Life Lately

 

I stole this "Life Lately" list from the ridiculously gorgeous Kaelene at Unlocking Kiki. I just started reading Unlocking Kiki the past few weeks and I am hooked. It's now one of the blogs I check daily for new posts.  Kaelene is hilarious, has great travel posts and lives in Iceland with her Icelandic BF, which is awesome. I love reading all the cultural stories she has. I highly recommend reading her blog! It's legit guys.  

 

Wearing: Work out clothes. Always work out clothes. The last month or so as soon as I got home from work I changed into my work out clothes. Usually,  I did this to work out, but also to just be comfortable. It's getting extra hot and muggy in Qingdao now and work out clothes are just the most comfortable things to wear. Now that school's out, I hop out of bed and put on my work out gear first thing. It's motivation to eat healthy and make sure I get a work out in all day. 

Loving: Zachary. I just love him so much and find myself loving him so much more lately. It's cheesy but it's true. I really feel like our love is constantly growing and it's such a blessing. It's good that work is almost over for both of us so that we can just enjoy each other more.

Needing: Rest. This past year was a doozy for us & we're needing some R&R.  I'm so thankful our holiday is almost here. 

Eating: Just got home from Chinese hot pot with our Chinese family, Justin, Jenny and David. Also, we walked home and I got a soda flavored Popsicle, and it was heck-a good. It was like a mix of cotton candy, soda and coconut flavor, yum. 

Watching: It's the same. Always. The Office. We went to two movies this past week though. Transformers 4, which was okay but soooo long and Maleficent, which was amazing.

Feeling: A lot of anxiety lately. Not the greatest answer, but honest. Also, thankful. Thankful for such great friends, family and church. We're just feeling so blessed.

Drinking: Water! I love water and these hot days are beckoning me to the water jug over and over. Also, decaf iced coffees and decaf sugar free non fat caramel macchiotos!

Writing: Blog posts, budgets and journal pages to Jesus. 

Training: I'm pseudo training for a half marathon. I haven't quite started the actually training plan but I've been running consistently good distances and will start the training plan real soon.

Wanting: To go home and see our family! We can't wait until Spring Festival to hug all their necks.

Missing: Family & best friends. 

Wondering: What our little babies will look like one day.

Looking: At all the beautiful hydrangeas filling out apartment complex. Every since our wedding I'm just obsessed with them. They're so darn beautiful.

Thinking: About giving away tons of clothes. Still thinking about it... not in the action plan yet. Just thinking. Soon though, very soon, I will have no more time to think about it and will be required to purge my closet and all of our possessions in preparation for the future.

Reading: A 60 year old print of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. It smells wonderful like all old books smell. It has some nice coffee stains, a few loose pages, and Oak Park, Illinois public library stamps all over it. It's fabulous. I feel like I'm doing something really special while reading it.

Laughing: At how cute our girl dog is moving all the pillows on the couch to find her perfect spot, after we've just cleaned up and set the pillows out nicely. She could care less! She's the queen of the couch.

Wishing: Our family could come to Qingdao for the summer. It's such a wonderful time in Qingdao. You can just feel the city buzzing with excitement that it's the summer!

Dreaming: of the day I can fit back into all of my clothes. Slow and steady, it will happen with the Lord's strength.

Anticipating: Our trip to the Philippines next week! I'm so excited to explore our future home and get some much needed rest & relaxation.

What's going on in your life lately? 

Again, this completely awesome list is from Unlocking Kiki! Read her list here.  

Since You've Been Gone

Actually, since I've been gone, but that's just not the way Kelly sings it and I have her song playing in my head right now, and I'm singing to it. I'm full on belting it. All in my head, of course. I'm in the school office right now and I already draw enough attention being born from the grand ole' US of A, so I'd rather not draw more to myself by showing off my totally awesome singing skills.  I mean, then they'd probably start asking me to sing for every event the school has. Parent meetings, conferences, city events, where would it stop?! It'd be ridiculous, you guys, and ain't nobody have time for all that.

"Since you've been gone!!! I can breathe for the first time! I'm so moving on!!! Ya. Ya. Thanks to you..." Sing it with me now. "Thanks to you...now I get, get what I wannnnnnt. Since you've been gone."

Reader, just so you know, since you've been gone, more like since I've been gone, has not provoked any of the emotions of Kelly's song in me. On the contrary. I've missed you terribly. :)

But I'm baacccck. And excited. Except I need some inspiration. Any blogging ideas for me? Are there any questions I can answer for you about us? This blog? Our life abroad? Teaching abroad? Anything. You ask and I'll answer. If I get 0 comments and 0 suggestions, that's okay. I'll just assume you want to know everything about everything and keep blogging about that. ;)

These past two weeks have been full. Good and full.We spent countless hours preparing for the new school year, which has, as of yesterday, come upon us. I love the first days of school! Especially for Grade 1 students (which is kinder here). They are just so excited and pumped up to learn!

Yesterday, Catherine (coworker, sister, former roommate) and I were walking to the school cafeteria and one of the Grade 1 boys yelled, "Lao wei!" Which means "foreigner." He yelled it, tapping his buddies and pointing, as if they didn't already know that they would be getting foreign English teachers at this school. I laughed  and told him, "No, Say,  'Teacher,' 'Teacher.' " I said it slowly, helping the little guy out, to which he loudly yelled, "Shen me yi si?!" (What are you saying!?)
The kid doesn't even know the word teacher. They're blank slates people.

Another student, who I named Jean today, told his Chinese teacher that he didn't need to speak English because he was NEVER going abroad and he didn't have an English name because he's Chinese, of course. Clever little guy. Today, I got him to say point zero words in English. But I got a head nod and a Chinese 'xing' of approval at his new English name. So, we're progressing. By the end of the year my goal is to have him to be able to recite the entire first 4 books of Harry Potter and like it. ;) It's all about that quality education really.

I forget that all children are not like the Chinese and Korean children I've taught the past 3 years. They are alike yes, in that they all love to play and laugh and are kids. But I mean I forget that other Kindergarten and Primary school students can have conversations in English and can listen to you and respond to what you are asking, even when you only say it once and there are few hand motions involved. I saw an American woman and her 5ish year old daughter at Starbucks the other day and the girl started talking to her mom. Like a real conversation in English. And I flipped. I thought she was a freaking genius or adult in a child's body for a good 30 seconds before realizing, that "oh duh" kids actually have thoughts and ideas at that age. We can call that a symptom of reverse culture shock.

Okay. Enough rambling for today. It's just been so long! There's so much to say.

Until tomorrow,
Looove you Readers. Thanks for being so awesome.

Don't Worry About a Thing

Hi ya friends. Just stopping by for a quick second to tell you that there is no need to fear! The Mosby's in China will be back up and blogging very soon. I just subconsciously decided last week to take a little break from blogging before school starts. All the demands with preparing my classroom, lesson planning and soaking up the last days of summer leave me with little time on this bloggity blog here. I promise I'll be back next week or so. In the mean time, know that we love you!