Halloween

Halloween is one of those American holidays that has not really caught on here yet. That did not stop us from celebrating. Last year we went to a party that someone else hosted for their students. This year none of us were having a party so we decided to go to Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut is a treat for us anyway, and Pizza hut is usually decked out for Halloween. All week the workers were wearing costumes. However on the day of Halloween, they were wearing their regular uniforms. We were disappointed but we still ate pizza!

Hallie was Hermione Granger, Liam was Harry Potter, and Eryn was Tinker Bell (in the arrival dress). We caused quite a stir on the bus and walking to Pizza Hut. The kids often turn heads, but it was a little more pronounced when they were in costume. See the attached video.

We met up with Jeff, Cathy, and Tanner at Pizza Hut. They brought along some of their students. The students gave our kids candy!

Nothing say celebration like pizza!

It was not quite an American celebration, but it was fun!

Weird weather

One question lots of people ask about China is "What's the weather like there?" I almost always answer that is pretty much like it is at home. Some parts of China (north) are very cold and some parts (south) are very hot. Where we live, is about the same at home, (maybe a little warmer). One thing that is different is that we do not usually get thunderstorms. Actually, when we lived in central China, I only heard it thunder one time all year. Hangzhou gets a little more thunderstorms, but usually nothing like what we have in west Tennessee.

However, the other day we had a big storm. The sky got dark as night, literally! I have seen it get dark in Tennessee, but nothing like it did here! I took a picture. It was so dark for a few minutes that I wondered if there was an eclipse that I forgot about.

This picture was taken about 3:00 in the afternoon. It was already beginning to get a bit lighter.

Liam is terrified of thunderstorms, and I really don't like them that much either. I do NOT miss this kind of weather. I am thankful that we do not have to deal with this often!

Party!

I feel like we have had one party after another the last few weeks! We have had a bunch of people in our apartment lately. The last several Sundays we have had about 20 people too! Phew! We have been busy, but I love it!

I am so thankful that we have an apartment that people feel comfortable visiting. I have several events that I need to blog! This past Saturday, we had a party for Hallie's birthday. She chose who she wanted to come. I made a cake (from a mix, thanks!). We also had pumpkin squares (from scratch), brownies (from mix--Jon made), and peanut butter cookies. Sugar rush!!!

Hallie opened some presents too. Actually she has been opening presents for three days! She opened the gift from Grandmamma on skype on Saturday morning. She got an American Girl doll (Kit). She loves it, and does not let it get too far from her sight.

Saturday night she opened presents at the party. Sunday morning she opened more presents on Skype (from Poppa and Granny). Finally, this morning she opened gifts from her brother and sister and parents. She has been very busy playing with her presents. Tonight we will go to a new restaurant for the final celebration!

notice the doll in the background?


Yep, this about describes how we all feel! But that cake sure was good!!!

Hallie

Today is Hallie's Birthday!

Hallie Elizabeth was born November 9, 2009. I remember saying that it was the hardest thing that I had ever done (birth) but the best! It was most certainly love at first sight! I don't have that many early pictures with me here in China, but I thought I would share some from the past nine years.







Brand new family!



She was 4 weeks old in this picture.

She was 19 months here. This was her first trip to China in 2002.
Two years old.





Four years old!
6 years old!

Seven Years old (in Henderson)
8 years old (in China)
This year! (9 years old!)

I noticed that she is wearing the same shirt in the last two years (it is one of her favorites). Boy the last years have flown by!!!


Happy Birthday Hallie!

Party

This Post is a little out of date. Oh well, better late than never. A few weeks ago ( more than a month now) Chuck and Nelda Harle were in town. I had wanted to have a get-together with all the foreigners in town, so I decided to do it while Chuck and Nelda were here. Nelda helped by sending out e-mails. I did not really know how many to expect, and I am not positive of the final count but I am sure that there were more than 45 people at my house. This was some of the food we had.

This is the sign of a big party in China. Lots and lots of shoes. ( You do not wear shoes inside houses)

These are pictures of folks mingling. It was very loud, but I think folks had a good time. It was a lot of fun. It is amazing to see how many workers He has in this city. We rarely see these folks so it was nice to get together.


These folks are either from Henedrson or at least lived there for a while. See anybody you know?

This was the entire group except for Heidi, who had to leave early. It was great fun. I loved hosting this, but I would not want to do it every week.

Romans 8:25 (Hope)

I snapped this picture as I was strolling through the local pet market.

On the bus

I don't remember where we were going. Liam and I were sitting further back. Hallie and Eryn were in one of the front seats. On some of the buses, there are seats that face backwards. We learned a long time to avoid those seats if possible. With a bumpy, hot bus, it can make matters worse to sit backwards (motion sickness). So the girls just turned around and watched out the front. I snapped a picture!

National Day

October 1st is National Day in China. It is the anniversary of the founding of the PRC (People's Republic of China). This year was the 60th anniversary. Everywhere, all over town there were decorations.



At the gate of our apartment complex






Near the Lake







Along the tops of buildings




On light poles






outside shops and restaurants

Even on the bus



and some shop girls were wearing hats that were decorated

We have found that the Chinese people are an extremely patriotic people.

We watched the huge parade and review of the troops in Beijing (on TV).

We have off from school for several days. The legal holiday is about 8 days this year, so most folks are also off for a week. The stores are packed. The lake was crowded. Traffic is weird. In some places around town it is really good and then in some places it is crazy. We went to the lake today, but two different taxis would not take us there.

I am sure that the train stations and normal tourist places would be beyond crazy. We chose not to travel outside of HZ this time.

I will try and post some of the things that we will do and did this week.

Temple visit

I am really not as computer savvy as I would like to be. Often my blog posts take a really long time. I just posted on the team blog, and it felt like it took all day! I would really like to post it here, but I don't have the patience. I could just copy and paste, but that does not take care of the pictures, so instead, I will just put the link to the blog. This posting is about a recent visit to a tea house and temple. It has a bunch of pictures and even a short video. Really, it is worth looking at (IMHO).
http://clearcreekinchina.blogspot.com/

New furniture

We are very blessed with our apartment. For the most part the furniture provided is great! They are neutral colors and look very good (especially for China). There was one thing we were lacking though....



The wall with the TV in the living room had no place to put the cable box or DVD player, we just kept them on the floor. We decided we needed something to put the DVD player on and a place to store stuff like DVDs.



Before:







So we went to the furniture market and looked around and even took some measurements. We saw what we wanted at one of the showrooms...then we went home to think about it and all of that. We went back to the market about two weeks later, but the showroom we had looked at was gone! But another lady said she could get the stuff for us, we could just pick it out of the catalog. We showed her what we wanted, and bargained and arranged a delivery in two weeks (in pieced together Chinese).

Then the furniture arrived, and the guys put it together with a power drill in our living room and put them where we wanted. The book cases actually ended up being much bigger than we had thought and we were afraid that they would not work, but I think it ended up working very well. And we still have some empty shelves that we can put stuff if we need to.



After: