We're moving to...

Rumors have been circulating for a while now, so I think it's time to finally announce

We're moving to CHINA.

After 2.5 years of Mike working in Kuala Lumpur in regional finance, Mike is now going to work for his company's North Asia division (as in China & Japan) doing M&A/business development and operations.

And specifically, we're moving to Beijing.

Mike is happy as he speaks Chinese and loves China.  I have mixed emotions.  Everyone who has been to or lived in Beijing absolutely loves it, so I am sure it will be cool.  I am a bit hesitant to move there as the city gets so much bad press because of the pollution.  To filter out the tiny particles in the air, expats in Beijing outfit their homes with a $1,000 air filters in EACH ROOM.  So what does that add up to if you have 8-9 rooms in your home...

Overall though I am looking forward to it.

The good news is starting August 22nd, Andrew and Joseph will be going to a new school -- an international school that is BILINGUAL.  We are way stoked about that.  The morning is taught in Chinese and the afternoon is taught in English.  Joseph will be okay as he has been going to a Mandarin montessori preschool here in KL, but I think it will be a big adjustment for Andrew.  Although Andrew is so smart and loves looking at Chinese characters I am hoping he will accept this new challenge with enthusiasm.

For those non-China experts, Beijing is super far north in China (let's be honest, I had to pull up a map to see where Beijing even was in the vast expanse of China).  It is really cold in the winter--see the proximity to Mongolia.  But it has an array of tourist attractions including Tiananmen Square--"heaven peace gate," as Mike tells me--and the great wall of China.  I already had Mike promise me that he would run the Great Wall of China half marathon with me (anyone want to join?).

Our moving plans:  It will be a crazy summer.  We are heading to the US for a bit this summer, then back to KL to pack up and hopefully take a quick trip here (Redang, Malaysia)--

--and officially be out of Malaysia by July 31st.  

So Joseph will get to spend the first day of the 3rd year of his life moving to yet another crazy Asian country.

Wish us luck!

More pics from Andrew at school

These are taken from his teacher's weekly blog.

1. The seventh graders came in and read a story they authored themselves.


2. Another picture from the student led conference last week. Andrew is showing me and elizabeth his compilation of work from throughout the year.


3. Andrew and his class during earth week. They visited a turtle pond and also raised money for WWF which I thought was so cool. His "crown" has a turtle on it. How awesome is that.


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Fun with friends

Little Elizabeth in her first swimsuit.  We went over to our friend April's house to go swimming, and before we took the kids out, we took a pic of this little girl.  She just hung out by the side of the pool in the shade and slept, but still it was fun!

Joseph found little weights at April's house and told me he was going to "work out" (as that is always what I tell him before I go exercise).  I should mention that I was about to put his clothes on after swimming when he did this -- I promise he doesn''t always hang out naked at friend's houses.

Baby E on her way home

Next up -- Time out chair story

Here are the boys in their time out chairs.  Really, it was Joseph who was the one to have to be in time out (get this--he CRACKED AN EGG INTO THE BATHTUB--sigh), but then Andrew told me he was in time out too, so I let him sit by Joseph since he thought it would be fun.  Then they got carried away and invented a game where they fall off the floor and slide along the ground like a water slide.  It was so funny I had to get a picture before I enforced the real time out.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the egg all over the bottom of the bathtub (and the shell laying nicely on the edge wall of the tub).

 Next up -- play date with Kokoro!  Andrew's friend from school came over (with her mom Megumi and brother Uta) and they did cooking.

Here they are making almond bread together

Then we got out the juicer and a ton of fruits and veggies and all the kids got to site sit eon the counter and pick what they wanted in "their" juice -- Uta picked tomato, Kokoro picked orange and apple, Andrew picked carrot, and I picked cucumber, cabbage and green apple!  It was so much fun

Visit to Tung Shin hospital for a checkup

 Mike, Elizabeth and I had to go to Tung Shin hospital on Jalan Pudu for a medical checkup in order to be granted a Chinese VISA.  It was three hours of X-rays, ECGs, and blood draws.  So fun.  The Chinese government better grant us those VISAs after all we went through.

After we did all the tests, we had to wait to get the results and finish the paperwork.

Asking the nurses, how much longer will this take?  They didn't seem as worried about the time as we were--they just loved looking at the baby in Mike's arms

One nurse really wanted to hold her (they took lots of photos with their camera phones so I'm sure she's all over facebook now)

The last of the paperwork.  Hurray!  Notice the background

Parent Conference at MKIS

Andrew's school had Parent Conference this week as it is the end of school.  A famous author did a book reading for his class, so as the kids' activity they got to write a story.  Here is his story and picture (above his head).

The story reads: "Billy is putting the banana in the toilet then flushing the toilet.  The banana did not go away, so he put it into Mommy's makeup.  Mommy chased him all around when he played football.  He had to have time-out and there was a time-out banana.

 The conferences were student-led, which I thought was such a cool and new concept, meaning the teacher did not say a word.  Instead, Andrew led the conference by showing me his work, and chosing three stations to work at with me.

First choice of station was blocks to build a "small city" as Andrew called it.

Second station is drawing a picture, where Andrew chose to draw the "small city" that he built earlier.  There were lots of bridges and flashing lights.  Notice Mrs. McDowall and Elizabeth in the background

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More fun

Ready for church

Another Joseph-taken photo

This is how we found Joseph this week...

All dressed up to visit Andrew at school (notice my green badge)

The market

 We took a trip to our local wet market to get loads of veggies for Andrew's burgers.  Joseph is out of school for two weeks so he joined us.

J liked watching the lady cut the fish

Blissfully sleeping

There is Helen talking to our vegetable lady

Joseph had a special market pose for me

Another version of his market pose

Good news, Joseph is potty trained now