New Perspective and Things to Be Excited About

We completed Phase I of this new adventure: moving out of our house in Chico.  And just in the nick of time!  The day we arrived in the Pacific NW, the heat was reaching a "brain-numbing" (as the local weatherman put it) 105 degrees.  Yuck and double-yuck.  We were enjoying sunny and 73.  My soul knows that that's the way it should be.

Our daughter Evie has been in toddler heaven, as her grandparents up here have on their large property the following: two black and white, sweet-tempered puppies, five chickens, one duck who needs to be chased as often as possible, and a huge garden for getting dirty in.  She has slept hard and played hard.

Michael has new information about his 5th grade class awaiting him, and the more we learn, the more excited we become, which is helping our feeling of momentum when it comes to all this change.  He has 20 students (such a great number for a class!).  The class schedule is very nice, if not a little too jam-packed, which may make it hard to feel like the teacher gets to accomplish anything throughout the day.  The thing that I think is the coolest is that his class has a Mandarin lesson each day (Michael doesn't have to teach that part).  I wish I had had a foreign language class every day in elementary school!  The school is going to take good care of us.  They are providing us with a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment a mere 10 minute's walk from school, and they will be there at midnight to pick Michael up from the airport on Friday when he arrives.  They'll also give him some food in his cupboards and take him around that weekend to orient him.  What a difference from our Korean experience!  We arrived late in the evening in Korea to an empty apartment that had no toilet paper (and no idea how to go get some!) and no food.  We also had no idea that nothing opens before 10:00 a.m., so we had to wait, starving, until then to hunt something down, and our jet lag had awakened us at 4:00 a.m.  It's a good feeling to know that Michael will be arriving in China to people who are expecting him and are also prepared for him.  I can feel good about that.

And Evie and I will try to stay busy, have fun, and be rested.  I think we can do that.  Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately...

 We got to go sailing with our friend.  I didn't do any of the work; I just enjoyed the water and scenery. :-)

 Feels good to be out of the heat!

 Family day at Klessick Farms!  Taking a horse-drawn wagon ride.

Having the time of her life!