Birthdays are Awesome

You guys, our friend Justin, is amazing! He made Zachary this awesome video for his birthday! 

Justin and Zachary's birthdays are a day apart, so last year, in Dongying we all celebrated their births together. Justin was so sweet to put some of those memories into a video! 

You can check out Justin and Catherine's blog by pushing the 'Travelin' with JC' button.

They are world travelers from two different continents that fell in love on a third continent and are now documenting their life and travels together via their blog. It's awesome! 

Read it!

We love you Justin and hope you had a great Birthday!! We celebrate your birth, too!!!

Thursday Throwback

We recently had our old external hard drive restored because the inside had shattered into a million pieces. (I dropped it too many times.) Our awesome friend and former house guest, Joshua, had it restored for us. Which is amazing because it had all of our wedding pictures, Korea pictures and all the pictures from our past life.  Past life, as in before this year, NOT past life, as in reincarnation.

Looking through all our fun past pictures I decided to start something new!

Throwback Thursdays

Every Thursday I'll be blogging about our past trips, events, and life before China. (At least life that is documented via digital photos. Sad, huh!? What did we do without digital cameras? So, nothing before senior-ish year of highschool. There is so much good stuff before that! Maybe one day I'll scan photos!)

Some of it might be repeats of our Mosby's in Korea blog, but mostly it will be new.

Some of the things I'll be blogging about:

Our first real Christmas together

Our honeymoon, which involved decorated toilet seats and a zebra's mouth

Τuesday Tidbits

Hey everyone! Another Tuesday! I can't believe it's almost October! Time flies.

We had a great week & have an even better week ahead of us! Zachary's birthday is on Friday, we have a friend from Korea coming to stay with us this weekend and vacation all next week! Whoop! 

•  I know we mentioned in a previous post but I'll say it again. We found a bus that picks up right in front of our house and takes us straight to school. Perfect! And the line just opened. Such a blessing. We take it home every day. 

 The stop is at the end of the line, so we get first pick in seats.

 Just Heather from the block here. Ridin' the bus. 

Ya, for cheap public transportation! 

This bus is saving us almost $200 a month in taxi fares!

Happy First Day of Fall

So, according to my awesome Target Planner, last Saturday was officially the First Day of Fall.

Happy First Day of Fall Ya'll!  

(a few days late)

I know I've said it before but I love Fall! It's one of my favorite seasons!  (It's a tie with winter. I just love both! I especially love the fading from Fall into Winter time.)   Stepping outside in the crisp, cool Fall air, instantly puts me in a good mood. It's no joke. You can ask Zachary. I immediately start smiling inside and out, like I was meant to exist in this season. Fall gives me a celebratory spirit and this latter half of the year of Fall and Winter,  is probably the time I am most worshipful of the Creator and feel closest to the Lord. I just feel alive and connected.

I've been reading for some time on other blogs all the things people love about Fall. With each blog and each fallen leaf  the suspense has been building inside of me!  I can't wait any longer! I'm ready for Fall to be here, full swing! And I with all this excitement,  I would love to share with you all that love about the beautiful season.

Fall Leaves & Fall colors

Fall Walks.

Sunday Social

Hey Guys! I'm linking up this Sunday with Neely at acompletewasteofmakeup for her Sunday Social.

1. What is something you have wanted to do but are afraid of?

I would LOVE to go sky diving. That would be such an amazing experience. 

And not for the "rush" of it but more for the out of body experience of it 

and the bragging rights. ;p 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Pregnant? I see Zachary and I starting a family in five years and hopefully being out of debt. 

The New Guys

Any office fans watch the Season Premiere of the Office? What did you think?

I loved the Season 9 promo! We hadn't seen it since we don't live in the States and don't have satellite. I am sure all of you saw the promo commercial several times leading up to Thursday. We watched it like 4 times getting more and more excited each time! We love The Office, can't you tell? I love the promo with the music in the background, it made it very montage-movie-nostalgia like for me. (But I couldn't find it today on youtube)

We also started watching Parenthood, a drama, and Go On, a comedy, with Matthew Perry. At least from the first few episodes in, we recommend these two shows!

Friday's Letters

Dear Family, 

Love you all so much! We miss you!

Dear Readers, 

Thank you for reading our blog. We feel the love.

Dear Students, 

Please stop talking while I am talking. It's really starting to peeve me. 

Dear Fall, 

I am so happy you are here.

Tuesday Tidbits

I apologize in advance for all the Chara pictures! :)

This past week we have still been getting into the swing of things. We have been pretty tired! It's hard to go back to school after 3 months of vacation! 

Hopefully by next Tuesday we will feel sane and have some grasp on our new school schedule! We've had a great week, though. 

Since Chara has to stay at home by herself through the day, we've made a big effort to take her on long walks when we get home. It's good family time. :) And relaxing after a long day. Most of our pictures from this week are from those walks. 

Get jealous Texas because fall has arrived in Qingdao and I couldn't be happier! 

• We had fresh tomato soup for dinner this past week with grilled cheese. Nice fall food. :)

•  We had so much fun playing in the leaves on one of our walks.

 Chara was super excited to play in the leaves and run free. 

 Look how big these leaves were! Bigger than my face! Also, check out that cute scarf from our care package. :)

The Editor in Me

I am going back and editing previous blog posts and I'm just flabbergasted

(yes, I'm using that word)

at how many mistakes there are. There are tons and tons of grammar mistakes!

Not just grammar mistakes either but tons of picture spacing mistakes, picture sizes that just look weird, strange lay outs in posts, and so on. 

I look at these past blog posts and the editor in me says, "What was I smoking?!" 

The truth is, I wasn't smoking anything, but it's just a reflection of how sloppily I was living my life. {and still do most days}

I recently posted about patience, grace and practice in Creativity. 

In that, I am sure you got a glimpse at some of my many personality flaws, and viewing all of these mistakes is just another reminder of those flaws.

 But this time, instead of Grace, I need a little rebuke.
A humbling reminder, to stop living life in a hurry. 

All of these mistakes make me reflect on my life.

I have lived my life so rushed. Always ready to move on to the next thing. Getting bored easily with the now and looking desperately for the future.

I have lived my life busy. Always going and going, seeking to fill each little empty space with something, anything.

I have lived my life running. And not in the good, life-giving way, of hitting the pavement, but the bad, life-draining way of spreading myself thin.

I have lived my life, eating and eating the bread of labor, that I have often missed the Bread of Life, when He calls me, to quiet myself and sit down at His table.

And to be honest, not only have I often missed that green pasture, cool drink of water kind of life, I most times have run from it.

Ran hard.
Ran desperate.
Desperate to keep going. To keep filling my life with rush. And busy.
Desperate to flee the foreign, stillness that is before God.

In the past 7 years that I've been a Christian, I 've said that all that running was toward God, was for God, was about God, but now, 7 years later, in the midst of an anxiety disorder,  I see that so much of it was running from God.

Running from His peace. Running from His stillness. Running from His Healing.

The truth is, I don't know what it means or feels like to just be at peace. To be whole.

I'm scared at what I will be left with, when you take all the messiness and chaos of my life away, and just leave me. At peace. Covered by and healed by the blood of Jesus.
I'm afraid of who I will become and what I will do, completely healed.

Would I go into the ocean, unashamed of my body, if I was completely healed?

Would I fly across oceans, unafraid, of the plane crashing to my death?

Would I face death, without fear?

Would I feel my heart flutter, and thank God for life, instead of rushing to the hospital?

The answers to these questions terrify me because I know the answer.
I know, in His presence,  I would live free, unashamed, unafraid,
and so I flee.
Because of that fear.
Because of that unknown.

But you see. The blessing of this anxiety is that I am at the end of my rope.
My fleeing is making me sick. It makes my heart flutter. My chest hurt. My heart beat speed up. It makes me start to sweat. And feel like I'm dying. And it's killing my spirit.

I'm done. I'm spent. I'm wasted.
And I can't do it anymore.
I can't run any longer.

I'm like one of those marathon runners that make it to the last 500 m and collapse.
People say it looks like their bodies just crumble. Like every ounce of energy has been sucked from their being. And some just stop there, crumbled. And some try to crawl across the finish line.
I'm like one of those people.

Except, I don't want to crawl across the finish line of my life. I want to run across, with the cloud of witnesses, arms lifted high!


And so.
I turn.
I turn to Jesus.
I ask for His life giving waters. The waters that He talked about, the ones that never run dry.
I ask for His life giving bread. The flesh that leaves me forever satisfied.
I ask for His life giving wine. The blood that covers me completely.
I ask for His forgiveness. For always trading broken cisterns, that can hold no water, for the Fount of Living Waters.

The editor in me wants to fix all these mistakes instantly but I know they will take time.
And so.
I ask for courage. Courage to stop running.
To be.
To live unashamed.
To live unafraid.
To smell flowers. And see colors.
To paint pictures.
To love others. And receive their love. Actually receive it.
To take the time to edit blog posts.
To trust Him.
To release control.
To just soak.
And be free.

Qingdao Beer Festival

Qingdao's Beer Festival is one of the most famous things in Qingdao. I'm not sure at what order of famous/popularity they go, but the top 3 most famous things in Qingdao are Laoshan, May 4th Square and Beer Festival.

Since it's so famous we had to go. We are not necessarily crazy beer festival type people but we heard that this festival was more like the fair than a crazy wild beer bash. So we thought we'd check it out.
Entrance tickets were super cheap at 10 yuan per person but the beer and carnival games and ride were outrageously expensive! All the games were atleast 20 yuan ($2.50 ish) and a pitcher of beer was 80 yuan (almost $13!) where as anywhere outside of the beer festival in Qingdao you can get a pitcher for $10 ($1.60).

We enjoyed the "festival" feel of it. There were tons of tents with live music and shows in each one, music playing, people dancing and many fair games and rides.

 The day we went was overcast and dreary which ended up being a plus because less people were visiting that day. Usually, people say that there are waaaaaaaaaaay too many people here.

 There was tons of BBQ for sale. The BBQ guys would all dance and sing while cooking. They looked like tons of boy bands grilling meat! haha.

Each type of beer had it's own tent. 

Care Packages

I think receiving care packages is my love language. :)
 Just kidding, but I do feel so very loved by it!
Since we've been overseas all of our family have been so sweet and sent us something at one time or another. And let me tell you, it is so nice to get a care package! It's like Christmas time! No joke. And we're like little kids at Christmas when they come, too! We get all giddy and excited and try to peek in the box, where the tape's a little loose.
Often times, we don't even make it home before opening it, just to get a glimpse!
And I just love laying our everything we get, looking it over, and admiring each thing. I truly feel the love and thought in each box or card. :) (I'm sorry we've never blogged about the other boxes or taken pictures! It was fun taking pics with all our new stuff!)

My grandma Carolyn and my mom sent us a care package this past week! They had picked up on all my "I need magazines!" hints and had heard me mention a few other things we needed, like men's deodorant and ranch packets.

Christmas in September!

 New work jacket. It's super comfy! 

Its a mystery!

Did you guys hear about a part of the Yangtze River in China turning red?!

The Yangtze River is one of the most famous rivers in China and September 7 parts of it turned tomato red! As of yesterday (September 10th), officials still did not have an explanation as to why the water had changed colors.

Happy Teacher's Day

September 10th is Teacher's Day in China!

Teacher's Day in China is not as big of a deal as in Korea, but still fun!

Tuesday Tidbits

Hey Everyone!!
One week down of work for me and two days down for Zachary!
We are enjoying work so far.
It's going to take us a little time to get back into the swing of things and learn how to balance our busy social life, min*stry, exercise, rest and work!

But we're SOOOOOO very thankful that we have so much to fit into our schedules because its all such encouraging, life giving things and people that keep us busy!

• We received an AMAZING care package this week from my mom and grandma! We loved everything! Thank you both so much! 

Movie & Popcorn Time

We are suckers for movies (and The Office). We love to sit back, relax and watch a movie together. Especially now on our big Sony flat screen (It came with our apartment! Sweet!) and with PPTV. PPTV is an online streaming website in China. It has an endless library of movies and TV shows that load instantly.

We recently watched Akeeklah and the Bee and the Hunger Games.

Akeeklah and the Bee

This was such a great, heart warming movie. It made me want to study or go back to school. It has a very common plot line, i.e. troubled teacher to troubled student, who end up inspiring each other. It is common, yes, but always makes for a good story and this movie was no exception. If you haven't seen it, we highly recommend it! And Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84%.

Creativity takes Courage

Bear with my guys, I'm an external processor.

I love creating.

But the honest truth, I am actually not that good at it.

Now my mother, grandmothers, husband or best friend might say I'm being ridiculous and of course I'm good at it! I'm so creative. And look what I made! Yadda. Yadda. 

Tuesday Tidbits

Hey all!
How is your week going?

Well, I started school this week! Whoop. :)
Zachary still has another week of vacay, luck dog.
But I am enjoying being back so far.

Are you guys ready for tons of random Tuesday Tidbits? Because they are random this week.

• Amazing news! Our dear friends CJ and Amber have been praying and waiting for their baby girl to come home from the hospital for a week. Well, she got to come home today!! We went by and saw her this afternoon and man is she adorable! Welcome to the world sweet Violet! We love you!

• I had a great time hanging out with our friend Effe this week. Effie will go to London for a graduate program in a few weeks. We will miss her!

• We found bagels this week at the store near our house. Man! Speaking of bagels, man, I miss Einstein Bagels. Man. Should I say man again?

1 John 1:1-4 The Word of Life

"Fellowship" 

What does this word mean to you? 

How does it take shape in your life? 

The Greek word in the Bible "Koinonia" means "fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, and contact."  

In the book of 1 John, John uses this word to refer only to Christians who have fellowship with God. Now John also says a few interesting things concerning our fellowship with God. 

Our fellowship with God is dependent on someone proclaiming the Word of Life. 

Migraines. Yuck.

Does anyone get migraines?
Man. oh. Man. I feel for you, if you do.

Sunday we went to an awesome brunch for a friends birthday where she made scones, cinnamon toast crunch bars, cinnamon rolls, quiche and carrot cake pancakes! All of which, I hope to attempt at recreating because they were delicious!
We were having such a great time meeting new friends and then I got an awful pain in the left side of my head that grew worse and worse as time went on.
Before I knew it, I could barely focus on anyone or anything they were saying and started feeling dizzy and sick to my stomach.
I rushed to get Zachary, telling him we needed to get out of their fast!
We caught a taxi and the whole way home I poured sweat. More sweat than ever, ya'll! And the short drive home felt like hours.

Parent Rap

We are not parents yet but I still think this video is hilarious. Much respect parents. Much respect. You guys work hard!

And the winner is..........

Ladies and Gents...

And the winner of our Summer Giveaway is....

Jacob Hazel

Who's that? you may ask.

That's this guy.

(The one in the middle) 

Jacob is my 17 year old little brother! He's not so little anymore! He's a senior this year and will be 18 November 7th. 

{Yikes! Where does time go?!}

Jake loves music, his truck is filled with speakers and subs, and sports. He loves hunting, working out and boating.

He will most likely be a business owner one day, because he is hecka good at making money. When he was little he would sell single pieces of gum at school for 25 cents and would also convince our neighbors to give him random stuff from their garage sales and then go around door to door selling it to the other neighbors. He's an amazing boy, I mean, man. I am so proud of him! We love you Jacob! 

Congratulations on winning our summer giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered! We'll have another one soon!

Love you all!