Blog numero 3 of the week!

Wow, I'm on a blog roll this week ;)

I've been walking to the school bus every day this week so I've been taking some sunrise shots with my phone. Gotta keep myself entertained, right?

My early morning ninja skills are getting quite good as I manage to slip out of bed without waking Izzie up. Haiwen has arrived safely in France where he is enjoying the clean air. 

With Haiwen gone, grandma is reporting for duty at 6AM as I have to leave to catch the school bus.

I'm also doing some sub work next week which includes rehearsals with the high school band as the music teacher will be out on a middle school trip.

Right now I'm in IB math class. The kids are taking a test while their normal teacher is in The Hague.
Funny to think that he's off in Holland and a Dutch person is covering his class ;)

I'm sad to say that the cool and fresh air is disappearing already. It was not as chilly out this morning as the last few days. Ah, humidity and heat are nigh! I really enjoyed feeling "cold" the last few mornings!

I'm off in the next period so I will get a workout in. I'm still not sure what I will do exactly but inspiration will come shortly.

Here's a conversation I had with a student just now during 1st period advisory:

Student: "Miss Joke, can I go work out, I'm done with all my homework."

Me: "Sure, what are you going to do?"Student: "Squats and lunges mostly."
Me: "OK, will you do them weighted?"
Student: "Yes, I will, I want to try out the new equipment that came in."
Me: "Excellent, go ahead and check back here at the end of this period."
Student: "Thank you, but I also have a question about my Chopin etude."
Me: "Let's take a look at it."
*student gets computer and shows me the score*
*I take a look and give advise*
Student: "Thank you Miss Joke."Me: "No problem, go smash it in the gym."

Other people depicting the sunrise

Lexie had a great school trip on Tuesday. They went to the athlete's training centre on the outskirts of Guangzhou. She was super popular and had to take loads of pictures with the athletes.

I asked her what else they did and she told me: "we helped our older sisters and brothers to pick up balls". Hehehe, "older sisters and brothers" is the Chinese term for people that are older then you, but not quite up to "uncle" and "auntie" age.

I had a close encounter with nature earlier this week

The kindergarten kids had a physical check up yesterday where they also drew some blood.

Lexie showed me the mark on her arm and declared: "The doc took some blood here but it didn't hurt and I didn't cry".  

*Proud mommy*

Oh what a beautiful day!!!

Aaaaah, the few days a year that are 100% nice weather wise!! Started the day with a walk to the school bus at 6.06 when it was 15C outside. So fresh!

I did a walk/jog combo all the way to the bus, courtesy of the "cool" weather. I don't like getting on the bus all sweaty but today that was not a problem. Jogging with my backpack and purse is not ideal, but hey, gotta burn those cals!

At 8 AM it was homeroom time. Not much going on there, just getting the school day started.

Luckily it had the first period off so I headed to the hill across from the school to do stairs. And stairs.... and more stairs, up one way of the hill, down the other way and back to the starting point.

I had a little bit time left before the next class so I did a few bicep curls and shoulder lifts in the school gym. By then work out time was up so I headed for a shower. All squeaky clean and back to class!

Haiwen is leaving for a business trip to France tonight. He'll be gone for 12 days. I don't think he's been away for so long before yet (I have, hahaha). I hope he has fun and that the trip will be a success.

In the afternoon I will have one piano class. My student is doing well and I'm sure that she grew several inches since we started! Those kids just keep on getting taller and taller (or am I starting to shrink??)

To top today off I will go to yoga class (at our own school) tonight as well. Haiwen is going to drop bye to say bye-bye, since I already left so early this morning.

Getting warmer soon.....

Lexie is off on her first school trip today. They have great weather so I'm sure they will have lots of fun :)

OMG, a blog!!!!

Hi all! Sorry I've been MIA for so long again. Life just gets a bit too crazy so there's very little time to sit down and write.

First let me share my fitness progress with you. I'm very proud of what I have achieved in a little under a year and a half! This process has also taken much of my previously allotted blog time because I was busy working out.

The second bit of exciting news is that Izzie is going to start kindergarten in June so I will have much more free time, woohoo!!! We were planning to let her start in August but the principal would have none of that. She decided on June she we are going along with that.

Well, almost perfect.....

Lexie and Izzie are doing great. They are so cute and so much fun to be around. Of course there is some crying and nagging at times but their smiles make everything OK again.

Lexie is really into drawing now she keeps on demanding "art works" from me, hahaha.

She loves them and gives me stickers in reward; "mommy, that is really good, here's a red sticker for you" *puts an imaginary sticker on my hand*.

My cutest student

Teaching has been going well and all of my students are making good progress. Except the one girl that has had 4 classes this year only but that can't be helped. They need to be in class to be helped along :)

Early bird catches the worm!

I've been subbing at the American School for a bit now so I'm walking to the school bus every morning at 6 AM. Today the sun finally decided to come out. This week is the last full week that has been planned. Maybe I'll get some more temporary subs before the school year is over.

It's a nice gig with access to the school gym and library.

I hope you are all doing well and I think I'll be in touch more very soon!

xoxo

J

What's this? (Wat is dit nou???)

Ladies and gentlemen.....

Believe it or not..... here's a blog from China, wooohooooo!!!!

Izzie is sleeping and Haiwen is playing with Lexie so I have some time to sit down and type, tadaaa!!

The girls in Bangkok airport

It is Chinese New Year's Eve and the year of the ram will start tomorrow. We just had a family dinner at the other side of town with auntie, uncle and some close family friends. Before that we visited uncle's home for a little while. Izzie and Lexie were very happy and behaved well, oh yeah!

Gym in Anantara resort

Last week we went on holiday in Phuket, Thailand. Grandma also went with us. We had a great time at 2 different resorts. A week at one place can be a bit boring and we wanted to use our flights well. First we stayed in Anantara and after that we moved to Club Med.

Morning stroll

Well, I must admit: a pool villa is the way to go!!! Luckily we had enough membership points to afford one, hahaha. What is more convenient than having your own pool with 2 small kids?

There was a kitchen as well so grandma provided the meals :)

Beach time snack!

We did general holiday stuff which included visits to the kids club and swimming. Haiwen and I also went to the gym almost every day.

Since Thailand is Thailand I went to get some lovely massages as well, very good to enhance the holiday vibes!!

Our housing at Club Med was a lot less luxurious but there were other perks: the baby club and the petit club :) Lexie went to play all day long and Izzie went in for the mornings so we three adults had some chill out time too. 

Next week Lexie is home from kindergarten because of the New Year's holiday. She's talking sooooooo much!!! It's incredible! I sometimes get a bit tired from reminding her to speak Dutch to me but I guess that's a small price to pay for having multi-lingual kids.

Lexie's Mandarin is the best, followed closely by Cantonese and then Dutch. She knows a lot of English words as well. At times she is playing by herself whilst revising: "dog 就是 hondje 就是 狗狗" mmmm "tiger is ook tijger is 老虎" and more interesting combo's like these. 

The flights home from Phuket did not go too great. Izzie had a huge fit and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. She kept saying/crying/screaming "mamma, mamma, mamma".

In the end it turned out that she was looking for grandma and Lexie who were sitting elsewhere. Fortunately we could join them and she settled down.

Just hanging.......

Just before landing Lexie fell asleep so you can imagine what happened when we woke her up to leave the plane.... Lots of crying all the way through passport control where there were no lines, phew!!! Auntie Qiang came to pick us up and we were home by midnight.

I had to teach 3 classes the next morning so that was a nice welcome home ;)

I'm happy that my piano student is finally starting to make music. He wants to take the ABRSM grade 8 exam so he's with me to learn about performing styles and music. 

I was pretty desperate for the first few lessons as I got 0 feedback from him and even doubted if he even wanted to play the piano. After 4 lessons he started getting much better and he seems to be enjoying himself way more :)

Well, that's it for now. Hope you are not too shocked by this sudden blog appearance, hihi.

New Year Photo Bomb

Haiwen and Izzie

Lexie and me

Krzystof giving a masterclass at our school

Masterclass :)

Interesting technique ;)

Still working out hard, love my new pants!

With one of my students

Izzie and Lexie working out after me ;)

Quick update

Ah, enjoying a Yakult together

Coconut oil in the process of solidifying, winter is here!

A little sisterly stroll

Plenty of sass!

Strolling along

Me working out

Still here :)

Hi all, I'm still alive ;)

It just seems impossible to get a blog together these days. I'm either with Izzie, who wants to write the blog for me while possibly destroying my computer in the process, or I'm working. If not either of those two I'm working out or sleeping!

Enjoying the street side ride together

I have been working out like a mo** (insert work that mommies are not allowed to use) and am happy to report that the hard work has been paying off.

Grandparents Tummers have been here for a month. We went to Guilin and Sanya together. For Sanya we were joined by Jack and Jolien as well :)

Lexie on the balance beam at school

We had a lot of fun together and it's been a bit quiet here this week with everybody gone.

A little stroll in our compound

Now I have about half an hour left before I go to grandma Feng to keep Izzie busy while she prepares dinner. I have a case of sinusitis and I can attest to the fact that that is no fun whatsoever. 

Grandma picked Izzie up around 14.30 so I could have a bit of a rest. It's 17.23 at this moment.

Izzie's new hobby is walking..... Walking a lot!

Izzie surprised us all two nights ago by walking back all the way from grandma's house by herself. It took Lexie a few weeks to build up to that distance but Izzie had a big happy grin on her face the whole way.

Oooooooh yes, a relaxed holiday was had by all

Our music school is running better and better and I personally have some more students there as well. It is fun to be running your own place :) Our next concert is planned on december 21st. We had one the first weekend grandparents T were here as well.

Nice day for a lunch on the terrace

We kept the concert small on purpose so we could have it in our own studio. About 11 students and I played. The atmosphere was great and the students loved the chance to perform for an audience.

Hi!

OK, my head is starting to hurt from staring at the computer screen, so I'd better stop. Enjoy the rest of the pics and I hope to be back on here soon, xoxo, J

Having fun in Guilin with opa and oma T.

Me climbing away!

Lexie in the morning of her 3rd birthday with special gift from opa and oma T.

Birthday dinner with cake :)