Updated on August 2, 2011
Still here
I apologize for the silence! I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with an eventful visit to the Pacific northwest and cuddling with this sweet girl. At the moment, I’m tucked away in a Panera where I’m supposed to be writing graduate papers for classes which are too quickly approaching. I was unable to locate a table near a power outlet, so with limited battery life this is the last thing I should be doing. However, I did want to give you guys a quick peek at what’s keeping me quite contentedly away. I’ll get back to more regular stories and updates one of these days!
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sophie Katherine
This morning, Sophie and I had the first of what will probably be many photo shoots. I’ve only gone through and edited a couple, but I just couldn’t hold back on sharing the sweetness. I apologize, but I’m afraid this little girl is likely to take the blog hostage the next week or so. If you don’t like looking at photos of an incredibly precious baby, you may want to stay away for awhile!
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sunday snapshot: Christmas take two
It took 32 hours. It involved driving more than two hours through snow. It required sprinting through the Chicago airport. It ended with no luggage. It means my body can’t figure out what time it is. But holding my eight day old niece? And celebrating Christmas a second time with my family? Certainly made the hassles of the journey worth it. We spent New Years morning opening up presents, and I spent it soaking up my first “Christmas” in the States in six years. Here are a few shots from yesterday and today. Sophie will soon be having her own photoshoot; so never fear, there is more of her to come!
Mike was excited for Christmas!
Opening presents takes awhile when you want to read them.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Being chased by the new year
I finished teaching my last class at 5 PM today. Starting at 4:30 AM tomorrow morning, and continuing for the next 30 some odd hours, I will be chased by 2011 and be clinging to the last remnants of 2010. If all goes according to plan, I should be cradling little Sophie Katherine in my arms in very warm Florida before the clock strikes midnight tomorrow. With stops in Changchun, Beijing, San Fran, and Chicago prior to that moment, it’s sure to be a grueling long day. However, I do have grand and foolish hopes about the amount of graduate work I can finish on the journey.
Blessings on all of you as you bring 2010 to a close and look forward to 2011 with hope and anticipation! See you stateside!
Updated on August 2, 2011
A special anointing
This morning, the Father apparently deemed I needed a special anointing for the day’s tasks.
I’m at the less than 48 hours mark until I embark on my journey to America, which means time is quickly escaping me. There’s a list of things that must be done, should be done, and could be done. I’m doing rather well at the must be dones, contemplating beginning on should be dones, and realizing could be dones just aren’t going to be done. This morning I had a list of errands I was planning on knocking out before my class at ten, so was in a bit of a rush trying to get out of the door.
Rushing in the kitchen just shouldn’t be done. I needed to quickly pound out some chicken breasts and whip up a marinade for them. It was the last thing to do before heading out the door (as in, hair, make-up, teaching clothes were already complete…soon to be an important fact). I threw in the marinade ingredients and then reached up on my tiptoes to put the vinegar back in its home on the high shelf next to the oil. In my rush, my placement was not in the least secure, and the vinegar managed to tip over it’s neighbor the oil. I did not realize this fact for a moment, for the next victim in the domino effect was a glass bottle of Italian sausage seasoning that I desperately (and successfully) reached out to save from sudden death on the floor. It was only as I breathed a sigh of relief at that travesty being avoided that I felt something wet dripping down my head.
Yep, so the lid on the oil? Not so secure. Sure enough I had managed to dump a fair amount of oil on my just washed, dried and straightened hair. And all of the long-haired women out there just collectively let a groan out with me. I headed to the bathroom to assess the damage, and soon realized that unless I wanted attend an audition to become a greaser, the hair was going to need to be washed again. And so I headed to the bathtub, stuck my head under the faucet and washed my hair. Again. Then dried it. Again. Wet hair and 0 degree weather? Just don’t go well together. Now the straightener? Didn’t go that far.
Needless to say, I did not finish my pre-class errands. However, I did spend the morning chuckling. Only a true klutz could manage to dump oil on their own head minutes before leaving the house.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sunday Snapshot: A very merry Christmas
This past week has been packed full of Christmas activities. The end of the semester is upon me, I leave for America in five days, and my to do list is about a mile long. Consequently, I thought I would simply give you a pictorial run down of the some of the events of the week.
First: banquets. Banquets where you drink a lot and eat a lot of fish to ensure good fortune in the new year. Banquets where, as you go through toast after toast and “bottoms up” after “bottoms up,” you’re extremely thankful your company has a no drinking alcohol policy.
Updated on August 2, 2011
The best Christmas gift
This week…this week has been one of the fullest I’ve had in China to date. Countless banquets, parties, and performances. Hundreds of cookies baked. Numerous presents purchased and wrapped and delivered. Hours upon hours of grading thesis papers and five paragraph essays. Tasks that have left me crawling into bed later than desired and waking up with less sleep than desired.
Last night was the last of the banquets. And this morning all the mayhem of the week was washed away with one tiny joyous one line email containing one simple picture.
The little girl that’s bringing me back to the States in exactly one week? She safely made her arrival in the afternoon of December 23rd. And her name?
Sophie Katherine.
Counting the days until I get to meet you sweet little girl!
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sunday Snapshot: Lookin’ like Christmas
Living in China, there aren’t nearly as many daily reminders of the Christmas season. While Christmas trees and Santas are now quite common in China, you’re just as likely to see such things in July as in December. Consequently, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the end of the semester, it often doesn’t “feel” like Christmas. However, this weekend the season finally seemed to arrive in our small Chinese hamlet.
First, our building put up their decorations on the first floor, featuring the ever creepy Santa.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Workin’ on my walk
As many of you correctly guessed, I will be channeling my inner Heidi Klum this coming Wednesday. After six years of innerly (and let’s be honest, sometimes a bit outwardly) mocking the modeling, I will now be a participant. My only hope is that there will be no video evidence; should there be pictorial evidence, I may or may not share it with you.
Friday night we had an hour and a half practice with the other models (aka teachers). This was actually the third practice, but due to our class schedule, Lauren and I “unfortunately” missed the first two. The practice was fittingly held in an office that has an entire wall of mirrors (think dance studio) to assist us in refining our walks, turns and poses. And so we practiced again and again and again–Lauren and I just trying not to die laughing as we strutted towards each other from opposite ends of the “stage.” We, of course, are the grand finale of teachers; the last “group” to take it to the runway. They wanted a male teacher to join us, so Anthony has been dragged into the deal. Tonight, under the careful and sassy coaching of Kami, we will be synchronizing our walks and turns in the hallway of our apartment building. Which, let’s be honest, is actually more fun than grading the seemingly never-ending pile of five paragraph essays and thesis papers that haunt my ever waking hour.
Ah yes, never a dull moment in China.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Guesses anyone?
I’m about to test your knowledge of Chinese performances. Next week, at the Christmas “party” for the department, I’m going to be participating in a particular type of act. While this type of act is quite common at Chinese performances, this will be my first time to participate.
Any guesses as to what I’ll be doing?
(For those needing to brush up on Chinese performances, go ahead and visit the I put together last year.)
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