Austin's debut

Whew...sorry for a week of silence. We are suddenly in the midst of a whirlwind. I found out last week from a CT scan that I have a bulging disc. I will see a spine specialist tomorrow and am hoping he will be recommending physical therapy as the main source of treatment (a minority of people need surgery...hopefully I am not one of them). We might be moving. In the next 10 days. Our landlord wants to increase the rent by 50%. Our area has an excellent elementary school and housing price have soared. We have had a good deal for this area, but no more. At this point, we are pretty sure we cannot afford the new price, especially since predictions are the dollar will drop even more against the renminbi. Our contract is up July 1...but we will not be here on July 1. So we either have to sign a contract and move before we fly back to the U.S. May 13...or sign a 3 month contract (IF he even will consider it) at the higher price while no one is living here. Neither are very good options. So yesterday and today I have been looking at apartments in another area of town. Some other friends are also considering moving there...so we will see. Also, they are renovating the apartment directly above us. The drilling is so loud I can barely hear Chris if he is sitting next to me on the couch talking. The boys are terrified and the past two days we have been out of the house from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. Not very fun. Not sure how I will pack us to move if this continues.

Anyway, onto more fun news. Saturday Chris was asked to play at a local fundraiser event. Care for Children is a British group that has a school for special needs children- both international and local. They have a big fair with big inflatable castle for jumping on, lots of food vendors, art vendors, face painting etc. We were told that Zhang Zi Yi would be there...arguably the most famous Chinese actress (Hero, Crouching Tiger, Memoirs of a Geisha, Rush Hour 2 etc). I think she supports this charity. So, Chris and his band played. Austin had his violin and got up on stage during the concert and "played" along with Chris. He was so cute and seemed to like performing and definitely helped attract a crowd.

Bennett was not to be left out...he got up on stage after Austin got down and danced to the music.

Then at the end of the day, Zhang Zi Yi was there and was choosing raffle winners on stage. While she was up there, Austin decided to climb back on stage with his violin. So he practically upstaged her as she was announcing raffle winners. Her manager kept telling me she had seen Austin before...but I can't imagine she had. All in all, it was a fun day for all of us, though we were so tired when we got home.

Here is Austin with Zhang Zi Yi behind him (the pretty one in the middle).

They allowed a group photo with her afterwards (too many people for individual pictures- which I can totally relate to. I may not be globally famous, but probably as many people want to take my picture or my children's picture in this country as they want to with Zhang Zi Yi...such is the life of a white person in China). She is the one in the hat, if you don't recognize her.