Update - with a few random pictures

I am getting worse at this writing time, but this time I have a good excuse. For the past week, I have been Ayi Morgan...not so fun. Feel bad for me, I know, but things here in China just take forever. The smallest trip to the grocery store for just a few things often takes over 2 hours. We don't have a dish washer, other than me, and we cook most things from scratch. The amount of dishes we use in one day is enormous. Plus, I must run the washer and dryer most of the day, or I get behind on my laundry. The washer is tiny and then the dryer takes nearly 2 hours to complete a load. We fired our Ayi last Friday, it just wasn't working out. She preferred to take a nap or watch TV for nearly half the time she was at our house. Which was fine, if there wasn't any thing else to do, but there was. We didn't search very hard this week, as it was nice to be the only people in our house. A neighbor Ayi had a friend she recommended and she starts tomorrow. We interviewed her and she seemed okay, we will give her a week to see if it will work out. I am happy about not doing dishes, but not looking forward to explaining everything again....how to separate the laundry, how to wash your hands after you touch raw meat, etc. So a new week
Tally started nursery at church last week because as Tim and I have been teaching the 3 year olds, we couldn't do it with her. She only fussed for a few minutes then I am sure she enjoyed the toys and Adayla was there to keep tabs on her. Today Adayla in churched looked back and saw an older gentleman sitting near the back row. She got very excited and said, “Gramps!!” She then smiled and tried to wave to get his attention. I had to sadly tell her that it wasn't him. I think it is cute she is looking/hoping to see her family here in China. She has some good people though here in China. One of the lady's that we go to church with is here with just her husband. Her kids all are grown and has a few grandkids of her own. Adayla has really taken a liking to her. Last week she was sitting in the living room playing and she said to Tim, “You know Ms Jeanine, she is beautiful.” Her little face lights up when she sees her. Today Ms Jeanine brought her a present, some homemade playdough. We played with it when we got home and she loves it.
Tim had his first weekend of classes, I will let him fill you in on that.
Adayla on the other hand wanted to take a nap at school on Tuesday with the other kids. We told her that next time she could. So on Thursday, she stayed the entire day at school. She took a nap like the other kids and finished her lunch after her nap. When she is hungry she will eat. She will tell you, I like my school. She also has started singing her Chinese songs. It is quite cute. They also play some kind of train game where they all hold on to each other and say, “Katzi”. She comes home and grabs Tally and tries to get her to play.

Josie is continuing to adjust. She is quite venturesome, now all we need to find her is some more friends. I mean Tim, I, and the girls are fun, but I think she needs some cool people to hang out with. She started Chinese with our tutor for a ½ hour at a time. Just a bit of understanding of the language makes a big difference.
Beware of the mosquitos in China, poor Tally is highly allergic to them. She gets one and it looks like a regular mosquito bite, but about 24 hours later it is a swollen mess. Here is a picture of her yesterday morning. She had a bite on her temple and it did this to her eye. (Either that or all the rice is causing her to have one Chinese eye!)
Adayla is my little mess maker, I know when it is quiet, I am in trouble.
The other day, I used the bathroom and noticed the seat seemed to be a bit
wet. I then washed my hands and when I picked up the towel to dry them, the towel was soaking wet. Adayla,why is the towel wet? I put it in the toilet. This morning, mom I helped you do laundry. I put stuff in the washer and the dryer. Ok thanks! Later I washed some sheets, when I put them in the washer I noticed a
scoop of soap already in there. Oh well, and started the washer. When I went to put the sheets in the dryer I noticed more than just a scoop in the dryer. She had dumped an entire container of oxy clean in there along with quite a few scoops of tide. I think I yelled a little bit then. She truly just wants to help and I need to remember that. She is quick to help me clean up or cook. They are growing up and getting big too fast. I won't let them ever to big to let me hold them as they sit on my lap!
The weather has cooled off here, the days are quite nice. We venture out day or night and it is quite nice. Our favorite here is a little vegetable and a fruit store that we visit quite regularly. The girls enjoy going and I enjoy visiting with the locals. Some vendors also sell fish and meat, but we prefer just to buy vegetables and fruit. We just are very careful to wash and peel the fruit. The vegetables we mostly wash and cooked, but we do sneak in an occasionally salad. As for most of the rest of our food, we buy at the local supermarkets. We have discovered the import market and have found a few foods there that are quite comforting. My most recent favorite, sandwich meat!!!
We are looking forward to Chinese New Year, we have had a very small taste of the fireworks. Twice a day, there is someone shooting them off. It may be 7 in the morning or 10:30 at night. I guess I am glad that in the states there are some restrictions on them. But that is nothing compared to the sound of construction, which is all night long. They are building a tunnel underneath the river using the road right next to our building. They work 24 hours a day, banging, pounding, and blowing up things. Tim said it is just another fond memory of our time her in Shanghai. As I wrote this, some neighbors from a neighboring complex were shooting of fireworks from their balcony.
I have decided that Tim, no matter how busy he is, he will always make time for keeping up on college football. He is in full swing these days. Here are some of his latest reports, for those who don't quite keep up.
What a WAC-ky week. Here's what we learned:Utah isn't a bad as everyone thoughtBYU isn't as good as everyone thoughtAnd nobody knows what to think of Air ForceAs much as the Mountain West tries to paint itself as the best non-BCS conference, this week proved otherwise:MWC vs WAC teams: 0-2 - Boise State beat Wyo, Hawaii beat UNLVMWC vs former WAC team: 0-1 - Tulsa over BYUThe conference has only one win over a ranked opponent this year.Starting with this week's stars: Utah, can you say WOW!Talk about adversity, the Utes started the season 0-2, and lost five of its top players to long-term injuries. But the Utes were able to put this all aside and execute a perfect game to blow out the #11 UCLA Bruins, the same UCLA team that beat BYU last week.Runner up for this week's stars: Air ForceAFA's win over TCU has already been discussed. They are definitely the surprise team thus far in the season.Wyo @ Boise State - kind of expected this (reference below) with Boise State coming off a loss at Washington. Despite the loss, it looks like Wyo will still have a significant impact on the conference this year.This week's disappointment: BYU With lowly New Mexico beating Arizona this week and Utah thumping UCLA, BYU's only win over Arizona looks weaker and their loss to UCLA, while a good showing, also looks weaker. But this loss to Tulsa is going to hurt for a long time. BYU needs to figure out how it allowed Tulsa to light up the scoreboard. I think ESPN must be embarrassed for naming BYU's defense one of the top 10 defenses in college football.This week's biggest disappointment: the Oklahoma relatives That one BYU alum and one former BYU student, both living in Oklahoma, had nothing to say about their team being in Oklahoma. I'm sure the many people from the stake went to the football game - Brigham & Shayla, where are you?
The week ahead:Air Force @ BYU - always the game of the year!Wyoming @ Ohio (C & B, who's going to win this one?)#3 Oklahoma @ Tulsa - will be interesting to see how bad BYU's loss really isA preview on those games will come later this week, along with a proof of the theory of transitivity...Have a great week college football fans!

Other than that, we are mostly into a routine. The girls are comfortable here. Adayla has started speaking Adaylanese. When she feels like it, she responds in a mumble of words, especially when the Chinese on the streets talk to her. It is not English and not Chinese. Tally on the other hand will hide completely in the stroller and just keep her face away. I just let them do their thing and move on.
Josie, the girls, and I have found some time to make it to the local markets. Josie has learned to bargain and I like practicing my Chinese. It is fun to relax and have a good time. She has bought a new coat, a back pack, a new purse, a few watches, and several pair of sunglasses. I am finding that there are plenty of shoes here, if you wear a size 8 or below. I am an 8 ½ and I just don't like to squeeze my feet into shoes. The funny thing is that some of Chinese girls here have feet my size or bigger. They have there toes hanging off their shoes. I guess that is fine in the summer, but what do they do in the winter?
Tuesday night, we head to watch the Americans in the World Cup play Nigeria. It should be lots of fun, we'll post later!