The Office

We love The Office! We have watched every episode consecutively multiple times and we never get sick of it. It's just hilarious.

I totally get how someone can watch it only once or twice, in the middle of a season, and not like it/get it. But if you start from the beginning and get to know each character as they develop, it's amazing.

Tuesday Tidbits

I am starting a new thing starting this week, Tuesday Tidbits. Clever, right?

We enjoyed our weekend. It was busy, to say the least. We had some pretty crazy experiences and have some amazing stories from the past week, that maybe we'll share sometime.

So, here's some random tidbit's from the Mosby's for you!

• We LOVE The Office. I don't know why we haven't blogged about it before! If you want to read all about our love for the show, you can read about it here. We've been watching a lot of The Office lately.

• Soon we'll have some pics up of a  recent photo shoot of Chara and a Chara update. We might be a little obsessed. 

• Zachary and Chara love to play! 

A Miracle in the Midst of Tragedy

Whenever something terrible happens, I am always longing to hear the stories that rise out of the ashes. The small beautiful stories, that aren't often reported on in major newspapers or magazines.

The beauty from ashes. 

In such tragedy, I search for and hunger for a story that brings hope, that reminds me that God is good and alive. 

I was so thankful to read this story from Aurora. 

This miracle, for this sweet girl and family, doesn't change what happened. It doesn't make it less painful for the other victims or their families. It doesn't erase all the pain and terror they feel. Or the, "Why God?" questions. 

But it is a story that reminds me to hope and believe that something greater and better than all the terrible, tragedy we see on Earth, is at work. 

And if you move to quickly or read the headlines too often, you will miss it. 

But if you slow down, and look for it, in the midst of even tragedy, there are these small and beautiful stories that are just miraculous and reminders that there is good. 

There are good things at work. There are amazing things happening all around us. 

And God is still good. 

I am so sorry for all those families in Aurora. I am so sorry for all that they are suffering. I can't even begin to imagine all that they feel. All I can do is pray. And pray that God is near to them. And that more miracles would take place in hearts and bodies and families and homes. And pray that there would be light in the midst of darkness.

Camp

Our new boss put together a camp for Zachary and I to teach at at the end of June, so we could make a little extra money.

Here's some pictures from the camp.
All these kiddos will be my students come September.
We had fun getting to know them!

 I know, these kids looked SO PUMPED!! to be here and taking this picture. haha

Chinese BBQ

One of our favorite meals in Dongying was Chinese BBQ!
It's no secret to anyone that we love meat! And so probably no surprise that we love Chinese BBQ,too!

It's very different from Korean BBQ, which we also loved. If you don't remember what that was like, you can refresh your memory here (scroll all the way down to the bottom. Not sure why we never did a post on that.)

In China, all the BBQ is done on a long iron grill and all the meat is placed on sticks over the grill, like this;

Lots of Decaf Coffee

This is not my picture. I took it from google images, but isn't it amazing the foam art some baristas can do?! I thought this panda was very fitting, considering we are in China.

Funny thing about Pandas in China, there's not many of them. And all the Chinese people I have asked about pandas have never seen one. I remember when I first came to China, I thought pandas would be everywhere, silly me!

I wish there was more to blog about. I wish I had interesting pictures to post of all the awesome things we are doing. But really, I have none.

Our days have been filled with lots of decaf coffee, sitting in coffee shops, sitting in taxis and eating out. A lot.

We have gone to the hospital numerous times, which I may blog about. We have met lots of awesome people. Had some great dinners with new friends. Ate some amazing food. Gone to the beach. Gone running. But most days, are just figuring out what to do when you have nothing to do.

It's been nice.

I haven't worn a watch in a month now.
We have no where to be.

We are relaxing.
And resting.
And sleeping in.

And it's good.

And I am trying to figure out what it means for me to rest.

I might start blogging about the things I am reflecting and thinking about.
Because it has occurred to me that the biggest parts of our life, you miss. You, as in, our friends and family and those who read this.

You miss the places closest to our hearts. You miss out on those things we really think about, talk about and pray about. And so, in a way, your missing out on really getting to know us. And, in turn, we're missing out on being known by you, and all your thoughts and ideas on the subjects.

And so, I say all this, as a segway and a heads up that I will probably be posting some more "serious" posts, things closer to my heart than delicious ribs or pictures of scenery. But we will also still post all the fun stuff, too.
Because in the midst of all the serious stuff, we are having so much fun. And we love it here! And some of the serious stuff is fun, too! Like how good God is to us. And how blown away we are by His continuous blessing and love for us and how He keeps showing us more of Himself. So, we'll just start sharing it all.

And I hope you keep reading, even if it's not always as fun and interesting as culture, sights or new foods.
But if serious is not your cup of coffee, by all means, skip to the next post, like chinese bar-b-que, which I am about to post!

Love,
Heather

Here's some more foam art pictures for you to admire, again stolen from the internet.

For some reason this is my favorite. Maybe because I love space, especially Saturn. Saturn's the best, right? All those beautiful rings!

Who wouldn't love some batman foam art?

Just a few Glimpses

We had a great day Saturday at the beach with some of our new friends! 

This sweet boy, Meric, is absolutely adorable and always smiling! 

         Playing in the sand! The beach was busy Saturday!

He's so strong. Not even flexing. 

I forced him to give me a "Sexy pose." :)So cute.

New flowers. :) Sweet husband. They smell so amazing!

Guest bedroom. There were 3 purple paintings glued to the wall that didn't match our new guest bedding. So I painted over them while on the wall.

            We are loving our red couch! Super comfy!

Check out the bowl of candy wrappers. Someone (Zachary) ate all the kisses but left the wrappers! He loves Hershey kisses!

Family photo. Haha. We kept trying to get Chara to look at the mirror but she would only stare at us. haha.

      Our bikes in the lobby. The only bikes we've seen in our         building.

                         Walking Chara.

               Our apartment building. 26 floors

                  Chara loves to sniff around.

Pasta with olives, capers, feta, onions, cucumbers,lettuce and roasted tomatoes and okra. Delish. 

RIBS! Korona Grill House

As a Texan girl, I'm always craving meat. 

I was super excited to find out a popular, American style restaurant here in Qingdao, had a half off rib night! 

I insisted we go. Zachary consented, because he likes food.  

And so, tonight for dinner we had 2 1/2 off full racks of ribs! (Shamefully, we could actually only eat half the rack but we have some for tomorrow now! And, though it contradicts our Texas roots, we are also happy our stomachs have shrunk since living in Asia!) 

We highly recommend this restaurant for any expats living in Qingdao! 

They even served us rolls with butter. Like any good American grill house. 

 Kansas style spare ribs.

 Memphis dry rub.

 Ya! Ribs.

 This bone looked like a vampire tooth.Grrrrrr.

We didn't get any pictures of Zachary but he was happy, too! 

Yangshuo, China.

Hey guys! So one of our biggest China dreams, in fact it's at the very top of our list, is to visit Yangshuo!

We have been contemplating going in August for a week.
We are not sure when we will have the opportunity again.
Plane tickets are so expensive to get there but the train is very cheap. The only catch is it takes 3 days by train to get there!

The more we discuss it the more we think we will go in August! This is one of the best times to go and one of the only times we will have enough time to take the train there, spend some days exploring and take the train back.
It's super cheap to get there, stay there, and play there! So, why not?

We will be researching all the little details in the next month, along with finding a good place for Chara to stay while we are gone. Too bad she can't go with us!

I am posting this because I know some of you love doing research and exploring with us!

Any suggestions on what we should do/see while we are there?
Or any suggestions on cities we should stop off in along the way?

Right now we really want to bicycle through Yangshuo and take a day trip to the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces.

Also, we have heard that you can hot air balloon over the mountains! How fun would that be?!

Our train route would be,

Qingdao Day 1 - 17:50 0 KM 0 0   0 2 Weifang Day 1 19:36 19:38 183 KM 29 CNY 80 CNY   120 CNY 3 Zibo Day 1 20:48 20:51 283 KM 44 CNY 95 CNY   142 CNY 4 Jinan Day 1 22:02 22:10 393 KM 55 CNY 106 CNY   162 CNY 5 Taishan Day 1 23:00 23:12 466 KM 70 CNY 127 CNY   195 CNY 6 Yanzhou Day 2 00:10 00:27 549 KM 76 CNY 139 CNY   215 CNY 7 Jining Day 2 00:51 00:55 581 KM 82 CNY 149 CNY   232 CNY 8 Jiaxiang Day 2 01:14 01:21 605 KM 82 CNY 149 CNY   232 CNY 9 Juye Day 2 01:41 01:52 630 KM 87 CNY 157 CNY   245 CNY 10 Heze Day 2 02:55 03:04 688 KM 94 CNY 169 CNY   264 CNY 11 Caoxian Day 2 03:38 03:42 736 KM 99 CNY 177 CNY   276 CNY 12 Shangqiu South Day 2 04:22 04:24 793 KM 106 CNY 191 CNY   298 CNY 13 Bozhou Day 2 05:05 05:08 857 KM 113 CNY 201 CNY   316 CNY 14 Fuyang Day 2 06:22 06:38 961 KM 125 CNY 224 CNY   352 CNY 15 Macheng Day 2 09:42 09:46 1197 KM 150 CNY 265 CNY   417 CNY 16 Huangzhou Day 2 10:35 10:40 1264 KM 158 CNY 281 CNY   442 CNY 17 Jiujiang Day 2 12:37 12:49 1420 KM 175 CNY 308 CNY   486 CNY 18 Nanchang Day 2 14:48 15:00 1555 KM 191 CNY 335 CNY   529 CNY 19 Xiangtang Day 2 15:19 15:25 1583 KM 191 CNY 335 CNY   529 CNY 20 Fengcheng Day 2 15:53 15:58 1616 KM 194 CNY 341 CNY   539 CNY 21 Xinyu Day 2 17:27 17:31 1716 KM 200 CNY 351 CNY   554 CNY 22 Yichun Day 2 18:20 18:24 1775 KM 203 CNY 357 CNY   568 CNY 23 Pingxiang Day 2 19:16 19:20 1841 KM 215 CNY 377 CNY   600 CNY 24 Zhuzhou Day 2 20:34 20:49 1922 KM 219 CNY 385 CNY   613 CNY 25 Loudi Day 2 23:26 23:42 2047 KM 231 CNY 405 CNY   642 CNY 26 Shaoyang Day 3 01:47 01:57 2155 KM 242 CNY 423 CNY   671 CNY 27 Yongzhou Day 3 03:20 03:45 2266 KM 245 CNY 431 CNY   686 CNY 28 Quanzhou Day 3 06:33 06:37 2364 KM 257 CNY 452 CNY   720 CNY 29 Xingan Day 3 07:20 07:24 2424 KM 266 CNY 465 CNY   738 CNY 30 Guilin Day 3 08:55 09:04 2487 KM 271 CNY 475 CNY   754 CNY

What do you think? Should we do it??

SPR Coffee

SPR is our new favorite coffee shop! It is fun and eclectic and reminds me of some of my favorite coffee places in Austin. The best part about this shop is that it is very close to our apartment and right on the beach. 

 They have a huge pastry case of delicious goodies.