I Think We're in the Clear

Harry's flight from San Fran was supposed to leave around noon, and since it's 4:00 and I haven't received any hysterical phone calls from Harry or Jason, I'm thinking he's Beijing bound. And as insane as yesterday was, at least having a "surprise" visit from him has kept the JR tears at a minimum.

He Left. But He's Back.

As my friend, Adrienne, put it "you can't make this stuff up." Nope, I certainly could never have made this one up.
So Harry left on the 6:00 AM flight out of Durango this morning heading back to China. (Durango, Denver, Vancouver, Beijing) Jason took him to the airport and said he had to argue with the check in agent. She said Harry needed a visa to go to Canada and Jason had to explain to her that Harry was "in transit", he would never leave the airport, so technically he wouldn't be in the country.
If you've done much traveling internationally then you know this is the rule. We used to go through Tokyo on our way to and from Beijing, but I never filled out the customs cards because we were just "passing through"...we never went through customs. I've spent hours upon hours in the Tokyo airport, but I only have one Japanese stamp in my passport from the time we spent a few nights there.
The closest we ever came to having a problem with this rule was a layover in Indonesia from Australia to Singapore. Still no customs, still didn't need a visa, but they did come and take Jason out of the boarding line (leaving me standing there holding 1-year old JR) and inform him that we would be paying the airport tax. Jason figured out fast that the airport would never be seeing that "tax", but if he ever wanted to see us, or get out of that airport, he'd better pay up.
Anyway, as we were getting ready for church this morning Jason got a call from Harry in Denver. They weren't letting him board the flight to Vancouver because he didn't have a visa. Jason's arguing with the boarding agent over the phone went something like this:
Jason: He doesn't need a visa, he's in transit.
Boarding Agent: I suggest he visit the Canadian consulate in the morning in downtown Denver and get a visa.
Jason: Now how's that going to work? He's a Chinese kid with no driver's license and $200 in his pocket.
Boarding Agent: He's not getting on this flight
CLICK
Yes, he hung up on Jason.
After 2 hours on the phone with United customer service, Jason finally found out that United recently got fined over visas in Canada. If you are flying China Air out of Canada then you don't need a "transit visa" to fly United into Canada. BUT, if you're flying Air China out of Canada then you do need a transit visa. I guess Air China passengers are hiding out in The Great White North, while the China Air patrons aren't.
Well, I guess you can figure out what airline Harry was on.
And when I got home from church, Jason was at the airport picking Harry up.
Yep, he's back.
We'll be trying this all over again tomorrow, but this time we're skipping Canada. He'll be flying out of San Francisco.

The Graduate

Okay, so Harry didn't actually graduate from Durango High, but they let the foreign exchange students walk, so it's graduating as far as I'm concerned.

Somebody doesn't handle it so well when others are getting attention. (I have no idea where he gets it.) Getting to wear Harry's hat helped put some focus back on JR, and also slowed down questions such as, "Can I take off my shirt?"

And in case you were wondering, the balloons released at graduation were biodegradable. Oh yes. It was written right there in the program. Cause we Durangoans never graduate from being environmentally conscious.

Prom

Last night was Harry's prom. JR was furious that he was not going to prom, which is the reason for his absence from the picture. (Harry is in the glasses and Jason's tux vest from Beijing. His friend with him, Tong, is also an exchange student from China.) I was super surprised when Harry told us he was going to prom, and excited that he was going with a group of friends. He then said that a friend at school (who is a girl) had invited him. I started asking him, "Is she your date? Did she just ask you or other people too? Are the others in your group going with dates?" Of course Harry didn't know the answer to any of these questions, and since I live in a house full of boys, nobody else seemed concerned either. I couldn't stand the thought of some cute girl standing there without a corsage and a date that didn't even know he was her date. I quickly reverted back to my 17 year-old-self (which wasn't very hard since that was only 8 years ago...No snickering!) and called our babysitter. In typical high school fashion, she told me she was friends with the girl's brother and would call him and find out the situation. Within a few hours I had confirmation that, yes, they were all going as friends, but Harry wasn't her date.
Crisis averted, but one quickly followed.
We (and I'm sure you know who "we" really was) then had to convince Harry that a Michael Jordan Nike T-shirt and cargo pants were not proper prom attire. I found myself having a total Stacy and Clinton moment pulling outfits from Jason's closet. Or was I Tim Gunn? Either way, I was fabulous. I couldn't have been more excited when Harry was willing to wear the Chinese vest. I did good, right?
As the boys were leaving I gave them a heart-to-heart about how they should dance with the girls who weren't dancing cause the girls would really want to dance. I guess Harry took my advice because he told me he was leading the "dance train", which I'm pretty sure is his translation for conga line. And in my book conga line leader = successful night! Woohoo!

How Come I'm Blogging in the Middle of the Afternoon?

Oh, cause I've just been relaxing my days away. (The picture is obviously me, right? Y'all know I don't do sunshine without a hat.) Yep, I've just got tons of free time since I've had a stay-at-home-mom-in-training helping out the last two days. (Did my sarcasm come through in that sentence?) Honestly, I'm pretty sure he can't wait to go back to school. To make a long story short, Harry had a little run in on the basketball court in P.E. As in, another kid "ran in to" Harry's fist. Thankfully the worst part of the run in was being expelled from school for three days. Jason and I talked about having him do some community service, but I didn't want him thinking that helping others was punishment. So, instead, he's been doing really fun things like: getting up early to babysit while I walk JR to the bus, loading and unloading the dishwasher, hanging up clean laundry in the closets, organizing the toy room, and supervising outdoor play. And I'm here to tell you, the "stay at home" part probably hasn't been that bad, but I'm quite certain he has no interest in becoming "a mom".

Spring Festival Continues

Some spring sure would be nice right about now, but I'll just have to settle for celebrating Chinese Spring Festival (AKA: Chinese New Year). Since we already celebrated New Year, I figured we'd call this celebration Spring Festival. (It ends February 28th with the Lantern Festival.) Harry's parents have been here visiting this past week and came over to make jiaozi (dumplings) for their last night here. And sure dumplings are a huge mess and totally labor intensive, but it was fine by me since I have no idea how to make them. That being so, my assistance wasn't needed or asked for in the kitchen. (Just like I like it!) JR has always loved helping his Ayi make dumplings, so of course, he wanted to help Harry's mom. I think he's pretty good at it. He claimed about a dozen were completely made by him.


The babies lined up at the counter to try and help too, but they were better at wearing Year of the Tiger costumes. (And although Tigger, may or may not, actually be a tiger this is as close as we had to tiger paraphernalia.)




There were over 100 dumplings made last night. So, as you can see, I have a few leftovers. But Harry and JR can seriously put away the dumplings, so I'd guess these will all be gone by the end of the day.

A Groundhog Gala

I found these Groundhog Day cookies online, and with my body temporarily taken over by Martha Stewart, figured we could make these pretty easily. Now before we start with the Ingy version of Groundhog Day cookies, let's take a good look at the inspiration cookie. Really cute, obviously a groundhog, and to be honest, they really weren't that hard. But like all things around here, you know there's going to be something that goes awry.
I lined everybody up at the kitchen counter and the babies actually did a great job helping. Helping themselves to Hershey's Kisses. (Which is what that little hill is made of.) Reed was able to hold his kiss and just give it a little lick before putting it inside the dough, but Kyle's was usually eaten before we could get around to his turn again.
And no, Kyle doesn't have a scar to match Reed's. That would be chocolate.

My first batch of cookies didn't come out so well. My body has finally adjusted to this altitude, but my baking has not. I used a lot less dough for the next batches. And I hate to talk about nipplear areas twice in less than a week, but um, yeah, elephant in the room...that's what I'm seeing too.

While the next batch was baking, I put JR to work making the groundhogs. Here's my attempt at the requisite fancy photography shot found in all food blogs.

JR's completed groundhog! Yes, ours turned out looking more like owls, but I think part of the owl look is because I was supposed to "trim" the bottom of the cookie. I tried to "trim", but I broke the cookie. And when it comes to cooking/baking, I follow one simple rule: if it's too much work or seems too hard just skip it. So yeah, we just skipped that step.

Now I know you've been waiting patiently for a good Ingy mishap, and more than just cookies that resemble nipplear areas. My car battery died yesterday (died, as in, wouldn't turn over and had to be towed to the shop). Unfortunately, I had to leave before the last batch of cookies was done to go pick it up. I told Harry he was in charge of taking the cookies out, and set the kitchen timer (instead of the baking timer) for 3:00 minutes. Um, let's just say leaving a 17 year-old-boy that's never even seen an oven until he came to live in my house was the wrong thing to do. He somehow missed the beeping of the oven, and the smell of cookies burning. Here's how the last batch turned out.
My house still stinks!

But here are the Groundhog Day cookies that did survive. Again, I skipped a step that I thought would be too much work, and just let JR make the "grass" out of green sprinkles instead of frosting.

And as we were eating them last night, Harry and JR said they'll take more winter since they want more snow. Jason and I said we wouldn't mind a little spring. And I'm not sure if it was his shadow or El Nino dumping 7ft of snow in my front yard that scared Punxsutawney Phil back in his hole this morning, but either way, pretty sure we've got quite a bit more winter ahead of us.

I Told You So!

I told you the next thing you knew I was going to be making food posts! Our Christmas Open House is this Saturday night (If you live in Durango please swing by) and I started baking for the party last night. You might be thinking, "Jan, Did you say 'baking'? But you aren't a cook." No, a "cook" I am not. But I'm a decent baker since there's no guess work, it's all right there on the recipe. As my aunt, Pam-Pam, (who was an amazing cook) used to say, "If you can read, you can cook." I'm not so sure about that for actual cooking, but baking...absolutely. So last night was tea cake night. Tea cakes are one of the messiest, labor intensive, pain-in-the-hiney cookies you can make, but I remember making them at Christmas with my parents when I was little, so I guess that's why I want to do it every year. That, and JR must have said, "This is so much fun" at least a dozen times. Now this particular tea cake recipe was Memaw's (my mom's mom), and is so old it doesn't even have a baking temperature written on the recipe card since she made them in a wood-burning stove. (Which would have to significantly increase the pain-in-the-hineyness factor of these cookies. It's a wonder they ever got made.)

I started out trying to take pictures just like a real food blog, but that got blown out the window after the first shot.

Standard food blog shot: the ingredients (except half of them aren't even in the picture, and JR is...obviously you see where my priorities are.)


And then we'll just skip a whole bunch of steps of measuring, pouring, and mixing and we'll jump right into the rolling and cutting out.

I have to say, Harry was an amazing cookie maker last night. I'm now convinced rolling dough (for dumplings) is an inherited Chinese trait. I kept telling Harry, "Wow, This is obviously in your genes." You'll notice Harry is using Ayi's Chinese rolling pin. You'll also notice by a shot of Reed's foot that I had Reed and Kyle plopped right up on the island. Great, now I'm going to have the Board of Health after me too.


We finally had to give Reed, master of getting in everybody's business, his own dough to "play" with. Although in his mind there wasn't any playing going on...just lots of Top Chefing.


Look at the concentration on that face, making sure his cookie-cutter is in just the right place. And in classic Kyle and Reed fashion, you'll notice Kyle in the background. He was playing with the sink.

Woo-Hoo! Perfect cookie!

So after the rolling, cutting, and decorating (green sprinkles were the choice last night) the cookies go in a 350 degree oven (but I always have to call and ask my dad to make sure since, like I said, it isn't on the recipe).

And I know I'm supposed to have a picture of the finished product. Yeah, oops...forgot that. But all the boys were really busy eating the practice cookies (our first batch) for dessert last night, and said they were delicious. Plus, the first thing out of Reed's mouth this morning was "Cookie! Cookie!" All of which point to a total success in tea cake making.

Rocket Men

So let's play "Guess Where I Am" again. And this time I'll give you a big hint. It's soooo much better than a coffee shop!

I'm at the mall! (Memorial City to be exact.) But it gets better. I'm at the mall....and I'm ALONE! I know! After a breakfast at IHOP ("IHOPS" as JR calls it) with a table full of people with the last name "Ingersoll" (except for Harry), I was dropped off all by myself! I called my mom to check in with her and when she asked me where I was I said, "I think I'm in heaven!"

But before I head off to shop all by myself...at a real mall, I have a picture from the Rockets game for you. The whole purpose in going to the game was to take Harry since he's a huge fan. (Not of the Rockets, but of the NBA in general.)But according to Jason it was JR that enjoyed it the most. Jason said JR screamed and cheered the whole time.

Me: What was he screaming?

Jason: He was just going crazy and screaming "DEFENSE! DEFENSE!"

Me: The whole time?

Jason: No, only when the other team had the ball.

Me: Wow! I'm so impressed he knows what 'defense' is! (Obviously, we're not a big sports watching family, to say the least.)

Jason, who was more excited about the Rockets Dancers, said JR was very upset by the halftime show and covered his eyes while the girls danced. (In contrast, that was probably the only time of the evening that Jason perked up.) Rocket Dancers aside, JR came home thrilled that "our team won" thanks to his super-fan abilities.

My Pumpkins Are White!

One of the good things about Colorado living is that I get more photo-ops. Not only do we have the first day of school picture, but we also get to have the first snowy day of school picture. Now let's stop and take a moment to examine the first snowy day of school picture. You'll notice JR has on a sweatshirt, jacket, snow-gloves (as apposed to cotton gloves that get wet in the snow), a hat, and you can also see the tops of his snow boots. Harry has on a jacket. Jason and I have told him a million times (and when I say "a million", I'm actually pretty accurate) "Harry, it snows here. It snows a lot. You need a big coat, and you definitely need some snow boots." But since the Chinese know better about all things, (especially about states they had to look up on a map to even know where they were coming to live) Harry doesn't need any winter wear. The things he had in Beijing (that gets maybe an inch of snow a year, maybe) will be just perfect. And as we walked outside this morning to take the first snowy day of school picture, Harry let out a yelp. And though my Chinese is a bit rusty, I'm pretty sure that yelp was "Whoa! Snow feels cold and wet as it hits your bare head...It doesn't feel like Styrofoam peanuts at all!"

Here are some more pictures from today. I can honestly say I never thought I'd have a pumpkin covered in snow. In Houston we were just trying to keep them from mildewing before Halloween...not freezing!

Interview with a Vampire...I mean, Harry

The kids didn't have school yesterday. (Not sure why, probably because the school district figured the kids needed some extra days to work out before ski season starts.) So I took JR and Harry down to Farmington to have their haircut and for me to sneak in a quick trip to Target and Hobby Lobby. Harry woke-up about 10:40 yesterday, which was totally fine...I wish I could sleep 'til 10:40. But then he slept all the way to Farmington and back (It's about an hour and 15 minutes one way). I just assumed he must have sat up all night, as teenagers do. So when we got home I said, "Wow, Harry, What time did you go to bed last night? You must have stayed up late."
Harry's reply: No, I went to bed at 10:30.
Me: Really? You must be really tired to sleep all the way to Farmington and back.
Harry: No. The sunshine makes me sleepy.
Me: What? How's that, the sunshine is supposed to make you feel awake.
Harry: No. The sunshine puts me to sleep. At school if the sunshine touches me, I want to take a nap.
Me: Huh. I guess you must be a vampire then.
To which Harry started laughing (he loves the Twilight movie). He then told JR, "JR, you better watch out! I'm a vampire!"
Now Harry has told us all along that he doesn't like sunshine (and we have tons of bright sunshine here in Durango). I just thought it was him being Chinese. (The Chinese will never admit anything is better than something they have in China. They're very communist that way.) So we just assumed his dislike of the sunshine was because he only gets to see it about 6 times a year in Beijing due to the pollution. But, no. Seems I've got a Chinese exchange student that loves to eat, and happens to be a vampire.

Conversations With Harry 3

(A bit of background information before I begin: Harry's dad, Johnasen, was working in Zimbabwe when Harry was born. They didn't know if Harry was going to be a boy or a girl, so before Johansen left China they decided they would name the baby "Jin Wei", which is Chinese for "Zimbabwe". Which is what Harry's real name is: Jin Wei.)

I volunteered in JR's room at school on Monday, so last night at dinner we were talking about some of the kids in JR's class. During the conversation, I mentioned something about a little girl named, Nevada.

Harry: NEVADA?!
Me: Yes, there's a cute little girl in JR's room named Nevada.
Harry: Isn't that a state?
Me: Yes.
Harry: Why would she have a state as a name?
Jason: I guess the same reason somebody would have a country...like Zimbabwe...as a name!
Harry: Huh?
Jason: (laughing) Um, I know you think you're an American, but your name is Jin Wei...Zimbabwe.
Harry: Oh, you mean my Chinese name.
Jason: Yeah, your real name.

Hodgepodge O' Updates

The 1st day of school was deemed a success by JR. We made cookies when he got home (you didn't think I'd have them waiting for him did you?) and he took some to his teacher this morning (all his idea, he can be so sweet when he feels like it). I think Harry had some trouble with the language, but said he likes his math classes. (He's taking Trig and Functions...I can't imagine anything worse, except having to cook everyday...which will be the subject of another post.) I think he was a bit scared of the kids who "have earrings in their faces and wear big coats like it's winter". Jason and I agreed that we're a bit scared of those kids too. JR wasn't interested in having me walk with them to the bus this morning, so I said 'bye' to him in the driveway and off he went with Harry. Did I mention they both were wearing jackets? 48 degrees on the 2nd day of school. I think the high in Texas today is 102 or so.

Jason, his dad, and JR went antelope hunting this past weekend in New Mexico. This picture just cracks me up. JR posed himself, so Jason and his dad started calling him Teddy Roosevelt. JR had a great time, except for being furious that he wasn't allowed to shoot.

And finally, Kyle has his MRI in the morning. It's at 10, but I have to be there with him at 9. Poor thing can't have anything to eat or drink before we go. I could probably get away with that with Reed, but Kyle is going to be some kinda mad. Praise the Lord I only have to go to the hospital here in Durango, no Death March Drive to Albuquerque. The MRI itself should only take about 20 minutes, but they have to put him to sleep to do it. They did tell me I could stay in the room with him, so I'm happy about that. Reed is staying with a neighbor while we go. Our neighbor works from home and her son is a day older than the twins. She has a babysitter in the mornings, so it's a little combo playdate/babysitter for Reed. Hopefully he knows he can only attack and sit on his brother for toys he wants...come to think of it, I might need to give him a little refresher lesson on playdate manners.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No tears from this mama! Maybe when the babies start off to school I'll get misty, but all I could think this morning was "Woo-Hoo!" Here's JR's requisite first day of school picture (he's starting 1st this year).

Always the Ingersoll, he made sure to say "Hi!" to Emma and Chloe. They're both in his class again this year. You'll remember Emma from his "Emma totally loves me" story and he claims that Chloe is his "school girlfriend". (Our across the street neighbor, Hannah, is his "neighborhood girlfriend".)

JR's friend, William, is also in his class...which they are both excited about.

I wanted a picture of Harry and JR together this morning, but Harry was getting ready when we left with JR. The high school doesn't start until noon today (how lucky are they?) but Harry had to be there at 10:00 for new upperclassman orientation. I took him to Starbucks before hand to hopefully start the day off right. (And yes, under normal circumstances I do not patron Starbucks. Y'all know I'm much too conservative to spend $4 on a cup of coffee.)

Conversations With Harry 2

I took Harry to church this morning (Jason and JR are antelope hunting). After the service the pastor came by to shake hands and meet Harry. After he walked off Harry turned to me and said, "So is he the Godfather?"

Conversations With Harry

Harry: Jane? (I'm used to it, I've learned it's next to impossible for any non native English speaker to say "Jan".)
Harry: I have a question for you.
Me: Okay.
Harry: Why are all Americans so fat?
Me: Well, we like to eat.
Harry: No. Chinese like to eat too.
Me: But our food tastes good, so we eat a lot of it, and it's fattening.
Harry: But Chinese food tastes good, and I think it is just as fattening as American food.
Me: Yeah, but we eat a lot of fast food, and the Chinese don't.
Harry: But the young Chinese like fast food,they eat it a lot, and they aren't fat.
(Seeing that I'm not going to win with this argument, I switch gears.)
Me: But Americans don't get as much exercise as Chinese. Most Chinese walk or ride a bicycle to work, and we drive our cars everywhere.
Harry: But Americans like sports.
Me: Well, Americans like to watch sports.
Harry: My dad says you shouldn't say people are 'fat', you should call them 'overweight'.
Me: (laughing) Well, Chinese people used to tell me I was fat all the time, but in America you shouldn't tell somebody they're fat.
Harry: You should tell them they're 'overweight'?
Me: No, you should tell them that either. It's not polite to tell somebody they're fat or overweight. You can think it, but you shouldn't tell them.
Harry: So you and Jason are considered skinny in America?
Me: (laughing again, knowing he doesn't think so) Well, I don't think we're considered fat.

A little while later we went to Sonic for lunch. Harry ordered a double meat double cheese hamburger with fries. As he was eating, I pointed to his hamburger and said, "Harry, that's why Americans are fat."

Heeerrrreee's Harry!

Well, I don't think Harry will be wanting to fly to Denver anytime soon. The notoriously turbulent Denver to Durango flight was in full effect today. So much so that Harry said a couple people threw up. Here's how he felt after he landed...Welcome to Durango, Harry!

JR is thrilled beyond words to have Harry living with us this year. And even more exciting, Harry brought JR Up and Monster Vs Aliens on DVD. I know what'll be in heavy DVD rotation for the next few weeks!

Our Due Date is Here!

Just a few more hours until we become the proud parents of a 16 year old Chinese exchange student! We are picking Harry (and his dad, Johnasen) up from the airport around 3:00. His dad will be leaving in the morning, so he is literally "dropping him off".
I had the funniest Facebook exchange with one of my college friends this morning. She lives in Boulder and told me that one of her husband's coworkers picked up their exchange student this weekend. Their exchange student is from Hong Kong and kept asking, "Where are all the people?" Her host mom pointed out that they passed about 10 cars on I-25, a busy day in Pueblo. When Ayi came to visit us in Houston she asked almost the same thing, except it was, "Where are all the taxis? And where are all the bicycles?" I'm sure Harry will be thinking the same thing coming to live in Durango...population around 15,000, compared to Beijing's 17 million!

We're Expecting!

This has been in the works for awhile now, but today I can officially announce that we're expecting! Can you believe I'll be adding another boy to my already male dominated household? That's right. Come August we'll be the proud parents of a high school Chinese exchange student. (Did I have you going there? Even just for a second?) It's actually a really cool deal because we already know who we will be hosting. His name is Harry (he named himself after Harry Potter) and he is the son of Johnasen, who was Jason's main salesman in China. I've known Johnasen since the second I stepped off the plane in Beijing, and we never would have made it through the first 3 months without him. We think this will be an exciting experience for us all, and are really looking forward to next school year. I only have one picture of Harry and it's from 2005 when we went to the Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin. (back, middle in the bright blue coat) And yes, we were freezing. And yes, that's JR and he was asleep. That child could/can sleep anywhere...unlike his 2 brothers!