The Long Silence

The long blog silence is officially over.  I am not quite sure where the last 2 and a half months has gone, but it has flown by with a vengeance.

We have been pretty busy with life here on this side of the world and have been traveling to and fro, hither and yonder.  It has felt like time at home was sacred, and the blog has been cast by the wayside.  I also feel like life here has become so normal to me, not much these days seems to be "blog-worthy".   However, I am going to do my best to keep up to date a little better.

To update you in my silence:

• Hudson has reached the height of 5'7 and is now wearing a men's size 12 shoe, which you can't find anywhere in this country. 
• Hannah has successfully completed the first semester of her MSG school, where she travels to school for one week a month.  She loves school and looks forward to her time at school each month. 
• And the big news.....we are moving. After 5 years here in this location, we are going to be moving in May to a big city about 20 hrs (by car) away. We are sad to leave what we know and love here, but excited at the same time about moving to this new city.  (I will have more to blog about that later)

Christmas!!!

We love Christmas at our house! Here is a glimpse of our little tree. This poor tree has been with us for 5 Christmases and is now held up underneath with duct tape and chopsticks. We are thankful it is going to make it another year!

I am also thankful for my sister-in-law who sent presents so I already have something to place under the tree....always makes the tree better,

Cereal Fun

We don't often eat cereal here because it is expensive and we don't really like the milk. However I have found some cheaper cereal online and we have gotten used to the milk.

Today we were eating our breakfast cereal and noticed that the boxes all have directions on them showing you how to eat cereal. Since we are professional cereal eaters we didn't need the directions, we just had a good laugh!

Funday in the Park

We don't often have beautiful days where we live, too hot or too humid or too cold but last Sunday was AMAZING!! So we packed up and went to the park for a great time together.

School Begins....again

I am pretty sure I blogged about school starting about a month ago, however for Hannah, school has started....again.

You see this year she is starting a modular school.  This means that one week a month she will leave us and travel about 2 hours away and do all of her English, Math, and Science.  She then returns home and does 3 weeks of homework, tests, and prepares for the next month.  This gives kids like mine, who have no other foreign kids their age in our town, a chance to interact and study with other kids their age, and be taught by other teachers who may teach higher math and sciences better then me. :)   Right now, the modular school is only for 7th and 8th graders, and it just so happens that this year they are all girls.  Super Fun!!

Last week was Hannah's first week to attend.  She was already good friends with most of the girls, so she was pretty excited about this opportunity.  There are two teachers who come and teach the girls for the week and they are full of energy and excitement and I think the girls really love them already.  There is also dorm mom each week who cooks for the girls and teachers all week long and is responsible for the girls in the evenings.  My turn will be in December so I am excited about that!!

The only downside is the 3 weeks worth of homework...at least today it is all piled high and seems a little mountainous. Hopefully Hannah will make a dent in it by the end of the week.

We sure did miss her around here while she was gone, though.  It was a terrible glimpse into what it will be like when she goes off to college....in a short 4 years, 8 months.....but who's counting?

Movin' up in the World

A few weekends ago we had to go to the provincial capital, where we lived the first few years we were here.  And we were amazed by the new development going on.  Mainly, the new mall.  This could probably seem silly to some people, but for us, it was quite exciting.

The first big attraction was the new ice skating rink.  My kids had never ice skated, and so it was quite fun for them to get a chance to try it, and they both loved it, wanting to do it again sometime, especially Hudson.

There are some Western clothing stores, like H&M and UniQlo that have also arrived in the mall which make Hannah and I very happy!!

But the best is the arrival of Dairy Queen and Starbucks! It really feels like we have "stepped up" in the world as we enjoy all the conveniences of the new mall!

When in Rome....

I find myself saying "when in Rome....." so many times to explain behavior I find myself doing that I would never do in America.  I would give you some examples, but my mom reads this, and she would call me, and I would get into trouble.

So I will tell you a story about Rob.  His mom reads this too, but she is used to his kind of trouble.

Last week Rob had to go into the provincial town for the day to take care of some things.  While he was there, he decided to take care of the yearly car inspection/registration things that must be done.  The previous week he had paid the insurance for another year on the car and found out in the process that he had some speeding tickets. Who knew?

Where we live there are cameras at random places that will just snap your picture, record your speed and send you a text message telling you of the ticket. Rob changed his phone number after registering a year ago, so he hadn't received any of these notifications.  Not good.

Rob found out he had SEVERAL tickets. So last week when he went to the provincial town to pay them he was told that he had 15 points on his driving record, and to keep driving he could only have 12.  The lady then asked him if he wanted to take his test again or did he have a friend he could give the points to? What? You can give your points away? Just like that? He told her he would be back.

In the parking lot he had noticed several men milling around his car and generally loitering in the parking lot.  He decided to find one of them and ask their advice.  The man he found looked at him and said, "Let's get in your car and talk." Two men jumped in the back seat and the conversation went something like this, "Pay us a fee of the tickets, plus a little bit more and we will get rid of your tickets, your record will be clean. Oh and we can take care of your inspection as well."

In a country where red tape is the norm and if you need to get anything done, you should plan for it to take days of running around for the right paperwork, fees, different offices, the right people not being in the office, etc.....Rob got the whole thing taken care of in 2 hours.  He was happy and pleased for the whole process to be finished. And he got the guy's card if any of my friends ever need any assistance.....

When in Rome.....