JAMESON'S 11th BIRTHDAY

A STREET SCENE OF YANGI, CHINA

OUR 11 YEAR OLD BOY

IT WAS COLD, BUT LIKE ALL GOOD SISTERS , EMMA BRAVED THE COLD WHILE SHOPPING IN YANGI

"LOOK AT MY BIG KING CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES...WHAT A GREAT BIRTHDAY!"

Today we celebrated the birth of Jameson. Although Jim says because he was born on American time and that we're now on Chinese time, he wasn't really born until tomorrow and so it's not really his birthday yet!! We started our day running late. We have a mandatory meeting every Saturday morning at 7am. Jim woke me up at 6:32.....Ugggh!! We usually wake at 5:30 on Saturdays!! So after 30 minutes of me shouting out commands, Jay, Joe , Selah and I hailed a taxi and headed to the meeting. Jim and Emma were to follow after Jim got his act together! (He is always so slow when we're in a hurry.....I was a tad bit upset with his slow-pokey-ness and left without him thinking I was making a point). The taxi driver we got was not familiar with the location of our meeting place and took a few wrong turns. Eventually we arrived and walked to the third floor to our meeting and guess who greeted us at the door? Yep.....JIM!! His taxi driver knew where he was going and he arrived before I did......YIKES!....lessoned learned early this am not to be spiteful!!

After the meeting and breakfast, we said good-bye to team members who are returning to the States. After a few tears we went by 2 taxis to Yangi, the nearest big city. We met other team members at Ginna's Place, a restaurant specializing in Western food. Jameson wanted to go here in order to get a big American cheeseburger and french fries. He and I shared a Big King Burger with bacon and BBQ wings. He loved every bite. Emma enjoyed her tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich (we can't get cheese here, so the grilled cheese was quite a treat!). Jim and Selah shared a Big King Burger with bacon also and Jim had a bowl of Mexican soup. We had tortilla chips and salsa for appetizer and we enjoyed fresh brewed iced-tea (another treat we can't get here) With our bellies full, we went shopping. Jay had quite a wallet full of money and the girls had Christmas $$ to spend. Selah found very quickly Barbie accessories (a bedroom and kitchen set) and Jameson found a remote control spider-type robot. Emma couldn't find anything and the price wasn't right on the rocking horse (actually a giraffe) I wanted Josephto get. We walked from the mall to DVD store. We have heard of this store before because they have a wide selection of English movies and they are only 8yuan.....which is $1.32!! Isn't that crazy? Many are taped from a movie theater...totally illegal.....but it's all we can get.....and we love them. We came home with lots of movies......everyone got something they liked. I got a few chick flicks to watch late at night with Jim and I can't wait to pull out Gone with the Wind and introduce Emma to it. This store also sells tv show series, so Jim will be busy watching Star Trek Voyager whenever possible. The kids had a blast and it was fun not having to say "no" all the time. We finished our visit to Yangi with hot chocolate and coffee (I had mine iced---YUM!---but not as good as a Stevelatte!!) at a coffee shop that tried to make their logo look like Starbucks, but we weren't fooled....but still paid the high prices!! Joseph cried and screamed the hour and 45 minutes home. We were tempted to take him out of his seat but it was dark and the roads are very dangerous, so we just listened to him. He's just as stubborn as his dad.....you'd think he would have realized after the first hour that we weren't going to get him out of his seat but he continued to scream. Once home, I stripped him of his warm clothing and he has been playing on the floor for the past 2 hours, the happiest boy you'd ever meet. We're all home now and Jameson just opened cards from the States. Thank you to all who sent him a birthday message. It was fun for him to opend cards from friends back home.....he appreciates it more than most eleven year old boys. Thank you.

What a busy day.....we'll all sleep well tonight.....and YEAH! we made it thru the December birthdays again. We have a rest now until Joseph's first birthday on March 6!!