All Randomness.....

So I was thinking that i haven't posted a blog just about all the randomness that is going on in our lives right now... so if you can't handle sparatic conversation i suggest not reading this... because it may be all over the place... hahaha!

So we got moved to a new room again (this is move #4 now) but this time it was a lot smoother. they told us this past wednesday that we would be moving on sunday because of some pipe issues on our floor. So sunday morning we woke up early and packed everything up before church and went down to tell them we wanted to see the room we were going to move into. Well, They had no non-smoking rooms left, so we had to take a smoking room... but i was pleasently surprised. Luckily it didn't smell like smoke at all.. we have nice wooden floors, drawers, a BIG closet and a little closet, shelves, nicer furniture and a recliner chair! YAY!!!! the bathroom isn't as good as our old one... but the majority of my time is not spent in the bathroom so it works! and our bed is a little smaller... i guess i will actually have to sleep next to my husband now!! :)

Samuel has been getting sick quite often, but i seriously blame it on the food he has to eat for lunch! I got to go to his work last monday and watch him play basketball in the LG factory tournament. He was sick and not feeling well, and lost by 1 point. so he was pretty sad. But then i had the "privlage" to eat in the cafeteria... luckily the better cafeteria of the 2... although it was still crazy. I got to eat... well... i really don't know what i ate, but within 10 mins of finishing i had a killer stomach ach and a massive migraine! so the food obviously is making samuel sick... today i had him take spaghetti from our dinner last night for lunch.

Teaching English has been going well. I started teaching 2 Korean moms on Wednesday-Friday now, so that give me and extra 300 yuan a week which is nice. They are harder to teach b/c they really don't have materials, so i have to create lessons. They want to learn how to communicate with the school teachers. so that is rough. But teaching the kids is getting better. we have a lot more fun now and i enjoy it.

We got invited to someone's house for Thanksgiving!!!! The Derbys are a family in our ward, from America. Sister Derby has us over quite often on sunday afternoons for lunch (unless she is home in the states renewing her visa). This sunday they fed us Chili and Cornbread!!! it was AMAZING!!! it always feels like a little bit of home (the fact that they live in an actual house helps with that). But she invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and we are actually going to make a whole day out of it, not go to work, cook all day and just celebrate!!! it will be lots of fun! We actually had a grill out at another families home a couple of weeks ago when we watched the Relief Society and Priesthood sessions of conferance. We went to their home and they had hamburgers and chips and vegies and pop and the Branch Presidents Wife made the most delicious chocolate chip cookies ever (she brought chips from american b/c China has no chocolate chips...and their chocolate taste funny)... i ate like 8 cookies!!! SO GOOD!!!

We have been finding more American stuff as we have explored other grocery stores. we found BBQ sauce and Ketchup... more spaghetti sauces and Kraft singles.... and all kinds of goodies, so we haven't been to the American grocery store since we went their the first time, although i really want to get some mashed potatoes. I did find the most amazing peanut butter yesterday, Cruchy Skippy Peanut Butter!!! oh i can't wait to eat it for lunch today!!! and i found bagels... we have this bakery we go to, Paris Baguette, and they have the best bread and sandwiches and now i get to try the bagels. so i am way way excited!

Our movie collection is growing, but sadly Samuel's computer is falling apart. Our electronics seem to be dying on us here, my IPOD broke about 2 weeks ago, and now samuel's DVD player is having issues. we can watch about 30 mins of a movie and then it starts making funny noises and just quits on us. plus the bottom 1/3 of our screen is a darker than the rest of our screen. lol!

Samuel put in his application for the Business School, and hopefully we will hear back in the next 2 -3 weeks if he got in. We are really hoping that this internship here in china pushes him over the edge and he gets in. I have also put in some applications for a job at BYU, the one i want most is a Hall Advisor position, which kinda makes me a dorm mom. But we would get free housing, food, insurance, and salary. Plus you can have up to 2 kids and do it b/c most of the time you are just working out of your apartment solving problems with the kids/dorms. i haven't heard back from them yet and i am keeping my fingers crossed.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to Beijing in 2 weeks!!!! and we get to go up and see him!! we are way excited, it is an unofficial visit so the Chinese people can't see him, only the "expats" (international people) and only the ones from Beijing and Tianjin Branches. So we are way way excited for that. Samuel is going to take the day off and we are going to head up there to meet him. We are also going to Beijing this weekend with MaYing to just hang out and see the sites... and go to Silk Street! Our shopping has been going really well and my christmas list is getting shorter and shorter every time. I think the hardest person to find something for is my mom... but i think we got that figured out! now we just gotta get it all back to the states!! haha!

so i think that is it for now... we are doing well and i am getting more and more used to china every day. It is getting colder here so we bought winter coats this passed weekend... but i love the cold a lot more than the heat. we are excited to come home though... and can't wait to be in Virginia for Christmas!!!

Love you all....