How grocery shopping in East Asia is like natural childbirth

You move slowly and deliberately, taking care to breathe evenly and stay relaxed. The experience is crushing you, twisting you, threatening to break you in half, but the second you give in to it, you know you will lose it completely. You try to ignore the urges, however strong they might be, to throw back your head and scream like a wild animal. You soldier through, strongly and calmly, heroically even, until finally you are headed home with your baby in your arms - or your bags of groceries, whichever the case may be.

These are frozen beef steaks. As you can see, steak is strongly associated with the United States. A complimentary piece of Western cutlery is included in your purchase, because steak is difficult to eat with chopsticks;)

But enough about labor pains and grocery shopping. How about Brave learning to ride a two-wheel bike! I don't think I'm going to allow Jubi to learn. I can't have ALL my babies growing up on me.

Zion fell from the bunk bed and suffered a studly shiner. We're just so thankful his glasses didn't shatter into his eye!

Zion also celebrated his half birthday. We Rupps are always on the lookout for a reason to bake (and eat) cake.

And Gene has started looking older in the face. I am getting glimpses of what he will look like as a man and it makes me smile.