this week

I have some random thoughts swirling around in my head.

Over the past week...

• I realized once again just how much I miss my husband when he travels.
• This week, I was reprimanded many times for not giving my daughter enough clothing to wear (because here, 70-degree weather obviously warrants at least 2 layers!) And then, when I showed a woman how Grace was sweating her only response was that she didn't have enough calcium. Huh?
• One day, as Grace and I were walking to a bus stop, a woman asked me for milk for her child. Now, we sometimes encounter beggars and usually they want money but we will offer to go buy what they ask for. This woman surprised me in that she was willing for me to actually buy the milk instead of giving her money. She would not walk alongside me (only behind) because she feared others would scold her for begging. But she really did just want milk. It broke my heart to see how grateful she was to have something so simple for her daughter.
• This week, (today in fact) someone stole my shopping cart at the store! Now, I had waited a while for the "special" shopping cart. You know, the one with the kid-car underneath so your child (and therefore, you) can enjoy the shopping experience. I had let Grace get out for a few minutes to play in the kid area, and before I knew it someone had taken the things out of my cart and put them in a regular cart so they could have the kid-cart! Ugh, very classy.
• This week, after several weeks of relative calm, Grace decided to re-test several boundaries to see if they're still there. Yes, definitely still there.
• This week, I made guacamole! Good Tex-Mex and Dr. Pepper are two of the foods we miss the most from America. One would think that since we live in a sub-tropical environment that avocados would be easy to find. But actually, most folks here don't know what they are. So, when our little western pantry started selling them recently, word traveled fast among the foreign community.

Here are some pictures from this past week...

We had another fun outing with Qiao qiao and his mom, Liu liu. You can tell from the look on Grace's face that she is absolutely freezing in the sunny 70-degree weather...
But no worries, because Qiao qiao's mother gave her extra clothes to wear!
Good friends must be sure to shake hands.
Guacamole! We enjoyed it for several days. Ok, I admit, one night for dinner all I ate was chips and guacamole! Grace even ate it, too!
Now we find excuses to put guacamole with just about anything. Here Kevin's enjoying it with some ribs from a friend's birthday party that he had to miss. Grace had just finished eating but had to go mooch some off of her dad, too.