Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Times!!!!

Today I am a proud Aunt!!! Its hard to really put into words how I feel right now. I am sooooo happy!! My nephew is finally with his family!!!! I cant wait to meet him....just 3 weeks to go :) It is such a blessing to become an Aunt again. Brooklyn has brought such joy to my life over the past few years and I cant wait to have the same experience with Robert Matthew. These kids hold a special place in my heart!! I am praising God today, He is so good!!!

Brooklyn loving on her new brother!


What a great looking family!!!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

HE IS COMING HOME!!!!!


I know I haven't blogged in a while but I got the most awesome news today from my sister. My nephew will be coming home soon!!!!!!!

My sisters family will be heading to China probably on Thanksgiving day and then getting Robert Matthew on Nov 30th. That is less than 3 weeks away!!! I am soooooo excited to meet him and love on him.....and spoil him :) I am also excited that he will be here for Christmas. I don't think I could ask for a better present!

If you would like to follow more of the story you can check out my sisters blog

Friday, September 25, 2009

A Night with Steven

So there are a few perks when your a nanny and the kids go to a school with lots of crazy connections ;) About a week ago I noticed a invitation hanging up at work for a private mini concert with Steven Curtis Chapman at a family's house. I decided to ask the mom about it and she invited me to come along with them. No one really knew what to expect, like how big it would be or even if we would get a chance to meet him. We get to the house and there is a big tent set up with tables for us to sit at and eat BBQ. While we were starting to eat Steven Curtis Chapman is introduced as well as his two sons. It was pretty cool!!! They sang maybe 4 0r 5 songs while we ate. Then Steven talked to us for a while about how adoption has touched his family's life. I think its safe to say that there were not many dry eyes after hearing all the stories of their sweet daughters they have adopted. He also spoke of Maria and the struggles their family has encountered after losing her last May. One of the main reasons for the concert was to get people aware of Show Hope. Its the organization they started to assist families financially who are adopting. After he spoke he sang a few more songs which were very sweet!!! A few of them were about Maria and also the many orphans out in the world. I got a little teary eyed again ;) I think a lot of the evening hit home since my sister will be bringing a sweet little boy home in a few short months...so exciting!!!!!!!! After the show I wasn't sure if we were going to get a chance to meet Steven. Well I decided I would head up to the back of the stage just in case. Turns out it was a good thing I did. Not only was I able to meet him but I had a picture of my nephew for him to see and had him autograph it. I will be sending that to my sister which I think she is a little excited about :) I also spoke with a person that does a lot with Show Hope and I might try to one day go on a mission trip with them to China. He said they always need people to hold babies in the orphanage. That would be soooooo awesome, though I think I would want to bring them all home ;) It turned out to be an AWESOME evening!!!!!







Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I might have a shoe problem :)

This is what happens when you have to much weight on a shoe rack....oops!!!

This is what it looks like when you get rid of a few pairs and find a new shoe rack that holds enough....that part took a while :) Many have joked about my shoe problem but what can I say, its just fun to have cute shoes!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Yu Gardens

I went to this place last summer but never actually went into the garden area. I didn't even know it existed until I saw someone elses pictures that had visited China. We had went to lots of shops and stuff so my parents didn't think I wanted to go in. I decided I would go on this visit.



I like the above picture because walking around in the garden you actually forget you are in the middle of city with 20 million people. Its pretty peaceful in there. If you look close enough you can see the tall building in the background...its the one I went up to the top in.
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Other Suzhou pictures

This is proof that I had real Chinese food. Many have laughed at me because I don't eat it when I come here. It was okay but I will stick to American chinese food :) I was not fond of the pork dumplings which if you look hard enough on the right you can the see one that I only took one bite of...its in the silver bowl.

I thought this little boy was cute. He was looking into a little pond at the garden we went to after lunch
Under a pretty magnolia tree in bloom

Boat tour

While in Suzhou we were able to take a short boat tour of the city. It was pretty interesting, we even got off the boat for a bit and toured the local market area. I don't have many pictures of that part since I was trying to not get sick to my stomach. They had lots of raw meat of various kinds and different parts of the animal like hearts, liver and tongue. I am not one to like raw meat, if you have ever seen me cook....I use lots of utensils so I don't have to touch anything raw. So at times walking through here I almost wanted to become a vegetarian ;)



This little boy cracked us up. He had his dads cell up to his ear with an Eminem song playing and then a fake bird cage in the other hand.




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Humble Administrators Garden

On Monday my mom and I headed out to Suzhou for a day trip. Its about 2 hours from my parents place. My dad had to work so it was just the two of us. Our first stop was the Humble Administrators Garden. If you have ever visited China they are have gardens galore. This is supposed to be one of the prettiest. The flowers haven't come out too much yet so there isnt too much color yet but it was still pretty.


I think our guide said there was something special about this pagoda but I cant remember what???

Most bridges in the gardens are not straight, its to keep evil spirits out...apparently the spirits can only go straight

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie

I bet you didn't know the worlds largest Barbie store is in China ;) It just opened a week ago so my mom and I thought it would be a fun place to go. Well it turns out its huge, 6 floors to be exact! They actually don't have as many barbies for sale as I thought they would, I think Target might have more choices, but they have enough. They have clothes for kids and even grown ups, but many are overpriced. I thought I had found a cute pink skirt for my niece but it turned out to be $100 and it wasn't anything special. They even have a spa and cafe, we didn't check out the services on those ones, I just laughed at the idea.





A massive wall of Barbies!!

My mom and I got pedicures tonight so that was fun....and no it was not at the Barbie spa! I wanted to put this picture up because I was cracking up. Maybe they do this in the states but I usually dont get pedicures unless its warm enough for flip flops so not sure. Well its not warm here and I had no flip flops so I had to wear socks/shoes. I was positive that my toes would get ruined but no they didnt!!! They wrap up your toes in sran wrap then put your socks on. It was the craziest thing but man it worked ;)

Don't look down!

Saturday morning we ventured out to the new tall building in Shanghai. It wasn't open when I came last summer so this time I was able to up to the top. I think its like the 2nd tallest building in the world. It was pretty cool to see the the view from the top, it really shows you just what a city of 20 million looks like. It was sort of a hazy day so I couldn't get great pictures of everything. One of the observation levels even has a glass floor so you can look down to see how far up you are....creepy!!! After that we did some shopping and then came home and relaxed. It was actually nice not being on my feet all day.




Friday

Today was a shopping day. My mom and I went to the fabric market and I was able to find a few things to have made for me. I will find out next Friday if anything fits. Apparently its normal for things not to turn out all the time ;) I will say you have to learn that many people will get in your personal space, especially when its time to be measured. I am getting a Chinese style coat made so I am hoping it turns out. Sadly its so warm back home that I will probably have to wait until next winter to wear it. After all that we went to some other shops to try and find some beads and other bargains. I didn't end up finding too much but there will be more days for that!!! For dinner we went to a Mexican resturant that is pretty new here. Yes I know I should be eating Chinese food but its just not the same as Firebowl or Pei Wei :) Here are a few pics of us at the resturant. The waitress remembered my parents from previous visits so she wanted in a picture. Oh and not sure whats up with the peace sign. They like to pose and do strange things in pictures.

China

Sorry I haven't updated yet since I have been in China. I haven't had much of a desire to sit in front of a computer and have to think :) I think I have finally adjusted to the time change and aren't as tired as I have been in the evenings. I arrived here around 2 something on Thursday afternoon. I dont remember much from that day since I was so exhausted. I fell asleep around 5 pm on the couch and my mom tired to wake me to go to dinner but I wouldnt get up. I did finally get up around 8 to eat a sandwich then when straight to bed after that. I slept til about 7:30 the next morning and was feeling much better. I am gonna try and post some pictures so lets cross our fingers and hope the connection is fast enough :)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Arts and Crafts


A few weeks ago I went with some girls to celebrate a friends birthday. Instead of the normal going out to eat routine she decided to have us all go to one of those places where you paint pottery. I have never done this so wasn't sure what to expect. The above picture is the vase I painted. I think it turned out pretty good for my first time :) I will say this, the place can be a little overwhelming at first for people like me who can be known for being indecisive!! Oh and I wouldn't recommend using stencils if its your first time. As you can see I have simple stripes, but that's not what I started with ;) It was fun though and I would do it again.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Jewelry

So I have been trying to figure out what the best way is to post pictures of the jewelry I have made. I would like to get ideas out there for people if they were ever interested in having something made for them. I have quite a few pictures so was wondering if anyone knows if you can make rows/columns of photos on a blog post. I cant seem to figure out a easy way to do that so maybe its not possible??? If anyone has any great ideas I would love to hear them:)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I'm gonna kill her!!!

So dont worry no one has died, except for maybe the Ariel pinata :) I just wanted to get this video up since it cracks me up. This was taken the day after Brooklyns party. We had left part of it up after the party since Brooklyn still wanted to take some swings at it. She at one time did have a whole body but lost it from the party. Make sure to turn up your volume so you can hear Brooklyn yelling that she will "kill" Ariel. It took my sister and I by surprise.


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Christmas

I had the whole week of Christmas off this year so headed out to my sisters place. I guess you could say thats "home" since my parents live out of the country ;) My whole family was there and we were able to spend quite a bit of time together. We did lots of last minute shopping for everyone. We were even able to come up with ideas of gifts for my brother thanks to his girlfriend:) I also had lots of entertainment from Brooklyn. I wish I would of caught her on video a few times. She got this new karaoke machine and loves to sing in the microphone, especially if she thinks no one is listening. Lets just say she throws in the dramatics like eyes closed, head swaying and even a random leg kick......that one made me laugh. Here is a few pictures from the week

Underwear!!!

Brooklyn was quite amused when she looked at what Santa put in her stocking.