First few days in Qingdao.

Hello family and friends!
I thought I'd give you an update on our first few days in Qingdao.
We have been very busy moving in and buying start up dong xi (stuff) for our apartment.
We have had a lot of fun though, dreaming up each room and shopping.
We have also been busy with setting up our internet, water service, maid service, gas payments, and looking for furniture.

Our landlord's daughter's boyfriend (haha) speaks pretty good English and has been helping us a lot. Our landlord is turning out to be a great one! He has helped us with all the little details. His family took Zachary out to eat and took us shopping for furniture. We haven't quite found what we are looking for yet but have lots of ideas for our office. :)

Here is a few pictures of the things that we have purchased for our home thus far and a few peeks at our new casa.

 So happy about this. :) We have a nice built in cabinet in our entry way with the perfect space for flowers. I was so excited to find a florist in our apartment complex. I was also super excited to find hydrangeas! And all the flowers are super cheap! Less than 30 cents per flower.

Got this bamboo and vase, too! But sadly, Chara's crazy tail broke the vase this morning. 

Zachary's favorite purchase ;), a vacuum! This has been a long time coming! We have gone a year with a long haired, shedding constantly, golden retriever and no vacuum! This was the smartest purchase we made ! It's super easy to vacuum up all those blonde hairs now! 

A tea kettle! Pretty much necessary in China.

 Usually I wouldn't post pictures of our house "incomplete." But I am trying to get over that, since there is a lot (in my head) to be done for our apartment, so as to not show you pictures of our apartment a month before we leave, like we did in Dongying, I am going to take pictures and post them anyway. Even though its incomplete and messy. It's a work in progress.

Oh, I forgot to mention! Our apartment is huge! We didn't realize how big it was before moving in! Sunday morning we woke up and both said we didn't quite feel at home, because it's just so big! We just feel so blessed. Luxuriously so. It's just so much. 

But we are very thankful and praying for opportunities for us to be good stewards of what God has given us. 

Seriously this home was made for more than two! So, please! Come visit! :)

  

Bedside lamps.

 Ya, it's messy. Sorry. :p This is to show you how huge our bed is. I mean, I know, a king size bed is not so huge. A lot of people have them! But we have had a double for all of our marriage, so this feels ginormous to us! Look! Our bedding won't even fit. I had to turn our mattress bad and comforter sideways so it would at least reach to each side of the bed! But it's about a foot and a half too short lengwise! haha. I made the bed the first day and put the pillows in their usual spot, towards the sides. I looked up and realized their was a 2 foot space in between the pillows! haha. It will take some time getting used to.

 My closet. :)

 Our bathroom. I really love the framed mirrors and tile around them.

 Every room has one of these! You can control the air conditioning for each room. Hopefully this helps save on our electricity bill.

 Almost unpacking boxes! Soon we'll have this more decorated, too.

Well there you go! I took these pictures 3 days ago and already the apartment is looking much more put together and like home. I'll post more pictures soon!