Stuff from October

I know October is like a million years away, but please don't pass up this post just because it's outdated. :) I've got so much stuff to share, mostly random but interesting stuff!

My first picture is of the campsite here in Macau. I say "the" and yes I think it is the only place where people can camp in tents here. Everybody camps in a row. No fires, though there are BBQ pits down the road. Chad's been spending quite a few Saturday mornings looking for a more private (illegal) place to camp. He comes home covered in pokies from bushes but says he's found some promising places. There aren't a lot of empty flat places here so that's impressive. I miss big wide open places here and national parks.

I planted peas in our window box. We actually just harvested them (yep I'm behind on blogging) and they didn't do so well so I'll try again in a month or two. I have no idea when I'm supposed to be planting them here, if it matters.

Jozie brought home this homework from her Seventh-day Adventist school. We just got a kick out of Satan's bat wings. Too bad he didn't merit nice looking ones.

Jozie's learning Mandarin in school (40 minutes a day is required by the Chinese government). Pretty cool!

My missionary brother Bryan (serving in Jamaica) requested our written testimonies for Christmas. I took pictures of Jozie's and Haven's. They were instructed to draw pictures of things they know are true or good. Check out what Haven picked - it is exciting that she's learning how to do that.

I put Haven to bed one night and had to take a picture of everything she was planning to wear to bed. What a princess!

We share our small road into town with Macau's cement plant, which means often driving behind super slow dirty trucks. One day I thought I'd take a picture of our speed - 20 kilometers per hour (12 mph!). Insane!

I found Peanut Butter Crunch at the store and bought all 6 boxes. It's been delicious. I feel very very grateful that there's so much western food available here, though shopping is still frustrating. The other day we walked to a grocery store just because they have koolaid there (Jozie wanted to bring it to lunch) and found only one box. You never quite know what's going to be available when you shop, and you have to shop at many different stores to get everything on the shopping list.

This is a Portuguese Cafe we like. This guy's from Brazil and has become one of Haven's friends. She loves to say hi to him. She's also made a friend at one of Taipa's parking areas (the guy we pay for parking). She loves to come up to the payment window (you pay on foot before going back to your parked car) and stare into the window with a huge smile on her face. Then when the guy looks up she laughs a hysterical, loud laugh and runs away. Love her.

Haven and I have been having "letter parties" at home. She practices writing a letter and we eat a little snack that starts with that sound. She can recognize most of the letters now. In the U.S. she doesn't start Kindergarten until the fall of 2015, so I'm not sure how to work it here, since kids start at age 3. Because of deadline differences Haven should go to Sr. Kindergarten here next year (all day) and then start first grade in 2015 (putting her a year ahead of the U.S.). Any advice welcome!

Haven and I also have "Spanish school." She gets a little token (ficha) every times she says a Spanish word without being reminded of what it is, and wins an M&M for every ten fichas. She loves to play Candyland and practice colors. We're also still doing Joy School (http://valuesparenting.com).

This is a cemetery down the street from our house. They always make them on hills here. They're very interesting.

These are fresh figs from a tree at our apartment complex. I love getting to try new things here!

There's a huge Jasmine tree at the park by our house that has produced flowers for months. They're so beautiful and smell divine.

Sometimes you pass an image like this and your heart swells up and you just have to snap a picture:

Haven still loves Snow White. What a cutie!

Jozie had to make a Chinese fan for school. It turned out pretty great! She's decided that crossed fingers is the sign for "kiss" so she's giving a kiss here:

The park by our house has this awesome little track for kids and electric cars they can ride for a little $. So cool! The girl on the left is our good friend Signe (from Sweden).

We've had the sister missionaries over for lunch a couple times. Haven loves it so much. The sisters on the left are Tagalog speaking (from the Philippines) and the ones on the right are English speaking. Sister Lau (middle) is from England but her parents are from Hong Kong, and Sister Wright is from Arizona.

The girls are really into taking their own pictures these days. It's awesome to hear them say "quick, take a picture so we can remember!" Not so awesome to find self-done pictures of their bums on my camera.... Them taking more pictures means I'm in more pictures.

After a long, arduous, maddening process, we've learned that it's not possible to visit the roof where we live, and we got permission to move our dining table down to a common level that's used by a nursing home. We've eaten there a bit, but it's not very private and is mostly weird. I've mostly resigned myself to the idea of not eaten dinner outside. Anyway, here's a picture of where the table is now:

I didn't take a picture of the surroundings but it looks like Armageddon is near. No one really "owns" this level so no one takes care of it. All the trees and plants are dying and the tile is coming off.

We got a huge poster from our cousins, the Hulls. We really miss them!

This is Delia, the aunt and caretaker of Alicia and Edan, some good kid-friends of Jozie and Haven. She's so fun and Claire loves her too! We LOVE having lots of fun "next door" neighbors to play with here.

Ok, that's everything from October! On to November!!