Busy, Busy, Busy

A week already since my last post! So busy, I've not been able to keep up!

Monday I started volunteering at Sophie's school. This will be a weekly thing and I'm loving it already! I am working with Sophie's class and I do reading with the kids or help them practice their key words.  Repitition, repitition, repitition. I'm there for an hour and there's a class list of who's read to the teacher or another parent last. I call a child out of the room, we go pick out a book and they read it to me. I help them sound out words that are hard for them then record the book and how they did in their literacy manual. Then call the next one and repeat.
When I do words with them it's a bit different. Each child has a pile of key words that they practice over and over. It gets to be that they can just see the word and say it without thinking. Each week they get a few new words added to their pile. It's brilliant and it really works. However, it doesn't always translate into being able to read the words in a book. For instance, Sophie has "like" as one of her key words and she knows it instantly. But, if she sees it in a book, she rarely knows it. It's weird.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun spending time with her classmates, getting to know them and work with them. I'm really looking forward to it again tomorrow!
After school, I quick rode my bike to the store for a few things, ran to the gym for pilates, ran home to get Coop from the driver, lunch for us, play time, nap, Soph off the bus, home to make dinner, baths and bed! Cooper was so cute when he got up from nap that day. He was so relaxed and looked so comfy- I ran and got the camera to capture it-

Oh, my sweet boy.

Tuesday was a rainy, miserably cold day. My buddy, Liz, and I shared a cab to the RT Mart for our basic groceries. I was still in need of other, more Western, things so I strapped on my rain gear and headed out in the rain on my bike to the City Shop. This is the annoyance of shopping here. There are 4 main ways of getting your shopping done, none of them have everything you need, so you're going to various stores 4-5 times a week. I never knew how great I had it with Meijer!!! After that trek out I had a nice hot cup of tea milk (I don't really know what it's made of, but it's creamy and tasty- kind of like a tea latte) and hunkered inside for the rest of the day.

Wednesday was running then Bible Study. After school I brought Sophie to the hairdresser at the clubhouse. She's been needing a cut for sooo long. As always, she loved every minute of attention. One man cut her hair, complimenting her the whole time on how beautiful her hair is. Then another one dried it, also complimenting her on the wonderful color. Oh, she just drunk it in. :)

Thursday- I don't even remember what I did- that's how boring it was. :)

Friday was really nice because Laura and I went to Ikea!! Woo Hoo!! Funny how even here a trip to Ikea brings such joy. Bath mats and end tables and a kid's easel and a swing for Coop. A few frames and a pic for Soph's room. So. Much. Fun. I spent that afternoon putting things together and making this place even more like home.
That night we had Liz and gang over for pizza then Laura's gang headed over here to hang out and the women went out for a bit! A much lower key night than the last night we went out. :) Still very fun and nice to have the time to just chat. :)

On Saturday Ben headed out to find wood to make the support structure for Coop's swing. He was gone for about 4 hours and came home with a circular saw and an electric drill. Hmmm...  :)  But then he explained the wood was being delivered Sunday.
That night we had our first date night! 2 months here and we finally go out- to the clubhouse. :) Hey, it's a start! Tai Ping came over at 730 (so, yes, the kids were in bed within 30 min) and we headed to the clubhouse for a trivia night. We were invited by a really nice couple from Minnesota/North Dakota, Matt and Jodi, and some Wisconsinites were also on our team (Brenda and Bob). There were 12 teams, 9 themes, about 10-15 questions per theme. It was intense!! :) We actually did come in 4th overall and had a really fun time!

Sunday proved to be another cold and wet day. Church was good and then we headed home so I could head out to an afternoon tea with some friends at the Woldorf Astoria. Sounds fancy, right? See, a group of women from the website, Shanghai Mommas, gets together once a month at different hotels for an afternoon tea. This was my first one! We had a lovely time and ate way too many sweets. :)

So here I am on another Sunday night. The weeks are going by faster and faster. Sophie and Cooper are off school on Thursday and Friday so we are heading out to Moganshan with 5 other families for a long weekend. I'll be taking the kids by train along with Liz and her kiddos and meeting the other ladies and their families there. The boys are all coming out Friday night after work. It's about 2 hours away and in the mountains. Supposedly much cleaner air and very beautiful. I'll be sure to post lots of pics!

Prayer Requests:
-safety for travel to Moganshan on Thursday and home Sunday, and that Cooper would do well on the train ride (usually he's a squirmy mess and gets very frustrated and whiny).

-safety for Ben's travel for when he joins us.

-Praise for more nights of solid sleep! Cooper is having more good night than bad lately and it shows! He's learning more in school and overall just a happier kid. Yay! :)

Ok, must go to sleep! 6 am comes sooooo quickly!
God bless and we miss you!!