Can't wait for tomb sweeping day

The nice thing about Nathan working as an FSO is that he not only gets the US federal holidays off, but also those of the host country.  So here are all the holidays the he will have off while we're in China.  (Not counting vacation or R&R!)

• January 1 Tuesday - New Year’s Day
• January 21 Monday - MLK Jr.’s Birthday
• February 9-13 Sat-Wed - Chinese (Lunar) New Year
• February 18 Monday - Presidents’ Day
• April 4 Thursday - Tomb Sweeping Day
• May 1 Wednesday - International Labor Day
• May 27 Monday - Memorial Day
• June 12 Wednesday - Dragon Boat Festival
• July 4 Thursday - Independence Day
• September 2 Monday - Labor Day
• September 19 Thursday - Mid-Autumn Festival
• October 1-3 Tue-Thu - Chinese National Day
• October 14 Monday - Columbus Day
• November 11 Monday - Veterans Day
• November 28 Thursday - Thanksgiving Day
• December 25 Wednesday - Christmas Day 

Tomb sweeping day (not sure what the history of that is) will be shortly after we arrive in Shenyang so it will be nice to have a day to take a breather.

Arctic exploration or bust

OK, not really but it does get brutally cold in Shenyang, like below 0 degree Fahrenheit cold, not counting wind chill factor.  It's not like we're going to be hanging outside for an extended amount of time when it gets cold like that (except for when we take a trip up to Harbin for the Ice Festival) but we are going to need some heavy-duty coats even if it's just for going from the parking lot to the store.

At first I got this coat.  It was on sale, really warm (rated to -40degrees F).  But at the end of the day, it just didn't look good on me.  I looked like I was wearing a sack.  I gave it a test run and while it kept me warm, I just wasn't happy with looking like I was wearing a sack.  Am I lame for wanting to look cute even in below 0 freezing weather?

While Nathan was coat shopping for himself, he found this for me and I LOVE it.  It's warm and looks great!  It's designed to add a little shape.  It has this funky futuristic vibe going on too.  The only thing is, do I keep this color (it's pearl grey) and risk it getting dirty or go for a darker color? (I really like the purple lining though... not that anyone would see it except for me.) My choices would be black or purplish violet color called Royale.

I'm leaning towards the Royale.  I don't want to be just another black jacket.

For the boys, we got them identical jackets.  NJ is already wearing his now and he LOVES it.  He says he feels like a police man, thanks to the decorative patch and often wears it inside for pretend play.  He took off the detachable fur lining and said that it was his pet eel "Fluffy" and slept with it for a few days.  I have no idea where Fluffy is right now.

Nathan got a coat, too, but is seriously thinking about returning it, the main problem being it's overpriced. It's probably because this is literally the one that real deal Arctic explorers get. 

So coats are pretty much done, except for K.  I'll be on the hunt for ultra warm coats size 18 mo for next winter.

My Chinese not so good

Nathan is still studying Chinese like crazy.  I still get a huge kick hearing Chinese coming out of his blonde head.  As for me... not so much.  I do know how to say, "I'm sorry, my Chinese is not so good." in Mandarin.  And it's only thanks to this song.  (Do you think the Chinese would be more forgiving, charmed even, if I were to sing it?) 

I really need to learn how to say "I'm sorry, my Chinese is non-existent." 

The State Dept is kind enough to let me learn Chinese through Rosetta Stone but with adjusting to having 3 kids and all, I just haven't had a chance.  And to be honest, I found that with what little I did study, Chinese didn't come to me easily.  It's just one of those languages where you need to make it your full time job to learn, I guess.  Maybe it's just me.  I took Spanish in high school and college and I still remember a good deal of it.  I guess I'm just better suited to Romance languages?  I can still sing the past tense verbs song to the tune of the Banana Boat song.

I've heard mixed things from friends in China though... some say knowing Chinese is a must.  But some say you can squeak by with a lot of charades and Google translate. Hoping for the latter.

Bring it on, rabies!

We finally finished our round of required immunizations for China.  Hep A, B, Japanese Encephalitis, Rabies...  Not that we're going to be encountering rabid creatures on a regular basis in Shenyang, but might as well if we're going to be in China and most likely travelling around in Asia.

The Japanese Encephalitis was a series of 2 shots and Rabies was a series of 3.  We were at the FSI clinic a lot this month, especially since J was a week behind all of us. (The first time we went, he was sick with a fever so we held off on him for a week.)  J and K took the shots like champs.  J all but forgot the shots as soon as we got him a "Patient of the Day" sticker afterwards.  K was mostly upset for the parts that I had to put her down.  NJ, however, screamed so loud and so much before he was even stuck.  I guess at age 6, a lot of it is mental.

I'm not crazy about getting shots either, but I just remind myself that I pushed out 3 babies with no meds.  I can do this!  Stop being a weenie!

Operation LBB (Learn to Bake Bread)

I have heard from people in Shenyang that while there is a huge variety of delicious foods and even those that we're used to here, that plain old sandwich bread is hard to find. 

NJ eats a ham sandwich for lunch every day.  (His choice, not mine)  What to do?

Thanks to Pinterest, I've been finding a lot of bread recipes and trying my hand at bread baking.  Bread baking is simple.  Usually just 4-5 ingredients.  Don't even need a fancy bread machine. 

The problem is, I am a horrible baker.  I just don't do well with exact and precise steps and measurements.  Love to cook, hate to bake.  I even screw up the box mixes.  Once I was trying to make a batch of Jiffy corn muffins.  I mixed it up, put it in the oven, turned around, only to find that I somehow forgot to pour in the 1/4 cup of oil that I had measured out.  They were the driest corn muffins ever.

The first bread I made was English Muffin Bread.  Lisa passed along this recipe to me after I had J.  She brought it as part of our baby meal and I fell in love with the bread.  It has only been 28 months, but I finally tried making it myself. 

The final result?  Not too shabby.  It doesn't taste as good as I remember when I was eating Lisa's.  A bit on the dense side.  Bread baking experts, any suggestions as to what I could have done to make it a bit fluffier?