Dicos! Dicos!

Dicos is a fast food chain that has been in China for quite a long time. At least in 1997 it was all there was for fast food in the provincial capital (so others tell me, I was still in college). Every town in China big or small has a Dicos. That tells you how small our town is (or was), Dicos just had its grand opening last week a few blocks from our house. It is kind of like a KFC, but not nearly as good. What makes it so special to our little town is that it has AC, that's right, real live air condition AND a kid's play place which is basically just a slide, but Sophia loves it. We ventured out during water splashing, in the evening as things died down, and made it there without a splash, we got there before dinner and stayed a little while after, all for Sophia to get her fill of the slide. We ran into a few people we knew, none of whom were expats, all locals, trying it out. They agreed with us on the food: okay and way overpriced, but the atmosphere was nice.

When David went downstairs to order up some ice cream (good but not Mcdees good), the man next to him asked (in excellent American English): "do you speak English?" "yes." David replied. The man then asked: "do you speak Chinese?" David hesitantly said "yes." thinking 'who is this guy,' the man then asked with relief: "will you help me order?" David smiled and helped him order, still wondering if he was for real (he was an Asian man). Come to find out this guy was from Long Beach, his parents are Thai and they ended up in our little town on their travels together. His parents were back at the hotel. He came up and sat with us to chat for a little bit. He now studies in Chiang Mai. We told him how much we love Thailand, how Sophia's very first language was Thai (ha ha), and how we would make Thailand our home for a few months very soon...

We then walked home, without a drenching! Yeah!

Thirty weeks...lookin' large

and feelin' it too. Yes, I am getting bigger and bigger it seems, sleeping is getting just a little harder, but not too bad. I have tired days and more restful ones. I still haven't needed to nap too much, and thankfully have been able to plug away at reviewing Chinese. Still not settled on a name. We will let you know when we know :), which may be on her birthday, who knows?



Side view, with Sophia tugging at me

5:22 a.m.

This was when David heard Sophia. I had stayed up late baking, he had stayed up even later reading. So this wake up call was, well, murphy's law right? This was possibly the first time ever that David heard her before I did. He was already in there when I heard her say 'fall off.' I thought she had fallen off her bed. David groggily brought her in our room in hopes of more sleep...she was too awake. He let me sleep some and then when I got up he went back to bed for a little bit. It wasn't until a little later that we discovered that the smoke alarm that we had put on her ceiling with command strips (we still highly recommend) had fallen down. we strategically placed it where if it did fall it would not fall on Sophia. In America the alarms of course are screwed into the ceiling, we dare not do that here...see this post for why. Did the command strip fail us? No. The command strip was stuck to the warning sticker on the bottom of the alarm. David thought for sure that thing would have to be peeled off to come off, in other words, incredibly difficult. Who knew what humidity and gravity could do? Now we know why Sophia was saying 'fall off' when was woken up by the alarm 'falling off'' the ceiling. OOPS! It will have sit back on the shelf top for now.

Happy Resurrection day

...or in Chinese it is literally 'resurrection festival.' We had a good one: remembering, rejoicing, retelling, encouraging, breaking bread with 'family' and offering thankfulness to our God for Life in Him. We aim to do this day in and day out...Hope yours was blessed.

Easter Weekend

Good Friday morning turned out to be the craziest weather ever. A very hot Thursday had it at about 80 degrees in our room that night. Friday morning the sun shone a clear sky. By 9:15 a.m. the time for me to go out and meet some other expats, darkness fell, rain sputtered, and the temperature dropped about ten degrees. By the time my friend and I biked to the shop where we were meeting, the sky fell out. Raining sideways. We got inside just in time. We had decided to get our toenails painted. The whole scene with the girl painting my toes could have been made into a sitcom, it was hilarious. She kept telling me how bad my choice would look, etc. etc. in the end she somewhat did what she wanted, and I look like I have fireworks on my toes instead of the pretty Japanese flowers I ordered. Who really cares, I did have a great time with my friends encouraging one another and just catching up.

When I came home, Sophia looked so grown up. Our helper put her hair back in a pony in a way I never had, pulling it up off of her neck, and then put a bow on top to get all the bangs out of her eyes. She looked so cute, but so mature. Not sure I liked that part...:)



no, I couldn't get any smile, so here is a yawn.

Now it is Saturday and I had a busy baking day ahead to prep for tomorrow's group which would be larger than normal. But I still decided to do something for our family as well, so I made whole wheat cake donuts (for the first time). This is a 'healthy' recipe so you can't think, 'donuts' donuts. They were pretty good for being fairly healthy. Here Sophia is asking in a whiny, pouty way for her portion...She liked them. But then she never gets sugar so of course she dug in..

(the other things I made today were 'no bake cookies' and 'one bowl brownies', both recipes I was trying for the first time, and I did not like either very much. It may have to do with all the butter and sugar, and that our local sugar is straight from the cane (one of the largest local crops), either way, towards the end of the day I decided to go with trusty favorites for the group: banana bread and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I will take everything and see what gets eaten up the most.

And today started the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai minority here. Everyone, not just the Dai participate. It is three days of splashing water on any and everyone, everywhere. Many people use water balloons (which can leave welts, as experienced in years past), and the trusty super soakers are out in abundance (this is David's weapon of choice). We went to eat lunch before the festivities really began and the restaurant owner gave Sophia a water balloon, which she protected well, it lasted until after her nap and she and David went downstairs to water splash. She loved every minute of it. Water splashing in a Dai village is much more fun, the folks more gentle. You still get soaking wet, but the battle is not so fierce... we may take Sophia to our helper's village, we haven't decided yet...until then I am staying indoors!


with her water balloon...

shrimp, among other things

here it is, our pet for about 4 hours. Sophia's teacher brought this up after she bought a few pounds at the market. A shrimp? A crawdad? who really knows. All I know is I am seriously allergic when I eat it. But it was fun to show Sophia how it swims in the water, she LOVES to see fish in the water. Of course these things are seriously dirty bottom feeders, but it was a good lesson. It died a few hours later.


Looking a little leery of it.


before the whole shrimp excitement Sophia took all of her animals out of the basket and got inside, so I piled all the animals around her, told her to be quiet and that I would go get daddy to see if he could find her. Here she is following daddy around the room with her eyes as he 'looks' for her. She is so adorable. Can I say that?

Happy birthday video out takes

Listen carefully:



'elephant, (whine) elephant, (whisper) happy birthday cc'



obviously the sentiment is not there




the sentiment was there, so sweet, and then: 'I have to go poo poo,' which was actually a fib.