Thanks for asking . . .

We have had several requests for suggestions on good christmas gifts to send for our family . . . and well, I have just recently discovered that the wide world of AMAZON.COM is way more than just books (which is what I have always used it for). They have a magical little button to push and it catalogs all the fun things you find and like . . . and then easy as pie, you can post that magic little button on your website or blog. We have already set the shipping address for our US address in Florida, so everything will be sent directly there and collected by our dear friend Kathy who will again be blessing us with a visit this Christmas!

Really, thank you all for thinking of us, we are so humbled and blessed by your love!

Rachel "Chuckin a Sickie" with Daddy

How sweet is this? Except for the projectile vomit and fever that came with it . . . pretty stinking sweet! And we are continually learning both Chinese and Australian . . . this blog features our newest Australian vocabulary "chuckin' a sickie". Yep, that's Australian for "playin' hookie" . . . but I guess it's not really hookie if you are really sick, huh? Ah, well, first you learn the vocab, then you learn to use it in context...right?

A New Wall for Mommy!

Finally. One year and three months in. I have color in my home . . . not just curtains, bed covers and such, but I have bonifide COLOR on my walls! This may be small to many of you (and a little slow to some of our friends here in China) however, both cities we have lived in it has been some kind of strange alien-like desire to want to have color on your walls...so we did it. We went to "paint street" we looked at the colors, we said I like this one, they said, it's not very pretty, so I said I like it anyway, it matches my room, they said it's not very pretty for a wall, and I said I'll take a whole can of it.

It's a little more "burgandy" than I had hoped, less "ruby" but it's nice. It's colorful. It's warm. And it makes our big living room with with wood floors and a HUGE entertainment center/wall look much cozier.

Cozier home, happier mom....and all is right in our world.

What'dya think? (If you say it's not a good color for a wall, save it, I've heard it before!) ;)