OUT WITH THE OLD YEAR AND IN WITH THE NEW YEAR

Today we took the kids up to Crystal Mountain for their first ski lesson of the season. For the same price of two kids in ski school one could also put the same two kids in a private lesson for two hour with the same instructor. We chose the later of the two.

While Mimi and Blake were up on the slopes with their instructor Bob, papa went skiing on his own. Mama and Keri took turns taking care of Bailey and watching the kids ski until Bob took them up the mountain on the ski lift chairs. That was the first time Mimi had ever rode on one of them.

Not long after the lessons is when Blake went home with his mom. Mimi and mama stayed while papa did a few more runs down the mountainside. Somehow when papa was done skiing, we kept missing each other they by the time we found one another it was quite late in the afternoon. Mimi was quite pooped by the end of the day and slept all the way home.

By the time we arrived home, she was rejuvinated. So much so that she had more energy to burn. Therefore papa took her over to Lisa and Neil's for their annual New Year's party. Mama is still feeling a bit under the weather and decided to stay at home. She's been hearing the fireworks go off all night long.

PAPAS NEW PROJECT

Since our move to the Seattle I've been working on a 43 story
office tower to be built in downtown Seattle. The photo at right are computer renderings of the building inserted into photograph of the Seattle skyline. It is the faceted silver building with the sloped top next to the tall black building. It's a big (and welcome) change from the hospital I was working on in Los Angeles.

Greg

SPEED RACER

Speed Racer is what Mimi reminds mama of. As most of you know, mama is from that generation that produced all of those Japanese cartoons that mama really liked such as Speed Racer, Marine Boy and Kimba the White Lion. As for Uncle Jim, it was Godzilla that he liked so much.

Actually this is a picture of Mimi's new ski helmet and goggles.

PAPA'S LITTLE HELPER

Papa has four days off for this New Year Holiday. Yesterday he and Mimi went around the house hanging pictures. Mama in the meantime is laid up with the bad case of allergies and laryngitis. She thinks that she got sick from the Christmas tree.

This year papa bought a gorgeous Noble Fir tree that looks and smells wonderful, except it seems that everytime we buy a tree, mama gets sick. For that matter, so does our Ollie who has asthma. Don't quite know what we'll do next year. We may end up getting a artificial tree which does not make papa too happy. But, what can you do? Hmmm?

Tomorrow we are all planning to take the kids up to the mountains to go skiing. Blake and Mimi are quite excited about that. Mostly likely we will go to Crystal Mountain. Hopefully mama will be feeling better by then.

"LUMPY" THE HEFFA LUMP

This is a Christmas gift from Auntie Setsue. Mimi has given the hand puppet the name "Lumpy" from the tv series "My Friends Tiger And Pooh".

I CANNOT BELIEVE IT !!!

I cannot believe it !!! That's been Mimi's new saying for

quite some time now. This morning we had a little snow mixed with the rain. Mostly rain. Grandma and mama decided that they would take the chance and drive to the hospital to get her Cortisone shot for her aching back. The roads were very clear. Mimi came along with us. She is such a good little trooper. I thing grandma was happy that Mimi came too. As we sat in the waiting room, grandma, instead of reading the magazine etc. kept watching Mimi play with her toy cars. Smiling the whole time. While grandma was recieving her shot in the back room a couple of other kids came (boy and girl) and Mimi had someone to share her toy cars with.

After coming home and a nap, Mimi went to play with Blake. That's when the snow started coming down in droves and is still coming down pretty hard. Mimi says that Santa will absolutely be so happy that the snow is coming down.

CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDPA AND GRANDMA

Christmas this year was spent with grandma and grandpa. Mimi just loves playing Santa. Mama cooked dinner for everyone and brought it to their house. It was just a little too bad that the whole family could not get together this year.

Uncle David and Auntie Setsue are in Japan visiting with cousin Mari who took on a job with the JET program that Japan has with the schools there. All of them will/are traveling around Japan visiting with Auntie Setsue's family. She comes from the Miyazaki area while mama's family comes from the Yokohama/Kamakura area. Someday mama hopes to go back and visit with her family.

Cousin Joe is staying back in Maryland with his fiance Nicole. They are planning to get married sometime in September 2008. They are planning a trip to Japan too. Possibly in January or February of next year.

Mama is not writing too much tonight. She came down with a bad cold. Has laryngitis too. That's too bad for her but good for papa.

SHE's COOL

Since it is most definitly the winter weather here, everyone especially the little tikes dress warm and cozy.

Mimi: Mama, who gave me this Mickey Mouse sweatshirt?

Mama: Your Auntie Teri. You know, Samantha's mom.

Mimi: SHE'S COOL !!!

Mama: I think so too !!!

KITCHEN TABLE CONVERSATION

Tonight's dinner conversation:

Mimi: Hey, Blake didn't call me today.

Mama: That's because his grandpa is visiting with him from out of town so he is spending time with his family.

Mimi: Well, where's my family?

Mama and papa just hung their heads and sighed.

THANK YOU's

Yesterday at gymnastics the teacher had placed orange cones around the mat. Since there were only 3 kids in the class, the teacher's assistant paired up with Mimi. While the two other kids were to run around and knock the cones down, Mimi and the assistant were to run around and pick the cones back up. Somewhere in this running around, Mimi fell and sustained a small mat burn to her nose. Mimi did not cry nor did she complain about it so therefore mama did not know about this till class was over.

Mama did what most moms would do. She cleansed it, applied some Neosporin ointment and placed a bandaid on her nose plus gave her a ton of TLC. Mimi then went about her merry way for the rest of the day.

Today while in the car after running around and doing errands, Mimi said out of the blue, "mama, thank you for making me feel much better." Those are the little moments that I cherish so much in my heart.

STILL HERE

Mimi's family is still here in Maple Valley alive and well. Papa has yet to put the pictures on a disc so as of now the memory card is still full.

This past Wednesday was the last day of school and Thursday was the last day of gymnastic school until next year. Mimi has been busy playing with Blake every single day. Now and then she plays with Erin.

This past Monday the "freeway kids" (3-way kids meaning Mimi, Blake and Erin) got together for fun and pizza at Erin's. Mimi still has a little trouble with her th's as in "three". So therefore everything is "free".

Today mama is still getting cards ready for Christmas. So sorry to the folks who will be getting them after Christmas. Tonight we all will be going over to our neighbor Jess's home for a neighborhood get together. That should be loads of fun.

PORN TREE

Our Mimi bless her little heart has trouble sometimes pronouncing certain words. In her words, hamburgers are pronounced hang-a-burger or it is also known to her as hang-a-booger.

Today while we were driving home from Liam's house, Mimi says to me "Mama, we don't have a porn tree." Mama says "Whut?" Mimi repeats "WE DON'T HAVE A PORN TREE!!!" It took mama a few minutes to figure out that Mimi was saying we don't have a PALM tree. Blake has a imitation Christmas light palm tree on his front porch.

FOUR F's

These past few weeks we have been doing the four f's around here. Food, fun, family and football. Mama has been busy trying out new recipes such as grandma's traditional Christmas gum drop cookies, cinnamon buns and such. Due to the cold wet weather, we all get together with Blake and his family quite often for food and football. We always have a lot of fun together, especially the kids. They all cry when it's time to part company. Today Mimi had two playdates along with pre-school.

This morning we all met over at Erin's for a small get together of pizza and fun. Then mama and Mimi took the short walk to school. After school, Mimi had a playdate with her school chum Liam at his home. A short 5 minute drive from school. By the time it was 5:30 pm was when we headed for home. We no sooner arrived home that we had our first black out. In the meantime, mama had taken Mimi and Blake to get dinner. When we finished eating at Blake's (their lights were on because they too have a generator), mama went home to help papa with ours. Papa no sooner got ours hooked up and the lights came on. Papa says that it was a good trial run.

Next thing we all knew. It was bedtime. Where does the time go when one is having so much fun?

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS

This morning we did a mother and daughter outing. We went to see Alvin and The Chipmunks. Mama was feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to see it for herself. Cute movie. Definitely a kid's flick. Some would say that we could wait for the dvd. Mimi really liked it. She's been singing the songs ALL DAY LONG!

MOVIE NITE

Tonight Mimi and Blake went to their school for a movie night. It was a fun filled night with a pizza, soda, ice cream, games and a movie "Toy Story".

While Mimi was out, Santa came for a visit. Since Mimi was not home, he just left her gifts under the tree. Mimi was quite surprised when she came home. A little sad that she had missed seeing Santa. Mama explained that since Santa had so many toys to give all of the children, he is going to make another trip around the world on night before Christmas. Tonight was a trial run. Mimi was quite satisfied with mama's explaination. "Yippee !!! He's coming back again !!!" Mimi exclaimed.

Tomorrow, Keri and mama plan to take the kids to see Alvin the Chipmunks while papa goes to do some work for grandma and grandpa. If time allows. mama and Mimi may go to see grandma and grandpa too.

SHOPPING WITH MIMI

Today mama noticed as she was dressing Mimi that we needed to go shopping for more pants. Mimi is getting taller and her pants are starting to "flood" as it was called when mama was a kid just 21 years ago. After gymnastics we headed over to the Northbend outlet mall.

Mama: Oh look Mimi, it's starting to snow a little bit.
Mimi: Oh, Santa will be soooo happy!!!

Conversation after shopping and dinner at Mongolian Grill.

Mimi: Mama, my tongue is saying it's hungry.
Mama: What should we feed it?
Mimi: ICE CREAM CONE !!!

We took a drive through McDonald's before heading home.

THE FINISHED PROJECT

MIMI'S NEW CHRISTMAS PROJECT

Tonight Mimi helped papa with setting up Santa's and Rudolph's village. Mama had started the project but papa being the architect he is, was not quite happy with mama's design. So therefore she let him take over.

CAT NAPPING

Ole' Stanley appears quite pooped after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

This morning we all went over to grandma and grandpa's. Mimi and Blake was able to finish their project of making the traditional gingerbread house.

COMPUTERS

Mimi loves going over to Blake's house. He has taught her everything she needs to know about Disneyplayhouse.com. Need less to say, she loves it now. This was her conversation with mama and papa at 9:30pm last night just before going to bed.

Mama: Mimi, it's time to take a quick bath and then bed.
Mimi: I don't wanna go to bed! I'm not tired!!!
Mama: Oh yes you are going to take a bath then bed.
Mimi: OK, but papa, when I come back after my bath and if you're sitting at the computer, I'm going to be mad! (Papa was in the office at the time)
Papa: I'm just shak'in in my boots.

Mimi went to bed without a hitch.

MORE STIMULATING CONVERSATIONS WITH THE KIDS

Forever and a day, Blake is always trying to out do Mimi. This was our lunch time conversation yesterday at grandma's.

Dottie: Mimi has four grandma's you know Blake? She has one in China, two in heaven and one right here.

Blake: Well Dottie, I have five grandma's.

Dottie: Mimi has a great big head. It's hard sometimes to get her shirts on and off. She will say to me "Mama, can you help? My big ol' head's not working!"

Blake: I have a bigger head than she does.

Dottie: So true (he really does and that's no joke).

NEW CLOTHES

Mimi finally bought some new gymnastic clothes. So now she like to show them off. She now looks just like the rest of the girls in her class.

Today's class worked on the bars.

MARRIAGE AND BABIES

Blake: Dotttie, after you go to China and get Mimi's little sister, is that the end of having babies for you?

Dottie: You got that right babe.

Blake: My mom says that she is through too (Blake has a baby sis by the name of Bailey).

Mimi: Guess what mom? Me and Blake are married.

Blake: Only Mimi, I'm married to Emery (his school chum).

Mimi: No, I'm married to you.

GOOD NEWS

Mama just found out that we don't have to go to Yakima for the fingerprints! YIPEE!! We can just do it here at Sea-Tac. She really was not looking forward to the 2-3 hour drive. What it come down to is this. Going the Yakima route and having it done would mean that the whole process would take a shorter time. Going to Sea-Tac route is easier but longer in time. Since we are way back in the waiting line of groups to go to China, mama opted to do the Sea-Tac route.

FUN WITH GRANDMA

Today we all went to grandma's. Mimi started a tradition last year with her cousin Mari (who is now in Japan). They made gingerbread house together. This year grandma, Blake, Mimi and mama are doing it together. We worked on it for a little while but we are not able to finish it today. We will go back to grandma's again on Wednesday.

Mama brought over some hot dogs, baked beans and BBQ chicken for everyone to eat at lunchtime. Mimi really loves anything BBQ, especially chicken and ribs. She can really chow down on those.

When lunch was over, we all sat down for a game of cards. Then it was time for school.

Tomorrow we will definitely go to Yakima to update our homestudy. Everytime we had made plans to go, something would pop up to prevent us from going. Today papa had a meeting at work that he absolutely couldn't get out of. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow. The weather station says that it will be clear with a few clouds.

SPEED RACER

Mimi is not the only one enjoying the Lightening McQueen tent. Our Ollie does too. He likes to sleep in it everynight. Now and then he will let Stanley in.

GOOFING AROUND

Mama was goofing around with the camera after our tree decorating ceremony. We all had hot chocolate to drink and no mama's drink was not spiked (although it usually is spiked with gran marnier). Papa says that he did not know that mama had such feet fetish.

TREE DECORATING

This weekend started off with shopping with Mimi on Friday morning. Fortunately Mimi is a very early riser so that we can do some errands in the morning before she has to go to school.

Things were going great till Mimi met up with Santa at the South Center Mall. Things started going down hill from there. A couple of years ago, Mimi had a not so good experience with Santa. Mama calls him the Billy Bob Thorton "Bad Santa" and that's no joke, he reeaallly was. Since then, Mimi absolutely will not take a picture with Santa. This time, mama thought for sure maybe Mimi had changed her mind. Mainly because Mimi said that she did want to take a picture and stood in line for it, that is until we reached Santa's chair. She then changed her mind. As some will say, it is a woman's perogitive. Santa tried in every way to get her take a picture. Nope, not our Mimi. She did get a plastic reindeer cup and candy out of the deal. Mama appologized to Santa and we left.

We stopped for lunch at Johnnie Rockets at the South Center Mall. Soon after lunch was over, we were getting ready to leave, Mimi disappeared!!! People are not lying when they say it only takes a second. Mama was quite frantic looking for her needless to say. Mama then turned around and looked up and what to her wondering eyes did she see? None other than Mimi's big, round head standing at the entrance of the mall (which is just outside Johnnie Rockets). Let's just say that Mimi has learned her lesson and I am fortunate that she is a smart girl so I know that it will never happen again.

To go anywhere here and get things done takes almost all day. That's no joke either. By the time we all came home from a very busy day of school, shopping and going to our Buddhist meeting in the evening, mama was really exhausted. Papa tried to get cozy with mama but she just gave him the evil eye and told him to "Leave me alone or your feelings will get hurt". Fortunately papa is a smart man and left mama alone.

Lucky for everyone, mama does not stay in a grumpy mood too long. By Sunday, she was back to her old self again. Plus her Seahawks won the game today.

Mimi is quite happy with the tree papa bought yesterday at McClendon's. Tonight they both had fun decorating it while mama made everyone hot chocolate to drink in this wintery weather.

Tomorrow it's back to the old grind for papa. Mimi and mama will go over to grandma's. Mimi and grandma have a project going for themselves. They will be making their traditional gingerbread house. Last year Mimi did it with her cousin Mari and they both a blast at it. This year Mari is in Japan working in the Jet Program. That is a program where one can go over there and teach english and they in turn get free room and board plus a small salary.

FUTURE GYMNAST????

Mimi really, really loves her gymnastic class and teacher Kathy very much. Mama likes it too mainly because Mimi has such a good time there and only 3 students in class. Pictured here are a couple of the floor exercises they do after the warm up which is running. That's right up Mimi's alley. Teacher says that Mimi has a really good running form. "Just like a sprinter" she says. On Thursdays, they all work on the trampoline, which is also right up Mimi's alley.

Tomorrow, we all get to drive (2 hours) to Yakima to do more PAPERWORK to update our homestudy for Mei Mei. Gawd, how I hate paperwork, especially this kind. On the other hand, I absolutely LOVE the end result.

Mama just noticed that she forgot to resize the pictures. In the bottom picture Mimi is winking. She likes to wink a lot in her pics.

LIGHTENING McQUEEN

Mimi now has a new addition to her race car collection - a new tent and slippers.

EINSTEIN

This is Mimi just after she wakes up in the morning. It's a condition known as "Einstein Head" in the Putney household. When Auntie Setsue saw Mimi with this condition 3 years ago, that's what she started to call her and the name has stuck to this day.

TINKERBELL

Tinkerbell is flying off to Neverland (bed) after sprinkling her pixie dust everywhere.

HAMBURGERS

Today the roads were clear, so after gymnastic school Mimi and mama made a run for the Northbend outlet mall. By the time we finished, we were quite hungry and decided to stop at McDonald's for something to eat on the way home. Mama asked what kind of happy meal does she want. Mimi replied "hang-a-burger" (she still has a bit of trouble pronouncing hamburger). Mimi then proceeded to goof around with her words. She went from hang-a-burger to hang-a-booger. She laughed and laughed about that one. I guess that when one is almost 5 years old, the more disgusting something is, the better. Oh well, que sera sera.

WHATEVER MIMI HAS.....

Whatever Mimi has her friend Blake has to have. Mimi has long since worn shoes with lights, Blake now has them, Mimi has a Lightening McQueen race car rug, Blake went out and bought a Nascar rug, Mimi has The Polar Express dvd, Blake went out and bought the same dvd, Mimi now has a Beta fish, Blake wants one. The latest is, last weekend Mimi picked up her first pair of ski's from REI, yesterday Blake went out to get his ski's. So now they both can go skiing together. Plus unlike mama, papa ski's and so does both of Blake's parents.

Yesterday while shopping for lunch, mama bought Mimi a "Lightening McQueen" sippy cup. Although Mimi doesn't drink from sippy cups because "they are for babies like Bailey", she will drink from it with the lid off. Works out well anyways, because when Bailey comes over, she now has a cup that she can use. Mama is just waiting for the same cup to show up at Blake's house.

This all just cracks me up.

PLAYDATE WITH LIAM

After school today, Mimi's school chum Liam came over to play for a while. They had a blast goofing off with the Santa hat.

Later in the evening, Blake and little sis Bailey came over to play. Our Mimi is quite the social butterfly.

Needless to say, we did not make it to the community center tonight.

NO MORE SNOW

Well folks, the snow has turned to slush. YUCK!!! It rained all day and night yesterday and will continue until tonight. We are scheduled to have a huge windstorm to boot! The storm has already hit the Oregon coast yesterday.

Today mama and Mimi are planning to go to the indoor playground in about a half hour. Later in the afternoon she has school. This evening we are planning to go to the community center for some more toddler time and meet Santa but if it is too windy, we will mostly likely stay home.
Mama is not much for one driving at night here especially with bad weather. I tell you, this weather has been quite unpredictable lately.

Last night, papa and Wade (Blake's dad) made plans for skiing this weekend. Hopefully the road condition will be good. Although there is quite a bit of snow in them thar' hills, many drivers still drive fast and their cars have either slid off the road or are stuck on the side of the road. A few trucks have jackknifed also. Mama saw this when coming home from REI and on the news last night.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

After coming home from Kosen Rufu Gongyo (our Buddhist meeting), we stopped by REI to pick up Mimi's first pair of ski's. She is quite excited about them. So much so that she had to show them to grandma when we stopped by their house.

Papa is now up on the roof-top putting up the Christmas lights because Mimi is so worried that Santa will not be able to find our house without them. She says that Santa may get lost or something.

EVEN MORE SNOW

I guess the weatherman wasn't quite telling the truth. It was supposed to rain this afternoon, but guess what? NOT!!! It is still snowing as of now (8:12pm)and it is snowing pretty hard. Thank goodness mama did the grocery shopping yesterday.

Mimi is very excited about the snow so much that mama is having a hard time putting her to bed.

Mama: Mimi ! It's time to go to bed!!!
Mimi : But, I want to see the snow!
Mama: It will still be there in the morning.
Mimi: But I want to see SANTA!!!

MORE SNOW

This afternoon quite a bit more snow fell and is still falling at this hour. One can see a lot of kids outside making snowmen and snowballs. Mimi wanted to go to the park, so both mama and papa took turns pulling her on her snow disc. Once at the park she had a blast having snowball fights withe Erin.

SNOW

Early this morning Mimi came running downstairs yelling "mama it's snowing!!!" The weatherman was right for once.

So on with the snow clothes. The sad part is it will all be melted away by afternoon. The weatherman says that we should be expecting rain. Mimi says that if that happens we won't be able to have Christmas without any snow. ;-(

NEMO AND STANLEY

This afternoon mama caught Stanley taking swipes at the fish bowl. Thank goodness mama put a covering on it because Nemo is driving Stanley absolutley NUTS!!!

HEARTBREAKER

This afternoon mama went to pick Mimi up from school. There were several other moms there while the teacher shared this story with me.

The teacher said that Mimi was outside and was found holding her head in her hands. When asked what was wrong Mimi replies that she misses her sister in China. Mama then explained to the ladies there that we are in the process of adopting Mimi's mei mei from China.

Mama also shared with them, that our friends Erika and Miguel are adopting again and we are all in the same group. Mama explained how Naomi is praying to God every night to watch over her little sister until she gets there. Our Mimi always tell us how her mei mei is calling to her saying "Mimi, help come get me!"

When it was time to go home, the moms were saying aaaawww, patting their hands over their hearts and tearing up.

WEATHER UPDATE

The weather gage now says 37 degrees and it is only 4:00. Another mom at Mimi's school says that they (DOT) is putting on the chemicals to keep the streets from icing all around Lake Wilderness which is not far from our home (approximately 5 minute drive). Either way, mama has her camera ready in case it does snow tomorrow.

POSSIBLE SNOW

The weather station said that we may have snow tomorrow. I believe him because it is most definitely colder than usual outside. The temperature gage says 41 degrees but I think it is colder than that.

Good thing mama did the grocery shopping today. The store clerk says that we had a pretty good snow season last winter right here in Maple Valley. Papa seems pretty pleased too because that means the ski resorts will open soon. Some already have. This weekend Mimi's ski's will be ready to be picked up. She will be one busy little chili pepper this season with school, gymnastics and skiing.

GYMNASTIC CLASS

Yesterday Mimi went to her second gymnastic class. Once again she had a blast. This class had one boy and four girls including Mimi.

The Thursday class consisted of a little floor exercises and trampoline. This trampoline exercise consisted of running then taking a jump onto the small jumping board then jump onto the trampoline. There is another "runway" trampoline where the students start off at one end and jump toward the other end spinning around in circles when the instructor tells them too. This is right up Mimi's alley especially if running and jumping are involved.

While one is not allowed to take flash photography of the students, you can take video, which mama did.

RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER

Mimi is really getting into the Christmas spirit of things. She loves watching Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer video over and over. She also loves running around the house singing the Rudolph song. This afternoon Erin came to play and they found mama's Christmas decorations and loads of fun playing with them.

Blake is coming over tonight, so we have to hurry and take a bath before he comes otherwise it will never get done.

SOUR PUSS

About one week ago, Mimi received her school pictures (left pic). I called papa at work to tell him about it. I told him that she just had such a sour puss look to her face. He thought that mama was exaggerating until he came home and saw it for himself. We don't know why she was in a foul mood that day. The teacher says that the more they tried to get her smile, the more Mimi would not smile. Her class picture was no better.

The picture to the right, is the one Mimi took earlier this year at Pacifica Montessori. It was taken somewhere around April. Papa is going to count that one as her school picture and not the one with the sour puss face. Teacher says that we could call the photographer to see if he would do it over, but mama said no. Mama says that she wants to keep this one to show Mimi in years to come.

MIMI and FLOWER

Mama always sits in the office next to Mimi's room and plays with the computer while papa reads Mimi bedtime stories. Most of the time mama is laughing to herself because she can hear how Mimi makes her papa use different voices to act out the different parts. It is soooo funny hearing papa talk in a female voice.

Tonight when the stories were over mama heard the two them say their goodnights. Papa says "goodnight Mimi". Mimi says ahem "goodnight Flower". I think she is watching way too much Disney.

NEW ADDITION

There is a new addition to the Putney household. His name is Nemo as in Finding Nemo. For quite some time mama had this big fish bowl with fake glass fish that she used for decoration purpose. Somewhere in our move the glass fish is missing so Mimi decided to buy real fish.

This morning before gymnastic school, we did just that. Mama purchased a Beta fish mainly because they are very low maintenance. Everything Mimi has, her friend Blake has to have only bigger (Mimi has a race car rug, so does Blake, Mimi has a skateboard, so does Blake, Mimi for a long, long time worn shoes with lights, you guessed it, Blake now has them) So now he has decided to get a small octopus but then changed his mind. He wants to get a fish like Mimi only bigger. So of course, mama had to call Keri and give her a "heads up" on the situation.

The reason for the red bow around the fish bowl is that we have TWO CATS. Our Ollie could care less about Nemo, but not our Stanley. So therefore mama had to put some type of covering on the fish bowl.

DOCTOR ,POST OFFICE and HONEY DO'S

This afternoon mama cleaned the garage so that Blake and Mimi could play in it. We are now in the winter season so it is way too cold for them to play outside. Mama closes the garage door and opens the door leading to the garage open so that the garage will be warm enough for them to play in. Mama was cooking dinner while the kids played. Next thing she knew, Blake came running in to make his mail to have delivered by Mimi. Mama could hear Blake saying to Mimi "Honey, come here" Honey do it this way". It was honey this and honey that. Mama was laughing so hard that she had to call Keri and tell her all that was going on.

When they finished with playing post office, mama gave them some balloons which they loved. Mimi was pretending that she hurt her leg. She said that she needed to see the doctor. Next thing mama knew, Blake was playing the doctor. Mimi was lying down with the injured leg sticking straight up in the air and Blake was feeling it for injuries. Egads! They're growing up way too fast for me!

GYMNASTICS

After the hula lesson fiasco, mama decided to have Mimi try out for gymnastic. Mama found out about the gymnastic class from another China mom Rhonda. Throughout this week mama had been taking Mimi to observe the classes and get used to the idea that she WILL BE ATTENDING GYMNASTICS. In the beginning, Mimi said that she was "NOT JOINING"! Mama had decided to sign her up for once a week. Today was the first lesson and guess what? Mimi had a BLAST!!! She absolutely loved it!! She had so much fun that she could not wait to sign up for TWICE a week as opposed to once a week. She will now be going to pre-school on M-W-F and gymnastic school on T-Th during the day. The gymnastic class consists of 2-3 girls, Mimi included. So it is almost as if Mimi is getting a private lesson. Since Mimi is only going to pre-k at this time, we are able to do the gymnastic class from 12:30-1:30. Should she continue to do gymanstic in the future, it will have to be in the evening. That is when the majority of students come.

Today's class consisted of running, tumbling, a little bit of floor exercises and bars. Thursday class will consist of tumbling and trampoline.

CHENGDU CHILI PEPPER

Mimi has the ability to be one hot and spicey chick. Since it is freeze your nunnies off cold up here, everyone spends their time going to each other's home for entertainment. Last night Lisa, Keri and their families came to our house for dinner. Mimi had a real good time, so good that she did not want them to leave when the time came (9:30 pm). Boy did she wail like a Banshee!!! She also has a memory like you wouldn't believe. She then remembered the night when her papa came to bring her home from Blake's house. So all last night before going to bed, she kept saying how she is still mad at dad because as she put it so eloquently "He brought me home!!! I wanted to stay at Blake's 15 more minutes and he only gave me 12!!!". Life's rough at times when you're a kid I guess.

THANKSGIVING DAY DINNER

Thanksgivig Day was spent at grandma's and grandpa's. Here in the picture, Mimi decided to use her utensils at antlers. What an imagination this girl has ;-)