Funnies

Here are a few (can't think of them all but boy, there are a lot...) of the recent things that give me a chuckle throughout the day!!! Enjoy!!


1) Watching Mrs. Wang run down the street, in her heels, to get Tanner's backpack because it is too hot outside & his backpack is too heavy for him to carry in the heat! Go ahead & say it....spoiled, I know! Good thing school is out as the temperature is rising!

2) Even funnier....watching Amanda run down the street with Mrs. Wang, toting Mrs. Wang's wonderful sense of fashion: heels - Amanda in her shorts, white socks & black paten leather heels - hey, NJ folks...can we say "Benny"?

3) Watching Mrs. Wang's face when I put an apple with peanut butter on a plate for the kids to eat for lunch! Mrs. Wang eats a hot meal everyday for lunch which consists of meat, rice & a vegetable.....what can I say.

4) Even funnier....having her look at me with the look of 'disgrace' as I cooked Mac 'n' Cheese for the kids for dinner while Ron was in MI!! I did include a vegetable....

5) I went to check on Mrs. Wang who was making the kids Mac 'n' Cheese for LUNCH (I guess it is o.k. to eat for lunch..) to discover that she was getting ready to put cubed cheddar cheese in the pot with the noodles. She was still going to put in the packets & milk!!!

6) After having the grand idea to shake things up for dinner (tired of chicken & rice), I decided to make one of my favorites: Tater Tot Casserole - a recipe from Traci in IL. I shopped for all the ingredients, which can be a chore here. Spent $16 buying tater tots, used ground chicken because it cost less than Australian ground beef (would have cost about $15 & this recipe was adding up), used my precious Velvetta that Ron brought back from MI (can't buy over here) & even made homemade bread in the bread maker. All sounds good, right? Wrong!!! The casserole did not taste the same (can't decide if it was the ground chicken or the tater tots) & the bread maker's timer is off so it took over 5 hours to cook the bread when it was supposed to take 4 hours. The meal started off late & ended with me throwing away the casserole. Traci can you please mail me a casserole??

7) Ants, what can I say...we have them. However, with Mrs. Wang, the exterminator, they are leaving the house at a rapid pace!! A few weeks back we had ants in the garage. I heard that flour was a good method to use to control them - ant traps don't exist over here. So after Mrs. Wang cleaned the garage (swept it, washed the floor with kitchen floor cleaner - just in case we decided to eat in there...), I told her to put a line of flour along the wall to make sure they do not come in the house. A few days later I find her in the garage looking at the ants. She informs me that the ants in China like flour (she said she saw them playing in it), so she was going to clean up the flour & try her method. Oh dear.... She once again cleaned the garage (dinner anyone??). After that, she boiled water & went outside the garage & started dumping pots of boiling water around the garage. Then she proceeded to put a layer of bleach in the areas she dumped the boiling water. Well, I am proud to report, the ants are dead & looking kinda white....

8) Well, you would think I would have learned the first time..... Once again we found ants. This time in the laundry room (coming in from under the door). They were not bothering our food but were working their way into the kitchen. So, I had the grand idea to put the ant traps that Ron brought back from the good ol' USA by the back door - the traps were little disks that you put Borax on. I explained to Mrs. Wang that the ants would probably come in piles but once they ate the Borax they would bring it back to the colony & it would kill them. I return hours later to discover Mrs. Wang looking a bit 'grossed out'. She takes me into the laundry room to show me the HUNDREDS of ants on the traps. I told her this was good however, she didn't buy it - how could ants in the house be good?? She proceeded to tell me how ants in China are different than ants in America - I could almost hear her thoughts, "Kim, leave the house work & ANT KILLING to me. I know what is best!!" I told her to do what she felt was best (a big smile came to her face - it was probably a smile of victory - thinking that maybe I will let her have control of EVERYTHING, that I have learned my lesson...one of the methods we use in America has got to work & I will continue to try & discover which one's do....). She cleaned up the ant traps, the ants, cleaned the floor, boiled the water, dumped the boiling water on the ant piles & around the outside of the back door, bleached the area outside & guess what...it kills me to say it...we haven't had ants for awhile! Guess I learned my lesson: burn & bleach things, it works!!!

9) The kids love watermelon & the watermelons here are very sweet. Mrs. Wang has been buying the seedless watermelons but apparently they are out of season. Now is the season for the seeded watermelon - never knew they had different seasons. I see her in the kitchen cutting up the watermelon & taking out the black seeds. I tell her to leave them in & that the kids will just spit them out on their plates - isn't that what all kids do?? She proceeds to tell me that that is too much work for the kids & she will take the black seeds out for them. Guess that makes my watermelon eating easier too!!!!

Hope you all had a few good laughs on us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!