Not Every Day is Rainbows and Sunshines

Date: January 5, 2015

Mood: Content

Weather: Overcast and Cool

Listening to: sounds of home... the fan, dh on his iPad, a kitty meowing at the door

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

Today was one of those days where you almost wish you could go back to a certain point and ask for a do over. My classes went fine this morning, despite the less than stellar scores my students were earning for themselves on their 3-part mock speaking test. (Grrrrr It's really frustrating to see them failing so epically when if they'd just pay attention in class every day they could be getting excellent scores. But I digress...) It was between classes though, at lunch time, when everything kind of went to pot.

We had some upper level administrators visiting our school from a school back in the States. (They were here to tour our school facilities and to give a presentation about an online dual educational program they are promoting. Don't even get me started on what I think of that idea. haha) So, there was a big meeting/presentation thing that most of the classes went to, mine excluded because of their test being scheduled for today. And after the event was finished the local school administrators invited all of the attending foreign teachers (which equated to dh and mil) to a mini banquet with the US admins and admins from surrounding area schools. However, because my boss had me keep my students back for testing today, I didn't get invited.

You might think this is an easy to ignore oversight, but it really hurt my feelings. Maybe if it was a one off thing it wouldn't have. But I'm usually the one person out of the four foreign teachers here, that doesn't get invited to special engagements like this. Dh says it's not the case and that I'm misinterpreting a select few situations. Perhaps that is the case, but it doesn't seem like it. It just seems like they prefer him, his mother, and the other American teacher here to me. Perhaps that is actually the case. Who's really to say? (The third foreign teacher didn't attend today because he doesn't have classes on Monday.)

Anyhow, when I finished my morning classes and went to my dh for lunch in the canteen he couldn't go because he was already indisposed of in the administrators luncheon. I was supposed to be given a free pass so I could at least eat lunch in the canteen by myself for free, but the person responsible for giving me the pass wasn't advised until last minute herself and was completely unaware and without any. That left me either going home or quietly interrupting dh to get our lunch card from him. This is what I opted to do, but when I snuck in the room and saw just how many people were present, including mil- again, it felt like a punch to the stomach.

Stupid, I'm sure. But I've spent so many years being excluded from things in my social life that I am probably overly sensitive to this particular issue. Which is why as soon as I asked dh for the card I promptly decided I didn't even want to eat alone and just wanted to go back home. I felt bad enough, still when dh came home over an hour later, he said many of the people thought I was upset or something was wrong. I was and there was, to me, yet I wasn't aware I'd made any kind of indication of such while there. The fact that I came and went apparently made some of the other people in the room think something was wrong, and that retroactively made me embarrassed to the point of tears. So, yeah, all stupid stupid stuff which I would have gladly taken a do over to avoid. Eiyah.

My afternoon classes went well though and I was able to put the lunchtime hour drama behind me. I really enjoy my students and they never fail to put a smile on my face. Taught one of my students a new idiom/phrase today too. She was feeling low about doing badly on a couple of questions she'd be given on another teacher's homework or something, so I introduced her to the phrase “Don't beat yourself up over it.” She really seemed to like this phrase, and I'm hoping she'll both enjoy including it in her future vocabulary as well as take it's meaning to heart in the here and now.

Because the weather was so unseasonably warm and beautiful, we took a long family walk this evening. Enjoyed a chicken sandwich from a little copy KFC down the road and picked up a tasty pearl milk tea and some fruit at the market before coming home to watch My Blue Heaven with the kiddos. I guess it's safe to say that the day ended up turning out okay. Maybe I don't want a do over afterall. :)

A Day Late, But It's Not My Fault

 ***NOTE: THIS IS MY JANUARY 4TH POST, BUT DUE TO INTERNET CONNECTIVITY ISSUES I'VE BEEN HAVING, I COULDN'T GET THIS UP ONLINE IN TIME FOR THE BLOGGER.COM ISSUED  JANUARY 4 TIME STAMP. DOH!***

 

Date: January 4, 2015

Mood: Tired

Weather: Cool and cloudy

Listening to: Alive by Gravity Kills

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

I haven't quite figured out the point of the holiday scheduling this school does. Anytime there is time off school for a holiday or some event during the M-F week the school almost always makes all the students and teachers come back for classes the following Sunday. That means a 6 day school week. And they say it's so the students can make up their classes, but there is undoubtedly always one day's worth of classes that slips through the cracks. So what method is used to determine the more important day of classes?

So following the New Year's holiday of Thursday/Friday off school, class is back in session today. I don't know if it was because we had classes or just because it was a long weekend and we spent part in HK, but today just hasn't felt like Sunday. Even some of the students were off because I had one ask why we weren't in the computer lab for our Monday lessons. The answer was, of course, because it was Sunday and we were having Friday's class period.

Dh and I took the bus, after school, down the road a few miles to the wet market and grocery store to pick up a few things. Usually Sunday the buses and shops are packed, yet today they weren't. I really do think that despite the calendar new year not being as big a deal here as February's Chinese New Year that this holiday weekend threw lots of people off. lol

Was excited this evening to discover that the Udon noodles dh and I have been looking all over for are indeed available here in our town. We looked at several shops last week, including Walmart, but were unsuccessful in finding any so ended up buying a bunch in HK over the weekend to bring back. Will be nice to have one less thing to have to shop for in and carry back from Hong Kong. Now if they'd just start offering a bigger selection of cheeses locally! (They do have cheese; however, the selection is very basic here in our town. There are other shops around China that offer a larger selection also though, just have to travel to find it. Which isn't really any different than just shopping for it in HK when we are there.)

Enjoyed a Western dinner tonight. Several months back dh picked up a couple of jars of alfredo sauce when he was in HK and he'd had them stashed ever since. Tonight we decided to live life on the edge and make alfredo noodles with hamburger, mushrooms, and onions. Mmm It turned out really yummy.

Lazy Day

Date: January 3, 2015

Mood: Lazy

Weather: Sunny

Listening to: nothing.... just enjoying the quiet for a change

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

Today has been another completely uneventful day. I had aspirations of getting out and going to the computer market to buy one of those big trapper-keeper like things that people store their CDs in. I want one for all the girls' DVDs because the cats keep knocking them all down in their current haphazard stacked state. Not only does this cause a epic eye sore of a mess, but I'm also afraid of the discs getting scratched or boogered up. If I get the storage folder thing we can put all the discs in there and then stash all the cases in the cupboard where the cats can't bother them. (The space isn't very good for storing the DVDs as is because you can't see them all and would have to take them out to look at them.)

But, yeah, my aspirations never made it further than that. I sat here all day, pretty much being as lazy as could be. Dh and I decided to watch the much talked about new Sony movie The Interview. Wow, what a terrible, horrible, awful, stupid funny flick! I'm not sure what I think about all the hoopla surrounding the release of this one because on one hand you've got them saying the someone, likely North Korea, hacked into Sony to get leverage on them to prevent them from debuting this movie. And then there were the terroristic threats that followed indicating murder and mayhem if Sony went ahead with the December cinematic release. Later reports then indicated that perhaps the hack was actually disgruntled ex-employees that had recently been fired.

However, I tend to wonder if it wasn't all just some publicity stunt by Sony to get huge ratings. This theory holds only so much water itself though since the movie was initially released as a free download, with theaters beginning to show it only after the fact. So, who knows? I supposed it really doesn't matter much either way, but I found it a curious thought to consider.

Shake It Off

Date: January 2, 2015

Mood: Happy

Weather: Sunny

Listening to: Shake It Off by Taylor Swift

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

“Shake it off!” is what Taylor Swift's recently released song is all about. And after yesterday's depressing shopping experience and some drama with the kids, today's mentality is all about shakin' it off. Yes, please!

I don't really have much to write today because we really didn't do anything. Spent the morning finishing up some late 2014 Christmas cards, or perhaps they are really early 2015 Christmas cards? Then we rode the bus back to China with fil and family as they were coming in for the night for fil's weekly “meeting”.

Before we came home we decided to stop for dinner with them at our favorite local rice and noodle joint which we refer to as the Greasy Chopstick. I enjoyed my favorite dish there which is eggplant with rice (茄子饭 qiézi fàn). I still don't understand how I thought I hated eggplant before we moved here when I love this particular dish so much. Maybe it just has to do with the way it is prepared and cooked vs the way I've had it prepared and cooked previously?

After dinner we came on home to veg for the rest of the night. We had discussed having the sils over for the night, but after the incredibly late night we all had on New Years Eve I think all four of the kids were still recovering and attitudes showed as much. So for the sake of peace and rest we opted to delay the home turf sleepover until next weekend. I felt kind of bad for telling them all no, but I think this option is the best for everyone involved because four sleepy girls = four grumpy girls. Which, of course, equates into 2 grumpy parents when left with the four grumpy girls. lol

Since we haven't been gone overnight in nearly 3 months I was wondering just how badly the cats would miss us while we were gone. Apparently the answer was a LOT. They both could barely wait for us to get in the door before they were attacking us for love and cuddles. The fact that they'd finished up the food we'd left out for them didn't hurt either. haha Now that we're all settled in and relaxing the cats are both curled up and busy accepting all the loving and warm laps they can get. I sure do love these furbabies. <3

Out With the Old / In With the New

Date: January 1, 2015

Mood: Frustrated

Weather: Sunny & Cool

Listening to: Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

WELCOME TO 2015- the newest of new years!!! It's been an interesting one so far, but I'm hopeful for all that is yet to come during the next twelve months. Every day can't be perfect, I know. So despite the very first day of the year sucking rather immensely, I know it's just a bump in an otherwise open and possibly best ever road [year] yet.

With the dawn of a new year everyone seems to be set on making their own personal resolutions. As is the case for most- I'm sure, I'm religiously bad at keeping them. I start off each New Years Eve with the best intentions of sticking to whatever resolution/goal I set for myself once that close tips over to 12am midnight 1/1. And then a few days, weeks, or months- if I'm real lucky, pass before I negligently brush this burdensome hassle off in lieu of something that requires less thought or effort. So, you know, I basically never succeed at fulfilling my New Year's resolutions, which begs to ask why do I bother making them? The answer is, I have no idea!

This year I chose to forego the whole idea in exchange for simply trying to better myself and my life clear across the board. Because, honestly, I can't say as there was any one particular area or idea that struck me as being at the top of my mind. Well, besides trying really really hard to actually apply myself to keeping a daily log of my life experiences here in Hong Kong and China. It's such an easy thing to do and something that I think I will really enjoy reading back through in years to come. If I made it a resolution I felt I was more likely to fall short, however, so we'll just see how it goes.

How about starting now......??

Since we spent Christmas in China with his mom and sisters, dh and I decided we'd take advantage of our two days off school to spend New Years in Hong Kong with his dad's family. Like I'm sure it is most anywhere in the world, New Years Eve is a time to celebrate big in Hong Kong. Of course you can choose to stay at home and celebrate quietly on your own, but for those brave enough there is always a huge NYE fireworks display over Hong Kong Harbor. It's incredibly beautiful if you can push your way through the crowds to locate a spot prime for viewing the show, but you'll undoubtedly be just one in a sea of millions who show up to watch.

Having missed out on seeing the 4^th of July fireworks back home this past Summer, I got the brilliant idea to take the whole family down to the harbor last night to take in this amazing fireworks display. I even invited and convinced mil (#2) and my two youngest sister-in-laws to accompany us. Father-in-law couldn't be persuaded. We left the house around 8pm in order to travel to the other end of HK, about an hour or so away depending on bus and train traffic, with plenty of time to stakeout a good place among the masses to watch the 8 minute long 12am New Years Eve extravaganza. However, by the time we made it down to where we wanted to watch from the crowd was already thick and growing thicker by the minute.

Sadly, didn't take long to figure out, that the next two hours were going to pass by ever so slowly while the growing sea of people surged around us. I was so excited for the monkeygirls to see these particular fireworks because I can remember going to see them once when I lived here as a kid. They were awesome. Plus mil and sils had never experienced seeing fireworks or any kind live and in person, but instead only on tv. What fun it would be to watch them watching at their first ever show, right? Wrong.

For starters, at that time of night the two youngest were in no mood to stand about twiddling their fingers while people pushed from all sides trying to crowd in tighter and tighter to a space that was already maxed out on available room. Then monkeygirl #2 decided that even though we made certain to use the bathroom before departing home that she then had to go and there were no “whats” “ifs” or “buts” about it. We tried to distract her and help her forget about it, but that only seemed to make it worse. Before we knew it she was full on bawling because she couldn't wait much longer and I was about ready to join her in the tears because I felt helpless as to what to do when we could barely move an inch to exit in search of a bathroom. Finally, mil decided she was going to take her youngest and monkeygirl #2 and fight through the crowds to find a toilet and then possibly her way home. It was evident that neither of them was going to willingly come back to our spot to continue the wait, and that was even assuming they could have found us again in the crown anyhow. Plus from our vantage point we were starting to doubt that the two littlest ones were even going to be able to see the fireworks. (Or mil, for that matter, as she's not much taller than my short 11 year old. =P )

That left dh, myself, monkeygirl #1, and my remaining HK sil standing in wait. And I won't mince words about it, the show was just as wonderful as I'd hoped for once the countdown to midnight hit “0”. It would have just been a bit better had everyone been together as planned instead of having to dramatically split up after all the effort to get there. (Which in retrospect was only half the battle as the trip home was in and of itself an adventure at that time of night and due to the ridiculous amounts of people we were dealing with.) We ended up getting back home to fil's house just a little before 4am. 4AM!!! That's quite an adventure just to see some colorful explosions in the sky. haha (Note to self: Next year this needs to be a dh and monkeygirlsmama ONLY venture out if we do it at all. The kids will certainly have far more fun at home playing and watching on tv than fighting crowds and standing for hours on end.)

It struck me as somewhat bizarre that as we were winding down from our 2015 welcome festivities here our family and friends back home in the US were still hours away from beginning. In fact, they were actually still enjoying the tail end of 2014. We were hours into 2015 already and heading to bed in not just a new day or month but a new and different year! Yep, that's weird when you try to wrap your head around it. Or is it just me?

New Years Day proved to be more hassle and pain than gain. Not the way I wanted to start my new year for sure. What made it so? Clothes shopping. Most anyone who knows me irl knows I truly dislike clothing shopping when it comes to clothes for myself. I always see things that are super cute and that I would love to own and wear, but then there's the sizing. Even as a sexy size 3-4 in high school I hated shopping for pants because finding the perfect fit was darn near impossible no matter how skinny I was. A good fit in the waist meant they were too tight through my thighs; likewise, a good fit through my thighs meant the waist was too loose. It was hopeless. Now flash forward 15+ years and 2 kids later and I really HATE clothes shopping. So you can imagine my frustration when, in the last few months, I've managed to get holes in both pairs of yoga pants and the only pair of jeans I own.

Today I thought I'd take advantage of a few hours of kid free time and go shopping for new jeans while the girls were with grandma and grandpa. Bad idea. If you ever want to make yourself feel like a fat, miserable cow make sure to go shopping for clothes for yourself on the first day of the year when everyone else out there is making resolutions about losing weight and dieting and then make sure you do it in a place like Hong Kong where nearly everyone is half your size. That's right, it won't matter how many stores you go to, including US/UK shops such as Gap or Marks & Spencer. You'll be too big to fit any of the utterly scrawny jean selections they have and you'll end up going home empty handed and heavy hearted. How's that for keeping the New Year's spirit alive? =/

At least the monkeygirls enjoyed their New Years Day with grandma, grandpa, and their aunties- mostly!

Better Late Than Never Intro

When I came up with the idea to transfer this rather personal and possibly mundane journaling of sorts into a blog instead of just into a personal file on my computer I did so with the thought that maybe just maybe some of what I had to say along the way might be somewhat interesting to someone else. We do currently live in China after all, and that means life is anything but ordinary. Perhaps no one else will discover my blog or even blink twice if they do. Maybe I'll be writing for a whopping audience of one; yep the one behind the keyboard waving her hand saying “Me! Me!” right now. But no matter. I'll write to document my daily thoughts and experiences. Maybe along the way I'll pick up a follower or two, and if I don't I still have a way to look back on my life in years to come and revisit today, tomorrow, and the next day.

While technically I'm writing this as a journal within blog post and not the other way around, I suppose it only makes a certain amount of sense to give some kind of personal background just in case anyone should stumble across me on the blogsphere and want to know more about how I came to be here. So, we'll start at the beginning...

Many years ago a teenaged boy and a teenaged girl in a little town in Pennsylvania fell in love. A little while later they got married, and in 1981 a baby girl named Rebekah was born. Wait? Not that beginning?! Oops, my bad. haha Okay, let's try this again.

Hi, my name is Rebekah aka monkeygirlsmama. My husband (dh = devoted hubby) and I have been married for 15 ½ years, though we've known each other for far longer. We have two beautiful daughters ages 11 and 9 who will throughout my writing here be referred to as monkeygirls #1 and #2. Now you see where my monkeygirlsmama name comes from. And the girls are silly, full of energy, and all over the place- hence the monkey reference. Anyhow, hubby and I met in Hong Kong, through chance or God's divine direction or whatever, back when we were kids. Now we're back some 18+ years later, with our little family, to see where life takes us.

In the states we both most recently worked in customer service/computer tech fields, but here we are working as ESL teachers in lower China. It's not a glamorous job or even an incredibly exciting one, but it's usually fun and even somewhat rewarding. ;) In addition to moving here for the change of scenery, moving came with the perk of living closer to dh's family who never moved back to the states all those many years ago like we did. And it also came with the opportunity to give the monkeygirls a new, possibly once in a lifetime, chance to see life in new different and amazing ways. Let's face it, there are lots of people who travel outside the US with their families for vacation, military service, and business. But there aren't nearly as many as those who don't. And what an incredible opportunity we can give our daughters by giving them this experience. Life can be short, and you don't want to miss a single moment of it by being just ordinary and uninspired. We won't always live here, but while we do it's a great chance to expand our horizons and enjoy the wonder of a life in a new way.

If you see fit to follow me and read my, hopefully, daily recaps and observations then maybe you too can experience a little more than just your standard day to day. You'll find I will write predominantly to myself as if I was writing inside the pages of my diary. Such as what we do on a given day, what we eat at the canteen for lunch, thoughts and observations about the local culture and people, etc. My goal is to include photos from time to time also to give a little something solid to consider in conjunction with my posts. I can't promise it'll always be interesting, but life here tends to provide enough fun to keep things from being too monotonous. Maybe you'll find yourself wanting to travel and visit China and Hong Kong yourself sometime. Or perhaps you'll feel the opposite or simply find a way to live vicariously through our random experiences. Whatever the case may be, thanks in advance if you see fit to stick around and follow our little journey of [monkeygirlsmama goes to] China.

This and That

Date: December 2, 2014

Mood: Wishing this headache would go away

Weather: Dreary and kinda cold

Listening to: Let's Twist Again by Chubby Checker

Reading: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

    I really suck at this daily “diary” thing. It's not really surprising, honestly, because I've always been terrible about keeping a day to day diary or journal. And believe you me, I've tried numerous times. I had hopes that by doing it blog style this time I'd be more inclined to stick to my guns when it came to writing. Maybe it's the lack of followers and feedback; maybe it's just I'm lazy. Somehow I think the latter is probably more to blame. Haha

    So, let's think. What's been going on? Our Turkey Day night sleepover with the youngest sister-in-laws went well. Though apparently the kids made a bit too much noise late at night and upset one of the neighbors. Ooops. :O Honestly, I think someone was maybe having a hard time sleeping and thought they'd just point a finger at any possible cause because I didn't think they were being very loud and I was in the room with them. Either way, from here on out we're striving to stay under the radar, so.... shhhhhhhh. ;P

    Friday the monkeygirls went back to father-in-law's with their aunties, and enjoyed a day with grandma. They came home that night, then we made a day trip into Hong Kong the following morning so I could make it to the post office. It's not that they don'thave post offices here in China, but I've never set foot in one. I suppose they work just as well as the Hong Kong ones, yet I feel far more comfortable sending and receiving all mail on the HK side of the border. 

    I don't really have anything against the Chinese post office, but I sort of feel like my mail is safer and more likely to arrivewhere it is supposed to when I post and/or receive it in Hong Kong. And here at the school we have an address that is in Chinese characters which makes for difficulties when it comes to US friends and family trying to write it out on the envelope. If theywere to write the English translation it would likely never arrive here because once it made it as far as the post office over here they'd probably not understand what was written on it. Maybe they would, but then that's still only one of the hurdles. Assuming a letter or package was sent to us from the States, or anywhere really, and it was addressed to us here at our flat inside China not only would it have to make it through the regular post. It would also have to find us once it arrived on campus where no one actually has mailboxes. Granted we are on the only foreigners here so based on name alone it would be easy enough to know when mail came for us; however, then the mail man leaves the mail at the front gate and they call everyone when mail arrives for them. So it would be a complete crap shoot if we'd even get a call or if it'd just go unnoticed and become MIA. Hence, why Iprefer to just stick with using the Hong Kong post for all my mailing needs.

    It wasn't an overly exciting trip to Honkers, but we did  have fun at the huge mall in ShaTin. Hubby was still researching video cameras, and the kids and I busied ourselves finding something to entertain us at each shop. lol The first shop had iMacs, so while hubby fiddled with video cameras the monkeygirls played with Photobooth on the iMacs and I started reading a book on iBooks. Hey, what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good book, and if given the chance I'm gonna find one to start reading. Now I have to go buy it though, the book- not the computer, because I only read the first chapter but got hooked. At the next shop the girls and I killed time checking out the gorgeous big screen tvs. Apparently 3D is the new big thing, that and curved screen televisions. Who knew? 

    Later we discovered an amazing massage chair store, and OMG I wanted to buy one right then and there. Unfortunately these suckers cost, on the low end, $38K Hong Kong. That's roughly $4,900 USD which is just a little outside my current budget for a chair- even if it was like sitting in Heaven. lol Also, sadly, there's no way we could transport something like that to our flat in China, and delivery would take 3 months and cost an addition several thousand HKD. Gonna have to pass at this time. Boo

    Ooh, we also found another amazing bookstore. This one was even better than the last one we found a few weeks ago. Compared to that one this one was massive. It did have a predominantly Chinese language selection, but that's not to say it was without any English books. It actually had quite a nice Children's/Young Adult's section in English and then several other Adult sections that offered English only titles. 

    Needless to say, the monkeygirls were once again begging to browse and buy. How do you say “no” to the request for books? Really, it's practically impossible- especially when you have such a limited selection at home because you downsized nearly everything and then stored the rest before you moved across the world. Youngest monkeygirl ended up talking her way into the ownership of two new chapter books, and big sister settled on some young adult chapter book and sweet book containing the full collection of “Where's Waldo” picture puzzles.

    I have to say, it was near torture going through that store and not buying a single thing for myself. I felt physically ill. I wanted to buy all those beautiful books and bring them home with me. Even one would have been glorious, but the pain of having to downsize when we moved has me hesitant to build up any kind of a physical collection here since I don't intend to live here forever. As much as it pains me, I'd rather, for me personally, just stick to my plethora of ebooks. My collection grows daily so it isn't as if I can't find something to read. (Speaking of which I'm sure anyone reading this might wonder why I have been reading the same book for so many days. The answer for this is really simple. I've been distracted with Fall tv and new movies. It's shameful; I know.)

    What I neglected to mention before now is the excitement we experienced shortly before heading back home. As were walking around the mall trying to decide what we were going to get for dinner on the way out monkeygirl #1 suddenly exclaimed “Where's my purse?!?!?!” We all turn to look at her, and sure enough she is no longer wearing her purse. Oh dear God! Would this be the purse that she was carrying her Kindle in, her just purchased perfume in, her brand new bottle of expensive hot Sriracha sauce in, her Octopus card (stored value travel ticket used for the MTR, the bus, etc) in, and her money in?! Yes, that would be the very same purse!!!! She immediately went into panic mode, and if I'm honest with myself a did a little bit too. It only took a second for her to recall when she last had it- back at the book store, 30-45 mins prior. :O 

    Apparently when we were in the kid's and young adult's section of the book store she asked her dad to watch her purse so she could browse comfortably without worrying about her purse. However, overcome by the wonder that was a fully stocked series of book shelves all prime for the perusing, what she didn't do was make sure her dad actually heard her ask him this before she just set the purse down next to him and walked away. Thankfully we were still in ShaTin when she made the discovery, but we were clear on the other side of this ginormous mall. So, we made our way back to the book shop like we had rockets on our heels, praying all the way that her purse would still be there. You'd almost not believe it, but it was! Didn't even look like anyone had touched it. THANK YOU, GOD!!!! It's not as though we couldn't have replaced the purse and its contents, but what a hassle and waste of money that would have been. Not to mention how terrible my darling monkeygirl would have felt. As it was, this served as a fantastic learning experience for both our girls. What do you NEVER do? You NEVER EVER EVER set down your stuff in public unless you know without a doubt someone else, that you've asked, is watching it.

    Sunday was a far less eventful day in that regard, but it was a good day. Hubby's mom and older sisters met up with us and we went out to see the new Penguins of Madagascar movie at the local cinema. It was such a cute movie, and even played in English. Bonus! haha Before we got to watch it though we did have a small snafu. Our tickets said the movie started at 5:30 in theater #1, so at the right time we headed on in and found our seats. Promptly at 5:30 the lights dimmed and the commercials before the movie started. The commercial was only in Mandarin with English subtitles which was fine, but then the commercial didn't end. And it was becoming increasingly inappropriate (in a sexual nature) for young viewers. Strange considering this was a children's movie we were going to see. And that's when it hit us all. We were not watching a pre-Penguins commercial; we were watching the beginning of an actual movie. The beginning of a movie that was supposed to be playing in said theater. The theater we were not actually supposed to be in to watch our cartoon Penguins in. lol The ticket girl had given us tickets to the wrong movie at the wrong time, and our movie didn't actually start until 6pm in theater #4. Whoops!