Our hotel had these vases on display up on our floor. I fell in love with them! I searched the gift shop in vain for something similar, but had no luck. So this is a request for anyone who can spin on a potter's wheel: I'd love to commission you to make me some vases like this, please!
Since it took us LONGER than anticipated to reach Sun Moon Lake, we decided just to hang out at our hotel for the rest of the day. We stayed at the Fenisia and it is definitely the best family hotel we have ever stayed at! This is our beautiful view of the lake from our balcony.
We had a BALL at the indoor children's playground!
The playroom had a library full of kids' books, a computer lab, but our favorite was the ball pit with 2 full walls of floor-to-ceiling (tall ceilings too) play structures with the 3rd wall being all windows to see the lake from.
I love to see such happy smiles of pure enjoyment on my children's faces!
The hotel didn't just have a pool, they had a whole water world! There were 6 different areas: hot tub and cool tub by the saunas, lap pool, fountain pool, water slide pool, and hydrotherapy pool filled with oodles of jacuzzi chairs and loungers to sit on under water complete with their own jets. (They also had an enchanted spring that were male/female nude hot spring pools, but we didn't even venture there.) Needless to say, we all loved our little water world! After a while though, the water got a "bit cool" and the hot tub was a "bit hot". I came back and had a soak in my "just right" Japanese-style tub. We also had the fanciest toilet I have ever used in my life- complete with heated seat, bidet washer, and air dryer. It seriously had an electronic control panel on the side of it- hilarious, but comfy! It sure beats the "squatters" you find at most public restrooms here- ha! I also have to mention that we were each given a Japanese robe and flip-flops upon check-in. We wore these over our swimsuits to the pool. It was fun to see our fellow guests wearing them at the restaurant and all over the hotel!
We ate dinner at their buffet restaurant. It mainly had Asian food with some green salad, french fries, and ice cream for their Western fair. I took a slice of their gourmet pizza and after the first bite I knew it was seafood flavor. It actually was pretty tasty until I came to the very last bite. I looked down to see a piece of tentacle (octopus or squid I wasn't sure) with its little suction cups staring back at me. I sat there for several minutes debating whether to eat it or not. I finally took the last bite and once I let go of my fears, it wasn't bad either. It was actually a lot firmer than I expected. I know I've eaten squid before but this tasted a lot different, so now I can say I've eaten octopus too!
Our first four days of spring break were filled with rain. The kids did have fun play days though with Makenna, Abby, Julia, and Sophie each day. Len had Friday off for Tomb Sweeping Day, and since we are fresh air junkies we decided to escape the concrete jungle that is Taipei and head to Sun Moon Lake. We had a fabulous time and I will make posts of our little adventures. But it took us 6 hours to drive 160 miles! (Last year we took the high-speed train to Kaohsiung, but now we know that this is the most traveled weekend of the year here, so maybe next year we'll fly to Kenting.) During that LONG time on the road I thought of some things that I don't have pictures of, but that I want to remember, so here goes:
I had us each choose 2 CD's to help us pass the time. The big kids still quarreled and the parents still lost their tempers and Gavin hated his carseat, but for the most part we all did pretty well traveling through the parking lot of the freeway. Anyway, here's another list of the CD's we brought and I was wondering what's your favorite music to listen to on road trips?
Len= U2, The best of 1980-1990; Dido, Life for Rent.
Jen= U2, The best of 1990-2000; Fiona Apple, Tidal.
Kaleb= Jim Valley, Friendship Train; Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Jams.
Noe= High School Musical Soundtrack; High School Musical 2 Soundtrack.
Gavin= Kindermusik, Cock-a-doodle-MOO; Inside Out, Sharing Time.
Len is now in Thailand for work, and I'm already planning our next trip!
It's time for my first give-away on the blog!!! Why now, you ask? Because...
Here's what the lucky winner will receive:
A miniature qipao bag. It has pockets in the front and back that are perfect for keeping your cell phone, chapstick, whatever little treasure, handy in your purse or your favorite gal's purse.
A little Year of the Rat figurine. Fun if you were born in the year of the rat (1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996) or if you know a baby being born this year!
A solid brass key chain shaped like an ancient Chinese coin. It also has a handy clip.
A jade bead and Chinese knot bracelet. It expands and contracts to fit the size of your wrist.
10 pairs of sandalwood chopsticks. Great for hosting your next Chinese food dinner party.
I had fun shopping for these prizes and if you'd like to win them, simply click on "Comments" under this post and say hi! Sign up at blogger.com and you can leave comments without having to create your own blog. It's free and easy. I'll draw the winner next Thursday. Happy playing!
I learned this poem back in 6th grade and somehow it's stuck with me all these years. I thought it was appropriate to share today, so here goes:
One bright day in the middle of the night
Two dead men got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other
One deaf policeman heard this noise
And he came and killed these boys
If you don't believe this lie that's true
Ask the blind man he saw it too!
Back when I was a freshman at BYU I had the funnest April fool's day of my life. After I woke up and showered I went to get dressed. My roommates had taken ALL of my clothes out of my closet. I walked down to the kitchen to see what was up and there they all were eating breakfast wearing my clothes, I just had to laugh. That afternoon our FHE sisters (who were also our best friends) came over and stole all of our silverware. I'll never forget the image of Melissa eating a bowl of cereal with a huge ladle. Later on Diane scooped out the cream from OREO's and replaced it with white toothpaste. She then went around sharing with everyone (luckily her roommates were spared her generosity- but now I love the new mint OREO's!) The best joke though was from later that night. Len and I were going out on a date. He normally picked me up at my dorm, but I offered to meet him at his dorm as I had made him a chocolate cake that I wanted to drop off there. I arrived in his lobby with a plate holding an upside down circle cake pan slathered in thick creamy chocolate frosting. Len came down, started drooling at the sight of the cake, and took it back upstairs to his room. He came back down and we started our date. I kept waiting for him to say something about his cake, but he never did. After our date he walked me back home, then headed back to his place. About 5 minutes later I get a phone call and he says, "I bet you think you're so funny!" Yep, I did. He was so anxious to sink into his cake, but his fork struck metal and that was the end of that. He said he did scrape all of the frosting off the pan though. So he sort of got a treat still. Fun memories!
This morning on our way to church we listened to our CD of the songs for the Primary Program this year. When we got to "Called to Serve" I hear Noe singing along and laughing at herself. I listened to what she was saying, and when she got to the line "sons and daughters, children of a king" she was saying "Joseph, Mary, chicken ala king!" What a silly goose!
As our reward for cleaning hard yesterday, we went to Core Pacific City's Living Mall. It's downtown, so a good drive away, but it is by far my favorite mall in Taipei. It follows the "American" style floor plan where each company has it's own store. Many of the malls here have the "Japanese" style floor plan where there are no walls in between stores, kind of like the old outdoor markets, they're just inside. Anyway, I particularly chose this mall because my friend Jocelyn told me that there was a poster of Gavin up there. Of course, we had to go find it! (There was also a cute poster of her son Jack, and many others of friends from church and school.)
Gavin was so excited to see himself so big. Of course, he may not have even realized it was him, but he was squealing at the picture. This ad is for Les Enphants.
After we get done taking his picture, I look up at the Osh Kosh store next door, and lo & behold there's a poster of Noe too. This shoot was a fun day because all 3 of the little boys who worked with her are our friends- Eli, Sam, & Oscar!
After we found Noe's poster I wanted to find one of Kaleb, but we didn't this time. However, at one of the shoe stores they were playing the DVD of the fashion show they were in last year. Kaleb & Noe had fun climbing Jack's beanstalk though.
After all our window shopping, the kids wanted to go for a ride. I love these animals! You put in 5 tokens (worth about $0.75 US) and you actually drive these animals all around the mall, wherever you want for 5 minutes. I told Leonard that I wanted to go for a ride myself. Maybe that will be our next date night?
While I was scrubbing the shower earlier, I hear Leonard say "does that look like paper?" 'Oh dear', I think, 'what have the kids colored on now?' I go to investigate and this is what I found: Noe's name written many times, in marker, all over her wall! That little stink! The girl loves Eloise- Eloise books, Eloise movies, Eloise cartoons, and little Miss Eloise has her name written on her bedroom wall. Hmmm, I wonder if that's where Noe got the idea?
She was very repentant and promised she wouldn't do it again. I told her she wasn't in trouble, but that we'd have to buy some paint and she'd have to help us paint over it. She was all smiles then.
Now Kaleb, is usually our little rule-enforcer. Not that he always follows the rules, but he lets us know if someone else isn't. During Noe's little lecture he was quiet as a mouse though. Upon further inspection I found his signature on the wall as well. Another little stink! Gavin watched the whole drama unfold and was quite entertained with all of us. But as Kaleb typed earlier, "I love you crassy familie (crazy family)." Me too, bud!
I don't know if spring cleaning is different than day-to-day cleaning at your house, but it is at ours! And that's what we've been doing today. Len vacuumed all of our floors (moving all the furniture to get underneath and included all the baseboards) and washed all of the windows (on the inside, we do live on the 8th floor). I dusted all of our furniture and scrubbed all 3 bathrooms top to bottom. I love our jacuzzi tub, but let me tell you I hate to clean it. The jets get disgusting and it's so hard to get into all the little nooks and crannies where mold loves to grow- sick! However, I love that all 4 of our shower/tubs have detachable shower heads. After scrubbing everything down they make rinsing it all a snap!
While I was cleaning I was reflecting on how my life in Taiwan is very surreal. How does this relate to cleaning you ask? I'll tell you. Most of my friends back home do not have domestic helpers. Most of my friends here do! Many have full-time live-in helpers that help with the cooking, cleaning, child-care, grocery shopping, etc. Many have part-time helpers that come 1-3 times a week, etc. I have to admit that I have been very tempted to get a helper myself. However, the lure of buying our first home when we move back to Canada has kept me saving all our spare pennies. And it actually felt great today- working hard scrubbing, feeling the fresh breeze come in through the open windows, and hearing all the sweet birds chirping in the trees. Everything looks all sparkly now and smells great too! Another surreal moment though- as I mentioned earlier, I have a jacuzzi tub! Even though I look forward to "real" life back in Canada, I will definitely miss many of the "surreal" things of our life here.
Now to reward our hard work, we're going to do one of my favorite pastimes and go shopping at the mall!
If you read my silly cleaning post, please tell me your opinion on the age-old debate: Is it better to dust first, and then vacuum. OR- Vacuum first and then dust? Happy cleaning everyone!
I love to read! However, I am not good at pacing myself like I used to be. In college I would read a chapter a day or at most an hour each day of pleasure reading. Now- once I start, I can't stop until I'm done. Yesterday I grabbed this book off the bookcase and today I finished it. It was another international mystery, but this time it took place in Venice instead of Barcelona. It was a quick, enjoyable read. I have to share the story about how I bought this book though. Noe and I were out on a date back in January. We went to Chili's for dinner and afterwards we went down to FNAC to check out their newest selection of books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, etc. There was a table full of books that all had a sticker with 66 followed by a Chinese character on them. I thought it was an awesome sale advertising that all the books were $66NT (about $2 US). I looked through all the titles and chose a dozen. When I went to the cash register the first book rang up at a substantially higher amount. The cashier must have read the confusion on my face. Oh I wish I could speak and read Chinese! Luckily, she could speak a little English. She told me the sticker was advertising the books to be on sale at only 66% of the original price. Not 66% off, 34% off. Not such a good sale afterall. I told her I wanted to go through my books again. I got over my embarassment and put half of the books back. I still spent more than I had originally planned, but since I can't use the library like I used to, I figure it was money well spent after all.
My favorite Easter Eggs- blue, pink, and green!
We had a great Easter weekend! On Saturday we went to the Hedquist's super fun Easter party. The kids had so much fun at the Easter egg hunt, and the ham dinner was such a treat! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. We had a full day that started with a birthday party, Kaleb & Len's basketball game, and then the Easter party. My original plan was to go home and get it before hand, but we ended up not having time. I'm sad to say that this was my kids' very first Easter egg hunt. We'll have to do it again next year, and I won't forget my camera!
Sunday morning the kids were happy to discover that the Easter bunny had come! He brought some candy eggs, some new clothes, some books, and some little toys. I had wanted to take some pictures outside with the pretty spring flowers, but it had rained and was too soggy out. Hopefully we'll get another chance before it gets too hot out.
We had a beautiful sacrament meeting full of Easter music and narration. I am so grateful for that first Easter morn that brought the miracle that we can all be resurrected and forgiven of our sins. I'm reminded of a saying, "without Easter there would be no point to Christmas." I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me...
After church we were fortunate again, to have another delicious ham dinner at the Buhler's. I really miss our extended family, especially during the holidays. Easter snuck up on me this year and I just wasn't prepared to invite anyone over here. I'm grateful for the sweet friends we have that invited us into their lovely homes. Spending time with our family and friends is what makes the holidays special for me.
This is a little craft I taught at last year's Enrichment meeting. I pulled out my old school scrapbook and tole painting supplies and was happy to get it done last year. This year I looked at it some more and I think it's kind of cute. Now I want to go back to IKEA and get more plain frames and make one up for each of the holidays. Another project?! I'll get it done eventually! I hope you all had a very happy Easter!
