Friday, April 8, 2011

We're MOVED IN!!! (And many other updates)

Sorry that we have been MIA lately but with moving in, and trying to assemble I can't remember any more how many pieces of furniture, and shopping for general supplies and painting...we have been a bit busy!  Plus, the main reason, we did not have our internet hooked up until yesterday!  Believe me, it has been a LONG week without and connection to friends and family and just looking on the internet in general!  We were also able to get a VPN which now allows us to access the internet from the US and we can access Facebook, Youtube, and blogs.  I was actually able to see our blog for the first time last night!  Great job Tom!  Thank you so much!  So last Wednesday we packed a Holiday Inn shuttle bus full of all of our belongings and made the trek over to our "new home."  Before leaving, the manager at the hotel gave us these beautiful flowers to make our new home a little more homey and just to say thanks for staying at their hotel!  The flowers were gorgeous and were very thoughful!  The staff at that hotel were awesome from the greeters to restaurant staff to housekeeping crew to the kitchen/chef staff!  Amazing place to stay if you ever travel to Shanghai!



The bus driver literally dropped us off at the curb as he had to get back and shuttle people around!  It was very kind of them to even let us use their bus as we would have had to take many, many taxis to get all of our stuff there.  Reese found her room right away and began settling in.  She was so excited to see some of her toys that we didn't see or hear from her the first few days we were here because she was playing so nicely with them! (Note to self, I should take more of her toys away from her for periods of time so that she will think that they are new and play with them better!)  And as you can see GRANDMAS, we don't need anymore stuffed animals!!  Don't get me wrong, she LOVES them and plays with them ALL, but has more than any one girl should have!


Like I said before, it seems like all we do is go to the grocery stores and get more things that we keep forgetting, but Reese actually likes this because one of the grocery stores we go to (that is AWESOME because it actually has many of the brands that you would find in stores at home, PRAISE THE LORD, like cream of chicken  and cream of mushroom soup, can't make many meals without, am I right moms?!?!?) well this store has little grocery carts for kids!  Well this is just the best thing ever to Reese!  So, we have to fill her cart first of course as we shop!  Oh, to be a kid again and be able to push your OWN shopping cart like a mom!  The simple pleasures in life right!  The kids have been so good with going to furniture stores and electronic stores and textile shops and stores like Home Depot.  I think we have been back and forth to Ikea, well...I lost count!  Needless to say, they have been so good without complaining!
                                                     (white building and then to the left)
This is a HUGE, probably as big as an airport or bigger, store with as many kinds of fabrics, curtains, bedding, carpets, rugs, and clothing that you could ever want or ever think about looking through.  It has hundreds of little shops!  Each shop is not huge, but hundreds of them and I think there are 5 floors. We heard that this is the place that we can find cheap, large rugs for our apartment.  Right now the entire apartment has either wood floors or tile.  Nice, but not nice for babies and little kids to play on.  So, we were in search of big rugs! I think we were here for maybe 2-3 hours, with kids, and we didn't even see a quarter of it!  CRAZY big and will have to go back by myself for a day to look around!  Hopefully I don't get lost, I'll make sure to bring my phone.

So when moving into a new home or apartment or whatever you usually have things that need to be fixed, replaced or installed, well that has happened A LOT in the last couple of days!  This is a funny picture I got of the guy installing a new light bulb in our bedroom!  I will remind you that it literally took him about 1 1/2 to install after not realizing it was the light bulb but the light socket thingy and various trips back and forth to the store!  Not sure what it is called but it was a small electrical box of some sort, I'm sure Larry G could explain to us what it is called :)  Anyways, he kept coming into the dining room to get chairs.  After grabbing three of them, I had a funny suspicion that he was up to something crazy and I had to see!  So I of course grabbed my camera and this is what I saw:


Eric asked me after I sent it to him on email, "How many chinese guys does it take to install a light bulb!"  He is standing on three chairs and one of the girl's stools!  Not bright, and I was worried that if he fell, I could be liable, so I grabbed on tight and was going to push him towards the bed if he fell! Just to let you know, he did make it off the tower of chairs alive and my light does finally work!


On Sunday we went and checked out the church that I was talking about.  It is called Shanghai Community Fellowship and it takes place at the Marriott Hotel.  When we walked in we had to show our passports because they do not allow locals to come.  Not because the church wouldn't allow it, but rather their government doesn't want their people to be influenced by it.  After looking at their information tables we went into the grand ballroom and had a seat near the back because that is where Cambry allows us to sit :)  The room was HUGE!  They had tons of seats set up and bunches of them roped off.  Honestly, I was expecting maybe 30-50 people tops!  Completely wrong AGAIN!  Eric thought that there were for sure 500 or more people there!  It was AWESOME!  Every nationality that you could imagine!  It was great worshipping with so many like believers!  Their service was very similar to the one that we have at home.  We sang many familiar songs so it felt just like home!  I took Reese out to go to Sunday School and stayed with her the entire time.  She wasn't too sure of it by herself but assured me afterwards that she could do it by herself next time.  She sang songs, participated in a role-play of Andrew and Simon Peter being friends with Jesus, and made a craft!  She LOVED it!  They did a really nice job!  I also got to meet some of the other mothers of some of the kids!  Very friendly and hope to see them this week Sunday! 

Cambry has been growing like a weed and Eric thinks he can see her hair growing!  She loves to read and look at books!  She is very very content and will just play!  We love that!













Reese just got a new "big girl" bike and is anxious to learn how to ride "just like Grant"!  Grant, do you think your's is bigger?  Probably! She will be ready to ride when she comes to the beach this summer so get ready! She did good the first time out, but definitely needs some more practice.  Reese also loves reading books and loves to read "No, David at School" to us and Cambry! I'll have to get it on tape for you grandmas soon!





Lately the weather has been in the upper 60's to low 70's during the day and cools off to the 50's at night!  Needless to say, we have been spending some time outdoors!  They cut the grass outside yesterday and boy did it smell like summer!  You can't beat the smell of fresh cut grass and blossoming trees in the spring! I love warmer weather!

Today my Ayi taught me how to make Sweet and Sour Chicken!  It turned out great!  That is my favorite chinese dish, even though it really isn't a true chinese dish out here.  Who cares, I love it and now I know how to make it!  DELICIOUS!  So, if anyone comes out here to visit us, I will make you sweet and sour chicken that tastes like we like it back in the states.  Next on my list is General Tao's Chicken.  No really I told my Ayi that I would like to make her favorite meal.  It is fun learning how to cook new dishes with all of their ingredients.  So much flavor!

Here is another picture for you dad on a load of styrefoam!  Not the best picture but I couldn't get my camera out of the bag quick enough!  It is probably 8 towers high and a good 16 long.  When we saw it they were stopped and were trying to push it back level.  Imagine that, driving a huge cube of styrefoam down the highway, and it not staying in the correct form that you want it to.  It is just bunged together but not tightly enough! 

And we wonder why the internet is slow and gets disconnected often!  This is what we see at every intersection or on all electric posts!  With more than 20,000,000 people in this city, I guess it just adds up!

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