Boys will be Boys

I had an unfortunate incident with my camera last week. It went something like this, the ground was uneven, my ankle gave way, I suddenly was eating concrete. Problem: camera was in my hand. It smashed the ground along with the right side of my body. The only good thing was I have the best scab I have ever had since elementary school, all the way down my arm and on my leg. The result:I am having to rely on my children for pictures at this point, until the camera is either resurrected or we get a new one. The fun part of this is the pictures my kids take, often make me laugh. Hudson in particular. He just got a camera for his birthday (thank you Grandad, Kerry Ann, and Granny!) and he loves taking pictures, especially of himself.

This is what I discovered today. While we have been in the hotel room for 15 days, he has been sharing a room with Rob (hotels here only have 2 single beds) since it was an extended stay(normally we just share the twin beds). Hannah and I have had these great talks into the night and really had a good time girl talking every night. The boys, however........ Pillow fights, pillow wrestling, and flying.

Pillow wrestling (not sure where all the energy comes from)

My favorite, however, is the attempt by Hudson to get the perfect picture of himself flying through the air using the timer on his camera! Excellent!

Too late.

Camera not positioned right.

Nope.

Almost, but not quite. (good face, buddy)

Nearly. The flying Hudson. YES!!!! Only a little dark! Finally, he is tired and ready for bed. All in a day's work!

Disclaimer: Obviously mom was not present for any of these activites. Just so you know, Hannah and I were next door and heard nothing, and there were no complaints from the management.

Room with a view

I am leaving the city behind and embracing the beauty of the countryside! Pictures of the new home are coming soon, but until then, here are some of my new views!

This is from the front of the apartment, just outside the living room out on the front balcony.

This view is from our back balcony, on the back side of the house.

This is also the back side of the house, just on the second floor of our apartment. You are all welcome to come and visit us anytime, drink a cup of coffee and enjoy the views and the people with us!!

Whirlwind

We have slept in a hotel 15 days of this month so far. That, my friends, is too long without being in your own bed! We have had teams here for most of the month and then last week we painted our new house and moved furniture from a friends house to our new one. Finally, we are done with house stuff for a few weeks! (I hope) Oh, the stories I have to tell.

As I related before, painting our own home is dumbfounding the people in our new city. But what shocked them even more was walking in and seeing my two kids painting with us. They didn't know what to say or do!

On that note, it is perfectly acceptable for people to just walk into our new home, look around, make comments, and sit and watch for long lengths of time. Comment, sigh, and sit, smoke, and watch. I wanted to hand them a paint brush and ask them to help, but that wouldn't have happened. I did keep having to tell our observers not to touch the walls, because they would want to see if it was still wet or not. You will be happy to know that our landlords like how we have painted the house, even though our schoolroom is bold yellow and hannah's room is lime green! The guy from the paint store came up to see what we had done and said, "People here wouldn't dare do this to their home!" Should I take that as a compliment? However, he did say he liked it.

I would also like to say how proud I am of my kids! They were so great helping us paint and with some instruction actually did a good job! We couldn't have painted the whole house in 3 days without their help. I had bought brand new movies for them to watch while we painted, but they ended up only watching one the last day while we were doing touch-ups. I love my big kids!!

After day 3 of marathon painting, we loaded up and drove 2 hours away to another small town. I haven't related this yet, but we were abundantly blessed by some friends who have left the country for good, leaving us everything in their home. Our current apartment is completely furnished, but our new one is completely empty. So, they really blessed us by telling us to come and take whatever we want and leave what we don't. The blessings included leather couches, 2 refrigerators, wardrobes, bookshelves, fans, desks, etc. etc. We were also able to give some things to our local helpers and outfit our new office.

Once we arrived we were in for a treat. The landlord didn't want us to take anything. She wanted us to leave it all for her to sell and profit from. Our friends had told her we were coming, but secretly she was hoping we wouldn't show up. After waiting nearly half an hour for her to open the door (she was inside) we began the "dance" of dealing with her. I will spare you all the details, but will say we are definitely foreigners in a foreign land, and sometimes we are treated as such. :) What we didn't know was that she had already "sold" a few things to family and friends, and didn't want us to take what she had spoken for, even though she knew the things were ours. Rob, graciously, gave her a few things she wanted and all was well. We started tagging and boxing and spent the rest of the day walking up and down the stairs of the local house sorting, packing, taping, and tagging. The day ended with local BBQ, shao kao.

The following day the movers arrived. 10 movers and 2 trucks. I must say I have never seen anything like this. These guys hoisted boxes and furniture on their backs and went down 5 flights of stairs, then up 6 flights of stairs into our new home......all while chain smoking. These guys were small in stature, but massively strong.

Here is truck 1 of 3 that is packed full of furniture and boxes.

The movers loading the truck. Notice the neighbors just standing and watching, paying no heed to whether or not they might be in the way.

I am really looking forward to the day we are completely moved into our new home and have this crazy month behind us!

Adventures in Moving....Part 2

The saga continues. We have a little less than a month until we are moved completely into our new home. Our landlords have finished "their part" of completing our apartment, and now we get to finish "our part". Their part were plastering the walls, putting in doors, installing floors, and wiring elelctricity and putting in plumbing. Our part is installing a kitchen, painting the plaster, installing lights, installing A/C and hot water heaters, and finally....moving.

This week we were able to check in on the progress. They were in the final days of plastering walls and installing doors. After they installed the doors, we noticed that by our stairwell there is a place for a door as it leads out onto our roof/balcony....but no door. When asking our landlord about it she looked at us and said that we didn't need a door there because a door would keep the wind from coming in. We responded that without a door mosquitos, dirt, and robbers could come in and that we definitely needed a door. So now they have installed a door, but there is a 2 ft. gap above the door where the door doesn't cover, they aren't sure what they will do to fill the gap but assured us they would. Stay tuned, it is sure to be interesting.

We also had the walls sanded and primed this week so we could go back and paint next week. this caused quite a stir at the paint store and at our apartment. I have been questioned constantly on my painting skills and knowledge. Here are some of the comments I have heard.

"You don't know what you are doing."
"Painting colors on the walls is ugly, you don't want to do that."
"It is too much work for you, you can't do it."
"You should hire painters, it is what they do. You are inexperienced."
"These colors will make your house very strange."
"Why are you painting yourself? you do know you can hire someone to do it. The work is too hard."

I just smile and say, "Thank you, I will paint it myself. No problem."

Several people have asked for pictures, and they will be coming shortly...but for now, just use your imagination.

4th of July Fun

We tried our best to celebrate the 4th of July this weekend. On Saturday we went to a softball game, where the boys played. Hudson was really excited about playing in a softball game, but it wasn't until after we arrived we discovered it was an "adult only, man only" game. Thankfully, one of our players needed a runner, so Hudson was his pinch runner. He was so excited to be apart. He actuallly scored twice and once was a homerun....thanks to the man who batted.

Then in the spirit of the 4th of July, Hannah and I made some cupcakes to honor the day and remember our country. We have a cupcake recipe book that has some pretty cool cupcakes in it. Hannah found this recipe and cake decorating tips.....and thanks to Memaw for sending us some American flags and other cupcake decorating items, we had some cupcakes!

A Day at the Lake

I love youth camp! I have been attending for many many years. As a child in the 70's we went to Faith Week, then in the 80's that became Discovery Week in TX, the 90's saw my return to Faith Week....and now in the 2000's Camp Zenith. I have so many things to relate from our time there, but I have chosen one story for this blog which really touched my heart.

On Wednesday of last week, the campers all headed to the lake for raft building and raft races. The campers divided up into 3 teams and using plywood, innertubes, and ropes, they built rafts. Hudson's team was the first to finish their raft. They got it into the water and set 3 people on it without the raft sinking. Yea, because Hudson was one of those people!

After that, the race began. It was a windy, cool day, and the distance from shore to shore was great. The teams had to send 3 people down to the other bank, then switch and have 3 more team members come back to the original shore. For Hudson's team, 3 high schoolers took the first leg and were in 1st place on arriving on the opposite side. Then, it was Hudson and his 2 buddies to take the last leg and paddle back. This would have been great, except for the wind and the current. They found themselves paddling as hard as they could, and yet going nowhere. They tried and tried but couldn't fight the combo of the current and wind. They were exhausted. Suddenly, Rob jumped in the lake and joined their little team. He added his strength and they soon were moving again.

As I watched this unfold in front of me, I was very moved. I thought of our Heavenly Father who watches over us and cheers us on. And yet at times, we find ourselves exhausted, working with all of our might and still going nowhere. We try and try, but as hard as we work, we are stuck. As Rob jumped in and helped the boys continue on I thought of how much we need the Father in our lives to be our strength and our guide, helping us get back on track, going in the right direction.

Adventures in Moving...Part 1

Moving. The word that can strike dread in a heart alongside excitement in an instant. The dread of packing endless boxes and going through drawers and cabinets and sifting and wrapping.....YUCK! And yet, the thought of the new adventures your family will have are very thrilling!

Our moving date is moving ever closer. 2 months to be exact. And already we have had so many fun (ny) things happen that have left Rob and I just staring at each other not knowing whether to laugh hysterically or cry. I thought with this post I would give you a list of things we have experienced while planning to move to a city where we (and our friends, who are moving next week) are the first foreign families to ever live there. And this is part 1 because I am sure the adventure is just beginning!

1. Landlord: Hot Water?@!?@! What do you need hot water for? Well, it is impossible to run lines with hot water in them.
O Fam: No problem, we will do it ourselves.

2. O Fam: Why are there two squatty potties in our downstairs bathroom. There should only be one toilet in every bathroom.
Landlord: Someday you will leave and we will split the bathroom into two bathrooms. We don't want to tear up the floor to put a second toilet in someday, so we'll just put it in now. No problem.

3. Landlord: Kitchen? This isn't a kitchen, but maybe a very tiny office or another very small bedroom, there is a spicket of water and you can buy a portable gas burner for cooking out on the balcony. That is your kitchen.
O Fam: Ummmm......that's a deal breaker. We need a kitchen, have you seen us?? We like to eat.
Landlord: Nobody here does a kitchen like that, everyone cooks on the balcony. You can, however, build one yourself.
O Fam: No problem, we will do it ourselves.

4. Landlord: We have decided that instead of buying you a refridgerator, washing machine, and TV like we agreed to, we want new ones in our house instead. You can have the ones we are getting rid of.
O Fam: Well, we will need to look at them first.

5. O Fam: Will there be a mirror above the sink in the bathroom.
Landlord: (laughter) what? no.

6. Landord: I think 2 toilets in the downstairs bathroom is still ok
O Fam: No.

7. O Fam: Why did you move the doorway to the schoolroom from the hallway to the master bedroom? We do not want the traffic to flow through our bedroom. It is much more convenient to enter from the hall.
Landlord: Oh the wind flows much better this way?
O Fam: We don't care about the wind....we turn on the A/C. Please move the wall back.

8. Landlord: How many people are living in this apartment?
O Fam: 4
Landlord: Only 4 people? You could just rent one bedroom and one living room. That would be much cheaper.
O Fam: No thanks, we like this.

9. O Fam: Why are there still 2 toilets in my downstairs bathroom??
Landlord: (no comment)
O Fam: Didn't we agree to take out one of the toilets?
Landlord: You probably aren't going to live here very long.

10. Landlord: After this is all over, we will can be very good friends!
O Fam: Yes, yes we will.