We Summered Well

Summer has officially come to an end and school has begun for 2 of my girls.  When people ask how our summer was I happily reply that it was exactly what we hoped for: a successful heart surgery, time with friends and family and beautiful weather.

I decided to list our stats (statistics) from this summer and I think it is an exhaustive and impressive list.

• The biggies, as I like to call LBean and EBean, went to an indoor water park in the Wisconsin Dells, a Burlington Bees baseball game, 1 family wedding, the American Girl Store in St. Louis and the pool
•  One eye appointment (me)
• 3 pediatrician appointments (all at the same time!)
• 3 out patient echocardiagrams for ChinaBean
• 4 visits to the cardiologist’s office
• One heart catheterization
• One heart surgery
• Weekly art lessons for the biggies
• Weekly summer reading program
• 2 trips to WalMart 
• 4 + trips to Target
• 2 trips to Hobby Lobby
• 2 trips to the spa (maybe to reverse the affects of going to WalMart?)
• 4 haircuts (not on the same person!)
• 4 weeks at Jamie’s parents’ house
• 3 weeks at my parents’ house
• 1 ride on a horse
• 1 visit to the piggies
• 1 family picture session (success!)
• A round of vaccinations for 4 out of 5 of us
• 1 birthday party
• 6 days of VBS (vacation Bible School) between 2 churches
• Approximately 60 miles run outside in the fresh air
• Approximately 13 one-way trips in 7 weeks between Peoria and Carthage
• Two 12+ hour flights (four for Jamie)
• And, drum-roll…watched Frozen approximately 30 times…we’re ready to “Let it Go”

Summer ended and school started.  

LBean is in Year 4 (third grade for our friends in the US).  She got the teacher that she wanted and has a few good friends in the class.  Next month she will be going on a three-day school trip without mom & dad.

Outside the gate to the girls' school.

EBean is joining her big sister at Dulwich College this year as a Year 1 student (kindergarten).  She is very excited that her school will be studying super heroes for the first part of the term.

EBean with her teacher and classroom assistant.

ChinaBean is spending time with mom until she starts at her little preschool in September.

Celebrating ChinaBean's 3rd Birthday

Summer Start: 2014 Edition

We did it!  We survived another school year.  The last 1 1/2 months were hard and long, but we made it.  

LBean finished year 3 (2nd grade for those in the US).

LBean's First day of Year 3, Fall 2014

Last day of Year 3!

First Day of Pre-K last fall.

Last Day of Pre-K, June 2014

EBean finished K1 (or pre-kindergarten).  She will join her big sister at Dulwich College next year as a year 1 student.

LBean finished school almost 2 weeks ago on a Friday and we flew to the US the very next day.  The flight was long, but good.  We were delayed leaving Shanghai.  A United flight attendant shared with me on my last trip to the US that China gives preference to Chinese airlines for take off, so now we have an explanation for why we always sit on the tarmac for 45-60 minutes before take off.  We landed in Chicago during a summer thunderstorm and then had to wait on the tarmac for 40 minutes until the lighting was 20 miles away (so the grounds workers could direct us to the gate).

We spent our first night in a hotel where we "napped" from midnight until 3:30 am (ugh, I hate jet lag).  LBean asked about breakfast around 4am and I had to break the news to her that food would not be served for another 2 hours.

At this point in the morning we had been up for 4 hours (sigh).

 The girls vetoed this idea for breakfast...

 Instead they chose this...

After breakfast we loaded up the minivan and started south.  The girls were teasing Jamie and calling him by our Chinese driver's name.  We arrived in Washington too late to attend our home church's first service, but the extra time allowed us a chance to grab some tasty donuts and drive by our house "lot".  If I try to say, "Let's drive by the house" it just gets caught in my throat, so it's just easier to say let's drive by the lot.  It was the first time the girls had seen what is now just a big mud pile.  We ate our donuts in the driveway and I am looking forward to how different our view will be a year from now.

Future home of the McClintock family!

Haircuts with cousin Ali!

The remainder of our first week was spent trying to enjoy all the sweetness that summer can offer.  Lots of time outside in the grass, playing in the flowers and swinging on the tire swing.  Yummy food (hello molcajete bowl, hot dogs and ice-cream), summer reading program at the local library (where I worked in high school), a trip to Target and lots of time with the family & friends.

That's a long row of swinging girls, my
three girls plus a college friend's three girls.

EBean is preparing for her third (and hopefully final) open heart surgery.  This week we met with her amazing cardiologist and, as I type this, she is having a diagnostic cardiac catheterization.  If all goes well, she'll come home tonight.  The current plan is that her surgery will be next Tuesday morning.  

Waiting for our appointment
with the cardiologist.

Blurry picture, but rousing rendition of
"Let It Go".

More summertime goodness.  Frozen yogurt this time!

Classic American moment...drove the SUV to Lowe's
on a Saturday afternoon.

In between appointments and procedures, Jamie and I have been trying to take advantage of being in the same time zone as our house contractor. We're trying to finalize our floor plan and we've begun the monumental task of choosing flooring, cabinets, counter tops, etc.  Too many choices!  Plans for the house keep us from dwelling on ChinaBean's surgery and the surgery keeps up from obsessing about the house, but I don't really recommend people willingly choosing to do both!

June's Highlight Reel

It's been quiet on the blogging front because we've been making lots of American summer memories.  Our family has returned safely to China and we're enjoying our last few weeks before school trying to beat the heat at the pool.

Enjoy our June highlights!

Visiting friends...

The joke was this was the "guest house" at our friend's house.

Playing with cousins...

Camping (in the comfort of an RV, thank goodness for satellite TV and air)...

Every campout needs marshmallows!

Road trip...

No compact car for our family.

Visit to the American Girl Store...

EBean got her new American doll, Julie.

St. Louis with friends from Suzhou...

Waiting to go up to the top of the Arch.

At the Butterfly House.

Tourists in my hometown...

Old Carthage Jail; Carthage, IL

Time with some of my college friends (and all our kiddos)...

Stay tuned for July's memories!

My China Bucket List

We sat down as a family on Sunday night to write our Summer "Bucket List", which is a list of all of the things we hope to do this summer.  I actually extended the deadline to the October Chinese holiday since summer break is so short.

The summer list started some brainstorming for what Jamie and I would put on our "China Bucket List".  A list of all the things we hope to see, do and bring back to the US.  We've been here for 11 months and the time has flown by (well, most days).

Jamie's list included several destinations, which is very true to his personality.

Jamie's Bucket List:
1. Visit Hangzhou - It's known as one of the most beautiful places in China.
2.  Travel to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors
3. Take the family to see the Forbidden City in Beijing. Jamie got to visit during his MBA program, but we have not been as a family yet.
4. See the pandas in Chengdu.
5. Go up in the Pearl Tower in Shanghai.
6. Have some suits made.
7. Learn how to play Mahjong.

My list includes several experiences and mementos, which is in line with my personality.  Don't judge the consumer-driven list!

Kara's Bucket List:
1. To try cupping, where warm cups are placed on your back and the toxins are suctioned out of your body.  It tends to leave some nice round bruises on your back for a while.
2. To have a massage by a blind masseuse.  In China it is very common for the blind to become employed as masseuses.
3.  Pick tea leaves.  My first attempt at what I thought was going to be a tea-picking adventure was a big fail.  I'll blog about that some day.
4. Take the high speed train to Shanghai, just so I can get there in 20 minutes.
5. Have a traditional Chinese qipao made.

LBean when she was almost 2 years old.
Jamie brought this qipao back from his
trip to China during his MBA program.

6. Buy a Jade bracelet and preferably one that is on the bigger side so I don't have to slather on lotion to get it off and on.  Pick out some pearls for our girls to wear on their wedding day (if they want).  Maybe purchase a set of dishes for the girls to use some day.
7. Plan a trip to either Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Sanya or New Zealand.  It would be even better if we could visit them all!
8. Have eyeglasses made here for really cheap.
9. Buy a piece of furniture or have furniture made.
10. Try acupuncture.
11. Have wool or cashmere coats tailor made.  For what a nice coat costs at Kohl's it is possible to have a coat made to my measurements.

I'm sure I'll add more things to my list and we explore more and learn more from our friends here.  What do you have on your bucket list?

And...since tomorrow officially starts our summer break, here are some pictures from the first and last days of school for my girls.

First day

Last day with Mr. Lund!

First day at Casa Dei Bambini.

Last day and still loves the slide!

'Lil Bit of Normal

Last week was, well, kind of normal.  It was nice for a change!  Although this has been a fun adventure so far, I have felt a little short-changed on my summer.  So many of our days have revolved around the move that we haven't had lots of those fun, lazy days of summer.  In the States I loved to have picnics on the porch, take the girls swimming and consume massive amounts of freeze pops.  Last week there was a touch of normal and it was really nice!

We swam in three different pools, met friends (day-old friends that is) to play at an indoor play place and have a picnic lunch, had pizza delivered to a pool with friends (now 2 day-old friends) and swam 'til dark, ate a home (finally), played on the playground, date night, movies and the girls and I got our toes painted.  Just all around nice.

Of course there were some adventures along the way.  Laughing at the three men that came to deliver our hide-a-bed and them telling me in Chinese that it was too big to put in the elevator (2 guys came later to carry it up 27 flights of stairs and slightly disassembled), interviewing and hiring an Ayi (household helper), getting large jugs of water delivered to the apartment (and learning to buy vouchers for more), shopping, introducing our driver to this year's VBS music and trying to learn how to text him using Skype and Google translate.

This week's to do list includes...surviving our first typhoon.

 

LBean and I practicing our cannon balls.
Please no comments on why my splash is bigger than hers!

Our fishy faces

 

Our first piece of mail in China, our address worked!  Thanks Kim!

We got our toes done at Lotus, LBean's were free
since I got my toes done too.  If you look closely
you can see a small white butterfly on her big toe.

This is the life!

My toes, with a flower and leaves painted on the big toe.
I can hear my mom's voice right now, "They look great, but
the color looks like you have a toe fungus."  Green seemed
fun and it reminded me of Chinese jade.  (Love you mom!)