Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!!
It is a bit strange to think it is Thanksgiving already. It is not talked about much and we have to work the whole week. Oh yeah, we are in China. I have parent teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday we have a staff development day. We will be thinking of all of you.

Tonight we had the first of our Thanksgiving meals. The families from school and campus village had a potluck. It was fun to try new food and see more people. It has been cold so we all stay in the house these days. Thursday night the teachers are being treated to a Thanksgiving Feast and then on Sunday the staff is having a potluck meal. Sounds like the year we tried to make everyone happy and had thanksgiving at 3 houses in one day. OH that was fun

Doug is recovering from a cold. Last week he had this cold and he had no voice. We whispered a lot. He said he found his students doing the same. Now his voice is back and he found out today that he has an ear infection. We are thankful for the Medical Clinic here on campus.

This week has been fun learning new things. When you can’t get stuff here you take things into your own hands. I made my own ricotta cheese, sour cream, and ice cream. What’s next?? Stay tuned.

Matthew and Isaac performed during community time last Friday. The first graders performed a skit on Nutrition. It was so cute. Isaac’s class signed the ABC’s. They also have learned some new jokes so watch out. They have been sharing them with everyone on Skype. We are thankful for SKYPE.
We will post pictures soon.

We miss and love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Bitter SWEET

Hey this package was open. Hmmm Jenna?? Tonya??? MOMMY (heheh)



Getting packages around here is a VERY special event. I like to bother the guard about packages. I am always teasing him about is there one for me. He just laughs at me. Well today we got TWO packages. One from Grandma Eggs and Grandpa John and from the Withers. Wow what a treat.

Grandma Egg's (my mom) package had jello coming out of it. Yes the guard was worried at first and then I had to explain that it was flavored sugar. I am sure he is still wondering what it was. Thank you grandma for ALL the amazing things. We love you!!!

Then we got one from the Wither's Family. Chocolate Chips, M & M's , prius car (WAY COOL), BBQ sauce our favorite, Legos and so much more. Did I say I even got Fiber One bars. YUMMY. The boys were so excited they could hardly stand it. I say bitter sweet because we were so excited but then we were so sad. We miss you all very much.

Thank you for thinking of us and making our WEEK!!!

Move-a-Thon

Pumpkins in China

Halloween Night

Exciting day for our school, we had our first move-a-thon to celebrate the opening of our new track. The track is beautiful. We were able to see most of the process. It was fun to see the cement being poured and then the artificial grass being put down. We are so excited to be able to have a place to play soccer and baseball. So today was the Move-a-Thon, student went and got pledges and off we went. The money raised will go towards a backpack project for local Chinese students. Well the weather here is a bit chilly. It was 30 F for most of the day. That was NOT including the wind chill. That wind is nasty cold. So we all bundled up and off we went. The boys went around for an hour in the morning and then another hour in the afternoon. We moved inside to walk the halls due to how cold it was. Some of the students walked outside the whole time. I was happy to go and supervise the kids inside. Isaac walked around 29 times and Matthew 26 times. They were so excited. I am glad I only pledged a flat rate. We are all a bit tired from the event so it is movie night in the Smith household.

We found that a local restaurant/store will sell us their pizza dough. We were so happy to make our own pizza. The pizza here in china is a bit strange. Sometimes it has strange things on it like or it has so much cheese that your arteries start to harden just by looking at it. I learned how to make Italian sausage and we found some pepperoni. We were all so happy.

Last week Doug was working on report cards and then ended that fun with Parent Conferences. They went really well and he had 39 out of 41 students and parents show. This week I am working on report cards and when you’re celebrating Thanksgiving I will be having parent- teacher conferences. Strange but true, the crazy thing for me is that I am use to doing 22 report cards and comments and now I am doing about 90 of them. My goal is to finish them this weekend (I better they are due on Tuesday).
We are also planning our next adventure of Christmas break… stay tuned for that adventure.

I will post pictures of the track this week :)

Halloween Surprises

Halloween is a huge event here at Campus Village and at school. We started the celebration at 1:30 and it ended at 8:00 p.m. WOW

We all dressed up. It was a lot of fun. Doug shocked everyone. I have know him for 14 years and I have never seen him with out a beard... until yesterday. He made an amazing Einstein.

Matthew was a skeleton and Isaac was a vampire. They had so much fun going to all the homes. There was a big party with tons of games at Campus Village. The kids got to eat "spooky" food for dinner. The Cafe did a great job with that.

I was a crazy scientist and I helped out in the classrooms for the afternoon. That was a special treat.

We are going to carve pumpkins tonight with our friends. Try finding pumpkins in China. There is a farmer who lives close to school and he grows them for the school. I am sure the Chinese people think we are really crazy.

A taste of HOME

Oh how nice it was to get our 24 boxes. :) Now we have warm clothes and new shoes. Well I did not pack new shoes for myself. Oh well June will come soon right ;)

The boys were outside when the shipment came and Matthew saw the truck. Two fists in the air screaming "Our Shipment" He was so excited. He helped us load the boxes into the condos. It was overwhelming. Then a half hour later Isaac heard the news and came into the house. He ran to his room and started unpacking. All I could here was happy sounds and he was talking to everything. Then the sad part. He asked me where cookie monster was. Well cookie monster did not make the cut and is back in Stanwood. OH MY!!! Alligator tears and all. I told him I would talk to Boppa and Grandma and see if they could go and find him.

Doug and I laughed at some of the things we packed and wondered what we were thinking for not packing other things. I had to remind myself that when we packed our stuff we were thinking what would make the boys more comfortable. :)

I am too tired to post pictures but I will do it tomorrow.


Still more to unpack.......

Great Things

Today we got two packages!! Thank you Grandma Eggs and Grandpa John AND Poppa and Grandma Marilyn.

We were all so excited. We even found stuff packed in the shoe's toes.. Your amazing.


The other great news is TOMORROW we SHOULD get our shipment. If you hear screaming it is the Smith family in China. We are so excited. We really would like our shoes and warm clothes.

I will post more when it actually happens.


More to come (I HOPE)

Pictures