Week In Pictures

If you follow me on Instagram this post may be redundant. Sorry about that. I will try to throw in some new commentary and surprises along the way. 

Spring Festival is right around the corner and Beijing is getting all decked out! 

The Place with it's giant overhead screen and Spring Festival decor.

Who cares that it is fake and the weather is nasty outside. Pink is pink!

Speaking of pink...gel manicures are in Beijing! Hooray! Cost $17.00 USD
I better not get used to this luxury.

I was lucky enough to go out to dinner with hubby and his boss. The restaurant, The Cut, was phenomenal! Best steak in Beijing in my opinion. Here was our scrumptious chocolate cake with grilled oranges.

More lovely lights.

Poor kid just does not want to lose her beautiful blonde locks! But brunette may be what she is destined for. After our own mishap from the Russian box, I took her to the pros. Guess what? They bleached her roots white too! After paying A LOT of money, I ended up fixing it from a box anyway! This is China:)

While the girls were fretting over hair, the boys took to the Beijing slopes yet again!

What an awesome dad!

Sorry for poor quality. In the dark of the night this is what happens eleven stories below our bedroom window. They load these flat bed trucks. Rain, wind, snow or heat these Chinese men work all night long...LOUDLY. But this is one of the odd things I will miss when we move back. Who'da thought?

The air has been putrid! I thought some nice homemade veggie soup would brighten things up! 

First time to the famous fabric market and they are packing up and moving. Still on my Beijing bucket list.

Real Men Wear Pink even when they are exercising to Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.
Please excuse the messy kitchen.

Even Jupiter gets bored during homework time.

I used to think the Asians were a bit odd wearing masks all over the place.
Now I am one of them!

In the elevator at the doctor there is this poster with birth rates...on sale!  You can order from the "menu" of what type of birth you want...then you hope it is on sale at that time. Funny.

How to eat healthy at FatBurger.
Grilled chicken minus bun from FatBurger.
Greek salad from Obrien's, attached to FatBurger. 

How to NOT eat healthy at FatBurger. Good old American food!

Love this view!

Yucky acid rain. After many days of horrid air it rained a bit. The sidewalks seemed as if someone had poured oil all over them. People all over the city were slipping and sliding. I saw five people slip and one person crash on her bike due to the sludge. No ice was involved...yet.

The same day as above it snowed in the afternoon.
Surprisingly it covered the nasty oils and made it easier to walk.

China has changed me in many ways. This was my lunch when friends and I went out.
It was sea bass and it was yummy. 

Next door to our restaurant, on the above girls outing, was a great furniture store called Casa Pagoda. I fell in love with this piece! The top says "eternity" and the back is a chocolate advertisement. Chocolate in eternity? Yes! But, sadly, at over $3,000 USD it was out of my price range. Darn!

 That brings us to today. Friday, February First!

After many, many days of thick grey yucky air the wind came in and we saw blue skies for half of the day.

My favorite thing about windy days is that I can see the American Flag flying at the US Ambassadors   residence, just outside our living room window. Can you spot it? 

The sky was like this for a few hours anyway. Look closely and you can see the mountains. Something I will never take for granted in California again!

What better way to spend a Friday than baking for a church activity? These Hershey's mini kisses are so good in cookies. They taste different than regular kisses and loads better than chocolate chips. I had so much fun baking Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies that I made Snickerdoodles too!

Thanks for reading! Again, please be patient with the quality of picture...if they are blurry it usually means someone is chewing me out for taking the pic (i.e. the Real Men Wear Pink pic).