No place to go but up!

This is what a typical shopping day looks like for me. Shanghai is so large you can't lay stores out over acres of land...you build them up! This is a picture of my shopping cart on a straight escelator. The first floor is small shops, the second floor is home goods and the third floor is groceries. So if you are on the 3rd floor and finished with you shopping but suddenly realize you forgot the lightbulbs, you have to go back down to level 2 to get them; then return back up to level 3 to check out! I don't make these mistakes anymore, my shopping has never been more organized!

Life Goes on.....

It's been two months since my last post which says alot about life here....busy. I have done what I said I wouldn't do...OVER COMMIT! I have come to realize that this is just me. I like being out; doing, living, experiencing, and socializing! Why change just because I am in China.

Trent is getting really busy with work and really understanding why employer's are sometimes smart in allowing people to work from home.....because they never stop working! Overall he is really loving life here and really enjoying his schedule. He is traveling on average 1 or 2 days a week which is much better than being gone for two weeks at a time like when we were in the states.

Tenley is loving first grade and making tons of friends! The time elapsed has finally caught up to her and she has mentioned she is really missing her close friends. Just the other day she pulled a shirt from her drawer (a long sleeved one). It was the time she has pulled out her winter clothes. She said it smelled like Ashley's (Monjaras) house. (maybe we washed it at mandy's house when I was staying the night or something) I think it was a little nostalgic for her.

Tayton is growing like a weed! Even my friends here are noticing how fast he has shot up! He is really slimmed up (not my chunky boy anymore). He is going to be built just like Trent I think.

He loves school and has made lot's of friends! This past week, school was closed because Hand, Foot, Mouth disease was going around like candy. He really missed school and looks forward to it reopening on Monday.

First week of School

Well, alot has happened in the past two weeks. Tayton started preschool last Monday, Tenley celebrated her 6th birthday on Tuesday and then started school on Thursday. She is pretty excited about being a 1st grader.

Lets start with Tayton and his school. He is going to a preschool that is located on site here at the Racquet Club. It seems to be a great school, it's close and he LOVES it. He is in the Dragonfly classroom and they began learning this week how to describe their looks. Tayton's teacher said, "okay Tayton, what does your hair look like" (I think she was hoping for a color description), and Tayton replied, " it's good". She said she could help but laugh because of the confindence he had when he said it.

Tenley is now the big 6! She is so excited to be 6, but is already talking about being 7...... we had a party here at our house with her new friends she has met since arriving in June. She had 7 friends representing countries, Holland, Australia, Canada, Scotland, America, and China. You should have heard the accents!! I LOVED it!! All the little girls are so precious.

Two days after her birthday she started school. She really likes her teachers; Mrs. Walker from Australia and Mrs. Priti (assistant) from India. When she got home from her first day the first thing out of her mouth was, I get to have 3 recesses. (a MAJOR accent on 3)

I am posting some pictures of our apartment for those of you who have requested to see what our house looks like. Also, there are some pictures of the clubhouse, where we spend a large amount of time. There is a great place for kids to play while us mom's and dad's sit and socialize. It's really great and very family friendly.

Trent is starting to travel in and around China more. Next week he has to go to Turkey for a week. He has started language lessons which are pretty intense. I start mine next week. I was waiting to get the kids in school to devote more time to it. We both really want to use this opportunity to learn as much as we can.

My weeks get's saturated pretty quickly when you consider a day or two shopping (food, ect..), a day of language lessons, a day of volunteering at the school. and maybe a day of free time with the girls. It takes so long to do everything so if you have to grocery shop, you will not get anything else accomplished that day before picking the kids up from school. After school we are trying to go to the pool each day. Summer is getting closer to being over so we want to soak in the sun while we have it. It's a great way to unwind also!

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

"Where's Waldo?"

Sorry it has taken us so long to get another post up. We have been busy getting acquainted with China and playing "Hide and Go Seek." For example, Vanilla Extract, do you know how hard it is to find such a thing in China. I did finally find it and my kids (and Trent) are happy to once again have homemade banana muffins and chocolate chip cookies.

School will be starting soon, 10 days to be exact (yes I'm counting). Tenley is very excited to meet her teacher and make more friends. I think she has met every child living at the Racquet Club, but it is just not enough for her. She is quite the social butterfly.

You have to understand that living in a new culture you are going to get random questions from your children. The other day Tenley asked me, "mom, why do all the people here have black hair?" After the lack of a brilliant answer I told it like it was, "because God made them that way." Anyone else have a better answer? Belching in public is also very common here (not rude). A few weeks ago our driver belched very loudly in the car with us in it. Tenley was quick to shout off, "excuse you!" I couldn't help but laugh because neither of them were in the wrong.

08/08/2008

We went to TGI Friday's on Friday night to watch the opening ceremony's for the Olympic games. It was really great to be among the Chinese people to watch it all unfold. A truly historical event for them really. They are obviously proud and honored to be hosting such an event, probably more so than any country to ever host the Olympics.

Meet our Ayi, Sally! She only started last Monday but we have already fell in love with her. She has been a great help in teaching me and the kids Chinese words and phrases.

We finally got pictures of our scooters! These have been a great purchase so far. We can just hop on them to go get Cold Stone Icecream (yes they have Cold Stone!) or go to the local market to pick up a few groceries. The kids love them and say they want their own...yea right!

Here is a video from our balcony that is located just off the living room. It has an awesome view and the balcony is quite roomy. We have sat out there a few nights and drank wine while we enjoyed the quiet landscape with beautiful lighting.

Getting Settled In

We are finally settling into life here in Shanghai. Our shipment still has not arrived with everything from our house, but we are hopeful it will arrive within two weeks.
Living at the Racquet Club is best described as living in a bubble; as I have heard it referred to. Inside the walls of this place you have a bit of normalcy and peace. Outside the walls is a bit of a different story. It's not that it's bad....it's just different and takes time to adjust to it.
Traffic is absolutely crazy here and it takes a long time to get anywhere. For comparison purposes, imagine Denver traffic at 5:15pm on any weekday and multiply that times 100 to get an idea of daily traffic here. Really!
I finally gave in and hired an "Ayi" (chinese for nanny, housecleaner, cook) to work part-time at my apartment. (my arm really had to be pulled, wink,wink) Her English name is Sally (can't pronounce her Chinese name). She is awesome and absolutely adores my kids. She comes in the morning so I can go out and about to run errands, work out, or just have coffee in peace. She leaves just after lunch. She cooks the MOST amazing Chinese food ever! Today she made a wonderful soup and homemade dumplings filled with pork. YUM! The kids loved the soup and Trent can eat his weight in dumplings. She also does some of the shopping for me at local markets where she can get a better price than me. She tells me I pay too much.
After nap's we go to the pool everyday. The kids are loving all the pool time and so am I. Half the pool has a sandy beach with a sand bottom and the other half is blue tile (basic pool). We still can't figure out how they keep it separated so well. Tayton plays in the sand with his trucks while Tenley explores the bottom of the pool to find sea shells and treasures. I swear that little girl is going to be in public relations or a scientist!! She's never met a stranger and loves everything about nature...dead or alive.
I suppose that is all for today. We miss you all like crazy and are counting the days until we are home for Christmas!
Call us on our local Denver telephone number! Email me for the number if you don't already have it

We made it to Shanghai!!

Hello!! We made it safely to Shanghai on Sunday June 15th with our 11 checked bags! It wasn't without some minor issues though. Trent was very sick beginning Friday night with fever and throwing up. It continued into Saturday's plane flight, fortunately he got to feeling better on the long flight from San Fransisco to Shanghai which was approximately 12 hours.

It was a VERY pleasant surprise to be upgraded to First Class on the flight to San Fransisco and then upgraded again from San Fransisco to Shanghai. If Trent and I weren't so mature we would have done cartwheel's in the main terminal of the airport. However.....we're WAY TOO mature for that ;) (wink, wink)

We are in a hotel for this first week in Shanghai with is turning out to be an interesting experience with two kids. It has been raining everyday so we can't really get outside to play. We did make it to the Zoo yesterday where we were rained on. We saw Panda Bear's for the first time. They were SO cute and we really enjoyed watching them eat Bamboo.

The time change has been a challenge for the kids. After nap time everyday they are not too excited about getting up. We carry them downstairs and they continue to nap at whichever restaurant we go to. At least Trent and I have had a few quiet dinners.

Our new friends in Shanghai

Meet our friends Mr. Chen and Mrs. Yang. They got married this past week and we were sad we couldn't attend.

Mr. Chen works very closely with Trent and has been such a HUGE help in getting things organized for our move (thank you!)....Mrs. Yang is a Kindergarden teacher in the Chinese school system.

Congratulations Mr. Chen and Mrs Yang!!

View's of our Apartment Complex in China....

Well I thought I would start this so all our friends and family could keep in touch with our crazy family as we venture off on a new chapter of our lives. We leave for China officially on June 14th at 10am in the morning. We are nervous, excited, and scared all at once. The hardest part is just getting there. Once we're there we know we will come to love this short chapter in our lives.
We're set to be there for two years with Trent's company, so that should put us back in the states summer of 2010.
Stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories that I will uplaod and write to make you all a part of this exciting journey. We'll start next week with pictures of our house being packed up, loaded and hopefully pictures of our belongings at port loading onto the ship.
We love you all and appreciate your prayers and this is also a very emotional journey. We've made friends close enough to be called family and while our real family is in Oklahoma and Wyoming it's always better having them a state away rather than a world away.
Until next time~