5 years

Earlier this month, James and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage.  In five years we've had 2 kids, lived in 2 countries on 2 continents and in 3 homes...one of which was completely gutted and 80+ years old when we bought it.  We hosted at least 15 students, but the Saudi guys made me lose count. Combined, we've had at least 7 jobs.  We've welcomed 3 nephews.  We driven the stretch of I-40 between OKC and Amarillo more times than I care to count up. 

Some other highlights were hosting international students in our home, moving here to China, being debt-free (exclusive of our mortgage), a Christmas trip to Wyoming, our honeymoon in St. Maarten, an anniversary trip to Arkansas, being involved in our house church in Oklahoma, and of course, having Catherine and Ann! And James just read over my shoulder and said I should add "buying a trike" to our list of highlights. 

We were able to celebrate by getting "away" for about 24 hours.  We just went to a hotel a couple blocks from our house, but we enjoyed being removed from our normal life even if just for a bit.  A local friend watched the girls for us and did a fabulous job!  It was our first time away from Ann for more than 3ish hours EVER so it was nice to know we could get home quickly if we needed.  But, our local friend was amazing and the girls were good for her. 

Here's us pulling out of our complex.

 Some views of the hotel room.  Not bad for $48, right?  There's another area to the left of the chair I didn't get a picture of and another seating area and a small kitchen area. 

The first place we tried to eat dinner didn't exist.  Rumors.....grrrrrrr.

This is us at the second place we tried to eat dinner at.  We couldn't eat dinner because some tour group had the whole restaurant for the evening.  Then I had to use the restroom and it was bad enough for me to try to find an online complaint form.  It wasn't just bad for a 4/5 star hotel, it was bad for China.  :( 

 So we opted for a third location.  At least we weren't dragging the girls around from place to place with us and having time out and about in the city together was nice.  Although I wish I could say everything went smoothly at the third location, that's not exactly accurate.  Some of the things we wanted to order weren't available and we had to send some things back that weren't done; however, they were open, let us eat, had clean bathrooms, and resolved our issues well.  And we so enjoyed sitting and eating a meal uninterrupted by feeding little mouths or diaper changes. 

After dinner we stopped at a bakery for two pieces of cake. 

 James and I have kept almost every card, note, or letter we've written each other.  I had hoped to get them all compiled in to a binder or organized in some fashion.  At least I know have the project started.  It's just that the kind of task that involves spreading papers out across a surface is the very kind of task I can't do with the "helping" hands and feet roaming about.

Enjoying some last moments of rest before we return to reality. 

 Some views of our city from the hotel room.  16 floors up and floor to ceiling windows along two walls.  

my nephews

Check out their cuteness!



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my inner "Westberry"

This post is dedicated to my dad. 

When I was young my dad fixed the stuff I broke.  He made me cradles for my dolls out of empty oatmeal canisters.  He made me cars out of empty push-up popsicle containers.  He let me paint my toy cars with fingernail polish.  He was a genius at "re-purposing" before that was even a thing.  I think he may have even made me a pinwheel out of a soft drink can.  I can't remember exactly because soft drink cans were used in the repair or many an item at our home.  Depending on the nature/nurture argument one could say I either inherited some of this trait or was conditioned to think about non-standard ways to repair/create things. It was great.

Enter our life in China.  This is a skill that is needed on an almost daily basis.  Last week (I'm a but behind in posting) there was a day that I used my "Westberry skills" all day long.

I figured out how to fix Catherine's mosquito net with a chopstick and tape. 

We had asked around about getting screens put on our windows but we didn't want to invest the 90 RMB per window for a house that's not ours when they're only needed a couple months of the year.  I figures out a solution that cost us 12 RMB for every window in the house. 

James kept referring to these and other solutions as my "Westberry skills" or "using my Westberry."  I was riding home from an errand on my bike, thinking of my dad and composing this post in my head.  Upon entering our complex I noticed something unusual near the door of the first building in our complex....two giant bags of American name brand men's clothes and shoes in and next to the trash can next to the building.  I did it.  I really did it.  The bag on top of trash can was open and I really did take out two Calvin Klein, size medium, slim fit, long-sleeved button-up, not-a-thing-wrong-with-them shirts for James.

I came home smiling and the first words out of my mouth were, "I just REALLY used my Westberry, James!"  I told him of my "find" and he agreed to let us keep the shirts.  They are now washed and ready but we'll have to wait for cooler days for him to wear them.

 You see, the other side of "being Westberry" is that my dad would pull the car over and pick up any tool (piece of junk) or other item he deemed of value that he saw.  And sometimes the solutions to his "fixes" left things looking not exactly as beautiful as they did prior to the fix.  However, his ingenuity is a trait I'm proud of and one that has saved us time, money, and the mafan of finding/calling repairmen.

And pulling the shirts out of the trash can reminded me that when a friend from another city was visiting here recently with plans to move here, she asked if I would show her the second hand furniture market. She likened the experience to "dumpster diving" but that is a post for another day.