Saturday, April 3, 2010

April 1st - We Are Moving Back To The US

Where in the world are the Wixo's...

First of all, we apologize for being absent bloggers. It's been a long time. Facebook has kind of taken over as our means of communication as it became easier for us to access the last few months in China. However, we know some of you have been faithful followers of our blog for the last three years and are wondering where we have been since the last posting.

Here is a picture of our last known address in China. Now the fun begins as we attempt to find a new one. That's right, if you haven't heard, we are moving back to the Minneapolis area! In fact, as I write this we are actually on US soil in the comfort of Tony and Sylvia's home for the Easter holiday. There is a tremendous amount of work ahead for us - finding a new home, finding a job for me (Sabrina), moving all of our belongings from numerous locations back into one home, and so forth. For the time being we are in a temporary apartment in Plymouth, MN. We are excited, but as you can imagine there were some tears as we closed the door on the China chapter of our life. As for Tony he closes a successful chapter in placing the Polaris "flag" in China and now he will be taking on new challenges at Polaris that will involve other parts of the world. A next assignment?....let's just focus on today...

A couple of weeks before we left, this guy - the "Mountain Chicken" showed up in our yard. You know him as a ring neck pheasant, but the translation was fuzzy as people in Shanghai aren't really familiar with the bird. Ayi wanted to catch it and take it home as a pet for her son. The driver want to catch it and eat it. We're not really sure what happened to him after we left but he kept us entertained and finished off the rest of our oatmeal for us. In any case, all agreed that his appearance meant "good luck" for the Wixo family in our new life in the US as pheasants are native to China and were brought to the US and have thrived there.Another chapter in the twin's life began before we left though. Not really as their birthday is not until April 9th, but their friends at school and ayi wanted to celebrate before we left. It has been quite a transformation since the pictures of their 1st birthday with chocolate cake all over their faces as they sat in high chairs. Four birthdays...where did our babies go? It doesn't suffice to say we miss all of our friends and "family" members in Shanghai. The memories we made will keep us smiling for the rest of our lives. What an amazing adventure. How do you say goodbye to that? Maybe you just say...

Until next time...


Sunday, January 3, 2010

Winter in ND

We had one of those Christmas stories and snow storms that you remember from when "we were kids". We spent the front half of the Christmas holiday at the Wixo side of the family in McVille, North Dakota.More than 2 feet of new snow fell over the course of two days and then on day three the wind strategically piled the snow in "fun" places as the kids were able to dig those tunnels in the snow that I remember as an every year occurrence. Here Brandon is taking a break from his best impression as a gopher.
Having that much snow also requires some shoveling so I put Ava to work.
With that much snow it also makes snowmobiling a lot of fun.
Until next time: memories that last for a life time.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Random Events, Pictures, and a $100 Turkey

My mother visited us for most of the month of November. One of the places that she likes to visit is a place we call "junk street". Junk street has a mix of "antique" looking and eclectic items and negotiating is the norm to determine the sales price.
The shops, as you can see, are very small and in some cases "hole-in-the-wall" facilities. But the shop owners are typically pretty cheery, friendly, and are proud to share off their wares. The lady above is from Tibet as were most of her items. In this picture two gentlemen are making a woven rug right in the street. My mom also likes to take a look at the simple things. Here she and Ava found some hand made brooms in one of the vacant homes in our neighborhood. These are made from weeds and grass wrapped together and bound to a stick of bamboo that serves as the handle. We also were invited in for dinner to one of my employee's, Jason, homes. Here Jason's mother is making a spicy type of soup that is then mixed with home made noodles. It was a very good time and a chance for my mom to experience a local food....though she still struggles with the chop sticks. ;) Thanksgiving has come and gone and yes, we had a turkey at our home in Shanghai. Our tradition over the past years has been to get together with other families in our housing compound. Our turkey was a 20 lb. Butterball. However, turkey is not raised in China so all turkey must be imported....all of this adds cost and the turkey was about $5 a lb. Sabrina cooked the turkey and it looked and tasted as good or better than any turkey I have had. This was a tall task as our oven wasn't cooperating. We did have to inspect it a number of times because our oven broiler kept turning on... Chinese ovens??

Until next time...we are now in the States and hope to talk with you while we are back.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

A stop in Korea - a new blog

Halloween has came and gone here in China... looking back to last year Halloween was not our kids favorite holiday. Last year, Caden and Ava were so excited for "trick or treating" until the first door bell rang at our house. Caden ran to the door to open it and on the other side of the door ...some older kids dressed in scary, scary costumes. Caden about tripped over himself when he did an about face and ran screaming into our kitchen. That was it for him for the evening. BUT that was last year... So we started the year off slow carving some pumpkins as every family does... and we carved some pretty nice jack-0-lanterns. However there was only one problem....we carved them too early and in Shanghai's warm climate, they lasted about 3 days before they collapsed into a pile of mush, but they were nice even if for 3 days.
Then the big day came and a Saturday at that... Ava was a princess and Caden a cowboy.
The picture above is Ava with a neighborhood friend. She has so many princess outfits and Ava loves to go over and play dress up.
This is how we went trick or treating - Caden and Ava on the scooters - bag in hand - and mom and dad on the bikes. Mom was dressed in a Packers jersey and I in a Vikings jersey. (I was the better in that one - Go Vikes!) By early in the night Caden thought this "trick or treating" thing was alright... I think we hit all the occupied homes in the neighborhood. We ended the night at a friends house with a glass of wine and a Sloppy Joe in hand. Fun for all...
Until next time...

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Thailand & Out

We have been home a week and a half now so we should probably close out our vacation to Thailand. On our last post, I documented a pleasant trip the emergency room. I am a pleased to say everything worked out fine. Anyway, to close out Thailand we visited the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (http://www.bangkok.com/attraction-palace/grand-palace.html). This is the must see site in Bangkok and we saw it. The palace was built in the 1700s and the Buddha dates back to the 14th Century. The whole place was very ornate and lavishly decorated.
Even though it was October, the temperature was very hot. On top of this, one can not wear shorts or pants above the knees or open shoulders when visiting this place. They are very strict in that regard and people were selling "over pants" just outside the gate to get in as they were turning people back who were wearing shorts. So until next time... it is almost Halloween and I'm leaving you with a picture of the twins. You can see the front tooth that Ava is missing if you look very closely at her smile...

Sunday, October 11, 2009

A Pleasant Trip to the Emergency Room - Thailand

Another vacation; another trip to some "foreign" emergency room... our daughter is not the most fleet-a-foot or in simpler terms she can be a "klutz". Although she is in ballet and gymnastics...she still can not figure out how to fall gracefully. Saturday night when we were preparing ourselves for bed at our friend's house in Bangkok, Ava decided she was going to stand on the bed. She maybe stood for a split second and then fell off and caught her fall with her mouth. This knocked one of her front teeth out. I believe this is the 4th time in her young life that she has fallen and not caught herself with her hands. It is almost like she doesn't have the reflex for protecting herself against a fall. Anyway we packed her up and the tooth and headed to an emergency room not far from our friend's house. So this is where my blog really begins because if there was a way to make a negative experience pleasant...this was it because the hospital, staff, and facilities here are top notch. We arrived at Samitivej Srinakarin Children's Hospital. The emergency staff took one quick look at Ava and the tooth and decided we needed to come back in the morning to see a dentist in the same facility. They prescribed some anti-biotics and a pain killer and sent us on our way. We pretty much expected this outcome, but what we didn't expect was the bill. The total cost for the drugs and the emergency room visit was about $25. Wow, we thought that was cheap.
So on Sunday (thenext day) we scheduled a trip to see the dentist at the same facility. This again was a very pleasant experience. I have included some pictures of the facilities. The quality of the facilities, the cleanliness, the process they put you through to register and so on is all electronic, etc. etc.... (much different from China) I can't say enough good things about it. I would put this facility up against any that I have visited in the US. Really.

Our actual time with the dentist was about a half hour and they took x-rays to make sure that Ava's tooth - root and all - had made a "clean exit" and that her permanent and other baby teeth were not damaged. Everything checked out "OK" and we asked for the x-ray film and headed on our way.
I then stopped at the cashier's desk to pay our bill. Again it was about about 730 Thai Baht or about $28. This included the dentist visit and the x-ray.
So until next time ponder this... I don't profess to understand the costs, quality, efficiencies, or inefficiencies we have in the US with our medical system. I have a mother, a sister, an uncle, an aunt, a sister-in-law, etc. that all work in the medical field... they are all professionals in their careers and the best at what they do. This is not about the care that we as Americans provide nor is it meant to be political in nature. What this is about is that much of the news and the negativity we have in the US is geared towards the inevitable change to this system...the costs, the insurance, the ____, the ____...for 50+ years we have not been able to figure this out. All is I have to say is... perhaps there is something that we can learn if we take a look outside of our "box". Again here in Thailand we were very, very happy with the care we were provided. We were also very happy with the cost...in total we spent about $60...not $600 plus. It is thought provoking, isn't it?

Friday, October 9, 2009

We took a tour with Siam on Friday. The tour was a 4 in 1 opportunity to ride an elephant on a short ride, see a monkey working demonstration, rubber trees, and also an opportunity to feed the elephants. Having 3 1/2 year olds requires some variety and this was the perfect opportunity for it. Below is a picture of the elephant we mounted. This is actually a picture taken by our "elephant pilot". This is the only picture that we have in file form that I have. Our friends took some other pics but I don't have them on me at the moment. This is the view we were rewarded with atop Ah-chew (our elephant's name). We also reviewed the elephant training of the younger ones. Then we were allowed to feed them. They appear to be very gentle animals. I compare it to my farm boy days with horses. Horses are gentle but require a great amout of respect...as do these. Caden enjoyed feeding them but Ava wanted nothing of it. Our next stop was the rubber tree. Below you see a picture of how natural rubber starts out...much like a maple syrup gathering operation. Each day a cut is made in the tree and the rubber "bleeds" into the cup.
We then checked out the "Working Monkey Demonstration"... monkeys are used to grab coconuts out of the trees. They spin the coconut until the vine breaks. The average monkey can harvest more than 100 coconuts in a day we were told.
Until next time... we are leaving for Bangkok this morning to spend time with your friends that just moved from Shanghai to Bangkok.