Arrival in Shanghai!

We finally arrive in Shanghai! The waiting rooms have little playgrounds for the kids -- what a great idea! Teachers, can you imagine teaching those characters to first graders? It's tough enough to teach them to read with just 26 letters -- I can't imagine what it's like with over 3,500 characters!

We were in China with a group of 75 people, most of them representing Dixie State College. Raging Red is an amazing performing group at Dixie, directed by Merrilee Webb. Dixie has a sister city and university in China, and so Raging Red went to China as a performing / recruiting tour. We had the President of Dixie and his wife, several faculty members, and 30 performers traveling together, and then several other people not affiliated with Dixie -- like Aubrey and I. What an amazing opportunity! When something like this comes along, don't pass it up!

While we saw AWESOME sights, and met lots of interesting people, may I just say, WE ARE SO BLESSED IN THIS COUNTRY! God Bless America!

Silkworm Cocoons . . .

We visited a jade factory, a pearl factory, and a silk factory. Did you know that there are single silkworm cocoons and double silkworm cocoons? I didn't! The single cocoons are used to make the beautiful fabrics, because you can find the end of the strand and pull it out. The double cocoons don't really have an "end", so they cut them, and stretch them (as in the picture), and then stretch them (even more) to the size of the duvet, and add layer upon layer of silk to make a lovely blanket. The Chinese claim these are warm in the winter and cool in the summer -- and I've loved using mine!

It's about time . . .

Ni hao!

It's been a while (only 3 years!) since I've posted anything, but I thought you might want to see some of the pics from China!

This is my friend, Aubrey, that teaches 1st Grade with me, and we're visiting a beautiful garden that was built at about the time Columbus was discovering America! (That's a new perspective, huh?)

Welcome to my home . . .

Aloha!

I thought I'd first introduce you to my home and yard, so here goes. This is our front yard (thanks, Lisa!!), and we're very happy about how it's growing!

These are some flowers I was going to add to the front yard -- don't they look pretty? Unfortunately things didn't go as planned, and not many of them survived the delay, but at least they look lovely here . . .

We got new countertops, but the faucet we'd chosen wouldn't work with this new cool sink, so while trying to find another faucet, I used the sink area for a greenhouse . . . Works for me!

Anyway, the countertops look nice, don't they? Next project is painting the cupboards -- and fast! Who knew new countertops could make the paint look so bad?!

This is the west wall of our "shrine to Polynesia"! We LOVE our living room, and invite all of you to come and share the aloha here. The words on the wall are the Hawaiian State Motto: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Isn't that awesome?

And while we didn't even realize it, that motto is represented on our wall! "The life of the land" -- the picture on the right is a picture of our backyard in Hawaii (a watercolor painted by a friend, and yes, that is what we looked out upon every day . . . ); "is perpetuated" -- the picture on the left represents our adventure in Hawaii: music, children, and kupuna (the elders, grandparents, and ancestors who love and watch over us). (Can you see the kupuna in the picture watching over the children?); "in righteousness" -- of course, is the drawing of Jesus Christ. When you come we'll share the story of that picture!

Thanks for dropping in . . . let's keep in touch!

Love you, Jean