I wouldn't mess with that empress

I wouldn't mess with that empress
4pm Tuesday

Today we visited the Summer Palace that the royal families once used. Our guide told us the story of one empress who would give Hillary Clinton a run for her money (sorry if any of you are HC fans). This gal (who Joy referred to as "the dowager") was married to an emperor who died, leaving their four-year-old son to inherit the throne. Since he was too young to properly assume it, the dowager ruled in his place. The son was always sickly and died of TB before he could really begin to rule. His powerful mother continued to exert her power and chose a young person to become the next emperor. This guy wanted to enact reforms which the dowager was against. He was allowed to try and his efforts failed after 103 days. After that he was placed under house arrest until his death at age 31. His house arrest was not in any way comfortable. The windows and most doors were bricked up and he was not allowed outside. We saw where he was kept and he must have had a terrible existence. He did have a wife and concubine, but was not allowed to ever see them again. The scary dowager lady then appointed a seven-year-old boy to become the next emperor and then she died. Apparently it is this emperor that is depicted in the movie "The Last Emperor" which I am now interested in seeing. So there's your history lesson for the day.

I am thankfully feeling much better after my semi-comatose state yesterday. Without going into detail, let's just say that Montezuma can get his revenge in China too. Okay, you get the picture. I'm still a little light headed (enough with the air head jokes already, you people are so predictable!) and the tummy is not 100%, but definitely better.

We have discovered that many things are really cheap in China while other things really are not. A friend of ours had a cup of coffee the other day that cost $10. Our whole meal the other day which consisted of an entrée, a pot of soup, two bowls of rice and a coke, was about $9. If we wanted laundry done at the hotel (which we planned for as we were told that it'd be cheap here) it would be about $2 for one pair of underwear. I think it might be $10 for a shirt. Another family here just spent $100 on laundry. So we have made our own makeshift laundry mat in our hotel room. I had brought a little bottle of Dawn which is our dish soap and laundry soap. James discovered that what we are doing must be common, as he found a retractable clothesline in the bathroom.

One of our new favorite pastimes is reading people's shirts. It is very common to see people wearing shirts with English writing on it. Some of it makes sense, while other times it is a head scratching experience. The word "love" is a common word on shirts. A guy who took a group picture for us today had a shirt that said "Everyone love need." A few more entries in the fun shirt hall of fame: "Rock star RIP" (maybe it was supposed to be VIP?) "Go shop lovely sailors" and "Time flies so fast in busy daily life." Now before we can get all uppity, Joy says that when her friend travels she likes to take pictures of people's tattoos that have Chinese characters. According to Joy, some of the sayings are "very fun." So let's see, if you want to get a tattoo that says "Dragon slayer" in Chinese, would it really say "I'm a momma's boy?" Kara continues to live up to her name (which is Greek for Joy, for those of you who don't know). If I close my eyes to picture her, I can see her walking around laughing with her arms swinging back and forth. She has the most engaging smile and flashes it often. Her laugh is quite infectious and I defy you to not do the same when you hear it. A very common word people use to describe her is "beautiful" (maybe that's the only English word some people know, but hey we'll take it).

She is also becoming more of a female mini-Micah each day. She has discovered how to open and close cabinets and likes to pull down anything she can reach. She can also be very loud when she wants and her babbling has increased much to our pleasure. She can be very determined and tries very hard to get on the bed if I'm on it (why in tarnation she'd want to get on that thing is beyond me). Now lest you think that we are completely blind to her imperfections, let me tell you that this girl is indeed a natural born sinner. She can throw a tantrum with the best of them to which James and I look at her and just say, "Bu" (no). Usually she stops pretty quickly. When she is tired, she will do the full on drama queen Academy award winning performance. We have learned that we need to be careful when she gets like that because she will roll herself back and forth faster and faster to the point that we are afraid she will hurt herself. If we pick her up she will show that she does indeed have muscles and will use them to try to get away from us. After a while of holding her and patting her on the back, she will calm down. And then it's done, just like that.

Three good things today: 1) When she saw me first thing in the morning she laughed and wanted to be picked up. Before, she would just look at us as if to say, "You people again?" 2) I saw and spoke to my other kids who look really really big after being with this peanut for a week 3) No one walked away with my baby today!!!!!!

Love ya, miss ya, can't wait to come home (have I said that already??).