Hi friends
We are back in China after a summer that felt like we toured the US. I have to admit, I was ready to come back. Probably because our house in Louisville didn't feel like our house anymore. He had a lady and her son living in the house to take care of the pets. We left our furniture, but it was still weird coming into a home where all the decorations, family pics, books on shelves, and toys are someone else's. It was kind of twilight zone. Unfortunately my house sitter decided to move out so now I'm scrambling to find caretakers for the house and dogs. Max the guinnea pig and GB the fish are staying up the street at the Conklins. Thank you Caryl!!!
But it was nice coming back to a house where all the things were ours.
I have to say, I had forgotten how wonderful everyone is back home. The "girls in the hood" were so much fun to play with. We had so many great talks. Scott says they are "threatening" to come visit. I hope they do!!! It would be so fun!!!! But I so enjoyed their company. Also I was so impressed by the emotional strength and and friendship the girls from CRS were to me. I enjoyed every min I spent with them. Even the tough ones. They are another incredible group of ladies and I surely don't get to spend enough time with them. My big regret was not getting to spend any time with my YMCA girls. Waaaa. I don't know what happened with that. I think of them so often. I am hoping to do better by next summer.
I have to say, it was a crazy summer. We landed July 1. Were in Fla from the 6th-14th. In Cincinatti on the 15th to see the St louis Card lose. (sigh). Lauren did two weeks of horse camp from 9-5. She was exhausted. Kids did one week of Church camp (q helped the pre K's. It was hilarious. He was so good at it). I flew out to see my Bro and his family. He is currently going thru Chemo for Non Hodgkins Limphoma so I really needed to see him. His family is great and he has a good group of friends that help out, which makes me feel better. We went to get tattoos together, but I backed out when I read that I couldn't go swimming for two weeks after. The last two weeks of summer? Are you kidding me? No pool? That's crazy talk. Then back on the road. We left Louisville Aug 8 and visited my best buddies in Southern Oregon. We left there and went to Minnesota to spend time with Aunt Sue and Uncle Andy. We flew back on the 17th.
Now, back to Shanghai. Kids start school tomorrow. We are reconnecting with all of our friends. And the chickens are back in our yard. But good lord is it hot here. I know, the US had record highs. Blah blah blah. It is seriously hot and so humid. You can swim in the water. I am constantly wet. Like I didn't stick out enough, now I am the red faced wet huge American woman. We went to the kid's school yesterday to try on uniforms. They had this huge set up in the school gym. The only place to try uniforms on was in the PE teachers office and the storage room. Both not air conditioned. I felt sorry at first for the PE teacher because every time a boy needed to try on, he had to leave his office. Then I realised he was smiling and was very quick to offer to go. Why? The gym is air-conditioned. When Lauren was trying on after Q, we had to use the storage room. I thought I was going to hyper venihlate. I told her everything fit fine and we'd get her pants altered. I was about to offer to buy her a pony if she WOULD JUST LET ME LEAVE THE ROOM. Thank god it didn't come to that.
It is amazing to me how people work outside. We had some damage done to our house when the typhoon came through. So we have had a guy hammering out the brick between the front room window and Q's bedroom window. Don't ask me how this will help. We're just going with it. And he's there from 7 am to about 3 pm. Yesterday he worked while we could here thunder close by. He's on metal scaffolding. I tried to do my best charades at "get off the metal scaffolding. You will be fried to a crisp if you are hit by lightning" That is a hard one. I obviously failed because he just looked at me and smiled and nodded. Kinda the Chinese way of saying "look at that wet, very large, American woman. She's so funny, but I will not laugh. That is impolite, so I will just shake my head and smile".
Lauren is very concerned about his hydration and will take him glasses of water to drink. Q does too, but its more so the man will stop hammering right under his bedroom window. Q thinks its a two for one because then the guy has to take a pee break. But since this is China, that doesn't take long. He's just been using our back yard. "welcome to China"
We love you all and miss you. If we didn't get to see you there, come see us here. And if we did see you there, come anyways.
Love to you all
Sue
Quint Radeker
1983 Huamu Lu, No. 157
Pu Dong New District, Shanghai, PRC, 201204
China Home: +86.21.3393.3763
China Mobile: +86.182.1761.9586
