Sunday, December 13, 2009
UH-OH & SHOPPING

To all our faithful readers…Sorry, but it is Brandy tonight. Ted and the girls are out like logs already at 8:00 P.M. and I am on the very nice, clean bathroom floor leaning against the bathtub where I have good light to type by. Fortunately we have a laptop computer that moves… grin.

Well, today did not exactly go as planned. The puppet theater is closed for the next month-Strike One. The planned tour for the day was expensive shopping (pearls and jade)-Strike Two. The Mandarin/English combination church service was at 11:00, we found it at 1:00 when the services were Mandarin only-Strike Three. Ted has a mongo sinus/headache/head cold issue going today- Strike Four. Hmmmmm…all plans are out the window today.

We are very grateful today that we had to upgrade our room in order to have enough beds. We have a two room suite and each room has a T.V. in it. We tucked Ted in a chair watching basketball in one room and the girls on the couch with Chinese cartoons and then playing in the other room. There is a curtain between the rooms so the sound could be subdued between the rooms. It was a good thing.

Ted took several naps and Opal asked to take one too after lunch. I think her five shots from yesterday caught up with her. We are very happy though that Opal and Sophie did not get high fevers today. Overall they seem to have weathered the immunization round okay. I just hope the shots were actually good so we do not have to repeat them in the states.

We did drag Ted out of the room for Thai food at lunch and to go to the little hotel deli to get dinner. The Thai food was very good and we all enjoyed it. Unfortunately it took us two tries to find it and Opal has another banged up knee. The poor girl has some super short legs and all of the construction everywhere has many uneven spots…bad combination. Dinner from the hotel deli was a bargain…7 large sandwich rolls, 3 yogurts and a package of grape tomatoes for a whopping 58 Yuan (about $ 8.00)… not bad. The atmosphere…well…eating on the floor is a picnic…right?!...grin.

Since we were hotel centered today, I took the opportunity to take each girl shopping by herself. They each had some Christmas money left to spend and I needed to find their Chinese sizes and get them some special China outfits for the next couple of years. Rather than power shopping at the end of the week, we had fun doing some one on one trips today. It seemed to go well and it was MUCH easier to figure out what color clothes each girl wanted when I only had one to ask at a time. Ted was able to referee as needed for the remaining two from his chair and bed.

The only challenge, the girls are in love with a “We Are Family” singing card that they received from the Golphenee family and we heard it around 100 times today…really! The good news is that Sophie consistently holds it to her left ear so we are pretty sure she has some usable hearing in that ear. Oh, it seems that Opal may also have noticeable hearing loss in her right ear. I will be glad to have hearing evaluations on these girls and know for sure what their situations are.

Tomorrow we are planning to go the Safari Park. I am hoping that Ted is well enough to go. Last year he was able to play tug a war with a tiger and that was definitely a highlight for the trip. It will be tricky to take the three girls by myself, but I probably will if Ted is still on the down and out list. It is a super cool experience for the girls and it will give Ted extra sleep time if he feels badly enough to need to stay in the hotel. Oh, for those who know I have been struggling physically, I am doing better today. Thank you for the support!

I had better go now. I still need to sneak out and pick up our laundry before the store closes.

Goodnight,
Brandy, Ted, Amalie, Opal & Sophie