Some more food...

S:  As you can see I LOVE Chinese food.  I always have.  Unfortunately for me, panda express pales in comparison to what is to be found in this lovely country.   I admit, some of the food here is very weird and strange and scary.  But there is so much to love about Asian cuisine!  One of the thriving aspects of our marriage is that Dan loves Chinese food as much as I do and maybe even more.  hehe.  We love exploring and venturing into new places to eat.  

This place quickly became a favorite.  It's very close to where we live.

These egg rolls were like burritos with thick chewy crispy outsides.

Don't be jealous.

This girl kept making Michelle laugh all throughout dinner and she finally came over and said hello.

Dan has been on a dumpling hunt for the last 5 years and he is in heaven here.

 There are bakeries galore here.  One night we went bakery hopping and tried a few of their sandwiches.

Another night we found a Chinese buffet! 

  

Dan tried this at work and brought me some so I could try too:

This is a cold sweet soup.  The black things are those chewy gummy things you find in bubble tea.  There is also rice and the white stuff is like the texture in creme brulee.

I apologize ahead of time for all of the food pics that will still come.  I can't help but take pictures of it!  So does this food look apetizing or is it a turn off?  I could see it going either way for some people. haha.

A Night Excursion...

While you have to be a bit wary of street vendors we couldn't pass up this grilled corn on the cob smothered in some kind of asian bbq sauce.

This was right before this lady got mad at me for taking pictures. shoot.

She chewed on this for like an hour!

After getting the corn we found this place called Chan Chan Jo Jo's.  It's been recommended to go here by many people.  We've been here twice now!

This is our meal from the first time we ate here.  Stir fry with beef, a mini little chicken, bones and all and the dish on the top left is a chewy fried bread with sauce on top.

The second time we came here this was dinner we tried:

We don't know what these green veggies are called in English but they are crisp like celery with tops like spinach.  These were served in garlic butter.  The next dish over is thai curry crab.

Some kind of fried soft bread with sweet and condensed milk to dip in and then a chicken dish on the right.

Eating here is more of a splurge--7 bucks a piece.  I am giddy over this food!!  

So what do you do all day?

Baby girl and I spend lots of time together.  She is my little bud during the day until Dan gets home from work.  

Before having Michelle I was really worried about how I'd feel being at home.  I had always hoped to be able to be home for our kids as they grew up, but with only one at home what would I do all day?  Would I feel depressed?  

If you're wondering what I'm doing all day in Taiwan while Dan is at work the answer is easy!  I'm just here eating bonbons and watching soap operas all day duh!

Ok I'm just kidding.

I have been blown away at how much I have enjoyed this time being a new mom.  I'm not trying to sugarcoat it.  It's hard work and I think I'm over the big humps of change now.  But this time has been extraordinarily rewarding and fulfilling.  And I love this little being like I never imagined I'd be able to.  I can't kiss her squishy little cheeks enough!  And what's weird is that I still have found that there is not enough time in the day to do all that I would like to.

What's not to love about this face?

Some days I do more of the following than others, but in a mixture of things I've been:

-Taking care of Michelle and playing with her lots!

- Keeping house and laundry.

-Working on art (sketching and some other projects).  I have realized that with this passion of mine I will never not have something to do.  It is a mountain that I don't know if is possible to reach the top.  What I mean by that is that I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of the desire to draw and paint.  I am obsessed with it and I can't escape it and not do it.  And in all reality I hope I never get to the point where I think I'm good enough to stop trying to improve.

-Reading.  I just finished "The Help"  (Thanks Mom for this little present!)  Oh this book was so good.  I'm currently reading "The Infinite Atonement" by Elder Tad R. Callister. and WOW.  I highly recommend it.

-Skyping with the fam! And emails and pics and this blog.

-Exploring.  Most days I've gone out in between Shell's naps to do something.  Whether it's been around on the beautiful grounds here or I've gotten on a bus to go down to the city with her to walk around some low key parts of the city or to the market for lunch. We've met Dan for lunch too a couple times and that was exciting.

-And let's be honest. I gotta make time for pinterest! (hehe)

-Normally I would make dinner but I'm enjoying this break right now because it's cheaper to eat out here than to eat at home, although we do eat at home here one or two nights a week.  Although last week I met up with some women from the ward and a Chinese lady taught two of us how to cook two of Dan's (and now mine) very favorite chinese dishes (dumplings and mapudofu). SO FUN!

The best part of my day has been leaving to meet Dan halfway on his commute home!  Shell and I take a bus and meet Dan at the MRT station (or some other meeting point) to go eat and then check out some shops or whatever.

These are dumplings (potstickers) and we tried four different kinds.  One kind with curry, one with kimchee, one with bokchoy and the other pork and cabbage.  They are 5NT a piece here which means you can get like 6 for a dollar.

This is my "These dumplings are so good I'm gonna cry" face.

Oh and this particular night when we ate these dumplings we had brought very little money with us assuming that the other had brought more cash.  The man that is behind my face in this pic is one of the lawyers where Dan is working.  After our dinner we went to pay and the waitress/cook told us that our meal had been paid for by him!  Dan had never even really talked with him before this point! WOW!

So yeah... more pics of our night excurstions to come.

Costco

I would like to dedicate this post to my Mother:

You have to understand how much my family loves Costco to appreciate this.  We joke that my sister was almost born here.  We love this place to say the least, haha, and when I found out there was one here I promised I'd take some pictures!

A Costco hotdog is 2 dollars here (US)! Note that most of the usuals are here except for the addition of a Mango icee that consists of shaved ice, fresh mangos, icecream and sweet and condensed milk drizzled on top.

There is a parking garage that goes on and on.

Take an escalator to get inside.

We just thought it was funny to be walking through costco and to see a tv for $69,998.  ...In Taiwanese dollar that is. The exchange rate is about 30 Taiwanese dollars to 1 american dollar so this would be about $2,333 USD. 

Seaweed samples anyone?

Unfortunately I'm not really on the Twilight train, but I think it's so fun seeing all of the movies labeled in Chinese.

Ginseng chinese herbs oatmeal! 

Mischievous little Monkey

I am considering making an outfit for Michelle that looks like this:

Don't you think it's genious?  Anything Michelle wears here becomes filthy from all of the crawling that she does around on the floor anyway.  I have to keep mopping around here and I thought, "Shoot!  Why not just attach a mop to the baby?"

So speaking of crawling...This morning I was on the phone for like 3 minutes while Michelle was hobbling around.  I lost sight of her and heard her being whiney while I was finishing up the conversation so I was anxious to go see if she was ok.  I hung up the phone and called out to her but couldn't find her in any of the rooms.  Her whimpering finally led me to the bathroom.  I walked in and saw this!

Yes, you are seeing this correctly.  She completely closed herself in the shower so she couldn't get out!  How did she do that??  That door opens by pushing it in and it only goes that way.  Once inside she pushed it closed and there was no way to grip it from the inside.  Poor little girl sitting in there crying! haha!  In the words of Dan, "It must be hard to be so little."

Two days ago I was on the bus that leaves from where we live and this Chinese lady kept saying "Mother! Mother!"  After her coming and tapping my shoulder I finally realized who she was talking to--me! After she got my attention she told me that she had extra toys at her house and if I came by I could borrow them for a few weeks.  How sweet of her! I went over yesterday and I don't know who was more excited--me or Michelle.  This whole time I had been trying to come up with creative toys here because we're kind of limited. haha.  Michelle's been playing with chopsticks, empty waterbottles and other gadgets I can find around this place.  

This Winnie the Pooh is very squishy.  I wish they had one my size. =(

She literally posed for this picture the moment I got out the camera. 

Here she is pulling up on things all by herself.  Seriously...the mop suit!  If only I had a sewing machine here.

P.S. Writing the title of today's post made me question this.  Ya learn somethin' new everyday!

Somebody's 26 Today!

Today is this guy's birthday: (May 29)

I'll just say that I feel like the luckiest girl to be married to Dan.  He's sooo much fun, works so hard, is very quick and bright and has a heart of gold.  And he is shwi guh. (That means handsome devil in Chinese). =)

Feel free to send him some love!

Flowers and Towers. ...and curry with Super Powers.

A Flower Market

S: Dan surprised me early Saturday morning by taking me here and saying I should pick out some flowers for Mother's day.   ::Gasp::  I. Love. Fresh. Flowers.

 This warehouse/tent went on and on, filled with series of merchants selling all kinds of flowers. 
 

A vase? Wow!

There were lots of arrangements with little chinese gardens like this.  Except
 I see that lamp has a Christmas wreath on it! ha.

Tehee.

The orchids were exquisite.  There was no question as to what flower I would want after seeing so many kinds of them.

LOVE the colors! Don't you?

Bamboo arrangements.

She is playing with her brand new stuffed animal bunny that a very kind merchant inside gave her.

We talked about how if we ever can grow hydrangeas in our yard (depending where we live) these will be a must! 

Such a deep purpley pink.  =) These were the winners.

We picked out some of these babies to take home.

We stopped for some lunch.

There is a curry place at the New Taipei City MRT stop that is absolutely divine.  I cannot express how happy we were about this meal.  The only thing we've had like it is something from Bombay House in Provo but this seemed better.

Michelle loved it too.  Seriously. 

Finally some fresh steamed vegetables.  Ahh this sauce is so good.  These pictures just don't do it justice.

Taipei 101

So we made our way over to do the touristy thing of cruising up to the top of the 101.  I say cruising because that's the only way to honestly put it.  The elevator in this tower went from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in 37 seconds!  It made the Guiness record "world's fastest elevator" a few years ago.

Is it bad that this tower honestly looks like chinese take out boxes stacked on top of each other to me?  I think I think about food a lot. 

I don't know what religious group this is but we've seen them out a few times.  They stand in a line and do meditations and one or two proselyte.  

Up at the top!  The view is the other way! haha. Michelle and her fan club.

Some coral reef on display.  But if you look closely...

Whoa!

The bottom floors are a huge shopping mall for all the big brands like gucci, prada, armani, bvlgari?, burburry, etc.

Poor bebe.  So tired.

Well it was fun!

Home to Relax

Made some omelettes and ate dinner on the balcony after putting Shell to sleep.  

I would relive this day again.  Easily. =)