The Mosby's And Adoption

Well, heather found this great post and I thought I would share it. It really gets into the stages of adoption. If you or any one you know is adopting now, I think this would be a great article to read.

Heather and I are looking forward to adopting children later in our life. God has called us to care for the fatherless. So have any of you thought about adoption?

Jen Hatmaker - The Truth About Adoption: One Year Later

The Truth About Adoption: One Year Later

by Jen Hatmaker on August 21st, 2012

Yesterday, we got up at the crack of 8:30 (farewell Summer Sleep Schedule, parting is such sweet sorrow), threw dirty clothes into hampers behind closed doors, yanked our bedspreads up, wiped the crumbs off the kitchen counters, and made sure everyone was wearing mostly clean clothes.

This was as much as we prepared for our social worker’s final 12-month visit.

Tuesday Tidbits

We're half way through another Tuesday! Fun that when I write these most of you still have a whole Tuesday to go! 

Next Tuesday we'll have started back working! So the week ahead is officially, our last week of vacation! We've been trying to make the most of it! 

Before I get to Tuesday Tidbits, can I just take a moment to show you how precious my little sister is getting! She's 7 months now! 

 Ya. I know. Adorable, right?!

She poses like this! What a ham!

1 Week till our BACK TO SCHOOL

Next Monday our school year will have officially started!
Some of you know I wasn't feeling very excited/motivated to go back to school {let's be real, I'm on vacation! Who wants that to end?} but seeing all the adorable pictures of kids I love going back to school in the States made me super pumped! Here's some of my favorites!

Cake Cookies

Hey friends and family!
I have another recipe for you!
Can you tell I'm on vacation? I do WAY too much baking! :)

It's Zachary's fault. He gives me these eyes that say,

"Make me dessert!"

{Actually what really happens is, I want dessert, but would NEVER make it just for myself, so I say, "Do you want me to make you dessert?" And he says, "Meeehh," because he doesn't really care, and then I imagine him saying "Make me dessert, wife!" and so I very heroically go to the kitchen to fulfill his request.}

And so, I relented. :)
I didn't have a lot of ingredients yesterday but I did have a cake box!
I'm not really a cake person though so I looked up some recipes for cake cookies and of course there's ton!
Best part, their all SUPER easy!

1 cake box of your choice

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

 (plus a little extra if your batter seems to dry)

Toppings/mix in's of your choice

I topped ours with coconut and chocolate chips, 

which was amazing because the coconut toasted! yum!

Mix all together.

Place on oiled baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

See how easy that was!?

Enjoy!

We really liked these because they weren't too sweet like normal cookies and a little chewy/dense. Perfect with coffee or milk.

Baked Mac & Cheese

My good friend, Jessica, gave me this awesome recipe for baked Mac & Cheese. Our friends, Amber and CJ, just had their baby last week, so this was the perfect casserole recipe to take to them. 

I can't wait to make it again for us!

This recipe is super easy and makes a ton of mac & cheese.

 It's great for left overs.

1/2 to 1 pack of smoked bacon (your preference)

1 package of macaroni noodles

2 heaps of butter

3 tbs of flour

1 liter of milk

1 block of cheddar cheese

1 tomato

salt and pepper to taste

Boil noodles and drain. Set aside.

Put the butter in a pan over medium heat. 

Swirl it around as it melts. Wait 20 seconds.

Add 3 tbs of flour.

Stir continuously until it forms a paste. 

Add milk.

Stir for 15 minutes.

Add almost the whole block of cheese. 

(Reserve some for the top)

Stir until melted.

Turn off heat. 

Pour in noodles and mix to coat.

Slice bacon into bite size pieces.

Add to noodles or pan fry for crispier bacon.

Add bacon to noodles.

Add salt and pepper. (I put a lot of salt for taste.)

Pour into a casserole pan.

Top with sliced tomato and cheese.

When ready to eat, put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Sweet Husband

I love being married to such an amazing man.
He loves so well. I am so thankful for you Zachary.
Thank you for continuously pointing me to Jesus.
And telling me I'm beautiful.

I was having a long day Friday and was feeling super tired by the time I got home at 7:30, really not wanting to cook.
I had asked Zachary to go to the grocery store for me to get the list of groceries I texted him, but didn't tell him how I really didn't feel like cooking. Somehow he just knew.
Husbands are good for that. :)

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

Hey all! Just finished reading this awesome article by Shane Claiborne. Shane is one of our all time favorite authors. He's an amazing guy that loves Jesus and lives like it. He's a social activist in Philly, grew up in Tennessee with a deep Southern accent, has awesome dreads, worked with Mother Teresa, in a leper colony, and has totally awesome pants that have pockets to hold bubbles and markers while he plays with kids in his neighborhood after school. One of my favorite things about him is that he seems to put into words, so eloquently and humbly, all the things that are racing through my mind and Zachary and I's convos each day. Enjoy.

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

Chinese Valentine's Day

So apparently August 23rd is Chinese Valentine's Day! 

We had no idea but after a few well wishes for Valentine's Day, we figured it out. :) 

We had dinner last night at Jessica's to say 'See you later!,' (her and Marrick are going to Bangkok for two weeks for visa renewals! We'll miss them terribly!) and to eat some delish mac and cheese. 

Jessica lives right next to May 4th Square, the famous square and landmark in Qingdao, where they were having some Valentine's festivities last night. 
Zachary and I decided to walk over to the square to check it out. 

The square is beautiful, especially at night. It overlooks the water, where you can see other parts of the city lit up, and the big red tornado is lit up at night, making a great view. (We only had our small camera so we didn't get any great shots! We'll have to go back one night with the good camera and try to capture it for you.) 

End of Summer Giveaway!!

Hey guys! Because we love you we decided to do a giveaway! All you have to do is follow our blog, comment, and a few other things! You can enter everyday, so don't forget! Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Featuring Your Local Qingdao Walmart

Thought you all might be interested in some of the sights that can be found at a Chinese Walmart.

You know how they have those terrible Walmart Bingo boards/Checklists? You guys know what I'm talking about. If not, it's a game that you can play while in Walmart. Every time you see something/someone that is mentioned on the list you check it off. View below: (Note-I didn't make this... I know it's terrible.) 

Now honestly, I haven't actually been any of these particular stereotypes at Walmart, but through high school and early college I am quite positive I fit into someones Walmart Bingo. I.e. Highschooler running the aisles of walmart, playing with bouncy balls at 3 am, reading magazines on the floor in the magazine section, wearing pajamas, and so on. Yes, I did do all of those things. And I've even done something worse... let's just say when I was 18 my stomach was reallllly hurting in the art aisle and, well.. things just kind of came out.... Yep, that's right. I pooped my pants at 18 at Walmart. Awesome... Please don't ask me for details. ;) But I mean, isn't that one of the beauties of Walmart? It's one of the only places, outside your home, you can wear your pajamas and not feel judged. You, truly can, go there with rollers in your hair, or a mud mask on your face, and kind of, fit in. 

In China there's a different kind of check list of things to look for. Here's a few glimpses. :)

 3 floors with escalators, obviously.

 Convient shopping for customers bored on the escalator.

Tuesday Tidbits

It's another Tuesday! We've had a busy week this past week!
We've had lots of dinners with friends, hung out at friends houses, started back working (all of which we don't have pictures for, sorry!) and had some fun adventures, too!

• Josh has a car this week so we all did some exploring. I loved riding in a car with English music playing and the windows down! Man, it really made me miss driving! Also a fun thing about driving, drive-thrus! We found probably the only drive thru in Qingdao, a lone McDonald's drive through! We ordered hamburgers and fries! Funny story about the fries, none of us knew how to say french fries in Chinese so Josh tried explaining. In Chinese he said, "hen (very) duo (many) xiao (little) tou dou (potato) dongxi (stuff)." So basically he said that we wanted "many little potato stuff." They must have understood what he was saying though because we still got fries! 

Joshua's Birthday @ Sitting Bull

Introducing..Super Josh

My "Brozin" Josh celebrated his 32nd birthday in Qingdao. We had a great time celebrating with him...enjoying some crazy good ribs and corn bread.

Update My Page: Zachary's Page

Hey, everyone I updated my page check it out, here!

Baking & Pinterest

If your a lady and you haven't jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, I highly recommend it. :) If you have no idea what it is, it's a virtual bulletin board, which I think is awesome. You can access my Pinterest page and have a looksy via the Heather's Pinterest button to the right of the blog.

Since we have faster internet in Qingdao and are on vacation I have spent much time on Pinterest. I love all the awesome craft ideas, beautiful pictures, fitness pins and of course all the food!

There's one big problem with Pinterest, though. Everyone posts tons and tons of delicious looking, way-too much sugar-filled dessert pictures. And well, sometimes, I give in, and bake them!

But if you notice the title of my food board is "In all things give praise." This is to remind me that even in eating, baking and cooking I can give praise to God and thank Him for His goodness, even in a scone.

Here's one of the few things I've tried from recipe inspirations on Pinterest.

I didn't take any pictures but I made these petite chocolate chip scones for Church. They were awesome!

Lao Shan

We were super excited to finally visit Lao Shan. We visited Qingdao so many times last year, while in Dongying, but never did anything touristy. We mainly just took baths and drank Starbucks. We probably would not have gone to Lao Shan anytime soon because of laziness, not because we didn't want to,  but Matthias (our German friend) really wanted to go, so we said we'd all go together!

Tuesday Tidbits

Man the weeks are just rushing by! Crazy that it's already another Tuesday!

I loved reading some of your responses to my questions last week. So, I thought I'd ask a few more. :)

What was the most memorable game/activity you played while in school? (I need teaching ideas! :)  )

What have you done this week? Anything exciting?

We had a great week this past week. Lots to share with you!

• Zachary's been working the past month at a school in downtown Qingdao, to make a little extra money before school starts. He's teaching adults which he really enjoys since he can have real conversations with them. He's even met some new friends.Here's two pics of inside the school.

• Saturday we went to Qingdao's top tourist attraction, Lao Shan. Lao Shan is a beautiful mountain in Qingdao along the sea. We'll blog more about our trip but here's a few pictures for you to see now. 

My Stomach!!!

I thought this picture warranted an explanation.

So, the last two months we have eaten more western food than in the last two years of living over seas, at least it feels like we have. We left Dongying eating fresh fruit and vegetables every day..meat occasionally. But since coming to Qingdao...My stomach has felt like the size of a football field. 

Chara's Play Date

We're calling this gang of pups the Lu Xin Chang Chuen Ji Mao Gang (Spring Garden (our apartment complex) Golden Retriever Gang). Haha.

Chara has been warming up more to these boys (they're all boys)lately.

Go See this!

The Dead Sea Scrolls 

takes Fort Worth

With our biblical studies background, this is a must see for us! Too bad, we're not in Texas!!! 

Go see it for us people! 

And then tell us all about it. :)

Check out this link for more details. Or if you have no idea what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. :)

http://www.charismanews.com/us/33934-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-takes-visitors-way-back-to-the-bible

Tuesday Tidbits

Bahhh. Hum. Bug. The summer has flown by!!! Our training will start in just a few weeks and the first day of school will start September 3rd. I am already thinking about winter vacation! ha.

Help me stay in the moment, people. Help me get excited about the start of a new school year! 

So, my questions for you are,

What makes you the most excited about the start of a new school year? 

(Mine used to be new school supplies! And new clothes!-- Maybe I should buy that stuff, just to feel like a kid again!) 

Who was your favorite teacher and why? (To motivate me and get me thinking about how teachers can have such an awesome impact on their kiddos.) 

Okay! On to Tuesday Tidbits.

• Mrs. Chara girl seems to prefer humans over dogs. She is very rude to other dogs. They whimper to play with her and she just looks completely past them. We have been trying to work on this. We certainly don't want to be raising a snob. So, we arranged some play dates with the local golden retriever pack. :) (3 golden retrievers that live in our complex) She had a great time playing and wasn't too snobby, though she did have many 'princess' moments.

Can you find Chara in these pics??

The Answer to Peeing in China

A friend of mine, Holly, graciously sent me this link after reading my post about bathrooms in China. 

If you haven't read it or need some refreshing you can find that post here. 

Yes, right here.

Check out this video!