Tuesday, January 10, 2012

So much has happened in the last week.  We moved into our house on Saturday, Dec. 31st.  The rental furniture arrived, and we started to feel at home.  Most of the stuff is great, except the beds.   Several people warned us that the mattresses were terrible and to bring our own.  They were NOT kidding!  It feels like a sheet of plywood covered with a bed sheet.  Adding several layers of blankets under the sheet hasn't seemed to help much.  Thus, we are counting down the weeks until our 'real' beds arrive!  Apparently our sea shipment hasn't left the US yet, so we have a lot of counting to do.

Our neighborhood is awesome.  Everyone is SO nice and willing to help in any way.  There are several fellow Spartans here, and a few wolverines too.  Not much rivalry here.  If you're a westerner, you're instantly great friends.  If you're an American, you're family!  We met an American at lunch the other day sitting at the booth next to us.  She took my email and has already contacted me.  I even ran into her at one of the local grocery stores.  It truly is like living in a bubble. 

There are a TON of kids in our neighborhood, and on our street.  The kids have already had play dates with several more planned.  One of our neighbors invited us to church with them.  It was great!  The pastor is from Ohio, and gave a great sermon on prayer.  The children's program is wonderful.  The kids all loved it!  Hannah's class had oreos, so there won't be an issue of getting her to go back.  Our neighbors even host a small group every other Friday, with the kids gathering in the basement to play.  It's just like our small group back home!  We feel very blessed to find a great church and small group so quickly.  Definitely an answer to prayer!!

The kids started school on the 4th.  They absolutely LOVE it!  They go to the British International School of Shanghai (BISS).  The uniforms are great!  It's cut the morning complaint session in half.  Even Drew likes wearing his 'fancy' new dress pants and shoes. Ford is the major sponsor of the school, so all of the buses are made by Ford.  This makes Ed very happy!   I was able to ride it with them on their first day.  These are not typical buses.  The seats recline and all have seat belts.  They are definitely riding in style! 

Drews favorite subject is recess, which they have 3 times each day.  He plays soccer each time with his new best friend, Andrew, and other classmates.  As part of the PE program, they have swimming.  Drew started yesterday and said it was the best day at school in his entire life!  Obviously he is easy to please!  Grace loves everything about school.  She has already made a ton of friends and said the hardest thing about school is deciding which friend to sit next to at lunch!  I received an email from her Mandarin teacher stating that even though she was starting out a semester behind her classmates, she has almost caught up after just 4 days!  We're very glad she is doing well, because she won't find much help from us!!  She has her first field trip tomorrow to explore the surrounding area, and another one to a museum next week.  She is very excited! 

Hannah is very happy to have a semester off and explore the city with me.  Each day we go to a different store and see what they have to offer.  No matter where we go, Hannah finds the candy!  She has yet to find one she doesn't like.  There is a mommy and me group in our neighborhood on Fridays and one at BISS on Thursdays.  We are going to check both of them out this week. 

Nick is doing well.  He's still a bit off on his time schedule.  He likes to wake up at 5am, but I don't mind.  My back is just about done with the mattress by then anyway.  He is a BIG hit with all of the Chinese.  I can't go anywhere without people stopping to say hi.  He loves flashing his baby blues and smiling at anyone who looks his way.  He's turned into quite the charmer.  He loves eating his baby food.  So much so that he screams when it's gone.  I've had to increase his food to 4 jars a day.  He would love more, but I have a limited supply.  I guess I'll be stocking up again when we come back this summer.

I'm very excited about today.  My friend is taking me to a store called The Metro, which is like a Costco.  I've been having Costco withdrawal, so I'm hoping this will fill the void.  Buying bulk has never been so exciting.  I'll let you all know what I find!