Our new home....as of 2012

Please come visit

It's here!!!

Here is our bid list for our next post:

Accra, Ghana
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Algiers, Algeria
Antananarivo, Madagascar
Beijing, China
Astana, Kazakhastan
Beirut, Lebabnon
Brussels, Belgium
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cairo, Egypt
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Dakar, Senegal
Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Frankfurt, Germany
Guangzhou, China
Hanoi, Vietnam
Istanbul, Turkey
Kathmandu, Nepal
Khartoum, Sudan
Kolkata, Bengal
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
La Paz, Bolivia
Lima, Peru
London, England
Madird, Spain
Manama
Mexico D.F.
Montevideo, Uruguay
Munich, Germany
Muscat, Oman
NDjamena, Chad
Nairobi, Kenya
New Delhi, India
Nouakchott, Mauritania
Paris, France
Panama City, Panama
Port au Prince, Haiti
Rangoon, Burma
San Jose, Costa Rica
Santiago, Chile
Seoul, South Korea (good Korea)
Tbilisi, Gerogia
Tel Aviv, Israel
Tokyo, Japan
Wellington, New Zealand

We don't find out where we are going until mid-September so we'll keep you posted.

Some things just don't translate and my two little frogs

Some things just don't translate


My two little frogs. These guys thought it would be so funny to sit in matching towels and giggle at how cold they were.

How we celebrate

We celebrated Brother's Day with a picnic in the park, a pancake and syrup lunch and some good ol' fun in our underwear.

Brothers Day

Josiah: Mom, we had Mother's Day already right?

Me: Yup

Josiah: We had Father's Day already too, right?

Me: Yup

Josiah: What about Brothers Day?

Me: What?

Josiah: When is Brothers Day?

Me: Um....next Sunday

Josiah: Oh Yesss!!!

Happy Brothers Day to you all :)










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Josiah's last day of preschool

For their last day of school, Josiah's class had a picnic/water party in the park. We love Ms. Bri. She is the best teacher.

Random Things

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple weeks. One is of Collin's birthday cake (thank you Ryan)...the beloved Ultraman. Ultraman is a Japanese superhero sold everywhere here i China and we love him as part of our family. Unfortunately, this particular Ultraman didn't have any arms, but that didn't stop him from partying.

The next picture is of some nectarines I bought at the fruit market. I don't know the meaning of the characters, but it is pretty cool.

Also, we just found out we were having a girl, so congratulations to us:)

More Guilin

This video was taken while we were eating in our hotel restaurant. The power went out and the hotel staff went out of their way to keep us content. You will notice that the halls are lit with candles carefully placed on the ground in front of every room. I wonder what a US fire marshal would have to say about that:)

Really?!

i don't know if this has been a big deal in the states or not, but I found this article while searching through CNN.com's U.S. section. One of the writers was responding to this article. This is horrible

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201105/why-are-black-women-less-physically-attractive-other-women&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Guilin and Yangshuo

At the beginning of May we took a family vacation to the Southern part of China. My sister was in Hong Kong for Youth Conference so she isn't in any of the pictures. It was great...probably one of our favorite trips. The people are so much more friendly and kind and the pace of life is much slower and relaxed. When I envision China, this is what I imagine.

Literally

While at a friend's house for dinner, Collin playfully asked Josiah if he could "have a lick" of his Popsicle. So innocent and sweet, Josiah stuck his tongue out and proceeded to lick Collin.

The good ol' U S of A

Things I miss from the States:

1. NBA games...any professional sports game
2. Pillsbury crescent rolls
3. Returning purchases to a store
4. Steaks
5. Cool Whip
6. Bug Spray
7. Clean air
8. Walmart, Target, Ross, Marchall's, Costco and any other great American Store

Chinese-isms

I am adding a weekly list of crazy, strange or unusual things that happen while living here and I am calling it "chinese-isms" (look to the right column of the blog). Hope you find it as amusing as I do.

7 Minutes

I bought these guys a tent from Ikea for about 7$ and it lasted all of 7 minutes.

Josiah

Well, I couldn't leave Josiah out. He is the sweetest boy and the best helper. He is so polite and such a great older brother. While jumping on the trampoline a few days ago, I overheard him tell his friends to "be careful because his baby was on the trampoline with them". He is so intelligent and he learns so quickly. He reminds us of all the house rules and keeps everyone in line. He also has teh best snse of humor. We love you Siah.

Simon aka Syms, Simees

This kid is so awesome, he deserves his own post. He is the funniest, happiest, craziest kid. We thought we had our hands full with Josiah, but Simon blows him out of the water. What's so awesome about his kid? Well, for starters, he can make any room look like there was a bar fight in 0-3 seconds flat. He is the most destructive, curious, determined confident little kid I know. He teases everyone everywhere and is great at giving his big brother hugs. His favorite activity is hanging upside down from his toes. He gets such a kick out of that. He loves to sing, dance, and read his books. We love you sweet Simon.

Some fun days around town

Unfortunately our internet has been a little quirky, so I have to type as quickly as I can and attach my pictures as quickly as possible, so you are going to get a general paragraph describing these pictures.

Some of these are from when Bart and Joanne came to visit us (which was awesome)We went to Longqing Gorge which is a beautiful gorge in the summer and in the winter they turn it into a beautiful ice festival with all sorts of ice sculptures and houses. We also went down to Wangfujing Street where you can eat any insect on a stick. I think Collin's nephews would REALLY enjoy that street. We also visited the Great Wall.
One of these is the first snow of the winter, and I think I have one of Simon and Josiah together.

Eavesdropping

I have decided that I am now to the point where I let Josiah and Simon work out their differences on their own. Translation: I am too lazy to stop the millions of fights they get into everyday, so I let them fight as long as no one gets seriously injured. I know, I am a bad parent. But if I attempt to break up every single fight, I would never get anything done. So while I was letting them "work things out", I overheard this exchange:

Josiah: Simon, stop hitting me
quiet
Josiah: Simon, stop hitting me (this time yelling, enunciating each word)
Simon giggles
Josiah: Simon, if you don't stop hitting me, I will knock your block off
End of fight

I'd say I deserve a pat on the back for that.

Where else can you go?

In what part of the world can you go to a major tourist attraction and be stopped by someone to ask if they can photograph you? Every time we go somewhere, someone stops to photograph the children or me. Whenever we go someplace pretty crowded, we move quickly through the attraction because one stop gives someone the excuse to ask for pictures.

Where else can you go chair skating? In the city, there is a cool park that allows chair skating in the winter. Your "poles" are two screwdrivers welded to some type of metal pole and you push yourself along the ice. It's awesome. There is also bike skating. (literally a bike with skates) Next time I will try the bike. What I WON"T be trying is the freaky motorized Chucky type dolls that pull you along the ice like a rickshaw ride. Those things are scary.

#3

Our only mode of transportation for 4.5 months. If we had a family outing, it got a little crowded.

#2

One of the best things about China is that every municipal/recreational park/area has exercise equipment for the general public. What's even better is that there are always people exercising on it. Every time we go to the park, Josiah asks permission to do his "exercises first".