Compared to the insanity of the current northeastern US snowfalls, I consider our snow here to be a mini-snow.  Or even a mini-mini-snow.  But anyway, we got 1 or 2 inches the other day.  It may snow a bit more this week, but of course nothing like the 2 feet + other parts of the world are getting!

But the girls were excited about the mini-snow so we took out some cookie sheets (we later bought big round plastic “washing tubs” that people use to wash their clothes and used them… they were even better…).

We have a great area to walk around in the new place.  There are several pedestrian only zones that make for a good safe walk.  Right in the middle of the complex there is an oblong “pond” thing that is currently ice.  There are some restaurants and other things that overlook the water that might be good to try in the spring.  The red round building below appears to be the apartment management facility and it sits in the middle of the pond.  Our apartment building, btw, is the white building on the far left side of the photo below.

There are lots of little stores on the first floors of the apartment buildings, so going for a walk has built-in entertainment.

We particularly like this toy store- and Eric James (Keith’s brother), I think this means you have to come visit!!

Side note: Nice Santa!!

So, I have one more set of outside pics that must be shared, but first I’ll show a few pics of inside our apartment.

This is the dining room.  The boxes were gone about 2 hours after I took this pic but I was too lazy to take another one.  Just imagine no boxes, ok?

On the left side at the end of that hallway is our kitchen…. we don’t have room in the kitchen for the refrigerators, so I have them in the entry hallway there. I tell myself it isn’t that my kitchen is too small… it is that I have a wrap-around kitchen. It is the latest in home design, you know?

I haven’t shown our office yet because it isn’t very interesting.  And it still needs some love.  Like, a lot of love.  It is where our dryer is for now (they forgot to put an outlet on the balcony for it) and it is also where everything we haven’t sorted yet is currently living.

Our bedroom… in case you are wondering, the green thing is a frog-shaped humidifier.  Gotta love living in Asia.   It can be hard to find things that are “boring” looking when it comes to your appliances!

Our living room… I was aiming for a celery green/chocolate combo here.  I hope it works with the orangey-yellow floors.

Finally, the outside pics.  There is an exercise facility/gym in our apartment complex.  It is called Just.  I don’t know why the name is Just.  It JUST is.  Haha.

They have 3 mini-slogans at Just.  I will share them with you.

So that’s not bad, right?

And stretching isn’t a bad thing…

Ahhh, yes, my favorite. I’m thinking about making this the motto of our home.  We could greet people at the door with this gem.  It would make them feel, I don’t know, welcome?

Have a great day.  We’re enjoying our Chinese New Year break and trying to completely unpack and settle in.  Well, between fireworks, that is.  They’re slowly starting up and I’m sure they’ll be full scale by next Sunday (the 14th) which is both Valentine’s Day AND Chinese New Year this year!

Above is an aerial artist’s rendition of our neighborhood. We are in the tall white buildings- the one with the arrow pointed to it is ours.  There are shorter bright colored buildings around us.  The main shopping street is marked with blue- notice how close we are to that section!

The next picture shows the shopping street as viewed from the pingtai (balcony) off of the girls’ room & kitchen.  The white strip on the side is the buildng next to us which has several restaurants, a screen golf (simulated golf?) place, and other stuff.  The shopping street is where there is a dry cleaner, several fruit/vegetable markets, Korean grocery stores, meat market, Chinese grocery store, home goods store (nails, hammer, etc…), and other stuff.

The view the other direction from their room shows what we call “trash mountain”.  The city built a mound of trash, had it landscaped and now they have sledding on one side of it and a park on the other side.    This view doesn’t show it as tall as it actuallly is, but it is a small “mountain” by any standards. 

The next view shows the view from our living room/bedroom pingtai.  This is looking into the main part of the apartment complex.  You can walk between about 10 buildings and there are courtyards like this between each one with playgrounds.  NO cars are allowed in these courtyards or between those buildings, so it is a really safe area for the kids to bike and play.  We LOVE this part of the complex.  I’m also thinking this will be a prime firework viewing place…

The next shot shows looking the other direction- the closest yellow part is the end of the red building above.  I love the curves on these buildings, very unique.

So yeah, that’s a quick overview of where we are living.  I have scouted out some good things that must be photographed in our neighborhood.  I’ll hopefully do that sooner rather than later.

A couple pics of the kids, cause why not?

A very static-headed Kate.  Yes, she cut her own bangs.  I did NOT do that to her!

I love the soft light from the window in the office…

Guacamole is adjusting nicely to the new place.  He loves the heated floors and the open spaces to run.  He’s gotten so much bigger than when we first got him 2 weeks ago!  I know that sounds silly but he’s gone from about 430 grams to 600 grams, so it is a big jump in size.  Now, granted, he’s just over a pound now, so he’s not a big boy or anything… but he seems bigger to us!

Our communication with our new Korean neighbor is coming along slowly.

We sent over some coffee, tea, baby clothes, and homemade brownies the day after we first met them- 2 days after they’d moved in.

We starting camping here on Thursday, and they sent over kimbap, kimchi, and ddukbokki on Friday.  We reciprocated with some Japanese furikake (stuff you sprinkle on rice- highly popular here) packets when we returned the dish.

But our communication is limited by both circumstance (we have no couch or table or chairs- it is hard to invite someone over to sit on your floor, you know?) and language issues- the husband speaks limited Chinese and isn’t home very often and the wife speaks Korean and a tiny amount of English.  My Korean is weak, very very weak.

So when the gas went out at our apartment on Saturday (the first day I planned to cook at the new place), and I had to go over there to see if it was just us or the whole building, it was a little awkward.  She opened the door.  “Gas isseoyo?” I said (isseoyo means to have, so it can be either a statement (I have ___.) or a question (do you have ___?) depending on tone of voice).    She nodded.  “Oori upseoyo” I said (we don’t have)   I wanted to look at her gas pipes to see if I had the valves turned wrong.   I floundered.  “Na (me) poyayo (see) gas pipes(oops, English!) kwenchanayo (okay)?”  She stared at me, as if to say “What the heck??”  I smiled, took my boots off, ran into her kitchen and peeked under her stovetop at the gas pipes.  She still stared at me.  I gave her a thumbs up and said “kamsahamnida” (thank you) as I tiptoed back to my own apartment.   Yes, I need to study my Korean more!!

Today, we were running dangerously low on electricity and we noticed they were as well.  The electric meter is in the hallway and it blinks red and counts down how much you have left.  Their number was even lower than ours. I wasn’t sure if they knew how to buy electricity yet, as it can be complicated.  Thankfully, one of the Korean markets here has a service where you drop off your electric card and give them money to put on the card.  You can return later in the day and they will give it back to you.  It costs about 80 cents US to do this- and is completely worth it to avoid going to the electricity store to stand in line and deal with all of that. 

Ahh, but how do you communicate all of this when you don’t have a common language?  I wrote a note and taped it to their door… it was a mix of Korean and English explaining that their electricity was low and how to buy more.  I also left her my name and number.   Later in the day, the doorbell rang and she was there with a bag of fruit.   Inside it said “thank you help me.  my name kyeong hee, baby name chang hee” and had her phone number. 

Tonight, I wanted to take dinner over.  But again, the whole lack of table thing was a challenge.  I knocked on their door.  “Oori (we) table upseoyo (don’t have).   But today, I bring dinner.”  I pantomimed my intentions.   It worked.  We brought over fettucine alfredo with pork cutlets, salad, garlic bread, and fruit. 

Baby steps toward friendship, I suppose.  Next on my agenda… well, other than getting a table and couch over here on Wednesday so we can actually invite them INTO our home… is planning to have a Korean friend who speaks English or Chinese over so I can use her translation skills! 

Thursday afternoon, I was given keys to our new apartment and told that the cleaning was done and it was ours and we could go over and start getting it ready for move-in day.

And so, because we are apparently not 100% mentally stable, at 6:00 PM we threw a couple rubbermaid tubs full of stuff into a taxi and raced over to the new apartment.  It looked pretty clean and we had cleaning supplies, so we decided to call it home.  We went back to the old house, got more stuff and grabbed the puppy, and headed over to our new house to spend the night.   A friend of mine said “Oh, it’s like camping!”  Well, if camping includes heated floors, piping hot showers, and new bedding on new beds… then yes, we’re camping!  The girls’ room:

We hung up our new curtains and everything, so now we have beds, curtains, 2 refrigerators, 2 TV sets, and well… one more tiny thing…

Just before we moved to China, I had grown enough in my love of photography to want some studio supplies.  I got a backdrop stand and a couple backdrops.  And then, yeah, moving to China… not quite conducive to taking these things along for the ride…

In our first apartment, we didn’t have room to set up any studio equipment.  But in this apartment, I have enough room to set things up in our living room, right next to a full wall of windows and sunlight.  I didn’t waste any time in getting the necessary supplies to make that happen!  I am so in love with my new “studio”.    It was 5:00 and the sun was quickly descending by the time we got home and set it all up tonight, but we still played for a bit.

Tonight, our second night in our new place… our brand new neighbors- the wife just moved to Tianjin from Korea on Friday!- popped over with a plate of freshly made kimbap and a side of kimchi.   They have an adorable 9 month old baby boy, who I can’t wait to get in front of the lens for an afternoon of photos!

The new place has been about 99% perfect.  The one glitch so far was when I got locked IN to my house.  Our new lock seems very very straightforward, and I thought I had figured it out.  You have to lock it with a key from the outside, it doesn’t automatically lock.  We knew that, so when Keith left for school this morning with Eliza, he locked it.  I had Kate… and I couldn’t get out.

It turns out that if you lock the door from the inside, you can unlock it from the inside and leave normally.  But if you lock the door from the OUTSIDE, you have to slide a little cover and use a KEY from the inside to get out.  It took me 10 very frustrating minutes to figure that out.  Weird, too, right?  And not very safe in an emergency!  We’re working on a system to make that safer.

We don’t have internet yet, but someone in our 18 story (I’d said earlier it was 22 stories, but the elevator only goes to 18, so I’m thinking 18 stories now) building has an insecure wifi system so we’re enjoying it (xie xie, neighbor!).

It has been a BEAR of a week- Keith had a throat infection, the girls were home all last week with mystery dots, and then Kate developed a mysterious, rapidly spreading infection on the back of her ear- it spread to the entire back of her ear and up into her scalp/hairline behind her ear… we got a staph infection diagnosis and antibiotics for the whole crew.    Last night, Kate got her thumb slammed in the trunk of a taxi (ouch!)… which, besides being just-plain-regular-traumatic, was doubly traumatic because we had to get the taxi driver to understand what was going on to open the trunk for us.  Another guy was already in the taxi and they were ready to leave (horror!! not with my kid’s thumb stuck in your trunk!) and I ran over and threw open the door and started screaming in Chinese to open the trunk, my kid’s hand was stuck in there, and open it now.  Apparently my hysterical Chinese isn’t very good because it took what seemed like ages (but was probably not very long in reality) for him to get the picture and open the trunk.

The driver asked us if we were going to demand money for her injury, and then sped off.  Poor guy was probably terrified we would blame him… when he wasn’t at fault in the slightest.  However, given the track record here for how things spin against people, I don’t blame him for his concerns!!

Anyway, her thumb is not broken, and the staph infection looks better than yesterday!   In the pics above, you actually can’t see it at all because of the angle, but trust me when I say it is and was beyond gross.

And yet, as I typed this, the doorbell rang and our soooooo sweet neighbors were bringing us a hot plate of freshly made ddukbokki (a yummy Korean dish that is one of our most favorites!).   So yes, the week is ending on a high note… a bear of a week with lots of honey pots along the way I guess!

We can’t access facebook until probably February 8th or so (except at school), until our internet is hooked up (as in, the legal kind, not the leeching off your neighbor kind)… but we can still check email and post to the blog.

So, our new apartment is currently being “worked on”.  The contractors our company hired have gone in and painted, put in ceiling fans, added a few extra electrical outlets, put in safety bars on some of the windows (floor length glass 5 floors up?  Sorry, nope!), and fixed a few things.

I knew that the apartment would be a bit trashed during this time, but I needed to go over and measure windows and such.

So, on Friday, the girls and I visited.  Oh.  My.  Beer bottles everywhere.  The guys were taping up the place to prepare painting, smoking and drinking the whole time.  Um.

I have been back Monday and again today for various reasons, and today was by far the cleanest- they are almost done now and will finish up tomorrow.  I took a couple photos- keep in mind this is EXTREMELY clean compared to a few days ago, okay?

Living Room Floor- this is an empty baijiu (grain alcohol- stronger than vodka) bottle.  Niiiice.  Hopefully that was NOT drunk while painting?

The kitchen has been enjoyed… that giant bottle of cooking oil was full on Friday, so they are cookin’ up something in there!

My poor toilet!  Nothing is being changed in this bathroom, by the way… so I’m not sure why it is so trashed other than it is where they are possibly cleaning things up?  The poor toilet though!  I didn’t take an “interior” shot, but it was horrifying.  Just imagine black sludge everywhere.  WHAT are they putting in there???

But the results are worth it- I am loving how the walls look!

And once the cleaning crew they’ve hired comes in and does their work, I think it will be ready for move-in-day! One week from tomorrow!

The yogurt (not frozen yogurt, regular yogurt) store in the 1st floor of our building, by the way, is amazing!!  We have never liked the Chinese-style drinking yogurt- it is thinner and has a different flavor than what we are used to eating.   The yogurt in this store is made right there and is thick, creamy, and delicious!  They top it with your choice of fruit toppings and it is so good!!  And that’s a great healthy snack for the kids!

The girls are counting down.  Eliza said “Only 8 more nights to sleep here and then it will be warm when I sleep!”    Yes, we’re all looking forward to the heated floors!  A warm apartment will be wonderful!

We are moving on Wednesday, February 3!  We are so excited that the move will be complete before our Chinese New Year break- 2 weeks to fully unpack and settle in!

All week, I’ve had kids home with me.  Eliza had a fever Sat-Mon.  Kate got a rash on her face last Friday.  She was Tuesday-Friday as it spread across her face.  Eliza “caught” this rash from Kate and we still don’t know what it is. This is Eliza’s face on day 2.  Sorry, she was showing me her chest/back so she had taken her shirt off… just explaining in case that looks weird!

Any thoughts? No spots anywhere but the face on both girls- none in the mouth, none on hands or feet (just ruling out hand/foot/mouth).  Kate had a fever for one night, but it might have been unrelated.  And it can’t be puppy-related because Kate had it before she even laid eyes on the puppy.

As you can imagine, trying to juggle photography class, drama rehearsals, and preparing to move didn’t mix too well with them being home.

But they’ve been excellent with the puppy, getting him potty trained and keeping him on a schedule.

But I was determined to get some house stuff done this week, so I’ve been shopping on China’s Taobao, which is like eBay on speed.  I’m trying to get things for our new home, like new bedding, curtains, etc…

Because so many things in the world are made here in China, you do find occasional gems.

I got this bedding set for Keith and I.  After I bought it I realized it looked familiar and started digging the internet.  Yeah, that’s cause it was originally made for Nautica.  I have no idea if the set I bought will have Nautica tags or not.

The walls will be Milestone (below).  The living room walls will be Oakwood Brown (also below).

I might be giving you false ideas about what you find on Taobao though.  I mean, I’m not going to say my taste is impeccable, but hopefully you don’t find the bedding set that I chose above to be too hideous.

If you do, that’s fine, haha.

But anyway, finding things on Taobao that are appealing from a western mindset is very… challenging.

I waded through hundreds upon hundreds of the following.  BTW, if you own any of the following items, it is okay. I can still be your friend.  Don’t be offended.

This would have been romantic, but… (oh, and it says “Tabby China”)

I do want a happy life, but…

And really, I’m not against milk, but…

these curtains? they are awesome!

Keith is a teacher, and therefore he loves apples… therefore…

this MAY or MAY NOT be licensed by Disney.  But I sometimes want to have a time when I can laugh.  Don’t you?

there’s some irony about a bed that says “keep moving…”

and my personal favorite… best wishes to ALL couples!

So, which one would YOU pick?

Meet Guacamole!

No, not the dip.  Although that is mighty delicious.

Guacamole- our 2 month old almost-1-pound-big chihuahua puppy.

The girls are thrilled to have a little puppy and he doesn’t seem to bug all of our allergies- we were hoping for that!

After me saying “NO PUPPIES!” for so long, the girls are thrilled.

The girls call him “Molie” (like Mole-y, not Molly) for short.  Korean name: 모리 (mo li) Chinese Name: 茉莉 (mo li- jasmine flower)

In the US, when you are trying to rent out a home or apartment, there are some general “rules” that people tend to follow to make their home more marketable.   Certainly not everyone obeys all of the rules, but it is generally expected that people stick somewhat to these standards.

You clean the house.  You pick up dirty clothes.  You make the house look as presentable as possible.  You light a candle or get some air fresheners.

China.  Well. Not so much.

We met with our company’s contracted real estate agent and visited a few apartments this week.  We were with a single friend who was looking for an apartment as well, so we got to see the apartment she toured… and I also talked to many other people who are currently apartment shopping.  So I’m not basing this judgment on a singular experience, but on my experience as well as those of several others.

The previous tenants in the apartment we contracted for today (way to slip that in right?? yes, we are getting the apartment we wanted!! yay!) were a Korean family.  They did not smoke.  However, the landlord smokes.  When he is in the apartment working on things and showing the apartment, he smokes.  Doesn’t this seem like completely backwards logic?  You’re preparing the apartment so you can rent it and you smoke in it?? REALLY?  Is that a good idea to help it rent??

Anyway, thankfully it isn’t very strong of a smell and it won’t be there long as we’ll be taking the keys soon and I will totally airing it out and then lighting tons of candles!

The apartment is filthy.  I don’t mean like a little dusty.  I mean completely filthy.  1/4″ deep dust and dirt caked on the windowsills… dirt all over the bath tub, sinks, and toilets.  I felt like I needed a shower after doing the final walk through today.  Keith thought there was mold on the floor in one spot because the dirt was so thick!!  He wiped it off and realized it was truly just a pile of dirt.  Gross.

I know that Tianjin is a dusty city, but really, that’s no excuse.

There are other parts that are completely crazy to me though.  The landlord and his wife brought over their laundry from their house to do at the apartment.  There were buckets of dirty (DIRTY, FILTHY!!!) water with clothes floating in them around the apartment today.  They also had some clean laundry hanging on drying racks.  Why would you do that?  How is that impressive to anyone looking at the apartment?

The apartment has LOADS of potential.  But all I can think about is BLEACH, Comet, and lots and lots of elbow grease.  And maybe some more bleach.

So, keep that all in mind as you view these next photos.  Think POTENTIAL.  A little paint, a little scrubbin’ (okay, a LOT of scrubbin’) later, and this place will be great!  Oh, and some new curtains, haha.

This is the living room (never mind the beds that are being stored there, they are NOT staying!)  The wall-mounted flat screen tv, however, IS staying!  I had sent some pics to a few people after we looked the first time and had labeled them.  Sorry if that’s annoying!

Even the kitchen/bathroom floors are heated.  I looooove the heated floors!

I love the next photo- the chair and the light fixture on the counter are lovely, lovely touches.

Built-in storage is very very rare in China- and we LOVE the multiple storage options in our new place- I have soooo many places to hang clothes (there are NO closets here).  It also has a nice sized coat cabinet and food pantry built in between the front door and the kitchen.

There is tons of natural sunlight and hey, a Hello Kitty lamp!   I don’t think the photos capture the dirt well enough though!

The girls are going to share a decently large room with a queen bed so we can have the third bedroom as a craft room/office.  I’m really really looking forward to that.

The master bathroom is not the greatest room of the house, but it is workable.  It is definitely bigger than what we currently have for our main family bathroom!

So, there’s the tour of the new place.  It has good views to the north and to the west from the windows.  It is on the 5th story of a 22 story building (yay, elevators!!) and we really are looking forward to walking around the complex more to see what all is on site.

We have already noticed the first floor small store selling homemade Greek style yogurt with fruit on top, the foot massage place next door, the Korean-owned pub style steakhouse, our favorite Korean grocery stores, the girls’ favorite stationery store, a few bakeries, fruit and vegetable stands, our bank’s ATM, 2 pharmacies, a dry cleaner, and a location of our favorite glasses/contacts store.  And that’s just within a 3 minute walk.

We’re hoping that the move will be done sometime before/during our Chinese New Year break (Feb 7-20).   I picked the paint colors today (Behr, in case you wondered- yes our local Home Depot also has Behr paints!  We’re going for Mixed Berries (purple) in the girls’ room, Oakwood Brown (coffee colored) in the living room and office, and Milestone (a greyed blue) in our bedroom.

It should be a happy year of the Tiger in our new home!

Yes, we’re moving!  But not to Korea!

We’re moving to a new area of Tianjin- a heavily-Korean district of town.  You can probably imagine that detail excites me!

Surprisingly, we are not only at peace with this decision to stay in China, but quite excited about it.  A month ago, if you’d asked me about staying here, I might have cried.  After I got back from Korea in November (I went for 4 days to look at schools there) I had a sinking gut feeling that we were going to stay here longer.  Keith (independently) had the same feeling.  When we shared that we both felt like God was preparing us to stay here… well, I wasn’t in a good place about it.  I felt sick about it.  This all triggered our trip to Hong Kong- we both felt a bit trapped and like we needed to get away for a bit.

I kept looking for a “disagree” button to click on this life choice that was being made without our consent.  Staying here?  Sorry, not interested!  I have tons of friends here and such.  I love my job.  But I didn’t want to stay.  I wanted to move.  Staying was not a valid option.

But somewhere in there, providentially, our hearts started to soften a bit.

By the time we realized we were going to sign new contracts here and stay, we were both okay with it.  In fact, we were better than okay.  Our company is upgrading our housing from our current home.  We’re moving to a newer, nicer apartment complex.  We’ll be closer to our favorite Korean restaurant and grocery store (as in 3 minute walk instead of 15 minute taxi ride).  We’ll be closer to several good friends.

So now we are apartment shopping and hoping that the apartment we saw yesterday becomes our new home!  I’m so happy we’re feeling hopeful about things and not feeling sad.

Hopefully we will have confirmation of our new place soon and then I’ll share some photos and details!  My favorite part?  TWO brand new refrigerators (they are smaller than American size so we’ve always felt frustrated by our small fridge).  TWO fridges will definitely make up for that!!!  Oh, and the heated floors throughout the entire apartment!  And two full bathrooms!  The 450 square feet more than our current place- from 1150 to 1600+.

So here’s to a 2010 of finding new JOY in Tianjin!

I have many friends that choose a family “word” for the year.  I debated for a long time before finally choosing one that best represents my hopes and prayers for our family this year.  Finally, I settled on Peace.

A little less this kind of peace:

A little more this kind of peace:

Psalm 4:8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

And this kind of peace:

John 14:27  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Peace that He is in control of our futures.  Peace that He is bigger than our pasts.

For our daughters and ourselves, to have peace in our relationships with friends, coworkers… and even those who are “difficult” to get along with.  We all have a few of those in our lives, don’t we?

For our home to be filled with an overwhelming, overflowing sense of peace… so abundant that those who enter our home feel it and see it and experience it.

For our hearts to be controlled by that sense of peace and trust, even when things aren’t going according to our plans.  For us to trust in His peace even in the seasons when things seem to be crumbling around us.  And peace when we wait for answers, answers about our future, answers to prayer, answers of many kinds.

*

Additionally, I have a word for myself personally.  LISTEN.  That’s my word.  It has two main purposes.

First, to listen to people.  To shut my own voice off and listen and hear those around me.  To listen to not only their voice but their hearts.

As a person who loves to talk, it is often hard for me to stop my own blabbering and listen to others around me.   I love to tell stories about things that have happened in my day/life and to entertain other people.    I often sit and repeat in my head while having conversations “SHUT UP KIMBERLY!  LET OTHER PEOPLE TALK!”

Proverbs 10:9 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

Proverbs 20:19 A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.

Proverbs 17:27-28 A man of knowledge uses words with restraint and a man of understanding is even-tempered.  Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.

It doesn’t come naturally to me, but that isn’t an excuse to just keep rattling on and on.  So this year- I commit to listening more, to asking questions of other people and then being quiet to hear the answer!

The second part of listening is to take more time to hear from God.  I get caught up in my prayer time with pouring out concerns and requests and such, and I want to take more time to listen.

James 1:19 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

So those are our 2010 words of the year!  Have you chosen words? If so, what are they?  (and yes, I’m listening to your answers, haha!!)

In a sense of defeat, I am here… I can’t figure out how to continue hosting Emily’s blog (hers is hosted “on” mine if you will) while removing mine… so I can’t remove mine in February.  Haha.  Isn’t that pathetic?  I’m not much of a webmaster.

And I’ve had a lot of stories in the last few months that have desperately needed a home- and I hate Facebook Notes.

So, what to do?  I guess I just have to shrug and accept that this means I’m here for now, haha.

So, what has life brought us in the last weeks?  A spontaneous trip for 10 days to Hong Kong for one…

Two days at Disneyland were well-loved by the kids.  They adored the Disneyland hotel.  We spent 10 days total in Hong Kong and it was just what the doctor ordered- warm, wonderful weather and sunshine and even some enjoyable rain showers.  Coming from a dry city, the rain was so nice!

We came home to SNOW.  Several inches of it- it snowed all day yesterday.  We’re not sure if this was “induced” snow or “real” snow but we are enjoying it regardless.

And finally, an article from the Hong Kong Standard newspaper about the “cold” weather there.  13-18 C is 55-64 F if you need the conversion help.  Hope you enjoy that one!  It definitely had us laughing… it is currently 12F here.  I’m pretty sure they can survive the upper 50’s and low 60’s for a few days!

As for Korea, we will know in the next couple of weeks whether or not we will be moving this summer.  It is definitely our desire to go, but the choice is not completely in our hands.  We have peace with whatever happens and will be content to stay in Tianjin longer if that is how things work out.

Have a wonderful 2010- thanks for bearing with us a bit longer!