Anna Mae Getting Ready for Night Night

Anna's Birthday Party

I had planned a birthday party for Anna on her birthday and a bunch of her friends were going to come. Unfortunately we had to cancel it right before because we had a meeting we had to go to at the school. I had mixed feelings about this . . . part of me didn't really care because she is only two and doesn't really know and probably won't even enjoy a party. When ever she gets together with other kids she just hangs around us and doesn't even interact with the other kids. The other part of me really felt that I should make some deal about her birthday, try and make her feel special and she would probably remember and might enjoy it even if she hung around my side the whole time.

There were not too many kids that could come due to sickness or such short notice but we had a good time with just four other kids. It turned out all right but was not really a big happen'en party. I made cupcakes for the kids and we all sang "Happy Birthday" and Anna did a good job blowing the candles out. I think it was a good first birthday party experience. I think Anna's favorite part was the Dora Explorer table cloth.

Joy Like A Child

When was the last time that you got up on some one's feet and "flew"? Or just went outside and started laughing at a dog or a bird? How about finding the joy in sliding down a slide or racing someone? It probably has been a long time for most of us. (probably because we are too big to be able to do any of those things)

Sometimes we can be dragged down by all the things in our lives . . . bills, appointments, sickness . . . . The Book tells us to have fth like a child, why not find joy like a child. "Rejoice in Him always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" It also says to find joy in every circumstance as you face trails of many kinds.

As many things seem to go wrong in my life I look at this happy face and listen to her sweet silly laugh and I say . . . "I want that." I can have that, we all can have that. Find the joy in small silly things, enjoy the beautiful creation, laugh and smile together. Be like a child and have great joy!
"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit drys up the bones."

On Having a Terrible Two

I can't believe that two years ago right now I was having our little girl. It feels like yesterday and yet it feels so long ago. I'm remembering the car ride with our boss GV trying to distract me from the pain by telling stories (but really all he was accomplishing was distracting Jeremy from helping me breath through the contractions). Looking back I laugh realizing how close we were to having Anna right there in the van - boy am I thankful that didn't happen.

Now we have a beautiful 2 year old daughter who has brought us so much joy and laughter. She is such a delight. But I can really tell that she is two now. It kinda feels like it happened over night but we really do have a 2 year old.

There are many things about a 2 year old that can give me a headache . . . like the tantrums, wanting to do everything by herself, the tantrums, getting into everything, the tantrums, learning how to stall going to bed and trying to get her own way (I think that is another way of saying . . . tantrums).

But there are many good things about having a 2 year old . . . she can tell me stories, she responds when talked to, her attention span has increased so we can do things for a longer period of time, her smiles, her laughs (oh they just melt my heart), being silly, make up talk and songs (I could listen to her for hours) and oh so many more things. She is really more of her own person now than ever before.

Now that she interacts with me more it makes our days a lot more interesting.
Yes having a two year old can be a headache but it is soo worth every pain I have felt just to see that beautiful smile!

~Happy Birthday Anna Mae~

Speaking of Clams...A Crab!

Take a look at what we found the last time we had clams! -A crab. How cool is that?

Wo ai ni!

Anna wanted to thank her grandmothers for all the wonderful things they bought her. She is sending you both a message from across the world . . . "wo AI NI!!" (pronounced "whoa I knee") . . . like her shirt says "I love you!!"
We miss you all!!!

I finally got my snow!

Monday morning I wake up to the beautiful sight of snow falling from the sky!! I thought what a beautiful way to start the week. Mondays can be so hard to get out of bed but not this Monday. I was so excited I could not get outside fast enough.

Anna really seemed to enjoy our time outside except for being cold.

Anna got to do her first snow angel. She really enjoyed doing it until she tried to get up by herself and kept getting snow in her face from her gloves. It was really funny because the more she tried to wipe it off the more she kept putting on because it was stuck to her glove. (Am I a terrible mother for thinking my daughters agony was funny?) Anna's favorite part of playing in the snow was playing with another little girls sand toys. She loved filling up the bucket with snow, dumping it out and then "cutting" it with a shovel.

This next section is inappropriate for children, please turn your eyes . . .

People wonder how bad the smoking is in China - see even the snowmen smoke

REALLY Snow @ the Beach

Now I can say that I have really seen snow on the beach. Anna looked at it and really wanted to go down and play. I thought that cold wet sandy snow did not sound like fun at all. So instead we splashed in the slushy puddles and just looked at the snowy beach.

Olympics coming to Qingdao

The day we arrived home from our trip to the states our helper told us that the Olympic center was open to the public. So after Anna laid down for a nap we took a nice walk along the beach and saw where the Olympic sailing will be held this summer. It is very simple but pretty. It has a very nice view of Qingdao's skyline. Walking around I could only imagine what it is going to be like this summer, very crowded with no where to move except into the ocean.

We were not too sure what these buildings are for but we each had our guess. We are guessing that the one in the air is for judges or cameramen. The one on the ground I think is like a lobby for the contestants. But whatever they are for I thought they looked pretty cool. Jeremy thinks they look old and retro and should have come up with a better design.



But it is kinda cool that we live so close (about a 5 minute walk). In the following blog I took some pictures of where our house is compared to the sailing center.

Our Home by the Olympics

In these two pictures I am standing at the Olympic center where the sailing will occur here in Qingdao. In the top picture you can see a building on the left that Jeremy and I guessed would be for the judges. If you look far to the right you see a bunch of apartment buildings with red roofs. That is the complex where most of our staff lives. We don't live there but we live literally right behind those buildings. (There buildings are taller than ours so you can't see them =( )

You can see now how close we are to where the Olympics will be held.

Kid's Kingdom

Every Thursday my mother & father babysit for my brother's three children. This past Thursday my sister from PA was also in town to visit, so we had 6 kids running around the house. To give the kids something to do other than drive the adults crazy and tear down the house, we took them to a near by play yard.

The place was really pretty nice (but coming from China I think that I would think anything America has is pretty nice). The kids enjoyed jumping into the ball pits (yes, there was more than one).

Being the most mischievous and adventuresome, my sister's son was willing to do anything and everything. I think he was trying to find the one thing that he was not supposed to be doing.

The moms weren't too sure about a sandbox inside, but all the kids enjoyed it for awhile.

All the kids really enjoyed themselves and did not want to leave. But of all the kids, can you guess who had the most fun? My one-year-old nephew!

Princess Belle

We arrived in America and started right away reuniting with cousins. Can you guess who was more excited to see the other? It surely wasn't Anna.

Anna's cousins were so excited to have someone new to play with. However, Anna was a little unsure about her new playmates who did not have any concept of personal space.

The cousins wanted to shared their favorite game, dress up. They picked out the Belle outfit for Anna. After a little bit of convincing, Anna put the dress on and then the other girls picked out their own dresses.

The older cousin said she wanted to be like Anna and be Princess Belle. The younger asked me help her put her "Stinker Bell" outfit on. I said that I would help as long as she didn't stink as well.

Snow @ the Beach

It snowed the Friday before Anna & I left for America. I was so excited to have my daughter play in the snow. Unfortunately, the ground was not cold enough for the snow to accumulate. I was sad that the snow did not stick but it looked really beautiful all day as it was snowing. I was a little bit jealous to find out that our friends who live 45 minutes inland had 3 inches of snow and were able to build a snowman. Oh well, we had fun on our little walk in the snow. I'm hoping it will snow while we are in the States!

Clammy Hands

Question: (Jeremy...rhetorically) "What child likes clams?"

Answer: (Our Chinese helper...unimpressed) "Any child who grows up in Qingdao"...duh.

Jeremy B-day '07

Annual Birthday-Bowling-Bash!!!

Not only did I (Jeremy) lose to everyone (except the 10 year-old girl), but I had the single worst night in my extensive once-a-year bowling career.

Question: Why do I choose to bowl on my birthday? I suck at it.

Answer: There's nothing better than lowering my self-esteem as I gain 1 more number to my age, and, yet again, lose the battle with the receding hairline.

*Note the tall guy mercifully covering my score.

Jacquelyn B-day '07

Happy Birthday, Jacquelyn!!!

For Jacquelyn's birthday, we had a small get together (only 20 people) to celebrate.

Below are the pictures from the party.

Lame, lame, lame

Last week I kept getting a message all in Chinese as I would try to access web pages. Randomly this message would pop-up when I tried to get to google.com, yahoo, or whatever. It would automatically redirect to the Chinese message just for a few seconds before again redirecting to the desired website. The first few times I just ignored it and because it only flashed for a few seconds I really didn’t have time to do anything about it. I saw that it was from our web provider (Here in China there is only one company who can give web service, by the way.), so I wasn't really worried about it being a virus. I finally got the bright idea to quickly copy and paste the message the next time I saw it. Now, remember, there was seemingly no method to the pop-up randomness…so I brushed up on my shortcuts (ctrl+a = “Select All” & ctrl+c = “Copy”) and did my normal web surfing. Finally, the message popped up again.

Well, I was able to copy the message. I did my best to understand the message…it had a lot of words I’m not too familiar with like “modem”, “router”, and the such. After my choppy translating work I came to the conclusion that I was way off because what I thought it said couldn’t be true. So the next day I went to work and had a Chinese person translate it for me. It turns out I was right! The message said something to the effect that I was breaking the service agreement by plugging into a router and using multiple computers on my internet connection. Again, let me emphasize the “my” in that last sentence. The message continued by saying that if I continued to “violate” the service agreement they would shut it off completely. What??? I can’t use multiple computers on my own internet connection? What’s up with that?

This creates a serious problem for us. For one, we really love having wireless connection in our house. Secondly, we do have multiple computers – desktop, laptop, work-issued laptop and most importantly, our new Skype phone that we paid way too much for. (Yes, the Skype phone does count as a computer according to the Internet company.) Thirdly, it’s just the plain principle that someone is telling me how I can and can’t use my own internet service that I pay for monthly.

Wait…it gets worse.

I had the previously mentioned Chinese person call the company to get details about the “service agreement”. It turns out that we can pay more to allow use of the router – RMB 30 PER COMPUTER!!! That’s just ridiculous. By the time we paid for all the computers we would have doubled our monthly fee. I’m willing to pay a bit more…but double??? Again, I reiterate…that’s just ridiculous.

I’m not sure how this one is going to turn out. I’ll have to let you know. No matter how it turns out, though…this is just lame, lame, lame.

Who does Anna Look Like?

I put this on our other website not long after Anna was born, but thought it would be fun to post it here so people can comment on it.

Look Familiar??? Anna Mae

Jeremy

Jacquelyn

Who do you think Anna looks most like? You be the judge.

BJ Small Group

The past two years we were in a small group that meet every other Monday. This group was very supportive through our pregnancy and the birth of Anna. We grew spiritually because of this group. When we first started out we were studying the fruits of the spirit, we then moved through the book "Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them" by John Ortberg. Our last meeting with them they planned to study the book of Revelation.

Each week we began with a delicious meal, not forgetting dessert of course. This was usually Jeremy's and my time to enjoy home cooked western food. Recently we started singing with the kids then send them upstairs to watch a movie or just go wild while we got down to "business."

Through this group we made some really good friends that we have really been missing since in Qingdao. We did not get to know all the people in our small group very well, when you have 20 people in your "small" group it can be hard. But we really miss meeting with them and fellowship that we had. The people in our group really helped us get through some rough times - we love you guys!!