Happy Easter

Easter has already come and gone ... but it didn't pass uncelebrated, you can be sure! On Thursday, April 1 our apartment was buzzing with excitement as 19 kids and 16 adults decorated eggs, sang songs, heard the Easter Story, made baskets then went outside to hunt for eggs and eat a dinner's worth of snacks!!! Phew... it was a blast and Hunter still recognizes "Aaaaaaleeeeeluuuuuuuuuia!!!!" as "our Easter song" when he hears it on his cd. Thank you, everyone for making it a special occasion!

You'd be surprised to know that the decorating portion went off with very minimal mess...

Prudence and Jay - working out their color schemes.

The colorful lot

Kristie & Vicky led the kids in singing a couple classic Easter songs - "Christ the Lord has risen today... Alleluia" and "Rejoice, Rejoice"... the kids got into it (more than the photo shows).

Then they told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with the help of some really cool graphics they'd put together...

Next it was on to 'craft time' where the kids made Easter baskets with pipecleaner handles and decorated them with heaps of stickers... thanks Karen & Cynthia!

Tupe & Telesia came over to join the festivities and check out our house as a possibility for them to move to when she takes over Tony's job in June.

Conrad & Rita were pretty pleased with their baskets.

"Look up just a little higher..."

I think colored eggs are just so cool looking, don't you?!?

Lorelai's eggs looked just as dainty in the basket as she looked in her Easter dress,

but I think her sister, Eries, had the right idea skipping the egg hunt in favor of the snack table...

and Tilly enjoyed the fruits of her find!

Happy kids equal happy moms... and vice versa!!! I think we all were particularly happy to be able to celebrate such a special holiday together.

Recreational Companionship

On Saturday, March 13, Tony & I participated in our first duathlon in Taiwan (my first ever)... and let me tell you, though it was not super long (33.5km total) - it was a test of endurance! Since that 10k run in December, I had wanted to try something else... Tony convinced me to try adding a cycling component. Alright - I'll give it a shot! So I trained on the stationary bike downstairs - then thankfully we were able to use a friend's bike for the race (which I rode twice the week before - the first time in the rain, the second uphill). Thankfully when we signed up for the event I had no idea what the course would be like - otherwise I would have chickened out from the beginning... but by the time we discovered the bike portion included 12 kilometers UPHILL - it was too late! I was committed! I was determined! I was strangely out of my mind with adrenelin!!!!

Uncle Richard & Auntie Marlin slept over at our place so they could wake up to spend the day with the kids... and it was the 'whole day' starting at 6am with Hunter up and raring to go!! Thankfully all went well and Tony & I enjoyed a day of recreational companionship.

When we arrived, there was a bit of a mix-up with the numbers/registrations and a bunch of people on the team ended up with wrong numbers... which led to wrong placings/rankings, etc... oh well, good thing there were no real medals involved (though we all got medals for participating... and there I thought those guys coming down the hill were the top placers and I was totally late)!!!

It was a 9k run... with nice form, Tony finished it in good time - 0:45:43

and me... well, I wasn't the last of the bunch at 1:00:43 - a bit slower than the 10k pace, but heck... I felt good.

Despite leg cramps and that ridiculously steep hill climb, Tony did pretty well on the bike and actually came in 14th (out of 83) in his age division - but that was unofficial because the number mix-up gave his time to our buddy WuKong... oh well, he felt okay about it!

The bike ride was about 11km on a flat section... then those blasted 12km UPHILL... my goodness, from the first 10 minutes of the hill climb I was ready to give up... but I told myself I would not walk my bike... so I didn't... oh wow!!! So many times I just wanted to give up... it was one of the hardest things I've done in a long time (at least I had drugs in labor), BUT... when it was finally over... I felt so good and so relieved and so crazy hungry!!! I'll tell you this much, cycling is good for my prayer life!

Tone Tone is one of the crew who Tony goes riding with on Saturdays... she's a steady one!!!

Of course these pictures come on the flat so it looks like the ride was a piece of cake... I wish they had a shot of us from behind going up, up, up, up, up....

FLASH

So the race ended at the top of a hill... actually a temple at the top of a 90 degree driveway (only slight exaggeration)... where we got to rest, eat, rest, eat... our car and gear were down the hill... so most of us rested for longer while a few went back. While we were chilling out I noticed something very interesting in the giant life-sized poster backboard of the stage... Do you see who I see???? Oh yeah... it's LIVI!!! I felt so strangely proud to see my dear friend in 'real' life again!!!

So as exhausted as I was... we're now seriously looking at buying a bike for me... this will be a familiar sight in our bedroom for the next few months.

There's A Buzz Throughout the City...

After much anticipation through billboards, bus panels, street banners - the 21st Summer Deaflympic Games have come (and gone) to Taipei! As I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive cultural experiences for myself and the kids, I dragged them out to watch a few events this week! It was fun to do something different and see something I've never seen before either! The Sports Arena area was really buzzing with lots of 'foreigners' and heaps of Taiwanese school kids - I love living in the capital city!!!

Tony met the five NZ athletes at a special welcome reception the week before the competition began. The Kiwi's won gold and bronze medals in karate which was very exciting!!!

We learned a new bus route (IKEA here we come!) and even had a new experience of riding on a wheelchair/stroller friendly bus. The driver didn't seem too experienced with the lift, but he managed alright... we had a lot more space and I didn't have to carry the double stroller down the stairs by myself - it was a great discovery! Too bad they're so sporadic.

The Sports Arena was all decked out for the big event... plus the gymnasium in the background looks like it had a fresh paint. The recently renovated Stadium looked cool from the outside - we may have to wait til next week before we get back over there to wander around.

We went to the events with our new(ish) friend Karen and her two kids, Sarah & Ethan. Thankfully the kids all got along and seemed to enjoy the games from the distance.

Sarah is a true flag-flying American - her dad will be so proud!

The city government or sports authority had arranged for different groups of school kids to support the different teams throughout each day... so it was pretty fun to see these large groups of 'cheerleaders' enjoying a day out of the classroom. The USA supporters took advantage of half-time to mingle with the crowd!

Hunter was pretty pleased when he realized this big thing blocking his view was actually a TV...

Badminton wasn't as user-friendly as the baskeball games, but the kids did get to see a different sport and they enjoyed it all.

Helena's a natural!!!

Hunter was inspired...

On Saturday morning, we took the kids on the backs of our bikes over to City Hall where we thought the cyclists would just take off and finish from... but to our delight the route was 50 times around the City Hall (which is almost 1 km per lap). So we were able to watch the competitors go around and around and around and around....

There was a Kiwi guy competing so Tony was keen to get out to watch and cheer! Poor guy - wearing all black in the morning heat!!! Part way through the event we noticed he'd unzipped part of his uniform - who'd blame him - it was already 30-something degrees by 9.30am!

Hunter appealing to his Kiwi side.

It was a fun morning out on the streets that are normally bustling with buses and scooters. We met up with Bob & Karen & the kids (then enjoyed brunch out) and bumped into our Aussie friends too - the Walkers.

Cycling was kind of easier to watch since the kids really could just roam around and the action was just right there in front of them - well, for a few seconds anyway...