It's Too Quiet Here!!

This house is way too quiet without my El and Eens here! Coop and I pretty much just sit and look at each other and try to decide what to do next!! Coop has never had to play by himself, so it is almost like he is a first child and I am trying to entertain him! I'm pretty sure he is not overly impressed with my attempts!! Today we did go on a nice long walk along one of the 9 rivers here in Tianjin! It was very peaceful. There were quite a few gentlemen fishing (I'm not sure I would recommend eating anything they caught - the water looks a bit green!), women doing tai chi, a man practicing the flute, and lots of pretty flowers. I forgot my camera today, but I'm sure this walk may become part of our routine so next time I'll take some pictures! Coop also started his Gymboree classes today - he did great!! He will be doing a gym class and a music class there! I'm almost positive he will enjoy the music class after listening to him sing at the top of his lungs into his "microphone", aka straw, this morning at breakfast!! We both enjoyed ourselves and were also impressed that the teachers spoke both Mandarin and English throughout the entire class!!

I wrote a while back on some quality issues that have come up while we have been here in China. I just wanted to update you that we now have a huge hole beside our house covered by old doors. The problem was that we would only occassionally have hot showers! I absolutely love a nice long hot, hot shower so this has been difficult for me to deal with. At first I kept reminding myself that Jeannie had lukewarm water in Russia and she made it almost 3 years, but last Saturday I was going to wash a few dishes (I don't have enough to wait for ayi to come on Monday!) and the water was freezing. I called Grace at home and she sent an "engineer" over. Well, as they have done 8 times before, he turned on the water and waited for 30 MINUTES until it was a little bit warmer and claimed it was fixed!!! He did nothing!!!! Dan had had it also by this point, so he called Grace and had a heart to heart that went something like, if it isn't fixed in a week, we're moving. (I'm not sure where we were moving, but somewhere apparently!) So Monday morning, we hear banging outside. I go outside to find the "engineers" digging a hole to put in a temporary water heater!! So that is how we ended up with a huge hole on the side of our house! The good news is, my showers have been hotter!

On a different note, I have to say that watching Sarah Palin give her speech yesterday made me proud to be an American. I think she is a fantastic speaker and she handled herself with such dignity in the midst of being criticized so heavily by the media. I believe that John McCain made the race to the White House a little more of a contest by choosing her! Regardless of the outcome, I keep telling myself over and over how fortunate we are to live in a free country that is run as a democracy! A far cry from what the citizens here are accustomed too. As I cast my absentee ballot this November (or whenever I'm allowed to), I will be thankful that I have a voice in our great country!!

Coop and I are off to wait for El and Eens at the bus stop! If you could please pray for safe travels for Danny as he travels back to the US tomorrow we would appreciate it. He will be in Atlanta for a week of meetings. A prayer for my sanity while he is away would also be greatly appreciated!! Love to you all!!