Charmin-Ultra: Don't Squeeze Me

2010 our family trip was Spain. In June, I had a conference in Turkey for a week. Pete and I originally were planning our annual family trip to France because Calum was interested in French but because of my conference, we decided to change our destination to Spain (after calculating the costs and all). After my conference, I flew from Turkey to Spain to meet Pete and Calum. I was a little nevous about Calum and Pete traveling together internationally for the first time. But they proved me wrong. They had a fun traveling together.

Our first stop was Madrid. When I flew in, because my flight was about two hours later than Pete and Calum's, I thought they would have waited for me at the airport, to give me the missing hugs. But no. These two guys decided to take a nap in the hotel while I took the cab alone and navigated my way to find them snoring in bed while world cup playing on the TV. So our first half of the day was spent in bed napping. Pete and Calum justified our behavior as 'When in Rome, do what Roman do". Since Spaniards take Siesta and pracitally don't start their activities until 7 or 8, we should adjust ourselves to the local culture. Calum was loving it! He loved the fact that he could eat late, stay late, and sleep late. He especially loved the fact that he could go to any bars with us. He loved his Fanta while we had our wine and just sat watching people enjoying their evenings.

足球現在是我們家人的重心。不僅Calum愛踢足球，連Pete也撩下去！

I have seen and assisted in making pie before but never made any pie on my own. Pete's step sister Missy makes wonder apple pies and her pie started my liking in pies (I don't eat sweets, desserts, cakes, or pies). 

This year Pete and I took Calum and Mei Mei apple picking. We found one closed to us; 30 minutes drive. It was a small apple farm, but it is the way I like it. Simple no frills. It was early in October but there were only three types of apples left for picking. Golden Delicious, Jonathan, and Empire. Kids were having a ball! They could pick by themselves from the low branches; tried it or bagged it. We were also given a device; a long stick with a net in the end so we could pick the ones up high. Very soon our bags were full.

In three weeks, we will go to the information session for adoption at Cradle, an adoption agency in Evanston. I am very excited! 

Pete and I have thought about adoption for a long time. It was not exactly our 'mutual' decision at the same time. We have both thought about adoption individually before we met but after we got married, this idea got strengthened day by day. 

這件事情上梧桐妹應該是最受傷害的吧。看著自己心愛的爸媽左右各扯著ㄧ邊要她做一生最難的抉擇。說實在的她的父母真的是為她想嗎？真是的話就應該好好談。我並不是說風涼話，我自己也是經歷過離婚，討論監護權，在這過程中我也覺得並不是每件事都是公平的。但是為了孩子，我和我前夫各退一步，儘量不口出惡言。因為我們所作的一切小孩都看在眼裡。

We are almost done unpacking for our house except for our books. Pete and I together have collected boxes and boxes of books. Many books have been moved from one house to another house over years. There were even boxes which contained my books shipped from Thailand. I looked around the house and realized that we don't have enough space for them. I started to go through them and thought I would pick ones to keep and some to give. It was a difficult and long process. It was not only time-consuming but also emtional. I smiled at the books that brought me sweet memories, and wiped away the dust from the books that reminded me of the lonely nights in Thailand. In the end, I finally decided to keep most of them, and Pete resecued some of 'give-away' books.

I have been having an inner conversation with myself about books. While my friends are getting Kindle or IPad, I still cling to books and library (bricks and paper library but digital library). I just cannot let go of that physical touch and the ink smell from books. Maybe that was from my childhood when living and breathing books in my mom's bookstore. Since little, I helped my mom signing off the books that we received everyday; checked them in, sorted them and put them on the shelves where they belong. I liked to just look at my work and admired how those books were written. 

8 more days! 

We are going to move to our new house!!!!!! 

最近看了番紅花的一篇有關離婚的文章 http://www.wretch.cc/blog/bachbug/836335  不禁想小吐苦水一下。

她文中的朋友因為再嫁，且是嫁一個非台灣人，承受了一些議論。

老公在去年十一月把他在芝加哥的房子賣掉後，搬進了我的兩房ㄧ衛的小公寓。以前和兒子兩人剛剛好，加上ㄧ個大男人，尤其是他ㄧ人單身慣了，東西簡直比我和兒子兩人的東西還多。我覺得我家都快滿出來了！所以我們決定搬到大ㄧ點的房子，地點對我們很重要。我兒子不想轉學，而我也不想住離辦公室太遠，我老公每天開車上班來回快兩小時，我不想我也要開車上下班。現在我住的地方，走路五分鐘到辦公室，十分鐘到兒子學校，當兒子學校有活動時，我走路就到了，如果他在學校生病了，我也可以很快去接他。

我們現在住的地方，其實是在西北大學校區邊，我們可以利用學校的資源，也因是大學城的關係，日常生活很方便，住在這區還有一個好處，就是離密西根湖很近，夏天時我們常騎腳踏車去湖邊玩。但是住大學城也有壞處，那就是地價稅超級高。我們幫西北大學付稅啦！