Alive and well...

No I am not sick, haven't fallen off the planet, been eaten by aliens, etc. etc.  I just had a long and busy week, but am truly sorry for those of you who have been waiting and checking for an update and were disappointed. :)  Mitchell was in San Jose this week, but by golly I survived! :)  It was a crazy week and we had a lot happening (and to be quite honest, I was exhausted!).  Henry is signed up for rugby, and two ASAs (after school activities) at ISB, Lego building and Sports Medley.  Addi is officially in dance class, or "ballerina school", and is loving every minute of it.  She has a couple of girls from her class at school in her dance class and that makes it amazingly exciting.  :) I had a meeting almost every day last week and poor Truman had to just come along.  I am doing my best to be extroverted, get involved and try to make this our home.  It has been a struggle, but I am making progress. :)

Some of the highlights of our week - I bought plants!!  Kristin took Nikki and I to the Beidong Flower Market and helped us negotiate a fantastic price!  Our house has really livened up with color and feels a lot more welcoming.  Mr. Ren got rear-ended in our minivan, it is currently at the "factory" getting fixed and we have a loaner car that looks exactly the same as the other one.  I met two expat families that live in our neighborhood!  Both from Indiana and both super nice.  The drain decided to stop working in the master bath room shower this week and flooded the bathroom floor while the kids were in the middle of a shower.  Good thing there is also a drain in the floor outside the shower! :)  

I somehow convinced Mitchell to take Friday off when he got home from his trip instead of going in to the office.  It was only fair since he did travel on the weekend to get to the US, right?!  That is how I justified it anyway, but he still took a vacation day...go figure.  We met Dan and Nikki for a lunch date (since the kids were in school) in The Village at a Japanese restaurant.  I forgot to write down the name, so for now it doesn't matter...however I will be going back to find out because it was a monumental day for me.  I had sushi!  Seriously, I am not kidding!!  Most of you are either laughing at me or not believing me, but I ate real raw fish, sushi and here is the kicker...I liked it. :)  I know I can hardly believe it myself!!  It was crazy.  It was fantastic to go on a date, especially in the middle of the day, and to try something new.  After lunch I somehow convinced Mitchell to go with me to IKEA and just grab a couple of things.  It turned out to be a nightmare for multiple reasons (one being that we bought a mattress for Addi's bottom bunk, had it delivered and when it got here realized we had ordered the wrong size).  Needless to say, Mitchell hates going to IKEA even more now...this is how he got over it...

Let it also be noted that he went to bed at 730pm that night and didn't get up until 230pm on Saturday.  What a dork!!

Truman had his first bottle of formula this weekend.  I had Mitchell buy a couple of tubs of Similac at Target while he was gone to experiment.  Truman is still nursing, but when there is too much going on around him he tends to not eat very well.  He totally loves the bottle and had no issues drinking formula.  It was hilarious, he was so excited that he could be sitting up and drinking at the same time.  He also had his first helping of re-fried beans, which he also liked. :)  He wants to be big so badly and eat everything we are, but doesn't quite have the chewing it up concept down yet.  We are working on it though!

He was so gross!! :)

The other big news of the week is that Adeline cut off 5 inches of her hair!  The kids had school pictures last week and I gave Henry a haircut and Addi asked me why I never did that for her.  After a long drawn out conversation about the difference between long and short hair, she decided that she wanted to try to cut her's shorter for a while.  I didn't want to do it at first, but knew it would grow out if she didn't like it so I didn't try to talk her out of it.  She liked it and then was bummed that no one at school noticed.  She is now ready for it to grow back out...and the never ending cycle starts already! :)

I am sure I have more to share with you from last week, but will have to add them a different day.  I promise I will get pictures of our house and neighborhood uploaded soon.  It is taking a crazy long time making them smaller and then uploading them.  I am working on it though!  I hope you are all doing well!!  We miss you dearly!

Things I miss the most - our family in Iowa.  It was a lot easier when we were in Colorado and I could talk to you all whenever I wanted.  Our phone still works, but the time difference is so hard!

Things I like about China - other expat families.  Everyone works together and can relate to you.