I have been working on a blog entry from last week....it is taking me a while to write it because...it has some history about Shanghai. I went on a tour and learned so much about the redevelopment of the city.....so....stay tuned...more to come on that...with lots of pictures. ( I know you are riveted!!!)

This week flew buy....Abi is playing basketball on the JV team and has practice about three times a week. Tim had several evening meetings plus his normal late evening and early morning conference calls. I had two Chinese lessons....Wednesday I met with my newest (teacher #5) and I really like this one (not that I did not like all my other teachers....they just did not stay lone). She gave me some hope so I am sticking it out a while longer. She is really going to challenge me but that is what I need...I have lots of homework. AND she is making me speak in Chinese...can you imagine??

Tim's work group just finished a cultural training program that was facilitated by the director of the Community Center. This was training for Chinese nationals to learn about Western culture. It sounds like it was very well done and received.

I hosted the quilt group at our house on Thursday....served taco soup for lunch (Julie Wiesners recipe...thanks Julie) and enjoyed visiting with everyone. We finished a quilt that will be raffled on Monday at the Shanghai Expat Association coffee. The proceeds from the quilt will be given to local charities. Everyone in our quilt group contributed a block. Each block was a house and each house was embellished with buttons, embroidery, applique etc...

Friday I spent most of the day at a Focus on the Family conference. The speaker, Glenn Williams, is from Australia but currently lives in the US. I can't say that I was blown away by the information but it made me more mindful of ways I can improve our family life.

Abi participated in the World Hunger Awareness program and spent 30 hours fasting. They started at midnight on Thursday night...spent Friday night at school....slept (although I heard there was not much sleeping) outside in the field at school....and then finished at 6:00am this morning. She came home took a shower and headed back out the door for a paintball acitivity with the youth group. They were scheduled to be back at 5:00 and they are running 3 hours late. She is babysitting tonight starting at 9:30 and ending at 2:00am. Yikes!!! This has been a much better week than last week. I think I would have pulled the covers over my head and stayed in bed this week....but she is an amazing kid and got right back on the horse and kept going.

Tim is packing his bags for Prauge. (probably only one bag....I can never figure out how men can be gone for a whole week and take such a small suitcase) He will be there for about 10 days. This is his first time to visit Prauge....wish I was going with him!!!

Last night Tim had "work visitors" in Shanghai so we were asked to take them to dinner. One was a US expat living in France and the other was from Nebraska. We had a nice dinner on the river and then took them to City Shop (import grocery store). The women from France was so excited to buy familiar foods. She bought corn chips and Paul Newman's salad dressing for her husband. We looked for Hersey's chocolate syrup but they were out. She said they do not have import grocery stores where she lives....suddenly living in Shanghai seemed really easy. Well.....maybe not really easy.

I took Tim on a walking tour today of the art warehouse district and to the area down town where I went earlier in the week. We are really enjoying our Saturday morning walks....it is about the only time Tim gets to see Shanghai. And....I love being the tour guide!!!

I can hear and see fireworks outside tonight. We hardly notice this any more because it is a fairly normal occurrence. I wonder if that means we are adapting to our environment? Weird!!!