7.31.2012

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! 

7.25.2012

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.

7.24.2012

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?

7.16.2012

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! 

7.08.2012

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,

QingdaoDay 1-17:500 KM00 0
2WeifangDay 119:3619:38183 KM29 CNY80 CNY 120 CNY
3ZiboDay 120:4820:51283 KM44 CNY95 CNY 142 CNY
4JinanDay 122:0222:10393 KM55 CNY106 CNY 162 CNY
5TaishanDay 123:0023:12466 KM70 CNY127 CNY 195 CNY
6YanzhouDay 200:1000:27549 KM76 CNY139 CNY 215 CNY
7JiningDay 200:5100:55581 KM82 CNY149 CNY 232 CNY
8JiaxiangDay 201:1401:21605 KM82 CNY149 CNY 232 CNY
9JuyeDay 201:4101:52630 KM87 CNY157 CNY 245 CNY
10HezeDay 202:5503:04688 KM94 CNY169 CNY 264 CNY
11CaoxianDay 203:3803:42736 KM99 CNY177 CNY 276 CNY
12Shangqiu SouthDay 204:2204:24793 KM106 CNY191 CNY 298 CNY
13BozhouDay 205:0505:08857 KM113 CNY201 CNY 316 CNY
14FuyangDay 206:2206:38961 KM125 CNY224 CNY 352 CNY
15MachengDay 209:4209:461197 KM150 CNY265 CNY 417 CNY
16HuangzhouDay 210:3510:401264 KM158 CNY281 CNY 442 CNY
17JiujiangDay 212:3712:491420 KM175 CNY308 CNY 486 CNY
18NanchangDay 214:4815:001555 KM191 CNY335 CNY 529 CNY
19XiangtangDay 215:1915:251583 KM191 CNY335 CNY 529 CNY
20FengchengDay 215:5315:581616 KM194 CNY341 CNY 539 CNY
21XinyuDay 217:2717:311716 KM200 CNY351 CNY 554 CNY
22YichunDay 218:2018:241775 KM203 CNY357 CNY 568 CNY
23PingxiangDay 219:1619:201841 KM215 CNY377 CNY 600 CNY
24ZhuzhouDay 220:3420:491922 KM219 CNY385 CNY 613 CNY
25LoudiDay 223:2623:422047 KM231 CNY405 CNY 642 CNY
26ShaoyangDay 301:4701:572155 KM242 CNY423 CNY 671 CNY
27YongzhouDay 303:2003:452266 KM245 CNY431 CNY 686 CNY
28QuanzhouDay 306:3306:372364 KM257 CNY452 CNY 720 CNY
29XinganDay 307:2007:242424 KM266 CNY465 CNY 738 CNY
30GuilinDay 308:5509:042487 KM271 CNY475 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.

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