Saturday
I was looking at some of our videos on-line and I realized they were not as clear as when we made the movie.

OH MY WORD. TERROR FILLED MY MIND.

Our home movies are gone. We didn’t burn a dvd before Hubs deleted them. Of course not. We trusted a free on-line service.

Thus, began The Great 40 Gig Oops of 2009.

Here’s what we realized in just 24 hours…

We need to get a family DVD filing system.

We can not continue to ignore all this footage that we have.

Seriously, right now, I have no clue where Schäfer’s 1st Christmas 2007 footage is.

So, how do you do it?

How often to you edit home movies?

What software do you use?

How do you store them? Do you burn to DVD and back-up your videos somewhere on-line?

Sigh. Even though ALOT of recent footage is in a smaller version on Vimeo, we still have originals to Schäfer’s 2nd birthday & Christmas 2008. Whew.

Why is this important? Because I am the type of person who will sit around and watch old home movies. That is my definition of a good time.

I remember what I was eating.

I remember where Schäfer was playing.

I remember the way the tears fell because I didn’t know she was so sick.

None of us knew.

Today, I found myself lingering in memories of her.

She wasn’t my best friend, but she was a friend – consistently there at big markers in my life.

• Though she did not board the plane, she was a part of our trip to India.
• She came to our wedding. Trust me, our wedding was geographically challenging.
• She served pie at our wedding reception.
• She confirmed the correct German spelling for Schäfer’s name.

She served long hours without much pay and without complaint.

If she were with us, she’s be serving still.

Theresa, I miss your gentle kindness.

So we headed home. Hubs needed to do some work and then head to town. When we realized he would be near Happy Children’s City, Plan B was created.

First, we stopped by the visa office. In order to get Sandra’s next visa, the office had to see a Chinese Embassy notarized copy of our marriage license. Since we had turned in this exact document with our adoption paperwork, I went to see if we could just give them a photocopy. After all, the original is currently sitting inside our dossier in Beijing.

The visa officer looked at our copy, looked at Schäfer’s Hong Kong birth certificate (which states that Sandra and I are married), looked at our wedding certificate and called his superior. The superior said that they still needed to see the original copy.

And with those words, some $150 and several weeks of time would now need to be spent just to get another original marriage license certified by a local notary, certified by a Secretary of State, and finally certified by the Chinese Embassy in D.C. Sigh.

Off to the Happy Children’s City! OK!

When we come to the sand box (also in this play area), Schäfer has been begging me to let him ride the bumper boats. I told him that when Papa could come, then we would do it. Not because riding bumper boats is expensive, but because saving it as something special to do with Papa makes it all the more exciting.

My original thought was that Hubs and Schäfer would ride in one together, but as it turns out Hubs is too big. I was surprised that they would allow Schäfer in a boat by himself. But they did. And he was excited…until the boat started.

This was a pretty high powered motor boat. It must have a top speed somewhere around 20 knots. Schäfer didn’t quite understand the use of the steering wheel so he got stuck spinning ’round and ’round like a high-speed top. After just one minute, he was asking to get out.

Schäfer has also been asking to ride this Mickey Mouse see saw. Again, I said we could do that when Papa came. Well, today was the day! We put our 1 rmb coin in and…nothing.

What a crazy Plan B day! No early morning adventurous outing with friends! No photocopies accepted at the visa office! No play area boat riding fun! And now, no see saw with Mickey! Thankfully, a guard came and helped get the ride going.

After a grand ride, we played in the play area.

Schäfer loves a rocking horse.

He loved burying his Papa in the ball pit.

He latched onto the climbing wall.

We ended our playtime with a popsicle treat.

I love soaking in these moments of togetherness.

This evening, we went to the pool. For a Friday night there were surprisingly few people there. I braved the lap pool and swam…one lap. Oh my word. Michael Phelps makes it look so easy.

After an hour and a half of swimming non-stop, Schäfer looked at us and said, “I want to go home.” Love him.

We still have our 20 visit membership at the other indoor play area which we’ve started calling “Jump Zone”, but we have enjoyed quite a few hot mornings in the massive sand box at Happy Children’s City.

Happy Children’s City has a Mickey Mouse theme. I’m pretty sure Disney doesn’t know.

Slide on down and join the fun! Adults can take the stairs if they wish.

We’ve got all day, unlimited fishing! (3 rmb = 44 cents)

We’ve got a sand box! 10 rmb =  $1.46 per day. You can go home for lunch and come back later that afternoon. We haven’t done this because Happy Children’s City is quite a ways from our house, but it’s good to know should Schäfer ever become a sandbox addict.

We’ve got high speed bumper boats! 8 rmb = $1.17 per 6 minutes. No life vest needed, but the green water looks questionable.

We even have our own indoor Jump Zone! 12 rmb = $1.76 per day. Best part: The ball blower machine on the left.

The rest of Happy Children’s City is filled with clothing and toy shops (and soon one misc. fast food chicken stand).

All guaranteed to make your children happy!

Schäfer asked if Raffe could come. Sure!

After we picked up the letters, I realized it’s been a while since Raffe’s gotten some fresh air. I guess we’re always taking something else out: the bicycle, a ball, a shovel, etc.

Schäfer and Raffe check out the digger.

“Raffe’s climbing!”

Schäfer and Raffe on a big rock.

Even though we’re rotating Raffe’s (yes, we have two), they are both becoming quite tattered.

When we got back home, Ye Ye was picking bulbs out of the lotus pond. Just another day in the neighborhood.

Bad idea.

I slipped into a side door with 2 cameras. The whistles were blowing, but I thought it was regarding someone in the pool.

Oh no. It was regarding me.

When the lifeguard approached he said, “You can’t swim in those clothes!” I explained that I didn’t want to swim today. I just wanted to take some photos and some video of my guys.

Hubs thought maybe my shoes were causing the problem so I took them off.

I was able to shoot a couple of photos and a little video before I was told that I had to go. Bummer.