Winter Memories

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Julianne

Since moving back to sunny South Texas, we haven’t had much in the way of cold weather. The winter temperatures here are mild, the wind-chill factor unimpressive. While temperatures like this are certainly far more comfortable than the frigid air of a Beijing winter, Gloria and I were reminiscing happily about the fun we used to have playing in the ice and snow. Remembering it was such fun that I decided to post it here, on my seldom-used blog.

We lived next to a river in China. The river was pretty gross normally, but when it snowed it looked beautiful.

We built this snowman right after moving to China, during our first week there. It was the first time any of us Texas-born kids had seen snow! (Except for Peter, who went on a trip to Maine with Mommy and Daddy when he was a toddler.)

The picture actually doesn’t show all of the kids who built the snowman. This was only some of us. Snowman building is a team effort! (Especially if you want the snowman to be taller than you, because that bottom ball cannot be moved by only one person.)

Snow-fort building is a team effort, too. Unfortunately, only one person can get in it at a time — unless you want to get really serious about dragging snow from all over the place to the building site. This was in 2012.

What do you do when you’ve heard about how sledding is so much fun and want to try it, but lack a snow-covered slope and a sled? Why, you make use of an old metal dustpan and the ice-covered parking lot, of course!

All snow must be played in, of course, but powder snow doesn’t pack well (unless you have some slush handy, as Elisabeth and I figured out…). What could you do with it then?

My guess is that you wouldn’t have thought of what the boys did …neither did I… but their solution took the form of a miniature golf course.

And finally, sometimes in the winter we would get to go chair skating on a frozen lake in Houhai.

You could ice skate too, but usually only Gloria did that. Chairs were more fun anyway.

There are lots more winter memories, but I’ll leave you with these. Which is your favorite?

Entering the World of Chicken-Keeping: Part 2

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Julianne

In the post prior to this one, I promised a part 2 that would be posted “soon”.

Clearly I have a heavily flawed definition of “soon”.

In fact, my definition of “soon” is so flawed that I have waited for months to even begin writing this post. It’s a little shameful to admit. Not to mention, this post was supposed to track our chicken’s development from where I left off in the last post until the present. But as present became ever-farther from the date of my last post, and young chickens continued to grow, I hadn’t a single picture on my camera that accurately depicted how the chickens really look in the present. This lead to me having to take more pictures, which meant more photo editing and uploading, which means posting would take too long, which means I continued to procrastinate. Yup, just a little bit shameful to admit.

Anyway, long-awaited as this post has been, I figure I should stop apologizing and start updating! So, where was I after last post?

Ah yes, the chickens had just moved into their coop permanently. Well, here’s a picture of them when they first did that:

And here’s a picture of them now!

Clearly, they haven’t been wasting any time growing into their adult feathers, or growing up in general. Also, we’ve officially confirmed that all of them are hens! This is great news for us, because roosters are not ideal neighborhood pets… for obvious reasons. A hen can and will lay eggs without having a rooster around, so we were delighted to learn that all the six chickens we bought would grow up into egg-laying, non-crowing hens.

They’re not quite there yet, though. In the mean time, it’s lots of fun to watch them grow. Wanna see some more pictures?

This is Autumn, an Easter Egger chicken named by Gloria.

This is Merry Poppins, a Barred Rock pullet that Mommy named:

Nellie, our other Easter Egger, was named by John. Don’t you love her bright orange feathers?

This is Mumthers, a Buff Orpington pullet. Daniel named her after a character in a book who could cook anything, and make it beyond delicious. He reasoned that with a namesake like that, his hen would lay the most delicious eggs of any of them! So far, she seems to be pretty food-savvy; she sticks around us even when the other chickens are off playing, hoping to get treats!

Sunshine, also a Buff Orpington pullet, was named by Daddy and looks a great deal like Mumthers. Her feathers are a slightly lighter hue, pretty much the only indicator we can use to tell them apart.

And finally, this is my hen, Bobbles. She, like Merry Poppins, is a Barred Rock pullet. She’s also a big eater and the fattest hen of the bunch!

Having chickens has been a blast so far. And now, having fulfilled my blog-posting duties, I’m heading outside to go feed them!

Edit: I wrote this post a long time ago and only just now bothered to post it, so the chickens are actually even bigger than you can see from here.

Entering the World of Chicken-Keeping: Part 1

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Julianne

As of 5 weeks ago, we have some new pets. (And they are most definitely pets, not future dinner!) We have entered the world of backyard chicken keeping, and are enjoying it immensely.

Our chicks are growing up quickly, and due to posting-lack-of-frequency, I’ll only show you their first days here. For bigger chicks, more recent pictures, or simply a continuation of their overwhelmingly adorable cute-ness, check out Part 2!

Our chicks started their life in a hatchery in Ohio, and spent their first day traveling the 1,000 something miles between there and Texas. While they made the journey, we waited anxiously at home for our very own “peeping package”. Though we were worried that they might not make survive the trip, every one arrived alive and healthy, and were soon introduced to the brooder; a strange, newspaper filled place that was to be their home for the next 3 weeks.

First came a drink of water…

…then their first taste of food…

…and finally, some cuddles.

Also, a great deal of sleeping, which I didn’t take a picture of. After eating, sleeping, drinking, and being cuddled for three days, the chicks were ready for some adventure! After all, they had crossed the country during their first day of life, and though the brooder and its heat lamp were more comfortable than that journey, they were not nearly so exciting. Mumthers, a little yellow chick named by Daniel, thought that maybe we would let her out if she gave us her “cute face”:

And she also tried to get all the others to join in!

We understood what it was like to have cabin-fever, and accordingly introduced them to a gigantic place called “backyard”. Though they weren’t too sure about it at first, the bolder ones soon took a liking to it, and helped their friends to overcome their fears. It wasn’t long before some of then began to enjoy sitting on the grass, taking a dust bath, or scratching at the ground.

After 3 pleasant weeks, they moved into their permanent coop and run. How did they adjust? Take a look at Part 2 to find out, coming soon!

In the Treetops

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Julianne

Do you remember the tree I mentioned in this post here? Well, those guys have improved on their climbing skills since then, and have reached the treetops!

The branches aren’t as thick up here!

They weren’t the only ones, however. Upon reaching those lofty heights, they discovered that something else — something creepy — had made it there before them.

A not-so-friendly-looking couple of caterpillars were up there, and they didn’t seem too happy to be disturbed. Daniel and Gloria snapped a couple of dead twigs from the tree’s less-healthy branches, and carefully shoved the caterpillars off the tree. The little creatures had a strong grip, though, and didn’t yield easily. Back on the ground, Daniel and Gloria inspected them more closely. To their surprise, the white and gray, camouflaged topsides were not all there was to the caterpillars; they both sported brightly colored, striped undersides!

They’re a very pretty pinkish-purple underneath.

A couple days later, after getting over the initial “danger in the tree” paranoia, John, Daniel, and Gloria ventured up the tree again. I learned why shortly later: they had bought another new rope, and had been busy improving their safest spot in the tree, Comfy Cradle. It was so safe, they insisted, I could climb up there effortlessly, fall asleep once I was up, and still wake up perfectly fine. Their argument was very convincing, so I decided to see if I could get up there. Apparently I could!

Now don’t be too impressed by my decision to climb the tree again, the boys offered several other arguments and I was quite the scaredy-cat all throughout the climb. It turned out to be so easy, however, that I plan on doing it again, this time without nearly and hour of constant urging. They even tied special knots in the rope at just the right spots for them to act as handles! Yes, they are pretty serious tree-climbers.

Camping at Enchanted Rock: Part 2

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Julianne

As promised, the second part of the post, detailing the second day of our camping trip! Yippee!

After surviving our night of ~~peril~~ fright in the wilderness with coyotes, (read the last few paragraphs of Part 1) we packed up our tents and sleeping bags and hiked back down by a different, longer route. The terrain was actually much smoother on this other trail, however, so the fact that it was an extra mile didn’t bother us. And it, like the hike in, was filled with amazing views and great scenery!

Gloria standing on the top of hill, with lots of trees behind and below her.

Some neat scenery on the hike.

After making our way past the grassy, cactus-y hills, we ventured back to the land of boulders.

Close-up of Gloria, John, and Daniel standing in front of a boulder.

A non-close-up so you can see the boulder better!

A non-close-up so you can see the boulders better!

We came across some small, mostly muddy rivers from time to time, and this being Spring, there were wildflowers in these damp spots!

The hiking wasn’t so hard on this trail, so we soon made it back to the car, where we dumped all our excess stuff in the trunk. Relieved of our heavy load, we then set out to hike to the top of the mountain! (Okay, so it was more of a steep hill, but it was pretty hard going.) We eventually made it there, and the view — and wind — was breathtaking.

It was hard to stand up in the wind!

You can see a pretty amazing view behind Gloria in this picture!

We stayed up there and played or, like me, just jumped into the wind, for a while. After we came down, we got into the car and went to get Dairy Queen, and pick up the new Disney princess movie “Frozen” as well! All in all, it was a pretty spectacular day.

Camping at Enchanted Rock: Part 1

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Julianne

Interesting title, don’t you agree? Last week we did, in fact, go camping at a place called “Enchanted Rock”. So, you may ask, why am I reading this post today instead of a week ago? Why does it take Julianne so long to write new posts? Why am I reading her speculation about my thoughts? Well, as to that last part, I really can’t say. As to the taking a long time about writing new posts, it does take a while to sort through the many, many pictures I took.

So, enter first of many, many pictures.
This one was taken shortly after we arrived at the park, when we still had a hour-long hike to our campsite ahead of us. Notice all the sleeping bags and assorted “things” we’re carrying?

And this one shows us taking advantage of a nearby boulder (not pictured) to tower over Daddy!

The hike to the campsite featured some interesting, erm, boulders and other rocks (it was a mountain of pink granite, after all).

After we started to get over the mountain and into the valley, the hiking got more strenuous and I stopped taking pictures in order to focus on not falling and dying. Below are a couple of the pictures I took after we exited the valley and got into a flatter area.

Taking a short break in the cave.

Daddy standing just outside the cave we found.

After we got to our campsite and set up the tents, we explored and played for a few hours. We also kept our eyes open for forked sticks that might serve as potential skewers for our hotdogs and marshmallows later!

Cooking up some dinner!

Good, safe cooking methods were demonstrated by Daniel.

After the dinner we ate more snacks and played some games in the tent, before finally dropping off to sleep, something which turned out to be more difficult than I would have imagined, due to the coyote pack that saw fit to howl loudly throughout most of the night. Creepy and noisy, but also sort of interesting due to the novelty of it!

That’s it for Part 1 of this post! Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

Knitting

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Julianne

If you were to ask me what I’ve been doing in the past week, I could answer you with one word: knitting. I’m recently obsessed with knitting, and I want to do hardly anything else. Not even read books! (A huge change for me, the bookworm who could be found sitting on the couch reading for eight hours a day only a few weeks ago!)

So, you may ask, what have I been knitting? I made a pair of slippers for Gloria and am now working on a second pair for Aunt Anna.

Besides that, I found a nice, simple sweater pattern and it’s coming along nicely.

John got interested after watching me knit non-stop for a while, and I taught him how too! After mastering the cast-on, knit, and purl stitches, he got to work on some really lovely i-cord coasters. Aren’t they so pretty?

Gloria is getting interested too, now, so I may end up teaching her as well. After all, there can never be too many knitters in our family!

John’s Birthday

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Julianne

Was yesterday, February 7th. So this post is just to tell you all about how it went!

First of all, we went to the theater with Uncle Paul to watch THE LEGO MOVIE! Peter had found out quite a while ago that the film’s premier would be on John’s birthday, so Daddy got tickets and we all went to see it! It was very fun, and exactly what John wanted.

After the movie, we went home much-inspired to play with Legos and create all sorts of awesome things. The result? The boy’s room floor was promptly covered with Lego bricks. Fun? Definitely. Messy? Obviously, but that’s okay.

After we had been building for a while, Aunt Anna came over and we had dinner. Fish n’ Chips, which is quite possibly John’s favorite food. And, of course, followed by cake and ice cream. (Picture included because I feel like teasing my China friends)

It was so tasty…

After dinner it was present time! He got lots of fun stuff like Legos and chocolate, and John and Daniel enjoyed putting the sets together. It was a great birthday, even though John is now fourteen, which somehow makes me feel older than just fifteen. The important thing is that he had a great day, and everyone else had fun, too. Happy Birthday, John!

By the way, let’s see if you can figure out how many times the words ‘Lego’ or ‘Legos’ were used in this post!

Lots of chocolate for John!

Wordless Wednesday: Watching a Movie

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Julianne

A Tree in our Backyard

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Julianne

Of the four largest trees in our backyard, one oak is particularly huge and well-formed. We’ve had a lot of fun in this tree, and John, Daniel, and Gloria have all become expert tree climbers because of the practice it affords. John and Daniel in particular have some great tree-climbing accomplishments. With the help of a rope and ladder, they have managed to reach heights of over 30 feet! Even those branches are pretty thick, though, so they have been allowed to keep climbing on the condition that they be careful and use the ropes.

About 20ft up the tree.

With John’s helpful counsel, even I, Julianne, managed to climb up the tree. I barely got 10 feet up before coming down, though. I’m nowhere near as talented at climbing trees. I leave that to my gifted brothers! (And, of course, Gloria.)

John helping me climb!

Just yesterday John climbed up the tree. After crawling along a fairly straight branch, he managed to fasten a thick coil of rope around it. Now we have a tree swing!

Doesn’t it look like fun?