Kelly Times Two

A Valentine's Day novelty that I missed seeing, eating, and reading this month was boxes of conversation hearts, an American candy staple that kids and grown ups exchange in February. When I found that our friend, Gerard, was coming from Austin to Hsinchu on business this week, I asked his wife, Becky, to please send some boxes over for us with him, which they kindly did. Last night after play practice, I passed them out to my awesome Taiwan teenagers. I thought they would enjoy the short English phrases and get a taste of this tradition. Thank you, Becky and Gerard! If you're surprised that I'm still posting Valentines things, you may conclude that I'm possibly (1) completely bored and have nothing better to do, or (2) clinging on to a somewhat insignificant holiday because I never really got it out of my system yet this year, or (3) tired of the three English television shows that air over and over that I'm sick of watching, or (4) all of the above, then you co...

We've been living in Taiwan for six months, which is our half-way point for Kelly's work contract that he's fulfilling. I took some pictures for myself of our home the day I left to come back to Taiwan after Christmas break to look at when I'm feeling a bit homesick. Here's a quick tour of our casa bonita. You can also click HERE for an old link to see our swimming pool after it was completed. I prefer fresh flowers, but these will do while I'm away. Sometimes I want to click my heels three times and repeat, "There's no place like home" to escape back to there. Then I realize that home is where my family is, and right now, that's in Taiwan with the exception of our college student. I do miss all my friends in Texas though. And some of my dishes. :-)

Foreign languages have always fascinated me. When I was a teenager, I started learning how to say something, even if it was just a simple phrase, in many different languages. I love hearing the different pronunciations and am so impressed when I meet people who are talented at communicating in more than one language. As I have lived outside of my native country, it has been a unique experience to strive to adapt to a world where I cannot easily communicate or understand what is going on around me most of the time. It has given me a greater appreciation for my Spanish speaking friends from the United States and to my surprise, I feel like I can more easily relate to my deaf friends, to know what they might be dealing with when they cannot hear what's going on when others are talking. American Sign Language is a beautiful language, and I love watching people communicate by using their hands. In a barbaric way, that's actually how I've been getting by in Taiwan to get my p...

Whoa. I just realized that this is my 500th post since I started my blog a couple of years ago! How fitting that I'll be talking about some of my favorite things today. I should probably take a moment to say "hello" and "thank you" to everyone who ever looks at or reads my blog. I appreciate all of you, so please don't ever feel like you're a stalker. It's nice to be noticed and feel the love! I'm not a huge Jell-O fan, but for some odd reason, I was in the mood to create some heart shaped jigglers for Valentines Day. I used strawberry, orange, and lemon flavored Jell-O to make these cute li'l sugary hearts. The super sweet treats are SO easy to make and just pop right out of my deep heart molds. Speaking of sweetness...it was a joy to receive all the cards that friends and family sent us when we went home to Austin for a couple of weeks in December for the holidays, but I never got around to reciprocating and sending out Christmas cards ...

We welcomed our first visitors since we moved to Taiwan six months ago, Kelly's mom and dad arranged to be here while he had some time off work during Chinese New Year. Here's Christopher showing Grandma how to play River Rafting on Kinect Adventures. We were told that traffic would be terrible during the holiday, so we didn't travel too far away and ended up going to most places we'd already been, such as Emei Lake. "Orange you" glad I took some pictures of the fresh fruit? Orange trees filled every nook and cranny of the hillsides, and fruit was plentiful and looked very tempting. We made sure to buy some oranges along the way. Here's the plant that makes the betel nut tobacco-like substance that is sold here. It's not really tobacco, but more like a chewable nut that turns your saliva red and ruins your teeth. People actually pay for this product in little shops to have this happen. This young woman was standing outside in the cold, selling wedges...