Seems like time just flies
You would think with me staying home everyday that I would have time to post on our blog everyday - but as you can tell, that just hasn't been the case! It amazes me how busy we stay. The weekend went by too fast, I'm envious of you back home who had an extra day off for Labor Day - they don't have that here! We didn't really do much this weekend, nothing major or exciting anyway. We did some walking, some shopping and generally not much else. We were invited to a birthday party on Sunday for Josephs one year birthday, but Liz woke up with a runny nose, so we had to forgo that, which really sucked since it would have been a nice chance for Anthony to meet some people outside of work and meet the people I talk to him about all the time.
We visited a "night market" on Sunday, although it was during the day, so not all the stalls were open. It is so hit or miss in those places. We were looking around and found a new swimsuit for Liz - she's outgrown the one we brought. The shop that we bought it from was actually a women's undergarment shop. The women thought Ashley's hair was so pretty, but must have thought it was very unkempt as they proceeded to sit her down and do her hair in pigtail braids (there's a picture on our picture site). It was too cute and she actually sat there and let them do it with no complaint, of course, when I try to do it, she whines and moans and won't sit still. The gave us a discount on the price of the swimsuit - we said it was too expensive and they said okay, only because Liz is adorable. Too funny.
Monday I decided to go to a few different malls to see which one has a good kids area and unfortunately, spent about 3 hours walking around the city with the girls and ended up at one of the malls we'd already been to. There is a section of town that has several shopping malls within a few blocks of each other, but most of them are really high end clothing retailers. It amazes me that people can afford that stuff here. I did manage to find Liz some absolutely adorable Espirit pink pants and shirt that were 50 percent off. She looks so cute in them, especially walking around. We decided to walk back to the hotel also, since Liz was asleep in the stroller and I didn't want to wake her up to get in a taxi. We walked a LONG way, and Ashley did awesome, hardly complained at all. Of course, I was completely sore that evening, so I imagine her little legs were too. She's such a trouper.
Yesterday, we didn't do much. Ashley wanted to go swimming, so we ventured out to the pool, where neither of the girls really seemed to want to do much swimming, they just wanted to wander around the pool and scare me by getting close to the edge. Ashley has also figured out how to order from the pool staff, so we had a plate of french fries show up after a little while. It started raining after we'd eaten so we headed inside for naptime. I think Ashley and I were still pretty exhausted from the day before, so we both took naps. Once Anthony got home, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant here in the hotel with his boss, Gary, and two other individuals here on business with AMD. It was a nice dinner (I had tenderloin...mmmm), and the girls were all over the place - running around everywhere. Luckily, most of the staff don't seem to mind. Although, at one point, we did get asked to keep Ashley from playing with these things that hang down from the ceiling. It was a nice dinner and good company.
Today, both girls woke up with runny noses and Ashley's sneezing a ton. We rested this morning, Liz took a morning nap, which she rarely does and I rested in bed with Ashley while she watched "Brother Bear". It was a nice calm morning. For lunch, Ashley wanted to go to 101 - I think that's her favorite place here in Taipei, so went ventured out (in the rain) and had chicken and fried rice in the food court. After lunch, Ashley wanted to go to the supermarket (Jason's) because they have these little carts for kids, so she loves pushing it around the market. We walked through and I couldn't resist my urge to pick up some Dr. Pepper. I have not had any since leaving Texas and I miss it! It's sitting in the fridge right now, getting cold, and I'm very excited at having some this evening - it's the little things :) Carolyn, my stepmom, had given us a bag of goodies "a survival bag" before leaving and it contained a box of "Junior Mints" for me, which if you know me well, you know it's my favorite candy. I have been savoring that box, eating only a few a night or every other night. I don't have much left, but it has lasted so long! I think the DP and the Junior Mints will be so good together and help remind me of home. Back to today, after the supermarket, we walked about looking in shops and I got a few things for Anthony that he needed. Many of the stores are having big sales trying to get rid of the summer clothes to make room for winter clothes. Ashley even picked out some clothes and wanted to try them on - for the first time ever - my big girl. She even closed the dressing room door and told me I couldn't come in. It was so cute! I can't believe how much she's growing up.
The apartment situation is looking up. We have a "letter of intent" signed by both AMD and the landlord on the apartment in XinYi (I'll post pics on our photo website). Right now, the actual lease agreement or contract is going through the AMD channels for approval. This process may still take a few more weeks, but I believe that we may actually finally have an apartment. We are excited. I can't remember if I've described it yet or not so here goes. It's in the XinYi district, which is where we are now, so within walking distance to 101, the Warner Village complex (for movies) and Neo 19 building (Chili's :). It is a very nice area, with a lot of upper end apartment buildings. Around the corner is a new pediatrician's office called "Dr. Bear" that is supposed to open this month (this is the doctor we visited on our first trip here when Liz had an upper respiratory infection). There are several supermarkets in the area, and a park with playground equipment around the corner. There are also several preschools in the area for Ashley. The building is nice, with a water feature that the apartment looks onto. No fish, but we're going to try and talk management into getting some :) We will be on the 2nd floor - not ideal, since we have no view of anything, but the water feature, but that's ok. The apartment has white tile in the main areas and dark wooden floors in the bedrooms, along with dark wooden closet space. It's a brand new apartment, and the building is 2 years old. There's a large living room, with space for the kids to play and a curved built in bench with storage for the girls toys. There is also a built in entertainment system with huge flat screen TV and surround sound. A small dining area with built in china cabinet and a TINY kitchen - when I say TINY - I mean tiny, I think only 2 people can actually fit in it. But it has a brand new regular size fridge, a rice cooker, a small portable oven, a water purifier and a microwave. There is a laundry room off the kitchen with a small washer and dryer and room to hang stuff to dry (most locals don't have dryers, they hang their clothes). There are three bedrooms. One small one, which will be Ashley's since it has a small bed and desk and closet. Perfect size for her and she's already stated she wants a Hello Kitty room - I guess we'll have to integrate Hello Kitty and princesses together :) Elizabeth's room has a full size bed for guests (hint, hint...) and another full size closet. There will be enough room to put her crib in that room. The master bedroom has one large wall of closet space, an area with built in desk to use as study and it includes another flat panel TV :) There is a bathroom in the master suite with shower and jacuzzi bathtub for two. The other bathroom also has a shower - both showers are very strange and will take us some experimenting to figure out. There are knobs and spouts all over, with a seatpad and everything. Ought to be interesting - very hightech! We've asked for instruction manuals on everything, but that may not really matter since it may all be in Chinese anyway. We'll see. The apartment includes one parking space for our use. The apartment itself is 59 pings, which is around 1800 square feet (I think). There is a common gym, which Anthony is happy about. No pool or kids area, but with the playground near by, that's ok.
So, here's hoping everything goes smoothly within AMD and we get everything signed off on the apartment and we'll be able to move in before the end of September. I can't wait to cook again and our first trip to Costco after moving will entail buying Pancake Mix and Syrup!
Oh and Ashley had her first "nightmare" that we can truly say was a nightmare last night. She came into our room saying, there's ants in my bed, there's ants in my bed (or something like that, I was deep asleep). Anthony took her back to bed, showed her there were no ants and she went back to sleep. She woke up this morning talking about it. We know she's had dreams and nightmares before, but she's never voiced to us what it was that woke her or that she dreamt about. She's growing up...
We visited a "night market" on Sunday, although it was during the day, so not all the stalls were open. It is so hit or miss in those places. We were looking around and found a new swimsuit for Liz - she's outgrown the one we brought. The shop that we bought it from was actually a women's undergarment shop. The women thought Ashley's hair was so pretty, but must have thought it was very unkempt as they proceeded to sit her down and do her hair in pigtail braids (there's a picture on our picture site). It was too cute and she actually sat there and let them do it with no complaint, of course, when I try to do it, she whines and moans and won't sit still. The gave us a discount on the price of the swimsuit - we said it was too expensive and they said okay, only because Liz is adorable. Too funny.
Monday I decided to go to a few different malls to see which one has a good kids area and unfortunately, spent about 3 hours walking around the city with the girls and ended up at one of the malls we'd already been to. There is a section of town that has several shopping malls within a few blocks of each other, but most of them are really high end clothing retailers. It amazes me that people can afford that stuff here. I did manage to find Liz some absolutely adorable Espirit pink pants and shirt that were 50 percent off. She looks so cute in them, especially walking around. We decided to walk back to the hotel also, since Liz was asleep in the stroller and I didn't want to wake her up to get in a taxi. We walked a LONG way, and Ashley did awesome, hardly complained at all. Of course, I was completely sore that evening, so I imagine her little legs were too. She's such a trouper.
Yesterday, we didn't do much. Ashley wanted to go swimming, so we ventured out to the pool, where neither of the girls really seemed to want to do much swimming, they just wanted to wander around the pool and scare me by getting close to the edge. Ashley has also figured out how to order from the pool staff, so we had a plate of french fries show up after a little while. It started raining after we'd eaten so we headed inside for naptime. I think Ashley and I were still pretty exhausted from the day before, so we both took naps. Once Anthony got home, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant here in the hotel with his boss, Gary, and two other individuals here on business with AMD. It was a nice dinner (I had tenderloin...mmmm), and the girls were all over the place - running around everywhere. Luckily, most of the staff don't seem to mind. Although, at one point, we did get asked to keep Ashley from playing with these things that hang down from the ceiling. It was a nice dinner and good company.
Today, both girls woke up with runny noses and Ashley's sneezing a ton. We rested this morning, Liz took a morning nap, which she rarely does and I rested in bed with Ashley while she watched "Brother Bear". It was a nice calm morning. For lunch, Ashley wanted to go to 101 - I think that's her favorite place here in Taipei, so went ventured out (in the rain) and had chicken and fried rice in the food court. After lunch, Ashley wanted to go to the supermarket (Jason's) because they have these little carts for kids, so she loves pushing it around the market. We walked through and I couldn't resist my urge to pick up some Dr. Pepper. I have not had any since leaving Texas and I miss it! It's sitting in the fridge right now, getting cold, and I'm very excited at having some this evening - it's the little things :) Carolyn, my stepmom, had given us a bag of goodies "a survival bag" before leaving and it contained a box of "Junior Mints" for me, which if you know me well, you know it's my favorite candy. I have been savoring that box, eating only a few a night or every other night. I don't have much left, but it has lasted so long! I think the DP and the Junior Mints will be so good together and help remind me of home. Back to today, after the supermarket, we walked about looking in shops and I got a few things for Anthony that he needed. Many of the stores are having big sales trying to get rid of the summer clothes to make room for winter clothes. Ashley even picked out some clothes and wanted to try them on - for the first time ever - my big girl. She even closed the dressing room door and told me I couldn't come in. It was so cute! I can't believe how much she's growing up.
The apartment situation is looking up. We have a "letter of intent" signed by both AMD and the landlord on the apartment in XinYi (I'll post pics on our photo website). Right now, the actual lease agreement or contract is going through the AMD channels for approval. This process may still take a few more weeks, but I believe that we may actually finally have an apartment. We are excited. I can't remember if I've described it yet or not so here goes. It's in the XinYi district, which is where we are now, so within walking distance to 101, the Warner Village complex (for movies) and Neo 19 building (Chili's :). It is a very nice area, with a lot of upper end apartment buildings. Around the corner is a new pediatrician's office called "Dr. Bear" that is supposed to open this month (this is the doctor we visited on our first trip here when Liz had an upper respiratory infection). There are several supermarkets in the area, and a park with playground equipment around the corner. There are also several preschools in the area for Ashley. The building is nice, with a water feature that the apartment looks onto. No fish, but we're going to try and talk management into getting some :) We will be on the 2nd floor - not ideal, since we have no view of anything, but the water feature, but that's ok. The apartment has white tile in the main areas and dark wooden floors in the bedrooms, along with dark wooden closet space. It's a brand new apartment, and the building is 2 years old. There's a large living room, with space for the kids to play and a curved built in bench with storage for the girls toys. There is also a built in entertainment system with huge flat screen TV and surround sound. A small dining area with built in china cabinet and a TINY kitchen - when I say TINY - I mean tiny, I think only 2 people can actually fit in it. But it has a brand new regular size fridge, a rice cooker, a small portable oven, a water purifier and a microwave. There is a laundry room off the kitchen with a small washer and dryer and room to hang stuff to dry (most locals don't have dryers, they hang their clothes). There are three bedrooms. One small one, which will be Ashley's since it has a small bed and desk and closet. Perfect size for her and she's already stated she wants a Hello Kitty room - I guess we'll have to integrate Hello Kitty and princesses together :) Elizabeth's room has a full size bed for guests (hint, hint...) and another full size closet. There will be enough room to put her crib in that room. The master bedroom has one large wall of closet space, an area with built in desk to use as study and it includes another flat panel TV :) There is a bathroom in the master suite with shower and jacuzzi bathtub for two. The other bathroom also has a shower - both showers are very strange and will take us some experimenting to figure out. There are knobs and spouts all over, with a seatpad and everything. Ought to be interesting - very hightech! We've asked for instruction manuals on everything, but that may not really matter since it may all be in Chinese anyway. We'll see. The apartment includes one parking space for our use. The apartment itself is 59 pings, which is around 1800 square feet (I think). There is a common gym, which Anthony is happy about. No pool or kids area, but with the playground near by, that's ok.
So, here's hoping everything goes smoothly within AMD and we get everything signed off on the apartment and we'll be able to move in before the end of September. I can't wait to cook again and our first trip to Costco after moving will entail buying Pancake Mix and Syrup!
Oh and Ashley had her first "nightmare" that we can truly say was a nightmare last night. She came into our room saying, there's ants in my bed, there's ants in my bed (or something like that, I was deep asleep). Anthony took her back to bed, showed her there were no ants and she went back to sleep. She woke up this morning talking about it. We know she's had dreams and nightmares before, but she's never voiced to us what it was that woke her or that she dreamt about. She's growing up...
posted by The Armstrongs at
9/08/2004
