sore thumb

Today is still cool and rainy. Maddie and I went out for our morning walk since it wasn't raining at the time. I was actually surprised to see other kids out in their strollers. I figured they'd all be wrapped in electric blankets in front of a heater at home. It was great weather for a walk. I wore my Kolbs Dairy hoodie and it felt so nice to need a sweatshirt. Maddie wore a hooded jacket over her onesie. She had on cute little Old Navy sweatpants and of course shoes and socks. However, it wasn't quite enough I guess because I did get a few comments. Next time I'll pull out the ol' snowsuit. I also got some good advice on how my cell phone and wallet were going to get stolen. They were out in the open but some one would have to be pretty fast and bold to get them. However, it is common in some places to have your cell phone taken. Some how I just can't imagine the old ladies talking to me and Maddie while we waited for our breakfast to be cooked runn

I realized today that we've almost been in Wuhan for a month. We arrived on Sept. 2nd. It doesn't seem that long. But when I think back to that first night here and then our first full day it does seem awhile ago. We're all so much more comfortable now. My Wednesday mornings are going to get a lot more comfortable. I'm getting a cleaning lady! She'll come around 8:30am and stay until 12:30pm. Other coworkers here use her and they say she's a great worker and is also great with kids. She'll do whatever cleaning, laundry, or shopping I need done. I'm hoping it works out for her to watch Maddie some too during that time so that I can go out and do some shopping or just get out for awhile. The main reason I'm going to use her is because I just need a break. I shared with my coworkers today that every few days I have a meltdown. It's just that everything builds up and then I just feel so down and discouraged. There's a lot that contrib

Fireworks on a Monday night that go on for 45 minutes for whatever reason. Not just little fireworks but big huge fireworks that I can see from my 12th floor apartment half way across the city. It's so fun. Ladies that give Madeleine food. This morning as we went out for our morning walk an older lady that always talks to Maddie was coming home from shopping and she had 2 steamed buns. They're huge and she wanted to give one to Maddie. I kept refusing and she kept insisting. I finally took it and Maddie really liked it (I did, too). Later on the playground Maddie had all the food she could ever want as every grandmother there kept giving her little pieces of food. It's a good thing I'm not a germ freak! Again, Maddie loved it all. Chinese take-out. We've decided that we'll have Chinese food delivered on Sunday nights for supper. This great restaurant that the team often visits is just outside the apartment gates and they deliver as long as it's ov

We have cell phones. The cheapest phones I could find with Mandy. Mandy is the absolute queen of cell phones so it was pretty funny with me being the absolute moron of cell phones. I had to call her today to figure out how to turn it on. The last few days have been busy. Thursday - Maddie and I met Mandy at a mall that has a TCBY. TCBY was great except for the fact that Maddie started choking on a cracker and I had to do the ol' finger sweep to get it out. When we were leaving the shop Mandy said, "Maddies first time to eat at TCBY is in China." and I said, "It's also her first time to almost die in TCBY." Friday - Maddie stayed with Hope while Phil and I taught class. Class went well except that we were late because the taxi driver took us to the wrong church. After class Phil and I took advantage of having a sitter and we wondered the streets around the church. I bought a pair of pink tennis shoes for about 3 dollars. They are so cute the style r

Milk tea is this wonderful drink that's very popular in Taiwan and can be found in some areas of mainland China. It's cold and it's simply black tea made with sugar and milk. I'm not exactly sure if it's just regular sugar or sweetened condensed milk but it's fabulous. Phil's actually the biggest fan in our family but I really like it too. It comes with these little black "pearls" that are some kinda of gummy tapioca like stuff. I don't really know what they are but they're a little weird and don't really add to the drink so we usually request that they not be put in our tea. So there are at least 2 shops that sell milk tea near us. And the most important detail is that it's REALLY GOOD milk tea. We've had milk tea in other parts of China and it was not good so this is a really great thing. Maddie and I were out for a little shopping this afternoon and we bought 2 for Phil and me. I started telling the lady what I want

For all those who are biting their nails wondering if I got new dishes.....I didn't. There are several problems with getting the perfect dish. One, if you're me, you need enough time to look at every single dish and think of every single scenario that might involve that particular dish Two, you have to then look at the design and decide if you will love it for the rest of your life Three, you have to remember that you walked about a mile to the store with the stroller, you already have a crockpot, an iron, and you still need to buy food - how will you carry a 10 person set of dishes home? Fourth, you could always just come back later with Phil. So the saga continues and really there is no end in sight. We did get the cheese, meat, bread, and I'm very happy to have the crockpot. And the fact that I understood a lot of what the salesperson was telling me about the crock makes me almost as happy. It's amazing how much the salespeople know about their products. Pick up

Tonight was our 1st English class at the seminary. We have 2 classes with about 25 students in each. It went really well. It's too bad that Sharon, Jolene, and I can't always teach together because it was a lot of fun. We all went tonight just because we thought it would be the best way to start the 1st class. Phil has the beginners and they are definitely beginners. Our class is a nice mix of high beginners and intermediates. There are a few really high level students, too. So, I'll see them again on Friday. From what we were told Maddie did really well with the sitter. Her name is Theresa. She is a daughter of a Chinese coworker. She got a little nervous and called her mom to come over and help so they were both here when we got home. I'm not sure what made her nervous. We had asked her to give Madeleine a bath. Again, I'm not sure what she did but she told us that Maddie's shower was short because she didn't like the water. So I'm assum

Well this Sunday has proved to be much better than last. Last week we stayed for an hour and 10 mins. of the service and had to leave. Maddie just couldn't take anymore. She proved it by screaming for the entire taxi ride home from church. This week she made it all 2+ hours plus went out to eat afterwards. She wasn't very happy during lunch but she did very well. She fell asleep on my shoulder during the ride home and is still asleep (going on 2 hours now). There are rewards for putting up with a fussy baby long enough! Towards the end of service Maddie started making hen duo xiao pengyou (many little friends). I guess the children's services let out before ours did so several kids came into the adult service. They were all playing in the back where Maddie and I had drifted back to. Maddie loved it. She was cruising around the pews trying to keep up with one particular little girl that had given her a cookie. At one point I was talking to a young lady and while

I just have to share that Madeleine took her first steps tonight. It is such a precious little thing to watch. This evening we noticed that she was getting much more bold in her cruising around the living room furniture, going from couch to coffee table to chair to coffee table to couch. Then when I was with her in her room she cruised along the side of her bed and then took one step in order to reach her crib. Phil rushed in as I called him to see and then she did it again. As I told some friends earlier, I'm starting to understand why being a parent is so great. We just care for this little person so much and are so happy when she succeeds at any and every milestone. Ahhh....proud parent.

A couple really good days to tell about. Thursday, Mandy came over around 3pm and left at 7:30pm. She took a million pictures of Madeleine and Madeleine immediately loved her. In fact Mandy got to the apartment as Maddie was waking up and so Mandy went in the room with me to get her up. I picked her up and she looked at Mandy and then reached for her. Maddie knows what she's doing! The three of us went for a long walk along the river which is just across the street from our apartment complex. The city has a really nice park like design that runs for a long ways along the river. It has nice smooth sidewalks so we used Maddie's stroller. Phil was at home for supper and a coworker, Jolene, also joined us. Jolene and Phil went to an English Corner for the evening. Mandy is excited to spend as much time with us (Maddie) as possible and we're excited to have a babysitter that's available almost whenever we need her! Plus we really like Mandy. Friday, was a great day,

Today Madeleine and I went with Sharon to the fresh market. I wanted to show Sharon the cuts of meat that I buy. I can get pork loin for a little over a dollar per pound and beautiful chicken breast for less than a dollar a pound. Can't beat it! Sharon has been in China for a long time but she usually doesn't buy meat from the fresh markets. I'm really thankful that we spent almost 2 years in a small town in China, Ningxiang. It forced me to use the fresh markets and learn about meats. Here in Wuhan I could go to the big grocery store and buy all my meats on a nice clean tray and wrapped in plastic wrap. I'm sure I'll do that now that I have the opportunity but I still like using the fresh markets the best. I think it's the site of huge hunks of meat hanging on hooks that is overwhelming to us foreigners. I had Vivian in Ningxiang to teach me the different cuts of pork and how to ask for pork chops. Without her I don't know what meat we would have

I've struggled in this current move more than I anticipated. It's so different having a baby with us. I knew in my mind that it would be harder but there was no way to know exactly what that would mean. I've been reading other people's thoughts and thought it might help me to share my own. I'd like to use this space to share good and bad stuff. All just put out there to be processed by myself and others. Mainly myself. Today started off rough. I was excited to take Maddie to feed the fish that live in a man-made stream in the complex. We left with Phil as he headed to the office and we had our bag of bread. There were 3 other Chinese ladies and 2 kids already at the stream feeding fish. How nice I thought. Right away I regreted being there. All 3 ladies couldn't stop talking about how poorly Maddie was dressed. She had on a t-shirt and pants. I had actually forgotten about socks but it was a nice morning so no big deal. I don't know what they k