It’s late and I have no idea what I’m going to write about tonight, but this new website keeps blocking me out of my blog page, and since I have the opportunity, I thought I would catch everyone up…
1st day of school… Tomorrow is the first day of school and Matt will be waking up bright and early, putting on his school clothes, and I’m sure I’ll be pushing him out the door with breakfast in his hand at 10 til 8. He’ll have class 16 hours a week and I will be hanging out at our pad with Gracie. We were not successful in finding a babysitter so that I could begin classes, but we did find a tutor who will come to our home and teach me 3-4 days a week. We haven’t nailed down my schedule yet, but we’ll start class later this week. Our friend Naomi is going to come over and try the babysitting thing out. She doesn’t have any children and is a little nervous about being responsible for our little bundle of joy, but she is willing to see how it goes, and I’ve promised to show her the ropes. I’m confident that she will do a great job. She really loves Grace and seems very comfortable around her when she visits. I’ll never be more than one room away, so I guess nothing too much can happen that I can’t help her handle.
Our vacation…. was GREAT! We went to Yangshuo, a suburb of Guilin, which is famous in China. It is also a tourist trap, but we were thankful for all the Western food and street vendor who catored to our foreign needs. We ate burritos and pizza and french fries and apple pie…yummy. We also woke up to a beautiful sunrise coming up over the mountains, and were able to enjoy it from our balcony. We had the best view from our 5th floor hotel room, and that made walking up and down those stairs every day well worth effort. Check out the photo!
We took this boat ride down the river to enjoy the scenery and had some unexpected side trips along the way. At one point we were all told to get off the boat, and the driver hurriedly pulled back out into the river leaving us all on the shore. He told one of our crew that the police were coming and it was illegal for him to be hauling passengers down the river. I’m sure if the cops had seen us they’d have wondered how the foreigners ended up stranded on the side of the river… the guy finally pulled back up a couple hundred feet downstream and told us to get back on and hurry up! On that little boating excursion we bargained for rocks, our friend rode a water buffalo, and we had a photo op in front of the same spot found on the 20 yuan bill.
Gracie made a lot of friends while we there. She loves other babies and can’t keep her hands off them. This little girl in the attached photo was thrilled with Gracie’s enthusiam. They laughed and talked their baby language for about 5 minutes. It was adorable. What is not so adorable is that Grace hasn’t slept through the night since we returned over a week ago. She doesn’t want to go to bed either. THat week of sleeping with Mom and Dad and being held for most of her naps has completely spoiled her. So, I’m tired!!! Tired out!
I think I better sign off now and go to bed. Tomorrow I will be flying solo and I’ll definitely need my beauty sleep to make it through the morning. For your enjoyment I have added a view photos this time. The sign you see was posted in the squatty on the train… joy, joy!
Love to all! Jenny
