They are so much fun to sit and ponder. Especially if it is an old quote.

Here is one I found on a blog I visit:

"Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

Emerson

I hope you begin your new day well!

Hello from Texas!

Not much new to report. We are in-between, in-between houses, in-between jobs, in-between where we have been and where we are going!

We are still staying at my mother-in-law’s. I have been blessed with a wonderful mother in law! I just hope we are not driving her crazy! We have also been staying some at my dad’s. He lives on a lake. Two weeks ago when we were here the lake was at least 10 feet down from its normal level. We walked on dry land across his cove and stood under his boat dock without getting our feet wet! We have had so much rain in the last week it is now only about 3 feet down and we have water!!!! I hope we have more rain so the lake will continue to fill!

Just a quick update. We made it home safely and are settling in with family. We will be staying with them until we figure out housing. We have not started looking because T returned  to his office to find out that his company has reorganized and he and the rest of his group will probably not have jobs after the holidays! That totally blew my plans of a quiet relaxed Christmas catching up with family and friends. So our first week home involved high stress, jet lag, T's working long hours and my youngest giving up sleep! We all ended up with colds!!! But God is good and we actually had a wonderful Christmas.  It felt good to be back with family. We did find ourselves thinking of our friends in China. We would look at our watches and try to guess what they were doing. We especially thought of them on Christmas Eve. We hope the play went well!

We are planning to stay with family until T's job settles out. God has really placed us in a good situation. We can easily move to where ever our next adventure will be. We do not own a house right now so we are not tied to big house payments or need to wait to sell a house in a market that is just not selling.

We are praying for His wisdom and guidence and are just so grateful that He is in control!

We are busy packing up for our move back to the States. I thought I would post a quick note.

We went to Xi'an last week! It was a great trip. We took a night train and met our wonderful guide Raphael Wang at the station. He showed us some wonderful sites. I would highly recommend him as a guide! We found him through friends that also enjoyed their time with him. If you ever go to Xi'an be sure to give him a call. You will not be disappointed!  His website is www.xiandaytour.com

Just a couple of pictures of the Terracotta Warriors! More pictures and a longer report later!!!

Pictures just do not show the true scope of the Warriors! They have discoverd about 7,000 Warriors and that is in just a very small area! Who knows how many there truely is!

I can't believe a week went by! Here are some daily pictures!

Nov. 17- Dad's home from a trip to the States and brought reading material!!!!

Nov. 18- T.'s co-worker took T and the boys to see the fall colors. Mom stayed home and recovered from T's trip to the States!

Nov. 19- Each day more and more cars are added to the streets of Beijing but it is still a city of bicycles!

Nov. 20- Shopping at Walmart. They were putting out Christmas decorations!

Nov. 21- It is amazing how much stuff you can get on one of these bikes. On one recent walk we even saw a girl sitting on top of the big stack of stuff on the back of one!

Nov. 22- All the shoes by our front door!

Nov. 23- Happy Thanksgiving! Here is our feast! Not really, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with friends, complete with Turkey and Pumpkin Pie! I forgot my CAMERA!!!!! This is the left over salad we had for dinner!

Nov. 24- A visit to the Chinese Military Museum.

Nov. 16 We get most place by taxi. Here we are going to co-op.

Nov. 17 

OK! I didn't take this one on Nov. 17 but a great mom from the school where my oldest attends took it for me and I just received in on the 17! I just had to share my handsome son with you! He is in the color guard and carries one of the units flags each week at the march-ins. This last Saturday he was in the color guard that raised and lowered the flags for the football game. It was pretty cool because they were celebrating Veteran’s Day and there were extra activities!

Act surprised if you get one for Christmas!!!!

Well, I have had sickies around here the last few days so no cool new pictures. They are all right. Just feeling a little under the weather and so we hung around the house and vegged.

Nov. 13 What do you do when you are stuck home with sick kids? Create!

Nov. 14  Time for a Chinese Lesson!  (Ni zhen kelian!) My new catch phrase! It means "You are so pathetic!" I plan to use it everytime one of the kids whines!

Nov. 15 My sickies vegging out. Notice that you get noodle soup when you are feeling bad even in China! And they know herbal medicine!!!!

Nov. 11

R and I went to IKEA with friends. We rode our first Chinese Public bus! Then checked the kids into the play area. They had a blast and did not want to leave! We followed that up with Swedish Meatballs at the IKEA Cafe. What a great day!

Nov. 12-Here is my good looking son in his office! It's the sun porch but he can go in and close the door for a little bit of peace and quiet while he studies and writes.

I have decided to try to take a picture a day. I got this idea from a scrapbook article and thought it might be a fun way to chronicle a month here in China. Of course in my own typical pattern I did not decide to do this until the 3rd of the month!

So here is the first installment!

Pizza and movie Friday night-Nov. 3

Shopping at the Antique market- Nov. 4

Picking up J. from the Youth Retreat- Nov. 5

Brotherly love at home- Nov. 6

Street scene from the light rail platform, picking up J from Boy Scouts- Nov. 7

Bedtime games at home- Nov. 8

Hobbits are from China??? Nov. 9

Packing for a campout- Nov. 10

We visited the Old Summer Palace with our homeschool group. It was a great day! Wonderful weather, beautiful scenery and great fellowship!

The Old Summer Palace was designed for the Emperor by Jesuit Priests. He wanted it to be "European" in design. The Emperor spent most of the summer there. It had big palaces with formal gardens and a fountain system. It was ransacked by the Anglo-French troops during the 2nd Opium War. It has been in ruins ever since.

The kids had a great time there exploring the grounds which include a restored maze! A perfect place for a game of "Capture the Flag!"

The Fall Holiday also included the Moon Festival. I found the following information on About.com

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romantic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can't be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness.

The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. Here are a few pictures of the typical moon cake.

About.com

T's work sent Mooncakes home with him. A friend here described them as "Chinese Fruitcake" You know, the stuff no one likes but you eat each Christmas because of tradition! Well, I am one of those weird people that likes fruitcake so we decided to give them a try!

Mooncakes are pastries that come with all kinds of fillings. We all like the ones with fruit fillings, some of us liked the ones with nut filling, but there was a few that just were a little too different for our western tongues!

Green Pea Mooncake anyone?

How about this one?

We are not sure what all of them were. Along with the fruit and nut ones we had some with meat fillings and one we all thought must be Tuna fish!?!

Most Chinese spend the evening with family and it is a great time for family reunions!

Zaijian---'Til next time!

Just a quick post  with more Holiday pictures.

We went SHOPPING!!!!

This is a pedestian street with lots of stores.

We thought this MacDonald's with the oriental architecture was cool!

This is Ryan's favorite store. It has lots of toys and he bought a marble maze that he has really enjoyed.

China celebrated National Day a couple of weeks ago. Almost every one had a week off. It also fell the same time as the Fall Holiday. It was a time to see family and shop!

We went down to Tiananmen Square to see all the Floral Displays. They were beautiful. There were the Olympic Mascots, a huge fountain and displays celebrating the new dam and the new Tibetian railway.

I will post more later! I can't wait to tell you about Mooncakes!

Our new friends have taught us how to play Mah-jong! It's a lot of fun! We have enjoyed playing it in the evenings. It is a lot like rummy, you try to be the first one with 4 sets of 3 and 1 pair.

M and R decide which one to discard.

MAH-JONG!  (Although it would appear we need to have a family discussion on good sportmanship!)

Can you feel the joy and excitement of a new year!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. School started and we are still trying to get into the routine! Here are a few scenes from the street outside our apartment complex.

Yes that is a car on the sidewalk!

Artist on the street.

Selling pets on the street. Rabbits, hamsters, and yes, that is a chipmunk!  No Mom, we didn't get one.

Our Front Gate.

Just a couple of shots from one of our walks after dark.

I have a groups of friends in the states that I scrapbook with. It is our therapy. Most of us homeschool and all of us have kids, they range from college age on down to preschool. We try to get together once a month. We usually do that during the summer. During the school year it is often hit or miss with all the kids activities and school. I brought some of my scrapbook things with me to China. I wanted to be able to do some here if I found the time. Most of my stuff is still in storage back in the states. This past weekend my dear husband took the kids out and I stayed and scrapped! I had a blast but sure missed my scrapping buddies!

One thing I scrapped for the kids was a friend book. It is a little book with some pictures of some of their friends from back home. I had them out this week to add a couple of pictures to them when R. told me he wanted to scrap too. I had an extra book (99 cents from Walmart in the states) so I gave it to him with some of the paper. He was immediately very intense and told me he needed to make one for his friend G. I found some pics I had taken of the 2 of them before we left. I printed them out for him and he filled his afternoon making a friend book for her. (D. if you see this don't tell G. He wants to surprise her!) THe whole time he worked on it he repeated, "G---- is soooooo going to love this!"

He was so cute! Which was really good because we had had a very difficult week with his strong will! I think he knows just when I have had enough and does something cute to make up for it!!

We visited the Great Wall with new friends. We hiked about 1 hour to the top of the mountain. The view was wonderful! We then had a picnic lunch of Peanut butter and oreos! What a Chinese lunch!!! LOL!

The wall was awesome. There really are not words for sitting there and thinking about how old the stones are and how many people it must of taken to build such a thing. The wall is built along the ridge of the mountain so you can look off into 2 valleys. We have had a lot of rain so the trees and plants were beautiful!

You can look off into the distance and see the wall going and going and going as far as the eye can see.

A. and T. climbed up a steep staircase at the peak of the mountain. The steps are very irregular and steep. T. said going up wasn't too bad but coming down took both his hands and legs. The steps were about 16 inches high )or more) and the steps were just wide enough for your foot. We could not image going up or down them with a full soldier's pack!

Part of the unrestored Wall.

The trail down was very muddy and slippery. Everyone in the group slipped at lease once! Many in our group decided the easiest way down was by sliding! Here is our rear view!

If you read my blog please leaave feedback so I know if I should continue sharing our experience!

My husband thought my pictures were too big. I am experimenting with size. Please let me know what you think!

Thanks!