Mandarin Star of the Week!

Man, it's almost been a week since I've been on here! Such a slacker, I apologize. :) Honestly, the reason I've not posted is simple- we've had a very boring week! Yay!! Boring means routine is here and schedules are normal and life is good. I like boring. :)

This is our last week with our driver, Andy, as well. Ben started with his new carpool on Monday and they haven't kicked him out yet so I guess it's going all right. :) Cooper will start with his van on the 6th. The school is coming to pick him up and bring him home. I'm a bit nervous about this but the driver and ayi in the van are from his school so it helps a bit. It'll be fine, I'm sure. I'm just so so so protective of him...

Ok, so back to the driver thing. Like I said, this is our last week with him so I have been trying to go everywhere I need to getting things for our new place- pots, pans, etc. This way I won't have to try and load it all onto my bike in a week and bike it home. :)

On Monday I was at the Carrefour (like Meijer on crack) and I was trying to choose fry pans and a wok. There are about 50 kinds of woks and you can spend anywhere from $10 to $200 on one. I've already learned that getting the cheapest is not the right choice so after 30 minutes of looking, having no idea the difference between them all, I chose one and picked a seperate lid. Feeling happy with my cheap, but not cheapest, choice I started to walk away when a really old Chinese man came up to me. He pointed at my wok and shook his head. Uh oh. Then he shuffled to the woks, pointed at one that already came with a lid (and was a bit cheaper than the one I'd chosen), and nodded. Then walked away. Seriously. So what did I do, you ask? I put away my wok and bought the one he "told" me to. Here's hoping it works well and he's not sitting at home laughing at the silly white woman who did what he said... :)

On Tuesday my Brit friend, Liz, and I went to the Textile Market to have some linens made. For some reason I couldn't find fitted sheets at Ikea over the weekend so I wanted to get some made. Liz got a duvet cover, 4 pillow cases and 3 fitted sheets all for less than $100!! I got my 2 fitted sheets and now tomorrow I have to go pick them up. That place is just ridiculous. 3 stories of booths. It's all in this huge warehouse- probably the size of Michigan Stadium. Just huge. And all these tiny booths filled with Chinese people trying to sell you linens they've made or can make you, clothes they can make you, shoes, household goods, drapes, you name it. Its dingy and freezing cold (the government has control over who gets heat when) and a bit sad. But the things they make are beautiful and I was happy to buy from them bc a) it's cheaper than Ikea and b) It helps provide income for them.

Wednesday I went to coffee at Starbucks with friends! Yeah, baby! This is what I should be doing every day, right? Going to the spa, going to coffee... yeah, I wish. :) It was really nice, though.

Today I treked back to Ikea. It took us 45 min to get there from Coop's school but we got there by 920. Sweet, gives me an hour and a half to walk thru and get stuff for the new place. Oh wait, it doesn't open until 10. Ugh!! I hung out at their cafe until 10 then literally ran thru the place grabbing all the things I could find easily, made it to the car by 1050 and barely made it back to his school by 1130 to pick him up. I think I may actually like not having a driver bc it will force me to stay home more and then I can go have coffee more... :)

Today Soph came home from school beaming. Out of her backpack she pulls this:

Fantastic, right?
I'm sure they hand these types of things out every week and to every student but this was the first time she's ever received one. She goes, "Mom! I got a certificate today!" It was really quite cute! She was so proud and we are proud of her as well. A certificate for Mandarin?? I still haven't learned anything new and she's getting certificates for it! We hung it up and then got a picture with it-

Tonight while laying in bed we talked about how she was doing here. She said that she missed her friends and family at home but that she liked it here. We talked about her friends here and how it will be fun to go back to Michigan in the summer and play with everyone there and then come back here and see her friends here again. We talked about how once we move back to Michigan for good we may not be able to see some of these friends again and so we should enjoy the time we have with them now. She said she loves her friends here and likes it here. I think we're turning a corner!

I've joined a Bible study that starts on Wednesday. It has several women that go to the local church we attend and it's in the neighborhood right next to our development! Yay! I'm excited to start and look forward to getting back into studying the Bible.

Ok, off to bed. Ben has been on the phone with our insurance company for over 2 hours bc of bills they're not paying for some services for Cooper. I hate hate hate dealing with insurance companies. They will do ANYTHING to not have to pay something!!! Like we need this. ugh.

Prayer Requests:
-We're still waiting to hear on the house. Maybe this is good, maybe not. At this point we'd just like an answer so we can move on one way or another.
-Pray that Cooper's transition to riding in the van goes well and he is calm and it all works out.
-Give praise that we are all healthy and feeling like our feet are on solid ground and that we found a close church, a Bible study and good friends! God is good- all the time, God is good!

I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy. The weather seems to be kind to my Michigan peeps- lucky dogs. Figures the one winter that is warm I move to China and it's freezing here!

God bless and we'll chat again soon!