Dryer and Oven- Thank you to my little pals in SC

This summer we had some young SC friends give us a generous gift to be used upon our return to China. They wanted us to buy something that would be helpful to our lives in China. We had lived the last three years in China without a dryer and it was manageable but difficult. We had limited space to hang clothes (about the 8 feet of line) for a family of five. Anyhow, we came back ready to use the gift friends gave us to buy a dryer. We were ecstatic about buying the dryer and were shocked to find out that we had enough money to also buy a FULL size oven (we'd been living the last 3 years with a toaster size oven & later bought a second oven to accommodate our needs).

Well, life has been so much easier with these two items. I actually think that without the dryer we would be walking around our city in moldy and damp clothes. The weather here is SO much more humid and it takes clothes 2-3 days to dry on the line.

We've also been enjoying the convenience of a large oven. We've especially be thankful for having an oven this time of year when we do lots of baking for the holidays!

So- a HUGE THANK YOU! for the great gifts that are so very helpful & so appreciated!


Here is our oven nested in a cabinet that we had made to hold it and our microwave. The cabinet also added some much needed storage for dishes, utensils and our full-size cookie sheets to go in our full-size oven. HORRAY!

Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving was a great time for the whole family. We hosted a get together with other foreigners in the area and enjoyed stuffing ourselves the good ol' American way. We enjoyed a Turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, apple pie, chocolate cake with buttered pecan icing (Chris' specialty), and more. It was great to read about America's First Thanksgiving and to share all that we are thankful for. We ended the evening with a vicious game of SPOONS and some group bowling on the Wii. Here are a few shots of our fun evening
Here is our Home Made Thanksgiving Turkey. We add feathers each year and on the feathers we write things that we're thankful for.


Chris reads the story of the First American Thanksgiving!


A picture of the spread!
(PS- I was able to buy a Turkey this year- a rare find in CHina. I bought the second to last turkey in the store.)

Snaggle Tooth

So, many of you know that Eliza had a fall in the spring which required surgery to repair her injured tongue and later a tooth extraction. Well, since then CJ has also lost teeth, but in the 6 1/2 year old way (normal baby teeth giving way to the big teeth). I just love to see their little smiles with the gaps between thier teeth. I had to share some recent shots of my little "snaggle tooth" kiddos.