Our Home- Part 2

Here's a picture of the rest of our place. Our home came furnished so now we're trying to work with what they gave us. My goal is to get the living room furniture recovered... most likely when I'm no longer taking classes in January. We are also planning on getting the whole apartment painted. The walls are pretty awful right now with lots of pen & crayon marks from the previous tenants>
The landlord didn"t want to repaint but reluctantly gave us the go ahead to do it ourselves.
Here is a shot of our living room with the zebra print sofa and chairs. The glass doors lead out to our balcony which looks over the courtyard.




Finally here's a shot of the girl's room. We painted in a light green and added a butterfly border to the wall. We don't have anything hung on the walls but we'll get there soon. We moved in the dressers that we had in our previous city and added the landlord's bunk bed to the room. The girls are great roommates- though at time lacking on sleep. :) (They love to talk to each other when settling in for a good night sleep... so cute).

At present Miriam is taking naps on the top bunk and sleeping at night on the bottom bunk- she's a little nervous about permanently moving to the top bunk. Eliza is using the pack and play till Miriam is ready for the top bunk on a permanent basis.




























Folks are usually pretty curious as to what a squatty potty looks like. Well, here you go. Against the far wall is a utility sink. The shower head drains to the floor right at the window which is pretty typical for shower's in China. The squatty is the white ceramic piece on the floor.

At present our squatty potty bathroom (the shower section at least) is full of our storage trunks full of holiday decorations and seasonal clothes. We do use the squatty itself but we primarily use the western restroom that is connected to our master bedroom.

Birthday Girl!

A few weeks ago I took Miriam out for a Mommy/ Daugther date. After a few minutes she volunteered the following statement, "When I grow up I want to be a Good Bear". I didn't quite understand so I inquired abit further. What do you mean a "good bear". She replied, "No, not a good bear, a Good Obeyer". "Great! I love to hear that. So, when do you think you will be a grown up?" to which she replied, "When I'm four." Miriam is growing up so quickly and maturing into such a sweet girl. She loves babies and anyone younger than her. She daily helps Eliza brush her teeth, put on dress clothes, cut up her food... so helpful.

This year for her Birthday she wanted to celebrate with a "car" theme. (She wanted to follow in her brother's foot steps). I really want her to be her own person so I suggested that we look on the internet for some ideas and a "snorkel" cake is what she settled on.
Since we're new to the area we didn't have a huge guests list. But it ended up that the two friends & her two siblings attending her party were the perfect combination. She had a great time. We had her "snorkel" cake- a cake made to look like a child was swimming under water with swim mask and snorkel (except we didn't have a snorkel and couldn't find one around here). We played a fishing game, made a fish craft and played a handful of other games. The afternoon was perfect.

Below photo: party at our house. (Like the zebra sofa? I'm going to try and have it recovered soon :)


Below photo: cupcakes at school (Eliza went that day too).


Snorkel cake minus the snorkel.

Keeping with the under water theme we made "fishy" cupcakes for school. The Friday before her birthday we took 52 cupcakes to her school to help her celebrate with her classmates. A cultural lesson I learned- I brought cupcakes thinking that it would be a simple way to give each child a piece of cake. What I learned... they had NO IDEA what to do with the little cake gift I gave them. I showed them what to do but they all looked at me with perplexed little faces. I didn't know what to do. A few minutes later their teacher returned to the classroom with enough spoons for all the children. It didn't even cross my mind that these children would not think it appropriate to eat something with their hands. When given spoons they dove right in enjoyed their first taste of an American Birthday cake.

Her Birthday was a great time. She loved it and has some great memeories. She recieved her first bike and has loved riding it around the nearby plaza & in the lobby of our building (yep, they let kids do about anything they want here= even riding indoors.)

Our Neighborhood!

On our daily walks to school the kids and I see see all kinds of fun Chinese stuff. One of our favorites is the many folks doing Tai Ji in the plaza that is adjacent to our apartment complex. We also pass a group of ladies dancing, a group doing Tai Ji with fans, a group doing Tai Ji with swords, and a soccer field full of runners and a grandfather playing with a Chinese yo yo. Every morning is a new adventure full of various forms of exercise that we rarely, if ever, saw before.



Night time is full of adventure too. Here is a view of the city lights from our balcony. In the foreground is our courtyard that is lined with trees and separated from the adjacent plaza by one level. From early in the morning to late at night there is constant activity on the plaza. During the morning there is Tai Ji, dancing and commuters bustling to work. Afternoon shoppers. Night time- ball room dancing, roller blading, break dancing, skate boarding, and lots of socializing. What a blast! The kids love it (as long as they are moving about and not drawing too big of a crowd because of their cute little foreign faces).

Life is different than we've ever experienced before but we're trying to adapt and enjoy it.

Our New Home

I'm new to Blogging. So this is my humble attempt to try and share a bit of our life in the Far East.

We moved to our new city & apartment in September and it is gradually becoming home. A few have inquired about it... so here is a little glimpse into our new place.

We lilve in an apartment complex with about 11,000 other people. Our complex is in the middle of a VERY large city and asuprisingly sheltered from all the outside happenings.




This is our apartment building. We live on the 8th floor of 30 floors. We have both a view of the courtyard (which is where this picture was shot from) and the street on the opposite side of the building.














The kids rooms were the first rooms that we decided to work on. We were given the advice to do things in this order... it helps the children feel settled during big transitions. So, the girls room and CJ's room were at the top of the list.



We had CJ's room painted light blue on the top half and dark blue on the bottom. We added a few wall decales to make it a little more exciting. We moved his bunk bed in and he has never been happier. CJ is LOVING having some space to himself. He spends much time reading on his top bunk & the rest of the time he is playing leggos, racing cars & building with blocks on his CARS carpet.

Our kitchen is quite trendy in the lime green :). At present we are having a cabinet made to hold a recent exciting purchase- a full size oven. The cabinet will go where the refrigerator is presently standing and the fridge will be moved to the dining room (pretty typical location around here). We have been living the last 3 years using a large toaster oven & sometimes two at a time- to accomodate the holiday baking. When deciding to move to our new location we commited to purchasing a new oven. We are hoping to have it up and working for Thanksgiving. YIPPY!