Old Navy - the world over

Micah and a friend he was meeting with - the other person they were meeting with, a guy, took the picture.


It's official, Old Navy is in China. When I get the chance to go and look around for myself I'll let you know if prices/sizes are comparable.

"A Field Trip" experience

Last week Micah called the school he teaches English at once a week to see if he should start back teaching this week. The headmaster told him that this week the students would be taking a field trip to a nearby city and our whole family was welcome to go. (Now I'm not certain the exact words that were used, in Chinese it was probably more like "going out to play") Micah's students consist of all female countryside English teachers who have come to spend a year studying to improve their English and I assume overall teaching skills. So we decided to make the day of it and go. We tried to ask around about what there was to do in the aforementioned city. No one really knew of anything interesting. Oh well, we would just wait and see. We drove ourselves and met at the school at 8:30am. His students were happy to see him after six months! He asked one student, Annie, what we were going to do. She told him we were going to another school to observe their teaching. Oh, okay, not exactly a "field trip" - we had been thinking it would be to visit a park or a scenic spot or something. It took almost an hour to get there and we arrived at an elementary school. The first thing we did was join all his students and the principal of the elementary school in a big group photo. The school had already set out chairs and had a banner welcoming everyone. Then they said we would split up into three groups: English class, Music class and Chinese class. Guess what class we were going to? And guess who was going to be teaching the class? AND, guess who knew nothing about this ahead of time and had prepared NOTHING! :) Oh, China, we love you! :) Yes, they told Micah right then that he would be teaching a 40 minute period of English. He told them he had not prepared, but Annie threw out a couple of ideas and we went with it. Reister & Mason stood up at the front with us. I helped by leading them in "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It", Micah reviewed the body parts in the first song, talked about growing up on a farm in Texas (you know, where Yao Ming plays basketball), and we opened it up for a few questions at the end. Somehow we made it through the 40 minutes without making complete fools of ourselves (we think!) One of the last questions was "Can I have your autograph?" There was a mad dash of about 50 eleven year olds to the front to get both of our autographs. We went outside right about the time the whole school was gathering for their daily exercises / announcements. Then the school presented Reister, Mason and us with presents. The boys actually really enjoyed their gifts - Reister got an army men set with airplanes and tanks, Mason got a cool toy airplane that plays a modern Chinese pop song and rolls around. We got some kind of local pastry delicacy in a box. After that, we went to a place where the teachers played Mah Johng or cards and drank tea for 45 minutes and then we all ate a plentiful lunch at a nice restaurant. The boys were getting kind of cranky at that point so we said our thank yous and goodbyes and left. Oh what a day! Actually it wasn't that bad and everyone was really nice. It was a good opportunity to meet some of Micah's students. We're glad the boys got to experience it - as unplanned and crazy as it was - because that's what life here looks like!
The pictures are out of order, but anyway here they are:

Here's the lunch table


Here's the elementary school gate, principal and assistant principal (?) of Micah's school


Reister, one of Micah's students, and the presents


An english teacher named "Lacy" at the elementary school


The classroom where we "taught" - the red banner says "Warmly welcome Micah and family from America to our school room" (They knew we were coming, but we didn't!)


Micah, the boys and the class we taught

Sammy!

One of my closest friends here is named Sammy. We kept up some by email while we were in Texas and she was persistent to keep up with Mason and his surgery and every little health issue he has had. We knew Sammy because she worked in a store we frequented but had never met her husband till last night. They are both so nice and we really enjoyed our time with them. Although they both liked the taco salad I served, Sammy had a HUGE second helping and said at the end her mouth still wanted more but her stomach didn't have any more room.
Reister really likes Sammy, too. In fact when we told him she was here he went running to meet her as they came off the elevator. I'm pretty sure he remembered her. Mason probably didn't but he's at the stage where he likes to say and do anything Reister does, so he went running after him calling "ammy".

Mason loved how Sammy got on the floor and played with him.

I hope we can continue to spend lots of time with Sammy and her husband.

Chipotle Corn Salsa

We had friends over last night for dinner and I wanted to have the corn salsa from Chipotle. So I looked it up and tried my hand...

Chipotle willingly shares the recipe on www.chipotlefan.com
I thought it turned out pretty close and was very yummy on taco salad.
I'll share the recipe changed to my liking here:

1 Can of whole kernel corn - I sauteed it in a little oil and Chipotle tabasco sauce
3 Poblano Chilies
1/2 Red Onion
1/3 Cup Chopped Cilantro
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Roast the poblano peppers over stove top, let them cool in a sealed tupperware container. Dice the Poblano peppers, onion, and cilantro. Combine all the ingredients and season to taste.

A cool meal planning help

My friend passed this on to me and I thought it was pretty neat - now to USE it! :)

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/meal-planner.html

Fun at Home

Just a couple more random shots - Mason's a lot more into posing for pictures than Reister. Note that his eyes are so straight. It's still a miracle to me the difference. So many pictures of him from last year show his eyes obviously VERY crossed. Praise God for the success of his surgery!

In fact I'll show you one from last fall at my Mom's house (not one of the worst, but you can see the crossing)

One of Reister's new favorite passtimes is to fill up a water gun and shoot himself with it. You can see his reaction here...

New Pajama Fun

Finished Product

Here is the Chicken with Pasta & Peppers - It turned out pretty good. The only change I made was to use a little milk when making the chicken broth (I used boullion I bought in the states instead of local chicken seasoning that I've used in the past). It was pretty good - I think I might could have roasted the peppers longer or more completely. It was a light and probably healthy dinner - Micah and I tend to like heavier, creamy sauces, but we should probably stick to lighter ones like this for health's sake!

We ate it with salad and bread and had enough for two small servings of leftovers the next day.

Home Cooking

Although the term probably brings to mind good southern dishes, my meaning is a little different... I mean cooking almost completely from scratch at HOME (my home in East Asia that is)
I have to admit I didn't cook very much while we were back in Texas. We "group" cooked at my in-laws - we all pitched in, but my mother-in-law did the most. Micah did a lot of grilling out on their nice gas grill (wish we had one here!) and we had a lot of good food. When in Austin with my parents, we mostly ate out (at REALLY good places like Chipotle, Mighty Fine Burgers, Rudy's BBQ, and Chic-fil-a. But now that we're back here, we are eating out Chinese, eating in Chinese (that my helper makes a couple times a week) and cooking at home. (Oh yeah, we will eat out American food from time to time but it's expensive and we're trying to live on a tight budget) I am not a super creative cook nor do I just LOVE to cook. In fact the first couple times I cooked at home I was like "yuck! I have to get my hands dirty - while making pizza dough, or homemade pork sausage." Something I've never really successfully done is meal plan. I know lots of moms plan out their meals at the beginning of the week but so far I haven't. I aspire to be that kind of homemaker! The best I have done is plan a day or two in advance. Micah and I both tend to be more spontaneous I guess.
As I've considered WHAT to make at home, I have become very thankful for my friend Sara Beth's recipe blog. Today I'm going to try her "Pasta with chicken and peppers" recipe and just finished roasted red bell peppers for the first time. It was kind of fun and smells very good.
We'll see how the dinner turns out. I'm planning to have salad and bread with it. Maybe I'll even take a picture to show you! :)

Back to School

Reister is going to go to the preschool just across the street from our gate. We went to check it out together yesterday and the principal decided to put him in the 4-6 year old class. He would change to that class anyway when he turns 4 so it will avoid another transition. Plus, the kids in that class are speaking clearer and hopefully interacting more than in the younger class so hopefully that will help him learn Chinese faster. Today I went and stayed for almost an hour and then left him by himself for a little over an hour. He didn’t like the “exercise” routine that they do first. I assume they do the same routine to music everyday (for about 15 minutes) so maybe he’ll learn it eventually. They will be practicing a lot the rest of this month for the June 1st Children’s day performance. But I know Reister would HATE participating in that, so I’m not going to make him. Plus he might miss out on some practices just going half day. We’ll probably let him go 3 times a week till after the June 1st holiday then start him 5 mornings a week. I feel good about his teachers – they all speak standard Mandarin rather than the local dialect. I think the children do too. This morning on the way there I asked Father to give Reister one boy that would be his friend. When the teachers took all the students to the bathroom (they go all at once every hour or so) a boy came up to Reister and took his hand and led him along. I almost cried! I hope that boy will continue to “take care of” Reister and become his good buddy. One girl was in Reister’s class last year when he went to that school and remembers him and wants to play with him. But Reister doesn’t really want to have anything to do with her or the other girls. Ha ha!

Playing Outside

I'm thankful for a apartment complex that we can enjoy - ours has some nice paved roads and sidewalks as well as a couple playgrounds. We have gone out several times since we got back. Reister and Mason have both been happy to ride their "bikes". This particular day, though, neither wanted to ride back from the playground and I was by myself and it ended up being quite an ordeal to get them back to the apartment. I actually left Reister's tricycle at the front gate and got it later after Micah got home. I had to carry Mason's and hold his hand and also coax Reister along. I think jet-lag is still creeping up on us at times.
Micah traveled this past week and it was quite a shock for me taking care of the boys completely on my own. At first I couldn't figure out why - I've done it lots of times before - but then I realized that after staying with our parents for the last 6 months I had gotten used to a lot more help - not to mention ways to entertain the boys. I've been having to pray for LOTS of patience and grace in parenting. It's so good though, that I'm kept dependent on the true Provider!

We Made It!

We are back! And boy are we excited to be back! I didn't realize how nice it would feel to be in our own home. Don't get me wrong, we are still missing our family and friends terribly but at the same time we know this is where we are supposed to be so it feels great to be back.
The trip went well. Amazingly, the 14 hour flight across the ocean wasn't that bad. The boys both slept for two long chunks. The food was good, the in flight entertainment was good (we each had our own tv) and the boys really didn't flip out about having to be on the plane for so long. The plane's seats were actually arranged in a 3-3-3 set up so we couldn't sit in 4 seats together but Mason ended up wanting to be in one of our laps most of the time anyway.
We arrived back to a clean apartment, with new paint on the walls and lots of basic grocery items thanks to our friends Ann & Heather. Jet lag hasn't been too miserable but I can't seem to shake the "swimming head". The boys were both very excited to play with their old toys and had no problem adjusting to their beds.
I know I still need to catch up on pictures from our time in the states and then start posting new ones of our time here. I will try to be faithful about posting!!!

Heading Back

We will board a plane in Dallas at 7:30pm Wednesday (CST)and have two layovers and finally arrive in our city on Friday at 1:00pm (local time in East Asia). It totals up to around 30 hours of travel. We are all packed and will leave Sulphur Springs with Micah's parents tomorrow at noon. We hope to enjoy one last meal somewhere in the metroplex before checking in and boarding our first flight. We are excited to return but don't enjoy saying goodbye to loved ones!
Please lift up our trip! We can always sense the prayers that we know are being lifted up on our behalf.
I still hope to update with pictures of the rest of our time in Texas but it will have to wait until we get back!
See you from the other side on my next post :)