New Picture Album Added!

Hi. I have just uploaded a ton of pictures to a new web album. I tried to stick with mostly the last 6 months, but I could not miss a few extra pics. I figured rather than take down the photos we have up from a long time ago, I would just create a new album of my own. Go to the link section of my Blog's main page to access the photos or click below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.klug

Superman?

Yes, I am the envy of many little boys. I had Superman at my birthday...well sort of. Actually, there was a window washer dressed up like Superman cleaning the atrium of The Westin where Peter and Tyler took me for an amazing Mother's Day/Birthday Brunch. Words cannot describe all of the excitement and wonderful food. There was an orchestra, opera and pop singers, dancers and performers and for Tyler a guy who made him a frog out of reeds. What a treat!

Sleepless In Shanghai

It has been a crazy week! As many of you know, we had an intruder in our house last week. Don't want to rehash this too much as I would like to put this all behind us however I'd like to get the story out in its entirety accurately.

Around 2:35 AM Thursday 5/10 Truffle (sleeping on the floor beside me) "woofed." For those of you who know Truf well, he is not known to bark much less utter a low woof. For some reason I heard his muffled sound and awoke. I thought I had heard a small sound but dismissed it as nothing. I then had the most uneasy feeling come over me. The gut instict was kicking in. I remember consciously thinking twice about my gut and how you should always trust your gut. I woke up Peter to tell him Truf had heard something and that maybe he should check on Tyler. Now, Peter normally is like "sure, honey. Go back to sleep." This time, Peter got up without a hint of complaint. As Peter walked across the "gang plank" towards Tyler's room he heard a sound and said "who's there!" With that, we both heard some scurrying. I raced towards the panic button that summons the compound guards. Peter further yelled (more of a gutteral sound) "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!!!" Peter and I both saw the relection of what appeared to be a man running out of our living room towards the back of our house. Peter grabbed Ty and handed him to me and attempted to contact the guards at the gate. Unfortuntately for Peter, Truffle was glued to our bedroom and would not leave Tyler and I. Pookie was on high alert and ready to defend his family.

What transpired afterwards was a waiting game that I will not detail too much as this is a public blog. We placed a few calls to the US (Mom and Briggs) so that someone knew we needed help. In an unbelieveable coincidence, the head of Briggs Security worldwide had just had dinner with Peter 4 hours earlier so we knew he could get to us in Shanghai. Mr. Li picked up John and the HR Director for International and brought them to our house at 4 AM. They spent the entire morning with us looking for our belongings, helping with the police, and reassuring us.

Briggs has been fantastic in ensuring that we feel comfortable here and they even dispatched their security firm to our house to offer suggestions on how to secure it more. Our landlords, The Hungs, are WONDERFUL! We are slowly trying to get back to normal but that may take many months and sleepless nights.

Happy 9 Months!!

Tyler is 9 months today!

The little guy has really progressed in the last week or so. Ty can now pull up to his table unaided, loves to crawl and now has a tooth! Today he discovered how grass tastes in our backyard. I can only imagine what the next month will bring.

TRAVEL INFO MAY - JUNE 2007

We have finally made some progress with booking our trip home this Summer. Although we still have not figured out our return to Shanghai, I do have some details for you. They include our appointments as well just FYI. See below:

Wednesday, May 30th Shanghai to Milwaukee arriving in Milwaukee at 3:45 pm

Thursday, May 31st --Elkhorn

Friday, June 1st Milwaukee to Newark 7:40 am arriving 10:38 am

Sunday, June 3rd Newark to Milwaukee 11:15 am arriving 12:16 pm

Monday, June 4th Yaya's 85th Birthday!!! HAK Dental 1 pm Elkhorn
Tuesday, June 5th Elkhorn
Wednesday, June 6th Tyler Dr Omari 10:15 am Wauwatosa; PTK Dental 2 pm Elkhorn
Thursday, June 7th Madison?? **Possibly drive in with Ted? Are we crazy yet?

Friday, June 8th Milwaukee to Dayton, OH 12:05 pm arriving 2:10 pm
Saturday, June 9th Liza's Graduation Party
Sunday, June 10th Dayton to Milwaukee 8:55 pm arriving 9:09 pm

As mentioned previously, Elkhorn will be our home base. Feel free to come down for a visit!


Departure back to Shanghai TBD week of June 11th (Yes, we do have to go back "home")

Whew! Any one want to switch places? Let's all hope Tyler travels well on these flights :)

May Holiday: The week so far

Sorry, it has been a week without a posting. I am sure the grandmothers are chomping at the bit for more pics of Tyler. So as to not disappoint, here are some pics taken today with Tyler showing off some of his new tricks of standing without holding on to one of us as well as showing off his rowing for bear.

Peter is off of work this week for May Holiday. We started Saturday with another round of Football and then off to Xiantiandi, a pedestrian street filled with cafes and restaurants with most having terrace seating. The weather was lovely!!

Sunday was a chill at home day and we enjoyed catching up on some movies.

Monday we took in the Shanghai Aquarium with Tyler. Very exciting! Actually quite shocking as you never would guess that you were in China. Here is a pic and yes there really is a shark right behind the diver. We were on a moving walkway--Schindler, I think :) that took us under the shark tank that also included many turtles, manta rays, and eels.

Tuesday we were treated to a guided tour of one of Peter's manager's hometown about 20 minutes from our house. Bobo did a great job showing us around and making us feel welcome...more info and pics to follow. This was true China seen through a proud local's eyes. No polish and artifice of Shanghai to be found here. My respect and appreciation for our homeland was definitely deepened. If you want a soul searching opportunity, we will show you this neat town, filled with its canals and people living in a space much smaller than your living room. Soot filled cannot describe the streets or houses. The people of the town did not seem to notice their impoverished state of living--or what we would consider impoverished. An aged woman stood in the street (pedestrian and narrow) washing her clothes under a tap with a bar of laundry soap and running them over a wash board. As we were leaving, many of the people were sitting down with their family and friends to dinner and a round of cards. It was great to have a glimpse of their life as it reminded me of how truly blessed we are to be living the life we do.

Today, we visited She Shan park--again you would never guess you were in China. Beautiful trees, open grass areas and the area's largest manmade lake. We will definitely return as Truffle can enjoy the sites there as well once he has his registration card. Future visitors, you will love going here as it really gives you a break from all of the different aspects of life here and a taste of back home. I really think this will be our refuge as it is about 15 minutes from our house.

I will upload some pics later on this week from the last few days as well as some observations and thoughts on what we have experienced this week. I am still mulling a lot of it over and trying to put some of our feelings into words. The week has been filled with complete opposites, much like the difference between Switzerland and China. Polar opposites.