Sunday, August 31, 2008
The bubble bust
We were in Target tonight and everytime Eliana would blow a bubble, Karys would pop it.
I told Eliana it was good that she had a little flat nose. Otherwise, Karys would give her one.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tough girls
The point of return
Years ago, three little girls celebrating the anniversary of their adoption on the sandy beach at Plum Island dreamed of taking a big trip, perhaps to New York, when they were old enough to drive.
The girls are 16 now, and they have made a big journey. Instead of going to New York, however, they traveled to China this summer to volunteer in the orphanage in Wuhan that took them in when their birth parents abandoned them as infants. For two weeks Jenna Cook, Zoe Guastella, and Nona Morse helped children with disabilities and taught the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” to kindergartners learning English. They gave swimming lessons and dance classes and strengthened their connection to the country where they were born.
“I’ve always wanted to give back,” said Cook, who lives in Newburyport with her mother, godmother, and 12-year-old sister, also adopted from China. “I always wanted to thank the people at the orphanage for taking such good care of me. I wanted to show them that when the babies go away they’re not gone for good.”
Read the entire article from the Boston Globe and then watch the slideshow of the girls’ amazing trip.
Word of caution: You might want to have some kleenex handy.
{extended}Friday, August 29, 2008
Smell my feet
This little teaser is trying to get me to smell her stinky feet.
McCain/Palin ‘08
Holy cat wings, Batman
We all react differently to stress, but some species react very differently.
Fox News reports that a cat in China recently “sprouted a pair of fur-covered wings on his back.” One cat owner, known only as Feng, believes the wings grew “as a result of stress from too many females desiring to mate with him. At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings.”
Thursday, August 28, 2008
You are an obsession
I lost around 10 pounds during my hospital stay because I simply didn’t feel like eating much for the first 5-6 days.
Now there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that I’m almost back up to my pre-hospital weight.
The bad news is that I’m almost back up to my pre-hospital weight.
It couldn’t have a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g to do with my obsession for Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream before bedtime every night.
Chinese TV viewers lost and fussy after Olympics
I feel the same way.
Since the closing of the Olympics, many Chinese viewers who had been glued to the live broadcast of the Games over the past 17 days were feeling lost and prone to whining, according to psychological and educational experts.
Psychologists noted many viewers, who might still be obsessed with the sporting events, were unable to make a quick shift of their daily focus away from the Olympics to their pre-Games routine after the fast pace of the long-awaited Olympiad.
Lin Ye, a Shanghai-based psychological consultant, said clinical experience showed sports fans were prone to undergo a period of depression in the wake of major international sports events, such as the Olympics and the World Cup.
Through watching the same match, TV viewers and their families shared fun and excitement so that their home atmosphere became better; they temporarily forgot about worries in their work, he said.
When the Olympics ended on Sunday, they had to return to normal life and face the worries in their work, but often they were unable to adjust their mood so quickly, said Ye, who called this phenomenon “the Olympic Syndrome.”
Psychological and educational experts said white-collar employees and students were among those seriously affected by the syndrome. These groups had often chosen to spend as much time as possible watching the Games by cutting time for sleep and eating.
Yang Xiaowei, a researcher on primary education at the East China Normal University, suggested those affected by “the Olympic Syndrome” could participate in more outdoor activities and make more friends to turn their attention away from TV.
In addition, they should reschedule their time and have more rest, she said.
China’s churches facing leader shortages
The dramatic rise of Christianity in the People’s Republic of China is severely straining the resources of Chinese churches in order to meet the spiritual needs of the people.
Some Chinese Christian leaders believe that theological training and education have not kept up the pace of the church’s rapid growth.
Read the entire article at CBN News.
{extended}Introducing the fortune cookie to China
A lady named Jennifer 8. Lee (whose middle initial is Chinese for prosperity) is a metropolitan reporter at The New York Times. She recently wrote a book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles which traces the incredible history of Chinese food in the United States.
Did you know that fortune cookies are NOT a Chinese invention?
As part of the research for her book, Jennifer went around China handing out fortune cookies to random people and recorded their reactions.
Here’s a small sampling:
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What are you thankful for this week?
An annual program was presented at church tonight to recognize all the children and teachers who participated in this year’s Wednesday night missions programs.
The Mission Friends class (birth to 5 years old) started things off. The teachers called the name of each child and presented the child with a certificate.
Before leaving the stage, the teacher bragged about Karys a little.
The teacher mentioned how shy and reserved Karys was at the beginning of the year but how happy and outgoing she is now. The teacher also said that every Wednesday they ask the children, “What are you thankful for this week?” Without fail, Karys always enthusiastically says, “Mommy, Daddy, God and my sissy”.
{extended}Chinese gymastics team
I saw this editorial cartoon about the Chinese gymastics team in a newspaper today and thought it was funny.
Gold medal winners to get hefty bonuses
China’s Olympic gold medalists will each get a tax-free bonus of 350,000 yuan ($51,000), almost double that paid out after the 2004 Athens Games, local media reported Tuesday.
The awards are 150,000 yuan more than those given to Chinese champions in Athens and a massive increase on the 6,000 yuan paid after the 1984 Los Angeles Games, at which China won 15 golds, the Beijing News reported yesterday, citing Xiao Shan, deputy head of the General Administration of Sports.
China won 51 golds, more than any other nation, at the Games. In some team events, such as the synchronized diving, each athlete on the team received a medal. Every medalist will be rewarded, Xiao said.
This amount, however, is a fraction of the cost of winning each medal.
The average government investment in each gold medal was around 15.7 million yuan a year, Liu Peng, the country’s sports chief, said on Sunday.
The calculation is based on the 51 gold medals won in 2008 being the fruit of an annual government sports investment of 800 million yuan, he said.
China’s unprecedented gold medal haul will not affect post-Olympics government spending on sports, Liu said
The sports sector would be allocated 800 million yuan annually from sports-oriented lotteries, he said.
Bonuses for Olympian medal-winners are nothing new.
Greece plans to offer around 190,000 euros ($280,000) for Beijing Games gold medals, 130,000 euros for silver and 70,000 euros for bronze medals.
Kenya offers cash, a TV and a washing machine, according to media reports.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Talkin’ smack
Eliana put down her Nintendo DS this evening to watch a movie so I picked up the DS and started to play me some Mario Kart.
I made the mistake a few days ago of telling Eliana that I would have to buy my own DS and then we could play against each other. So now we have a 6-year-old talkin’ smack in the house.
I’m sittin’ there playing and not doing very well when Eliana pipes up and says in THAT tone of voice, “Dad. Do you want me to help?”
“No!”
“C’mon Dad…let me help.” She starts reaching for the console.
“I don’t need help!”, I snarled.
“You’re not very good at that, Dad.”
“Well honey, it’s not like I play this thing all the time.”
There was a pause of a few seconds as she continued to watch. Then she said it…
“I’m gonna beat you so bad when we race each other.”
Monday, August 25, 2008
First day of 1st grade
Today was the first day of school so the Empress is officially a first grader.
Carmi and I walked in with Eliana who is sporting a new Kung Fu Panda backpack this year. She was glued to Carmi’s leg practically the entire time and didn’t even want to cooperate for a picture.
It was pretty anticlimactic really.
{extended}