Go US!

Yes, we are living in China, but totally cheering for the US in the Olympics!! At least I am, I'm not so sure about my dear husband!! If you don't want to know the results of the gymanstics tonight, you should stop reading now!! It is so funny how nervous I was watching Shawn Johnson perform tonight! I think I even had butterflies in my stomach for her!! And then, when she won the gold, I cried - I was so happy, I think I could cry just thinking about it!! Yeah, Shawn!! She appears to be such a grounded individual and I admire the brave faces and smiles she puts on even when she most likely would rather be crying. She is a fantastic representative for the US and such a positive role model for young girls!

All of the preliminary soccer matches are finished in Tianjin now, so the city is getting back to normal! We are thankful that we now have full access to the Sheraton. It was serving as the "Olympic village" while the soccer players were in town. There was a huge green gate put around it and guards about every 5 feet, no joke! We have been able to swim and workout again. We also enjoyed the delicious breakfast on Sunday. Ellie ate about 4 plates full of food. She is already asking when we can go back! I think that may be part of our Sunday morning routine before church!!

We enjoyed another lunch with Jennifer and Kevin after church. They have truly been so helpful and welcoming to us. They have introduced us to a new restaurant every week and we love trying the different foods and giggling about our weeks! This week we had to admit to them that both Danny and I forgot our anniversary! I am so dependent on my calendar and it is not hanging yet, so yep, I forgot our 9 year anniversary. We'll make up for it next year when we celebrate our 10 year!!

The "engineers" started painting our house yesterday. I love not having white walls!! I had them paint some of El's room pink (of course!), Eens and Coop have a blue wall with yellow (Eense insisted on yellow somewhere) roads soon to come, our dining room is an olive green (maybe a tone lighter), the kitchen is yellow (nice and cheery), our bedroom is cream (kind of boring!), and the living room will have one red wall!! I also had a gentleman come over yesterday to measure my family room for a custom made rug. I figured he would make me choose from his patterns, but oh no, I got to pick a pattern and then choose all of the colors I wanted to be on it. Here is the kicker, it is a huge rug that covers almost my entire family room, it will be made by HAND, and it is less than $1,000. This will definitely be something we will bring back with us!!

Danny had the day off today because the government decided that on Tuesdays due to the Olympics and summer heat, that they would turn off partial power for his factory. Without power, it is very difficult to make tractors, so he stayed home and did a little work! He also played with us! We went to Nanjing Lu shopping and took the kids to lunch! We bought Starbucks mugs from Tianjin and spent $15 on a bag of coffee(I'll be shoving a lot of that in my suitcase when we come home in September!). I also got some big sunglasses to feel cool and please my dear brother-in-law Michel!! It is amazing how much better we are getting around after only 3 weeks! We only had one strange, unexplainable event happen. We found Cold Stone finally and we ordered the kids ice cream. They put the cotton candy ice cream on the stone and then I pointed to sprinkles for the add in. She put the sprinkles in and then she also added some cake and blueberries!!! I just stood there wondering what went wrong!! The kids ate it because it was ice cream, but I personally thought it looked disgusting!!!

After shopping downtown, we brought the kids back and they stayed with ayi while Danny and I ventured to the flower and silk market with Grace. We found beautiful lillies at the flower market! I was able to buy the vase and 7 lillies for about $7. I love competition! At the silk market I was looking for fabric to make curtains for El and the boy's rooms. I found fabric quickly because there were five floors of stores to choose from! Then, for about $20 I bought the fabric and Grace talked them into making the curtains right then!! Danny also found a dragon figurine that is a bit scary, but he is quite pleased with it!

I must begin practicing my Chinese. My teacher gave me a ton of homework and I don't want to disappoint her!!