Our city home

During the winter months we are based in Tianjin which is a city of about 10 million people. The kids go to school here and Ric's main office is here. We are so glad to be blessed by having the countryside to escape city life. The kids are already longing to go back to our village house and play outside. We will start to head back up in March on the weekends. Right now it is too cold and there is no heat in the house there. Our apartment complex is called Fukang Garden. It is a garden of concrete but the friends that we have made here are our flowers!

The building straight ahead is our building. We are on the third floor.

Americans are known to like pizza and one smart entrepreneur started a pizza take out restaurant near our house. The pizza is pretty good.

This is the good friend store that is our really good friend because it is the foreign food store. We can get all sorts of things we miss from home.

b.j

A friend of mine took this picture in one of the villages around Tianjin. B.J's class had gone there to spend a day at a local village school. They played with the kids and had lunch together. This was in the fall when the hawthorne were ripe and piles of them were being dried. Behind B.J is in front of a pile. The third grade went on a Saturday and spent 2 hours each way on a bus. B.J said his his favorite thing was playing games with the kids.

A day out with Eric

Eric and I had a pre-birthday celebration and went to Beijing together to spend the day. I took him to the antique market because he is my treasure hunter and he has been wanting to go since he saw the pictures from the first time I went. He had a great time looking through all the piles and really did find me some treasures. The ladies that work at the place were so taken with him that they gave him a box and an old basket. Then we went to the toy shop at the market where Eric used his bargaining skills and Chinese.

His and Hers bicycles

Biking is one of the main forms of transportation in China. They bike like they drive here. Fast and furious. Here are Ric's and my new bikes. Mine is the one on right so I can throw all the kids in the back and off we go.

Bus Ride

Last Sunday Bria and I decided we needed to get out of the apt. and take a bus ride to Starbucks with our friend Toni. Yes, there are Starbucks in China. At the beginning of the ride there were not so many people on the bus, but after many stops it was full. Buses and bikes are the main transportation in China so there have been many times that I have been surprised by the amount of people that can pack in to one bus. We were glad that we made it out the side door from our seat in the back.

bus ride #2

Before

Here are some before and after pictures. Or I should say in between and after as you can see the poles are already put up but the landscaping has not been done. So many hours of pr. and hard work have gone into this project is is good to see it developing!

And After

Winter Sweets

Every winter a special treat comes to Northern China. The take fruit and dip it into boiled sugar and then it hardens in the cold. The boys favorite is strawberries but Bria and I like the hawthorn and tangerine combination! They are sold on the street corners and this man and his daughter are only a few minutes away from our apt. :)

A picture of me

Someone pointed out there was not a picture of me on the site so I looked though the ones i had (which was not many) and had to pick this one because at my age we love the head shots. :0