's house and I'm SO excited to use it... someday.
(I am literally counting down the days)

Last night William asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I didn't have to think about that one.
"A Pink Ergo"

Lucky Us

A week after Bonita Rose was born we got a little package in the mail from my brother Stevie. In the package was the smallest pair of Lucky Brand Jeans I have ever seen.
I was SO excited as these are my FAVORITE jeans. I love this brand...

At the time they looked way too big for Little Bonita.

When we were in Nashville this past month I discovered a Lucky Brand OUTLET store at the Opryland Mills Mall.

4 hours of shopping(and trying on every pair in the store), over 50% slashed prices, 2 plane rides and one very tired mommy and baby later...

We are a very happy family :o)

Count to 10 with ONE hand

Here's something fun and useful to know when you come to china. How to count!
Not only should you learn to speak and hear the numbers but China is awesome enough to have their own way of counting with their fingers without using both hands.

This is especially helpful when you are talking to people with strange accents and can't make out their Chinese.(like in Shanghai where the number 4 and 10 sound almost the same!!) OR if you have a bad Chinese accent.

So here's how you do it:

一 yi 1



二 er 2



三 san 3



四 si 4



五 wu 5


Now here's where they get tricky...

六 liu 6



七 qi 7



八 ba 8



九 jiu 9



十 shi 10 (this is the most common for ten... )



十 shi 10 (this is also sometimes used for ten)


Here's a video of all the hand motions as well as audio of how to pronounce the number.

Painter Street

No it's not a type-o. In true Chinglish fashion the name of this place is called "Painter Street" And that's just what it is. A street, or ally really, of painters.



This is a fun little street to just walk down a look at all the crazy things they have but it's also a good place to buy art for your home. MUCH better than just buying the generic IKEA stuff that every one else also has.




Most of the stuff here are replicas of something else, all with various quality. Some are really good. You can buy what they already have out or you can bring them a picture of what you want them to copy and they can do it for you.
There are some originals here too. You just have to look around and see what you like.



Something else fun that you can do here is bring a photograph or family picture and have it painted. I saw one shop that looked like they were particularly good at it.



Or if you want a certain theme for a kids room or something you can have those painted also... there was one guy who seemed to really like to reproduce TIN TIN paintings.



At least one of the artists was a traditional Chinese painter but most everything else was western or modern.

You could also order custom frames. Any color, any size.



This place was so much fun to just walk around and admire but I think it would also be really fun spend some money here. If only I had a larger place to decorate :o)

OH.. if you are here traveling you can buy paintings here and they can take the canvas off the wood and role it up for better transport home. You just have to get someone to put it back on once you get home. Or you could just bring a big enough suit case for all the art and frames you buy.

Painter Street
212 Wending Lu,
near Nandan Lu
文定路212号，
近南丹路，