so much happening...so little time

Wow..have we done a ton the last few weeks...i don't even know where to start.

First of all...we attended a FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer game last week. So much fun!!! We saw two games: America vs. Sweden and North Korea vs. Nigeria. America won in their game against Sweden. It was so fun cheering on our American team. For the second game, the whole stadium was cheering for North Korea- both N. Koreans and Chinese. We were sitting right behind a HUGE cheering North Korean fan club. They were all dressed the same, carrying huge N. Korean flags, banging on drums, etc. It was crazy. In fact, the security was worried for our safety as Americans. ha ha...they asked us to move, but we told them that we felt like we would be okay, and wouldn't antagonize them. I posted a bunch of pictures on my facebook. here is the link http://cedarville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032311&l=17398&id=141303528

This week is Spirit Week at school. We've had fun dressing up each day. I'll post pictures in a moment of today's fun.

We are heading out of town tomorrow for a staff retreat. Praying that the weather stays sunny and not rainy. :) I just finished making apple muffins to supplement the Chinese breakfast that will be served each day. Chinese breakfasts tend to be a little bland.

Last weekend's trip to the mountains

A great camping trip.

I got back today from camping in the mountains with the middle schoolers. We had a great time. Being that we were in the mountains, the weather was much cooler than Chengdu's.
We left Friday morning from school in three different buses. The drive up was beautiful. When we got into the mountains, we were along a river the whole way up. I really enjoyed driving through all the tiny little villages along the way. It seemed that growing corn for feed was how most of the people up there made their living. There were little patches of corn stalks growing anywhere they could manage to grow the corn. It was amazing seeing the corn growing up along the side of the mountain, with the villagers walking up and down the mountain with these big baskets on their backs tending the corn. They would hang the corn cobs all along the rafters and roof of their houses to dry. After the corn had dried, they would shuck the corn and leave the kernels scattered on the ground to continue drying. It was really amazing seeing tiny little village after another making it's living off of the corn. No factories, tractors or machines- everything done totally by hand.

As we got higher into the mountains, the road got very narrow- just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. On one side of the road was the rocky mountain side, and the other side was a cliff overlooking the river. There was rock slide residue everywhere. Often there was barely enough room for our bus to squeeze past the boulders and rocks that had slid into the middle of the road. I was a little nervous of having a boulder come through my window.

The camping place we were staying at was part of a hotel. We unloaded our gear and took a little train farther back into the valley where the cabins were at. It was a beautiful valley with a river running right past our cabins. There were cows and chickens roaming freely. Also there were goats right in the middle of the site, but they were tied up. Each night, a huge bonfire was built inside of a circus-looking tent where they roasted a whole goat, chickens, and rabbits. I will try to get a picture of the goat being roasted from a friend and post it later.

We were there from Friday to Monday. Friday was drizzly, but cleared up in the evening. Saturday was beautiful- I even got a little sun burnt. Sunday it rained the whole day, but the kids did great and still had lots of fun. Monday was clear, but we left at 11 to head back to school.

China is a beautiful country. I wish I could have stopped at each little village to take pictures of the people and their way of living. The old men out in the country still wear the dark blue coats and the dark blue hats. (This is how all men dressed during the cultural revolution in the 1960s). The old women were all wearing a turban like hat, although I'm not sure why they wear these hats. It's like going back in history driving through the countrysides of China. America really has nothing in comparison.

Trip to SanJiang

I wish there was an easy way to caption each picture on blogspot. If there is, I haven't figured it out yet.
I got back today from a great trip to SanJiang with the middle school kids from our school. The place we went to was about 2.5 hours away in the mountains. It was a beautiful place, even though it was a bit rainy. I tried to get some good pictures so you could experience a little bit of China.
I will do the best I can to caption each picture











Public toilets at the camping spot we were at. Notice the open stalls. Quite common in China.



Some of the kids playing in the river.















A Tibetan horn















A rest stop...quite different from rest stops in America. You can pay to have your vehicle washed at the rest stop, which is nice. People generally keep their cars very clean in China.















The toilets at the rest stop- no kidding. Toilet paper is not provided at public toilets, so everyone carries tissue packets with them to use when they go to the toilet.














The bathroom in our cabin at the campsite. This is a very normal Chinese bathroom. A squatty potty, shower hose, and sink. When you shower, the water just runs into the squatty. Easy to keep the bathroom clean...you just spray everything down with the hose. Our bathrooms in our house looked like this when we moved in, but we had them remodeled with Western toilets and showers.
























A worker carrying a basket full of stuff on his back.






















Our campsite facility. Notice the tall pole in the middle. This is a Tibetan prayer pole. The flags have prayers written on them and are left flapping in the wind until the threads unravel and carry the messages written up to heaven. You can also see white scarfs on the stone structure underneath the pole. These scarfs are like a blessing and prayer, and people leave them on the stones or hanging in different places as a prayer.

















Katie and I.
















Some goats hanging out waiting to be dinner.
















Our logcabin campfire.
















The dining room we had breakfast and dinner in.

























Some sites from the trip.


















The little trains that took us back to the camping spot.

funny stories

So, today the 1st graders came in for library time. One of the little girls asked her Chinese teacher "weishenme ta hen pang?" which means in Chinese "Why is she so fat?" ha ha...the little girl couldn't figure out why I had such a big tummy.

The other funny, but embarrassing story...yesterday during lunch, I was in the cafeteria. I had walked over to the counter to put mayo and mustard on my piece of bread for my sandwich. As I was walking back to my table, my bread slid off my plate and right onto and down one of the new students' back. So this poor, new, shy 10th grader had mayo and mustard all over the back of his shirt. I was so embarrassed and apologetic. I blame it on pregnancy and being clumsy.

Here is a picture of our upper school having chapel out on the track. We had a fire in our auditorium the day before school started, so the auditorium is out of use for a few months. Our school body consists of about 50% Koreans, 30% Americans, and 20% other.

27 week pics

The dogs found a crab out in our yard the other day. The had fun playing with it, although they kept getting snapped at. In the first picture of dogs and crab, you can see the crab ready to get Sophie's ear. He kept snapping them, but they always came back to sniff it and paw at it.

Today was our first day back at school. It was a good first day- busy, but good.

Today marks the first day of my 3rd trimester. I can't believe how quickly the time is going by.

new crib and dresser

We bought a baby crib and dresser at Ikea last week. Both are solid pine- they smell so good. :) You can see the dogs enjoyed helping. Sophie thought that we had built her a play house. She loved being inside the dresser when the drawers were out.

24 week pictures

Thanks to Grandma Leman and Aunt Divya for the adorable clothes......

Yesterday we went to Hua Xi hospital to check out the facilities. They have two private rooms that would be great if we could get them for the labor and delivery, but it is kind of hit and miss on their availability. We are praying that one of them will be available when I go into labor.

Tomorrow we are going to check out another hospital in town which is primarily a Mother's and Children's hospital. Supposedly the rooms are more comfortable. We would appreciate your prayers as we decide on which hospital to deliver at.

We have been checking out various baby stores around town. We are having a horrible time finding newborn clothes. We can't find onsies in any size, and they don't really have newborn sleepers like we Americans dress our babies in. Interesting huh?!?! I'm not exactly sure what they dress their newborns in...maybe they just swaddle them. I'll have to ask my Chinese friend who recently had a baby.

23 weeks

Here's my 23 week picture.

Nothing too new here. We sent our living room curtains in to be drycleaned a few weeks ago. After we got them back and were hanging them up, I noticed that they had shrunk nearly a foot. So now we have ridiculous looking curtains in our living room :) We can't move the curtain rod because of the window, so we are trying to think of a different solution. At least we have clean curtains now though.

Jenny is staying at our house this weekend. She had lasEK surgery done on her eyes on Friday. She felt fine all day Friday and Saturday morning, but by Saturday afternoon her eyes had really started hurting. Hopefully she only has one more day of pain. Nate also wants to get his eyes done. He may be able to have the lasIK surgery which involves a lot less pain. It is so cheap to get the eye surgeries done here. LasEk- total of $500, and LasIk total of $450.

22 weeks, and it's a .............................

..............................GIRL!!!!! We had our detailed sonogram on the 3rd. We are very excited to have a girl, although I have to admit that I was convinced that we were having a boy. I can't believe that I am already 22 weeks into my pregnancy...how time is flying. I have been able to feel her kicking on a regular basis for about a month now. Nate loves feeling her kicking. Today was the first time we were able to watch from the outside. It was so funny watching my belly pop out when she was moving around. My belly isn't that big yet, so I was surprised that we could already see the movement. I can still get away without looking pregnant, but I love to show my belly off. :) I am glad though that I can still hide it, because Chinese people have a very different idea about what is okay and not okay for pregnant women to participate in. For instance, no swimming, bike riding, physical labor of any sort, no exercise, etc. I often have to explain to my Chinese friends that Americans do things a little differently, so it's okay that I go swimming or mop my own floors etc. :)

Nate's parents were here for the past two weeks. They helped us find the perfect stroller. We spent a whole afternoon a store trying to pick out the perfect stroller/car seat. Thanks mom and dad for your help!!!

Here is the link to see my most recent sonogram pictures. I was disappointed that the pictures weren't clearer, but at least you can see baby bun a little. http://cedarville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028165&l=747cc&id=141303528