More Crazy Times...

Well, it's been a while. Life is never dull. At the moment, we are packing our boxes, again. Unfortunately, we have had many problems with the current landlord. The flood that happened from a malfunction in the toilet, the end of November, has caused some disputes. The owner refuses to fix the problems unless we (or our company)pay half of the bill, though it is clearly his responsibility in the contract. We tried to be patient, and work things out, but he doesn't want to take responsibility, and insists on forcing the issue. He feels the contract is unfair, and though he says that he doesn't feel it's our fault, he didn't use the toilet, so he believes it isn't his fault either, and we should pay half. He feels that our approach is not the Chinese way, but since he is taking American rent (or more) this is unfortunate. He wants to take our company to arbitration over this, and we told him that if he does this, we will move, so he will not have renters paying rent for the next six months (easily six times the amount of the total repair bill!). It can be difficult to find renters for these houses. Because he has broken his contract by not making repairs in a timely fashion, we can leave without penalty. There is mold under the floor-boards in the girls' room, and we feel it is unhealthy. It has been a very stressful few weeks, especially this last weekend, realizing that he was not going to come around, and that we really were going to have to move. There wasn't much available, and it was hard to find a house best for all of the kids. We were very blessed, and feel we have found a good solution. We will move to Dong Jiao Guest House, a nice complex on Purple Mountain. It isn't too far from school, and it will be a nice place for us. Unfortunately, we will need to move into 2 apartments until sometime in April, when the house becomes available.

Yes, we will be moving, again, this Thursday. Wish us luck! This is short, but there is too much going on for the moment. More to come next week...

Yangshuo, Nanjing, and Beijing

We had a rough start to our trip to Guilin. We were so excited to meet Jared and Kellee, but there was fog, and apparently, there is no taking-off in fog. We would ask them about our flight, and they would tell us it was delayed. When we would ask for a time, they would say,"No time".(???)We waited at the airport from 6:30pm-12:30am when we were finally told we needed to pile on a bus and go to a hotel for the night. We tried to explain that we lived here, and would rather go home and return in the morning. Apparently, that was not a possibility. We were taken to a not so great hotel, where we slept and were to wake-up at 6:00 to go back to the airport, and given a fried egg and hot milk. No worries, they gave us a free meal at the airport on Tuesday evening! (the middle is a sort of bone-soup)




We were worried because we had no way to get in touch with Kellee and Jared. I didn't find out until the next morning, that the driver I had arranged to pick them up somehow (suspiciously) missed them. They found their own hotel, and I finally got in touch with my Dad. I was so relieved to hear they had heard from Kellee and we finally talked to Kellee about 12:30 in the afternoon as we were still sitting in the airport waiting for our plane. At this point I saw an amazing thing...the people on our plane had enough! They were tired of our plane being delayed and got really angry! I thought some of them might hit the airline workers. Suddenly we were on our plane, and heading to Guilin. We got to our Yangshuo hotel at night. Here is the unbelievable surprise we saw out our window the next morning!


We had such a great time in Yangshuo. The first day we rode bikes for 6 hours! Eli was on the back of the tandem, and the rest of us had our own bikes. Jared rode with Eli and was a trouper! Eli did great on the back, and Jay rode by himself. There were beautiful mountains, rice-farms, and beautiful people with a simple life.



One of my favorite sights was this man with his water buffalo. Do you like the pink bow?



Here is a power station. Instead of fencing it for safety, they have hung CPR instructions...



We climbed MOON HILL of course (for Kellee and Jared Moon)!



We saw such gorgeous scenes.



Jay and Eli thought to take a pit stop, but after inspection of the facility changed their minds!



The second day we decided to walk to Dragon Bridge. It was great. We saw so many beautiful things. But, it took us 4 1/2 hours. Even the boys walked the whole way. Oh, a girl offered to take us a pretty route if we payed her 5 yuan, and she let each of the boys sit on her bike as she pushed it for 15 minutes each. This is not Dragon Bridge, but she told us this bridge was built in the 1200's



Kellee, Caitlin, and I got a lesson in making ba bas from some really sweet ladies. It reminded me of cooking together with my mom and sisters when we watched them. They insisted we try some, and let us take pictures. They wouldn't let us pay them.




The last day, we set out for a short bike ride. Our map wasn't very good, and we got lost. After 5 hours of riding all over, seeing small towns that I'm pretty sure have never had foreign visitors, we showed up again, at the Dragon Bridge! It was an adventurous day. We had a great time, and were so proud of the kids. They just kept going, and didn't complain. It was comforting that we knew where we were once we found the little village, but we also knew how far away we were! We had two hours to get back to the hotel if we wanted to eat before our ride came for the airport. Since we hadn't eaten all day, we rode like crazy, and made it just before dark. Here is a picture of Jared helping some of the local workers make cement! I think they thought they were being funny when they asked him, and were shocked when he actually did! (we weren't :)



We all came back and spent a wonderful five days with Kellee and Jared. We had so much fun! We did everything from hiking Purple Mountain, to museums, and of course, shopping. We had a lot of fun introducing them to our favorite restaurants. One of the more entertaining moments was when I took them to get a Chinese massage. The place I normally go changed owners. Boy was I in for a surprise. We decided it should be called a Yoga, rhythm (they slap your back to some great beats), heat, rock, acrobat massage. We laughed for hours afterward! Wan, our ayi, made lots and lots of dumplings for all of us on their last day in Nanjing. They were yummy!






Our first day in Beijing, we went to the great wall. It was gorgeous. We climbed around for about 4 hours! The air was so cold, but the sky was blue. A great day. Luckily, I had already sold Kellee on the Chinese long underwear idea! We stayed in a really fun hotel called a Hutong. Hutongs are the traditional Chinese housing common in Beijing. Many are being torn down for new high-rises. We had a great time touring the Forbidden city, and some other neat places. On my birthday, we went to a Peking Duck for dinner. It was quite good, and they bought dinner for me and even went around the table to say what they loved about me (a family tradition). We had such a wonderful time together. I will never forget



This is the point they wouldn't let anyone go further on the wall due to safety reasons.


Our Hutong used to be the home of a general. Kellee and I wanted to say good-bye to him.

Christmas 2006

We aren't good, but we have fun!


Special cookies for Santa!


Wadley Family Nativity


Our "Thanksgiving Christmas"

What a great few weeks we've had! The children got out of school the week before Christmas. We had a fun week checking out some fun spots in Nanjing. We went to a big indoor playground at a mall (where we were almost the only people there! Chinese students were still in school), a small indoor ice-skating rink, and finished up our Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, Mike had to watch us skate, as they didn't have any skates in his size. I got quite sick the week before Christmas, and the kids were very patient on the days they had to be stuck at home.

Christmas Eve was a great day. We had a one-hour church meeting at our house, and then all ate a ham dinner. We played our traditional (I can say that, since we did the same thing last year) white elephant game, which included a very popular huge box of bananas, a fought-over plate of brownies I added last minute because some people forgot gifts, and a coveted rooster made of sea-shells. Everyone was so excited about the meal, you'd think they'd been eating Chinese food for months or something! Oh, that's right,they have! After everyone left, we decorated our Christmas cookies. Eli was so much fun this year! He made special cookies for Santa. Amazingly, he didn't eat any frosting or candy himself! He layered frosting and skittles to make a very few very tasty-looking cookies! We then had our traditional opening of the love-gifts we exchange with my family each year. That is such a special time. It's great to see what each person does for another. The nativity had a few hitches. First, Eli cried and cried because he wanted to be baby Jesus. He finally gave in, but insisted on being an angel with Caitlin. Eli was on Caitlin's shoulders, and they wrapped a blanket around them. Don't forget the fairy wings. When we put the boys to bed, Eli was so excited he was shaking! He was laying stiff in his bed with his eyes scrunched shut. Jay came into my room at 2:30 and couldn't sleep. We got him back to bed, and Eli came in at 5:30. He climbed in my bed and tried to sleep for an hour. Finally at 6:30, he said,"Mom, I can't sleep anymore. Is it time?" How could we refuse that?

We had the most wonderful Christmas morning. The children were so cute this year. Excited about the gifts they were giving to each other, and really expressing their gratitude with hugs and squeals. We had a nice day, and even fixed a Thanksgiving dinner to share. Some of the kids used their treasured bottle of IBC root beer for their dinner. Others saved theirs. That evening, our friends, Paul and Ginnelle Mullins, and Warren and Julie Baker, traveled through the worst fog in 30 years, here in Nanjing, to visit us. We played a fun game with them. They had really wanted to join in a nativity play with us, but they needed to be quick because of the fog. What a wonderful Christmas. It was so wonderful to get gifts and cards from our family back home. It's wonderful to be missed, and terrible to miss, this time of year!

Looking Forward to a New Week

This week has been a challenge to say the least. It started out Sunday, when we found lice in Jay and Eli’s hair on the way home from church. Well, that changed our Sunday from a relaxing one, into a “getting rid of lice” one. That was no fun! I cut Jays hair really short, and spent over 3 hours on removal from their hair. Then there was the washing of everything, and bagging…you know the routine! It wasn’t fun. Then, they stayed home from school on Monday. Eli certainly won’t let himself get bored! He found plenty to do while at home. Cutting pants and putting my make-up all over himself, are among some of the ideas he had. Tuesday, all were back at school!

Thursday morning, Caitlin and Rachel woke-up to water all over her bedroom floor. She could hear something coming from downstairs. We had a lovely wake-up. We have terrible plumbing, and terrible toilets. Rachel could hear water running, and it was all over her bedroom. (this was 5:00am) We came downstairs, and it was pouring like a waterfall from every light fixture. There was at least 2 inches of water everywhere, clear into the kitchen. I want to say, maybe 30 square yards. Also, we turned off the water from the toilet, and filled more than 10 5 gallon buckets as the ceiling cleared itself out. Did I mention it was pouring all over the entertainment center? The Big screen TV, the Sound system, DVD player...everything. It was lots of work. Apparently, the toilet mechanism didn't work right, and the toilet didn't stop filling. The pipe was clogged further down the drain, and the drain that is in the bathroom didn't work. It wasn't a really great day. I think we will all have a fear of toilets when we leave. Anyway, the owner came on Saturday to offer his kindness to pay half of the bill! So this is the big drama at the moment. I guess we see who has the most stamina! Yesterday, the heater broke, and we were very cold last night. But, they fixed it today. I’m hoping that is our third problem, as they say they come in threes, right? We should be good for at least a week!

Some really nice things happened this week as well. Mike and I were able to see Rachel play in a Basketball game. She did really well. Mike and I were able to celebrate our 16th anniversary. We had a wonderful evening. Caitlin, Jay, and Eli had a fun sleep-over at the school, and Rachel and Nicole had a dance. We are all excited for Christmas. The kids get out of school this Friday, and we will go over-night to Shanghai.

Some Photos...

Happy Birthday Caitlin!










Ready for the Christmas Ball. Doesn't Mike look great?



Cooking with Yulan and her friends

It's December...

We've had a good couple of weeks. The girls survived their semester exams, Mike survived his "company bonding" trip, and Caitlin made it to eleven. Jay and Caitlin have been practicing hard with their circus training. They are actually pretty impressive. Especially Jay with his diablo (no idea how to spell that) which is like a Chinese yoyo. Now, we really will be the Wadley Family Circus. We got our Christmas decorations put up last weekend. We found a really big fake tree, and with all of the decorations and lights, it doesn't look too bad! We had a great time decorating it, and the kids decorated our last year's tree (remember the sad one?) upstairs. Back to Mike and his company trip. They went to an outbound resort, or that's what it called itself. He wasn't excited to sleep in the very short beds, and eat the very chinese meals. Anyway, he said it turned out good. One funny moment, was when he thought he was telling his Chinese co-workers he was too fat: Tai Peng le! Instead, he was saying: Tai Bang le, which means, " I'm really great!" Well, they kept agreeing with him, and when he found out he was saying how great he was, he was so embarrassed!!!

Caitlin had a nice birthday. Mike and I took her to dinner on Wednesday night, to a Lebonese restaraunt. Not your typical 11 year old choice! Things are different here. Anyway, it was fun. She is growing up so much. She had her traditional spaghetti dinner on Thursday (although, I have now been taught by my Italian friend, how to make Ragu Bolognaise...how official!) and Brownies with a chocolate chip cookie dough frosting. I'm still sick from the richness of it all. She got a rasor scooter, and a handmade Teddy that looks just like Mr. Bean's bear. Eli gave her a special gift: He asked her if she wanted a foot massage (he hears us talking about foot massages a lot as they are so cheap here!) for her birthday. She said, sure, and he gave her a very vigorous back massage with his feet!

Mike and I got a phone call at 1:30 am this week! It was my brother Todd, announcing his engagement to Jennifer. We are so excited for him! Now that I have seen a picture, I have to say,"Way to go, Oggie!" I am so excited to meet her.

Yesterday, my friend Yulan brought over a bunch of her classmates from the Chinese School of Medicine. They were very excited to learn some baking. They wanted to make an apple cake, some cookies, and some muffins. There were eight of them. They were all so much fun, and enthusiastic! I had a great afternoon. They want to come back and learn some savory dishes next time.

Last night was the young women sleep-over here at our house. I think they had fun. It is now Saturday morning, and they have been busy in the kitchen making every kind of pancake you can imagine.

Tonight is the expat Christmas Ball. I am excited for it, as I will get my husband to dance with me! It's fun to dress-up, too! I'll post a picture.

Well, Nanjing is getting colder, though not unbearable yet. The kids are looking forward to Christmas, and we all can't wait for Kellee and Jared to get here the day after.

We're back!

Nicole, on her 7Th grade trip...yummy! OK, more pretty than tasty.
"Look, it's a rare form of crow!" "Oh my! How educational!"

Additionally,Rachel and Nicole each discovered on their trip, that not all budas are fat!
Happy Birthday to Rachel!

Just driving down the street next to this guy...









I have not been able to get on my blog for almost a whole month! I'm so glad to be back! Here are a few things that have gone on while I've been away...

Rachel and Nicole went on their trips the first week of November. They each had a very memorable time. They came back with loads of photos, and some really fun stories. A couple of highlights we heard about: Rachel was the dumpling queen; eating the most dumplings out of all of the girls...17 dumplings. Mike was quite proud. The boy with the most ate 30 something. She also spent one evening ill (not the same evening as the dumpling contest) and made what was described as a "spectacular display" of vomit all over the bathroom floor. She really enjoyed seeing the Shaolin Monks, and visiting a martial arts school. She was quite amazed that they study martial arts for 7 hours a day, and then work on regular studies. She also stood on the mountain that is the "central point" of China. Nicole also had a great trip. They went to a small water town that she really enjoyed, and wants to take us there. Learning about the tea farms was not on her highlights list, though they did walk for a very long time to get there, and she has footage of a funny man teaching them all about tea. They also went to an amusement park, which I am a bit scared to think about. I sometimes feel worried about the mechanics in America, let alone here. All in all, I think they had wonderful trips. We were glad to have them home.

Rachel's 14Th birthday was on the 9Th of this month. Yes, we are getting old. She had a nice birthday. She wanted soup and a cake for her dinner. She got a digital camera that she has wanted for so long. She has been taking photos ever since! I took her and her two closest friends to dinner and for foot massages on that Friday night. We had a great time.

I had an experience recently that really sums up how things seem to work quite often, here in China. I was helping with a charity fundraiser, and having some place mats made. I bought trim at the fabric market, where the vendor told me there were 50 meters per spool. I paid per meter. Well, of course, there were only 25 meters per spool. I had to go back for more. I asked my driver to come and help me. I explained to him what it was for, and how she had cheated me the week before. We certainly knew she wouldn't just "give" us the rest, but hoped to get a cheap price for the amount we needed to buy. He played their friendly argument game for over 10 minutes, and finally got the cheaper price. He saved me 50 yuan. When we went out to the car, he had a parking ticket. Guess for how much???? YUP 50yuan!

We were driving home from church the other day, and saw a man with about 3 or 4 skinned animal carcases tied to the back of his motorcycle. Rachel got a photo (she always has her camera with her). The kids asked the driver what kind of meat it was, and he told us it was dog. Beat that in a grosser than gross joke! We were all disgusted and sad for the dogs, but couldn't act the part too much, because our driver feels it is a delicious specialty. Only served spice, of course.

One of the facts of life, here in China, is terrible plumbing, and constantly plugged up toilets. As all of our husbands had an over-night management conference last night, my two friends, Ginnelle and Julie, and I had a "girls night". They came over after the boys went to bed, and we snacked and visited. Just as they were getting ready to leave, Rachel came down and said the bathroom was flooded! I told them to run home while they could, but of course, they refused. The lucky girls got to watch me stand there in bare feet in two inches of toilet water, trying to unplug the bathroom drain, and unsuccessfully plunge the toilet. I think they were having trouble standing, they were laughing so hard. The best part is that Julie, had never heard of a plunger (how has she made it this long in China without one?). Well, one plungers was cracked, and the other turned inside out. Ginnelle was amazed, telling us she'd never seen anyone who had worn out their plunger before. Just as I was about to give up, Ginnelle found one more plunger in one of the bathrooms, and I tried one more time. It was a good plunger, but I was not! We finally asked Julie's driver to come in and help. After a long try, it finally worked! We were all so happy (of course, they didn't have to stand in the liquid). No worries, Julie brought me some paper towels to stand on so I could slide to the other bathroom and wash my feet and hands. I think the highlight of the evening for them, was when they found Rachel's camera, and took play by play photos! They wondered if they could come back next week for more excitement. They said they won't forget their cameras next time. What they didn't know, was if they'd just stayed a while longer, they could have seen Eli's vomit production! I think Mike arranged his "meeting" accordingly! And no, I'm not posting photos of the "potty party".

Well, this is getting really long. I am hoping that we will have better luck with the website and I won't have to wait so long in between! We love you all, and hope your holidays are wonderful!!!

October 29, 2006

Some Photos from the race last Saturday...

This is our picture of the TV tower. Eli is on Mike's shoulders.

We are professional Tai Chi people.
For the Race, we were supposed to find something very unique for 10 yuan and get a photo with the seller. He did not want his photo, and everyone around us thought it was so funny.

Here is our driver, Jiang, imitating our special "antique market" purchase.
We were supposed to have a creative photo taken in front of the Nanjing Lion Statue. We found a grounds-cleaner, and he got us, but not the lion.(???)
We needed a silly photo with at least 30 bikes. Not hard to find.





This last week, I’ve had computer problems, again! I wasn’t able to upload photos to my blog page. I’ll try to re-cap a bit of what went on. Last Saturday morning, there was a school activity. I had signed the family up to participate, and it sounded like a good idea, until we had to get up and be there by 8:00am that morning! Well, it was a “Race, Around Nanjing”. We were given a map, and a list of places and tasks to fulfill at these places. We were to leave at 8:00am and return no later than 1:00pm. We really had a fun time, and actually found some places that we had never been. One of the sights was the old International School. It was fun for the kids to see where it used to be. I think they were very glad that they have a nice new school. The old one wasn’t so nice. We had Nicole’s friend Maggie with us. We did really well, and although the boys started to niggle (a new word I learned from my Aussie friends) each other toward the end, it turned out great. We ended up with third place, and, lucky us, we won some gift certificates to McDonalds. We gave one to Maggie and the rest to our driver. We figured he did most of the work, anyway.

Rachel and Nicole are heading out today and tomorrow to their trip-weeks with their school classes. Rachel went to Xi’an and Nicole will leave tomorrow to Hongzhou. They are very excited, and are both taking cameras, so I’m sure I’ll have some fun pictures to put on the blog.

On Friday night, was the school Halloween party. I don’t know how we got ourselves into this, but we were in charge of a story room for the middle and high school. Yes, it is impossible to find a story that will actually scare that age-group without going an evil route. So, Mike and I used the startle-factor instead. We were in a sound-proof band room, and we covered the instruments and drums with black cloth. Mike told the “Hook” story about a young high-school couple and a killer with a hook. Well, it wasn’t really that scary, but it was dark, and I was hiding behind some instruments and we would scream as loud as we could at the end. We did this over and over for an hour and a half. Our throats were so sore at the end! Most of the kids weren’t scared, but they were good sports. The middle-school boys had to act tough and all made a point that they were NOT scared, but the best groups were the Korean girls. They were hilarious! I swear they were scaring themselves. They would scream and whimper the whole time. Mike could hardly even get them to come into the room! He had to tell them at the end, that the story wasn’t real. Anyway, Mike was a good sport, and it was much less work than a haunted house!

Eli turns 5 this week. I can’t believe he is growing up so fast! He has asked for Cheeseburgers for his birthday dinner. He also requested a transformer cake, but I talked him into a chocolate bat. Happy Birthday Eli!

A Few More Indonesia and Singapore Pics...

The view from our back patio at Club Med.
Here, Mike is standing at the base, I mean on the base, of a tree in Bintan.


The boys loved riding the elephant one afternoon.

At the Singapore Aquarium, Rachel and I get cuddly with a Japanese Crab.
Our guide took our photo at the Aquarium. The kids had a great time. They had some neat animals.

Photos From Trip

The three girls get kisses!



Eli dancing with the dolphin.
Here is the pier in Bintan.
Here is a group-shot of the trapeze performers.
Rachel, Nicole, and Caitlin were in a fashion show.
Lonnie's favorite spot.
A really big lizard-over 2 feet
I'm king of...this big rock!
The kids had such a wonderful time.

My man at the beach
This is little India
.Nicole will probably kill me for putting this in, but she spilled her curry on her lap. It didn't really look like that...