"Mommy, can we keep him?"

NO! NO! NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!
You have go to be kidding me, right??  In our housing community there is a pet shop.  My children are there on a regular basis playing with the animals and walking the puppies.  At the moment they have 2 adorable Golden Retrievers there.  My girls have fallen in love with the little boy pup called Mau Mau.  I am pretty good at saying NO, but what do you do when they keep walking the puppy to your house?  What do you do when they bring him in your house and play with him? What do you do when you see this cute face? What do you do when you cuddle him and licks you in the face? 
Well.........I'll tell you what you do.  You ask your husband if you can keep him and he says.............NO!  Thank goodness, and then you tell your kids to NEVER bring him to our home again!

Ella modeling for Kappa Sports

Ella got another modeling gig for.  This time for Kappa Sports.  She was pretty jazzed about getting to wear "comfortable" clothes and to make a few extra Yuan.  Her only hope was that she did not have to model with any boys.  OH WELL......we get to the shoot and it literally is just her and the adorable boy, Adrian, from the last shoot.  You should have seen the daggers she shot at me with her eyes!!!

She got whisked away to hair and makeup, where according to her they made her look like a "powdered donut".  (Seriously, this kid comes up with some dusies!)  She posed and jumped and smiled and changed outfits about 20 times.  She tolerated holding hands with Adrian and even was tied up to him with a rope.  She maintained a good attitude the whole time until the director wanted her to hug the boy while simultaneously jumping in the air.  This is when she put her foot down and buried her powdered donut face into my chest and said, "I'm not doing it.  They don't pay me enough for that."  Well, either two things were going to happen. #1) They were going to have to bribe her with a lot of money, or #2) they needed to come up with an alternate pose.  So, they let Ella pick out the pose which looked a little something like a karate match.  Good choice kid!
She did a great job though and I can't wait to get the catalog in May, and see the huge photos of my blond baby girl up in the stores!

A touch of lip gloss!

Awww....my little powdered donut!

Resting in between shoots!

Kappa logo..........definitely right about the powdered donut!

Tied up with Adrian!  Don't she look thrilled?

One of the photo's I snapped off of the monitor.

Middle School Dance

Sorry folks, it has been a crazy busy past couple of weeks so I am behind on updates.  Trust me you haven't missed out on much though.  Nothing too news worthy to photograph or write about!  The highlight of the week was Julia's middle school dance on Friday, which of course means that Salon de la DeSmet was open for business as usual!  We had 6 of Julia's friends over to pre party on the trampoline and eat pizza followed up with hair, makeup, perfume (way to much perfume) and photos.  To add to the chaos and mayhem, Ella had a couple of friends over as well. 
I love it that the girls friends feel so comfortable over here.  Maybe a little too comfortable as Julia's room looked like a bomb had gone off in it and dispersed pre-teen clothes and undergarments EVERYWHERE in it.  I am also pretty sure the perfume was so strong that the neighbors could smell it and possible thought that I was a French Madam running a lady of leisure house!
My good friend Victoria, whose daughter Erica is one of Julia's good friends, came over and took some beautiful pictures of the girls......until her batteries died.  She is an amazing photographer and these are some of the pictures that she took!

After looking at these pictures I couldn't help but think.......Wow, when did my baby grow up to be this beautiful young lady?  Then I thought...thank goodness she was blessed with her daddy's gorgeous long eyelashes and legs.  Finally....thank the good lord that I taught her to fight and punch really hard.  (A big thank you goes out to my brother and sister who rough housed with me my whole life.  Veronica would pin me down and make me fight her to get off and Jarred and I.....well we just would flat out fist fight!) They made me tough and I have tried to instill this in both of my girls.  There is a time to be lady like and look pretty but do it with a mean right hook if it's necessary!! (ya hearing me boys???)

Watch out Victoria's Secret here comes Valerie's Secret!

We ventured out on a Saturday afternoon to a huge mall here called Solana.  We had fun browsing around and people watching......people watching us!  We came across the Paclantic store that Ella modeled for and low and behold there was her beautiful little face looking back at us. 
She was also called back to do some more modeling for Paclantic and an athletic company called Kappa.  They needed her to finish up the spring clothing line and get photos for the big print adds that go up in the stores and on billboards.  She decided she would go ahead and do it purely for the money.  Whatever motivates em!  The modeling company said they would mail me a copy of all of her pictures and a few copies of the catalogs when they are done.  Can't wait to see them.  It is rare that I get to see her dressed up AT ALL so to have it right there in print is going to be great! Those of you who know Ella know that her uniform is sweats, t-shirt, ponytail and tennis shoes.  Every once in a while she will dress it up and add a sweatshirt or yoga pants.  Definitely my dress for comfort girl, so it does my heart good to see her in dresses, cute clothes and her gorgeous blond hair down!!  Love her!

Me and Ella at Solana Mall

Ella and one of her pictures in the store.

This is the Paclantic store in Solana.

Ella counting all of the Yuan she has made from her modeling gigs.

You really can't make this crap up!!

Welcome to China folks!  Land of the Forbidden City and apparently in some public restrooms the forbidden bowel movement.  This is a restroom that is at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants here in Beijing.  Ironically, it is called the Brown Door. 
Of course the last time we went as a family, Ella and I both had to go so bad that we forfeited our germaphobia and were escorted outside and around the corner of the restaurant to a metal shed where we found this absolutely fabulous "squatter".  There is no toilet paper and no running water as you can see (which explains the sign).  Around here it is not uncommon to NOT have toilet paper in the "squatters" or "restrooms" so it is always wise to carry tissue or toilet paper and definitely some antibacterial hand wipes EVERYWHERE!  Also, if you notice the rubbish bin, that is where the used toilet paper goes.  ;)  Yep, that is what I said. You can go back and reread it again, but it is what it is!
We have actually gotten pretty good and using these and have gotten past spraying our shoes (uhhum Ella).  Although not everyone hits the hole as you can see all the wet stickiness on the floor.  Good stuff!  All shoes are immediately left out in the entryway upon arrival back home!!(for obvious reasons)
I have lessened my restroom standards, and now will rarely complain at even the worst port-a-pots or gas station facilities when I return home.  On the bright side, at least we have built up our quadricep muscles in our legs. The "squat" is a great exercise! 

The Great Wall Marathon

Here is the promotional video for the Great Wall Marathon that we are doing.  I can't believe I actually got teary eyed watching it.  I'm not sure if it is because I am excited or scared to death!  Take a look!

Training for the Great Wall 1/2 marathon!

Since I have been here I have made so many friends.  I have found a group of ladies that Ella and Julia refer to as my "athletic friends".  We do cross fit 3 times a week and alternate that with running 3 times a week.  They are my motivators, my therapists, my support......my idols!  They are Hilary, Wendy, Kasey and Yvette and we are all now in training to do The Great Wall 1/2 marathon in May.  Are we crazy or what???  This race is just going to be a brutal stretch of uneven stairs and ridiculously steep climbs but the view is incredible.
We have been running stairs and going to do training hikes on the wall.  The Great Wall is just amazing in itself and never gets old.  I sometimes have to pinch myself and just stop to take it all in.  The view is breathtakingly beautiful and the architecture that has lasted for a couple thousand years is just astonishing.  Here are some pictures from our last training hike on the wall!

Wendy, Kasey, me and Hilary

These stairs are straight up at 75 degree angle.......brutal!

This is for my Ohio State family!!!!!!!!        

"O"

"H"

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What a difference a day makes!

These are two photos taken out of the same window in an office downtown.  One of my friends husbands took the first one in the morning when AQI (air quality index) was about 600 and the second was before he left work.  We had huge winds that day that caused dust storms that made world news.  It was really great!  I rode my bike up to school to get Ella and about got blown off.  Not to mention the fact that I had just put on chapstick that was perfect to catch all of the sand blowing in my face.  Thank goodness most of it actually stuck to my lips, so that I wasn't picking sand out of my teeth all night.  (true story) The silver lining would be that despite all of the dust blowing around it did blow the pollution out.  By the time my friends husband left work the AQI was 39.  Much improved.......check it out for  yourself!

Picture out of the window in the morning AQI of 600.  Yes that is all smog and pollution!

The same view later that day after big winds came in and pushed the pollution out!

Temple of Heaven

On our staycation for CNY we decided to do some sight seeing around Beijing.  We made a stop at the Temple of Heaven.  It is considered "the Altar of Heaven".  Built in the early 1400's it was used by Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for ceremonies, sacrifice and praying to Heaven for good harvest.  I could go on and on with a history lesson but I will spare you the gory details and just show you some pictures.
The girls were very excited to go to the Temple of Heaven. (Nothing a 12 and 9 year old like better than sight seeing and history lessons in the cold)  Ella took her usual precautions by pulling her hair back and putting her hood up (with little success).  It never fails we always attract the Chinese paparazzi.  People will try to sneak a picture of us or just blatantly ask if they can take a picture with the girls.  We should start charging for it! 
It was really quite beautiful there.............take a look!


Me and the girls

They have nice knockers here.

The Temple of Heaven

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.

In the surrounding gardens there were clusters of people everywhere playing card games.

I believe this was the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

Do you see Kelly???

Sometimes it's handy being tall here......you can take pictures and see over most everybody else's heads!  Can you find Kelly???

What can I say about this picture...............cheek chillers????

Inside the Imperial Vault

Only the Emperors could use this door.  To this day no one else has ever gone through it.

This leads to the Circular Mound Altar.  There is a huge gong in the middle.

And a picture with a fan.

Julia banging the gong.....kind of ...but not really!

Have to laugh....this is how the girls walk around....hoods up and heads down!

Kelly and I

The Chinese love their ornamental hats.

Chinese warrior????  Nope, just a guard.