Teenager To Be In The Family

Yes, it is hard to believe but Brandon turns 13 on Monday, May 28th. It was a Saturday on a beautiful Memorial Day Weekend that he was born in Grand Forks, ND. These are the times that you remember like they were only yesterday...Grandma & Grandpa Wixo were there at the hospital having spent the night prior at the cabin at Devils Lake, the rest of the family stayed behind and were enjoying the fellowship at the cabin(when it was still on the lake)...

"A teenager"...he's been claiming himself to be a teenager for the past two years with a smile and gleam in his eye of course, because the context of the claims were always to justify some action such as sleeping past 10 in the morning or staying up past mid-night when he had a friend over. Now I guess he has a little bit more "horsepower" to go with that claim. Though it still is a bit early for the use of the shaver that he gets as a joke from his grandpa every year for Christmas...

Feel free to call him and wish him a happy B-Day on his day or if you are getting this message after a long holiday weekend, I'm sure he'd be happy to hear a belated birthday wish from you. Send us an email if you don't have his phone number. Or send him an email..his email is bwixy@hotmail.com.

I'm flying back to the US for a business meeting on the 5th of June and Brandon will return to China with me on the 12th of June. Then we'll pack the family up and return the US for Grandma & Grandpa Wixo's 40th wedding anniversary/ bash / fiesta / party and the 4th of July holiday week spent at the cabin. Should be a lot fun for all and a good time for a little R&R.

But that is still a few weeks away and we have a lot of life to live between then and now. So we'll keep you posted.

Brandon HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We all miss you more than words can say or even or do justice to explain, buddy, and we can't wait to see you...

Until next time... Love, Dad.

God doesn't look at how much we do, but with how much love we do it.--Mother Theresa -

Jottings -

Posted by Tony:


For those of you who are familiar with the "infamous" sports writer - Sid Hartman of the MPLS Star Tribune - he has this part of his daily column called jottings...which means nothing except for random notes and so on...well this blog is going to be just random notes. We've have all been very busy...but wanted to give you some jottings and pictures for the week.

I was in Taipei, Taiwan most of last week and arrived home on Saturday. Sabrina kept busy around the house and with her friends here in the city - going to fabric markets, visiting basket weaving communities, making her weekly stop at Dragonfly (spa, massage, etc.) and the like. I'm speaking from my perspective and whispering now... but I think she is having a lot of fun here :) ....just a random jotting but something I'm very glad to see. You go girl... This week I'm again off traveling.... Korea. I'll be gone Tuesday and home again on Friday.

Caden askes Ava: "Where's Daddy going this week?"

Yes, in China even your 1 year old can have a pair of fake Oakley's:

Caden gets the pool....Ava gets a bucket:

Ava's puppy is "Made in China"...I bet yours is too.
AYI(Chinese for "auntie" / nanny) and the kids get along great. We are so happy to have her - she is awesome.

Crate and Barrel: Made in China

Ok, so we haven't posted in awhile. Well, some more technical difficulties have been experienced but this was due to our own doing. On rearranging the pad here to accommodate new, separate bedrooms for Caden and Ava, the external hard drive containing all of our pictures took a tumble to the floor. Unfortunately, we cannot plug the cord in because the USB port got damaged. Hopefully the tech guy at Tony's office will be able to fix it, if not we'll have to wait until we take it home with us this summer to get fixed. So, we'll have to give you a recap once we can access those photos again.

But, as for the new...

On Thursday, May 10th I had the opportunity to visit a candle making factory with the Women's Expat club. Surprisingly, it was not unlike the factory that I visited with Tony that made wheels, however the end product and the overall smell of the candle factory was much nicer! Supposedly, this factory makes candles for Crate and Barrel as well as other stores back in the states.

If you are like me, you probably assumed that the candle making process was all automated - not here. This wax covered, tootie fruity smelling factory is powered by hard working Chinese men and women who poor the melted wax by hand into molds from tea kettles.

Once set the wax is removed from the molds and two gentlemen polish up their shape and drill a hole down through the center for the wick. The wick is thread through, a final finish is put on the candle with a wire brush by hand and then it goes through the assembly line you see here to be packaged for final shipment. Again, all stickers and labels are put on the boxes by hand which are also assembled by hand. They looked and sounded like they were having a good time while doing this - most likely at our expense (crazy dressed Americans!).

After our tour we were led into the store that you see below for browsing and shopping at extremely reasonable prices. If they weren't so darn heavy I would bring one back for everyone!

Sabrina & Tony - Get Some Free Time

Posted by Tony,

You are not going to see any pictures of Caden or Ava in this post. This is just about Tony and Sabrina - enjoying each others company. :) From May 1st to May 7th, China is on "Labor Day" holiday. So we took the opportunity to have our Ayi watch the kids a couple of mornings and afternoons so we could get out. This gave us an opportunity to see and taste some the sights of Shanghai.

The first day we spent on The Bund which is probably the most famous part of Shanghai. The Bund is along the HuangPu River and is directly across from the Pudong section of Shanghai or the "New" Shanghai. The Bund is designed in colonial structures as most buildings are from the early 1900's and were built by investors from Europe & the United States. The Bund used to be a banking & trade district and when communism took over the late 1940s the banking & trade industry basically was no more. If you visit Shanghai - I guarantee you'll take these exact pictures as everyone does. Actually it is quite beautiful to look across at the future and then turn 180 degrees and look at the past. (you'll see the past from the other side of the river - but this will be a later post - got to keep ya coming back for more. ;)


The picture to the left is of some beautiful mosiacs taken in a building that was built in 1923 and was the home of the Bank of Hong Kong. It survived the invasion of Japan during WWII and all other aspects of the Cultural Revolution as it is largely the same as it was prior to these periods. It is now part of the Pudong Development Bank and is operational.

After taking this picture I was yelled at by the guard as I guess your not supposed to take pictures while inside...go figure. A beautiful place deserves to have its picture taken.

This building is rare as most of the facades of the buildings are as they were but the insides are not. Many are in need of some TLC or have been turned into upscale smaller businesses such Giorgio Armani or local banks.

Later on this morning we decided to have lunch at a place called "M on the Bund". All of the Shanghai travel books say this is the place to eat. Well they were right. The restaurant is on the 7th floor of one of these old buildings and has an open patio with a view that is second to none in Shanghai - the food is pretty good too. We had a patio seat that overlooked the river to the Pudong side. To have dinner with all the lights and so on would be nice. We'll wait until the first friend or family member comes and visits us for that treat. Uncle Tom, I think you might be the one. :)

The next picture is of a statue and flower garden in HuangPu Park. Parks, statues, and flower gardens are not rare in Shanghai. They are everywhere and miticulously kept year round. This very park while urban Shanghai was largely controlled by Westerners was off limits to any one of Chinese decent. This is obviously not the case today.

Our 2nd morning took us to breakfast at Cafe Du Monde (New Orleans fame) for beignets, scrambled eggs, and French toast. We then took the subway downtown to a large shopping district. This shopping mall is called New World and has 1o floors, an ice skating rink, and yes, a Starbucks. (Actually Starbucks can be found all over Shanghai) We finished our early afternoon at Toys R Us and purchased some Little Tykes for our little tikes. We leave those images in your mind and you'll see them next time...

This picture was taken of me, but should have been taken of Sabrina as this was her first ever ride on a subway... Basically on the subway it would cost you about 75 cents to go from one end of Shanghai to other plus it is the fastest way to travel as there are no traffic jams, street lights, etc. You can get just about anywhere on the subway system - awesome. So why can't Minneapolis / St. Paul do something like this? Until next time...