The artist at work

The artist at work!

Mary's 2nd pony ride

This is Mary's 2nd pony ride, the first took place at the zoo. At this fair, she also wanted to try the bungee/acrobatic ropes, where you are tethered between 2 ropes, and can bounce up and down on a trampoline. There were some kids her size trying it, but we opted out. Maybe next year.

Another look at Mary's referral photo

The first photo was taken less than an hour after we held Mary for the first time (Changsha, China, September, 2006).
This is one of the referral photos we received in July, 2006.

Little children really do hear and absorb everything

Just after bath, tooth brushing, and the few night time rituals that we do with Mary, we said her night time prayers with her. This usually consists of Dear God, Please bless ... folowed by a list of our family members. I usually finish the list with "... and bless all the little children, especially those in China."

Well, tonight, before I could say that phrase, Mary herself said, "...and bless all my friends in China"!

How amazing and great is that. We had not been discussing anything about China recently, although sometimes we show our pictures and our video of our journey to Mary, or point out the country on the map. We have not looked at these images for at least a month or more. I just think that is a really wonderful sentiment from the mind of a not quite 3 year old.

So I echo Mary's statement, and would like to include among those friends the grocery store worker who found our baby girl , picked her up and brought her to the police station, and to the Half the Sky nannies at the 'social welfare institute' (aka orphanage) who cared for her for the 1st year of her life.

I don't usually get all sentimental on this blog, but Sarah and little Trig Palin have touched a lot of emotional chords today!

Diana's wedding cake slice sells for $1,830

Former royal servant kept the 27-year-old piece in clingfilm in an attic.

Shades of Elaine Bennis dancing around Mr. Peterman's office eating a piece of Edward and Wallis's wedding cake. Attic or damp english basement, which storage method is worse?

Local fairs or 'fair-lees' as Mary calls them

We have been to 2 fairs in the area, and have another local one that starts Thursday night and a larger one this weekend (an hour away).

Mary loves the rides, especially the Merry go Round and the flying dragons or dinos or whatever the theme happens to be.

A few photos from our Hunan girls reunion and other summer fun

The first photo is from our reunion party c. 2007 (Mary is looking down, so you can't see her face), and the second is from same event, c. 2008.

Mary helping to select a color for the vinyl siding for Aunt Sharon

Hat Girl

We are going to decorate the pink cowboy hat soon! Mary actually stayed in the shopping cart seat for the duration of our craft store expedition. I think she was tired, but did she take a nap upon returning home. No, it didn't happen until close to 4 p.m. NOT good!

FIrst Piano Recital

We went to visit Aunt Mary at the assisted living place, and Mary was a big hit. She brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces by just being there.

Aunt Mary's baby grand piano was once again 'played' by someone named Mary!

Ok, little M. is not showing Mozart like talent yet, but there's still time!

Summertime antics

Mary inspecting the mural in the kid's play area at my dr.'s office.

A still life with tired toddler in entry way of same dr.'s office.

Mary trying on TT's shoes, and lastly , Mary with the Cape May bear.

I will not dunk my Dora sunglasses in the Italian wedding soup

I will not dunk my Dora sunglasses in the Italian wedding soup!

I will not dunk my Dora sunglasses in the Italian wedding soup!

I will not dunk my Dora sunglasses in the Italian wedding soup!

I don't have photo evidence of the incident itself, just the aftermath. The 'perp' confessed to the whole crime, and admitted that the sunglasses did not fall into the soup, they were pushed!

Where in the People's Republic of China was this photo taken?

I have hundreds of photos from my parents' 1994 trip to China, which have a renewed interest for me now. Would love to know the city or province in which some of them were taken.

Who, me??

well, hello to you too!

Janet in Pensacola, lunching in the sunroom!

Martians invade China

The "Martian Language" is a term used to describe words in the Chinese speaking cyberspace that are not commonly recognized. The words are a combination of English letters, Chinese characters, Internet slang and symbols. The language first became popular in Taiwan in 2004, and then spread to the mainland in 2007.

trip to the zoo, rain in the afternoon

We went to the zoo, met up with friends from our China travel group. The girls loved it, we didn't cover enough ground, due to the rain, but they still enjoyed it. Took a pony ride, fed sheep and goats, lovely!

Favorite ice cream flavor: Blue

Recent trip to local dairy farm/ice cream shop. Mary checked out the rows of flavors in the freezer case and pronounced that she wanted the 'blue' ice cream. It's just cookies n cream with blue food colour in the mix. Couple of photos of M as she sets out to conquer the ice cream.

Shopping with Mommy

My cousin gave this outfit to Mary, and it's very apropo. Mary may be even more of a

shoe-a-holic than I am.

Note how the 'Bear' is in suspension, hanging from the cabinet door by his little ear! Another new discovery by Miss M.

Historic register farmhouse

The natural lighting in this photo reminds me of Vermeer.