Monday, November 05, 2007

Shout-outs, snot-outs and outings

Heidy, MichelleW and Beth, thank you for always commenting on my blogs and all your encouragement and inspiration. You will never know how much it always means to me (well, you probably do, Beth) to hear from you and receive acknowledgement that you haven't forgotten me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today was my last day of 3 modules (almost 8 months) of Chinese class. I've met some wonderful people and learned some helpful language skills. I've also been going nuts trying to keep up with everything, plus two mornings a week of classes. I'm glad it's over. My Chinese friend Luo is going to speak to me only in Mandarin from now on, she said, and that will be my new lessons! Yikes...

My daughter has a bad, snotty cold. My oldest son and I are trying to fight it. I get Kosmo Fighter juice every day I can get there...is there a Kosmo near you? It's a U.S. chain that sells awesome juices, teas and sammiches (yippeeee!! really tough to find a gooooood sammich in China.) She is supposed to be sleeping right now but is singing "Where is Thumbkin" to herself. The other night she sang "Happy Birthday" about a million times to everyone in the family while she was going to sleep!

We are going to Beijing this Saturday for five days; it's very cold there so we will be taking warm clothes! I am really looking forward to seeing the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. And today I learned how to say "Please don't touch my children" in Mandarin...people have told us we won't be able to get anywhere because of people crowding us and touching their hair and skin...not too many foreigners in Northern China!

My oldest son received a Bible from our church last week. Tonight he started reading it. We had a big laugh over how long people lived way back in the day...he thought it was pretty crazy. We had a nice, cozy time reading it and my other son had me reading stories from his Toddler's Bible. It was a really great reading time tonight!

5 comments:

heidy said...

hello Michelle!
I can't wait to hear you speak Mandarin! Is the plan still to come back to the states for the holidays? Ella wil lbe turning 3 this month, right? Wow, I can't believe its been 3 years already!
Sounds like the behling family is hally and doing well! (stay healthy too!) please let us all know how your trip to Bejing

heidy said...

oops...goes. Is that where the Terracota soldiers are?
enjoy and be safe!
heidy

Michelle W. said...

Awww...thanks Michelle - the feelings are definitely mutual!!!

Poor Ella. I hope she feels better soon. It certainly is no fun to be sick. I'm just glad we finally had a good 'freeze' here so that my kids' allergies are better. It was SO bad this year!

I hope you have a great trip to Beijing. It sounds FANTASTIC, (except the people touching the kids part...That would totally creep me out!)

We are taking a trip too! We're going to WDW to see Cinderella for Thanksgiving!(Oh yeah...and Paul's folks, too...LOL!) We leave Friday and I think I'm more excited than the kids! Oh, and when did we decide to go and plan this trip...Um...like TODAY! :-O

Yeah - we're still the same old 'fly by the seat of our pants Weller family!' ;-)

I can't wait to see photos from YOUR trip!

God Bless,
Michelle W.

Beth said...

Isn't it amazing the rush you feel when you get a comment--especially from "over there"!

"Please don't touch my children". I LOVE IT!! I completely should have learned that one in Korean. I would have gotten the chance to use it OFTEN!

So sorry about your colds. I think the most frustrating thing about getting sick for me over there was that I couldn't just run to wal-mart and grab some Benedryl. We had to go to the doctor if we wanted anything, and I'm sure you know what a pain that is.

Way to go on your Chinese classes!

beth

Barb said...

Hi Michelle!
I guess you think I've dropped off the face of the earth. I don't know what rock I've been living under, but I haven't read the last 4 entries you've written before today...YIKES...I really do think of you guys often and miss you more than I could ever express in an e-mail. Loved the Halloween costumes!!!! Ella ROCKS!!!! Wow a lot has happened since I last read. I get the biggest kick out of reading about your adventures in China. I always share them with my mom, who by the way is coming for a visit the weekend after Thanksgiving with my uncle who will be visiting from Germany!!!! I am so excited to see him again. I was pregnant with Savanna the last time he was in America. Hope your trip to Bejing is wonderful. I can't wait to read about all the adventures you will experience. Give the children HUGE hugs from me and have them give you one from me too!!!!